A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to upload it. I just realized that this
chapter is a whooping 18 pages so.I guess that explains the *long gap*. I
just realized also that my first few chapters were long and draggy. Sorry
again! But I can promise you that the story as a whole will be worth your
time (it's finished already, in case I haven't mentioned it yet). Also,
please try to review one of my favorite poems: You Ought To Know. I think
you'll like it (crosses her fingers). Thanks again!!!
Disclaimer: All of this belongs to J.K. Rowling except for the plot, which is mine!!!
Chapter Seven - The Secret Nook
The next morning was a particularly busy one. All the teachers were over- excited in jamming them with work to aid those who plan to pass the N.E.W.Ts. Even Professor Lupin who usually let them breathe in his class, was a little rigid on teaching them the proper way of cursing a Troll to make it small.
"Tackling a Mountain Troll is quite easy especially once you've made it smaller. But in order to that, you have to concentrate and keep your eyes open.Ms. Granger, he added silently to the sleeping Hermione at Harry's side. Harry turned to look at her and saw that it that it was true. By the unfocused look she was now wearing, it was plain to see that she'd been sleeping at Lupin's class,
"Weird", thought Harry. And judging by the way Ron's eyebrows went up, Harry was sure he thought so too. But Hermione wasn't the only one looking tired. Malfoy had just slid off his chair completely at the very back of the room and was sleeping soundly at Crabbe's feet. But as soon as the bell rang, he quickly sat up straight and narrowed his gray eyes across the room- to Hermione? Harry tore his look away from Malfoy and went to catch up with Hermione in the corridor. She was really walking so fast she was practically running.
"Hey!" He said, placing a hand on her shoulder to slow her down He groaned a "sorry"
for sleeping out on her last night. He thought there was something she was telling him but couldn't quite remember. So Harry thought he could ask her about it before leaving for Quidditch practice.
"Hermione, sorry 'bout last night."
"I'm surprised you even knew you should be."
"'Kinda dreamt about it."
"And I suppose you dreamt about what I told you too?"
"As a matter of fact, I didn't catch the later part of those. What was the homework you were asking me about again?", it was a guess. But not quiet a good one though because Hermione's eyebrows shot up like arrows.
"Nice try, Harry. Why won't you just hit yourself with your Firebolt? Perhaps that would make you dream of what I told you last night." Hermione snapped slipping towards the right staircase. She was out of sight before he could even call her back.
"What's wrong with her?" Harry stammered when a hand slapped him hard on the shoulder.
"What's wrong with what, captain?"
Harry turned around to see Seamus Finnigan and the rest of the Gryffindor Team half-beaming and half-shivering at him.
"I'll tell you what's wrong. We have a big match next week against Ravenclaw and we haven't even got a game plan ready yet." he continued trying to look cool though there was a vein throbbing at his left cheek.
Harry could see that the whole team was thinking about that too because they nodded vigorously at the mention of 'game plan'.
"But we managed to win against Hufflepuff without any."
"Yes, we did. But will we manage to slip out of Ravenclaw this time?" said Lavender Brown, one of the chasers. Her voice was drowned by a throng of complaints coming from everyone. And Harry's thoughts of Hermione were completely washed away.
"But you have the talent team." He tried saying uncertainly. "A game plan is only a sketch of nonsense. We don't follow Oliver's back then at all. Quidditch is going out there and doing your thing."
The whole team looked thoroughly unconvinced. Harry knew he got to act fast. He tried to imagine what Oliver Wood would have told them during times like this. He imagined his too wide grin and booming voice and tried to put himself in his image He let his eyes rove at each player of the Gryffindor Team, making sure to pause for two seconds each player before moving on. He could now feel that he is the captain, not just the plain old seeker-but the CAPTAIN. And before he knew what he was doing, he boomed in a shower of spit.
"WE CAN DO THIS TEAM! I TRUST YOU JUST AS EACH OF YOU SHOULD TOO AND REMEMBER THAT...umm, remember that." Harry snapped out of the trance and realized that not only his team were looking stunned at him but the whole busy corridor. Everyone froze at their spot with the same mouth wide open expression, except for some non-Gryffindors who were sniggering heartily.
"And...er---remember too that...."
He didn't know what to say and it was getting embarrassing. He should just come up with anything, anything at all, and NOW! He glanced at everyone eyeing him like a hawk.
"That you're a Gryffindor and you should Focus on Quidditch and not on other people's business!" Harry spat, casting a wearied look at the crowd ahead him who started moving on with a few clicks of their tongue.
"And now, the finishing touch.." Harry thought, gaining back his composure.
"SO, ROAR TEAM, ROAR!!!" he added, placing his hand at the middle of the circle. The team looked incredulously at him first, then slowly placed their own hands in.
"Nice, now to practice." Harry said as the team staggered behind him, craning their necks to see if he was sane again. Harry didn't notice this though as he was keeping a good five steps ahead and holding his head straighter up than usual.
"Not bad Harry, not bad at all. You're getting good at this!" he thought, excitement surging through him like fire.
Hermione reached the library in a hurry and settled herself at the front table facing the hawk-looking librarian, Madam Pince. She made sure of this because she knew that if she was spending two whole hours with Draco, she might as well take all the necessary precaution. And sooner than she wished, Draco came strutting in, looking sour and miserable.
Draco stared at Hermione. She was careful to bury her face in the book she was reading but he was quite sure she was trying her best to control the urge to puke (she was holding the book too close to her mouth). He scowled. The things he had to do for his father..that too wonderful Lucius Malfoy. He gritted his teeth at the thought of how his father simply told him to pass the N.E.W.T.s as if it was the easiest thing to do. He doubted whether his father would have ever passed the tests in a thousand years had he taken them. And that was what was hard to chew. He couldn't even see why he had to pass it when Lucius himself clearly thought it was junk. A rip from Hermione's table distracted him.
"Aggh!!!" she snarled, throwing the piece of parchment at the trash bin across the table. Madam Pince glared at her but Hermione seemed not to care.
Draco crossed the hall and sat across the table, at the same time purposely sending a pile of Hermione's books clattering at the floor with a nudge of his elbow. Hermione glared at him and Ms. Pince made a tutting sound behind him. Draco just grinned innocently at Hermione who bent down and heaved the pile back on the table, farthest away possible from him with a great sigh. Then she continued right on scribbling notes. Draco watched her idly, with his head resting at his hand on the table. This was the way he wanted Hermione best-busy and definitely not talking. But after some time it started to bore him. He kicked her mildly on the shin under the table. And then harder when she did not stir. Hermione moved her chair an inch away from the table and shot him a look of disgust.
"That was so nice of you, Malfoy. If it weren't for you I would have finished Professor Binn's essay earlier. But I'm not going to do anything about it-just gonna sit here 'till you're mature enough to start lessons."
"Lessons?" Draco almost fell off his chair. "I ain't taking any lessons from you mud-er-(suddenly remembering Madam Pince was at his back) Granger!" Hermione smiled, or at least her face relaxed a bit.
"You aren't?"
"I'm not-ever." he said, but quickly recognizing the cunning in her face (she was still trying to bail her way out of it), he added, "I'm keeping you company. So you wouldn't look as stupid as you are, sitting here with no one but your bushy head."
Hermione looked taken aback. For what reason, Draco hadn't had time to guess because she suddenly stood up and started gathering her books. Fortunately, Madam Pince got her nose hooked on some large book at the far corner of the library that she didn't see what Draco did that made Hermione gasp. Draco had just caught Hermione's wrist and was holding it securely, pinning his eyes at her.
