Title: The Foolishness of Men
Author: Hafthand
Summary: The aftermath of the kitchen encounter!
A/N: Okay if a towel clad Draco gets the amount of Reviews that my chapter just got then I am going to put one in every chapter! Lol. And as 'a' (one of my lovely reviewers) kindly pointed out, I totally spelled Wingardium Leviosa wrong. And you know what I think I just did again! Latin is not my specialty folks and I was lazy again! Had no desire to hunt down the spelling as I wrote that chapter at like 3 am! Anyway, I will totally be more careful in the future.
Also one of my reviewers (bloodrust) pointed out something I too had noticed. I sometimes switch from 1st person to 3rd person, depending on the chapter. Well I saw that and stopped. From here on out, and you can see from some of the last chapters, I am going to be writing in 3rd person!
It had all worked out. Somehow she had managed to prevent murder from happening in her flat. Somehow she had stopped bloodshed. But that knowledge was not helping her now. Now, she was even more confused. Now, she was even more worried. Now, she was trying to get drunk off of cooking sherry.
Flashback
"Bloody hell," Ron spit out, his face suddenly going a dangerous red. He whipped out his wand and launched himself towards Draco.
"Ron, NO!" Hermione shouted, throwing her body into Ronald Weasley's. At the same time, Draco Malfoy jumped in surprise, turned so quickly his towel fell off, and ran stark naked into Hermione's room, slamming the door shut behind him. Harry, his eyes still blazing, well Harry was still frozen in place. Oh he wanted to move, wanted to find out what in Merlin's name was going on, but unfortunately, Ron had cast the Petrificus Totalus spell at Malfoy just as Hermione had tackled him. The spell fired from Ron's wand, slammed into a hanging pot where it proceeded to ricochet off the metal and head straight towards Harry. If looks could kill, Ronald Weasley would be dead.
Ron and Hermione had both frozen. Ron had his back on the floor, his face full of fear. His hand was on his wand but so was Hermione's. She too was frozen on top of Ron, looking at Harry with fear in her own eyes. "S-sorry, Harry," Ron squeaked out.
"Oh god, oh god," Hermione said finally breaking from her momentary silence. She scrambled off of Ron and ran over to Harry, muttering the counter curse. "You all right, Harry?" she asked carefully, still aware that the questions were coming.
For Harry's part, being frozen had done wonders for his temper. Instead of wanting to rush over and kill Malfoy on the spot, he had now calmed down sufficiently to realize that no, he wanted to torture Malfoy first, and then give him a slow death. "Yeah, Hermione I am fine. I am going to kill you later though," he said pointing at Ron.
"Yeah mate, well first let's kill him, then we can work out our problems," Ron said, slowly standing, his face going red with anger again.
"You will do no such thing in my house, Ronald Weasley. That goes for you to Harry. No one raises a wand, not one," Hermione said harshly, putting herself between them and her bedroom door.
"What is he doing here, Hermione?" Harry asked calmly. A little too calmly, for Hermione saw the danger present in his eyes.
"Well," Hermione began. Just as suddenly she stopped. What was he doing here? He had never answered her question, and in all honesty she was just as confused as the boys.
"Well..." Ron said leaning against the kitchen counter, casually crossing his arms over his chest. "We are waiting Hermione."
She decided that she was not going to go through this alone. Suddenly Hermione turned towards her bedroom door and shouted, "DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE NOW!"
"HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW MY MIDDLE NAME?" came Draco's shout from the other side of the door.
"Oh you would be surprised what I know about you. Now get out here," Hermione shouted back, getting angry at the situation he had so obviously caused.
"Well unless you want me to come out wearing one of YOUR DRESSES, give me my goddamn clothes!" Draco shouted back.
"Kinda reminds you of being back at Hogwarts doesn't it, Harry?" Ron, fighting back his laughter, asked Harry, who was also trying to suppress his amusement. Though still confused beyond words, the current situation was highly amusing, not what they had pictured when they imagined meeting Draco Malfoy again.
"Well, I am so happy you two have calmed the fuck down!" she shrieked at them. "Maybe now we can get somewhere without my flat being destroyed."
"Damnit, GRANGER, where the hell are my clothes?" Draco shouted from her room.
"Patience of a friggen two-year old, I swear to god I should have let him die, save me the trouble, and now I have these two, first trying to wreck my place, now trying not to pee on my floor with their laughter," Hermione mumbled too herself as she walked over to Ron and roughly pushed him over. She leaned down and took out Draco's clothes from the washing machine/dryer. Shooting and evil look at the still chuckling boys, she walked over to her bedroom door and knocked quietly.
"Bout damn time," Draco said as he opened the door a crack. He swiftly grabbed his clothes, mumbled a barely audible thank you, and slammed the door again.
"See if I help you ever again with that attitude," Hermione said and turned back to the kitchen. Just as she was about to address her two friends, Draco's shout could once again be heard from inside her room.
"Granger! What the hell did you do to my clothes?" he shouted before opening her door and walking briskly to stand directly in front of her, his ragged breath on her face, his ripped clothes hanging loosely from his body. His eyes were on fire as they met hers. There he saw ice.
"What the hell did I do?" she said coldly. "What the hell did I do? You're lucky I got out as much blood off as I did. Besides I was not the one who attacked you! Maybe you don't remember but I was the one who bloody well saved your life!"
Draco froze as his anger disappeared. He hadn't been angry with her. No, he had been angry with Potter and Weasley, and well, he had allowed that anger to cloud his mind. Now he remembered that she had indeed saved his worthless life. "Yeah," he said quietly, "well now we are even."
Hermione jumped back in surprise at his words. "What?" she asked.
But before he could answer her, Harry cleared his throat. "As amusing as it is seeing the two of you fight, what the hell is going on? Who attacked you, Malfoy?"
