That's How You Know
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Chapter Four
Draco knocked softly on the bedroom door before opening it to stick his head in. This time he was going to give her the rude awakening. He closed the door behind him, glancing about the room as he walked over to her bed quietly, and that was when he heard it. The soft sobbing noise again. He could see her back shaking as he walked to the edge of the bed to give her a poke in the side. Walking around the bed, he got in front of her and shook her shoulder.
Sitting up quickly with a gasp, she stared at him. "What are you doing in here?" she wiped the heel of her hand across her eyes and cheeks, glaring up at him. "What are you doing in my room, Draco?"
He stared at her tearstained cheeks before looking up at her eyes, "I came to wake you."
"Get out," she ordered, not looking at him as he walked out of the room. Her hands came back up to her face as she started into a fresh round of tears. She had thought it was him, coming back to apologize and tell her that he would always loved her. That he would never leave her again. But it had just been Draco . . .
Draco stood outside her door, listening to the sobs before turning away and walking downstairs. It wasn't his business to know why she was crying.
Dressing quickly, she made sure to wash her face off before going downstairs to face the world again with false cheerfulness. "Morning!" she smiled at her grandparents as she entered the kitchen and sat down to eat a small breakfast.
"Hi Sunshine," Edward smiled from behind his newspaper before setting it down and standing up. "I'm off. Oh, and Sunshine?"
She looked up, bacon hanging from her mouth.
"Your Grams and I are going to be gone this coming weekend, taking Star to his new owners, alright?"
She nodded her head, "are you leaving tonight, then?"
"Yep. So you two will be on your own. I trust you know what to do without me." He looked at the two waiting for one of them to give him a confirmation.
"Don't worry about a thing, Grandpa," she scooped eggs into her mouth before wiping the napkin across her lips. "Did you get that fence finished?"
Edward shook his head, placing a cowboy hat atop it, "that's where I'm going right now."
Draco stood and head out the back door after him, nodding his head towards Isabelle before shutting the door. The two women watched as he went to the barn doors, opened them and then disappeared behind the barn.
"You going to get those horses out of that barn or not, Sunshine?" Isabelle smiled knowingly at her granddaughter.
"What are you smiling at? Where is he going? He has to clean out the stalls!" she handed her plate over and walked out the back door to get Delia, Shady and Melodic groomed and tacked for their workouts. She couldn't spot Draco anywhere in the barn as she led the horses that would go out into their respective pastures.
She led the three horses out of the barn by their reins once they were tacked, ready to tie them to the fence, find Draco and give him an earful about how the stalls weren't mucked out yet. But she stopped when she saw the course set up already in the practice ring. Turning around quickly, she saw him making his way up the aisle with the wheelbarrow full of dirty straw.
Shady snorted, tossing his head in impatience until she put him into a trot and took him through the five-jump course. "Lift, Shady," she said once she had stopped and watched the colt lift his right foreleg. "One, two, three," she watched him strike the ground at her command. "Alright, let's do some dressage and then I'm putting you away," she murmured as she led him to an empty ring set up with large orange cones with letters or the alphabet on them.
Going over the course in her head, she led and signaled Shady to every cone, sometimes just going past one. It was a five-minute course she had picked out, and when she was done, Shady was feeling very uppity.
"Alright, time for you to cool down," she told the colt as he snorted. "What? You want to go through the jumps again?" Shady tossed his head and she shrugged, "you're the boss." She led him through the gate back to the jumping ring and cantered him through the course once more before handing him off to an expectant Draco.
While moving each jump up a notch, her attention was turned to watch the red sports car driving up the way. The horn tooted a little ditty causing her to groan as she realized who would be coming out of that car. She mounted up onto Delia's back and took her at a trot around the ring, taking her through the dressage first.
"Well if it isn't Miss High-An-Mighty-England Herself!" the voice cried from the ringside. "What are you doing back here?"
She executed the flying change without answering the girl. Cantering to C, then a sitting trot to F, she glanced over at the girl who was now wearing a scowl for being ignored.
"Do you think you're the Queen of England up there or what?" the girl called again as she opened the gate for the horse and rider.
