Chapter Ten:
Grudging Kindness
Draco wrapped his dark cloak around him and buttoned it around his neck quickly, grabbing his gloves off his wardrobe before leaving his dorm room, parchment and quill in his robes pocket. His hair was a little messier than normal, but who cared? Nobody would notice. He wasn't going to talk to anyone long enough for them to notice anyway.
He was on a mission. At least, it felt like a mission to him. Indeed, it was nothing he would normally do. Geeze, no, he thought to himself as he descended the spiral staircase to the Slytherin common room. He was glad there wasn't anyone important around, because if he were spotted doing what he was, he didn't think he knew a good-enough excuse to pass it off as nothing.
Cautiously, he slipped through the portrait hole out into the back corridor of the west wing of Hogwarts. He was glad it was getting late. That meant less chances of him being confronted by someone. He had slipped out of dinner in the Great Hall by passing off the excuse that he didn't feel well.
It wasn't a lie, of course. He never lied to his classmates from Slytherin. He didn't feel well. He felt horrible, in fact. What he had said to Hermione that morning along with her being attacked by the Erkling had sent a guilty feeling into the pit of his stomach. He would have never been able to keep any of the meal courses down.
He made his way quickly down the marble staircase and into the Entrance Hall. The doors to the Great Hall were open and he could hear the loud sounds of conversation accompanied by the tinkling of silverware and glasses. It was bright inside and he felt a little leery going out into the dusk, but it was something he told himself he had to do.
Silently, without anyone noticing, he slipped out of the castle and headed down the stone steps towards the grounds near the Forbidden Forest.
What are you doing? Part of him asked. Doing all this for a stupid feeling in your gut? You've felt worse before!
He agreed with his thoughts, but this was different from all the other times.
Slowly, he made his way down to Hagrid's hut, almost turning back out of shame more than fear or hatred. He obviously disliked the giant, but he decided he had to put it behind him.
Slowly, almost hesitantly, he knocked on the door and jumped as he heard the loud barks of a dog, Hagrid's boarhound, as he leaped against the wooden door. Draco was glad that the door was strong.
The sounds of Hagrid rambling on to himself were heard as he started opening the door.
"Wha' in the world can you three –"
He stopped as he spotted who was at his door. Indeed, it wasn't Harry, Ron and Hermione. Draco wasn't surprised when the giant man took a step back and gave him a suspicious look.
"...Good evening, Hagrid." he said softly into the night air, almost afraid that the slight breeze had carried his voice off into the wind and Hagrid hadn't heard him.
Hagrid gave him a hesitant glance, then replied, "Good evening, Malfoy."
Malfoy felt a little uneasy talking to the man he had mocked for so long. He felt guilty for it all of a sudden, though he didn't know why.
"I – uh...guess you're wondering why I'm here."
"Well, it crossed my mind fer a second, yeah." Hagrid replied as he watched Draco shiver as the wind hit him. It was getting on to autumn and the night air was crisper. His eyes seemed to soften and he stepped aside, motioning for Draco to enter. "Well, come in if yeh like."
Draco nodded his thanks and stepped into the hut, standing awkwardly in the middle of the one-room home while Hagrid closed his door and locked it, his dog leaping up at Draco's face, his red tongue washing his face with drool.
Hagrid chuckled as he watched Draco try to fend off the dog and smiled. "Tha's Fang. He's my boarhound."
Draco nodded and folded his arms across his chest uneasily.
"So, wha' are yeh here for?" he asked finally.
Draco sniffed and looked up, as though he was just interrupted from a deep thought. Hagrid couldn't help but notice how innocent he looked just then compared to the devious and obnoxious student he was during the day.
"I...uh," he stuttered, as though fumbling with the words. "Look, Hagrid. I'm not going to try to sugarcoat this. So here goes. I'm sorry for being so much trouble to you in the past. I finally realized the error of my ways and am trying – believe it or not – to change my image a little."
Hagrid looked surprised and smiled.
"Oh really?"
Draco nodded, keeping the solemn expression. "I've...well, not actually met someone, but gotten to know someone – recently in fact – who changed my picture of you." He looked down at the floor.
Hagrid looked a little happier than he had when he'd answered the door.
