Author's note: Yay! Was fast! Please review a lot! I love you! I'm trying to be upbeat until Thursday. Next Friday… Is the day I will die!!! Report Card results!!! Oh no! Hehe!
Author: The*Spangled*Pandemonium
Title: The Whole Truth
Chapter Title: The One He Protected
~~~*~~~
Hermione:
The empty room was bathed in a light that brought no comfort to us, and time seemed to stand still after that faint, echoing click.
Harry's eyes seemed to gleam even brighter than usual and his green irises were glittering in a strange manner. He clasped his wand tightly in his hand, fingering it as though it would give him some sort of chance to get away with this moment unscathed.
Ron's angry expression had faded into one of utter pessimism, as if he was sure we were already doomed to be expelled so early in the year. His skin had changed from a fiery red to a blank white. He too gripped his wand firmly in his hand.
The door opened abruptly, and hit the wall with a bang that made all of us jump.
In strode Lucius Malfoy, Voldemort's loyal Deatheater, and one of the worst Muggle haters in the magical world.
All I could bring myself to do was stare wide-eyed at him, with my arms hanging limply at my sides and my pocketed wand forgotten.
Draco, too, seemed frozen in shock, not unlike my two friends. Lucius was the last person in the world we expected to see coming in through that door.
Curiously, Crabbe and Goyle didn't seem that perturbed. In fact, their deeply hooded eyes glimmered with something that looked peculiarly like intelligence. They seemed to give consent to what was going on. What was happening?!
"Good evening, Draco." Lucius said smoothly, brandishing his wand and pointing it to both Harry and Ron, who were still too astonished to react. "Expelliarmus."
Their wands flew out of their hands and fell lightly onto Mr. Malfoy's palm. He pocketed the items, and turned his pale eyes back to his son. "You've put me through a lot to find you at this time of the night. I was lucky to have remembered my Tracking Charm. I wanted to talk to you alone…but this is actually better."
He turned his artic gaze on me, glaring angrily.
Those eyes…they looked so much like Draco's…but infinitely colder. I believe I shivered under that stare. Was this monster really related to him?
Harry finally let out a strangled sound and stepped forward. "It's you! I know you're in league with Voldemort, you bloody Deatheater! Dumbledore will have your head if you harm me."
Lucius let out a frigid smile, and nodded coolly, as if his terrible indifference was a virtue to be admired. "You may be right about that, Mr. Potter, but I'm not here for you. The Dark Lord will take you eventually, but not now. I'm here for Draco. And that Muggle."
"What do you want with Hermione, you bastard?" Ron yelled, his eyes narrowed into slits. "And Hermione's a witch!"
Lucius scoffed at his, acting like Ron was simply being ignorant.
"I'm afraid you won't be awake long enough to know what I'll be doing, Weasley." He lashed his wand towards Ron first, and yelled, "Stupefy!" placidly watching as one of my best friends topped over. He trained his hawk eyes on Harry next, and all I could do was observe in helpless alarm as the Boy Who Lived fell in a crumpled heap. He, too, was Stunned.
"Father, what are you doing?" Draco's eyes were intense, and a deep smoldering mix of contained anger and aching bitterness welled up in his voice, but he did not falter. He moved slightly towards me, as if to shield me from whatever harm Lucius might inflict.
"I received a letter from Severus, saying that you had a relationship with that." He jabbed a vengeful finger towards me. "You shamed our family by not joining me with Voldemort, but fraternizing with a Mudblood!" He shook his head disgustedly.
"We we're the one's who told Snape, Draco." Goyle spoke up quietly, in an odd tone that was neither stupid nor malicious. "You know that we'd stick by you through a lot, but this is a bit too much to keep to ourselves."
Draco looked like a cornered rat in an alleyway, his teeth were bared and his long fingers were clenched. He twisted his head towards his friends, who seemed rather apologetic. "Who the hell do you think you are?! Sticking your nose into my business?! I trusted you with this and you had to go blab it to my father?"
"We're your friends, that's who we are. And we didn't intentionally let Mr. Malfoy know about it…Snape told him." Crabbe said wearily and took a deep breath. "But we think that it's for the best."
"What do you mean 'it's for the best'?" Draco yelled at them, silver eyes livid. His smooth skin turned a shade paler.
They didn't answer. Crabbe and Goyle both turned their solemn gazes to Lucius waiting for his response.
"What are you going to do to me, Deatheater?" I hissed wrathfully, finally speaking to Draco's father.
"There's no need for impoliteness, Mudblood. I was going to tell you anyway, so my son won't think I'm going to kill him. It's a lighter form of a Memory Charm but this will only wipe out about a month's worth of memories, so all the traces of your pathetic little companionship with my son, will be gone." He sneered at Draco, "I'll have to do it with him too."
"You can't erase my memory!" I said, outraged. "All the new things I learned since school begun…"
"This is not the time to be worrying about school, Hermione!" Draco whispered angrily, taking another step closer to me. He glanced nervously at his father, who was already pulling out his wand, and mockingly pretending to take aim.
I clasped my own wand inside my uniform's pocket, trying desperately to find a spell to get me out of this mess.
The instant Lucius opened his mouth and trained his wand at me, I slashed upward with my own rapidly and yelled the first spell that came to my mind. "Obliviate!"
Draco, to my left, dashed to my front, as if to defend me from his father's attack, and shouted his spell.
The father and son's hexes hit each other in midair, and ricocheted chaotically on the walls, while my spell hit my target perfectly on the side.
