Never Say Never
Chapter 10 - Apologies
Disclaimer: Usual story.
Draco's POV
I pulled Hermione swiftly along by the hand until we reached the Prefect's Bathroom where I stopped abruptly, jolting her to a halt behind me. Her eyes widened as she saw where we were and I thought that I could see a faint tinge of pink gracing her milky skin.
"Why are we here Malfoy?" she asked softly, speaking for the first time since I had told her that we needed to talk. There was a strange expression on her face, as though she was remembering something.
"Strictly because no one else can come in here except for the other Prefects. I would think that you had already worked that out with that extra large brain of yours." I replied snappily as I opened the door, after making sure no one else was around.
"You forgot to say the password." That was the icy reply that I got from Hermione who was looking slightly disgruntled at my half insult.
"Oh." I muttered sheepishly before saying the password 'Lemon lime' and turning the handle, which in turn opened the door fully this time. The sparkling marble bathroom gleamed as we went in and I heard the lock click as Hermione shut the door behind us, mumbling something about how hard House Elves had to work to keep up the clean state of the bathroom.
"Alright Malfoy. What do you want to talk about?" she said looking directly at me, perching herself on the edge of the swimming pool sized bathtub. Almost knowing what would happen I moved forward and caught Hermione deftly in my arms as she tilted backwards into the tub, nearly hitting her head on the hard surface.
"Find somewhere else to sit, Hermione. It's not safe to sit there." I grunted helping her stand up. She threw a look of utter contempt at me, trying to muster what was left of her dignity.
"Where I sit is none of your business Malfoy. Why did you catch me anyway, its not like I would've hurt myself badly, and even then why should you care?" Hermione scoffed in return sitting right back down on the marble edge, though this time taking care not to sit too far back.
"We have a truce going on, Hermione. You specifically told me not to be nasty to you, didn't you?" I replied rolling my eyes as I sat down next to her. Her mouth twitched and then broke into a small smile as she realized that she was overreacting to absolutely nothing.
"That's right. The truce. . .alright then Malfoy I'm sorry about blowing up at you about that, I really should be saying thank you shouldn't I?" she said with a bit of amusement to her voice as her eyes twinkled at me.
I was amazed that she could change her facial expressions so quickly, and make them so expressive. I was also mildly horrified at the fact that she could change her mood in the blink of an eye, I mean one minute she's giving me a death glare and the next moment she's smiling at me. Women are hopeless.
Hermione was still looking expectantly at me to reply to her and I thanked my naturally emotionless face for not betraying my thoughts to her, though I couldn't bet that she couldn't already hear them in her own head.
Thoughts. . .that reminded me of the whole reason why were sitting comfortably next to each other in the Prefect's Bathroom. I nodded to show that I agreed with the fact that she should be apologizing to me and her smile grew into a grin as she swatted me playfully on the arm.
"Well too bad you aren't going to get an apology!" she said mischievously but her mood changed again as she saw the serious expression on my own face. She stopped her playfulness and settled down, moving a little closer to me for some unknown reason. I swallowed slowly, strangely enjoying the feeling of having her this close to me but knowing that she was expecting me to say something I began to speak.
"Hermione, I'm not sure if you have realized this or not but lately we haven't been able to hear each other's thoughts." I paused looking at her questioningly, she nodded slowly at this statement, "Well using the information that I got from this book," I held up the "Wacky Ways of the Wizarding Mind" that I took out from my bag and flipped to the page about the Ability to Send Thoughts and pointed at the line that I had underlined. "That says all that you need to know."
Hermione's POV
'The power will eventually wear off by itself but that can take a matter of years. Unless the two affected should come to completely understand and appreciate each other in a shorter period of time. Then the bond connecting their minds will be broken and they will no longer possess the power to read each other's minds.'
I looked up, astonished at Malfoy who grinned at me. I wondered why on earth I hadn't seen that extremely important point when I had read it! I found a smile struggling to make it's way to my mouth and when it did, I saw that it was just as big as the grin on Malfoy's pale face.
