Chapter 2 – Coping Mechanisms
Hermione sat apprehensively in Dumbledore's office, swinging her feet slowly and waiting for him to return. She'd been summoned by owl that morning and hoped she wasn't in trouble.
Dumbledore strode briskly through the door, his eyes weary. He was closely followed by Professor Snape. Dumbledore sat down at his desk and rubbed his temples. Snape stood impatiently at the side of Dumbledore's desk. He looked at Hermione with disdain. She waited nervously for one of them to say something.
"I'm sorry Hermione, I have a bit of bad news for you," Dumbledore said resignedly.
---
Hermione stood, shocked, in the middle of the hallway outside of Dumbledore's office. She couldn't believe what had just happened.
"Draco Malfoy's been in an accident. According to his father he was practicing potions, and something went wrong…" Dumbledore's face had held obvious skepticism.
Hmph, a likely cover up. It serves him right, she thought cruelly. Snape's leering face infuriated her. His slimy voice echoed in her head, telling her that as Head Girl, she would now be given the task of escorting the newly-blinded Draco Malfoy to all of his classes. In addition to writing out his homework. And reading his mail to him. And fulfilling just about any other need that Draco Malfoy could possibly have. In fact, Draco Malfoy would be moving in to her Head Girl dormitory in order for her to properly take care of him.
At the back of her mind, Hermione felt a slight pity for Malfoy. Her annoyance dominated her thoughts, however, and she stormed off to her room to make accommodations for him.
---
Hermione stood bundled up in a large, leather coat outside of the Main Gate. The wind whipped at her face and the sky was growing darker. Draco Malfoy would be arriving soon, accompanied by Professor McGonagall. There was a loud 'pop' a few yards away from where Hermione waited, and McGonagall, Malfoy, and Malfoy's luggage appeared from nowhere. Malfoy clutched on loosely to McGonagall's arm. His head was down and covered by a large black hood, so Hermione couldn't see his face.
"Thank you for waiting, Ms. Granger," McGonagall said in a kinder-than-usual tone. "Come here and lend an arm to Malfoy, and I will attend to his luggage." Hermione noticed his head turn away as she walked towards him and took his arm. She could sense shame emanating from him.
"Don't say anything, Mudblood," she heard him mutter.
She was taken aback. A wave of anger washed over her as they moved into the castle.
Hermione helped Malfoy move, paying careful attention so that he wouldn't trip on the stairs, but Malfoy seemed determined to stay as far away from her as possible. He held on to her forearm lightly, but did not let any other part of himself touch her. His head remained down the entire time.
McGonagall walked a meter in front of them while levitating Malfoy's luggage. She led them to a different part of the castle where Hermione's dormitory was located, that had now been modified to have an extra bedroom for Malfoy. McGonagall said the password and the painting swung open. The common room was circular and gold and scarlet, just like the Gryffindor common room. The two spiral staircases that would have led to the girls' and boys' bedrooms now led to Hermione and Malfoy's, respectively, and a joint bathroom linked the rooms.
McGonagall put down the bags and cleared her throat. "I'll leave you two now. Mr. Malfoy, if you wouldn't mind stopping by after class tomorrow to pick the work you missed. Goodnight." She strode off.
Hermione walked through the door frame, relieved to get away from Malfoy. He followed her slowly, putting his arms out reluctantly for balance. He said nothing.
"Malfoy," she said, "There's been made an extra room for you. I'll levitate your luggage, just hold on to my back and follow me up the –"
"Don't treat me like a goddamn cripple, Granger," he snapped.
"Fine, Malfoy! Just follow behind me then!" She flicked her wand and Malfoy's luggage floated up into the air. She turned around and headed towards the stairs when she heard Malfoy fall over. She turned around and saw he had tripped on a stuffed armchair, and had been knocked onto his side. Hermione felt a rush of satisfaction, but put down the luggage and went to help Malfoy get up.
