Well, I promised, so here it is, chapter 7! It's a bit longer than normal, as requested. It might be a while before the next chapter though, I've got college applications driving me crazy right now… Well, please enjoy chapter 7, and please comment!
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Chapter 7: A Note of Discord
Hermione was still gazing absently at Draco's retreating form when the door pulled sharply open and Hagrid's bushy head emerged from inside.
" 'Ermione? Wha're yeh doin' on th' ground?"
Hermione felt the color rise in her cheeks as she was scooped up, for the second time that day, and set down on Hagrid's oversized and overstuffed couch.
As he moved to shut the door, Hagrid caught sight of the pale blonde and green figure making its way back to the castle and turned back to Hermione.
"Who's tha'? Malfoy? Wha' was he doin' out 'ere?"
Looking worried, he sat down in the armchair next to the hearth. "Wha' 'appened to yer foot? I swear if 'e did sumthin' t' you…"
"No!" Hermione sat up quickly and tried to stand up, but Hagrid pushed her firmly back down with one massive hand.
Flustered, she said again, "No."
When Hagrid still looked doubtful, she continued. "Really Hagrid, I just slipped and hurt my ankle down by the Black Lake, and Malfoy just happened to be passing by. He was actually being helpful…"
As an afterthought, she muttered that she could have fixed it herself in a few seconds.
Then, remembering the fact that she was indeed a witch and quite capable of mending her foot by herself, she pulled her wand out of her robe, pointed it at her ankle and whispered, "medicorpo." The muscles tensed, then relaxed, and the throbbing in her foot vanished.
She gingerly got up and thanked a still-concerned Hagrid for his help, then began making her way back to the castle.
* * *
When Hermione had returned to the castle, she found herself mentally and physically exhausted, and in need of a nap. Ron tried to waylay her in the common room, brandishing a roll of parchment with only a few smudged words on it and saying something about "essay," "Snape," and "dirty foul git," but she just waved him off and continued up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
She opened the door and at first thought it to be deserted, but when she stepped inside she saw a small house-elf placing a package on her bed. Upon seeing Hermione, she squeaked and with a loud "CRACK!" disapparated before Hermione could thank her.
Making a mental note to start selling S.P.E.W. badges again, she sighed and picked up the parcel. It was probably mum sending boxes of dental floss again, she thought. It was wrapped neatly in crisp brown parchment, and addressed in small, neat letters. Actually, it looked like the green ink had just dried.
Hermione tugged at the silken black ribbon that held it together, and pulled the paper off to reveal… her ancient runes book! In all the confusion of today, she had forgotten it down by the lake. But who…?
She moved to return the book to its rightful place on top of her trunk, and a small slip of parchment fell from the pages. In the same neat letters in dark green ink that seemed to shimmer in the dim light, it read, "You really ought to be more careful."
There was no signature, except a fancy little "S. F." in the corner. S.F.? Who did she know with those initials? Seamus Finnigan? Probably not. Unless… No, it couldn't be.
"Stinking ferret," Hermione muttered, and then without warning she burst out into uncontrollable giggles. Perhaps he had a sense of humor after all.
She tucked the paper into the inside pocket of her robes. *** (see footnote)
* * *
Two days passed, and Hermione saw nothing of Draco Malfoy, not even during classes. He had been missing Quidditch practices too, or so she had gathered from Urquhart's rather vocal complaints about not having his seeker show up to practice.
Actually, no one seemed to have seen hide nor hair of Malfoy. He wasn't at meals, he hadn't been in the hospital wing when Slughorn sent Hermione to give Madame Pomfrey a new batch of bone regrowth potion, and she didn't see him anywhere on the Marauder's Map that she "borrowed" from Harry's bag while he was in the boys' lavatory.
Finally, on the third day after the tree incident, Hermione walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts to find a very ill-looking Draco Malfoy slumped over in his seat. He was incredibly pale, even for him, and alarmingly dark rings circled his half-closed eyes.
He seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness the whole class, and once Snape walloped him over the head with a copy of "Confronting the Faceless" when he answered, "What is the best way to defeat a Kelpie?" with a soft, grunting snore.