"So that means that - " I started saying before Malfoy finished triumphantly for me, "- we can't hear each other's thoughts anymore!"
"Yes!" I exclaimed, standing and jumping up and down excitedly. Malfoy watched me with an unreadable expression on his features and as the shock of the discovery wore off, I sharply remembered what had happened when we were last in this bathroom together.
I sat back down defeatedly and looked gently at Malfoy who now wore an expression of regret on his face. He looked up at that moment and met my gaze holding our eyes together and he spoke suddenly, with a hoarse croak to his voice.
"I'm sorry." I was completely taken aback by these two words and it took me a moment to register them in my brain. When they made sense I looked at Malfoy in surprise, "- I'm sorry for everything that I've ever done to hurt you."
My mouth opened, though no words came out and I just sat looking at Malfoy with a stupefied expression on my face. My eyes swept over his face and for once in my life I took the time to appreciate it. The high cheekbones, the stormy gray eyes that had so much passion in them, the soft lips and his straight nose. . . yes, I finally realized that this boy was extremely good looking.
My mind quickly flew back to last night when I had seen the rest of his body, well the upper half of it anyway and I remembered how handsome I had thought he had looked with the toned muscles. Then I realized that he was apologizing to me instead of me apologizing to him about yesterday!
"Listen Malfoy, I accept your apology. . .but can I ask you one question? Why?" I said incredulously, trying to force the image of Malfoy's upper body out of my mind.
"I don't know. I was just thinking about what happened last night. You were pretty angry when you left me right?" he said in a low voice with a grimace on his face.
"Well you said that the reason that you were being nicer to me was because you didn't want 'powerful and smart' enemies on your tail when you left school right?" I shot back, afraid that if I said anything else something that I didn't want to happen would happen.
"That was part of the reason. . .there was more except you wouldn't let me tell you. You just told me to get out of the way." He said sullenly and the acuteness of the regret of yesterday came back and against my will I could feel myself feeling sorry for Malfoy.
All in all, I didn't know what to think when it came to Malfoy. I know that we had that thought bond connection, and that kind of forced us together, but apart from that we had our own duties as Prefects and our own friends and interests, but it just seemed that whenever we didn't intend it, we would bump into each other.
I know that it may all just be a coincidence but I can't help feeling like we do have something going on between us, or at least our initial feelings towards each other have changed and I really don't know what to make of it. I also know for a fact that Malfoy is definitely not the same person as I knew before, something has changed and it looks like its for the better.
Or maybe he just got sick of teasing Harry, Ron and me. Either way, I don't really plan on having 'possible attraction' to him like the 'Wacky Ways of the Wizarding Mind' says, and I guess that the only way to do that is to avoid contact with him. . .to act the way that I used to around him.
But there's a nagging voice in my head that says that maybe, just maybe he's already attracted to me. . .
Draco's POV
I looked curiously at Hermione, she was deep in thought, her brow was furrowed and she wasn't making any indication that she had heard me. Maybe she just didn't want to hear what I wanted to say, but honestly I really didn't understand why I was still making an effort to be nice to her. I mean there was always the truce and all but other than that there really wasn't a reason.
The thought connection was broken; I couldn't have anymore fun listening on her thoughts and it just looked like everything was going to be going back to normal. I smiled wistfully at that, things were never going to go back to normal for me. I could never feel the feeling of power whenever I taunted her and I could never look at her in the same demeaning way again and I just couldn't ever be the same again.
God, the feeling that I got every time that she got closer to me was so intense, it was as though I was on fire, and the flame was burning fiercely inside me. I didn't know how to explain it, it didn't make sense. How could one's feelings change so quickly? From hatred to. . . dare I say love? Well perhaps my feelings haven't progressed to that stage but I know that I did feel passion towards her, a deep passion that fired up inside me every time that I saw her.
I know that I didn't want to admit it to myself, firstly there was the fact that she was Muggle-born and the second thing was that we were infamous for our loathing of each other. It would never work out, I mean who knows how she feels towards me? I know that she cant exactly hate me anymore because she wouldn't be sitting here with me at the moment but it's not like we're snogging each other either.
