It was three in the morning when he woke up to the sound of screaming. It took him a moment to realise where it was coming from, but as memories of Hermione came rushing back to him, he quickly raced out of his room and towards what he was sure was the source of the sound. Once he got there he realised two things. One he was only in his boxers, not haven't thought about that when he ran out of his room. Two, Hermione was having some type of a nightmare, not being attacked as he had originally feared. He was relieved at the discovery, but the sight of her thrashing around under the blanket was not a comforting one. He moved cautiously towards her not wanting to make the situation any worse.
'Hermione, wake up,' he said sternly, but she kept tossing, muttering words like stop and help under her breath. He was going to have to shake her awake and that was not something he was entirely comfortable in doing, since her wasn't sure how she would react. He sat down next to her and gently placed his hand on her shoulder giving it a light squeeze and repeating his earlier sentence. She shot up, fear evident in her eyes and before he could register what was going on she had socked him right in the face with her fist. He leant back, mainly from the shock, his hand going up to his lip where he could feel the slightest bit of blood forming. By this point Hermione had fully woken up and was looking at him completely mortified at what she had just done.
'I am so so sorry,' she exclaimed, moving closer to look at his face. Draco felt her soft hand cup his cheek examining the damage she had done, her eyes widening when she noticed the blood.
'I don't know what happened, I just felt your hand on my shoulder and reacted. I am such an idiot, I am so sorry,' she continued.
'It is okay. You were having a nightmare. I am sorry I startled you, you were screaming and I was trying to wake you up. I totally get why you would hit me after the night you have had,' Draco reassured her, chucking in a chuckle at the end to make her feel better.
'It is not okay though, after all you have done for me, I punch you in the face as thank you… let me go get that bag of frozen peas for you,' she said, moving her hand from his face, she got up and walked into the kitchen. Draco felt himself missing the contact instantly. He wasn't sure what had gotten in to him, he didn't even know this girl, but her touch seemed to be doing something to him. She returned quickly and placed the bag of peas against his lip. He sucked in a breath as he felt the cold on his swollen lip and instantly regretted it, seeing the sadness it brought to Hermione's eyes.
'Seriously, I am fine Hermione. It is okay.' She gave him a small smile in return, clearly appreciating that he was downplaying what she had done. She removed the peas from his mouth and picked up a damp tea towel from the coffee table. He hadn't even noticed it there. She pressed it on to his face, carefully wiping away whatever blood had settled there. It was at this point that he became acutely aware as to how close she was to him. She was kneeling over him slightly in an attempt to get closer to his face, her hand resting on his leg so she could keep her balance. He caught himself wishing it was slightly lower down on his leg because her touch was, once again, very distracting.
When she was satisfied with her clean up job, she finally moved her hand and he breathed a sigh of relief. However she shuffled to sit down next to him and remained pretty close. He was just about to thank her when he heard the front door begin to open and the noise of what he knew all too well to be his roommates. Turning to look at Hermione, she seemed confused at the intrusion and a little bit concerned.
'Don't worry, it is just my roommates. We had been out for someone's birthday tonight and it appears that they have unfortunately decided to bring the party home with them,' he groaned. As if on cue, he saw Theo, Blaise and Ron round the corner and make their way into the room.
'Well, well, well where did you sneak off to Draco my man,' Ron said, swaying as he walked to the couch. He did not initially notice that Hermione was sitting next to Draco, but when he did a big grin hit his face.
'Ahh, that makes sense. Hello my darling, what is your name and why would you be hanging out with this loser when you could be with me?' he joked. Draco looked at Hermione to gage her reaction, but she just laughed, clearly amused with Ron's drunken state.
'This is Ron, the birthday boy. That is Theo and Blaise, they live here,' he explained quickly, wanting her to have some context as to what was happening. 'Guys this is Hermione. Be nice okay, she doesn't need to be putting up with you drunk idiots alright.'
The boys burst into laughter and come to sit on the couch and say hello to her.
'It is nice to see you finally getting over Pansy, bro,' Blaise said and Draco blushed not wanting to talk about this right now, especially with Hermione sat next to him. She looked at me curiously, clearly noticing the new shade of pink forming on my cheeks.
'Particularly since she and Harry should be here any minute now…,' he added quietly on the end.
'I'm sorry, what. Why are they coming here?' Draco could feel the anger in his voice as he spoke. He tried to stay calm, completely forgetting to correct Blaise on his presumption of Hermione and his relationship. As if on cue, he heard the door open again and a few more people trickle in, followed by the two people he really didn't want to see right now.
'Draco,' Harry said, clearly still shitty from me talking to Pansy in the club earlier.
'Who is she?' Pansy bluntly stated staring Hermione down, not caring to have any manners whatsoever and clearly jealous that she is sat next to me.
'This is Hermione, Draco's new girl,' Draco heard Theo say cheerily from his end of the couch. He knew he was only trying to help him out, but given he doesn't know anything about how Hermione ended up with him tonight, he is only making it worse. Draco looked at Hermione apologetically and turn around to correct him. However before he got the chance to, he felt Hermione lean into him.
'Hi, it is nice to meet you. What is your name?' she says.
