Chapter 8- Draco makes a few choices.
"Waaagh! This is so boring!" Draco lay his head down on the highly polished wooden table and banged it repeatedly, his head making a dull thud on the table top. Hermione peered at him over the top of a thick and dusty book and sighed. They had been in the library for hours. At first Draco thought it was a great idea to go through some of the books and get some ideas on how to break the spell. After the first hour he had given up and took to tearing the pages out of a book, after that he tried to get his wand to work again and ended up burning a book about Chinese myths. Hermione had scolded him to settle down and if he was determined not to help then to be quite so she could study in peace. Now he lay with his arms sprawled over the table, a coma of boredom.
"Found anything yet?" He would whine.
"No." Hermione would say distractedly.
"What about now?"
"No!"
"Now?"
"Will you shut up already?"
Draco blew a loose strand of hair that had found its way into his face clear and huffed at Hermione, who was back to reading her book. How could she read for so long? Draco stared at her well manicured fingers that where curled tightly about the leather binding. Every now and again she would lower the book and carefully ease a delicate page over.
"Ohh!" Hermione cried, stabbed her finger at a passage in the book and looking excited. Draco nearly fell of his chair at Hermione's sudden outburst.
"Have you found anything?" He gripped the edge of the table and leaned towards Hermione. She looked up as if noticing for the first time he will still there.
"Oh, no. Sorry. It's just this passage about Wormwort roots was really interesting. It will help me with an assignment I need to write up."
Draco groaned and slumped back onto the table. "Please tell me you're not researching homework!" He growled.
"Umm." Hermione became a little flustered. "Well, since we are already here I thought I would cram a few hours of revision in too."
"What?" Draco was suddenly very awake. "How long ago did you stop researching the spell?"
"About an hour ago." Hermione said sheepishly. Draco's mouth dropped open. He had been dieing of boredom and for the last hour and they didn't even need to be there! He ground his teeth and grabbed at her book.
"Noo!" Hermione clutched it to her chest. "I had to study. Missing class is killing me!"
"Then study where it won't effect me! Like when I'm asleep!" Draco snorted, striding away from Hermione. She grabbed the bottom of her chair and hung on for dear life. She knew it would be near impossible to get Draco to come to the library for study, so she lured him here under the pretence of looking for a cure for their curse. She had had a look about for the curse, but soon got to secret study work. As Draco heaved on the string Hermione's chair dragged noisily across the floor. Student looked up from their books and shook their head disapprovingly at the squabbling pair. "Let go!" Draco Yelled.
"NO!" Hermione yelled back, just as defiantly.
"Hoi!" A Ravenclaw Prefect called Andy Josland hurried over and stood between them. "Will you two please be quite, and leave the library? Students are trying to study!"
"Tell me about it!" Hermione sulked.
"I'm trying to leave this library, get out of my way!" Draco elbowed the prefect roughly. Andy didn't take to kindly to being pushed about and grabbed Draco by the arm, ready to give him the bums rush from the library. It all ended rather messily, with Hermione's chair tipping over and Draco getting a formal warning for using foul language loudly in a place of study.
The door of the library slammed dramatically behind them and echoed down the corridors. A passing first year yelped and scurried away yelling "Help! A monster!". Draco had to agree with the first year on the 'monster' part. Hermione was livid and as they sauntered away from the library she gave Draco the telling off of his life.
**
Dinnertime soon arrived. Draco and Hermione had spent most of the day bickering, then after they had fallen out again they sat in silence in the Slytherin common room reading. Hermione's nose was buried deep in 'Advanced Magikee for the Good Witch' and Draco was engrossed in 'Dark Arts and Demon's for Beginners (with pictures)'. Occasionally Hermione would glare up at Draco and mutter something about dark arts being for losers. Draco ignored her. A muggle born witch couldn't possibly understand the true art of being a noble born wizard and the magic his bloodline has studied for thousands of years.
As dinnertime came by they trudged from the common room and made their way to the great hall, not speaking. It had been decided that Hermione would sit at the Slytherin table (by 'decided' we mean Draco refused point blank to even discuss it and headed right for the Slytherin table.).
