I have been on a roll today and I didn't want to stop! So here is the triple update for you guys! Well done to everyone that guessed Forest of Dean, that is where Draco ended up, although I'm sure the biggest surprise for him was in fact finding out that his soulmate is a coconut, ink smelling Gryffindor. I wonder who that could possibly be
I wanted this chapter to show how much the girls' relationships have grown, especially in regard to Daphne. Don't worry, I'll be back to the boys in the next chapter to get a glimpse into how Draco is feeling, and finally find out what Blaise and Theo have seen.
Oh, and obviously, Hermione approaching Draco about the constellation!
Hopefully I will have a chapter up tomorrow, but I am away all day tomorrow. I'm a student paediatric nurse and with covid happening all around the world right now, our training is tighter than ever. But if I am unable to update tomorrow it will be Tuesday!
Please keep the reviews up, I absolutely love reading them!
Much love xo
Chapter ten
Hermione flipped through the book Daphne had handed her, reading the sentences swiftly, as her mouth wordlessly sounded out the letters.
It didn't make sense to her. Why had she seen a constellation? What did it even mean? The thing that frustrated her more than anything, was the more she stared at the images within the book, the quicker they started to blur together. She realised with a huff that she couldn't remember exactly what the constellation had looked like anymore.
"This is useless!" Hermione hissed, more to herself than anyone else, but the witch near her met her eyes with unyielding curiosity. She fell back into the soft cushions of the couch, the astronomy book abandoned on the table beside them. Hermione was frustrated and confused, and she hated being either of those things, much less both at the same bloody time.
Why hadn't she paid more attention in astronomy? Hermione huffed again, cursing herself for not taking the class more seriously. She realised suddenly with irony, that the stupid class she should have paid attention to would have given her a better insight as to what she had seen under the spell. She had no idea what the constellation was, much less what it meant for her.
She wanted to scream out in frustration.
"I wish I could help you more, Granger, but astronomy isn't my strong suit." Daphne spoke up, looking at the frustrated witch sitting opposite her with an apologetic expression.
Hermione simply waved a hand at her, indicating that it was neither her fault nor her problem.
"I appreciate you giving me the book anyway." Hermione sighed. She wasn't lying either; she truly did appreciate the Slytherin witch going out of her way to fetch the book. She had even handled Hermione stomping over to her out of nowhere, looking all flustered and spluttering on about some random constellation, with only a shimmer of surprise. Daphne took it all in her stride, with only a single eyebrow raised at the Gryffindor.
"Is that all you seen?" Daphne asked her hesitantly.
Hermione wondered briefly why she had sounded unsure, but then suddenly realised that this was probably the first time the two girls had been civil towards each other. Hermione marched past what could have been a tense situation between the two, determined to hopefully become friendly with the girl next to her. She had never had a problem with Daphne in the first place; they were just two girls from completely different circumstances.
"Yeah, that's all I seen." Hermione deadpanned, running her fingers through her unruly curls, and wincing when her hand tugged against a knot.
She could hear Ginny shouting in triumph from the other end of the room, followed by two deep mutters, that she assumed belonged to Theo and Harry. She couldn't even begin to express how happy she was that Harry was giving the Slytherin duo a chance. She had quickly grown to like the two cheeky boys.
Hermione closed her eyes as she felt the first throb of an oncoming headache, but not before the grey sky she had seen right at the end of the spell, flashed visibly behind her eyelids. She shot forward, daring to glance at Daphne, who was looking at her with pursed lips.
"I was so focused on the stupid constellation that I forgot about the sky turning grey." Hermione sighed, pulling her legs up on the couch, as she got herself more comfortable. She noticed in the time that she had marched over, Daphne had kicked off her shoes and had her legs stretched out over the arm of the chair.
"The sky went grey?" Daphne repeated, looking deep in thought.
"Yeah."
"Like, it's going to piss down with rain type of grey sky, or the calm before the storm type of grey sky?" She asked.
"I figured a grey sky was a grey sky." She answered lamely. Christ, she sounded like Ronald.
"What shade of grey did the sky go?" Daphne asked, her voice taking on a different tone as she sat up a little straighter.
Hermione barely had a chance to answer her before she heard Ron curse under his breath. Both Daphne and Hermione stopped to in their tracks to watch the sullen boy as he held a crumpled envelope in his hand. He continued to mutter to himself as he slammed the door shut on his way out the common room.
"He looks thrilled." Daphne drawled out sarcastically as she lifted her eyebrow at Hermione.
"Ron has never been able to hide his feelings very well." She could have defended him a bit better, but she was too tired, and her head was beginning to really ache.
"Sounds like another boy I know well." Daphne muttered.
"Who?"
"You definitely know who I am talking about." She laughed quietly at Hermione, placing her own forgotten book on her chest.
"I do?" Hermione asked inquisitively. Daphne merely grinned at the confused girl.
"Draco, obviously." Daphne said it as if it were the most obvious of answers. Hermione tried exceptionally hard not to scoff in her face.
"Malfoy?"
"Yes?"
"Are we talking about the same person?" Hermione was flabbergasted. She had little communication with him, even now with the houses mixed, but she found it extremely hard to believe that he struggled to hide his feelings. The boy was a walking stone wall. The only features that ever graced his face towards her were, anger, disgust, smugness and his good, old, fashioned sneer.
"Do you know another Draco Malfoy that I'm not aware about?"
