*Updated. Severe changes from here on out.
"What?" Hermione whispered.
Draco sighed. They were both lying down, facing each other. Draco took Hermione's hands and began to fiddle with her fingers, focusing only on her fingers as he began to speak.
"Rodolphus Lestrange found out it was you who fought Bellatrix and got her sent back to Azkaban. He was so angry, that he's set to kill you. Now, for the past few days, my father and I have been owling. I knew I loved you days ago. So, I told my father, and I told him I didn't care about blood status. He was furious." Draco paused. "Anyway, he must have remembered me. When he heard what Uncle Roddy was going to do, he tried to persuade him not to. They dueled, and my father died." His voice broke.
"Draco..." Hermione whispered, crying now. She touched his face and wiped away tears with her fingers softly.
"And what I'm more concerned about," Draco said, "is that Uncle Roddy is still out there, still set on killing you."
Hermione kissed her fingers and stroked Draco's cheek. "It's okay..." She soothed. "I'll be okay."
"I hope so," Draco whispered, pulling her close. "Otherwise I'd kill him."
Hermione snuggled into his bare chest, her heart fluttering wildly at the tale she'd just heard, wishing she could feel even a tinge of fear. But none came, as when she was wrapped up in Draco like this, she felt they were invincible.
She slowly drifted off to sleep.
When she woke up, Draco was gone. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, then wandered to the bathroom. She threw her pajamas and such into the hamper she kept in there, and climbed into the shower. As she was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair (with cold water to make it nice and soft), she heard a strange growl from outside the door. She peered around the curtain. The doorknob was twisting. Hermione had locked it, though she knew that any wizard who had passed first year would know how to unlock it by magic.
She got back in the shower and slowly rinsed the rest of the shampoo out of her hair. Then she heard the door slam against the wall. She slipped and fell, hitting her head on the drain. She was in so much pain that she couldn't move, lying in the slowly filling bathtub. She heard heavy footsteps walk slowly to the shower. The person ripped back the shower curtain, pulling it off of the shower rungs. Draco stood before her menacingly.
"Get up," he said.
Hermione did so, even though moments before she couldn't move.
"Get out."
Hermione stepped over the side of the tub.
"Get covered up."
Hermione took a towel and wrapped it around her naked body, not taking the time to thoroughly dry off (obviously.) (A/N: Haha! Trying to write that my fingers wouldn't work for some reason, and it came out, 'Hermione took a towel and wrapped it around her baked body, not taking the time to thoroughly fry.' Haha! Anyway...)
"Follow me."
Hermione's feet move as if detached from her own body. They walked after Draco, who was scaring her.
He took her to the kitchen, where he had laid out a huge breakfast.
"Eat," he commanded, rifling through drawers.
Hermione sat and began to eat slowly.
She soon noticed that his hair was changing color drastically, and he was gripping the counter, as if in horrible pain.
"Draco, love?" Hermione asked, standing and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Fine!" He growled. It seemed the effects of a pollyjuice potion had worn off.
Rodolphus Lestrange lifted a huge butcher knife and put it to Hermione's throat.
"This will teach you to put my wife in jail!" He yelled madly, and brought the knife to Hermione's throat hard.
Hermione's blood curdling scream was cut off by a choking sound.
He was laughing. "Hermione!" He said. "Hermione!"
Hermione's eyes snapped open. Draco was looming over her. Still delirious from the dream, Hermione began to cry and tried to pull away from Draco, and he let her. She flew across the room and huddled in the corner.
"Don't hurt me," she whispered.
He slowly approached her. "I won't," he whispered back. "Why would I hurt you?"
Hermione shivered, shook her head, and then snapped out of it. "Oh. I'm so sorry, Draco." She stood and Draco folded her in his arms. "I had a nightmare."
Draco held her tighter and led her back into the bed. "Don't apologize, love. You can't control that. Do you want to tell me about it?"
Hermione snuggled into him. "Hm...I don't remember all of it...I think it had something to do with you...and dying."
He chuckled. "That is scary."
Hermione giggled nervously. The next thing she knew, she had blinked, and it was morning.
Unlike in the dream, Draco was lying besides her, breathing evenly. She took the time again to examine him, now having the courage to stroke his face and brush his hair back.
"I love you," she whispered, kissing his cheek lightly. Her stomach flipped as she said that. It was different from when she said things like that to Ron. Now, it felt like the words "I love you," had so much more of a meaning.
She slowly climbed out of bed, making sure she didn't disturb Draco, and climbed into the shower. She showered as quickly as possible, her heart beating so fast, she was surprised there was no blood flowing into the drain.
