Disclaimer: I don't own Hermione nor Draco, nor any Harry Potter characters or devices...or anything really.
For my dear, dear Stephanie, may you always be required to tuck in your shirt.....:P
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Chapter 3 Part 2: The Female is Always the Most Dangerous of the Species.
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The children followed me along the hallway, clustered together whispering to each other. I just walked along and tried to ignore the feeling of impending doom that was steadily rising within me. I wasn't sure if it was merely the contrast between how I normally felt and the enchanted "feel good" spirit that had over taken me in the nursery, OR if what I was feeling was actual unease. I was also more than a bit annoyed with Malfoy! He could have at least told me he had enchanted the nursery. OK and yes I was a bit annoyed with myself as well, how could I have not figured it out much sooner. For heaven's sake I had played GAMES, children's games! The remembrance of myself running around the nursery yelling "CHOO-CHOO," made me cringe.
We were heading for the kitchens. I wasn't sure where they were, but I figured if I could find my way as far as Malfoy's office then Morio would find me again.
I knew that Malfoy would still be sleeping. Ginny had said he would sleep for 24 hours or more. I was mentally preparing myself for a confrontation. I had a FEW questions for Mr. Draco Malfoy! A slight smile found its way to my lips.
The passageway ended up ahead. Now was it left or right that we needed? The chatter of the children ceased when I stopped and turned. They all looked at me with smiles and large gray eyes.
"Come along." I motioned them forward and Ilse took my hand. Her action surprised me a bit. I looked down at her and she smiled and put her other hand over mine as we walked along. The boys followed us silently.
Ah, there was Morio up ahead. He turned at the sound of us coming toward him. His eyes got very big, his ears drooped and he turned and ran away. Ok, well, so much for 'helpful' elves.
"Morio!" I called to his receding back. He never even missed a step, just kept going.
I turned in the direction that Morio had gone. In a few moments I recognized the pictures on the wall and knew we were near Malfoy's office. The painted Malfoys were doing the follow along thing again. I had a feeling that I was supplying them with more action than they had seen for years. (You can't blame me for being naive!)
"GRANGER, GET IN HERE!" I jumped about a foot when I heard Malfoy's calling me. What was he doing up? Ilse removed her hand from mine and moved to stand with Julian and Nic.
I stuck my head around the door jamb of the office. There he was in all his Malfoy....uhh...glory. Well you know, there he was.
"What are you doing out of bed?" I questioned, and moved into the room.
He raised his eyebrows at me. "Is that an offer?"
"Malfoy!" The look on my face showed my disgust.
"Sit down, Granger we have some things to discu.....OH MERLIN'S BEARD don't tell me! You woke them up didn't you? You let them out of the Nursery! You let them out of the NURSERY! OH heaven's help us all." He put his head in his hands.
Ilse had stuck her head around the door and approached me, her hand slipping into mine. The boys moved to stand on either side of us.
"Granger, you have no idea what you've done!" He didn't look much better than he had last night. If the dark circles around his eyes were any indication he certainly hadn't gotten enough sleep.
"Malfoy, I am just going to take the children to the kitchen and get something to eat. Maybe you should go back to bed for a while." I suggested.
"Granger, where you are going to take the children is BACK TO THE NURSERY!" He raised his voice, his look becoming dangerous. This was the Malfoy I remembered. My back straightened, and my chin went up defiantly.
"Hermione." Ilse whimpered.
"Draco you are scaring them!" I glared at him.
"Scaring her? Hermione, you think I am scaring her?" He threw back at me.
Ilse pressed herself against my side, hiding her face in my upper arm.
"Yes Drac...Yes Malfoy, I think you are scaring her!" When had it become Hermione and Draco?
"Ha, ha...." he started laughing in a derisive manner. "Scare HER?! That's a laugh! You couldn't scare HER with an Unforgivable Curse!" He narrowed his eyes and looked as though that sounded like a good option.
"DRACO!" I couldn't believe what he was saying.
"Hermione" Ilse whimpered again.
"She has you suckered in, doesn't she?" Draco shook his head.
