Well I never ever planned on taking this long with this chapter but I hope
its long enough to make up for the space between chapters, I love writing
this story but I'm kind of lazy in the typing it up part. I made this one
nice and long for you! Over 5000 words and that's not including the author
note or thanks at the end. I used an Elton John song called Tiny Dancer, so
the song belongs to Elton! So I apologise and I will try to get the next
chapter out as soon as possible.
Chapter 7 Love is Blind
Hermione hung back with Pansy as the guys walked up to the cabin door and without hesitating, as the girls would have done, Draco pushed the door open and Harry then felt for the light switch inside.
The trees swayed in the wind and Pansy clutched Hermione's arm when a bird cried out as it flew from the moving tree. The guys stepped in and Pansy turned to Hermione looking frightened but trying to hide it. And doing a horrible job.
"Maybe we should go inside, you know, because the guys might need some help, you wouldn't want them to be in there alone." She looked around at the silent trees and swallowed. "Or us out here." She added and Hermione laughed, following the guys into the cabin and closing the door behind them.
The cabin was a councillor's cabin, so it had a sitting area as well as a bathroom. The sitting room was the whole first room, off to the left of the back wall was a door marked 'Bathroom' and next to it on either side, was two bedrooms. All the sitting room furniture, which were two love seats and an armchair around a coffee table, were made of wicker and had large, comfortable looking cushions on them.
The guys came out of the bathroom and Harry went to one bedroom and Draco into the other. They came out moments afterwards and Draco smirked at the girls, Pansy still clutching Hermione. Draco had found it odd that Pansy had befriended Hermione, but then mentioned that Pansy never could keep old grudges given the opportunity to fix everything.
"Well there isn't any thing here." Harry said heading towards the door of the cabin. He turned to look at Hermione, then at Draco for a long hard second. Draco looked back, sympathy playing on his face, and then he nodded at Harry, who nodded back and cleared his throat to speak, and spoke not meeting her eye.
"I'm off to bed now, night everyone. See you later Malfoy." And he turned and left. Hermione understood almost instantly, Harry had given up, he took the night as an official announcement that read, 'potter has no chance' written in bolded words. This shocked Hermione greatly, she had never known Harry to give up on something without a fight.
Hermione turned to look at Draco and then to Pansy. Both looking back at her, with a different expression on their faces. Pansy looked confused and curious; maybe she caught on a bit to the little exchange. Draco looked hopeful and anxious. Hermione suddenly felt very much awake.
"I think I could use a cup of tea, haven't had one in a week!" she took out her want and waved it at the coffee table in the middle of the room and a tray of hot tea and butter cookies, there were three cups but Pansy shook her head at the offered cup.
"No I think I'll go to bed, all this excitement has made me tired as hell!" she yawned as if to prove her point, and turned to the door where they had dropped their bags and then turned to the bedrooms, going into the one on the left then seconds latter back out. She paused a moment before saying "this one is too small, I need breathing space." Then she moved into the second one and closed the door behind her.
Draco laughed and sat down next to Hermione, putting one arm around her, the other holding his cup of tea. She settled into him sipping her tea and breathing in his scent, he smelt of ripe oranges and pepper, a strange bitter, sweet, and spicy mix. She could never seem to place what it was, but she couldn't get enough of it in her lungs.
"Pansy was always somewhat of a hog, always wanted more then you wanted to give her." Draco balanced his cup on his knee and played with one of Hermione's braids absentmindedly.
"She isn't that bad Draco, she just needs to get comfortable I think." Hermione said putting her cup on the table and turning to Draco, smiling up at him, unsure about what she was about to ask, but asked it anyway. "Why did you treat her like you did? After you two broke up?" Hermione bit her lip and he turned to look at her, his eyes full of an emotion that she would never get used to seeing in his eyes, shame.
" I was only with her because of my father, and when I broke free of his hold, I found that all the feelings I had felt for her were gone, not genuine. It was a spell, a trick of some sort. I felt cheated, and resentful and I took it out on her. I know now I shouldn't have." Hermione had tears in her eyes, she took his cup and set it on the table next to hers and then took him up in a hug. He hugged back and when the parted it was only to shift positions on the couch so Hermione could comfortably rest her head on his, taking in his warmth.
"Did you ever tell her? Does she know?" She asked, and felt his chest rumble with a small ironic laugh before he answered.
"No she doesn't know, you try telling someone you never meant a word you said when they believed and meant everything they said and did. I thought of it, but never brought myself to do it." He raised his had up to rest on the back of her neck and pulled her towards him, kissing her tenderly. " But I would never do that to you Hermione," he said looking into her eyes, willing her to believe him. "We are different, I can feel this is right, I love you for real Hermione Granger, I always will." She kissed him passionately, as if he were about to leave her and never come back again. She kissed him as if her life depended on it. And he kissed her with the same passion, the same desperate hunger.
When they broke apart panting for air Hermione put her ear to his chest and listened to his heart race and felt it pound against his chest as hers was pounding against her own, as if she had just run a marathon. She felt just as tired, and could feel her eyelids get heavy and felt herself fall asleep to the rhythm of Draco's steadying heart.
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Hermione felt herself being moved, strong arms wrapped themselves around her legs and back and she was being carried somewhere. She hadn't been moved like this since she was much younger. She briefly remembered falling asleep in from of the fire, waiting for Santa Clause on Christmas Eve and her father lifting her and taking her off to her room to tuck her in.
She fluttered her eyes open as she felt herself being set down on her bed for the night. Draco was pulling the blankets up on top of her and didn't realise she had awoken until he brought them up to her chin. He smiled a lopsided smile and lent down to kiss her forehead.
"Its late." He whispered against her forehead. "You should get some sleep." He turned to go but she grabbed his arm and pulled him back to her, his arm warm against her cool hand.
"Stay with me please?" she asked, not wanting him to leave, wanting him to stay with her, so she could wake up in the morning and know that it wasn't just a dream that the night really did happen. That he really loved her as much as he said he did. She wanted him to be near, always and forever. He looked into her eyes for a long hard second before nodding and pulling his boots off and then went around the bed to where she could feel him lifting the blanket and then climb in the bed behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled unto him, her back pressed against the warmth of his chest. His arm snug around her middle.
He kissed the back of her neck and sighed heavily. "Goodnight Hermione." He said sleepily.
"Goodnight love." And once again she fell asleep in his arms.
~*~
Hermione was back in that dreamland, no not dream, nightmare land. It was the same this time, like all the other times, all the nights. She was in the same over crowded train station. She knew she shouldn't just stand there like that, she knew in her heart that evil was coming. But her dream self had no idea. Her dream self was waiting patiently for her father, smiling at the faceless people who walked by. No this wasn't the same, the sky, it was still light out, it was supposed to be dark; there were no shadows, non at all. This nightmare was changing. The faces came into focus; all the people were smiling back. She felt safe; there was no cold feeling. She felt strong warm arms wrap around her. She wasn't in danger. She was safe.
+*+
"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!" Hermione faintly heard the train whistle, wait that wasn't the train whistle, it couldn't be. She tried to let her mind drift back to the warm dreamland she was in only moments ago, but she felt herself being gently shaken. She fluttered her eyes open and turned around to snuggle closer to the person gently shaking her.
"Hermione, Hermione? Your bag is beeping." Draco said, tilting her back a bit so he could see her face. "Common Hermione you bag, its beeping." She opened her eyes again and sat up, she looked towards the beeping sound, her bag was by the door, and Draco must have taken it with them last night. The beeping was muffled. She began to crawl out of bed and towards the end, then hung off the end of the end unzipped her bag.
"It my alarm clock, we have to go get ready, we only have 30 minutes to get ready before we have to get ready for breakfast, and then there is only 2 hours before we leave. And we volunteered the group to help clean up after last night's dance." She pulled out her alarm clock and turned it off. She turned over and sat up facing a sleepy Draco yawning. He was an image in the morning, his hair was ruffled and sticking up, his shirt was wrinkled and he must have taken off his pants because she could see the boxers he wore underneath the covers. A snitch flew across the waistband and disappeared. He laughed and she looked up from the boxers blushing.
"My mum bought them for me." He got up and walked to the small window and pulled up the blind. "Hermione! It's still dark! What time did u set the clock for?" he turned back to her, as she slipped off the bed and grabbed her morning bag, and headed through the door.
"Only 5:30." She said, turning back at the door to face him, he looked wearily back out the window and then to her.
"We don't even get up that early at Claire Ville!" he said climbing back under the covers and closing his eyes. She flicked the light on and he pulled the covers over his head. She laughed sat next to him on the bed, pulling the covers back down, kissing his forehead.
"Common love, I promised Professor Snape I'd help and he said to be up early. Fine if you want you can sleep in and I'll do it myself." She stood up but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back kissing her before breaking apart and nodding.
"Alright, alright. I'll go and have a shower and meet you back here in 20 minutes. But lets not wake up this early ever again ok?" she laughed and agreed.
"Ok, next time, I'll just lie and say its six ok?" she ducked as he threw a pillow at her and then ran out of the room. "Common we are going to be late!"
*
Hermione was ready in 15 minutes and waited in the living room of the cabin for Draco to come back so hey could go up to the house where the adults were staying. She looked at her watch and grew impatient, it was 6:00 already and he wasn't there yet. She stood up ready to leave without him when the door opened and he came in, looking good, his hair still wet from his shower.
"Well lets go, don't want to keep the adults waiting do we?" He grabbed her hand and pulled her through the door and closed it behind them, she almost told him she had been waiting for him but she wasn't upset anymore, her hand in his warm and her heart beating quickly. No one had ever made her feel like this before, the mere thought of him made her heart race and her skin tingle.
When they reached the barn once again they saw Professor Cassar coming out of it, smiling tiredly at them.
"My favourite students, I imagine you had fun last night? No problems?" he started to walk towards the large house behind the barn and Hermione and Draco followed.
"Yes Professor I think everyone had a great time, and no problems short of jealous boyfriends eyeing the entertainment." Hermione gave a laugh and Draco eyed her evilly, Cassar laughed as well but didn't catch Draco's look.
" I heard of your and Pansy's little scare last night Hermione, are you two ok?" Cassar asked, they had reached the house and he slipped off his shoes and stepped in, motioning for them to join him, which they did.
"Yea, we're fine, just startled. Pansy was fine right after we checked the rest of the cabin." The house was impressive inside, the ceiling was high and a large stain glass window was the first thing they saw when they walked in. Cassar led them around the window and into a very large kitchen.
Around the large wooden kitchen table sat a number of adults. Professor Snape and Chanda, two strangers and one man that Hermione remembered seeing at the dance the night before, In front of each adult was a mug of coffee or tea, and no one looked less awake then Chanda. When professor Cassar came in with Hermione and Draco on of the strangers, a female who reminded Hermione of Mrs. Weasley, stood up and pulled out two more chairs inviting them to sit down. Hermione looked to Snape, who nodded hen sat down next to him, Draco in front of her and Cassar next to him.
