Chapter 3 - 6 months Later
Hermione apparated into Hogsmeade and landed herself in a foot of snow. Oh, great, she thought as she realized she was stuck. Apparating was a convenient way to travel but not very practical. It hadn't been too long ago since she took her test. Sure she had passed, but you had to have a lot of practice to land right. Hermione didn't have alot of practice. She usually walked from her flat in Diagon Alley to the Ministry and back with Harry and Ron. Going from her flat to Hogsmeade was a long distance and she couldn't have expected a more graceful arrival.
Hermione struggled to get out of the snow. She stood up and brushed the snow off herself. Her clothes were now wet, her hands numb and gloves wet, and flakes were clinging to her still-bushy hair. She put her hands over her mouth to warm herself, but she couldn't just stand there. Hermione got up and headed for The Three Broomsticks. She was there on Ministry business. Not really anything that important since she was still very junior. She volunteered as an Auror still in training to go and give Hogwarts a quick check with the school board. Hermione, never being late for anything especially not her first official assignment, had arrived early. Two hours early. The truth was Hermione wanted to check out Hogsmeade again. She had missed the place alot.
She swung her arms as she stomped through the snow, trying to keep herself warm. She passed by Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes as she walked along the side of the road. She decided to pay Fred and George a visit after she went to the Three Broomsticks. She finally reached the place and swung the door open. She felt a rush of warmth. She closed the door behind her as the warm air touched her cold face. Since she came all alone, she sat on one of the barstools in front of the counter and took her wet gloves off. She waited patiently as Madam Rosmerta was ordering for a group of old women. She stared at the shiny counter enjoying the warm and cheerful atmosphere of the people around her. She heard the rustle of someone sitting down on the stool next to her. Just as she looked up to see who it was, he asked,
"Is it okay if I buy you a drink?" It was Malfoy. Hermione was too surprised to say anything and just nodded. Malfoy didn't say anything but stared at Madam Rosmerta. Hermione had caught a few glimpses of him at The Ministry but wasn't sure what he worked for. Malfoy turned back to Hermione and asked,
"So what brings you here?"
"I'm checking Hogwarts for The Ministry" Hermione said feeling shy suddenly. She remembered the conversasion they had on the train when school ended and she still could not think of him as her cousin. Hermione didn't let her shyness take away her curiousity, though.
"And what about you?" she asked.
"I work for the Department of Muggle Accidents and Catastrophes. There have been alot of complaints that alot of the stuff sold at the Weasleys' shop aren't easily reversable. I came to check it out." Malfoy said Weasleys' like there was something bitter in his mouth. Hermione stiffened at his tone. Just then, Madam Rosmerta came over to take their order.
"Two firewhiskies," Malfoy said with a grin. He was still grinning at Madam Rosmerta as she walked off to get their drinks.
"I would rather just have a butterbeer," Hermione said breaking Malfoy out of his daze.
"A firewhiskey will warm you right up. Try it. It's really good." Malfoy said. Hermione suddenly became aware of exactly how red her nose was from the cold and turned away, embarassed. Hermione didn't really want to talk to talk to Malfoy anymore. Cold feelings toward him had numbed her insides. They didn't say anything until there drinks came. Hermione looked at her drink doubtfully. She watched as Malfoy sipped his. She hesitated and then tasted hers. It warmed her insides immediately. She felt herself blush from the fizz that tickled her nose. The warmth spilled throughout her body all the way down to her freezing toes. Her body unstiffened and she felt perfectly at ease. Every reproachful thought she had against Malfoy died away.
"Told ya," Malfoy said. He had been watching, amusedly as Hermione's face softened when she drank the firewhiskey and her stiff posture relaxed and her shoulders drooped as she rested her elbows on the counter. A second ago, Hermione would have thought he was acting like a know-it-all but she was feeling too good-natured to care. Hermione didn't have a right to call anyone a know-it-all anyway when her past was against her. Malfoy smiled at his achievement. Hermione just remembered something.
"Hey...you know what this reminds me of?" Hermione asked her eyes shining eagerly. She was about to call him Malfoy, but then realized how it would sound and decided it was best just not to call him anything at all.
"What?" he asked.
"Remember a looong time ago, when we were three or something and your family was spending Christmas with us?" Hermione said her eyes widening as she retrieved a memory that she thought was far forgotten.
