Chapter Ten- Over Christmas
A/N: Half of this chapter is checked and edited accordingly. The other half is probably bad. I don't care. I'm getting this up to you guys so you can get the chapter you deserve. I'm listening to the Titanic soundtrack for some reason right now and it makes me want to cry… Such a sad film and a sad happenstance in history… Either way, you're all caught up with me, so now we can all expect chapters to be less quick in the coming, unless my brain goes: OH MY GOD OF COURSE GRAB A PENCIL AND WRITE THIS ALL OVER YOUR HISTORY WORK! Which it probably won't… Here's the chapter anyway! (Who's excited for The Casual Vacancy? I am! I want my Mum to buy it, but I'll probably have to wait until Christmas…) Oh, and thank you to the wonderful Luna and The Marauders Rock, for giving us all a brilliant plot line to follow which wouldn't have been as fun to write if I had not listened to her advice! YAY LUNA AND THE MARAUDERS ROCK! (Over excited much? Yeah...)
"Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love." ~John le Carre
(amaria12345, who do you think this pretty much sums up?)
Draco's homecoming was met by different reactions by different people. His mother, who had worried over him during his entire autumn term, showered him with love and affection, though most of it was unrequited. The Dark Lord paid great interest to him, questioning him deeply at the first on his task, how far he had gotten, how close he was to completing it, so on and so forth, though his only interest truly was how close he was getting to taking over Hogwarts.
When the Dark Lord heard of the mishap with the poison, he had been… less than pleased. Draco's Aunt Bellatrix, of course, pounced on the opportunity to reprimand her nephew and to eagerly teach him the Dark Ways. 'Double-coat', 'Imperius' and 'secrecy' were what she was most often heard whispering to him in the dark hallways of Malfoy Manor.
Draco never once mentioned Hermione Granger, and neither did the Deatheaters.
One dinnertime, as the house elves were serving the main course- Filet Mignon with a creamy shallot sauce and crispy onions, the Dark Lord brought up a topic that, by that time, everybody around the table had gotten bored of.
"So, Draco, any luck with your attempts to get Deatheaters into Hogwarts?"
"My Lord, I am pursuing a hint given to me about a broken Vanishing Cabinet. It is connected to a similar one in Borgin and Burkes." Draco replied diplomatically. At the Dark Lord's interested look, he reluctantly continued. "However, I have hit a slight problem. The Vanishing Cabinet cannot function properly without Yetisol-Azurae, of which I have… none."
"Oh, no matter Draco," The Dark Lord laughed lightly. "We will simply have Severus bring you some in via his Floo, which, by personal request by Dumbledore, no less, s not being monitored."
Eager to change the direction of the conversation, Draco looked around. "Say, my Lord, where is my Aunt and that other Deatheater… What is his name? Some type of monkey…"
Narcissa, Draco's mother, coughed. "Gibbon, son. His name is Gibbon."
"Yes, Gibbon, exactly." Draco nodded.
The Dark Lord smiled condescendingly at him and said vaguely, "Bellatrix is helping Gibbon with a certain thing I would like him to do."
That was the end of the conversation.
On his way back to his room, Draco had to bass by Gibbon's room, on the third floor. He paused when he heard a deep-throated grunt.
"No, no, no, you're doing it all wrong!" Came his Aunts shrill commentary. "That… That is really, really wrong!"
"Oh yeah?" Came Gibbon's voice. "Well if you think it's so easy, you do it."
"Fine." His aunt sounded smug. There was a pause, and then Gibbon spoke, sounding confused.
"How did you do… that?"
Another pause.
"Now that… that just makes you look like a slut." His Aunt sighed. Draco's eyes widened and he decided he didn't want to know what they were doing. He hastily retreated to his room.
The rest of the holiday was uninteresting. Draco, in his spare time, tried to search for Granger's body. He had no luck, but refused to give up, so it would seem as if he'd actually done something over the holidays.
When Draco got to Hogwarts he walked straight to the Room of Requirement, their undeclared meeting place to hell her that he wasn't completely useless, and how he had arranged for Yetisol-Azurae to be given to them- maybe Granger had stolen some from Slughorn while everyone was away, then they could carry on sooner. However, when Draco had searched around the room, he came to the relation that she simply was not there. Draco was confused, until he realised that she was probably just in the library, doing what she did best- reading. Sighing, he turned and walked out of the door.
On his way to the library, Draco was forced to take a detour, since, standing oblivious to everybody else, was Potter, Weasley and Granger. Draco was about to turn a corner when he realised what he had seen.
Potter, Weasley and Granger.
Granger.
Back in her body, as if nothing had happened to her. Laughing and joking with Potter and Weasley. She felt him staring, and turned to meet his silver, questioning gaze.