"Gina, Dominic, these are our head boy and head girl, Gina and Dominic own this ranch. Gina they will be helping with breakfast." Snape said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a set of car keys. "Miss Granger I trust you can drive." He said tossing the keys toward her and smiling evilly. "We need you to go ad pick up some things for breakfast. We would go ourselves but, well, we just don't want to." The other adults laughed and Draco looked confused.
"Drive what?" He asked looking at Snape then back at Hermione. Hermione wondered if the other adults would find his question odd, but sighed in relief as Gina replied.
"Dominic's car Draco dear." She said pointing out the window and at a shiny purple pickup truck. "I'd let you two use the van but I have a flat." Professor Cassar turned to Hermione and smiled tiredly once more.
"Hermione you can drive right?" He asked taking a sip of his coffee. Hermione nodded.
"I just finished getting it, what do you guys need me to get? Is there a list?" Gina nodded and stood up from the table once again, she walked over to the island that sat in the middle of the kitchen and came back with a folded piece of paper.
"I think you guys will be able to find the store, I know you guys aren't familiar with the area so I drew a mad on the back. Here is the money, I know it's a lot of food, but Draco you're a strong boy you can manage can't you?" Gina handed the list to Hermione and smiled at Draco, who nodded. The list was a little long but it defiantly wasn't cold pizza. There were sausages, eggs, beacon, hash browns, milk, juice, bread, English muffins, butter, jelly, and peanut butter. So many things Hermione could hardly believe it. "Be sure to get plenty of everything, we'll show you English a real hardy breakfast. And anything left over the pigs will like, maybe except the beacon." Everyone joined her in laughing and then they showed Hermione and Draco to the door.
"Hermione I never knew you could drive one of these things. Draco said opening the door to the passenger side, which Hermione had to remind herself, was on the other side in Canada.
"I just got my licence, lets just hope its automatic." And it was, to Hermione's great relief. " Now put your seatbelt on, and then we can get out of here for a bit. Even if it is just for shopping.
They followed the map and soon found themselves and a 24-hour IGA. Draco jumped a foot in the air when they came to the automatic doors and Hermione was beside herself with laughter. The place was empty and the music seemed louder in the empty isles. The workers tiredly helped them with what they couldn't find. And Hermione had a good time with Draco food shopping. In the end they needed two shopping carts, they explained that they were a large family to the curious looking clerks and laughed as they eyed the 60 pounds of sausages in the first cart.
Hermione found she was laughing again as Draco jumped every time the cash register beeped. He closely followed the actions of the food crossing over the scanner and the beep that followed immediately after. They paid a lot for the food and went back through the automatic doors, Draco jumping just a little this time, and Hermione started the car as Draco piled everything into the back of the pick up. She turned on the radio and one of her favourite songs came on. It was one of the songs her father had forced her to listen to in many car rides, but Hermione had grown to love the song. She sad along as they started to drive back to the ranch.
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand And now she's in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand
Jesus freaks out in the street Handing tickets out for God Turning back she just laughs The boulevard is not that bad
Piano man he makes his stand In the auditorium Looking on she sings the songs The words she knows the tune she hums
But oh how it feels so real Lying here with no one near Only you and you can hear me When I say softly slowly
Hold me closer tiny dancer Count the headlights on the highway Lay me down in sheets of linen You had a busy day today
Hold me closer tiny dancer Count the headlights on the highway Lay me down in sheets of linen You had a busy day today
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand And now she's in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand
Draco clapped loudly as the station switched songs and Hermione looked to him briefly then back to the road, embarrassed. "Wow Hermione I never knew you could sing, that was amazing, even if you were singing that poof's song!"
"Draco!!" Hermione said looking at him again in shock, "Draco it's not nice to say something about someone you don't even know, he was knighted by the queen! Wait how do you know about Elton john?" She looked back to the road and out of the corner of her eye she could see he was about to answer when the car cell phone rang.
"It's the house." Hermione said looking down at the phone then to the road as she turned the radio down and pickup up the phone. "Hello?" It was Gina.
"Hermione dear, could you do me a favour?? You look old enough, can you stop by the gas station and buy us a pack of cigarettes, Demure, king. Dominic just ran out. Could you do that for me then?" Hermione agreed and hung up with Gina. She saw the gas station and pulled into it.
"What are we doing stopping here?" Draco asked as Hermione stepped out of the car, ad followed her, she locked the doors with the remote and grabbed his hand, as they walked in to the small Petrol Canada store.
"Gina wants a pack of smokes, that was just her on the car phone." They waited in line and Draco looked at the magazines, he picked up a copy of Mad magazine and started laughing at the cartoons inside. Hermione apologized to the clerk and took the magazine away from him; he didn't seem to mind as he was close to tears with laughter. Hermione was surprised when the clerk allowed her to buy a pack of smokes without question.
Soon they were back in the car and on the way to the ranch. Draco discovered the window control and rolled his down all the way then turned the station to Z 103.5 and blasted the music. Hermione laughed as Draco tried to follow to the chorus to 'Irresistible' by Jessica Simpson. And then wowed him by following along with the whole song of the 'Real Slim Shady'. When they pulled into the long driveway of the ranch they were laughing so hard at Draco's version of Christina Agularia's 'Gene in a bottle'. It was almost 7:00 when they rolled the windows up and turned the radio down and killed the engine.
A less tired looking Professor Cassar came out of the house followed by Snape and Dominic, they took over the car and drove it to the barn where there was a big grill and barbeque, and left the bread, butter, and eggs with Hermione and Draco to bring into the house to Gina who had the toaster. They went to Gina and she asked them to help her toad and butter the bread, she turned on the radio and started to fry the eggs. She chatted to them about the ranch and the horses, and about how long the ranch had been going for. Then she suddenly asked a personal question.
