"Where am I?" Draco thought to himself as he cracked his eyes open. His body was sore, sitting against the arm of a couch. A weight pinned him from his chest down. He glanced down to investigate and a nest of curls covered his chest. "This is new." He was cuddling a girl in a hideous room. He was cuddling Hermione Granger on the Gryffindor common room couch. For a moment Draco was sure he'd body swapped with Potter. But their morning slowly crept back to him, which he found was surprisingly nice. They'd spent a few hours discussing leads that he knew would go nowhere and playing games. He shifted slowly, debating staying still until she woke up or trying to leave without waking her, when Hermione let out a sigh and cuddled closer into him. Without thinking, he brought a hand up to her shoulder and squeezed her tighter to him.
As soon as he did, Hermione sat up quickly, looking around, clearly confused about where she was. Her thin t-shirt was tugged aside, allowing Draco an eyeful of her clavicle, which he quickly revisited, thinking of their run-in at the prefect baths. As her eyes landed on him, a small noise of surprise escaped her. Draco considered commenting on it, but thought it better to forgo his usual snark.
"Hi Granger," Draco whispered, his voice coming out hoarse from sleep. "Guess we fell asleep talking. What time is it?" Hermione performed a wordless tempus.
"Two in the afternoon! Merlin, we've been asleep for hours," she exclaimed, jumping up off the couch and further from him. While she smoothed her shirt and pants, Draco looked up at her hair, caramel curls wilder than ever.
"Right, sorry I had shite sleep last night," he said as he swung his legs over the couch. "The floor of the potions lab isn't particularly comfortable."
"You slept there?" Hermione asked quietly, looking guilty. When he nodded, she gave him an apologetic look. "I didn't sleep at all last night. Too worried about...everything," the witch looked down at her feet before glancing back up at him nervously.
"I should probably go," Draco said, stretching his arms wide above him to help with the crick that developed in his neck. "Don't want to take up your entire Christmas."
"Wait! Don't you want to keep trying to figure out what happened to you?" Hermione asked, her disappointed look secretly thrilling him. Theo's letter in his robe pocket came crashing into his mind as she spoke. "We crossed out most of our potential leads."
"No, as convinced you were this morning that it was Pansy, I think we should just chalk it up to a Slytherin prank gone wrong," Draco shrugged, hoping she'd let it go. He was usually a confident liar, but this swotty witch made it difficult.
"Oh," Hermione responded, her brows drawn in thought. "Well, I'd rather get to the bottom of it because it impacted me too. Maybe we can keep brainstorming? I could write Fred and George to see if any of the potions they are selling have the side effects you exhibited." Draco thought for a moment, weighing his options. If he didn't share what Theo had written, investigating this with her would only mean they'd spend time together. As much as Draco loathe to admit it, today was nearly as relaxing as spending last night with her under the potion had been. Perhaps Theo was a little right. He just had to keep her on the wrong track.
"Why don't we look up more information in the library first? Perhaps they will have information on the various forms a love potion could take. We could research together." Draco cursed the way his heart fluttered as her entire face lit up at his suggestion. "It is just the library, Granger, not a Christmas present. Bloody swot," he added harshly, sure to roll his eyes. Though he was enjoying her company, he couldn't afford to let her get too close. It could jeopardize her, just like Pansy. Likely worse, given her blood status. But it would be far worse for his parents and for him. He knew what the Dark Lord would do if he uncovered the truth about Draco's views of blood purity or his waning allegiance.
"Wait, just give me a minute to put the letters back in my room," Hermione said as she turned towards the stairs As she bounced up the stairs, Draco couldn't help but stare.
"Has she always been this gorgeous? Fuck, I am in trouble."
Hermione buzzed around the room, putting her shrunken letters into her bedside table for later and smoothing her hair and clothing before returning downstairs. Taking a mental inventory, she felt confident about her progress on the first two steps of her plan. They'd easily crossed Pansy and her friends off the list of suspects. Hermione knew they had more work to do, and she suspected Draco was holding back as his potential suspects didn't make much sense. Once they figured out who did this, she hypothesized he might feel comfortable sharing his bigger secret with her.
Hermione quietly hummed Jingle Bells as she walked back down, looking forward to the rest of her Christmas Day. She was in an especially cheery mood; Draco didn't know that his suggestion that they both go to the library was more like a Christmas present than anything else. Typically, when she, Ron, and Harry ran into a problem, she was the only one willing to do the research. She was pleasantly surprised when Draco pulled out his own selection of tomes and began researching separately from her, all done without snark. The pair silently studied together for hours until Hermione's stomach released a loud growl.