"Why, Potter, I didn't know you cared?" Draco drawled. Secretly he had always loved sparring with these three. Hermione was by far the best with her words, but seeing Potter and Weasley get so angry they became reckless, had been one of the few things he had missed about Hogwarts, in a weird twisted sort of way. But now they were all different. Yes, a mutual dislike ran through their veins, but they were no longer children playing around with magic. Every single person in that room had killed, had watched someone be killed, had lost someone they loved. Every single person in that room was no longer naïve.
"Yeah, well put it down to curiosity, Malfoy," Harry said, a slight smile playing at his lips. "I should curse you right here, right now, and drag your sorry ass to the ministry; but I am not stupid. Hermione here apparently helped you out. So I will wait and hear her story before I curse you right here, right now, and drag your sorry ass to the ministry," Harry said.
"Good to know you missed me as much as I missed you, Potter," Draco said smiling. He had been away from people for so long, and though not everyone in this room was exactly his idea of company, things were certainly interesting. He turned to look down at a scowling Hermione in front of him, her eyes still icy, but becoming less so as she realized no one was going to kill anyone, just yet anyway.
Staring at Hermione brought Draco's mind to last night's events. Hermione watched as his face changed from amused anger to fear and concern. She instantly got the feeling that perhaps Draco Malfoy's sudden reappearance in her life was not exactly a coincidence.
"If you two would finish staring at each other, maybe we could get to the explanation," Ron said angrily, slowly getting up from the counter and shooting one last piercing glance at Malfoy turned and went into the living room.
Realizing how close she was to Malfoy and the fact that she had been staring at him for several moments too long, Hermione stepped quickly back and turned towards the kitchen. Draco stood frozen for a moment longer, watching her move nervously into the kitchen. He raised his eyes and saw Harry staring at him. At this moment words were not needed between the long time rivals. Harry's look was clear: You go near her and I will kill you. Draco's look, just as clear: I'll do what I want Potter.
Harry turned and slowly went into the living room before throwing himself down on the couch next to Ron, who at this moment did not look the least bit happy with the current situation.
"Here, I made you this sandwich. I thought you should eat something, all that healing would have taken a lot out of you," Harry and Ron heard Hermione say softly to Malfoy in the kitchen. The two boys shot each other strange looks.
"Thanks, Granger," they heard Malfoy reply just as softly. "Oh and, Granger, your pasta is about to boil over."
"Shit!" Hermione squealed just as they saw Malfoy emerging from the kitchen holding a plate with a sandwich on it in his hands.
He paused as he saw the two young men staring at him then casually walked over and threw himself into the couch across from them. His eyes never leaving theirs, he happily began devouring the much-needed food. Harry and Ron just glared.
The staring contest was interrupted as Hermione emerged from the kitchen. She stumbled a bit under the intense gaze of the three men in her living room before walking over and sitting down next to Malfoy. 'I really need to hang out with women more often,' she thought to herself.
The fact that she had sat directly next to Malfoy when there were plenty of other choice seats available in the spacious flat was not lost on the three young men. Draco smiled to himself, Harry became even more wary of what the hell was going on, and Ron became even more confused.
"Well," Hermione said, breaking the silence. "Well, I guess I should start from last night."
"Yes that would be a good place to start," Ron said leaning forward slightly.
"Well, I had-" Hermione began, but was instantly cut off by the loud popping noise and sudden appearance of another man in her flat.
Ron suddenly grinned widely as he saw Remus Lupin turn around to look at all of them. Now things would get sorted out. Now the problem of Malfoy would be resolved. Unfortunately for Ron, things did not go as he planned.
"Hello all," Lupin said happily. "And how are we all doing to-"his words cut off as he caught sight of Draco Malfoy sitting comfortably next to Hermione, a sandwich frozen halfway to his mouth. For a moment he was caught completely off guard as he took in the tension of the room and the relieved looks of Harry and Ron at his sudden appearance.
"What is this, a friggen open house today?" Hermione asked the ceiling.
"Sorry to intrude, Hermione, but after last night I thought a conversation was in order. And boy am I glad I came when I did," Remus said, a small smile fighting to break onto his face. He walked forward till he was by the couches and looked directly at Draco. "Well, Draco, I must say I didn't think you would make up your mind that quickly," Remus said. Harry and Ron's mouths dropped.
Draco smiled and put his half eaten sandwich on the small table next to the couch. "Yeah well I figured why wait," he said noticing the almost painful expression of surprise on the other boy's faces. He noted that Hermione didn't seem the least bit surprised at the obvious familiarity between the two wizards. She really was a clever one.
"Glad you came round," Remus said and suddenly Draco remembered the attack.
"Yeah well so am I," his voice suddenly changing to a serious tone. He leaned forward and said to Remus, "Someone was here waiting when I apparated last night."
Remus stiffened. "Waiting for you? But how could they have known you were coming here? I mean I had just seen you hours before and didn't know what you were planning."
Draco looked carefully at Hermione, but addressed his words to Remus. "Not waiting for me, Remus. Waiting for her." Draco watched as her eyes grew wide and her breath caught in her throat.
"For her?" Remus asked quietly, suddenly sitting down in the chair behind him. "But that means..." Remus let his words trail off as his eyes also widened in shock.
Suddenly there was another popping noise and Fred Weasley appeared in the middle of the living room. "Well what do we have here?" Fred asked, obviously highly amused by the situation around him.
"Oh bloody hell!" Hermione shouted before getting up, going into her kitchen and opening a bottle of her cooking sherry. It wasn't strong but maybe it was strong enough to make her forget this afternoon.
Love, Ally
"The struggle, for those who survived The Day, was to survive the next." –Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank
