Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long! I've tried to make this chapter extra-long to make up for it!
Hermione tiredly plodded up the stairs to her dorm room, counting the steps until she could fall into bed. It had been a nastily exhausting day - Snape had been in a particularly foul mood, and she had been burdened with three extra assignments and a surprise test for History of Magic. She pushed the door to her room open and stepped inside, turning around the close the door behind her.
When she turned back around to face the room, her stomach dropped into her shoes as Pansy Parkinson stepped from the shadows, wielding not a wand but a wickedly sharp knife that glinted in the moonlight as she approached.
"It's time to finish what I started, Mudblood." She growled, a manic smile plastered on her face as she lunged toward Hermione, the pointed edge of the steel aimed directly at her.
Hermione gasped as she felt the cold steel enter her belly, slashing her insides as Pansy twisted the knife into her intestines like gruesome spaghetti. She fell to her knees, her robes soaked in her own blood, her vision blackening around the edges, her breathing reduced to short gasps as she lay in a pool of her own blood, feeling the life leave her.
The last thing she saw before her vision failed her was Pansy, standing above her, the knife still in her hand, smeared with the same scarlet liquid that stained her robes.
"Your blood isn't as dirty as I thought it would be, Mudblood." Pansy cackled.
Hermione let out a sob, coughed once, and didn't draw breath again.
Hermione awoke suddenly, gasping and thrashing in her blankets. Her sheets were soaked in sweat and she struggled to get free, sobbing in a blind panic.
"Lumos Maxima!" someone beside her cried, and the darkened bedroom flooded with light. Hermione swivelled around to see Draco sitting up in bed beside her, holding his wand which illuminated the room.
"Draco," she sobbed, falling into his chest, letting him wrap his arms around her.
"Shh," he soothed, stroking her hair. "Shh. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. She can't hurt you."
Slowly, Hermione calmed down and the weeping ceased. When she was clearheaded, she sat up and evaluated her surroundings. For a moment she was confused – why were the walls draped in blue? Whose textbooks were those stacked on the shelves? Why was her bedspread blue? Why was Draco in bed beside her? – until she remembered that yes, that's right, they were currently staying in Ravenclaw Tower as a protection measure.
After they had discovered that Pansy had escaped, Dumbledore had decided to take every precaution necessary to keep Hermione safe from Pansy's wrath. After a short discussion, it was decided that she couldn't stay in the Slytherin common room because Pansy was a Slytherin and would have unlimited access to that dorm room. Hufflepuff was ruled out, too, because it was too easy to gain entry to. In the end, Ravenclaw won out, because both Hermione and Draco were smart enough to answer the questions required to gain entry to the common room, and Hermione had friends in Ravenclaw who would keep an eye on her. Until Pansy was recaptured, Hermione would be staying with Draco in Ravenclaw Tower, and they would both be magically changing their appearances every day so that they did not resemble themselves and would not be recognised by Pansy if she was watching. Until she was found, Hermione and Draco would essentially be living as Ravenclaws, donning their robes and eating at their tables.
Hermione took in the room - the books on the shelves, the blue robes on the chair next to her, the walls draped in blue, adorned with the Ravenclaw eagle.
This is the life I would have had if the Sorting Hat had chosen a little differently, Hermione thought, pulling the blanket back over her and lying down, still wrapped in Draco's arms.
"Nox," Draco said, extinguishing the light that filled the room and placing his wand back on his bedside table.
Hermione lay in the dark, still in Draco's warm embrace, thinking about the position she was in. Suddenly, it occurred to her that she was in bed with Draco! He was wearing nothing but long, emerald green silk pants, with no shirt. His skin was warm where she touched it, and she realised that they were truly alone for the first time ever – every other time, they had had to go to class, or watch out for her stalker. It also occurred to her that she was wearing nothing but her Weasley sweater and little sleep shorts. This knowledge made her excited and afraid at the same time. What would happen because of this sleeping arrangement? What had she agreed to here?
"Draco?" she whispered. "Are you awake?"
"Yeah," he mumbled. "What's wrong?"
