A/N – Hi everyone! It's been entirely too long, I know. I could give excuses, but I've left you all with this cliffhanger far too long, so without further ado….
Granger shifted slightly, trying to crouch down further so she wouldn't be seen as the team passed by.
As she moved, one pair of eyes turned in their direction. She and Draco froze simultaneously. Out on the pitch, Harry Potter took a step towards them, staring just to the right of where they hid.
The next moment stretched on for what seemed like forever to Draco.
Then, just as Potter took a hesitant step towards them, someone called, "Oi, Harry!"
The black-haired boy shook his head and turned towards the source of the voice, which continued, "What happened, did you get petrified? I thought you took care of Slytherin's monster last year!"
Potter snorted and, smiling, followed the rest of the Gryffindor team out of sight.
Draco slowly unclenched his fists.
Granger looked at Draco and let out a shaky breath, smiling in relief. He smiled tenuously back at her for a brief second before catching himself and schooling his features.
They waited for be an excruciatingly long time before the last Gryffindor exited the locker rooms and headed towards the castle.
Draco tentatively peered around to make sure the coast was clear before stepping out from underneath the stands. Granger followed.
He set out towards the front doors, but he stopped short when Granger grabbed his sling from behind, hissing, "No! We have to go back a different route!"
He threw a contemptuous glare at her and made a show of righting the sling that held his mostly-healed arm in place. Once he was sure he'd sufficiently got his point across, he rolled his eyes and changed direction. Wordlessly, they trudged up the alternate path to the castle. It was longer, but Draco didn't want to endure any further nagging or possible harm to his person.
The grounds were beginning to darken in earnest, making the stretch of Forbidden Forest at their left appear even more ominous. He shivered at the memory of walking through those woods for the first time, two years ago. Granger had been there then, too.
He stole a quick glance in her direction. She was staring at her feet, deep in thought according to the small wrinkle that had formed between her eyebrows. He turned his gaze forward again. He was just beginning to wonder what might be occupying her mind when something caught his attention.
Ahead, just within the border of the Forest, an enormous shadow moved. Draco stopped dead in his tracks. He could just barely make out the silhouette against the encroaching darkness of the forest, but he recognized it immediately. Fear flooded him. His father had told him all about this. It was massive, black dog.
The Grim.
Two eyes appeared, gleaming menacingly, staring directly at him.
Draco didn't remember taking off. He only knew that he was sprinting as fast as he could away from death. He thought he had run quickly from Mrs. Norris earlier that evening, but that was nothing. He had practically skipped away from her compared to his frantic scrambling now.
He barely heard Granger's strangled cry of surprise, and he was dimly aware of her following him, trying desperately to keep up.
He risked a look behind him, taking in Granger's mad hair as she chased him, but he didn't see the Grim. He was just about to turn forward again when his foot caught something. He fell spectacularly, landing in a heap on the ground.
Granger slowed to a stop in front of him, breathing heavily.
"What – in Merlin's name – are you running from?!" she exclaimed between breaths. She looked around, bewildered.
Something moved in the bushes to his right. He jumped, scrambling backwards across the ground, emitting a rather less-than-masculine squawk. Granger followed his movements, her eyes going wide as she looked behind him.
"Malfoy, look out!" she screeched, reaching her hand towards him.
Out of pure instinct, Draco rolled out of the way, looking back just in time to see a massive branch crash into the ground, obliterating the space he'd just occupied. Then Granger was there, hauling him to his feet, screaming, "It's the Whomping Willow!"
They only made it a few steps before a low-swinging limb caught Granger in the shin. She stumbled onto her hands and knees so suddenly that Draco barreled over her and ended up sprawled on the ground again. Covering his head, he looked wildly around, trying to make sense of the swirling, angry mass. He saw the gnarled branch just in time.
"Get down!" he yelled.
He grabbed Granger's arm and jerked it to the side so that she fell flat on her face. The gnarled branch whizzed so closely past her head that her mousy hair flew after it in its wake. Wide-eyed, they gawked for a moment as the branch gouged the earth with its knotted fist, raining down clumps of overturned dirt. Several smaller twigs cut into Draco's flesh as he rolled out of the way of the next limb. Granger, having just managed to scramble upright, grabbed hold of his hand again and heaved. The entire tree reared back, readying for one last murderous strike. The two ran as fast as they could, not pausing to look back as the massive tangle of angry boughs struck the ground with a resounding BOOOM!
