Darkmoon of Shadows - It's okay to be obsessed with the word good, because
I like it when people think my writing is good. =D
Purple Spotted Hedwig - Oh yes, I am very busy!
Artemis MoonClaw - Allie rightie. Hereie isie moreie!
~The Simon Cowell of Fanfiction.net~ - LOL, does that mean that you didn't understand it before?
Ickle Ronniekins Girlie!! - Yes, I take TaeKwonDo. Have you heard of it? Most people say "You take Karate, right?"
ILUVRONWEASLEY - I wasn't nice when I didn't leave it on a cliffie? You confused me. ;-D LOL, I understand forgetting what you wrote on a review, happens ALL the time.
Love-princess1 - more? I don't have THAT much time, at least, not right now, but I am on it. Next chapter is going to be loooong and juuuuuiiiicy!
Tayz - LOL, yes, Draco, power-hungry, hmm. . . YOU did TaeKwonDo as well? I've never met so many people that have done TaeKwonDo before. Everyone assumes it's Karate or Judo or Kung Fu.
Mudpie - Alright, here's more! I hurried as much as I possibly could!
Dreaming One - I know everyone wants H/D action, but it's hard to incorporate into this chapter. You'll understand when you read it. No criticism? Cool!
Chinagurl - Yes, I think he needs to be slapped. ANY VOLUNTEERS?
Blueamber - ha! You're lazy. That's fun, unfortunately I can't be lazy. No, they don't kiss in this chapter.
M.J. Kobayashi - I'm glad I answered a lot of questions, and thanks, I need the luck.
---
Alright, here's the deal.
I am so stinkin' busy. Here's what's happening in my life at the moment.
a. I am studying history of TaeKwonDo, the meaning of the parts of the Korean flag, the meaning of every poomse (form) and the history of the ATA.
b. I am memorizing 16 self-defense and one-step-sparring expercises and memorizing 12 poomse
c. I am memorizing a monologue for acting camp
d. I am memorizing a flute solo.
e. I am TRYING TO WRITE! ACK!
I won't be posting very often for the next two or two and half weeks, but starting in September, I will be back on schedule. I will try to post before my test and before I go to vacation, so, I'll hurry!!!
~+~
Chapter 25
Hermione sat down at the nearest chair, pretending that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, although she knew what must have been going through the kids' heads, since she had just done what, to them, appeared to be Apparating.
Several people were whispering to another person, and it wasn't until she heard some random snatches of their conversations that she realized what had really been going through their minds.
" - Gryffindor and Slytherin - psst psst psst - together - " Hermione was mortified. TOGETHER?! Her and Malfoy. She scoffed.
'Yeah, in someone's dreams, certainly not mine, but whatever.' Hermione turned, and to clear some things up, she looked at Malfoy and glared at him, for no reason, and he returned the glare. This served, however, to only add to what was running through everyone's minds, because several urgent whispers ensued this act of hatred. They probably had thought it was just that - an act.
Sighing angrily she turned and practiced transforming into a golden fox, and took every opportunity to glare a Malfoy and his dragon form.
"Show off." She muttered and returned to her work.
~+~
That night in their room, Hermione and Malfoy were arguing with utmost contempt, and Hermione was determined to win this argument, if not only for the sake of being able to throw it in his face tomorrow.
"You're a pitiful Mudblood, you know that? And this time, I really mean it." He said, and his smirk was, as always, across his face.
"You ALWAYS say that, can't you ever think of something ELSE?" Hermione asked exasperatedly and she turned to climb into her bed and sit while she glared at him, but Malfoy wouldn't let her.
"Giving up, Miss 'Know-It-All'?" he asked in what anyone else would have thought was an innocent voice, but, in her experience with Draco Malfoy, there was absolutely nothing innocent about him.
"No." she spat at him and turned to glare at him again, her robes falling off of her shoulders. "I hate you though."
"What's new?" he asked sarcastically and he kicked his trunk open while he rummaged around in it, Hermione tore open the hangings around her bed and plopped down on the mattress. It was going to be a long night.
"WHY are you such a prat?" she asked in anger, and he laughed, obviously amused by this comment, and she couldn't figure out why. It wasn't like it was that far from the truth anyway.