"Are you two together?" she smiled at them as if it was an innocent question, and Hermione looked at Draco, who was watching her. She remembered last night at the dance and the song my faith hill that they played, Breathe, and how at the moment she felt the song couldn't be more perfect for the two of them. She looked back at the waiting Gina and nodded.
"Yes, we are." Gina smiled knowingly and nodded at Draco.
"I could tell, they way you act around each other. I remember when I met Dominic. I could swear it was love at first sight. He stood there in my father's front room trying to explain how he had found one of our horses wondering the road. I don't think my father believed him but I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Then he turned and caught my eye, gave me a wink, and turned back to my father. Love at first sight." She smiled again at the memory and turned the egg over in the frying pan. "Married a year later at 20 years old." She started on making a very large helping of scrambled eggs in one of the largest frying pans Hermione had ever seen. Draco smiled at Hermione and then turned to Gina.
" I didn't think we were that obvious." He said and Gina laughed and nodded, pushing the eggs around in the pan. The song changed on the radio to a Spanish song the announcer call 'The Ketchup Song' and Gina handed Hermione the plate of fried eggs.
"Well, as they say, 'Love is blind'"
~*~
After they had finished buttering the bread Hermione excused herself to go wake up Pansy. She had decided, shortly after telling Gina about her and Draco, that she needed to tell Pansy about them. There was no reason to keep it from pansy any longer; she was a friend to Hermione now. Draco also excused himself to 'wake that git Potter' and they walked towards the side- be-side councillor cabins, hands together and arms swinging slightly.
"I'm going to tell Pansy." Hermione said turning to look at Draco's eyes. Those silver eyes that met hers lovingly. "About us." He nodded and looked back at the cabins then up at the sky.
"If that's what you want to do I wouldn't stop you, but just to warn you, Pansy isn't the best at keeping secrets." He said stopping and turning to her, capturing her lips in his and kissing her deeply. Her head spun as she allowed his tongue to massage her own. When they broke apart Hermione looked up at him, catching her breath and held his upper arms.
"It is what I want to do, and I don't want it to be a secret, I told you last night, I don't care who knows, I'd just rather my friends heard from me and not the grape vine." He nodded his understanding and took her hand in his again and they quickly finished their way to the cabins, Hermione going in hers and Draco in his own.
Inside the cabin Hermione could hear only silence, she checked her watch, it was only 7:30, and that meant Pansy would defiantly still be asleep. So Hermione crept to Pansy's door and knocked before opening it a crack. Pansy was in fact still sleeping, she had her nightclothes on and she had flung the covers off in the middle of the night. Hermione walked into the room and realized that it was bigger then her room, considerably. When she reached the edge of Pansy's bed she sat down and gently shook the girl awake.
"What?" Pansy sleepily said, eyes still closed, into her pillow. "What time is it?"
"Its 7:30 Pansy dear, common get up, I need to tell you something." Hermione turned the girl to face her and Pansy opened one eye against the light coming from the living room.
" If it has anything to do with you and Draco sleeping in your room last night, I know, I saw. Don't worry I know you didn't do anything. Now can I please go back to sleep?" Then she burst out laughing opening both eyes. "You should have seen your face! Oh my god! It was too funny I wish I had a camera!" Hermione started to laugh too and Pansy got up a minute later and quickly got ready, Hermione speechlessly waited. Then they went to the boy's cabin and knocked on the door, before it opened Hermione warned Pansy not to say anything to Harry about it.
"Don't worry Hermione the word is mum." She winked and looked to the now opening door. Draco stood there looking mad, fuming actually. Before they could ask he explained his anger.
"That git threw a shoe at me!" And then they were off laughing again; Hermione and Pansy were clutching their sides as Draco stood there looking at them as if they came from another planet. Recovering first Hermione turned to Pansy, who was still clutching her side giggling.
"Just wake up Harry and I'll bring captain moody here to breakfast, just make sure he knows you aren't Draco, or I fear he might throw his other shoe." She grabbed Draco and pulled him out the open door and closed it behind them. "Harry just isn't a morning person Draco, don't take it too personally."
"I take Pansy took the news rather well." Draco said smiling a bit himself, but still wanting to change the subject.
"I didn't need to tell her, she told me." Draco gave her a confused look and she explained. She must have looked in on me last night and saw us sleeping, and she knows that's all we did." He nodded and wrapped his arm around her shoulder pulling her to him.
Breakfast was the highlight of the morning; all the students were drawn towards the delicious aroma of coking food. They flocked like bees to honey, very tired bees to honey, and sat and the long picnic tables and passed the platters of food around. Soon everyone was awake enough to chat and the table was alive with gossiping students. Hermione sat with Draco, Pansy, a tired Harry, and Ron. They were talking about the dance, as everyone else was, and Pansy went on and on about how much fun she had had with a local boy named John. After everyone had had first helpings and was starting on seconds, Professor Cassar stood up from his spot and held up his mug of coffee.
"Thank you Gina and Dominic for allowing us to attend you dance and for allowing us the comfort of you lodgings. It was a great experience for the students and very enjoyable." The students clapped loudly and cheered as Gina's smile beamed down the tables at everyone. "And I think you should also thank Hermione and Draco for getting up early to go buy all this lovely food for you all." Again the students clapped and cheered.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Jessica: I'm so glad you think it is so cool, I meant it to be!
Crystallinelily: I hope you were able to read the last chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one, please review again!!
