A/N: Thank you all for the love! Keep it up, because I've already written the next 15 chaps... Maybe I'll feel like posting again soon, I don't know.
Disclaimer: I don't own nothin'!
38- Speak of the Devil
Two days pass wherein our group recovered from their visit to Azkaban, and are able to get back to their lives as normal; the one difference in being that Draco would be writing his mother almost daily from now on, and had sworn off seeing or writing his father for the remainder of their lives.
Presently, our two Heads, if you can recall, are expected to make rounds on Wednesday nights. It is on this Wednesday night that we join Harry and Hermione on patrol, somewhere near the second floor corridor that leads to the stairs.
"I'm glad they're studying, but I wish they were here." Hermione said amiably as she and Harry walked up a, presently, moving staircase to the third floor. They'd been on rounds a couple of hours already, and not much had happened. They'd had to stop Peeves from messing with the points meter in the Great Hall, but other than that there'd been nothing.
"Then stop being so bossy," Harry said jokingly with a shake of his head and a smirk in his girlfriend's direction.
Draco and Pansy were Prefects, so it went without saying that the two were good at doing their homework, but the raven-haired Slytherin usually balked at being told what to do. She didn't fight Hermione on this, and Harry had found it funny that Pansy had been so cooperative.
"It's still very important, Harry. They want to go to University, and I want to be supportive of that in any way that I can," Hermione replied as they made to the next flight of stairs. "I- I don't know how you'll take this, but I think that it would be fantastic if we all ended up in school together next year, too."
Harry raised a brow at his girlfriend as he stopped in his tracks, the stairway continuing to move as she stopped to look back at him. They eyed each other for a moment, before Harry asked,
"You really, really fancy them don't you?"
"I think- it has more to do with- the "L" word…" was Hermione's reply.
"Lesbian?" Harry asked with his eyes widening.
"No!" Hermione said with an exasperated sigh. "The other "L" word!"
"Lesbians?"
"It's love, Harry. I wasn't trying to trick you..."
"Oh!" Harry was relieved and he smiled up at his girlfriend with a chuckle before saying, "Right! Of course. And," he moved up the stairs to give her kiss, "I already know you do... and more than just as your friends. You don't hover over everyone and make them study. At least, not anymore." Hermione rolled her eyes, and smiled, before giving him another small kiss in return. It was late, and they were alone. They could kiss each other now.
The Gryffindors had considered telling Ron and Ginny about their relationship further, but it was probably better left unsaid. Ginny was in rough shape, and Ron was no better. The owls they'd received from him the past few weeks had been all about work; the Death Eaters they'd caught, those they were tracking, and the few that had been found dead. He never wrote about how he was feeling, so they'd decided they shouldn't either.
Obviously, he was coping, not dealing.
Ginny's letters were more honest, the witch stating that the trip to Hogsmeade had been difficult for her, and that being so close to Hogwarts had set her back to the night of the battle. However, the letter they'd received a few days ago seemed, to Hermione, that it had helped the younger witch, and the red head's honesty was helping the brunette write about her feelings about her parents.
Now, Hermione wanted to talk about her feelings for Draco and Pansy, but didn't know how to go about it. Yes, she knew the green ties cared for them a lot, but they hadn't said anything about their feelings either. Hermione wasn't like that. She wore her heart on her sleeve pretty often. People knew her feelings… and she knew the Slytherins knew. The sneaky bastards. Harry, the sneaky bastard, was still her closest friend, and she knew she could tell him because she knew he felt it too.
"I want to tell them I love them," Hermione said with a flutter in her heart and stomach.
"Have you been thinking about doing this for a while?" Harry asked as the staircase- which they had ridden back and forth along its path- came to another stop, and the two began to walk again.
"Of course! You haven't? Not even once?" Hermione asked.
"Not necessarily," Harry said with a scoff. "I wouldn't tell them that. I think they would both faint… Feelings are hard for them." Hermione couldn't fight his logic, having had similar thoughts, so she nodded as she pondered his words.
"I was going to wait for them to break that ice, but I'm positive it's not going to happen," she finally said. Hermione might have agreed with Harry's deduction of their lovers, but that didn't mean she didn't think she should chance it.
"When?" Harry asked. She set her face in determination as she said,
"Soon. I waited for Ron to tell me he loved me for too long, when I should have gathered my courage and done something about it myself. I'm not making that mistake again."
A silence befell them as they continued, one that spanned for many minutes as the two thought on the new adventure they were about to embark upon. Telling the Slytherins they loved them would mean that there was no more denying what they had. They were all together, each one of them with each one of them, and telling them their feelings could make or break that.
"What if they stop talking to us, though?" Harry asked as they made to the door of the astronomy tower, breaking the silence. Hermione turned to smile at him, and said,
"That is a realistic concern in this situation. But I highly doubt they would. We've been through far loonier situations..."
