Draco slouched
into the library as dusk settled upon the castle.
The approaching snowstorm had nearly arrived and the Headmaster had
suggested during dinner that the students should remain indoors until it was
over. Draco had hoped to find
Hermione there at the Gryffindor table, as much as he disliked seeing her with
those annoying friends of hers hanging all about her, he would at least have
seen her. Draco had been unable to
find her after the incident earlier that morning outside of the library.
She had disappeared almost at once, and if Draco hadn't read Hogwart's A
History in his first year, he would have bet all of the Malfoy fortune that she
had simply apparated out of the school. But since that was impossible, Draco
figured that she had to be around somewhere.
He had tried to follow her after Crabbe and Goyle had wandered off in
search of an early lunch. But Draco
had lost her trail somewhere near the Transfiguration corridor.
He spent the next few hours strolling through the school, there wasn't
anyway that he could search everywhere, but having a bit of an insight into the
mindset of Hermione, and her being a Gryffindor at that, he could easily avoid
all of the dungeons. It seemed
highly unlikely as well that she had gone to the Astronomy tower, he had
overheard her mentioning once to Potter while passing them in the entrance hall,
that she found it awfully drafty. Her
strong dislike of Divination and Professor Trelawney would keep her away from
that tower as well. And the girl
had too much respect for her professors to go anywhere near the faculty
quarters. So he had searched what
was left. But there had been no
sign of her though, no whisper or breath, nothing anywhere.
What he had seen though, was Potter and Weasley, appearing somewhat
worried, in the Arithmancy hall. He
had ducked into the shadows of a near by alcove and they passed without noticing
him. The two boys had been deep in
conversation.
"Where could she have gone?" Weasley asked worriedly.
"Well, Ginny checked all the girls' bathrooms, so we know she's not
there." Potter replied.
"And Fred and George said that they'd keep an eye out for her down
near the great hall."
"Like Ginny would tell us even if she did find her.
And Fred and George only said that so they could go eat lunch instead of
helping." Weasley grumbled.
"Think we should check the library again?
You know how Hermione is."
"Correction, we did know how Hermione was, now that she's taken up
with that stupid git though... I
mean, she defended him! Oh, really,
Malfoy's not that bad, really we should all throw him a party and give him a
bloody medal for being not quite as evil as we all thought!"
Weasley snapped angrily.
"Ron..."
"I know, I know. I
shouldn't have said that to her. But
she always takes it the wrong way." Weasley
looked at the floor glumly.
"I think, sometimes, you say things the wrong way."
Potter spoke quietly.
Draco had needed to bite down hard on his tongue to keep from lashing out
at the unsuspecting boys. It was
very tempting to jump out and curse the two Gryffindors from behind, but Draco
wasn't stupid. Potter was decent at
spells and he had stood up to the Dark Lord on more than one occasion, and
Weasley could throw a mean punch. And
in the back of his mind, Draco could almost hear her voice asking him not to. He had let them move off, hand clenched so tightly around his
wand that it was surprising that it hadn't snapped in half.
It was only until much later, during the dinner, where she hadn't shown
up, that he realized what Weasley had said; she had defended him.
She had stood up for him.
A small part of Draco had been pleased when he noticed how glum Potter
and Weasley had looked during dinner. They
had obviously not had any luck in finding her either.
This small part of him probably would have gloated a bit more than it did
if he hadn't been so worried himself.
So,
after dinner, Draco had finally resolved the fact to himself that he simply
wasn't going to find her. That
wherever she was it was a good hiding place.
Not having anything better to do, he came to the library.
Draco
opened the door to their room and stopped.
He had expected it to be dark, cold, and empty.
Instead, a fire was blazing in the grate and its warmth was suffusing the
room. More surprising than that was
a certain Gryffindor sitting at the table surrounded by tall stacks of books.
The
door closed behind him with an audible click.
Hermione glanced up at him. An
expression that he couldn't read flitted across her face before it disappeared
behind a rather professional smile.
"I
was beginning to wonder when you would get here. I've been here for hours."
She took a deep breath before continuing. "I think I might have it.
I've come up with several different keys."
She held up a stack of parchment without pausing, "of course, I
can't check to see if any of them work without some sort of translation to
compare it too, which is where you come in, of course.
You never came though, but you are here now.
So if you just want to start with this one, I think it's our best
bet."
She
had shuffled through her stack of parchments until she found the one she was
looking for. Hermione held it out
to him with a trace of that same smile that Draco didn't quite understand.
