Crimson Rain Drops
Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I only own the plot and the characters that obviously aren't in the books.
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Cold as Ice
Hard as Stone
Both believe
They must face this world alone
What happens
When Enemies Meet
All they share; a love of hate
But what they find; they do not seek
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Previously:
"Fine, you're going to be that way eh? Whatever. Your going to be a bitch, then I'll just leave you to yourself. Oh, by the way, here" he reached into his pocket and pulled out an mini bag of assorted muggle sweets. "Dallas, Eva and I picked this up one day for you one day, waiting for a day when you were skipping and not feeling great to give it to you and we figured today was perfect so I just came to drop it off" He tossed the bag to her, and turned to leave
"This just proves the theory, you know that right? You know that theory that I told you about last year. The one about Slytherins? How they're just mean, cold-hearted, ruthless bastards who get what they want and leave or don't get what the want and storm off like two year olds. Remember how I told you that all Slytherins were the same and, yet, I, for some reason, trusted you to be different. To be the one to break that mould. I guess I was wrong wasn't I? You're just like the rest of them Luke, and as far as I'm concerned, you can just go to hell" Hermione turned around and headed down the corridor, starting to take the long route to the Head Common Room.
Draco watched her leave then turned to see Luke standing there, his jaw almost hitting the floor.
"She's right you know that don't you?" Draco said, scowling at him.
"Right about what?" Luke asked, snapping out of it
"Right about the fact that all Slytherins are ruthless bastards. Seriously, she would expect something like that from me or any one else that's in our house, but never, never would she actually expect you to sink that low. You have no idea what she's going through right now, yet your treating her like she's a piece of shit because she doesn't want to share everything about her life with you"
"I did not! All I want is for her to be honest with me" Luke shot back
"Well, she wouldn't be very honest if she told you now would she? What's honest in her opinion, isn't necessarily what you consider honest. Think about that while I see if I can go clean up this mess that you created"
With that, Draco turned and followed Hermione's path to the common room, hoping that she wouldn't be stupid enough to do anything before he get there.
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Luke stared after Draco, his eyes wide in disbelief. How could the Prince of Slytherin been so understanding of this girl that he had hated for so long. Yet, he, Luke, hadn't been understanding in the least towards his best friend. Mia was always there for him and he was always there for her, until now anyway.
When he looked at it now, he knew almost everything about her life that he could ever want to know. But there was so much more to learn, and he would love to find all of that out.
He turned and headed for his next class. About half way there he realized that he had already missed most of it, so what was the point in going for the rest? Eva or Dallis would give him anything that he had missed.
He groaned at the thought of them. How the hell was he going to explain this one? He had some major mess-ups in the past, it was true, but this had to be one of the worst. They all knew how far they could push Mia before she became pissed, and Luke had pushed beyond those limits more then he would've ever liked.
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"Granger!"
Hermione glared at Malfoy from where she stood in her door frame. "Malfoy, you don't have to yell you know. Its not like I'm a long ways away"
"Shut up and get your ass down here Granger. We have a few things to discuss"
"No one orders me around Malfoy. You know that."
"Get. Down. Here. Now. Granger" he paused between each word, just showing that he didn't want to play around. He was dead serious.
Hermione sighed, but finally left her door frame and plopped down on a chair in front of the fire. (A/N: I used a New Word =P)
"Malfoy, you wanted to talk, so talk. What the hell do you want?"
"I want to know what your problem is. You're a stupid selfish bitch that constantly feels sorry for herself" he raged. He was sick and tired of seeing this day in day out. He wanted it stopped and he wanted it to stop now. "Look as me when I speaking to you Granger"
Hermione smirked at the fire, but wouldn't look at him. He didn't have control over her. No one did. She wasn't about to let anyone have any control either.
"I said, look at me Granger" Draco growled through clenched teeth. She had made a mistake pissing him off. He didn't care that it hadn't been meant to actually piss him off. He was standing up for a friend here.
Still Hermione refused to turn her gaze from the fire. Hell would freeze over before she did.
