By Rowena
This chapter includes 2 songs by Greenday: (my favourite band of course)
Minority
Jesus of Suburbia
Both have explicit language.
THAT was your warning.
Enjoy )
Chapter 3: Dearly Beloved
That morning Hermione awoke groggily. Smacking her arm down on her alarm clock she made a mental note to NEVER use that piece of machinery again. Then there was another noise at he door. Ugh. Who is here NOW, she wondered. Slowly lifting herself from the warmth of her bed she shuffled to the door. With her eyes still half closed she opened it. "Yeah?" she asked sleepily.
"Never have I seen this side of you Hermione." Draco laughed. "Here," he said handing her and owl with a letter. "Came to my room instead of yours."
"Thanks." Hermione pried the letter from the owl's deathlike grip. When she finally was able to read the letter, she almost fell over. Draco caught her on her way down.
"Woah there, Hermione?" he asked.
"I'm dreaming right? This isn't actually happening right?" She asked him, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "THIS, is some sort of SICK joke, RIGHT?!" Hermione started yelling. Tears were running down her cheeks now. She threw the letter off the banister. "What IS this?!" she screamed. "ARE THEY JOKING?! TELL ME THEY ARE DRACO!"
"Hermione I can't answer you unless you let me know what's going on, what did the letter say?" he asked, trying to be gentle.
She walked out of his reach and sat down on her bed. "They say" she breathed in deep, her crying still rattling in her throat. "They say, they say my mom…was" Another breath. Draco looked at her sympathetically, suddenly dreading what he was about to hear. "They say my mom, was in a car accident." She started laughing hysterically. "My mom? In an accident, no…" The laughing stopped. "SHE DIED!" she was screaming again. "BUT SHE WOULDN'T DO THAT, SHE WOULDN'T LEAVE ME!" Hermione threw herself back onto her bed and started crying hysterically.
"You know what Hermione, I want you to stay here" Draco said gently, "I'm gonna go tell the teachers you aren't up to classes today, see if I can't come stay with you today, ok?"
Hermione nodded and crawled under the sheets. The devastated look on her face was enough to drive anyone mad. Draco slipped slowly from his room and ran to the Headmaster, explained to him the situation and thanked him very much when he was granted permission to stay with Hermione.
When he got back to the common room he was sure to be very quiet. He slipped up the stairs silently and pressed his ear to her door. He could hear her singing inside.
"Dearly beloved are you listening?
I can't remember a word that you were saying
Are we demented or am I disturbed?
The space that's in between insane and insecure
Oh therapy, can you please fill the void?
Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed
Nobody's perfect and I stand accused
For lack of a better word, and that's my best excuse"
Not that it was a time to be paying attention to it, but she had a very lovely voice, but the way it floated over these saddening lyrics it gave him an eerie feel. He pushed open the door, but she took no notice and continued singing…
"At the center of the Earth
In the parking lot
Of the 7-11 were I was taught
The motto was just a lie
It says home is where your heart is
But what a shame
Cause everyone's heart
Doesn't beat the same
It's beating out of time
City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
No one really seems to care"
"Hermione?" he asked. She stopped singing and nodded to let him know she knew he was there and she was listening. She was staring off into space. "I can stay here today."
Hermione took a deep breath in. "Thank you." She said. He came and sat down beside her.
"I think," he suggested "you should take a shower, get into some clean clothes come downstairs and have something to eat, and maybe you'll feel better. Hey?"
"Yeah, I'll try that…."
He helped her out of bed and into the bathroom. "You ok from here?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm good, thanks Draco, I'll be out in a bit."
"Don't rush." he added as the door closed.
Draco quickly ran downstairs to make Hermione something stable to eat.
Hermione looked at herself in the mirror. What a mess. She stripped and got into the shower, the hot water pulling away her tears and bad thoughts.
She put on a big black sweatshirt and some old jeans. She braided her hair into two French braids and slipped into her slippers. She headed downstairs, feeling a bit better.
"Feeling better Hermione?" Draco asked full of concern.