He quickly stood up, knocking Hermione's hands away, but his hood had fallen down. He tried to swiftly cover himself again, but it was too late.
"Oh my God, Malfoy…" she whispered.
Malfoy's eyes were no longer silver. The irises were almost black, making it impossible to clearly see the pupils. His eyes didn't focus anywhere and looked oddly dark on his pale face. Hermione felt suddenly sorry for him.
"Shut it, Granger," he said tightly. His hood was disheveled, so she could see a stiffness in his expression.
"Malfoy…" she started.
"I said shut it, mudblood. I don't need pity from you. Now take me to my room."
Hermione closed her mouth, angrily. "All right, let's go." She turned and lifted his things, and walked slowly in front of him, making sure he could hear where she stepped as she led him upstairs to his room.
---
Hermione awoke groggily the next morning and rolled over in bed, trying to conserve warmth. The shower was running, which made Hermione happy. She wouldn't have to go through the awkward process of setting Malfoy up in the bathroom.
A half hour later, she walked down the stairs to see Malfoy sitting on the sofa, sporting a pair of ridiculous purple-shaded sunglasses. They were thin and small, but they sufficiently covered his eyes. He raised his head when she walked in, acknowledging her presence. He had a smug grin plastered to his face. He seemed the opposite of the shamed, angry Malfoy from last night.
"Did you sleep well?" Hermione asked politely, trying not to laugh at the sunglasses.
"Why do you care, Granger?" Malfoy asked with a smirk.
Hermione ignored him. "Okay, let's go, Malfoy," she snapped. She grabbed her bag and he stood up, following her. He didn't grab his bag. "Malfoy, aren't you going to bring your stuff to classes?"
"Umm, no, I am not. That's what you are for, Granger," said Malfoy, his smirk widening.
"Malfoy, I'm not your slave," said Hermione in a clipped tone.
"Of course not. It seems that you don't understand what you're actually here for. I suppose I could ask Professor Snape to clarify it with you, if you really wish," he said cheerfully.
"No, Malfoy, no need," said Hermione through gritted teeth. She picked up his bag as well, and marched through the portrait, holding it open for Malfoy to stumble through.
Malfoy didn't even attempt to hold on to her on the way to the Great Hall. He held his head high, walking a few steps behind her. Hermione took turns quickly, and laughed at his poor attempts to walk gracefully down the stairs. As they entered the Great Hall, a loud shriek echoed, and Hermione saw Pansy Parkinson get up from the Slytherin table and run over to Malfoy. Hermione dropped his bag there and left before Pansy got close, heading for the Gryffindor table. She put her bag down angrily next to Harry and Ron. Ron was piling his plate with bacon and toast. Harry was drinking marmalade. They looked up as she sat down.
Ron put down his food and asked tentatively, "How is it going?" He seemed to sense her bad mood.
Hermione put some fruit and toast onto her plate and took sip of tea, trying to calm herself down. "He's absolutely infuriating! I try to be pleasant, and he just calls me names."
"He still seems pretty full of himself," Harry said, his head facing the Slytherin table. Malfoy was surrounded by a group of younger Slytherin girls, and Pansy sat linked arm-in-arm with him. He seemed to be telling a fascinating story, from the way they were reacting.
"I wish I could feel bad for him, but he's such a complete ass," said Hermione.
At that moment, owls entered the Great Hall, dropping off the Daily Prophet in front of Hermione. "Look you two!" she exclaimed, pointing at the headline.
Ministry Raided by Death Eaters Last Week, Unsuccessfully Covered Up, Three Aurors Found Dead
"I'd bet anything that's where Malfoy actually was, last week," Harry said, glaring in Malfoy's direction.
"Looks like he deserves what he got, git," said Ron loudly.
They parted at the end of breakfast, since Hermione would be taking notes in History of Magic for Malfoy, while Harry and Ron went to Transfiguration. She asked them to fill her in on their class work, and caught up with Malfoy, who was waiting for her at the Slytherin table.
