Ch 5_Bonding
A/N: Last chapter was extremely fluffy, but hopefully the end was just enough of a meat-y cliffie to satisfy you all… haha. I wonder what's going to happen now… In case you haven't noticed… I'm sort of winging this… Right then..
Last Chapter:
Draco first paled then returned to his normal pallor, then paled even more again, then looked revolted, then blushed a pink tinge into the pale apples of his cheeks, and finally settled into his usual color. Hermione in comparison blushed straight away, then paled, then looked outraged, then blushed again, until she returned to her usual peachy color.
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"Alright, then, I'll, um, be going now..." said Hermione, backing away slowly.
"Be sure to let the portrait hit you on the way out."
Rolling her eyes, a confused Hermione began to come to the conclusion that in a severely uncharacteristic way, Draco was going to let her go – even after kissing him.
"By the way, Granger, you realize that the baby's already been formed, don't you? We don't need to recreate the situation in which babies are naturally made... At least for me, not with you. So try your best to keep your lips to yourself next time." After a short pause, he topped off his lecture with, "But I clearly understand how that might be a problem." He smirked as Hermione blushed to the color of Ginny's hair.
Ginny clearly felt like slapping him in the face. "Fucking asshole," she muttered under her breath, heading toward Hermione. "Come on, Hermione, we can take a hint!" She led Hermione out of the room, slamming the portrait shut with fervor.
"Why's he such a pugnacious jerk, Gin? And why does he always get away with it?" asked Hermione tiredly. Her lack of sleep last night was catching up with her.
"You're asking me?"
"Worth a shot. Let's go back to the Common Room."
As they reached the Gryffindor Common Room, Hermione felt like she was going to collapse. She wasn't sure that she could reach her dorm room, and thus plopped down on the couch.
"Ginny, am I really a spastic freak like Malfoy said?"
"Well, Hermione, you're not a spastic freak because Malfoy said so... You're a freak because you do equations in your head for fun." Hermione rolled her eyes and feeling a bit better after her short respite, got up.
"I need to get some-" Hermione yawned, "sleep."
Ginny sighed. "See you."
*______________________________________________________________________*
'2:20 already? That's weird..' "Pansy, get off. Now." Draco peered down at her busy, moist, hourglass figure. 'I shouldn't have to pry her off with a crow bar when I'm done with a quickie.' The thought originated from his impatience with Pansy, and was meant to sound agitated, but in his mind the words took a more egotistical turn. After all, he was so irresistible, what girl wouldn't require a bit of prying? He smirked devilishly.
Instantly, he got an idea. "Pansy. Go get my Invisibility Cloak," he said, urging her to assist in carrying out his whim.
*______________________________________________________________________*
'This is boring.' Draco wandered the halls restlessly. 'Where is everyone? Granger?' She was just exiting the kitchen, accompanied by Ginny and Alyssa. 'I might as well spy on them. We're going to the same place now, anyway.' He took a few strides in their direction, and began walking with them, remaining within earshot.
"Gin, I have to go bring Alyssa to the Prefect Common Room for Malfoy, you want to come?" 'No need to sound so disappointed.'
"Sure. So... What's it like? Knowing that you get to spend all that time with Malfoy?"
"'Get' to spend, Ginny? What do you mean? Who'd want to spend the rest of the year with him?" 'HEY!'
"I would! He's so hot! Maybe an egotistical, belligerent jerky bastard, but you have to admit that he's seriously hot!" 'Very nice... very nice. If it weren't against all my Malfoy principles, I'd date her. The vixen. But what a mouth on her! I like it.'
"Actually... I haven't thought about it. His bad qualities seem to seriously surpass his good ones. Though now that you mention it..." she said. 'Ew, she likes me now? Well, at least she finally stopped lying to herself...' Draco smirked to himself, and wished his cronies were around to share in the mirth. Plus he wanted to show off that now even Harry's friends were interested in him.
"You know, you're a disgrace to girls everywhere. We have our whole lives to like the right boys. The whole fun of being a teenager is being shallow!" 'Kid's got spunk.'
"You know, Gin, I'm really worried that Malfoy's going to turn her into a muggle hating... muggle hater." 'Yeah? What of it?'
"Hermione, don't be so paranoid. What's he going to do? Bring her home to a nice muggle sacrifice?"
"You don't know that! Sorry!" 'Typical Mudblood. Apologizes for acting like a lunatic and traumatically scarring common bystanders.' The lowly passerby's looked scared out of their wits at her frantic shrieks.
"Wow, Hermione. Just because his dad is a raving homicidal lunatic, and he was brought up to be one, and admires his father and tries to mimic him down to the tiniest detail... doesn't mean that he is one… does it?"
