Gifts
H/D


Hermione's chest was tight with fear. Her wand was in one hand, while the other was clenched tightly into a fist. She could hear them moving in the kitchen.

As she made her way towards the noise coming from her family's kitchen, she thanked God that her parents weren't home tonight. She kept her back tight against the wall, her steps slow and light. A cabinet drawer slammed shut, and Hermione stopped dead, grinding her teeth together to avoid screaming.

Dumbledore had warned her, he had warned all of them. They were coming for the muggle-borns.

The noise had stopped in the kitchen suddenly; there were no more footsteps, no more hushed voices. Nothing. Hermione's heart began to pound and she tried to call forth every ounce of the ability Draco had given her and figure out where in her house the bastards had apparated.

There. She had them.
___

Draco's chest was tight with fear. He could feel Hermione's terror as she went looking for the Death Eaters that had broken into her parent's house. He looked at her father, who was watching him from the other side of the room. Lucius was smug, Draco knew his father had been waiting for this day for years.

Tearing his eye's away from his father, Draco concentrated on the whisper of Hermione's mind he could still feel. The months apart had made the connection tenuous, but he could still feel her. There was a sudden fit of activity from Hermione and then there was...nothing.

Draco threw himself forward, straining to break free from the rope Lucius had tied him up with.

Lucius watched his son struggling and smiled. Finally, the mudblood was being taken care of.

One Year Earlier

 Hermione rubbed her eyes wearily, she was getting tired of listening to Draco's arrogance. It was one in the morning, much too late (or early, depending on the way one chose to look at it) to be dealing with a Malfoy. Hermione had hexed Draco in the halls after he had fired a curse at Harry, and even though Ron had never been prouder of her, she and Draco had received detention for two weeks. Two weeks together that is. It was only the second night, but Hermione's head already felt ready to explode.

Draco had just finished ridiculing her for beginning to clean one of the Ghnguts the muggle way instead of with her wand. It had been habit, she was exhausted and still not entirely used to preforming everyday tasks with the help of magic. Naturally, Draco had rattled on about her mistake for a solid ten minutes.

Hermione didn't respond, she just continued to clean the blasted Ghnguts; taking her anger out on them. Normally, Hermione would have given Draco what he deserved but honestly, she was just too bloody tired.

Draco watched Hermione's back hopefully. She wasn't responding as she had been the night before, apparently she had found a way to block him out. Draco had thought his last string of insults would have produced some sort of reaction. He almost missed her retorts. The silence was quite boring.

Very boring.

The night went on for another hour in the same exact way, Draco insulting Hermione and Hermione ignoring Draco. At exactly two a.m., The door unlocked and Draco was free until the next evening.

The only problem was that Hermione had yet to move. Draco stared at her for a moment, wondering what was keeping her. Draco almost cracked up when he realized what had happened, she had fallen asleep. A Ghngut was laying in her lap, and her head rested on the wall. Briefly considering leaving her to spend the night in the room, he knew he would be in even more trouble in the morning if he didn't wake her up.

Draco walked over to scare her awake but thought better of it. From what he knew of Hermione's temperament and ability with magic, Draco figured he was better off just waking her up nicely so she didn't hex him into two pieces.

Slowly, Draco reached out tugged on the dangling fabric of her robes, careful not to touch her body. Granger. Wake up.

Instead of waking up, Hermione just curled up into a ball. Frustrated, Draco ran his fingers through his hair; He was afraid of what would happen if he touched her. Desperately ready to go to bed, Draco decided to just risk it and yell. Kneeling down next to her, Draco braced for the worst, Granger!! Potter and Weasley are snogging!! Hermione sat up extremely fast and slammed into Draco, sending them both to the floor.

Hermione climbed off of Draco as fast as she could. She looked down and saw that Draco had covered his eyes, grimacing in pain. He got up after a few minutes and turned to look at her.

Hermione was staring at him curiously, she was sure she hadn't knocked him down that hard. Are you-

I'm fine, Draco snapped, Though you might want to think about cutting back on the sugar quills.

Hermione rolled her eyes, making a tutting noise. She was not going to rise to the occasion. Before leaving, Hermione stared at him a moment more; there still wasn't something quite right about him.

Draco smirked when he noticed Hermione watching him, Try not to drool again tomorrow night if you fall asleep alright?

Hermione slammed the door behind her, serves me right for worrying about Malfoy.

Draco collapsed against a wall as soon as the door shut. Her mind had been different than any he had encountered before. Taking a few moments to collect himself, Draco sat up and made his way to his room, still not completely able to forget what it was like to feel Granger's aura surround him.