The Dragon's Heart: Chapter Four
By: Teenlaunch
Draco woke up the next morning and dressed slowly. He was dragging already and he would just get worse. He went into the common room and found a sullen faced Hermione sitting as still as a statue, staring off into space in front of her. "Hey Grang - I mean, Hermione, what's up?" He walked over to the bathroom door and looked into the mirror on it.
"The sky, what else!?" Hermione snapped. Draco looked at her.
"What'd I do?! Whatever it was I'm sorry!" Draco ran his hand through his hair, back to front.
"It's not you." Hermione sighed. "I shouldn't have snapped at you." She looked at him and giggled.
"What?"
"You're hair. It looks better that way." Hermione said as she stood up and went into her room. Draco turned around and looked into the mirror again.
"Maybe I should change my hairstyle. Hey, do you have any hair gel I could .borrow?" Draco said as a tube of hair gel appeared in front of him. "Thanks", he said and he heard the portrait hole close.
Hermione was quietly eating her breakfast until Ginny gave her a little nudge. "Hey Hermione, what's wrong? You seem really down." Ginny didn't get an answer. "Oh dear." Hermione just stared at her porridge while Ginny and the other girls talked. Then the girls stared giggling and Hermione finally looked up.
Draco was calmly walking into the hall and everyone, including most of the teachers, was gawking at him. Harry and Ron were the ones that were really shocked, but they were soon getting over that and were not trying very hard to stifle their laughter. As Draco sat down at the Slytherin table Goyle watched as Draco piled his plate with food.
"Hey Draco, I like your hair." Goyle said as he pulled at one of Draco's strands of spiked hair.
"Hey, easy on the do." Draco said
"Draco, Granger's looking over here." Crabbe said. Draco looked up and his and Hermione's eyes locked. Hermione broke Draco's gaze and looked up at the teachers' table. Draco imitated her and saw that most of the professors were looking at him.
Snape looked horrified. McGonagall was poking him in the arm while Flitwick waved his tiny hand in front of his face. Professor Dumbledore watched with interest as Madam Hooch bewitched a pitcher of water to float above Snape's head. The entire hall rang with laughter as Snape came out of his reverie sputtering. The laughter died down and everyone started to talk again. A few minutes after Draco had finished eating Pansy came over to him and started crying about his hair.
"The next thing we know you'll befriend a Mudblood." This did it for Draco. He shot out of his seat and practically ran to his next class. "How rude!"
As the class assembled around him Draco kept to himself. Then he heard quiet, urgent voices. Lavender Brown was talking very quickly, obviously hoping that no one would overhear the conversation.
"You promised your mother you would tell her if it happened again. Why won't you tell her?" Lavender said as she and two other girls rounded the corner.
"I don't need a letter from my mom every day asking if I'm alright. You girls badgering me will be enough!" Hermione sighed. Parvati opened her mouth, but Snape's door flew open and cut her off. Draco rolled his eyes when Crabbe and Goyle looked at him; although, he couldn't help being a bit curious about the Gryffindor girls' argument.
Snape came striding into the classroom looking a bit ruffled from the severe drying session in his office after his little incident with the water jug. He stooped at his desk and turned to face them. "Good morning class. Today we will be making magical paints. They can change colors and turn your picture into 3-D, solid mass." Snape flicked his wand and their directions appeared on the board behind him. "Start now."
A few minutes after everyone had started making their potions there was a loud hissing and everyone craned their necks to see what was making the noise. Most of the Gryffindors looked even though they knew what the noise was. Poor Neville was drenched from head to foot in his potion. As Snape advanced on him everyone could see Neville's body shaking from beneath his severely drenched robes. If anyone in the class had researched the potion in their school books they would know that Neville would be multi-colored for a while.
"Longbottom! How does the Headmaster expect me to teach you the most complicated potions there are when you can't even perform the simplest of them!? Detention and clean up this mess!"
Snape walked away and Neville dropped to his hands and knees and started scrubbing the floor in his already stained robes. All the Slytherins were laughing. Draco had been tempted to help Neville many times, but, remembering the consequences, stopped himself. Hermione whipped out her wand while Snape had his back to her and with a wave of her wand cleaned up Neville's mess.
While the potions were brewing Draco watched various things: Neville making a new potion, Hermione, Harry and Ron, Hermione, his own potion, and Hermione. One time, while Draco was watching her, he noticed that Hermione looked depressed and he also saw that she had only touched her potions book when she had needed it. She wasn't acting like her normal book-wormy self. He was extremely surprised to see a tear run down her cheek and she put her head onto her arms. Draco watched as Hermione's body was racked with silent sobs. Parvati and Lavender also watched sadly as Hermione cried until Snape told them off for not minding their potions that were about to boil over the top of their cauldrons. Draco heard laughing and turned around to see Pansy. Draco felt like cursing her but stopped his hand from whipping out his wand as he heard Snape's voice.
