Lost Souls of Nott Castle
Chapter 28 - Graduation
The Great Hall was decked out in the colors of all four houses. At the front of the room there were seats set up for the students. Behind them, there were seats for family members. Parents and siblings of their classmates sat to watch the ceremony.
Hermione scanned the crowd. The Weasley's were all there. She smiled and waved. None of them waved back, even though they were looking right at her.
"Question," she muttered to Draco as they took their seats. "Did the Weasley's start hating me before or after we started dating?"
Draco glanced over to where the red headed family sat glaring at them. He smirked at them and turned back to her.
"Before, actually."
She sighed and rubbed her temple.
"I really wish this all made sense." She told him.
"We'll go to Theo's after this is over and we'll explain everything. I promise." His hand found hers and squeezed.
She nodded at him and settled into her seat. A few minutes later McGonagall took the podium and everyone quieted down.
"Welcome." She announced. "Nearly eight years ago, I called each of you up to this stage to be sorted into your houses. Since then, I have had the pleasure of watching you grow into fine young witches and wizards. I am proud to have taught each and every one of you, and I know you will go on to do great things. When I call your name, please come forward and receive your NEWT scores and your graduation certificates.
"Miss Hermione Granger, Gryffindor. Miss Granger has been accepted into the Charms Guild. She has also accepted an apprenticeship and will pursue the title of Charms Master."
Hermione smiled as she took the parchment from her former head of house. Each of her professors either shook her hand or gave her a hug. Professor Flitwick beamed at her.
"The book you checked out a few weeks ago, keep it! You will be able to use it in your studies." He told her.
"Thank you, Professor," she told him, although she had no idea what he was talking about.
As she left the stage, McGonagall continued.
"Mr. Draco Malfoy, Slytherin. Mr. Malfoy has been accepted into the Potions Guild. He has accepted an apprenticeship and will pursue the title of Potions Master."
As she was passing him on the way back to her chair, she saw the look of surprise and excitement flit across his face. He must not have known he had been accepted until that point.
"Congratulations," she said with a smile as they passed. When he got back to his chair, he took her hand in his and held it tightly.
They sat and listened as each student in their year was called, along with their plans for the future. Neville was going to study Herbology. Ron was joining the Aurors. Theo was going to pursue photography. Blaise was trying out for a professional quidditch team. Parvati wanted to be a healer, while Padme wanted to be a fashion designer.
The list went on, but soon enough every student had received their certificates. The choir sang. Parents cheered. And just like that, their time at Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry had come to an end.
Refreshments were served and people lingered to say their goodbyes.
"Well done, Draco," an older gentleman said from behind them.
Hermione glanced at Draco and saw the look of pride that flashed across his face as he smiled at the man and shook his hand.
"Thank you, Master Abbott," he said.
"I know you've had a busy week with your tests. Why don't you take next week off and celebrate with Miss Granger?"
The older man smiled at her.
She felt Draco's hand flex in hers and her heart dropped just a little. She wondered what their celebration would have been like if she could still remember.
"Thank you, sir. I'll see you the following Monday."
He nodded at both of them and walked away.
Hermione looked around the room and noticed that all of the Gryffindors had gathered together off to one side.
"Excuse me for one minute," she told Draco. Then she made her way over to her housemates.
As she got closer, the conversation dulled and they all turned to look at her.
"Mione," Ron said. "Sorry about last night. I didn't know, really."
"It's okay, Ron. Don't worry about it." She reassured him.
The silence in the people around her was nearly unbearable.
"I just wanted to come over and say congratulations to all of us for making it here. And good luck to each of you." She smiled warmly at them. A few of them muttered a response, but all in all she got the feeling she wasn't very welcome. Her smile fell slowly.
"Thanks Hermione," Neville told her finally. "To you, too."
His response was polite but cold. She let her gaze wander across the people she had grown up with and realized she did not feel any warmth from any of them.
"Right," she took a deep breath. "I guess I'll see you around then."
She turned and walked away, wondering what that was all about. She glanced around the room and found Malfoy watching her. The intensity in his gaze took her breath away.
She held his gaze for a long moment, then she forced herself to look away. Taking a deep breath, she made her way to the refreshment table.
"You have a lot of nerve," she heard from behind her. She turned around to see Ginny standing behind her. She was glaring and had her arms crossed over her chest.