"Sort of. It's kinda a blurry." Malfoy said furrowing his eyebrows trying to remember.
"I remember. It was really cold and I made you taste Nestle's chocolate milk." Hermione said.
"And I downright refused to try it because it was a muggle company," said Malfoy catching on, "Your mother made some for the both of us anyway. You kept nagging me to try some until I finally did and...and-"
"And you loved it and asked for another glass when you were done." Hermione said grinning.
"I did not!" Malfoy said looking horrified.
"You did." Hermione said feeling satisfied with Malfoy's disgust, "I remember we had it right after we finished playing in the snow."
"And you offered the chocolate milk to me because... because I was mad at you for some reason." Malfoy said frowing at Hermione as he tried to remember. They both sat there trying to remember why he was mad at her until-
"Oh!" exclaimed Hermione, "I stuffed a snowball in your mouth and you started crying!"
"Oh yeah," Malfoy narrowed his eyes, "That wasn't very nice. It was very cold."
"Yeah, but you threw a snowball at me in the first place. I was only getting revenge." Hermione said taking another sip from her drink.
"You stuffed my face with snow because I threw some snow at your back. You always had to get on the bad side before you were completely satisfied." Malfoy laughed stirring his drink with his straw. Bad side. That caught Hermione. Back then, there was nothing like the good side and bad side that could do them apart. It was so simple for them then. Hermione knew very well that Malfoy would have been a Death Eater if Voldemort was still in power and his dad wasn't in Azkaban. Hermione felt like she could understand Malfoy very well at that moment when they were talking about their past. It was almost as if if Malfoy was to explain at that moment exactly why he had wanted to be a Death Eater, Hermione would have understood completely. The thing that confused Hermione was that it wouldn't have worked. She could never understand why someone would want to be a Death Eater. Hermione didn't want to break the happy tension between them, but she wanted to know.
"Why did you want to become a Death Eater?" Hermione asked catching Malfoy by surprise. The grin that he had died from his face and he looked serious.
"You wouldn't understand," he said quietly staring down at his mug.
"Try me. I really want to know," Hermione pleaded.
"Come on, it's not really important right now." he said not moving his eyes.
"But it is important. Especially right now." Hermione said, "I can't understand why we're sitting here talking about a time where you didn't care about being a Death Eater. I mean here I am talking to my cousin and it seems so hard to believe we can think differently about any matter."
"All right," Malfoy said. He took a drink from his mug and then turned his whole body on the barstool so he was looking directly at Hermione. He did all this very slowly to give himself time to think about how he was going to explain it.
"I have always thought of my father as the best person in the world," he began. So this is about his father, Hermione thought. She remembered his father. Even before she met his father during the summer holidays and when he made wisecracks about her breeding. The father of her cousin she remembered always kept his distance from her family. Malfoy continued,
"He always seemed so amazing to me. I wanted to be just like him. Everything he did was right." Malfoy paused for a moment regaining his thoughts. He spoke again,
"Being a Death Eater has always been the right thing to do. My father told me about what my duty is to the Dark Lord. I still feel that I owe the Dark Lord, because he was gone before I got out of school and I hadn't done anything. I believe everything my father has taught me. And he has taught me to hate all- all muggle-borns. Do you get me?" Malfoy had refrained from saying 'mudblood'. Hermione did not get him. She was very close to her parents but she shared such a difference in opinion with them that she rarely understood them. Their words weren't always truth to her. Hermione could believe someone doing something because their parents expected them to, but not really believing it true by someone else's word.
Hermione was starting to feel very uncomfortable because she did not get him. The warm place seemed stuffy all of a sudden and she felt hot under her winter cloak. As she struggled to take it off, Malfoy looked at her with a far-off expression on his face. He hadn't talked about his father to anyone since he was sent to Azkaban. Even though Hermione hadn't gotten him or said anything at all for that matter, he felt better that he had confided in her. Hermione managed to pull her coat off over her head. The problem was that her bushy hair was now flying all over the place and sticking to her face because of static.
"If your hair was shorter and stuck up a bit more, you would have an afro," Malfoy said observingly. Hermione did her best to glare at him while she reached up and tried to pat her hair down. Malfoy laughed and reached out to touch her hair. There was a small spark and an audible crack when his hand made contact with it. Malfoy quickly withdrew his hand.