"Miss Granger, will you please stop distracting my class." He said softly and Hermione nodded into her arms.
After a while the potions, including Neville's new concoction, were ready for testing. As everyone started painting their picture there was a loud bang and two black blobs landed on the floor next to Neville's cauldron. One blob picked itself off the floor and shook its head. A large pile of flaming red hair appeared as ashes flew off its head. Ron blinked, bent down, and picked Neville off the ground as Snape advanced on him.
"Detention, both of you." Snape said silkily. Ron was livid.
"What, why are you giving me detention?" Snape rounded on Ron.
"Another detention, Weasley." Ron growled at him but sat down, putting Neville in his chair.
Draco doodled and didn't pay attention to what his hand was really drawing until it stopped moving. He looked down and saw something he had not drawn for a long time. A little flea-like creature looked up at him. This flea's name was Rusty.
Hermione didn't pay the least bit of attention to what her hand was doing until it stopped and she looked down. She saw her pet flea looking up at her. This flea's name was Rusty.
After Potions was Care of Magical Creatures class. Honestly this was one of Draco's favorite classes. Of course, he didn't tell anyone else this.
"My picture blew up in my face! Hey, Draco, how did your paints work?" Goyle said as they walked across the lawns toward Hagrid's hut.
"Hm? Oh, it worked fine." Draco was barely paying attention to anything except the conversation that was taking place I front of him, one that concerned Hermione.
"Hermione, you can't keep this bottled up! You'll make yourself sick. You just might no matter what you do. Do you remember last time? It's your choice." Parvati said as she listened to the boys talking about Quidditch.
Hermione sighed. "Alright, I'm listening! But what can I do about it? I can't ask Hagrid if I can skip Care of Magical Creatures. Oh, that's what you wanted me to do don't you? Ok, I'll ask if all three of us can be excused." Hermione walked a little faster than everyone else and disappeared around the back of Hagrid's hut just as Hagrid's foot appeared around the side of his house.
"Yes!" Lavender and Parvati gave each other a high five. As they drew nearer to the hut Hermione came over to them.
"Hagrid said that we're excused. Let's go." Hermione said and the three girls walked to Hagrid's door, the other two supporting Hermione.
'What the.' Draco followed the class to the paddock close to the Forbidden Forest but doubled back to Hagrid's hut once everyone was absorbed in the lesson.
In Hagrid's hut Parvati was flitting around every cabinet looking for a basin. Hermione was leaning heavily on Lavender's shoulder, crying her heart out. Parvati found a huge basin that Hermione recognized as the one Hagrid had lent Ron when his wand had backfired. Hermione sat the basin between her feet and leaned over its top that came up to the middle of her chest. Lavender and Parvati sat down on either side of Hermione as she started to get sick.
Draco snuck around to the back of Hagrid's house and peeked through a window beside the door. What he saw made his stomach plummet and his heart ache. He couldn't help Hermione and since he didn't know what was wrong with her he would be more of a nuisance than a help. As he went back to the paddock a thought struck him. What could have possibly made Hermione so sad and during the night?
The rest of the day went by smoothly. Parvati and Lavender never left Hermione's side. Draco followed them for the rest of the day, hoping to solve the mystery of Hermione's sickness. When dinner came Draco watched Hermione until she left. He had to run at breakneck speed and use every hidden passageway he knew of to beat Hermione to the common room.
Hermione entered the common room, slung her bag from her shoulder and threw it in a chair.
"Hey Hermione," Draco said cheerfully," what's wrong?" Draco asked as she walked right past him without acknowledging his presence. "What a greeting. Hermione please say something."
"All right, something."
Draco lost his patience very quickly. "Why did you cry earlier today?"
"Why do you care?" Hermione said as she walked into her room.
"That's what friends do isn't it? They care about each other and can't stand when the other is down. Am I right?" Draco said as he followed her into her room.
"You're right, but it's just...Listen, I haven't even told Harry and Ron about it so I...I just can't tell anyone else right now. Maybe if you asked me later I'll tell you." Hermione said as she came out from behind her room divider dressed in shorts and a t-shirt.
"Oh, I see." Draco walked out of her room and Hermione sank onto her bed. Draco poked his head back through the doorway. "Will you tell me now?" Hermione picked up the nearest thing to her, which just happened to be her potions book, and threw it at Draco's head. "Touchy!"
a/n: Hey everyone it might be a while 'till my next chapter gets done. My friend told me I should add more in so, for some reason, I'm taking her advice. That means that I still have to write more than half of the next chapter according to her! Oh, well...I better get started! Bye!
