Amare at Odium

Amare at Odium

'Denial is a river in Egypt'

Heeellllloooo everybody! I'm going to make this short, and just say a few things:

A] My beta's are THE BEST! I swear…if it weren't for their support and love, I would never have gotten this chapter out this fast, [if you can say that was fast]. I just felt I should mention this. Thank you so much guys!

B] I own diddly squat. That means nothing. The only thing I own is the plot. I'm just playing with the characters, but I promise to have them in by Dinner. Except Draco, he's coming home with me! [fun fun fun!]

C] I hope you all get the title…

D] And now for tonight's program…

~*~*~*~*~

Draco got up and out of bed, pacing back and forth. No, this simply could not be true. He ran his fingers through his white-blonde hair, trying to make sense of his muddled thoughts. Muddled…muggle…muggle born…Hermione! Everywhere he looked, everything he thought or said somehow led back to that – that girl! Ok…ok…he was going to get through this. This had be a result of teenage hormones, that's all. He just had to get his mind off her.

Looking at the clock on his bedside table he saw that it was five in the morning. Long before anyone would be up. Draco headed to his drawers to get dressed. Taking off the undershirt he slept in he thought of Hermione ripping it off and – no! No! He couldn't think about that! He must not think of that! Fully dressed, he walked out of the room and down the hall, heading towards the bathroom.

When he got there, he headed straight for the sink turned on the cold water. Draco splashed the icy water on his face to wake him up and then sighed. And he used to think his life was so simple. Draco closed his eyes, thinking of home. What would Mother be doing today? Hmmm…today was Thursday, so that means that she would be having tea with the wives of his Father's friends. And Father would be getting together with his friends in his study. They would probably laugh, share jokes, drinks, cigars and stories.

Draco remembered when he was little, and he used to be allowed in the 'sanctum sanctorium', as his father liked to put it. He would listen in on their conversations when they thought he wasn't, learning and storing away information on them and their families. He still could remember it all – Blaise Zabini's bed-wetting, Crabbe's fear of teddy bears [although that one was never explained].

Draco laughed, leaning against the wall. Yes those were happy times for him. He imagined himself walking up the pathway to the mansion, looking up at it. It had a gothic style to it, with towers and turrets. Draco in his mind walked up the door and opened it, letting the familiar musty scent of home hit him. He closed his eyes to see it better. There it was, right in front of him, the Malfoy family emblem. A dragon with its tail encircling a sleeping lamb. At one point in time it had stood for strength and gentleness, but now it just meant power over the weak. Leaving the tapestry, he walked to the kitchen. Mother would probably be in there; she liked to cook on occasion. Yes, there was the smell of a baking cake. Opening the door, he saw Mother standing at the far end of the kitchen, by the stove. He ran to her. Hearing his footsteps, she turned and Draco saw –

Hermione! ARGH! Even at home he could escape that little witch! Draco turned back to the sink and upon seeing it full with cold water, completely submerged his head, letting the cold water shock him back to reality. He came back up for air, looking at his reflection in the mirror. He was thoroughly pissed, at Hermione and at himself for feeling this way. Disgusted, he walked out, shaking the water from his head. Deciding not to go back to bed he went to the common room.

To his surprise, someone was already there, sitting by the fire in one of the carved wooden chairs. Upon closer examination he found it to be Pansy Parkinson. She was asleep, clutching in her hands a book. If he squinted enough she looked like Hermione with a book in her hands and – stop! He had to stop thinking of her! But he couldn't, she was in his mind all the time. What he needed was a distraction. Seeing Pansy out of the corner of his eye, he got an idea. See, he knew about Pansy's infatuation with him, ever since their first year. But he had never really bothered with her, save for the Yule ball. And he only went with her then because he needed a date. But Pansy just might be the thing to keep his mind off that mudblood. He smiled, and moved closer. Draco gently took the book out her hand and looked at it. Fairy Tales for the young at heart the title read. He used to read this as a kid. Pansy stirred awake. Noticing Draco looking down at her she sat up, fixing her hair.

"Draco, hello." She said in a bit of a flirty tone. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I had a dream." Draco sat down across from her, the crackling fire warming him up.

"Oh really? What was the dream about?"

'A girl." Seeing Pansy's reaction to this he continued. "A girl I just can't stop thinking about."

"Oh really…" Pansy's eyed sparkled. "Do you like this girl?"

"Every iota of my being just screams out to be with her." He looked Pansy in the eye giving a seductive little smile. Her breathing quickened. Draco moved a little closer. "I can't stop thinking about touching her." He raised a hand to her head. "Her hair…" He ran his fingers through the blond strands. "Her skin…" He lightly brushed his fingers across her cheek. "Her lips…" Drcao trailed his fingers across her lips. Pansy was speechless for once. Draco moved closer to Pansy, closing his eyes. Their lips met, gently kissing, then more forcefully. Draco's mind, heart and soul screamed that this was wrong, that this should be Hermione, that he shouldn't be using Pansy like this, but he shut away those feelings and kept his mind blank. For the next three hours he kept it that way until he could hear students upstairs waking up. He pulled away. Pansy's eyes remained closed for a few seconds more, and then opened to see what happened.

"What – " Pansy was scilenced by Draco.

"Shhhhh."

"But why did you stop?"

"Because I want to keep this a secret." Pansy tried to make sense of this.

"Why would you want to do that?" she asked.

"Because it'd be more fun that way, don't you think?"

Pansy grinned, and he knew he had her.

~*~*~

Hermione was up too, sitting in the Gryffindor common room. Staring at the fire, she tried to make sense of what had happened earlier at detention.

