Draco plopped down heavily onto the couch. The past few days had been infuriating to say the least. Hermione had clammed up, returning to her usual stick-in-the-mud attitude.
He scowled, crossing his arms as he leaned back into the black leather. He should have been taking notes, but honestly he could not care less about the deer at the moment.
Work, work, work. It was all she said, if she bothered to say anything at all to him.
He glared at the deer as it came through a berry bush in the mist. He almost wished the damn thing would just leave, disappear, explode even - anything to get it out of his hair. Then she could go too. And he could move on!
A beetle caught his eye, climbing up the side of his ink bottle. He glared the offensive creature. It wandered onto his parchment.
In a fit, he swiped at it. His parchment went airborne. So did the beetle, though it flew off on its own accord and not because of anything Draco did. He swore under his breath, placing the parchment back on the table.
He rubbed his hands over his face, sighing. It wasn't like him to throw temper tantrums any more. Those days were long behind him, or so he had thought. It was just that...his emotions had the tendency to get away with him. And right now, with all that was going on, he felt...pissed. Just royally ticked at anything and everything.
He did not know what to expect to happen after the kiss. The two if them to get along better, surely. For them to be a little sweet on one another, possibly. But for her to completely shut him out? That hit him like a slap in the face.
Draco was pulled out of his self pity wallowing by a door shutting behind him. He turned around to find Hermione dressed in jeans, a jumper, and her hiking boots.
"Where are you off to?"
She glanced up from her scarf. Clearly, she hadn't seen him sitting there. Though, where else he should be, he did not know. She walked briskly to the tent's entrance.
"I've decided to do a little field work," she declared.
Draco gestured towards her magical tracker. "I thought that was what this was for?"
She pursed her lips a second. "Well, yes. But we aren't getting very far in what the creature is capable of, now are we?" She waved her wand. The quill across the table jumped up and began scribbling notes on Draco's blank parchment.
"Besides, I think it will be best to get first hand sightings of the creature; now that we have a way to track and record it."
Draco resisted rolling his eyes. It seemed like a good plan, but he wished she would make up her bloody mind. Stay in the tent for note taking, do field work to look for the beast, spend hours with your head poked in a book. He really thought she was more organized than this.
He cut his eyes to her, trying not to be too obvious in watching her. Something was up. She seemed frazzled.
Her fidgeting fingers that would not leave the cuff of her jumper alone. Her eyes darting from him to the quill to the deer. Her impatient stance by the door like she couldn't wait to burst through...
His eyes widened in sudden realization.
She wanted to get away from him! Being in his mere presence seemed to put her ill at ease.
Draco's breathing sped up. She had put distance between them these past few days. But maybe it wasn't for the reasons he had thought. He had been sure she had hated his guts for the dancing, the kiss, all of it. Though she had obviously enjoyed it at the time, his mind added with a smirk.
But what if he were wrong? Maybe her reasoning with keeping him an arm's length away laid in the opposite direction. Could it be that Hermione Granger enjoyed the evening - and, by default, his company - more than he gave credit for?
Ignoring his silent ponderings, she turned to leave, not acknowledging him in the slightest.
"Wait!"
She turned to face him, a scowl deep in place.
"What is it? I'd like to get some work done before dark." Her tone, though biting, held just a hint of sarcasm.
Draco did not reply straight away. He waved his wand, casting an auto-record spell on his quill as well, and stood, brushing his pants legs.
"I'll join you."
Hermione's eyes widened before narrowing to glare at him.
"You're not even ready," she accused, looking pointedly to his shoeless feet.
Draco waved his hand dismissively. "Five minutes, if not less."
He watched in amusement as her lips tightened a little, looking like she would love nothing more than to deny him.
"Fine!" She said, folding her arms tightly over her chest. "But hurry up about it. We are wasting daylight."
Three minutes later, they headed out the door.
They caught up to the deer quick enough. Hermione had cast a spell that merged the information from the tracker to her wand, making it give off a sliver of white light that lead them straight to it. Once they got within ten feet of the creature, the light would disperse, making sure the animal did not catch on to anything.
As they neared, Hermione waved her wand in the air, muttering a barrier spell. A shimmering dome appeared over head. The deer glanced up for a second before going back to its grazing.
She and Draco crouched down in the bushes, peering over the leaves to their unsuspecting companion.
"Well, here goes." She whispered, sitting back on her heels.
