Impressions Chapter Fourteen, a harry potter fanfic

Impressions chapter fourteen

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs to me.

Author's Note: Please Review! Speaking of reviews… This story has over one hundred!!!

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"I'm a Malfoy."

"So?" said Hermione, bewildered.

He rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't understand."

"Why not?"

He sighed. "Because you're a muggleborn. Pureblood families… Pureblood families are different. Us, the Malfoys, have somewhat of a code, I guess you'd call it…"

Her eyebrows rose. "A Malfoy code?"

He scowled. "I don't have to tell you."

"Right, sorry. Go on," said Hermione quickly.

He glared at her for a moment before continuing. "Well, I told you one clause. Be superior to everyone else in at least one way. Especially mud- muggleborns," he said, catching himself before he said the word. "That's just one example. There are plenty of others, like, when I grow up, I must marry a pureblood. Stuff like that," he said dismissively.

"You're forced to marry a pureblood?" questioned Hermione, surprised. "But wouldn't the bloodlines become… I don't know, intermingled?"

"You mean inbreeding, I assume?" he asked coolly.

"Well…. Yeah."

"Any problems caused by that can be fixed by magic. And there are plenty of respected foreign bloodlines. I expect that's what I'll do. My parents have been in discussions with the Defleur family in France for a few years now, since they've got a girl around my age. Oh, right, that's a requirement too," he added.

"What is?"

"Any girl I marry has to be a virgin," he said matter-of-factly.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "And you don't have to be?"

"Of course not," he said, surprised. "I'm the boy."

"So?"

"Why are we discussing this, anyway?" asked Draco finally. "I'm not going to get married for a long time. My parents say I won't until I'm twenty, probably."

"You're marriage is going to be arranged?" asked Hermione, refusing to let the subject die.

"Yes, so what? Why all the sudden interest, anyway?" Draco snapped.

"It's just…" Hermione searched for the appropriate words. "Well, isn't marriage about love?"

He snorted. "You're a hopeless romantic. And a prude," he said, smirking.

"I am not!" said Hermione hotly. "Will you quit it? And besides, I was just curious," she sniffed.

"Right. Look at this," said Draco, grabbing a book from his bedspread and handing it to Hermione.

"What is it?" asked Hermione, still miffed.

"A book. Surely you've seen one before." Hermione shot Draco a glare and he sneered at her. "Go on, open it."

She obeyed him and her eyes widened. "This is all in runes!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"Exactly. I started translating it before I fell asleep."

"Oh, right," said Hermione, remembered his state when she had walked into the room. "What were you dreaming about, anyway?" she asked him, for it had been troubling her.

He ignored her question. "Roughly, the title is An Extensive Guide to Terribly Curses and Their Countercurses. I expect that mine will be in there," he said.

"One would think," said Hermione, running her hands over the unfamiliar shapes and designs. "Do you think we can translate all of this?"

"Not all of t. Jus the index, I suppose, and then what it says about the Permeus Surpos," said Draco easily. "Shouldn't be that hard, if I do it during the day."

"You can't continue to skive off classes!" said Hermione, scandalized. "And this will take ages to do, anyway."

"Well, it's my only hope right now, isn't it?" he said coldly. "And I haven't been skiving off. I've been recovering." He smirked.

"Like you're going to recover by lying around!" said Hermione. "And we've been doing really important stuff. Snape, McGonagall, and Vector all said that the things we've been doing are likely to come up on our N.E.W.T.'s."

"So what? I'll catch up," said Draco unconcernedly.

"But you shouldn't stop coming to classes!" said Hermione exasperatedly.

"Fine, I'll come," he said irritably. "If only to get you off my back about it. And speaking of classes," he said, glancing at the clock he had just spotted, "They start in five minutes."

Hermione paled. "Oh, no!" she cried, grabbing her bag and causing several things inside of it to fall out. "I have to go!"

He observed her frantic efforts to gather up everything with an amused leer on his face. Just as she was about to leave the Room of Requirement, he stopped her. "You forgot something."

She whipped around. "What did I forget?" she said worriedly.

He walked closer to her and pressed his lips on hers briefly. He stepped back, his silver eyes dancing with hilarity. She went quite pale.