'Happy is when your fulfilled. You don't need anything. But when you're content, there's something missing. That one tiny thing that prevents you from achieving happiness. You feel like there's something missing. And I'm willing to bet that whatever it is, it eats you up inside. Tears you apart, because missing and you don't know the answer. So you bury yourself in books, trying to find out what it is. But you never do.' She remembered the words well. They had been running through her mind ever since she heard them. She knew they were true, Hermione had been feeling incomplete for a while now. And something was missing from her life, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what! Something else had been bugging her as well. How the hell did Malfoy know so much about her? Could it possibly be that he was smarter then he looked? Oi, this was all so confusing. A voice behind startled Hermione.

"Hermione? Is that you? What are you doing up so early?" It was Harry.

"Oh hey Harry." Hermione said listlessly. "I couldn't sleep." He came over and sat down next to her.

"Hermione? What's wrong?"

"Nothing Harry. I'm fine." She said. Harry wasn't fooled one bit.

"You're lying."

"No I'm not. I am perfectly all right. Now leave me alone." Hermione turned away from Harry.

"Hermione, I have been your friend for five years now. You can tell me anything. Now what's wrong?" Harry put his hand on her shoulder, as if to let her know that he would be there for her no matter what.

"Oh Harry!" She turned and sobbed into his sleeve, all the tears that had been holding themselves in bursting out.

"Did something happen at detention that you didn't tell me and Ron?" Harry said, patting Hermione's back.

"Malfoy. He said something." She managed to say in between sobs. Harry got angry.

"Malfoy?! Malfoy said something to you? What was it? How much can I hurt him?" Harry was really angry now. The nerve of that stuck up git! Once Harry got his hands on him ooo there was going to be hell to pay!

"N-no Harry. Don't do tha-that. You'll get detention and be pun-punished." Hermione was really letting loose the waterworks now.

"Ok, I won't hunt the little creep down, just tell me what he said." Harry gave her a handkerchief and put is arm around her shoulder.

"Well, he just told me the truth." Hermione had stopped crying by now.

"The truth? Explain to me how Malfoy could know the truth about you."

"Well, he told me that I wasn't really happy. That there's something missing from my life. And that I bury myself in books to try to find out what's missing but I never do. And he's right." Hermione looked down at her lap, suddenly very occupied with Harry's handkerchief. Harry started laughing and Hermione looked up. Why was he laughing? She was telling him something that even she had a hard time admitting to herself and he was laughing. Before she could say a thing though Harry silenced her.

"Hermione? That's it? That's what bugging you?" Hermione was indigent. How dare he treat her problems this way! As if they didn't mean anything! Seeing the look on her face he continued. "Hermione, everybody has something missing from their lives, especially people our age. It's impossible not to avoid it. Malfoy knows that and was just using that knowledge to get to you."

"But why did it get to me like it did?" Hermione asked, partly Harry and partly herself.

"I've been watching you since school started. You've been really tense. You set your expiations for yourself too high. You've put a lot of pressure on yourself and Malfoy just used that to make you crack. You need to relax more Hermione." Harry said matter of factly.

"I suppose so, that does make a lot of sense." Said Hermione.

"Yes of course it does, I'm the one saying it right? And we all know that I'm always right. Which is why me and Ron are going to put you on a strict routine to make you relax." Harry said.

"Oh really now?" Hermione said, arching one brow.

"Yes. From now on until you learn to relax we will control everything you do. Butterbeer and chocolate frogs for meals. Only 5 hours of studying a week. By God Hermione your going to relax, even if you like it or not!" Harry was acting like a drill sergeant.

"Harry, you know what? You really crack me up sometimes." She said, laughing.

"What? You think I'm joking?" Harry said with a straight face. Seeing the look on her face he couldn't help but laugh. "Honestly Hermione, you have to learn not to take things so seriously. Now lets go get some breakfast, I'm positively starving!" They walked off, out of the common room and to the Great Hall, exchanging jokes along the way.

~*~*~*~*~

Fred and George were up too. They were around the corner from Mr. Filtch's office, whispering quietly.

"Ok, so, lets go over the plan again, just to make sure" Fred said.

"You set off a load of dung bombs down the corridor and while Filtch is cleaning up the mess I go in his office - "

" - go to the drawer marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous – "

" - and grab everything that I can – "

" - while I distract Mrs. Norris with the meat and milk we got from the kitchens. Ok, got it." Fred pulled out the bag of dungbombs. "Good luck, soldier."

George nodded, and hid behind the statue. A couple of minutes later he heard an explosion go off, and Mr. Filtch ran by him, cursing aloud. Making sure Filtch was occupied and his cat was nowhere in sight, he head for the office. George quietly opened the door, scanning the room. Seeing the file cabinet in the corner he went right over. Not taking any time to pause, he opened the drawer, and started shoving objects into his satchel. When he thought he got everything important, he closed the drawer and hightailed it out of there. George could hear Filtch coming closer. He quickly ran behind the statue he had hid behind before and waited for him to go by.

"Lousy ruddy kids, messing up my perfectly clean hallways. I'll get them, I'll show them to make fun of me…" Mr. Filtch went on like that all down the corridor and into his office, slamming the door shut. George ran to where he and Fred were suppose to meet, the empty classroom on the other side of the floor.

"Hey." He said breathlessly.

"Hey, did you get the stuff?" Fred asked.

"Does this answer your question?" George opened his satchel, revealing all the priceless items from the drawer. Fred gasped, then closed the satchel.

"Quick, lets get out of here. We don't want Filtch to catch us, and we have work to do." Fred said, moving out of the door and down the stairs. George followed. Soon they would begin work on their prank…just as soon as they figured out what's been done before. Checking one last time to see that his satchel was closed so no-one could see inside, he ran off down the stairs.

~*~*~*~*~

And there's another chapter for your enjoyment folks. Like I promised, and I usually keep my promises, I would like to mention and thank the following people for reviewing the first three chapters: