Pain, Hurt, and…Love?
Chapter Nine
Bad days and worse weeks
A few weeks had passed since the Pansy incident. Hermione and Draco preceded their lives together. Sometimes after a rough day Hermione would come back to the common room in tears. Those were the days that Draco and Hermione would sit in front of the fire to ease her pain. It always helped Hermione to be able to sit there with Draco. Just him and her. That was what Hermione liked the most. He was always there for her if she needed it. Hermione didn't know what it was. She was so attracted to this boy. This boy that had called her names, and treated her like dirt for so long. Now look. She was crazy for him.
Quidditch had started again. Practice almost every day. Hermione dealt with it. Sometimes Hermione would hurt so badly that she couldn't take it. She would sit and wait for him. When he came back he would take off all his gear and lay there with her. Usually he would fall asleep rather quickly. It made Hermione mad that he had to be gone so much. She didn't like it one bit, but what choice did she have?
Draco hated to be away from Hermione for so long. He worried about her all the time. He would get on his broom and think is Hermione okay? Is she hurting to badly? Will she be up when I get back? Everyday when he had to be away he thought these things. He never told her, he figured that she knew. But oh how wrong he was.
One day, as Hermione was on her way back from the library, she saw Draco. He was on his way to practice. Hermione kept walking. Ignoring him like she always did. She was mad at him though this time. He had promised that he would stay with her tonight. Lately the pain had been less, but it still didn't stop them from lying by the fire side. She couldn't believe that he had forgotten. She stormed past him on his way down the stairs. Not even a glance.
Draco looked at her. She didn't look back. He thought that maybe someone was around but when he looked around he didn't see anyone. He stopped. What was her problem? She always spared a glance for him, always. What was different tonight?
"Hermione! Hermione what's wrong?" She ignored him. She kept walking along like she didn't hear him. "Hermione wait! What the bloody hell is your problem!" He had been having a bad week. He had been knocked of his broom by one of his team mates who had thought that it was funny. Potter and Weasly had gotten the better of him. Hermione had been hurt because Pansy had hit her again. He hit Pansy but didn't tell Hermione about it. And now this. He didn't need this right now. Not with his week.
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When Hermione got to the common room, she sat on the couch. She refused to cry about him. She refused to cry because he had forgotten about her and their promise. She wouldn't, she would sit here and read. She would read her book and pretend like nothing existed. She would disappear into her fantasy land and pretend that everything was okay.
Draco was not in the best of moods. Every time someone made a mistake he would yell at them to get it right. He didn't have the patience to deal with them today. He saw the snitch and went after it. Its little wings fluttering as fast as they could. Draco sped up. Closer and closer he got to the ground. Closer and closer he got to the snitch. He caught the snitch, but he didn't pull out soon enough. He hit the ground. With as fast as he was going he put a dent in the ground and broke his arm.
His team came and swarmed around him. "Malfoy? You okay?" Draco just groaned.
"What do you think you dolt?!" He wasn't happy. He couldn't believe he had just done that. His team picked him up and took him to the hospital wing.
Once they got there they set him in a bed and went to find Madam Pomfrey. Soon enough she was there, tittering over him. "You will be staying here tonight Mr. Malfoy."
"But…"
"No buts Mr. Malfoy. You hit your head pretty hard from what I have been told."
"Then owl the Head Girl and tell her where I am. I don't want her to worry." Madam Pomfrey looked at him oddly but nodded her head.
Not to much later Hermione came rushing in the infirmary. She looked around and saw him there. Obvious relief flooded her face. "Draco are you okay?" Draco smiled at her. She remembered then that she would be mad at him. She got an angry look on her face.
"Yes Hermione I'm fine. Why the look? It wasn't all my fault." Hermione sat in a chair.
"Do you remember the promise you made to me Draco Malfoy? The one you made right before we went to classes." Draco looked at her. She was angry and sad. Then it hit him. He had made a promise that he would stay with her tonight. That he wouldn't go to practice and he would lay with her all night, and make all the "pain" go away.
"Hermione I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking."
"That's obvious. But how could you forget?" Hermione looked like she was going to cry. He didn't want that. He pulled her to him.
"I don't know Hermione. I really don't know. I didn't mean to. I had just been talking about it with the team and I forgot I guess. I know that it's not good enough Hermione. I know that I screwed up and I am so sorry for that. I really am." Hermione looked at him. He looked sorry enough.
"Oh it's okay Draco, this time. But if you do it again…" She didn't ever get to finish because he had kissed her. She couldn't help but laugh at him.
"What?" Hermione just laughed.
"Nothing Draco. Nothing." She laughed. She couldn't help it. He couldn't help but smile at her. "So how long do you have to stay here?" She absently played with his hair.
"Just for the night. She doesn't want me to get hurt again." Hermione smiled at him.
"Okay. I will stay here with you then." Draco shook his head.