"He sure acts like it..." 'Bitch.'
"True… but he can't be as bad as Lucy Malfoy!" The girls chortled in amusement. 'You can forget your chances of going out with me now.' But as the echoing of their laughter vanished from their vicinity, Hermione seemed to be thinking resolutely about something.
"You know, he does have a softer side. Or… something." 'Oh bloody hell...' thought Draco, wondering what she was talking about. Scrupulously probing through his earlier memories was no help. But he did grow intensifyingly inquisitive.
"I walked in on him in the Prefect Bathroom," she began, and Draco's mind shut down at that point. Pausing, he turned a pale shade of green under the cloak and began to berate himself with fervor, feverishly willing Hermione to stop. 'Oh shit, Mudblood. Keep your mouth shut! you busybody.'
Regaining his senses, he jogged quietly over to them, concentrating on the soft padding of his feet on the floor below him, intent on keeping his approach silent. Of course by that time, Hermione had almost finished talking. Catching up with the girls, he heard her conclude her speech with, "- Malfoy reading something like that. It was so… surprising..." 'And it was supposed to remain a surprise...' he thought, his face contorting into a nasty sneer as his stare fell upon her.
"You're telling me..." 'What's that supposed to mean?'
Soon they approached the Prefect Common Room, and Draco glided in ahead of them, positioning himself cautiously.
"Ugh, Ginny, where do you think the mangy git is now, anyway?"
"Right here." 'This charade has gone on long enough,' he thought, revealing himself behind them so they didn't notice him slipping out of the cloak and tucking it into his pocket with a silent shrinking spell.
"Malfoy! You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Just another perk of skulking in the shadows." 'Wow, Granger, you are a spastic freak... I mean...' "And wow, Granger, you are a spastic freak..."
"What did I tell you, Gin?" He noticed the bitter malice in her voice and smirked to himself.
"I hate to break up such a lovely conversation, but I think, Hermione, it's time you give Alyssa up to Malfoy."
After what seemed like an eternity of an internal battle to Draco, she handed him Alyssa.
"Right well, when do you want her back?" he asked.
"Um, I'll take her again tomorrow before breakfast. In front of the Great Hall."
"Fine. Then, I'll take her again after lunch."
"Great," she said actually pleasantly.
'Why is she being nice? Stop! It's creeping me out.' "Right."
Draco shifted Alyssa in his arms, and by the time he'd finished and looked up, Hermione was there, apparently for a good-bye kiss. 'Stop jerking, child!' She leaned in to kiss her, but due to another of Alyssa's wrenches, she ended up kissing her archenemy. 'I must disinfect as soon as humanely possible. What would Father say?' Noticing her change in color and facial expression, it was apparent that Draco had felt a lot better, as he'd returned to his original pallor.
"Alright, then, I'll, um, be going now..." she tried to cover for herself.
"Be sure to let the portrait hit you on the way out." 'But I can't leave it at that...' "By the way, Granger, you realize that the baby's already been formed, don't you? We don't need to recreate the situation in which babies are naturally made... At least for me, not with you. So try your best to keep your lips to yourself next time. But I clearly understand how that might be a problem." Draco gave her his illustrious Malfoy smirk when he'd noticed her blushing as red as her house color.
"Come on, Hermione, we can take a hint!" exclaimed Ginny. She slammed the portrait hard, making Alyssa jump a little.
"And then there were two."
Clutching Alyssa to his chest, he stalked out of the Prefect Common Room. "Now what?" he asked, looking down into his daughter's silver eyes, so identical to his own. Arching his left brow, he sighed.
"You were artificially inseminated. I did not sleep with a Mudblood." He noticed subtle change in her facial expression, and added, "Don't look at me like that." With a sharp sigh, it occurred to him that only place he'd had to go was down to the Slytherin Common Room.
As they began their trek, Alyssa settled comfortably in Draco's arms. "You know, you did of course seem to come off with my good looks." Glancing down at her, he flashed her a rare grin. "You can't help who you are, I suppose, though. So we'll just forget that you're a half-blood. I can be pure enough for the both of us," he said positively, lowering his hand to examine a strand of her uniquely colored hair. He noted that it was soft and feathery, like his own. His posture lightly sagged and he stroked her hair for a moment. She was so peaceful. As they continued to walk and they began to pass people, he immediately ceased his affectionate display and regained his rigid composure.
Making his way across the castle, glancing carelessly at the various elaborate tapestries and portraits scattering the walls, he reached the stairs leading to the cold stone dungeon of his current abode.
"Dragon's blood." The stone door granting entrance to Draco's common room emerged from the wall and slid open, and he ventured into the Slytherin Common Room. He moved them to his favorite place in the common room, the couch by the fire, and took a seat.