Draco stalked towards her and raised his hand, as if to slap. He was good and angry now.
"Malfoy, so much as touch me with that hand and you'll never have children"
"Then look at me you stupid bitch. And explain to me what the hell your problem is. Yor going around here, feeling sorry for yourself like you the only one in this world that has problems. So what, the Idiot Duo that you clung to for so long didn't see that you were hurting. Big deal, it happens to all of us. Your parents beat you. Yeah, well newsflash, there's more then one person in this room that that happens too. Yes, even it happens to me. You want to know what drove me to pick up that knife for the first time? You really want to know? It was about 2 years ago, when I handed my father my report and he found out that after five years, a mudblood was stilling ahead of me in every class. He beat me because of that. And then he just left. He took my mother and left. He took that one person away from me that I cared about. I found a note about a week later. It was from him stating that he hoped to find me dead when he walked through that door at the end of the summer. So, I picked up that knife and I cut. I cut as far down as I could, to produce the most damage. I let the sonofabitch get to me. And he's been getting to me for the last 2 years"
Draco looked down at Hermione, she had her knees pulled up to her chest, slowing racking back and forth, still watching that flame.
"That paint a picture of what its like to be me Granger"
She didn't answer immediately. She could feel Draco standing over her, his arms holding either side of the chair so that she couldn't just get up and leave. She could feel as he breathed in and out. She could almost hear his heart me. Yet, she still couldn't bring herself to look up at him. His gaze was boring into her. She could feel, smell, tough and hear it. A slow smirk grew on her face.
"My problem on this earth is stupid bastards that don't know when to shut up. Assholes how feel this need to pry. People who pretend to know what they're talking about, yet know absolutely nothing. People who lie and cheat. I don't like people Malfoy. They cant be trusted. Hell, I don't even trust myself. How the hell am I supposed to trust another person. Malfoy, do you want to know why I like to hang out with guys so much. Why I avoid confrontation with girls? Because girls pry. Girls have this need to figure out what's wrong. They have this 6th sense that can sense when a friend isn't herself. They like to ask questions. Figure things out that aren't any of their business. Guys don't pry. Not normally. They're pretty good about shouting up when you tell them too. So what if they know how to piss you off. They leave you alone. They don't dig deep into a personal life. Until Luke, a guy had never been able to pick up on these things. No guy I knew could tell me what I was actually feeling, when I was actually feeling it"
Draco shook his head as she finished. "Granger, your wrong. That's not true. Girls just tend to actually express it when they sense that a friend has something truly wrong. Guys don't. We like to wait for you to come forward with your problem. Or, at least, that's the way people like me or Dallis or Luke think. Or, at least, Luke used to. Granger you changed him. You turned him soft. But I want you to listen very closely to what I'm about to say, because you need to hear it.
"You seem to think that best friends just come and go. That you'll get one and when that one gets too close you can just push them away and find someone else. I hate to break it to you, but life doesn't work that way. Not letting any get close to you is like sabotaging your life as a whole. As much as I hate to admit it, you had two great best friends, and you let them go. Now you have three and your pissing them off constantly, pushing them as far away from you as possible. You picked the wrong people to do that to. They wont leave you alone, no matter how mad you've made them. My grandma once told me this: best friends are you're guardian angels, because no matter where you are in life, they'll always be there if you need a shoulder to cry on. That's why I've never had a true best friend Granger. I cant let anyone in close enough. In a lot of ways, you and I are the same person Granger, just live two separate lives. We've both got to face the facts of our lives."
Silence cloaked them as he finished. Hermione watched the fire as it performed it's ritual. She needed to think. There was too much going on. Too much to think about. She couldn't handle it. She needed her knife. She needed to figure out how to get it back from Malfoy
Draco caught her rubbing her wrist absentmindedly as she looking into a world all her own. He knew what that meant.