"Shall we head to dinner?" Draco asked, a smug smile on his face. She could feel the heat in her face, but ignored it, nodding at him with a smile. "Did you find anything useful?" Draco asked as he stacked his books neatly and sent them to the proper shelves with his wand.
"Not yet. But I have ruled out a few things. Honestly, I think we'd go faster if we revisited leads, given how many variables could impact a potion." At that suggestion, Draco rolled his jaw and gave a sharp nod.
"Perhaps you're right. I have some theories on that." As they walked to the Great Hall and during dinner, Draco started postulating outlandish theories about who snuck him the potion. Eventually, Hermione joined in. Draco shot down her suggestion that Moaning Myrtle bribed a living student to slip him potion so she'd have some new entertainment and Hermione was offended by his suggestion that Snape was behind it, eager to increase competition between them and cause issues for Slughorn in class. By the end of the meal, they could barely talk because they were laughing so hard, drawing curious and concerned looks from the few remaining students and faculty alike.
"Should we go back up to the library?" Hermione asked as the meal wound down. She held her breath as Draco shifted in his seat, wondering if now he'd say goodnight and leave her for the rest of Christmas. She'd been so thrilled at his distracting presence, she hadn't felt the loneliness that plagued her this morning. A gnawing anxiety rose in her stomach in the silence.
"Actually, I thought you may want some hands-on research. Would you like to see the Slytherin common room?" Draco asked, raising his eyebrows at her. With a quick nod, Hermione followed Draco closely to the dungeons, surprised that she felt a bit nervous. She'd heard a bit about the Slytherin common room from Harry and Ron during her disastrous Polyjuice experiment, but wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Draco stopped abruptly in front of her, nearly causing her to run into his back. He grimaced at her before turning to a blank wall, whispering a latin phrase into the stones.
"Pure of blood, really?" Hermione scoffed, her hands on her hips.
"I didn't choose it!" Draco protested over his shoulder as he walked through the door that appeared. When she didn't follow him, he sighed and turned around. "I know, but the inside will be worth the trouble," he said, extending his hand. Hermione hesitantly took it and let him pull her through. The room they entered looked nothing like the Gryffindor common room. Where the tower was comfortable and warm, the dungeon was grand and cold. Black, green, and leather covered nearly every surface, save for the giant windows that showed the Great Lake.
"Wow," Hermione breathed, looking excitedly at the windows. "The view into the Great Lake is beautiful. This is so different from the Tower."
"You mispronounced better in every way. Let me grab the flask in question," he said as he spun away and walked up the stairs. Her gaze lingered on his broad back and floated down to his bum as he walked away. After he disappeared from view, she found herself wondering what his dorm room looked like. Blushing at the train of thought, Hermione looked back at the dark lake, charmed to be illuminated right by the windows for students to get a better view. She stepped closer, following the path of a school of small glowing fish.
"See something you like?" he whispered into her ear a few minutes later, his presence startling her for the second time in a day. His hot breath into the shell of her ear caused a shiver to run down her spine, reminding her of their kiss from the previous evening. "Jumpy little witch aren't you? Just not surprising that you're so enamored with the view, especially compared to the tacky mess you're used to," Draco smirked at her as she turned around. She glared in response before wordlessly holding out her hand for the flask. "Ah, right to it. No foreplay with the swot, right to business," the blond drawled as he gingerly placed the flask into her hand.
She eagerly began to flip it over, studying it and avoiding his eye, hopeful that he couldn't see her blush at his mention of foreplay. Hermione outlined the moving snake, impressed by the magic. She sniffed the near empty contents, the familiar smell of parchment, grass, and spice weakly lingering from the final drops left in the flask. As she smelled the last scent, she realized she finally recognized the spice, which had puzzled her since she first smelled it in class. Draco's cologne was the same smell. Hermione nearly dropped the flask, fumbling with it under Draco's amused gaze.
"Definitely a form of amortentia," Hermione said, forcing her tone to be even. "Do you have parchment?" Draco gave her a curious look, but at her expectant silence he sighed and retreated up the stairs. When Draco returned with a sheet of parchment, she tipped the flask over and watched the drops stain the paper he held between them. Rather than the mother of pearl sheen they were familiar with, these drops had a slightly blue tint to them. Both their heads shot up, looking at the other in surprise.