"They're just children Malfoy!" I tried to reason with him.
"I want them back in the nursery now." He turned around as if that were the end of the subject.
"Hermione, we don't want to go back. We want to stay with you!" Ilse looked up at me.
"Yes Hermione, we want to stay with you." Julian put his hand in my free one.
Draco whipped around at the voices of the children. His eyes went from Ilse pressed to my side, to my face and back again.
"BACK TO THE NURSERY NOW!" Draco bellowed. Bellowed, a Malfoy bellowing? He was a champion at smirking and sneering. His derisive chuckles could win awards, but BELLOWING? I had never, in my life experience, with Draco Malfoy, heard him bellow...OK granted, I had never seen him laugh hysterically, or act punch drunk with tiredness, as he had last night. I was seeing all sorts of new levels of Malfoy's personality. So far I didn't like any of them.
"Draco, they are hungry. I will just..." He cut me off.
"TO THE NURSERY NOW!" He stood and pointed toward the door. The knots in my stomach, which had been lying dormant since yesterday curled back up again.
"Fine, but you and I are going to talk!" I hoped I sounded threatening.
"But Hermione, we don't want to go..." Ilse trailed off as she saw Malfoy's glare.
"It's ok..." I smoothed the hair back from her face and squeezed her to my side.
One last glare at Malfoy and we left the office.
I muttered the entire way to the nursery. Damned Malfoy anyway, bespelling children, enchanting nurseries, acting like an insane person, yelling, looking attractive while yelling...Yelling! Threatening and scaring people. Hmph! In my anger I wasn't aware of at least half of what I was saying.
With all my carrying on I didn't notice how quiet the children were until we were almost to the nursery. I took their silence for fear. (Wouldn't you have?)
"It's ok, I will talk to your Uncle Draco, we will work things out, ok?" I smiled at the three children.
Ilse nodded to the two boys, and then all three smiled at me, showing lovely white toothy smiles.
I opened the door to the nursery and the children went inside without another word. I stayed in the hall, there was NO way I was going in there or I would find my anger toward Malfoy melting away. I wasn't about to lose my edge with him! I shut the door and marched back to the office.
"Sit down Granger." Malfoy kept pushing the papers around his desk, never even looking up at me to catch my carefully arranged scowl. Prat!
I huffed over to a chair and flung myself down upon it. Still scowling at him.
"Granger, I could kill you." He said the words easily, and I felt a frisson of fear. (oh alliteration)
"Would that be before or after the bellowing?" I made my voice as disinterested as possible.
"I DON'T BELLOW! Malfoy's never bellow!" He...uhhhh...bellowed.
I just raised an eyebrow at him.
"Bellow or not I could still bloody well kill you Granger, for what you have done!"
"You could try." I calmly stated, inside I was anything but calm.
At my words Draco laughed, his gray eyes looking me up and down.
"Love what you've done with your hair H e r m i o n e...as usual." He drew out my name making it sound like an insult. To him it probably was. I didn't raise my hand to my head, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Gone were the days when he could make me cry with his cutting little remarks. Besides I could imagine how I looked and nothing short of a good washing or an hour with a brush was going to do much good anyway.
"Do you have a point Malfoy? Because if not I do have a FEW things I would like to say to you." I spat the words at him.
"Do you really have no idea what you've done?" His eyes were intent upon me.
"HOW am I supposed to KNOW anything? You never told me ANYTHING." I shook my head. What was he talking about?
"Wait a minute! Let me ask, did you verbally give the children permission to leave the nursery?" His face had taken on an urgent look.
"What other way is there? Beside why would they need permi....."
"Damn, this is more serious than I thought. I had hoped you just led them out, held their hand or something, I should have known that SHE was smarter than that." What he was saying made no sense to me at all.
Before I could say anything else, he got up from his chair and sprinted toward the door.
"Where are you going Malfoy?" I stood up to follow him.
"JUST stay where you are, you have done enough already!" And with that he was gone. If I hadn't hated him I would really be starting to get annoyed.
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I sat for a few minutes, the ticking of the old clock on the wall the only noise in the room.
