Beta'ed by: Audrey and Shelly Ann.
Chapter 11 Sunday's breakfast.
Hermione was toying with Malfoy's bandage on his left arm, she already had taken it off up to middle arm and was stroking the scar that was exposed, he let her only because he just had a wonderful orgasm and was too overwhelmed to stop her.
"Why are you still using the bandage? It doesn't hurt anymore and is mostly white."
"But it looks awful! I hate to have scars! Besides, it's funny to see Potter trying to look through it."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him and changed the topic.
"So, are we going to ignore each other while we try to work together?" she said playfully.
Draco had transfigured the arranged blankets and cushions into a real bed, and they were laying lazily in each others arms. Hermione hadn't managed to convince him that professor Dumbledore had no ulterior motives for pairing them together, but he was tired and in no mood to think about what Dumbledore could gain from their relationship.
He was playing with Granger's hair and tracing patterns on her arm with one finger, he still didn't know what he was going to do, he was becoming really possessive of her, he had already lashed at Potter once or twice because the boy had hugged her, if they were going to spend even more time together something in their arrangement would have to change, and he wasn't sure he'd like that to happen.
"We have been doing it well so far, if we're careful and don't start calling each other by our given names; everybody would think that we are being polite."
"Sure, if you manage not to yell at Harry for no particular reason when he is friendly with me."
"What are you implying Granger?"
"Nothing"
Draco didn't believe her; he stopped his finger's motion over her skin and sat up, turning to her.
"Look Granger, we have nothing here, apart from very good sex, and it's never going to be anything more than that."
"I know that! It's not me the one that jumps every time Ron or Harry gets too close to me."
"I'm not jealous!"
"I never said you were."
Draco glared at her smiling face and huffed.
"At least I don't get tense when someone touches me."
"I don't tense!"
"Yes, you do. I have seen you! The fact that Potter and Weasley are oblivious enough not to notice it doesn't mean I am too!"
"Well, I'm just not comfortable with their touch that's all! It's not a big deal."
Malfoy eyed her suspiciously, but let the subject drop in favor of their previous topic.
"Look, we are supposed to try and be civil to each other, no one should notice anything different between us. We shouldn't have any problem. After all, it's not as if we can't see other people."
Hermione glared at him, and then she remembered that they weren't supposed to get too comfortable with each other and she turned away, not wanting him to see how she really felt about it.
"Of course, you can always date half of the school without complications if you want." That sounded a little more aggressive that she meant it to, but at the moment she didn't care. Malfoy raised an eyebrow.
"That would mean that you could do it too."
"And what makes you think I want to!" She shouted at him. Malfoy put his hands in front of him, in pacification.
"Hey! Take it easy! I was only saying that you could!"
She turned away again, and Malfoy rolled his eyes, inwardly thinking how difficult girls were. No matter what you said, if they weren't in the mood for it, they were bound to take it the wrong way.
"Anyway, I think we can manage to keep this up without getting ourselves killed… If you want to."
Hermione sighed and turned to him, she was starting to know him better and she liked very much the 'new' Draco she was discovering. She wasn't about to let some unknown danger to her life to force her to stop seeing him, after all, being Harry's friend she was accustomed to unknown, life threatening dangers.
"Of course I want to."
"Good." He said, and leaned to give her a quick kiss on the lips, then he did a pout. "The only really bad thing about this is that I'll have to put up with wonder-boy-Potter and the weasel too."
Hermione smiled mischievously and crossed her arms.
"Would it really be that bad? Ron even will help to get suspicions away from us."
"How?" asked Malfoy, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
"Well, although Harry had talked with him, I know Ron, and I know it wouldn't be long before he'll start to try again to make advances on me. All Gryffindor already believe we would end married."
"Make it almost the entire school; you two were so lost in each other's for years. I bet the weasel was the only one dense enough not to notice."
"Well, maybe I could let him kiss me for good measure." Said Hermione, grinning at him. Malfoy looked positively horrified and did a disgusted face.
"What? That's…! Ugh! Granger! Don't put such nauseating images in my head!"
"Why not? You said we could see other people."
"Yes, but no…! Aagh! Hermione! Can't you at least make it someone more palatable?"
