Chapter 4- The Morning After The Night Before

She had only been asleep for a few hours and when she woke up it was the middle of the night. Her brain was fuzzy and her eyes were refusing to open yet. As she became more aware, she realised her head was resting on something hard and warm. Sliding her hand up she realised it was a person. All at once she was hit with the memories of yesterday. The funeral, Aunt Janet, firewhisky and Draco Malfoy.

Her eyes shot open at the last thought. She was met with the sight of Malfoy sleeping, his eyebrows furrowed. She sat up quickly and clutched her head as it pounded from her movements. The affects of the firewhisky setting in. Looking down she noticed they were both naked.

Oh no. What have I done?

She climbed out of bed carefully so as not to wake him. Retrieving her underwear and dress from where they had been discarded the previous night, she started to pull them on quickly. She wanted to get out of there as fast as she could.

What was I thinking? Well I wasn't thinking was I. that was the point.
Hermione left the room as quietly as possible. Right now she wanted nothing more than to return to the Burrow and apologise for leaving and making them all worry. With that thought in her mind she apparated just outside of the wards placed over the Burrow.

Walking through the gate, she saw a light still on in the kitchen. She made her way up to the front door and knocked lightly.

"Hello. Who's there? Reveal yourself." Came Mrs Weasley's voice from behind the door.

"It's me, Hermione. Best friend of Harry and Ron. In my 4th year at Hogwarts you only sent me a small Easter egg because you thought I was going out with Harry and cheating on him."

Mrs Weasley opened the door and pulled her into a hug.

"Oh Hermione dear. I've been so worried, I couldn't sleep knowing you were gone. I was so cross with Harry for just letting you leave. Where have you been? Are you ok? Have you eaten?" She questioned.

"I'm fine Mrs Weasley, honestly. I've just been at the Leaky Cauldron. I'm not really feeling hungry at the moment, thanks." She replied. Her stomach was churning and the thought of food made her want to throw up.

"I don't blame you for wanting to be away from that awful woman. Your Aunt Elaine was so angry at her. But you mustn't just leave like that. Anything could have happened to you!"

"I know. I'm sorry, I didn't want to make any of you worry." Hermione was starting to tear up again. Everything was beginning to sink in now.

"Now don't you go making yourself upset again. You're safe now. Are you sure I can't get you something to eat? Some cocoa maybe?"

"No thanks. I think I might just go on up to bed." She said.

"Ok then, you'll let me know if you need anything though wont you."

"Of course Mrs Weasley. Thank you. Goodnight."


Hermione was making her way up the 2nd flight of stairs when she was met with the sight of Harry sat at the top.

"I thought I heard you downstairs." He said.

"Yeh, I decided to come back." She said quietly before making her way up to sit next to him.

"I'm glad, we were all pretty worried. I thought Mrs Weasley might scalp me when I told her you'd gone."

"Yeh she told me she was angry downstairs. I really didn't mean to create anymore problems. I just couldn't think straight. I had to get away."

"And now? Are you feeling better now?" He asked.

"Not really." She whispered.

"Did you go to the Leaky Cauldron? What happened, why did you decide to come back?"

"Yeh I went there." She told him. As she remembered exactly what she had done there she burst into tears.

"Hey, what's up? Did something happen there?" He asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Nothing. Nothing happened there." She said snuggling in closer to his chest. "It's just everything. I want everything to go back to how it was before the car crash."

"I know. If I could find some way to make all this go away for you, you know I would right." He said.

She nodded and leaned her head against his shoulder.

How could she tell Harry what she'd done, and with his worst enemy too. Except he hadn't been the usual Malfoy when he'd sat with her in the bar the night before. He seemed to understand exactly what she was feeling without asking too many questions.

She couldn't deny that she'd been affected by the copious amounts of firewhisky she'd had, but she couldn't accuse him of taking advantage. If she did, she'd have to accuse herself as well, because he'd been drinking too and it was obvious he wasn't himself even without it. They'd taken advantage of each other; because there'd been no one else there, because in that moment they hadn't needed a friend who would beg them to say why they were hurting. They'd lost themselves in each other, both knowing that nothing would change between them once the night had passed.

She didn't think Harry would see it that way. She wouldn't have blamed him either. Even though she had had her reasons she still felt so ashamed of herself. She wasn't the sort of girl to just throw herself at any guy. When she'd woken up next to Malfoy and remembered what they'd done it hadn't seemed like as good an idea as it had the night before when the firewhisky had taken the edge off everything.

Harry was rubbing her back now while he held her to his chest. She felt guilty, as though she'd betrayed him and the Weasley's. Harry who was sat here holding her through her tears. Mrs Weasley who had sat up waiting for her to come home. Ginny and Ron who'd spent hours trying to get her to open up to them.

She needed to start to deal with all the grief and hurt she was feeling. She couldn't go on like this. Hurting the people she loved, the people who loved her. She definitely couldn't go around sleeping with guys to help her forget how she was feeling.

"Harry, I'm sorry." She whispered.

"What? Why are you apologising?"

"I'm sorry for all of this. How I've been acting. For going off after the funeral."

