THE TENDER TRAP~~~Chapter Nine
Pairings: Draco/Hermione
Disclaimer: J.K. wins all! Whoo-hoo!
A/N: There's a LOT of Shakespeare references in this chapter… that might make it kind of confusing if you've never read anything by dear old Bill. If it doesn't make sense to you tell me in a nice review and I'll explain.
***
Hermione Granger was a not a woman to be trifled with.
On the afternoon of her birthday, a tense kind of quiet had fallen over the Gryffindor common room. First years sat in close-knit groups as to not be attacked by the silent tower of temper who was currently glaring at a bunch of talkative fourth-year girls from behind her Arithmancy textbook.
Hermione inwardly sighed in relief as the chatty girls took the hint and all but ran up to their dormitories. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she looked down at the small-worded script in her large tome. She could feel a headache coming on. In fact, it had been brewing all day long…
***
**Transfiguration, directly ensuing breakfast**
"Pssst…Hermione!"
Hermione's head whipped around to face that of her redheaded best friend. Ron abruptly stopped prodding her with the pointy end of his quill when he saw the frown on her face.
"Ron, I'm in the middle of a paragraph! What?"
Ron shrugged, brushing his hair out of his eyesight. "Well good morning too you too, sunshine," Ron muttered sarcastically. Hermione glared and opened her mouth to say something equally cutting, but Ron cut her off. "Okay, okay, what I meant was, what's the matter with you this morning?"
Hermione sighed. McGonagall cleared her throat pointedly from her desk and set a fixed stare on the pair of them. Hermione blushed and spun back around her seat. She grabbed a spare piece of parchment and began to scribble furiously on it.
Ronald~
Like I said before, I'm in the middle of a paragraph, and as for what's wrong, well, if you don't know then I most certainly am NOT going to tell you!
Hermione crumpled the parchment up, and when McGonagall went back to grading papers, she nonchalantly dropped in onto Ron's desk. Harry's head perked up, as though he could smell the tension they were giving off.
Ron read the note and scowled at the back of Hermione's head and scribbled a hasty reply before chucking the note back up to her.
Geez, Her-my-o-nee!
I was only asking. How do you expect me to know everything when you never tell me anything?
Hermione smoothed the wrinkled, yellowed parchment out and penned a short reply, as McGonagall announced they had five more minutes to finish reading.
Ron, will you just read? You're bothering me, and I already said you weren't going to get an answer from me. Stop passing notes to me; McGonagall almost saw that last one, you prat!
Harry stifled laughter as he read over Ron's shoulder.
Hermione—
Look, okay, I'm worried. You went all pale at breakfast after you got mail, are you all right?
Oh, I see. It's Vicky again, isn't it?!
Ron~
HIS NAME IS VICTOR, and may I remind you asked for his autograph a scant two and a half years ago? And no, it wasn't Victor, not that it's any of your business anyway!
Harry had to disguise his snickers in a gale of coughs as Ron's face turned a tomato color. Ron could feel his ears burning. Another piece of parchment was thrown onto his desk a second later.
And for the last time: stop writing me during class. I'm ignoring you from now on, for your information, so when you don't see me talking to you for the rest of the day, THAT'S WHY!
Now you can't say I don't tell you anything, you great prat!
***
And thus had ended Transfiguration, and the beginning of Hermione's headache.
Of course, Transfiguration had been followed by Defense Against the Dark Arts, (for which Dumbledore had hired Remus Lupin again) where Ron had passed evermore notes, (to which he got no reply) and Potions, which Ron was not in but gave notes to Harry who in turn passed them to Hermione.
Then considering the fact that the only two people that had remembered her birthday were Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy, the latter of whom she was Patrolling with tonight, Hermione was having a fairly rotten day.
Hermione sank back into her chair. The portrait hole swung open, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team stumbled in messily after a mid-afternoon practice. Ginny waved to Hermione (she played Chaser) as she ran up the stairs to change out of her Quidditch robes. Then she noticed Harry, followed by Ron, making their way over to her.
Harry gave a timid smile to his brunette friend. "Hello, Hermione," he said carefully, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
Ron took a seat next to her. Hermione looked away, carefully allowing her chestnut locks to spill into her eyes, blocking him from view.
Him and his stupid red hair, she thought miserably.
Ron sighed. "Mione, listen—" he began, but she cut him off.
"It's Her-my-own-knee, Ron, how many times to I have to tell you?!" Hermione trilled in exasperation.