"Well, I certainly wasn' expectin' this." he said with a chuckle. "So, if yeh don' mind my askin', who did yeh meet?"
Draco pondered whether or not to tell him, then slipped.
"Granger."
"'Ermione?" Hagrid asked, raising his bushy eyebrows.
"Yeah. Look, that's the other reason I'm here. I, well – we were assigned to work together as a group for the Herbology project and we have to research a plant. Professor Sprout told us that you had some of the plants in your garden. I was kind of hoping, you know...if you didn't mind..."
"You wan' me teh help yeh find a good plan'?"
Draco nodded.
"I kind of hurt Hermione's feelings and felt...bad about it, so I think it's only right if I do most of the research and get us started with a boost."
Hagrid grinned.
"Well, now's as good a time as any," he said as he led Draco out the door towards the garden that was enclosed by a picket fence. Draco smelled fresh soil and plants all over the place.
Draco watched as Hagrid walked along the rows of plants, some more interesting than others and shook his head at each.
"I know 'Ermione," he said after a while. "I actually selected a specific plan' for her...now where was it?"
After a couple minutes of searching, Hagrid gave a triumphant, "Aha!" and pointed to it, Draco walking over to inspect it.
"What in the world is it?" he asked as Hagrid grinned. He was looking down at a dark green plant with purple specks all over the stem at the end of which sprouted a giant purple flower.
"Tha' is a Permetula Rosebud," Hagrid said matter-of-factly.
Draco looked up at him.
"What does it do?"
"Well," Hagrid said, pondering the way to word his explanation. "I's really simple, actually. This partic'lar plan' has been around for decades, and mos' people back in the 17th century used it to create expensive love potions."
Draco looked up, trying to hide his expression of disgust in the shadows of the evening.
"Love Potions?"
"Yep," Hagrid said as he walked over to a rusty bucket and extracted a trowel and started digging out the Permetula Rosebud. He plopped it into a spare pot and handed it to Draco who looked up at him.
"This is it?" he asked as he caught a whiff of the wonderful sweet scent of the flower.
Hagrid nodded.
"Jus' look in yeh book for some information abou' its properties, and yeh'll be set."
Draco nodded and started off towards the school, but stopped and turned before leaving.
"Hagrid?" he said as Hagrid looked up, busy filling in the hole where the Rosebud had once been. "Thanks."
Hagrid nodded.
"Don' mention it." he said as Draco turned and headed back towards the castle, hoping that nobody spotted him walking through the school with a giant purple plant in his arms and dirt all over his nice clothing.
He was lucky nobody had seen him slip into the Slytherin Common Room with the plant because if they had, he would have been in a predicament, having told them that he was sick. He supposed he could have told them the school nurse had given it to him as a throat- clearer because of the strong scent, but that sounded too far-fetched to him.
He quickly leaped up the staircase, glad that he was back in his room when he closed the door. Crabbe and Goyle were already in their pajamas and were busy reading something. Draco, glad they hadn't questioned him, looked down at the book Crabbe was holding. It was handwritten.
"What's this, Crabbe?" he asked as Crabbe chuckled.
"Just some stupid journal we stole out of the bag of some Hufflepuff girl.," he said in mid-chuckle as he turned the page, Goyle pulling at his sleeve to hand it over.
Draco rolled his eyes.
How juvenile, he thought to himself as he placed the Rosebud on his bedside table and brushed the dirt off his robes. He still had to get changed and start some research for Hermione to make up for the way he had upset her that morning. He hoped his handwriting was neat enough for her. He knew for a fact that hers was fancy and flowery from the note she had given Potter...
That stung him.
Potter's note! He thought angrily to himself. Had Potter told her about the note, so that was why she was angry with him?
He'd have to explain it later when he saw her and apologized, he decided. He felt really bad about it all. If he was going to be on the good side of Hermione for the project, he had to be on the good side of her friends as well to keep her happy.
Girls are so hard to please, he concluded as he pulled out his enormous Herbology textbook and flipped to the glossary in the back. Scanning the columns of words, he spotted Rosebud, Permetula in the middle of the third column.
"Good," he said to himself as he tried to block out Crabbe and Goyle's guffawing.
He turned to the correct page and found that there wasn't one – but five pages on the Rosebud.
"Wow," he muttered softly under his breath. "Thank you, Hagrid..."
