Disclaimer: How many times must we go through this? I do not own any of
the Harry Potter characters, plots, etc. I own my own plot. That's all.
And a few other miscellaneous things that I bought, so there! *taps
computer with a make-shift wand.* Accio Draco!. . .damn. I thought that
maybe he would come to life. Oh there he is! *grabs him by the arm and
drags him off* He is MINE damn you!!! All mine! How about I just start
the chapter now, eh? Alright then.
~*~
Thank you's:
~*~
Rachel: thank you so much! See now? I have given you your wish.
Indiviualists: thank you. I hope your Christmas shopping went well.
Long: no no don't die! Hehe. I didn't think it was a cliffie. . . well, I suppose it was one sorta. I don't mean for the chapters to end up as cliffies. They just do it all by themselves. I swear.
me again: yeah that would be Amanda again. She's not by best friend, I swear. . . *searches around for mean spies* hehe, you know I wuv ya.
DemonWitch666: awww that's really sweet of you. I'm glad you like the story. Thanks for the good review.
Midnight-Primrose Riddle: hehe. . .she still loves me. Mwahahahaha. Ok, lol. Thank you for review me again.
Chrissy: lol, no the piano room didn't disappear. It's still there. Remember how Hermione had been following Dumbledore and when they got to the room she noticed she was in a hall she had never been to before? She just can't figure out where it is right now. She's full of emotion right now, and everything is confusing here. Thanks for reviewing.
SIAS: *gasps* only since chapter 5? Oh you must go back more, lol, hey I was told that chapter 4 was a real humdinger.
~*~
A/N: that is allllllll of my reviews since I last updated. Wait, why am I still going on about reviews? On with chapter 8!
~*~
Chapter 8
~*~
Draco sat in the prefect's bathroom (A/N: of course he's a prefect, silly poo) contemplating over the night's events. He was waiting for the tub to fill up before he got in. The water poured into the tub quickly and within a matter of minutes, it was full of steaming hot water and soft blue bubbles.
Draco stripped silently, all the while thinking about Hermione. As he eased himself into the tub, a picture of her back sprang into his mind. It shocked him to realize he cared so much for her well-being.
what's going on with me? he asked himself as he leaned his head back, enjoying the feel of the smooth warm water gently caressing his body.
Another image of Hermione flashed through his mind. He noticed that he was with her. She was standing close to him, and a storm was shooting lightening all around them.
Draco suddenly slipped. The dream.
But what did it mean? He was becoming frusterated. He knew that dreams were sort of a window to the soul, but the more and more he tried to figure it out, the more and more confused he became about what the dream could possibly mean.
His confusion swiftly drew back to anger as he thought about the way she had run off crying when he had tried to help her. He didn't blame her. He blamed her father. He wanted to kill the bastard.
No one deserved that kind of punishment, not even the one that he was supposed to hate. least of all her he thought to himself.
Draco took a moment to look at his own scars, traces of Lucius's 'love' for his son. He remembered how his father always told him it was for his own good when he beat him, and he was just now beginning to realize that it wasn't for his own good, but for his father's own demented, sick pleasure.
He lifted his arm out of the frothy blue bubbles, and after brushing them away, he took a closer look at his scars. Along his left bicep, a long gash had left a deep pink scar, severely contrasting with the white of his skin. He remembered that scar well. He and Lucius were out in the stables tending to the horses when Lucius suddenly grabbed his arm and cut into it with a long rusted nail.
Upon falling deathly ill a couple of days later, his mother risked her own life and opted in taking Draco to a muggle hospital while Lucius was at a death-eater meeting. He couldn't have been more than seven years old. His father had later told him that it was punishment for brushing the horses coat the wrong way. Narcissa Malfoy was extremely distraught over her husband's ill-doings, yet she remained silent, for she knew her beatings would only be worse than her innocent child's.
As the years went by, Draco found himself becoming closer and closer to his mother, while he tried to move away from his father, in fear of what might be done to him if he stuck around too close.
Draco shuddered at the thought. His anger was rising even more as he thought of his own past. He pulled up his left arm again and gave his forearm a good look. Etched into his skin was a very small part of the dark mark.
His face flushed as he thought about that night. The night he defied the dark lord.
It was his induction ceremony. He was about to be initiated into a group of pure power, a group that killed for sport, mainly muggles and mudbloods. It was a group that wreaked havoc everywhere it went just so it could achieve more power.
Lucius had literally dragged him out of the Malfoy Manor to get him to attend the ceremony.
He had been scared shitless when he took those first few steps toward Voldemort, Lucius hovering over him like a hawk, with a tight grip around his wrist to ensure he could not get away.
