Who knows how this will turn out. I'm having a heck of a time just keeping the characters in character and because of that, there are changes in plot in my mind already. No changes in the pairings though…
Two queens of hearts in one deck? D'oh! I knew I'd mess something up. Pretend it was a queen of hearts and one of diamonds or something. Since the only time I played poker or cards in general was in Poland in the seventh grade, I suppose I'm lucky enough to at least know some stuff. Thank you for pointing that out, Gary Skinner. You always read everything so carefully and never miss anything. In lots of reviews you mention tiny details and you comment on them. I am so happy about that – my stories are taken seriously! Yes!
~* 12 *~
The soft light of the candle flickered from a great distance. I could see the candle's narrow stick, standing like a little white general, and then… and then…
" The monster came out and said Boo!" Draco finished.
" Is my scary story not working?" Hermione tried to appear cheerful as she said it, but she could see the skepticism on Draco's face. " I tried to make it somewhat frightening." Her wand, on the Lumos spell, was pointed beneath her chin, giving her face a very ghost-like glow.
" I'd give you points on the glowing-face bit, but the story drags on. The girl's dead, some guy is locked in a piano, and then there's a dozen other characters I can't keep straight in my mind." Draco sighed. " What I'm saying is, a good ghost story rarely has many elaborate characters, and usually focuses between one and five only, so as to make the plot very concentrated… I guess it makes it scarier at the end."
" The story I'm telling is a bit of an adapted version of a story I read in the second year. It was a marvelous mystery and the ending truly struck fear in my…"
" Sure, for you. I bet you get spooked by the smallest things." Draco said. He stood up and then swished his hand by her face quickly. Her eyes blinked shut the second his hand sailed through the air just centimeters before her eyelashes. " See?" Draco said.
" No, I don't see." Hermione grabbed his hand, her fingers wrapping around his wrist. She held his wrist, suspended in the air, and said in a threatening voice: " That was a silly trick. It's common sense to close your eyes when something flies by your face."
" I don't do that."
" Yeah right."
" Try me."
Hermione let go of his wrist to wave her hand past his own face. Draco didn't even flinch.
" How can you do that?" She asked. " You don't blink much, either. Your eyes will dry up and fall out like raisins."
" Girls blink more then boys do. That's what Muggle scientists proved. My dad always laughs at their experiments… they could be out curing their plagues and ailments, but instead, they're studying blinking. I think humanity's got that down pat."
She laughed.
Draco suddenly grew serious: " Do you really think I'm funny?"
" Well, yes." Hermione admitted. " Ron's funnier, though." She didn't sound mean when she said it, just matter-of-fact. He smiled.
" Start over. Add more gory details to your ghost story."
Hermione nodded and began again: " In the darkness… in the night… a terrible black shadow lurched in the alley behind a small little cottage. The Dark Lord was out, desperate to find innocent blood to butcher again… children's cries were his serenade, blood was the wine in his cup, and…"
" Stop!" Draco shouted, putting an end to her tale.
" What is it?" Hermione asked, then added: " Too scary for you?"
" Never mind. Let's just go to sleep." Draco was suddenly a bit jittery and nervous. He sat down on his cot and then looked around the room, despite how dark it was, and how he wouldn't be able to see anything past arm's length.
Hermione made a note inside her mind to refrain from bringing up the Dark Lord in her conversations with Draco.
~*~
Two days passed uneventfully. Hermione and Draco ate together, mostly in silence, so as to avoid previous experiences. The third day from their last visit to the secret room, Hermione was surprised to hear a rapping on the door. It was a few days since anyone had come to visit them. Assuming it was for her, she replied: " Who is it?"
" Is Draco there?"
" Where else would I be?" Draco snapped at the door. " Go away, Pansy, I don't need any sympathy."
Hermione could see that Draco was very different from her. Hermione was very happy when her friends came to talk to her, to offer her comfort. Draco didn't like it for some reason.
" I brought you a note – from me and from Crabbe and Goyle. We miss you." Pansy continued.
Draco stood with an over-exaggerated groan and then approached the door, looking down at the space between the floor and the base of the door expectantly. When the thin slip of folded paper appeared, he pulled it into the room completely. " Thanks, Pansy." He said, finally, as the silence grew prolonged. The words fell awkwardly like dumbbells.
" Open it." She prompted.
" Well…" Draco unfolded the paper and then stared at it. His ears turned a scarlet red, and he said: " … um…"
" What do you say?" Pansy asked. " Would you make it out in time for it?"
" Shh." He shushed her. Draco turned to look at Hermione. " Take a hike for a minute, okay? Plug your ears or something."