"Why are you such a bookworm?" he retaliated without missing a beat, and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Why are you so bad at insults?" she answered instantly, and she was pleased to note that it took him nearly ten seconds before he retaliated.
"You are too." He said, and she laughed hollowly.
"You ridiculous little mascara face-painted Jerk-In-The-Box, you couldn't insult someone if your sorry life depended on it." Hermione said, and buy the look on his face, he didn't know what mascara was or what a Jack-In-The-Box was, which made her use of 'jerk-in-the-box' make absolutely no sense whatsoever, but she couldn't have cared any less. SHE knew that she had insulted him, and that was all that mattered.
"At least I look good, you on the other hand. . ." he said, and she knew that this was meant to be an insult, but she couldn't help but laugh. He was definitely losing his touch, he no longer was able to say things that would make her feel completely awful, or maybe she was getting more ignorant of his words. Whichever it was, it was working well.
"Well. . . you know. . . Looks aren't everything in life, MALFOY, and in your case, yes, especially in your case, they happen to be nothing." She said, and even though she wanted to believe this, something kept telling her that he didn't look bad.
"Well - you - I - you - shut up, Granger." He said, and she smirked wider than she had thought was possible. Was she turning into Malfoy, and he was turning into Hermione, because the universe seemed to have switched. He had just stumbled over an insult that he couldn't think of fast enough.
"No." she said simply, and he swore under his breath and ran a hand through his hair, which was looking much more alive since it wasn't full to the breaking point with grease.
"I hate you." He muttered and scoffed at her as he made to kick something that wasn't there, and she had a feeling it may have been an invisible Hermione.
Hermione rolled her eyes. Was that the best he could think of?
Suddenly, an idea popped into her head, and although she tried to ignore it, it kept bothering her, nagging her to use it, so she succumbed.
She began clapping loudly as he glared at another invisible Hermione Granger, and he turned to look at her, confusion and fury written across his face into one, super-emotion. Apparently she had just shocked him, because his face betrayed his thoughts completely.
"WHAT?" he said incredulously, and she smiled, very pleased with herself. She could tell that she had gotten under his skin, she was annoying him now, and he couldn't stand being annoyed. She knew he wanted to crack, to strangle her, to do something, but here he was, forced by some inner force to let her take a few more whacks at him and she was going to use it for all it was worth.
"I'm impressed," she said simply, and she felt the need to continue with this insult. "I've never met such a small mind in such a large head before. Bravo." She continued clapping, just to annoy him, because every time she brought her hands together, he grimaced a little more.
She reached into her pocket and began to idly play with her wand, twisting it between her fingers and randomly muttering things, all with the sole purpose of scaring him.
"WHAT are you doing?" he asked irritably, and his own hand hovered over the pocket where his wand was obviously kept.
"I'm just wondering which curse to use on you." She said in a coy voice and she nonchalantly pointed her wand at him. Something stirred inside of her, but she brushed it away, assuming it was something she could deal with later.
"Why are you such an insufferable git, Malfoy?" she asked sweetly and innocently, and she could see his jaws clenching, but she truly wanted to know. What was his problem? Why did he insist on being the most annoying person that she had ever had the displeasure of being in contact with?
"Why are you such a busy-body, Granger?" he asked in the same sweet tones that she had used, and now that it was being used against her, she realized just how annoying it really sounded.
"Why are you evil?" she asked, still sounding sweet as ever, and she saw his eyes narrow slightly, ever so slightly, and his hand clenched tightly, which was hovering over his want pocket. She whipped her wand around, not wanting to be caught off guard, and pointed it at him.
"Not so fast Granger," he said and he pulled out his wand, and her smile didn't even flicker, as she cast a spell without any hesitation whatsoever.
"Expelliarmus." She said simply, and his wand soared over to her, where she took it instantly, and felt something jet up her arm. She took no notice of it for a few seconds, but then the pain in her arm was unavoidable. Her arm appeared to be glowing where she held his wand, and there was a crackling noise somewhere around her.
Her arm began to burn, and she couldn't move it, no matter how hard she tried to, it was as though it were a stone arm. There was a noise, similar to an explosion, and a huge pain was erupting in her temples, and she lay back on her bed.