Instead of answering, Hermione rolled over so that she was lying on top of him, straddling his hips. In the dark, she saw his eyes widen.
"Now I'm definitely awake," he said, wrapping his arms around her and drawing her down into a fierce kiss that took Hermione's breath away. He rolled over so that she lay underneath him, still kissing her with the kind of passion he had never displayed before, and Hermione was responding, kissing him back harder than she ever had before, running her hands over his chiselled body, causing him to shudder into her mouth as she teased the sensitive skin of his back.
"I love you," he mumbled as he let his hands roam on the bare skin under her sweater, causing her heart to beat in double time. She flipped him back over so that she was on top of him, kissing his neck with such intensity that he moaned softly. She trailed kisses down his torso, stopping when she got to his hips and going back to his mouth.
How far am I willing to go with this? She thought as she kissed him. At what point do I stop?
Her question was answered for her immediately as his fingertips dipped below the waistline of her shorts. She froze up, and he moved his hands back to her hips straight away.
"I'm sorry," he said, his cheeks flushed in the darkness, sounding breathless. "I didn't mean to go too far – I got carried away. I would never disrespect you, Hermione – I love you and I want you to be comfortable."
"It's okay," she said, smoothing his hair back. "You didn't do anything wrong – I'm just not ready for that yet. I love you too, Draco. So so much."
He smiled softly and kissed her gently, pulling her into his arms as he lay back down on the bed, tucking them both in.
"Try to sleep now." He told her, kissing the top of her head.
Hermione smiled as she drifted back into sleep, this time free of nightmares.
When Hermione woke up, it was to the sight of Draco standing in front of the mirror, dressed in royal blue Ravenclaw robes. The sight of it jarred her – she was used to seeing him in his Slytherin green. This new look brought out the grey in his eyes and softened his face so that it didn't look quite so severe. He also didn't seem quite so pale, but he looked taller and more – regal. And he hadn't even actually changed his appearance yet.
"Good morning, handsome," she said, getting out of bed and picking up her own Ravenclaw robes.
"Good morning, beautiful," he replied with a smile.
Hermione threw him a smile as she ducked into the bathroom to get changed. When she had donned the blue garments, she turned and faced the mirror. I don't look too bad in blue, really, she thought as she smoothed the front of her robe. Staring at her reflection, she was reminded that this would have been her House, if the sorting Hat had not decided that she was more brave than she was smart – which meant she must have been very brave.
Glancing at her reflection one last time, Hermione walked back into the bedroom where Draco waited with his wand.
"Ready?" he asked, picking up his wand and touching the tip of her nose with it. Hermione nodded.
"You first," he said, moving his wand so that it rested on the roots of her hair. Hermione closed her eyes and focused on the heat that radiated from the tip of Draco's wand, and enjoyed the oddly pleasant sensation of her hair growing, becoming les frizzy and feeling her curls soften into a more elegant style. It felt like someone playing with her locks, gently tugging and twisting, she reflected.
He moved his wand to her closed eyelids next. She didn't feel anything apart from the ever-constant warmth of the wand, but she knew that her eyes were changing colour. She felt his wand move down to her lips, making them fuller and altering her teeth somehow. Hermione didn't know what he was doing to her teeth – she had already altered them herself, a year ago. His wand touched the soft skin of her cheeks and inside her arms, and finally, her nose, where she felt the cartilage change shape – an uncomfortable sensation that gave Hermione the shivers.
"Open your eyes," Draco said. Hermione flicked her eyes open and stared into the mirror at Draco's handiwork.
Her hair was a platinum blonde that tumbled down to her waist in elegant curls. The freckles that had once adorned her face and arms had vanished. Her nose had shrunk, and turned up slightly at the tip. Her eyes were a vibrant blue, and framed with thick lashes. Her lips were full, and when she smiled, she could see that her teeth were spaced a little more widely apart.
She looked utterly unrecognizable.
"I'm beautiful," Hermione whispered.
"Yes, " Draco said. "You are."
Hermione felt her spirits drop as she turned to face him.