His eyes almost ached with all the information on the page. It was amazing. He'd never really enjoyed researching before, but this was actually pretty interesting. He didn't know so much went into making a love potion, however much he despised them.
Crabbe looked up finally and snickered.
"What's the stupid flower for?" he sneered.
Draco rolled his eyes.
"It's my Herbology project.," he said importantly.
Goyle chuckled.
"You're paired up with Granger, aren't you?" he said as he grinned. "How's the Mudblood been?"
Draco had to stop himself from getting mad at Goyle. He didn't know that Draco had been trying to straighten out his act. He just nodded and sighed.
"The way she'd always been. I don't know what else to say." he replied with a roll of the eyes for effect.
This had the desired effect on both of them and they immediately ignored the plant and went back to the journal, laughing at the particularly juicy entries and mocking the girl's sentences.
It was late when Draco finished jotting down notes on the plant. He had two whole pieces of parchment, front and back, filled out in as neat handwriting as he could muster up at eleven at night.
He closed the book with a yawn, glad he had gotten it done without a struggle.
Crabbe and Goyle had fallen asleep long before. They always needed sleep. It was a necessity to them.
Getting up off the bed, Draco placed the heavy textbook and parchment into his bag and smiled as he started to undress, folding his clothes neatly as he always did, placing them on the floor by his bed for the House Elves to collect. He slipped into his pajamas quickly, feeling a little chilled with nothing but his boxers on, and slid beneath the thick comforter on his four-poster.
"Well, Granger," he said softly to himself as he stared up at the green canopy above his head. "I hope you like all this. I've cut you a break."
Actually, he had enjoyed doing the work. He looked forward to seeing Hermione's face when he showed her the parchment and the plant. She'd be so surprised she might even forgive him.
He hated the thought of having to bribe somebody for forgiveness, though.
"Oh well," he said as he blew out the candle and was enveloped in darkness.
What would happen the next day would happen whether he liked it or not. He'd just have to deal with it when it crossed his path.
With a sigh, he rolled over onto his side, getting a glimpse of the start out his window before he fell fast asleep, dreaming about Hermione the entire night.
Grudging Kindness
Draco wrapped his dark cloak around him and buttoned it around his neck quickly, grabbing his gloves off his wardrobe before leaving his dorm room, parchment and quill in his robes pocket. His hair was a little messier than normal, but who cared? Nobody would notice. He wasn't going to talk to anyone long enough for them to notice anyway.
He was on a mission. At least, it felt like a mission to him. Indeed, it was nothing he would normally do. Geeze, no, he thought to himself as he descended the spiral staircase to the Slytherin common room. He was glad there wasn't anyone important around, because if he were spotted doing what he was, he didn't think he knew a good-enough excuse to pass it off as nothing.
Cautiously, he slipped through the portrait hole out into the back corridor of the west wing of Hogwarts. He was glad it was getting late. That meant less chances of him being confronted by someone. He had slipped out of dinner in the Great Hall by passing off the excuse that he didn't feel well.
It wasn't a lie, of course. He never lied to his classmates from Slytherin. He didn't feel well. He felt horrible, in fact. What he had said to Hermione that morning along with her being attacked by the Erkling had sent a guilty feeling into the pit of his stomach. He would have never been able to keep any of the meal courses down.
He made his way quickly down the marble staircase and into the Entrance Hall. The doors to the Great Hall were open and he could hear the loud sounds of conversation accompanied by the tinkling of silverware and glasses. It was bright inside and he felt a little leery going out into the dusk, but it was something he told himself he had to do.
Silently, without anyone noticing, he slipped out of the castle and headed down the stone steps towards the grounds near the Forbidden Forest.
What are you doing? Part of him asked. Doing all this for a stupid feeling in your gut? You've felt worse before!
He agreed with his thoughts, but this was different from all the other times.
Slowly, he made his way down to Hagrid's hut, almost turning back out of shame more than fear or hatred. He obviously disliked the giant, but he decided he had to put it behind him.
Slowly, almost hesitantly, he knocked on the door and jumped as he heard the loud barks of a dog, Hagrid's boarhound, as he leaped against the wooden door. Draco was glad that the door was strong.
The sounds of Hagrid rambling on to himself were heard as he started opening the door.
