Draco sighed deeply and stretched his still-aching muscles before rolling over and dropping his feet off the side of his bed. The light coming through his bedroom window had that bright, mid-morning look to it, and he glanced at the clock on the bedside table. 10:45. He hadn't even slept three hours.
Still, he was wide awake now. He stood to his feet, appreciating how cool the hardwood floor felt beneath his feet, soothing the tenderness caused by hours of dancing at the party. He was very glad that he wasn't staying at the Manor anymore, now that the "celebration" for his birthday was over. Ha. More like incarceration.
Draco cursed himself for not expecting his father to do something like this. He had expected him to pull some sort of stunt, of course, but not deliberately tie him to the one witch that Lucius never wanted to see in his family! Insanity! Draco didn't understand. He knew that Lucius hated Hermione; that much he had made perfectly clear, even when Draco had confronted him about the ring.
If Lucius didn't want Draco marrying Hermione, then why would he make sure that particular ring was the one used in the ceremony? The more he thought about it, the more sure he became that there must be a way out, there must be a countercurse. Lucius would only have meant to scare them, presumably, and then later, when Draco came crawling back to him, he would perform the countercurse and release them. The lesson would be learned and then Draco would make a more suitable choice for a bride and would properly respect his father from then on.
Well, Draco had no intention of crawling back to his father, or anyone, for that matter. He would find the countercurse on his own. Well, perhaps he could use Hermione's help with this one; after all, didn't she practically live in the library back at Hogwarts? She had been talking yesterday of finding a book on cursed rings or something, hadn't she?
After he had eaten, bathed, and dressed, he sat down at his desk and pulled a blank piece of parchment to him. He filled his quill with ink and began to write.
Hermione was standing in the kitchen and rummaging through her refrigerator when she heard a tapping at the window in the living room. She didn't even lift her head as she yelled for Harry and Ron to open the window and let the owl in.
Almost immediately, the commotion in the next room caused Hermione to forget all about finding something to eat as she ran to see what was going on. She stopped dead in her tracks at the door and quickly stifled a laugh.
The eagle owl was swooping around Harry and Ron's heads, alternately beating them round the ears with its wings and pecking every inch of flesh it could reach before sailing back up just out of reach once more. Hermione recognized it immediately.
"Here!" she called to the owl, and it instantaneously left off terrorizing Ron and Harry and flew to perch on the table next to where she was standing, giving a docile little whoot and holding out its leg submissively. "Thank you," she added after detaching the scroll, stroking its chest feathers affectionately, and it gave her a friendly nip on the hand with its beak before sweeping back through the room, managing to clip the top of Harry's head with one wing before flying out the open window.
"What the bloody hell was that about?" asked a very disheveled-looking Ron, nursing a deep cut on the back of his left hand. Harry attempted to smooth his hair and looked murderous.
"I wonder who that owl belongs to," he said sarcastically. Hermione smiled, but otherwise ignored him as she unrolled the parchment and began to read.
"What? Who does it belong to? Have I missed something?"
"Who can you think of who would have an owl with a personal vendetta against you and me?"
"Draco wants to meet me outside my building in ten minutes," Hermione said, answering the question for him as she rolled the note back up and pocketed it. Both boys stared at her.
"What does he want to meet you for?" Ron asked suspiciously. "Hasn't he done enough damage for one weekend?"
"He didn't say," she replied, sitting down on the couch and pulling on her shoes. When she looked up again, Harry and Ron were exchanging a look that plainly said they thought she had completely lost her mind. When Harry noticed her looking at them, he took a deep breath.
"Hermione," he began, "you don't, er, that is to say, you're not—"
"Oh yes, Harry, I'm in love with Draco and my new goal in life is to move into Malfoy Manor, have as many babies with him as I possibly can, and raise them all to hate Muggles and Hufflepuffs," she replied sarcastically. Ron managed a weak laugh and Harry smiled.
"Now if you two would like to accompany me, I'm going to go see what Draco has to say," she added, standing up and motioning toward the door.
Draco strolled up the street towards Hermione's building, hands in his pockets and whistling tunelessly. For all intents and purposes, he looked like a young prince out surveying his kingdom, every long stride purposeful and sure, as if he owned every inch of ground he was covering. Young women stopped in their tracks to watch his progress, transfixed by the chiseled and precise features of his form, and many of them forgot themselves completely and actually walked right into things. One very pretty girl he met in passing tried to gain his attention by brushing against him as she passed, but Draco paid her no notice. In fact, he noticed none of this.
He was so accustomed to people (especially women) treating him differently because of his looks that this was quite an ordinary walk for him. In truth, he would have noticed the very pretty girl that brushed up against him had this been any other day, but as he had so much on his mind today, he barely even had a thought to spare for her.
As he approached Hermione's building and it came into view, he was presented with two surprises. First, that Hermione made it there before him. She was usually late for things, or rather late by Draco's standards, which meant that she was usually right on time as opposed to five minutes early. The second surprise came as a bit of a nasty shock for him, for standing there with Hermione, flanking her on either side, were Potter and Weasley.
"I suppose you couldn't bear that someone else was getting more press time than you, Potter," Draco said sarcastically as he strolled up. Potter's eyes narrowed in response. He looked like he was going to say something, but Hermione held up her hand.
"Boys," she said sternly. Draco opened his mouth to abuse Potter some more, but thought better of it at the look on Hermione's face and decided to address her instead.
"Hermione, love, aren't you looking ravishing this morning," he drawled, capturing her hand out of the air with the reflexes of a Seeker and bending low to kiss it before she could protest. He knew this would infuriate Potter and Weasley more than any insults he could have conjured. As he glanced up, he saw that he had achieved his goal: Potter's face was red and Weasley was shaking with fury. Hermione, he noticed with a smirk, was blushing, and he humored himself that he had gotten to her much the same way she could get to him sometimes when he was off his guard.