Pain was erupting through her mind, her soul seemed to be changing, her eyes closed tightly, as though it would help to block out the pain, but it seemed to help it intensify.
She didn't know how much more of the pain she would be able to bear. Was this what it was like for Harry, every time his scar hurt, did he always feel this kind of intense, burning, nauseating pain?
How could anyone stand it? Someone was screaming, she didn't know who. For all she knew, it could have been herself that was screaming, noises now meant nothing. Sound was irrelevant. As, apparently, was sight, because she could no longer see anything besides burning and searing red bolts.
She couldn't hear anymore, nothing made a noise, nothing moved, as she couldn't see, and none of her other senses seemed to be working. The only thing she could feel was the burning pain in her head and arm.
Her arm may as well have broken off, because she couldn't stand the pain. It felt like millions of darning needles were being shoved through it, puncturing it more and more at every second.
Silence fell on the room, and, she didn't know how long, for every second seemed like an eternity, and when Draco finally went to sleep, Hermione didn't even remember falling asleep, nor did she remember closing her hangings around her bed.
~+~
A small Draco, who couldn't be a day over seven, lay on the foreboding grey floor of what appeared to be the Malfoy Manor, rolling around and laughing. In a few seconds, a small kitten came into view, blacker than the night, but its personality seemed to show through the dark outer exterior, and the way Draco's eyes seemed to light up when it looked at him, the way his laugh seemed to be completely genuine.
The kitten swatted at his hair that was his face, and it turned its chocolate colored eyes at him, which stirred something inside of him, made him feel warm and he laughed and called out the kittens name in between laughter.
The kitten looked at him and mewed softly, something it the way it mewed suggested that something was coming, something was going to spoil their fun, but Draco seemed to ignore it, and he taunted the kitten with a small ball of yarn, held on the end with a string.
The kitten took the bait and pounced at it with vigor, landing squarely in his lap, looking a little disoriented. Draco laughed again and stroked the kitten, a smile brightening his face as nothing else could.
He stood up and bent over so he could look at the kitten through his legs and the kitten swatted at his hair and stumbled and rolled over, making Draco laugh again, his smile reaching all the way up to his eyes, making his expression look nothing short of joyful.
Apparently his laughter had disturbed beings downstairs, because angry footsteps were storming up the stairs, but Draco seemed to take no notice at first, and then he stiffened, and grabbed the kitten hurriedly, which mewed indignantly and tried to get away from him, but he grasped it firmly and began running down the hall, away from something.
An angry voice filled the hall, it seemed to echo through the corridor, and it brought fear to the silver-haired boy that was running, a black mass of kitten fur clasped in his hands. Words soon became distinguishable and it became clear that they weren't happy words.
"Stop, DRACO, STOP!" the voice roared, and when Draco turned around, there was the angriest Lucius Malfoy that the world has never seen, and perhaps that is a good thing.
The voice, however, seemed to inspire Draco to run faster rather than to stop running and obey the commands. Something about the way he was running and the desolate mews that the kitten was giving gave the impression that something bad was about to happen.
It mewed desolately and Draco frantically tried to hush it as he was running down the sinister halls of the large, empty building that he had grown to call his home, even if he didn't like it.
Eventually, Lucius caught up with the panicking and panting boy, who had hastily shoved the kitten to be hidden away in his pocket and told it to be absolutely silent, but as animals have their way of making their presence known tha the worst time, the kitten mewed right when Lucius was very much so within earshot, and his face turned a deathly red, while Draco became paler than ever before.
"What is THIS?" he asked, and before Draco could do anything, the kitten was in his hands, squirming from his tight grasp. Draco tried to protest, but he was hushed and made to look at his father with awe, respect and fear all mixed into one. He gulped and watched his father.
"What is the purpose of this?" he asked, and Draco stared at him for a few seconds before answering, and he should have known to keep his mouth closed, but he was too young to have learned this valuable skill yet.
"It's my kitty!" Draco exclaimed, trying to reach for it, but his father held it out of grasp and Draco continued talking, trying, desperately, to get his kitten back. "And I love it!" he said, and tried to grab the kitten again, but Lucius was now livid.
