Chapter 14: Their Talk
"So Draco, how'd the conversation with your father go last night?" Blaise asked.
"How do you think it went, Blaise?" Draco snapped.
"Well come on, Drake, you couldn't have possibly thought that would work," Blaise said, reasoning with his friend.
Draco just shrugged his shoulders and grabbed another slice of toast.
"So what did he have to say?" Blaise tried again.
"Not much," Draco said, trying to avoid the conversation.
"Well it's good to know that you're still in one piece," Blaise said, slapping him on the back with a smirk.
Draco glared at him, "Shut it, Blaise," he warned.
Blaise sighed, "Alright, so where'd you end up crashing?" he asked more seriously.
"Room of Requirement," Draco answered shortly.
"Oh, anything else interesting happen last night?" Blaise asked just to make conversation.
"Of course," Draco replied, taking a gulp of his pumpkin juice.
"Do tell," Blaise prompted.
"I'm back 'with' Granger," Draco said non-chalantly.
"Right, now that you're going to stop being a git. Tell me what happened," Blaise said, getting irritated with Draco's shortness when he obviously had something to say.
"She happened to be up in the Room of Requirements when I went up there. We talked and we're back 'together'. That's it," Draco said, staring at his plate as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.
"Alright, you can tell me later, when you're not in such a foul mood," Blaise said, "And by the way, I guess we missed the announcement that there's a Halloween Ball this Saturday, Hogsmeade Wednesday. Might want to ask Granger before Weasley does," Blaise pointed his chin in the direction of the Gryffindor table, got up and left.
Draco looked over his shoulder at Weasley who was currently whispering something in Hermione's ear. Before his anger could flare up, he got up and followed Blaise out of the hall, shooting a glare at Weasley on his way.
He caught up to Blaise, deciding he'd stop being difficult.
"Granger and I are talking to the Golden Boy and Weasel tonight," he said simply.
"Really?" Blaise asked curiously.
"Yeah, she said she hated going behind their backs, so I told her we should just tell them, so we're going to. Hopefully after that, Weasley will stop attempting to flirt with her," Draco rolled his eyes.
"It's quite pathetic to watch, really. Anyone in their right minds could tell he fancies her. Good thing it's just as plain to see that she doesn't fancy him. I almost feel bad for the guy, he doesn't even realize it," Blaise laughed.
Draco smirked, "He really hasn't got a clue, I can't wait to see his face when we tell him tonight."
"So, Hermione, how was your night with Ginny last night?" Harry asked.
"Oh, it was great," she smiled.
"Good, so we shouldn't be expecting any girl talk tonight, then?" Harry joked.
Hermione's smile widened, "Actually, I want you boys to join me tonight."
"Wher' 're 'e goin'?" Ron asked with a mouthful of pancakes.
"Ron, chew your food and swallow it before you talk!" Hermione scolded.
Ron rolled his eyes and swallowed his food, "Right, sorry. Where are we going?"
"Up to the Room of Requirement," she said, "But I'll tell you everything when we get there. I just really need you both to come," she smiled looking back and forth between the two.
They both agreed and continued eating their breakfast.
Hermione was already anxious and incredibly nervous. She just really hoped they'd take it well.
"Come on boys!" Hermione prompted, "It's almost eight, we need to get going!"
"Alright, we're coming!" Harry said.
"So, what are we going to do anyways?" Ron said as they walked towards the Room of Requirement.
"You'll see, just come on," she answered.
As they reached the door she took a deep breath, unaware as to whether or not Draco was already there, "Okay, now I need you to promise me that you'll keep your minds open tonight. And please just listen to everything that's said."
Harry and Ron looked at each other in confusion, "We will, Hermione," Harry said.
"Thanks guys, and remember, you're my best friends and nothing would ever change that," she hugged them both and opened the door, revealing an empty, comfortable looking room.
She led Harry and Ron over to a couch and asked them to sit down, "It should only be a minute, then I can tell you," she said.
"Can you at least tell us what this is about?" Harry asked.
"Well, I hated not being able to tell you where I was going or what I was doing. Hopefully, I'm doing us both a favor. I'm going to tell you everything, I hate the thought of keeping something so important to me a secret," she told them.
"Ah, we finally get to know!" Harry joked.
There was a soft knock at the door, followed by the jiggling of a doorknob. A moment later the door opened, revealing none other than Draco Malfoy.