Once they were safely out of range, Draco turned around, surveying the enormous tree as it slowly righted itself, branches still swinging protectively.
Granger continued to pull him in the direction of the castle, shouting, "Come on! Someone will have heard that! We can't be here – we still can't be seen!"
He quite happily obliged.
Once they reached the castle, Granger dragged them into the first empty room she could find. Draco leaned heavily against the wall then slid down until he was sitting on the ground, panting. Granger collapsed in a heap, hand to her chest, trying to catch her breath.
They stayed that way for a few minutes. Granger, predictably, broke the silence.
"I'm really tired of running away from things with you. How do we always end up running and hiding from things together?"
Draco gave a weak laugh, "It's because you're always getting me into trouble, Granger."
"Me?" she said, seeming both annoyed and amused, "You're the one who started running like there was a werewolf after you! What scared you anyways?"
The Grim. The huge shadow moving just beyond the trees.
"It was nothing."
"You…" she began, her eyes unfocused, "You saved me. From the Whomping Willow. It was coming right for me, and you knocked me out of the way."
He paused. "…And?"
"At first…" she paused, obviously unsure, "At first, I thought you were trying to get me killed. But then I felt that branch pass over me. I actually felt it how close it was."
She turned to peer at him curiously. "You could have just let it hit me. You could have just saved yourself… but you didn't."
"Well, I couldn't just – I mean, you-" he began, desperately searching for an explanation. But she was right. He hadn't even thought about what he was doing. He just… acted. And he saved the life of someone he was supposed to hate.
He suddenly found her curious gaze unnerving. Infuriating. His eyes darkened and he stood abruptly, brushing the dirt off his robes and glaring at her.
"You still owe me favors," he spat, "I couldn't let you die when I still have a use for you."
She continued to stare at him, and for the first time, Draco couldn't seem to pin down what she was thinking.
Finally, something in her expression changed minutely, and she replied, "No. I don't suppose you could."
She stood up. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "Regardless of your reasoning, thank you for helping me tonight. Even if you were just being a selfish prick, you still saved me." Her words held no sting.
Draco blinked, using all of his feigned nonchalance to mask his surprise. He turned to straighten his sling, which was currently hanging limply around his neck like some sort of horrendous scarf. Keeping his eyes averted, he replied stiffly, "Yes, well, you helped me first. If you hadn't warned me, that blasted tree would have crushed me."
It was the closest to thanking her as he would get.
She nodded slightly, then began plucking bits of twig off of her robes before saying, "Well, I couldn't very well have you die while I still owed you one last favor. You'd come back as a ghost, and then I'd never be rid of you." One corner of her mouth was quirked into an almost imperceptible smirk.
Then Draco had a thought.
"Two favors," he corrected, mirroring her expression.
"I – what?" She froze in the act of pulling a leaf out of her tangled hair.
He crossed his arms and stared pointedly at her. "You. Lit. A. Professor. On. Fire. Two favors."
If Granger would do whatever he said because of a secret that she actually had permission for, what would she do to keep this little tidbit from going public? He grinned wickedly at his cleverness, while also taking a small step back in anticipation of her reaction.
To his surprise, she burst out laughing. It wasn't a particularly happy sound.
"You really are a git, do you know that?" she exclaimed, eyes flashing, "Your first two favors nearly got both of us killed!"
He bristled, "Yes, well, you're the one who wanted to walk back by way of murderous shrubbery!"
This time, Granger's laughter was genuine.
"'Murderous shrubbery?'" she giggled, clapping her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.
Draco only raised an eyebrow at her. Apparently, near-death experiences were highly entertaining. Bloody Gryffindors.
"Fine," she said when she finally regained control of herself, "Fine. Two favors; but I'm revisiting my conditions. Nothing illegal, no breaking school rules, and nothing that will get either of us killed! We're lucky Dumbledore banned the Dementors from entering Hogwarts grounds, or tonight could have been so much worse."
"Fine," he agreed, "I'm sure I can still think of something sufficient." He wasn't exactly looking for another evening like this one anyways. He'd never admit it, but the night's experiences had made him - not frightened, of course - just wary.
Granger rolled her eyes and headed towards the door. "We should be getting back to our dormitories; it should be safe by now. And we should make sure to take different hallways than we did on our way out. Just in case."