"Excuse me?" She asked curiously. She had never quite liked Ron's little sister.
"Weaselette. You're one to talk." Draco slipped his hand around her waist and she looked up at him, wondering what the hell he was doing.
"What do you know about it, Ferret?"
Draco's fingers dug into her side. A warning, maybe?
"I know that when Hermione testified for me, you and your family kicked her out of your home with nothing but the clothes on her back."
Her breath caught in her throat. Was that true?
"And then you took it on yourself to burn everything she owned," he continued.
Ginny's face turned red, in anger or embarrassment, she wasn't sure.
Hermione's hand found Draco's and gripped it tightly. A sharp pain spread through her heart, but she refused to let the younger witch see it.
"That's what traitors deserve," Ginny spat. "Looks like you slept your way up and off the streets though, didn't you?"
Draco moved towards his wand and Hermione quickly stopped him.
She turned to Ginny and smiled sweetly.
"Leaving the Burrow was the best thing that ever happened to me. If it wasn't for that, I never would have found true friendship, family and love." She turned to Draco and smiled, looking into his eyes as though she had done it a million times before. "I suppose I should be thanking you for your selfishness, Ginevra."
Ginny huffed, then turned around and stomped away.
She kept looking into Draco's eyes.
"You are an excellent actress, Granger." He cleared his throat and looked away.
She used her palm to turn his face back to her. She searched his eyes.
"I know I'm in love with you, Malfoy. It's only the details that I'm missing."
"How could you possibly know that?" He asked.
"Because I'm already falling in love with you all over again." As she said it, she felt it deep in her heart.
His eyes flashed. She looked quickly between his eyes and his lips, then back again. She licked her lips.
He smirked at her, relaxing just slightly for the first time all day.
"Are you about ready to get out of here, then?" He asked as he took a deep breath and a step backwards.
She cleared her throat and pushed her hair back behind her ears.
"Absolutely," she told him. "Let's go."
He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her through the crowd. At the door, the same two Aurors that had walked with them from the hospital wing joined them and escorted them out of the castle.
"Still no luck finding him?" She asked with just a touch of smugness in her voice.
"Not yet, but we will."
She shook her head and sighed deeply.
"No, you won't." She told them. "Harry Potter has snuck around this castle for nearly eight years and was hardly ever caught. It wasn't just luck that helped him out, you know."
"No, it was you." Draco said with a laugh.
"Thank you, but no." She shook her head. "It was an ingenious map that tells the location of every person in the castle at any given point in time. That, and an invisibility cloak."
They neared the front gate. Professor Flitwick was standing by the gate. He opened it for them to exit and wished both of them well as they passed through the gate and left Hogwarts for the final time.
As soon as they were past the wards, Draco put his arms around her waist.
"Hold on, Princess." He muttered in her ear. Then they were traveling through space and time, arriving in a strange sitting room seconds later.
Hermione stood there for a moment, shaking her head and catching her breath. Something was...familiar.
"Alright there?" Draco steadied her arm.
"Yes, just some deja vu." Something about the way he had said those words. He had said them before. She was sure of it. She couldn't place when, though. "So this is Nott Castle?"
"Yeah. This is home."
She looked around the sitting room and walked out to the entrance hall. Nothing looked familiar to her. Yet she knew she would find a dining room to her right and a study to her left.
"You live at Theo's?" She asked. She put her hand on the stairway railing and started walking up the stairs slowly.
"We live here, actually."
She paused a few steps up and turned to face him. She crossed her arms and raised her brow.
"You would tell me if we were actually married and expecting our first child or something, right?"
His eyes widened and a grin slowly spread across his face.
"It's just, every time I turn around, you drop another surprise on me."
He walked up the stairs to the step just below her.
"We were right about here the first time I almost kissed you." He told her. "You were drunk off your arse and I had to carry you to your room."
"I don't really drink." She was staring at his lips again. She wondered what they would taste like.
"Obviously I know that now. You barely had two glasses of firewhiskey." He shook his head and smirked at her.
She rolled her eyes and turned around, continuing her trek to the second floor. A few steps further and she stopped again.
"So how did I come to be living at Nott Castle?"
Draco nearly ran into her.