"You're not going anywhere 'till we start the learning Granger." then noticing the horrified look at Hermione's face he added, "Why won't you just sit down?"
Hermione took the slight show of retreat to her advantage and snatched her wrist away. Draco clicked his tongue and taunted, "I don't like waiting very much Granger. And I suppose you're already done with that one for Binns so you might want to start. My time is very precious."
Hermione gritted her teeth. The guts of Draco to tell her how his time is precious. If there's anything getting wasted in this session, it's definitely not his time. She was starting to think that Draco was actually enjoying himself...taunting her and making her more miserable than she already is.
"You're a slimy son of bitch, Malfoy. If you hate waiting so much, let's just see how you would be able to stand this." Hermione told herself as an idea flicked in her mind.
Draco watched Hermione head for the towering shelves of old books at the far end of the Library and sighed impatiently as she disappeared among one of them. She's being too stubborn and he thought it was most convenient to just leave her in that hell-hole. But because Draco knew very well that that this was what she wanted, he followed her right through the shelves, now more determined than ever to stick around and piss her off some more. But finding her proved to be more difficult than he thought. Because as Draco surveyed the towering shelves, he noticed that they were magicked to hold even larger arrays of shelves inside them. He discovered this after he accidentally tipped a small black book (in an attempt to hurl it backwards at Hermione in case she was at the other side of the rack) at the middle of about the hundredth wooden shelf he turned into. He had watched intently as the small book's pages swerved as if being blown by a strong wind. Then the next thing he noticed was that the whole place around him was dissolving (gratefully, also the blasted wooden shelves which he was starting to hate considerably by the minute) in a great swirl of colors. And when the dissolving finally stopped, he found himself facing (to his horror) yet another row of now copper shelves, holding still what seemed to him, a pool of even older, moldier books.
"Dammit!" Draco cursed loudly, but realizing what he had just done, he stopped abruptly to listen for the librarian's sound. The last thing he needed was to get scolded for sneaking in the private quarters of her precious Library, especially when that was the last thing he would have done if only his father didn't force him into this bloody situation. But Madam Pince's footsteps never came and Draco started to doubt whether there was anything audible at all from where he is. The travel seemed to have lasted for about a minute so surely he must be somewhere under the Library by now.
"Granger? Oh. Granger? You filthy, little Muldblood, where the hell are you?"
There was no answer. Draco tore hastily from every corner and after he was definitely sure that Hermione wasn't cranked up at some space between the books, he searched for the familiar small black book again and found it now at the topmost rack of the middle shelf. He had much difficulty reaching it and he almost fell over after stepping at some moldy yellow book. But when he finally got it, he pushed it rather violently and swore under his breath,
"That's what you get, you stupid junk! Once I found Granger, I would make sure I burn your filthy skin to ashes!" Draco hissed madly at the black book. Hermione was really making this very hard for him. But he is not giving up because that would mean the Mudblood witch outwitted him in letting her out of the deal.
"I'm gonna find you, filthy rat, even if it kills me!" he shouted at still another Hermione-less row of wooden shelves. He did the same routine over and over again and didn't even stop to check out a book that was labeled 'Extremely Dangerous And Entirely For Foul Wizards Like You'. Meanwhile, the chambers never seem to run out and somehow manages to get even bigger every time. Draco had always known that Hogwarts was an ancient building but it never occurred to him that the Library was quite small compared to the large amount of knowledge that it definitely gained through the centuries. He simply paid no attention to it. And even now, after this discovery, his personal feelings towards the Library-Hermione Granger's abode, hasn't changed at all.
After having passed seventeen odd chambers and, Draco stopped in front of the same black bock again and eyed it with wrath. But just as he was about to reach out for it, his eyes caught the same yellow woe-begone book that had almost broken his neck an hour ago. There was something peculiar about it that he found it hard to look away. Unlike all the other books, the yellow book and the black one was in every middle shelf of the chambers. The black book had its purpose of course, but the yellow book-what was it there for?
"Surely not to remind me that I tripped on it." Draco thought pulling out the book. It was just a book about brewing potions and wasn't even about Dark Arts (Draco was thoroughly disappointed at this).
"Still....there's something fishy about you smelly bastard." he stammered on thinking about why he noticed it in the first place. Then, as if someone turned a light on his head, Draco headed back to the chambers he passed through, hurriedly tipping in the black books until finally, he saw the one accident-prone yellow book lying at the floor of the seventh chamber. He flipped its pages and found nothing. Then he tried again, now scanning each page for the symbol he reckoned he saw when the book flew open at his kick.
"Aha!"
He found it. It was a clover leaf sketched in green ink with a single- looped circle drawn around it. Draco thought he'd seen the mark before but can't recall.
"Where did I see this before?" he stammered, tracing it with his finger. Then, seeing how pointless it was to be standing there fingering some old vandal, Draco's thoughts returned to Hermione.
"Granger! Where are you?!"
But just as he was about to chuck the book out, it flew out of his hands and dropped on the floor with a thud. Strange sounds started coming out of it-first, there was scraping, then the sound of a large stone being moved aside. Until finally, its pages opened at the mark of the clover and a hole started opening out of the sketched circle. The hole grew wider and wider until it was possible for a person to slip right through it. Draco's mouth flew open. He had seen all sorts of dark magic before but he was amazed at how this one concealed how it work its magic. It was purely brilliant. He was still marveling at it when, to his great surprise, he found a very familiar brown-haired witch sitting at one of the carved seats inside what appeared to Draco as a very small study room.
"Very clever, Mudblood.'Been looking for you all the time and see where I found you." Draco snapped at Hermione through the hole. But Hermione didn't stir. She just sat there with her head placed in her hands. Draco noticed that she had been crying and that her shoulders were rocking mildly. Thinking that she was again pretending that he did not exist, Draco slipped in through the hole and moved at her side, sneering triumphantly all the time.
"Gotcha, you little filth! But I must admit you did exhaust me. Now you don't even have to teach me anymore. But of course there'd still be tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that." he was saying when she started muttering about something.
"Oh Ron, Harry.."
This time, Draco prodded at her shoulder but she still didn't move. He was right. He didn't exist in the place.
Hermione continued sobbing. And when she finally sat up and crouched her legs up the chair, Draco saw that her eyes were bloodshot red, meaning that while he was breaking his neck looking for her, she had been trying to drown herself with tears.
"I can't believe this is happening to me-I can't believe my two best friends can do this to me." Hermione continued talking to herself, "Ron- well, he'd always been that way, except now, I think he's taken it a bit too far.and Harry-what's with him and Quidditch? It's not like he's gonna die if he doesn't catch that snitch!" Hermione was talking non-stop, sometimes even making gestures with her right hand. It was a little creepy for Draco to see her talking to herself. He's never seen her so miserable before and for what?
"Y'know what your problem is? You're too bloody selfish!" He suddenly said from behind her. He hadn't meant to, but the way she was acting was very objectionable and pointless to him. To his surprise, Hermione whirred around and faced him. She stared at him in mild surprise, then shook her head and started murmuring. Draco was getting the impression that she was a little on the nutty side.
"Oh, great! Now, I'm having hallucinations of Draco." he heard her say which was then followed by a soft laugh.
"I can't be any more miserable than I am now. I never had visions of Draco before...great, just great! Now he's hunting me even in my secret space. Probably that session thing with him that's causing me all this stress..." she stopped midway through the sentence and stared directly at Draco's eyes. He tried not to flinch at the look but her stare was so penetrating that he could almost feel it go through him like x-ray. But to his relief, she finally looked back at her feet again.
