Disclaimer-If Harry Potter was mine, I would use the money I got to make a real, live, Draco Malfoy and keep him all for myself. grins evilly But I might've shared him with my reviewers.
Hermione and Draco were released right after dinner, mostly due to the fact that Madame Pomfrey was convinced that there was something wrong with Hermione because she seemed perfectly fine. She probably would've kept them another day if Hermione hadn't complained about all the class time they'd missed. Being kept in there had put them both in a foul mood, and as they walked through the hall they were both scowling.
"Do you have any idea how much I'm going to have to catch up on? I've spent so much time in the Hospital Wing this year…"She trailed off with a sigh.
"You really don't have a life, do you?" Draco snorted. "I've skipped loads of classes and I still have the second highest marks in the class."
Hermione couldn't help but smirk. "And you might have the highest if you didn't skip. Now let's go talk to the teachers, I bet Ron and Harry thought they were doing me a favor by not getting me my homework."
Draco smirked, "we're not going anywhere for schoolwork, Granger. I have a reputation to uphold."
"Your reputation is not one you really want to uphold, unless you want to be known as an arrogant jackass." Hermione snapped.
"Granger, that's the reputation known to you. I have many, and you haven't experienced the full extent of them." He smirked slyly and she felt a blush creeping up her neck. "So we're going back to my dormitory whether you like it or not."
Hermione stopped, hands on hips. "One, I don't have to do what you say. Two, I thought there was no 'we'. And three, it's not just your dormitory."
"Well more of it should belong to me." Draco protested.
"Why?" She argued.
"Because I'm a pureblood and you're a mudblood," he said. Her jaw dropped. He'd promised! When he'd saved her he'd promised he'd never call her mudblood again. People flooded the hallway coming from dinner and they weaved around the two as they stood, motionless.
Draco opened his mouth but without a word Hermione turned on her heel and went straight to their dormitory.
"Pine fresh." She grabbed the doorknob and tried to pull the door open. It stayed firm and she repeated the password.
"Nice going Granger, you broke the door." Draco leaned against the wall.
"The password was probably just changed, this isn't my fault!" She retorted and knocked on the door.
"Don't you think we may have been informed of this, seeing as we-I live here?"
"Malfoy will you stop being so immature! You may not want to admit it, but we do live in the same place, so yes, we live together." Hermione said harshly.
"Piss off Granger." Draco snapped. He pushed her out of the way and banged on the door.
"Now you want me to piss off," she muttered, "feeling bad now that you realized you kept me alive? Regret not letting me die, do you?"
Draco's felt his face get hot and was furious with himself, he didn't usually blush. "What the hell are you talking about? I don't want you dead, and I don't regret saving you."
She snorted. "Don't you?"
"No. As much as I hate to admit it, I care about you, Granger. I fucking care about you." He glared at the wall.
The door swung open as her jaw dropped and hit her in the face, knocking her back against the wall. "Sorry Granger…" Blaise's voice trailed off as he took in Draco's furious glare.
"The password changed, it's," Blaise cracked a grin, '"two halves equals a whole'. It's a bit long, but Dumbledore always was a nutter."
Hermione rubbed her nose and grimaced. I really want a bath, with lots and lots of bubbles. So without looking at Draco she hurried past Blaise and gathered everything she'd need from her room. Quick as a flash she was in the bathroom and turned the hot water on, mixing her own concoction of strawberries, vanilla and peppermint so the bubbles smelled nice. Then she climbed in.
All the muscle cramps she'd developed disappeared as the water enveloped her body. Why does he insist on being so stubborn? Why can't he be nice for once? She thought of what she was supposed to find out for the Order, and felt ashamed to realize she should put more effort into it then she already had.
I suppose if he's saying everything on impulse, I could figure out a way to word everything so that he could say something while unintentionally answering my question… He'd say the first thing that came to mind…but what if his first instinct is to lie? She lathered her hair with shampoo and massaged it into her scalp. I don't see how I can get him to trust me if I'm always prying into his life while he has no real choice as to what he says back to me. Today was a fine example of that.
'I fucking care about you.' She couldn't help snickering a bit at that. Way to be overdramatic. But still…he cares about me? That's strange. I wasn't expecting anything like that to ever happen. Maybe he was lying… no that doesn't seem probable, why would he bother? The thought that Draco Malfoy cared about her…it was an interesting feeling. She wasn't quite sure what she was felt about it.
