Seeing that she was really upset, Draco immediately raised his hands in surrender and stopped joking, saying, "Okay, okay, I was wrong, it was just some unknown water stain!"
Hermione turned and stormed off towards the Defence Against Dark Magic classroom, taking a couple of steps before turning back to glare at Draco: "Hurry up, stop dawdling!"
Draco chuckled and quickly followed, deliberately trailing behind her and muttering, "Okay, okay, my little darling, just hurry up."
Draco walked briskly, asking as he went, "Seriously, you didn't dream about me just now?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, not slowing her pace at all. "I only dozed off for a few tens of minutes, how could I have time to dream? Why are you always so narcissistic?"
"Oh~" Draco drawled, "Oh~ so if enough time passes, it's possible to dream about me, right?"
Hermione stopped abruptly, turning to look at Draco with a speechless expression.
Her lips twitched, as if she had been completely defeated by Draco's shamelessness. She simply turned her head away, too lazy to pay him any attention, and just kept walking forward.
Draco laughed and quickly caught up, deliberately nudging her arm lightly. Hermione simply waved him away, not really annoyed.
Upon arriving at the Defence Against Dark Magic classroom, the two found their seats from the morning and sat down, but Draco still couldn't settle down.
He leaned closer, elbows on the table, poked Hermione's textbook with his index finger, and started trying to tease her again:
"You didn't dream about me just now, fine, but when you woke up, did you secretly look at me?"
Hermione's cheeks flushed slightly, as quickly as a fleeting ray of light.
The next second, however, she suppressed her shyness, raised her eyes to look at him with a forced smile, and uttered a single word. "Yes."
Draco was completely taken aback by her decisiveness, and his mouth instinctively formed a small arc.
With surprise and pride, she asked again, "There really is one! Is it... is it pretty?"
"It's quite good, can't I look at it?" Hermione casually flipped through the Defence Against Dark Magic textbook, her tone nonchalant, yet every word was captivating.
Draco's heart fluttered at her nonchalant demeanor, and he moved closer to her.
He said in a low, slightly suggestive voice, "Of course you can see it, why can't you?"
"But what kind of relationship do we have? We can watch each other openly and honestly, why are you playing this sneaky game, making it seem like a secret rendezvous between young lovers?"
Hermione paused in her book-turning, her ears turning slightly red, but she didn't continue his conversation. Instead, she glanced at him sideways.
She pointed at his open textbook and asked matter-of-factly, "So what if I secretly looked at it?"
Draco stood there, stunned, staring at Hermione's composed yet slightly mischievous expression, momentarily speechless with a joke.
This girl becomes quite talkative after her afternoon nap, leaving him helpless.
Hermione was much more fun when she used to blush and bristle at the slightest teasing; she was so soft and easy for him to manipulate.
He muttered to himself, "Strange, why does Hermione seem to have a sudden burst of intelligence after her afternoon nap? Could it be that I really can't let her take a proper afternoon nap anymore?"
As he was lost in thought, Hermione, watching him with his furrowed brows and troubled expression, couldn't help but chuckle.
She reached out and tapped the Defence Against Dark Magic textbook in front of Draco, her eyes filled with amusement, and said:
"What are you daydreaming about? Head down and study. All you ever think about is making fun of me. Be careful, Professor Quirrell might call on you later, and if you can't answer, you'll lose points."
Draco casually twirled his quill and said:
" Professor Quirrell called on me because he wanted my help to save face, not to deduct points from my score."
"His lectures were so disjointed and incoherent that he practically wanted someone to chime in and help him deal with the students."
Hermione glanced at him, tapped her pen on the textbook, and said with disbelief, "You're kidding me. What teacher relies on students to bail them out every day? Doesn't he have any pride?"
Draco leaned closer to her and lowered his voice, saying, "Hey, don't you believe me? He's definitely going to harass me in class again today. How about we make a bet?"
Hermione glanced at him, a faint smile playing on her lips, and said, "I'm not betting with you. Ron is a prime example."
Draco immediately leaned over, nuzzling her arm with his elbow against the table. "Let's bet, let's bet! Betting with him would be bullying, betting with you is completely different."
Hermione, exasperated by his nagging, finally said, "A bet is fine, but it has to be on my terms, no cheating."
Without a second thought, Draco immediately nodded in agreement, tapping his fingers on the table to show his sincerity. "Okay, whatever you say, I won't go back on my word."
Hermione smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes, and said slowly:
"If I win, you have to tell me everything you've been hiding, everything you always keep in suspense, without omitting a single detail."
Listen, Draco started making his own plans.
He was certain he wouldn't lose, and even if Professor Quirrell didn't call on him, he had plenty of ways to create opportunities to be called upon.
Thinking of this, Draco readily agreed, "Okay, that's easy, deal."
He quickly followed up, "What if you lose?"
Hermione laughed even harder, and said with a hint of smugness:
"If I lose, you can tell me as many secrets as you want, and I won't ask you a single question about the ones you don't want to tell, and I won't bother you to find out anything, how about that?"
Draco was taken aback, then realized how shrewd her plan was.
He reached out and grabbed Hermione's shoulder, shaking her gently. " Miss Granger, you've gone astray! The Hogwarts Castle can probably hear you plotting this! So you're not going to lose no matter what, are you?"
Hermione was shaken so badly she swayed slightly forward and backward, but she couldn't stop laughing.
She reached out and slapped Draco's hand away, saying matter-of-factly:
"This is called fair and reasonable. Who told you to always use betting to cheat people? Besides, you were the one who asked to gamble; I didn't force you."
As she spoke, she deliberately tilted her head to look at him, "What, you're scared now? If you're scared, it's not too late to back out."
Seeing her beaming with excitement, Draco couldn't bear to spoil her mood and readily agreed, "No problem, we'll do it your way."
Hermione's face lit up instantly, her eyes shining like stars, secretly pleased that she had finally won back a point.
But before she could even enjoy her moment for two seconds, Draco suddenly raised his hand and pressed down on her hand, which was about to turn the page, uttering two words: "Wait."
"Hmm?" Hermione's smile vanished, and she looked at him with a puzzled expression. "What's wrong?"
Draco leaned closer and lowered his voice, saying, "You just said that if you lost, I could say whatever I wanted without asking any questions, right?"
Hermione nodded, a vague unease rising within her, but she still forced a smile and said, "That's right, is there a problem?"