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Chess

Anthem

"Good morning!" Hermione chirped in an unnaturally good mood on the first morning of the Christmas holidays. Most of the students had left for their homes by the evening train the previous night, and there were considerably fewer books around the common room now than there usually were. Hermione was lying on her stomach on a sofa in the common room, one leather-bound tome placed on the floor in front of her, and straining her neck to look up to Draco as he descended the stairs from the boys dormitories, growling.

"I'm not going," he simply said, stopping in front of Hermione and carefully brushing his woolly sock over the page of the book.

It was early in the morning and the sun had yet to rise, and though the two concealed their amusement well, they were surprised to see the other awake that early during the holiday. Draco, not having known Hermione for a very long period of time, had always considered her more of an evening person, mainly basing his assumptions on the fact that were she awake early in the mornings she would have time to take more care of her appearance and make her hair look a bit more presentable. Hermione, meanwhile, had always been judging Draco by the stereotype of a spoilt single child, and therefore it had never even occurred to her that he might like early mornings.

"You have no choice," Hermione replied in the same artificially cheerful voice she had used earlier. "And don't do that; I need to finish this book before I start studying for the NEWTs, and so do you."

"But I don't want to go!" he whined. "And what is it? Is it interesting? And why do I have to read it?"

"Do you want her to come and pick you up from here?" Hermione said, sitting up on the sofa and massaging her neck. "And it's the official book of Ravenclaw, written by Rowena herself, and every student of this house has to read it."

"So, what's it about?" Draco asked, handing Hermione the book she had left on the floor, and sitting down next to her.

"How could I tell you that? Besides, are you packed already?"

"Of course you can tell me! Then I wouldn't have to read it; it seems abnormally long."

"What?" Hermione asked him, surprise evident even in the strained mock happiness of her voice. "You're saying you did no research on the House you changed into? You're saying you know nothing about Rowena's Book of Truths? I'm sure even Harry knows!"

"Well, that would probably be due to the fact that he dated that Chang girl, wouldn't it?" Draco asked sourly.

"Are you jealous?" Hermione asked with a grin, trying to subdue the urge to strangle Malfoy should he show any amicable feelings towards Cho or any other women. But her self control was perfect and the act she was putting up was flawless.

But that was all it was — an act. Last night, staring out of the window as she had done every single evening since becoming a Ravenclaw, she had made a resolution. Not a New Year resolution, there was still a lot of time before the start of the next year, and not even a Christmas Resolution because that would mean wasting a couple of perfectly fine days.

In her mind she called it a Christmas Holiday resolution, and the main goal behind that resolution was to persuade Draco to stay with her over the holidays.

And that's why she smiled adorably when Draco blushed at her jibe, and then pointed towards a desk by the windows.

"You left your Transfiguration book there yesterday, if I remember correctly. You should go and put it in your trunk lest you forget it here."

"I told you already — I'm not going!" he almost shouted, making Hermione infernally jump with glee, though on the outside she presented a look of surprise and confusion.

"But you promised her," she said, tilting her head in a way that the rising sun lighted her face and gave her an excuse for batting her eyelashes in a way that anyone watching would have instantly classified as unabashed flirting. Thankfully there was no one else in the common room, and Draco was too occupied with staring at her with wide craving eyes to notice anything.

"But… that was… before…" Draco finally said, turning away from Hermione and catching a look out of the window instead. "We'd better get down for breakfast," he changed the subject.

"Yes," Hermione agreed with him, the blank smile back on her features, "so you can tell her what time you'll be there."

"I'm not going! I never want to see that part of the castle again!"

It had been the first almost-fight between the two when Malfoy had told her he had promised Pansy to spend the Christmas Holidays with her in the Slytherin dungeons. After Draco's defecting to Ravenclaw, Parkinson had taken the matters to her hands, and quickly organised everything so that all other Slytherin students besides her would be leaving Hogwarts for that time. Hermione had been painfully polite towards her ever since she found out.

"Ah, Pansy!" she greeted with a bright smile when stepping into the Great Hall. The Slytherin girl was the only person there at that hour, and the look she gave Hermione spoke plainly of detestation and nothing else. Draco quickly sat down at the Ravenclaw table, turning his back towards Parkinson, and tried to ignore the presence of both women.