She dunked under the water and rinsed the shampoo out of her hair. Maybe I've done something to make him care about me. Even the fact that he doesn't want me dead is a pretty big step. But then, I certainly don't hate him enough anymore to want him dead. He isn't so bad sometimes … Didn't Blaise mention something about the summer? I wonder what it was, maybe he put the memory in his penseive.
Her oxygen craving lungs screamed and she resurfaced and pushed her sopping wet hair out of her face. That would be a complete and total betrayal of trust. It's not like there's any trust in our relationship, but there's going to have to be. The thought of any trust between her and Draco was so absurd, but it might be possible.
Seamus's face swam before her and she realized how long it had been since they'd talked. The thought of his hand on hers made butterflies take flight in her stomach. She should make a point of going over to talk to him. Unexpectedly she felt a spark of irritation. Why should I be holding our relationship up? She dismissed it quickly. Our relationship isn't even falling apart.
"Granger, hurry up!" Draco banged on the door. She rolled her eyes and dug her book out from underneath her discarded clothes. With a quick charm to make it waterproof, she settled down to read.
Half an hour later Hermione left the bathroom feeling calmed and rejuvenated. Draco gave her a sour look and stormed to the bathroom, exclaiming with disgust that he would smell like a girl when he came out.
She stashed her stuff in her bedroom and came back down with her homework. Harry had Quidditch practice and Blaise had to be there, so she was alone. They had a transfiguration essay due the coming Tuesday, so she set to work finishing it up. With that done she answered the questions they'd been assigned for Charms.
The water was still running when she finished them. How long can he stay in the water for, he'll turn into a prune. The water stopped. Ah, there it is.
She wandered over to the window. It was raining hard, but there were no blobs flying around the Quidditch pitch. She saw the weather beaten Gryffindor team making their way up to the castle with what must have been Blaise bringing up the rear.
"Malfoy, Harry and Blaise are coming up so you'd better hurry and get out soon." She called. There was no answer but she noted that he appeared as the door to the Common room closed.
Blaise inhaled deeply and his eyebrows shot up as he Draco standing by the open bathroom door.
Harry snorted. "Who would have thought Malfoy used scented bubble bath."
"Granger insisted on using the stupid bubble bath, not me." Draco snapped.
"You make it sound like you two were together."
"We weren't!" Hermione and Draco exclaimed in unison.
Harry was edging towards the bathroom and with a lopsided smile in Hermione's direction he dashed in and slammed the door.
"Awww…" Blaise groaned and turned to the floor. "Damn…"
"If you don't watch Potter he'll pull a fast one on you." Draco said calmly with a bit of disgust.
"Okay, well since he's not here-"
"Are you afraid of him?" Hermione asked with an amused smile. "The way you said that sounded…funny."
"Were you watching him and Snape? I would not want to get on his bad side, the way he was talking, like he wanted nothing more then to kill Snape right then, that's creepy." Blaise shrugged. "What's their deal anyway? Snape looked more then mad, and he and Potter were really getting at it."
Hermione sighed, "well they've had problems from the beginning because of Harry's parents, it's hard to explain."
"Problems? That's a bit of an understatement." Draco snorted. "I thought Potter hated me."
"Well…"
"Anyway, I think they've got some moves but we could definitely beat them. They have this thing called the Tree Frog Jump whe-"
"You can't leak out their strategies!" Hermione protested. Both boys turned to look at her.
"Why not?"
"Because then I'll tell Harry about all yours!" They stared at her, Draco had been planning a whole bunch of attack points over the summer and if she told all their progress as a team was lost.
"How do we know you haven't already told?" Draco asked.
"Because I didn't think you were going to play dirty so I didn't say anything." Both Slytherins snorted at how naïve she was. She placed her hand, palm down, in the air. "Put your hand on mine."
"Why?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "A spell so that if one of us breaks the deal the others will know, do you think I'd go on just your word? How stupid do you think I am?"
"Not very." Draco said instantly.
"Well, erm, just put your hands in."
The two boys seemed to be considering it, before they hesitantly overlapped her hand with theirs. She muttered a quick spell and said brightly, "it's done!"
"If one of us says anything, what will happen?" Draco asked.
"Did you see Marietta at the end of last year?" Hermione grinned evilly.
"That was you? Bloody brilliant!" Blaise exclaimed as Draco shifted uncomfortably, he remembered breaking up DA.
Hermione shrugged, "maybe next time she'll think before she snitches on a secret organization, the little traitor." Marietta had transferred to Beauxbatons for her last year in school, though the thought of her still irritated Hermione.