"How'd you get in, Ferret Face!" Ron said jumping to his feet, Harry not far behind.
Draco looked at Hermione warily.
"Close the door," Hermione told him.
"Yeah and please, don't come back," Harry said.
To Harry and Ron's surprise, Malfoy didn't leave and shut the door behind him, but instead walked into the room to close it.
Harry and Ron both looked at him incredulously, "What do you think you're doing!" Ron yelled.
"Um... boys..." Hermione started, Draco walking over to her, "Remember when I asked you to keep an open mind?"
Neither of the boys said a word, they just looked back and forth between Hermione and Draco, waiting for an explanation.
"Well, I've been seeing Draco," Hermione said simply. She took Draco's hand in hers for support. He gently squeezed her hand to let her know he was there for her.
Harry and Ron just stood there saying nothing. For a minute Hermione thought maybe they'd keep their minds about them. But then again, this was Harry and Ron.
"You must be joking!"
"You're not serious are you?"
"Have you gone daft!"
"Malfoy!"
"Are you crazy!"
"Has he hexed you?"
"What have you done to her Malfoy!"
Their rants continued for a few minutes before they ran out of things to say. They stood there looking at the couple standing before them disbelievingly.
Hermione took a deep breath, taking advantage of the break, "I know you two don't much like him, but I've really gotten to know him recently-"
"Gotten to know him!" Ron yelled.
"Ron, calm down," Hermione pleaded.
"Don't tell him to calm down, he has all the reason in the world to be upset!" Harry countered.
"Hey! Don't talk to her like that, Potter!" Draco cut in.
"Oh, so now you're coming to the rescue, huh Ferret?" Ron said, "Because you care for her so much, right!"
"We can see right through it, Malfoy. I don't know what you're trying to do here, but it's not going to work," Harry added.
"Stay away from her," Ron said dangerously.
"Harry, Ronald, stop it!" Hermione said, getting quite irritated with their responses, "Now I understand completely that you're upset, confused, whatever. But please trust me when I say that there's no alternate motive here, we care for each other. Why can't you accept that?"
"He doesn't have feelings, Hermione! I don't know what he did to brainwash you, but snap out of it, what good could possibly come from being with him!" Harry tried to reason with her.
"Why don't you let her make some decisions on her own, Potter?" Malfoy defended her.
"Draco, please," Hermione said to him before turning back to the other boys, "Now, will you both please calm down and think rationally about this? I'm telling you this because I thought you would try to understand!"
"We are thinking rationally about this, it's you who's not. I don't understand why you're doing this, Hermione. But there's no way we'll ever understand, I'm sorry," Ron told her.
Ron looked at Harry, who shook his head, unable to keep thinking about the current situation. The boys took one last look at Hermione and Draco and left the room.
"Well, I daresay that didn't go too well," Draco said dryly, looking at Hermione.
She shot him a glare and sighed, sitting down on a couch. "So what do we do now?" she asked.
"We give them time," Draco said, sitting down with her, hoping they'd come around, because if not, he was screwed.
"But what are we going to do about us?" Hermione said, desperate for answers.
"We are going to be us together, we are going to be there for each other, and we are going to care about each other," Draco smirked snaking an arm around Hermione's waist and bringing her closer to him on the couch.
Hermione couldn't help but smile; she loved how he could make her feel better. She put her arms around his neck and drew him closer to her so that his face was inches from hers, "I guess that sounds like a plan for now," she said quietly, knowing there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.
Draco leaned in and kissed her softly, showing her he cared for her. She ran her tongue across the outside of his lips, begging to deepen the kiss, to which Draco was all too happy to agree to. He carefully lifted her up and positioned himself on top of her. Draco was slowly massaging her tongue with his, but it was tantalizingly slow for Hermione. She wanted more from him, she wanted to see the passion she felt around him. She pushed him off of her so he fell back onto the couch. He looked at her confused, wondering if he had done something wrong.
Hermione smirked, crawling on top of him and crashing her lips onto his. This surprised him at first, but in no way did it bother him. She moaned into the kiss, putting all the passion she felt into it and receiving just as much back from him. Her hands found their way to the bottom of his shirt and lifted it up, momentarily breaking their heated kiss, to pull it off. As soon as it was thrown out of the way, she went back to attacking his lips, earning a throaty groan from Draco.
Draco pulled back for a second, his breathing rapid, "Well that's... not... fair," he complained.
