Draco's head pounded.
After over an hour of sitting with his mother above the frilly tea shop, she finally let him go spend time with his friends. Of course, that was after an hour of him dodging all the questions she had about Hermione Granger and what they planned to do. She even had the gall to ask when they should set the wedding date. He had to explain, multiple times, that there was nothing between him and Granger—at least not yet—and he even got her to begrudgingly agree to not bother Granger anymore.
Once he was done at the tea shop, he made his way to the Three Broomsticks, where the whole place was abuzz with some sort of drama regarding Potter and the Weaslette.
Of course, no one knew exactly what had happened, only that Potter had stormed off and left behind a distraught She-Weasel in his wake.
Draco couldn't care less as he ordered himself a butterbeer, wishing it was something stronger. He hung out with Theo and Blaise for a bit—thankfully the girls had gone off on their own—before all the talk about Potter around him started to give him a headache. They finally left the pub and went to Honeydukes, where he picked up a few of his favourite sugar quills and some assorted chocolates for Granger—though if anyone had asked, they were for him.
When they left the sweet shoppe, Theo and Blaise decided to check out a few more places, but Draco opted to head on back to Hogwarts. His head was pounding, and he needed a reprieve from all the chatter that seemed to surround him.
He was halfway back to the castle when he heard an ethereal voice behind him.
"Hullo, Draco."
Draco turned and saw that Luna had caught up with him. He wanted to snarl at her to leave him alone but then remembered how she willingly kept him company on the train ride and felt an odd sort of affection for her.
He gave her a nod, slowing his stride so that she could match his pace. "Lovegood. How was your day at Hogsmeade?"
"It wasn't very good," she said sadly. "Ginny and Harry broke up."
Draco rolled his eyes. "So I've heard, many times."
"I did get a chance to get some new quills though, so the trip wasn't a complete waste," she mused. "And I got some chocolate frogs for my father. He likes to collect the cards, you see."
Draco couldn't help but smile. "Doesn't everybody?"
They talked companionably until they reached the school. Draco winced at the bright lights of the castle, and Luna looked at him curiously.
"Does your head hurt?" she asked.
"I just have a headache, nothing to worry about. I'll take some pain potion and be fine," he reassured her.
Luna reached into her pocket and slipped on her spectre glasses. "Ah yes, that makes sense," she said knowingly.
He raised a brow at her. "What does?"
"You have a bunch of wrackspurts swarming around your ears. They're what is causing your headache. I can get rid of them for you if you want?" she offered.
Draco shrugged. "Sure, why not."
Luna took out a balm of some sort and rubbed it on his temples. It smelled of lavender and peppermint, and it felt cool upon contact.
"There," she said, smiling. "They don't like the overpowering scent of the peppermint, and lavender helps the nerves calm down from the infestation."
Whether wrackspurts existed or not, the concoction that Luna used was helping his headache tremendously.
"Thank you," he said sincerely. He reached into his cloak pocket and pulled out one of the sugar quills he had purchased and handed it to Luna.
"Oh, my favorite," she said, unwrapping and nibbling the sugary candy.
"Draco?!" he heard someone squeak behind him. He turned to see Pansy and Daphne staring at him with shocked expressions.
"Yes?" he asked.
"What are you doing hanging out with Loony Lovegood?" Pansy asked.
Draco instantly scowled. "Don't call her that."
"Why? Are you having a secret relationship with both Granger and her too?" Pansy shrieked.
"Oh, Draco and I aren't in a secret relationship. We're in an open friendship," Luna said simply. "I didn't know about him and Hermione though… but it makes sense," she said with a light shrug. Luna turned back to face him, the shock on his face evident even to himself. "Thank you for the sugar quill. I'll see you later, friend."
Draco watched as Luna—floated? Flounced? He wasn't really sure, but it wasn't really walking—towards Ravenclaw Tower.
He turned his attention back to Pansy, who was staring at him with her arms crossed. "Who are you?" she asked, stomping past him towards the common room.
Daphne followed suit, throwing him an apologetic grimace before she caught up with her friend.
Sighing and wanting nothing more than to eat an early dinner and head to bed, he opened the Great Hall doors and was assaulted by the voice of a very angry Hermione Granger.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT! TO HARRY!" Hermione yelled, staring Ginny Weasley down in the middle of the Great Hall.
The Weaslette was holding her own, but she looked as if she was fighting back tears. "Of course you'd take his side. You always take his side!" she shouted back.
"Do you really expect me to take your side when you're the one who was feeding him a love potion for OVER A YEAR?!"
Gasps erupted all around the Hall followed by whispered chatter.
"You don't understand!" Weasley cried, stomping her foot in frustration.
"I understand PLENTY," Hermione said icily, nearly nose to nose with the witch. "Harry wouldn't give you the time of day, so you took it upon yourself to make him. How long were you planning on keeping it up? Your whole lives? DID YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM TOM RIDDLE!"
"Miss Granger, that is enough," the Headmistress intervened, sweeping into the Great Hall and causing silence to fall in the corridor.
"Riddle was conceived due to a love potion given to his father by his mother," Hermione continued, ignoring the elder witch. "That was why he couldn't love, why he couldn't even fathom the concept of it. Would you have really wanted your child to be like Voldemort?" Hermione said, seething.
"ENOUGH, Miss Granger," McGonagall said, stepping between the two witches. "Twenty house points from Gryffindor for causing a scene during dinner. Now, Miss Weasley, I'd like for you to come with me; I think we need to discuss some concerning reports I've heard. Miss Granger, go cool off. While your anger is warranted, I think you need to step away and calm down."
