"You Only Live Twice"
sequel to "Leah"
by Dorthey Star
Chapter Five: Of Midnight Talks and Men
December came, bringing the first snow. Hermione sat in her window seat, watching the snow fall lazily from the clouds. She pulledher eyes from the window to the chest, where the dagger was hidden. She shivered involuntarily.
Hermione knew that she should tell Dumbledore about it, but, somehow, she couldn't bring herself to. She sighed. She needed some Frank Sinatra music- it always made her feel better, even on the worst of days- but Muggle CD players wouldn't work on the Hogwarts grounds.
Hermione stood up and pulled on her bathrobe. She laid down, trying to go to sleep. Her normal sleeping habits still hadn't returned. She picked up her wand.
"Nox," she said, waving her wand at the chandelier. The light went out. The moment that it was dark, her heart started to beat rapidly. It's silly to be afraid of the dark, she told herself, I'm at Hogwarts. Nothing and no one can hurt me while I'm here.
Hermione closed her eyes. In a last attempt to fall asleep, she started to count sheep. She had made it to 379 before she finally slept.
***
Draco, on the other side of the castle, wasn't even trying to go to sleep. His mind was racing with many thoughts, each different, yet related to the others. Finally, he let his thoughts drift to a topic that he only thought about every once in a while because it was too painful: Hermione .
He thought about her health during the last two months. The bags under her eyes were growing bigger and darker. She was getting thinner- Draco saw that she wasn't eating during meals- and she was growing more and more irritable. It wasn't just her health that was slipping, either. Her grades were growing worse by the week.
Draco frowned. Just because he couldn't have her, didn't mean that he wanted her head. A knock at the door interrupted Draco's thoughts and he scowled fiercely. He hated being interrupted when he was thinking about Hermione . He crossed the small room quickly and opened the door to reveal Pansy. His features softened a little bit. Pasn't wasn't too bad of a girl once you got to know her; Draco knew she loved him a lot. He felt really sorry for her because she didn't know that their fathers had arranged the marriage and that Draco was against it. In fact, she thought the whole thing was Draco's idea.
"Hello Pansy," Draco said and stepped to the side so that his fiancée could enter his room. Her eyes were red and puffy and there were tears streaming down her face.
"Oh, Draco!" she said and, bursting into a fresh round of tears, threw herself into Draco's arms.
"What's wrong?" he asked as he smoothed down her blonde hair.
"M-Mum's been killed, Draco," Pansy whispered shakily.
"When? How?" Draco demanded. Pansy's mother was always nice to him and had been like the aunt he never had.
"Yesterday… Voldemort killed her," Pansy said darkly, "Why did he have to kill her? She wasn't ever anything other than a good wife to Daddy!" Her eyes widened as she realized that she had said something that Voldemort considered betrayal.
"Voldemort does things that we'll never be able to understand, Pansy," Draco said, thinking about Hermione 's murder.
"I hate the Dark Lord, Draco!" she whispered, crying once again.
"So do I, Pansy, so do I," Draco said gently. She pulled back from him enough to look him in the eyes.
"SO you're not going to become a Death Eater?" Pansy said, hope flickering in her eyes.
"No, Pansy, I'm not," he smiled as she grinned in relief.
"Good," she said, "because when we're…" she trailed off before she mentioned the marriage.
"Married?" he asked, tying to keep disgust out of his voice. They were both tense for several seconds before Pansy answered him.
"About that, Draco…" she said, pulling away from him and taking several steps back, "I, er, don't mean to hurt you, or anything, but um, I don't-"
"Want to get married?" he asked, interrupting her.
"Um, yeah…" she said, nervously.
"Fabulous!" Draco said, grinning. Pansy looked at him, her eyes wide in puzzlement.
"What? But I thought you…" Pansy trailed off in confusion.
"The whole thing was Father's idea. I didn't actually want to marry you, either." Pansy sighed in relief and smiled.
"I've been dreading telling you for weeks. Er- Draco? Will you do me a favor?"
"What's the favor?" Draco said, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Will you go with me to Dumbledore's office? I want to see if he'll help protect me from Voldemort."
"Let's go now. I'll tell him that I'm not joining my father's side as well."
Together they stepped out the door, towards their new lives.
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places, and Ian Flemming (?) owns the title.
Author's Note: fabulous chapter, right? I felt so sorry for Pansy with everyone hating her that I just had to make her the good person. Anyways, please read, review, and listen to Frank Sinatra.
Love,
Dorthey "lazy little bugger" Star (proud member of the "League of Annoyance & Frank fan Inc")
