Chapter 5 - That Shower Scene (and a fight!)



Sunlight spilled hazily through the curtains and crept slowly over the bedroom floor, chasing the gloom of early dawn away and filling the room with morning brightness.

Hermione mumbled softly in her sleep and dreamed that she was curled up in her bed at home in the muggle world cuddling large plush Totoro toy that her father had bought her years ago. As she snuggled the Totoro she became aware that he wasn't as squishy she recalled him to be. In fact, Totoro felt a lot bonier than usual.

"Do you mind?" Draco's voice drifted into her dream and she awoke with a start. She suddenly became aware as she cut through the cobwebs of sleep that in her dream she was cuddling Totoro, but in reality she had been cuddling Draco. "You where cuddling me, and woke me up." He jeered.

"Oh, Gods. I'm so sorry!" Hermione let go as if Draco was a burning hot kettle (well, I'm sure he was feeling a little warm) and sat up, looking about her and avoiding his eyes. Draco waved his hand to show her it didn't matter. Had Hermione of been looking she would have seen the briefest of smiles pass on Draco's lips. Pulling the covers back Draco swung his legs over the bed and rubbed his eyes sleepily. The string pulled tight and Hermione was hauled over on the bed. She huffed angrily and clambered over the blankets to sit next to Draco.

"Yuk, I need to shower." She caught herself before she said anymore, realising taking a shower probably wasn't going to be easy. Damn.

"Sure thing." Draco grinned.

Hermione looked disapprovingly at him. "I meant just me. You can have one after." She padded across the cold floor to the bathroom (Draco of course on tow). She was relieved to see the shower had a glass panel of thick frosted glass. As she turned on the water she saw the shower had a large dial with many settings, 'Lavender, Citrus, Cherry, Honey and Apple blossom.' and many more. Hermione was pleased to discover these where the different scents you could set the water to. She turned to Draco "Shut you eyes!" she said. He sighed to himself and closed them. Making sure he wasn't peeking Hermione quickly pulled her nightie over her head and leaped into the shower. She slid the door closed on the string. Being so tough it of course didn't break, and the door clicked shut easily on it. Hermione set the dial to 'Daisy Fresh' and let the warm water cascade over her. Draco on the other side of the glass had opened his eyes, his back was turned to the shower but he could see the fogged figure of Hermione in the large mirror in front of him. She was a beautiful silhouette behind the glass, he couldn't seem to take his eyes off her. He smirked, knowing she would murder him if she caught him looking. Forgetting herself Hermione started to sing, she had a soft clear voice, which was quite lovely. Draco didn't recognise the song, it must be a muggle world tune. Before long she was done. "Can you hand me a towel?" She called. Draco looked about.

"Umm. I don't see any." He called.

"What?" Hermione cried, panicked. Just her bloody luck! First the ruddy loo roll is out, now no towels? It must be a conspiracy to make her look stupid in front of Draco.

"Heh, just kidding. Here ya go!" Draco pulled the shower door open and thrust a towel into Hermione's hands. He winked at her and slammed the door shut. Even the house elves in the kitchens heard a faint shriek echo through the castle.

"Draco Malfoy!" Hermione raged, slamming the shower door open, the towel wrapped about her. He sniggered and backed away from her.

"It was a joke. I'm sorry! Now move aside, I want to shower!" Hermione stopped in her tracks. She snorted at him, vowing to get some payback later on, and squeezed her eyes shut. She heard Draco undress (although he wasn't wearing much anyway) and the shower door close. She sighed and stood with her back to the shower. Then she saw the giant mirror and Draco's nude figure behind the glass.

"Oh My GODS!" She quickly closed her eyes, and went a very deep shade of red. Not only had she seen Draco naked, but it was almost certain with that bloody great mirror there that he saw her naked too. Damn this string!

"Hey, what's with all these girly settings on the dial?" Draco fiddled with the showers controls. There was no setting for just plain non smelling water, only scented water. There was 'Rose Petals' and 'Sweet Bubblegum' and even 'Exclamation' (whetever that was). But there where no scents for the more masculine shower user. Draco realised this must be a girls bathroom. Burning with shame he selected the most manly setting he could ('Blueberry') and growled to himself as he hard Hermione titter and say "Ohh, that smells nice."

When he was done Hermione passed him a towel (eyes shut) and they went into the bedroom, where they (with great difficulty) got into their robes. Hermione was getting a little irritated, as every time Draco moved he would yank her about. The last straw came when he went to tie his shoelace and pulled Hermione down onto the floor.

"Can you not be a little more careful?" She stormed "I'm attached to this string you know, if you move suddenly about without warning you pull me over! And you where dragging me all over the place yesterday too!"

"So?" He shrugged.

"Just have a little more consideration!" Hermione snapped. Draco yawned like a lazy cat and nodded, not really listening. Hermione snorted angrily. "Look, I want to talk about what Dumbledor said yesterday."