Hermione, though, had plans of her own.

"Dear Draco here said he'll take his suitcase down to the dungeons right after the breakfast," she chirped happily, and a glint of confusion flashed over Pansy's face. "Didn't you, Draco?"

"Shut up," Draco hissed silently, concentrating his eyes hard on his tomato to block the women out.

"Really?" Pansy asked.

"He said he was not going to take his books with him because he wants to do other things with you," Hermione said lightly, beaming at Pansy.

A knife was struck right through the heart of an unsuspecting tomato with such force that the table trembled.

"I said, shut up," he hissed more forcefully.

"But why is he then having you talk for him?" Pansy asked with a superior gaze, horror reflecting in her eyes as she understood what Hermione was playing at. She could almost see Draco melting in the presence of Hermione, and she knew she had to do something to stop the other girl's devilish plan.

"Oh, he's probably just shy," Hermione commented, sitting finally down next to Malfoy and patting him on a shoulder. "Aren't you, my boy?"

"Or maybe he's just not wizard enough?" Pansy asked, obviously striking a nerve in Malfoy for the tomato now looked more like ketchup. "First he left Slytherin because he was a coward, and now he lets a girl talk for him."

"I don't think he's a coward," Hermione said, a proud smile caressing her face, as if she was a mother speaking about her first-born child after finding him hiding under the bed. "I think that he knows perfectly well that if he comes to your common room for this holiday he's giving in to the pressure that Snape has been putting on him all the while, and I think that he's really courageous not to make a point of it."

Hermione beamed when she saw Draco biting his lip and Pansy looking defeated. She grabbed a spoon and took a mouthful of the mashed tomato on Draco's plate, murmuring, "Mmm, wonderful breakfast," in a voice that suggested she was talking about something completely different. Draco bleached when he felt a strand of Hermione's hair brush against his cheek.

"So you really are coming?" Pansy asked suddenly in a wavering voice. "I think I should thank you for that."

Draco opened his mouth to answer, but Hermione beat him to it.

"Well, he did promise, didn't he? And my Draco never breaks his promises."

"SHUT UP!" Draco bellowed, making the happily humming professor Dumbledore in his portrait cough in surprise.

Draco jumped up from his chair and walked to the Slytherin table in an even stride.

"You say I'm not wizard enough? You say that leaving Slytherin means leaving behind all wizard pride?

"No man, no madness
Though their sad power may prevail
Can possess, conquer my wizard heart
They rise to fail
Wizardry's eternal
Long before Hogwarts School was born
When no spells flew, when no potions boiled
This race was born."

He was bowing close to Pansy, almost as if he was about to kiss her, but they both knew that he had no intention to do so. Hermione sat at the Ravenclaw table, feeling immensely happy that Draco had finally answered to her provocation, yet a bit sorry for the Slytherin girl whom she had torn into it.

"And you ask me why I love her," Draco continued his praise to wizardry,
"Through wars, death and despair
She is the constant, we who don't care
And you say I have left her — but how?
I cross between dorm rooms but I'm still wizard now!"

"I'm sorry," Pansy whispered, and, seeing professor McGonagall entering the Great Hall, quickly spoke up. "Professor, could I please use your fireplace to floo home for Christmas?"

Professor McGonagall let her strict gaze slide over the scene in the Great Hall, and seeing that Malfoy was just straightening up from a kiss to his girlfriend, and that Hermione wasn't feeling one bit down because of it, she nodded happily.

"After the breakfast have your trunk ready at the entrance to my office," she replied with a brisk smile.

A few minutes after that Pansy left the Great Hall, and soon other students started to file in for breakfast. Draco left soon after, having given Hermione no glance after the incident with Pansy. Terry Boot slumped down next to Hermione with a sleepy "You're early!" and leaned his elbows on the table to support his head from dropping into his plate. Hermione could feel the accusing eyes of Dumbledore on the back of her head; all in all it had started off as a perfectly good plan to make Draco finally say out the words she so desperately wanted him to say. It wasn't her fault she had gotten carried away with her act and hurt Pansy and made Malfoy angry. It wasn't her fault!

Or was it?

