Beginning note to new Readers:This story is NOT Cannon. Draco is out of character. I'm aware of this fact. And its AU in that The Half Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows didn't happen. Draco did not Complete his mission. Nor did he take the mark; He fled instead and is MISSING for the entirety of the war. PLEASE keep that in mind when freaking out because he's out of character or knowing things you don't think he should. Also, If you plan to review, don't just leave me a message saying there are errors my beta missed; if you spot one, please tell me what it is and I will go back in and fix it. Thank you.
Chapter 10: Star
Draco stood there for an anxious moment, hand extended, waiting for her to make her decision. It sort of felt like he'd bared his soul or something, with the way she was looking at him. And he might as well have; he'd stupidly been making a lot of double edged comments lately. 'I found you something new to decipher and it happens to be me?' It was only a matter of time before she saw right though him and he just couldn't help himself.
He thought his heart was going to leap out of this throat when she finally decided, placing her own hand hesitantly in his palm and sending him a wary, but game smile.
He quietly croaked 'Accio Broom' and dashed outside with her in tow, trying to calm the nervous racing of his heart.
"Draco I'm afraid of flying." She whispered when he caught the broom in his other hand.
He turned back to face her, grinning stupidly as he leaned over to whisper in her ear in return. "Don't worry; you're safe with me."
He then swung his leg over the broom,scooting back for her to get on in front of him and pulled her back to sit tightly against him, locking an arm around her waist.
She dug her fingers into his forearm when he lightly kicked off from the ground, levitating them for a moment before taking off into the sky.
He loved the feeling of the wind on his face, and he savored it for a moment before looking down his nose at the young woman tucked into his chest.
She was frightened, but willing to let him take her wherever he pleased. It made him near giddy.
Leaning down to brush lips against her ear, he started to whisper another song to her."I can show you the world. Shining, shimmering, splendid. Tell me, princess, now when did you last let your heart decide?"
When she tensed, looking up at him questioningly, he backtracked in disappointment, but masked it with the next words to the song. "I can open your eyes, Take you wonder by wonder. Over, sideways and under, on a magic...er broom ride?" He finished lamely, meeting her eye with an awkward, crooked smile.
Hermione's mouth twitched for a moment as she fought to control whatever reaction was threatening to burst loose. And then all at once she was laughing, her muscles relaxing to conform to his chest as he weaved them across the sky.
He could have jumped for joy at the development, had he, you know, been on solid ground without a hunk of wood shoved in his crotch.
Instead he weaved them around the camp and back again to dance around the pyramids for a moment before touching them down on the far side of the closet one. "I find its best to stargaze when you are as close to them as possible."
"Stargazing?" She asked finally, moving to sit down on the sandy stone.
"Of course. Have I ever shown you where the consolation Draco is?" He sat down beside her, lying back with his arms behind his head to stare at the sky.
She grasped her knees, craning her neck back to join him. "No, but I took astronomy. It's that cluster of stars there right? To the north?"
He moved one hand to trace the pattern of the stars across the sky. "That's right. It's the long trail there that wraps around the celestial north pole."
He turned to watch her as she smiled up at the stars, loving the movement of her throat when she spoke. "I always loved Orion's belt and the Big Dipper; they are the only ones I can find without much work."
"You know... You can see them better... if you lay back." When she looked down at him, he wasn't sure what she saw, but she laid down next to him anyway, brown curls falling around her in a messy way that made his fingers itch to play with them. He'd had the phantom feel of her hair plaguing his fingers since she'd allowed him to touch it the first time, and now it was a horrible addiction which had him making excuses, just so he could run his hands though them.
Yes, you want her. Look at her, you know you do. It's possible she wants you, too. There is one way to ask her; It don't take a word , not a single word; go on and kiss the girl.
Draco blinked for a minute, wondering what the hell was wrong with his head that that had started playing. As there was absolutely no way he was actually going to kiss her. Not yet anyway. For one, his master plan told him to wait for a better time than 20 minutes after a nasty breakup to attempt to. For two, she would kill him for it in the morning. She may be willing now, as she was hurting, but come the sun she would be angry. And he was in no way going to take advantage of her.
My, oh, my. Look at the boy too shy; He ain't gonna kiss the girl. Ain't that sad. Ain't it shame, too bad. You gonna miss the girl.
Oh god he was getting mocked by a crab. What was wrong with him?
"Look, there's Ursa Major. On the far side of Draco. Mother always told me he was chasing the great snakes tail, since he's trying to eat Ursa Minor. It's that clump of stars right... there, see how Draco wraps around it?" He said instead.
"Oh, I do!" She said, shifting slightly to turn her face toward him, and getting sand in those curls of hers in the process. "I never thought of the star patterns like that. I always took their legends as that. I didn't even consider looking at their placement in the sky as a whole, and the stories that could be derived from that."