I sighed, and Hermione looked up quickly at me, startled but not knowing my inner turmoil. She smiled a tight little smile before getting off the stone edge of the bathtub and starting to search around the bathroom for something. She still had not replied to my statement.
"What are you looking for Hermione?" I asked as my curiousity got the better of me and her head snapped sharply back in my direction.
"Oh, nothing much it's just that I lost something yesterday night and I was thinking that perhaps it might've been in here." She flushed as she said this but continued to look me straight in the eye. Her warm eyes sought mine and held them in an intent gaze and my heartbeat quickened subconsciously.
I felt something in my stomach clench and I quickly got up from my seat walking towards where Hermione was squatting close to the white marble floor.
"Need some help?" I said quietly as I stooped down and joined her on the cool ground.
"No thanks. I think I'm almost done looking for it." She scanned the floor with those beautiful eyes again and when she was finished she turned to me with a meek expression on her face, as though she had done something wrong.
"Is there anything wrong, Hermione?" I asked uncertainly.
"No, of course not Malfoy." She said dully, "I think that I have to meet Harry and Ron soon so I better get going." She flashed me another small smile and she began to walk towards the locked door on the other side of the room. I followed her and when we walked back out into the silent and deserted corridor outside the Prefect's Bathroom we stood awkwardly facing each other, not knowing what to say.
"Well, Malfoy I guess I'll see you around then." Hermione said finally, in a business-like tone.
"Yeah, I'll see you around. . ." I replied with a soft grin and as she turned on her heel and began to stride off in the other direction I called out cheerfully after her, "Oh and just call me Draco."
Hey all! I got this chapter up faster than I expected, I started writing it straight after I posted the last chapter =) hope you guys like it, its been exploring both Hermione and Draco's feelings a whole lot more and I don't know if it's confusing or not. . . =S anyway, don't expect every single chapter to be posted this quickly alright? School's very busy over here!
Anyhow, cheers and please review!
psychohart
Chapter 10 - Apologies
Disclaimer: Usual story.
Draco's POV
I pulled Hermione swiftly along by the hand until we reached the Prefect's Bathroom where I stopped abruptly, jolting her to a halt behind me. Her eyes widened as she saw where we were and I thought that I could see a faint tinge of pink gracing her milky skin.
"Why are we here Malfoy?" she asked softly, speaking for the first time since I had told her that we needed to talk. There was a strange expression on her face, as though she was remembering something.
"Strictly because no one else can come in here except for the other Prefects. I would think that you had already worked that out with that extra large brain of yours." I replied snappily as I opened the door, after making sure no one else was around.
"You forgot to say the password." That was the icy reply that I got from Hermione who was looking slightly disgruntled at my half insult.
"Oh." I muttered sheepishly before saying the password 'Lemon lime' and turning the handle, which in turn opened the door fully this time. The sparkling marble bathroom gleamed as we went in and I heard the lock click as Hermione shut the door behind us, mumbling something about how hard House Elves had to work to keep up the clean state of the bathroom.
"Alright Malfoy. What do you want to talk about?" she said looking directly at me, perching herself on the edge of the swimming pool sized bathtub. Almost knowing what would happen I moved forward and caught Hermione deftly in my arms as she tilted backwards into the tub, nearly hitting her head on the hard surface.
"Find somewhere else to sit, Hermione. It's not safe to sit there." I grunted helping her stand up. She threw a look of utter contempt at me, trying to muster what was left of her dignity.
"Where I sit is none of your business Malfoy. Why did you catch me anyway, its not like I would've hurt myself badly, and even then why should you care?" Hermione scoffed in return sitting right back down on the marble edge, though this time taking care not to sit too far back.
"We have a truce going on, Hermione. You specifically told me not to be nasty to you, didn't you?" I replied rolling my eyes as I sat down next to her. Her mouth twitched and then broke into a small smile as she realized that she was overreacting to absolutely nothing.
