When Was The Last Time You?
Chapter Twenty Nine: When Was The Last Time You Wasted?
A Tale By: In The Shadows I Dwell
"Don't waste your youth growing up."
I watched as the schoolwork began to pile up, first it was slowly and gradually but after a week it became apparent that it was increasing at an almost phenomenal rate. Slowly I was losing the time I had with Draco, it seemed as though the only time I was able to spend with him was the time used to patrol the corridors. When I was not patrolling the corridors or in class I was using the time to pour over the ever growing mountain of homework. I could finally understand why it always seemed so stressful for the Seventh Years, they always seemed to be buried beneath large amounts of schoolwork and almost astoundingly difficult spells. There was nothing difficult about the spell work for me, it was more so the long essays that required painful amounts of research in order to complete. To maintain my standard of work I was required to increase my hours spent pouring over books in the library.
I was sitting alone in the library late one night scribbling away at my long charms essay when I heard a small tapping on the window. I looked up to see a small brown owl perched upon the window sill, its golden eyes staring in at me. I got up abandoning my essay and books and let it into the dimly lit room. It dropped the letter at my feet before flying off into the night as though it had almost never been here. I walked over to the table and carefully pried the letter open, knowing instantly who would send a letter at such a strange hour of the night. Harry and Ron. I knew the letter would not be signed, only addressed to me so that the owl would give me the letter, my thoughts were confirmed as I glanced upon the contents of the letter, it was not overly long, but long enough to calm my nerves which almost seemed to be out of control as I held the letter in my shaking hands.
Hermione,
It's been a cold week nothing like our last home. I miss the comfort of at least having a proper bed to sleep upon rather than something that only reminds me of the Quidditch World Cup. It's nothing like I expected it to be out here, at times it's almost refreshing but at others it's like being locked in a tiny room with an extremely grumpy bear, his moods certainly changing not for the better either I can assure you! It seems like something that comes from wearing it, we actually found one. I couldn't tell you as she was there, but we did. Toad face bought it, but the story is far too long for a letter.
I wrote this as you requested, we're alive, safe and well. It may be a long time before I have the chance to write again, have hope in these dark times it's the only thing we can do.
I smiled reading the letter, and after reading over it several times I threw it carefully into the fire ensuring that it would not be seen by another living soul again. Ginny had yet to speak to me again, and I had not found the appropriate moment to give her Harry's message nor had I wanted to yet. Although it may have sounded cruel and like I did not care for her feelings, the truth was I only wanted to protect her, every time someone so much as mentioned Harry these days I saw the sadness in her eyes. I did not want to further that pain with his message. I felt two hands wrap themselves carefully around my waist as I stood staring into the flames as they engulfed the letter burning it away from existence.
"It was from them wasn't it?" Draco whispered in my ear.
I nodded my head softly in response not ready to speak yet; their letters always seemed to have this effect upon me. That spine chilling silence that they left upon me was almost shocking and each and every time it seemed to happen without fail. When finally the embers of the letter had vanished from my sight I turned slowly but gently to face Draco. I looked deeply into his amazing grey-blue eyes hidden beneath a soft layer of hair falling in front of his eyes. I stood on my tip-toes and pressed my lips to his softly, his lips moving softly against mine.
"Are you okay?" He asked pulling back slowly surveying me carefully.
"I'm better than fine." I said with a grin.
"Better than fine hey?" He asked with a laugh.
"That equates to quite happy and content with life." I replied with a smile.
"Is that so? Where have you been for the past week? I've barely seen you."
"Here practically sleeping at that table doing all those essays. There's just so much to do." I said pointing at the table which practically spoke for itself.
"So what you've barely eaten, barely slept and instead you've traded these both off for homework?" He asked with a smile.
"Passing is a fair trade off. It'll all be worth it some day."
"Oh yes that's if you survive this stress long enough to make it that far. Come on lets go and grab something to eat you look positively famished, I know I am." He noted.
"You know what?" I asked taking his hand. "That sounds about right, and it sounds quite nice actually."
He led me down the corridors towards the dungeons, all the way to the large painting of a bowl of fruit. He tickled the pear nestled among the other fruits on the portrait carefully and it giggled and opened to allow us access to the kitchens. We were immediately greeted with a horde of house elves who each brandished a plate of various foods. They bowed to each of us before I noticed Dobby walking forward through the crowd towards us.
"Dobby!" I cried happy when he reached the front.
"Hello Miss." He said in reply his squeaky voice almost exuberantly happy; when he spoke his ears twitched causing his tea cosy to fall askew.
"Oh Dobby it is excellent to see you!" I said, "I was wondering whether you would be able to do us a favour?"
