***I'm so sorry
that this took me so long to post. I'm such a slacker sometimes, but I
can blame it on the holidays,
can't I? Please?
And thank you to everyone that has reviewed me. I really really appreciate
it.
Their Room
by
aleximoon
Chapter
15
An
Ambush & Tea with Hagrid
Hermione yawned
and stretched out her hand trying to pull her pillow back under her cheek.
Even though she was
still half
asleep, she could still identify the hard thing under her head as a book.
"Should have put my books away before I went to bed," she thought to herself sleepily.
Hermione stayed
that way, torn between sleep and wakefulness, for another moment before
she remembered
something
extremely important. She had never gone to bed the night before. That certainly
shocked her fully awake.
She was still
in their room. She had been sleeping in her large, squishy chair, the book
that she had been trying to
translate
serving as a pillow. Hermione rubbed her eyes, it was rather dark in the
room, the fires had never been lit
and the candles
had smoldered themselves out ages ago. There was a chill in the air and
Hermione pulled her cloak
tighter around
herself, trying to fend off the cold. But in her rush, she had left her
cloak at the ball with Dean; this
cloak was
dark gray and would match perfectly with the dress robes that Draco had
been wearing at the ball.
Hermione pulled
the lapels of the cloak tighter and tilted her head slightly so that she
could feel the softness of the
fabric against
her cheek. It smelled faintly of some exotic spice, perhaps patchouli.
Draco himself, she noticed, was
still sitting
across from her in the dark, his head propped up against his hand. Pale
tousled hair that seemed to
almost glow
in the dimness was hanging low over his face.
Hermione yawned
again and wished that she had at least gone to change before she had drug
him up here. As if
waking up
in a dark cold room after you had been sleeping in a chair wasn't bad enough,
she had done it in her new
dress robes.
She stood up
unsteadily and walked to the windows, it was very dark outside, not that
she would have been able to
see anything
through the glass even if it hadn't been the middle of the night. The window
was covered in a fine sheet
of frost.
She returned
to the table and lightly touched Draco's shoulder. When he didn't stir
she leaned down and whispered
quietly.
"Mal...Draco, wake up."
He didn't respond.
Hermione glared at his sleeping form, he would have to be a deep sleeper.
Leaning closer, she
tightened
her grip on his arm.
"Draco," she shook his arm, "wake up."
And he did.
With a startled grunt he jerked back from the table and grabbed her. Before
Hermione could even
register what
was happening, she found herself laying on the table staring wide-eyed
up at Draco. He held her arm
painfully
tight and she was very aware of the tip of his wand pointing at her throat.
"Malfoy! Have you gone daft?" She snapped, half in anger, half in fear.
His dark gray eyes lightened as he recognized her and he let go of her arm.
"Hermione, what are you doing in my dorm?" Draco's surprise faded and he gave Hermione a seductive smirk.
"Get off Draco, I'm not in your dorm, and neither are you." Hermione said sourly.
Draco stepped
back from her, and Hermione sat up, she was still leaning against the table.
Her arm was beginning
to ache slightly
and she grimaced.
"Did I hurt you?" Draco's smirk faded and he stepped closer to her again.
"No, no, I'm sure that once the blood starts flowing again everything will be fine." Hermione said waspishly.
"Here, let me see."
Draco didn't
wait for an answer; he took her arm and gently pushed up the flared sleeve
of her robe. In the dark,
the vibrant
scarlet was a dark maroon, and it contrasted strongly with the bright white
of her arm. Even in the dark,
the place
where he had gripped her arm could be seen; small red splotches marked
where his fingers had been.
"Bloody hell Granger, why do you have to bruise so easily? That's no fun at all."
Hermione glared
at him, but he only smiled at her with amusement. He hadn't let go of her
arm and Hermione's glare
faded as she
realized that he was gently tracing the marks with the tip of his thumb.
She swallowed hard as he looked
down at her,
looked into her. Suddenly aware of how close he was to her, she tried to
move back, which was quite
impossible
since she was leaning against the heavy wooden table.
Draco seemed
to become aware of their closeness as well and he immediately let go her
arm and let the sleeve fall
back down.
He turned away from her and started to rummage through a box for a spare
candle. Hermione breathed
a sigh of
relief and felt her heart beat start to slow again.
