Chapter 34
It had been a very long day for Hermione Granger. Against her better judgment, she had decided to go to the Gryffindor common room to see Ginny and blow off some steam. As she made her way down the stairwell from her bedroom, she wondered how going downstairs from the first floor got her to a tower on the other side of the castle. Confused, she put it out of her mind, chalking it up to complicated magical construction.
She pushed past the tapestry of Selina Sapworthy and was greeted with the warm and homey sight of the Gryffindor common room. This place was as comfortable as her own living room. Well, more comfortable, considering she'd been in her new living room a total of maybe two times since they moved to the new house.
This place even sounded familiar. The sounds of a merrily crackling fire mixed with murmured voices, scratching quills and the sounds of a game of exploding snap. Looking around, she saw Dean and Neville playing the exploding snap game near the fire, as well as Ginny chatting with Vicky Frobisher on the couch. At the back of the room she saw Ron and Harry trying very hard to work on their homework, but seeming to be distracted by their conversation. She saw their quills had been abandoned a while ago, and the boys just sat talking.
Hermione decided to be brave, and approached Harry and Ron.
"Hi guys," she said, taking a seat at the edge of the table which was covered by their books and parchment.
"Hey," they chorused back, looking slightly guilty, she presumed because she'd caught them not doing homework. For once, Hermione was not so worried about homework though.
Hermione took a deep breath and spoke to Ron, saying, "I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier. Do you really not remember two nights ago?"
Ron shook his head numbly.
"Well, long story short, you… put me in a position where I had to stun you-" Harry gasped, but Hermione continued, "and I'm afraid that if you don't remember that, then it means you may have some memory loss lingering from the spell."
"What?" Ron asked, confused.
"Just trust me. Just go to madam Pomfrey tomorrow or even tonight if you must, and tell her you're having memory loss secondary to being stunned. See if she can help you."
"Ok…" Ron said slowly, still not quite getting it.
"Look, I don't want you to remember what happened any more than you will once you know, but if you're having memory loss, that's serious. Our Defense book says the effects of a spell can even be permanent, so you need to get it fixed if you can."
"Yeah," Ron said, "I'll go tomorrow between classes I guess. Maybe after Potions."
Hermione smiled and nodded, then stood up. "Well, I'm going to see how Ginny is. I'll see you guys in class tomorrow."
"See ya, Hermione," Harry said, smiling.
Hermione walked across the room to the couch, where Ginny's friend had left her alone, staring into the fire.
'Hey," Hermione said softly.
"Hi," Ginny replied, not taking her eyes off the fire.
"Something bothering you?" Hermione asked.
Ginny turned to face Hermione, placed her hands in her lap and asked, "How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Tell someone you like them."
"Surely you've done it before, haven't you Ginny?"
"No! I mean I dated Dean and Michael, but they both hit on me, asked me out. I don't know how to just come out of the blue and say 'hey, I like you.'"
"You think I do?" Hermione asked, half in shock. "I am not the type that goes around spouting her feelings at people. I can't even handle it when-" she lowered voice, "Ron tries to kiss me!"
"Oh, yeah. I forget you're probably more inept at this than I am."
"Thanks," Hermione replied, sticking out her tongue.
"Hey, you said it yourself! I'm just trying to get myself out of the friend zone and into the not-just-my-best-friend's-little-sister-anymore zone."
"Okay, first of all, it's Harry, right?"
Ginny nodded.
"Okay, there is no way he is going to pick up on any subtle signals to ask you out. He's just not that way. The only way anything is going to happen between you two is if you are very plain with him, and just tell him you care about him."
Ginny groaned, "But that's so hard!"
"No whining!" Hermione said with a chuckle. "You want to be more than just his best friend's sister, right? Well then start acting like it! Talk to him more at meals, sit near him in the common room, I don't know, just act like you like him already! Maybe he'll pick up on it if you're obvious about it."
"Maybe that would work," Ginny said, with a resolved look on her face.
"Anyway, I guess I should be getting back upstairs. I have rounds tonight and it's almost curfew." Hermione pulled a face, but stood up to go back to her room. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay, goodnight!" Ginny said with a small smile.
Hermione climbed back up the stairs to her dormitory, thinking about her day. Classes had been exhausting, but at least she'd gotten her homework done. Now all she had to think about was stupid rounds with Malfoy.
Still, in the back of her mind, she couldn't stop thinking about Ron's memory. What would he do when he remembered what he had done? Would he feel guilty or would he think she was just stupid for stunning him?
After making it up to her bedroom, she went into her shared bathroom and splashed some water on her face. She just had to stay up long enough to patrol the castle, which was a little over an hour.
Feeling not quite awake enough to put up with Malfoy, she went downstairs to the common room to wait for him. To her distinct surprise, he was already there waiting, perched on the arm of the couch, arms crossed over his silk tie, Italian leather clad shoe tapping on the floor. Practically just thinking about him was expensive.