"I am the Queen of England, Kris," she replied in a fake superior voice as they went through the jumps.
Kris tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder, "well, get your butt down from that throne and come talk to me! I haven't seen you in ages and you never write!"
"That's because my form of post would give you a heart attack," she muttered to herself as she dismounted and handed the filly off to Draco again.
Kris' green eyes flicked up and down Dracos' body as he walked past her with appreciation. Draco flashed her a charming smile that caused Kris' to giggle a bit and receive an eye roll from her friend. "Who's the hottie?"
"Urg!" she got a leg up onto Melodic from Kris, who was still glancing every so often back at Draco. "He's just a new stable hand, Kris. Nothing special about him."
"Except that he is seriously hot!" Kris replied with a grin. "You can't tell me that you're not attracted to him and look me in the eye, can you?"
She looked Kris in the eye, "I'm not attracted to him," she said seriously and then led the mare into the jumping ring and took her on the course.
"You're just in denial!"
"And you're just a silly girl!" she replied as they went through the triple and stopped near her. "I went to school with him, he's a jerk. Trust me."
"Denial!"
"Silly girl!"
"Denial!" Kris laughed as she saw the infamous eye roll. "Now are you going to tell me what brought you back here? I can tell that this isn't a normal visit."
She shook her head and walked over to the hoses, waving Draco off. "And you wonder why I never call you when I get back? You probably already know why I'm here – in fact, I'm sure you do."
"You've decided to become a nun, haven't you?"
"What?!" she blinked at her friend. "A nun?"
Kris shrugged as she wiped down Melodics' left side. "Well, he broke your heart and now you don't want to ever fall in love again. Your only choice is to become a nun."
"I won't fall in love again, Kris. There is no such thing as love," she replied bitterly as she led Melodic out to her pasture away from the other mares.
The blonde girl shook her head disbelievingly, "he really did a number on you, didn't he?"
"Just drop the subject, Kris!" she went to grab the same halter from yesterday only to find it missing. Thinking that maybe she had left it near the enclosed ring, walked out of the barn once more.
Kris sighed heavily. "Well, at any rate, I came out here to tell you that there is going to be a party down at Jumping Rock tonight. And you're coming."
"No."
"Yes! I'll be back here at eight to walk out there with you. We should bring your new boy – he's so cute."
"Oh for bloody sake," she muttered as she walked up to the gate. "Bye, Kris," she dismissed the girl without giving her answer, knowing that whatever she said, the girl would be back at eight anyway.
"Bye!" Kris waved over her shoulder.
When she did get to the gate, what she saw made her jaw drop in utter surprise. What the hell did he think he was doing?
"I'm not here to hurt you. Just want a little conversation, y'know?" Draco murmured to the horse.
The stallion walked a step towards him, nostrils flared out.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to put the halter on you . . ." he reached backwards and grabbed it slowly off the bar and held it in front of him. "See, it doesn't bite. It's just going to go over your head," he said slowly as he took a step towards him, stopping when he blew air out of his nose. Draco tossed the halter onto the ground near his feet, causing him to step backwards as he sat down in the dirt and waited.
The stallion watched him with his eyes as he leaned down and nosed at the halter. He snorted and looked up at Draco. He just sat there, hands folded in his lap waiting for him to make the first move. The stallion sniffed at the halter once more before grabbing it in his teeth.
"What? It's not a chew toy," he told the horse as he chomped on the halter, for which he wished he wouldn't chew a hole in it. The stallion rolled his eyes towards him, taking a small step. "You want me to put that on you yet?"
He stared at Draco, walking another step towards him. He tossed his head, letting go of the halter as he did. Draco caught the headpiece with both hands, setting it down in his lap and untangling it, pretending not to pay attention to the curious stallion. He bobbed his head a bit to a tune as he worked, watching the stallions every move as he took three more steps towards him.
"You want a carrot?" he held out the orange vegetable to the stallion, who eyed it curiously. He broke off a piece of it, tossing it to his feet. Snapping off another, smaller piece for himself, he crunched it loudly in his mouth. "Mmm, good carrot. Are you going to eat your piece?"