Ron shrugged his broad shoulders. "Sorry. Hermione. Okay, we were out on the Pitch, and Ginny told us about your birthday…"
"And we're really sorry that we forgot," Harry finished sincerely. Ron nodded in agreement. Harry continued. "Ginny also told us, none too kindly, mind you, that we've been real idiots lately—"
"—And we've forgotten your birthday last year too," Ron finished. Hermione could tell they'd rehearsed this conversation many times. It was all very strategic how they allowed her no room to butt in.
"Can you forgive us?" they asked in unison, turning on the Guilt Eyes.
Definitely rehearsed, Hermione thought.
Inwardly, Hermione sighed. She knew she'd already lost, because Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had practically re-invented the Guilt Trip. Who could say no to their pleading green and blue eyes, respectively?
Who can say no to cool, blue-gray eyes…a little voice sang nastily in the back of Hermione's brain. She wanted to groan for the image of Draco Malfoy's eyes over breakfast made her heart flutter, just ever so slightly.
Ron and Harry each grabbed for one of her hands, which brought Hermione down to Earth. Finally all their pleading paid off as Hermione's stubbornness melted. She grinned. "Okay, I forgive!" she said.
Ron and Harry looked overjoyed. They grabbed her in a huge bear hug, knocking the breath out of Hermione. "Guys?" she managed to choke out. "Breath…can't…breathe…"
And the three, reunited, released their hold on each other.
"We need to stop fighting so much," Hermione said, realizing her headache had just been relieved. Harry nodded emphatically, while Ron colored ever so slightly.
Just then Ginny walked back downstairs. Harry's head flicked to the staircase, met Ginny's eyes, and then looked away again. Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ron, who had, as per usual, missed the byplay. He gave her a looked of confusion. Hermione just shook her head.
What's gotten into Harry? Hermione wondered. She looked from a slightly pink Harry to a slightly bewildered Ron.
I may have the best friends anyone could ask for, she thought, but they really are quite odd sometimes.
***
Several hours later, Hermione trudged down to the entrance hall to meet Draco for another round of patrolling. She yawned. She, Harry, and Ron had spent the last few hours reminiscing about their past years at Hogwarts, and Harry and Ron had subtly apologized profusely for forgetting her birthday. She had been quite disappointed to have to leave her two best friends in exchange for the company of a rotten, horrible…
"…No-good, harassing, vexing aristocratic jerk," Hermione mumbled to herself, reaching the entrance hall. She hadn't forgotten the mail she'd received over breakfast. In fact, she had had it in her pocket, folded three times over, all day long, much to her chagrin.
Truthfully, Hermione couldn't fathom why Draco had sent her birthday wishes (no matter how scandalous they were!) It felt only the tiniest bit…well, odd, to be getting birthday cards from someone who'd verbally harassed you and your friends for the past seven years of you life.
"… Pathetic piece of Slytherin trash," Hermione muttered, as she spotted Draco enter at the other side of the hall, and look around. She walked up to him, trying her damnedest to look stern and forbidding.
Apparently it didn't work. As soon as Draco laid his gray/blue gaze on Hermione's small frame, his face broke into a delighted grin.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Birthday Girl!" Draco drawled. Hermione merely glared, but her hand subconsciously clenched around the letter in her pocket. With her other hand she brushed her slightly frizzy hair out of her eyes.
Draco tried not to laugh as he saw the anger and frustration mount in his romantic rival's eyes. The girl across from him was obviously fighting some inner turmoil with something.
Hermione opened up her mouth to speak. "Are we patrolling the dungeons again?" she asked, in a voice of implied graciousness. She gestured down the hall with a slender hand. Draco tried not to watch it.
"Nah…we've got the…" here Draco paused to read off his slip of paper. "We've got the Astronomy Tower, and the North Tower." He shook his blonde head. "Jesus! Just what we need! The two most coveted make-out spots in all of Hogwarts history, on a Friday night!" Draco smirked devilishly and grabbed for Hermione's hand. "Well, if you can't beat, 'em, join 'em, right Granger?"
Hermione's brown eyes blinked outrageously as Draco drew her in. She yanked her hand away, leaving Draco looking a bit disappointed.
"In your dreams, Malfoy!" Hermione spat, narrowing her eyes. Draco smirked and leaned closer to her.
"Every night, toots," Draco said, leering at her. Hermione gave a noise of disgust somewhere between a snort and a choke and started to walk up the stairs. Abruptly, she turned back to him, her toffee eyes suddenly alive with mischief.
"Out, dog! Out cur! Thou driv'st me past the bounds of maiden's patience!" She said. Draco quirked an eyebrow and delivered a smirk.
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" He asked, as Hermione turned in frustration and walked up the stairs. Draco ran up them to her side, catching a whiff of her delicious smelling hair…strawberries again, he thought.