Several questions were swirling in his head so Draco asked the first one
that came to mind.
"Where
have you been?"
"I
was having tea with Hagrid this afternoon." She told him primly.
"You
went off, in weather like this, without telling anyone, so that you could go
have tea with that...that half-giant?"
Draco's relief at finding her was quickly turning into anger.
"The
weather wasn't very bad when I went out there.
And Hagrid walked me back to the castle later." She spoke calmly but
a telltale flush was rising on her cheeks.
"Oh,
so you don't give a single thought to your friends, you just do as you
please!" Draco snapped.
"I'm
sorry, the next time I'll get a signed permission slip, will that make you
happy?" Her calm voice
quavered ever so slightly.
"Don't
patronize me, Granger."
"Well
then don't act so childish, Malfoy."
Draco
glared down at her. Sitting with
her back straight and her arms crossed, Hermione looked every bit the
disapproving school-mum. She met
his gaze unflinchingly, her chin held high with defiance. Before he could stop himself, before he could squelch the
impulse, Draco's hand touched her chin, and then cupped her cheek.
Her eyes widened, but she angrily refused to look away.
The fact that he was now kissing her seemed to take both of them by
surprise. Draco couldn't quite recall when he made the decision to do
that, but here they were. He pulled
her to her feet without breaking the kiss.
She leaned closer to him and his hands dropped to her waist where they
each took a tight handful of her robe. He
was lost in the blissful moment for only a second when he found her suddenly
struggling against him. Draco let
her go regretfully.
"Stop
it!" She cried out as he
released her.
She
was looking up at him, her brown eyes filling with tears and the professional
tone that she'd had when he'd first found her was now gone completely.
"You
can't keep doing that!" her voice trembled. "You can't keep kissing me, you can't be hateful one
moment and then...and then be like this the next." A tear slipped down her cheek and she rubbed at her eyes
angrily. "Here, just work on
these all right?"
Again
she held out her stack of parchment to him and this time he took it.
Hermione wasn't meeting his eyes now; she was looking at the floor.
As soon as the papers left her hand, she turned from him and started
putting away her books.
"You're
leaving?" Draco finally found
his voice.
Hermione
nodded but didn't look up. Her
shoulders trembled and Draco stood quietly, not knowing what to do.
"I've
already done as much as I can today anyway." Her voice was high-pitched and quavering.
Draco
looked down at the papers in his hand. Her
tiny writing was scrawled across them. He noticed, quite suddenly, that his hand was shaking
slightly. Draco immediately turned
from her and walked around the table. He
let his bag drop onto the table a little harder than he had meant to and the
sudden noise brought her eyes up to his. The
warm brown eyes were filled with the self-doubt and pain that she had been
trying to hide earlier. Hermione
looked away suddenly and walked to the door.
"They
were looking for you. Your friends,
Potter and Weasley."
She
stopped, listening.
"I
just thought that...well, I thought that you should know they were worried about
you." Draco watched her
closely.
"Thank
you." She said before walking
out the door.
The
door had been closed for several minutes before Draco spoke again in the empty
room.
"I
think I was worried too."
Draco
worked diligently in the library for the rest of winter break.
On the second day he broke the code, well, they broke the code.
But since Hermione was never there, he felt as though he deserved most of
the acclaim. Not that there was
much to be had. The books turned
out to be person journals, very long-winded, personal journals.
Still, he went to the library daily to translate them.
He never stopped believing that she would be arriving soon.
Hermione never came to their room though.
If he didn't find the whole fiasco so terribly annoying, he would have
been impressed with her tenacious attitude, but at the moment Draco only found
her to be very stubborn. The only
bright side that he could see was that she seemed to be spending even less time
with Potter and Weasley than she was with him.
He
had noticed almost immediately that she no longer sat with them during meals.
She generally sat at one end of the long Gryffindor table with Weasley's
kid sister. And on some rare
occasions, she even sat at the Ravenclaw table with some friends from
Arithmancy. Every now and then
Draco would catch Potter or Weasley casting worried glances at her, and it never
failed to please him when she ignored then completely.
It helped him forget that she was, of course, ignoring him as well.
It
was the last day of the Christmas holiday when Draco finally saw her again with
Potter and Weasley. She was sitting
in one of the virtually deserted courtyards reading a book.
He was about to approach when Potter and Weasley appeared through one of
the stone archways. Draco was to far away to hear what they were saying but after
a moment of what looked like a rather heated exchange, Hermione started to cry
and the other two boys looked very relieved.
