Look Me In The Eyes, And Tell Me You Love Me: Strength

After a while Hermione stood up, murmuring a soft thank you to Draco. She was surprised when she saw that he had done all the work already and she turned down to look at him. He was staring up at her, his eyes judging her every move. The tender look had left his eyes and he was back to icy-cold Malfoy. He had nothing left to say to Hermione. He felt that he wasn't the one which had to justify his actions, although he felt pretty messed up himself. If she tried to use his actions against him, he would use her sudden break down back at her. The silence was deafening as Hermione fumbled to think of something to say.

In her head she was almost begging Draco to scold her, shout at her or lunge to kiss her again. Her eyes were clawing at him wanting some kind of reaction. Just do something, anything. Anything but sit there and pierce her with his eyes, expecting her to make up for whatever the fuck that she was trying to pull off just now. Nothing. Her mind was so clotted up with all the thoughts and the confusion and all she wanted was him to say something which made her feel alright.

'Say something,' she plead. She couldn't think of any other way to make him speak and if the awkwardness stopped once he had spoken, it would have been worth it.

'I have nothing to say to you, Granger.' He replied coldly. She could almost imagine the shattered state that his pride has been in. He just got pushed away from having sex, and then tried to comfort the girl which he had just rejected by, only to be asked by her to start the conversation again. The both of them were in such awkward positions, neither of them intending to mend the situation, knowing that the more they spoke about it the more dented their pride would be. Lucky for them, Professor McGonagall walked in at that very moment to check on them again.

'I can see that you two did a marvellous job here.' The elderly witch clasped her hands together, marvelling how different the store room looked now. She turned to the two of them, still absorbed in their discomfort of being with each other, and thanked them for their work, hoping that they will not repeat their fault. She left after that, neither of them bothered to ask her why she had to constantly be away from her own classroom, although they were curious about it; and so Granger and Malfoy were back to where they were. Each had hoped that McGonagall would call the other to run some other task, but no. Their professor just left them there to tend to each other. Hermione decided to stop it right now before his piercing eyes managed to bring out every bit of embarrassment she felt, and she proceeded to reach her bag which was on McGonagall's table. Draco stood up, brushing off his clothes and then he blocked her exit from the classroom.

'You're not walking away from this Granger. Explain,' Draco spat as Hermione collected her bag, and she tried to stand away from Draco, refusing to meet his frozen stare.

'I have no reason to explain anything to you,' she replied as calmly as she could. She was on the brink of trembling and breaking into tears again, and this time, Malfoy was not going to be all cozy with her. The embarrassment was piling up on her above the confusion and sorrow, like weights upon her shoulder, mentally forcing herself to shut down as she struggled to make the best out of everything.

'Yes you fucking do, you have every reason to. Unless you're explaining, none of us are leaving here,' he said forcefully, slightly intimidating Hermione with the usage of profanity, but his hand was already at the pocket which had his wand, ready to pull it out if she did anything alarming. Hermione sighed. She really wasn't going to run away from this one. What happened to the nice Draco Malfoy which she had spent that day in the Hospital Wing with? His anger was probably from the fact that his pride had been degraded by his actions, and that he wanted her to feel even more embarrassed than she already was just to make himself feel better.

'What do you want me to explain, Malfoy?' she dropped her head low, as she leaned over McGonagall's table, back facing Draco. Although she couldn't see him looking at her, she still felt his stare bore through her back, like he was crucifying her with his eyes.

'Why the fuck did you push me away?' his words were painful even as he had spoken it. It was something which he had never experienced before, a girl pushing him away. Not this Slytherin Sex God.

'Because it's wrong, and you know it too.' She turned around to face him now, suddenly gaining courage to have a comeback for every insult that he could possibly shoot at her.

'I'm Draco Malfoy, it's not wrong if it feels good, and you have to admit that it felt good, Granger,' he smirked at her. With that trademark smirk; all the tension faded away quicker than ice cream could melt under the scorching sun, and he began to fill himself with his pride and poise, feeling as if he were in control again. It was like the connection between them had reignited and all the embarrassment faded away, for him at least. Hermione started blushing and turned away from him.

'If we're done here I'd like to go now, Malfoy. I'm late for something important.' She lowered her head as she walked towards him, her eyes not steering far from his.

'Oh right, that bloody date with Longbottom,' he rolled his eyes in disgust. He stepped aside and let Granger go, then kicking one of the tables hard to release his fury. He would never admit it but what he felt was jealousy. How could a geek like Neville get Hermione to willingly go to him when he himself had to try to seduce her just to get her to be nice to him. 'You can't keep running away from this, Granger, and you call yourself a bloody Gryffindor,' he sneered as she left.

..