Hermione couldn't help but grin as she spoke the next line with him. "Thou art more lovely and more temperate," she recited the famous sonnet, looking up at her nemesis with wonder. "You know Shakespeare?"
Draco looked appalled. "Who doesn't?"
Hermione laughed, her eyes sparkling. Draco decided he liked the sound. "Well," Hermione said, "I'd never have imagined you to associate yourself with dead Muggle poets, no matter their greatness."
Draco grinned at his short partner. "Be not afraid of greatness…Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em," he quipped, and shrugged. "Most people don't know it, but Shakespeare was actually a Squib."
Hermione looked surprised; why hadn't she heard this before? "No…" she said.
"Yep," Draco nodded as they reached the seventh floor, finally. "Magical researchers know that both his parents were…they had actually gone here. Both of his siblings were magic, too…haven't you ever heard about the curse over his grave?" Draco asked.
Hermione looked at him with awe. "I can't believe I'm actually having this conversation with you," she said, as she glanced down the hallway. "You don't seem like the Shakespeare type."
Draco looked at her as they walked down the seventh floor hallway. "Oh yeah?" he asked, a little indignant. "What type do I seem like?"
Hermione pondered that for a moment. Draco noticed whenever she had to stop and think about something, she had fetching little habit of biting her lower lip. It made him stop and think about that time in the Library, when he had noticed what soft lips she had…
"I suppose you strike me as the Debonair Quidditch type," Hermione said after a minute. "I mean, you are the Debonair Quidditch type," she corrected herself, looking up at him. "Aren't you?"
Draco could feel his ego slip down about half a notch. Was that, perchance, what she truly thought of him? Blaise Zabini had told Draco that girls like Hermione would really only fall for…well, obviously she only fell for the Shakespeare type.
The girl needed a Ravenclaw, if you asked Draco.
Draco shrugged. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," he said dully, quickening his pace so he was ahead of her. Hermione fought the urge to sigh. They'd been getting on so well, and now he sounded pissed about something.
What is it with the boys in this place? She wondered to herself as she peeked behind a suit of armor.
Silently the duo reached the door that lead up to the Astronomy Tower. Draco held the door open for Hermione in a subconscious act of kindness. Hermione drew her wand and muttered "Lumos," lighting the way up the narrow staircase.
The air in the shaft was chilly. Hermione gave a shiver and drew her sweater more closely around her. Draco tried to be manly and didn't do anything about it, when he tripped on a stair and banged into Hermione. He hadn't taken his wand out.
"Draco!" Hermione hissed, as she lost her footing and fell onto the step below her painfully. Draco smacked into the wall, uttering a small cry. "Dammit, Draco, will you watch where you're going?!" Hermione shouted.
Draco leapt up, offering her his hand. "What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?" He took Hermione's slender hand in his and pulled her to her feet. Hermione dusted herself off. Then she noticed the blood on her knee.
"Ow," she murmured, dabbing it with her fingers and noting the sting. Draco looked up from rearranging his hair. Hermione pointed to her knee.
"Well," Draco said, pulling his wand, "I guess that is my fault." He smiled at Hermione, who felt the butterflies return to her stomach. He looked so good when he smiled! Draco pointed his wand at her knee and muttered a Healing spell. Hermione watched as the cut on her leg shrank and eventually disappeared, leaving only a tiny scar in its place.
Draco shrugged. "It's supposed to disappear entirely, but I guess I'm not up to scratch," he grinned. Hermione gave a shaky grin in reply. "What, don't I even get a 'Thanks, Malfoy?'" Draco asked, pretending to look hurt. He leaned in to Hermione. "You're breakin' my heart, Hermione, you know that?"
Hermione's gaze settled on Draco's. She realized she was in the kind of position only romance novelists ever thought of: her back against the wall in a dark staircase, with a very, very good-looking-yet-arrogantly-unbearable-but-surprisingly-kind? Man opposite her. She bit the inside of her lip.
"Well, Malfoy, I'm terribly sorry," Hermione said, fighting the urge to look away from his icy gaze. "But I think your heart will just have to be broken, you know?"
Draco let a hand rest on hers. "Well," he drawled, "that's a pity, because mending it could've been real fun." He grinned devilishly.
It was at this point Hermione became increasingly glad she wasn't standing, because Draco's sudden charm and attentions were making her uncharacteristically light-headed, and she was sure he was going to kiss her.
But it was here, of course, that the door to the turret slammed open, and moonlight poured into the staircase, causing Hermione and Draco to squint and stand up rather suddenly. Two silhouettes appeared, one rather tall manly, and another rather petit.
