Omg! I'm soooo sorry for not updating right away. I've been so busy, you have no IDEA! Back-To-Back rehearsals for "The Breakfast Club" at the high school I go to now, and "Much Ado About Nothing," the alumni production at the junior high I attended four years ago! AND I still have band practice and church stuff etc, etc, etc! You guys don't KNOW how stressed I am! So, I might not be updating for a while, I'm sad to say...and I know that after this chapter, you're going to SOOOO hate that I won't *evil grin* so don't stone me to death, or hit up my inbox with angry reviews. Because I'm telling you now...I warned you! So, without further ado, I present "Promises," chapter 16! *stupid fanfare music*
Chapter 16: The Consequences of Love
Ron rudely awakened Harry and Hermione later on that day.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" Hermione jumped up and Harry fell off the couch.
"Thanks mate, but you could have just given us a shake, you know," Harry said sarcastically, rubbing his bum. Ron pointed an accusing finger at both Harry and Hermione.
"Why didn't you tell me about you two?" Harry looked confused.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Hermione, who was a bit quicker on the uptake, began to laugh.
"You think Harry and I are..." She began making hand gestures to explain since she could not bring herself to say it.
"Well, how else do you explain the cuddling position I found you two in when I walked in here?" Ron asked, still red in the face. Harry smiled amusedly and decided to play with Ron a bit. Harry threw an arm over Hermione's shoulder, ignoring the looks the three of them were getting from a gaggle of nosy first years.
"Oh well, that..." Harry pretended to look a bit sheepish. Hermione decided to play along and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Do you really think we should tell him, Harry?" Hermione said in a fake-serious tone. Harry patted her hand.
"Yes, hear. I think it's time we told him the truth about...us." Ron's jaw dropped.
"You mean...you...and...her..." Ron stammered, his eyes looking as if they'd fall out of their sockets. Harry stepped away from Hermione and put a hand on Ron's shoulder.
"Ron, my friend, Hermione and I are desperately in love and we just wanted to tell you that we're...we're..." Harry looked at Hermione, pretending to look like he just couldn't go on. Meanwhile, she was trying to keep a straight face. Ron's face was white as paper and he could no longer speak.
"Hermione...I think you should tell him your secret." He looked as her as if to say "I think now is a good time to tell him." Hermione blanched and nodded slowly. Harry put his hands on her shoulders and spoke to her softly.
"Now would be a good time. I don't want him to start mouthing off to everyone that we're a couple. Don't want Malfoy coming after me, now do we?" Harry gave her a little wink, but she could only look at him pleadingly and fearfully. "It's ok. Everything will be fine." He pulled her into a hug and whispered into her ear.
"Take him up to our dorm. It could get ugly. I'll be right outside the doors in case you need back up." He pulled away and she turned to face Ron.
"Ron, we need to talk," she said nervously. Then she eyed the attentive first years. "In private." She nodded towards the stairs that led to the boy's dormitories. Ron followed silently until they got inside.
"Let me guess...you're pregnant or something, right?" he exploded. Hermione's jaw dropped.
"What?! NO! Ron...Harry and I were only joking. We aren't together." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Besides, I can't possibly be with Harry because I'm with Draco Malfoy." Ron spun towards her.
"WHAT?!
************************************************************
Draco was lazily walking through the corridors towards the Head dormitories. Madam Pomfrey finally released him after spending eight days in the infirmary. Hermione told him the day before all about how Weasley and Potter finally found out about their relationship.
*FLASHBACK*
"I told Harry and Ron," she stated quietly as she gave him a neck massage. He supposed that it was about time.
"Oh? And how did they take it?" He turned as her hands stopped what they were doing. She avoided his gaze.
"Harry brought it up, actually. He already knew."
"Ah, yes. I remember now. He was asking questions during the match."
"Did he say that he saw us kiss in the Entrance Hall over a month ago?" she said bitterly, obviously still a little miffed that he didn't just ask instead of keeping it to himself. Draco tried to keep from smiling amusedly at her pouty expression.
"No, I'm afraid he failed to tell me that little tidbit of information. So, was he angry?" Hermione shrugged.
"I don't think so. I think he was just disappointed that I didn't tell him sooner."
"And Weasley?" Draco sat up a little straighter, eager to hear about how the short-tempered redhead reacted. Hermione shifted uneasily in her chair.