She had meant for Pansy to go away for the Holidays angry with Hermione, not looking this sad and broken. And she hadn't meant for Draco to get angry with her — he was supposed to embrace her and hug her and kiss her and give her the best Christmas present she would ever get. He wasn't supposed to walk out of the Great Hall and leave her alone with Terry Boot next to her sleeping over his bowl of porridge.

And Dumbledore wasn't supposed to look at her in this way, making her feel as if he thought she was an insensitive manipulative bitch. Though she knew she was just that.

With a cry of anguish Hermione finally jumped up from the bench, and when Terry still slept on without noticing her despair, she nudged his hand, so that his head dropped right into his porridge, and left before the poor Prefect could understand why it was so difficult to breathe.

She made her way straight to the Ravenclaw Tower, feeling much better now — the little things like seeing stuck-up dunderheads suck porridge in through their nose always tends to lift one's mood. But when Hermione reached the tower her better humour vanished almost instantly because there was absolutely no sight of Draco anywhere. She even ran up to the boys' seventh year dormitories, only to find a half-dressed Michael Corner there, but before leaving the room hastily she managed to notice that Draco's suitcase had disappeared from it's original spot at the foot of his bed.

Hermione quickly let the words she had heard Malfoy say to Pansy through her mind, and began to wonder if Draco had actually meant what she had first thought he had meant by them. She saw there were two options — he could have implied that he was still a wizard though he had given up his thoughts on pureblood supremacy, but it could just as well have meant that he was still the same person he had been before, though he now shared a common room with different people.

And as this idea crossed her mind, Hermione sprinted towards McGonagall's office as fast as her legs carried her.

She shouted the password half way down the corridor, and pressed herself past the gargoyle before it had managed to free the way to the stairs. But when she reached the Headmistress' office there was no one there but the portraits of dead Headmasters; no sight of Parkinson, McGonagall, or Malfoy.

It was in a much more reserved and slower way that Hermione walked back towards the Ravenclaw Tower with every intention to take the Book of Ravenclaw down to the library and spend the entire holiday there, reading it. When she climbed in through the Window Hole she came face to face with a totally bewildered Terry who had a clump of dried porridge dangling in his hair.

"Hermione! Can you imagine it! I really didn't believe in dreams before, but today I had a dream that I went down to breakfast and sat down next to you, and then I woke up with my head in my favourite, oatmeal porridge! Isn't it wonderful! I really should have taken Divination instead of this rubbish Arithmancy!" he exclaimed, beaming all over.

Hermione took the Book of Truths from the sofa that Malfoy had left it on earlier in the morning, and made to leave without answering anything to Terry.

"You know what Mickey said? That he slept in and when he was still only in his boxers and with his shirt drawn over his face, some girl walked into our dorm and saw him like that! Wonder who this bird was; probably Lisa, she's been circling around him ever since Cho graduated last year!"

Hermione leaned the heavy book carefully on her hip and supported it with only one hand, using the other to push the Window Hole open. In her opinion it was pure genius to use a window as the passage to the common room because this way they could always see if there was someone outside their common room who shouldn't know about it's exact location. But now she was just frustrated that she couldn't thrust it open with her foot, because the book was really heavy and Terry was showing no intention to help her.

"Did you already hear the rumour about Malfoy? I heard the forth years Stewart and Orla saying that he went back to Slytherin, but Loony said that he only moved into their common room for the Holidays because he had a fight with you! She's really off the rocker, isn't she?"

But Hermione didn't hear that, she had already run out of the common room, the old and respectable Book of Truths lying forgotten on the floor besides the Window Hole.

A moment later Hermione found herself in the lowest dungeon facing the bare wall that was the entrance to the Slytherin common room. As the Head Girl she knew all passwords in the school, but she had to catch her breath first to pronounce the words.

"Traitor Malfoy," she finally panted to the wall, and it soundlessly slid open.

She saw Malfoy with the very first glance she shot into the room. He was sitting on a soft armchair with his back towards the entrance, and staring into a solitary fire burning in a robust-looking fireplace. That was the only source of light in the room — there were no windows, no candles, no lamps, and no other fireplaces.

Draco didn't notice her coming. He was staring in front of him, and talking to himself.

"How can I leave her?" Draco despaired, and Hermione wondered who he was talking about.

"Where should I start?" Draco continued, his voice even more strained now. Hermione noticed that his suitcase was still at the entrance and he hadn't yet taken it into any of the dormitories.

