Chapter 29 - Admiration

First thing first, Hermione had to find Ginny. She had to find a way to move past the tension that had arisen because of Draco so the two of them would be okay for the full moon. Ginny had to trust her completely for this to work, and part of her was wondering if it would be at all useful to sit down in a room with both Ginny and Draco while they hashed it out between themselves.

In any case, Draco was the next person she would have to speak to, so maybe she should just kill two birds with one stone. If she were being honest with herself, hashing things out between the three of them would likely kill more than just two birds, because she knew that Ginny was right; Hermione needed to sit down with her own thoughts at some point and figure out why keeping Draco updated and hearing his opinions mattered so much to her.

She sighed and leant back against the nearest wall, finally halting her aimless descent from the Headmistress' office. Directly opposite her, on the other side of the corridor, was the statue of the one-eyed witch - although whoever had reinstated her seemed to have mistakenly replaced the second eye - and Hermione scoffed at the memory of third year. Her constant arguments with Harry and Ron about Crookshanks, the map, and then the Firebolt. Working herself half to death by using the timeturner and researching for Buckbeak's trial. Punching Draco.

Hermione scoffed again and leant her head back against the cool stone wall, closing her eyes and picturing the look he'd had on his face. His haughty sneer disappearing in a flash to be replaced by... Wait. That wasn't right. She closed her eyes tighter and ran through it again. Her anger, her fist stopping his cruel laughter. His arrogance changing to shock and then admiration. No! Anger. It had been shock turning to anger. She had been there, yet her memory was saying something entirely different; Just before he had turned away, Crabbe and Goyle calling after him, he'd met her eyes, shock written all over his face until his eyes sparkled and the corner of his mouth quirked. As brief as it was, it was there, in her memories.

"Granger!" Hermione startled away from the wall and faced the enigma in person; her eyes wide and fists clenched by her sides to hide her suddenly shaking hands, taking an involuntary step back from him as he approached her.

Her reaction made him falter and he stopped further away than he usually would now, raking his puzzled gaze over her face and down her body, lingering on her hands and her legs, particularly her left which was frozen in an unfinished step backwards.

"You alright there, Granger?" Draco asked, concern evident in his voice, but all Hermione could do was swallow to stop her mouth from feeling suddenly dry and nod - like an idiot, she chided herself.

"You sure? Because you're looking a bit spooked there and this isn't exactly a great time for you to be doing that."

"I am not spooked, Malfoy," Hermione planted both her feet squarely, meeting his gaze indignantly when it returned to her face.

"I beg to differ if you've reverted to calling me by my last name, Hermione," the prat raised a lone eyebrow in an unspoken challenge and Hermione scowled. She opened her mouth to retort when the slam of a door swinging open onto stone sounded somewhere behind Draco, bringing a cool breeze with it which ruffled the back of his soft hair and filled Hermione's nostrils with the calming scent of freshly cut grass.

She closed her eyes and drank it in as it surrounded her, vaguely aware of her fingers unclenching and her shoulders dropping, lowering her defences.

"Granger?" Draco's hand landed on her shoulder in a gentle enquiry, but his touch and his voice caused a shiver down her spine, making her legs feel like jelly.

"I have to find Ginny," she breathed without opening her eyes, feeling both relief and something else entirely when he removed his hand. With the weight of it gone, she turned her back on him and set off a little unsteadily down the corridor, still able to feel his gaze on her back.

"Meet us in the disused classroom next to Flitwick's. One hour," she spoke clearly enough for him to hear before disappearing around the corner.

X - X - X

"I knew it!" Ginny crowed, clearly pleased with herself at Hermione's admission.

"Gin," she groaned behind her hands. "All I said was that you were probably right about me needing to think about what's going on with Draco."

"Exactly! I knew that there was something going on."

Hermione peered through her fingers to see a huge grin plastered across Ginny's face and sighed. "That's not what I mean, and you know it. I'm just admitting to you that there's something about him that calms me down and makes me trust him and I need to figure out what that is."

"Oh for Godric's sake, Hermione! This isn't the time for one of Harry's Malfoy's-up-to-something meltdowns. You're being too complex."

"Complex?" Hermione lowered her hands to fold her arms across her chest and raise her eyebrows at Ginny's choice of word.

"Yes, Hermione. Complex. It isn't that difficult." She held her left hand up like one side of a scale. "You trust him," she held her right hand up in the same manner, "you feel relaxed around him," she used both hands to grip Hermione's shoulders. "You like him."

"I do not," Hermione spluttered, feeling her face grow heated.

"Not that I understand it mind you, besides his rather rude good looks, but it seems pretty obvious. So will you do something about it now?"

"Shh," Hermione held a finger up in front of Ginny, distracted by voices she picked up in the corridor. They were in the classroom she'd told Draco to meet them in, but it was still early. Hermione had dragged Ginny up there first to apologise and get back on the right foot with each other. She hadn't been expecting Draco to appear for another fifteen minutes, and definitely not with company.

Ignoring Ginny's complaints, Hermione scrambled closer to the closed door of the classroom and tuned the full strength of her hearing into the voices outside, having definitely heard Draco use her name.

"I know you mean well..." The quieter voice started only to be interrupted by an uncharacteristically frantic Draco.

"Look, I just need you to talk to them so there isn't a repeat of last month." Hermione bristled at that, wondering just who Draco had brought into this without permission.

"And I'm here, aren't I?" The other voice continued calmly. "You're lucky Gringotts don't have any big cases on at the moment or I wouldn't have been at home. And do I want to know how you got our address? There's a fidelius on it for a reason."

Bill, Hermione realised and confirmed it with a deep inhale, picking up the scent of her second alongside the now familiar scent of freshly cut grass. He had brought Bill to Hogwarts. Why? And like Bill had said, how?

"Not important. But what is, is that you talk some sense into them. They won't listen to me. Your sister especially."

"You can't replace me, Malfoy. Her Wolf wouldn't allow a Beta that didn't have at least a little Wolf in them." Hermione could hear the wolfish grin on Bill's face and groaned inwardly as she realised that he was probably up to something. Typical Weasley.

"I'm not trying to replace you," she heard Draco bite through his teeth. "But she's surrounded by imbeciles here at school, hence why I brought you in."

"Good," Bill ignored the second half of Draco's statement.

Their voices had stopped just outside the door now but neither of them moved to open it. From the sound of Bill's voice, he seemed to have stopped with his back to it. "So, if you're not looking to be her Beta, there's still an opening for her Alpha pair."

"Don't match-make Wolf Weasley. It doesn't suit you." Hermione could imagine the scowl on Draco's face and chuckled slightly before choking on it, realising that Ginny could possibly hear them now and was looking at her deviously. Hermione looked away and stared at the door again as Draco continued. "I'm just trying to make sure her little pack doesn't exhaust her. My cousin loses his protector if she loses it. And anyway, I thought your little brother had that role covered."

"Ha! Not Ron, no. If anything he's the Omega, but don't say anything, won't you? Harry too for that matter. They're both completely subordinate to her. Always have been no matter what anyone else says or how it may have seemed."

"Oh. Well," Draco ran out of things to say.

Ginny was doubled over with laughter, hands clapped to her mouth in an effort to keep quiet, but Hermione's scowl was no use stopping her considering the bright red blush she could feel on her face. She waved her hand in front of Ginny, desperate for her to calm down and took a few steadying breaths herself.

"Would the two of you like to join us?" she called to the other side of the door which opened almost immediately, presenting her with the mischievous face of the eldest Weasley sibling.

"Why don't you leave that sort of behaviour to George?" she hissed when he passed her, only to get a low chuckle back. "And you," she rounded on Draco. "Just what exactly do you think you're doing?"

