Chapter 14: Madam Pudifoot's tea shop

Capitulo XIV: El salón de madame pudipié

Benjamin approached her lips slowly but with security and when he put his on Hermione's mouth, she wasn't surprised, but hopeful. It was a soft and tender kiss. Benjamin barely brushed her lips for an instant, but then he hold the girl's face in his hands and brought it closer to his. Hermione half-opened her lips and softly, Benjamin took her mouth. They kissed for some long and pleasant seconds but when the Ravenclaw broke apart, Hermione realized a bit disappointed that she didn't feel anything compared to what she had experimented when Malfoy kissed her. She cursed him with the sensation that after kissing him, she was never going to be able to feel something similar with another person. It was as if he had marked her in an invisible way. As if after that kiss, she belonged to him and to no one else.

Hermione felt her eyes stinging with rage; she didn't want to feel that, not for him. She want to forget him, to feel what he make her feel but with someone else. With Dewey, with anyone. But not with him.

- Hermione? – Benjamin was looking at her with concern. Hermione looked into his eyes. She wanted to feel passion, with him, for him. She wanted to kiss him until he got out any other from her head.

- Kiss me – she pleaded in desperation. Ben was surprised for some seconds but then he look her seriously, grabbed her round the waist and kiss her. This time he deepened de kiss, trespassing the barriers of softness and tenderness, not holding himself back for once. Hermione felt Ben's tongue seeking for hers and eagerly went to meet it; she was dying to feel a trace of what she had felt with Malfoy. She abandoned herself to the kiss with a desperation that Ben had never met. There was something that tortured her and he could feel it, but he was willing to make her forget by dint of kisses. He held her tightly in his arms and tilt his face over hers, changing the angle of the kiss. She threw her arms to his neck and squeezed herself to him as if he was his salvation.

And in silence she begged for him to be.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Malfoy observed the two intertwined figures that were outlined over the green meadows against the orange horizon that announced night fall. He backed a few steps, moving apart from the window through which he had been watching the scene, staggering as if he had been punched. Actually it was how he felt, as if a big club had punched him in the chest. Or something worse, something sharp had gone through his heart, preventing it from beating.

He leaned against the stone wall with one only thought, and one only image in his mind. Dewey and Granger kissing.

Kissing.

It wasn't a clumsy stolen kiss under the mistletoe. It was a true kiss. She had answered and threw her arms to his neck as days ago she had done with him.

In Christmas, Dewey had kissed her and then run cowardly. But now, by their proximity, he had no intention to leave.

He didn't want to continue looking, he couldn't do it.

As an exhalation he walked through the hallway, without course. Damn, he felt very weak, as if he had had a strong impression and he hadn't recovered at all. After running for a while, he realized that he was acting like an idiot. He was a Malfoy. Malfoys didn't run, didn't escape as scared boys.

He wasn't scared. No. he was furious.

The anger, the pure rage, seemed to eaten up his entrails, as a corrosive acid that corrupt and contaminated everything. He could feel perfectly the wave of fury extending through out his body, covering all his extremities, his mind. He saw everything through a red mist and his heart pumped blood to fast. He could just see again and again the mudblood surrendering in the Ravenclaw's arms.

How had she dared? How could she kissed Dewy after kissing him?

How could she kiss anyone that was not him?

All his blood bubbled, boiled, claimed. Asking for something. That he strangled or punched someone but, the problem was that he didn't know who he hated the most.

He spit a curse.

Then he heard it, a metallic laugh, not human. There was a suit of armor at the end of the hallway, an armor that jingled with a mocking laugh. A bloody armor was laughing at him. That was more than he could handle. In a thousandth of second he was in front of the armor and in the next one, it was already in the floor, split into pieces. But he wasn't done yet, he beat and kicked the shield, the breastplate and each one of the metal pieces until he dent them and crush them. He saw everything red and spilled insults in each beat, feeling a little relief every time his boot met the metal and deformed it. While he destroyed it, the helmet was throwing grotesque metallic groans that pissed him off. He picked up the helmet and banged it against the stone wall once and twice, making a roar of rock and steel. When it was nothing more than a bunch of dented steel, he threw it away with disdain.

He removed the platinum bangs that had fallen over his eyes during his fury attack and then he saw that near the armor, was a painting full of witches and wizards, crowd together, looking at him with amazement and censure. They let out screams and insults when the boy took down the painting and tear it up with his knee. After that, he threw the frame away and breath deeply a couple of times trying to calm down.

Now that the outburst had passed he feel again weak, vulnerable, defeated. He fall onto his knees and leaned his hands on the floor. The bangs fell over his face and his eyes were fixed in the stones, like a blurred brown mass.

What was going on with him?

Why had he acted like that?

Why did seeing the mudblood and the stupid deaf kissing each other affect him like that?

The answer came very clearly into his mind, leaving a bad and bitter taste in his mouth. Jelousy. He feel jealous. He. A Malfoy.