"Oi," a voice called. 'What's going on down there?"
Draco shared an eye roll with Hermione, and drew his wand. "Stay where you are," Draco commander in a superior voice. Hermione was struck with likeness for Percy Weasley. Draco grinned at her. "We're members of the Patrolling Squad!"
At this, Hermione couldn't help but giggle. Draco looked rather upset to be interrupted in the middle of his "Brave Man" speech.
The figures at the steps paused. "Is that you, Malfoy?" the man called down. Draco's pale face lit up.
"Zabini?"
Hermione looked up, recognizing the figure with Draco's Slytherin friend. "Ginny?" she called.
"Hermione?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Now that we've gotten introductions out of the way," she said sarcastically, "can you tell us what you're doing up there so we don't have to report you?"
Blaise chuckled his light tenor laugh. "It's the Astronomy Tower, Granger; what do you think couples do up here?" he asked. Hermione hid her slight blush from Draco, who smirked.
"Mind if we come up for a visit?" Draco asked suddenly, an idea forming in his sly Slytherin brain.
He was getting awfully friendly with Hermione already tonight. And if he knew Blaise Zabini, the Slytherin had a bottle of some type of alcohol up there with him. (With Blaise, it depended on the girl. Slytherin girls usually got the Fire Whiskey, Hufflepuffs got mild wine, and if she was 'special,' Blaise broke out his family's own label.)
All Draco needed now was to get Granger just the tiniest bit tipsy…
***
Several hours and several bottles later, Hermione sat atop the Astronomy Tower like a rose among thorns.
Or like a sober among drunks.
"And…then," Draco said, his hair disheveled, eyes glassy, and overall manner wild, "she fell down dah shtairs…and tripped me!"
Draco was joiner in laughter by the equally drunk duo of Blaise and Ginny. Ginny was draped across Blaise's lap, her blouse partially untucked and unbuttoned and her pale face very flushed. Her red hair flew as she tossed her head back in raucous laughter.
"Did Herm…Herm-my…Herrmy…did she really?" Ginny asked incoherently, pointing wildly at a tight-lipped Hermione who sat apart from the merry band. Briefly, Hermione wondered what Ron would do if he could see his sister in her state of intoxication.
Never mind Mrs. Weasley.
Draco gave Hermione a lopsided grin as he ran his hand through his blonde hair once more. The blonde mass now practically stood on end. "Yeah, she did…" Draco broke off into another peal of laughter. Hermione rolled her eyes and checked her watch. It was nearly one o'clock. She would have already left but for fear of one of them diving off the Tower's turret.
"I can't believe this," Hermione said with disgust. "You all are pathetic."
Ginny smiled. "Ah, don' be such a sport-spoil…spoil…ah?"
"Spoilsport?" Hermione offered dully. Ginny giggled.
"That's it!" she cried. She grabbed the bottle of Ogden's Olde Liquid Lightening, a very strong brand of magical alcohol (and that particular group's third for the night,) and thrust it toward Hermione. "Have shome…iss good shtuff, I'n't, Blaise?" Ginny Weasley looked blearily up at her boyfriend. Blaise grinned widely and toasted them all.
Hermione shook her head. "I think you've all had enough," she said crisply, grabbing the bottle from Ginny and placing it out of their reach. "You're all going to have wretched hangovers tomorrow morning."
Draco laughed and pulled his wobbling self to his feet, nearly stumbling. "Ah c'mon, toots, i's just a 'ittle fun!" he babbled, as he lunged for Hermione. Hermione warily pulled out her wand. Draco came at her, grinning, again. Hermione knocked the bottle off the turret.
"Ah!" Ginny said, wobbling over to them. "I'z all gone." The inebriated redhead peered over the edge of the turret, while Hermione heart leapt to her throat. "Bye!" Ginny called over the edge, waving to the broken shards of glass many meters below on the grounds.
Draco smiled. "None for Granger, then," he said. He grabbed for one of Hermione's hands and caught it, grinning broadly at his triumph. Hermione glared at him from under her dark eyelashes.
"C'mere," Draco said, his glassy blue eyes dancing. Hermione sighed.
"What, Malfoy?" she asked, trying to figure out a way to get three drunks back to their common rooms without anyone seeing them. Or smelling them.
Malfoy threw his arms around Hermione's waist gleefully. Hermione growled at him and removed them. She stomped her foot. "Okay, that's it!" she cried.
Ginny and Blaise looked up from their "activities" in the corner, disheveled and amused. Hermione felt her blood boil. "I'm leaving! I've had enough of all of you! I'm going back to my dormitory to sleep. I don't care how the rest of you get to yours."
