AMPHIGORY of THE MIND
9
The next time he saw her was on a dark rainy morning.
He was rudely shocked out of his nearly drunken stupor by a sharp knock on his modest flat's door. (Modest compared to the extravagant manor he grew up in).
Planting his whiskey glass on the polished oak table, he rose with the enthusiasm of a hibernating grizzly wondering who could be knocking at such an unholy hour.
And as he paced all 37 steps of the wooden hallway from his study to the door he began to wonder. Could it be Blaise who back from his midnight romp with Elise or Ysabelle or Stella or… what was her name? Ah… Marjorie, come to tell him that his night companion actually had a recently single close friend who is so vulnerable at the moment would be happy to have the sole heir to the Malfoy fortune grace her bedroom if only for a night?
Could it be his mother who felt the need for company because she had nothing better to do than transforming the colors of her cottage curtains into another unnamed shade of nauseating tangerine?
Draco stopped momentarily on step number 34. Or could it be…
35
… he took a deep breath
36
…
Click. Low and Behold. There was Hermione Granger on his front steps.
He felt his stomach churn. Why should he be surprised? A voice rang in his head.
"Granger," he began lugubriously. He took a breath. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
She shifted uncomfortably in her large black coat and boots. Her unruly hair seemed to sparkle with small droplets from the rain. Her large chestnut eyes rose to meet his with an emotion he could not fathom. It had been exactly 37 days since he saw her fuming in her kitchen telling him what he could and could not do.
"I take it you haven't obliviated yourself yet or you have but have done a substandard job and yourself wondering why you are here… Ah, come in then come in…" he said half mockingly and half surprising the little voice in his head. He knew the little voice was surprised, because it was screaming "What the bloody hell are you doing?" over and over again.
Stepping aside languidly, he made a gentlemanly gesture to allow her to enter.
She looked at him clearly trying to mask her discomfort. "I won't stay long… I just need to give you something." She said as she stepped through the doorway. He was pretty sure that the little voice in her head was screaming the same thing his had been a few seconds before.
His eyebrows arched in curiosity. "A gift?" he chuckled. "I don't believe you can possibly give me anything more amusement than you already have arriving here at this hour. And a month ago I recall…"
She twisted her head sharply to face him with a ferocious glare. "Don't." She inhaled slowly as if to calm her nerves.
"Ah, so you do remember." He smiled darkly.
"I believe the very last thing you told me that morning was that nothing happened. So let's keep the nothing that happened in the dark chapters of our lives that we will Never. Speak. Of. Again. "
"Ah yes," he smirked as he led her through the hallway. "Pity, this must be one of the few moments in your life that you've solved something by doing nothing. But… that is the genius that is Hermione Granger now is it not?"
She sighed as she reminded herself that she was not in her territory. They approached the study and Draco eyed her mockingly. She seemed a fair amount smugger than she did a moment before on his porch. He felt some satisfaction that he could change her mood so quickly with a few taunts.
"Sit…" he motioned to the chair right across his oak table just as he retook his own seat. "Now, what gift do you have for me?"
She motioned to remove her red mittens and as they came off he noticed her nails. They were terribly shaped, as if she had been biting on them in anxiety. He wondered, how much of that night did she actually remember…
Drawing a small beaded bag from under the layers of her coat she looked at him for a brief moment before taking out the long piece of wood and laying it on the table before him.
He gaped and then looked from the object to its giver. "How?"
"I apologize Malfoy. I meant to give this to you a long time ago. I just… I believe there were … circumstances… distractions that prevented me from doing so."
He held the piece of wood as if it was sacred. Well, it had been after all, to him. He looked at it, eyes it with such fervor and even as he spoke to her he did not take his eyes off it. "You have no idea… how hard it has been without…"
"I understand the connection between a wizard and his first wand."
He looked up from his wand and met her gaze. "I have not known gratitude for as long as I have lived. I believe, this is the closest I shall ever come to it."
"You're welcome Malfoy."
As she stood and signaled to leave, his strained voice asking her to stay for a cup of tea was drowned out in the downpour outside. . .
…
A/N: I hope you guys likey. I'm a bit ambivalent about this chapter. Somehow it may come off as the characters lacking a bit of connection however, I wanted to illustrate a development in their relationship without the drama of Hermione contemplating the morality of what had happened between her and Draco and that One-Night-Stands can happen without their worlds stopping because the world around us never stops just because we dwell on our mistakes. That's it. Please Review. Thanks!