Ch. 16

In the morning Draco woke her up with a kiss before going over to his quarters to get ready for the day. He came back to get Hermione when he was done. He didn't see her in the front room so he peeked into the bedroom.

She had just gotten out of the shower and was walking around her room in a towel, her hair was wet and lightly curly as it fell against her skin. She hadn't noticed him come in and was talking to herself.

"Where is that hair brush, shirt is over there…panties!" She walked to her drawer and was holding up different ones to wear. Draco knew he shouldn't be watching but he couldn't bring himself to look away. She grabbed hold of her towel and was just about to drop it when she looked over her shoulder first and found Draco in the doorway staring at her.

"Draco!" she half shouted as she went to the doorway "what do you think you're doing?" she said as she pushed him out and snapped the door shut.

"I'm sorry," he shouted through the door. He felt like a creep, which was a new feeling for him. He was pretty sure that she was going to be upset with him.

When she came out her eyes were wide and she sat down next to Draco on the couch. He began talking as soon as she sat down.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. I just came back and you weren't in here, so I was just making sure you got out of bed and…" he stopped.

"And what?" Her tone wasn't exactly angry, but not happy either.

"And, I saw you, and, you're just so beautiful…I hadn't seen your hair like that before, and then you started pulling panties out of your drawer! It all happened so fast!" He tried to explain.

"I can't believe you saw all that," she said, embarrassed as she held her head in her hand.

"I feel like a creep Hermione, I'm really sorry."

She didn't think he was being a creep, but she thought that next time she should have shut her door. "Maybe if I'm not in the front room, knock on my door. I'll keep it closed if I need to change or anything." She offered. "And I don't think you're a creep Draco."

"Good plan, let's get some breakfast before we miss it entirely." He was glad for the change in subject and glad that she wasn't mad at him. He grabbed her hand and they got up.

"Probably a good idea for now not to draw attention to ourselves by acting differently," She suggested.

"Yes, but can I hold your hand until we open the door?" Draco joked.

She laughed lightly and pulled him down for a kiss before he opened the door.

"Breakfast," she echoed.

Breakfast was delicious, over the break the food she ate hadn't been nearly as good except Mrs. Weasley's cooking. She chalked this up to the house elf magic in the Hogwarts kitchens.

Draco and made light conversation when an owl swooped in and Hermione got a letter. She untied the letter and paid the owl before it took off.

She didn't see that it was addressed, but when she opened the letter there was no mistake it was for her.

It read:

"You're not wanted here mudblood"

The message had obviously been made by someone cutting letters out of a newspaper and pasting them together.

"Nice try, it's going to take more than that," Hermione said to her letter as she set it down, unaffected.

Draco looked over and saw what was written. After he read the message he grabbed her letter and read it again, just to be sure that's what it had said. He looked over at his house table to see if any students were looking at them and then when he didn't see anyone he looked over at the other tables. No students seemed to be expecting a reaction, but maybe he had looked up too late after she received the letter?

He was fuming as he leaned in and whispered to Hermione. "I will find out who sent this Hermione."

"Oh, don't worry about it Draco, it's not a big deal." She had been used to much worse. Once she had Rita Skeeter publishing untrue articles about her breaking her friend Harry's heart and got bags and bags full of similar messages.

"Not a big deal!" he half shouted at her. Now people were beginning to stare.

"Let's talk tonight," she said as she got out of her seat. As she walked out of the great hall she looked again at Draco and his features looked livid. She learned a long time ago not to put energy toward negative people and gave no thought to the letter or the one who wrote it.

She made light conversation with her students about the break as they filtered into her classes. More than once that day she heard that Professor Malfoy was in a foul mood and assigned a large essay to the students.

She usually used her class periods to check in on her Gryffindor students and see what the news around the common room was. She had a few particularly chatty Gryffindor's in two of her classes and once in a while she would hover behind them and listen to the inside scoop. She hadn't realized that this was a typical strategy the heads of houses used until she became one herself.

In the evening she went down to get Draco who still looked angry. "Get over it!" she tried to reason with him. "Whoever sent that wanted to upset me, and I haven't let it work, they aren't getting what they wanted."

"How can you tell me to just get over this? How can you let someone talk to you that way?" He considered that he had spoken to her that way in the past. "And I know you're thinking I have spoken to you that way, but we were kids and in my defense I always said it to your face."

"I wasn't thinking that, and I don't think it matters if it's face to face or not, the sentiment is the same." She pointed out.

"We have to find who did this Hermione, maybe even report this to the headmistress…"

"No, we aren't going to do that, that would blow this out of proportion. There were a lot of students complaining about getting long essays today, Professor," she added the word 'Professor' in a teasing whisper.

"Yeah, like who?" he was getting grumpier and grumpier and ignored the tone she used.

She stepped close to him and whispered in his ear, "We can talk more when we're back in the room. Let's go Draco, it's time for dinner." He reached up and cupped her arm and took a deep breath.

"I don't want anyone to call you that." He sighed as he ran his hand down her arm and picked up his things and moved towards the door with Hermione at his side.

He had eaten a light dinner and she had as well, but decided to grab a few things to take back to their room. When they got back they sat on the couch and talked for a while.

"I'm wondering if whoever sent that didn't send it to upset me. Maybe the person who sent it knows us and is trying to see how you react?" She offered.