"Love? LOVE? LOVE?! Love is a weakness, a very vial and filthy weakness. To love is to be weaker than weak, and a Malfoy or a son of MINE has NO weakness." Lucius said. "To love is to die." He said, and he dropped the kitten to the floor and walked away.
Draco stood still for a few seconds, watching his father walking away, and he only moved when he was sure that his father was truly gone.
When Draco's attention turned to the kitten, he saw that it wasn't moving. At first he hoped it had taken his lead and had decided not to move, but this became evidently not the case.
He scrambled over to it and poked it, expecting it to swat at him as it normally did, to move at all, to breathe, to do something. Panic began surging through him. He cradled it in his hands for a second and tried to poke it again.
It moved where he poked it, but showed no signs of life. He waved the yarn ball in front of its eyes, waiting for it to strike it, to pounce on the yarn ball. He leaned over it and waited for it to turn its chocolate eyes onto him, to give him that warm feeling inside, but its eyes stayed closed.
Somewhere in his mind, something told him that the kitten was dead, but he didn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it.
It couldn't be true, there was no way that it could be dead, because it was just alive, he had just been playing with it, not even twenty minutes ago. It had been breathing and moving then. Why not now? There must be something that Draco could do.
Draco grabbed it and hugged to his chest, desperately trying to make it move, but to no avail. The now lifeless kitten was huddled at Draco's chest where he held it firmly, its fur wet.
Wet with tears.
Draco's tears.
This was Draco's first lesson that he could remember. Never love, for what you love will be lost and can never be brought back, but what Lucius didn't know was that he had taught Draco another lesson that would scar him forever.
If his father said that love was weakness, and claimed that he wasn't weak, then his father must not love his mother, which told young Draco that love was not a skill that was needed to succeed. Just power and no weaknesses.
~+~
When her eyes snapped open, she found herself staring into the eyes of a stranger. A gray-eyed stranger. She didn't know who they were, but somehow she could sense that they were worried. Something must be wrong.
She reached out to ask, and their face retreated, vanished in a cloud of green, and she would never know who they were. Frantically rubbing her eyes, Hermione blinked furiously and drug her hands across her face.
Her heart was pounding and her temples were throbbing. She had just seen one of Draco's memories. She had her answer now. She knew why he was so horrible to be around, and, although it wasn't very rational for someone his age, she completely understood. He had been hurt deeply in the past.
She tried to get the image of a dead kitten on the dark floor out of her mind, but the more she tried to forget about it, the more the image seemed to surface up to her mind, becoming all that she could see for lapses of time. Sometimes ten seconds or more.
She could still almost hear Lucius's angry voice echoing through the hall and she could almost feel the terror that must have been coursing through Draco at that moment, the few seconds before his father had caught up with him.
His father hadn't ever been there for him, and even though he was still alive, he did nothing to show him that he loved him, for all Draco knew, his father hated the very thought of him and thought that he was as vial as Draco said she was.
How could his father stand to do this to his one and only son? Didn't he have any sense of right and wrong? And how did Draco manage to live through his childhood if it was like this?
She began to feel sorry for him, even if she didn't think that he deserved her sympathy, she decided to give it to him anyway, no matter whether he wanted it or not. She couldn't believe what she had just seen.
Hermione could only imagine how devastated he was when the kitten had died, Hermione knew how devastated she would be if Crookshanks died, but this was a very young Draco, he probably hadn't even discovered what death was before that point, and he had learned at such a young age.
Before she realized it, she had tears rolling down her cheeks, and she couldn't figure out why. She sat in confusion for a few moments, trying to sort out what she was feeling, and something stuck her, and it struck her hard.
She had realized that something was changing in the way she thought about him, and it seemed that the worse he was to her, the more this feeling seemed to erupt in her chest and follow her around in the pit of her stomach.
It wasn't until right now, Hermione realized what this all meant, and even now she wasn't completely sure, but everything was beginning to add up. The strange feelings, the unexplainable actions, the stupid exchanges of words, the protecting feeling that she had whenever she was around him, trying to hide herself.
She, Hermione Adelade Granger, was falling for Draco Malfoy, the worlds' biggest prat.
Hermione moaned and flopped on her bed.
Her life was officially over.