Couch Patato: Thanks! I will continue writing!
I wish I had more reviews! ;( Please R&R! Thanks to everyone who read the story! Hope you all enjoy it! DD
Chapter 7 Love is Blind
Hermione hung back with Pansy as the guys walked up to the cabin door and without hesitating, as the girls would have done, Draco pushed the door open and Harry then felt for the light switch inside.
The trees swayed in the wind and Pansy clutched Hermione's arm when a bird cried out as it flew from the moving tree. The guys stepped in and Pansy turned to Hermione looking frightened but trying to hide it. And doing a horrible job.
"Maybe we should go inside, you know, because the guys might need some help, you wouldn't want them to be in there alone." She looked around at the silent trees and swallowed. "Or us out here." She added and Hermione laughed, following the guys into the cabin and closing the door behind them.
The cabin was a councillor's cabin, so it had a sitting area as well as a bathroom. The sitting room was the whole first room, off to the left of the back wall was a door marked 'Bathroom' and next to it on either side, was two bedrooms. All the sitting room furniture, which were two love seats and an armchair around a coffee table, were made of wicker and had large, comfortable looking cushions on them.
The guys came out of the bathroom and Harry went to one bedroom and Draco into the other. They came out moments afterwards and Draco smirked at the girls, Pansy still clutching Hermione. Draco had found it odd that Pansy had befriended Hermione, but then mentioned that Pansy never could keep old grudges given the opportunity to fix everything.
"Well there isn't any thing here." Harry said heading towards the door of the cabin. He turned to look at Hermione, then at Draco for a long hard second. Draco looked back, sympathy playing on his face, and then he nodded at Harry, who nodded back and cleared his throat to speak, and spoke not meeting her eye.
"I'm off to bed now, night everyone. See you later Malfoy." And he turned and left. Hermione understood almost instantly, Harry had given up, he took the night as an official announcement that read, 'potter has no chance' written in bolded words. This shocked Hermione greatly, she had never known Harry to give up on something without a fight.
Hermione turned to look at Draco and then to Pansy. Both looking back at her, with a different expression on their faces. Pansy looked confused and curious; maybe she caught on a bit to the little exchange. Draco looked hopeful and anxious. Hermione suddenly felt very much awake.
"I think I could use a cup of tea, haven't had one in a week!" she took out her want and waved it at the coffee table in the middle of the room and a tray of hot tea and butter cookies, there were three cups but Pansy shook her head at the offered cup.
"No I think I'll go to bed, all this excitement has made me tired as hell!" she yawned as if to prove her point, and turned to the door where they had dropped their bags and then turned to the bedrooms, going into the one on the left then seconds latter back out. She paused a moment before saying "this one is too small, I need breathing space." Then she moved into the second one and closed the door behind her.
Draco laughed and sat down next to Hermione, putting one arm around her, the other holding his cup of tea. She settled into him sipping her tea and breathing in his scent, he smelt of ripe oranges and pepper, a strange bitter, sweet, and spicy mix. She could never seem to place what it was, but she couldn't get enough of it in her lungs.
"Pansy was always somewhat of a hog, always wanted more then you wanted to give her." Draco balanced his cup on his knee and played with one of Hermione's braids absentmindedly.
"She isn't that bad Draco, she just needs to get comfortable I think." Hermione said putting her cup on the table and turning to Draco, smiling up at him, unsure about what she was about to ask, but asked it anyway. "Why did you treat her like you did? After you two broke up?" Hermione bit her lip and he turned to look at her, his eyes full of an emotion that she would never get used to seeing in his eyes, shame.
" I was only with her because of my father, and when I broke free of his hold, I found that all the feelings I had felt for her were gone, not genuine. It was a spell, a trick of some sort. I felt cheated, and resentful and I took it out on her. I know now I shouldn't have." Hermione had tears in her eyes, she took his cup and set it on the table next to hers and then took him up in a hug. He hugged back and when the parted it was only to shift positions on the couch so Hermione could comfortably rest her head on his, taking in his warmth.
"Did you ever tell her? Does she know?" She asked, and felt his chest rumble with a small ironic laugh before he answered.
"No she doesn't know, you try telling someone you never meant a word you said when they believed and meant everything they said and did. I thought of it, but never brought myself to do it." He raised his had up to rest on the back of her neck and pulled her towards him, kissing her tenderly. " But I would never do that to you Hermione," he said looking into her eyes, willing her to believe him. "We are different, I can feel this is right, I love you for real Hermione Granger, I always will." She kissed him passionately, as if he were about to leave her and never come back again. She kissed him as if her life depended on it. And he kissed her with the same passion, the same desperate hunger.
When they broke apart panting for air Hermione put her ear to his chest and listened to his heart race and felt it pound against his chest as hers was pounding against her own, as if she had just run a marathon. She felt just as tired, and could feel her eyelids get heavy and felt herself fall asleep to the rhythm of Draco's steadying heart.
~*~+*+~*~+*+~*~+*+~*~+*+
Hermione felt herself being moved, strong arms wrapped themselves around her legs and back and she was being carried somewhere. She hadn't been moved like this since she was much younger. She briefly remembered falling asleep in from of the fire, waiting for Santa Clause on Christmas Eve and her father lifting her and taking her off to her room to tuck her in.
She fluttered her eyes open as she felt herself being set down on her bed for the night. Draco was pulling the blankets up on top of her and didn't realise she had awoken until he brought them up to her chin. He smiled a lopsided smile and lent down to kiss her forehead.
"Its late." He whispered against her forehead. "You should get some sleep." He turned to go but she grabbed his arm and pulled him back to her, his arm warm against her cool hand.