"Draco," she said as she visibly regained her composure. "Are you going to at least tell me why you dragged me out here this afternoon without so much as an explanation? Did you fancy a good morning shag?" she added with a smirk. Potter and Weasley were completely speechless as they stared at her in disbelief, Weasley's mouth hanging open stupidly. Draco laughed wholeheartedly. He hadn't thought it was possible to make the two of them any more angry and annoyed than they already were, and here was Hermione doing it for him! She laughed, too, and the others just continued to stare at them incredulously.
"Barking mad," Weasley muttered.
"Honestly, Ron," Hermione said through her giggles. "It was a joke."
"What's the matter, Weasel, can't you even recognize a bit of humor at your expense? I would have thought you'd be well used to it by now," Draco added, but immediately regretted it. The laugh faded almost instantaneously from Hermione's eyes and she surveyed him coolly.
"Well?" she asked, arching an eyebrow and crossing her arms. Draco understood her meaning as clearly as if she'd said it out loud. Get on with it.
"Well, I thought we would put that brain of yours to good use in finding a countercurse," Draco said quickly. Hermione narrowed her eyes. Then she sighed.
"That's exactly what we were just talking of doing."
It was Draco's turn to narrow his eyes. So she was enlisting Potter and Weasley to help?
"I see," he replied stiffly. "Then you obviously don't need my help." He turned to go.
"Draco, wait!" Hermione said quickly, taking a few quick steps until she was beside him, grabbing his arm to keep him from walking away. He looked down his nose at her, waiting for her to speak. "They're my friends, and they want to help us," she whispered, as if she could read his mind. He hated that, and he didn't want her to think he was actually jealous of those two wankers.
"I don't need their help," he snarled. "But you do need mine," he added, changing his tone slightly. "You need a library, preferably one with books on Dark Magic, and I just so happen to have access to the fourth largest library in Britain…"
"The castle you took me to…" she breathed, understanding at last. He nodded. Hermione's eyes clouded suddenly and she glanced back to Potter and Weasley. Draco rolled his eyes.
"If you must," he growled, and Hermione smiled. "But I can't promise I won't have to hex them if they get on my nerves with their sheer stupidity."
Ten minutes later they were all standing on the green hilltop and Draco was sweeping down the sloping lawn ahead of them toward the big castle. Hermione shared a glance with Harry and Ron, then followed suit.
"This your family's summer cottage, Malfoy? Like when you feel like slumming it?" Harry asked sardonically. Hermione winced. Was she going to have to put up with this all afternoon?
"Actually, Potter, it's our winter cottage," Draco corrected him, but Hermione was relieved that he didn't say anything else as they entered the big double doors that seemed to open of their own accord. She wondered if he was holding back on her account; if that were the case, she felt grateful to him, but something deep in her gut told her that it couldn't last for long. Especially with Harry and Ron baiting him at every turn. It was if they wanted Draco to explode and hex one of them in front of her.
Inside the enormous library, they spread out and set to work. Hermione was in her element. She took charge, directing Harry to this section, Ron to that one, and…well, Draco had set off on his own and she assumed he knew what he was doing. She set off in quite a different direction than the others, in order to cover more ground. Two hours later, she was immersed in one of the many volumes surrounding her, and as such didn't notice the disturbance behind her until the arguing voices had risen into an all-out shouting match.
"If you say one more thing about my mum, Malfoy, I'll—"
"You'll what, Weasley, hex yourself? I seem to remember that was a specialty of yours."
Hermione whipped her head around just in time to see Ron's face turn an ugly maroon color, the exact shade of the sweaters his mum was always knitting him for Christmas.
"If your memory was that good, Malfoy, you'd remember that his wand was broken at the time!" Harry retorted.
"Is that so, Potter? Well, Weasley, have you managed to dig a new one out of someone's rubbish bin since then?"
Ron plunged his hand into his robes to show exactly what he could do when he had a proper wand and advanced three steps toward Draco. In the next second, all three boys had their wands out and were shouting curses.
"Stupefy!" Ron shouted.
"Locomotor Mortis!" Draco bellowed, his curse deflecting the other and causing Ron's legs to lock together immediately so he fell forward onto his face.
"Levicorpus!" Harry shouted, his curse hitting Draco full-on while he was distracted with Ron. Draco was immediately hoisted into the air by his ankle, but before he could even get fully upside down, Hermione was shouting the countercurse.
"Liberacorpus!" Draco dropped to the ground in an untidy heap. "Silencio! Protego!" she added, effectively silencing all three boys in one swoop and putting up a barrier between them so no more curses could fly, verbal or otherwise.
She glared around at them all, feeling as if she had been silenced, too. She honestly didn't know what to say.
"What is the matter with you!" she finally managed. Draco pulled himself to his feet, attempting to smooth his robes and looking murderous. Harry looked a bit sheepish, his anger still apparent as he shot dark glances at Draco. Ron lay on the floor, his legs still locked together, his arms crossed and eyes shut tightly, face still blotchy as the maroon color began to fade from his cheeks. They all looked so comical that Hermione forgot to be angry and burst into laughter.
"Honestly, can't you three play nice for one afternoon?" She lifted the barrier between the three of them and performed the countercurse for Ron's legs, but left the silencing charm for a while, telling them she didn't want to be distracted with their petty bickering as they continued to search for the countercurse.
Hermione decided she liked them all much better when she didn't have to listen to them talk. She turned to the mountain of books behind her and sighed. Hopefully they would find the countercurse soon and this whole nightmare would be over.
A/N - No juicy preview this time, but I can promise that next chapter, we'll be learning a bit about the ring...from an unlikely source.