Chapter 4: Only Friends
Madam Pomfrey insisted that Draco stay in the Hospital Wing for a week. Hermione daily brought in his homework and also stayed to help him and talk. Ron and Harry didn't like the idea of Hermione spending so much time with the Slytherin boy.
"Hermione, why do you have to help him? He's supposed to be the smartest boy in school," Ron whined.
"Ron, as Head Girl, I'm supposed to help the Head Boy stay on top of his work. It's all part of my role," Hermione explained exasperatedly. "And besides, I wouldn't be setting a good example to the other students if I simply let him fail all his classes. So if you'll excuse me, I've got to give Drac. . .er. . .Malfoy his work." Hermione left the Gryffindor common room hurriedly, leaving behind an upset Ron and Harry. Neither of them seemed to notice her slip-up. Hermione practically ran all the way up to the Hospital Wing. She burst through the infirmary doors to Draco's side. Madam Pomfrey just finished giving him his medicine and gave Hermione a disapproving glare. Hermione blushed and gave the mediwitch a sheepish apology. Madam Pomfrey left the room with a 'humph' and slammed her office door shut. Hermione sat down next to Draco and placed his books and homework on the table next to his bed.
"You know, people will start becoming suspicious if you keep coming in here acting like that," Draco said in his old drawl. Hermione leaned back, arms crossed.
"Like what, exactly?" Hermione asked, waiting for the joke. Draco grinned.
"Like we're friends." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Please, Draco. Who said I was your friend?" Draco pretended to be hurt.
"Oh Hermione, you break my heart." Hermione laughed and, once again, stopped herself before playfully hitting him in the shoulder. Instead, she rolled up Draco's shirtsleeve to examine his injury. It was healing fine. Hermione gingerly touched his bruise. He pulled his arm away, wincing slightly. Hermione pulled her hand back quickly, rested both of them on Draco's bed and looked down at them. Draco reached out his own hand and laid it on top of hers. She looked up at him and as he looked into her hazel eyes, it almost took his breath away.
"Draco, you still never told me about what happened that night." Draco stared for a moment as if wondering if he should tell her. He exhaled heavily and ran his hand through his hair. Usually it was slicked back. But since he had been in the hospital for five days, his short, blond hair was mussed and somewhat resembled Harry's bedhead look. He looked into Hermione honey-brown eyes and took another deep breath before he started telling his story.
*FLASHBACK*
Hermione just walked out the portrait hole and Draco once again settled himself on the couch. He picked up a book off the table. It had no title and Draco didn't ever remember it being there before. He began to open it, thinking it was just a book Hermione checked out of the library. But as soon as he did, he felt a tugging sensation somewhere behind his navel. He saw the common room disappear in blur and felt the wind whistling through his ears. He landed with a soft thud onto a cold, stone floor. He stood up to dust off his robes when he realized that he still had no shirt on. He looked around and found himself in the dungeon located way below the Malfoy Manor.
Draco walked over to the door and jiggled the doorknob. It was locked. Lucius' cold, mirthless laugh rang out through the dungeon and sent chills up Draco's spine. Draco spun around and came face to face with his father. He immediately emptied his mind of all thought and emotion. Years of coming down here with his father like this taught him to be prepared for anything. Show no pain or emotion and to watch what you say. Draco bowed his head slightly.
"Father," he acknowledged. "To what occasion must I serve that needed my immediate presence?" Lucius smirked that infamous Malfoy trademark.
"Well, son," Lucius began in a dangerous tone. Draco knew that when his father used that tone, it was best to stay quiet and never look straight into his eyes. Lucius started pacing and Draco stared straight ahead into the wall in front of him. "If I had know that you'd show up partially nude, I would have waited. It seems that that Mudblood girl you live with is quite the entertainment." Draco stiffened at the mention of Hermione. At the time, it was quite absurd for his father to even think that Draco would even touch Hermione let alone become romantically involved with her. Lucius took no notice of this, however.
"But no matter. I did not summon you here to discuss your dirty deeds, although that is beginning to become a concern. I brought you here to discuss your future." Lucius stopped pacing and waved his wand in the air. A chair materialized out of nowhere and Draco sat down. But as soon as he did, the chair strapped him in with leather cords so he couldn't run away. Draco started to struggle, but this only caused the cords to tighten. Lucius smirked.