Even to this day, he wasn't sure what it was that helped him escape the clutches of Voldemort. No sooner than the wand had touched his skin to burn the mark into his flesh when something unexpected happen.
Voldemort's wand was smoking from beneath it's master's hand, sending out sparks of green and red. Everyone turned to Voldemort with flabbergasted expressions.
The pain and heat on Draco's arm was immense, yet he took the moment of weakness to his advantage and apparated on the spot, having learned how to do so years before from his father's futile attempts to teach him the dark arts. Oh, Draco knew them, all right, but he would never use them, not unless he was desperate.
He had apparated to Diagon Alley where he stayed at the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of the summer. He had begged Tom, the innkeeper, to not tell Lucius where he was if he were to stop by ever. Tom had just given Draco a sympathetic look and nodded slightly at Draco's urgent request.
Draco breathed in some air, and let it out slowly, feeling a little bit calmer by now. He closed his eyes peacefully as he thought more about Hermione, and less about his father. . .although he would never admit it to anyone that he was thinking of her.
~*~
Hermione had been sitting alone in the empty corridor for sometime before she felt like she should get up and go to Gryffindor tower. Her face was dry, yet streaked with tear stains, her hair zigging in and out every which way.
She stopped outside of the statue of Boris the Bewildered on the fifth floor and muttered the password, "Pecan Peppers." The statue slowly slid over, allowing her access to the bathroom.
She thought she had walked into a sauna for a second, but then shrugged when she realized someone must be bathing. She wiped at the mirror and looked horrified at her reflection. Oh Godsshe thought to herself. have I really been walking around looking like this?
The mirror fogged up again. She silently scolded whoever was in the tub for making the room so steamy. After wiping the mirror several times, she suddenly seemed to remember that she was a witch, and pulling out her wand, she muttered a couple of words and all the steam evaporated on the spot, leaving the mirror clear to look into.
She turned on the tap and gathered some cool water in her hands. She splashed her face a couple of times and then reached out blindly for a towel.
Patting her face dry, she looked back at her reflection in the mirror. That's when she realized she wasn't alone.
She turned around quickly, yelping at the sight of Draco asleep in the big tub. . .peaceful. . .relaxed. . .hair falling across his face. . .running out of bubbles. . .
Draco woke up startled and slipped from his spot in the water, submerging his head under the hot liquid. He came up sputtering, obviously very surprised to see Hermione there looking at him with the same expression on her face.
Hermione gulped, terrified, almost giving off a "deer caught in the headlights" expression. She stood there with her mouth open in shock, her eyes skimming him all over. Draco moved against the wall so he couldn't be seen anymore, now that the bubbles were gone.
Hermione looked as if she was trying to say something, but instead turned around quickly, stuttering an apology.
Draco looked at her, face flush from embarrassment. His expression of shock quickly morphed into one of solemnity. She looked so sad, and no matter how much Draco tried to deny it, at that moment he realized he would do anything for the girl standing in front of him.
He promised himself that he would tell her soon. For now, though, he couldn't do anything. He wasn't ready to let her know about how he felt. He wasn't even sure how he felt himself.
On the other side of the room, a very confused Hermione slowly turned back around and looked at Draco, who had managed to get a hold of a towel by then. She stared at the boy. . .no, man in front of her. Her eyes took every aspect of him in, from his gorgeous blond hair, to his chiseled torso, down to his muscular calves, then back up to his face, where his eyes, his typically emotionless pale gray eyes, now sending out waves of emotions, transfixed on nothing but her.
Hermione's eyes darted to his lips for a split second, then to his left forearm. Draco thought he small a flicker of a smile dance onto her lips. He shook his head. no no no no no, this is Hermione Granger, for god's sake!
Her eyes shifted to the floor, and Draco took a step closer to her. Both were silent as he moved toward her, finally stopping just a foot in front of her.
She looked up at his face, desperately wanting to pull it close to her own. She restrained herself though, and from the looks of it, Draco was having a hard time trying to fight it back as well.
Hermione forced herself to look away from his penetrating gaze, and taking a step back, she stumbled over her words.
"I-I-uh, I b-better g-go," she muttered, still staring at her feet. Draco looked at her and nodded, "yeah. . ." He didn't want to her to leave, but after a second's more of awkward silence, Hermione blushed and walked unsteadily out of the bathroom.
Draco watched her leave, his heart unexpectedly sending out a pang of heart- ache. He let himself fall back into the wall, and he stood there, leaning against the wall for support, desperately trying to figure out what was happening.