~+~
A/N: Here ya go.
R/R
--Saquoia--
Purple Spotted Hedwig - Oh yes, I am very busy!
Artemis MoonClaw - Allie rightie. Hereie isie moreie!
~The Simon Cowell of Fanfiction.net~ - LOL, does that mean that you didn't understand it before?
Ickle Ronniekins Girlie!! - Yes, I take TaeKwonDo. Have you heard of it? Most people say "You take Karate, right?"
ILUVRONWEASLEY - I wasn't nice when I didn't leave it on a cliffie? You confused me. ;-D LOL, I understand forgetting what you wrote on a review, happens ALL the time.
Love-princess1 - more? I don't have THAT much time, at least, not right now, but I am on it. Next chapter is going to be loooong and juuuuuiiiicy!
Tayz - LOL, yes, Draco, power-hungry, hmm. . . YOU did TaeKwonDo as well? I've never met so many people that have done TaeKwonDo before. Everyone assumes it's Karate or Judo or Kung Fu.
Mudpie - Alright, here's more! I hurried as much as I possibly could!
Dreaming One - I know everyone wants H/D action, but it's hard to incorporate into this chapter. You'll understand when you read it. No criticism? Cool!
Chinagurl - Yes, I think he needs to be slapped. ANY VOLUNTEERS?
Blueamber - ha! You're lazy. That's fun, unfortunately I can't be lazy. No, they don't kiss in this chapter.
M.J. Kobayashi - I'm glad I answered a lot of questions, and thanks, I need the luck.
---
Alright, here's the deal.
I am so stinkin' busy. Here's what's happening in my life at the moment.
a. I am studying history of TaeKwonDo, the meaning of the parts of the Korean flag, the meaning of every poomse (form) and the history of the ATA.
b. I am memorizing 16 self-defense and one-step-sparring expercises and memorizing 12 poomse
c. I am memorizing a monologue for acting camp
d. I am memorizing a flute solo.
e. I am TRYING TO WRITE! ACK!
I won't be posting very often for the next two or two and half weeks, but starting in September, I will be back on schedule. I will try to post before my test and before I go to vacation, so, I'll hurry!!!
~+~
Chapter 25
Hermione sat down at the nearest chair, pretending that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, although she knew what must have been going through the kids' heads, since she had just done what, to them, appeared to be Apparating.
Several people were whispering to another person, and it wasn't until she heard some random snatches of their conversations that she realized what had really been going through their minds.
" - Gryffindor and Slytherin - psst psst psst - together - " Hermione was mortified. TOGETHER?! Her and Malfoy. She scoffed.
'Yeah, in someone's dreams, certainly not mine, but whatever.' Hermione turned, and to clear some things up, she looked at Malfoy and glared at him, for no reason, and he returned the glare. This served, however, to only add to what was running through everyone's minds, because several urgent whispers ensued this act of hatred. They probably had thought it was just that - an act.
Sighing angrily she turned and practiced transforming into a golden fox, and took every opportunity to glare a Malfoy and his dragon form.
"Show off." She muttered and returned to her work.
~+~
That night in their room, Hermione and Malfoy were arguing with utmost contempt, and Hermione was determined to win this argument, if not only for the sake of being able to throw it in his face tomorrow.
"You're a pitiful Mudblood, you know that? And this time, I really mean it." He said, and his smirk was, as always, across his face.
"You ALWAYS say that, can't you ever think of something ELSE?" Hermione asked exasperatedly and she turned to climb into her bed and sit while she glared at him, but Malfoy wouldn't let her.
"Giving up, Miss 'Know-It-All'?" he asked in what anyone else would have thought was an innocent voice, but, in her experience with Draco Malfoy, there was absolutely nothing innocent about him.
"No." she spat at him and turned to glare at him again, her robes falling off of her shoulders. "I hate you though."
"What's new?" he asked sarcastically and he kicked his trunk open while he rummaged around in it, Hermione tore open the hangings around her bed and plopped down on the mattress. It was going to be a long night.
"WHY are you such a prat?" she asked in anger, and he laughed, obviously amused by this comment, and she couldn't figure out why. It wasn't like it was that far from the truth anyway.
