Snake with Blue Eyes
(A/N I dont own any Harry Potter Characters, and I didn't write the songs)
Draco was wandering the streets of Wizarding Italy. It was a lot like Diagon Alley, but more designed for adults, with pubs and adult themed stores. He wouldn't normally be here, but being home was tedius and he had no work to finish.
As he meandered the streets he read signs as he passed a variety of stores. Edgars Wizarding Books for the Wary Wanderer, was carved into a old piece of dry wood hanging over a rotten doorway. Dumbledore Memorabelia: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, was written in neon hanging in a newer looking store window. A rotating bilboard caught his eye as he read 'MIONE : London Singing Sensation.'
Mione? Why did this name ring a bell to Draco? Seeing as he had no goal here other than to entertain himself he decided to indulge his curiosity and check out the middle class pub.
As he walked in, he seen people of all different types, young, old, rich, poor, pureblood and muggleborn all sitting and waiting to be captivated by the young woman standing on the stage with her back to the audience.
Draco wandered to the bar and ordered himself a drink and took his place standing against an old juke box in the back corner. He sipped his drink as he observed the woman. She stood at about 5' 7", with long curly brown hair. She was dressed modest, yet sexy.
Draco got more comfortable leaning against the rickety old box, deciding he might enjoy watching her entertain.
As he was waiting, he heard a few voices start up front, "Mione, Mione..." then, as it got louder and louder the woman on stage turned around and Draco almost dropped his drink.
"Hey." She said quietly, almost shyly.
Draco thought, from the sound of her quiet voice, this may not be as good of a show as he thought, but curiosity compelled him to stay.
"Well as most of you know the song I love to start with, I will offer the quick story to those of you here for the first time." She explained, a little louder, but still fairly quiet. "When I was in school, a boy I was quite captivated with, was just 'one of those guys', you know what im talking about right?" At that cheers errupted from the crowd.
Draco watched in fascination as the girl he knew as Hermione Granger, now obviously 'Mione', got the crowd ready for her first performance of the night.
The music started, and Hermione swayed her hips to the sound in a way Draco would never have figured she even knew about, never mind mastered.
(A/N .com/watch?v=Nu32vyCldh8 - its way easier to understand if you hear the song)
As the first line started, she looked up from looking towards her right shoe, head snapping toward the microphone and you could see her whole attitude change.
You better take it from me, that boy is like a disease
You're running, you're trying, you're trying to hide
And you're wondering why you can't get free
He's like a curse, he's like a drug
You get addicted to his love
You wanna get out but he's holding you down
'Cause you can't live without one more touch
He's a good time cowboy casanova
Leaning up against the record machine
Looks like a cool drink of water
But he's candy-coated misery
He's the devil in disguise
A snake with blue eyes
And he only comes out at night
Gives you feelings that you don't want to fight
You better run for your life
I see that look on your face
You ain't hearing what I say
So I'll say it again
'Cause I know where you been
And I know how it ends
You can't get away
Don't even look in his eyes
He'll tell you nothing but lies
And you wanna believe
But you won't be deceived
If you listen to me
And take my advice
He's a good time cowboy casanova
Leaning up against the record machine
Looks like a cool drink of water
But he's candy-coated misery
He's the devil in disguise
A snake with blue eyes
And he only comes out at night
Gives you feelings that you don't want to fight
You better run for your life
Run run away
Don't let him mess with your mind
He'll tell you anything you want to hear
He'll break your heart
It's just a matter of time
But just remember
He's a good time cowboy casanova
Leaning up against the record machine
Looks like a cool drink of water
But he's candy-coated misery
He's the devil in disguise
A snake with blue eyes
And he only comes out at night
Gives you feelings that you don't want to fight
You better run for your life
Oh you better run for your life
Oh you better run for your life
Draco pondered the lyrics and the melody. Who was the man that had gotten to Hermione so much that it had inspired her to write something like that? And where did she learn to sing like that? In the time he'd known Hermione he'd never seen her that enraptured by a guy, and he'd never heard her sing like that.
As the cheering died down a bit Hermione spoke again, her voice more powerful and confident this time, "Thank you, lets slow things down a little bit now."
(A/N .com/watch?v=Fw9QMSl9Xic )
She adjusted her mic down a bit and settled into a more calm mood as the music began to play.