"I thought it would be empty," Draco said quietly, looking concerned. When Hermione caught his eye his face quickly became indifferent. "I've never heard of a blue love potion," Draco said at his normal volume, though he still sounded nervous. Hermione empathized, knowing she'd be anxious about being dosed by any mystery potion.
"There are a few different ingredients that could give it a blue color, like eagle owl feather, foxglove, fairy wings. Could even be something like cobalt," Hermione said excitedly, thankful they could at least start making some progress on what the actual potion was. "You're the supposed potions expert, anything else?"
"Countless other things, Granger. Do I look like an ingredients index?" Draco scoffed at her. "I brought some of the books from the library back with me," Draco replied, grabbing shrunken books from his pocket and enlarging them with the flick of his wand. He handed her one before settling into the window seat looking into the lake and cracking open his own. "No reason to sleep on the job. You're the supposed brightest witch of our year, let's crack on," Draco ordered hastily as he gestured to the other corner of the window seat.
Hermione curled up there and opened her own book. She looked over the top of it to see Draco focused, his gray eyes flitting back and forth across the page. "He looks rather handsome when he is studious," she thought as she chewed her bottom lip. This time no internal chastising came, nor feelings of disgust or regret at the thought process. "Merlin, I like Draco Malfoy," Hermione felt herself stiffen at the realization. Her movement caught Draco's attention and when he looked up at her, she forcefully dropped her head into the book and forced herself to read and deal with this development after they figured out what he'd been given.
A few hours later the pair sat across from each other on the window seat, legs outstretched, though carefully not touching each other."So muggle parents lie to their children that a fat man annually trespasses into their home and passes judgement on their behavior?" Draco asked with a grimace.
"Well, when you put it that way it does not sound especially joyful or comforting," Hermione huffed, crossing her arms over her chest in mock indignation.
"So this Santa fellow - tell me more about him. Is he British?" Draco propped his head up on his head, drawing his legs back into a crossed position. Hermione immediately missed the body warmth that had been next to her, his leg ghosting her's. She wondered how it was possible for someone to look so haughty in such a casual position.
"Well he lives in the North Pole," Hermione said, leveling him with a smile, "but he visits all the children in the world on Christmas Eve."
"Well that would take magic. Could he be a wizard?" Draco asked, his cold indifference slipping into that childlike excitement that Hermione had seen on Christmas Eve.
"He may very well be," she laughed at the thought, picturing Dumbledore in a Santa costume.
"I bet he'd have to use a time turner," Draco mused, looking into the illuminated waters in the window next to them. "If he truly makes it to each house in a single night." Hermione considered this thoughtfully and nodded, wondering what Draco would think of her own time turner experience. He cleared his throat, startling Hermione out of her thoughts. "This was a much better Christmas than I expected. I thought being here would be terrible. At least the last time we had the Yule Ball."
"This is better than that too," Hermione replied airily, before realizing what she'd said. When she looked at him, two steel eyes were observing her closely. "I just mean, there was a lot of pressure that night. And I got into a fight with Ron."
"Well that part is similar," Draco said nonchalantly, causing Hermione to look at him questioningly. "Oh come on, you two are obviously fighting. I'd wager Brown has something to do with that." At her silence, he added, "What can I say? I'm an observant wizard. But I'm surprised you didn't have fun at the Yule Ball. You were the talk of the school that night. No one could stop talking about how beautiful you looked." Draco studied her intently as he spoke, causing Hermione's breathing to hitch.
"And you?" Hermione whispered slowly, holding his eye contact and hoping she wasn't embarrassing herself.
"No one ever stops talking about how beautiful I look," Draco said with a smirk. At her flush, she watched his grin grow wider and wolfish like it had been in the potions lab. "Really now, Granger? Fishing for compliments? That is far beneath you. Didn't get enough of me gushing about you last night?" Hermione looked out the window, unsure how to respond. After a few moments, she turned back to him ready to say goodnight and flee the scene when he offered her his hand. "We never got to dance that night. Would you do me the honor?"
"What, here? There is no music," Hermione gestured to the empty, silent common room.