Tic, Tock, Tic, Tock...Where was Draco?
Tic, Tock, Tic, Tock...why should I have to stay here? *I'VE* done enough already? *I* HAVE? Hmph!
Tic, Tock, Tic, Tock...He doesn't ever TELL me anything, and now its ALL my fault? Ha!
Tic, Tock, Tic, Tock...Where was he?
Tic, Tock, Tic, Tock...Why didn't he come back?
Tic, Tock, Tic, Tock...I don't care what he said, I am not sitting here anymore, he could jam it!
I got up and left the room heading toward the nursery.
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Now, I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. I had, after all, been part of the front line during the fight with the Dark Lord, so I really shouldn't be sneaking down the hall toward the nursery. In my defense, you don't know Draco Malfoy like I know him. Being careful is NOT cowardice!
So like I said, I was carefully making my way down the passageway toward the nursery. "THUMP!" A sound came from the direction of the Nursery. There were muffled footsteps and more crashes. That couldn't be good!
"No!......ILSE!..........move.......nursery.....won't..." I only caught a few words of what Draco was yelling.
I started running toward the nursery. They were just children after all, and I knew Draco. I rounded the corner and saw the nursery door at the end of the hall. I was heading full tilt toward it. Abruptly the door opened and Draco came out. He shut it behind him and muttered a spell.
There was a thrum, a flash of red light, and then silence.
I slid to a stop about a foot from his back.
He turned to me calmly, not even a blond hair out of place. It was as if he hadn't just been having a holy row with three small children.
"I thought I told you to wait in the office." His eyes were raking over me, taking in my heavy breathing and flushed face. I wasn't used to doing the 100 yard dash.
"Let me by, I am going to check on the children." I made to move past him.
"You are going with me." He grabbed my arm.
"LET me go Malfoy!" I struggled to get my arm from his grasp. He didn't even acknowledge that I had said a word but started walking, pulling me with him.
No man would ever strong arm me. I reached into my pocket for my wand.
"No!" Draco grabbed my hand trapping it into my pocket. Then the struggle started in earnest. He trying to keep me immobile, me trying to get my wand free, and hex the living daylights out of him!
"Hermione, help us." Ilse's called through the door. Her voice, along with pounding, stopped us both in our tracks.
Draco sighed and dropped his hands from me. It would have taken very little from him for me to pull my wand out of my pocket, but all he did was back away and put his hands up.
"Listen Hermione, come with me and I will tell you everything. Then you can make up your mind what you want to do with the children. Ok?" He sounded defeated, and I could see he was still exhausted.
"I am not going anywhere with you. Let me into the nursery!" I couldn't care less that he sounded tired.
"Hermione!" Ilse's voice was louder, the pounding more frantic.
"Please, Hermione." There was a catch in his voice as he said my name.
I can't tell you what it was that made me shrug and turn down the hall toward his office, but if anyone even suggested that I felt sorry for him....well, they couldn't be more wrong!
"I will give you five minutes." My back was ramrod straight as I stalked along. I could still hear Ilse calling and pounding on the door. Damned Malfoy!
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TO BE CONTINUED.....
A/N TO my faithful readers, believe it or NOT I am not trying to draw things out, things have to happen in their own time. I will post the next part sooner than I thought, Hermione is just pestering me to find out who those children are...but you can't rush things, I was going to put it in this section but it would have been too long. I am sure you understand, but if not.....Steph made me do it, I blame Steph!
ALSO thanks once again for my reviewers. A few things that caught my eye.......
Arbitrary...next chapter please! :) (I asked please!) PS never saw Village of the Damned...will have to rent it. I think I remember previews. creepy blond kids...sounds familiar, I suppose. ;)
Mouse...keep hitting that tab mate!
Spaced out...evil children? come on now...;)
burgandyred....sorry for not satisfying your curiosity...and again. :| Remember its Steph's fault!
Fulldark...I get your drift! Working on it.
FashionDiva...once again cracking me up!
Thanks to everyone who has suggestions and comments. You all do make this a load of fun for me! :) THANKS!