"He wasn't exactly thrilled. He seemed to think I was playing a trick on him at first. Then he got so mad when he realized that I wasn't lying, he stormed out of the room."
*END*
Draco chuckled merrily to himself as he approached the portrait of Uric the Oddball. Before he could say the password, though, he realized that there were struggling sounds coming from inside. Hermione? he instantly thought. He yelled the password and the portrait hole swung open to reveal a sobbing Hermione pinned to floor by Theodore Nott, a tall, burly, seventh year Slytherin boy.
"Get off her Nott! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Draco rushed in and pulled Nott away from Hermione.
"What the hell is your problem, Malfoy? Have you got a little soft spot for the Mudblood?" Draco's jaw clenched and Nott went flying to the floor about a second later.
"Don't you ever call her that again, do you understand me?" Draco said, his voice shaking, but his tone dangerous and intimidating all the same. "In fact, don't talk to her at all. You will not speak to her, touch her or even look at her. Do you understand me?" Nott said nothing. Draco picked him up by the collar of his robed and slammed him against the wall.
"I said, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" he yelled.
"You're a fucking traitor, Malfoy. Falling for Potter's Mudblood whore? Wait 'til your father hears about this." Draco tensed up again, then clamped his fingers around Nott's throat, pressing him hard into the wall.
"My father isn't going to hear about this, though, is he?" Nott glared into Draco's eyes.
"Is he?" Draco repeated. Nott still said nothing. Hermione cautiously put a hand on Draco's shoulder.
"Draco, stop," she said softly.
"Not until I'm sure Nott will keep everything to himself." Draco pressed him harder into the wall. "Not a word, Nott. I'm warning you...any punishment that I get if word gets back to Lucius, you will get it ten times worse." Nott finally nodded and Draco let go.
"Get out of my sight. I never want to see you near me or Hermione...ever." Nott tossed one last glare at Draco, then began to exit. But Draco stopped him again halfway to the door.
"Oh, and Nott?" Nott turned slightly. "Not a word. Not even to the other Slytherins." Nott nodded once again and walked briskly out the portrait hole. Draco stood staring at the closed portrait hole for a few more moments, still angry. Hermione approached him from behind slowly and cautiously, not daring to touch him.
"Draco?" she called in a tone just barely above a whisper. Draco spun around quickly, still enraged at Nott. But as soon as he saw Hermione, his expression quickly changed to one of concern. He put cupped her face in his hands and looked straight into her honey brown eyes.
"Are you all right? He didn't...you know...try to...do anything, did he?" Hermione didn't know how to answer. Instead she burst into tears and leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around her and let her cry into his chest.
"Oh, Draco...it was horrible," she wailed. I don't know how he even got in here." Draco rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.
"Shh, love. I'm here now. Tell me everything, then we'll report to Dumbledore." Hermione pulled away and nodded, then led Draco to the sofa to sit down. She took a deep breath before telling him what happened.
*FLASHBACK*
Hermione came straight from Potions to her dorms to drop off her books before going to see Draco. She quickly changed out of her school uniform into more comfortable clothes. She came back down the stairs, never noticing Nott hidden in the shadows. She stopped for a minute to tie her hair up into a ponytail. She felt a pair of arms snake around her waist. She smiled, assuming it was Draco.
"Draco, love, you couldn't just wait until I got there, could you?" She turned around to face, not Draco, but Nott. She let out a gasp and stepped back. Nott came closer.
"What's the matter? Not who you expected?" he said in a drawling tone to rival Draco's. She continued to walk backward.
"How...how did you get in here?" she stammered.
"It doesn't matter how I got in here, Mudblood." She kept walking backward until the hit the armrest of the sofa. He had her trapped.
"What do you want from me?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper. He leaned in and inhaled the scent of her hair. She tried to push him off, but his arms came around her tight. He placed a disgusting kiss on her cheek and whispered into her ear.
"You're very attractive for a Mudblood, you know." His hand began feeling her up. She tried hard to hold down the contents of her stomach as she felt more and more nauseated by each movement of his hand. She, once again, tried to push him off.
"Get the fuck off of me!" she screamed. He held her even more tightly still.