"Are you embarrassed because I've seen how poorly you dance?" She glared at him. "Or is the lion afraid of the snake?" Draco taunted with a smile, holding his hand out again as he stood. She slipped her petite hand into his and he pulled her up, drawing her close. She found herself surprised at how rough his hands were, given how well they were taken care of compared to most boys their age. She suspected they were calloused from quidditch. He wrapped his other hand around her waist and pulled her even closer in his firm grasp. She hesitantly placed her hand on his shoulder, prompting Draco to lead her into a graceful waltz.
"Granger, why are you here?" Draco asked as he swept her around the leather couches.
"I believe I was invited down here," Hermione challenged him with a lopsided grin. "I didn't fit the password after all," she muttered, looking away from him and following the slow rise and fall of their dance.
"No, I mean at Hogwarts," Draco said as he spun her around. "For the holiday. I assumed you'd be home with your parents."
"My parents are on a business trip," she lied, ignoring the pang she felt in her chest when she thought of her parents. "And you?"
"Mine too," Draco said, though he looked as miserable as she felt. His face clouded over, reminding her of how he looked when he mentioned how dangerous it would be for him to tell her his secrets. She wondered if now would be a good time to ask him about his parents, suspecting they were tied into whatever he was hiding. Feeling brave, Hermione drew her arm further around his broad back and shifted closer into him. He responded in kind, tightening his hold on her waist. She heard him suck in a breath as she rested her head on his chest. The room was suddenly an inferno.
"Hermione," Draco's deep voice rumbled against her ear in his chest. At the use of her first name she looked up at him towering over her. His gaze was intense and dark as it flickered between her eyes and her lips. Just as he tilted his head down further, the noise of laughing students filled the air. The two of them jumped away from each other quickly, though Hermione mourned the loss of contact and the rude interruption of the moment.
"It's getting late," Hermione said quietly looking away from the Slytherins glaring at her and watching Draco with confused expressions. "I should probably get back up to my dorm."
"Of course, let me walk you back up," Draco offered, ignoring the younger students.
"Oh, no need. I appreciate it though," she said as she grabbed the book from her side of the window seat and handed it to him.
"Thanks for today," Draco mumbled as he took it.
"Of course," Hermione replied. "Maybe tomorrow we could go to the library again. I bet the restricted section has something on variations of love potions. Blue is a big hint," she said before turning and walking towards the door. "Happy Christmas, Draco," she added as she paused in the doorway to look back at him. The tall boy looked especially pale in the green hue from the lake.
"Happy Christmas, Hermione," he nodded goodbye as he ran his hand through his hair.
As Hermione entered her room, she let out a shocked laugh. Today was certainly her strangest Christmas ever. But perhaps not her worst, as she'd feared it be. She replayed the moment just before they were interrupted over and over while she got ready for sleep. As she got into bed Hermione remembered Harry and Ginny's letters. She grabbed them from the nightstand drawer, eager to read them and hear about her friends' holidays. As she plucked Harry's first, a loose piece of folded parchment fell. Hermione picked it up and started reading, not able to to stop herself when she realized it wasn't meant for her.
Draco,
I know you're mad, but let me explain. The firewhiskey had a special brew in it - the inventor of the potion calls it Loving Loose Lips. It compels the drinker to relax enough to tell the truth to the person who's hair is in the brew, but doesn't require them to share anything they aren't willing to. The amoteria ingredients amplify any existing feelings past any reservations the drinker may have. Apparently it is usually used on men hesitant to commit. Notice my lack of comment there. Don't blame me for anything you said to her, that was all you. We both know why - at least I have known for a while. Face it, you need help with you know what and she might be able to do something. I think someday you'll thank me for this. Or at least, you won't try to murder me in my sleep.
Your brother who very much values his life,
Theo
Hermione reread the letter three times. A flood of memories of their previous evening overtook her. Compliments, his commentary on blood purity, wanting to snog her. "He...likes me? Draco Malfoy likes me," Hermione said to her empty dorm room, unable to believe it. But that meant something else was true too - Draco Malfoy had a dangerous secret, one that had his best friend concerned. And Hermione intended to help him.
A/N: Christmas Day! But we aren't done yet. What did you think of the letter? Also, I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone leaving comments, especially the folks who comment every chapter. I got an especially nice one from someone today who said this story was a bright spot during COVID. Writing has been a bright spot/way to mentally escape during this terrible time and hearing that what I wrote made someone happy is truly the best feeling in the entire world. So thank you thank you THANK YOU! We have a few more chapters left, I am aiming for the final to be up on the 25th.