CHAPTER 17
"Ready to go?" Draco asked.
"Yup, come on," Hermione answered.
They grabbed their brooms and headed out to the Quidditch field.
Hermione was flying well now and Draco absolutely loved the feel of his new broom. After just flying for a while, they started to play tag.
"You're it to start," Hermione said. "I'll never be able to see you let alone try to catch up to you."
"That's fair," Draco agreed. "And I'll even give you a twenty second head start and I'll close my eyes so I don't know which direction you go in."
"Okay."
Draco closed his eyes and Hermione took off as he began counting. Twenty seconds later, Draco opened his eyes and saw Hermione off in the distance by the Forbidden Forest.
He instantly started speeding toward her. Hermione turned around and saw him coming. She turned and headed another direction as fast as she could. In a few short seconds, she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw Draco pass her, smirking.
She lay flat to her broom so she could get the maximum amount of speed that it would allow. Even doing this, she wasn't half as fast as Draco and he was riding normally.
Draco looked back and saw how far behind Hermione was and stopped. He looked at his watch and pretended to yawn. Hermione tried to glare at him, but ended up laughing instead.
When she was about five feet away from him, he took off and headed for the Quidditch field. He landed lightly on the ground and waited for Hermione.
She showed up a few seconds later. Her face was red and she was laughing.
"I give up!" She yelled as she approached him.
"I figured," he said with a smirk.
When they walked in, the Gryffindor Quidditch team was walking out. Hermione noticed Harry and Ron glaring at her. Hermione said, "Hey guys! Thanks for Salazar. He really is an adorable snake. Next time you wanna try killing me, send something that isn't so harmless and cute."
This only made the Gryffindors glare more. "Nice try though Potthead, Weasel, all of you really. It really was. We have Salazar slithering around our dorm right now if you wanna come up and visit him." He smirked at them and he and Hermione headed inside.
"Did you see their faces when they saw us here?" Hermione laughed.
"Yeah, they were so shocked. They really are stupid, though. Obviously we're the smartest students in the school and we can figure out when they do something that stupid."
"I don't wanna think about them. Let's talk about something else," Hermione said looking disgusted. "Darkness is Forever."
"Okay." Draco sat down on the couch and pulled Hermione down on his lap. "How 'bout we talk about wedding preparations?"
"Alright."
For the next few hours they talked about what kind of flowers they wanted and where to have it and where they decided that they wanted to go to Hawaii for their honeymoon. ~ We have to go down to dinner now," Draco said.
"But it's so much nicer up here."
"Yeah, but I'm really hungry and we missed lunch. Come on." Before she could protest, he got up, grabbed her hand, and dragged her out of the common room.
At the table, Elana asked, "Where were you guys all day?"
"We went flying for a few hours, ran into the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and spent the rest of the day in the common room," Hermione answered.
"Ooh, spending the whole day in the common room after getting all dirty and sweaty from flying. You bad, bad people," Cephius joked.
Draco laughed and said, "No, nothing like that. We're not like you two." He looked up and smirked at Cephius and Elana. "We were planning our wedding."
"Planning your wedding when you could be having hot, steamy sex. What's wrong with you?" Blaise shook her head in fake disgust.
"You guys are all sick!" Hermione said.
"Of course we are," Cephius agreed. Then he put on an innocent smile and said, "But that's why we're oh so fun to hang out with."
Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to the food that was on her dish. They joked around for the rest of dinner and nearly started a food fight.
When Draco and Hermione got back to the common room, Lucius' owl was sitting on one of the desks. Draco untied the letter from its leg. It said:
Draco and Hermione, There will be a meeting on Friday. Although what will be going on does Not involve you, you must be there. It is at the same place as last time. Make sure you tell the other two. You know whom I'm talking about. I will see you on Friday.
Lucius
"This has something to do with the day we went home for break," Draco said. "They didn't kill anybody and now the people who were there are definitely gunna be put under the Cruciatus Curse."
Hermione winced at the mention of the curse. "I hate that curse," she stated. "I hate the way it makes the receiver look and I can't begin to fathom how it must feel."
"It hurts more than you could imagine. You can't even shed a tear because of the amount of pain it causes. We shouldn't talk about this. You wanna study or something."
"We haven't even gone to any classes yet. Why bother studying?"
"Who are you and what have you done with my Hermione? I think I'm gunna have a heart attack. Hermione Riddle doesn't wanna study. What's going on?"
"I'm not in the mood."