"A bit feisty, aren't we? I like that. It's really sexy," he said with a disgusting, perverted air about his tone of voice. She tried not to cry, but it was no use. The tears began to fall down her face as she continued to struggle against his grip. She finally brought her knee up sharply to hit him in the groin. He doubled over in pain, giving her a chance to sprint for the door. But he caught her by the ankle, causing her to fall to the ground. He got up and straddled her stomach. She began to scream for him to get off her and he kept yelling for her to shut up. He finally tried to silence her by sending his mouth crashing onto hers. She felt his tongue dart out and try to force entry into her mouth, but she kept it clamped shut. Nott's hands began to feel her up again, one finding its way under her shirt. He squeezed one of her breasts painfully, causing her to cry out. This gave him the chance to slip his tongue into her mouth, but she bit down on it.
"You fucking Mudblood bitch!" he screamed. He struck her in the face once, but fortunately didn't break any skin. He put her hands above her head and pinned them there with one hand while the other began to tear at her clothes, all the while ravaging her neck. He managed to get her jeans undone and pulled down to her knees, and was just about to rip her underwear away from her body when Draco burst through the door.
*END*
"Almost Draco...almost," she sobbed. "If you hadn't come when you did...oh God...I don't even want to think about it." She continued to cry and Draco continued to comfort her.
"It's ok now, love. I won't let him or any of the other Slytherins come near you. I promise," he said, and kissed her sweetly on the forehead. But then she thought of something, immediately causing worry again.
"Draco, what if he tells your father? Even if you do to hex Nott, it doesn't make your father forget what he could tell him." Draco smiled and kissed her soundly on the lips.
"Then let him know. I don't care." He stood up and spun her around. "I want the whole world to know that I am in love with the most beautiful..." he kissed her right cheek, "...the wittiest..." he kissed her left cheek, "...and the most wonderful woman in the whole world." He kissed her tenderly on the lips again. "And if I could go back in time, I'd choose you all over again." Hermione smiled through her tears.
"Draco, I..." She stopped mid-sentence as pain shot through her entire body. she let out a pained cry before she blacked out and fell into Draco's arms.
************************************************************
Several floors below, in the Slytherin dungeons, Theodore Nott just finished telling the rest of his friends about what just went on in the Head dormitories. No one paid any mind when Pansy began chanting under her breath, eyes closed, rocking back and forth in her seat. As soon as she stopped, Hermione fell into Draco's arms, unconscious.
Well...that's it! Ok...see you guys maybe next week? I don't know. Just keep on the look out...I just might surprise you...*wink* Later days! *kissy*
Chapter 16: The Consequences of Love
Ron rudely awakened Harry and Hermione later on that day.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" Hermione jumped up and Harry fell off the couch.
"Thanks mate, but you could have just given us a shake, you know," Harry said sarcastically, rubbing his bum. Ron pointed an accusing finger at both Harry and Hermione.
"Why didn't you tell me about you two?" Harry looked confused.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Hermione, who was a bit quicker on the uptake, began to laugh.
"You think Harry and I are..." She began making hand gestures to explain since she could not bring herself to say it.
"Well, how else do you explain the cuddling position I found you two in when I walked in here?" Ron asked, still red in the face. Harry smiled amusedly and decided to play with Ron a bit. Harry threw an arm over Hermione's shoulder, ignoring the looks the three of them were getting from a gaggle of nosy first years.
"Oh well, that..." Harry pretended to look a bit sheepish. Hermione decided to play along and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Do you really think we should tell him, Harry?" Hermione said in a fake-serious tone. Harry patted her hand.
"Yes, hear. I think it's time we told him the truth about...us." Ron's jaw dropped.
"You mean...you...and...her..." Ron stammered, his eyes looking as if they'd fall out of their sockets. Harry stepped away from Hermione and put a hand on Ron's shoulder.
"Ron, my friend, Hermione and I are desperately in love and we just wanted to tell you that we're...we're..." Harry looked at Hermione, pretending to look like he just couldn't go on. Meanwhile, she was trying to keep a straight face. Ron's face was white as paper and he could no longer speak.
"Hermione...I think you should tell him your secret." He looked as her as if to say "I think now is a good time to tell him." Hermione blanched and nodded slowly. Harry put his hands on her shoulders and spoke to her softly.