"Why are you such a bookworm?" he retaliated without missing a beat, and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Why are you so bad at insults?" she answered instantly, and she was pleased to note that it took him nearly ten seconds before he retaliated.
"You are too." He said, and she laughed hollowly.
"You ridiculous little mascara face-painted Jerk-In-The-Box, you couldn't insult someone if your sorry life depended on it." Hermione said, and buy the look on his face, he didn't know what mascara was or what a Jack-In-The-Box was, which made her use of 'jerk-in-the-box' make absolutely no sense whatsoever, but she couldn't have cared any less. SHE knew that she had insulted him, and that was all that mattered.
"At least I look good, you on the other hand. . ." he said, and she knew that this was meant to be an insult, but she couldn't help but laugh. He was definitely losing his touch, he no longer was able to say things that would make her feel completely awful, or maybe she was getting more ignorant of his words. Whichever it was, it was working well.
"Well. . . you know. . . Looks aren't everything in life, MALFOY, and in your case, yes, especially in your case, they happen to be nothing." She said, and even though she wanted to believe this, something kept telling her that he didn't look bad.
"Well - you - I - you - shut up, Granger." He said, and she smirked wider than she had thought was possible. Was she turning into Malfoy, and he was turning into Hermione, because the universe seemed to have switched. He had just stumbled over an insult that he couldn't think of fast enough.
"No." she said simply, and he swore under his breath and ran a hand through his hair, which was looking much more alive since it wasn't full to the breaking point with grease.
"I hate you." He muttered and scoffed at her as he made to kick something that wasn't there, and she had a feeling it may have been an invisible Hermione.
Hermione rolled her eyes. Was that the best he could think of?
Suddenly, an idea popped into her head, and although she tried to ignore it, it kept bothering her, nagging her to use it, so she succumbed.
She began clapping loudly as he glared at another invisible Hermione Granger, and he turned to look at her, confusion and fury written across his face into one, super-emotion. Apparently she had just shocked him, because his face betrayed his thoughts completely.
"WHAT?" he said incredulously, and she smiled, very pleased with herself. She could tell that she had gotten under his skin, she was annoying him now, and he couldn't stand being annoyed. She knew he wanted to crack, to strangle her, to do something, but here he was, forced by some inner force to let her take a few more whacks at him and she was going to use it for all it was worth.
"I'm impressed," she said simply, and she felt the need to continue with this insult. "I've never met such a small mind in such a large head before. Bravo." She continued clapping, just to annoy him, because every time she brought her hands together, he grimaced a little more.
She reached into her pocket and began to idly play with her wand, twisting it between her fingers and randomly muttering things, all with the sole purpose of scaring him.
"WHAT are you doing?" he asked irritably, and his own hand hovered over the pocket where his wand was obviously kept.
"I'm just wondering which curse to use on you." She said in a coy voice and she nonchalantly pointed her wand at him. Something stirred inside of her, but she brushed it away, assuming it was something she could deal with later.
"Why are you such an insufferable git, Malfoy?" she asked sweetly and innocently, and she could see his jaws clenching, but she truly wanted to know. What was his problem? Why did he insist on being the most annoying person that she had ever had the displeasure of being in contact with?
"Why are you such a busy-body, Granger?" he asked in the same sweet tones that she had used, and now that it was being used against her, she realized just how annoying it really sounded.
"Why are you evil?" she asked, still sounding sweet as ever, and she saw his eyes narrow slightly, ever so slightly, and his hand clenched tightly, which was hovering over his want pocket. She whipped her wand around, not wanting to be caught off guard, and pointed it at him.
"Not so fast Granger," he said and he pulled out his wand, and her smile didn't even flicker, as she cast a spell without any hesitation whatsoever.
"Expelliarmus." She said simply, and his wand soared over to her, where she took it instantly, and felt something jet up her arm. She took no notice of it for a few seconds, but then the pain in her arm was unavoidable. Her arm appeared to be glowing where she held his wand, and there was a crackling noise somewhere around her.
Her arm began to burn, and she couldn't move it, no matter how hard she tried to, it was as though it were a stone arm. There was a noise, similar to an explosion, and a huge pain was erupting in her temples, and she lay back on her bed.