"Huh? What did he say yesterday?"

"About the string you jack-ass!" Hermione poked Draco in the ribs roughly. Wasn't he even listening yesterday? "He said about that Chinese witch who had the same curse, and how it eventually fell off."

"Yeah, I remember some dumb assed story about the Chinese lady. I stopped listening in the end though, it was boring. Hey! You know what, if it had a few more broom stick chases and explosions and wand fights it would have been a real cool story!" Draco grinned malevolently, a childish daydream of a Chinese witch blowing whole villages up with her wand. "Cool."

"Urgh, grow up already." She shook her head, not understanding boys at all. "He said in the end the mean old witch stopped hurting people, and the string fell off. Maybe that applies to you too! You should think about others more, you know, just try to be a little nicer."

Draco scowled angrily at Hermione, who the hell did she think she was? "Maybe he means you!" He spat. "Maybe the witch was punished because she failed to do away with that stupid Mudblood! Maybe you're being punished with the string because you think you're better at magic than others!" He folded his arms and glowered at Hermione, infuriated at her patronising tone and stuck up assumptions about him.

"Oh don't be ridicules! Since when was it a punishable offence to be good at magic?" She said back, feeling herself getting angry. "You're the one who thinks he's better than others because of his stupid family tree!"

"Stupid?" Draco's eyes flashed, his face contorted. All his life the value of pure blood and high standing families had been beaten intro him, until the ideology was like religion to him. His great and terrible father made sure Draco learned what was important in life! Draco had been patient with her, even was growing to like her company (at times) but when it boils down to it, she is muggle born. And her ignorance showed it. "I misunderstood you Mudblood. I was starting to like you, but father was right. Muggle born folk are fools! Worthless!"

"Oh get a grip!" She yelled "You're starting to sound like a broken record, endlessly repeating your fathers jumped up, ignorant opinions! You're the fool Malfoy!"

Draco snapped! He lunged at Hermione and knocked her clean off the side of the bed. She screamed and held her arms up to her face as Draco's fist smashed into it. She shrieked in alarm and dashed blindly towards the bathroom, dragging an angry Draco behind her. She slammed the door shut on the string and bolted the door. Hermione sat on the floor inside the bathroom, leaning against the door and sobbing loudly. Draco leaned against the door on the other side, breathing heavily, a confused expression on his face. What had he just done? He looked at his hands, and saw the hands of his father. How many times had Draco hidden himself in the bathroom at home, bruised and bloodied? Too many to recall. He felt ashamed he had let his anger get the better of him, and he felt resentful. On the other side of the door he could hear frightened weeping.

"I.. I'm sorry." He said softly to the door. He heard Hermione sniff. "Will you come out?" He asked.

"No!"

"We have classes today." He said, not really expecting it to work.

"I don't care!"

"Hermione. I didn't mean it. Please, at least let me explain? Come out."

"No! I can hear you fine through the door."

Draco sighed. Was she too scared to come out? He didn't blame her, he had after all just hit her. He thought about the story she was telling him about. He thought about the Chinese witch. She used to beat people too, and try to hurt them. "You're right. I am like that witch in the story."

The sobbing behind the door stopped. Draco felt maybe now at least she was listening. "Oh?" Came her quite voice.

"When you said that, about my father. It touched a nerve, deep inside of me. I can't explain it, I don't even know why it hurt me so much when you said it." He couldn't believe he was telling her this. But he felt somehow it was okay. She had comforted him before. She listened. He laboured on "I couldn't stop myself, I saw red, and when I hit you, it didn't even feel like it was me who was doing it. I'm sorry Hermione. I really am."

There was silence on the other side of the door, then the sound of a heavy bolt being slowly drawn. The door opened a crack. Hermione was sitting on the floor next to the gap. She peeked through at Draco, who looked as white as a sheet. Draco gasped when he saw her. Her eye was bruised, and closed a little through swelling, but worse than that was the way she looked at him. It wasn't anger, hate or even fear. It was pity. She crawled on her knees out of the bathroom and sat heavily next to Draco. They both looked at the floor.

"I think I understand." Said Hermione. She wasn't a fool. She could see Draco's father had poisoned his mind. She also knew that the string was there for a reason. Just like it was put onto that Chinese witch. It wasn't there to punish anybody, it was there to help.

"Should we, um, fix your eye?" Draco said meekly, helping Hermione to her feet. They wandered into the bathroom, where Draco sat her down on a wicker laundry basket. He ran a cloth under the tap before wringing it out, then pressed it gently to her eye. She smiled sadly, as Draco did his best to make amends for what he did.

**~** Dear me, Poor Hermione! Never mind all the horrible embarrassing stuff, it also seems she has to help Draco get over his prejudice if she wants to get rid of this string. Some very awkward encounters still to happen, and some dark times ahead for our two hero's. Stay tuned, Chapter 6 up very very soon ^_^ **~**