"We must have fallen asleep." She said breathlessly.
"Good show of stating the obvious."
Draco's superior smirk was lost in the darkness, but Hermione knew that it was there. She could almost hear it.
"Well you're rather disagreeable when you don't get your beauty sleep aren't you?" She snapped.
A candle flared
in time for her to see the bemused look that Draco was wearing before it
disappeared in shadows
again. He
set the candle on the table and looked down at the large book that he had
been going through.
"This is harder than I thought it would be," Hermione muttered more to herself than to him.
"Blasted code. Why on earth did he have to make his own Arithmancy system?" Draco glared at the book.
"The code? I'm talking about the Latin; the Arithmancy is the easy part. It's all just a list of corresponding numbers." Hermione sat down dejectedly next to him.
"Certum est, quia impossibile." Draco said softly.
Hermione arched an eyebrow, "you speak Latin?"
"I can speak it, read, and write it." Draco's voice held more than a hint of pride.
"You're joking."
"Classical
education," Draco said sounding offended. "What, did you think that my
education started here at
Hogwarts?"
"Well, don't most witches and wizards..." Hermione began.
"Do the Malfoys
sound like most witches and wizards to you?" Draco questioned. "I've had
tutors for as long as I can
remember.
Lucius always believed that I should have a solid foundation for later
schooling. Oh, and most dark magic
spells are
in Latin." He added that as an afterthought.
"I'll keep that in mind," Hermione told him, torn between amusement and disapproval.
"Hermione, I think that you're really seeing this the wrong way." Draco told her patiently.
"Oh really?
I've only devoted a great deal of my time to this project and I don't seem
to be getting anywhere. I know
that the answers
are right there in front of me and I just can't read them." She broke off
here, a little out of breath.
"Oh calm down
Hermione, I don't think you're looking at this rationally." He spoke slowly
as if he was afraid of
another outburst,
but Hermione could tell that he was still finding this very entertaining.
"Oh I'm not thinking rationally am I, Malfoy?" She said acidly.
"No, you're
not Granger," he retorted with an equal measure of bite. "You are a marvel
with the codes and I am a
linguistical
genius."
Hermione just rolled her eyes.
"Come on Granger,
put it together." Draco decided that she must be too tired to think properly
and didn't wait for
her answer.
"You can break the code and I'll translate, if we work together it shouldn't
be a problem. Teamwork,
Granger."
Hermione sighed, her head hurt and she was achy from cold. He was right, of course, she hated when he was right.
"Fine! We'll work together." She agreed finally, "But I think that we should wait for tomorrow before we start."
Draco nodded
at her and he started to blow out the candles. Hermione turned to gather
her things and then
remembered
that she had come here straight from the ball. She had only taken a moment
or two to exchange hurried
apologies
with Dean for leaving early. Harry and Ron had both complained that she
had promised them each a dance
and Ginny
had given her a knowing look, but Hermione had been able to sidestep them
all and escape into the hall.
In her excitement,
she hadn't noticed Harry and Ron watching her leave with Draco.
"Ready?" Draco whispered from the door.
Hermione nodded her curly head even though there was no way that he could see it in the dark.
After she had
locked the door to their room, they stole stealthily down the spiral stairs
and then across the library.
They would
normally part ways outside of the library, but Draco seemed lost in thought
and he accompanied her
through the
silent halls back towards Gryffindor tower. She watched him out of the
corner of her eye, but he seemed
very distant.
The fat lady
was snoring softly when they reached the portrait hole. Hermione turned
to Draco, was he intending on
following
her in?
"Draco?" She whispered.
"So this is the way into Gryffindor Tower? Good thing to know." He muttered softly.
"Oh yes, because you love to drop by and visit every now and then."
Hermione stood
patiently waiting for him to leave, as tired as she was, there was no way
she was going to announce
the password
in front of him. But Draco seemed to not be paying attention. Hermione
remembered his cloak.
"Here," she murmured as she pulled the dark gray cloak from her shoulders.
Draco took
it from her slowly, as if not really seeing it. He was staring at her with
a look that Hermione found
somewhat unsettling
and exciting at the same time. His gray eyes were once again stormy and
dark, his face half
hidden in
shadow. He seemed about to say something, or perhaps do something, when
a movement caught both
of their attention.
Sitting only a few feet away was Mrs. Norris, her large glowing eyes studying them in the darkness.
