Okay, here's
chapter 14. Now I'll post it and ffnet will probably break again, cause
that's how it always works,
but what is
one to do?
Their Room
by
aleximoon
Chapter
14
The
Yule Ball
Snow was falling
on Christmas day in soft flurrying waves, last night's heavy snowstorm
had subsided and when the
sun finally
made it's presence known in an hour, it would be a beautiful day at Hogwarts.
Silence pervaded Hogwarts
the only sounds
came from the kitchen where house elves were already bustling about frantically.
All of the students
still slept
soundly, except for Draco Malfoy.
Draco lay in
his four-poster and tried, unsuccessfully, to cover his ears with his pillow.
The loud snores of Goyle, which
he had become
so use to that they generally helped put him to sleep, had awoken him much
earlier than he would have
liked. Draco
was never one to pass up a few extra hours of sleep in the morning. But
it was becoming steadily apparent
that this
was not going to be one of those mornings. With a disgruntled groan, Draco
tossed his pillow to one side and
sat up. Pushing
the dark green draperies out of the way, he felt in his pocket for his
wand. Aiming was a bit tricky since
it was still
dark in the room, the house elves had yet to light the fires, Draco finally
was able to focus his eyes on
Goyle's massive
hulk. Unfortunately for Goyle, he never took the time to close his curtains.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Draco hissed.
He waited a
moment for a reaction from Goyle but there was only silence. With a self-satisfied
sigh, Draco settled
back amongst
his silver and green bedding. Now he could get back to sleep and hopefully
return to the dream that he
had been so
rudely removed from. He could feel himself losing touch with reality as
sleep began to overcome him and
the library
started to flicker indistinctly in his mind as his consciousness gave away.
He knew where he was going, and
who would
be waiting, he only hoped that she would still be in the same state of
attire, or lack there of, that she had
been in before
he had woken up.
There was a sudden strangling sound followed immediately by a long, low wheezing. Draco growled and sat up again.
"Only Goyle could snore through a full body-bind." He grumbled.
Getting to
his feet, Draco started to sweep menacingly towards the unwittingly form
that was Goyle. The stone
dungeon that
served as the fifth-year Slytherin boy's dorm was suddenly awash with flickering
fire light. Momentarily
distracted
Draco glanced at the fire that was now boisterously burning in the grate
that had been cold only moments
before. The
house elves were obviously beginning to make their rounds. Draco stopped
and sighed with defeat. There
was no point
now.
After muttering
the counter spell under his breath, Draco turned away from Goyle and looked,
for the first time, to
the foot of
his bed where a large pile of brightly wrapped presents were waiting for
him. He felt momentarily surprised
by this, Lucius
probably wanted to kill him, not send him gifts. But then, Draco supposed,
Lucius had probably not
informed anyone
that his son had left the flock. It might look suspicious to others if
Christmas came and went with
Lucius ignoring
his son.
Warily, he
poked one package with the tip of his wand. It seemed fine to touch, so
Draco scooped up all the
packages from
home and dumped them into the fireplace. Taking Lucius' last letter to
heart, Draco thought it best to
not open anything
that his father might have had a hand in. Draco had never figured out what
the foul smelling powder
had been,
but his finger tips were red and blistered for several days and Draco imagined
that it was supposed to do
much more
than that to the recipient, but Draco was after all Lucius' son.
He stood before
the fire and watched the presents go up in flames. Turning back to his
bed, he surveyed the much
smaller remaining
pile of presents. Going along with Lucius would have been so much easier
than all of this.
Dumbledore
had assured him that he would be absolutely safe here at Hogwarts. But
Draco knew Lucius better than
anyone else,
and he doubted greatly that this was the end of it. And all of his reasons
for not following his father and
thus Voldemort,
crumbled before the overwhelming odds of his imminent death. All of his
reasons except for one, fell
before the
Dark Lord, all except for the brown eyes of one girl that would look upon
him with nothing but loathing if
he ever allowed
the dark mark to be branded onto his arm.
Everyone in
the school seemed overly excited about tonight's upcoming events, at least,
Draco thought they were.
Being a Malfoy,
social events were quite common at the Manor, and a small, pitiful ball
hardly seemed impressive.
But this was
the first time that the younger years had been allowed to attend and Draco
was able to forgive the uproar
in the Great
Hall while he ate breakfast, he was able to ignore tumult in the library
for even Madame Pince had given
up trying
to restrain the eagerness of the other students. But he was unable to overlook
the mass of Gryffindors that
were congregating
outside undertaking in some sort of very noisy play in the deep snow.