Hermione walked off hurriedly to the Room of Requirement. She had reached an agreement with Neville that they would meet after her detention. When she finally got to the Room of Requirement, she was pleased to see that there were many students already there, and all of them were gathered to listen to someone speak. It was Harry.

'I don't expect any of you to want to join again, but I really hope you do. I have to admit that this school is probably not safe because of me, and so I wish to try to do my best to make sure that all of you are capable of protecting yourselves. It's my fault that Ron is gone-' Harry's voice was breaking. He has not had a chance to talk about Ron because he had been too busy. All this time buried deep inside his heart, he still blames himself. He blames himself for ever letting Ron and the others follow him to the Department of Mysteries and since then he had been living in remorse of Ron's disappearance. He felt as if he lost another one of his loved ones, again. No one could ever feel the pain that Harry felt, of having every one he loved taken away from him one by one, with no chance of return. Harry was so strong yet he felt as if he was going to break down very soon. Hermione could not bear to see Harry this way, his best friend on the brink of breaking down in front of everyone else. He might be the chose one, but he was still a boy, and all of a sudden it was too much for him to handle alone, although he knew that he had to do this all alone. Every time he had someone help him, well, something bad happened. Hermione bit her lip and proceeded to the front to continue his speech, feeling slightly nervous with all the pairs of eyes looking at her.

'What Harry is trying to say, is that he cares very much for everyone here, and he feels as if it's his duty to protect all of you, by that meaning by teaching us how to protect ourselves because at the end of the day there will only be one Harry, and that one Harry has to fight You-Know-Who, which is again, with the intention to protect us. They say Hogwarts is the safest place to be but look at what has happened over the years. From Basilisk attacks to a so-called 'serial killer' in the school, to the death of one of our very own! Right under the noses of our teachers and other adults. If we can't protect ourselves, no one can. Look around and look at the people around you, their faces. Do these people look like weak witches and wizards? No. We are in the finest school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and we have the potential to be the greatest, so why let it go to waste by not being able to fight back? There's a Muggle saying : 'United we stand, divided we fall.' We may still be in school, but if we are all together as one, we can fight evil, we can be strong. So are you going to be strong and fight or shy away like the weak? But then again, there are risks, and we don't want to force anyone into doing anything they don't want to so please, think about it and if you want to call quits, leave now, because I do not wish to waste your time any longer. Thank you.' Hermione ended her speech.

The crowd looked at her in silence for awhile and then suddenly Luna started clapping. A few others then continued clapping after her and soon the whole crowd was cheering for Hermione. No one left the room as the cheers died down.

'So where do I sign up?' Seamus shouted out, and a smile appeared on Hermione's face. She took out a piece of parchment and everyone began writing their names on it. She felt quite pleased with herself as she looked through all the names after the list was done. She bit her lip when she realised that there were no Weasley's on the list because all of them were either at home, ill or taken like Ron. Hermione sighed.

'`Mione, thanks for everything, today' Harry gave her a warm smile as he placed his hand on her shoulder. They sat down in the empty Room of Requirement and Hermione wept silently, in mourning of Ron. Harry was dropping a few tears himself, and wondered what they were doing to Ron. They talked for awhile about some good memories the three of them had together and then parted ways. Harry went to meet Snape and Hermione just went back to her dorm.

Hermione sighed as she plopped down on her bed. She had no idea where her plan with Draco was heading towards, but at this point it looked as if it wasn't going anywhere towards her goal. She was ready to get Malfoy as drunk as possible to make him tell her whatever she needed to know. She wasn't about to give up, instead she was just getting started. It was strange for Hermione to gain sudden bursts of courage like she did in the Transfiguration classroom to face Draco, but she blamed it on her inner Gryffindor. Then again, there was a voice in the back of her head telling her that she was being heartless, using Malfoy like that. Although it was Draco Malfoy in her plan, he was still a human being, with feelings. No hate, no love, just business, she told herself once again. But could she do it? The more she tried contemplating a plan that considered emotions as her advantage, she couldn't bring herself to leave out her own emotions. Which Malfoy was the real one and which was the one under the influence of Amortentia. She was confused herself.

Just at that moment she heard a rattling on the window, like a bird's beak knocking on it. She opened the window and a beautiful Eagle Owl perched on the window and it dropped a rolled up parchment into her hands and left.

Astronomy Tower after dinner.
Don't be late, Granger.

Last post of the week ! :D so hope you guys enjoy! Oh and I want your feedback on :
1. Your feelings if Ron comes back TOO SOON (; [cause I see some ginger hate in the reviews] Weasley is our king, no?
2. If Ginny hooks up with a Slytherin :B
3. If HARRY falls for a Slytherin O:

Yep, so if you got a moment, tell me whatcha' think aye' ? :D
Loves xx