Sinful Delights
Chapter 2: The Girl
AN:
Harry Potter is not mine, never was, never will be.
This is my first HP fanfic, please be gentle. English is not my first language, I apologise in advanced for any mistakes you might find here.
Pairing: Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy.
Timeline: True to HP series. Completely ignoring the epilogue.
The Malfoys had always been a close-knit family. Not one to expose their inner matters to the public; all indiscretions were dealt discreetly. Only the triumphs were broadcasted — and there were none of those after the Battle of Hogwarts.
Draco Malfoy had been raised the way all Malfoys before him were raised; in a closed environment where knowledge and facts were transformed into their own ideal.
Sanctimonia Vincet Semper: Purity Will Always Conquer.
The Malfoy family motto was the very first Latin he was taught. All of his beliefs, his ideals, his way of life, were sourced one and the same.
The Malfoys are the purest of them all.
The Malfoys' words are definite.
The Malfoys' decisions are absolute.
We are the epicenter upon which the wizarding world revolves.
Imagine being brought up with that kind of beliefs. And then to have the same beliefs shredded away, little by little, once he had finally entered the real world.
It had started off small.
Believing himself as the superior being, surrounded by other children who worshipped him, his view of the world had always been black and white. You were either with him or against him; worthy or unworthy.
The Weasleys; blood traitor, poor and uneducated, were unworthy to be considered friends. But of course, the Boy-Who-Lived, the celebrated hero, would definitely deemed as somewhat respectable enough to be one of his friends.
And then Harry Potter had the nerve to decline his offer of friendship, for a Weasley, no less! That was unheard of. Everyone had wanted to be his friends.
Every where he went, people of all ages had came flocking to him, asking him what they could do for him, how they could be of service to the Malfoy family, groveling for him to send kind words to his father and so on.
Everyone had wanted a little bit of the Malfoys — except Harry Potter. And so started the first crack to his perfect world.
In the years that followed, not only was Harry Potter chosen as the youngest seeker ever before him, Draco was also second best in grades compared to Hermione Granger; dubbed as the brightest witch of her age, Harry Potter's best friend, the bane of Draco's superiority — the turning point that turned him into a vicious young man.
Every time his father — the revered Lucius Malfoy — had ranted about the disgrace of being second to a 'Mudblood', Draco had only her to blame.
Lucius' chosen type of torture for his only son were words; carefully crafted words had been his weapon. And Draco had born the brunt of it since the moment he stepped his feet into Hogwarts.
"The youngest seeker ever! I was informed that that Potter had never even heard of Quidditch before. Tell me again, how long have you've been playing Quidditch?"
"Slytherin had won the House Cup for six consecutive years. Six! The year my only heir entered Hogwarts, the House Cup went to the all-around-fool Gryffindor! This is a disgrace to the Malfoy's name..."
"Let me go through this one more time, in case I've misheard you the first time ... You let the Mudblood girl slapped you?!"
"Eleven O.W.L.s! Eleven! A Mudblood! She's not even a Half-blood! It seems to me that disappointing me is the one thing you're good at, boy. Should I even ask how may O.W.L.s you received?"
On and on, his father had berated him. Draco had found no reasons good enough or reasonable enough to counter Lucius' words. It had been unfathomable that a wizard with lineage such as his, could be beaten by a Half-blood and a Mudblood. The latter being the most degrading.
And so Draco had focused all his anger, his resentment, and his pain, to the one witch he had deemed responsible for his declining position in the eyes of his father.
He had taunted her, had called her horrible names, had jinxed her, had treated her as less than human. But despite all of that, at the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, when the three Malfoys were huddled down in the corner, ignored by the joyful victors, unsure whether or not they were supposed to be there — Hermione Granger was the only one to approach them, though cautiously — and asked of their well beings.
Stunned beyond belief, none of them had been fast enough to answer her. Narcissa Malfoy was the first to overcome her surprise. "Thank you for your concern, Miss Granger. But it seems that your injuries were far more concerning than ours." Narcissa gestured to the many cuts on Hermione's bodies.
Hermione looked down and glossed over the blood stains on her clothes. "They will heal," she said, not minding much on her battle-inflicted wounds now that they've won the war. Hermione focused her attention back to Narcissa. "I...um...heard from Harry that you had covered for him, back at the Forbidden Forest. That without your false confirmation, he would not have survived." There was tenderness reflected on her eyes. "My gratitude will never be enough, Mrs. Malfoy. Because of your action, my best friend is alive."
Narcissa was silent, for the first time in her life she was left with no immediate response to the sincere gratitude. Especially since the reason behind her action was a selfish one, she had simply wanted to save her only son. The best she could do was to nodding her head, unable to respond to the girl's sweet smile.
"And uh, Malfoy," Hermione stopped and stuttered, realizing that she was addressing three Malfoys, "I meant, uh, Draco," she hesitated there, for it was the first time she ever regarded him with his given name. "I'm so sorry for your loss. It was never easy to lose a friend."
Draco tilted his head upward, bracing himself to seeing a sneer to accompany her words — and found none. Her brown eyes were warm and sincere, filled with compassion. Crabbe had tried to kill her and her friends with a Fiendfyre — and there she was, expressing her condolence to her enemy.
He responded with a slight nod — that being the only thing he could do at the time.
Still stumped seeing the compassion pouring out of her warm stare, he was unable to hold their eye contact and looked down to the cracked pathway under his shoes.
His mother's hand, which had been holding his from the very moment they sat down, was squeezing his hand in encouragement.
When he looked up again seconds later — with words already forming at the tip of his tongue — she was already walking away from him. Her slightly curly locks were bouncing lightly; her clothes were dirty, torn, and slightly singed, with blood seeping in different spots. But her steps were steady and never faltered. His stare followed her until she was swamped with the bodies of her welcoming friends who were moving further away, until Draco could no longer see her.
Warmed in a way he could not articulate, then and there, the girl had fully shattered his already crumbling beliefs.
AN:
I imagined the scene to take place after Harry brought Ron and Hermione to the Headmaster's office to talk to Dumbledore's painting. Along the way there, Harry explained what he had seen on the Pensieve and what had happened in the forest.
The Malfoys were mentioned as follow (I totally took some lines):
"...and he spotted the three Malfoys, huddled together as though unsure whether or not they were supposed to be there, but nobody was paying them any attention"
For the sake of this story, Hermione went with Harry, got the full story, circled back with Harry and Ron, and approached the Malfoys (on her own).
You might notice the chapter is not titled "The Woman", as mentioned in chapter 1. I'm saving that title for the next one.
Acknowledgement:
Thanks to kabg01 (my first reviewer! Thank u, glad u liked it),
ellie1788 (hi there, another ellie from another parents!),
Mcurie (I'm glad u were intrigued),
SecretNinja (I've also read a LOT of Dramione, my glasses is getting thicker and thicker),
Ankita (I concur, he's behaving oddly. Stay tuned),
EightNoteAngel (I desperately hope this chapter still meet your approval).
Thank you all for reviewing. Your reviews were the reason I'm such a wreck before posting this, simply because your positive reviews made me wary of whether the next chapter will be good enough for u. I really do not want to disappoint!
I found that positive words really do help.
Love to hear your thoughts. Please do review.