"Wha' in the world can you three –"
He stopped as he spotted who was at his door. Indeed, it wasn't Harry, Ron and Hermione. Draco wasn't surprised when the giant man took a step back and gave him a suspicious look.
"...Good evening, Hagrid." he said softly into the night air, almost afraid that the slight breeze had carried his voice off into the wind and Hagrid hadn't heard him.
Hagrid gave him a hesitant glance, then replied, "Good evening, Malfoy."
Malfoy felt a little uneasy talking to the man he had mocked for so long. He felt guilty for it all of a sudden, though he didn't know why.
"I – uh...guess you're wondering why I'm here."
"Well, it crossed my mind fer a second, yeah." Hagrid replied as he watched Draco shiver as the wind hit him. It was getting on to autumn and the night air was crisper. His eyes seemed to soften and he stepped aside, motioning for Draco to enter. "Well, come in if yeh like."
Draco nodded his thanks and stepped into the hut, standing awkwardly in the middle of the one-room home while Hagrid closed his door and locked it, his dog leaping up at Draco's face, his red tongue washing his face with drool.
Hagrid chuckled as he watched Draco try to fend off the dog and smiled. "Tha's Fang. He's my boarhound."
Draco nodded and folded his arms across his chest uneasily.
"So, wha' are yeh here for?" he asked finally.
Draco sniffed and looked up, as though he was just interrupted from a deep thought. Hagrid couldn't help but notice how innocent he looked just then compared to the devious and obnoxious student he was during the day.
"I...uh," he stuttered, as though fumbling with the words. "Look, Hagrid. I'm not going to try to sugarcoat this. So here goes. I'm sorry for being so much trouble to you in the past. I finally realized the error of my ways and am trying – believe it or not – to change my image a little."
Hagrid looked surprised and smiled.
"Oh really?"
Draco nodded, keeping the solemn expression. "I've...well, not actually met someone, but gotten to know someone – recently in fact – who changed my picture of you." He looked down at the floor.
Hagrid looked a little happier than he had when he'd answered the door.
"Well, I certainly wasn' expectin' this." he said with a chuckle. "So, if yeh don' mind my askin', who did yeh meet?"
Draco pondered whether or not to tell him, then slipped.
"Granger."
"'Ermione?" Hagrid asked, raising his bushy eyebrows.
"Yeah. Look, that's the other reason I'm here. I, well – we were assigned to work together as a group for the Herbology project and we have to research a plant. Professor Sprout told us that you had some of the plants in your garden. I was kind of hoping, you know...if you didn't mind..."
"You wan' me teh help yeh find a good plan'?"
Draco nodded.
"I kind of hurt Hermione's feelings and felt...bad about it, so I think it's only right if I do most of the research and get us started with a boost."
Hagrid grinned.
"Well, now's as good a time as any," he said as he led Draco out the door towards the garden that was enclosed by a picket fence. Draco smelled fresh soil and plants all over the place.
Draco watched as Hagrid walked along the rows of plants, some more interesting than others and shook his head at each.
"I know 'Ermione," he said after a while. "I actually selected a specific plan' for her...now where was it?"
After a couple minutes of searching, Hagrid gave a triumphant, "Aha!" and pointed to it, Draco walking over to inspect it.
"What in the world is it?" he asked as Hagrid grinned. He was looking down at a dark green plant with purple specks all over the stem at the end of which sprouted a giant purple flower.
"Tha' is a Permetula Rosebud," Hagrid said matter-of-factly.
Draco looked up at him.
"What does it do?"
"Well," Hagrid said, pondering the way to word his explanation. "I's really simple, actually. This partic'lar plan' has been around for decades, and mos' people back in the 17th century used it to create expensive love potions."
Draco looked up, trying to hide his expression of disgust in the shadows of the evening.
"Love Potions?"
"Yep," Hagrid said as he walked over to a rusty bucket and extracted a trowel and started digging out the Permetula Rosebud. He plopped it into a spare pot and handed it to Draco who looked up at him.
"This is it?" he asked as he caught a whiff of the wonderful sweet scent of the flower.
Hagrid nodded.
"Jus' look in yeh book for some information abou' its properties, and yeh'll be set."
Draco nodded and started off towards the school, but stopped and turned before leaving.