"I don't really mind, actually. I would have loved some company, if it hadn't been Draco-if he hadn't been always cruel to me, if he just don't hate me too much for being a Muggle (Draco almost corrected her and said 'mudblood' but thought better).Maybe that's why Ron wasn't talking to me-he didn't think I was freakin' cool enough to be in his Priority Friends List." and with that Hermione broke down completely. Her sobs were strangely bouncing off the whole place as if it had been coming from everywhere.
Draco watched Hermione rock back and forth again. Narcissa-she suddenly reminded him of his mother during the nights when his father didn't come up from the caverns for weeks. She had always been sick with worry but never found enough courage to go down there herself. His mother was very afraid of disobeying Lucius and as his son, he knows the very reason for this. He made sure he remembered. Then, pulling his thoughts back to Hermione, he found her still looking very miserable with her face all shiny and red. He even glimpsed of her trying to smile although it was an empty, mirthless smile. Draco started to wonder how strong Hermione was compared to his mother. After all the trouble he'd caused her for the past six years, she'd been quite okay-until now. He couldn't see why losing two stupid friends meant that much to her. But then again he'd never know since he never had any real friends before and even now-if you can count Crabbe and Goyle as friends, but since they're more like blundering trolls than anything, they don't count. But why though? Why cry like that for God's sake?
"If I had scarhead and Weasley for friends, I'd weep my head off." Draco thought glumly, watching Hermione's shoulders quiver with her sobs. Then without thinking, he started reaching out to her.
"Dammit!" Draco cursed himself, stopping his hands in midway. He almost touched the Mudblood! He was still figuring out what made him do such when Hermione started fretting again.
"That Malfoy! Why didn't he just leave me out to Snape. I'd rather have it that way than have him bossing me around like this! Like I'm some junk born to bid his wants. He's so horrible and evil!"
Evil. That was it. Draco grabbed her at the shoulders and shook her hard.
"You're so selfish, it's unbelievable!" He said acidly at the stunned Hermione. "All you think about is yourself-your problems, your needs, you- you! Everything has to be about you. You always have to be the misunderstood one when actually you're the one who knows nothing about anyone. You look at other people through a looking glass, except the glass is too freakin' foggy for you to see anything at the other side. So you try to polish the glass but then, it becomes too shiny all you see is your own reflection-yourself. That's how you end up so miserable and alone-because you keep on seeing other people in comparison to yourself. When things screw up, it's either Pothead's fault or Weasel's-either way it'd never be your freakin' fault. And also that way, no one will ever measure up to you- 'cause you're too freakin' perfect!" He spat, all his words dripping with venom. He hadn't really meant to sound like he was defending Potter or worse-Weasley. In fact, he had no idea why he even said all that crap to her. There was just something very intrusive to what Hermione said-about the evil thing. She said it like she knew the very soul of him when in fact, she had no idea. "The guts of her." Draco thought through gritted teeth. He was still fancying about the comment when he felt Hermione's quivering stop and her breath turn to shallow intakes of air. She knows nothing about him.
"Stop crying, Granger You'd kill yourself. And we don't want that now, do we? Of course not." Draco told her, staring at her brown, bushy head. "I want you to live just long enough to bore me out-in torturing you, of course. Otherwise, it wouldn't be half as fun." he hissed at Hermione whose back suddenly stiffened. She stopped sobbing completely and there were shivers running up her spine. Draco found his hands wander from her shoulders until it landed on Hermione's hair. And without really thinking, he started stroking the soft mass and sunk his hand right inside it. It was soft and silky-just like his mother's. A sudden, deep yearning for the forgotten mother was overcoming him. It had been a long, long time since he'd spoken to her properly. She was always too depressed to talk to anyone and Draco didn't really fancy talking to her in that state. And of course he blames his father for this. If he hadn't been so cold this past year, then Narcissa could still have been her same cheerful self. And God knows that's what their manor needed right now, a little ray of sunshine. Draco sighed heavily at the thought. Thinking of his mother always makes him a little soft in the knees. Then looking down, he saw Hermione lift her chin to look at him. He saw that her crying had left her cheeks a pretty shade of pink and a slight strand of her chestnut hair was sticking to her face. There was a very strange feeling in the air but Draco quickly whisked the feeling away.
"Draco?" Hermione's muffled voice suddenly came. She was looking at him intently but was still shaking slightly from the storm she'd just been through. A sickening feeling was starting to grow at the pit Draco's stomach. He had just compared the Mudblood to his mother! What was he thinking? He was still lost in his thoughts when Hermione's warm hand landed on his cheek. He jumped back in surprise and saw Hermione do the same. There was a very queer look on her face-that of mingled questioning and shock.
"What?" Draco spat defensively as Hermione cautiously drew to her feet.
"That's exactly what I want to ask you, Draco-what the hell are you doing here?!"
Draco missed her point and narrowed his eyes hatefully at Hermione. He didn't know what exactly happened back there-why he had ever thought that Hermione had any similarity to Narcissa or why he did that 'touching' thing. But worse, Draco just couldn't believe he had just spouted out the whole looking glass idea. It was a secret thought he had always harbored against people but never, even in his wild dreams, thought of saying it out loud. And now he hated Hermione for making him do so. She should have slapped him or something and save him from this humiliation. He was completely unaware of how to react in a situation like this, except of course, with extreme nastiness.
"I was just poking my nose inside your smelly business, of course. What else could I have been doing, crybaby?"
"No....that's not my point." Hermione stammered desperately. She could feel Draco sizzling with anger in front of her.
"Draco....I hadn't been talking about---er---what you did or..say."
Draco stifled a mirthless laugh. "Dream on Mudblood. I did not do anything that you need to mention with such-er-bashfulness. But I can see that your stupid head rode on it and you actually thought that-that...." He was lost at words. He felt like he had just revealed a very private side of him and it was making him burn with shame.
"Not entirely what I had in mind Malfoy, not at all. I had been trying to ask you, just how the hell were you able to get in here? This is my secret place. No one has ever stepped inside it before apart from you and of course, me." Hermione said, finally getting a grip of herself.
"How did you get in Malfoy?" she asked again, managing to keep her stare straight at Draco.
"Did you think I wouldn't get to you somehow, Granger? I admit, I am quite impressed, but not smart enough. There's no chance that yellow book could have slipped my eyes as it was on every goddam shelf there is, if you haven't noticed, you stupid witch."
"Oh" was all Hermione mustered to say. She was so shocked to see Draco in the chamber and too weak to retort. She thought he was just a dream. So Draco found her after all. He didn't have the charity to leave her alone.
"Sorry 'bout that, Malfoy. Never thought you'd find out. I guess I have always regarded you as a brainless entity with a sole purpose of pissing people off. This really came as a surprise."
"You wouldn't want to piss me off now, Granger. I might just spill the beans 'bout your Potter-Weasley hang-up, y'know? I just might." Draco retorted. But he quickly regretted having said so as he saw Hermione's eyes swarm with fresh tears again.
"You know about that too. Great-just great."
But even before she could start crying over again, Draco grabbed her at the shoulders and hissed,
"Don't start that crap again Granger, don't."
Hermione looked at him, smiling miserably.
"Of course I shouldn't. I have no right. I'm just a selfish, insensitive nut who blames the world for her misery. Actually, it would just be fair if you would tell the whole school about how pathetic I am."