You're on the phone
With your girlfriend
She's upset
She's going off about
Something that you said
'cause she doesn't get your humor
Like I do
I'm in the room
It's a typical Tuesday night
I'm listening to the kind of music
She doesn't like
She'll never know your story
Like I do
But she wears short skirts
I wear t-shirts
She's cheer captain
And I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming about the day
When you wake up and find
That what you're looking for
Has been here the whole time
If you could see
That I'm the one
Who understands you
Been here all along
So why can't you
See you belong with me
You belong with me.
Walking the streets
With you and your worn out jeans
I can't help thinking
This is how it ought to be
Laughing on a park bench
Thinking to myself
Hey, isn't this easy?
And you've got a smile
That could light up this whole town
I haven't seen it in awhile
Since she brought you down
You say you're fine
I know you better than that
Hey what you doing
With a girl like that
She wears high heels
I wear sneakers
She's cheer captain
I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming about the day
When you wake up and find
That what you're looking for
Has been here the whole time
If you could see
That I'm the one
Who understands you
Been here all along
So why can't you
See you belong with me
Standing by and
Waiting at your backdoor
All this time
How could you not know
Baby
You belong with me
You belong with me.
[Instrumental]
Oh, I remember
You driving to my house
In the middle of the night
I'm the one who makes you laugh
When you know you're about to cry
And I know your favorite songs
And you tell me about your dreams
Think I know where you belong
Think I know it's with me
Can't you see
That I'm the one
Who understands
Been here all along
So why can't you see?
You belong with me.
Have you ever thought
Just maybe
You belong with me?
As the music had played Draco slipped back in time to a memory.
Flashback
Draco came into the heads common room and sat down on the couch in a huff.
"What's eating you?" Hermione asked, not bringing her face out of her current book.
This drove Draco crazy. Everybody gave him their full attention, but he had given up on trying to teach this woman manners. 'She's going to make someone a very difficult wife one day, if she even ever gets married.' he thought to himself.
"Nothing, just stupid Pansy drama."
She lowered her book a bit and had a pained look on her face. "I dont know why you stay with her. She doesn't make you happy, and she complains so much, you mustn't make her that happy either. No offense." She added after seeing him look up at her offended. "No matter how much people say it, you two dont match each other."
Draco lowered his head. "You dont understand. Its the politics Hermione." He had long ago left much of the animosity towards her behind seeing as they were head boy and girl and had to work together. And in doing that he found that she wasn't so bad to talk to, and they got along quite well, surprisingly. "Our parents love the idea of the two of us together, they have been planning it for years and now that it's reality," he paused, but never finished his sentence.
Hermione shook her head.
After a few moments of silence Hermione brightened. "Hey, I have a new c.d. you'd probably like."
Draco watched as she hurried over to her backpack and pulled out a small silver disk, she had already showed him how the strange disks worked in the machine she used and had found that her taste in music wasn't so bad.
End Flashback
Could it be possible that maybe she was singing about him? No. He dismissed the idea as quickly as it came.
After a few more songs, she announced she would be back in twenty minutes for another set. Draco quickly slid over to the bar and sat down. Trying to blend in, but hoping she would notice him.
A few seats down, Hermione approached the bar. Leaning over it she called the bartender. "Mike! Can I get another bottle of water?"
Mike approached the bar and handed her a bottle like the one she had onstage. "There you are angel. Your doing great out there."
"Thanks." She smiled, leaning over and giving Mike a kiss on the cheek.
As Mike wandered away, Hermione sat down on one of the bar stools and spun to see the turn out of the night. Her eyes scanned the bar, looking like she was pointing out the regulars and the newcomers. As her eyes passed over Draco they froze just past him and slowly returned to his gaze.
Draco couldn't read the expression on her face, it looked something along the lines of recognition, shock, joy and fear, with fear dominating the other emotions.
They stared at each other for a few moments, neither saying anything. Suddenly she got up and walked away.
As she approached the stage a few seconds later she addressed the crowd.
"Im terribly sorry." She feigned a hoarse throat, "But I dont feel too well, Im going to have to postpone the second set until a date that I feel better. Sorry folks."
There was a bit of booing, but mostly the crowd just watched her in silence as she grabbed her coat and walked past the bar. "Sorry Mike, I have to go." and walked right out the door.
Draco got up to follow her, he didn't know what exactly made him do it but it was compulsion. He had to find out why she had reacted like that, they were getting along 6 months ago when they graduated.
He felt a strong hand on his shoulder. "I think you should sit back down for a minute there buddy." The guy Draco recognized as Mike gently pushed his shoulder down and set down the glass he was drying.
Draco did as he was told.