"Yeah, a bit, thanks." She said, sliding onto a barstool infront of the counter on which Draco was busily working.
"Do you want to talk?"
"No, I'm doing ok not talking about it at the moment."
"Ok." He was starting to fidget again. "Uh here, he said handing her a mug of hot chocolate and a sandwich.
"Thank you Draco, I really appreciate it." She ate up and then went and lay down on the sofa. She slept for a few hours tossing and turning.
Draco watched her as she slept. He kept remembering her beautiful voice. He quickly climbed the stairs and went into his wardrobe, crawling to the back he pulled out his electric guitar, black and charcoal coloured. T'was a beauty. "I wonder if she would sing for me…it would get her mind off other things in the least." He thought to himself.
Hermione woke to Draco sitting on the coffee table again, with his guitar. She smiled. A guitar. Hermione sat up. "You play?" She asked.
"Yeah, for a little while now. You sing?"
"Took it up over summer. But I play guitar too."
"Really?"
"Yeah"
"Wanna play something?"
"Wanna play something?"
"Sure, I'll just got get mine." She pulled herself off the couch and hurried up the stairs. Hermoine dove underneath her bed and pulled out her bass guitar. Baby blue and covered in stickers from rock concerts and names of band members she adored. She came back down the stairs quickly.
"Before we start anything," Draco said, "can I listen to you sing that song you were singing before? It's beautiful."
"Um, I guess." She said, it was obvious it would pain her. Somehow it related her to her mother. She plugged her guitar into the amp and began to pick at a few notes. Finally she was ready, playing a slow, simple and dramatic tune, she said, "It's this song I learned over summer, me and my Mom used to play it constantly. I think it's really beautiful, but sad, its called Jesus of Suburbia, Greenday did it." Then she began to sing. "Dearly beloved are you listening? I can't remember a word that you were saying. Are we demented or am I disturbed? The space that's in between insane and insecure. Oh therapy, can you please fill the void? Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed. Nobody's perfect and I stand accused. For lack of a better word, and that's my best excuse." She broke out into a bit of a guitar solo. Then ended abruptly. Draco could see the tears in her eyes.
"You know what?" He suggested." That was beautiful, but lets play something that will get out your frustration. I know a song by them that will. Sing it loud ok? With heart." And he started playing a tune.
"Oh THIS one" She said, a smile creeping onto her face. She began playing the song too.
Her voice became happy and angry all at the same time as she started singing. "I want to be the minority.
I don't need your authority
Down with the moral majority.
'Cause I want to be the minority.
I pledge allegiance to the underworld.
One nation under dog.
There of which I stand alone.
A face in the crowd.
Unsung, against the mold.
Without a doubt,
Singled out,
The only way I know.
I want to be the minority
I don't need your authority
Down with the moral majority
'Cause I want to be the minority
Stepped out of the line
Like a sheep runs from the herd
Marching out of time
To my own beat now
The only way I know
One light, one mind
Flashing in the dark
Blinded by the silence of a thousand broken hearts
"For crying out loud" she screamed unto me
A free for all
Fuck 'em all
You are your own sight
I want to be the minority
I don't need your authority
Down with the moral majority
'Cause I want to be the minority
One light, one mind
Flashing in the dark
Blinded by the silence of a thousand broken hearts
"For crying out loud" she screamed unto me
A free for all
Fuck 'em all
You are your own sight
I want to be the minority
I don't need your authority
Down with the moral majority
'Cause I want to be the minority"
She had sung her heart out. All her rage was out and Hermione was happy. Draco smiled. He stood up to lean his guitar on the wall, she did too. She was standing so close to him, he was scared he might hear his heart pounding. He began to lean down to her and she closed her eyes reaching up to his lips. They we close to touching when Snape walked in.
"Sorry if I interrupted your little romantic session, Heads but-"
Hermione was going red. "It wasn't a romantic session, he had dirt on his forehead." She said, smiling at Draco, who smiled back.
Snape just shook it off, and began discussing something to do with the Halloween dance.