"Hermione I hope I'm not interrupting anything important, not that anything involving Malfoy could be that important, but Ron told us to meet him in the Gryffindor Common Room." He stood beside the open bathroom door with fogged up glasses and his hair spiky and wet, he'd just toweled it dry.
"Oh, yeah!" Because of their partnerships, time with Ron (or anyone else for that matter) was on a very restricted level. Besides, there's only so much talking you can do while the person you're talking to is shoveling food in their mouth and probably can't hear you over their sloppy eating.
"No Slytherin has ever been in the Gryffindor tower, this has possibilities." Draco said.
Harry stiffened as words flew from his mouth. "Taken you this long, huh? Ron and I got into the Slytherin Common Room in our second year." Blaise's jaw dropped and Draco's eyes widened. "Pureblood? Such an original password."
"We'll make sure that they don't see where we go and hear what the password is." Hermione cut in before Harry could continue his taunting. Taking Gryffindor's biggest rivals into the heart of their den wasn't a very good idea.
"You're not dragging me through the school." Draco snapped.
"Yes we are, there's no other way we can get there if you don't come, you've seen the consequence of separating." Harry said as Hermione remembered flying through the air.
"Harry it doesn't really matter if we let them see where we're located." She wasn't really siding with them, she was siding near them. "It's not like they can get in if the don't the password."
"You're siding with them?" Harry asked as Draco and Blaise said, "you're siding with us?"
Hermione sighed, "not with you, by you. I just don't want to stand here and argue with them all night. We can only stay out until 10:00 and any later Filch will catch us." It did make sense, but the two Slytherins were feeling disagreeable.
"Why should we, what do we get out of it?" Draco crossed his arms.
"Ever the Slytherin." Hermione muttered. "I do seem to recall a certain party I was dragged to and did not report about the alcohol consumption that occurred there." She almost winced, painful memories.
"Granger you were too drunk to do anything and you'd be in trouble for drinking too. That was as much for our sake as for yours." Draco reminded her evenly.
"Look, you've got three options. The first, you agree to come along willingly and we're even. The second, you don't and you owe Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. The third, you refuse to come and we leave anyway. Eventually we'll get there, not matter how many times we have to collide in mid air." She stood, hands on hips.
"Fine, we'll come, and we're even." Draco snarled and stalked out the door. Harry led them to the Gryffindor tower though, much to Hermione's chagrin, he insisted on doubling back a few times and taking unnecessary turns.
They arrived at the portrait of the fat lady and she watched the Slytherins suspiciously. Hermione whispered the password while the Slytherins stood as far away as possible and the portrait hole swung open.
"This doesn't look anything like the Slytherin common room." The sound of Draco's voice filled the room with silence.
Within a second it seemed that everyone in the Gryffindor house was standing with their wands pointed straight at Draco and Blaise. Draco smirked at the them and a few of the girls visibly melted, whereas Blaise leaned against the wall and surveyed then all casually, melting the rest of them.
"Get out!" A boy named Michael snapped.
"We're here with Potty and Granger." Accusing eyes shifted to Hermione and Harry.
"You brought them here?" Colin asked incredulously. Wands lowered, no one was going to point a wand at their house hero.
"It's not like other people didn't bring their partners here." Harry answered, ignoring the few people that still stared at him.
"But they weren't Slytherins."
"Look are you going to turn us away because we're associated with Slytherins?" Hermione said, exasperated.
Just then Ron walked in with Morag. He saw Draco and whipped his wand out. "Malfoy."
Hermione resisted rolling her eyes. "Ron, obviously if we come they're coming too." He slowly lowered his wand.
"One toe Malfoy, one toe."
"Actually Weasel, I have 10." Draco drawled.
"Sod off, Malferret." Ron growled.
"Ron, Malfoy, stop it." Hermione stepped between them and gestured for Ron to follow Harry over to the armchairs by the fire.
"Someday I'm going to kill Malfoy." Ron muttered.
Hermione frowned with disapproval. "Ron, this is so immature. Can't you two put it behind you?"
Harry looked at her with disbelief, "you expect us to forget what a prat Malfoy is?"
"I think you should try to get on better grounds with him, maybe call a truce or something."
"Why?" Ron snorted.
"Because," Hermione said calmly, "have you not noticed what is approaching us? The war! Believe it or not we need as many allies as possible, and if Malfoy joined us we might get more of the Slytherin population."
It was Harry's turn to frown. "Hermione it's one thing to request that we do something, but its another to practically shove it down our throats when you've done nothing yourself."