Mike looked Draco up and down with a toughtful expression. "Tall, white blonde hair, ice blue eyes, aristocratic air," he paused and looked like he was thinking something over, "and judging by that exchange I just seen between you and Hermione, I'd take it you the one and only Draco Malfoy?"
Draco was confused. Who was this guy? And how did he know his name?
When Draco didn't say anything, Mike continued. "I dont suggest you follow her. She's doing good, and we dont need you ruining that."
Draco got mad. "Look, I dont know who you think you are, but Hermione has been my friend for a while, and if I want to follow her and catch up, I'm going to do just that. Who are you to stop me?"
"Look kid," Draco sneered at that "She's been around here for a while, and she's mentioned you a few times okay. And I think you're one of the last people she needs to see right now. Unless you plan on sticking around, I suggest you go back to where ever you came from and stay there."
Draco looked taken back. Why would Hermione not want to see him? He thought of the songs she had written, and thought about her reaction to seeing him and things started to click.
Denial was his first reaction to the conclusion he'd come to, but things seemed to make more and more sense. Draco looked Mike in the eye, "I think Im going to go do something I should have done months ago, maybe years."
Mike smiled. "110 Resolution."
"Excuse me?" Draco asked, half looking at Mike, half staring into space, all the while trying to collect himself.
"Thats her address. That's where she'll be. And I will warn you, a lot of people around here are pretty fond of that girl, and if you break her heart again, it would be in your best interest not to come anywhere around here again. Understand?"
Draco nodded absently, trying to sort out everything he'd found out within the past hour.
He stumbled into the street, and realizing he didn't know his way around here, he quickly turned himself back to the bar. As he stuck his foot in the door he heard Mike's voice from behind the bar, "Go left and all the way down the street and when it comes to a dead end, turn right and go four houses down."
With that information Draco was running.
He didn't realize just how long this street was. He slowed as he finally came to the end of the street and noticed it turned straight into a residential looking area, no doorways, no protection from the outside world, just a street in the middle of the city filled with Wizards.
As he walked forward he took a glance back and noticed that the street had disappeared, it just looked like a menacing back alley that had been neglected for quite a few years. He'd have thought it was clever if he wasn't focusing all his attention on the task at hand.
As he got to the house, he froze. What was he supposed to say?
He was saved the trouble of the awkward moment of knocking on the door and her opening it, when she wandered out with a large dog on a leash. She didn't notice him at first, she was too busy trying to restrain the beast.
'She's always had the strangest taste in animals' he noted. And in noting this he realized that he knew a lot more about her than he noticed. Not only from their year as head girl and boy, but you tend to learn a lot about someone when your enemies with them.
Once she got the dog under some sort of control she began to walk to the sidewalk. She looked up and spotted Draco. As she seen him, she accidentally tripped on a piece of flagstone sticking up on her walkway and let go of the leash.
"WOODSTOCK!" She yelled when the dog took off.
After noticing she was not visibly hurt Draco took off, acting on instinct, and chasing down the creature she called Woodstock.
Seeing as they were in a neighborhood and Draco couldn't imediately notice if it was magical or muggle, he couldn't pull out his wand. Years of Quidditch had toned him for this kind of effort. He was keeping up with the dog, for the most part. Draco found himself suddenly praying for the dog to be distracted for one minute so he could catch him.
Although hoping for it, he was surprised when it happend, it took all his control to stop in time to not plough right into the dog. He dove for the leash laying on the ground before the dog across the street was reeled in by its owner and Woodstock lost interest.
Suddenly he was in pain. He didn't know what happened. Just all of a sudden he felt as if something large had fallen on him and was crushing him. As he was catching his breath, he noticed a mess of brown hair across his face. He didn't realize Hermione had took off after the dog with him and was right behind him. She too was startled by Woodstocks sudden stop, but unlike Draco, didn't stop in time, and had tripped over him and landed, quite ungracefully, on top of him.
As he tried to push her off of him so he could regain some composure, he realized two things, he still had the leash in his hand, and Hermione was unconscious. Convenient.
He checked her over to see if she was bleeding from anywhere, she wasn't. He stepped on the leash so the dog couldn't run away again and lifted Hermione wedding style, then leaning down to grab the dog leash he gave the dog a quick glare, daring it to be a nuisance.
He didn't realize they had gotten so far, carrying Hermione, who wasn't all that heavy, but heavy enough to put a strain on him, as well as dragging the stupid beast behind them he made it back to her place. He didn't think she'd mind all that much if he took her home and healed her up there, instead of taking her to the nearest infirmary where they probably didn't even use magic, to get fixed up the less effective way.