"That's right. The truce. . .alright then Malfoy I'm sorry about blowing up at you about that, I really should be saying thank you shouldn't I?" she said with a bit of amusement to her voice as her eyes twinkled at me.
I was amazed that she could change her facial expressions so quickly, and make them so expressive. I was also mildly horrified at the fact that she could change her mood in the blink of an eye, I mean one minute she's giving me a death glare and the next moment she's smiling at me. Women are hopeless.
Hermione was still looking expectantly at me to reply to her and I thanked my naturally emotionless face for not betraying my thoughts to her, though I couldn't bet that she couldn't already hear them in her own head.
Thoughts. . .that reminded me of the whole reason why were sitting comfortably next to each other in the Prefect's Bathroom. I nodded to show that I agreed with the fact that she should be apologizing to me and her smile grew into a grin as she swatted me playfully on the arm.
"Well too bad you aren't going to get an apology!" she said mischievously but her mood changed again as she saw the serious expression on my own face. She stopped her playfulness and settled down, moving a little closer to me for some unknown reason. I swallowed slowly, strangely enjoying the feeling of having her this close to me but knowing that she was expecting me to say something I began to speak.
"Hermione, I'm not sure if you have realized this or not but lately we haven't been able to hear each other's thoughts." I paused looking at her questioningly, she nodded slowly at this statement, "Well using the information that I got from this book," I held up the "Wacky Ways of the Wizarding Mind" that I took out from my bag and flipped to the page about the Ability to Send Thoughts and pointed at the line that I had underlined. "That says all that you need to know."
Hermione's POV
'The power will eventually wear off by itself but that can take a matter of years. Unless the two affected should come to completely understand and appreciate each other in a shorter period of time. Then the bond connecting their minds will be broken and they will no longer possess the power to read each other's minds.'
I looked up, astonished at Malfoy who grinned at me. I wondered why on earth I hadn't seen that extremely important point when I had read it! I found a smile struggling to make it's way to my mouth and when it did, I saw that it was just as big as the grin on Malfoy's pale face.
"So that means that - " I started saying before Malfoy finished triumphantly for me, "- we can't hear each other's thoughts anymore!"
"Yes!" I exclaimed, standing and jumping up and down excitedly. Malfoy watched me with an unreadable expression on his features and as the shock of the discovery wore off, I sharply remembered what had happened when we were last in this bathroom together.
I sat back down defeatedly and looked gently at Malfoy who now wore an expression of regret on his face. He looked up at that moment and met my gaze holding our eyes together and he spoke suddenly, with a hoarse croak to his voice.
"I'm sorry." I was completely taken aback by these two words and it took me a moment to register them in my brain. When they made sense I looked at Malfoy in surprise, "- I'm sorry for everything that I've ever done to hurt you."
My mouth opened, though no words came out and I just sat looking at Malfoy with a stupefied expression on my face. My eyes swept over his face and for once in my life I took the time to appreciate it. The high cheekbones, the stormy gray eyes that had so much passion in them, the soft lips and his straight nose. . . yes, I finally realized that this boy was extremely good looking.
My mind quickly flew back to last night when I had seen the rest of his body, well the upper half of it anyway and I remembered how handsome I had thought he had looked with the toned muscles. Then I realized that he was apologizing to me instead of me apologizing to him about yesterday!
"Listen Malfoy, I accept your apology. . .but can I ask you one question? Why?" I said incredulously, trying to force the image of Malfoy's upper body out of my mind.
"I don't know. I was just thinking about what happened last night. You were pretty angry when you left me right?" he said in a low voice with a grimace on his face.
"Well you said that the reason that you were being nicer to me was because you didn't want 'powerful and smart' enemies on your tail when you left school right?" I shot back, afraid that if I said anything else something that I didn't want to happen would happen.
"That was part of the reason. . .there was more except you wouldn't let me tell you. You just told me to get out of the way." He said sullenly and the acuteness of the regret of yesterday came back and against my will I could feel myself feeling sorry for Malfoy.