"No, I wouldn't tell!" Draco barked at her. He cursed himself silently far letting slip such a golden opportunity to blackmail her but her stubborn sentimentality was really getting into him.
"You wouldn't?" Hermione asked weakly.
"Ask again and I swear I will Granger."
"Deal?" she asked again extending her hand uncertainly at Draco
"What's my part of the deal?"
"I will..I will help you recognize your full potential, scratch that, your full in-born potential, of course." said Hermione smiling a little. She hoped that would work because she just didn't know what to do if Draco didn't bite it
"But have you forgotten, Hermione? You are bound to that whether you like it or not?" Draco cunningly reminded her. But Hermione already saw this coming,
"Yep, but now without scratching and yelling involved." she said, trying her best to put on a bright smile. "If you could do without the fun, of course." she added, still waiting for Draco's reaction.
Draco stared at Hermione for a while; saw her dancing brown eyes that were still shimmering with tears light up. It was quite a pretty sight and he found great difficulty tearing his look away from them for a while. There was something extraordinarily inviting in them-melancholic but filled with so much life and warmth. No one he knew wore a look much like Hermione's. He was sure his mother had that look once, but then again, there was no use recalling the past.
"Okay" he said shortly. At least he wouldn't have to break his neck looking for her next time.
"Thanks, thanks, thanks!" Hermione recited, suddenly flinging her arms around Draco. She never knew she could pull Draco out in a fair deal like this-not that she would have needed to pull it off in the first place hadn't he blackmailed her. Draco almost fell with Hermione's weight but it did send him slamming to the gray wall behind him with a loud 'thud'.
"Ouch"
"Oh, I'm sorry Draco." Hermione said pulling out of the great strangle. She heaved him up the floor beaming. She was starting to see some hope in Draco's terrible mood. At least now she knew that he had mercy and that is already a great leap from the heartless Death Eater that she had always reserved for his image.
"Fine. Just get away from me." Draco mumbled, releasing Hermione's hand.
"So, do you still want to start? It's one day off our deal if you don't want to."
Draco glanced at his watch. It was 7:30 in the evening-figures why his stomach was rumbling with hunger. Hermione noticed this though.
"Oh. I think dinner's not going to be a problem. Except of course if you prefer the house tables than here." she said, pointing at the small table. Now that she mentioned it, Draco scanned the place with a quick look. It was the size of a small room for one person and it wasn't looking entirely comfortable with only a wooden table and four carved chairs, and stone walls here and there. But somehow, there was something in the place or being in the place that he can't resist. The place was cheerful, and in here they could do the learning without prying eyes to taunt him. It would be very hard to explain why he was hanging out with a Mudblood like Granger- especially Granger. Draco smirked at the wooden table but said 'Fine' anyway. And with a tap of Hermione's wand, the table filled with food that wasn't very different from the ones that were served at the house tables. They ate silently for a brief moment and Draco was greatly disturbed when Hermione asked him if he wanted some of her tart. In the manor, this was one of the basic rules in the table. Never ask more of what is in your plate. She would have gotten a very good scolding if his father was to see that. After Hermione was done with her dessert, the plates finally disappeared and she began placing her books on the table.
"So Draco....I think you know about the Memory Charm, eh?" she said, busily scanning her notes.
"Nope." he said honestly. He knew a lot of curses that other students were not supposed to know but the memory charm? No, he hasn't tried it before.
"I don't believe it. You don't know how to use the Memory charm?" Hermione asked again. She had known it since their second year and Draco didn't know how to work it out?
"I said no."
"Oh, of course. It's not taught in school."
"And you're not supposed to learn it either." Draco retorted, annoyed that Hermione knew something he don't.
"Well, I do. And you got to face that fact if you like me to help you realize your in-born potentials to the fullest" she said, grinning. It was the first real smile she had given Draco.
"Fine, have it your way."
Hermione smiled to herself. It was the first charm she thought of doing since she was secretly planning on casting it on Draco. "I am just going to remove his memory of that crap about Harry and Ron-just that and I'll leave him to it." She thought trying hard to convince herself.
"So, this is what you do. You think hard of what you want the person to forget and try to recall up to which part of it you want to remove from his memory. That's it really. You just say 'Obliviate' and the charm's complete." as she was saying this Hermione was also trying to recall which part of that Potter-Weasley crap she could do without Draco remembering.
"I'll show it first, okay?"
Draco shrugged. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, thinking hard, but just as she was doing this, the part of Draco comforting her (or according to him, poking his nose at her business) made her stop her wand in mid-air. No. She can't do it. Draco looked intently at her as though trying to ask her what was going on. But he just shrugged and looked away. Hermione dropped her wand at the table and called Draco to try the charm first on the wall. He eyed her suspiciously but did what he was told At his words, his wand cast a blazing green light that danced on the wall's surface for a whole minute. Then it flicked off.
"Amazing Draco! You did it on first cue. I never thought you were such a fast learner."
"Don't pull my leg, Granger." he replied coldly but Hermione noticed that his eyes were still focused on the spot where the green light shoot. They tarried on with some books after the Memory Charm but they obviously bore the hell out of Draco as he almost fell asleep on page 20 of 'Charms and Hexes.'
"You still on, Draco?" Hermione asked softly at Draco whose eyes were fluttering dangerously close at the book. He looked up at her and smiled. Had she just thought about it or did he actually smile? "Think so."
But Hermione thought otherwise. It was plain to see that Draco wasn't really apt to staying up long for tests.
"I think we've had enough for today. So.what do you think? It's quits for now?" she said. But he just continued to sit sideways at his chair staring his gray, cold eyes at Hermione.
"Spill it out, Draco." she said nonchalantly.
"How did you come up with this place, Hermione?"
"I learned how to do it from a book." She was on the verge of telling him that it was Tom Riddle who gave her the idea during her second year but thought better of it.
"So, what do you do here---er---beside that Potter-Weasley crap, huh?" he asked, giving emphasis on the 'Potter-Weasley'. This made Hermione think again about casting the Memory Charm on Draco.
"I do my homework when I don't want anyone to pester me. That's how I get to know a lot more stuff.without anyone to trouble me with their perky questions."
"Uh-huh. Why do you have to do that?"
"What do you mean? I like reading and I don't think it's so wrong."
"You like doing it? That's all?"
"Yep."
"That can't work for me. It doesn't matter if I like anything as long as my..." his voice trailed off and he was suddenly very pale. Hermione thought there was something going on with Draco but he quickly shifted his gaze to hide his blanched face. He almost told Hermione about his father. And that was really close. Too close, in fact, for their first session. He didn't dare think of what he could be slipping her the next couple of weeks.
"It's late" he said simply, checking his watch. It was already 10:30 and he was starting to get sick of the crummy, small place.
"Oh yeah, sorry. 'Guess I kept you up too long." Hermione said grinning.
Draco just nodded and stood up. "So, same time in this-er-place?"
"Yep."
With that, he stared at the ceiling, realizing for the first time that he didn't know how to get out of the hellhole. Hermione hurried at his side and murmured something he was too sleepy to catch. The hole opened again and he lifted himself up without any trouble. He watched as Hermione emerged from the hole and they hurried back to the first chamber and found themselves back at the Library. The lights were out and Madam Pince had obviously gone back to her old quarters. They walked in silence until they reached the door. Draco was about to slip away on the other hall when Hermione called back at him. He turned around and tried to make out her figure in the shadows.
"G'night Draco"
Draco wasn't sure he heard her right. And he couldn't think of anything else to say but 'Fine.'