"Jesus, I hope not." The words slipped out of Hermione's mouth before she could stop them, a nervous laugh escaped from her lips at the bizarreness of the conversation.
No way was Daphne trying to sit there and say Draco Malfoy was capable of showing feelings.
"He might not show them the same as you and me, but I promise you, he's not as good at hiding things as he makes out."
"He apologised to me last night." Hermione blurted out. She had expected Daphne to be shocked, but instead the girl only waited for her to continue. "For the night at the Manor. He said he tried to stop…it but-but she would have killed both of us."
Daphne nodded, looking at Hermione with a mixture of interest and understanding.
"He's not actually a bad guy. He had to put on a façade practically his whole life," Daphne turned to look over her shoulder at Theo and Blaise laughing loudly while Harry and Ginny bickered with each other over a card in her hand. She turned back to Hermione, a sad smile on her lips "We all had to wear a mask."
Hermione was momentarily dumbfounded by Daphne's confession. In this particular moment, it was hard to remember the looks Theo or Blaise had given her for years. She found herself watching Daphne, and struggled to remember her walking away, as Slytherins taunted Hermione over her blood status. She thought about a certain platinum blonde and grey eyed boy and was pulled back to that morning when she noticed the ghost of a smirk on his face.
When his face was disgruntled in a malicious sneer, Hermione realised that Draco Malfoy was attractive.
As if on cue, and interrupting her bashful thoughts, Draco came sweeping into the common room, looking frazzled as he sought out Theo and Blaise in the corner. His expression didn't falter as he took in Harry and Ginny. Hermione noticed that his usually pale cheeks had taken a rosy hue, as he sat down next to Theo leaning over to whisper something in his ear.
"You see what I mean now?" Daphne smirked. Hermione nodded at the girl next to her, but her eyes never left the Slytherin's face.
….
Hermione was just about to step into the shower within the girls' chamber when she noticed that her shampoo bottle was completely empty. She muttered under her breath and rummaged around the room looking for her spare bottle.
Nothing.
"Ginny, have you seen my other bottle of shampoo?" She shouted through the closed door.
"What one?" She heard her mumbled shout.
"The coconut one? The same shampoo I always use?"
"No, sorry Mione. Just use mine."
"I can't use yours! It's not anti-frizz!" Hermione shouted back, feeling frustrated. Her hair would be completely unmanageable if she couldn't find her blasted shampoo.
"Use mine then." She heard Daphne shout over Ginny. "It's not coconut, but at least its anti-frizz."
Hermione mumbled a thank you she was certain neither witch heard over the sound of the shower.
Where the hell was her shampoo?
…
She was sat crossed legged in her bed, the astronomy book back in her hand, as she tried again to decipher the images on the pages.
"Mione, you need to give it a rest. You've been staring at the same pages for hours now." Ginny whined from her bed, covering her face with the pillow to muffle out Hermione's light.
"Not my fault you knew what your image was straight away. I have no idea what mine means!" Hermione threw her hands up in defeat and narrowed her eyes at her best friend. Ginny smiled smugly and even Daphne smirked from the safety of her own bed. Ginny had been called out not long after Ron had arrived back, and no sooner had she left when she came skipping back into the room, grabbing Harry by the face, and kissing the shocked boy in front of everyone. Ginny had happily gushed that she seen Grimmauld Place. The relief on Harry's face was palpable.
"I have no idea what mine means either." Daphne spoke up.
"What did you see?" Ginny asked, leaning over to look at her.
"I think it was a lake? I'm not sure though, because it was quite dark. If it was a lake, then it was definitely a small one." Daphne answered, scrunching up her face at her vague expression. Ginny looked like she was ready to floor her with questions, before Daphne suddenly turned on Hermione. "I was just thinking there; I know someone who is really good at astronomy, constellations in particular. They would probably be able to help you figure out what one you saw."
"Who?" Ginny pressed before Hermione even had a chance to open her mouth.
"Draco." Daphne replied, giving Hermione a small smile. "You could speak to him in the morning. I'm positive he will be more than happy to help you."
"It seems Malfoy has drastically changed his tune with our Hermione." Ginny remarked quietly to Daphne as Hermione returned, preoccupied again with book in her hand.
"Did you manage to catch anything from the boys about what he seen" Ginny whispered to Daphne.
Hermione's curiosity shot up, but she continued to pretend to read, not allowing herself to look intrigued.
"Theo tried his damned hardest to crack him, but he's remained tight lipped." Daphne sighed, before grinning at the redhead. "Although, he was sure he heard Draco mutter something about how if his father ever found out, he would kill him."
Hermione saw out the side of her vision Daphne shrug her shoulders slightly. She bit her lip softly as she tried to shake thoughts of him out of her head. Hermione had noticed she had felt suddenly off after the spell and couldn't quite place yet what that meant.
She also didn't understand why she had been so interested in what Draco had seen either.
"So, are you gonna talk to him tomorrow then?" Ginny asked. Hermione's face flushed slightly at her interrupting her thoughts about Draco Malfoy for the second time.
"Yeah, I'll speak to him if he's is able to help me."
Ginny seemed satisfied with her answer. The room was silent for a moment, all three girls lost in their separate thoughts when suddenly Ginny's voice rang out.
"Wait, when you say a lake; was it more like a swampy lake or a lake, lake?" She suddenly turned to Daphne.