"Do you like me better like this?" she asked him, sounding casual but feeling anything but.
"No," He answered, straight-faced.
"But you just said I looked beautiful… Draco, I don't look like myself and you said I was beautiful. You must like me better like this," She said, her throat feeling thick as she tried to fight tears.
"No," he disagreed, cupping her face in his hands. "I said you were beautiful. You are not the body you live in – You are your sense of humour that never fails to make me laugh. You are the brilliant brain I love so much, not the face in front of it. You are the passion with which you kiss me that always surprises me. You are that spark in your eyes when you're learning something new, not the colour of them. You are beautiful. I couldn't care less about the body you wear."
Hermione couldn't think of anything to say.
"I love you." She finally said, stepping forward to brush back his hair.
"I wasn't finished," he said, kissing her softly. "It doesn't matter what body you wear, but the one you do have is gorgeous. Not this new girl. The real you. I love your freckles – they're like gorgeous ornaments draped over your skin. I love your brown hair – I've always had a thing for brunettes, did you know?" he asked her, grinning. "I could get lost in your chocolate brown eyes, and your lips are the softest things I've ever touched, and your teeth give me the most winning smiles and the real Hermione Granger is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Hermione stepped forward into his arms, burying her face against his shoulder.
"I love you," she said again.
"I love you too," he answered.
"Your turn," she announced, stepping back and picking up her wand. Draco obediently closed his eyes and stood still.
Hermione began with his hair, watching it lengthen and darken, turning it into a chocolate brown which curled around his ears. Moving her wand to his closed eyelids, she made his eyes the same colour as his hair and his eyelashes a light brown. She continued down to his chin, squaring his jaw to get rid of his very signature pointed face. Finally, she waved her wand over the length of his body, turning his skin into a normal healthy tan instead of its usual pallor. Standing back, Hermione surveyed her work.
"One more thing," she said, running her wand over his jawline and watching with satisfaction as the barest hint of stubble showed itself.
"You can open your eyes now," she told him. He flicked his lids open and stood in front of the mirror, examining his reflection.
"I look… pretty" he said in a complaining tone.
"What's wrong with pretty?" Hermione asked.
"I never look pretty!" he answered. "I'm a Malfoy! We look proud and blonde and severe and businesslike. I have ringlets!" he said, tugging on his curls and watching them spring back into place.
"They're not ringlets," Hermione scoffed. "Anyway, it's a good thing you look different. Pansy won't recognise you if you look different."
Draco sighed. "I suppose you're right," he said resignedly, picking up his wand and stowing it in the pocket of his robes while Hermione did the same. "Let's go get breakfast."
Walking into the Great Hall and turning right towards the Ravenclaw table instead of left towards the Gryffindor table was the oddest thing she had ever done. Nonetheless, Hermione and Draco walked over to the table draped in blue and took a seat between Luna Lovegood and Cho Chang, Harry's old girlfriend.
"Good morning," Luna greeted her in the polite tones of a stranger. Cho didn't say anything.
That's right, Hermione remembered. They don't know it's me.
"Luna," Hermione whispered. Luna looked up, confused that this strange girl knew her name but not as surprised as she should be – she was Luna Lovegood, after all.
"Luna, it's me. It's, it's – Hermione."
"Hermione? " Luna whispered. "That's right, I do remember Professor Dumbledore telling me that you would be in disguise with Draco Malfoy, wow you look so different Hermione, which spell was that? I wonder…" she said. Hermione recognised the familiar beginnings of Luna's rambling, so she cut her off.
"This is Draco next to me, Luna," Hermione said, pointing at Draco.
"Oh, hello there, sir" Luna greeted him. Draco looked uncomfortable.
"Listen Luna, this needs to stay top secret, okay? Nobody but you and Cho can know. Can you keep this a secret for me?" Hermione asked.
"Oh! Oh, of course, Hermione! Nobody's ever asked me to keep a secret for them before, oh how exciting! Okay Hermione, I'll keep your secret for you! Oh, I can't wait!" Luna replied excitedly.
