Crimson Rain Drops
Chapter 12
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:
Reaching the library, Hermione walked through the wooden doors and headed straight for the almost hidden table in the back, not so much as looking at anyone. She knew that this was driving Draco insane, but tough, he would just have to deal.
Draco sat down across from her and watched as she wrote furiously in her Poems book (note book). Her hand flew across the page and he saw a small wave of relief wash over her as she finished one and signed it and worked her way to her next one.
Finally, she looked up only to see him studying her. She bit her lip and looked down at her book then back up at him. She continued looking back and forth for a while then handed him the notebook turned to her newest poems.
"Tell me what you think. You'll read them eventually anyway, so might as well get your opinion now"
Draco looked at the small writing in front of his eyes, almost unsure of whether or not he should actually look. But then seeing the soft look on her face and the slight fear in her eyes he started to read.
My Angel
(Insert poem My Angel here)
Draco starred at the page for a few seconds before flipping to the next one.
Sorry Thats Life
(Insert Poem Sorry That's Life here)
"Granger. . ." he trailed off at a total loss for what to say.
She looked into his eyes, looking for something, anything that would show that someone was proud of her.
Draco got up and gracefully walked around .
"Hermione" he trailed his pail finger down her cheek as she looked up at him.
Hermione couldn't take it anymore. For the first time in 3 years, tears began to roll down her cheeks. And there was no stopping it.
Draco sat on the bench and pulled her close, rocking her, just letting her cry. Cry as if that would make everything alright again. This was the first mountain that they had climbed up on two different paths and had made their way to the bottom together.
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Draco woke up the next morning, tired and worried. He had seen a side to Hermione last night that he once had hoped to never see again. Last year after losing the baby had been bad. Somehow, this time just seemed to be much worse.
He dragged himself out of bed and into the bathroom for a shower. Looking at the image in the mirror was revolting. You would assume that he hadn't slept for the last 5 days. Only question was, was this from lack of sleep or from worry?
After his quick shower, he just let his hair fall naturally around his face, hoping that this would draw any attention away from how repulsive he really looked. Not that anyone out there would actually think he, Draco Malfoy, could look repulsive, but there was always the chance.
He smirked at his reflection. Return of Draco Malfoy. The hard-ass that most the entire school was terrified of. No one out there needed to know that the true Draco was nice and sweet who cared, to some degree, about other people.
He heard a stirring in his room and saw that Hermione was up. Good thing his bed was against the wall because otherwise, he had a pretty good chance of being dead right now. How you forget that your bound to another person, he could never guess, but it was him after all. Draco usually didn't know what was going on in Draco's head, how could anyone else ever have a chance in hell at figuring it out..
He watched as she walked into the washroom, and was surprised to see that she was wearing one of his T-Shirts. She looked just as god-awful as he did. That in itself was oddly satisfying.
"Mornin' Granger" he greeted
"Fuck off Malfoy. It's too early to be happy" she glared at him as she headed directly for the shower.
"Are you not going to look in the mirror this morning? You'd find that you have a truly beautiful reflection, really" he nodded his head to try and make it look like he was telling the truth.
"Draco, please, I know I look like shit. Now leave so I can take a shower" Hermione grumbled.
"Fine, fine, don't believe me Hermione. Your choice" shrugging, he headed for the bedroom, making sure not to go to far away from the door There was lee-way in the spell, but not that much.
Hermione just sneered after him and climbed into the shower as the door slammed shut behind him
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Luke and Dallis headed towards the Ravenclaw common room to pick up Eva.