But just before she turned up on a corridor to the left, Draco added hastly an 'Er-thanks' before he scrambled back to the Slytherin Tower. That was one night down.
"Only fourteen more nights to go." Draco mumbled exhaustedly to himself as he slid quietly inside the Slytherin common room.
Disclaimer: All of this belongs to J.K. Rowling except for the plot, which is mine!!!
Chapter Seven - The Secret Nook
The next morning was a particularly busy one. All the teachers were over- excited in jamming them with work to aid those who plan to pass the N.E.W.Ts. Even Professor Lupin who usually let them breathe in his class, was a little rigid on teaching them the proper way of cursing a Troll to make it small.
"Tackling a Mountain Troll is quite easy especially once you've made it smaller. But in order to that, you have to concentrate and keep your eyes open.Ms. Granger, he added silently to the sleeping Hermione at Harry's side. Harry turned to look at her and saw that it that it was true. By the unfocused look she was now wearing, it was plain to see that she'd been sleeping at Lupin's class,
"Weird", thought Harry. And judging by the way Ron's eyebrows went up, Harry was sure he thought so too. But Hermione wasn't the only one looking tired. Malfoy had just slid off his chair completely at the very back of the room and was sleeping soundly at Crabbe's feet. But as soon as the bell rang, he quickly sat up straight and narrowed his gray eyes across the room- to Hermione? Harry tore his look away from Malfoy and went to catch up with Hermione in the corridor. She was really walking so fast she was practically running.
"Hey!" He said, placing a hand on her shoulder to slow her down He groaned a "sorry"
for sleeping out on her last night. He thought there was something she was telling him but couldn't quite remember. So Harry thought he could ask her about it before leaving for Quidditch practice.
"Hermione, sorry 'bout last night."
"I'm surprised you even knew you should be."
"'Kinda dreamt about it."
"And I suppose you dreamt about what I told you too?"
"As a matter of fact, I didn't catch the later part of those. What was the homework you were asking me about again?", it was a guess. But not quiet a good one though because Hermione's eyebrows shot up like arrows.
"Nice try, Harry. Why won't you just hit yourself with your Firebolt? Perhaps that would make you dream of what I told you last night." Hermione snapped slipping towards the right staircase. She was out of sight before he could even call her back.
"What's wrong with her?" Harry stammered when a hand slapped him hard on the shoulder.
"What's wrong with what, captain?"
Harry turned around to see Seamus Finnigan and the rest of the Gryffindor Team half-beaming and half-shivering at him.
"I'll tell you what's wrong. We have a big match next week against Ravenclaw and we haven't even got a game plan ready yet." he continued trying to look cool though there was a vein throbbing at his left cheek.
Harry could see that the whole team was thinking about that too because they nodded vigorously at the mention of 'game plan'.
"But we managed to win against Hufflepuff without any."
"Yes, we did. But will we manage to slip out of Ravenclaw this time?" said Lavender Brown, one of the chasers. Her voice was drowned by a throng of complaints coming from everyone. And Harry's thoughts of Hermione were completely washed away.
"But you have the talent team." He tried saying uncertainly. "A game plan is only a sketch of nonsense. We don't follow Oliver's back then at all. Quidditch is going out there and doing your thing."
The whole team looked thoroughly unconvinced. Harry knew he got to act fast. He tried to imagine what Oliver Wood would have told them during times like this. He imagined his too wide grin and booming voice and tried to put himself in his image He let his eyes rove at each player of the Gryffindor Team, making sure to pause for two seconds each player before moving on. He could now feel that he is the captain, not just the plain old seeker-but the CAPTAIN. And before he knew what he was doing, he boomed in a shower of spit.
"WE CAN DO THIS TEAM! I TRUST YOU JUST AS EACH OF YOU SHOULD TOO AND REMEMBER THAT...umm, remember that." Harry snapped out of the trance and realized that not only his team were looking stunned at him but the whole busy corridor. Everyone froze at their spot with the same mouth wide open expression, except for some non-Gryffindors who were sniggering heartily.
"And...er---remember too that...."
He didn't know what to say and it was getting embarrassing. He should just come up with anything, anything at all, and NOW! He glanced at everyone eyeing him like a hawk.
"That you're a Gryffindor and you should Focus on Quidditch and not on other people's business!" Harry spat, casting a wearied look at the crowd ahead him who started moving on with a few clicks of their tongue.
"And now, the finishing touch.." Harry thought, gaining back his composure.
"SO, ROAR TEAM, ROAR!!!" he added, placing his hand at the middle of the circle. The team looked incredulously at him first, then slowly placed their own hands in.
"Nice, now to practice." Harry said as the team staggered behind him, craning their necks to see if he was sane again. Harry didn't notice this though as he was keeping a good five steps ahead and holding his head straighter up than usual.
"Not bad Harry, not bad at all. You're getting good at this!" he thought, excitement surging through him like fire.
Hermione reached the library in a hurry and settled herself at the front table facing the hawk-looking librarian, Madam Pince. She made sure of this because she knew that if she was spending two whole hours with Draco, she might as well take all the necessary precaution. And sooner than she wished, Draco came strutting in, looking sour and miserable.
Draco stared at Hermione. She was careful to bury her face in the book she was reading but he was quite sure she was trying her best to control the urge to puke (she was holding the book too close to her mouth). He scowled. The things he had to do for his father..that too wonderful Lucius Malfoy. He gritted his teeth at the thought of how his father simply told him to pass the N.E.W.T.s as if it was the easiest thing to do. He doubted whether his father would have ever passed the tests in a thousand years had he taken them. And that was what was hard to chew. He couldn't even see why he had to pass it when Lucius himself clearly thought it was junk. A rip from Hermione's table distracted him.
"Aggh!!!" she snarled, throwing the piece of parchment at the trash bin across the table. Madam Pince glared at her but Hermione seemed not to care.
Draco crossed the hall and sat across the table, at the same time purposely sending a pile of Hermione's books clattering at the floor with a nudge of his elbow. Hermione glared at him and Ms. Pince made a tutting sound behind him. Draco just grinned innocently at Hermione who bent down and heaved the pile back on the table, farthest away possible from him with a great sigh. Then she continued right on scribbling notes. Draco watched her idly, with his head resting at his hand on the table. This was the way he wanted Hermione best-busy and definitely not talking. But after some time it started to bore him. He kicked her mildly on the shin under the table. And then harder when she did not stir. Hermione moved her chair an inch away from the table and shot him a look of disgust.
"That was so nice of you, Malfoy. If it weren't for you I would have finished Professor Binn's essay earlier. But I'm not going to do anything about it-just gonna sit here 'till you're mature enough to start lessons."
"Lessons?" Draco almost fell off his chair. "I ain't taking any lessons from you mud-er-(suddenly remembering Madam Pince was at his back) Granger!" Hermione smiled, or at least her face relaxed a bit.
"You aren't?"
"I'm not-ever." he said, but quickly recognizing the cunning in her face (she was still trying to bail her way out of it), he added, "I'm keeping you company. So you wouldn't look as stupid as you are, sitting here with no one but your bushy head."
Hermione looked taken aback. For what reason, Draco hadn't had time to guess because she suddenly stood up and started gathering her books. Fortunately, Madam Pince got her nose hooked on some large book at the far corner of the library that she didn't see what Draco did that made Hermione gasp. Draco had just caught Hermione's wrist and was holding it securely, pinning his eyes at her.
"You're not going anywhere 'till we start the learning Granger." then noticing the horrified look at Hermione's face he added, "Why won't you just sit down?"