"Theo collects lost souls. Blaise. Me. You." He put his hands on her waist. "A week after the trial, we were all called to Hogwarts to learn about our NEWT's. That's when I found out that the Weasley's and Potter had kicked you out. We also found out that She-Weasel had burned all of your things. Theo invited you to stay in his sister's old room. You accepted."
"You said a week after the trial. Where did I stay for the week in between?" She asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.
"You don't talk about it much," he said. Then he sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "You didn't have anywhere to stay. You didn't have any money. You looked like you hadn't eaten or slept in days."
His voice was quiet and his eyes held a faraway look as he remembered just how lost she had been when she first came to Nott Castle.
Part of her could not believe what she was hearing. Or maybe she just didn't want to.
"So, what? You guys felt sorry for me and took me in?" She didn't like the idea of people feeling sorry for her. And she couldn't imagine how broken she must have been to accept help from her former enemies. She turned and continued up the stairs to the second floor.
"You saved my life, Granger." He told her, forcing her attention back to him. "You kept me out of Azkaban. The least I could do was make sure you had a bed to sleep in and food to eat. I couldn't provide that for you myself, but Theo could."
She searched his eyes. Things were starting to fall into place. She was starting to get a picture of what had happened to her over the past eight weeks. She was starting to understand that he had been there for her when no one else had. They had been there for each other.
She wanted to kiss him. She could imagine what his hair would feel like between her fingers. What his lips would feel like moving against hers. She couldn't remember their first kiss, but that didn't even matter anymore.
She slid her hands around his neck. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Hermione," he said softly. "I am trying really hard to keep my distance. You are not making it easy."
"Shut up and kiss me, Draco."
He hesitated, his eyes searching hers until he saw whatever he was looking for. Then he leaned forward, his lips brushing against hers quickly before returning to press harder. He kissed her slowly, tenderly. Her lips moved with his as though they remembered what he tasted like. Her body molded against his as though it belonged there.
He deepened the kiss, swiping his tongue across her lips until she opened for him. She moaned into his mouth, pulling him closer.
He pulled back, leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.
"You have no idea how difficult this is," he told her. The gravelly sound of his voice sent shivers down her spine. "I have to keep reminding myself that we are not on the same page here. I'm halfway through the book and you're still in chapter one."
She had to smile at his choice of metaphor.
"Lucky for you, I'm a fast reader." She winked at him, then turned and walked away. "Honestly, though, eight weeks in and you think you're halfway through the book? That doesn't say a lot about your anticipated longevity of this relationship, does it?"
Behind her, she heard him laugh.
"It was a figure of speech, Granger."
"It was a joke, Malfoy." She turned and grinned at him. The smirk on his face made her heart skip a beat.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asked, motioning to the door behind her.
"I have no idea." She shrugged her shoulders and turned. Opening the door, she stepped inside the sitting room beyond.
He followed her into the room and closed the door behind him.
She wandered through the sitting room to the bedroom. The room was painted pale yellow. The closet was full of women's clothing. The desk had several books and stacks of parchment on it. There was a framed picture of her and Draco hanging above the desk.
"This is my room?" She asked.
"Yes. How did you know to come in here?" He leaned against the bedroom door frame and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I didn't." She answered absently.
"Are you remembering?" He asked.
"No. Yes. I don't know." She stood in the middle of the room and turned in a small circle. "It's just, I know I've been here before. Like I can almost remember, but I can't quite wrap my mind around it. It's like trying to catch smoke."
She rubbed at her temple. Her head was starting to hurt and suddenly she was exhausted.
"You're trying too hard to remember. Madam Pomphrey said you would need to rest for a few days." He walked into the bathroom and returned a minute later with a pain relief potion.
She sighed, but took it and laid down.
"Draco," she mumbled before she drifted off to sleep. "Thank you."
"For what?"
Her eyes fluttered.
"For being so wonderful. You're not at all what I expected."
Darkness overtook her before she could see the shocked look on his face as she spoke the same words he had said to her weeks earlier.
AN: I hope you all are having a better weekend than I am. Horrid migraine here. Ugh. Anyway, hope you liked the update. Feel free to leave a review if you want.
As always, thanks for reading, and thanks to Bex for fixing my mistakes. I don't own the characters or the world, only the plot bunny.