Yule Ball 1994 - 11:46pm
"Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?" yelled Hermione; her hair was coming down out of its elegant bun now, and her face was screwed up in anger.
"Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What's that?"
"Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!"
"Oh bugger off Hermione! You're being an idiot. Just because I don't like that you came here with Krum, doesn't mean that I want to date you! It just means I think the bloke is too old for you!" Ron shouted just before he ran up the stairs, with Harry following right behind him.
"Bloody idiots." She muttered as she turned around to enjoy the final moments of the ball.
12:24am
The ball had just ended a little while ago and Hermione was still angry with what Ron said to her. How dare he act like a jealous fool, and then try to project his feelings onto me because I decided to confront him about it. She was brought out of her thoughts as her date began to caress her arm. Today had been a complete disaster, she had a row with one of her best mates, and her date to the ball was drunk. So here she was, attempting to deliver him to his rooms safely so she could get back to her room and go to bed. She was ready to be done with this day.
"Hermione..you looked very pretty tonight" Viktor whispered to her, while bringing his face so close to hers, she could almost taste the alcohol on his breath. Ugh.
"Thank you Viktor, now which way is the way to your room?" She asked while looking around the corridor they were currently in.
"They're housing us near those students that wear black and green uniforms" he slurred his words slightly as he spoke.
"Okay, so you're staying near the dungeons then?"
He responded with a shrug. Why in Merlin's name did I agree to come to the ball with him tonight.
"Alright well let's hurry along. I don't want Filch catching me in the halls after I drop you off there." She said while she continued to march her way towards the stairwell that led down to Slytherin's dorms.
They continued to walk in silence as they began to descend the stairwell. Viktor "accidentally" stumbled over his feet and knocked himself directly into Hermione, pinning her against the wall as he did so. After a moment or two, Hermione immediately felt uncomfortable because he made no effort to move off of her. In fact, he began to trail one of his hands up her leg to her hip, and grabbed the back of her head to press a drunken kiss on her mouth.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She spat, once she ripped her mouth away from his.
"You can't tell me you don't want this. I know you do. Why else did you come to the ball dressed like this?" He asked her while he took his hand from her neck and used it to slide the soft thin fabric of her strap down her shoulder as he spoke.
"Don't be such a disgusting pig" her face contorted into a disgusted grimace, as she spoke, while attempting to free herself from his grasp once more.
"Don't be such a fucking prude. I know there's a little hell cat hiding behind that librarian act you put on. Hell, I'm pretty sure you've used that act to seduce more men than just me," he retorted coldly as he moved his hand to the other side of her dress, to slide the other strap down as well.
"Alright Viktor, I've had enough of this. Please get off of me, you seem coherent enough to escort yourself the rest of the way back."
He said nothing as he continued to hold her in place, making no effort to move whatsoever. Her heart began pounding in her ears and a small voice in the back of her head began to yell at her, YOU NEED TO GET AWAY FROM HIM! At these words from her subconscious, she began to squirm and buck against him, in an effort to free herself.
"VIKTOR I MEAN IT! GET OFF OF ME THIS INSTAN—"
Her words were cut off by his mouth, as he roughly pushed his lips against her own. Moving his hand from her shoulder and down to her other hip, he began to pull the skirt of her gown up, until it was bunched up around her waist. His lips continued to crush her own, in a torturously painful kiss, he hooked his strong fingers to either side of her knickers and tore them away from her. At this, she began to fight him like her life depended on it; kicking, squirming, and pushing at his large chest with her tiny hands. Absolutely terrified of what he would do next she bit his lip hard enough to break skin and draw blood.
"Bitch!" He screamed pulling his face away from her at last. With his grip slightly loosened she attempted once more to free herself, but he still refused to let her go, he pulled her closer and tightened his grip more.
"You're going to wish you'd never done that" he said to her through clenched teeth, a shiver of fear ran up her back at his words, as his blood began to dribble down his chin. Holding the skirts of her gown in his left hand, he used his right hand to undue the fastenings of his trousers and free his erection.
"Please Viktor, no!" She cried out as the tears began to fill her eyes, "I'm only f-fiveteen and y-you're e-e-eighteen! Y-you can't!"
Her words fell on deaf ears, as she felt his hard cock pressing against her stomach. He began to push his knee between her thighs to separate them and she began to sob incoherently.
"No! DONT! P-please! S-s-stop!" She screamed at him.