"Okay, something must be really wrong. You're always in the mood to study." Draco looked over at her. She was sitting on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest and her head was on her knees. "Hermione, what's wrong?"
"I don't know. I don't really feel good," she answered.
Draco sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "Are you tired? Do you wanna lie down?"
She nodded. "Can we go to bed?"
"Yeah, come on. Let's go upstairs."
Draco stood up and Hermione after him. They walked up to Draco's room and lay down on his bed. As soon as Hermione's head hit the pillow, she fell asleep.
Draco put his arms around her and fell asleep a few minutes later ~ The next morning, they woke up to a very loud, very annoying alarm clock. "GOOOOOOD MORNING!" it screeched. "TIME TO GET UP!!!"
Hermione jumped at the sound and Draco moaned.
"Draco, what the hell is that?" Hermione screamed.
"My alarm clock. Sorry, it's one of the only things that gets me up in the morning," he mumbled.
"That's alright." She paused and then said. "Sorry about last night. I wasn't feeling too well. I think something in the food got to me."
"That's okay. I just got kinda scared when you said that you didn't wanna study. I never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth."
Hermione giggled a little. "I never thought I'd hear myself say that either. When I was in Gryffindor, I only said that I wanted to study to get away from them. I knew that none of them would follow me to the library."
"Oh, so when you say that you wanna study, you wanna get away from me?"
"NO! I love you and I hate being away from you. I said that to get away from them, but when I say that to you, it means that I wanna study with you."
"Oh, so the only thing you ever wanna do with me is study?" Draco asked.
"Don't be putting words into my mouth, Draco Malfoy. I never said that."
Draco smirked and said, "Well I gotta get dressed now. Unless of course you'd like to stay."
"Maybe I do wanna stay," she said as she was retreating out the door.
Draco shook his head and started to change his clothes. ~ The beginning of the day went by quickly and soon it was time for lunch.
"We got Potions today!" Draco said happily.
"As long as I'm not paired with some stupid Gryffindor, I'm fine with that," Blaise added.
"We haven't had any classes with the Gryffindors yet today. I wonder what they'll say when they see my ring," Hermione thought out loud.
"They'll probably go ballistic," Cephius said.
"Yeah, especially Potthead and Weasel," added Elana. "Have you seen the way they've been glaring over here?" she nodded toward the Gryffindor table. "It's like they're trying to kill someone with their eyes."
"They do want someone dead," Draco said glaring back at them. "They want Hermione dead. That whole fucking House sent her a poisonous snake for Christmas."
"No way!" yelled Cephius. "Can't they get expelled for that?"
"There's no proof. We did the spells to take the poison out of it. We can't do anything about it unless they make a blatant attempt to attack," Draco explained.
"That's so screwed up. How could anyone be so stupid?" Blaise said.
Everyone just shook their heads and walked out of the Great Hall with everyone else. They headed toward the dungeons and were greeted by the Gryffindors when they got there.
"Malfoy, Granger, what are you guys doing here?" Harry sneered.
"The snake was adorable Potter. Where'd you get him? And how long did it take you to figure out the spells that would make him poisonous?" Hermione said coldly.
"Wow, Granger, it seems that you really were meant to be a Slytherin. I'm hurt. I thought that you really were one of us. You were always the perfect Gryffindor. I thought wrong. You're just like them, lousy, no good, slimy, st-What the hell is that?!" Ron screamed. He was looking down at Hermione's left hand that was hanging by her side.
"That, Weasley, is an engagement ring. I thought that you, being the muggle-lover that you are would know what it is," Draco said as he tried to push past, but failed.
"Who gave you that ring?" Parvati asked. "Who would spend so much money on that?"
"I gave it to her. Who else would?" Draco's voice was like ice. "We're getting married because we love each other. Now, if you don't mind, let us through!"
"NO!" Ron interjected loudly.
"No, Weasley? I can kick your ass from here to hell and back. I'd move if I were you."
"I'm not moving." Ron stood his ground.
"If you don't move, I'll make you move," Cephius said threateningly.
"Oh, Malfoy, you get a new guy to do your dirty work?" Harry asked.
"I don't need anyone to do anything for me. I could kick all your asses right now, and I would if I wasn't Head Boy. No offense, Cephius."
"None taken."
"Listen, Ferret, I don't care what you can do. All I want is Hermione and I refuse to let you marry her," Ron said.