~*~
A/N: yup, shorter chapter than usual. Oh well. I couldn't resist the whole bathroom incident, because I know how clichéd and overused it is, lol, but darn it, I couldn't help it. He's just so darn cute. . .especially with those bubbles going away. . .mwahahahahaha.
~*~
Thank you's:
~*~
Rachel: thank you so much! See now? I have given you your wish.
Indiviualists: thank you. I hope your Christmas shopping went well.
Long: no no don't die! Hehe. I didn't think it was a cliffie. . . well, I suppose it was one sorta. I don't mean for the chapters to end up as cliffies. They just do it all by themselves. I swear.
me again: yeah that would be Amanda again. She's not by best friend, I swear. . . *searches around for mean spies* hehe, you know I wuv ya.
DemonWitch666: awww that's really sweet of you. I'm glad you like the story. Thanks for the good review.
Midnight-Primrose Riddle: hehe. . .she still loves me. Mwahahahaha. Ok, lol. Thank you for review me again.
Chrissy: lol, no the piano room didn't disappear. It's still there. Remember how Hermione had been following Dumbledore and when they got to the room she noticed she was in a hall she had never been to before? She just can't figure out where it is right now. She's full of emotion right now, and everything is confusing here. Thanks for reviewing.
SIAS: *gasps* only since chapter 5? Oh you must go back more, lol, hey I was told that chapter 4 was a real humdinger.
~*~
A/N: that is allllllll of my reviews since I last updated. Wait, why am I still going on about reviews? On with chapter 8!
~*~
Chapter 8
~*~
Draco sat in the prefect's bathroom (A/N: of course he's a prefect, silly poo) contemplating over the night's events. He was waiting for the tub to fill up before he got in. The water poured into the tub quickly and within a matter of minutes, it was full of steaming hot water and soft blue bubbles.
Draco stripped silently, all the while thinking about Hermione. As he eased himself into the tub, a picture of her back sprang into his mind. It shocked him to realize he cared so much for her well-being.
what's going on with me? he asked himself as he leaned his head back, enjoying the feel of the smooth warm water gently caressing his body.
Another image of Hermione flashed through his mind. He noticed that he was with her. She was standing close to him, and a storm was shooting lightening all around them.
Draco suddenly slipped. The dream.
But what did it mean? He was becoming frusterated. He knew that dreams were sort of a window to the soul, but the more and more he tried to figure it out, the more and more confused he became about what the dream could possibly mean.
His confusion swiftly drew back to anger as he thought about the way she had run off crying when he had tried to help her. He didn't blame her. He blamed her father. He wanted to kill the bastard.
No one deserved that kind of punishment, not even the one that he was supposed to hate. least of all her he thought to himself.
Draco took a moment to look at his own scars, traces of Lucius's 'love' for his son. He remembered how his father always told him it was for his own good when he beat him, and he was just now beginning to realize that it wasn't for his own good, but for his father's own demented, sick pleasure.
He lifted his arm out of the frothy blue bubbles, and after brushing them away, he took a closer look at his scars. Along his left bicep, a long gash had left a deep pink scar, severely contrasting with the white of his skin. He remembered that scar well. He and Lucius were out in the stables tending to the horses when Lucius suddenly grabbed his arm and cut into it with a long rusted nail.
Upon falling deathly ill a couple of days later, his mother risked her own life and opted in taking Draco to a muggle hospital while Lucius was at a death-eater meeting. He couldn't have been more than seven years old. His father had later told him that it was punishment for brushing the horses coat the wrong way. Narcissa Malfoy was extremely distraught over her husband's ill-doings, yet she remained silent, for she knew her beatings would only be worse than her innocent child's.
As the years went by, Draco found himself becoming closer and closer to his mother, while he tried to move away from his father, in fear of what might be done to him if he stuck around too close.
Draco shuddered at the thought. His anger was rising even more as he thought of his own past. He pulled up his left arm again and gave his forearm a good look. Etched into his skin was a very small part of the dark mark.
His face flushed as he thought about that night. The night he defied the dark lord.
It was his induction ceremony. He was about to be initiated into a group of pure power, a group that killed for sport, mainly muggles and mudbloods. It was a group that wreaked havoc everywhere it went just so it could achieve more power.
Lucius had literally dragged him out of the Malfoy Manor to get him to attend the ceremony.
He had been scared shitless when he took those first few steps toward Voldemort, Lucius hovering over him like a hawk, with a tight grip around his wrist to ensure he could not get away.
Even to this day, he wasn't sure what it was that helped him escape the clutches of Voldemort. No sooner than the wand had touched his skin to burn the mark into his flesh when something unexpected happen.