~Teenlaunch~
By: Teenlaunch
Draco woke up the next morning and dressed slowly. He was dragging already and he would just get worse. He went into the common room and found a sullen faced Hermione sitting as still as a statue, staring off into space in front of her. "Hey Grang - I mean, Hermione, what's up?" He walked over to the bathroom door and looked into the mirror on it.
"The sky, what else!?" Hermione snapped. Draco looked at her.
"What'd I do?! Whatever it was I'm sorry!" Draco ran his hand through his hair, back to front.
"It's not you." Hermione sighed. "I shouldn't have snapped at you." She looked at him and giggled.
"What?"
"You're hair. It looks better that way." Hermione said as she stood up and went into her room. Draco turned around and looked into the mirror again.
"Maybe I should change my hairstyle. Hey, do you have any hair gel I could .borrow?" Draco said as a tube of hair gel appeared in front of him. "Thanks", he said and he heard the portrait hole close.
Hermione was quietly eating her breakfast until Ginny gave her a little nudge. "Hey Hermione, what's wrong? You seem really down." Ginny didn't get an answer. "Oh dear." Hermione just stared at her porridge while Ginny and the other girls talked. Then the girls stared giggling and Hermione finally looked up.
Draco was calmly walking into the hall and everyone, including most of the teachers, was gawking at him. Harry and Ron were the ones that were really shocked, but they were soon getting over that and were not trying very hard to stifle their laughter. As Draco sat down at the Slytherin table Goyle watched as Draco piled his plate with food.
"Hey Draco, I like your hair." Goyle said as he pulled at one of Draco's strands of spiked hair.
"Hey, easy on the do." Draco said
"Draco, Granger's looking over here." Crabbe said. Draco looked up and his and Hermione's eyes locked. Hermione broke Draco's gaze and looked up at the teachers' table. Draco imitated her and saw that most of the professors were looking at him.
Snape looked horrified. McGonagall was poking him in the arm while Flitwick waved his tiny hand in front of his face. Professor Dumbledore watched with interest as Madam Hooch bewitched a pitcher of water to float above Snape's head. The entire hall rang with laughter as Snape came out of his reverie sputtering. The laughter died down and everyone started to talk again. A few minutes after Draco had finished eating Pansy came over to him and started crying about his hair.
"The next thing we know you'll befriend a Mudblood." This did it for Draco. He shot out of his seat and practically ran to his next class. "How rude!"
As the class assembled around him Draco kept to himself. Then he heard quiet, urgent voices. Lavender Brown was talking very quickly, obviously hoping that no one would overhear the conversation.
"You promised your mother you would tell her if it happened again. Why won't you tell her?" Lavender said as she and two other girls rounded the corner.
"I don't need a letter from my mom every day asking if I'm alright. You girls badgering me will be enough!" Hermione sighed. Parvati opened her mouth, but Snape's door flew open and cut her off. Draco rolled his eyes when Crabbe and Goyle looked at him; although, he couldn't help being a bit curious about the Gryffindor girls' argument.
Snape came striding into the classroom looking a bit ruffled from the severe drying session in his office after his little incident with the water jug. He stooped at his desk and turned to face them. "Good morning class. Today we will be making magical paints. They can change colors and turn your picture into 3-D, solid mass." Snape flicked his wand and their directions appeared on the board behind him. "Start now."
A few minutes after everyone had started making their potions there was a loud hissing and everyone craned their necks to see what was making the noise. Most of the Gryffindors looked even though they knew what the noise was. Poor Neville was drenched from head to foot in his potion. As Snape advanced on him everyone could see Neville's body shaking from beneath his severely drenched robes. If anyone in the class had researched the potion in their school books they would know that Neville would be multi-colored for a while.
"Longbottom! How does the Headmaster expect me to teach you the most complicated potions there are when you can't even perform the simplest of them!? Detention and clean up this mess!"
Snape walked away and Neville dropped to his hands and knees and started scrubbing the floor in his already stained robes. All the Slytherins were laughing. Draco had been tempted to help Neville many times, but, remembering the consequences, stopped himself. Hermione whipped out her wand while Snape had his back to her and with a wave of her wand cleaned up Neville's mess.
While the potions were brewing Draco watched various things: Neville making a new potion, Hermione, Harry and Ron, Hermione, his own potion, and Hermione. One time, while Draco was watching her, he noticed that Hermione looked depressed and he also saw that she had only touched her potions book when she had needed it. She wasn't acting like her normal book-wormy self. He was extremely surprised to see a tear run down her cheek and she put her head onto her arms. Draco watched as Hermione's body was racked with silent sobs. Parvati and Lavender also watched sadly as Hermione cried until Snape told them off for not minding their potions that were about to boil over the top of their cauldrons. Draco heard laughing and turned around to see Pansy. Draco felt like cursing her but stopped his hand from whipping out his wand as he heard Snape's voice.