Don't be scared; you got the mood prepared. Go on and kiss the girl.
Oh god, why wouldn't it shut up? Bloody fucking crab. It was like it had it out for him. It wanted to ruin his master plan to win the girl. That's it. It was conspiring to ruin all his work up to now of trying to win her over by getting them working together in the first place, by tempting him.
It was not easy getting Bill to mark them as partners. It required lots of promising and some hush-hush dealings involving a pair of Weird Sisters tickets and a night in the Malfoy's French villa.
He was not going to throw all that away because a diabolical cartoon crab was urging him to swoop in for a good snog.
"There's Pegasus over to the right a ways." He again traced the pattern of the stars for her, drawing her eye to the correct cluster and viciously shoving the obnoxious singing to the back of his mind.
"You know, I always wondered: Was it a real winged horse or a Hippogriff that the constellation is named for?"
Draco's eyes shot down to look at her again, assessing the level of innocence in the comment. "You know, I've developed a bit of a phobia of Hippogriffs." He stated idly.
Hermione snorted at that, laughter tugging the corner of her mouth up when she spoke. "Well it was your fault. You boys with your posturing."
"Yes, yes." He agreed readily. "We should all be locked up in a boarding school for those horrible years where we are irrational and hormonal. Oh wait, we where. You just had the misfortune of being locked in there with us."
"Well it wasn't all bad." She twisted slightly so that her head rested on his arm too, and he allowed the movement by bringing the arm further down for her. "That time I punched you in the nose was brilliant."
"Never a more romantic scene than being called a cockroach and getting your nose broken. You must admit this is a far more enjoyable way or interacting." he knocked his head against her own playfully, and drawing a reluctant giggle from her lips. He loved making her laugh.
Float along, Listen to the song. The song say kiss the girl. Music play, Do what the music say. You wanna kiss the girl.
Holy shit, the imaginary cartoon crab singing in his head was arguing with him now. Go away! He wasn't sure how to hex a voice in his head but he was sure considering trying to figure it out. It was running out lyrics anyway; it had to end sometime.
"I never thought I'd say this, but Thank you Draco. It's definitely been interesting having a friend like you."
"Yeah?" he grinned down at her. "Well You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend. You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend; You ain't never had a friend like me."
"Oh god." Hermione groaned, putting her hands against her ears and laughing at him. "Your mind on a constant reel of Disney! You think in song, don't you?"
"Pretty much." He chuckled. Moving his free hand to tickle her arm lightly, he turned his body slightly toward her.
She shrieked and jerked back from his wiggling fingers, provoking him to come at her stronger, rolling onto his knees and pulling up his newly freed arm to attack her stomach.
"No no no no no no stop it!" She managed to get out though her giggles, as she squirmed against the stone, trying to bat his hands away.
It was then that the sky decided it was the perfect moment to open and release the years supply of rain on them,the few warning drops having been missed by the otherwise occupied pair.
She shrieked in laughter again when the cold drops hit her though her thin pajamas.
He lifted his head to the sky and put his hands on his hips. "Really? Really? We get two inches of rain here a year and you decided to give all of it to us tonight?"
Hermione just cackled at him, holding her sides, and laughing too hard for her words to make sense.
Draco looked down at her, a brilliant smile on his face while he watched her, blocking most of the rain and getting soaked in the process as he waited for her to regain her composure enough to be coherent.
Finally she wiped her eyes, composed, but Draco was sure a rightly placed twitching finger would send her over into fits again.
"Come on, let's get down from here before we catch colds."
He rolled back onto his feet, standing and offering her his hand again. She accepted it without a single moment of hesitation and he could have started singing again.
Without any further production, he swung them up onto the broom and took off into the air, zooming quickly back towards the tent city that was Gringotts base camp.
When they touched down a few tents away from their own, Draco's nose crinkled at the feeling of wet sand between his toes. " Hold on, don't put your feet down yet," he slipped off the broom from behind her and walked around the side. "Slip off the side and get on my back. Wet sand feels gross."
"Very gentlemanly of you." Hermione commended while doing as he had instructed.
"Eh." He shrugged, grasping hold of her bared thighs to hoist her legs up higher round his waist. "No use for us both to have to wash our feet at the door. Grab the broom." It was an amazing feeling, having her trust him enough, or rather being comfortable enough with him that she allowed the contact.
The rest of the apprentices breathed a sigh of relief when the two shuffled in the door, looking a complete mess; covered in sand and soaked to the bone, but laughing as if nothing had happened. It meant everything was alright, and life was going to go back to it regularly scheduled programming.
Note: I would just like to state for the record that this chapter was not actually supposed to be this long. I originally intended it to be about a page long, if that, but its just...exploded into 3 times that. I don't know. This is what happens when I'm allowed to write cute and fluffy romantic-ish stuff. -.-