Hermione took the slight show of retreat to her advantage and snatched her wrist away. Draco clicked his tongue and taunted, "I don't like waiting very much Granger. And I suppose you're already done with that one for Binns so you might want to start. My time is very precious."
Hermione gritted her teeth. The guts of Draco to tell her how his time is precious. If there's anything getting wasted in this session, it's definitely not his time. She was starting to think that Draco was actually enjoying himself...taunting her and making her more miserable than she already is.
"You're a slimy son of bitch, Malfoy. If you hate waiting so much, let's just see how you would be able to stand this." Hermione told herself as an idea flicked in her mind.
Draco watched Hermione head for the towering shelves of old books at the far end of the Library and sighed impatiently as she disappeared among one of them. She's being too stubborn and he thought it was most convenient to just leave her in that hell-hole. But because Draco knew very well that that this was what she wanted, he followed her right through the shelves, now more determined than ever to stick around and piss her off some more. But finding her proved to be more difficult than he thought. Because as Draco surveyed the towering shelves, he noticed that they were magicked to hold even larger arrays of shelves inside them. He discovered this after he accidentally tipped a small black book (in an attempt to hurl it backwards at Hermione in case she was at the other side of the rack) at the middle of about the hundredth wooden shelf he turned into. He had watched intently as the small book's pages swerved as if being blown by a strong wind. Then the next thing he noticed was that the whole place around him was dissolving (gratefully, also the blasted wooden shelves which he was starting to hate considerably by the minute) in a great swirl of colors. And when the dissolving finally stopped, he found himself facing (to his horror) yet another row of now copper shelves, holding still what seemed to him, a pool of even older, moldier books.
"Dammit!" Draco cursed loudly, but realizing what he had just done, he stopped abruptly to listen for the librarian's sound. The last thing he needed was to get scolded for sneaking in the private quarters of her precious Library, especially when that was the last thing he would have done if only his father didn't force him into this bloody situation. But Madam Pince's footsteps never came and Draco started to doubt whether there was anything audible at all from where he is. The travel seemed to have lasted for about a minute so surely he must be somewhere under the Library by now.
"Granger? Oh. Granger? You filthy, little Muldblood, where the hell are you?"
There was no answer. Draco tore hastily from every corner and after he was definitely sure that Hermione wasn't cranked up at some space between the books, he searched for the familiar small black book again and found it now at the topmost rack of the middle shelf. He had much difficulty reaching it and he almost fell over after stepping at some moldy yellow book. But when he finally got it, he pushed it rather violently and swore under his breath,
"That's what you get, you stupid junk! Once I found Granger, I would make sure I burn your filthy skin to ashes!" Draco hissed madly at the black book. Hermione was really making this very hard for him. But he is not giving up because that would mean the Mudblood witch outwitted him in letting her out of the deal.
"I'm gonna find you, filthy rat, even if it kills me!" he shouted at still another Hermione-less row of wooden shelves. He did the same routine over and over again and didn't even stop to check out a book that was labeled 'Extremely Dangerous And Entirely For Foul Wizards Like You'. Meanwhile, the chambers never seem to run out and somehow manages to get even bigger every time. Draco had always known that Hogwarts was an ancient building but it never occurred to him that the Library was quite small compared to the large amount of knowledge that it definitely gained through the centuries. He simply paid no attention to it. And even now, after this discovery, his personal feelings towards the Library-Hermione Granger's abode, hasn't changed at all.
After having passed seventeen odd chambers and, Draco stopped in front of the same black bock again and eyed it with wrath. But just as he was about to reach out for it, his eyes caught the same yellow woe-begone book that had almost broken his neck an hour ago. There was something peculiar about it that he found it hard to look away. Unlike all the other books, the yellow book and the black one was in every middle shelf of the chambers. The black book had its purpose of course, but the yellow book-what was it there for?
"Surely not to remind me that I tripped on it." Draco thought pulling out the book. It was just a book about brewing potions and wasn't even about Dark Arts (Draco was thoroughly disappointed at this).
"Still....there's something fishy about you smelly bastard." he stammered on thinking about why he noticed it in the first place. Then, as if someone turned a light on his head, Draco headed back to the chambers he passed through, hurriedly tipping in the black books until finally, he saw the one accident-prone yellow book lying at the floor of the seventh chamber. He flipped its pages and found nothing. Then he tried again, now scanning each page for the symbol he reckoned he saw when the book flew open at his kick.
"Aha!"
He found it. It was a clover leaf sketched in green ink with a single- looped circle drawn around it. Draco thought he'd seen the mark before but can't recall.
"Where did I see this before?" he stammered, tracing it with his finger. Then, seeing how pointless it was to be standing there fingering some old vandal, Draco's thoughts returned to Hermione.
"Granger! Where are you?!"
But just as he was about to chuck the book out, it flew out of his hands and dropped on the floor with a thud. Strange sounds started coming out of it-first, there was scraping, then the sound of a large stone being moved aside. Until finally, its pages opened at the mark of the clover and a hole started opening out of the sketched circle. The hole grew wider and wider until it was possible for a person to slip right through it. Draco's mouth flew open. He had seen all sorts of dark magic before but he was amazed at how this one concealed how it work its magic. It was purely brilliant. He was still marveling at it when, to his great surprise, he found a very familiar brown-haired witch sitting at one of the carved seats inside what appeared to Draco as a very small study room.
"Very clever, Mudblood.'Been looking for you all the time and see where I found you." Draco snapped at Hermione through the hole. But Hermione didn't stir. She just sat there with her head placed in her hands. Draco noticed that she had been crying and that her shoulders were rocking mildly. Thinking that she was again pretending that he did not exist, Draco slipped in through the hole and moved at her side, sneering triumphantly all the time.
"Gotcha, you little filth! But I must admit you did exhaust me. Now you don't even have to teach me anymore. But of course there'd still be tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that." he was saying when she started muttering about something.
"Oh Ron, Harry.."
This time, Draco prodded at her shoulder but she still didn't move. He was right. He didn't exist in the place.
Hermione continued sobbing. And when she finally sat up and crouched her legs up the chair, Draco saw that her eyes were bloodshot red, meaning that while he was breaking his neck looking for her, she had been trying to drown herself with tears.
"I can't believe this is happening to me-I can't believe my two best friends can do this to me." Hermione continued talking to herself, "Ron- well, he'd always been that way, except now, I think he's taken it a bit too far.and Harry-what's with him and Quidditch? It's not like he's gonna die if he doesn't catch that snitch!" Hermione was talking non-stop, sometimes even making gestures with her right hand. It was a little creepy for Draco to see her talking to herself. He's never seen her so miserable before and for what?
"Y'know what your problem is? You're too bloody selfish!" He suddenly said from behind her. He hadn't meant to, but the way she was acting was very objectionable and pointless to him. To his surprise, Hermione whirred around and faced him. She stared at him in mild surprise, then shook her head and started murmuring. Draco was getting the impression that she was a little on the nutty side.
"Oh, great! Now, I'm having hallucinations of Draco." he heard her say which was then followed by a soft laugh.
"I can't be any more miserable than I am now. I never had visions of Draco before...great, just great! Now he's hunting me even in my secret space. Probably that session thing with him that's causing me all this stress..." she stopped midway through the sentence and stared directly at Draco's eyes. He tried not to flinch at the look but her stare was so penetrating that he could almost feel it go through him like x-ray. But to his relief, she finally looked back at her feet again.