"Stay with me please?" she asked, not wanting him to leave, wanting him to stay with her, so she could wake up in the morning and know that it wasn't just a dream that the night really did happen. That he really loved her as much as he said he did. She wanted him to be near, always and forever. He looked into her eyes for a long hard second before nodding and pulling his boots off and then went around the bed to where she could feel him lifting the blanket and then climb in the bed behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled unto him, her back pressed against the warmth of his chest. His arm snug around her middle.
He kissed the back of her neck and sighed heavily. "Goodnight Hermione." He said sleepily.
"Goodnight love." And once again she fell asleep in his arms.
~*~
Hermione was back in that dreamland, no not dream, nightmare land. It was the same this time, like all the other times, all the nights. She was in the same over crowded train station. She knew she shouldn't just stand there like that, she knew in her heart that evil was coming. But her dream self had no idea. Her dream self was waiting patiently for her father, smiling at the faceless people who walked by. No this wasn't the same, the sky, it was still light out, it was supposed to be dark; there were no shadows, non at all. This nightmare was changing. The faces came into focus; all the people were smiling back. She felt safe; there was no cold feeling. She felt strong warm arms wrap around her. She wasn't in danger. She was safe.
+*+
"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!" Hermione faintly heard the train whistle, wait that wasn't the train whistle, it couldn't be. She tried to let her mind drift back to the warm dreamland she was in only moments ago, but she felt herself being gently shaken. She fluttered her eyes open and turned around to snuggle closer to the person gently shaking her.
"Hermione, Hermione? Your bag is beeping." Draco said, tilting her back a bit so he could see her face. "Common Hermione you bag, its beeping." She opened her eyes again and sat up, she looked towards the beeping sound, her bag was by the door, and Draco must have taken it with them last night. The beeping was muffled. She began to crawl out of bed and towards the end, then hung off the end of the end unzipped her bag.
"It my alarm clock, we have to go get ready, we only have 30 minutes to get ready before we have to get ready for breakfast, and then there is only 2 hours before we leave. And we volunteered the group to help clean up after last night's dance." She pulled out her alarm clock and turned it off. She turned over and sat up facing a sleepy Draco yawning. He was an image in the morning, his hair was ruffled and sticking up, his shirt was wrinkled and he must have taken off his pants because she could see the boxers he wore underneath the covers. A snitch flew across the waistband and disappeared. He laughed and she looked up from the boxers blushing.
"My mum bought them for me." He got up and walked to the small window and pulled up the blind. "Hermione! It's still dark! What time did u set the clock for?" he turned back to her, as she slipped off the bed and grabbed her morning bag, and headed through the door.
"Only 5:30." She said, turning back at the door to face him, he looked wearily back out the window and then to her.
"We don't even get up that early at Claire Ville!" he said climbing back under the covers and closing his eyes. She flicked the light on and he pulled the covers over his head. She laughed sat next to him on the bed, pulling the covers back down, kissing his forehead.
"Common love, I promised Professor Snape I'd help and he said to be up early. Fine if you want you can sleep in and I'll do it myself." She stood up but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back kissing her before breaking apart and nodding.
"Alright, alright. I'll go and have a shower and meet you back here in 20 minutes. But lets not wake up this early ever again ok?" she laughed and agreed.
"Ok, next time, I'll just lie and say its six ok?" she ducked as he threw a pillow at her and then ran out of the room. "Common we are going to be late!"
*
Hermione was ready in 15 minutes and waited in the living room of the cabin for Draco to come back so hey could go up to the house where the adults were staying. She looked at her watch and grew impatient, it was 6:00 already and he wasn't there yet. She stood up ready to leave without him when the door opened and he came in, looking good, his hair still wet from his shower.
"Well lets go, don't want to keep the adults waiting do we?" He grabbed her hand and pulled her through the door and closed it behind them, she almost told him she had been waiting for him but she wasn't upset anymore, her hand in his warm and her heart beating quickly. No one had ever made her feel like this before, the mere thought of him made her heart race and her skin tingle.
When they reached the barn once again they saw Professor Cassar coming out of it, smiling tiredly at them.
"My favourite students, I imagine you had fun last night? No problems?" he started to walk towards the large house behind the barn and Hermione and Draco followed.
"Yes Professor I think everyone had a great time, and no problems short of jealous boyfriends eyeing the entertainment." Hermione gave a laugh and Draco eyed her evilly, Cassar laughed as well but didn't catch Draco's look.
" I heard of your and Pansy's little scare last night Hermione, are you two ok?" Cassar asked, they had reached the house and he slipped off his shoes and stepped in, motioning for them to join him, which they did.
"Yea, we're fine, just startled. Pansy was fine right after we checked the rest of the cabin." The house was impressive inside, the ceiling was high and a large stain glass window was the first thing they saw when they walked in. Cassar led them around the window and into a very large kitchen.
Around the large wooden kitchen table sat a number of adults. Professor Snape and Chanda, two strangers and one man that Hermione remembered seeing at the dance the night before, In front of each adult was a mug of coffee or tea, and no one looked less awake then Chanda. When professor Cassar came in with Hermione and Draco on of the strangers, a female who reminded Hermione of Mrs. Weasley, stood up and pulled out two more chairs inviting them to sit down. Hermione looked to Snape, who nodded hen sat down next to him, Draco in front of her and Cassar next to him.
"Gina, Dominic, these are our head boy and head girl, Gina and Dominic own this ranch. Gina they will be helping with breakfast." Snape said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a set of car keys. "Miss Granger I trust you can drive." He said tossing the keys toward her and smiling evilly. "We need you to go ad pick up some things for breakfast. We would go ourselves but, well, we just don't want to." The other adults laughed and Draco looked confused.