Hermione laughed at his disgusted face and closed her eyes, saying in mirth:
"Well, there is always Harry!"
She continued laughing, oblivious to the frozen expression that had took over Draco's features. He had paled slightly and gritted his teeth, the image of Potter kissing Hermione too vivid in his mind for his liking. He took the laughing girl by her upper arms and pulled her close to him, Hermione gasped and looked into his intense glare, not sure of what had caused that reaction. Malfoy's hand got hold of her hair and he leaned a little, their noses touching slightly.
"I said more palatable Granger, the opposite is not funny."
Hermione raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could do it Malfoy pressed his lips on hers, in a possessive kiss, and the girl let herself get lost in his passion once again.
The next day, Hermione was walking slowly to breakfast between her two friends, she was still a little tired, her 'conversation' with Draco had lasted well past midnight. The only reason she was on her feet early was because Ginny had woken her, trying to talk about 'what was Ron doing wrong?' So now she felt like a zombie and wasn't paying attention to the conversation that her two friends were having.
She wouldn't have noticed Malfoy and Goyle reaching the doors of the Great Hall at the same time than them, if not for the fact that Harry and Ron stopped suddenly, hearing the polite greeting from the blond.
"Good morning Granger, ready to have a lovely breakfast?"
Hermione blinked at him, Malfoy had in place his annoyed look, for a minute she asked herself what was he doing greeting her outside the Great Hall. Harry's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"What do you want Malfoy?"
"Yes" said Ron "We don't remember having asked for a ferret in the breakfast."
Malfoy's eyes narrowed, but he was still looking at Hermione.
"You didn't tell them? That's not very helpful of you Granger."
"Tell them what?" Hermione was a little confused. At that moment a pair of Hufflepuffs entered the Great Hall and were momentarily stunned before walking in and let the doors closed behind them, the group could still hear a distinct "What the hell?" from one of the Hufflepuffs, sudden realization hit Hermione and her eyes widened, now fully awake.
"Oh! That! Jesus, I completely forgot!"
"Figures." Malfoy almost rolled his eyes at her. Ron and Harry turned to see their friend.
"What did you forget to tell us 'Mione?" asked Harry.
"Well…" Hermione blushed slightly and Malfoy smirked, saying sarcastically.
"Come on Granger, tell them Dumbledore's brilliant idea, they're gonna love it."
Harry lifted his eyebrows in question, and Hermione sighed, hoping beyond hope that Ron wouldn't start ranting.
"You see, professor Dumbledore wants to make mixing Houses easier."
"And…?" prompted Ron. Hermione walked to the Great Hall's doors, motioning them to follow, and the three of them entered almost at the same time, followed by Malfoy and Goyle.
"And, this." Said Hermione, signaling the big table in front of them.
Harry and Ron were speechless. It was a round table; many students were sitting in uncomfortable silence, seeing the well defined boundaries of each House's territories suddenly gone. There weren't many students because it was Sunday, so they were in groups by Houses and the separation between them was clearly visible. Hermione noticed that the present Slytherins were as far away from the Gryffindors as possible, which was a considerable distance seeing the size of the table. She heard Malfoy groaning at her side and spotted Dumbledore watching them from the Head table.
Ron got out of his initial shock and asked.
"What the hell happened?"
Malfoy considered the question not worthy of being answered, Potter turned to him and Granger with wide eyes.
"Is this permanent?" he asked, Draco almost laughed at the evident anxiety in his eyes.
"Only for the weekends Potter. Thanks Merlin, we still have our tables the rest of the time."
Harry sighed with relief and turned to the table, ready to walk to the Gryffindor side of it. Ron followed him, still in semi-shock; neither noticed that Hermione remained with Malfoy. The blond boy looked longingly at the Slytherin side, and told the girl.
"Well, the sooner the better Granger."
"I think it would be better if we stay in the middle."
"It's a circular table Granger, the middle could be anywhere."
"I mean somewhere in between Slytherin and Gryffindor, Malfoy." Said her in her best annoyed tone.
"What? You don't want to be close to the serpents Granger?"
"As about the same as you'll want to sit with the lions, Malfoy."