"Helping," he answered haughtily, but the usual effect was betrayed by his slight blush and the fact that he couldn't meet her eyes.

"Well I don't need it," Hermione matched his tone. "Professor McGonagall has agreed that I should be allowed access to the grounds on the night of a full moon, not try and contain myself to the Shack."

"She what?"

"That's brilliant!"

Hermione looked between Bill and Ginny at their two very different reactions and wasn't surprised when Ginny began glaring at her brother.

"You didn't see how it affected her last time, Bill. It causes more harm than good being in the Shack the whole night. And I don't care if it's where she ends up, she can't be there the entire night. It's dangerous."

"So is being loose when there's a castle full of children, Ginny" Bill iterated slowly, his standing beginning to seep through in his voice.

"Bill, she's right," Hermione stepped in. "The castle itself will be warded against me from sundown to sunrise. With Professor McGonagall's wards, I doubt I'll be getting anywhere near the doors, even if I wanted to."

"That's wonderful, Granger," Draco's voice dripped with an echo of his old malice from the corner and she rolled her eyes. "So I suppose I needn't have brought Wolf Weasley here to help."

"Stop that, Draco," she said lightly, cocking her head at him. He wasn't fooling her with his defence mechanism just because he was embarrassed. "Actually, some help would be appreciated because Harry and Ron can't make it this time, so it'll just be Ginny with me."

"What?" Draco was immediately yanked from his sulking in the corner.

"Like I've just said, it'll be completely fine."

"Completely fine? Granger, she broke your ribs last time!"

"Because we were in the Shack last time, ferret," Ginny scoffed.

"Gin," Bill cautioned.

"Oh, Malfoy knows it's only in jest, don't you Malfoy?" Ginny smirked at him and Hermione felt the urge to roll some suddenly painful knots out of her neck.

"Of course, Weaslette," Draco smiled falsely back at Ginny and Hermione felt Bill move behind her and start rubbing at her shoulders without her having to ask. She turned her head slightly and exchanged a nod of gratitude with him.

"Ginny was trying to stop me from getting out of the Shack last time, Draco. You know that. And it won't have helped matters that I'd taken a bite out of Harry's shoulder," she looked sheepishly at Ginny then faced Draco. "We'll have more space this time and I won't be as wound up. So, even if I did try to head for the castle - which I've never shown interest in doing before - it'll be much easier for Ginny to shoulder me towards the forest."

Hermione patiently kept her gaze on Draco, waiting for him to meet her eyes so she could persuade him that they would be alright. She let out a short breath as Bill pressed deeply into a knot and Draco's head finally shot up.

"I promise it will be alright this time, Draco. No one will get hurt," she maintained eye contact with him in an attempt to impress her belief on him, but he didn't seem to have heard her. "Draco?" she asked, puzzled, and he took a few strides towards her, appearing to force himself to a halt when he was a few meters from her.

She searched his eyes for any recognition of what she had just said, but she realised that he wasn't looking at her, rather he was looking at her shoulders. At Bill's hands on her shoulders.

"Draco?" she repeated, a little unsure, and saw his left eye twitch, refusing to blink as he glared.

"Oh, this is gold," Ginny grinned, leaning her hips back against a desk.

"Bill, could you stop for a minute?" Hermione asked out the corner of her mouth, but the miniscule move of her head towards Bill caused Draco's gaze to jump to her face and then past hers to Bill.

"Yes, Weasley. Get your hands off her," Draco used his height to his advantage staring at Bill over Hermione's head, and his voice, deeper and more dangerous than Hermione had ever heard it, seemed to make its way down her spine until it had settled heavily in her abdomen.

Bill chuckled but removed his hands all the same. "And there it is, Malfoy. Perhaps there isn't an opening after all."

Hermione's eyes widened and her mouth popped open, causing Ginny to start laughing, but she was scarcely aware of it because Draco's gaze had finally met hers and the intensity of it, like molten silver, had heated that heavy feeling in her abdomen.

Oh.