I watched in shock as the scene unfurled in the most unusual manner. Lucius toppled over from my Memory Charm, and glared at us, muttering, "Who are all of you?!" right before Draco's hex bounced toward his head. He suddenly fell on his back, with long blonde hair splayed on the floor, fast asleep. He was infinitely better company this way.
However, Lucius's spell was still glancing off the walls.
I sat down abruptly (so that I'd be away from the spell's range) and grabbed Draco along with me. "Thanks for that earlier." I mumbled, flinching as I heard a small ping as the spell rebounded.
"Anytime." He said, looking at me through those eyes of his, with something that looked anomalously like compassion.
A thump and a spark of light made us break our weirdly intimate gaze.
He stood up first, and helped me to my feet, much like the way Harry and Ron did in the train station.
Crabbe had doubled over and fallen to the floor. He was looking at all of us, Draco and me most especially, with an expression of awe.
"Draco! Goyle! What are we doing at Hogwarts? And why is Granger here?"
As I left Draco to explain anything to his clueless friend, I walked over to where Harry and Ron lay.
Picking up Harry's glasses from the ground, I set them on his nose tenderly and retrieved my wand. "Ennervate."
He blinked open those big green eyes of his and I stood up and went over to Ron to do the same.
I couldn't help but want to giggle. Before, it was I on the floor, all injured and groggy. Now it was they in that same position.
"Hermione?" Ron asked, rubbing his sore back as he got up after Harry. "One question: What happened to him?" He nudged Lucius's slumped over form with his foot.
"He had a brief encounter with a sleeping spell and a memory charm." I said wryly. "How do you two feel?"
"Not so good." Harry mumbled. "This floor is hard!"
"You fell, like, fifty feet off a broomstick in our third year, and you're complaining of that lousy little drop?" I raised my eyebrow at him.
"That was different. It was a Quidditch match." His eyes darkened as he spotted something.
Turning around, I saw Draco looking at his father with a pained look.
"Excuse me." I said to my two friends, and walked over to him. Draco had conjured his father into a stretcher.
"How's Crabbe doing?" I asked quietly.
He turned his pale-moon eyes towards me and clenched his jaw. "He'll have to go to the hospital wing for a while, so Pomfrey can see if there's anything else wrong… He'll get it back sooner or later. He's smart enough. I'm not sure about my dad…"
"What do you think will happen now?"
Draco ran his hand worriedly through his sleek hair. "I'm not all too sure, but hopefully, father wont regain his memory."
"Are you angry at your friends?"
"Not really… I really think that they had good intentions when they told Snape… It just got a bit out of hand."
I held his hand in mine, and focused my eyes to Ron and Harry, who were standing on the sides looking at us critically. "We're going to the hospital wing. Do you want to come?" I called out.
They both agreed.
~~~*~~~
After Madame Pomfrey looked my friends over and declared them healthy, we trudged back to the Common Room, talking about what an unexpected fiasco this whole thing was.
"At least you hexed him first in the duel, Harry." Ron said laughingly.
"That's because he's shorter than Draco and skinnier. " I giggled, and poked Harry on his Quidditch-strengthened arm. "More wily in his own way."
"Hey!" Harry complained, "I'm not that much shorter than Malfoy!"
"Sure…whatever you say, Harry."
"Well, at least I'm taller than you!" He loomed over me for effect, as I looked up unfazed.
"It's his shoes! And the poofy hair surely adds an inch or so!" Ron joked, and accepted a high five from me.
"Thought you we're on my side, Ron!" He sulked. "Sure, go pick on the dumb jock…"
We laughed at him, then the conversation continued until we reached the Fat Lady.
"Linoleum Floor" I said.
The portrait swung open, and we all collapsed on the couches by the fire.
Grumbling a bit, I flattened my hair down with my hand irritably. "I swear… Where does she get those passwords?"
"Umm… Hermione?"
I looked up to find Ron looking at me sheepishly.
"Yes?"
"You still like Malfoy, don't you?"
That was an important question. Did I? Could I truthfully say I wasn't honored when he shielded me from his father's spell? No… I couldn't. I was too ecstatic when he did that for me, even though I knew that the confusion wasn't over just yet.
Yes…maybe…just maybe…I still liked him.
No.
I liked him. Maybe even loved him.
And that was that.
Chewing on my bottom lip, I nodded slowly. "When you guys were stunned… And Lucius was going to hex me, Draco ran in front of me and defended me." I shrugged, "If his spell hadn't ricocheted with his father's, I would have forgotten everything that happened a month ago."
I paused a while and looked at the carpet, trying to ignore the silence that followed.
After a few measly seconds, I looked up, unable to keep my eyes away from their disgusted expressions.
But, no. They weren't revolted at all. Their eyes brimmed with something that looked vaguely like awe.
"Ok."
"Ok?" I echoed, disbelieving.
"Ok."
"You're serious, Ron? Harry?"
"I guess," Ron said wearily, then broke into a mischievous grin. "But if he breaks your heart, I'll break his jaw."
"Deal." I said, happily.
~~~*~~~
Author's Note: *sniffle* It's almost the end of my first Harry/Hermione fanfic! Two more chapters left! A very short Draco one, and the epilogue! Woo! Don't worry people, I got a new fic coming up right after I finish this one! Tell me if you want to be informed when it's being posted…
I must warn you though… It has a deeper plot, and it's less fluffy…
I still love you! (Especially if you review!)