Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or all related syndica. I can't even spell syndica.
~* 4 *~
Some time to the end of the evening, Professor McGonagall brought a blanket for Draco and one for Hermione, along with two small pillows. When she stood in the classroom, she waved her wand and two cots appeared for the two students to sleep on.
" How was it today?" Professor McGonagall ventured.
Draco didn't reply, he only frowned angrily.
" It wasn't too bad." Hermione spoke up. " We're not speaking." She added, seeing as how Draco made a low, gruff noise in the back of his throat that sounded very much like a sound of doubt and disagreement with Hermione's statement.
" Are you hungry?"
Hermione shook her head. This wasn't true, but she didn't feel ready to share the table with Draco. She didn't want to sit at the same table as he would sit at… she looked at Professor McGonagall with concern. " Professor?"
" What is it?"
" Well, I'm a little hungry, but… do you think I can just eat separately from Draco? I find it very unfair that…"
" Please, Hermione, I find it perfectly fair. You'll see that when you enter the adult world, everything you do will be with other people. If you don't learn now to get along with everyone, you will fail at any job you attempt." Professor McGonagall seemed very pleased with her assertion, but Hermione was doubtful. If this was true, then why was she being forced into such punishment now? She might as well enjoy her childhood and then take the misery of adulthood later, not now.
Draco spoke in his drawling voice, finally, but only to McGonagall and not to Hermione: " My family, for as long as I remember, prospered just fine. We don't rely on others to get somewhere. I doubt that everything I will do as an adult will revolve around others."
Professor McGonagall reddened. She wasn't very pleased with Draco's remark.
" Hogwarts was established on grounds of peace, to have little wizards and witches shaped into intelligent young adults. I have said this once, if not a million times, that I, nor Dumbledore, nor anyone on these premises, will tolerate violence and malevolent behavior between students. I haven't seen such childish bickering between fifth years for years now. Many years." The teacher replied at Draco's snide words.
Draco crossed his arms across his chest and teetered on the back legs of his chair again. To show his utter lack of respect to McGonagall's choice of punishment, he yawned loudly, then said: " I'm going to sleep. I hope she won't be here when I wake up."
With that, he began to set up his cot, angrily.
" At home, father would have other people set up my bed. A canopy bed, with a good mattress. And what's this? A cot, for Merlin's sakes." Draco muttered to himself, exasperated. He pushed down a feather pillow as a last touch to the cot, then flopped down on it, pulling the blanket up.
Professor McGonagall shook her head. " Sometimes the most stubborn mules grow up to be the most reliant on the farm, if given time."
" I wouldn't count on it." Draco said, pulling the blanket over his head, drowning the sound of McGonagall's angry scolding.
Hermione only sighed. She wished to speak to Harry and Ron. Mostly, she wanted to feel Harry's hand in hers again, just for a brief while. The briefest touch was enough to raise her spirits. Then again, one look at the insolent darkness behind Draco's eyes was enough to drop her spirits again.
~*~
Sometime in the middle of the night, Hermione heard a low scratching sound on the door. She slowly slid her legs off the cot and her feet touched the floor. Professor McGonagall had taken Hermione out to change, and she came back to coax Draco out of the cot. He was reluctant at first, of course, thinking that the Professor only wished to berate him on his behavior.
They both smelled clean, devoid of mud and dust on their bodies, and yet, Hermione felt this disgusting, mucky feeling on her body, as if she were still wallowing out in the mud pit in which her very hopes of improving her essay were scattered.
" Hermione!" A voice hissed.
" Ginny." Hermione said, with a tone of disappointment. Suddenly, her face brightened as she realized how rude it was not to sound glad. It wasn't Harry, but at least it was some contact with the world outside the chamber.
" I have an idea." Ginny's low, trembling voice said.
Hermione heard Draco shift in his bed.
" Shh!" Hermione held her finger to her lips and shushed the Weasley girl. Ginny giggled softly as an idea struck her head and she asked:
" Does he snore?"
" No." Hermione replied hastily. " Tell me, what's so important that you came at night? You'll get in a lot of trouble if Filch…"
" Don't worry, Filch is up to his ears handling Neville. Seems Neville forgot to do some essay and he was trying to sneak into the library, only to knock over that iron knight display, remember it?"
Hermione replied: " Not really."