Draco turned from one side of the table to another and frowned, then turned to the Headmaster, who was smiling happily, and for a second considered the idea of ignore the man's requirements and sit wherever he wanted to, but his eyes found professor Snape watching them coldly, the boy groaned almost painfully and turned to Hermione.
"You know? This is gonna be a completely frustrating experience."
"Come on Malfoy, we can just get over it quickly."
"Fine! The middle then."
Harry turned at that moment, realizing that Hermione hadn't followed them, and had the very bizarre and totally unwelcome vision of his friend and Malfoy walking to the table and sitting together. He stared at them openmouthed and realized he was not the only one, every present student was staring the odd movement. Draco and Hermione were pointedly ignoring everyone and started serving themselves as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening. Goyle sighed, seemingly resigned, and took a sit at Malfoy's other side; Harry felt Ron tugging at his sleeve and heard.
"What the hell is she doing?"
"I don't know." He answered, as everyone started gossiping. "I'm going with her."
Harry walked to Hermione's side and leaned to her ear.
"'Mione, What are you doing?"
The girl turned to see him, a faint blush on her cheeks.
"I'm sorry Harry, but you see, it's part of the agreement. Dumbledore wants me and Draco to sit together in the weekends."
"What!"
Harry's loud exclamation could be heard in the entire Hall, Draco smirked at him.
"Such a wonderful idea of the old man, don't you think so Potter?"
"Shut up Malfoy!"
"Harry, please, don't start a discussion here." Said Hermione, a little annoyed. Harry turned and glared at the Headmaster, who only smiled at him and his eyes twinkled merrily. The boy felt his cheeks burning and he sat beside Hermione, taking his breakfast in angry silence.
The tension in the table eased a little when Harry managed to actually start eating, soon Ron was at his side, hushing desperately, Hermione was ignoring them and Draco was keeping an eye for suspicious glares being directed at him. The Slytherins were watching the procedures carefully, but it wasn't them that Draco was worried about, Crabbe wasn't even there. Malfoy was looking for suspects in the other Houses, especially, but not only, the purebloods. He spotted two Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff that were eying him a little too calculating for his tastes, all the Gryffindors were glaring warningly at him, but that was no surprise, it would be a lot harder to spot possible dangers from the Gryffindors due to the fact that all of them were potential aggressors to all Slytherins, especially Malfoy. Draco sighed, he would have to be more careful around the Gryffindors now; as if it wasn't enough with all the problems he already had. He was going to enjoy the day Dumbledore would be dead.
The Golden trio finished their breakfast as soon as they could and then left the Great Hall, heading to Gryffindor tower. Ron was furious, he couldn't believe that Dumbledore was taking Hermione's safety so lightly, Harry asked her once and again why on earth hadn't she said no?
Hermione was just ignoring them, thinking that Draco had been tense the entire time and with his guard up. Harry and Ron didn't have a clue of how dangerous this entire thing was to Draco. She didn't see it as some real threat to her own life, the fact that the blond Slytherin was worried about her seemed secondary. All Hermione saw was that someone had already tried to hurt him for having refused the Dark Mark. The girl had been thinking about it, and had concluded that the fact that Malfoy would be spending a lot of his time with her, would be considered a mayor treason in the junior Death Eaters eyes; they could decide to terminate him in order to prevent any of the Dark Lord's secrets to be revealed to the light side. She had seen it clearly at the Great Hall, when she was for the first time truly aware of the intense glares some of the students were throwing them, not only the Gryffindors.
Obviously, neither of her two boy friends were aware of her worries, they were so immersed in their rivalry with Malfoy that they were not looking for anything more. She felt angry with them. Why couldn't they use their heads and think for once? They were in war! And they should be looking for possible advantages, instead of banning them just because they came from a dubious source!
They arrived to Gryffindor common room and Ginny, Dean and Neville caught up with them, all eager to know what was going on, and Hermione was forced to explain the entire thing to them. Except the part of the ball. Neville was torn between been pleased at being in charge of the gardening group, and fearful that the Slytherins were going to be there too. Ron was not happy at all.
"It's not right! What is Dumbledore thinking? We have to do something!"
"I'm going to talk with him." Said Harry seriously. "I'm going to make him acknowledge my suspicions, he has to!"
"Don't worry Hermione," said Ginny, "we are going to be with you in all the groups."