Alyssa's calculating stare at the round green lamps that were suspended from the ceiling by chains, conveyed her kindled interest in the eerie glow they were radiating. Draco considered raising her up to examine the lamps, but as abruptly as she had gained interest in them, she showed absolutely no signs whatsoever of the lights ever having influenced her. Now Draco was stuck. He had no prior experience with small children, let alone did he have the merest hint as to how he would entertain the baby girl that now sat before him on the ironically cozy armchair across from him.
Luckily, Blaise had caught sight of him from across the room, at the completion of an avid conversation on makeup with Millicent Bulstrode and Anastasia Saba. The three girls shuffled en masse over to Draco and "the adorable little jewel with his eyes." Resolving to abdicate his duties over to the girls and let them handle her for the rest of the day, the girls capriciously lost interest in Alyssa as quickly as she'd lost attraction in the lamps, and left Draco all alone with her.
"Shit," cursed Draco, his plan foiled. "What'll I do now?" Almost screwing up his face in immense concentration, Draco contemplated the answer to his question. Feeling lost, but extremely loath to admit it, Draco glared at Alyssa. Not used to Draco's coldness, she looked a little shocked. Even at her age she could understand when she was being treated harshly. Draco, however, didn't care.
"Come on, you can't even talk! Or can you? If you can understand me, nod." He nodded so as to demonstrate the proper fashion in which he expected her to follow suit. To his bewilderment, she did. "So you can understand me?" He looked mildly interested, habitually concealing his emotions. "Can you read?" Alyssa made a face. "Oh right, you're not even one yet... Anyway don't make faces unless it's necessary, like a glare or something. It gives you wrinkles. And shows too much emotion," he said nonchalantly.
"You know, you're terribly unfortunate to have me as a father." He had almost whispered the statement, recalling his own cold childhood, and sensitive to the chill that often accompanied his reminiscence. As Alyssa once again scrunched up her face in confusion, Draco raised his eyebrows at her to stop and she obeyed instantaneously. "You learn quick, grasshopper." Suddenly becoming aware of his slip of a muggle phrase, Draco's eyes surveyed the room for anyone that might've heard, but as everyone was absorbed in their own lives, no one seemed to have noticed.
"As I was saying," he began unperturbed, "it's rather ill-fated for you that I turned out to be your father. The way I was raised, I'm completely oblivious as to what I'm supposed to... do. You see, we Malfoys have a very high respectable reputation to uphold, and high standards for our kin. We have certain laws to abide by, and you learn those as a child. The hard way. And as every Malfoy manor is complete with torture chamber, dungeon, and such, it's not difficult to get your point across. But since you are part Mudblood, you can never be a true Malfoy, so there's no point in being that harsh with you. Plus, as a child, I resolved never to handle a child of mine in that manner, and you pass for that, at least. Anyway, I guess you're just stuck with me. So let's... get out of here. You might catch a chill," he said surprising himself at the caring statement he'd allowed to escape his lips. Draco picked up his daughter warily and traipsed up the stairs out of the dungeons.
"Can you walk?" he asked Alyssa unexpectedly once they were out of sight of the Slytherin Common Room. In his arms, she replied with a sigh, and randomly lifted her hand and ran it through her father's hair. She smiled and kissed his cheek.
"Fa-ath-er-er," she stuttered. Draco raised his eyebrows, startled. He made a face that illustrated something like, 'not bad,' and put her down on the floor, holding her hands in his. He stood behind her, her arms flailing above her head in Draco's grasp, and they began to move. Draco half-smiled at her rapid progress.
For about an hour, the father/daughter bonding ritual was engaged. By the time they had finished, it was about six o'clock, and an hour until they were due at the Great Hall for dinner.
Draco concluded that the little interaction there was between Alyssa and the other Slytherins, the better. Though he wouldn't admit it, he'd developed a sort of attachment to her, despite her being a half-blood. That was why he needed to keep her away from that crowd.
"Well now what? We have about an hour to kill. Let's go wander the halls, talking about people behind their backs! Would you like that?" he asked in mock excitement. Alyssa raised an eyebrow in a very Draco-like fashion. "Right, you can't talk. Don't worry, I can make fun of them for the both of us," he said decisively and once again lifted his daughter into his sculpted arms.
A/N: "You're a freak because you do equations in your head for fun." ((The Weekenders)) idea of : "You know, you did of course seem to come off with my good looks" ((penname Ravishingly Discreet)) Ok. . . I know that 'intensifyingly' isn't a word, but all great writers make up words at some point in their writing! Dr. Seuss did it all the time!