He went in and noted the simple charm of her place, as he lay her on the couch he tied the dogs leash to the leg of the kitchen table and returned to Hermione. He performed a few healing spells on her, and being comfortable with the fact that she was alright, went to grab a smelling potion to wake her with.
He walked out of the living room to find that bathroom, the most likely place to find something useful for first aid. When he was half way down her hallway he heard something dragging briefly, before a loud 'CRACK' and 'SMASH'. 'THE DOG!' he remembered. He ran to the kitchen just in time to see Hermione confusedly untying him from the collar and leading him to a room off the entrance way. Draco seen the damage, the table was missing a leg and it was on the floor, everything from ontop spread across the kitchen.
Draco muttered the 'reparo' spell and stood waiting for Hermione to come back.
As she was approaching the kitchen she seen that everything was back in its place, and she imediately went on guard. "Whos there?" she asked sternly.
"Dont kill me, I was just trying to help." he said in a voice a little softer than a drawl.
"D-Draco?"
He stepped out from behind the wall, "Why do you sound so scared to see me?" he asked in a soft voice.
"Im not scared of you." She said as she shoved him.
"Whoa, whats with that? I thought we got past that a long time ago?" He said, getting angry.
"That was until you left me with nothing." She spat.
"What do you mean 'left you with nothing'? I didn't take ANYTHING from you."
"You left! After graduation, you just left. You barely answered my letters, until you stopped answering at all, the last thing I hear from you is I get an invite to your WEDDING! Why the hell would you think I would want to go to that?"
"I didn't invite you! I dont know how you got invited. Pansy must have sent you an invite."
"And why the hell would she want me to come to her wedding? Pansy doesn't even know I exist!"
"She knows better than you think she does." He said menacingly.
"Bullshit."
"Hermione, she found the letters. She seen that we were writing to each other and she seen what we were saying. She demanded that if our relationship meant anything that i would never speak to you again, and i would announce our engagement."
Hermione froze. She read the letters? but then that meant she seen all the letters about her and the relationship between her and Draco.
"You chose her over me? You chose to marry her, over talking to me?"
Draco looked at her, she looked so hurt right now. Just as she was about to start crying, he whispered, "that's why i broke it off."
Hermione sobbed a bit, "You what?"
"I broke off the engagement Hermione. You were right, it was stupid to be with someone you didn't love. I broke it off a month ago and imursed myself in my work."
Hermione took a couple seconds to let this sink in. "And you still didn't write me?" she said so softly he barely heard it.
"I was confused Hermione. I didn't know what I wanted. Its hard to just go from being with someone and then dont care about them at all, and i didn't know what to say to you, we hadn't talked in months by then."
"How about the truth? You could have told me the truth."
"DAMMIT HERMIONE! You just dont UNDERSTAND!"
"Dont you yell at me Draco Malfoy." She said menacingly.
"You know, for a smart girl, your pretty stupid when it comes to matters of the heart." He spat at her.
"I am you know. I loved you. I FUCKING LOVED YOU! if that isnt stupid, I dont know what is."
Draco stopped. He stepped closer to her, "you loved me?"
"ARE YOU BLIND? HOW HARD WAS IT TO SEE? EVERYBODY ELSE SEEN IT! Did you know that a month after graduation I got into a big fight with Harry and Ron about it? Did you know I havent talked to them since? I DEFENDED you, I told them i LOVED you, and I told them that if they couldn't handle my decisions that our friendship was nothing! They couldn't underst-"
Hermione was cut off her rant by lips crushing down on hers.
She gave up, this was what she wanted, she'd waited so long.
Suddenly she was angry, she pushed him back. "You think you can just come back one day, when im finally getting past all this shit and just- just KISS ME? Did you think it would all be okay if you KISSED ME?"
"Just shut up you stupid girl. Do you think it was easy for me? considdering all the circumstances? So I didn't leave Pansy for you in seventh year? Your the one who's going to throw away the chance now, when there really is a chance!"
Hermione paused, "what if their's someone else?" She said defiantly.
"Then I'll have to kill him."
Before Hermione could tell if he was kidding or not, they were together again. This time, bodies wrapped around each other, pressed as close together as close as they could get. They made it over to the couch and slid down. Their kiss broke apart, but they didn't. They just sit there, with their heads on each others shoulders.
"I wont be able to handle it if you leave again." she whispered.
"I love you, you stupid little girl. Now shut up before you ruin the moment."
She was silent.`