"Now would be a good time. I don't want him to start mouthing off to everyone that we're a couple. Don't want Malfoy coming after me, now do we?" Harry gave her a little wink, but she could only look at him pleadingly and fearfully. "It's ok. Everything will be fine." He pulled her into a hug and whispered into her ear.
"Take him up to our dorm. It could get ugly. I'll be right outside the doors in case you need back up." He pulled away and she turned to face Ron.
"Ron, we need to talk," she said nervously. Then she eyed the attentive first years. "In private." She nodded towards the stairs that led to the boy's dormitories. Ron followed silently until they got inside.
"Let me guess...you're pregnant or something, right?" he exploded. Hermione's jaw dropped.
"What?! NO! Ron...Harry and I were only joking. We aren't together." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Besides, I can't possibly be with Harry because I'm with Draco Malfoy." Ron spun towards her.
"WHAT?!
************************************************************
Draco was lazily walking through the corridors towards the Head dormitories. Madam Pomfrey finally released him after spending eight days in the infirmary. Hermione told him the day before all about how Weasley and Potter finally found out about their relationship.
*FLASHBACK*
"I told Harry and Ron," she stated quietly as she gave him a neck massage. He supposed that it was about time.
"Oh? And how did they take it?" He turned as her hands stopped what they were doing. She avoided his gaze.
"Harry brought it up, actually. He already knew."
"Ah, yes. I remember now. He was asking questions during the match."
"Did he say that he saw us kiss in the Entrance Hall over a month ago?" she said bitterly, obviously still a little miffed that he didn't just ask instead of keeping it to himself. Draco tried to keep from smiling amusedly at her pouty expression.
"No, I'm afraid he failed to tell me that little tidbit of information. So, was he angry?" Hermione shrugged.
"I don't think so. I think he was just disappointed that I didn't tell him sooner."
"And Weasley?" Draco sat up a little straighter, eager to hear about how the short-tempered redhead reacted. Hermione shifted uneasily in her chair.
"He wasn't exactly thrilled. He seemed to think I was playing a trick on him at first. Then he got so mad when he realized that I wasn't lying, he stormed out of the room."
*END*
Draco chuckled merrily to himself as he approached the portrait of Uric the Oddball. Before he could say the password, though, he realized that there were struggling sounds coming from inside. Hermione? he instantly thought. He yelled the password and the portrait hole swung open to reveal a sobbing Hermione pinned to floor by Theodore Nott, a tall, burly, seventh year Slytherin boy.
"Get off her Nott! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Draco rushed in and pulled Nott away from Hermione.
"What the hell is your problem, Malfoy? Have you got a little soft spot for the Mudblood?" Draco's jaw clenched and Nott went flying to the floor about a second later.
"Don't you ever call her that again, do you understand me?" Draco said, his voice shaking, but his tone dangerous and intimidating all the same. "In fact, don't talk to her at all. You will not speak to her, touch her or even look at her. Do you understand me?" Nott said nothing. Draco picked him up by the collar of his robed and slammed him against the wall.
"I said, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" he yelled.
"You're a fucking traitor, Malfoy. Falling for Potter's Mudblood whore? Wait 'til your father hears about this." Draco tensed up again, then clamped his fingers around Nott's throat, pressing him hard into the wall.
"My father isn't going to hear about this, though, is he?" Nott glared into Draco's eyes.
"Is he?" Draco repeated. Nott still said nothing. Hermione cautiously put a hand on Draco's shoulder.
"Draco, stop," she said softly.
"Not until I'm sure Nott will keep everything to himself." Draco pressed him harder into the wall. "Not a word, Nott. I'm warning you...any punishment that I get if word gets back to Lucius, you will get it ten times worse." Nott finally nodded and Draco let go.
"Get out of my sight. I never want to see you near me or Hermione...ever." Nott tossed one last glare at Draco, then began to exit. But Draco stopped him again halfway to the door.
"Oh, and Nott?" Nott turned slightly. "Not a word. Not even to the other Slytherins." Nott nodded once again and walked briskly out the portrait hole. Draco stood staring at the closed portrait hole for a few more moments, still angry. Hermione approached him from behind slowly and cautiously, not daring to touch him.
"Draco?" she called in a tone just barely above a whisper. Draco spun around quickly, still enraged at Nott. But as soon as he saw Hermione, his expression quickly changed to one of concern. He put cupped her face in his hands and looked straight into her honey brown eyes.