All in all, I didn't know what to think when it came to Malfoy. I know that we had that thought bond connection, and that kind of forced us together, but apart from that we had our own duties as Prefects and our own friends and interests, but it just seemed that whenever we didn't intend it, we would bump into each other.
I know that it may all just be a coincidence but I can't help feeling like we do have something going on between us, or at least our initial feelings towards each other have changed and I really don't know what to make of it. I also know for a fact that Malfoy is definitely not the same person as I knew before, something has changed and it looks like its for the better.
Or maybe he just got sick of teasing Harry, Ron and me. Either way, I don't really plan on having 'possible attraction' to him like the 'Wacky Ways of the Wizarding Mind' says, and I guess that the only way to do that is to avoid contact with him. . .to act the way that I used to around him.
But there's a nagging voice in my head that says that maybe, just maybe he's already attracted to me. . .
Draco's POV
I looked curiously at Hermione, she was deep in thought, her brow was furrowed and she wasn't making any indication that she had heard me. Maybe she just didn't want to hear what I wanted to say, but honestly I really didn't understand why I was still making an effort to be nice to her. I mean there was always the truce and all but other than that there really wasn't a reason.
The thought connection was broken; I couldn't have anymore fun listening on her thoughts and it just looked like everything was going to be going back to normal. I smiled wistfully at that, things were never going to go back to normal for me. I could never feel the feeling of power whenever I taunted her and I could never look at her in the same demeaning way again and I just couldn't ever be the same again.
God, the feeling that I got every time that she got closer to me was so intense, it was as though I was on fire, and the flame was burning fiercely inside me. I didn't know how to explain it, it didn't make sense. How could one's feelings change so quickly? From hatred to. . . dare I say love? Well perhaps my feelings haven't progressed to that stage but I know that I did feel passion towards her, a deep passion that fired up inside me every time that I saw her.
I know that I didn't want to admit it to myself, firstly there was the fact that she was Muggle-born and the second thing was that we were infamous for our loathing of each other. It would never work out, I mean who knows how she feels towards me? I know that she cant exactly hate me anymore because she wouldn't be sitting here with me at the moment but it's not like we're snogging each other either.
I sighed, and Hermione looked up quickly at me, startled but not knowing my inner turmoil. She smiled a tight little smile before getting off the stone edge of the bathtub and starting to search around the bathroom for something. She still had not replied to my statement.
"What are you looking for Hermione?" I asked as my curiousity got the better of me and her head snapped sharply back in my direction.
"Oh, nothing much it's just that I lost something yesterday night and I was thinking that perhaps it might've been in here." She flushed as she said this but continued to look me straight in the eye. Her warm eyes sought mine and held them in an intent gaze and my heartbeat quickened subconsciously.
I felt something in my stomach clench and I quickly got up from my seat walking towards where Hermione was squatting close to the white marble floor.
"Need some help?" I said quietly as I stooped down and joined her on the cool ground.
"No thanks. I think I'm almost done looking for it." She scanned the floor with those beautiful eyes again and when she was finished she turned to me with a meek expression on her face, as though she had done something wrong.
"Is there anything wrong, Hermione?" I asked uncertainly.
"No, of course not Malfoy." She said dully, "I think that I have to meet Harry and Ron soon so I better get going." She flashed me another small smile and she began to walk towards the locked door on the other side of the room. I followed her and when we walked back out into the silent and deserted corridor outside the Prefect's Bathroom we stood awkwardly facing each other, not knowing what to say.
"Well, Malfoy I guess I'll see you around then." Hermione said finally, in a business-like tone.
"Yeah, I'll see you around. . ." I replied with a soft grin and as she turned on her heel and began to stride off in the other direction I called out cheerfully after her, "Oh and just call me Draco."
Hey all! I got this chapter up faster than I expected, I started writing it straight after I posted the last chapter =) hope you guys like it, its been exploring both Hermione and Draco's feelings a whole lot more and I don't know if it's confusing or not. . . =S anyway, don't expect every single chapter to be posted this quickly alright? School's very busy over here!
Anyhow, cheers and please review!
psychohart