Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor any related thematic elements written by JK Rowling.
I'll Never Tell
Don't be daft, just sleep on it. It means nothing. Hermione was walking back to the Gryffindor common room, clutching a bag in one hand and the note in the other. She desperately wanted to chase after Malfoy and ask what the words were about, but thought better of it. There had been, however, something about the words that sent icy cold shivers down her spine, and there was nothing she could do but assume that he was up to no good. Not yet, it had said. What was not yet? The possibilities were endless.
On the other hand, if there was one thing that Hermione had learned over the past year, it was to not act on impulse. It was her weak-spot, to absentmindedly become obsessed with something trivial and to pursue it like mad. Or sometimes, she would simply act foolishly. This was one of those instances in which she could have easily made an idiot out of herself, chasing down the halls past dinner looking for a Slytherin.
Thus, Hermione decided to do nothing.
As she entered the common room, she spotted Lavender sitting by the fire in silence, a small book on her lap that was assumedly some sort of trashy romance novel. Ron was not in sight, and neither was Harry.
"Lavender," she called, walking across the room to go sit in an adjacent armchair next to the petite girl. She looked up, and smiled slightly.
"Hi," she said simply.
"Look. About that, just now. Forget about it. I could explain to you what was going on, but you'd call me crazy, and...it's sort of a long story. But..."
"Hermione, I heard you the first time," Lavender said, but she wasn't being sarcastic, her tone was gentle and upbeat. The other girl stayed silent. "But the way you were looking at each other, I...don't understand what it meant. You weren't enemies, you didn't hate each other, you...you looked like..." she sighed. "I don't know. I'm being silly. Just...tell me, okay? Tell me if there is something, you know, going on. I mean, we're friends, right?"
"Yeah," Hermione said. "We are."
"So," Lavender said, "What is going on? I'm up for any story, Hermione."
Hermione smiled and thought for a minute. She considered what she should tell her. Was it safe to talk about the trials and tribulations she was having with her disastrous so-called relationship with Draco? Lavender Brown, gossip queen, would probably have a ball with the news. But on the other hand, something about her at that moment seemed so absolutely sincere and welcoming that Hermione found it hard to keep her mouth shut. "Draco Malfoy, that's what's going on," she said.
Lavender summoned a blue bookmark with her wand and slipped it into her book, setting it aside. "You have that class to teach with him, right?" she asked.
"Yes, but...it started before that. I had detention with him during the first week of the class, and...he is the most confusing person I've ever met."
"How so?"
"You know Draco Malfoy, right? Arrogant...annoying...he's always bothering us," Hermione stated, and Lavender nodded, grinning slightly. "Well...one night during detention he started calling me 'Hermione' and acted totally nice to out of the blue. There was no reason for it, and, to tell the truth, I thought it was a joke. But he didn't stop. He would talk to me. I mean...I told him things, like...oh, God. Lavender, I told him things about...about...a friend, and how he escaped from somewhere very terrible, and how he had to become an animagus to do it, and..."
"Who?!" Lavender interrupted her, and probably for good reason.
"No one, it doesn't matter. But...he would tell me things too, and help me with my school work and...and eventually I began to..."
"Notice his fabulous abs? Seriously, have you seen them? I still remember the day in my fourth year when I caught him changing before a Quidditch match—"
"Parvati," Lavender interrupted, "Where the hell did you come from?"
Parvati Patil, a tiny Indian-looking girl was standing behind the two other girls, listening to their conversation. She was wearing the standard school uniform, although it was hard to see under all the jewelry, accessories, and makeup she had piled on top of it. "I just got back from my date with Seamus! Oh, he's so lovely," she chirped. "But this, Hermione, seems much more interesting, eh?"
Lavender, her best friend, laughed at her in a jokingly manner. "It's none of your business," she jested.
"Honey," Parvati said, "Everything is my business."
"How much have you heard?" Hermione asked.
"Enough...you are so lucky, you know. It's only a pity that he's such a bastard. If only he wasn't allowed to open his mouth!" Parvati said. Lavender giggled girlishly, her personality doing a complete back flip in just under thirty seconds. "Tell us more!"