"Fine," Hermione said, not taking her eyes off Ginny. She shot Ginny a withering glare as she grabbed her cloak and stormed out of the hall right past Draco.
"Everyone, back to your dinner," McGonagall said sternly.
The silence that had ensued was replaced with instant murmuring and the clatter of cutlery.
Grumbling to himself, Draco went to the Slytherin table, grabbing sandwiches and crisps. He stuffed them into his cloak pocket then left the Great Hall behind to go look for Granger.
He knew where to find her without having to really try. He spotted her pacing the middle of the Quidditch Pitch and watched as she flicked her wand and conjured up some dueling dummies used in the Dueling Club. She started firing spell after spell at her wooden enemies, the force of each one nearly knocking them down; one even burst into flames. Draco sat on a nearby bench to watch, and when she stopped to catch her breath, he finally spoke up.
"Remind me to never be on the receiving end of one of your duels," he said.
"What do you want?" she asked testily, barely looking at his direction.
"I came to give you this," he said, pulling the food out of his pocket and setting it down on the bench next to him.
"Why?" she asked skeptically.
Draco shrugged, opening one of the sandwiches. He took a bite and swallowed before he answered. "I figured you probably hadn't eaten and that you won't after what happened in the Great Hall just now."
Hermione glowered at him. "Don't pretend like you care, Malfoy. Nothing has changed between us, so just leave me alone."
She went back to facing off with the dummies, positioning herself in the appropriate fighting stance.
"You're wrong," he said, and she whirled around to look at him.
"Excuse me?" she asked incredulously.
He grabbed the remaining sandwich and walked over to where she was, holding it out towards her. With a sigh, she snatched it from his hand and began eating.
"While nothing has really changed between us, this soulmate thing is real. Plus, I wanted to check up on you to make sure you weren't going to hurt yourself." He watched as she ate the last of the sandwich. "And to bring you food," he said with a knowing smirk.
She glared at him, but it was without heat. "Oh, shut up. It's been a long day, and I haven't eaten anything since breakfast." She wiped the crumbs from her shirt and looked up at him. "Thank you… for the sandwich and for checking up on me. I'm fine, really. I just needed to get out some anger and this—" she motioned towards the dummies "—seemed like the safest option."
"What exactly happened?" he asked. "Between Potter and Weasley."
"You don't have to pretend to care," she repeated, this time with a sigh.
"Indulge me," he said. He pulled out his wand and shot a spell at one of the dummies then motioned for her to take a turn. She gave him a small smile, then turned her attention to her target and fired a spell of her own.
She relayed the story to him as they each took turns firing different spells. When the sun was starting to set and a slight breeze picked up, Hermione conceded it was time to go back to the castle.
"You know, we'll have to find a different spot to meet up at and talk," she mused. "Winter is just around the corner, and I'm not about to go traipsing through freezing temperatures to have these secret pow-wows."
Draco's brows creased in confusion. "What the hell is a pow-wow?" he asked.
Hermione chuckled. "Nevermind."
News of what happened between Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley spread like wildfire throughout the school. It was the topic of every conversation, and it became so bad that teachers had to ban the students from talking about 'the incident' during class time, much to Hermione's relief.
Ginny seemed to have holed herself up in her dorm room, avoiding everyone as much as she could. Hermione knew the girl usually wasn't one to back down, but when the entire school was angry with her for doing something so cruel to The Boy Who Lived, well… even she felt it was safest Ginny stayed away, at least for the time being.
Luna was the only person who was still talking to Ginny, and according to her, even the other Gryffindors were ignoring their housemate. Hermione heard through the tendrils of gossip that the Headmistress had allowed the house-elves to bring Ginny her meals up to her room for the remainder of the weekend.
Hermione couldn't feel bad about the whispers that followed her old friend wherever she went.
For the most part, she had said what she needed to say to the girl during their altercation in the Great Hall and never looked the redhead's way since. She buried herself in her work, meeting up with Astoria in the library nearly every evening. The two girls had become good friends, but what Hermione liked most was that Astoria could care less about all the gossip. She never brought up Ginny or Harry, and Hermione was greatful.
They sat in their little corner, books and parchment spread out before them, and worked on their assignments in silence except for the occasional question here and there. It wasn't until something was glowing in Astoria's backpack that Hermione finally took a break from her work.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the other girls bag.
Astoria looked to what Hermione was referring. "Oh, that's the notebook. Daph must have written to me."
"Oh! So you, uh, found it then?" Hermione asked. She completely forgot that the last time she had seen it, it was in the hands of Draco Malfoy, nearly a week before.
Astoria nodded as she pulled the book out. "Yes. Apparently, Draco had it. It must have fallen out, and he recognized it as mine and held it for safekeeping until he saw me again."
"Well, that was thoughtful of him," Hermione mused.
Astoria smiled. "I told you he wasn't that bad. I actually think you two would be great friends if you gave each other a chance."
Hermione smiled back. "We've actually been on rather… agreeable terms lately."
"Oh?" asked the blonde, returning to her work.
"Yes. Since we share a common space now, it seems only reasonable that we start being amiable with one another, for everyone's sake, including our own."
Astoria chuckled. "Yes, Daphne mentioned that Pansy has been rather put out about that. I, for one, think it's great. Perhaps one day we can all study together. You, me, and Draco. I think we'd make a most excellent study group, don't you?"
Hermione considered what Astoria said and smiled to herself. "Yes, I do believe that is a great idea."
I know some of you were hoping to see the conversation between Draco and his Mother... I'm sorry that I skimmed over that part, but don't worry., we'll see the Malfoy Matriarch later on in the fic!
I hope everyone had a great weekend!
Until next time
xoxo HufflepuffMommy