He apologized but the words still stung. Did it really seem as though she hadn't made any attempt to get on better terms with him? Well she'd tried…hadn't she? They'd done the movie, and he'd saved her from the Devil's Snare, and his blindness, and…But those were all under abnormal circumstances.
"You know Harry you're right. I shouldn't be trying to make you two be doing things I haven't tried to do." Harry was visibly relieved. His quick apologies was one of the main differences between him and Ron, Ron was too hardheaded.
"So have you heard anything from the Order?" Ron asked quietly after glancing around the room.
Harry's expression changed from regret to frustration. "All Lupin will tell me is that they're somehow working on a project in the school, and then news on werewolf attacks we've read about in the newspaper. What could they possibly be doing here?"
"Maybe one of them is using a polyjuice potion and is among us right now." Ron narrowed his eyes and glared suspiciously at a group of first years by the fire, who promptly hurried to their rooms.
Hermione coughed nervously, "Ron honestly that's ridiculous. None of them have the time."
Ron shrugged but Harry looked thoughtful. "They might have a student working for them here, seen anyone dodgy lately?"
"Well there's that Eva Spint-"
"Ron do you really think they would trust someone they hardly know?" Hermione said in a condescending tone.
The red haired boy glanced at her. "What is it that you're not telling us?"
"Nothing, but the Order doesn't have to explain themselves to three sixteen year olds. They can do as they please and I find your lack of appreciation for everything they're doing disrespectful."
"Sorry McGonagall." Ron rolled his eyes at Harry.
"Ron you are such a prat!" Hermione blushed.
"Yeah well you're overreacting. We have a right to know what's going on."
Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "Ron did it ever occur to you that there are some things worth not knowing? Maybe the things they're keeping from you are being kept for a good reason."
"Keeping from us? Are you not referring to yourself in this?"
"Well I-"
"What do you know? Why would they tell you and not us?" Ron demanded.
"Keep your voice down!" She hissed, "I don't know any more then you. I just think that there's no point in pushing for horrible truths when I'm sure we have enough awful things coming up in our lives."
"What?" Ron asked as Harry nodded.
"Well the war is coming up, do you really think that everyone is going to live? We're no invincible, I could die, you could die, Harry could die. We've already seen quite a few people die already."
Ron opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to think up something to say.
"You are so full of yourself, do you hear Harry pressing for information? Maybe because he's already experienced more hardship then anyone else and I don't think he's happy about it. Do you think he's glad that his parents were killed, what about Sirius? When you lose some important to you your priorities are set straight. Maybe you should set them straight before you going around demanding things like you're the queen of England." She stood up abruptly and left. Draco followed her slowly through the castle and trailed after her as she made her way to the side of the lake, coincidently the same place they'd been the night before. She sank to the ground with a soft sigh. Then she pulled her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. Draco watched emotions flicker in her honey eyes, while not really knowing what to think.
"I have a favor," Hermione said in a raspy voice, "can we try to be pleasant to each other? We don't have to be friends or anything, but if we try not to fight every minute of the bloody day it will easier. Plus you can keep your promise."
"Granger…"
"I know," she hurried on, "sometimes people make promises that they don't keep when they think someone is going to pass away, but I know you can keep it."
"I wish I had that kind of faith in myself." Draco said bitterly. Hermione instinctively placed a hand on his shoulder. He flinched, but didn't pull away.
"The time will come when you must choose between what is right, and what is easy. I know you'll do what is right." Hermione smiled faintly as she repeated words Harry had been told by their Headmaster. "People believe in you, Malfoy, and they care about you."
Draco shook his head. "You can't be sure."
"Yes I can." She locked eyes with him. "Because I do."
They stayed that way for a long time in silence. Thoughts zoomed through Draco's head a mile a minute and Hermione was simply content to sit there. Eventually they stood up on shaky legs and stumbled through the darkness back to the castle.
They both paused outside their doors. "Goodnight Malfoy." Hermione said.
"Good night." He replied. She closed the door behind her and lingered beside it for a minute. As she turned away she heard the sound of Draco's door closing, he had obviously been hovering too. For some reason that thought made her feel happy.
A/N Okay it's done! I'm sorry; I posted the last chapter amid so much confusion and everything. The response wasn't magnificent, but I'm glad I got some feedback. Just for the sake of it I'm going to ask for people to give me a rating again, but it you gave me one already, thanks and it's not necessary for you to give me another one. :D
I'm going camping with my class tomorrow until Friday but I really wanted to post the next chapter. I should be packing…
When you review can you tell me one thing? (Optional of course). Where do you guys live? I, personally, live in Ontario, Canada and I LOVE connecting with people from other places.