Harry smiled back at her, nodded and said, "You're right. They'll be fine."
()()(*)()()
-Four Days Earlier: Saturday: The day prior to the trip to Azkaban-
"Should we go find them?" Pansy asked Draco for the third time in the past two hours. He glanced up at her, noting that she was looking to the Marauder's Map sitting on their coffee table; a map that Draco still couldn't decide was genius, or just plain creepy/stalker shite. Not that Draco had never been the creepy/stalker type before… to the present owner of said map…
That had been a fun conversation that Pansy had cackled, and Hermione had worn a smirk, through.
"Neither of us have finished our homework, and you know how 'Mione gets when we don't," Draco replied simply as he returned to his textbook.
No, he didn't think that his advanced Astronomy homework was more entertaining than his Gryffindors; however, they were going to go see his mum in a few days, and he would take anything to get his mind off of things, even if it meant listening to his Gryffindor girlfriend.
Dating two women was difficult, and Draco was more than relieved that he had Harry when either of the two was upset at him. The blonde was sure the feeling had to be mutual, even if his boyfriend was more than used to Hermione's strict academic agenda. No one was sexually punished for skipping out on schoolwork by their Head Girl; that made it no fun at all. Dealing with Pansy was something Draco could do with both legs tied behind his back; adding Hermione into it all made for new experiences.
Hermione mattered a lot to both of the green-ties, and they liked to see her happy; especially since their visit to see her parents. Making Hermione and Harry happy was at the top of their lists at present, and what made their red tie witch happier than anything was studiousness. Before all of this, both Prefects would have told her to kick rocks- beat feet, fly kites- for giving them stipulations and ultimatums. Slytherins don't like stipulations or ultimatums, unless they're the ones to give them- but the two green-ties wanted nothing more than to be around their red-ties, and they liked to get what they wanted. Why they wanted to be around them so badly, they still wouldn't admit to themselves, let alone anyone else.
Not even each other.
"I know…" Pansy said with a sigh, looking back to the Herbology text in her hand. She went back to reading, and a minute or two passed before Draco asked,
"Can I ask you a question?"
"You just did," she replied without removing her eyes from her book; not in a snide way, but out of force of habit.
"How do you feel-" Draco continued without missing a beat, because he knew his girlfriend well enough to have seen her response coming, "- about all of us?"
While staring at Draco's stone-faced façade- the one he used when he was trying to pretend he wasn't nervous- Pansy had to take a couple of seconds to realize what he meant. At first, she thought she'd meant their friendship, until her mind clicked.
"Why would you ask me that?" she said with reserve in her voice. She felt her heart beating erratically, and she felt a tingle in her legs, and sweat began to form. The witch knew, by the look on the wizards face, that he was going there!
"Out of curiosity, of course," Draco replied in a calm voice. He could see his witch cracking under the pressure of a mere implication. He was suddenly happy he didn't come right out and say what he meant: "Pansy. Do you love them, too, or am I misjudging your mannerisms?"
"I-uh…" The witch stuttered, and then stopped.
Draco waited in silence, because he knew that Pansy didn't "deal". That wasn't her thing. Just like "feeling" wasn't her thing, either. To do so, feel, meant that she would have to face pain; any amount of which would cause her to act out, or perhaps even recoil from those around her.
Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson were not what one would call "loving" parents. They had created her from a sense of duty, like most of her pureblood friends and their kin, including Draco, and finding love in such relationships was rare. Her parents had been betrothed since her mother was born a girl; Pansy's, then, two-year-old father met his future wife in her cradle. Narcissa and Lucius had had a similar beginning, but many would testify in knowing that the two truly did love each other.
Unfortunately, Cassius and Rose had not seen a similar ending, and they had instilled their harsh, unfeeling disposition in their daughter. Now, here she sat, gaping at Draco like a Stupified Grindylow because he wanted to know what she thought about their all-too-obvious attachment to their lovers.
"Fine, Pans," Draco said with a sigh. "I just figured, what with you looking at the map and all, that you're getting pretty attached to them, as far as you go." She blinked at him, stayed quiet, and he went on, "All that I, Draco Abraxas Malfoy, your best mate, wanted to know was, what you thought about it. But we don't have to go there if you don't want to. Do you want to go find them?" Pansy blinked once more, and then sighed before she shrugged. Then she shook her head in consent.
"Then let's go," Draco said before he crossed an ankle over his knee and rested his book in his lap, "after I've finished this chapter."
A/N: I have to disclaim the "Scott Pilgrim vs the World" quote. "Lesbians?" "It's love, Scott. I wasn't trying to trick you."
(Speak of the Devil)
Believers be on guard, be strong and take a stand
The time of Armageddon's here
Some call me the son of the morning
Speak of the Devil