Chapter 52

Hermione blinked, finding herself suddenly thrown behind a brick wall of brilliant vermillion dress robes woven with slowly moving clouds.

"Malfoy, I don't give a rat's arse how often you've kissed before-"

"George it's not like that." She tapped on his shoulders.

"But Hermione was speaking, and you interrupted her. She's a brilliant witch, and she should be appreciated for more than her body," George tipped up his chin.

"George, really, it's okay." She came around to stand besides Draco, who was looking up at George as though about to perform a wandless spell. And it wouldn't be any harmless little jelly legs jinx.

"No, Hermione, it's not okay." George uncrossed his arms. "If I interrupted Angelina when she was telling me something urgently, I would get a sound slap across the face."

"George, please, thank you for trying to defend me, I really appreciate it, but there's no need to shove anyone or speak to Draco like that." She laid a hand on his wrist. "He wasn't trying to shut me up." Hermione swallowed the painful feeling that he may indeed have been trying to silence her.

"Hermione-"

"I was just being… asking him to…" She didn't have to struggle for a blush to rise. "We were talking about being alone again tonight."

Hermione didn't consider herself a particularly good liar. Then again, she had fooled Draco Malfoy for more than a month. Still, it felt as though guilt would be spelled out in scarlet letters over her face, but George just blinked back at her, mouth agape.

"I…" He flashed a grimace. "I apologize, Malfoy. It looked like a fight… well, that will teach me to jump to conclusions."

"It certainly will." Draco returned crisply.

George held out his hand. "Please. I only meant to help a friend."

Draco eyed him from his flashy red brogues to the tips of his ruffled red hair, sighed and took his hand, shaking it firmly.

Hermione put a hand on George's arm. "You were being protective, so thanks for that. And for hearing us out."

George relaxed, putting his hands in his pockets, his face melting into his usual goofy grin. "I may be the only one tonight. You two are already the talk of the train."

A wretched smile bloomed over Draco's face. "All good things I'm sure." Hermione shivered when he put his hand on the small of her back.

"Oh no, I wouldn't say good. Incredulous and skeptical are better words." He nodded at Hermione. "You're not under the imperius are you?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Absolutely not."

"Good. Tell that to Seamus. And be more convincing." George grinned. "He owes me ten galleon."

Hermione sputtered. "I don't have to be convincing. I'm not under any coercive spell."

"That's the ticket. Very Hermione-ish." George nodded approvingly. "I'll split it with you."

"Oh George I don't need five galleons!" Hermione took a tiny, hopefully imperceptible step away from Draco.

George eyed them up as Draco yanked her closer. "Yes… I guess you won't need any galleons anytime soon."

Draco leaned into her ear and whispered, his voice little more than a breath. "Don't flirt."

She squirmed herself away, meeting George's eye and trying to school her expression into something more embarrassed, rather than furious.

"Right…" George crossed his arms again. "Well… do you want to join us in our car? Harry and Ginny actually made it on time. For once. Pity actually. I'd left the keys to dad's new Ford and everything."

Hermione felt Draco's arm tense behind her.

"Actually… um, I think we'd rather be alone right now, George. We'll see everyone at the party anyway." Hermione smiled at him, hoping that not a one of her mixed emotions were showing on her face. She rested a hand on Draco's chest for effect, her hand igniting from the whisper of heat she felt through his evening robes. She fought the urge to pull away.

"Right." George winked. "Well whether you're fighting or fucking, put up some soundproofing spells on your cabin, alright?"

She laughed quietly. "Sounds like a good idea. See you there?"

"Of course. Have fun, you too." George nodded at Malfoy and headed down the corridor again.

When the door closed, Hermione let go of her breath.

"Oh is it a relief to see that old Weaselbreath is gone? I would have thought you would be clamoring to get to your friends." He sneered.

"I was, after the indignities of your friends." Hermione began peeping in the windows of the compartments nearest them, looking for an empty one. "Tell me, do you actually spend time with Pansy other than using her as a torture device for unsuspecting women?"

He made a little growling noise. "Of course not. She's vile."

She pulled open the door to an empty compartment and pulled his stiff self inside. "Thank god for that."

"Well, now that you've gotten me alone, Granger, what are you going to do with me?" He crossed his arms, his tone draining the question of any possible double entendre.

"First, I'm going to put up some soundproofing spells." She waved her wand insociently and spun, stomach buzzing with butterflies. "And then… I wish I didn't interfere. I wish I'd showed it to you the moment I found out about it. And I deeply, deeply apologize for not giving you a chance… to trust you. I'm very sorry."

The room was silent beyond the quiet roll of the wheels and the whisk of the wind. She looked at him steadily, as he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands in front of him.

"Oh were we having a pity party for you? Shame. If I had known I would never have come." He snarled.

"I'm not having a pity party. I regret the way I treated you and I need to tell you." Hermione's throat tightened so much the last word came out as a half sob.

"Spare me." He stood and tried to pass her to the door.

Hermione's thoughts began to scramble. He couldn't just leave her.

"No I will not spare you. You can snarl at me from here to eternity but I won't ever stop trying to apologize. It wasn't supposed to be like this, it could have been better if I hadn't tried to control everything, I know that now." She shook her head again and stood up abruptly.

"You think I give a single flying fuck if the prophecy is working out fine? You think it would have been better if you had just ignored that you knew this? Is that supposed to help us, to help me, make any sense of what you've done?" He turned on her, advancing until her knees hit the back of the cushion and she toppled down.

"Or maybe this is exactly the way it was supposed to happen. Maybe the stars finally aligned and you were always supposed to fuck me over. Maybe I deserved it after all those years of hating people I'd never even met because some noseless knobhead told me to. But that doesn't mean I don't feel anything about it." He slammed his hand against the wall behind her.

Hermione saw red. "That is not what I meant. You can feel however you want to."

"Oh can I? Thank you so much for your permission." He snarled, "You think you can fix this with thirty seconds of half arsed apologies? Or three hours? Or three days? This isn't schoolkid stuff any longer."

"I stopped treating things like schoolkid stuff after the war, or at least I f-fucking tried to. I was trying to survive what seemed like an impossible situation- what still very much feels like an impossible situation- and I made a wrong decision out of panic and fear. I. am. Sorry. And I will say that until you are ready to hear it and then after, as much as you need." Hermione ground out between her teeth. "But if you think that pushing me to more fear and panic will teach me some type of lesson, then you can just watch me survive that too."

He blinked.

"So do your worst, Malfoy. As per usual." She stared him down, daring him to look away. His eyes were in double shadow, the light in the compartment from overhead forming a halo around his long blond locks. Underneath them, the tracks rolled with groans and creaks. She hadn't meant it to sound like a challenge. She just felt like she was trying to measure the brick wall she would have to break through. And he was constantly breaking her yardstick. The task of apologizing, that this morning had seemed so obvious and necessary, seemed less possible by the second.

She knew she could pretend it was all to complete the prophecy, to save the world and all that rot. But she would throw all of that away to wipe away his sorrows, to undo those deep shadows under his eyes and love him like he deserved to be loved. She wasn't even sure what that would look like but she wanted to believe in it. Her arms ached to hold him, even if he pushed her away, so she held them firm against her body.

His eyes were completely shrouded, but his upper lip pulled down, then quirked back up again. "Well, Granger, you can't say you didn't ask for it."

He leaned closer infinitesimally, his breath briefly heating her upper lip, before he pulled away and sat opposite her in the compartment. He tossed his hair to one side and half laughed, but his eyes stayed on the floor.