Not Even Malfoy's Deserve Angels.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything else mentioned that belongs to someone other than me!
A drip of the faucet, a creak of the stairs, and flicker of the light. It was all relatively expected in a dark, dreary basement.
He'd been down there for three days, hadn't had a bite of food for two, and hadn't seen sunlight since he'd been knocked out by a certain Ron Weasley after he'd made a joke about Hermione's womanly figure one to many times.
He still had a large bruise on the side of his head, and it was throbbing. Draco's stormy grey eyes yet again searched the basement for an escape, but there were no windows, only the small fluorescent light bulb above the creaky staircase. He had no idea where the water was dripping from, but he suspected a leaky pipe. He hadn't slept, not at all, and it was visible. He had dark bags under his eyes and his vision would glaze over when he tried to focus on something.
He refused to sleep, though. He knew they were waiting for him to sleep, so they could poke and prod him without the dark wizard attempting to kill them, or worse; escape. He would not give them that satisfaction. He'd gone weeks without sleep, and he'd do it again, if that meant not spilling his secrets.
And so he sat, determinedly staring around the room, looking for an escape. Hours later he could still not locate an exit. He began contemplating how badly a small little nap could hurt, but knew he couldn't. Then, as if she'd sensed his utter failure reeking from him, she entered.
He watched her take even, though quick, steps down the stairs, her intelligent eyes never leaving his body, making sure he didn't move.
He couldn't move if he wanted to, it seemed he'd been rendered immobile as soon as she came into view.
And as if they were old buddies, she sat next to him and gave him a small smile, "Draco."
He raised a blonde brow, "On a first name basis again, are we, Hermione?" He smirked, while she blushed a very faint pink.
"Yes. You will be living with me for the next year, why not get to know each other?" She grinned at his momentarily horrified face and pouted playfully, "and I thought you liked me."
Draco glared at her, and with as much venom as he could, he spat, "you filthy little Mudblood, I am not staying in this trash heap you call a house nor will I stay with something as dirty as you."
Hermione's face faltered, much to Draco's pleasure. So he hadn't lost his touch. Hermione swiftly recovered, like she always did and said in a soft voice, "We won't be staying here, but I'm sure Moody would love to hear you're opinion of his home, if he were alive. Now if I may," She sighed and took her wand from her pocket, "Petrificus totalus!" She shouted, and instantly he went rigid.
His wand had already been removed from him when he was brought here, but she didn't know if he knew wandless magic.
So for the next hour and a half, Hermione stood above him, chanting charms and curses that would limit him to only using magic if he were in a truly life-threatening situation.
Then Hermione grabbed his arm, which was still petrified, along with the rest of him, and apparated to her home.
It was fairly small, only one story. One bedroom, one living room, one bathroom, one kitchen, and a tiny room for laundry and her new cat's litter box. Crookshanks had passed a few weeks ago, due to old age. Her new cat was white with grey eyes, which she thought was adorable when she purchased him. Now she thought it was humorous.
Little Jack pranced into the room and sat to the side, eyeing the limp body in Hermione's arms. She sighed heavily and yanked the man over to her couch, where she then muttered, "Finite incantentem."
Draco slowly woke, blinking and looking around. His eyes instantly fell on Hermione and he raised a brow.
"You," She panted, "are quite possibly the heaviest beanpole I have had the great misfortune of carrying unconscious in my house."
"So you've carried other unconscious beanpole's? And I'm not a beanpole! I have a body!" He shouted, suddenly on the defense.
"I know you have a body, I've licked many substances off of said body." She winked, as he turned a sickly shade of blue and muttered, "don't remind me."
"You didn't seem to mind having a Mudblood lick you up and down then, if I do recall." She grinned wildly, enjoying his discomfort. It was only payback.
"Granger, if you don't shut up…" He muttered, closing his eyes and putting a hand to his mouth as if to hold back sickness.
"It's to bad I can't be your, 'naughty ickle girl' anymore, huh Malfoy?" She smirked as she saw his eyes flash up to hers dangerously. She moved in for the kill then, hovering in front of him. She whispered seductively in his ear, "I'm engaged to Ron Weasley." With that said she turned and walked towards the kitchen, Little Jack following her, hoping for food.
Draco stared after her angrily. Of all the little rotten teases!
A few moments later, Hermione's head popped back in, "Oh by the way, we have to share a bed."
And that's the moment Draco believed it all started. Well, no technically it started when she sent him that letter, but it really started now.
He wasn't about to let her tease him like that. Especially when she was engaged. He'd get her back good, alright.
Hermione had fixed him a dinner worthy of a prisoner. A peanut butter sandwich. He scowled as he bit into it and, yet again, the peanut butter stuck to the roof of his mouth.
He glanced across the table to see Hermione enjoying a delicious looking plate of cheesy fries. Hermione was staring at him blatantly, apparently seeing how far he would go for the fries she knew he loved.
He turned his nose up and bit into the sandwich, only to have to lick the roof of his mouth repeatedly.
Suddenly he slammed the sandwich to the floor, where it anticlimactically plopped, unfazed. Draco kicked it away and turned to glare menacingly at Hermione. She raised her eyebrows innocently and popped another cheesy fry in her mouth.