"Drive what?" He asked looking at Snape then back at Hermione. Hermione wondered if the other adults would find his question odd, but sighed in relief as Gina replied.
"Dominic's car Draco dear." She said pointing out the window and at a shiny purple pickup truck. "I'd let you two use the van but I have a flat." Professor Cassar turned to Hermione and smiled tiredly once more.
"Hermione you can drive right?" He asked taking a sip of his coffee. Hermione nodded.
"I just finished getting it, what do you guys need me to get? Is there a list?" Gina nodded and stood up from the table once again, she walked over to the island that sat in the middle of the kitchen and came back with a folded piece of paper.
"I think you guys will be able to find the store, I know you guys aren't familiar with the area so I drew a mad on the back. Here is the money, I know it's a lot of food, but Draco you're a strong boy you can manage can't you?" Gina handed the list to Hermione and smiled at Draco, who nodded. The list was a little long but it defiantly wasn't cold pizza. There were sausages, eggs, beacon, hash browns, milk, juice, bread, English muffins, butter, jelly, and peanut butter. So many things Hermione could hardly believe it. "Be sure to get plenty of everything, we'll show you English a real hardy breakfast. And anything left over the pigs will like, maybe except the beacon." Everyone joined her in laughing and then they showed Hermione and Draco to the door.
"Hermione I never knew you could drive one of these things. Draco said opening the door to the passenger side, which Hermione had to remind herself, was on the other side in Canada.
"I just got my licence, lets just hope its automatic." And it was, to Hermione's great relief. " Now put your seatbelt on, and then we can get out of here for a bit. Even if it is just for shopping.
They followed the map and soon found themselves and a 24-hour IGA. Draco jumped a foot in the air when they came to the automatic doors and Hermione was beside herself with laughter. The place was empty and the music seemed louder in the empty isles. The workers tiredly helped them with what they couldn't find. And Hermione had a good time with Draco food shopping. In the end they needed two shopping carts, they explained that they were a large family to the curious looking clerks and laughed as they eyed the 60 pounds of sausages in the first cart.
Hermione found she was laughing again as Draco jumped every time the cash register beeped. He closely followed the actions of the food crossing over the scanner and the beep that followed immediately after. They paid a lot for the food and went back through the automatic doors, Draco jumping just a little this time, and Hermione started the car as Draco piled everything into the back of the pick up. She turned on the radio and one of her favourite songs came on. It was one of the songs her father had forced her to listen to in many car rides, but Hermione had grown to love the song. She sad along as they started to drive back to the ranch.
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand And now she's in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand
Jesus freaks out in the street Handing tickets out for God Turning back she just laughs The boulevard is not that bad
Piano man he makes his stand In the auditorium Looking on she sings the songs The words she knows the tune she hums
But oh how it feels so real Lying here with no one near Only you and you can hear me When I say softly slowly
Hold me closer tiny dancer Count the headlights on the highway Lay me down in sheets of linen You had a busy day today
Hold me closer tiny dancer Count the headlights on the highway Lay me down in sheets of linen You had a busy day today
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand And now she's in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand
Draco clapped loudly as the station switched songs and Hermione looked to him briefly then back to the road, embarrassed. "Wow Hermione I never knew you could sing, that was amazing, even if you were singing that poof's song!"
"Draco!!" Hermione said looking at him again in shock, "Draco it's not nice to say something about someone you don't even know, he was knighted by the queen! Wait how do you know about Elton john?" She looked back to the road and out of the corner of her eye she could see he was about to answer when the car cell phone rang.
"It's the house." Hermione said looking down at the phone then to the road as she turned the radio down and pickup up the phone. "Hello?" It was Gina.
"Hermione dear, could you do me a favour?? You look old enough, can you stop by the gas station and buy us a pack of cigarettes, Demure, king. Dominic just ran out. Could you do that for me then?" Hermione agreed and hung up with Gina. She saw the gas station and pulled into it.
"What are we doing stopping here?" Draco asked as Hermione stepped out of the car, ad followed her, she locked the doors with the remote and grabbed his hand, as they walked in to the small Petrol Canada store.
"Gina wants a pack of smokes, that was just her on the car phone." They waited in line and Draco looked at the magazines, he picked up a copy of Mad magazine and started laughing at the cartoons inside. Hermione apologized to the clerk and took the magazine away from him; he didn't seem to mind as he was close to tears with laughter. Hermione was surprised when the clerk allowed her to buy a pack of smokes without question.
Soon they were back in the car and on the way to the ranch. Draco discovered the window control and rolled his down all the way then turned the station to Z 103.5 and blasted the music. Hermione laughed as Draco tried to follow to the chorus to 'Irresistible' by Jessica Simpson. And then wowed him by following along with the whole song of the 'Real Slim Shady'. When they pulled into the long driveway of the ranch they were laughing so hard at Draco's version of Christina Agularia's 'Gene in a bottle'. It was almost 7:00 when they rolled the windows up and turned the radio down and killed the engine.
A less tired looking Professor Cassar came out of the house followed by Snape and Dominic, they took over the car and drove it to the barn where there was a big grill and barbeque, and left the bread, butter, and eggs with Hermione and Draco to bring into the house to Gina who had the toaster. They went to Gina and she asked them to help her toad and butter the bread, she turned on the radio and started to fry the eggs. She chatted to them about the ranch and the horses, and about how long the ranch had been going for. Then she suddenly asked a personal question.