"I'll be using a fake name, so I need you to call me Daisy whenever you're talking to me, okay?" Hermione asked.
"Of course, Her-Daisy! I promise I won't slip up!" Luna assured her.
"Good," Hermione said. "Now, can you please turn to Cho and tell her everything I just told you? Oh, and Draco's fake name is Charlie. Can you tell her that too?" Hermione asked.
"Of course!" Luna answered, and turned to Cho and began whispering. When she was finished, Cho looked up and Hermione and Draco with wide eyes, and nodded once.
Going to class was tense. Draco and Hermione stuck by Cho and Luna whenever possible - they had decided it didn't matter if students saw them together, because nobody knew who they were.
Draco and Hermione walked into Potions alongside Luna, and Draco automatically began to make his way toward their usual table before Hermione stopped him with a look. Resignedly, he joined Hermione and Luna in the middle of the room. Their usual spots seemed conspicuously empty as Snape stalked into the room, his face twisted as if he'd just tasted a particularly awful Bertie Bott Bean.
Hermione fidgeted nervously in her chair as Snape threw a contemptuous look at her and Draco's empty seats. The story that every student and teacher aside from Dumbledore, Cho Chang and Luna Lovegood believed was that Draco and Hermione had been carted off to witness protection in the Muggle world.
Lucky Draco and I are both smart, Hermione thought as Snape began to explain the complicated process of brewing Felix Felicis, the powerful potion that granted good luck to any who consumed it. When he called on the Ravenclaws for an answer, Hermione and Draco blended in seamlessly with all the others wearing blue robes with raised hands. Even so, it was still a huge relief to walk out of that room when class was dismissed. Hermione felt as though she had had an axe hanging over her head, suspended by the finest of silk threads, ready to snap at any moment and expose her, and that now she had walked away, leaving the axe behind her. From the look on Draco's face, he felt the same way.
They were about to enter the Great Hall for lunch when Draco grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty side corridor.
"What? What is it?" Hermione asked him.
"Can we sneak out tonight, 'Mione?" he asked, almost plaintively.
"Sneak out where?" she asked him.
"The secluded place by the lake, the one I took you to for our first date? Come on, please? I'm so sick of pretending I'm not in love with you, and I miss seeing your real face, and I'm sick of calling you Daisy." He replied.
Hermione understood how he felt – Merlin knew she felt the same way. "I know, Draco, but the risk is just so high."
"I have a plan," he told her with a smile.
Hermione crossed her arms but smiled back, cocking her hip to the side. "Let's hear it, then."
Draco's grin broadened. "Tonight, we get dressed however we want and wear our Ravenclaw robes over the top. Then, we get on my broom and fly out the window. We will still be disguised as Daisy and Charlie, so if anybody sees us they won't know who it is. Once we get to the place at the lake, we get off my broom, and in the shelter of the trees, transform back into ourselves and take off our robes, revealing Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger on a hot date." He finished, sounding proud.
Hermione was impressed. "Okay," she said, feeling suddenly more excited about the night to come. " I'll go."
She leaned in and kissed him lightly before making their way into the Great Hall and over to the Ravenclaw table.
Time really does drag when you have something to look forward to, Hermione reflected as she hurriedly made her way to Arithmancy with the rest of the Ravenclaws, a pile of books clutched to her chest. Arithmancy was her final lesson for the day, and, unsurprisingly, the class was mostly made up of Ravenclaws. Hermione took her seat at the front of the room between Draco and Luna. Cho sat on the other side of Draco, and Hermione noticed some of the other girls throwing her envious looks. Back off, Hermione thought protectively. He's mine.
Arithmancy passed in a flurry of numbers and symbols that stretched her brain in a way that most subjects didn't, and before she knew it, she was being dismissed by her professor. A feeling of excitement jolted through Hermione's stomach. Three hours until my date with Draco! She thought, silently exulting in the idea of being herself with the boy she loved, all alone.