"Are you all right? He didn't...you know...try to...do anything, did he?" Hermione didn't know how to answer. Instead she burst into tears and leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around her and let her cry into his chest.
"Oh, Draco...it was horrible," she wailed. I don't know how he even got in here." Draco rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.
"Shh, love. I'm here now. Tell me everything, then we'll report to Dumbledore." Hermione pulled away and nodded, then led Draco to the sofa to sit down. She took a deep breath before telling him what happened.
*FLASHBACK*
Hermione came straight from Potions to her dorms to drop off her books before going to see Draco. She quickly changed out of her school uniform into more comfortable clothes. She came back down the stairs, never noticing Nott hidden in the shadows. She stopped for a minute to tie her hair up into a ponytail. She felt a pair of arms snake around her waist. She smiled, assuming it was Draco.
"Draco, love, you couldn't just wait until I got there, could you?" She turned around to face, not Draco, but Nott. She let out a gasp and stepped back. Nott came closer.
"What's the matter? Not who you expected?" he said in a drawling tone to rival Draco's. She continued to walk backward.
"How...how did you get in here?" she stammered.
"It doesn't matter how I got in here, Mudblood." She kept walking backward until the hit the armrest of the sofa. He had her trapped.
"What do you want from me?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper. He leaned in and inhaled the scent of her hair. She tried to push him off, but his arms came around her tight. He placed a disgusting kiss on her cheek and whispered into her ear.
"You're very attractive for a Mudblood, you know." His hand began feeling her up. She tried hard to hold down the contents of her stomach as she felt more and more nauseated by each movement of his hand. She, once again, tried to push him off.
"Get the fuck off of me!" she screamed. He held her even more tightly still.
"A bit feisty, aren't we? I like that. It's really sexy," he said with a disgusting, perverted air about his tone of voice. She tried not to cry, but it was no use. The tears began to fall down her face as she continued to struggle against his grip. She finally brought her knee up sharply to hit him in the groin. He doubled over in pain, giving her a chance to sprint for the door. But he caught her by the ankle, causing her to fall to the ground. He got up and straddled her stomach. She began to scream for him to get off her and he kept yelling for her to shut up. He finally tried to silence her by sending his mouth crashing onto hers. She felt his tongue dart out and try to force entry into her mouth, but she kept it clamped shut. Nott's hands began to feel her up again, one finding its way under her shirt. He squeezed one of her breasts painfully, causing her to cry out. This gave him the chance to slip his tongue into her mouth, but she bit down on it.
"You fucking Mudblood bitch!" he screamed. He struck her in the face once, but fortunately didn't break any skin. He put her hands above her head and pinned them there with one hand while the other began to tear at her clothes, all the while ravaging her neck. He managed to get her jeans undone and pulled down to her knees, and was just about to rip her underwear away from her body when Draco burst through the door.
*END*
"Almost Draco...almost," she sobbed. "If you hadn't come when you did...oh God...I don't even want to think about it." She continued to cry and Draco continued to comfort her.
"It's ok now, love. I won't let him or any of the other Slytherins come near you. I promise," he said, and kissed her sweetly on the forehead. But then she thought of something, immediately causing worry again.
"Draco, what if he tells your father? Even if you do to hex Nott, it doesn't make your father forget what he could tell him." Draco smiled and kissed her soundly on the lips.
"Then let him know. I don't care." He stood up and spun her around. "I want the whole world to know that I am in love with the most beautiful..." he kissed her right cheek, "...the wittiest..." he kissed her left cheek, "...and the most wonderful woman in the whole world." He kissed her tenderly on the lips again. "And if I could go back in time, I'd choose you all over again." Hermione smiled through her tears.
"Draco, I..." She stopped mid-sentence as pain shot through her entire body. she let out a pained cry before she blacked out and fell into Draco's arms.
************************************************************
Several floors below, in the Slytherin dungeons, Theodore Nott just finished telling the rest of his friends about what just went on in the Head dormitories. No one paid any mind when Pansy began chanting under her breath, eyes closed, rocking back and forth in her seat. As soon as she stopped, Hermione fell into Draco's arms, unconscious.
Well...that's it! Ok...see you guys maybe next week? I don't know. Just keep on the look out...I just might surprise you...*wink* Later days! *kissy*