Voldemort's wand was smoking from beneath it's master's hand, sending out sparks of green and red. Everyone turned to Voldemort with flabbergasted expressions.
The pain and heat on Draco's arm was immense, yet he took the moment of weakness to his advantage and apparated on the spot, having learned how to do so years before from his father's futile attempts to teach him the dark arts. Oh, Draco knew them, all right, but he would never use them, not unless he was desperate.
He had apparated to Diagon Alley where he stayed at the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of the summer. He had begged Tom, the innkeeper, to not tell Lucius where he was if he were to stop by ever. Tom had just given Draco a sympathetic look and nodded slightly at Draco's urgent request.
Draco breathed in some air, and let it out slowly, feeling a little bit calmer by now. He closed his eyes peacefully as he thought more about Hermione, and less about his father. . .although he would never admit it to anyone that he was thinking of her.
~*~
Hermione had been sitting alone in the empty corridor for sometime before she felt like she should get up and go to Gryffindor tower. Her face was dry, yet streaked with tear stains, her hair zigging in and out every which way.
She stopped outside of the statue of Boris the Bewildered on the fifth floor and muttered the password, "Pecan Peppers." The statue slowly slid over, allowing her access to the bathroom.
She thought she had walked into a sauna for a second, but then shrugged when she realized someone must be bathing. She wiped at the mirror and looked horrified at her reflection. Oh Godsshe thought to herself. have I really been walking around looking like this?
The mirror fogged up again. She silently scolded whoever was in the tub for making the room so steamy. After wiping the mirror several times, she suddenly seemed to remember that she was a witch, and pulling out her wand, she muttered a couple of words and all the steam evaporated on the spot, leaving the mirror clear to look into.
She turned on the tap and gathered some cool water in her hands. She splashed her face a couple of times and then reached out blindly for a towel.
Patting her face dry, she looked back at her reflection in the mirror. That's when she realized she wasn't alone.
She turned around quickly, yelping at the sight of Draco asleep in the big tub. . .peaceful. . .relaxed. . .hair falling across his face. . .running out of bubbles. . .
Draco woke up startled and slipped from his spot in the water, submerging his head under the hot liquid. He came up sputtering, obviously very surprised to see Hermione there looking at him with the same expression on her face.
Hermione gulped, terrified, almost giving off a "deer caught in the headlights" expression. She stood there with her mouth open in shock, her eyes skimming him all over. Draco moved against the wall so he couldn't be seen anymore, now that the bubbles were gone.
Hermione looked as if she was trying to say something, but instead turned around quickly, stuttering an apology.
Draco looked at her, face flush from embarrassment. His expression of shock quickly morphed into one of solemnity. She looked so sad, and no matter how much Draco tried to deny it, at that moment he realized he would do anything for the girl standing in front of him.
He promised himself that he would tell her soon. For now, though, he couldn't do anything. He wasn't ready to let her know about how he felt. He wasn't even sure how he felt himself.
On the other side of the room, a very confused Hermione slowly turned back around and looked at Draco, who had managed to get a hold of a towel by then. She stared at the boy. . .no, man in front of her. Her eyes took every aspect of him in, from his gorgeous blond hair, to his chiseled torso, down to his muscular calves, then back up to his face, where his eyes, his typically emotionless pale gray eyes, now sending out waves of emotions, transfixed on nothing but her.
Hermione's eyes darted to his lips for a split second, then to his left forearm. Draco thought he small a flicker of a smile dance onto her lips. He shook his head. no no no no no, this is Hermione Granger, for god's sake!
Her eyes shifted to the floor, and Draco took a step closer to her. Both were silent as he moved toward her, finally stopping just a foot in front of her.
She looked up at his face, desperately wanting to pull it close to her own. She restrained herself though, and from the looks of it, Draco was having a hard time trying to fight it back as well.
Hermione forced herself to look away from his penetrating gaze, and taking a step back, she stumbled over her words.
"I-I-uh, I b-better g-go," she muttered, still staring at her feet. Draco looked at her and nodded, "yeah. . ." He didn't want to her to leave, but after a second's more of awkward silence, Hermione blushed and walked unsteadily out of the bathroom.
Draco watched her leave, his heart unexpectedly sending out a pang of heart- ache. He let himself fall back into the wall, and he stood there, leaning against the wall for support, desperately trying to figure out what was happening.
~*~
A/N: yup, shorter chapter than usual. Oh well. I couldn't resist the whole bathroom incident, because I know how clichéd and overused it is, lol, but darn it, I couldn't help it. He's just so darn cute. . .especially with those bubbles going away. . .mwahahahahaha.