Hermione grinned and shook her head, allowing him to slip off her shirt as well, revealing a light pink lace bra. He brought his lips back up to hers, both of their hands exploring the other's body. Hermione could not stop herself from running her hands repeatedly over his abs, they were simply amazing. Draco, on the other hand could not keep his hands off of her beautiful chest; his thumb lightly brushing over her, while his other hand was on her face, caressing her cheek. He started moving his other hand down her stomach when there was a loud knock at the door.
Hermione jumped off of Draco, grabbing her shirt and throwing it back on as Draco cursed under his breath, putting his own shirt back on as well, "Bloody grand timing," he muttered.
The knock came again, louder this time.
"Who is it?" Hermione called, fixing her hair as best she could.
"It's us," came the reluctant voice of Harry.
It had only been about fifteen minutes since they had left. Hermione was still very upset that they had interrupted her snogging session with Draco, but she was also excited, hoping they'd calmed down a bit and would be more understanding.
"Come on in," she called back to them.
Draco let out a deep breath, pushing himself up from the couch and walking over to Hermione, taking her hand in his for support.
Harry and Ron walked in and closed the door, looking back and forth between the two, trying to decide on what to say.
Harry sighed and took another step towards them, "I suppose we might have been a bit harsh before," he started, "But you have to understand, Hermione, as of before this night, we were still under the impression that you hated the Ferret-"
"Harry-" Hermione started to reprimand him about the name.
"Malfoy," Harry corrected, rolling his eyes and grimacing, "just as much as we did. So you can imagine that we took it as a bit of a shock. And don't get me wrong, I am quite against this, I don't trust him," Harry said as if Draco wasn't standing in the same room.
"Potter I'm right here..." Draco drawled.
"But," Harry said, ignoring Draco, "We're willing to... support you, not the relationship, you."
"Yeah, 'Mione," Ron added, stepping up next to Harry, "You're our best friend and even if you want to be with..." a look of deep pain spread across his face, but he determinedly continued, "If you want to be with him... then there's really not too much we can do except be there for you."
Ron turned to Draco, "But if you hurt her in any way, we promise you Malfoy-"
"Ron!" Hermione pleaded, trying to avoid a fight.
"I'm just warning him, Hermione, we care about you a lot, which is why we're willing to not fight this," Ron defended.
"Thank you," Hermione said to them, "And you can trust me, you can trust Draco."
A pang of guilt hit Draco at those words, you can trust Draco... 'yeah,' he thought to himself, 'you can trust me to lead you right into a pack of werewolves.' He hated the thought of it, but he had a pretty good feeling that it was exactly like what he was doing.
"Now, I know I'm probably pushing it a bit... but do you think that Draco could come to Hogsmeade with us? Maybe it'll give you some time to get to know him better," The boys looked at her as if she had told them Voldemort had abandoned his life of evil to become a muggle monk.
'Is she serious!' Harry thought, 'Does she really think we can, let alone want to, get to know Malfoy better?'
"Please, it would mean so much to me," she knew she had said the magic words. They cared about her too much to make her upset again.
"Fine, whatever," they muttered in defeat. She had won and they knew it. They didn't want to lose her to the Ferret, so they may as well try.
"Thank you so much!" Hermione squealed, running over and hugging them.
"Draco, you don't mind coming with us, do you?" she asked hopefully.
Draco shrugged, he didn't really have any other plans, and if Potter and Weasley didn't want him there, at least he could make their day worse. That made him feel a little better, "If that's what would make you happy," he told her sweetly, smirking at Harry and Ron when she turned back around to talk to them.
They both shot him dirty looks, but said nothing.
"We better get going," Ron said.
"Don't stay out too late, we have classes tomorrow," Harry told her, shooting another warning glance at Draco, who just rolled his eyes.
Maybe befriending Potter wasn't going to be very easy, but he was going to have a bit of fun pissing him off, if nothing else.
Hermione gave them another hug and let them leave.
She let out a deep breath and walked lazily back over to Draco, "Well I guess that's all I can ask for right now, huh?" she yawned.
"Yeah I guess so," he said, putting his arms around his waist and pulling her into him.
She closed her eyes, resting her head on his chest, and stayed there for a minute relaxing before she pushed back from him.
"I'm going to fall asleep here if I don't get going," she said.
"I don't see any problem with that," Draco smirked.