"Listen to me," he pulled away from her and looked her in the face. "None of this is your fault ok. Nobody blames you for anything that's happened. We're all just worried about you. You have to talk to us Mi'. You can't go on shutting us all out like this."

"I know. I'll try I promise." She sniffed.

"Good. Anyway I think you should go to bed now, it's pretty late." He said

"I will, maybe you should too." She told him.

"Well I can now I know you're home safe."

"Thanks Harry," she pulled herself up. "Goodnight."

"Night." He replied before making his way up to the attic room he was sharing with Ron.


When Draco had woken up in the morning he'd found that Granger was gone. He had expected it; was quite relieved because he wouldn't have known what to say to her. They certainly weren't friends or even acquaintances and he wasn't going to suddenly start being nice to her. But he felt they at least had an understanding now. Even if it did just mean they ignored each other, it was one step up from before with the shouted insults and punches in her case. He was speaking for himself of course, Granger may still want to argue and punch him. But he for one planned on ignoring her completely.

He wasn't sure why he'd done what he did last night. He could only just find the reasons for why he'd gone to talk to her.

When she'd first walked in he hadn't recognised her at all. He'd looked up to see a pretty girl with sleek brown hair walk in, wearing a dress that clung to her body in all the right places. He couldn't deny that he'd been attracted to this girl.

However when he'd realised this girl was Granger he'd nearly died of shock. Then he'd seen the look on her face. He knew something was wrong; it was obvious she'd been crying. When Tom had asked her if she was alright she'd snapped at him defensively. Her face was a picture of distress and total devastation. Whatever had made her upset had her broken.

He'd watched from his shadowed corner as she drank more and more firewhisky slowly getting drunk.

He never intended to go and talk to her. He'd been quite content to sit and wallow in his own self pity. His chest and stomach had been stinging, he'd taken a pain relief potion but it had starting to wear off. Thinking about his Father had made him feel angry again.

He'd been avoiding his Father as much as possible during these holidays. All he wanted to talk about was Voldemort's plans for Draco.

Draco had spent a lot of time hanging out with Blaise, he was reminded of how his life was at school. He moaned about it enough, but secretly he enjoyed it more than he let on. Hanging out with his mates and not having to worry about much at all. This year he'd been made Head Boy. His Mother had been thrilled when they found out. His father was pleased at the achievement but had said that it didn't really matter as he'd be joining the Death Eaters as soon as he graduated.

This was what the argument had been about yesterday. He'd told his Father that he wanted more time before he had to join. He wanted to maybe travel the world a bit first. Possibly get a job if that was what he felt like doing after school. All he knew was that he wasn't ready to make such a huge decision right after leaving Hogwarts.

This of course had upset his Father. He had scoffed at Draco's request telling him that there would be no need to do any of that when the Dark Lord was going to be taking over the wizarding world. He had talked of the power they would have when he joined, but Draco wasn't sure he wanted that sort of power. He'd seen the violence and the killings carried out in his home. He'd seen things that he'd never be able to erase from his memory.

The argument had escalated until his Father had lost it, poking him in the chest with his cane over and over telling Draco that he would listen to him and do as he was told. Draco had fallen to the floor before being kicked in the stomach before his Father had left.

He had pulled up the hood of his robe and taken the floo network to Diagon Alley, eventually ending up in the Leaky Cauldron. And there he'd sat until the beautiful broken girl had walked in.

Originally he'd gone to talk to her in the hope that annoying her might raise his spirits. It hadn't happened that way though. He'd found himself curious as to why she was so obviously upset. He didn't care about her, but he'd been comforted to know that even though it felt as if his world was crashing down around his ankles there was someone else who seemed to be falling apart at the seams too.

He'd been surprised that he enjoyed their banter; it had brought a smirk to his face. He did start to notice that maybe she was drinking a little more than was good for her, but she hadn't listened to anything he'd said. But then she'd fallen. It had been his seeker reflexes that had made him automatically go to catch her before she fell to the ground. This was where his memory seemed to haze. It had been more physical contact than he'd had in a long time when he'd pulled her against his chest. He hadn't been able to stop himself from leaning in to kiss her.

It was like an electric spark had been shot through him, nothing else was running through his head other than the desperate need to ravage her mouth. He really hadn't been thinking when he'd told her he had a room, it just slipped out. But when she had agreed to go upstairs with him he'd started to have doubts. He was more than aware of how much she'd had to drink, he might have been many things but he wasn't the sort to take advantage of a girl who was out of it. But Granger had insisted she knew what she was doing, and the way she had described it,

'One night, no strings attached, to forget.'

That was what he craved desperately, to forget about everything. Who he was. What he was going to have to become. And she'd been there with the same needs as him. To be taken to a place where reality didn't exist, where blood didn't matter, where the past was forgotten. Even if it was just for one night.

He hadn't thought about the bruises hidden beneath his shirt until she had started to remove it. He'd panicked and stopped her, but she hadn't freaked out or demanded he tell her right there what had happened. He'd been grateful for that, to be able to carry on in the moment without having to think about why they were both there.