History of Magic was painful for Hermione. Not only did she have to take two copies of notes on "Pure-blood Family Lines Dating From the 14th Century", but she had to deal with Malfoy's rude comments about her heritage. She left class as soon as she could just to be away from his awful remarks.
Potions was no better. She was reunited with the Gryffindors, but was stuck working with Malfoy on an Anti-acne Potion. Since Malfoy flat-out refused to do any work, Hermione worked on two potions while he sat haughtily on his stool, staring around the room at nothing. She worked hastily in her anger. Snape took every chance he could to criticize Hermione's less-than perfect potion.
"What is this, Ms. Granger?" Snape said, sneering.
Hermione continued to quickly cut her fluxweed, working determinedly.
He took a peek into Malfoy's cauldron. "Obviously, Malfoy knows what he's doing. Hopefully next time you will actually work with your partner, Ms. Granger. That's a zero for today."
Hermione groaned, and threw the fluxweed onto the ground in annoyance. Across the room, Snape had begun to critique Neville's potion.
"Terrible, as usual," she heard Snape say. She looked over in time to see Neville shaking and sloppily dropping too much fluxweed into his potion. Hermione turned around, began mixing her potion, when she heard a loud explosion.
She was thrown off of her stool and onto the ground. Smoke clouded the room. Everyone began to cough, and she sat up trying to see clearly. Malfoy was crawling on the ground, trying to find his glasses. He had one hand covering his eyes and one hand extended and feeling the ground. Hermione felt the same resurging feeling of pity. She scanned the room, in which the smoke was quickly clearing, and saw his glasses lying about a meter from her. She picked them up and crawled over to Malfoy, tapping him on the shoulder and placing the glasses lightly in his hands. His face looked up at hers, his expression softer, in a gesture of near gratitude, before he quickly shoved his little glasses back onto his eyes and stood up.
Snape's commanding voice was muffled by the commotion. Everyone was to receive a 'zero' that day. People began to clean up their potions before hurriedly scurrying from the room. Malfoy continued to ignore Hermione. She managed to get through the rest of her classes without as much trouble, but by the end of the day she was ready to strangle Malfoy again.
---
Later at night, Hermione sat reading Guide to Advanced Transfiguration on the couch in her dormitory. She sipped tea, trying to unravel and forget about how terrible the day had been. Malfoy was upstairs taking a shower again. He'd been in there for almost twenty minutes.
She was making a detailed annotation on the diagram of Leniwark's Principle when she heard Malfoy's voice calling from the shower.
"Granger!"
She pretended to not hear it, and went back to reading.
"GRANGER!"
She sighed, and put her book down and headed upstairs lazily.
"What Malfoy?" she asked while knocking on the bathroom door.
"Granger, can – can you come in here, please?" He sounded distraught.
"Are you decent?" She asked, confused.
"Yes, just get in her, damn it," he said in an annoyed fashion.
She opened the door slowly. From behind the shower, the torso of Draco Malfoy stood, blindly facing her direction.
"Granger," he said, "I need a towel."
Hermione stared at him. "Malfoy, are you kidding me?"
"No Granger, I'm actually not. You see, I don't know where it is, and I don't want to slip trying to find it." He smirked. "Also, don't spend too long standing there staring at me. I'm getting cold."
Hermione shook herself. She had spent the last thirty seconds staring at Draco Malfoy's defined torso. She looked away, embarrassed, but reminding herself that he couldn't actually see her.
She gave Malfoy a towel, and exited quickly.
That night she lay in bed, trying to clear her mind. She didn't want to dwell on her annoyance at Malfoy. As she began to fall asleep, she pictured him looking up at her helplessly after she'd returned his glasses, and felt her stomach knot. Put it out of mind, Hermione, she thought. She drifted off to the soft sound of the cold October wind wailing against her window.