"No Hermione. You go and sleep in your bed and you can come and see me in the morning. I don't want Pansy to come in here and find you with me again." She glared at him. "That's not what I meant. I just…I don't want you to get hit again. She is only going to make you feel worse and I don't want that." Hermione nodded her head.
"No."
"But…" This time Hermione kissed Draco. She pulled away and looked down at him. "No Draco. I don't want to. Parkinson can hit me all she wants. I want to know that you are okay. I want to stay here. Please?" Draco rolled his eyes.
"Alright Hermione you can stay." She smiled at him. She charmed the bed and made it bigger. She climbed in next to him and forgetting the broken arm snuggled up next to him. Draco winced but he said nothing. It was mostly healed but not completely. He moved it so that it was over her shoulders.
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The next day as Hermione was coming out of the hospital wing she ran into Harry and Ron.
"Hey Hermione! We were just on our way to breakfast." Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "Would you care to join us?" Hermione took Harry's arm.
On their way Hermione saw Draco. His arm still hurt a little but not bad. She smiled at him. He smiled at her. It always made his day to see Hermione.
In potions they were told to make groups of two. In other words to find a partner. Instantly Harry and Ron went together.
"I don't think so. Mr. Potter you will be working with…hmmmm… Crabbe. Mr. Weasley you will work with Parkinson. And you Granger will work with Mr. Malfoy." Snape smirked; he thought that he was doing something bad by pairing the two of them up. How wrong was he.
Hermione walked over to him. She smiled and small smile. So did he. Oh the trouble they could cause. But they wouldn't.
As Hermione sat down Draco grabbed her hand. She smiled at him and he looked to the front, glancing at her out of the side of his eyes. As they both diligently took notes, Draco would grab her hand when no one was looking. Hermione would smile but not look his way.
"Now I want you all to make this. We will not be using but I want to see if you can all manage to make the Polyjuice Potion correctly." He looked at Neville specifically. Hermione stifled a laugh. She looked at Harry and Ron. Both of their shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.
Draco looked at Hermione with an eye brow raised. "What is so funny Granger?"
"Oh nothing Malfoy. Nothing at all." But Hermione continued to laugh. Silently of course.
Hermione and Draco got to work on the first part of the potion. They couldn't do it all in one class time as Hermione knew, but they did as much as they could do. Draco was still skeptical as to what her and Potter and Weasly were talking about. Honestly he didn't think that he wanted to know, yet he felt like he needed to know.
As they worked Draco would brush against Hermione and she would look at him and smile. No one really noticed this; Pansy would look up now and then to see what they were doing. It was those times where they stayed on opposite sides. Glaring at each other every now and then, for show of course. Sometimes Hermione would really glare at him because he wasn't paying attention and he almost would put to much or too little of one thing in there.
"That's enough!" Snape's voice boomed across the classroom. Hermione and Draco were done and talking about homework. Harry and Ron too were done and talking about Quidditch. Hermione looked back to see them sitting next to each other and talking about quidditch, she just rolled her eyes and went back to talking with Draco. When Snape told them what to do with their caldrons they did as they were told and headed off to their next class.
For the rest of the day Hermione was sure she would die of boredom. She got her homework took her notes and that was all. It was so boring. Hermione didn't understand it. She never used to be bored. Maybe things were getting to easy, maybe she needed a new challenge. But what? What would be challenging enough for her? It didn't seem like there what anything that would satisfy her. She would think of something, for now she needed to eat and go to the common room.
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After dinner was done, Hermione headed back to the common room. Draco was sitting there reading a book. He hadn't heard her come in. So she was as quite as she could be and snuck up to him. She pulled his book away and set it on the floor. Draco had a very annoyed expression on his face. Hermione laughed.
"Oh think that's funny now do we?" Hermione could only nod. Draco grabbed her by the waste and pulled her down into a kiss. She stopped laughing and kissed him back. When they pulled away Hermione and Draco were both smiling.
"So how was your day? Mine was long and torturous, except for potions of course." Hermione winked at him and he rolled his eyes. He lay down and Hermione snuggled close to him.
"It was alright. I got pulled from class today to talk about quidditch. It was pointless really. But things got straightened out." Hermione didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about but decided that was okay and just nodded her head. "Are you tired Hermione?"
"A little, but not a lot." Draco pulled a blanket over the two of them. Hermione then picked up the book she had put on the ground. Draco took it from her and began to read out loud. Hermione drifted off to sleep listening to his voice and thinking that everything was to right, but that this had to have been the worst week ever.
A/N: Hey hey all! Sorry it's been a while since I have updated but not to long. I hope that you liked this chapter. I thought that it was good. It sort of went in a different way then I had thought that it would go there at the end but other then that it all went like I want it to. But if you have any suggestions as to what would challenge Hermione at all that would be totally helpful for the next chapter! So thank you to all my faithful revwiers! I love you all!! (In an unisexual way!! Lol)