"Ow, it zapped me!" he said.
"Well, that's what you get for making of it!" Hermione said, smilingly. She gave up on her hair. They talked until they finished all of the firewhiskey in the tall mugs in front of them. The sun had started setting and was sending dramatic shadows through the windows of The Three Broomsticks. If the barstools had backs to them, Hermione and Malfoy would probably be leaning back on them, patting their full bellies. They didn't so instead Malfoy was leaning on the table with his arms crossed and had started to hum.
Hermione rested her face on her hands and stared down at the counter. Their reflection looked back at them. Hermione realized for the first time that she and Malfoy were from the same bloodline, yet staring down at their faces, she could see that they looked nothing alike. Nothing at all. So how had Malfoy known that they were cousins? Guilt reached her to think that Malfoy had kept up with the past better than she had and that he was willing to call truce but she wasn't.
Hermione listened to Malfoy's humming. It was the nursery rhyme again. Hermione started to feel like she had gotten her cousin back. Hermione looked back down at the counter and realized that they could look like cousins even though they didn't have the same face. The blurry reflection under that grainy surface showed two people who had played with each other when they were small and had been part of a family. A family that had been disrupted by stereotypes.
"That would make a good song," Hermione said when Malfoy had stopped humming.
"Then why don't you make it one," Malfoy said simply. Hermione checked her watch and gathered up her things.
"I better get going," she said getting up and heading towards the door.
"See you at work," Malfoy said. Hermione stopped and turned. She still wouldn't believe anything could change.
"All right, I won't see you at work," Malfoy sighed. His voice didn't sound miserable and as protesting as it had on the train. It just sounded like he was saying goodbye. "You know, accepting that you were my cousin was really hard for me. I would never have dreamed that it would have been you. But I was willing to put all our differences behind." So Malfoy had known it was her before graduation. "It's easier for you, because I'm guessing the only reason you've hated me was because of the way I acted towards you. But you're still not willing to act like cousins again, so I guess it doesn't matter."
Hermione felt respectful towards Malfoy for having to accept her.
"Bye," Malfoy smiled.
"Bye-" Hermione said,"Draco." She turned around and left.
Hermione apparated into Hogsmeade and landed herself in a foot of snow. Oh, great, she thought as she realized she was stuck. Apparating was a convenient way to travel but not very practical. It hadn't been too long ago since she took her test. Sure she had passed, but you had to have a lot of practice to land right. Hermione didn't have alot of practice. She usually walked from her flat in Diagon Alley to the Ministry and back with Harry and Ron. Going from her flat to Hogsmeade was a long distance and she couldn't have expected a more graceful arrival.
Hermione struggled to get out of the snow. She stood up and brushed the snow off herself. Her clothes were now wet, her hands numb and gloves wet, and flakes were clinging to her still-bushy hair. She put her hands over her mouth to warm herself, but she couldn't just stand there. Hermione got up and headed for The Three Broomsticks. She was there on Ministry business. Not really anything that important since she was still very junior. She volunteered as an Auror still in training to go and give Hogwarts a quick check with the school board. Hermione, never being late for anything especially not her first official assignment, had arrived early. Two hours early. The truth was Hermione wanted to check out Hogsmeade again. She had missed the place alot.
She swung her arms as she stomped through the snow, trying to keep herself warm. She passed by Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes as she walked along the side of the road. She decided to pay Fred and George a visit after she went to the Three Broomsticks. She finally reached the place and swung the door open. She felt a rush of warmth. She closed the door behind her as the warm air touched her cold face. Since she came all alone, she sat on one of the barstools in front of the counter and took her wet gloves off. She waited patiently as Madam Rosmerta was ordering for a group of old women. She stared at the shiny counter enjoying the warm and cheerful atmosphere of the people around her. She heard the rustle of someone sitting down on the stool next to her. Just as she looked up to see who it was, he asked,
"Is it okay if I buy you a drink?" It was Malfoy. Hermione was too surprised to say anything and just nodded. Malfoy didn't say anything but stared at Madam Rosmerta. Hermione had caught a few glimpses of him at The Ministry but wasn't sure what he worked for. Malfoy turned back to Hermione and asked,
"So what brings you here?"