"What do you want Malfoy?" Granger asked coolly, narrowing her eyes at him. Draco was shocked at her rudeness, but masked it quickly with a sneer.
"I was just wondering when you had returned, Granger." He replied.
"It's none of your business, frankly." Granger snapped. Draco's eyebrows rose. Even before 'The Incident', Granger had never spoken to him as she just had.
"Hermione…" Potter looked at her worriedly. The girls brown eyes went wide, and then she began to sniffle.
"I'm sorry, Harry." She said pathetically, "It's just… He knows when I… when I escaped. He knew where I was the… the w… whole time!" She burst out crying, and Weaselbee shot Draco a glare that could kill, pulling her into a comforting hug.
"Shove off, Malfoy." He ground out through clenched teeth.
"Careful Brown doesn't see you two like that, Won-Won." Draco hissed, turning on his heel and storming off. He wasn't going to the library now. There was no point. Granger was back to normal. It was clear she didn't need his help anymore, and even more so that she did not want it.
When Draco got back to his dormitory, he found it empty. On his crisp, newly washed duck-feathered pillows was a book, flicked open to a page. One look at the chapters sub-title told him what it was. 'Paranormalcy in The Wizarding World: Ghosts A-Z' by Roland Finch lay where it had been placed, silently mocking him.
She doesn't need you anymore, the book seemed to whisper. She hates you again. You mean nothing to her. She will not help you. You are on your own now. She hates you. She is disgusted by you. She despises…
"SHUT UP!" Draco yelled loudly, drowning out the tome's mocking tone. He picked up the book and threw it against the nearby wall with as much force as he could muster. He was rewarded with a deep thud as it collided with its target.
Draco collapsed on his newly made bed heavily, suddenly exhausted, and placed his head in his hands. Why was he so affected by what had happened less than five minutes ago? If anything, he should be happy Granger was back as she had once been, it was less for him to worry about, and one thing he did not have to do anymore this year. He had had enough on his plate without Granger's problems being lumped onto him as well.
So why did he feel so betrayed? So lonely? So… so angry? What had been that churning feeling in the pit of his stomach when Granger had glared at him so coldly; her gaze had been like ice? When Weasley had held her like he had? What was going on? Draco sighed and closed his eyes, trying to put the picture of Granger's hatred towards him to the back of his mind… Why did he care? She was back now; he never had to speak to her again! So… why did that bother him?
He felt as if he had only closed his eyes for a second, but when he opened them, the candles in his dormitory were lit, signalling that night had fallen around the castle. For a second he wondered what had woken him up, he felt as if he could had slept for years without waking, but then he saw Zabini standing in front of him, holding that infernal book by one of its covers, swinging it back and fore.
"This yours?" He asked impatiently. Draco nodded.
"Throw it in my trunk." Draco replied sleepily, and Zabini rolled his eyes. Draco was barely able to get undressed and get under the covers of his bed, drawing his emerald bed curtains shut, before he curled up into a ball, squeezing his eyes together tightly and letting the blissful sleep reclaim him.
A/N: More drama for Drakie-Poo… Really should be putting more of Hermione's side of things in here, but we all know I can't be bothered to right now. We'll see, though… Maybe in the really important capital lettered point of the story I have written down on the plot? That could be Hermione's place to sort out her mind… Don't mind me, just thinking on a keyboard, move onto the thanks!
Thanks to MFINGA25, Laugh-Dream-Love and GottaGetBackUp for favouriting.
Thanks to MFINGA25, Laugh-Dream-Love, 567random, Delaney Snow, GottaGetBackUp, PSLW and Shadow15Raven for following.
Thanks to XMissxHallawayX (Thank you for such compliments! Must remind myself to look at your favourites list, been meaning to do it, but everybody keeps updating their stories… not that I'm complaining…), MFINGA25 (Thank you!), Sophia Lena Duchannes Riddle (Considering I'm technically reading Beautiful Creatures now I should be giving you tons of advice, but the only thing my mind can come up with is write a number on your hand! Heh it's decided that it's work is done for this week and will not work again until it decides to write something else. But for Hermione hair I recommend plaiting your hair before you go to bed, then unplaiting in the morning, unless you have naturally frizzy hair like moi!), bookreader28982012 (Thank you!), moonlight fire xx (Thank you!) GottaGetBackUp (I love your name! You're the song stuck in my head though… And thank you!) and amaris12345 (Yes, yes he is. Such a big river of denial, and it's getting deeper…)
Finally, WE HIT THE 50 REVIEW MARK! Normally I'd wait until 100 but I CAN'T HELP IT! Yay to bookreader28982012 for being my 50th reviewer, and to Sophia Lena Duchannes Riddle for being my 49th reviewer, since 49 is my favourite number, though I have no idea why. Something to do with it being 7 squared probably….
Either way, REVIEW MORE SO I CAN BE HAPPY!
~Comix