When she was out and dressed, Draco was up as well, and was in the kitchen, cooking. He told her to just wait in the living room, because her "Beauty is distracting." She sat down on the couch and watched Parry Hotter and the Clan of the Pigeon. She leaned over on her elbow, and heard a crinkling sound. She noticed a letter.
Though it was addressed to Draco, Hermione became curious. Making sure Draco wasn't there, she picked it up and read,
"My Darling Draco,
My heart is br-king as I tell you this. Your Uncle Roddy, mad as he is, found out what your mudblood girlfriend did to my sist-, and he became angry. You see, they would both be promoted in the Dark Lord's inner circle if Harry Potter was captured. Granger got in the way. You know how Bella-x cannot resist inflicting death and pain.
Draco, your father cared deeply for you. He went a-er Roddy because he knows you love the mudblood. And we all know who the stronger of the two is. After they had both b-n disarmed, your father wa- punched until he died.
Draco, baby, I implore you, break up with her befo- you are both hurt. Break all ties with her. Roddy is set now. When he is set, he sees nothing but what he is set to do. He will kill you if he has to to get to Granger.
I love you so much. So did your father.
Love
Your Mum
Narcissa Malfoy
Hermione was sobbing. There were spots on the letter where the words were smudged because of tears from Narcissa, then Draco, and now Hermione's own tears were wetting the page. She set the parchment aside, and looked to the TV. A tall man with long blonde hair stood on the screen, asking Parry and his friends Won Reasley, Germione Hanger, Aluna Alovegood, Leville Nongbottom, and Winny Geasley for the cube that contained the ancient divination on why Parry and Moldevort were so mean to each other.
A knew wave of tears came as she noticed how similar Lucius and Mucius were. This movie was beginning to creep her out. It was as if she had been an actress in a movie of her life, just with different name. She turned it off just as Draco came into the room.
"Why did you turn that off?" He asked. Then he looked at her face and became alarmed. (Oh man! That was priceless! "He looked at her face and became alarmed."! That so doesn't mean what it sounds like! Ahahahaha! Ahem. Anyway...) "Why are you crying?"
"It was a stupid show," Hermione said, dropping the remote.
"You were crying because it was a stupid show?" Draco asked. "That's no reason to cry-" He wiped the tears from her face.
"No..." Hermione said, holding his hand to her face. "No...I'm sorry, Draco. I read your letter. Draco, I'm going to try and stay away from you once this project is over."
"What?" He asked, alarmed. "Don't listen to my mother. It's only because she's worried about me that she wants us to break up. You being muggle-born-"
"Draco," Hermione said. "I agree with her. You're in awful danger. I know how dangerous your uncle can be. I've read plenty about him. And I would be crushed if anything happened to you."
"No," Draco said, pulling her into him. "I'm not letting you go, then."
Hermione began to struggle, but knew it was useless. "But, Draco."
"Hermione, this is not one of your silly smut books. You can't just leave me. This is life. There has to be some danger."
"I know," Hermione said. "But there's so much danger out there that I'm starting to drown in it."
His chest vibrated as he laughed. "I'll protect you. I'll be your life preserver. I will learn every spell I can just to protect you. And besides, with Dumbledore here, you will always be safe."
Hermione nodded, though she still wished the whole, "I'm leaving you for your own good" thing had worked. It would have been so romantic. She had, in fact, read a book like that. Filled with "smut" as Draco had put it.
Hermione ate breakfast in silence, keeping up her whole drama thing. Can't have "Draco Malfoy" without "Drama," right?
The four of them headed to their Life Class, where they learned about paying bills, job resumes and interviews, and washing machines.
"Now," Mrs. Weasley said when there was only a half an hour of their 45 minute class left. "It's time to get jobs. With the goblet of fire."
She picked up the large cup filled to the brim and over with fire. The flames crackled, and out came a piece of paper.
"Dean, you will apply for the makeup sales-wo...sales man job." *Puff* "Harry, you will apply for the weight training coach job." *Puff* "Cho, you will be the China polisher." *Poofers* "Ron, you have the job of grass cutter." *Sexy Puff* "Draco, you will be a menu planner." *Puffsees* "And Hermione, you will be the babysitter."
Yay! That chapter's done! Yeah, I know that it goes fast. Know what I got stuck in my head? "Purple rain, purple rain!" Yay! Good song! Anyway...Sexy blue button...review review...red stripe beer...Prince and The Revolution when doves cry (creepy music video)...Anyway if I were a singer, I would call myself Missy Fly. So, okay, bye!
Missy Fly
Lovers Dream