The sound of birds outside his window woke Draco up the next morning. They chirped happily, without a care and unknowingly pulled Draco away from the much needed sleep he was enjoying. Laying on his back with his eyes closed stubbornly and Draco threw some pretty impressive curse words at the birds. The possibility of going back to sleep was non-existent as a nervous, anxious feeling plagued his body, making him squirm uncomfortably.
Today was the first day of teaching and despite his usual confidence and excellent leadership skills, Draco couldn't help but feel wary of why he accepted McGonagall's offer in the first place. He wasn't scared of the students, God no, he was scared of disappointing. Who exactly he was disappointing, he was not sure. McGonagall maybe, Hermione, strangely, yes but what he was scared of the most was being unable to live up to the practically unobtainable standards of Severus Snape.
Severus Snape was a cold man but there was no denying he was not only one of the bravest men to ever live but also an incredibly skilled potions master. He had taught Draco everything he knew about potions and without him Draco would probably have still been wallowing in self-pity on the same sofa that he was lying on when he'd received the letter from McGonagall. The idea of not pleasing him made Draco feel sick. Draco has never made the mistake of thinking that Severus Snape was a kind man because he wasn't but Draco had seen him as a role model and he was probably the best out of all of Draco's role models. To disappoint him would be to betray him.
Putting those thoughts to the back of his mind, Draco unwillingly opened his eyes. The room he saw in front of him still put a smile on his lips.
After the welcoming feast last night, Enno eagerly showed Draco up to his new quarters in order for him to settle in. His quarters were situated down in the dungeons at the back of his new potions classroom. As they walked through the classroom, Draco admired all of the multi-coloured liquids in vials and flasks that lined the walls on shelves. He studied the neat stacks of rusted caldrons and glossy wooden cabinets containing stocks and supplies of ingredients. A smirk appeared on his face when he saw the classroom. He could use any of the ingredients because they were all his. This classroom was his to do whatever he pleased with it.
He'd thought the classroom was impressive enough until he entered his room. Enno led Draco up a small flight of stairs that led to a balcony over-looking the classroom and slapped him over the back excitedly. "So, the temporary password to your new place is 'dragon's egg' but remember to change it when nobody's around so it's hidden. Thanks for inviting me in for a drink man," Draco swatted him at his assumption "but I got some important last minute lesson planning to take care of. See you at breakfast?" He'd asked Draco.
"Yeah, mate. Have a good night!" Draco had replied. He liked Enno and probably would have invited him in for a drink if he hadn't had stuff to do. There was just something friendly and accepting about him, something Draco wasn't used to, that made Draco smile whenever they talked. He stood at the balcony waving at Enno as he left. Enno was about to leave when he whirled around and shouted to Draco from across the classroom.
"Oh, and before I go. Someone will be around to give you your teaching time table tomorrow morning, so make sure you've gotten rid of your morning breathe by then." Before he turned around Draco gave him the finger. Enno laughed well naturedly and left the room.
By the time Enno had left, Draco had been aching to see his new living arrangement. He spun around a said the password quickly, losing all of his patients. He was not disappointed in what he saw beyond the oak door.
Immediately opposite him, Draco saw that one of the walls was obviously the still the ancient brick that made up the rest of the castle. The slightly different shades of the bricks contrasted well with each other and gave the room a warm feel, which was surprising, considering he was down in the dungeons. The other three walls were plain and simple white, with moving photographs of landscapes such as skyscrapers in New York and gorgeous, blue waves on a white sand beach. Draco had never seen such modern pictures in this gothic castle but found himself liking them immensely as it signified that Hogwarts had undergone some changes after the War.
The only light source in the room was emitted from a glass orb floating in the corner next to a brown, tattered but vintage looking trunk where he assumed would be where he put all of his belongings. Perched on the trunk was numerous volumes of books and an empty photo frame, which he guessed was an invite for him to put a photo in. A sigh left Draco as he remembered that he had never had a happy photo taken of him and a friend or family member that may be suitable to place in there. Relationships weren't really his forte.
His eyes trailed over to the unlit fire at the far left end of the room. Next to it were two black leather sofas and a matching armchair. These reminded him of his flat in London and he was glad of something familiar. He padded across to the armchair and perched on the edge of it so he was facing the other side of the room. Across from him, at the other end of the room, was a large, king sized bed. The duvet was a clean white but it was adorned with black, white and orange pillows. The mere sight of it made Draco want to fall asleep so he practically crawled out of his clothes and dragged himself into bed.