"Draco, you are now seventeen years old. Soon you will be graduating to do bigger and better things. I know that since Potter and his gang got me arrested last summer, the Malfoy name is not as influential as it used to be." Lucius seemed to have gotten angrier at the mention of his arrest. He then looked at Draco with an almost manic gleam in his eye.
"That is where you come in, Draco. Under my influence, you are training to work in the Ministry. Since I cannot come out into the open yet, you need to do everything you can to get a good job in the Ministry. Use any device you can in order to get a good job.
"Then you will go undercover. Be a spy, you see, for the Dark Lord. Pass on useful information for us. You could be our double-agent." Draco was shocked at what his father was proposing. He didn't want to be a spy! He was about to say something, but Lucius wasn't finished.
"On your eighteenth birthday, you will receive the Dark Mark and officially become a Death Eater spy." Draco could not take what he was hearing anymore.
"Wait! You talk as if you've already decided that I'm going to do it. What if I refuse?" Lucius laughed and sent chills up Draco's spine again.
"Silly boy! Don't you understand? You can't refuse. You don't get a say. The Dark Lord needed a spy and I suggested you. You should be greatly honored." In reality, if this offer had been made to his two years ago, Draco would have snatched up the opportunity. But ever since his father had been arrested (then escaped), his image of Death Eaters was no longer one of powerful, menacing and brilliant beings as it was before. Now he thought of them as deceitful and conniving cowards and no longer wanted to be one.
"But father, I do not wish to become a Death Eater!" Draco screamed out. "I don't want to end up like you, having to go into hiding and obeying Voldemort's every command like some puppet!" This enraged Lucius so much that he took Draco out of the chair and pinned him to the wall instead.
"I told you, boy, you do not have a choice. You WILL become a Death Eater, you WILL become a spy and you WILL start training tonight." Draco's eyes narrowed.
"What training?" he asked slowly. Lucius' evil sneer returned.
"Tonight we will commence with your Death Eater training. I have brought a few associates to help me." Just as Lucius said this, two hooded figures stepped out of the shadows, brandishing their wands. It was then that Draco realized that he did not have his.
"Tonight is not actually a training. It's more of a test," Lucius said, the manic gleam still in his eye.
"What kind of test?"
"A test to see how much pain you can endure." Draco paled even more than usual. "We will start. . .now! CRUCIO!" The first spell his Draco hard and he fell to the floor, writhing in pain, but not allowing himself to scream. And so for two hours, Draco had to endure multiple hexes and curses from three fully grown Death Eaters until Lucius finally thought that he had passed the "test" and sent him back to Hogwarts.
*END FLASHBACK*
". . .And that's when you found me, Draco finished. He looked up at Hermione who was so pale and shocked and could not seem to meet Draco's eyes. "Hermione?" Draco nudged her. "Please say something." Hermione looked up into Draco's eyes.
"You can't," she whispered. "You can't do it! Don't do it, Draco, please!" Draco shook his head sadly.
"I have to, Hermione. I already told you. There's no way out of it. And I can't go to Dumbledore because he said. . ." Draco cut himself off. The day before, Lucius sent an owl with a message saying that if Draco went to Dumbledore, something terrible would happen to Hermione. And that was the last thing he wanted right now: for his father to take away the only real friend he ever had. But Draco couldn't tell Hermione. Not right now. It was too soon.
"What did he say, Draco?" Hermione asked softly. Draco looked away.
"He said that if I told, then something horrible would happen to someone I care about," he answered slowly. Hermione looked disappointed, but nodded to show that she understood. She stood up to leave.
"I'd better go. We have that Charms essay due tomorrow and I want to add some things to it." Hermione gathered her things and was about to walk away when Draco reached out and grabbed her hand. Hermione looked at him questioningly.
"I just wanted to say thank you, Hermione, for being such a good friend to me these past few days. I think I would have gone crazy without you here with me." Draco was smiling so sincerely and Hermione was trying to calm the butterflies that started to form in her stomach. Why am I feeling so weird? It's just Mal--Draco! Hermione returned his smile.
"You're welcome. Anything for a friend." Hermione leaned down and gave Draco a peck on the cheek before hurrying off to the common room. . .alone. As soon as she closed the portrait hole, she leaned against it and slid to the floor.
"Oh my God, I'm starting to fall for him," Hermione said aloud. "Too bad he only thinks of us as friends."