Draco gritted his teeth as he saw her throw her arms around Weasley and
bury her face in his cloak. He grew
even angrier when Weasley hugged her back.
And when she turned to give Potter the same treatment, Draco found that
he couldn't hold himself back anymore. He
strode forward into the courtyard.
Weasley saw him first. "What
do you want Malfoy?"
"Nothing much, just wanted to congratulate you all.
The whole school will be thrilled to know that the wonder trio has
finally made up." He drawled
coldly.
"Shut up Malfoy." Potter
snapped.
"Why don't you make me Potter."
He responded with equal vehemence.
Potter let go of Hermione and both he and Weasley stepped towards Draco.
The Slytherin wasn't afraid though; he held his wand tightly inside his
pocket and let his anger guide him. But
before any of them could say or do anything, Hermione rushed forward, putting
herself between them.
"Please don't fight, Harry, Ron, please."
She pleaded with them. She
looked to Draco without saying anything; her large brown eyes said all she
needed to say to him. But Draco was
too angry too listen, and at the moment, those warm, knowing eyes only served to
make him angrier.
"Do you always have to get in the way Granger?"
He asked icily.
She flinched but stood her ground. Weasley
pushed past her.
"Don't talk to her like that Malfoy," he hissed.
"I can talk to her anyway that I want to Weasley."
Potter brushed passed her now; Draco noticed that he had now drawn his
wand. A part of Draco wondered
distantly why he was doing this, but he was too angry to really put much thought
into an answer.
"Now Potter, are wands necessary?
Aren't we all friends here?" Draco
asked snidely.
"That's really funny Malfoy."
Weasley forced a laugh.
"Aren't we friends Hermione?"
Draco asked, turning to her suddenly, twisting her name derisively.
She looked away from him without saying anything.
And Draco felt somewhat vindicated.
"We should be friends, I know you in ways those two of can't even
imagine." He caressed her
cheek with the tips of his fingers and smirked when she blushed.
Draco felt triumphant as Potter and Weasley looked at him with shock and
disbelief.
"What's that supposed to mean Malfoy?"
Potter asked.
"You know what I mean," Draco responded in a knowing voice and
gave the two boys a wink.
There was an angry roar from the two Gryffindors but before either of
them could move Hermione did something that made them all stop.
She hit Draco across the face. His
light blonde hair fell across his eyes when he looked back up at her. Her eyes were filled with tears and she was shaking.
Potter and Weasley were staring at her in surprise, but Draco's eyes
never left hers. Those brown eyes
that seemed to mirror his own soul sometimes.
"I was wrong." She
whispered.
Draco wasn't sure if she had spoken loud enough for Potter or Weasley to
hear, but at the moment she seemed completely oblivious to either of them.
He was utterly unable to look away from the pretty young girl.
She wasn't making any effort to not cry in front of him, her delicate
tears were falling freely. She held him hostage for only another moment before she
turned from him and the others and walked across the snowy courtyard, her head
held high.
Potter and Weasley watched her go in silence.
Once she had disappeared through the same archway that they had come
from, they turned back to look at Draco.
"You're really something else aren't you Malfoy?"
Potter asked coldly.
Draco noticed that Potter had a tight grip on the back of Weasley's
robes, which was probably a good thing as the red head looked like he could
easily bring himself to murder Draco with his bare hands.
"Let's go," Potter muttered to his friend.
Weasley looked about to argue but then turned and followed the other boy.
Draco was left alone, glaring down at the snow.
She just didn't understand. It
wasn't very fair in his opinion. She
had forgiven them. And Draco knew
that they were the reason why she had been so upset.
But who was she talking to? Who
was she loyal to? The blasted
Gryffindors of course. Draco
angrily kicked at the snow, but he couldn't help feeling that he should be
kicking himself.
Draco glanced yet again at Hermione, but as she had been since she had
sat down, she was staring straight ahead and refused to acknowledge his
presence. It was the first day back
at classes and he had been looking forward to Arithmancy.
True, it was his favorite class after Potions, but more importantly, she
couldn't avoid him there. And yet,
much to his great annoyance, she seemed to be doing exactly that.
Professor Vector droned on with her lecture, which was probably very
interesting, but Draco couldn't bring himself to pay attention.
It was as if the past several months had never happened.
As if this was the first day of the year, and not the first day of the
new semester. Hermione sat as far
from him as possible. All of her
things lay stacked neatly at the edge of the desk.