He was jelaous of a big guy of short intelligence and without one ear because he had kissed, was kissing, a mudblood.

He closed his hands into fists, trying with all his strength to fight that feeling that wasn't supposed to exist inside him. He was Draco Malfoy from Slytherin. His father was a deatheater, his mother was a descendant of the Black family. They were pureblood with a linage that went back to more than five centuries of pure wizards with pure children. He was powerful, dark, clever. He was evil.

He couldn't be jealous of a mudblood. It was impossible, unreal, illogic. And however, he was there with the bitter sensation that now that he had discovered that he could be jealous, he was never going to able to forget it or ignore it.

He tried to think that it didn't mean anything… and what if he was jealous? It didn't have to mean that he had feelings for her… right?

- Draco… what does this means? – asked a voice behind his back. Draco stood up and turned slowly with a defiant air, he didn't fear Snape.

- What had happened? – insisted the professor taking out his wand to fixed the disaster. Malfoy looked at him firmly and after some seconds just shrugged, he was still full of anger and in no mood to explain anything to a professor, not even to Snape.

- Maybe… if you tell me what happened – suggested Snape patiently, with a convincing tone – I could save you from detention. Reparo!

While the armor shrink, fixed and was put into its original place as if nothing had touched it, Draco neither move nor stopped looking at Snape.

- Draco… - by his tone you could say that Snape was starting to loose his patience – tell me what happened…

- Severus! What's all this? – asked the strict voice of professor McGonagall, who was approaching from the end of the hallway with his eyes fixed in the destroyed painting hanging gloomily. In the reigning silence, McGonagall moved his eyes from Snape to Malfoy, stopping in the last one.

- It was you Mr. Malfoy? – she asked in a blaming tone. Draco just lifted his face arrogantly and pressed his lips with disdain.

- Severus, I hope you will punish him and take some points off from your house, so the boy will learn not to destroy Hogwarts furniture.

- Minerva, I don't think it will be necessary… - started Snape looking irritated.

- He will be forbidden to go to Hogsmeade tomorrow – continued the professor ignoring his fellow. Snape look at Draco, who didn't matter to be grounded, and sighed with resignation.

- Fine. Malfoy won't go to Hogsmeade tomorrow.

Draco shrugged again unconcerned.

- Can I leave now? – he asked, and not waiting for an answer he went away.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Hermione said good-bye to Luna after she had asked her about a million times that she must not go to Madam Pudifoot's tea shop because, as the Quibbler said, it was just a cover from were they got money to finance the Elzohairs, little goblins that put itchy powder on people's underwear; and calmly went to the tea shop, were Harry and Ron will be with Ginny and Lavender. Where Benjamin Dewey will be waiting for her.

She tried to analize what does that make her feel, but she wasn't quite sure. After kissing him like that the day before, nothing was clear. She hadn't felt the same like with Malfoy, but she had felt well, for the first time in weeks. She had been able to forget him for some minutes, even though it just made her remember him more intensely. What does that meant? Was she going to have any possibility to fall in love with Ben?

She couldn't forget the words he had told her yesterday when they separate.

"Give me the whole day tomorrow, Hermione, just for me. And at nightfall I will make you a question, of which I hope to convince you that the answer will be a yes."

Then he had kissed her briefly and left the place, giving little jumps. Hermione had hear him give a shout of joy when, of course, he thought she couldn't hear him. She had smiled. Ben was so good with her… he was so nice…

Why had she put her eyes in the Slytherin? In Benjamin everything was good; in Malfoy… it was hard to find the most minimum air of kindness. Deep in her thoughts, she entered Madam Pudifoot's tea shop. The place was a small building full of small round tables with lace tablecloths, quilted stools and crystal lamps. She saw some couples and unconsciously she found herself looking for Malfoy and Parkinson in a corner, but there was no sight of them. She greeted Harry, Ginny, Lavender and Ron (the last one was a little bit hostile since she told them she was also going to the tea shop, with Benjamin Dewey) and then she went to sit to the table in which the smiling Ravenclaw was waiting. He had a big smile that gave him a sweet air that Hermione found nice.

- Hello Hermione – he greeted her while she sat down ant took off the scarf – for an instant I thought you weren't coming.

Hermione stopped what she was doing and looked at him tenderly, Ben tried to pretend security but she could read in his green eyes the fear he had had that she didn't show up. The fear that maybe she was going to regret what had happened the day before.

- Why shouldn't I come? – she asked smiling softly.

- Well… today is Valentines Day and I girl like you… I feared that you realized that… with whom you were going to be and had thought it better – he explained nervously and stammering.

- A girl like me? – she asked not understanding.

- Yes – he said looking at her with shining eyes – I'm sure that you've received many offers to come here and…

Hermione couldn't help a laugh. Popular? She? In all her life just two persons have been interested in her: one was in Bulgaria and the other sitting in front of her.