Presently, Draco sat up in his bed and looked around his room once again. Light leaked in through the window and he saw that the fire was going. The room already felt like his home. Never before had a bed felt so comfortable, which is why Draco was so annoyed that he had been woken by the birds.
Remembering that it was the first day of work, Draco glanced at the watch that adorned his wrist. A groan left his lips as he realised that it was only 6.00 am. As he had already accepted that he was fully awake, Draco got up out of bed.
Draco was not one to wear clothes to bed, so the fact that the window faced the forbidden forest, and not somewhere visible to students, was fortunate as he casually strolled over to the window, naked. He could see the edge of the lake from here as well and he sighed as he took in the scenery.
Draco had been lonely for so long, isolating himself from society, pushing away potential friends, that by accepting this job offer, he surprised himself. He still knew that getting close to someone was dangerous, he never wanted to be in the position to hurt anyone ever again but he supposed that somewhere deep inside him he craved love. He'd never had love before. Not real love. Not accepting love. He'd only ever had the love of a mother, who had to love him, ignoring all of his flaws and all the wrong things he'd done. That wasn't enough. He wanted someone to love him and recognise he'd done wrong and still love him. But Draco was an intelligent man and he knew that by constantly seeking that type of love was useless because there was no one out there, willing enough to accept his past and want a future with him.
A shrill squawk from a bird lifted Draco out of his trance and this time he was grateful because today was not the day for him to be in one of his dark moods.
After shaking his head violently Draco grabbed a towel and headed towards the adjoining bathroom for a shower. The bathroom was just as modern as the bedroom which Draco appreciated because the facilities were simple and easy to use. Draco stepped gratefully under the stream of the shower and his thoughts turned to a certain young witch who had been preoccupying his brain.
He hated her. He hated her but not for all the petty reasons he'd hated her back when they were in school. He hated her because she made him feel different. Different than anything he'd ever felt before. He didn't know if she could even stand him, let alone feel slightly the same way as he did. He shouldn't want to be as close to her as he does. When he sees her, his body wants to touch her. Not entirely sexually, (although if the chance did arrive….) but completely innocently as well. He wanted to run his hands through her hair, he wanted to stroke her cheek, he wanted to play with her fingers. And all his desires confused him because he'd only ever wanted a girl's body before but he wanted all of Hermione. He wanted her body but he also wanted her mind.
Images of waking up in that spacious, white covered bed next to a sleeping, naked Hermione made Draco involuntarily shudder. He wasn't even thinking about having sex with her and it turned him on. Why was he suddenly feeling this way? He hadn't seen her in years but something inside him had flipped when he saw her in those figure hugging clothes and defensive demeanour. Draco grabbed for the tap and turned the water from comfortably warm to freezing cold. Merlin's beard, he needed to stop thinking about Granger like that. He didn't want to. He shouldn't want to.
There had to be a simple explanation as to why he couldn't get her out of his head. Maybe he was just glad to have a familiar face around. Yes, that was probably it. "I don't like Granger, I don't like Granger." He repeated allowed to himself as he got out the shower and clinched the towel around his waist, too lazy to do it up securely. He continued to tell himself that as he brushed his teeth quickly; better listen to Enno's advice.
Draco came out of the bathroom backwards, opening the door open with his hip as he only had one hand free because the other was holding his towel up. He was humming silently to himself as he closed the door.
"Who were you talking to in there?" A voice spoke out from behind him, taking Draco completely by surprise. In his fear, Draco shrieked and dropped his towel from around his waist as he spun around to confront his intruder. To his utter amusement, a shocked looking Hermione sat in the armchair facing the bathroom looking extremely embarrassed to be faced with Draco Jr.
Being confident with his body, Draco made no attempt to cover himself up, only placing the hand with his ever present Dark Mark behind his back. She deserved this embarrassment, what with storming into his room without permission.
"Well, well, well, Granger! You know, you could have just asked to join me in the shower and I would have happily obliged!" His tone was teasing but there was no denying the flirtatiousness that lingered in his words. She cringed at him and covered her face with her hands. Draco still took pleasure in making her feel uncomfortable but he would never do anything malicious to make her feel that way.
"Merlin Malfoy! Cover yourself up, will you?" Her voice was accusatory and he could tell that she was still as prude as ever. He chuckled at her. 'How is it that when I'm with her, she makes me laugh?' he thought to himself. She still had her eyes covered, so he shrugged and shook his head.