"You like her don't you Luke?" Dallis sent a knowing look Luke's way
"How could I not? She's like my sister for gods sake, I don't have much choice in the matter now do I?" was the answer he gave
"That's not what I meant and you damn well know it"
Luke sighed, and ran his hand through his blond hair, looking uneasy. "I know. It's just, I do and I don't know how to deal with it. She's not perfect but every little imperfection in her is what makes her so real in my eyes" he paused, searching Dallis for the understanding that he knew he would find. "I just cant get her out of my mind. I love her Dallis, and I always have"
(A/N: Ok, I spent like an hour looking for a description of Luke somewhere in my story, but I cant for the life of me find it! So if anyone knows where it is or if there is one, please tell me!!! -- Sorry for this, I'll get on with the story now)
Luke gazed at Dallis for a second, seeing the need there for someone to understand what he was going through. But he also knew that that understanding couldn't come from him.
"Luke, you like her, you have to tell her, when you think the times right" was all he said as they approached that painted of the meadow that lead into the Ravenclaw commons
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"Granger!" Draco hollered through the door. "Come on, Dumbledore just summoned us for a meet. . ." he stopped mid sentence as the door swung open. Hermione stood in form fitting jeans and a long sleeve T-Shirt. Both were black of course. ". . .ing" he finally finished.
"What are you looking at Malfoy?" a questioning look on her face as she finished pulling her hair into a pony-tail.
"You. . . You just look. . . like a girl" Draco answered lamely.
"Thanks, I think" she shook her head. "Now, about this meeting?"
"Umm, Dumbledore just sent for us. Said that he had something to discuss with us"
Hermione shrugged and headed for the door. "Come of Malfoy, I don't want to be late" she turned and beckoned him to follow., noticing that he seemed to have gotten frozen on the spot.
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Eva glanced around, an uneasy feeling sinking into her bones. There was something very wrong with the aura that settled around the school today.
The morning had progressed like normal. Dallis and Luke had picked her up as normal. The only thing that she had found out of the ordinary there had been that Luke had a tension surrounding him. She picked that up immediately but she also picked up that whatever it was, was a topic best avoided.
She could read her brother like a book. She always had been able. When she was younger she thought that maybe it was a twin thing, but when they arrived at school, she found out that she could read most people auras. In fact, there were only three she was unable to read: Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.
At one time she had been able to read Hermione's and Harry's, but as they got older they seemed to have subconsciously learned how to block it off from the world. Draco she had never been able to read, no matter how hard she tried to.
It was a rare occasion though when she could see the entire schools aura so clearly. This usually meant that it had to do with someone close to her. That or it meant that whatever was about to happen was huge and that no matter what, it was going to come and no one would be able to stop it.
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"Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy I trust that I can leave all this with you? No one will know correct?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, as it he already knew the answer.
"Yes sir. You can trust that it will go no further" Hermione answered, Draco nodding.
"Ok, well that concludes this meeting. You're free to go if you have no further questions"
Hermione and Draco looked at each other but neither seemed to be able to think of anything. "I think we'll go down to breakfast then. Good day sir" Draco nodded and waited as Hermione walked out the door.
"So, breakfast or no?" Draco asked once out in the corridor.
Hermione contemplated this for a few moments, trying to decide whether or not she should eat.
"You realize that that was a rhetorical question right? I don't exactly plan on letting you not eat. That would go against this whole watching out for you thing. Besides, I'm hungry and I don't care if you want to go in there or not, I need food in my body." With that Draco turned towards the Great hall, dragging Hermione behind him
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"Mia, can you help me with the Potions homework tonight?" Eva questioned her friend at dinner later that evening.
Hermione shrugged as she picked at the food on the plate in front of her. "Sure, why not?"
Eva gave her a small smile of thanks before turning to join in the conversation that the boys were carrying on.
". . . I don't care who you are, you don't have to right to just run the lives of another living being. You can not tell them what to do or when to say something" Luke said passionately to Dallis.
"yeah but if it's been on your mind for any period of time it starts to eat away at you slowly. Come on Luke, we've all seen it happen" Dallis shot back.
"Guys, it totally depends on the situation. I mean, say I hated someone" Draco looked over and saw the look Dallis was giving him, "I know, I know, imagine that right? Anyway, I hate someone, and I refuse to tell them yet I have to boss them around so I make it very apparent. Then someone should be smart enough to step in and tell me to shut up and stop making a fool of myself. If a friend likes someone and has for a long time, I think its my obligation to tell them to get off their lazy ass and tell the person about it" He looked over at Hermione for some help, "right?"