"Are you two together?" she smiled at them as if it was an innocent question, and Hermione looked at Draco, who was watching her. She remembered last night at the dance and the song my faith hill that they played, Breathe, and how at the moment she felt the song couldn't be more perfect for the two of them. She looked back at the waiting Gina and nodded.
"Yes, we are." Gina smiled knowingly and nodded at Draco.
"I could tell, they way you act around each other. I remember when I met Dominic. I could swear it was love at first sight. He stood there in my father's front room trying to explain how he had found one of our horses wondering the road. I don't think my father believed him but I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Then he turned and caught my eye, gave me a wink, and turned back to my father. Love at first sight." She smiled again at the memory and turned the egg over in the frying pan. "Married a year later at 20 years old." She started on making a very large helping of scrambled eggs in one of the largest frying pans Hermione had ever seen. Draco smiled at Hermione and then turned to Gina.
" I didn't think we were that obvious." He said and Gina laughed and nodded, pushing the eggs around in the pan. The song changed on the radio to a Spanish song the announcer call 'The Ketchup Song' and Gina handed Hermione the plate of fried eggs.
"Well, as they say, 'Love is blind'"
~*~
After they had finished buttering the bread Hermione excused herself to go wake up Pansy. She had decided, shortly after telling Gina about her and Draco, that she needed to tell Pansy about them. There was no reason to keep it from pansy any longer; she was a friend to Hermione now. Draco also excused himself to 'wake that git Potter' and they walked towards the side- be-side councillor cabins, hands together and arms swinging slightly.
"I'm going to tell Pansy." Hermione said turning to look at Draco's eyes. Those silver eyes that met hers lovingly. "About us." He nodded and looked back at the cabins then up at the sky.
"If that's what you want to do I wouldn't stop you, but just to warn you, Pansy isn't the best at keeping secrets." He said stopping and turning to her, capturing her lips in his and kissing her deeply. Her head spun as she allowed his tongue to massage her own. When they broke apart Hermione looked up at him, catching her breath and held his upper arms.
"It is what I want to do, and I don't want it to be a secret, I told you last night, I don't care who knows, I'd just rather my friends heard from me and not the grape vine." He nodded his understanding and took her hand in his again and they quickly finished their way to the cabins, Hermione going in hers and Draco in his own.
Inside the cabin Hermione could hear only silence, she checked her watch, it was only 7:30, and that meant Pansy would defiantly still be asleep. So Hermione crept to Pansy's door and knocked before opening it a crack. Pansy was in fact still sleeping, she had her nightclothes on and she had flung the covers off in the middle of the night. Hermione walked into the room and realized that it was bigger then her room, considerably. When she reached the edge of Pansy's bed she sat down and gently shook the girl awake.
"What?" Pansy sleepily said, eyes still closed, into her pillow. "What time is it?"
"Its 7:30 Pansy dear, common get up, I need to tell you something." Hermione turned the girl to face her and Pansy opened one eye against the light coming from the living room.
" If it has anything to do with you and Draco sleeping in your room last night, I know, I saw. Don't worry I know you didn't do anything. Now can I please go back to sleep?" Then she burst out laughing opening both eyes. "You should have seen your face! Oh my god! It was too funny I wish I had a camera!" Hermione started to laugh too and Pansy got up a minute later and quickly got ready, Hermione speechlessly waited. Then they went to the boy's cabin and knocked on the door, before it opened Hermione warned Pansy not to say anything to Harry about it.
"Don't worry Hermione the word is mum." She winked and looked to the now opening door. Draco stood there looking mad, fuming actually. Before they could ask he explained his anger.
"That git threw a shoe at me!" And then they were off laughing again; Hermione and Pansy were clutching their sides as Draco stood there looking at them as if they came from another planet. Recovering first Hermione turned to Pansy, who was still clutching her side giggling.
"Just wake up Harry and I'll bring captain moody here to breakfast, just make sure he knows you aren't Draco, or I fear he might throw his other shoe." She grabbed Draco and pulled him out the open door and closed it behind them. "Harry just isn't a morning person Draco, don't take it too personally."
"I take Pansy took the news rather well." Draco said smiling a bit himself, but still wanting to change the subject.
"I didn't need to tell her, she told me." Draco gave her a confused look and she explained. She must have looked in on me last night and saw us sleeping, and she knows that's all we did." He nodded and wrapped his arm around her shoulder pulling her to him.
Breakfast was the highlight of the morning; all the students were drawn towards the delicious aroma of coking food. They flocked like bees to honey, very tired bees to honey, and sat and the long picnic tables and passed the platters of food around. Soon everyone was awake enough to chat and the table was alive with gossiping students. Hermione sat with Draco, Pansy, a tired Harry, and Ron. They were talking about the dance, as everyone else was, and Pansy went on and on about how much fun she had had with a local boy named John. After everyone had had first helpings and was starting on seconds, Professor Cassar stood up from his spot and held up his mug of coffee.
"Thank you Gina and Dominic for allowing us to attend you dance and for allowing us the comfort of you lodgings. It was a great experience for the students and very enjoyable." The students clapped loudly and cheered as Gina's smile beamed down the tables at everyone. "And I think you should also thank Hermione and Draco for getting up early to go buy all this lovely food for you all." Again the students clapped and cheered.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Jessica: I'm so glad you think it is so cool, I meant it to be!
Crystallinelily: I hope you were able to read the last chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one, please review again!!
Couch Patato: Thanks! I will continue writing!
I wish I had more reviews! ;( Please R&R! Thanks to everyone who read the story! Hope you all enjoy it! DD