"Right, right, yes, we don't want to run into ourselves," he said, waving her forward.
"At least we know Filch is in a different part of the castle," she added. She cracked the door open with a dainty hand and peered into the corridor beyond. It was vacant, apparently, because she stepped out. Then she hesitated, turned back towards him, and bobbed her head in a brief nod. Her hair mimicked the motion a half second later.
Slowly, he returned the gesture. Granger turned and left, heading up the staircase. Draco waited a few seconds more before heading in the opposite direction, down towards the dungeons.
~.~
When she arrived back at her dormitory, Hermione had the sudden, inexplicable urge to start laughing again. After all these years, one would think that she would be accustomed to always being right. And yet here she was, holding back laughter at just how horrible this night had been. She'd known it would be. She'd just known it.
She'd been blackmailed into breaking a dozen school rules, she'd been manipulated into divulging a dangerous secret to her untrustworthy enemy, she'd chased after said enemy when he suddenly sprinted off for no apparent reason, and then she'd helped him escape being maimed by the Whomping Willow.
And he'd done the same for her.
That gave her pause.
He'd knocked her to the ground, sure, but he still saved her. He could have just run away, but he didn't. Wasn't that entirely contrary to his nature?
Regardless, it almost felt as if the experience had led to a sort of unspoken truce between them. It was funny, she thought, how saving someone's life could do that sort of thing. The same had happened in her first year.
This was much different, though. When Harry and Ron had saved her from the troll, the three had developed an unspoken friendship. What developed between her and Malfoy tonight was more of a begrudging respect - and a miniscule one at that. Malfoy was still a prat. Still her enemy. Still blackmailing her. There was still an edge between them… it had just been dulled ever so slightly.
Ugh, that thought was giving her a headache. With a sigh, she discarded her robes and pulled on her pajamas. She climbed into her four-poster as quietly as she could manage. As soon as she felt the cool sheets on her skin, exhaustion hit her like the Hogwarts Express. She sighed again, eyelids drooping shut. Tomorrow would be better. It had to be.
~.~
Draco rolled over, squeezing his eyes shut tightly.
Trying to find even a second of sleep was proving impossible, thanks to Goyle's thunderous snores.
He sighed, throwing his arm over his face and scowling. Tomorrow was going to be awful.
He had his make up lesson for Defense Against the Dark Arts after a full day of classes, and on barely any sleep. Not to mention his dread after witnessing the Gryffindor team's prowess. Not to mention his lingering fear…
An image of the massive, shadowy dog came unbidden to the forefront of his mind: death incarnate. He tried to shove it away.
Suddenly, Goyle let out a great wheezing grunt, making Draco's eyes pop open wide.
Sitting up, he scowled in the bigger boy's direction. Seizing his wand off his nightstand, he hissed, "Aguamenti!"
A stream of water burst out of the end of his wand and splashed right onto Goyle's face. Slowly, the giant oaf sat up, mumbling, "'Ello?" After a moment, he merely flopped back down onto his mattress with a squelch.
Draco rolled his eyes, drew the curtains around his four-poster, and settled on his side once more.
He would sleep. He wouldn't waste any more time thinking about shadows or Quidditch or the bloody Whomping Willow.
Why would they even keep a tree like that on school grounds? Where innocent children were?
Not that he was exactly innocent, but still. Goody Granger was—
But wait. She wasn't nearly as innocent as she pretended to be. She set Professor Snape's robes on FIRE.
Draco could hardly believe it. He was almost… impressed. Not that he'd ever admit it to anyone.
She was still a Mudblood. Still annoying. Still just a thing to be used, manipulated to his advantage. And she just kept giving him more leverage, the stupid girl.
Then, a tiny voice in his head reminded him that she had saved his life.
He fought down a small wave of guilt, shuddering at the unfamiliar feeling.
No, they were even. She saved his life and he… he had saved hers. She would continue to do him favors upon his request, and he would continue to keep her various secrets.
He simply imagined that she would be doing him favors for a very, very long time.
He smiled to himself, finally allowing his eyes to close.
A/N – You didn't think I'd let Harry find out about Hermione and Draco so soon, did you? Haha I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was a bit difficult for me to write, so I definitely let me know what you think. And a special thanks to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and/or favorited. You have no idea how much that helps this process! You guys are the best.