" Anyhow…" Ginny paused, catching her breath. She must have run all the way through the dungeons. It wasn't very surprising, since it was cold, spooky, and at the same time dark down in these rooms. Hermione listened carefully as Ginny said: " I heard Harry saying that he will look for a book on how to cast a spell that lets you - - you know - - what's it called?"
" Describe it." Hermione pressed her hands to the hard wooden door. " Tell me!"
" You know - - you can walk through walls and stuff?"
Hermione didn't recall the word for this, either. She did remember reading about something like this in her second year. " Ginny, do you think Harry would…"
" I think he'll cast it on himself so he can walk through this door and come see you."
" Would it work?"
" I don't know."
Draco turned in his cot again. He let out an annoyed breath. His eyes opened and closed, focusing on the cold grayish-black wall in front of him. The whispering voices were beginning to annoy him very much, and despite how he tried to conceal the fact he was up already, he realized he'd have to make them know somehow that they were disrupting his sleep.
" Hush, Draco will hear us."
'I already do.' Draco thought, angrily. 'Go to sleep, Mudblood. And go away, whoever you are.'
Ginny's voice fell as she said, gravely: " You don't think the spell's dangerous? He won't hurt himself, right?" Ginny was probably trembling behind the door. Hermione laughed quietly.
" He'll be fine."
" Good, because I don't want him to be hurt." Ginny let out a shuddering breath. " I like him, you know."
Hermione felt a sting in her stomach. It was odd hearing it said out loud and in the open.
'Oh, please, you like HIM? Join the club, kid, so does Mudblood'. Draco thought. 'Now go away.' He turned on the cot again, clearing his throat so loudly he'd have easily convinced someone that he was hacking up bits of his lungs. Then, he took in a deep breath and yawned, stretching simultaneously. This ought to bring on the idea that he was waking up.
" Wow, he sleeps like a windmill." Ginny commented. " Tossing and turning like that. Is that healthy?"
" I don't know." Hermione shrugged to herself, smiling at the idea. " Maybe he has nightmares."
" His worst nightmare? Being locked up in a room with Harry."
" Or with me." Hermione said, angrily. " And that's my worst nightmare, too." She shuddered and then slapped her hands down angrily on the wooden door, not realizing she did it until the sharp sound of her hands striking the wood rang in her ears.
Ginny shifted outside of the door. " Hey, Hermione, I better go."
Hermione understood this, and she said, sadly: " Thanks for coming. Tell Harry I can't wait until he tries to get inside of here."
" I'll tell him."
" Wait!" Hermione suddenly said.
"What?" Ginny seemed to have been heading down the corridor already, and she spun around noisily on her heels, the slippers she had on slapping in a puddle formed on the ground from moisture leaking down the walls.
" There's a window facing the room beside this one. He can try and get into that room and talk to me through the window." Hermione liked this idea more then having him come into the room she was in. It was probably sealed from usage of such spells, too.
" Alright. I'll tell him." Ginny said. " Good night."
"Good night." Hermione replied, and then went to her cot. Suddenly, she felt the most horribly lonely feeling cross her, as if the sound of Ginny's retreating footsteps was civilization itself backing away from her. Hermione huddled her face into her pillow, feeling tears in her eyes again. She wouldn't cry, though. She didn't cry anymore.
She fell asleep; dreaming of leaning out a window while roses fell all around. Somewhere in the distance floated a note. Harry's note! She forgot to read it!
She'll do that tomorrow…
Too bad that Draco knew the note was there already. And he happened to be curious of its content, and at the same time thinking of revenge on Hermione, with how she kept him up at night.
He reached out, groping, since his cot was close to the desk, and his fingers fell upon it, tucked between an uneaten portion of a candy bar. 'What do we have here?' He thought, pulling the crisp note open, at the same time whispering 'Lumos!'
Draco's wand, though sealed with the room so that no magical attacks could be made, illuminated the page anyhow, for ordering the wand to make a light just wasn't considered a bad sort of spell. At least, not in most cases, but right now he was making use of it in a way that would be considered bad.
He didn't care, though, for the words on the note were a sweet reminder of how stupid Hermione was, to leave it out in the open. Did she really think that Draco wouldn't open it?
~*~
A/N: well I retire at this point of the story for the day. Review, I will post the next chapter faster! Really!
I wonder why, each time I try to add a picture to my story, it doesn't work. I have a million images I drew of Hermione, Draco, Ron, or Harry. How do I add pictures to an html document? I attempt many times. I tried to add one in now.
Any help is appreciated from my readers. - Maggie