"Alright, keep your knickers on… or not?" She snorted at this and he took that as a 'piss off'. Again, he laughed effortlessly. "I'll get dressed now but whilst I'm doing that will you please tell me how and why you're in here?" He waited for her reply and busied himself by retrieving a white, long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of grey joggers. She hesitated slightly with her answer as if she was ashamed and regretted it.
"Well, I came to discuss your time table etcetera but when I knocked, you didn't answer. I guessed you were in the shower so I tried out the temporary password to see if it'd work," As she spoke Draco slung his joggers around his hips and pulled the t-shirt over his torso. When he was finished he didn't tell her, which gave him the opportunity to observe Hermione freely. She had a strange habit of crossing and then un-crossing her legs when she was slightly nervous and the short sleeved blouse she was wearing today exposed her arms, on which he could see lay a splattering of freckles. He ached to reach out and join up the dots but retrained himself as she continued talking. "And as you can tell, it did." She removed one of her hands and gestured eccentrically around the room, narrowly missing the glass orb that hovered in the air.
"You can look now, I'm dressed." Draco said softly, not wanting to interrupt her story but thinking that she should be put out of her misery. She spread the fingers that covered her eyes slightly and peeked through them to see whether he was telling the truth or not. When she saw that he was, she visibly relaxed. As if remembering the situation they had just been in, she scowled at Draco.
"You really should've changed your password when you got in last night. Honestly! Anyone could have gotten in here!" He gave her a pointed look which made her blush.
"Obviously." He replied. She bit her lip apologetically and Draco silently pleaded with her to stop it. It made her looks so God damn sexy. He tried to shrug nonchalantly and walked towards her so he could sit on the sofa opposite. As he sat down, Hermione worried the lip between her teeth and Draco near went insane with restraint. "Stop that." He almost whispered, pleading. Her eyes shot up and locked with his. To his relief she instantly released her lip from between her teeth but raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. Draco coloured slightly under her stare and cleared his throat. "Well, you know… you don't want to… ummmm... take the skin off your lip?" The end of his sentence turned into an uncertain question as he struggled to make up an excuse. Hermione looked at him disbelievingly but, thankfully, decided to drop it.
"Oh, right, yes… wouldn't want to do that." She replied awkwardly. 'Well done, Draco. Way to keep a conversation flowing!' He scolded himself. He nervously picked a piece of lint off his trousers and struggled to find something engaging to talk about.
"So, my timetable?" He asked her, still staring holes into his joggers. When they were in school, nothing Hermione said would have made him feel embarrassed but today he couldn't shift the redness from his cheeks or even look her in the eye. Why had so much changed?
"Oh my gosh, yes! I almost completely forgot!" She leaned forward in order to rifle around her bag, searching for something. Draco allowed his eyes to resurface and waited for her to continue. When she's found what she was looking for she straightened up and held out a folded piece of parchment. "This is your timetable. The boxes underneath the days of the week will tell you what year group you have on at a certain time that-" She began to ramble on but he interrupted her.
"Yes, Granger, I know how a timetable works." She flushed furiously at his correction. "Still bossy then?" He was attempting to regain his image after his previous slip up. He didn't really want to insult her but in no way could her let her hold anything against him. She was obviously shocked by his outburst and tilted her head incredulously.
"Still a git then?" She retorted. Her voice had returned to the sharp tones to which she had spoken to him last night.
"Yes. Did you expect anything else?" This was not only to remind her but also to remind himself. 'She's way too good for you.' He told himself. 'Don't even think about her like you were, you don't deserve her!' She'd saved the wizarding world, for Merlin's sake, and here he was, an ex-Death Eater, fawning over her like a teenager.
Hermione looked as if she was about to say something but then stopped herself. When she tried again, she didn't even look into his eyes. "Fine, your classes are all on there. You know when breakfast is. Enno can show to the staff room before first lesson starts. If you need anything, just ask me." The last bit was said so monotonously that it was probably required for her to say and she didn't actually mean it. She grabbed her bag and headed towards the door. As she sashayed past Draco, he attempted to grab her wrist and stop her so he could apologise for his behaviour but he stopped himself. She'd probably only slap him if he did anyway.
Before completely leaving the room, Hermione turned back around and faced him. "Before you leave for breakfast, you might want to change the password. You know, prevent unwanted visitors." Draco flinched at her dig. He'd obviously made her feel unwelcome and that wasn't his intention at all. He attempted to catch her eye in order to apologise but she had already left the room, leaving the door wide open.