Hermione nodded, however reluctantly, and then went to the opposite side of the room, where she put her palms up to cover her ears. To add effect, she also hummed noisily, tapping one foot on the ground in a measure of time. One…two…three…
Draco pressed closer to the door, and Hermione could see him whispering fervently. Then, Draco turned to her and motioned with his hands for her to drop her ears.
" Thanks, Draco. I'll be going, then." Pansy's knees cracked as she stood, and soon her footsteps were a faint patter in the darkened dungeon passages. The Slytherin common room was not too far from here, obviously, and neither was Snape's class. Draco and Hermione would often hear students rushing by to Potions. Once, they heard Ginny speaking reverently to two of her friends about how amazing Harry was. Draco looked at Hermione and winked that time, saying: " I'm telling you, you can start a damn fan club when you get out of here."
Hermione could feel a yawn coming and she let it out before saying testily: " Wouldn't it be about time to check on the Memory Room?"
Draco looked at his wrist, pretending to be a Muggle checking their pathetic little watches. " Nope, this is not the time."
" Why don't you want to go in there?" Hermione asked.
" I just don't."
Hermione slipped her finger down in the back of his collar at the nape of his neck. She tugged it hard back and he was seesawed from his seat on the cot. Lying on his back on the floor, Hermione towering over him like a skyscraper, he had to speak honestly, facing her, eyes locked.
He blinked, amused. " Whatever suits you, ma'am."
She grasped his sleeve and tugged him to the hologram window. " Now, you get your butt in there and we're going to finish what we began."
" We? I think I was the one who got in there first. You happened to tag along." Draco replied. " Besides, if I do go, it's because I want to, not because you told me to." His eyes said otherwise, but he was adamant about making his own decisions. A Malfoy was not one to be bossed around, despite how bossy Grangers could be.
Draco flexed his arms, cracked his knuckles noisily, and then pushed his head into the hologram, then tossed the rest of himself inside. Hermione went in after him. This time, though, as they climbed in, the room seemed to swallow them readily, and the balloon pop was barely audible. Hermione wondered to herself: The Memory Spell will fall apart slowly as more memories are absorbed. If I could only remember how many memories could possibly be held in a single room…
Just then, she hit something hard. She saw a flash of colors, as if the world was a kaleidoscope falling slowly into place from a million beads inside a tube. Hermione tossed her head back and then looked up into the stretch of sky that appeared. The sky was growing darker by the minute, however.
The trees were all near bare, a few hollow brown leaves rattling like maracas on the branches. The wind was picking up quickly, tossing her long hair back. She wished that she had pinned it back, for it would be in her way now.
" Where are we?"
Draco was standing beside her.
" I don't know." Hermione looked behind them. A tall home had slowly appeared. It was the home from her dream, the tiny home in which she found a crying baby, the home that stood vividly like a true scene from her own memory. She blinked as tears filled her eyes suddenly. The wind was so bitter that it was making her cry as it blew into her eyes.
" Should we go in?"
" Wait. Look over there!" Hermione motioned to the trees. Three dark figures were trailing up the path. Each was dressed in Death Eater robes.
" We gotta hide." Draco breathed out suddenly. Before Hermione could do anything, he was pushing her into the bushes by the home. Together, they peeked between the branches and surveyed the scene hungrily.
" Something's happening." Hermione commented. " They're going to do something awful."
" You think?" Draco asked, sarcastically.
One of the Death Eaters threw their hood back slowly. A flash of pale skin and smooth white-blonde hair and icy eyes was revealed. It was Lucius Malfoy, in the flesh, tall and frightening. He glared at the house and whispered something to the men behind him. Then, one of them moved slowly to the house.
Hermione gasped. " No. Don't tell me…"
Then, all of a sudden, there was a tear in the memory. It seemed as if the entire scene before them was ripped in half, as easily as a sheet of paper. Hermione turned two wide-open, frightened eyes to Draco. " Your father…"
Draco shook his head and then said: " No! It's wrong! This thing is messing up!"
It was messing up in some way, the memories had somehow become scattered randomly. Now there was something else appearing – a wedding scene.
Hermione was standing in the corner of the room as James and Lily were cutting a giant cake. They passed the slices of cake around the room to the massive gathering of guests. The lovely weather outside was evident, not a cloud in the blue sky, and a bright sun peeked in through the floor-length windows, slightly covered with lacy pink curtains. The room was so grand and beautiful, and the golden chandelier hanging from the ceiling so magnificent, that Hermione nearly forgot the brief memory that popped up by error previously.
" Their wedding day!" She nearly shouted.
" Who's this?" A voice asked behind them.
Hermione spun around. A tall man with a cheerful, bright smile and dancing eyes was behind them. Those eyes gave no doubt to the identity of the person – it was Sirius Black, young and carefree. He reached his hand out to Hermione first. " May I have your names? I had no idea that the Potters had any youngsters as acquaintances."