Pain was erupting through her mind, her soul seemed to be changing, her eyes closed tightly, as though it would help to block out the pain, but it seemed to help it intensify.
She didn't know how much more of the pain she would be able to bear. Was this what it was like for Harry, every time his scar hurt, did he always feel this kind of intense, burning, nauseating pain?
How could anyone stand it? Someone was screaming, she didn't know who. For all she knew, it could have been herself that was screaming, noises now meant nothing. Sound was irrelevant. As, apparently, was sight, because she could no longer see anything besides burning and searing red bolts.
She couldn't hear anymore, nothing made a noise, nothing moved, as she couldn't see, and none of her other senses seemed to be working. The only thing she could feel was the burning pain in her head and arm.
Her arm may as well have broken off, because she couldn't stand the pain. It felt like millions of darning needles were being shoved through it, puncturing it more and more at every second.
Silence fell on the room, and, she didn't know how long, for every second seemed like an eternity, and when Draco finally went to sleep, Hermione didn't even remember falling asleep, nor did she remember closing her hangings around her bed.
~+~
A small Draco, who couldn't be a day over seven, lay on the foreboding grey floor of what appeared to be the Malfoy Manor, rolling around and laughing. In a few seconds, a small kitten came into view, blacker than the night, but its personality seemed to show through the dark outer exterior, and the way Draco's eyes seemed to light up when it looked at him, the way his laugh seemed to be completely genuine.
The kitten swatted at his hair that was his face, and it turned its chocolate colored eyes at him, which stirred something inside of him, made him feel warm and he laughed and called out the kittens name in between laughter.
The kitten looked at him and mewed softly, something it the way it mewed suggested that something was coming, something was going to spoil their fun, but Draco seemed to ignore it, and he taunted the kitten with a small ball of yarn, held on the end with a string.
The kitten took the bait and pounced at it with vigor, landing squarely in his lap, looking a little disoriented. Draco laughed again and stroked the kitten, a smile brightening his face as nothing else could.
He stood up and bent over so he could look at the kitten through his legs and the kitten swatted at his hair and stumbled and rolled over, making Draco laugh again, his smile reaching all the way up to his eyes, making his expression look nothing short of joyful.
Apparently his laughter had disturbed beings downstairs, because angry footsteps were storming up the stairs, but Draco seemed to take no notice at first, and then he stiffened, and grabbed the kitten hurriedly, which mewed indignantly and tried to get away from him, but he grasped it firmly and began running down the hall, away from something.
An angry voice filled the hall, it seemed to echo through the corridor, and it brought fear to the silver-haired boy that was running, a black mass of kitten fur clasped in his hands. Words soon became distinguishable and it became clear that they weren't happy words.
"Stop, DRACO, STOP!" the voice roared, and when Draco turned around, there was the angriest Lucius Malfoy that the world has never seen, and perhaps that is a good thing.
The voice, however, seemed to inspire Draco to run faster rather than to stop running and obey the commands. Something about the way he was running and the desolate mews that the kitten was giving gave the impression that something bad was about to happen.
It mewed desolately and Draco frantically tried to hush it as he was running down the sinister halls of the large, empty building that he had grown to call his home, even if he didn't like it.
Eventually, Lucius caught up with the panicking and panting boy, who had hastily shoved the kitten to be hidden away in his pocket and told it to be absolutely silent, but as animals have their way of making their presence known tha the worst time, the kitten mewed right when Lucius was very much so within earshot, and his face turned a deathly red, while Draco became paler than ever before.
"What is THIS?" he asked, and before Draco could do anything, the kitten was in his hands, squirming from his tight grasp. Draco tried to protest, but he was hushed and made to look at his father with awe, respect and fear all mixed into one. He gulped and watched his father.
"What is the purpose of this?" he asked, and Draco stared at him for a few seconds before answering, and he should have known to keep his mouth closed, but he was too young to have learned this valuable skill yet.
"It's my kitty!" Draco exclaimed, trying to reach for it, but his father held it out of grasp and Draco continued talking, trying, desperately, to get his kitten back. "And I love it!" he said, and tried to grab the kitten again, but Lucius was now livid.