"Miss Granger, will you please stop distracting my class." He said softly and Hermione nodded into her arms.
After a while the potions, including Neville's new concoction, were ready for testing. As everyone started painting their picture there was a loud bang and two black blobs landed on the floor next to Neville's cauldron. One blob picked itself off the floor and shook its head. A large pile of flaming red hair appeared as ashes flew off its head. Ron blinked, bent down, and picked Neville off the ground as Snape advanced on him.
"Detention, both of you." Snape said silkily. Ron was livid.
"What, why are you giving me detention?" Snape rounded on Ron.
"Another detention, Weasley." Ron growled at him but sat down, putting Neville in his chair.
Draco doodled and didn't pay attention to what his hand was really drawing until it stopped moving. He looked down and saw something he had not drawn for a long time. A little flea-like creature looked up at him. This flea's name was Rusty.
Hermione didn't pay the least bit of attention to what her hand was doing until it stopped and she looked down. She saw her pet flea looking up at her. This flea's name was Rusty.
After Potions was Care of Magical Creatures class. Honestly this was one of Draco's favorite classes. Of course, he didn't tell anyone else this.
"My picture blew up in my face! Hey, Draco, how did your paints work?" Goyle said as they walked across the lawns toward Hagrid's hut.
"Hm? Oh, it worked fine." Draco was barely paying attention to anything except the conversation that was taking place I front of him, one that concerned Hermione.
"Hermione, you can't keep this bottled up! You'll make yourself sick. You just might no matter what you do. Do you remember last time? It's your choice." Parvati said as she listened to the boys talking about Quidditch.
Hermione sighed. "Alright, I'm listening! But what can I do about it? I can't ask Hagrid if I can skip Care of Magical Creatures. Oh, that's what you wanted me to do don't you? Ok, I'll ask if all three of us can be excused." Hermione walked a little faster than everyone else and disappeared around the back of Hagrid's hut just as Hagrid's foot appeared around the side of his house.
"Yes!" Lavender and Parvati gave each other a high five. As they drew nearer to the hut Hermione came over to them.
"Hagrid said that we're excused. Let's go." Hermione said and the three girls walked to Hagrid's door, the other two supporting Hermione.
'What the.' Draco followed the class to the paddock close to the Forbidden Forest but doubled back to Hagrid's hut once everyone was absorbed in the lesson.
In Hagrid's hut Parvati was flitting around every cabinet looking for a basin. Hermione was leaning heavily on Lavender's shoulder, crying her heart out. Parvati found a huge basin that Hermione recognized as the one Hagrid had lent Ron when his wand had backfired. Hermione sat the basin between her feet and leaned over its top that came up to the middle of her chest. Lavender and Parvati sat down on either side of Hermione as she started to get sick.
Draco snuck around to the back of Hagrid's house and peeked through a window beside the door. What he saw made his stomach plummet and his heart ache. He couldn't help Hermione and since he didn't know what was wrong with her he would be more of a nuisance than a help. As he went back to the paddock a thought struck him. What could have possibly made Hermione so sad and during the night?
The rest of the day went by smoothly. Parvati and Lavender never left Hermione's side. Draco followed them for the rest of the day, hoping to solve the mystery of Hermione's sickness. When dinner came Draco watched Hermione until she left. He had to run at breakneck speed and use every hidden passageway he knew of to beat Hermione to the common room.
Hermione entered the common room, slung her bag from her shoulder and threw it in a chair.
"Hey Hermione," Draco said cheerfully," what's wrong?" Draco asked as she walked right past him without acknowledging his presence. "What a greeting. Hermione please say something."
"All right, something."
Draco lost his patience very quickly. "Why did you cry earlier today?"
"Why do you care?" Hermione said as she walked into her room.
"That's what friends do isn't it? They care about each other and can't stand when the other is down. Am I right?" Draco said as he followed her into her room.
"You're right, but it's just...Listen, I haven't even told Harry and Ron about it so I...I just can't tell anyone else right now. Maybe if you asked me later I'll tell you." Hermione said as she came out from behind her room divider dressed in shorts and a t-shirt.
"Oh, I see." Draco walked out of her room and Hermione sank onto her bed. Draco poked his head back through the doorway. "Will you tell me now?" Hermione picked up the nearest thing to her, which just happened to be her potions book, and threw it at Draco's head. "Touchy!"
a/n: Hey everyone it might be a while 'till my next chapter gets done. My friend told me I should add more in so, for some reason, I'm taking her advice. That means that I still have to write more than half of the next chapter according to her! Oh, well...I better get started! Bye!
~Teenlaunch~