"I'm checking Hogwarts for The Ministry" Hermione said feeling shy suddenly. She remembered the conversasion they had on the train when school ended and she still could not think of him as her cousin. Hermione didn't let her shyness take away her curiousity, though.
"And what about you?" she asked.
"I work for the Department of Muggle Accidents and Catastrophes. There have been alot of complaints that alot of the stuff sold at the Weasleys' shop aren't easily reversable. I came to check it out." Malfoy said Weasleys' like there was something bitter in his mouth. Hermione stiffened at his tone. Just then, Madam Rosmerta came over to take their order.
"Two firewhiskies," Malfoy said with a grin. He was still grinning at Madam Rosmerta as she walked off to get their drinks.
"I would rather just have a butterbeer," Hermione said breaking Malfoy out of his daze.
"A firewhiskey will warm you right up. Try it. It's really good." Malfoy said. Hermione suddenly became aware of exactly how red her nose was from the cold and turned away, embarassed. Hermione didn't really want to talk to talk to Malfoy anymore. Cold feelings toward him had numbed her insides. They didn't say anything until there drinks came. Hermione looked at her drink doubtfully. She watched as Malfoy sipped his. She hesitated and then tasted hers. It warmed her insides immediately. She felt herself blush from the fizz that tickled her nose. The warmth spilled throughout her body all the way down to her freezing toes. Her body unstiffened and she felt perfectly at ease. Every reproachful thought she had against Malfoy died away.
"Told ya," Malfoy said. He had been watching, amusedly as Hermione's face softened when she drank the firewhiskey and her stiff posture relaxed and her shoulders drooped as she rested her elbows on the counter. A second ago, Hermione would have thought he was acting like a know-it-all but she was feeling too good-natured to care. Hermione didn't have a right to call anyone a know-it-all anyway when her past was against her. Malfoy smiled at his achievement. Hermione just remembered something.
"Hey...you know what this reminds me of?" Hermione asked her eyes shining eagerly. She was about to call him Malfoy, but then realized how it would sound and decided it was best just not to call him anything at all.
"What?" he asked.
"Remember a looong time ago, when we were three or something and your family was spending Christmas with us?" Hermione said her eyes widening as she retrieved a memory that she thought was far forgotten.
"Sort of. It's kinda a blurry." Malfoy said furrowing his eyebrows trying to remember.
"I remember. It was really cold and I made you taste Nestle's chocolate milk." Hermione said.
"And I downright refused to try it because it was a muggle company," said Malfoy catching on, "Your mother made some for the both of us anyway. You kept nagging me to try some until I finally did and...and-"
"And you loved it and asked for another glass when you were done." Hermione said grinning.
"I did not!" Malfoy said looking horrified.
"You did." Hermione said feeling satisfied with Malfoy's disgust, "I remember we had it right after we finished playing in the snow."
"And you offered the chocolate milk to me because... because I was mad at you for some reason." Malfoy said frowing at Hermione as he tried to remember. They both sat there trying to remember why he was mad at her until-
"Oh!" exclaimed Hermione, "I stuffed a snowball in your mouth and you started crying!"
"Oh yeah," Malfoy narrowed his eyes, "That wasn't very nice. It was very cold."
"Yeah, but you threw a snowball at me in the first place. I was only getting revenge." Hermione said taking another sip from her drink.
"You stuffed my face with snow because I threw some snow at your back. You always had to get on the bad side before you were completely satisfied." Malfoy laughed stirring his drink with his straw. Bad side. That caught Hermione. Back then, there was nothing like the good side and bad side that could do them apart. It was so simple for them then. Hermione knew very well that Malfoy would have been a Death Eater if Voldemort was still in power and his dad wasn't in Azkaban. Hermione felt like she could understand Malfoy very well at that moment when they were talking about their past. It was almost as if if Malfoy was to explain at that moment exactly why he had wanted to be a Death Eater, Hermione would have understood completely. The thing that confused Hermione was that it wouldn't have worked. She could never understand why someone would want to be a Death Eater. Hermione didn't want to break the happy tension between them, but she wanted to know.
"Why did you want to become a Death Eater?" Hermione asked catching Malfoy by surprise. The grin that he had died from his face and he looked serious.
"You wouldn't understand," he said quietly staring down at his mug.
"Try me. I really want to know," Hermione pleaded.
"Come on, it's not really important right now." he said not moving his eyes.