" I'm … Jane." Hermione lied, because she knew that Sirius would not remember her face, but a name like hers would stick in his mind. She couldn't mix the future – the future that Sirius was supposed to know her in then.
Then, Sirius held his hand out to Draco. Draco didn't recognize the man, and he shook his hand in a very open way. Hermione wondered if Draco would have been so easygoing in shaking Sirius's hand if Draco knew precisely who this man was. Draco gave a false name as well, catching Hermione's example: " I'm Joey."
" Jane and Joey. You sound like a born pair." Sirius laughed. " I'm Sirius Black." He looked over Draco again, a bit slower this time. "You do remind me of someone an awful lot. Do you have an older brother – Lucius?"
" No." Draco said, immediately.
" Good. Who'd want to be related to that sourball? He didn't even come to the wedding party." Sirius turned and motioned with his hand for James. " Hey, Potter, get over here."
James walked up to Sirius and then looked at Hermione and Draco. He grinned. " I think I recognize you from somewhere… however broadly…"
Hermione shook her head. " I don't think so. We must have walked into the wrong banquet hall - - we're here for a baby shower." Hermione was quick with spinning yarns if she had to. She turned to Draco. " Isn't that right, Joey?"
" Uh, sure." Draco allowed for a faint smile. " A … baby shower."
They stumbled backwards and burst out the door and into the hallway. They stood there for a minute. " Why are we still here? Shouldn't the memory be over now?" Draco complained.
" I don't know." Hermione replied in a low voice. " Maybe we haven't seen the part that made this a memorable memory."
" Let's just look from the hallway, then. I don't need to have a crowd around us wherever we appear." Draco poked his head into the doorway. " Okay, they're cutting the cake… at least, Potter's mom is."
Hermione pushed him aside to see for herself. " Why can't you just call him Harry, not Potter?"
" I don't know, Granger."
Hermione felt her blood boil. Jerk.
Then, Lily and James finished passing the cake out. They kissed in front of the room. It was going in fast motion now. The people spun around the room quickly, and within minutes, it was empty of guests and some restaurant workers were cleaning it up. Hermione could see Lily and James slowly walking out. They caught bits of the conversation:
" How are you feeling?" This was James.
Lily put her hand on her stomach. " It isn't showing yet, but…"
" Just think, in a few months, we'll be a real family." James looked ready to cry.
" What a sap." Draco whispered very quietly to Hermione. They were trying their hardest to cower in the dark hallway without having the Potter couple notice them.
Then, it was all over, and before Hermione could notice, she and Draco were lying on the floor of the Punishment room, side-by-side, in a very awkward pose. She jumped to her feet since someone was just pounding on the door.
" What is going on in there? Miss Granger? Mister Malfoy?"
" You can come in, Professor McGonagall." Hermione said. Her face was red and she was panting slightly, still worked up from the Memory Room.
Professor McGonagall walked into the room and tried to smile widely, but was taken aback with Hermione's disheveled hair and red face, and how both the students were panting loudly, their clothing rumpled. " Well! I can assume you aren't throwing daggers at each other any more?"
" We were arguing again, and I guess I threw a pillow at him, so he threw one at me." Hermione whispered to hide the truth. She couldn't allow Professor McGonagall assume anything otherwise.
" I thought things were going just fine! I was even considering letting both of you go soon."
Draco glared at Hermione.
Hermione persisted to argue that they were fighting, since she knew that it was better to have the Professor know that they were enemies then to assume that they were becoming, well, close. " I'm sorry." She mouthed to Draco, when Professor McGonagall left, leaving their dinner (in hope that they'd eat together).
Draco shook his head. " It's fine… I'd like to be out of here, but I can see your point." He said. " At least, a little." She didn't know why, but she had a crazy idea that he was hurt by how she was repulsed at having Professor McGonagall believe that they liked each other.
" You're not mad, right?"
" Are you kidding me? Why would I be mad?" Draco burst out.
" You are mad. Why?"
" I'm not." Draco began to put some food on his plate from the tray Professor McGonagall brought him.
Hermione could see that the topic was closed and she chose, wisely, not to bother him any longer.
~*~
A/N: Well, I will update more often now . . . since I have spring break for the next 10 days! Wouldn't you people love to have a chapter every 2 days or so? Or would you like to have me update less often?
Oh, and I am currently working on chapter 7 of "The Anniversary" by me, to all the readers that read the story so far! :-)… keep remiding me in the reviews and it will be up in 1 week. P.S. Longest chapter yet! 3,000 words! Yay! P.P.S. I am so sorry about the errors in layout… the way the font just changes… I dunno what's going on…