Hermione gasped and stepped back, "you had better go, she can summon Filch faster than you would think."
"And how often
have you run into that blasted cat after hours?" Draco whispered in surprise,
a note of respect in his
voice.
"More often than I would have liked, now you had better go!" Hermione motioned with her arm at the staircase.
Draco still stood, unmoving.
"Look, if you get caught, who will help me translate Latin tomorrow?" She pleaded.
Draco looked
at Mrs. Norris, and then back to Hermione. He nodded and then dashed down
the stairs. Mrs. Norris
gave Hermione
a cold look before turning to follow. Hermione turned to the portrait and
whispered,
"Christmas Cheer"
The fat lady
snorted in her sleep and then spoke in a yawn, "You've been out late dearie,
you should tell your
boyfriend
not to keep you out after hours. He is a handsome one though." The pink
lady smiled as Hermione flushed.
"He's not my boyfriend!" she snapped as she stepped through the portrait hole.
"Of course he isn't," the voice called out in amusement as the picture swung shut behind her.
The common
room was dark and Hermione made her way up the stairs to the girl's dorm.
Lavender and Parvarti
were sound
asleep when she got there. A clock by her bedside told her that it was
four in the morning. Hermione
quickly pulled
off her dress robes and then slipped on her pajamas. Feeling comforted
by the soft flannel, Hermione
allowed herself
time to think about what had been weighing on her mind all night. Draco
Malfoy.
Hermione climbed
onto her bed and pulled the curtains closed around her. She slid under
her thick feather-down
comforter
and stared up at the crimson canopy. What in the world was going on?
She couldn't
figure it out, one minute he was the same old Malfoy. The same boy that
hated all mudbloods and wished
her and her
friends nothing but ill will. But then, the next moment he would be kind
and almost caring. Hermione
shivered suddenly
as she pictured his deep gray eyes looking into hers.
She hadn't
expected him to come to her during the ball. She was glad that he had though.
It wasn't that she hadn't been
enjoying herself
at the dance. It just wasn't what she had wanted. Even though it was silly,
she could never quite dismiss
the need for
something magical to happen. And as much as Hermione hated to admit it,
dancing with Draco under a star
filled sky
with snowflakes falling delicately around them had been more magical than
she could have ever wished for.
The next morning
dawned clear, crisp, and bright. Light glistened all around as the wet
snow shone in the sun. There
was no hint
that another storm was brewing, inside or outside of Gryffindor tower.
And Hermione woke up feeling
relaxed and
happy. A sparkle of anticipation fluttered around in her stomach. Whether
it was the prospect of finally
making some
headway with books, or the fact that Draco would be waiting for her, she
didn't know.
Dressing quickly,
Hermione pulled one of her black school robes off the back of a chair and
scooped her backpack
off of the
floor before starting down to the common room. She hummed a melody as she
walked along the stairs. Had
she given
it a little thought, Hermione would have remembered that it was the song
that she and Draco had danced
too. But Hermione
was too light hearted to give it any real consideration.
She had almost
reached the bottom landing when the fourth year girls' dorm swung open
a floor above her. Hurried
steps were
descending quickly.
"Hermione?" Ginny's voice echoed down the stairs.
Hermione called
back over her shoulder as she crossed to the entrance of the common room.
"I'm in a bit of a rush
Gin, I'll
meet you for lunch."
"No, wait, Hermione you don't understand."
But Ginny's
pleas fell on deaf ears as Hermione walked through the archway and into
the common room. She
stopped short
when she found Ron and Harry sitting at a near-by table. Their expressions
were unreadable, but the
stiff way
that Harry sat told her that whatever this was about, they were determined.
An unbidden thought ran through
Hermione's
mind as they stared her down. Ambush.
"Hermione!"
Ginny had suddenly appeared on the landing behind her looking very out
of breath. Her eyes fell on Harry
and Ron. "I
tried to warn you." She whispered.
"Wh...what's going on?" Hermione asked cautiously, her light mood sinking.
"You should sit down Hermione," Harry told her decidedly.
Hermione glanced
from Harry to Ron and then back at Ginny before she sat down at the table.
Ron gave Ginny a
dark look
as she took a seat next to Hermione, but he didn't say anything. Harry
and Ron looked at each other unsure
of where to
begin. Ron finally becoming exasperated turned to Hermione with a glower
and virtually spat at her.