"I don't really mind, actually. I would have loved some company, if it hadn't been Draco-if he hadn't been always cruel to me, if he just don't hate me too much for being a Muggle (Draco almost corrected her and said 'mudblood' but thought better).Maybe that's why Ron wasn't talking to me-he didn't think I was freakin' cool enough to be in his Priority Friends List." and with that Hermione broke down completely. Her sobs were strangely bouncing off the whole place as if it had been coming from everywhere.
Draco watched Hermione rock back and forth again. Narcissa-she suddenly reminded him of his mother during the nights when his father didn't come up from the caverns for weeks. She had always been sick with worry but never found enough courage to go down there herself. His mother was very afraid of disobeying Lucius and as his son, he knows the very reason for this. He made sure he remembered. Then, pulling his thoughts back to Hermione, he found her still looking very miserable with her face all shiny and red. He even glimpsed of her trying to smile although it was an empty, mirthless smile. Draco started to wonder how strong Hermione was compared to his mother. After all the trouble he'd caused her for the past six years, she'd been quite okay-until now. He couldn't see why losing two stupid friends meant that much to her. But then again he'd never know since he never had any real friends before and even now-if you can count Crabbe and Goyle as friends, but since they're more like blundering trolls than anything, they don't count. But why though? Why cry like that for God's sake?
"If I had scarhead and Weasley for friends, I'd weep my head off." Draco thought glumly, watching Hermione's shoulders quiver with her sobs. Then without thinking, he started reaching out to her.
"Dammit!" Draco cursed himself, stopping his hands in midway. He almost touched the Mudblood! He was still figuring out what made him do such when Hermione started fretting again.
"That Malfoy! Why didn't he just leave me out to Snape. I'd rather have it that way than have him bossing me around like this! Like I'm some junk born to bid his wants. He's so horrible and evil!"
Evil. That was it. Draco grabbed her at the shoulders and shook her hard.
"You're so selfish, it's unbelievable!" He said acidly at the stunned Hermione. "All you think about is yourself-your problems, your needs, you- you! Everything has to be about you. You always have to be the misunderstood one when actually you're the one who knows nothing about anyone. You look at other people through a looking glass, except the glass is too freakin' foggy for you to see anything at the other side. So you try to polish the glass but then, it becomes too shiny all you see is your own reflection-yourself. That's how you end up so miserable and alone-because you keep on seeing other people in comparison to yourself. When things screw up, it's either Pothead's fault or Weasel's-either way it'd never be your freakin' fault. And also that way, no one will ever measure up to you- 'cause you're too freakin' perfect!" He spat, all his words dripping with venom. He hadn't really meant to sound like he was defending Potter or worse-Weasley. In fact, he had no idea why he even said all that crap to her. There was just something very intrusive to what Hermione said-about the evil thing. She said it like she knew the very soul of him when in fact, she had no idea. "The guts of her." Draco thought through gritted teeth. He was still fancying about the comment when he felt Hermione's quivering stop and her breath turn to shallow intakes of air. She knows nothing about him.
"Stop crying, Granger You'd kill yourself. And we don't want that now, do we? Of course not." Draco told her, staring at her brown, bushy head. "I want you to live just long enough to bore me out-in torturing you, of course. Otherwise, it wouldn't be half as fun." he hissed at Hermione whose back suddenly stiffened. She stopped sobbing completely and there were shivers running up her spine. Draco found his hands wander from her shoulders until it landed on Hermione's hair. And without really thinking, he started stroking the soft mass and sunk his hand right inside it. It was soft and silky-just like his mother's. A sudden, deep yearning for the forgotten mother was overcoming him. It had been a long, long time since he'd spoken to her properly. She was always too depressed to talk to anyone and Draco didn't really fancy talking to her in that state. And of course he blames his father for this. If he hadn't been so cold this past year, then Narcissa could still have been her same cheerful self. And God knows that's what their manor needed right now, a little ray of sunshine. Draco sighed heavily at the thought. Thinking of his mother always makes him a little soft in the knees. Then looking down, he saw Hermione lift her chin to look at him. He saw that her crying had left her cheeks a pretty shade of pink and a slight strand of her chestnut hair was sticking to her face. There was a very strange feeling in the air but Draco quickly whisked the feeling away.
"Draco?" Hermione's muffled voice suddenly came. She was looking at him intently but was still shaking slightly from the storm she'd just been through. A sickening feeling was starting to grow at the pit Draco's stomach. He had just compared the Mudblood to his mother! What was he thinking? He was still lost in his thoughts when Hermione's warm hand landed on his cheek. He jumped back in surprise and saw Hermione do the same. There was a very queer look on her face-that of mingled questioning and shock.
"What?" Draco spat defensively as Hermione cautiously drew to her feet.
"That's exactly what I want to ask you, Draco-what the hell are you doing here?!"
Draco missed her point and narrowed his eyes hatefully at Hermione. He didn't know what exactly happened back there-why he had ever thought that Hermione had any similarity to Narcissa or why he did that 'touching' thing. But worse, Draco just couldn't believe he had just spouted out the whole looking glass idea. It was a secret thought he had always harbored against people but never, even in his wild dreams, thought of saying it out loud. And now he hated Hermione for making him do so. She should have slapped him or something and save him from this humiliation. He was completely unaware of how to react in a situation like this, except of course, with extreme nastiness.
"I was just poking my nose inside your smelly business, of course. What else could I have been doing, crybaby?"
"No....that's not my point." Hermione stammered desperately. She could feel Draco sizzling with anger in front of her.
"Draco....I hadn't been talking about---er---what you did or..say."
Draco stifled a mirthless laugh. "Dream on Mudblood. I did not do anything that you need to mention with such-er-bashfulness. But I can see that your stupid head rode on it and you actually thought that-that...." He was lost at words. He felt like he had just revealed a very private side of him and it was making him burn with shame.
"Not entirely what I had in mind Malfoy, not at all. I had been trying to ask you, just how the hell were you able to get in here? This is my secret place. No one has ever stepped inside it before apart from you and of course, me." Hermione said, finally getting a grip of herself.
"How did you get in Malfoy?" she asked again, managing to keep her stare straight at Draco.
"Did you think I wouldn't get to you somehow, Granger? I admit, I am quite impressed, but not smart enough. There's no chance that yellow book could have slipped my eyes as it was on every goddam shelf there is, if you haven't noticed, you stupid witch."
"Oh" was all Hermione mustered to say. She was so shocked to see Draco in the chamber and too weak to retort. She thought he was just a dream. So Draco found her after all. He didn't have the charity to leave her alone.
"Sorry 'bout that, Malfoy. Never thought you'd find out. I guess I have always regarded you as a brainless entity with a sole purpose of pissing people off. This really came as a surprise."
"You wouldn't want to piss me off now, Granger. I might just spill the beans 'bout your Potter-Weasley hang-up, y'know? I just might." Draco retorted. But he quickly regretted having said so as he saw Hermione's eyes swarm with fresh tears again.
"You know about that too. Great-just great."
But even before she could start crying over again, Draco grabbed her at the shoulders and hissed,
"Don't start that crap again Granger, don't."
Hermione looked at him, smiling miserably.
"Of course I shouldn't. I have no right. I'm just a selfish, insensitive nut who blames the world for her misery. Actually, it would just be fair if you would tell the whole school about how pathetic I am."
"No, I wouldn't tell!" Draco barked at her. He cursed himself silently far letting slip such a golden opportunity to blackmail her but her stubborn sentimentality was really getting into him.
"You wouldn't?" Hermione asked weakly.
"Ask again and I swear I will Granger."