"I'm not so sure. I mean, honestly, I personally think that we should tell someone something or we can offer help and advice but once its out there, what that particular person does with it is his or her decision" Hermione answered.
"I agree that someone should be able to give advice and that a person can either listen to it or not, but I also think that the advice giver should give some thought to whether or not that particular situation deserves advice or if the person is jus going to figure it out on their own" Eva said.
"Ok I'll agree with you that a friend can give advice but I agree with Mia. Once the advice is given then it should be left up to that person to choose what they should do with it" Luke stuck a piece of a dinner roll in his mouth as he finished.
"Luke, please, we don't need to see your food. Chew with your mouth closed" Eva said with a disgusted look.
"Ok, mom" he said after swallowing.
"Luke, I should come over there and kick your ass! Doing this however will only get me a detention and another one of mom's howlers. We've already had 7 of those this year between the two of us. I'm not so sure about you, but I really do not plan on getting anymore before Christmas" Eva said matter-of-factly.
"Ok Miss. I promise to be on my best behaviour from here on out" Luke saluted his sister.
Hermione was truly amazed at how her friends could have a change of topic so quickly. She shook her head and just watched as her friends started to get into another rather heated debate: about what the professor had truly meant when he assigned their astronomy homework.
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"I will send for them immediately" Dumbledore told the two sitting in front of him. The only person they wanted to see was Hermione, but in light of the circumstances, if you wanted to see Hermione, you had to see Draco.
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". . . so basically all Snape is looking for is a two and a half foot summary on these 6 pages? God, the way he explained it, he made it sound like we had to do hours upon hours of research to get a seven foot paper" Eva let out a huge sigh of relief when Hermione nodded, indicating that she was right.
"Anything else I can help you with?" Hermione asked
Eva looked at her, thinking. "No, I don't think so" she answered finally, shaking her head.
"Ok. Well I'm done my homework and I know Draco is" Hermione nodded at Draco, "so I think we should go and get some food from the kitchens"
"Sounds good to me. Draco?"
"I think I can handle that. . ." Draco trailed off as an owl flew in through the window and landed on Hermione's lap.
Hermione untied the letter from the owls leg and sent it off to the Owlery with a treat in its mouth. She skimmed it quickly.
"Well, Draco, it looks like Dumbledore is summoning us again. Looks like your going have to go to the kitchens without us. Go grab Luke and Dallis, they never give up a chance to get free food"
Eva nodded and the three walked out together and parted ways at the end of the corridor.
Eva couldn't believe the changes that had occurred between Draco and Hermione. They were getting along so nicely. It was weird. She knew better then to think that this would last forever, though. No, a good thing always had to end and for all she knew, that end could be within the next two minutes or two months or two years.
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"Malfoy, do you have any idea why Dumbledore wants to see us again? We got all the information that we needed this morning, was else could we need to know?" Hermione questioned at they walked up the stairs.
"I have no idea what he would need to see us again so soon Granger" Draco answered.
"Well, I guess we are about to find out" Hermione grabbed the door handle and gently swung the door open and shot a glance at Draco when she saw who was sitting there.
"What the fu. . . what are you doing here?" Hermione asked the figures sitting in front of her. Of all the times for this to happen. Why now? Why when she was starting to get settled? What on earth had made her parents decide to show up now?
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OOOO, cliffy!! My specialty of course! I promise that this one wont last for too long though. I'm sending this off to get beta-ed then you guys will get it. And to all loyal readers of Daddy I Luv You, I'm working on the finishing touches right now. I'll finish it tonight!
Thanks to all readers and reviewers!! I luv you guys! And a huge thanks to my betas, and a welcome to my newest beta! Thank you for volunteering for this!
I luv Everyone out there that reads this!
Pure Mudblood