- You're wrong Ben – she answered with a funny smile in her lips – I'm not very popular.

- I don't believe it – he insisted frowning as if she was making fool of him – anyone will pay to be in my place… you are so intelligent an so pretty…

The girl felt how here cheeks burned. She knew that Ben didn't say that to flatter her but, because he really thought that about her. She scold herself mentally when she thought from whom she would've like to hear that.

She and Ben had a pleasant afternoon in the Tea Shop. After drinking red rose tea and chatting a while with Harry, Ginny and Lavender (Ron was there, but he didn't take part in the conversation and just watch his tea frowning) they went for a walk in Hogsmeade. They entered Zonko and Honeydukes, where Ben bought her a flower with red petals that released magic dust with a sweet scent and cried "You are special!", every time it was smelled. Then they went to drink butter beer to the Three Broomsticks.

When Ben went to the toilet, Hermione looked around and found Luna sitting alone in a table near the door, with an intact butter beer and her big blue eyes lost in the infinity. Worried, she stood up and went to sit beside Luna.

- Luna, are you ok?

The girl took a long time to answer, when she did, she looked at Hermione, blinking a couple of times as if she had just woke up from a dream.

- Did you see an Elzohair in the tea shop? – she asked in a dreamy voice. Hermione relaxed.

- None – she answered – what are you doing here alone? Do you want to come an sit with Ben and me?

- I don't think Benjamin Dewey will like that – she answered honestly. Hermione felt awkward, she didn't think Ben will mind, but she suspected that he will prefer them to be alone.

- Don't say nonsense, he won't mind.

- Benjamin is good, I like him – answered Luna seriously – sometimes he defends me when they called me loony in the Common Room. The other day he jinxed Terry Boot for trying to steal my cork necklace and use it as a belt for Skipper Fontaine. He is a kind boy, I don't want to mess up his afternoon.

Hermione felt split for the affection towards Ben that transmit Luna's words and the embarrassing sensation that provoke her friend's sincerity. Although, there was a sad tone in her voice Hermione had never listened before.

- Luna, is something wrong? Are you alright?

- Oh, I'm fine Hermione. Are you worried for me? – she looked at Hermione almost with surprise and then smiled softly – you are so kind, you are always good to me and Ginny treats me well – she smiled sweetly, as if she couldn't believe it but then, her face hardened – it's just that I'm alone – she said, and Hermione felt how her heart shrink – well, surrounded by Pumpikers but that doesn't mind – she added shaking her hand in the air as if to scared a… whatever Pumpikers were.

- You are not alone – replied the Gryffindor annoyed – I'm with you, I'm…

- I don't mean that. Today, everyone has a partner; everyone went to Madame Pudifoot's Tea Shop. Is not that I care because Madame Pudifoot is an allied to the Elzohairs but, it will be nice that someone would like to go with me.

Hermione felt again in a embarrasing situation. Luna had the disconcerting costume of telling the truth, and even though that it seemed she was always in the moon thinking of pumpikers, snorckacks and elzohairs, she was the most realistic and honest person she knew. She knew that because of being the daughter of the Quibbler, her cork necklace and her theories about nonexistent magical creatures, many people thought she was a freak and make fun of her. And as much as she want to comfort her, Hermione couldn't tell her that she was wrong.

- After all I couldn't be able to enter – said Luna with a sigh of resignation – the Pumpikers and the Elzohairs don't get along very well. Oh, Benjamin has returned from the toilet, go back with him.

-Luna, are you sure you don't want to come with us? You don't have to…

- The syndapus have orange wings? – asked Luna, Hermione looked at her worringly – Yes. That is my answer, I'm sure I don't want to go with you. Go with Benjamin Dewey and have a good time – she said.

Hermione looked at her undecided but in that instant Luna unfolded a copy of the Quibbler and putting it upside down she started reading it. Sighing she returned with Ben, but Luna's words had soaked deep inside her. She too knew how it feels to be alone and object of someone's mockery. She knew it thanks to the person with whom she would've wanted to go to Madame Pudifoot's Tea Shop.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Hellooo!

Well, here is the next chapter :) a Little longer and I love it, I hope you too. Many things have taken place… you can see that Hermione and Ben had had quite a snog XD and Draco saw it all… and he acted a little rude with that poor suite of armor… so he is grounded and he's not able to go to Hogsmeade and ruin Hermione's date… Luna has come out… I love that character. I've introduced some weird notes… like the Elzohairs XD and some of that stuff… I hope you like it

I want to thank the reviews, thank you very much for Reading the story and for giving your opinion.

What do you think will happen next?

Kisses!

Here is the next chapter! I was a little bit late, but I hope you'll like it. Sorry for the grammar lol. Special Thanks to Mystic Tink… really!! Your reviews encourage me! Enjoy it!! And pleeeasee please review :) Lola