He glare increased tenfold, as he reached his hand out to grab the plate, she pulled it back. He reached further and she pulled it back again.
He leaned back and glowered, "give me some." He demanded, looking highly annoyed.
She rolled her eyes, "surely you know me well enough to know that I don't take orders kindly, let alone from pansy boys like you." She said bitterly, showing her clear dislike for being ordered around as she ate another fry.
Draco glared and was suddenly in front of Hermione, her plate in his hands, "Thanks Mudblood, I hope I don't get any diseases from eating this." He smirked and sat down in his spot.
As he ate the fries he watched Hermione with growing suspicion. Her grin was nearly as wide as her face and if it were any wider she'd look insane. He glanced down at the fries he was eating, only to notice nothing was wrong with them.
He glanced back at Hermione who looked like she was holding back a cackle of evil laughter. He slowly pushed the plate away and watched as she reached out and grabbed the plate, eating them as if nothing had happened.
Draco scowled, "what was that?" he asked, a bit of reproach in his voice.
Hermione looked up innocently, a smudge of cheese on her nose to prove her innocence, "what was what?"
"You tricked me into thinking there was something wrong with the food!" He yelled, looking quite offended.
"I did not, I was just enjoying the fact that you were enjoying the food. Obviously you're full and know what's going on so I don't know why we're still having this conversation."
Draco opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut angrily, "I'm going to find a way out of this hole, right this instant." He growled, his grey eyes glaring at her with the force of a winter storm.
"You have fun with that, I'll be here waiting when you fail." She said, nearly sounding encouraging, but he words were the scoffed and went to the living room where the front door was. As he reached for the handle, an invisible force thrust his back viciously. He was thrown across the living room with enough force to slam into the opposite wall and make the house shake lightly.
Hermione enjoyed the view of watching his flailing body fly by the doorway. She heard him groan in pain, "alright in there, Malfoy? It's okay, we can't all be a superhero like Harry. You shouldn't be to put out though, he had trouble flying at first too." She teased.
Draco was heard breathing heavily in the next room, most likely in suppressed anger as her growled lowly, "shut up, Granger."
"Alright, Ferret." She smirked. She felt more than heard his irritated exhale.
Draco wasn't stupid enough to try the door again, but this time tried the window, only to have the same outcome, flung back like a rag doll.
He slid down the wall he slammed into but refused to give up, and this time charged the window. He, again, was thrown against a wall. He growled in frustration and groped his pocket for his wand on instinct, just for the comfort of holding it, but then he remembered it wasn't there. He growled angrily and kicked the plush-looking couch in Hermione living room, ignoring this stabbing pain in his toes, he walked back into the kitchen and looked for any way out. There was none, not even a small window.
Hermione was perched on the counter, watching in amusement as he looked in all the cupboards, like a window would be inside one of them.
After searching the entire house, one defeated Draco flopped onto the kitchen chair and glared at the wall in utter hatred.
"Give up?" An amused Hermione asked, a popsicle being devoured between her lips.
"No." Draco responded firmly. He would find a way out of this situation, he knew he would. He always was one for escaping.
"For today?" She questioned further, hoping to get some rest. Although she didn't let it show, Hermione was exhausted. She had been fighting for Draco for the past three days. She hadn't slept, she'd been constantly on the move, trying to get him out of his Azkaban sentence.
She would never tell him that though. She would never tell him how close he was to a life in a prison he didn't belong in, tell him how long he would have suffered only to have his soul sucked out by a dementor days before he died of old age.
She didn't want his thanks, because it was all just payback. He hadn't given her up to Voldemort when he'd had quite a few chances, so she wouldn't give him the Order.
No one was happy with her decisions, not a soul. Ron was furious, and even more mad that Draco had to live with her for a year before he could even think about getting off his sentence. And more time could be added if needed. Hermione didn't care though, she owed Draco a part of her life and now she was repaying it. That would end all ties she had with him and she could marry Ron without any second thoughts.
"For today." Draco agreed. Hermione smiled faintly and stood, motioning for him to follow her into her- their room. She pointed to a large mahogany wardrobe, "that's got all your stuff in it." She said.
"How did you-?" He started but Hermione smirked.
"You should pay closer attention to your lovers," she stated ominously and his mind immediately went to Pansy. She was a spy.
"She's on your side, isn't she?" He demanded, eyes sparkling with rage at being fooled by such a girl. Hermione smiled faintly and nodded, "once you get to know her, she's only horrible half the time."
Draco scoffed and strutted to his wardrobe, picking out a pair of clean boxers and loose sweatpants, "I'm taking a shower, I smell like death." He said, walking out into the hallway and turned into the bathroom he had searched earlier.
As soon as she was sure he was in, she changed into her nightgown and crawled under the covers, leaving plenty of space for him. She rolled over and closed her eyes, and slowly, the world disappeared around her.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who Favorited/Followed/Reviewed! It means a lot to me, really. I hope you guys like this offical first chapter better than the prologe! The line break up there was actually where I was going to stop it, but I decided to go through it in days, so...Day one finished.
Until next time!