"Hagrid?" he said as Hagrid looked up, busy filling in the hole where the Rosebud had once been. "Thanks."
Hagrid nodded.
"Don' mention it." he said as Draco turned and headed back towards the castle, hoping that nobody spotted him walking through the school with a giant purple plant in his arms and dirt all over his nice clothing.
He was lucky nobody had seen him slip into the Slytherin Common Room with the plant because if they had, he would have been in a predicament, having told them that he was sick. He supposed he could have told them the school nurse had given it to him as a throat- clearer because of the strong scent, but that sounded too far-fetched to him.
He quickly leaped up the staircase, glad that he was back in his room when he closed the door. Crabbe and Goyle were already in their pajamas and were busy reading something. Draco, glad they hadn't questioned him, looked down at the book Crabbe was holding. It was handwritten.
"What's this, Crabbe?" he asked as Crabbe chuckled.
"Just some stupid journal we stole out of the bag of some Hufflepuff girl.," he said in mid-chuckle as he turned the page, Goyle pulling at his sleeve to hand it over.
Draco rolled his eyes.
How juvenile, he thought to himself as he placed the Rosebud on his bedside table and brushed the dirt off his robes. He still had to get changed and start some research for Hermione to make up for the way he had upset her that morning. He hoped his handwriting was neat enough for her. He knew for a fact that hers was fancy and flowery from the note she had given Potter...
That stung him.
Potter's note! He thought angrily to himself. Had Potter told her about the note, so that was why she was angry with him?
He'd have to explain it later when he saw her and apologized, he decided. He felt really bad about it all. If he was going to be on the good side of Hermione for the project, he had to be on the good side of her friends as well to keep her happy.
Girls are so hard to please, he concluded as he pulled out his enormous Herbology textbook and flipped to the glossary in the back. Scanning the columns of words, he spotted Rosebud, Permetula in the middle of the third column.
"Good," he said to himself as he tried to block out Crabbe and Goyle's guffawing.
He turned to the correct page and found that there wasn't one – but five pages on the Rosebud.
"Wow," he muttered softly under his breath. "Thank you, Hagrid..."
His eyes almost ached with all the information on the page. It was amazing. He'd never really enjoyed researching before, but this was actually pretty interesting. He didn't know so much went into making a love potion, however much he despised them.
Crabbe looked up finally and snickered.
"What's the stupid flower for?" he sneered.
Draco rolled his eyes.
"It's my Herbology project.," he said importantly.
Goyle chuckled.
"You're paired up with Granger, aren't you?" he said as he grinned. "How's the Mudblood been?"
Draco had to stop himself from getting mad at Goyle. He didn't know that Draco had been trying to straighten out his act. He just nodded and sighed.
"The way she'd always been. I don't know what else to say." he replied with a roll of the eyes for effect.
This had the desired effect on both of them and they immediately ignored the plant and went back to the journal, laughing at the particularly juicy entries and mocking the girl's sentences.
It was late when Draco finished jotting down notes on the plant. He had two whole pieces of parchment, front and back, filled out in as neat handwriting as he could muster up at eleven at night.
He closed the book with a yawn, glad he had gotten it done without a struggle.
Crabbe and Goyle had fallen asleep long before. They always needed sleep. It was a necessity to them.
Getting up off the bed, Draco placed the heavy textbook and parchment into his bag and smiled as he started to undress, folding his clothes neatly as he always did, placing them on the floor by his bed for the House Elves to collect. He slipped into his pajamas quickly, feeling a little chilled with nothing but his boxers on, and slid beneath the thick comforter on his four-poster.
"Well, Granger," he said softly to himself as he stared up at the green canopy above his head. "I hope you like all this. I've cut you a break."
Actually, he had enjoyed doing the work. He looked forward to seeing Hermione's face when he showed her the parchment and the plant. She'd be so surprised she might even forgive him.
He hated the thought of having to bribe somebody for forgiveness, though.
"Oh well," he said as he blew out the candle and was enveloped in darkness.
What would happen the next day would happen whether he liked it or not. He'd just have to deal with it when it crossed his path.
With a sigh, he rolled over onto his side, getting a glimpse of the start out his window before he fell fast asleep, dreaming about Hermione the entire night.