Hermione wouldn't admit it, not even to herself, but she had been rather worried about him, the rotten ferret.
* * *
That evening Hermione was walking down to the Quidditch pitch to meet Harry and Ron after their practice was over, when angry shouting redirected her steps towards the old broom shed.
Two red-clothed people seemed to have cornered one green-clothed person, and were proceeding to scream their heads off. When she got closer, she recognized one of the voices.
Uh-oh.
Hermione began pelting towards the scene, arriving just as Harry grabbed Draco and threw him against the rough wood wall of the shed.
She screamed, "Harry, no!" as he jabbed the point of his wand into Draco's throat.
Ron turned around, startled by her sudden appearance, but Harry did not move. He was staring at Draco with such an intense hatred that she half expected Draco to burst into flames on the spot.
After a half-second of petrified deliberation, she threw the entirety of her small weight into Harry's shoulder, knocking him to the ground.
He was already trying to get back up again when Hermione shrieked, "What do you think you're doing Harry?!? Have you lost your mind?"
Dodging back and forth, trying to get around Hermione, he growled, "He's going to lose more than that."
Hermione grabbed Harry's shoulders, forcing him to hold still and look at her. "What's gotten into you?"
Eyes darting to Draco, he said, "We went to visit Hagrid today. He said that that…" he struggled to find an adequate word, "…filth dumped you on his doorstep, and that you were hurt."
Hermione said firmly, "Yes, I sprained my ankle and Malfoy was kind enough to bring me to Hagrid's." Harry shook his head jerkingly, the tendons standing out on his neck. "Then we remembered that you never told us something."
"What?"
He grabbed her Gryffindor-striped scarf and roughly pulled it, revealing the fading yellowed bruises. His voice was down to a whisper now. "This. He did this to you, didn't he? Didn't he?"
Hermione sputtered, "It- it was an accident, he didn't mean to, he-" "Didn't mean to?" Ron said in a high-pitched, incredulous voice, "He nearly strangled you, Hermione."
"No, that wasn't what-"
Evidently Harry had had enough of talking, because he suddenly pushed past Hermione and lunged at Draco.
* * *
Harry's Quidditch-gloved fist connected with Malfoy's jaw, hard. This scum, this thing had physically hurt Hermione. He had completely given himself over to his anger, and was punching every inch of green robes and pale flesh he could.
Hermione was screaming and trying to pull him away, Ron was looking around nervously, presumably checking for teachers, and Malfoy was puzzlingly unresponsive. He wasn't fighting back, at all. He was just standing there, supported by the wall, looking half-dead and bleeding.
Harry was beating Malfoy to a pulp, and still it wasn't enough. Six years of furious hatred towards the pale boy in front of him was pulsing through his veins and drove all second thoughts out of his head.
He pulled his wand out of his robes, ignoring Hermione's renewed shrieks. He waved it wildly at Malfoy's chest and screamed the first spell that came to his lips.
"SECTUMSEMPRA!"
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***What's this, a deleted/alternate scene?
I wasn't sure about this part, sooo I just added it as a footnote so if you completely despise it you can just pretend it's not there. Here it is! :
'There was no signature, but when she went to crumple it up, strangely, it started singing off-key. She flipped it over and found that there was something written on the other side. It was a moving drawing. A string-haired stick figure was sitting in a tree, singing loudly to itself. Suddenly, it fell, and landed on top of another stick figure. There was a large poof of ink-smoke, and the second stick figure promptly turned into a ferret which began to squeak. The drawing began to repeat itself.
"Stinking ferret," Hermione thought, and then without warning she burst out into uncontrollable giggles. Tears streaming down her face, she watched the little stick figure play again between snorts of laughter. It really was a clever charm, and the little ferret was rather adorable…
She tapped the parchment with her wand, whispered "silencio," and tucked the paper into the inside pocket of her robes.'
...End scene. I thought it was a bit un-Draco-ish, but it was a really cute scene in my head, so I thought I'd put it in.