"Shut up and take—" his words stopped, and his body ceased all actions before he could finish his sentence. She opened her eyes to look at her would be assaulter and he was completely still, as if he were frozen in place. Someone must've hit him with a Petrificus Totalus charm and petrified him, she thought to herself as she began to scan the stairwell for her saviour. Her eyes came to rest on the figure of Draco Malfoy, just as he stepped forward from out of the shadows. Never in her life had she ever been so grateful or happy to see him.
"Granger, are you okay?" He asked her with concern in his voice as he began to pry Viktor's paralysed body away from her own. When she made to open her mouth, no words escaped it. Draco, noting her silence, began to hurry as he continued to remove Krum the rest of the way from her body. Viktor's eyes stayed locked on Hermione as Draco finally pried him away from her body, letting him fall unceremoniously down the stairs. As soon as she was free, her body collapsed to sit on the stairs, and she immediately began to cry.
"Shhhhhh, it's okay Granger. That rapist bastard isn't going to hurt you, I swear it," he cooed to her as he sat down next to her on the stairs. He wrapped his arm around her back, tentatively placing his hand on her shoulder and began to rub her exposed skin in slow soothing circles. She turned her head and looked at him as the tears continued to fall from her eyes. I'm such a fucking idiot. I can't believe someone who I believed to be a perfect gentleman just tried to rape me, and the person that saved me is Malfoy. Those are words I never thought I would hear myself say...Draco Malfoy saved me from being raped. And with that thought, she threw her arms around the boy that was both her enemy and her saviour.
"Thank you," she sobbed into his shoulder. "Thank you for saving me."
"Granger, it's okay. You really don't have to thank me. I know we've never been close. In fact, I know you've seen me as nothing more than a bitter enemy since the time we started school here. But I couldn't just stand by and let that bastard...rape you. No one deserves that, especially not you." He said angrily through gritted teeth.
She continued to sob into his shoulder, at his words. Latching her hands onto the dress robes he wore to the ball that evening.
"Come on Granger, lets get you back to your dorm." He said as he began to stand, pulling Hermione up with him as he stood.
"Please, I can't g-go back there r-right now... N-not like this. I don't want Harry and Ron to see me like this," she choked out between sobs.
"Okay, okay. I'll umm.. alright I have an idea. Come on." He said as he linked arms with her and began to ascend the stairwell. She was surprised at his gentleness, having never seen him like this before. Hermione barely paid any attention as he led her up flight after flight of stairs, finally coming up to the seventh floor.
"I found out about this place a few years ago. I use it as a place to... never mind it's unimportant." He said while shaking his head as if to clear it of the words he almost spoke. All the while keeping his eyes trained straight ahead, as they walked. "Sometimes I come here when I need to be alone." He said suddenly, just as he came to an empty space on the wall, she looked at his face and could tell that he had just revealed something private about himself and was uncomfortable with the vulnerability he felt behind it. Draco walked her to the wall opposite to the one he stopped in front of and said, "Stay right here Granger." Before walking back to the wall and pacing before it three times. She didn't understand what he was doing, until suddenly a large wooden door appeared on the previously empty stone surface.
Draco opened the door and motioned for her to follow him inside. Hermione slid away from the wall she was leaning on and scurried off into the room after him, both nervous and curious about this strange room that he brought her to. Once she stepped inside she saw that it was a large and surprisingly cozy room.
Go check out the story on Wattpad to see a photo of the Room I used for Draco's Room in the Room Of Requirement
As she stepped further into the room, she noticed that it was a quaint little library, with books lining the walls, a simple fireplace, and a single leather armchair placed directly in front of the fireplace. She was completely unaware of the door closing behind her an vanishing into nothingness, until she turned around and saw nothing more than a blank wall. She turned back to him and looked at him questioningly, wondering how exactly he found this little gem, and how in the hell the door kept appearing and disappearing. What was this place?
"This is the Room of Requirement," he suddenly spoke, answering her unasked question, as if he had read her mind. "I've known about this place since first year when I followed Potter up here. I have no idea what he came in here for, but all I know is that when I saw the door disappear after he walked through it, I just had to know what was on the other side of it. I hid in a dark corridor until I saw him leave and then I repeated what he did and the door reappeared. When I stepped inside it looked like this. And it's continued to remain this way every time I come back here."
"Room of Requirement?" Hermione asked him curiously. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"I suppose it means, the room will manifest whatever the user requires of it, upon and after the user's entry." Draco responded quietly as he began to walk towards the arm chair that sat in front of the fireplace, rubbing his hand along the cool leather material. "I come here to clear my head sometimes, you know what I mean? I use to do that in front of the black lake, but it seems as though whenever I want to be alone, legions of people seem to want to flock to me and impede that from happening." He said while reaching for the decanter of amber fluid on the table, unstoppering it, and pouring it into the two empty glasses that sat next to it.
