"Then you can sleep on the sofa tonight, or go find that Miss Kate who was so naturally charming, or the lively and lovely Miss Becky, and let them provide you with excellent service."
"No! Madam, I was wrong!" Draco's smile froze instantly, replaced by a sincere expression as he quickly said:
"This service is excellent. The sofa was too hard and my back hurts. Besides, I only trust your beds and Miss Granger."
The speed of this change of attitude and the sincerity of his admission of defeat caused Becky and the others, who had been eavesdropping, to chuckle again.
"Alright, stop joking." Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
"We've been playing for so long, why don't we go and rest for a bit?"
"No need, I've been waiting for your one-on-one duel for so long." Draco felt a warmth in his heart, but he was indeed still capable of fighting.
"Fine, you said it, don't regret it." Hermione walked towards the side of the court, secretly thinking: You were the one who wanted to show off, don't blame me for slapping that flirtatious face of yours!
Reaching the other side, Hermione assumed a fighting stance. Although she was far inferior in skill, she wouldn't back down from Draco's challenge.
Moreover... thinking about how readily he granted Becky and Kate's requests, and how he flirted with everyone, Hermione felt a surge of anger. Although she knew it was mostly just her being petty, she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable if she didn't vent it.
Draco found Hermione's murderous look incredibly endearing. He stood at the baseline, signaling for Hermione to serve.
Hermione tossed the ball, swung her racket, and an ordinary ball Accio towards her. Draco easily returned it, sending another ball right to Hermione's side. Hermione ran into position, swung her racket, and the ball flew straight towards Draco's... face!
Draco clearly hadn't expected this, but he reacted extremely quickly, dodging to the side and simultaneously flicking his wrist to awkwardly save the ball, which landed in bounds.
"Hey, honey," Draco said exasperatedly as he returned the ball, "Are you playing ball or hitting someone?"
Hermione ignored him, ran over to catch the ball, and unleashed another powerful shot, aiming straight for Draco's handsome profile!
"Wife, are you trying to murder your husband?" Draco narrowly dodged again, returning the ball with a hint of grievance in his voice.
For the third ball, Hermione aimed at his chest.
The fourth ball went straight for his stomach.
Draco feigned exhaustion, managing to rescue the victims in a disheveled and disheveled manner, a far cry from his previous effortless and composed demeanor.
He realized that his little witch wasn't playing ball, but was taking this opportunity to settle a personal score!
"I say," Draco couldn't help but ask after yet another save from a ball heading straight for his knee, "Is someone getting jealous over trivial things on the field?"
"Who's jealous!" Hermione's cheeks flushed as she realized her secret was out. She threw the ball harder, faster, and in a more unpredictable direction.
After his rebuttal, another shot was aimed at his shoulder. "I was practicing seriously, you said yourself that there was no problem."
"I told you to catch the ball, not to catch me!" Draco said, half-laughing and half-crying, before returning a poorly executed pass.
At first, the spectators didn't quite grasp the strategy; they only noticed Hermione's powerful and urgent returns, which seemed to be putting Draco in a difficult position. They were still marveling at how much Miss Hermione had improved.
But as I looked at it more, I realized something was off.
"Have you guys noticed that Hermione keeps hitting Draco with her balls?" Mary whispered to Susan beside her.
Susan looked closely and nodded, "It seems so. Was that one aimed at my face? It startled me."
"I think we upset Miss Hermione, probably because of our insistence on granting her every request," Kate analyzed.
Becky, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the spectacle even more, her eyes Winky:
"Wow! Hermione looks so cool! Is she being disciplined at home? But Draco is hiding pretty badly too, haha, so cute!" Becky, the instigator, was always eager for a good show.
"It's all your fault," Susan said helplessly. "But the drama of a wife disciplining her philandering husband is certainly entertaining."
"You can't blame just me; Kate is guilty too."
"It's not my fault, I changed my strategy." Kate's face remained expressionless, but a hint of a smile flashed in her eyes.
Becky stuck out her tongue and said, "I saw Draco having a good time in there. Even though he was hiding scrambling, he kept laughing."
Upon closer inspection, everyone realized it was true.
Draco, who was being chased and dodging left and right on the field, no longer had a dashing posture, and even looked somewhat comical, but the corners of his mouth never left his lips, and his eyes were full of doting affection.
With Draco's dedicated practice, Hermione gradually got into the swing of things. Although her target was still Draco himself, her swing became much more standard, and her shots became more consistent.
After another long rallies lasting more than ten beats, Hermione finally felt a bit better and was also tired. She stopped, used her racket to support herself on the ground, and breathed slightly, her cheeks flushed.
Seeing Draco also stop across from him, Hermione said to him, "That's enough warming up, Draco. You can get serious now."
A moment of silence fell over the audience.
"Are you sure, honey?" Draco asked rhetorically.
He used the same tone with Jack earlier today, his voice also carrying arrogance and a strong sense of oppression.
Now, though he used the same tone, the meaning could have become provocative when the target audience was completely different.
The others also immediately noticed the detail and change in tone. Becky said to Mary, "Did you hear that?"
"A warning to Jack, flirting with Hermione?"
Mary asked in confusion, Susan replied:
"Whatever it is, Hermione doesn't seem to buy it."
Sure enough, Hermione heard his teasing address, but her eyes hardened even more. She waved her clapper and said irritably:
"Stop talking nonsense! Catch the ball!"
"Then you'd better catch it carefully."
"Whack!" Hermione's serve was as unremarkable as ever.
This time, however, Draco's return was no longer gentle. The ball wasn't fast, but it had a strong topspin, sending the tennis ball soaring through the air before landing deep in Hermione's baseline.
Hermione's eyes narrowed. This ball was completely different from the ones she had been fed before. Without time to think, relying on the running and instincts she had developed while chasing Draco, she quickly moved to the left and managed to return the ball with a backhand chop at the highest point of its bounce.
The ball wobbled and drifted over the net.
Faced with this poor return shot, Draco didn't opt for an easy volley to score; instead, he took a step forward.
Before the ball has fallen to the appropriate height, the arm swings out gracefully, and the racket slices upwards from below!
After a crisp sound of the ball being struck,
Instead of flying towards the other side as usual, the tennis ball drew a strange high arc, soaring vertically upwards before plummeting rapidly towards Hermione's front court after reaching its apex!
Hermione initially thought it was a high-flying ball and was about to back away, but seeing the ball plummeting downwards, she quickly rushed forward again.
But the ball fell too fast, and upon landing it had almost no forward momentum. Instead, it spun sharply in the opposite direction and bounced back, flying straight back into Draco's own half!