"Anything for a friend of Harry Potter, Miss." He replied chirpily.
I looked at Draco happily; he bore a rather worried expression. Although of course I had almost forgotten that Dobby had once served the Malfoy's, therefore Draco would have been rather familiar with Dobby and Dobby with Draco. I looked around for Winky, almost expecting her to be sitting upon the same chair as last time rocking back and forth drinking Butterbeer. Yet I could not see her, and Dobby was making no indication that she still called Hogwarts her home, however grudgingly. I returned my focus back to Dobby before even beginning to speak.
"Draco and I missed dinner while doing homework, would it be possible to have just a little of the leftovers if there is any?" I asked as politely as I possibly could.
"Of course Miss." Dobby replied showing us to a small table with several chairs lying around it. "You can eat here Miss."
No sooner had we taken our seats, had large plates of food appeared before us containing almost every vegetable and meat I could even begin to think of. Several of the elves were watching us curiously, almost as though they had heard rumours or seen Draco and I together and were curious. It was interesting to see that even the house elves paid close attention to the goings on in the castle. I smiled at Draco nervously indicating at him to look at the house elves behind him. Rather casually he flicked his hair backwards, turning just enough to see the house elves behind him whispering to each other. When he finally turned back to face me again the smile upon his face was infectious. I beamed at him upon seeing his smile and grabbed several items from the plate in front of me.
It was certainly a better way to spend some time even if I was wasting study time, sitting talking and spending time with Draco in general. There was just time I had to take to spend with him, I couldn't spend every spare waking hour of the day locked away in the library studying and researching for all my schoolwork. I could almost get used to taking time out, to actually spending time doing something other than fretting needlessly over homework due in several days time, even if I did enjoy the satisfaction of having it completed early. I enjoyed simply being with Draco more than I could ever enjoy the satisfaction of completing school work early. After awhile of silent eating we stood, finished and well fed.
"Thank you." I said to the house elves present.
"Your most welcome Miss and Sir." They said bowing quickly.
Dobby led us back to the portrait to exit the large open kitchen bowing to us several times as we clambered back through the portrait. I landed with a dull thud upon the stone ground on the other side, Draco following seconds later, giving me only just enough time to move. He landed more gracefully than I had beside me laughing at the expression of annoyance upon my face. How was it that he had landed so softly when I would surely have several bruises lining my arms tomorrow? He lent over and pressed his lips to mine, softly at the same time with a little more passion than he would if we were not in a completely deserted corridor. I felt his body hovering just inches above mine; he was supporting himself with his arms so that his body was almost touching mine.
"Does it not strike you as kind of the wrong place to be doing this?" I asked between kisses.
"Can you think of a better place?" He asked pressing his lips to mine once again.
"Not anywhere we could both go anyway." I said in reply.
"Exactly. Think less. Just let go, we at least can't technically get caught for being out of bed out of hours." He replied.
"That's comforting to know. It's rather hard to think less when you keep talking to me." I said pressing my lips to his once more.
"Yes, but I like hearing your voice."
"I like hearing yours too. It's comforting."
"Comforting?" He asked kissing me quickly.
"Yes, it makes me feel less alone." I replied.
"I feel less alone in your presence." He added slowly pulling himself to his feet. "Come on I'm fairly sure that pile of books will still be patiently awaiting your return."
"There only books, they can wait forever. You can't though." I said taking his hand.
"That of course is true, however it won't really be worth actually making it this far during our entire seven years of schooling if we don't pass our final year, that would make the rest seem rather wasted would it not?"
"It would not have been wasted no matter the outcome of our N.E.W.T.S. Can you really imagine life without Hogwarts? Or magic, that would be a life wasted if neither of us decided to take up the chance to actually come here. We wouldn't have met either, we would still be absolute strangers, you most likely locked away at Durmstrang and I in some muggle high school. We would be two entire worlds apart. Now that would be a waste."
"A waste of what?" He asked.
"Of a perfectly good relationship." I replied pressing my lips softly to his, leading him away from the dungeons and into the warm confines of the library where my books lay just as I had left them. Ready for me to begin work on my essays again with Draco by my side.
Dedicated To: All those who helped me survive NaNo WriMo.
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Author's Note: So I've reached the last of my Update-Per-Day-For-A-Week Chapters, it has been an adventure and I've certainly learnt a lot about writing in general, also might I add how great the support for this story has been phenomenal, over thirty reviews in a week! A million thank you's to all who contributed to these reviews. The next chapter: When Was The Last Time You Served? Should be up later in the week. So read and review in the meantime.
Song of the chapter: Whatcha Say – Jason DeRulo.