"I know what you mean. My place of solace is the library. My friends all seem to be allergic to studying, so the library seems to be the only place I can go to, to even get a modicum of privacy to get anything done. But because I go there so often, my friends know exactly where I am, whenever I do try to escape them to get a grasp on my thoughts." She said as she followed him further into the room, finally reaching the armchair he currently stood behind.
Draco walked to the small alcove near the fireplace and the two cushions that sat there. After pushing the ottoman away from the armchair, he tossed both cushions down to the floor, before pulling out his wand to cast additional cushioning charms on the pillows. He grabbed the drinks before sitting down on one of the cushions and motioning for her to join him. Once she was seated beside him, he turned and looked at her, it seemed as if his steel grey eyes were piercing through all of her defences and staring straight into her soul.
"So Granger," he said as he offered her the second glass of liquor? he was holding. "Do you want to tell me why you don't want to go back to Gryffindor tower? I'm certain your friends would be eager to help you, if they knew what happened."
She ignored his question and looked at his hand quizzically, "It's firewhisky. It's always in here when I come here. Sometimes I pour myself a drink to calm my nerves while I think." She continued to stare at him, willing him with her eyes to tell her why he was offering it to her. "Granger, it's for your nerves. I'm not trying to do anything to you." She smiled shyly at him before taking the glass from him and holding it in her shaky hands just before lifting it to her lips and taking a drag of the amber fluid into her mouth and swallowing. It burned as it went down and she couldn't help the cringe she made as she felt the liquor course through her system and settle deep in her bones. It warmed her, and made her skin tingle. She took another sip before looking back up and speaking.
"I-I-I just can't face them... not right now... I don't want them to know." Her eyes began to tear up, as the memory of what almost happened to her, flashed before her mind. "I had a row with them over Viktor, Ron said he was too old for me. And obviously he was right." She sobbed, turning her head away from him so he wouldn't see her ugly tear ridden face. "I accused him of being jealous and he basically laughed right in my face. I should've known he wasn't jealous, I mean who would be? People barely even recognise that I'm a girl anyway. Nobody really wants me, not for who I really am. Nobody wants me for me. I can't even blame them, really, I mean, who would want a know-it-all book worm that spends all of her days in the library? No one, obviously, because the best I could do for the Yule Ball was a would be r-r-rapist." She continued to keep her head turned away from him as she cried, when suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Hermione peaked at him from over her shoulder and saw that he was handing her a handkerchief. She sheepishly reached for it, before she turned back away from him and began to dry her eyes. Once her red mottled face was dry of its tears, she pulled away the hanky and quietly looked it over. It was rather pretty, if she could say so. It was impossibly soft, and a brilliant white colour, with an intricate lace design around the edges, and in small beautiful lettering, she could see the letters 'DLM' embroidered into one of the corners with green stitching.
She turned to give him back his handkerchief, and he slowly shook his head in response. Reaching over to grab her hand and closing it firmly around the small soft square of cloth.
"No Granger, you keep it." He told her with a small crooked smile on his face. She was afraid she would cry some more if she opened her mouth to speak, so she just nodded her head and smiled her own small smile in return, before taking another drink from her glass. Draco reached for her tentatively with his empty hand and pulled her body into his, wrapping his other arm around her for a tight embrace before continuing to speak.
"Grange—Hermione." He said slowly, shocking her even more after his hug, by addressing her with her first name. These two foreign acts caused her eyes to snap up and land on him. He suddenly lifted his glass to his lips and took a long drag from the glass, taking in at least half of the amber liquid into his mouth and swallowing deeply. What is he doing? She wondered to herself just as he opened his mouth to continue speaking. "Hermione, I know you're not going to believe me when I tell you this. Hell, if I were you, I probably wouldn't believe me either. Especially after how I've treated you for these past couple of years. But Hermione, seeing you like this, and hearing what you think of yourself, I know I won't be able to sleep well tonight if I don't tell you this right now. You're gorgeous." She leaned back and broke the hug. She looked at him confused as she opened her mouth to retort, he stopped her by placing his index finger gently over her lips.
"No. Please don't interrupt me. You have to hear this. Hermione you are gorgeous, you're without a doubt the most beautiful girl in this school. Not to mention, you're a very powerful witch. Any one of these guys in this gods forsaken school would be lucky to even have you as a girlfriend, let alone, a date." He told her tenderly, before gritting out, "And it fucking killed me tonight to see what that bastard was trying to do to you." He spat out the words with an angry scowl just before tossing the last of his drink back into his mouth and swallowing it.