Hermione closed her eyes, a calmness coming about her. She called up memories from Hogwarts, ignoring anything from the previous week that tried to creep into her mind. The Great Hall, the Astronomy Tower, and the Gryffindor Common Room, all of it flooded her thoughts. Then one came forth to claim her completely.
"Expecto Patronum!" She exclaimed in a quiet breath.
A small silver otter poured out of the tip of her wand, dancing around them for a second before a flick of the wrist sent it scurrying out of the thick.
The deer's ears turned towards the upcoming creature. It looked curiously to the otter and tilted its head. As the otter approached, it sniffed the air. The otter crept up to it. They touched noses.
Hermione held her breath.
Then the deer turned away. It took a few steps away and went back to grazing, unfazed.
Hermione deflated. She hadn't expected much to happen, but had hoped for more than the little scene before her. The patronus vanished with her mood.
The deer blinked in surprise as the other creature faded. It went to where the otter had stood and looked around, poking its nose into the grass. It lifted its head and pawed at the ground, as if looking for some hidden trick. Finding nothing, it sidestepped the spot and walked a few feet away. Its eyes darted back every few seconds.
Hermione tried again. She cast muffliato followed by avis. Soon bright yellow canaries perked in the tree branches above them, the bang at their appearance almost no more than the sound of a small cough. The deer peered in their direction warily.
The canaries took to the air, tweeting back and forth among themselves as they flitted about the trees.
Hermione leaned forward. She swooped her wand. The birds dipped down, floating in the air around the deer. They chirped in its ears, spun around its head, and blocked its way from the morsels of grass at its feet.
The deer tossed its head and bayed at them. The birds were relentless. They tightened their circle around its head.
The deer jerked its head back and forth to get rid of the annoying small flappers. Its horn came close to one. The tip of its tail smacked another, making it poof in cloud of feathers.
The deer must have seen this from the corner of its eye because its nostrils flared in alarm and it began backing away from the others.
Hermione gripped her wand. The thought crossed her mind to send the others away, to calm the creature - or at the very least, quit tormenting it. Before she could so much as lift a finger, a bird dived down on its own accord.
The deer's eyes widened at the small claws coming its way. Hermione made a move to jump up, but found her wrist caught in Draco's strong grip. He was staring ahead, his mouth slightly opened. She jerked her eyes back to the deer.
The deer's enormous eyes had glazed over. In them, small glowing specs dotted the black, looking like a million stars trapped in each abyss. The birds above it froze mid-air. The ferocious one, her small dive bomber, gave a frightened squawk. Then it vanished - poof- without a trace. Yellow dust fell from where it was, though not a feather in sight. The others soon followed suit.
The deer slowly came to. It looked around frantically before giving a frightened cry and running off into the distance.
Draco raised his wand and the barrier around them dropped.
Hermione slumped back to the ground. She pushed her hair back from her face, a small smile forming on her lips. Excitement burned through her veins.
Her eyes stared at the leaf covered ground beneath her, but her mind played the scene over again in her head. She pushed her hair back again.
"It defended itself." She blinked. "I mean, it had a basic attack pattern, yes. But when that fell through, it actually used magic!
Quite a unique ability...I've never seen anything like it!" She glanced up to Draco, her eyes dancing with joy and newly found knowledge.
His eyes were narrow, calculating. He seemed to be deep in thought, his fingers pressed into his lips as if to keep them sealed.
"What?" She asked, the excitement seeping from her a bit. "What's wrong?"
He blinked up at her, pulled from his thoughts. His hand dropped to the ground. "I was only thinking how good it was that the creature did not know we were the ones infuriating it. I definitely underestimated its power." His eye brows creased together as his mouth became a cold thin line.
Hermione had not thought of it like that. She paused, processing this. If the deer had known about them, would they have faced the same explosion that the birds had?
She grimaced at the thought but shrugged.
"Well, it didn't." She stood and wiped her hands on her trousers. "We are fine. Besides, we wouldn't have gotten this information in any other way. Now we have quite a bit to go on." She pushed her hair back with both hands, tugging a bit to relieve tension. She let her fingers trail through the fluff. "I just need to get my information together..." Her thoughts trailed off with her, both leaving Draco behind in the bushes.
Author's Note:
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Harry Potter series. Those rights belong to JK Rowling. I am only borrowing her beautiful creations.