Hermione was reluctant now. Talking to Lavender had been okay, but she knew that Parvati would never be able to keep a secret. It was a disaster enough that she had heard what she did, and saying more would only fuel the rumors that she dreaded were going to start spreading like wildfire the next morning.
"Well, actually," Hermione said nervously, "I was really planning on going to bed. It's past midnight." She yawned and stood up. "I'm beat."
Parvati looked disappointed. "Oh," she said exaggeratedly. Then Lavender did the same. It seemed that they felt like they were such good friends that they always had to act like the other. That was part of the reason why Hermione never bothered to become very good friends with either of them. They weren't their own individuals yet, and nor were they confused like her, just insecure.
"Goodnight!" Hermione yelled, and ran up the stairs to her dormitory, a sweaty hand still clutching the letter from Malfoy tightly as if it were the answer to all her problems. Or perhaps...it was the reason for them.
xxx
Hermione woke up very late the next day. The only thing that caused her to get out of bed was the warm morning light beaming in through the eastern windows and on to her face. She showered, dressed, and put on casual clothes and headed down to the Great Hall, hoping for a calm, peaceful breakfast on a brisk Saturday morning.
The Dining Hall was nearly full, and students looked joyful as they sat chatting and gossiping about only God knew what. It was a sight that Hermione enjoyed, because you could be surrounded by people and at the same time, remain unnoticed. She stood on a small balcony one floor above, trying to scope out a few friends before she went down. Nearly every one of them was there, and she smiled. One person that she had looked for and not found, however, was Malfoy, which was weird—he was usually always up early.
As Hermione descended one of the blessedly un-changing staircases, the chatter of the Hall became louder and louder. No words were understandable, and it probably would have been impossible to tell what language they were speaking, had a stranger decided to enter. Crossing her arms over her chest to block an imaginary draft, she walked over towards the farther end of the Gryffindor table and moved to sit by Lavender. She had felt that it would've been uncomfortable sitting with Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Casey for obvious reasons.
"Hello Lavender, do you mind if I—" Hermione stopped mid-way through her sentence, confused. The volume of the chatter had instantly diminished, leaving an isolated and eerie silence around her, making her face grow hot. Every student within five feet on either side of Hermione looked up and stared at her. Some were smiling, some stone-faced, some giggling, some scowling. She looked back at them. "What?" she asked, an odd sense of nervousness descending upon her. Eventually more and more students had begun to look up at her, poking at and whispering to their friends, gathering more and more onlookers. Even some of the Slytherins had looked up.
And then a few of the Gryffindors glanced at the Slytherin table, and she understood.
"Hermione, sit down!" Lavender whispered, tugging at her sleeve. But Hermione did not want to sit down anymore. She glanced at Lavender, who looked slightly frightened, and then at Parvati, who would not return her gaze. She shook her head.
"Which one of you told everyone?" Hermione demanded coldly, but neither girl answered her—they remained silent. "Which...one?" she insisted again, her voice not getting louder but more intense. They looked at each other.
Hermione was furious to the point where her hands and knees were shaking. Here she had finally decided to confide in Lavender, and now...everyone knew. Even if it had been Parvati that had spread the rumor—which it very well might have been—Lavender wouldn't have said so.
After a tense moment, she looked up and scanned the excited faces, either furious or amused with knowledge of her and Draco Malfoy—she couldn't tell. "It isn't true," she choked out to the crowd slowly, backing away.
A distant movement caught Hermione's attention out of the corner of her eye, and she saw that it was Malfoy, emerging from the Slytherin wing of the castle. Please don't let him see me, she thought as she watched him saunter over to his usual seat at the Slytherin house table. A few people turned to stare at him, but he caught on and looked up to meet her eyes. They fixed and neither of them blinked.
Shaking even harder from the hundreds of conflicting emotions welling inside her, Hermione tore out of the hall as fast as she could.
She ran and ran, unable to believe the nerve of her friends. It was vile how everything had become deadly silent and everybody had stared at her, wide-eyed, as if her life was just some sort of show that everybody felt entitled to watch, free of cost.
Where am I going? She asked herself. She didn't know.