"Yes!" said Ron passionately "We are not going to let that slimy bastard to have a chance to hurt you!"
"No!" said Hermione, truly angry now, everyone was startled to hear her like that. "That's not the way this is supposed to work! The groups are being created for us to work together as a team! Not to glare at each other all the time!"
"But, 'Mione you can't possibly want to be near Malfoy!" shouted Ron. The girl turned to him angrily.
"Why not Ron? Just because you are so closed minded as to not see that we are going to need him? We are going to fight a war if you remember!"
Ron paled at her asseveration and answered hotly.
"We don't need him Hermione! No one of those Slytherins are needed here!"
"You are a fool if you think so Ronald! We are going to need every hand that can help!"
"Not theirs!" said Ron, turning scarlet. Harry decided to step in.
"Hermione, we need all the help we can have, but Malfoy is a Death Eater we can't thrust him! You know that!"
"Why are you so sure he's a Death Eater to begin with Harry? You have nothing to prove that!"
"Hermione! Remember his bandage, he's hiding his left wrist!"
"So what? It can be an ordinary injury! You shouldn't make harsh judgments Harry, Malfoy can help us!"
Harry wanted to reason with her, but Ron was livid and shouted first.
"We don't want his bloody help Hermione! He can go and kill himself for all I care!"
Hermione pulled her fist back and punched Ron's nose, then she turned heels and ran to her dormitory. Ginny started to go after her, but Harry stopped her and they turned to where Dean and Neville were trying to get Ron upright again, the red head was furious.
"What the bloody Hell she's doing? She's a stupid, stupid wench!"
"Ron! Don't call her that!" shouted Ginny.
"And what you want me to call her! She's been an idiot!"
Both siblings continued fighting, while Harry watched worriedly the way Hermione had disappeared, then he suddenly turned and got out of the common room, he was going to talk to Dumbledore, the man had to do something to fix all the mess he had created.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts was having tea in his office, when someone knocked at the door. The man voiced his permission to enter and smiled fondly at a very upset Harry, who sat in front of him and denied tea or lemon drops.
"Professor, I don't know what you want to do with this entire 'Unity project' but you can't put Hermione's safety in the line just for it!"
The Headmaster seemed surprised at this statement
"Now, now Harry. Why would I want to put any student's safety in jeopardy?"
"I don't know!" Harry exploded, he felt as if Dumbledore was doing this on purpose. "But you know that Malfoy is dangerous! And still you are expecting Hermione to be near him all the time! He can easily hurt her!"
"And why do you think Mr. Malfoy would want to hurt Miss Granger Harry? Why do you think he's so dangerous?"
Harry groaned in frustration. Had everybody suddenly forgot who Malfoy's father was?
"You know my suspicions! I have told you! What happens if he is really a Death Eater! Have you seen the bandage on his left arm?"
"Easy Harry. We have talked about Mr. Malfoy's injury before; I can assure you it has nothing to do with the Dark Mark."
"But professor…"
"And Miss Granger is aware of it. Why don't you trusther judgment Harry?"
The boy breathed in deeply, he didn't want to give up on this, Malfoy was his enemy! Even if he really wasn't a Death Eater yet, Harry wasn't about to trust him to not hurt Hermione at the first chance he'll have.
"I really don't know what he had done to gain everyone's trust so suddenly! He's still Malfoy!"
"But he is not his father Harry. And he really hadn't done anything for you to pin point him as a true follower of Voldemort. Has he?"
"Well… no, not really… apart from being fond of dark magic and threatening us every time he can." Said Harry stubbornly, thus he had to admit that Malfoy's threats were nothing but boyish rivalry. Dumbledore seemed to know this and smiled.
"I suggest Harry that you give yourself some time to think about it and to talk with Miss Granger, she's doing a big effort for our side to gain even more supporters, and I think she won't refuse a little help from her friends."
Harry sighed, he knew he had to talk with Hermione and to clear his head; after all he was going to be near her too, it wasn't as if he was expected to leave her alone with Malfoy.
"Ok. I'll talk with her. But I'll be watching Malfoy closely!"
"Oh, my dear boy. You are free to do it!" Said the Headmaster happily.
