Power of Words

Hermione avoided Draco as much as possible in the following days which was really much easier than it seemed. There was a reason why he hadn't encountered her much before their mutual living spaces had been made available; they had different N.E. . Hermione had gone with Arithimancy, Ancient Runes and DADA while Malfoy had kept Potions, Astronomy and something else that kept him completely out of her way and her from his.

She had thought that Malfoy might try to meet her in the Head Dorms as she came or left, not utalising the space for anything but a spot to crash at night, sometimes not even that. The point being, she successfully evaded her dorm mate by slipping out in the morning at ungodly hours, which wasn't an unusual occurrence on her front but probably drove the veela crazy. At least, that was Hermione's best guess. She knew she had said something truly awful, even if it was to Malfoy. Even if it was technically true. He hadn't tried to seek her out for a couple of days and she might have worried for him, regretted privately that she had maybe gone a bit too far. It wasn't fair of her and it was entirely unfair on him. Hermione had uttered heavy words, truthful as they may be, they were cruel. Inconsiderate. Thoughtless. Insensitive, and above all, disregarding. Her words had not been for the veela who had probably accidentally professed his eternal love for her. No, she knew that she had wrongly accused her soul mate (in almost all certainty) for the crimes of a mean, spoiled boy before the war. Her words, no matter how deserved, were unkind; unburdened to the wrong person at a most inappropriately horrible time.

The only reason Hermione was thinking so hard over all this was because she believed in the power of words, to create, to destroy, to hurt and heal in a way wands, magic or anything else ever could. Her Hogwart years had been marred by one word alone, the one carved in her arm, a word that still stung unexpectedly at times. Words could travel into the hearts of people and stay there, imprisoning them or setting them free. Hermione had never wanted to be a person who used her words for a cruel end, and yet she had done just that, to get out of an unexpected situation and possibly drive off her chance at a magical happiness, a bliss truly out of this world.

In effect, if one didn't squint at the details, Hermione had literally tried to drive off her soul mate. A being almost never found, and hardly above a legend or a myth. She knew veelas couldn't live without their mates, for them, there was only one person and that one person alone was their entire world. Veelas fiercely loved and protected their mates, putting the happiness of their mate even above their own lives, it was no trivial laughing matter. And Hermione knew all this very well.

She didn't regret it though, not how much she should have. She wanted to drive off Malfoy without killing him outright with a "NO" for an answer. He would have died right in front of her eyes then, and even thought she had once hated his very bones, she didn't want even his blood on her hands. The war was over.

Hermione did admit to herself in a very little way that she had worried for Malfoy. She hadn't told him 'no' but her words couldn't be mistaken as anything short of an outright, blatant rejection. Once he seemed to recover just a tiny bit (and she knew because Harry had seen the Head Boy sitting at the Lake after he hadn't come out of his room for Merlin knows how long, save for classes), she had diligently tried to avoid him. Which brought Hermione to her present conundrum. Malfoy was going to try and talk to her soon, if he wasn't trying already. That's just how stubborn veelas were. They never gave up. She wondered if they could give up at all as she stretched out on a worn couch in the Gryffindor Common room. She'd have to talk to Harry soon, maybe he could talk Malfoy out of this and she could be left alone to live her miserable happy life with dozen of kittens perhaps.

…

Harry had been worried about Hermione, needless to say, it was not just because he couldn't spend all his time glued to her side, the witch would hex him straight into next week. He had thought about the possibility that Hermione would try to hide in the Heads' Dorms, but surprisingly, it was as if she was avoiding her own living space. Even now, he spied her in the common room and made his way towards her, wondering for the umpteenth time if Malfoy picked a fight with her. The fact that she had been oddly behaving because of the git prior to all this did nothing to ease his nerves.

All his thoughts melted away when he saw that she was asleep though. Her face in a funny expression that had Harry chuckling and casting a muffiliato about them. He'd had left her there, but the common room was no place to crash for a girl, even if said girl would castrate anyone who'd even try to look at her wrong. Smiling, he gently shook her awake

"Hermione, you've got to sleep in an actual bed you know, the common room isn't really a place to crash and burn"

Said witch just chuckled and immediately sat up, patting the space next to her, "I wasn't really sleeping you know"

At his knowing look she huffed, folding her arms, she added "fine, it was a little nap"

"Right before bed time?"

"Har har har, very funny Harry". He just grinned at her and then they began laughing as Harry removed his spell and they joined the subdued but slightly energetic happiness of the rest of the lions. They talked and laughed with each other and the rest of the lions, especially the enamored little ones but Hermione avoided talk of her little problem and went to bed rather free of worries, not thinking about the suffering one Draco Malfoy was going through alone in the Head Dorms.

And that is that. What do you think? I want to say thank you to geekymom and that one guest who left me reviews and and extra special thanks to peccavi for their beautiful praise for the alst chapter. I still have in my inbox and read it occasionally for random bursts of happiness. I'm really glad you are enjoying this story.

I have exams coming up with the start of January so I thoug I might as well post before I drown in studies. Anyone who's having exams , Good Luck

See you all soon, hopefully

Teal~