Disclaimer: No I still do not own Harry Potter, and I never ever will.
A/N: Thank you to all who reviewed. I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday, but I have a cold and I was asleep all day. Anyway, I feel a bit better today, so I figured I'd update. Hope you enjoy!!
Chamei – lol I wanted something good to happen to poor Draco!
Zuvalupa, SCInfinity – thank you! And I thought people would be curious about the potion ;) so this chapter does go back to it a bit.
ydole3343 – I know it was kind of short; I was debating even writing the chapter since it isn't necessary to the plot, so I didn't want to draw it out too much, but at the same time, I couldn't leave out the big match. Glad to hear you like it!!
Kara Black – That's exactly what I was going for. I thought it would be interesting for Gryffindor to lose just once, and I wanted to put a little positive to counter all of the negative that's been going on lately. And don't worry; I'm much too excited about writing this story to stop.
my1-and-only, HarryPotterFan670, roundrockrules, angelchic4ver, Innocent rogue, NeVeRmInD2, Ginny-W13 – Thanks for the reviews! Glad you like it!
theloudone – The reason Slytherin won was basically just because I'm tired of always reading about Gryffindor winning, even in fan fics, and plus I wanted something good to happen to Draco.
shadow-n-the-dark – LOL! Draco is sick at the thought of kissing Pansy, but he had to do it. Glad to hear you're getting into it!!
Benji Girl – Thank you for you suggestions for my story, however I already have it planned out. So I hope you like what I decided to do, and I'm glad that you like it so far!
elektra30 – I never thought about the difference between reading it all the way through vs. reading it chapter by chapter. But that's an interesting (and probably) correct observation. I'll keep that in mind if I write any fics in the future. Thanks for the review!
Citcat299 – Yes, very sad for Harry and Hermione, are things every going to get better?!
Sad-soulz – Wow, really? Cool. And yeah I could have had Gryffindor win, but I figured people would be expecting that, so I thought it would be a cool twist for Draco to win it instead.
Chapter 20: Life Goes On
Over the few weeks, life at Hogwarts was not very enjoyable. Hermione's life seems to be passing in a complete daze. Compared to her usual standards, she was doing absolutely dreadful in classes, though she still did better than her classmates. She tried to distract herself by burying herself in books, but she just couldn't concentrate, Draco kept stealing all her thoughts. The worst part was that after all he had done to her, after he broke her heart, she still wanted him, and she still loved the person he had been. What made it all unbearable was that in the wake of the quidditch match, Pansy was all over Draco more than ever, touching him and kissing him every chance she got.
Hermione's friends always tried to cheer her up and comfort her, but their job was made very difficult by the Slytherins, who seemed to be making up for lost time by taunting her worse than ever. While Draco had not spoken as much as one word to her since the Hogsmeade incident, his housemates had barely left her alone; they taunted her so much that she didn't even have to see Draco in order for her day to be ruined.
However, Draco's boredom of harassing Hermione did not stretch to the rest of Gryffindor house, his favorite way to upset them was by replaying the quidditch match, an act with always caused Slytherins to cheer, and Gryffindors to turn away in disgust. The Gryffindor quidditch team tried multiple times to beat Draco to death in the halls, but he was constantly surrounded by what seemed like the whole of Slytherin house, so getting to him while he was alone was nearly impossible.
With life going the way it was, Hermione was almost always upset, and she found it exceedingly hard to concentrate. The common room made her sick because it was too loud for her to study and the happiness of her housemates pissed her off. She couldn't even hide away in the library anymore because the Slytherins would inevitably find her and quietly taunt her or throw things at her. And she was too afraid of seeing Draco alone again to take refuge in their private room.
But that finally changed one night at dinner, Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls passed by the Gryffindor table on their way in, "Hey Granger," taunted Pansy, "how's your boyfriend?" she smiled viciously, "oh wait a minute, he's mine now. And he's wonderful, in case you were wondering." Just then Draco walked in, and made his way to the Slytherin table without so much as a glance towards the Gryffindor table. "Speaking of my boyfriend," said Pansy menacingly. She then left and went to sit next to (and nearly on top of) Draco.
Hermione watched Pansy cross the room without blinking, her face was redder than Ron's hair, her fists were clenched around her silverware, and she was shaking slightly. "Hermione?" whispered Ginny cautiously.