"Why are you telling me this? You hate me." She said, tears welling up in her eyes once more. Please for the love of Merlin, don't let this be a trick she thought sadly to herself as she took another sip from her own glass of liquor.
"Hermione... I don't hate you... in fact, I never have."
"But...but... you bully me. You've bullied me relentlessly, every single day. You must hate me." She said in disbelief before lifting her glass for the final time and swallowing the last of its contents. Hermione had never had firewhisky before and she could feel it buzzing all throughout her system. It definitely calmed her down just as Draco said it would. He took the glass from her and placed the both of their glasses off to the side.
"Hermione, I don't hate you. Not even a little bit. I'm not proud to admit this, but over these past few years, I've done the things that I've done, and said the things that I've said... because well... well... Salazar help me, but Hermione I like you."
"You like me?" She asked him incredulously. "Since when?"
"Bloody hell, you're really going to make me answer that, aren't you?" She nodded her head in response and he continued. "Well Hermione I reckon that I've liked you since first year. Yes that's it." He said while nodding his head emphatically. "It was definitely first year. Literally from the moment I saw you on the Hogwarts Express."
"Are you having a go at me right now?"
"Of course not."
"So why did you torture me then? You've made my life hell for the past two years. I-I-I don't understand." She stammered out.
"You have to believe me that at first, that wasn't my intention. I had all intentions of approaching you and trying to woo you in order to court you. That was until, it was revealed that you were a Muggleborn. You should've seen me, I was so angry I threw a full on fit. I knew my parents would kill me if I came home for the Yule hols and told them that I fancied a Muggleborn, but I couldn't stop myself from liking you. And so I ended up following you around all year, our first year. Don't you remember? I know you had to have seen me in the library almost everyday that year?" She nodded, remembering seeing his head full of platinum blond locks almost everyday that she ventured down to the library that year. "It was like I was being drawn to you Hermione. And that honestly frightened me. If you remember I never said anything to you that year. Not one snarky remark or rude sentiment was spoken from my lips in your regard. I was so enamoured by you, that I just wanted to be in your presence. Eventually I stupidly decided that continuing to do so would be too dangerous... I didn't trust myself enough to not try and approach you. So I decided that if I couldn't get myself to stay away from you, that I would need to get you to hate me enough to take that decision away from me. I wanted you to hate me enough to want to avoid me. And even though I succeeded in that venture, I still haven't been able to squash these feelings that I have for you."
"Muggleborn..."
"Huh?"
"You just called me a Muggleborn, twice..."
"Was there something wrong with that?" He asked concernedly.
"No... it's just... you usually call me a mudblood." She saw him cringe at the use of the word.
"I'm sorry about that... I don't believe in the whole dirty blood concept that most Purebloods believe in. Maybe at one point in my life I did, but once I met you, you thoroughly squashed all of the negative rhetoric that Purebloods love to push in regards to you all. They claim that you're all magically weak, dim witted, and inherently filthy. You have dismantled all of that, by simply existing. You're the most powerful teenage witch in this school, you're also the brightest girl currently enrolled here in Hogwarts, and you're obviously not filthy, not even in the slightest."
She began to blush while she took in his words. Draco Malfoy fancies me, and he thinks I'm beautiful, smart, and powerful. She was completely floored by this new revelation.
T"I hope I didn't weird you out with my awkward declaration, Hermione."
"No. Not at all Draco, it's just surprising is all. I thought you really hated me, you certainly acted like it."
"What can I say Granger? I'm quite the believable actor." He replied in his typical arrogant tone, causing her to roll her eyes.
"Don't ruin this by being cheeky." She laughed while admonishing him, and he laughed in return. She was shocked by how handsome his face was when he wasn't glaring or scowling at her. Watching his face light up with that smile, highlighted all of his best features; his high cheek bones, straight white teeth, and full pink lips, were completely intoxicating. She decided right then, that she would love to see him laugh and smile more often.
"So Hermione... are you going to tell me your thoughts on my big reveal?"
"About you fancying me?" He nodded in response. "Well to be quite honest Draco, I'm shocked."
"And you don't return the feelings, am I correct?" He asked dejectedly.
"No. That's not what I'm saying. I've always thought you were well fit. It was just your snarky behaviour that turned me off completely."
"So what are you saying...?" He asked with a hopeful tone.
"I'm saying that I fancy you too, you giant prat!" She laughed out, not really believing the words that came out of her mouth.