"What the bloody hell are you doing with that prat Malfoy?"
Hermione's
jaw dropped and she stared at Ron in shock. How could he have known? Was
it so obvious that she was
having strange
feelings and ideas about Draco.
"We saw you leave the ball with him." Harry said quickly as Ron looked about ready to say something equally unpleasant.
"Oh," Hermione said in relief, "is that all? Draco and I just wanted to go to the library."
Ron's face suddenly suffused with color and Hermione knew immediately that she had said the wrong thing.
"Draco? Since when do you call him Draco?" Ron's voice was low and dangerous.
"I...well it's just easier than calling him Malfoy all the time." She muttered.
"Hermione, what's going on?" Harry asked calmly.
"What's going on? Isn't it obvious Harry, that stupid git has done something to her!"
"Oh shut up Ron!" Hermione snapped as her temper gave way.
It was now Ron's turn to stare at her with his mouth-agape.
"He's not evil
you know." She said angrily, "you've never even given him chance, not that
he's really ever deserved
one I'll admit,
but you can't get angry at me just because I've made the best of a bad
situation and found that it isn't
that bad after
all."
"You don't get it!" Ron glowered at Hermione.
"Ron," Harry tried to cut in but Ron ignored him.
"It's Malfoy!
He's a Slytherin, and he is evil. How can you just forget that? I'll bet
he's already down on the list for
future death
eaters. How can you defend him?"
Ron had gotten
to his feet when he began his rant. And Hermione stood up quickly so that
he wasn't towering above
her. Both
Harry and Ginny edged away from the feuding pair.
"He's not a death eater!" Hermione yelled back at him. "And he's not going to be either!"
"Oh that's
rich, what, did he tell you that when you caught him helping little old
witches across the street at
Hogsmeade?"
Ron's face was bright red now and everyone in the common room had stopped
to watch.
"Ron," Harry tried again to stop his friend before could go to far.
"I believe him!" Hermione said shrilly, her face equally red.
"You can't trust him, he's a slimy Slytherin!" Ron shook off Harry's hand. "You are so stupid Hermione!"
"Ron!" Both Ginny and Harry gasped at once.
Ron stopped
short, slightly out of breath and wild-eyed, he slowly seemed to realize
what he had been saying. The
common room
was silent, he glanced around, all eyes were upon them. He turned back
to face Hermione, she was
unnaturally
white.
"Hermione," he began.
She stepped
back from the table. Her hands were trembling and she could hardly see
through the silvery cloud of
tears that
were in her eyes. Hermione pulled her bag back onto her shoulder and took
another step backward.
"Hermione, I didn't mean it like that." Ron whispered.
She shook her
head at him and felt one large tear slip down her cheek. Hermione turned
suddenly and ran across the
common. She
darted though the portrait hole and left it hanging open. Ron called her
name once in desperation but
she didn't
stop running.
Hermione fled
blindly down the stairs. She crossed one corridor after another trying
to put as much distance between
Ron, Harry,
and herself. She ignored the wondrous glances that she was receiving from
her fellow classmates and she
didn't even
acknowledge Neville when she past him in the Transfiguration hall.
It was instinct
alone that guided Hermione to the library. It was because of her deep rooted
belief that whatever
problem she
might be facing, reading a book would somehow make it better, that she
found herself standing at one
end of the
gallery that led to the library.
A door to her
immediate right, the boy's bathroom, opened and a figure with pale hair
and Slytherin robes stepped
from it. Hermione
looked up at Draco in surprise and relief. It was comforting to see him,
even if she didn't know why.
His gray eyes
flashed angrily as he noticed her tear streaked face. He seemed about to
say something to her when the
door opened
again and Draco was followed by Crabbe and Goyle.
Hermione wiped at her eyes with the cuff of her sleeve, but she couldn't hide the flushed cheeks or red eyes. Cruel, identical grins spread across Crabbe and Goyle's faces.
"Oh look, the mudblood has been crying," Goyle's grin broadened.
"What's wrong Granger? Potter and Weasley don't love you anymore?" Crabbe laughed.