Hermione just shook her head and laughed, "Not tonight, I need to go back to Gryffindor Tower tonight. I'll see you in class tomorrow."
"Alright, and gee, tell Potter and Weasley I just can't wait to spend the day in Hogsmeade with them Wednesday," he grinned.
"Draco," She looked at him tiredly, "Please be civil, I know you don't like them, but please try to get to know them."
"Alright, alright," he sighed, "Go get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning."
He leaned down and kissed her soundly before heading back towards the dungeons.
As soon as he had let go of her she felt cold again. She loved being in his arms, feeling safe. She yawned again, stretching her arms, and left the room to head back to Gryffindor Tower.
"I still can't believe it, mate," Harry said, closing his eyes and leaning his head back on the couch in the Gryffindor common room.
"Yeah, you're telling me," Ron agreed, eyes fixated on the crackling fire in front of him.
"I'm sorry, Ron, this has got to be a bit of a killer for you, huh?" Harry said, looking over at his downtrodden friend.
Ron finally took his gaze off of the fire and met Harry's, "Yeah, a bit," he said dryly.
The portrait swung open a few minutes later and Hermione walked in. She looked around, spotting Harry and Ron sitting in front of the fire. She walked over to them, taking a seat next to Harry on the couch.
Harry gave her a forced half smile and Ron just looked at her.
"Thanks," she said quietly.
"Look, Hermione, whatever you do, we're here for you, okay?" Harry said, trying to lessen the awkwardness of the conversation.
"I know, that's why you guys are my best friends," she smiled.
"Alright, well we're going to head off to bed, we'll see you in the morning," Harry said, getting up and dragging Ron with him.
"Yeah... bed," Ron agreed snapping out of the daze he had been in, "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," she called to them as they headed up the stairs.
She was glad that they were trying to be supportive, even if it was bit forced, she'd take what she could get.
But there was one thing that was unavoidable.
Of course, she'd known that this would happen all along. She'd seen this coming since she had gotten together with Draco. And she still feared facing this even now. But she knew she couldn't put it off forever, especially with its current state. She knew her next commitment was to straighten all of this out. She couldn't bare to act like nothing was wrong, couldn't bare to see her actions take their toll.
She'd have to talk to Ron. She'd have to tell him everything, he deserved that much. Harry and Ron were both her best friends, but she knew that Ron had liked her, as she had liked him before this year also. He deserved and explanation, she hated seeing him so out of it and reserved. She was sure Harry had noticed it too, so he would understand, and probably encourage her to talk to Ron.
Tomorrow, she decided, tomorrow I'll talk with him.
With that settled in her mind, she decided to go up to bed herself.
An owl met Draco when he returned from the Room of Requirements. Draco groaned, recognizing it as his father's.
He sat down, taking the note from the owl and opening it, trying to drown out the loud snoring noise coming from Blaise's bed.
Draco:
I trust that in the last twenty four hours you have taken our conversation to heart. I hope things have improved since then, though I must insist that you meet me tomorrow so that we can talk about more important things. 12:00 sharp. Do not be late.
Sincerely,
Lucius Malfoy
Draco crumpled up the note, "Incendio," he said through gritted teeth, pointing his wand at the paper.
He watched as the paper caught fire and burned until it was no more than ash lying on his floor.
"What the hell are you doing?" Blaise asked tiredly, turning over in bed at the sudden light the fire had emitted. Crabbe and Goyle, however seemed to be out cold in their beds and didn't so much as flinch at the light.
"Go back to bed, Blaise," Draco said quietly, not at all in the mood for a conversation.
"Whatever," he murmured, turning back over. Within seconds, his snores were audible again.
Draco cleaned up the ashes with a simple Scourgify and went to lie down, but sitting on his bed was the owl. Apparently, Lucius expected an affirmation from him that he would be there.
He cursed his father inwardly, walking over to his desk and grabbing a piece of parchment. He wrote back saying that he'd be there and gave the note to the owl, who quickly took off out the open window.
Draco walked over and slammed the window shut loudly, earning grunts from Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle, but none of them actually woke up. Though, maybe they did and were just smart enough to keep their mouths shut.
Draco sighed, plopping down onto his bed and closing his eyes, trying to block out every thought that came to his head. He had been having an okay night, but his father always seemed to ruin those times. He soon fell into a dreamless sleep, relieving him of his burdens, at least until morning.