"Ron I hate you. Don't you get it? Draco and I are meant to be together. I am marrying the man I love, and I don't need anyone's permission but mine. Now let me through, I have a class to get through," Hermione commanded.
She pulled Draco into the classroom with her and the Slytherins followed while the Gryffindors looked dumbfounded. Hermione and Draco took their seats in the back of the room, and Elana, Cephius, and Blaise sat on the other side of them.
After everyone was sitting, Snape came in and began the lesson. "Today we will be making the strongest truth potion imaginable." He started telling them what they needed to know about the potion and then said, "I'll be giving you partners. Malfoy, Granger; Weasley, Potter; Blacktree, Jenkins; Finnigan, Patil; Zabini, Goyle," and so on until everyone had a partner. This time, the Slytherins were paired with each other, and the Gryffindors with each other. After Snape read the essays from the previous assignment, he decided to pair them up with people they got along with.
Draco and Hermione collected all the ingredients they needed to make the potion and started right away.
"Do you think Snape was afraid of the essays?" Hermione whispered to Draco.
"I wouldn't doubt it. I mean, we told him what people had running through their minds. It was torture having to hear another person's thoughts, imagine having to know what everyone thinks. That must have been hell!" he answered while throwing crocodile eyes into the potion.
"Yeah, that must have sucked," Hermione agreed. She threw some neatly cut roots into the potion and started stirring it.
Their potions wouldn't be ready by the time Potions was over that day, so they stored them in a cabinet that protected all of the potions was everything. Nothing could be put into them while they were in there, and the only person who could take it out was the one who put it in.
"My next game's on Saturday," Draco said when they got back in the common room.
"Who are you playing?"
"Ravenclaw."
"Oh. How are they this year?" Hermione asked.
"Almost as bad as Hufflepuff."
"You better win then. I'd be very disappointed if you didn't. And you wouldn't wanna upset me now. Would you?"
"Of course not. I never wanna upset you."
"Good." ~ The week went by quickly, and soon it was 5 pm Friday evening. Draco, Hermione, Cephius, and Blaise were all in the common room talking. At 6:45 they made their way up to the Astronomy Tower.
Draco and Hermione were on Draco's broom and Cephius and Elana were on Cephius'.
In about an hour and a half, they were sitting in the clearing, waiting for the other Death Eaters to arrive.
"Ready to go?" Draco asked.
"Yup, come on," Hermione answered.
They grabbed their brooms and headed out to the Quidditch field.
Hermione was flying well now and Draco absolutely loved the feel of his new broom. After just flying for a while, they started to play tag.
"You're it to start," Hermione said. "I'll never be able to see you let alone try to catch up to you."
"That's fair," Draco agreed. "And I'll even give you a twenty second head start and I'll close my eyes so I don't know which direction you go in."
"Okay."
Draco closed his eyes and Hermione took off as he began counting. Twenty seconds later, Draco opened his eyes and saw Hermione off in the distance by the Forbidden Forest.
He instantly started speeding toward her. Hermione turned around and saw him coming. She turned and headed another direction as fast as she could. In a few short seconds, she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw Draco pass her, smirking.
She lay flat to her broom so she could get the maximum amount of speed that it would allow. Even doing this, she wasn't half as fast as Draco and he was riding normally.
Draco looked back and saw how far behind Hermione was and stopped. He looked at his watch and pretended to yawn. Hermione tried to glare at him, but ended up laughing instead.
When she was about five feet away from him, he took off and headed for the Quidditch field. He landed lightly on the ground and waited for Hermione.
She showed up a few seconds later. Her face was red and she was laughing.
"I give up!" She yelled as she approached him.
"I figured," he said with a smirk.
When they walked in, the Gryffindor Quidditch team was walking out. Hermione noticed Harry and Ron glaring at her. Hermione said, "Hey guys! Thanks for Salazar. He really is an adorable snake. Next time you wanna try killing me, send something that isn't so harmless and cute."
This only made the Gryffindors glare more. "Nice try though Potthead, Weasel, all of you really. It really was. We have Salazar slithering around our dorm right now if you wanna come up and visit him." He smirked at them and he and Hermione headed inside.
"Did you see their faces when they saw us here?" Hermione laughed.
"Yeah, they were so shocked. They really are stupid, though. Obviously we're the smartest students in the school and we can figure out when they do something that stupid."
"I don't wanna think about them. Let's talk about something else," Hermione said looking disgusted. "Darkness is Forever."
"Okay." Draco sat down on the couch and pulled Hermione down on his lap. "How 'bout we talk about wedding preparations?"