He looked at her with a look of utter shock on his face. And before she knew it, their lips were locked in a heated exchange. The horror of what almost happened to her in the stairwell with Viktor, was completely forgotten. They kissed each other passionately, releasing three years of pent up desire on each other. Before they knew it, the liquor coursing through their systems and their teenage hormones got the better of them. They began shedding articles of clothing left and right until they were both completely bare. And suddenly, the very unlikely couple began making love for the very first time.
And in that moment, neither of them felt anything other than the purest of emotions. In this moment, where the two of them freely expressed their desires for one another, by way of uninhibited carnal pleasures, they unintentionally unlocked something else with their union. Something powerful and ancient that would keep them locked together for the rest of their lives in a shared destiny, prophesied long before either of them were born.
As they continued on in their passions, Draco felt his love for this beautiful witch beneath him increase tenfold as he deflowered her, and Hermione felt the strings of her heart wrap themselves firmly around the angelic man hovering above her. Thus beginning their five year long secret relationship with one another.
31 May 1999 - Room Of Requirement
"Why won't you hear me out, Hermione!" Draco yelled, begging her to understand him.
"Hear you out? Hear you out?! What the bloody hell do you think I've been doing for the past hour!"
"Then why can't you understand that this is the only way for us to be together?"
She scoffed, "You've obviously gone mad." Hermione fumed at him. "You're actually trying to get me to believe that the only way for us to be together is for you to get married to someone else? You sound like a damned fool!"
"Don't you understand that my family will disown me if I don't? I'll lose everything Hermione! You're acting as if I'm going to love her. This is nothing more than a business arrangement. The only woman that I want is you!" He bellowed out, looking at the love of his life with tears in his eyes.
"A business arrangement? Really Draco? I never knew business arrangements included sex. Because that's what you're going to have to do right? It's not like all you have to do is just marry someone else! You have to fuck her as well! I mean that's the point of all of this, isn't it? You have to get married to some stuck up Pureblood bimbo, so she can give you a perfect little Pureblood heir, right?!"
"Hermione, please. It's not like I want to do this."
"Then why the hell are you? Why don't you just look your parents straight in the face and tell them to go to hell!"
"It's not that simple Hermione and you know it. Defying them... it would be the end of everything as I know it."
"Am I not worth it? Is that it then?!"
"Of course not Hermione! That's why I want to move you into my country estate, after graduation. That way I can spend as much time with you as possible without prying eyes watching us. Hermione please! Just... just hear me out. I'm begging you! If it's about the sex I'll give you an unbreakable vow right now that I won't touch her more than once a month up until she conceives and then once that happens I'll never touch her again."
"You don't understand at all, do you?" She cried out, "While you're off marrying some other woman and creating a family with her, you want me to sit off on the sidelines and just...just... watch! You want me to hide away in your little country estate, like some paid whore, while I watch you, the man that I love, start a family with someone else! What about me Draco? What about what I want? If we were to do that, would we even be able to have children? Because one day I want a family of my own Draco!"
"Of course we can have children baby! Why would you even ask me that! There's nothin that I want more than to have a child with you."
"Would our children be Malfoys?"
He paused, unable to give her the answer she wanted. "Hermione... you know that would be impossible..."
"So that's all I would be to you then..." She sobbed, "your dirty little secret, and our children would be your filthy little Halfblood bastards."
"Hermione no! I never said—
"You don't have to." She sniffled into the handkerchief he gave her all those years ago before looking up at him with determination in her eyes. She wasn't going to let this man break her anymore! "Good luck to you on your pending marriage Draco. Sorry I can't accompany you on this venture. Goodbye." She said suddenly before abruptly turning around and walking towards the door— she didn't want him to see her crying anymore.
"So that's it then?" He asked her in a strained voice, sounding as if he was beginning to choke on his own tears. "This is really goodbye?" He asked her with sorrow riddling his voice.
"Yes. I can't live the half life you're offering to me Draco, and it's really not fair for you to ask it of me," she swallowed a sob before continuing, "I really do wish you the best of luck with everything Draco." She opened the door to the Room of Requirement and stood in the doorway for a moment before whispering, "I love you." And just like that she was gone.
She was gone before she had the chance to hear the broken hearted sobs of her lover as he fell to the floor in the room. She was gone before she could see him wrap his arms around his body in an attempt to hold himself together. She was gone before she could hear him say, "I'll never stop loving you, Hermione."
And though she didn't stay to hear or see these things, somehow through the pain they were both feeling, they both knew that things wouldn't stop here. That things could never stop after all they'd shared together. Fate wouldn't have it that way.