"Right – you've really got to stop doing that," she said breathlessly, trying desperately to sound severe and angry, but failing spectacularly.

"Off to class, then, bookworm," said Draco, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Without another word, Hermione spun around and strode out of the room quickly.

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When Hermione entered the Potions dungeon, Harry and Ron were already sitting with Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom, all of whom ignored her to a degree. She thought she saw a glimmer of sympathy in Neville's eyes, but he turned away too quickly for her to be sure. Fighting hot tears threatening to cascade down her cheeks, Hermione marched purposefully to the back of the dungeon, to an abandoned table. Pointedly refusing to look at her friends, she removed her books, quill, wand, and other supplies from the bag, and mentally swore when she realized that she must have forgotten her cauldron in the Room of Requirement.

"Potter's little trio is split up, I see," said Snape immediately as he sidled into the dungeon. "Angry, perhaps, that Miss Granger helped Slytherin?"

There was an appreciative chuckle from the Slytherins and the Gryffindors decided to divide their furious glares between Hermione and Snape.

"Or, possibly a love triangle gone wrong?" sneered Snape. "Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the underlying issue, after all." The Slytherins laughed harder, and Snape continued mercilessly. "Maybe Potter professed his undying love to Granger, and is now upset that she seems to fancy Mr. Malfoy." His eyes flicked over the heads of the students, no doubt searching for the unmistakable silver-blond. "Where is Mr. Malfoy?" he snapped.

No one raised his or her hand. "Answer me!" commanded Snape angrily.

"Professor Snape, I'm right here," drawled a voice.

All the eyes in the room turned to the door, where Draco was leaning against the jam unconcernedly, his hair wet and his robes pushed back to his elbows.

There was a collective gasp; the blond Slytherin hadn't bee seen in over two days. His Housemates started clapping for their seeker and the smirk on Draco's face widened. He took an exaggerated bow.

"Take a seat, Mr. Malfoy," said Snape idly.

Draco sauntered inside the room and walked past Harry and Ron, stepping on Ron's feet 'accidentally.' To everyone's extreme shock, he strolled up to Hermione's table and pulled out her miniaturized cauldron. "Left this in my room, Granger," he said, handing it out to her. She went scarlet, and he sat down next to her, stretching out his legs.

It took a moment for even Snape to collect himself. "Very well," the Potions Master managed. "Today, we will be beginning the Aphelas Draft…"

"What are you doing here?" Hermione hissed to Draco. He glanced at her.

"I came to lessons," he said innocently.

"You know that's not what I mean! Is it your life's purpose to make my friends hate me?" asked Hermione in a heated whisper.

He shrugged. "It's definitely a plus to piss Scarhead and his Weasel off. Why are you mad, anyway? Haven't they been prats?"

"But I don't want them to be mad at me!" said Hermione. "They're my friends! You do know what friends are, right?"

"Of course," said Draco coolly. "I sat here because it was the only available seat."

"No, it wasn't! You could have sat with Pansy Parkinson!" said Hermione angrily.

Draco looked revolted. "Her? Do you have any idea what she looks like with her clothes off? He gave a visible shudder of disgust. "I felt like vomiting."

Hermione looked repulsed as well. "It's your own fault. If you weren't such a bloody slut"-

"Miss Granger?" said Snape, walking over to their table. Hermione looked up as the Potions Master's shadow blocked the light. She went crimson; Draco looked merely amused. Hermione hadn't realized that she had no longer bee talking in an undertone.

"Professor"- she began.

Author's Note: WOW! Over one hundred reviews! I'm so excited! Thanks to everyone who reviewed… I'm typing this on a computer without Internet access, so I can't name you all, but just know that I'm extremely appreciative!

BIG THANKS goes out to Ms. Lit, for reading and reviewing my other stories as well and giving me BOMBSHELL reviews. I was so happy when I read them! Also, to Monica – you're awesome, my best friend in the whole world and I'm glad I have you to bounce ideas off of. To all my regular reviewers, I'm eternally grateful!

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Postscript: Some people commented that last chapter was too short, so I made this one a little longer. Hope you enjoyed it!

Ar-Zimraphel