"By the Lord Draco my dear! You're looking rather bruised today!" Pansy, a Slytherin girl with a cute round face, gawped at Draco and pushed a bowl of spuds in his direction. Draco smiled at her and took the bowl. Pansy then turned to look at Hermione and turned up her nose. "Oh, and the muggle born. Quite a nice shiner you have going there." She laughed. Hermione stuck up her fingers and whipped out her 'pocket magic guide' and started reading. Deciding to ignore everybody at the table and read instead. Draco almost told Pansy to shut up and leave Hermione alone, but he held his tongue at the last minuet, decided it wasn't a good idea to stick up for a mudblood at the Slytherin table.
"So Draco," Pansy speared a potato with her silver fork and wafted it about "How long are you attached to the, uh, Granger girl?"
"I don't know." He said, starting to feel uncomfortable. Hermione pretended she couldn't hear and turned the page in her book.
"I feel sorry for you my dear. Doesn't Grangers constant know-it-all bitching get on your nerves?"
Draco admitted to himself that sometimes she could be a 'know-it-all'. He had many times sat at this very table and complained about Hermione to the other Slytherin's. But now it felt, weird. Like he didn't want to join in this time. Hermione continued to ignore them both.
"I'm glad you punched her one!" Pansy tittered, looking sideways at Hermione's eye. "She deserved that, I heard she cast the spell. I hope you hurt her. When the time comes I hope you do her in first!"
Draco's mouth dropped open. Pansy was a big supporter of the Dark Lord, who had promised to purge this world clean of the un-pure blood. His own family supported the following too. Draco's Father being one of the high ranking members of the Order. Draco himself believed it, that the magical world was being diluted and destroyed by the weak and un-pure blood. But now somehow it didn't seem right. Like he was being fooled, and was lost in a confusing mist, and Hermione was a guide that was leading him out. He shook his head, By the Lord that sounded lame! Hermione was an exception, a mudblood who happened to be skilled at Magic. She still had dirty blood! But to kill her when the time came? "Umm. Yeah, whatever." He mumbled, trying to dismiss the line of conversation.
Pansy leaned over the table and stared at Hermione. Hermione tried to ignore her, but with Pansy right in her face like that it wasn't easy. "Hear that Mudblood?" She sneered.
Hermione let out an angry sob and stood up suddenly, knocking her chair back with a loud bang. Draco was shocked and just had time to shovel a helping of mashed potato into his mouth before Hermione ran away, pulling him along with her. Pansy seemed surprised Draco didn't join in the fun. She narrowed her eyes. He wasn't turning soft was he?
**
Hermione charged through the corridors with Draco hollering behind her. Finally she swerved to one side and banged loudly though an almost secret doorway. Draco looked about, it was the girl's bathroom. And it was deserted. He almost though he could hear a distant sobbing and a wailing voice crying 'nobody like me'. But he shrugged it off. Hermione sat heavily down on the floor and turned her back to Draco. Draco was forced to sit down too, the string wasn't long enough to allow him to stand.
"Um. Are you okay?" He said hesitantly. Almost putting his hand on her shoulder, but drawing back as she shifted to look at him.
"I know how you feel, about my bloodline. I know how most of you Slytherin's feel about it too." She sobbed. "You think that I'm dirty, impure, a risk to the future. Well it's all bullshit! I'm as good a Witch as any pure-blood!"
Draco couldn't argue with that. She was good. She studied hard, and had even cast this strong and advanced magic. But she was still a Muggle born.
"When she said about 'when the time comes' did she mean when the so called 'cleansing' begins?" Hermione stared at Draco. Draco looked very uneasy. She had hit the nail square on the head. She wasn't stupid either apparently. "When the time comes, will you kill me?"
Draco went as white as a sheet. She didn't beat about the bush. Many times his Father had gloated that the 'glory days' would come, and how splendid it will be to go out and destroy the dirty mudbloods. Draco had often dreamed of being side by side with his Father, doing what his Father commanded, making him proud. He had envisioned himself with his Father, they would be terrible and powerful together, destroying the weak and ensuring a stronger magical bloodline for the future.
Now he pictured the scene again in his mind. The faceless mudblood cowering before them wasn't faceless anymore. She was a person, it was Hermione, and even though his father commanded he struck her down, he couldn't.
"Would you?" She asked again.
"No." Draco looked at the floor, burning with shame. If his Father could see him now, it would be the worst moment of his life. Hermione stared at Draco. She knew how horrible his Father could be as well. She held his hand and smiled at him, but Draco didn't look up or even acknowledge she was holding his hand. He was thinking about what his father would say or do if he had to bring Hermione back home with him. He stared at the string, and noticed Hermione's hand. He wished they could get the string off too. Next week was getting frighteningly closer.