Draco's eyes
narrowed as he stood in the entrance way, could he never have a moments
peace without being
disturbed
by a bunch of rowdy Gryffindors who didn't even have enough sense to stay
indoors on such a cold day?
And of course,
there was the star of Gryffindor tower, Potter himself and Weasley as well.
But Granger wasn't with
them. Draco
searched amongst the hills of snow and finally spotted her. She was walking
with that boy, that boy from
Potions, her
partner for the ball. Draco made a face; he wasn't impressed with Dean
Thomas. Granger could do
much better
than that.
With an unexpected
shout from the two matching Weasleys who had been hiding behind a tree,
flying snow began to
fill the air.
Draco came
down the steps and stood at the edge of the great sea of snow that surrounded
the school and continued
to watch,
unnoticed, the chaos that ensued after the twins started the snow war.
Snow flew every which way though
none came
near Draco as if the flakes themselves were afraid of the absolute look
of disapproval and disgust on his
face.
Granger and
that boy had gone unscathed so far, but when Weasley grabbed a great handful
of snow and started to
chase the
girl, she turned and ran right for the school doors. Running as fast as
she could while keeping an eye on the
redhead who
was catching up, she didn't notice Draco blocking her way until she ran
into him. With a startled cry she
fell back
hard and sprawled onto the ground in front of him. His first impulse had
been to catch her as he had so many
other times,
but he could see Thomas hurrying to reach her as well as Weasley and if
she wanted to spend her time
with them,
then one of them could catch her. He glared down at her, the bushy brown
hair and pretty face only
making him
angrier, he felt the old insult issue from him before he could stop himself.
"Watch it mudblood,"
he hissed, temporarily forgetting that he was a lone Slytherin in the midst
of a troupe of
Gryffindors.
Granger's eyes
had still been closed but they flew open at his words and she started up
him, shocked. A hush spread
quickly through
the open area as all of the Gryffindors stopped what they were doing and
gazed at Draco with
undisguised
hate.
Weasley reached
them first, followed almost immediately by Thomas. Weasley went right past
Granger though and
swung his
fist at Draco who dodged artfully away and then looked again to Granger.
Thomas meanwhile was helping
Granger get
to her feet. Draco's momentary lapse cost him though, as the other two
Weasleys joined the fray. Draco
soon found
himself pressed hard into the stonewall and dangling a foot off the ground
as the twins held him up for
their brother
to take proper aim.
"Ron! Stop
it!" Granger's voice cut through the angry buzzing that was the rest of
her friends. "Fred, George, put him
down."
"What?" The twins cried in unison.
"Hermione," Ron snapped at her, "you heard what he said, didn't you?"
Granger had
come up to stand next to him and she put her hand on the arm that he had
been about to strike Draco
with and said
in a quiet voice.
"I heard him Ron, I just don't care. I don't care about anything he has to say."
Draco looked
at her in surprise, she met his eyes only briefly, but that was all he
needed. She wasn't angry, only tired,
and hurt.
Draco immediately felt guilty about it all. Now that he could look into
her eyes he wasn't quite sure why he
had been so
angry.
Begrudgingly,
the twins put him down and the three Weasleys turned their backs on him
and walked over to where
their fellows
were waiting.
"Granger I..." Draco began, wanting to explain somehow but she cut him off.
"Go away Malfoy,"
she said in a sad, defeated voice, "you're not welcome here."
"Draco! There you are, I was beginning to think that you had forgotten me."
Draco looked
across the Slytherin common room to find Pansy rushing to him, blue robes
shimmering distractingly
around her.
"Of course
not Pansy, the ball starts at 7, I told you that I would meet you at a
quarter till." Draco spoke in a slow
even voice
as if he was talking to a very young child.
Pansy screwed
up her face unpleasantly and then seemed to think better of whatever she
was going to say and
softened into
a smile.
"Well you're
here now. Don't I look ravishing?" Pansy preened before him, her tight
blue robes fitting snugly around
the curves
that Draco had to admit did have their appeal.
"Mhmm," he responded. "Shall we?"
Pansy's smile
deepened and she accepted the arm that Draco offered to her. They strolled
up the dungeon stairs
and found
themselves on the landing across from the great hall. The doors were thrown
wide and people were
already beginning
to pass through them into the bright dining hall. Pansy smiled to almost
everyone that they passed.