"Alright."
For the next few hours they talked about what kind of flowers they wanted and where to have it and where they decided that they wanted to go to Hawaii for their honeymoon. ~ We have to go down to dinner now," Draco said.
"But it's so much nicer up here."
"Yeah, but I'm really hungry and we missed lunch. Come on." Before she could protest, he got up, grabbed her hand, and dragged her out of the common room.
At the table, Elana asked, "Where were you guys all day?"
"We went flying for a few hours, ran into the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and spent the rest of the day in the common room," Hermione answered.
"Ooh, spending the whole day in the common room after getting all dirty and sweaty from flying. You bad, bad people," Cephius joked.
Draco laughed and said, "No, nothing like that. We're not like you two." He looked up and smirked at Cephius and Elana. "We were planning our wedding."
"Planning your wedding when you could be having hot, steamy sex. What's wrong with you?" Blaise shook her head in fake disgust.
"You guys are all sick!" Hermione said.
"Of course we are," Cephius agreed. Then he put on an innocent smile and said, "But that's why we're oh so fun to hang out with."
Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to the food that was on her dish. They joked around for the rest of dinner and nearly started a food fight.
When Draco and Hermione got back to the common room, Lucius' owl was sitting on one of the desks. Draco untied the letter from its leg. It said:
Draco and Hermione, There will be a meeting on Friday. Although what will be going on does Not involve you, you must be there. It is at the same place as last time. Make sure you tell the other two. You know whom I'm talking about. I will see you on Friday.
Lucius
"This has something to do with the day we went home for break," Draco said. "They didn't kill anybody and now the people who were there are definitely gunna be put under the Cruciatus Curse."
Hermione winced at the mention of the curse. "I hate that curse," she stated. "I hate the way it makes the receiver look and I can't begin to fathom how it must feel."
"It hurts more than you could imagine. You can't even shed a tear because of the amount of pain it causes. We shouldn't talk about this. You wanna study or something."
"We haven't even gone to any classes yet. Why bother studying?"
"Who are you and what have you done with my Hermione? I think I'm gunna have a heart attack. Hermione Riddle doesn't wanna study. What's going on?"
"I'm not in the mood."
"Okay, something must be really wrong. You're always in the mood to study." Draco looked over at her. She was sitting on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest and her head was on her knees. "Hermione, what's wrong?"
"I don't know. I don't really feel good," she answered.
Draco sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "Are you tired? Do you wanna lie down?"
She nodded. "Can we go to bed?"
"Yeah, come on. Let's go upstairs."
Draco stood up and Hermione after him. They walked up to Draco's room and lay down on his bed. As soon as Hermione's head hit the pillow, she fell asleep.
Draco put his arms around her and fell asleep a few minutes later ~ The next morning, they woke up to a very loud, very annoying alarm clock. "GOOOOOOD MORNING!" it screeched. "TIME TO GET UP!!!"
Hermione jumped at the sound and Draco moaned.
"Draco, what the hell is that?" Hermione screamed.
"My alarm clock. Sorry, it's one of the only things that gets me up in the morning," he mumbled.
"That's alright." She paused and then said. "Sorry about last night. I wasn't feeling too well. I think something in the food got to me."
"That's okay. I just got kinda scared when you said that you didn't wanna study. I never thought I'd hear those words come out of your mouth."
Hermione giggled a little. "I never thought I'd hear myself say that either. When I was in Gryffindor, I only said that I wanted to study to get away from them. I knew that none of them would follow me to the library."
"Oh, so when you say that you wanna study, you wanna get away from me?"
"NO! I love you and I hate being away from you. I said that to get away from them, but when I say that to you, it means that I wanna study with you."
"Oh, so the only thing you ever wanna do with me is study?" Draco asked.
"Don't be putting words into my mouth, Draco Malfoy. I never said that."
Draco smirked and said, "Well I gotta get dressed now. Unless of course you'd like to stay."
"Maybe I do wanna stay," she said as she was retreating out the door.
Draco shook his head and started to change his clothes. ~ The beginning of the day went by quickly and soon it was time for lunch.
"We got Potions today!" Draco said happily.
"As long as I'm not paired with some stupid Gryffindor, I'm fine with that," Blaise added.
"We haven't had any classes with the Gryffindors yet today. I wonder what they'll say when they see my ring," Hermione thought out loud.
"They'll probably go ballistic," Cephius said.