"Deal?" she asked again extending her hand uncertainly at Draco
"What's my part of the deal?"
"I will..I will help you recognize your full potential, scratch that, your full in-born potential, of course." said Hermione smiling a little. She hoped that would work because she just didn't know what to do if Draco didn't bite it
"But have you forgotten, Hermione? You are bound to that whether you like it or not?" Draco cunningly reminded her. But Hermione already saw this coming,
"Yep, but now without scratching and yelling involved." she said, trying her best to put on a bright smile. "If you could do without the fun, of course." she added, still waiting for Draco's reaction.
Draco stared at Hermione for a while; saw her dancing brown eyes that were still shimmering with tears light up. It was quite a pretty sight and he found great difficulty tearing his look away from them for a while. There was something extraordinarily inviting in them-melancholic but filled with so much life and warmth. No one he knew wore a look much like Hermione's. He was sure his mother had that look once, but then again, there was no use recalling the past.
"Okay" he said shortly. At least he wouldn't have to break his neck looking for her next time.
"Thanks, thanks, thanks!" Hermione recited, suddenly flinging her arms around Draco. She never knew she could pull Draco out in a fair deal like this-not that she would have needed to pull it off in the first place hadn't he blackmailed her. Draco almost fell with Hermione's weight but it did send him slamming to the gray wall behind him with a loud 'thud'.
"Ouch"
"Oh, I'm sorry Draco." Hermione said pulling out of the great strangle. She heaved him up the floor beaming. She was starting to see some hope in Draco's terrible mood. At least now she knew that he had mercy and that is already a great leap from the heartless Death Eater that she had always reserved for his image.
"Fine. Just get away from me." Draco mumbled, releasing Hermione's hand.
"So, do you still want to start? It's one day off our deal if you don't want to."
Draco glanced at his watch. It was 7:30 in the evening-figures why his stomach was rumbling with hunger. Hermione noticed this though.
"Oh. I think dinner's not going to be a problem. Except of course if you prefer the house tables than here." she said, pointing at the small table. Now that she mentioned it, Draco scanned the place with a quick look. It was the size of a small room for one person and it wasn't looking entirely comfortable with only a wooden table and four carved chairs, and stone walls here and there. But somehow, there was something in the place or being in the place that he can't resist. The place was cheerful, and in here they could do the learning without prying eyes to taunt him. It would be very hard to explain why he was hanging out with a Mudblood like Granger- especially Granger. Draco smirked at the wooden table but said 'Fine' anyway. And with a tap of Hermione's wand, the table filled with food that wasn't very different from the ones that were served at the house tables. They ate silently for a brief moment and Draco was greatly disturbed when Hermione asked him if he wanted some of her tart. In the manor, this was one of the basic rules in the table. Never ask more of what is in your plate. She would have gotten a very good scolding if his father was to see that. After Hermione was done with her dessert, the plates finally disappeared and she began placing her books on the table.
"So Draco....I think you know about the Memory Charm, eh?" she said, busily scanning her notes.
"Nope." he said honestly. He knew a lot of curses that other students were not supposed to know but the memory charm? No, he hasn't tried it before.
"I don't believe it. You don't know how to use the Memory charm?" Hermione asked again. She had known it since their second year and Draco didn't know how to work it out?
"I said no."
"Oh, of course. It's not taught in school."
"And you're not supposed to learn it either." Draco retorted, annoyed that Hermione knew something he don't.
"Well, I do. And you got to face that fact if you like me to help you realize your in-born potentials to the fullest" she said, grinning. It was the first real smile she had given Draco.
"Fine, have it your way."
Hermione smiled to herself. It was the first charm she thought of doing since she was secretly planning on casting it on Draco. "I am just going to remove his memory of that crap about Harry and Ron-just that and I'll leave him to it." She thought trying hard to convince herself.
"So, this is what you do. You think hard of what you want the person to forget and try to recall up to which part of it you want to remove from his memory. That's it really. You just say 'Obliviate' and the charm's complete." as she was saying this Hermione was also trying to recall which part of that Potter-Weasley crap she could do without Draco remembering.
"I'll show it first, okay?"
Draco shrugged. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, thinking hard, but just as she was doing this, the part of Draco comforting her (or according to him, poking his nose at her business) made her stop her wand in mid-air. No. She can't do it. Draco looked intently at her as though trying to ask her what was going on. But he just shrugged and looked away. Hermione dropped her wand at the table and called Draco to try the charm first on the wall. He eyed her suspiciously but did what he was told At his words, his wand cast a blazing green light that danced on the wall's surface for a whole minute. Then it flicked off.
"Amazing Draco! You did it on first cue. I never thought you were such a fast learner."
"Don't pull my leg, Granger." he replied coldly but Hermione noticed that his eyes were still focused on the spot where the green light shoot. They tarried on with some books after the Memory Charm but they obviously bore the hell out of Draco as he almost fell asleep on page 20 of 'Charms and Hexes.'
"You still on, Draco?" Hermione asked softly at Draco whose eyes were fluttering dangerously close at the book. He looked up at her and smiled. Had she just thought about it or did he actually smile? "Think so."
But Hermione thought otherwise. It was plain to see that Draco wasn't really apt to staying up long for tests.
"I think we've had enough for today. So.what do you think? It's quits for now?" she said. But he just continued to sit sideways at his chair staring his gray, cold eyes at Hermione.
"Spill it out, Draco." she said nonchalantly.
"How did you come up with this place, Hermione?"
"I learned how to do it from a book." She was on the verge of telling him that it was Tom Riddle who gave her the idea during her second year but thought better of it.
"So, what do you do here---er---beside that Potter-Weasley crap, huh?" he asked, giving emphasis on the 'Potter-Weasley'. This made Hermione think again about casting the Memory Charm on Draco.
"I do my homework when I don't want anyone to pester me. That's how I get to know a lot more stuff.without anyone to trouble me with their perky questions."
"Uh-huh. Why do you have to do that?"
"What do you mean? I like reading and I don't think it's so wrong."
"You like doing it? That's all?"
"Yep."
"That can't work for me. It doesn't matter if I like anything as long as my..." his voice trailed off and he was suddenly very pale. Hermione thought there was something going on with Draco but he quickly shifted his gaze to hide his blanched face. He almost told Hermione about his father. And that was really close. Too close, in fact, for their first session. He didn't dare think of what he could be slipping her the next couple of weeks.
"It's late" he said simply, checking his watch. It was already 10:30 and he was starting to get sick of the crummy, small place.
"Oh yeah, sorry. 'Guess I kept you up too long." Hermione said grinning.
Draco just nodded and stood up. "So, same time in this-er-place?"
"Yep."
With that, he stared at the ceiling, realizing for the first time that he didn't know how to get out of the hellhole. Hermione hurried at his side and murmured something he was too sleepy to catch. The hole opened again and he lifted himself up without any trouble. He watched as Hermione emerged from the hole and they hurried back to the first chamber and found themselves back at the Library. The lights were out and Madam Pince had obviously gone back to her old quarters. They walked in silence until they reached the door. Draco was about to slip away on the other hall when Hermione called back at him. He turned around and tried to make out her figure in the shadows.
"G'night Draco"
Draco wasn't sure he heard her right. And he couldn't think of anything else to say but 'Fine.'
But just before she turned up on a corridor to the left, Draco added hastly an 'Er-thanks' before he scrambled back to the Slytherin Tower. That was one night down.
"Only fourteen more nights to go." Draco mumbled exhaustedly to himself as he slid quietly inside the Slytherin common room.