It wasn't
an act of friendship, only one of pride and conceit. While it never used
to bother him, Draco found her
bravado rather
distasteful. Her blue robes were almost painfully revealing and while once
Draco would have found
his vantage
point to be a favorable one, tonight he felt that her attire was almost
lewd and he couldn't help but think
of a certain
brown-haired Gryffindor who would never make such an obvious show of her
physical attributes,
pleasing as
they were.
They sat down
at a small table along with Crabbe, Goyle, and their dates. They had both
managed to convince some
second year
Slytherins to accompany them. Draco thought that this might not have been
entirely voluntary on the girls'
part. Both
of them sat huddled together looking frightened of the two hulking brutes
to either side of them.
Dinner was
over quickly and the students were finally able to begin socializing. Pansy
attached herself to Draco again
and pulled
him out on the dance floor. She immediately wrapped her arms around his
neck and pulled him close. Her
body was rubbing
rhythmically against his along to the music. Once upon a time Draco would
have found this to be
quite exhilarating.
But now Pansy seemed to be only a pale shade of what he really wanted.
Draco stopped dancing.
"Do I want Granger?" He wondered in shock. "Is that what this is all about? Granger?"
Pansy crossed her arms angrily, "What's wrong with you Draco?"
Draco stared
down at Pansy without seeing her. His mind was racing over this sudden
obstacle in his thoughts. He
knew that
he had kissed her, more than once, but he had never once considered that
he might actually want her. She
had some sort
of bewildering pull, of that, he was well aware. But for him to actually
want her...he had never
considered
it as a possibility.
"Draco..."
Pansy whined. Suddenly getting an idea, she leaned close to him and purred
in his ear, "whatever has you
distracted,
I can show you something much more interesting later." Her hands tightened
on him in a way that left
Draco with
no doubt as to what she meant.
"No thanks Pansy," he told her, a hint of disgust in his voice.
She glared
at him vehemently and then spun on her heel, storming away angrily. Draco
didn't watch her retreat
though; he
was already scanning the noisy crowd of students for Granger.
He moved off
to one side so that he could better scan the crowd. It was hard to find
anyone in such a teeming area.
Since all
the years were allowed to attend, it was very loud here. It was hard to
make out the band, a troupe of
women who
looked almost like banshees and wailed in high-pitched voices that was
oddly pleasing. It took him a
few minutes
to find her. She was dancing with that boy. Draco glared at them, feeling
much like he had earlier that
day. Thomas
moved clumsily along with Granger who seemed so graceful in comparison
that the appropriate
metaphor would
be something along the lines of a butterfly versus an elephant.
She was wearing
the red robes that he had seen her admiring in Gladrags. They moved easily
with her and Draco
noticed that
the red brought out an astonishing array of color in her brown hair. She
seemed happy enough, dancing
with Thomas,
but Draco knew that she could do better than that.
The couple
stopped at the next song and sat at a table well into the Gryffindor corner
of the Great Hall. Draco
watched with
cold eyes as she sat with her friends. Potter and Weasley had come without
dates but they seemed
to be enjoying
themselves. Potter, Weasley, Thomas, and his Irish friend seemed to be
talking animatedly amongst
themselves.
When Weasley suddenly jumped to his feet and made a swooping motion with
his hand, Draco knew
they were
discussing Quidditch. Now Draco loved Quidditch as much as the next wizard,
but that was no way to
treat your
partner at a social event. Granger was certainly beginning to look bored.
Concerned as he was over
Thomas' behavior,
he hadn't given a thought to the probably extremely distraught Pansy Parkinson.
Granger leaned
towards the boy and whispered something to him. He nodded, smiling, and
she left the table. She
walked to
the refreshment table and filled a glass with spiced pumpkin juice. She
drank this slowly as she continued
to stroll
somewhat aimlessly around the outskirts of the dancing mob. Something seemed
to catch her eye and
Granger walked
to the open doors that led outside.
Draco watched
her look out onto the grounds a look of delight on her face. He knew that
he had peculiar thoughts
when it came
to her. But he hadn't ever given them much consideration before. He had
believed that they would go
away on their
own like a cold. But now that he was confronted with the idea that he might
want her, another, even
more disturbing
notion came to him. What if he actually liked her? What if these odd thoughts
extended beyond lust?
What then?
Granger glanced
back at Thomas and her friends; they were still talking amongst themselves
and seemed rather
oblivious
to the ball going on around them.
"Could I really
go against everything that Lucius ever thought me about mudbloods and purebloods?
Could I really
have feelings
for Hermione Granger?" Draco asked himself silently, almost fearing the
answer.
Granger took
one last look at her date and then walked through the open doors. By the
time the last bit of crimson
cloth had
disappeared Draco had come to a decision.