"Yeah, especially Potthead and Weasel," added Elana. "Have you seen the way they've been glaring over here?" she nodded toward the Gryffindor table. "It's like they're trying to kill someone with their eyes."
"They do want someone dead," Draco said glaring back at them. "They want Hermione dead. That whole fucking House sent her a poisonous snake for Christmas."
"No way!" yelled Cephius. "Can't they get expelled for that?"
"There's no proof. We did the spells to take the poison out of it. We can't do anything about it unless they make a blatant attempt to attack," Draco explained.
"That's so screwed up. How could anyone be so stupid?" Blaise said.
Everyone just shook their heads and walked out of the Great Hall with everyone else. They headed toward the dungeons and were greeted by the Gryffindors when they got there.
"Malfoy, Granger, what are you guys doing here?" Harry sneered.
"The snake was adorable Potter. Where'd you get him? And how long did it take you to figure out the spells that would make him poisonous?" Hermione said coldly.
"Wow, Granger, it seems that you really were meant to be a Slytherin. I'm hurt. I thought that you really were one of us. You were always the perfect Gryffindor. I thought wrong. You're just like them, lousy, no good, slimy, st-What the hell is that?!" Ron screamed. He was looking down at Hermione's left hand that was hanging by her side.
"That, Weasley, is an engagement ring. I thought that you, being the muggle-lover that you are would know what it is," Draco said as he tried to push past, but failed.
"Who gave you that ring?" Parvati asked. "Who would spend so much money on that?"
"I gave it to her. Who else would?" Draco's voice was like ice. "We're getting married because we love each other. Now, if you don't mind, let us through!"
"NO!" Ron interjected loudly.
"No, Weasley? I can kick your ass from here to hell and back. I'd move if I were you."
"I'm not moving." Ron stood his ground.
"If you don't move, I'll make you move," Cephius said threateningly.
"Oh, Malfoy, you get a new guy to do your dirty work?" Harry asked.
"I don't need anyone to do anything for me. I could kick all your asses right now, and I would if I wasn't Head Boy. No offense, Cephius."
"None taken."
"Listen, Ferret, I don't care what you can do. All I want is Hermione and I refuse to let you marry her," Ron said.
"Ron I hate you. Don't you get it? Draco and I are meant to be together. I am marrying the man I love, and I don't need anyone's permission but mine. Now let me through, I have a class to get through," Hermione commanded.
She pulled Draco into the classroom with her and the Slytherins followed while the Gryffindors looked dumbfounded. Hermione and Draco took their seats in the back of the room, and Elana, Cephius, and Blaise sat on the other side of them.
After everyone was sitting, Snape came in and began the lesson. "Today we will be making the strongest truth potion imaginable." He started telling them what they needed to know about the potion and then said, "I'll be giving you partners. Malfoy, Granger; Weasley, Potter; Blacktree, Jenkins; Finnigan, Patil; Zabini, Goyle," and so on until everyone had a partner. This time, the Slytherins were paired with each other, and the Gryffindors with each other. After Snape read the essays from the previous assignment, he decided to pair them up with people they got along with.
Draco and Hermione collected all the ingredients they needed to make the potion and started right away.
"Do you think Snape was afraid of the essays?" Hermione whispered to Draco.
"I wouldn't doubt it. I mean, we told him what people had running through their minds. It was torture having to hear another person's thoughts, imagine having to know what everyone thinks. That must have been hell!" he answered while throwing crocodile eyes into the potion.
"Yeah, that must have sucked," Hermione agreed. She threw some neatly cut roots into the potion and started stirring it.
Their potions wouldn't be ready by the time Potions was over that day, so they stored them in a cabinet that protected all of the potions was everything. Nothing could be put into them while they were in there, and the only person who could take it out was the one who put it in.
"My next game's on Saturday," Draco said when they got back in the common room.
"Who are you playing?"
"Ravenclaw."
"Oh. How are they this year?" Hermione asked.
"Almost as bad as Hufflepuff."
"You better win then. I'd be very disappointed if you didn't. And you wouldn't wanna upset me now. Would you?"
"Of course not. I never wanna upset you."
"Good." ~ The week went by quickly, and soon it was 5 pm Friday evening. Draco, Hermione, Cephius, and Blaise were all in the common room talking. At 6:45 they made their way up to the Astronomy Tower.
Draco and Hermione were on Draco's broom and Cephius and Elana were on Cephius'.
In about an hour and a half, they were sitting in the clearing, waiting for the other Death Eaters to arrive.