Hermione's breathing grew shallow and fast, and without warning she sprang up and stormed out of the Great Hall. She wasn't paying attention to where she was going; she just knew that she had to get away from all the people. Before she knew it, she found herself unlocking the door to the private room. A sudden wave of sadness and exhaustion swept over her, and she collapsed on the couch, and stared unseeing into the fire. Slowly she drifted into an uneasy sleep.
She awoke only when she heard that sounds of someone moving by the fire. Her heart sank but still, she opened her eyes. To her astonishment, it was not Draco, but Dumbledore that was making the noise. "Ahh Miss Granger, it's nice to see you awake."
"Professor, hi, umm, what's going on?"
"Well a couple weeks ago, Mr. Malfoy came by to arrange a date to collect the phoenix tears for your potion," Dumbledore motioned to Fawkes, who was perched up on the window sill, "and tonight was when we agreed to meet."
"Oh Merlin! The phoenix tears, I completely forgot about them! I'm so sorry professor!"
"Calm down, calm down Miss Granger" assured Dumbledore, "I understand that you have been under quite a lot of stress lately. In fact when I saw you leave the Great Hall, I hoped you would come here, so I could have a word before we begin."
"Umm, of course professor."
"I understand that things between you and Mr. Malfoy have grown rather difficult. Please tell me if he has been harassing you in any way. How has he been contributing to your unhappiness?"
Hermione paused, slightly taken aback by Dumbledore's boldness. "well, actually professor, he hasn't done much of anything to me since, the day after . . . .umm . . .well I guess it's no secret that we broke up. But since then, he hasn't done much of anything really." Hermione chose not to reveal the incident in Hogsmeade, though it did cross her mind.
"So is that what has been bothering you?"
"Actually no, that I could live with I think, it's all the taunting and harassing the other Slytherins are giving me. I just can't take it anymore! And Harry, Ron and Ginny try to help, but they have always hated Draco, so they don't understand what I'm going through!" cried Hermione, she began quietly, but the end, she was shouting, and her eyes were glistening again.
Fawkes calmly glided down and landed softly on Hermione's lap. His gentle presence seemed to calm her, and she began to stroke his soft scarlet feathers. Her breathing was heavy again, but suddenly it seemed as if a large weight had been removed from her shoulders, it felt good to be able to vent everything that was bothering her. "I'm sorry professor, I didn't mean to shout, I got carried away."
"No apology needed Miss Granger; sometimes all we need to feel better is to do a little shouting." Dumbledore smiled reassuringly at her.
For the first time in weeks, Hermione smiled back, "thank you professor that actually did help a lot."
"Good, now, Mr. Malfoy should be arriving any minute are you prepared to add the phoenix tears to the potion?" questioned Dumbledore.
"I believe so, let me double check." Hermione retrieved the potion instructions from the table, and checked to see that the potion looked as the instructions said it should.
While she was preoccupied, Draco arrived. He paused slightly; surprised to see Hermione, but he did not let it show on his face. He looked at Dumbledore, who seemed to be surveying his mind rather than his face, it perturbed him a little to think that Dumbledore could see through his carefully constructed mask, but again, he didn't let it show. "Evening Professor, Granger." He said smoothly, nodding to the rooms other occupants in turn.
"Good evening Mr. Malfoy," answered Dumbledore jovially. Hermione merely nodded, she didn't want to open her mouth for fear of what would come out of it.
"Miss Granger, have you finished checking the potion?" asked Dumbledore.
Hermione tore her gaze away from Draco, "Yes," she answered quietly, "everything looks good."
"Excellent, and do you have the item I asked you to get from professor Snape Mr. Malfoy?"
"Of course professor" answered Draco.
"What item?" interrupted Hermione.
Professor Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at Draco, which Draco assumed meant that he was to explain. "Well Granger, when I went professor Dumbledore to arrange a meeting time, he informed me that there was one more ingredient needed."
"But we checked the ingredient lists a million times in dozens of sources, we got all of them!"
"This ingredient does not actually get added to the potion, it is not essential to the potion, however I feel it would be beneficial to use it since it is available to you," interrupted Dumbledore.
Draco pulled something out of his bag; it was black, shiny, and smooth and it appeared to be a sort of cup. "It's a griffin egg, well half of one at least. The egg will multiply the powers of the tears by hundreds of times, thereby making the potion even stronger than it would be otherwise."
"Professor, why didn't you tell me any of this?" asked Hermione with a hurt voice.
"Actually Miss Granger, I didn't tell Mr. Malfoy any of the properties of the egg, I just told him to find one. But he is correct in his information, very well researched Mr. Malfoy."