He hadn't thought of that and considered what she said for a moment. "Who do we know that would do that?" he asked her.

"Lots of people. How about our friends and family, other teachers or students? Don't you think that's going to be the hardest part for us? We're happy, but will everyone else be happy for us?" She asked.

"When you say family, surely you're not talking about your own," he said darkly.

Hermione was quiet for a moment, she was implicating that his family would do something like that because her family never would. They didn't know anything about pure blood or half.

Draco knew she was right. When she said family or friends he thought of a few people. His mother and father were ones that came to mind, he didn't have any friends currently, but it didn't mean a previous one hadn't heard about him working with Hermione…His parents didn't seem too pleased that he wasn't upset to work with her. He would have to start with them and then move down the list he was working on in his head.

"I'm going to write a few letters to see if I can figure anything out." He got up and reached for his quill and grabbed some parchment and sat back down. Hermione sat on the other side of the couch grading the essays that had come in from her students that day.

"I still say we let it go Draco," Hermione sighed as she took a sip of tea.

"I don't want to argue Hermione…" This was one of those times that she was really starting to get on his nerves. She sensed it and figured they could agree to disagree.

He began writing to his mother first:

Mother,

I arrived back yesterday afternoon. It was a nice and easy ride and I had good conversations with some of the guys on my way back.

I have a question to ask and I apologize for how this sounds. Would you or father have written to Professor Granger recently?

Reply as soon as possible,

With love—Draco

He hoped that would be a good way not to give away too many details of the situation. It did feel odd referring to Hermione as Professor Granger.

Then he began another letter, one he wasn't expecting to write but one he needed to nevertheless:

Potter,

You have to know that it would only be out of absolute necessity that I would contact you or otherwise I wouldn't. I also would appreciate if we could keep this conversation just between ourselves.

As a friend of Hermione's you know how stubborn she can be, so I don't need to remind you. She received a letter this morning that was concerning. Of course she's not concerned, but this was out of nowhere and I don't want things to escalate. The letter was constructed from letters clipped out of a newspaper and read "You're not wanted here mudblood." I would like you to quietly look into this matter and I am looking into it myself.

If you send word back via owl please disguise your handwriting on the envelope so Hermione doesn't notice.

-Malfoy

After reading it a couple of times he decided he was done and got up. "I'm off to the owlery, be back in a few," he said to Hermione as he left. He didn't like reaching out to Potter, but knew that Potter was a true friend to her. If someone was going to be as concerned as he was, it would be Harry.

When he came back Hermione was still grading papers. He sat next to her and pulled his student's homework close to him. "Feel better?" she asked.

He looked over at her and rolled his eyes. "Really?"

"Sorry," she laughed. She was trying to make fun of him. "Just trying to make conversation!" she said innocently.

"Sure you are," he said as he reached out and lightly poked her in the ribs and made her jump, he smiled at her and poked her a few more times.

Hermione started laughing and tried to push him back and then took a pillow from the couch and threw it at him.

He got up, "uh oh, you're going down," he scooted his papers off the couch. Hermione did the same as he lightly laid over top her, tickling her and trapping her at the same time so she couldn't move. Both of them laughed so hard and the fun light hearted evening made up for the grumpy manners Draco had that day.

The next morning he received two letters at breakfast. Hermione thought this was odd as he never usually received one, but she remembered he had written a letter the evening before.

Hermione also received a letter. At first Draco thought it had been from Potter, telling Hermione that he had written to her, but Hermione just folded the letter up and put it in her bag. If it had been Potter she would have probably shouted at him.

He was too busy reading his letters to give Hermione a second look. She was a little less cheery than she had been a minute before. She had received another nasty letter, and while it didn't bother her, she didn't want to talk to Draco about it.

Draco received a reply from Potter that he kept shielded from Hermione:

"Malfoy-Thanks for writing and no, this isn't good. Hermione might blow it off but you're right to think this could escalate."

Draco scoffed at the letter, "of course I'm right, I don't need you to tell me that, Potter," he thought. He continued reading.

"Is there anything that has changed in her life recently? Any changes might explain why she's getting letters now when she hadn't before. Another word of advice about Hermione, if you show you're worried she'll only try to shield you from the truth, be on the watch for that. In the meantime I'll check around to see if I can get any info."

Potter's letter wasn't a total waste. Draco had learned something about Hermione that he didn't know. And as much as Hermione said he shouldn't be concerned, he felt good knowing her closest friend agreed with him. He put the letter away and opened the one from his mother.

Draco,

I might ask why you would think us interested in writing your new 'colleague'? You seem to take an interest in this girl Draco. Do you deny it? I admit I was astonished when you introduced me to her family. Your father and I have not written to her, but we are left with many questions concerning your letter to us.

Love-Mother

He folded up his letter and had no intention of replying to her as he put it next to Potter's letter. He looked over at Hermione. She was intentionally not looking at him and he could feel the effort she was putting into acting normal.

He reached for her hand but stopped himself when he was just above her hand, remembering where they were. "Not another one?" he asked her.

She looked over at him with wide eyes, not sure what gave it away. She didn't answer, but her look was enough.

"Let me see it," he demanded in a quiet tone.

"Not here," she said, "tonight."

He turned his head away from her and focused on his food, trying to control his reaction like Potter suggested. He ate a few more bites of food and was done.