"Granger, no. Not going to happen. I'm not giving you back your blade. We made a deal. And I don't break those"
"Who are you to tell me what I can and cant do Malfoy. Your not my father, your not my brother, your not my boyfriend, hell, your not even my friend"
"I can tell you what to do because you don't seem t have grasped the concept on how to run your life up to this point. In fact, from this point on, you will do what I tell you, when I tell you to do it. You will not leave my sight. That's easy enough considering we're in all the same classes, you can sit with Luke or Dallas at the Slytherin table and when I leave you leave. We will sleep in the same room if that's what it'll take. And the first thing your going to do is get your ass over to the Slytherin common room and apoligize to Luke. You hear me? And I coming with you to make sure that that's exactly what you do. Do not try to fight me on this. You will not win"
Hermione glared at him. He had not right to do this. But then why couldn't she fight him on it.
Because everything he's said is right. You messed up your life and you cant fix it. You need to help you.
Shut Up, I do not need him to do anything. I can handle myself.
"Malfoy, do me a royal favour and fuck off. Back away from my life"
"No Granger, from this point on you and I will be linked in everyway we can think of. Whether its psychologically, physically, emotionally or anything between. From this point on I'm just as much you as you are me. God dammit, I will breath for you if I have to!"
"Malfoy, how dare you try to run my life! It wasn't you who messed it up and it's not your job to fix it. It's my job. I screwed it up, I have to fix. That is, I have to fix it if I choose. Besides, why is my life such a big deal anyway? If I leave then that's one less screw up on this earth"
"It was yours to mess-up. And don't think that for one moment I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this for me, for Luke, for Dallas and especially Eva. Those three have done nothing but be there for the two of us for years. Now it's my turn to do something for them in return. Granger, this isn't for your sake. It's for theirs. They lose you, they will be crushed. You cant just leave them behind, expecting them to just simply understand something that they simply couldn't"
Hermione looked into his eyes and for the first time saw only one thing. Sincerity. He was telling the truth. And he was right. She couldn't do this to them. They would be destroyed. It just wouldn't be fair to them if she did something like that.
She slowly started to nod. "Ok, Malfoy. Ok, I'll do it. You want to help me, then you have to trust me to help you. Like we agreed earlier" she raised her hand, waiting for his answer.
"Deal" he reached out his hand to take her surprisingly soft and gentle one.
"Let's go" Hermione got up and headed to the door.
"Go? Go where?" Draco was thoroughly confused.
"To apologize to Luke, you jack ass" she grinned and that mischievous spark entered her eye's again.
That's a good sign. A very good sign.
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"You what?!?!" Eva yelled at her brother.
"I went to take those things to Mia, found her talking with someone, sort of heard everything that was said, then let her know I knew and then basically let the Slytherin in me truly show" he said all in one breath.
"I can's believe this. Ok, so we knew she was hiding soething from us, something big. We've always understood that. But I cant believe your reaction to it! How the hell did you manage to screw so badly? You never let your true Slytherin colors show, why start now?" Dallis was pissed. Luke had just totally blown it.
"Look, I said I was sorry ok? What the hell else am I supposed to do?"
"Fix it. Find a way to clean up your mess Luke. Because this is one we cant clean up for you" Eva said
"He has absolutely nothing to clean up because, besides eaves dropping, he did nothing wrong"
Three heads swung towards the door to see Hermione and Draco standing there. Looking. . . happy. Odd.
"Mia, I never should've reacted the way I did" Luke told her
"You reacted no differently then I would've. I'm glad you know more about me now. I truly am. Because I don't like hiding things from you. But you have to understand that theres things in my life that I just don't want anyone else to know about. Certain things that I wanted to keep secret and they shall always remain that way ok?"
"Ok Mia. We can respect that. Everyone has things in their lives that they don't want to share and I don't expect you share everything" Eva walked up and gave Hermione a quick hug. The other two followed suit.
"Ok, ok. That's enough. Is everything cool between us now?"
Three heads nodded and Hermione walked all the way into the room and sat down on one of the couches, Draco following suit and sitting in the other corner of the couch.
Draco looked over at her as a genuine smile started to make its way across her face. She'll get better. It may take some time and many relapses, but in the end, she'll be just fine. One worry: How the hell are we going to make it through this together?
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