"Well then why didn't you tell me about it Malfoy, I could have researched something." Hermione absolutely hated being left out of information that was obviously important. And at the moment she hated the idea that her grade was half dependant on the one person she truly loathed.
"Granger," responding Draco sounding bored, "do you think your gang of friends would have let me come within 50 feet of you to tell you anything?"
Hermione opened her mouth to shout a retort, but professor Dumbledore spoke first, "Perhaps we should collect the tears now, and then I will leave you to explain the rest to Miss Granger."
Draco nodded as Fawkes glided over and landed on his arm. Draco held the griffin egg underneath Fawkes' eyes, allowing the tears to fall until the egg was filled with a thick pearly liquid. "Done, thanks Fawkes," he said patting the birds head gently. "And thank you Professor, I'll let you know when the potion is complete."
"I look forward to it, good evening to you both."
There was a long awkward silence following Dumbledore's departure. Draco busied himself with arranging a stand for the egg to sit in so that the tears didn't spill, and Hermione watched his every move.
"Aren't you going to pour the tears in," Hermione asked with more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"Actually, that's what I'm supposed to explain to you," replied Draco without looking up from the egg.
"Well then get explaining, I don't have all night, I have better things to do then spend all night here with you!"
"Hmm, really now? Since when?" mocked Draco. Hermione stared daggers into his eyes, but his face remained stone cold and unreadable. "Anyway, we have to wait until the tears turn gold, and then we can add them. The potion should stew for another week after that, and then it will be ready."
"And how long will it take for the tears to turn golden?" Hermione challenged, hoping that he didn't know the answer so that he would be the one feeling foolish for once.
"Well, that depends on the conditions of the room, and the power of the griffin and the phoenix that the egg and tears came from. We will have to check it at least once a day because they cannot be left too long or they will become useless."
Hermione huffed in annoyance when he responded. "Fine, I'll check on it, and add them when they're ready," ordered Hermione, determined to take charge of the potion.
"Oh, no!" argued Draco. "I'm not leaving that all up to you so I can miss the final product; I've worked hard on this potion!"
"Oh and I haven't? You seem to feel fine leaving me out of the whole griffin egg thing! Thanks a lot!"
"I already told you Granger, I wouldn't have been able to tell you about the stupid egg even if I had wanted to, Potty and the Weasel would have made sure of that."
"Don't call them that!" shouted Hermione in an unstoppable rage.
"Besides, the way you've been pathetically moping around the school doesn't make anyone want to come near you, it's disgusting Granger."
"And I bet you feel real proud of yourself knowing that you're the one making me so miserable." Unwanted tears began to leak down her face, and she silently cursed herself for crying again. She tried to hide her face, but it was too late, Draco had seen.
"Merlin Granger! We broke up! Get over it!" he shouted at her.
"WE DIDN'T BREAK UP DRACO!" roared Hermione so loud that Draco could have sworn that the entire school could hear her. "You cheated on me!" The tears were now pouring down her face. "One minute we were doing great, then the next I find you in here screwing around with Pansy!" She turned to the ground and took a couple of deep breaths, she suddenly felt utterly exhausted. After a long moment, she continued, her back was still toward Draco, so she could not see his expression, "Do you have any idea how much you hurt me?" She finished sadly, turning and allowing her eyes to stare pleadingly at him, begging him to comfort her, to tell her he was sorry.
He looked piercingly, almost threateningly into her eyes, but he didn't seem to react to her rant at all, "It's over Granger, get over it, move on with your life." His voice was not harsh or loud; rather it was quiet and calm, much like the way he used to speak to her when she thought he loved her. Yet, there was no mistaking the finality in his tone. For a second, Hermione thought she sensed a pleading in his voice, but as she looked into the deep depths of his cold, unrelenting eyes, she was sure she imagined it. She didn't respond or bother to wipe away the tears that continued to trail down her cheeks, she merely got up and walked to the door.
Draco turner, he was furious with Hermione. He was sure that she hated him, yet here she was begging for him to comfort her still. 'Why won't she forget it, why can't she move on' he thought desperately. Draco was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn't realize that he never heard her leave. Hermione turned to watch him from just outside the room. She saw him pull a black leather-bound book laced with silver from his bag. 'What is that?' she mused remembering all the times she had seen him writing in it before. The curious side of her wanted to go see what he was writing, but her practical side restrained her. 'Wonder what he's writing about,' she wondered as he pulled out an eagle feather quill and began to write.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Send me a review and let me know what you think!