"Love? LOVE? LOVE?! Love is a weakness, a very vial and filthy weakness. To love is to be weaker than weak, and a Malfoy or a son of MINE has NO weakness." Lucius said. "To love is to die." He said, and he dropped the kitten to the floor and walked away.
Draco stood still for a few seconds, watching his father walking away, and he only moved when he was sure that his father was truly gone.
When Draco's attention turned to the kitten, he saw that it wasn't moving. At first he hoped it had taken his lead and had decided not to move, but this became evidently not the case.
He scrambled over to it and poked it, expecting it to swat at him as it normally did, to move at all, to breathe, to do something. Panic began surging through him. He cradled it in his hands for a second and tried to poke it again.
It moved where he poked it, but showed no signs of life. He waved the yarn ball in front of its eyes, waiting for it to strike it, to pounce on the yarn ball. He leaned over it and waited for it to turn its chocolate eyes onto him, to give him that warm feeling inside, but its eyes stayed closed.
Somewhere in his mind, something told him that the kitten was dead, but he didn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it.
It couldn't be true, there was no way that it could be dead, because it was just alive, he had just been playing with it, not even twenty minutes ago. It had been breathing and moving then. Why not now? There must be something that Draco could do.
Draco grabbed it and hugged to his chest, desperately trying to make it move, but to no avail. The now lifeless kitten was huddled at Draco's chest where he held it firmly, its fur wet.
Wet with tears.
Draco's tears.
This was Draco's first lesson that he could remember. Never love, for what you love will be lost and can never be brought back, but what Lucius didn't know was that he had taught Draco another lesson that would scar him forever.
If his father said that love was weakness, and claimed that he wasn't weak, then his father must not love his mother, which told young Draco that love was not a skill that was needed to succeed. Just power and no weaknesses.
~+~
When her eyes snapped open, she found herself staring into the eyes of a stranger. A gray-eyed stranger. She didn't know who they were, but somehow she could sense that they were worried. Something must be wrong.
She reached out to ask, and their face retreated, vanished in a cloud of green, and she would never know who they were. Frantically rubbing her eyes, Hermione blinked furiously and drug her hands across her face.
Her heart was pounding and her temples were throbbing. She had just seen one of Draco's memories. She had her answer now. She knew why he was so horrible to be around, and, although it wasn't very rational for someone his age, she completely understood. He had been hurt deeply in the past.
She tried to get the image of a dead kitten on the dark floor out of her mind, but the more she tried to forget about it, the more the image seemed to surface up to her mind, becoming all that she could see for lapses of time. Sometimes ten seconds or more.
She could still almost hear Lucius's angry voice echoing through the hall and she could almost feel the terror that must have been coursing through Draco at that moment, the few seconds before his father had caught up with him.
His father hadn't ever been there for him, and even though he was still alive, he did nothing to show him that he loved him, for all Draco knew, his father hated the very thought of him and thought that he was as vial as Draco said she was.
How could his father stand to do this to his one and only son? Didn't he have any sense of right and wrong? And how did Draco manage to live through his childhood if it was like this?
She began to feel sorry for him, even if she didn't think that he deserved her sympathy, she decided to give it to him anyway, no matter whether he wanted it or not. She couldn't believe what she had just seen.
Hermione could only imagine how devastated he was when the kitten had died, Hermione knew how devastated she would be if Crookshanks died, but this was a very young Draco, he probably hadn't even discovered what death was before that point, and he had learned at such a young age.
Before she realized it, she had tears rolling down her cheeks, and she couldn't figure out why. She sat in confusion for a few moments, trying to sort out what she was feeling, and something stuck her, and it struck her hard.
She had realized that something was changing in the way she thought about him, and it seemed that the worse he was to her, the more this feeling seemed to erupt in her chest and follow her around in the pit of her stomach.
It wasn't until right now, Hermione realized what this all meant, and even now she wasn't completely sure, but everything was beginning to add up. The strange feelings, the unexplainable actions, the stupid exchanges of words, the protecting feeling that she had whenever she was around him, trying to hide herself.
She, Hermione Adelade Granger, was falling for Draco Malfoy, the worlds' biggest prat.
Hermione moaned and flopped on her bed.
Her life was officially over.
~+~
A/N: Here ya go.
R/R
--Saquoia--