She paused near the door, threw one last imploring glance at Ginny, and left.
Draco chuckled after her. "Time for the…goodnight kissh?" he informed Blaise drunkenly. "I'm gonna get her, do ya know!" Draco bowed, unbalanced, to the yet-again-snogging Blaise and Ginny before he ambled out of the Astronomy Tower, humming loudly to the tune of "Brush Up Your Shakespeare."
***
Hermione stomped down the stairs. I cannot believe I spent the night in the company of an inebriated trio, she thought miserably. I have hit rock bottom.
She heard another door slam behind her and turned to see Draco gamboling toward her.
"Wait up, Granger!" he shouted, even as she stopped.
Hermione looked frantically around the deserted hallway, her brown eyes large as saucers. "Draco, shhhhh!" she hissed, covering his mouth with her hand. Draco's blue eyes danced with mischief.
"All quiet now, Granger," he whispered through her parted fingers. He took Hermione's hand off of his mouth. "See?" Draco moved closer to Hermione, who gave a shuddering little intake of breath as she felt Draco's hand go to her hair.
Draco gazed at her intently. "I'm gonna kiss you," he informed Hermione, as though that clinched the matter. Hermione bit her lip.
"No, see Malfoy, you're drunk," she said, trying to sidestep him.
"And you're beautiful, Hermione, what can I say?" Draco tilted his head a little, his lips mere inches from Hermione's. Quickly, she thought of something to divert them.
"O spite! O Hell! I see you all are bent to set against me for your merriment!" Hermione whispered, fighting off a grin as Draco recognized the line.
"Why should you think that I woo in scorn?" Draco replied, taking Hermione's breath away once more. "Scorn and derision never come in tears."
Hermione stared into the expanse of blue set before her eyes. "You do advance your cunning more and more…" she struggled to think of the next line.
Draco smirked and drew her in. "The course of true love never did run smooth," he whispered huskily, before he finally brought his lips to hers.
It was the second time they had ever kissed, and Draco thought each time got better. He bent Hermione over a little, his hand on the back of her head in a daringly romantic gesture…
And then he felt the sting, and tasted the blood.
Draco wrenched away from Hermione and brought his hand to his mouth. His bottom lip was gushing blood. He looked up at Hermione in horror, who looked a little pleased with herself.
"Granger, you devil, you bit me!" Draco cried. Hermione blushed a little.
"Yes, well," she muttered, not quite meeting his gaze. "Sorry, but…"
Draco looked outraged. 'I probably have rabies!" he howled, wiping his lip with the back of his hand, as more crimson liquid spilled forth. "Rabies, I say! Bitten by a Mudblood!"
Hermione stopped smiling at this and fell silent, her pink mouth agape and her eyes glaring.
'What. Was. That. Malfoy?" Hermione gritted out, enraged. No one had dared call her that since Voldemort's demise!
Draco glared back. "You heard me…Mudblood," he sneered, pressing his bottom lip to his sleeve. Apparently Hermione had bitten just a bit too hard. Draco's eyes were still glassy, and Hermione could tell he was still drunk, but nevertheless her feelings were hurt. I had almost liked him tonight, she thought bitterly.
Hermione thought about slapping him, but as the tears blurred her vision, she just turned and walked away, leaving Draco alone.
Draco sighed. 'Wait…hey Vixen, wait!" he cried, ignoring the pain that speaking brought. Hermione didn't even turn around, but disappeared from sight as she descended a row of stairs, her pretty brunette head out of sight.
Draco sighed guiltily and dabbed the blood from his lip. He stared at the substance on his fingers for a moment before gazing in the direction that the newly appointed Vixen had left.
"Parting…is such sweet sorrow," he moaned after her brokenly.
***
Look, it's a LAC.
[Long-Ass Chapter]
This is what happens when you give a girl a class for which she has no use. The ideas just kind of build and build and suddenly, BAM! You have an overflow. 12 page chapter, which I suppose isn't REALLY long, but for my standards, it kind of is.
Whew.
I haven't updated lately because I had literally about eight projects due this week. It was murder. But I'm all happy.
Anyway. The Shakespeare quotes, in Order of Appearance:
~A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Out dog! Out cur…"
~Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee…"
~Twelfth Night: "Be not afraid of greatness"
~Romeo and Juliet: "A rose by any other name…"
~Much Ado About Nothing: "What, my dear Lady Disdain!"
~A Midsummer Night's Dream: "O spite! O hell!" through "The course of true love…"
~Romeo and Juliet: "Parting is…"
Just remember kids: "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL!"
*MME