"Hello," Hermione said warily. "Ready?"
Draco nodded stiffly and led the way out of the common room. Neither of them had ever had to patrol with anyone outside of their house before. As prefects, everything was done in pairs. Now here they were, just the two of them and the apparent silence of the castle.
Hermione looked up the stairwell and said, "Where do you want to start, dungeons or towers?"
"Dungeons, then do top to bottom. So we end up back at our door," Draco suggested gruffly.
Hermione nodded and went first down the stairs to the dungeons.
They walked in silence; the only sound was that of their footsteps echoing off the damp dungeon walls. They checked the potions classroom and storeroom, and found nothing but a lightly simmering cauldron, which they assumed was something Snape was working on.
They made their way to the Hufflepuff common room entrance, which was a large round door made of dark cherry wood with a Hufflepuff banner over the doorway. It was hidden in part by a bunch of barrels, but they didn't do much to keep anyone away.
"They certainly aren't hiding their entrance," Draco scoffed, and the pair moved on.
Deeper down in the bowels of Hogwarts, they approached the Slytherin common room. Down here it was apparent they were under the lake, as there were porthole-style windows every few meters. There was nothing other than darkness to see beyond the glass, though, and it bothered Hermione to look in the windows.
At the end of the Hallway, the path simply stopped, meeting an expanse of wall which would be inconspicuous, if not for the intricate knot work of snakes in the center of the wall. Each had jeweled eyes in a sculpted head that moved every once in a while to look threateningly in a new direction.
Creepy, Hermione thought to herself.
Finding no students in the corridor, they turned and made their way out of the dungeons.
Emerging into the entranceway, they turned and continued their climb up the central spiral stairwell until they reached as high as it would go. To the North was the Astronomy tower, to the South the Divination tower, Gryffindor tower to the West and Ravenclaw tower to the East.
"Start with Ravenclaw and work around?" Hermione suggested when they stalled at the top of the stairs.
Draco nodded, still refusing to make eye contact with the Gryffindor.
The halls were unsurprisingly deserted. This early in the year, the only students likely to be out of bed were the older students, since the young ones were so frightened of the rules. It seemed that the older students must have had enough homework to keep them in tonight, though, because all was quiet.
Ravenclaw's stairwell was deserted, so they moved on to the Divination tower. No one seemed to be lurking on that stairwell either. Hermione happily realized it had been years since she'd been up those stairs.
Next they went to the North tower, which had the owlery on a lower level and the Astronomy room on top. They climbed the stairs up into the North Tower, and found no one lurking in the owlery. Well, no one but a bunch of antsy owls.
The astronomy tower was abandoned as well, but the difference between this place and the one below was the beauty. The sky opened up above them, showcasing millions of stars. It took Hermione's breath away. Even Malfoy in his ever moody stature seemed blown away by the beautiful display above them.
"Makes you feel really insignificant, doesn't it?" Draco asked, so quietly Hermione wasn't sure he was talking to anyone but himself.
"It's just the opposite for me. Times like now make me feel like part of something bigger than myself. Makes me feel connected."
"I see why you like Arithmancy. Everything is written in the stars, but it's-"
"-more sensible than Divination." They finished together.
That was weird, Hermione thought, cringing at the fact that she had just finished Malfoy's sentence. She was such a nerd.
"I'm such a nerd, sorry," she said dropping her eyes.
Draco shrugged, and pulled his eyes from the sky above him to look at the Gryffindor girl beside him.
"I would have gone with Geek but…" he said with the tiniest hint of playfulness.
Hermione shoved him with a laugh before she realized what she was doing. The moment she touched his arm, she realized this was not one of her playful guy pals, this was her enemy. He was the bully that had made her life hell since day one at Hogwarts.
She dropped her eyes to the ground and waited for the insults to fly. When none came, she looked back up at the Head Boy in confusion.
"Not going to scrub the mudblood off your arm?" she asked scathingly.
"The sins of the father shall be visited on by the sons," he replied cryptically. When she didn't respond immediately, he went on, "I guess what I'm saying is, I was raised a certain way to believe certain things were true, which I realize now were not. So I guess you didn't deserve to be harassed in the past because of my prejudices."
"Are you… apologizing?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"I don't apologize!" Draco replied gruffly, seeming to remember himself. He jerked his head toward the door, and left, expecting her to follow.
They patrolled the other 6 floors in silence, stopping only once, in the 3rd floor charms classroom to send a couple of students that were using the room for romantic purposes back to their dormitories. Other than deducting 25 points from each of them, Draco did not say a word, so neither did Hermione.
Once they got back to the common room, Hermione went straight up her stairs to her room, then locked herself in the bathroom and took a nice long soak in the tub. It seemed Draco must have needed to use the bathroom, because she heard him banging on his door to the shared bathroom a few minutes into her bath. Picking up her wand, she cast a silencing spell on the door. She had too much to think about without Draco getting in the way. After all, she was still trying to figure him out.