"Let man's petty egos tear themselves apart
But I still have love concealed inside my heart," Draco said forcefully, heaving himself up from the armchair.

Hermione felt tears spring into her eyes, but before she could do anything about them Draco had turned around and noticed her.

"Hey," Hermione whispered to the dark shape of Malfoy drawing out against the flickering flames in the fireplace.

"Hey," Malfoy answered carefully. Hermione couldn't see his face, but she imagined him blushing when he understood that she had heard his monologue.

"I was just about to come back up to the Tower," he said, not moving a step from where he had stopped when spotting her.

"Oh," Hermione replied.

They both stood motionlessly in silence for a moment.

"I'm sorry!" Hermione suddenly said, at the same moment that Draco exclaimed, "I apologise, okay?"

Both snorted, and then stood in silence again.

"So, let's go back?" Draco asked, but Hermione had chosen the very moment to say, "So, going to stay here?"

Silence reigned again for some moments.

"I—" they started again together, but this time Hermione couldn't take it any more and flung herself at Malfoy, toppling them both over onto the floor, Draco's blond head barely missing the hard stone of the fireplace.

"I'm sorry I was insensitive and manipulative and a bitch! I just thought it was the best way to… or rather the only way to… I'm sorry I used Pansy and didn't think about anyone else's feelings, but all in all it's only natural that first and foremost I'm on nobody's side but my own, but I really didn't want to hurt you, or Pansy, or anyone actually, not even Terry! And…"

"I love you," Draco whispered into her ear, hugging her firmly to him, and trying not to let it disturb him that there was something really uncomfortable protruding from the smooth floor of the common room; probably one of his shoes.

"And I didn't want to make Pansy so unhappy, I just wanted her to leave Hogwarts, because I just wanted you to understand that I wanted you to stay with me over the Christmas, but I suppose it was still absolutely insensitive of me to behave that way. And…"

"And I love you," Draco repeated with a little more conviction in his voice.

"And I know it was absolutely inhuman of me to make Terry fall into his porridge, but I just couldn't he— what did you say?" Hermione finally felt Draco's breath on her neck and his arms around her waist. She raised herself partially off him to get a clear view of his face.

"I said I love you. I said from now on I'll give you every second I have. I said I'll never let you be anyone else's know-it-all. And I asked if you really made Boot drop his head into his porridge?"

"I did," Hermione said with a chuckle, climbing up into the armchair, and dragging Draco after her. "But I actually think that I'd like being your know-it-all much better than being anyone else's."

"I'm glad to hear that."

They let the warmth from the fireplace engulf them as they clung to each other, huddled up in the armchair, paying no attention to the hissing half-Dracos wriggling their forked tongues at whimpering half-Rons. They didn't know how quickly time passed or whether it passed at all because it made no difference whatsoever.

"Should we be going back?" Draco asked at one moment.

"No. I'd rather avoid Terry right now. And Michael. And Luna, too, just in case."

"Alright."

And they didn't move for some more time. They just listened to the fire cracking and imagined the snow falling outside, and imagined a colourful sunset behind the clouds they thought were covering the sky.

"I suppose we've missed the lunch," Hermione said at one time.

"I suppose we have," Draco answered.

"Are we going to miss the dinner as well?"

"I think I have some lemon drops in the suitcase, around nine hundred and twenty packages, if I remember correctly."

"Your suitcase is too far. But I have one half-empty package in my pocket," Hermione replied without raising her glance from the dancing flames.

"That will have to do for today, I suppose."

"Yeah, I suppose that's enough."

And they watched the sun set behind the mountains, gilding over the high Astronomy Tower, and painting the Hogwarts Lake in dark hues, lemon drops in their mouths.

THE END

Note: Ah, I simply adore this chapter. I asked Larix to give me some riding-into-sunset romance and she managed it a lot better than I could have guessed. Also, she got me obsessed with a porridge-covered Terry, whom I started to use in my stories and begged Larix to use in hers. What else? This is not really the end, as you might know. There will be Act 2, too, but we haven't written that yet. But we are going to do it. One day. Until then, stay well, read Deathly Hallows and, why not, eat some porridge. :P

ooo

Cheers,
Fagus Sylvatica of TwoTrees