"But it is important. Especially right now." Hermione said, "I can't understand why we're sitting here talking about a time where you didn't care about being a Death Eater. I mean here I am talking to my cousin and it seems so hard to believe we can think differently about any matter."
"All right," Malfoy said. He took a drink from his mug and then turned his whole body on the barstool so he was looking directly at Hermione. He did all this very slowly to give himself time to think about how he was going to explain it.
"I have always thought of my father as the best person in the world," he began. So this is about his father, Hermione thought. She remembered his father. Even before she met his father during the summer holidays and when he made wisecracks about her breeding. The father of her cousin she remembered always kept his distance from her family. Malfoy continued,
"He always seemed so amazing to me. I wanted to be just like him. Everything he did was right." Malfoy paused for a moment regaining his thoughts. He spoke again,
"Being a Death Eater has always been the right thing to do. My father told me about what my duty is to the Dark Lord. I still feel that I owe the Dark Lord, because he was gone before I got out of school and I hadn't done anything. I believe everything my father has taught me. And he has taught me to hate all- all muggle-borns. Do you get me?" Malfoy had refrained from saying 'mudblood'. Hermione did not get him. She was very close to her parents but she shared such a difference in opinion with them that she rarely understood them. Their words weren't always truth to her. Hermione could believe someone doing something because their parents expected them to, but not really believing it true by someone else's word.
Hermione was starting to feel very uncomfortable because she did not get him. The warm place seemed stuffy all of a sudden and she felt hot under her winter cloak. As she struggled to take it off, Malfoy looked at her with a far-off expression on his face. He hadn't talked about his father to anyone since he was sent to Azkaban. Even though Hermione hadn't gotten him or said anything at all for that matter, he felt better that he had confided in her. Hermione managed to pull her coat off over her head. The problem was that her bushy hair was now flying all over the place and sticking to her face because of static.
"If your hair was shorter and stuck up a bit more, you would have an afro," Malfoy said observingly. Hermione did her best to glare at him while she reached up and tried to pat her hair down. Malfoy laughed and reached out to touch her hair. There was a small spark and an audible crack when his hand made contact with it. Malfoy quickly withdrew his hand.
"Ow, it zapped me!" he said.
"Well, that's what you get for making of it!" Hermione said, smilingly. She gave up on her hair. They talked until they finished all of the firewhiskey in the tall mugs in front of them. The sun had started setting and was sending dramatic shadows through the windows of The Three Broomsticks. If the barstools had backs to them, Hermione and Malfoy would probably be leaning back on them, patting their full bellies. They didn't so instead Malfoy was leaning on the table with his arms crossed and had started to hum.
Hermione rested her face on her hands and stared down at the counter. Their reflection looked back at them. Hermione realized for the first time that she and Malfoy were from the same bloodline, yet staring down at their faces, she could see that they looked nothing alike. Nothing at all. So how had Malfoy known that they were cousins? Guilt reached her to think that Malfoy had kept up with the past better than she had and that he was willing to call truce but she wasn't.
Hermione listened to Malfoy's humming. It was the nursery rhyme again. Hermione started to feel like she had gotten her cousin back. Hermione looked back down at the counter and realized that they could look like cousins even though they didn't have the same face. The blurry reflection under that grainy surface showed two people who had played with each other when they were small and had been part of a family. A family that had been disrupted by stereotypes.
"That would make a good song," Hermione said when Malfoy had stopped humming.
"Then why don't you make it one," Malfoy said simply. Hermione checked her watch and gathered up her things.
"I better get going," she said getting up and heading towards the door.
"See you at work," Malfoy said. Hermione stopped and turned. She still wouldn't believe anything could change.
"All right, I won't see you at work," Malfoy sighed. His voice didn't sound miserable and as protesting as it had on the train. It just sounded like he was saying goodbye. "You know, accepting that you were my cousin was really hard for me. I would never have dreamed that it would have been you. But I was willing to put all our differences behind." So Malfoy had known it was her before graduation. "It's easier for you, because I'm guessing the only reason you've hated me was because of the way I acted towards you. But you're still not willing to act like cousins again, so I guess it doesn't matter."
Hermione felt respectful towards Malfoy for having to accept her.
"Bye," Malfoy smiled.
"Bye-" Hermione said,"Draco." She turned around and left.