Her quill ran back and forth across a piece of slightly curled parchment.
He knew what she was doing; she was shutting out every possible
distraction and focusing entirely on the Professor.
But there wasn't any reason to pay attention to the Professor.
Draco was willing to admit that Hermione probably knew almost as much
about Arithmancy as he did, maybe even more when it came to polynomials.
The only reason why she was concentrating so hard was so that she
wouldn't have to think about him. This
was a highly egotistical notion of Draco's, but being a Malfoy, the belief that
the world does, in fact, revolve around oneself was an inherited trait.
On this occasion though, Draco was correct.
He glanced at the hourglass that was perched precariously on a tilting
stack books on the Professor's desk. Class
would be over soon, and Hermione hadn't even had the grace to look at him.
Draco glared at her profile and then knocked his Arithmancy book to the
floor. The sudden racket drew every
eye to him, including the ones that he had hoped for. For the first time in several days, Draco found himself
staring into her dark eyes and they weren't pleased to see him.
Hermione glared at him and it was a look that he knew very well.
It was the same expression that she always used to wear concerning him.
Her eyes were filled with loathing, and something deeper, pain and
betrayal. She then turned back to
Professor Vector and didn't look at him again for the rest of class.
Draco sat glumly as the last purple grains of sand slithered to the
bottom of the hourglass and students started to collect their things.
He watched as Hermione quickly made her way down the steps and an idea
occurred to him. Draco jumped to
feet and rushed down towards Hermione, taking the steps two at a time.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the class before she could
disappear into the thronged mass that was passing in the hall.
She turned to him with an angry remark on the tip of her tongue, but as
he had expected, she couldn't bring herself to say anything in front of their
teacher.
"Professor Vector," Draco pulled Hermione over to where she was
standing.
"Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger, how are things going with your project?
Come across anything exciting?"
Professor Vector beamed at them.
"Oh yes Professor, Hermione and I devoted most of our Christmas
break to deciphering some old journals of O'Leary's that he had written in Latin
and then coded." Draco smiled
back at her and tightened his grip on Hermione.
"I am so glad, to tell you the truth, I was afraid that it might be
a bit too advanced for you two. I
know that I was asking a lot."
"Oh no Professor," Draco was using all the Malfoy charm that he
had. "After our last progress
report, you said something about coming to see what we have done.
And I was thinking Professor, if you don't have a class, that you might
like to come now?" Draco's
smile grew wider.
"That is an excellent idea Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger."
Draco grinned as Professor Vector followed him out of the room, his grin
turned into a victorious smile as Hermione began to trail a few steps behind.
The trip to the library was rather short.
Since they were walking with a teacher, the other students gave them a
wide berth. Professor Vector was
very impressed with the translation that Draco had written up, and virtually
glowed at Hermione when she examined her different keys. And then the Professor was gone on her way, leaving them
alone in their room.
"Hermione?" Draco
asked softly, she had seemed lost in thought, staring out the window.
With the sound of his voice, Hermione seemed to realize that they were
alone. She moved towards the door
but stopped when Draco stepped in front of it.
"No, you're not leaving."
He told her firmly.
"Like to see you stop me." She muttered coldly.
"Is that an invitation Granger?"
"You really enjoy this don't you?
You really like this game. How
typical." She crossed her arms over her chest and glowered at him.
"What are you talking about?"
Draco crossed his arms, mimicking her.
"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about."
She seethed. "You just
love to play with people. You know
Harry is still angry with me and Ron...Ron won't even acknowledge my
presence."
Draco stepped a bit farther to the left, making absolutely sure that the
door was blocked before he continued. "I
upset Potter and Weasley? Oh no,
however shall I live with myself now?"
"The really sad part about all of this is that I don't really even
have a right to be angry with you. You
can't help being the way you are, cold and unfeeling."
Her voice quavered again and Draco wasn't sure if was because of anger or
pain, "they were right about you. This
is all a game." Her voice
trailed off and she looked away from him.
Draco stepped to her silently, she was distractedly wiping at her eyes
and didn't notice him and until he ran his hand through the brown curls that
were lining her face. She started back, surprised, but Draco had anticipated that.
His arm had already come to rest around her waist, holding her in place.
Hermione didn't even struggle, she had learned that it was an effort in
futility; he was much stronger than her. She
gazed at him now with large eyes, afraid of what he would do.
Draco tilted his head down and lightly kissed her forehead.