"Granger!" yelled a winded voice from some fifty feet behind her. It was Malfoy...he had followed her. Hermione stopped dead and turned around to stare him with a face contorted with surprise. He seemed very angry. He began to speak..."What the—"
"You, IDIOT!" Hermione shouted, remembering, and pointing a finger at him and letting the tears finally fall. "You STUPID, FOUL, VILE, DESPICABLE...THIS IS ALL YOU R FAULT!" she ranted, voice choking on every other word. She had forgotten about the immediate causes for the spread of the new rumor, but focused more on the underlying causes...the things that made the rumor...true, in a sense. As she spoke, she had walked towards him, so that now they were only an arms length apart.
Malfoy stared at her for a few seconds before demanding, "What have I done?!"
"You...you...did you see?"
"YES! I bloody well have seen, but why is this my fault?"
"Because you—" Hermione stopped mid sentence because Malfoy had wiped one of her tears away with his hand, and this startled her. "Oh, don't be stupid," she said.
"You can't go around raging at me for being an idiot if you won't even tell me what I've done!" He seemed to not have noticed that he'd touched her face, as if had been absentminded.
"I can't tell you, okay?" she shouted, suddenly becoming violently aware of the way their voices echoed against the walls and amplified tenfold.
"Why not!?" Malfoy asked lividly, throwing one of his hands into the air.
"BECAUSE!" Hermione cried. "Just...forget it, alright?"
Draco had reached his arms out and put them on her waist, sending sparks down her legs and up her spine. He tried to catch her eyes but she would not look up at him. "They don't know what they're talking about," he said firmly. What, was he trying to take advantage of her in her state? What did he think he was doing? Hermione was not thinking rationally.
"They don't," repeated Hermione. "They don't know anything. There's nothing going on between us!" She laughed a high pitched nervous laugh, and grabbed his wrists, aggressively throwing them away from her. "I mean, you hate me, a mudblood...and I ... I can't stand you...we would never...ugh" she trailed off, and another tear slid down her cheek. She still couldn't look at him. "It's...not your fault, I—"
It was so embarrassing. Hermione could tell that she was acting like some silly little teenage drama queen instead of the smart and level-headed person she had always prided herself on being. There was absolutely no point in anything that she had just said. It was just that the idea of the Hogwarts population believing that she had hooked up with Malfoy had completely thrown her off her rocker, and there were thousands of ways that she could have reacted. In this instance, she seemed to be trying to combine them all into one.
There was silence, and there Hermione stood, immobile, while Malfoy looked at her. Why aren't I doing anything? Hermione wondered. Just as the silence began to become so unbearable, she spoke the first thing that came to her mind.
"That was stupid."
"I tried not to acknowledge that."
The corners of her lips began to curl into a smile, and she laughed at herself for a moment. "You're such a mystery, Malfoy," she said. It was definitely true. "So," she said, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet.
"Do you know who spread that?"
"I think I have an idea," said Hermione. "In fact...I think I have two ideas."
Malfoy's eyebrows lowered in confusion. He looked about to say something when Hermione grabbed his arm and began to drag him down the corridor. "Come on," she said. "We're going to fix this."
Malfoy followed Hermione as she walked in a quick and determined stride to an unknown destination, and he tried not to look conspicuous. He never bothered to ask her what was going on, and Hermione understood why. He trusted her. They ended up in front of the same storage room on the third floor that they had used before to help each other with homework.
"Damn, it's locked," she said under her breath after trying a few un-locking spells on the door. "How'd you get in before?"
"Oh," Malfoy said, smiling to himself. "Hang on." He fished around in his backpack for a second before pulling out a tiny copper key. He tapped his wand to the key and muttered something very quietly, causing the key to glow a faint warm golden color before he slipped it into a hole that Hermione had not noticed before. "Nicked it from Filch's office," he said, and pocketed the key. The door opened easily. "What do you want in here?"
"I'll tell you in a second," said Hermione. "Let's just get in first." She and Malfoy walked inside and dropped their things on the floor, and then searched for suitable places to sit.
"Okay?" Malfoy said, indicating that he wanted an explanation.
"We are going to stage a fight," Hermione said excitedly. "And then, nobody'll think there's anything going on between us."
xxx
A/N: I'm really going out on a limb here, I guess...not sending this to a beta. There are probably a million errors in it, and if you see one, please don't hesitate to tell me. Thanks for reviewing!