"Well," he muttered, "there's really only one way to find out, and it's been a long time since I've listened to Lucius."
Draco stole
across the dance floor, avoiding spinning couples and plunged through the
doors out into the cold. But
Draco found
that it wasn't very cold out after-all. There was obviously some sort of
enchantment going on to keep the
temperature
comfortable outside. He found that he didn't even need to go put his cloak
on. A cool breeze ruffled his
smoke-gray
dress robes, but it wasn't enough to chill him.
The year before,
he had left the ball in order to explore the decorated grounds with Pansy,
not that they had done
much exploring,
not in the traditional sense at least. The grounds were different this
year though. Everything seemed
to be made
of ice. Where an open lawn used to be, there was now a maze of ice. Thick
walls lined a path of ice
bricks. Delicate
snowflakes were falling from a clear, cloudless sky. In one large clearing,
Draco found a fountain
made of ice,
water bubbled restlessly from it and froze half way down it's descent,
forming tiny little icicles that fell
to the bottom
where they melted almost immediately. There were no lights that he could
see, and yet the whole area
glowed with
a rosy radiance. But was it rosy? For as Draco turned a corner the light
seemed to have become blue,
green, and
then yellow. The light seemed to be emanating from the ice itself, touching
one of the walls gingerly; he
found that
it wasn't cold.
He had been
walking through this winter wonderland for quite some time now and hadn't
seen a single sign of Granger
anywhere.
He had glimpsed other people of course, nameless figures that stood pressed
together down some alternate
pathway in
an ardent embrace.
Draco could
hear the melodic music become louder. Either he was nearing the entrance
of the ball, or they had
turned the
music up. Feeling a bit frustrated Draco sat down on an ornately carved
bench that should have been
freezing seeing
as how it was made of ice but wasn't. A movement caught his eye and he
looked up, through the
wall of ice
opposite him, he could see a hazy figure clad in red. Getting to his feet,
Draco swiftly started up the
path again.
Turning left at the nearest opportunity he backtracked and soon found himself
in a circular courtyard
with benches
lining the walls. Granger was sitting on one, looking up at the sky as
tiny snowflakes fluttered down.
Her brown,
curly hair was only half way up; the rest fell around her shoulders in
delicate waves, catching stray
snowflakes
in their tresses.
"No snowflake
is alike you know, each one is it's own different little marvel." She said
in a low voice as if she was
really very
far away from him and not just out of reach.
"Actually,"
he said as he flopped casually onto a neighboring bench, "all you have
to do is use the speculum charm
and duplicate
them. I use to do that all the time when I was younger, really put the
muggles in a tizzy when you
showed them
identical snow...."
Draco trailed
off as Granger gave him a withering glare, the nostalgic smirk that he
had been wearing faded from
his face.
"What do you want Malfoy?"
"I...who said that I wanted anything?" He snapped at her.
Granger looked
away without saying anything. Draco thought that she looked oddly small
sitting there, a tiny spot of
scarlet amongst
a field of icy white. Draco felt something soften inside of him.
"I'm sorry, about what I said earlier."
She looked up at him in surprise, "why are you sorry?"
"I shouldn't have said it," he paused and looked at her again, "and I didn't mean it either."
She met his
eyes now and smiled. Draco felt his smirk creep back and he sighed happily,
this was how it should be.
He could hear
the music start up again, a distant tune that carried slowly over the ice.
He stood up and turned to her
holding out
his hand. She looked up at him quizzically.
"What?"
Draco rolled his eyes at her before responding, "I'm asking you to dance, Granger."
"What?"
"Dance, Granger, it's what people do at balls, they dance," a hint of amusement was slipping into his voice.
She frowned at him, "you must be joking."
"I saw you
dancing with Thomas and I thought that you at least deserved one dance
with a real partner. I told you
that he was
too gangly." Draco replied patiently.
"He is not gangly." Granger snapped, but Draco could tell that she was just saying that out of Gryffindor pride.
"Granger?" Draco's hand was still held out to her.
With a look
that said she thought no good could come of this, Granger cautiously raised
her hand and set it in his.
He had a moment
to marvel at how delicately small it seemed in his before he tightened
his grip and pulled her gently
to her feet.
Granger looked
at him nervously, she awkwardly placed a hand on his shoulder. Draco smirked
at her apprehension
and wrapped
his arm her waist, his hand resting at the small of her back applying the
smallest bit of pressure. Her eyes
widened at
this contact and she seemed about to tell him off for it but he had already
started to dance, pulling her
along with
him.