Hermione swallowed
the lump in her throat and stared at Draco. He looked away, his gray eyes
focusing on something
along the
wall in the distance. She realized that he wasn't going to say anything,
that he was just going to stand by and
pretend like
there was nothing between them, like they were still enemies. Were they
still enemies?
For the second
time that evening, she found herself incapable of looking at someone that
she cared for. She pulled her
eyes away
from his face and studied the floor. Crabbe and Goyle took a threatening
step towards her and Hermione
stepped back.
There weren't any answers to be found in the library today. Hermione felt
as if the walls were closing in
and the tears
that had almost stopped at the pleasure of seeing Draco were promising
to pour down her cheeks in a
mere moment.
Hermione turned from the trio and sped down the hall.
She hardly
knew where she was going, only that she needed to be outside where the
air was fresh and she could
breathe. Hermione
didn't stop running until she had reached the edge of the lake. Here she
collapsed onto a large fallen
log and tried
to reclaim her breath.
The snow was
piled deep and a thin sheet of ice covered the lake. The sky, which had
been bright earlier that morning,
was darkening
now as a winter storm approached. The wind picked up and Hermione shivered.
In all the confusion,
she had somehow
forgotten her cloak again; it lay in a piled heap on the floor of the Gryffindor
common room. She
pulled her
knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them trying to be as warm
as possible; it wasn't working
tremendously
well.
"'ermione?" A booming voice almost made her fall off the log.
"Hagrid," she replied quietly, a quavering note still lingering in her voice.
"Yeh know, 'arry and Ron 'ave been out lookin for yeh. Asked me if I 'ad seen yeh. Might worried they 're."
Hermione looked
away from Hagrid and struggled not to cry anymore. How could she go back
and face them? After
what Ron had
said to her, in front of everyone. How could she go back knowing that he
was right after all?
A sudden, heavy
weight fell upon her shoulders and Hermione found herself enveloped in
Hagrid's moleskin coat. She
turned to
face him in surprise.
"C'mon, I'll
make us a bit of tea. Rather obvious that yeh need some." Hagrid easily
picked her up and set her on her
feet. He turned
and headed towards his hut. Hermione had no choice but to follow.
Two steaming
cups of tea later, Hermione was beginning to feel herself again. Hagrid,
who seemed to know better
than to ask
her what was wrong, was explaining his plans for his next class. School
would be starting up in a few
days and he
was almost as glad as Hermione was. He was animatedly telling her about
a pair of Bulettes that he had
managed to
acquire. Hermione knew better than to ask where, or better why, he had
gotten them. She knew them
to be very
dangerous beasts not native to the British Isles. Their penchant for meat
and ferocity in a fight were well
known, but
she found herself smiling at the hulking man anyway.
"Hagrid," a sudden thought had just occurred to her, "did you and Professor Dumbledore ever catch the manticore?"
"Aye, week
or so back. 'ad to put the thing down." Hagrid's face fell as he mentioned
this. "It's interestin' that the thing
went after
Malfoy. Being Lucius' son n' all."
"Well Draco isn't like Lucius!" Hermione snapped indignantly before she could stop herself.
"Draco is et?"
Hermione flushed but Hagrid's eyes twinkled with amusement.
"Ron did mention
somethin' to me about you being in over yer head with that Slytherin. But
I told him and Harry that
yeh've got
a smart 'ead on yer shoulders and that yeh can take care of yehself." He
poured them another cup of tea.
Hermione smiled
at Hagrid and then sighed softly. "I don't know Hagrid, they might be right.
Draco is just so
impossible
sometimes. He's everything that I hate, and yet..."
"I don' think
that ruddy git would know how to behave properly if someone was nice to
em. And yeh Hermione, yer
a nice girl."
Hermione hoped
very hard that she wasn't about to cry again, but it was a losing battle
and Hagrid handed her a
handkerchief
that was so large she could have wrapped it around her waist and used it
as a skirt.
"I wouldna
judge any of them too 'ardly. Boys do strange things when emotions are
involved. Don' know how to act
if yeh ask
me. Mind yeh, we never grow out of that." Hagrid laughed heartily and after
a moment Hermione joined in.
"Thanks Hagrid."
Hermione whispered softly, a faint smile tugging at her lips.
**My apologies
that this took me so very long to do. Ooh... I took a monster from the
AD&D monster manual again
for Hagrid's
new 'creature'. Anyhoo...please Read&Review.
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