The black leaned his head down, lipping up the carrot and crunching it just as loudly as he had.
"Ah, so you do like it," he snapped off another piece and tossed it closer to himself, repeating the action until he was two feet in front of him. "You want the rest?" he held it out in his palm, waiting for him to take it. The stallion snorted, striking the ground lightly with his hoof before taking a step forward and stretching out his neck to take the carrot from him.
Draco stood up slowly, letting him watch his every move and took another carrot from his pocket. "I'll make you a deal. You let me put this halter on you, and I'll let you have this carrot all to yourself."
The stallion tossed his head, reaching for the carrot that he took out of his reach just in time.
"Ah, ah, ah. Do we have a deal?" he slipped the carrot into his pocket and held the halter out to him. The stallion dropped his head slightly, letting him slide the halter over his ears, taking the whole process slowly as he hooked the second strap into place.
"See, that wasn't so bad," he murmured as he broke the carrot into the small pieces and held them out to him. Walking slowly towards the side of the ring, he grabbed the lunging line from the outside wall and held it out to him. "It's nothing. Just like the halter," Draco reassured the stallion as he hooked it onto his new halter.
The stallion tossed his head up, seemingly happy with being able to still move his head around, but rubbing the halter against his foreleg.
"It doesn't come off," he told him as he walked him around the ring. "Walk on," he said clearly as they did so, remembering what he had heard Edward telling a filly early that morning. "Trot," he said just as clearly as he began jogging around the ring, the stallion trotting as he did to keep up with the tugging on his head. Draco let out some of the lunge and stood in the center of the ring. Pulling on the lunge line, he spoke again, "walk on."
Pulling his head up to get more line proved to be of no avail the stallion finally realized as he settled into the walk before being pulled to a stop.
"I think we'll just end this on a good note, y'think?" he scratched his cheek as he unhooked the lunge line and gave him a last piece of carrot. "Maybe I can move you into a stall tomorrow. We'll see, though."
She watched as Draco walked out of the ring, and slipped through the bars, hanging the line back on the hook from the view box above the ring. He was really good with that stallion. She didn't know if she would have thought to do something like that.
~~*~~
"Bye Grandpa, Grams. Be safe!" she kissed them on the cheek as they gave her a goodbye hug. Draco watched them, wondering if they knew that she cried herself to sleep every night, because it seemed as if they didn't. He was taken by surprise when Isabelle enveloped him into a warm goodbye hug, telling him to have fun and be good while they were gone. He shook hands with Edward as he walked out the door, bags in one hand.
"Be good you two, I don't want my farm in shambles when I get back!" he warned mockingly.
"Bye!" she called once more before entering the house once more. She sat down at the table, sighing heavily as she thought about what she should wear tonight. "Draco?"
"What?" he grunted out to her, stopping on the stairs.
She looked up at him, "there's going to be a party out at Jumping Rock tonight. Kris will be here at eight to get me, so you might as well be ready yourself because she's going to force you to come too."
"And if I say no? I'm tired of doing your every biding, that's not what I'm here for."
She rolled her eyes, "Draco, whether you like it or not, you're not in England anymore. You can't just say that you're not going to do something and pull the spoiled little rich boy act here. This is a farm you have to work, as hard as that may be for you to comprehend! So get all your arrogance out of the system right now and learn the damn meaning of a hard days work!"
"You think I'm not working hard?" he asked angrily.
"Honestly, I'm not sure!" she replied.
"What?"
She glared at him, waving her hands about in wild gestures. "You heard me! What reason do you have for working here? It's not like you need to know anything about hard work – not with your wand to do the Killing Curse for you just like your fathers' does!"
He grabbed her by the upper arm and growled out, "how do you know about that?"
She stared at him in disbelief. "Oh my god. You actually think I'm a Muggle, don't you?"
"What?" he dropped her arm in surprise.
"Bloody hell, Draco," she stared at him, "you have no clue who you're working under, do you?"
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I feel as if I should be giving a crazy laugh right about now. Ah, don't you just love my little cliffhangers and me. Well, all will be explained in due time.