Her anxiety
seemingly abandoned, Granger let him hold her close as they danced. After
a moment she seemed
completely
at ease and he found that she was smiling in a far-off dreamy sort of way.
Her eyes were half closed, her
slow movements
following the distant music. She let her head rest gently on his shoulder
as the music slowed to a
crawl. They
were barely moving now, the snow still fluttered around them and light
glinted softly off of the ice, but
Draco wasn't
aware of this anymore. He could see only her, one his many enemies, and
probably his only friend.
Draco knew
that at this perfect window in time, it didn't matter that he was a pureblood
and she a mudblood. It didn't
matter that
Lucius was after him or that the Dark Lord would probably kill them all
in a year or too. All that mattered
right now
was that the girl in his dreams was here, and that he was about to kiss
her.
He titled his
head down towards hers, his lips searching for hers, wanting so badly to
feel her respond to him. Draco
let his eyes
close knowing that he didn't need to see her to find her.
"Malfoy, what's going on with us?" She whispered softly.
Draco snapped
back to attention. Granger was looking at him, the question apparent in
her face. And Draco felt his
perfect moment
slip between his fingers and once again the weight of the reality was upon
him. To need her like this
was impossible
for him, he couldn't pretend that is wasn't.
"Why do you always call me Malfoy?" He asked, letting go of her and stepping back.
"Wh...what?" Granger looked puzzled.
The sudden subject change had taken her quite by surprise and Draco forced his most superior smirk.
"You always call me Malfoy, and I always call you Granger, why is that?"
"I...I don't
know," she was looking very flustered now. "Well we've never been properly
introduced have we?"
Granger seemed
to grab onto this ridiculous statement out of desperation.
"True, we never
did go through the niceties on our first encounter did we?" Draco was feeling
himself regain control
of the situation.
"That's easily remedied you know. Draco Aquilis Malfoy at your service."
He bowed slightly.
Granger seemed
stunned and she opened and closed her mouth several times obviously trying
to think of some witty
response.
Finding none she simply blushed and looked down at their feet before she
replied.
"Hermione Anne Granger, and don't make fun of the initials."
Draco smiled, they seemed like friends at the moment.
"Aquilis? Isn't that Latin?" Hermione asked suddenly drawing his attention back.
"Yes it is, as is Draco."
"I know that
Draco is, it means dragon, but Aquilis?" Her brow was crinkled in concentration
and she began pacing.
"Aquilis...doesn't
that mean dark?"
Draco grinned at her, oddly proud of her quick mind, and nodded.
"You're named dark dragon?" A grin suddenly spread across her face.
"It's a family name!" Draco said indignantly.
"Of course it is," she agreed while trying unsuccessfully to stop herself from giggling.
"I see now
why we've never been properly introduced." Draco said crossly although
the anger didn't reach his eyes
and she knew
it.
"I won't laugh anymore, I promise." She managed to gasp out between peals of laughter.
Her laughter died down while Draco glared at her disapprovingly and again she seemed lost in thought.
"Mal...Draco?" She said softly.
Draco felt himself want to smile when she called him by his name but he fought against it.
"Yes?"
"If you were
a wizard in the sixteenth century, and you were writing down something
very important, what language
would you
write it in?" She whispered this breathlessly.
"Well," Draco
began trying to think, "it would depend on whether you were well educated.
I mean, most wizards
back then
could write, but the really intellectual ones always seemed to prefer dead
languages like Greek or..." his
voice trailed
off and he met her eyes. "You don't think...?"
"Of course!
That explains it!" She cried gleefully. "He wrote the books in Latin before
he translated them into
Arithmancy
codes!"
Hermione bounded
forward and threw her arms around Draco and excitedly kissed his cheek.
Before he could even
react she
had grabbed his arm and spun around. Pulling him behind her she rushed
back up the icy path.
"What? Where are we going?" He managed to ask; still feeling shocked over her exuberant display.
"The library of course. We have to start translating now!" She replied over her shoulder.
"But what about the ball?"
"How can you
think about balls at a time like this?" She stopped short and turned to
face him. "We're on the brink of
discovering
what is written in those books. Don't you want to know what was so very
important that O'Leary went to
all this trouble?"
She let go of his arm and glared at him, "are you coming or not?"
Draco stared
at the crimson-clad Gryffindor; she looked like she might explode due to
excitement. And he had to
admit that
he felt it too.
"Of course
I am...Hermione."
Back
to Index
Back
to Fanfiction by Title
Back
to Fanfiction by Author