"Waaagh! This is so boring!" Draco lay his head down on the highly polished wooden table and banged it repeatedly, his head making a dull thud on the table top. Hermione peered at him over the top of a thick and dusty book and sighed. They had been in the library for hours. At first Draco thought it was a great idea to go through some of the books and get some ideas on how to break the spell. After the first hour he had given up and took to tearing the pages out of a book, after that he tried to get his wand to work again and ended up burning a book about Chinese myths. Hermione had scolded him to settle down and if he was determined not to help then to be quite so she could study in peace. Now he lay with his arms sprawled over the table, a coma of boredom.
"Found anything yet?" He would whine.
"No." Hermione would say distractedly.
"What about now?"
"No!"
"Now?"
"Will you shut up already?"
Draco blew a loose strand of hair that had found its way into his face clear and huffed at Hermione, who was back to reading her book. How could she read for so long? Draco stared at her well manicured fingers that where curled tightly about the leather binding. Every now and again she would lower the book and carefully ease a delicate page over.
"Ohh!" Hermione cried, stabbed her finger at a passage in the book and looking excited. Draco nearly fell of his chair at Hermione's sudden outburst.
"Have you found anything?" He gripped the edge of the table and leaned towards Hermione. She looked up as if noticing for the first time he will still there.
"Oh, no. Sorry. It's just this passage about Wormwort roots was really interesting. It will help me with an assignment I need to write up."
Draco groaned and slumped back onto the table. "Please tell me you're not researching homework!" He growled.
"Umm." Hermione became a little flustered. "Well, since we are already here I thought I would cram a few hours of revision in too."
"What?" Draco was suddenly very awake. "How long ago did you stop researching the spell?"
"About an hour ago." Hermione said sheepishly. Draco's mouth dropped open. He had been dieing of boredom and for the last hour and they didn't even need to be there! He ground his teeth and grabbed at her book.
"Noo!" Hermione clutched it to her chest. "I had to study. Missing class is killing me!"
"Then study where it won't effect me! Like when I'm asleep!" Draco snorted, striding away from Hermione. She grabbed the bottom of her chair and hung on for dear life. She knew it would be near impossible to get Draco to come to the library for study, so she lured him here under the pretence of looking for a cure for their curse. She had had a look about for the curse, but soon got to secret study work. As Draco heaved on the string Hermione's chair dragged noisily across the floor. Student looked up from their books and shook their head disapprovingly at the squabbling pair. "Let go!" Draco Yelled.
"NO!" Hermione yelled back, just as defiantly.
"Hoi!" A Ravenclaw Prefect called Andy Josland hurried over and stood between them. "Will you two please be quite, and leave the library? Students are trying to study!"
"Tell me about it!" Hermione sulked.
"I'm trying to leave this library, get out of my way!" Draco elbowed the prefect roughly. Andy didn't take to kindly to being pushed about and grabbed Draco by the arm, ready to give him the bums rush from the library. It all ended rather messily, with Hermione's chair tipping over and Draco getting a formal warning for using foul language loudly in a place of study.
The door of the library slammed dramatically behind them and echoed down the corridors. A passing first year yelped and scurried away yelling "Help! A monster!". Draco had to agree with the first year on the 'monster' part. Hermione was livid and as they sauntered away from the library she gave Draco the telling off of his life.
**
Dinnertime soon arrived. Draco and Hermione had spent most of the day bickering, then after they had fallen out again they sat in silence in the Slytherin common room reading. Hermione's nose was buried deep in 'Advanced Magikee for the Good Witch' and Draco was engrossed in 'Dark Arts and Demon's for Beginners (with pictures)'. Occasionally Hermione would glare up at Draco and mutter something about dark arts being for losers. Draco ignored her. A muggle born witch couldn't possibly understand the true art of being a noble born wizard and the magic his bloodline has studied for thousands of years.
As dinnertime came by they trudged from the common room and made their way to the great hall, not speaking. It had been decided that Hermione would sit at the Slytherin table (by 'decided' we mean Draco refused point blank to even discuss it and headed right for the Slytherin table.).
"By the Lord Draco my dear! You're looking rather bruised today!" Pansy, a Slytherin girl with a cute round face, gawped at Draco and pushed a bowl of spuds in his direction. Draco smiled at her and took the bowl. Pansy then turned to look at Hermione and turned up her nose. "Oh, and the muggle born. Quite a nice shiner you have going there." She laughed. Hermione stuck up her fingers and whipped out her 'pocket magic guide' and started reading. Deciding to ignore everybody at the table and read instead. Draco almost told Pansy to shut up and leave Hermione alone, but he held his tongue at the last minuet, decided it wasn't a good idea to stick up for a mudblood at the Slytherin table.