Dinner was a spectacle of different types of seafood, ranging from fish to crab to prawn to lobster, each served with a pot of delicious dipping sauce. Hermione ate as much as she could hold and sprinted up to her dorm room in Ravenclaw Tower to get ready to meet Draco. There wasn't much she could do to her face or hair, being disguised as Daisy, but she donned a red cotton dress that had long sleeves and stopped just below her knee. She knew that it would look great on her once she was back to herself. Hurriedly, she put her blue Ravenclaw robes on over the dress, and walked out to the common room filled with studying students. Scanning the room, she spotted Draco seated on one of the couches in front of the fireplace. He leaped to his feet when he saw her, and, jerking his head to the side, bid her to follow him. She complied, butterflies rioting in her stomach as she let him lead her up a set of spiral stairs that circled Ravenclaw Tower, stopping in front of a window near the top.
"Ready?" he asked her, pulling his broomstick from its hiding place behind the curtain.
"I'm so ready!" she replied, kissing him lightly on the cheek.
Draco opened the window and mounted his Nimbus Two Thousand and One, flying out of Ravenclaw Tower and into the waiting arms of the darkness outside. He maneuvered the broom so that it was on a parallel with the window and Hermione clambered through and seated herself behind him on the broom, sliding her arms around his waist.
And they took off.
This was not the first time Hermione had ridden with Draco on his Nimbus through the night, but it was no less exhilarating. She felt her spirits soar in a way they hadn't since the Christmas ball, and a shout of joy tore out of her of its own accord. The cold night air whipped against her face, blowing her new blonde hair every direction and turning the tip of her nose pink.
Draco pointed the nose of the broom toward their secret alcove by the lake, and slowly they made their decent onto the little beach that ringed it. Breathless, Hermione dismounted the broom and made her way into the hidden section where she and Draco had shared their first date.
Draco pulled out his wand and touched it to the roots of Hermione's hair, and she experienced the sensation of water running down her bod, washing Daisy away and leaving only Hermione. Draco smiled when he saw her true form appear.
"Your turn," she said, placing her wand on his brown curls and murmuring the incantation that undid the spells they had placed upon themselves that morning. She watched Charlie melt away and was left with Draco – her Draco – standing in front of her.
"Welcome back," she said, drawing him inter her arms.
"I missed you," he said, kissing the top of her frizzy brown locks.
Hermione pulled away and looked up at him. Grinning, she drew her blue Ravenclaw robes over her head and let them fall on the ground, leaving her in the red wool dress. She had the satisfaction of seeing Draco's eyes widen as he took her in.
"You look stunning in red, my little Gryffindor," he said, pulling his own robes over his head and leaving them in a pool by his feet. "I'd almost forgotten."
Draco was clad in one of his black suits, looking as regal and gorgeous as ever with his hands in his pockets and a smile affixed to his face.
"I bought you something," he said suddenly, drawing his hand out of his pocket, clutching a black jewellery box. Hermione's heart fluttered as he opened the box, and her eyes filled with tears.
"Oh- It's beautiful , Draco! Thank you so much!"
Nestled in the box was a golden bracelet with the words et leonem et draconem inscribed around the band. Gently, Draco lifted it from the box and slid it onto Hermione's wrist, watching the lettering catch the moonlight.
"What does this mean? Et leonem et draconem? I know it's Latin, but I'm unsure of the translation."
Draco twined his fingers with hers and let his forehead touch the tip of her own.
"It means the serpent and the lion," Draco answered, looking strangely vulnerable. "I thought it was fitting."
Hermione's heart melted, and she drew her face up to his, catching him in a forceful kiss. She tried to say everything she couldn't put into words in that kiss – her gratitude for such a perfect gift, her love for him, how grateful she was that he was unfailingly there for her through all her turmoil with Pansy Parkinson.
"Thank you for not letting me handle Pansy alone," Hermione said when they broke away, breathless. "I'm sorry I'm not dealing well with it."
"Hey," he said, drawing her chin up with the tips of his fingers. "You're so strong already; we're just stronger together, okay? We're a team. Nothing can split us apart."
"et leonem et draconem," Hermione whispered.
"The serpent and the lion," he agreed.