"So Draco," Pansy speared a potato with her silver fork and wafted it about "How long are you attached to the, uh, Granger girl?"
"I don't know." He said, starting to feel uncomfortable. Hermione pretended she couldn't hear and turned the page in her book.
"I feel sorry for you my dear. Doesn't Grangers constant know-it-all bitching get on your nerves?"
Draco admitted to himself that sometimes she could be a 'know-it-all'. He had many times sat at this very table and complained about Hermione to the other Slytherin's. But now it felt, weird. Like he didn't want to join in this time. Hermione continued to ignore them both.
"I'm glad you punched her one!" Pansy tittered, looking sideways at Hermione's eye. "She deserved that, I heard she cast the spell. I hope you hurt her. When the time comes I hope you do her in first!"
Draco's mouth dropped open. Pansy was a big supporter of the Dark Lord, who had promised to purge this world clean of the un-pure blood. His own family supported the following too. Draco's Father being one of the high ranking members of the Order. Draco himself believed it, that the magical world was being diluted and destroyed by the weak and un-pure blood. But now somehow it didn't seem right. Like he was being fooled, and was lost in a confusing mist, and Hermione was a guide that was leading him out. He shook his head, By the Lord that sounded lame! Hermione was an exception, a mudblood who happened to be skilled at Magic. She still had dirty blood! But to kill her when the time came? "Umm. Yeah, whatever." He mumbled, trying to dismiss the line of conversation.
Pansy leaned over the table and stared at Hermione. Hermione tried to ignore her, but with Pansy right in her face like that it wasn't easy. "Hear that Mudblood?" She sneered.
Hermione let out an angry sob and stood up suddenly, knocking her chair back with a loud bang. Draco was shocked and just had time to shovel a helping of mashed potato into his mouth before Hermione ran away, pulling him along with her. Pansy seemed surprised Draco didn't join in the fun. She narrowed her eyes. He wasn't turning soft was he?
**
Hermione charged through the corridors with Draco hollering behind her. Finally she swerved to one side and banged loudly though an almost secret doorway. Draco looked about, it was the girl's bathroom. And it was deserted. He almost though he could hear a distant sobbing and a wailing voice crying 'nobody like me'. But he shrugged it off. Hermione sat heavily down on the floor and turned her back to Draco. Draco was forced to sit down too, the string wasn't long enough to allow him to stand.
"Um. Are you okay?" He said hesitantly. Almost putting his hand on her shoulder, but drawing back as she shifted to look at him.
"I know how you feel, about my bloodline. I know how most of you Slytherin's feel about it too." She sobbed. "You think that I'm dirty, impure, a risk to the future. Well it's all bullshit! I'm as good a Witch as any pure-blood!"
Draco couldn't argue with that. She was good. She studied hard, and had even cast this strong and advanced magic. But she was still a Muggle born.
"When she said about 'when the time comes' did she mean when the so called 'cleansing' begins?" Hermione stared at Draco. Draco looked very uneasy. She had hit the nail square on the head. She wasn't stupid either apparently. "When the time comes, will you kill me?"
Draco went as white as a sheet. She didn't beat about the bush. Many times his Father had gloated that the 'glory days' would come, and how splendid it will be to go out and destroy the dirty mudbloods. Draco had often dreamed of being side by side with his Father, doing what his Father commanded, making him proud. He had envisioned himself with his Father, they would be terrible and powerful together, destroying the weak and ensuring a stronger magical bloodline for the future.
Now he pictured the scene again in his mind. The faceless mudblood cowering before them wasn't faceless anymore. She was a person, it was Hermione, and even though his father commanded he struck her down, he couldn't.
"Would you?" She asked again.
"No." Draco looked at the floor, burning with shame. If his Father could see him now, it would be the worst moment of his life. Hermione stared at Draco. She knew how horrible his Father could be as well. She held his hand and smiled at him, but Draco didn't look up or even acknowledge she was holding his hand. He was thinking about what his father would say or do if he had to bring Hermione back home with him. He stared at the string, and noticed Hermione's hand. He wished they could get the string off too. Next week was getting frighteningly closer.