Chapter 13
Hermione threw on her clothing, the moonlight streaming in her open window. It was late October now, but somehow she never felt the cold. Perhaps it was the lack of Draco's love, but she never noticed anything anymore. She shook her head fiercely, realizing that she was being foolish and hopefully romantic.
But she felt she had a duty to talk to Draco, and at least find out if Persephone was right.
She raced up the stairs to the top level of the tower. Draco's door loomed at the top of the flight, ominous and brooding. She slammed her fist against it, the side of her hand stinging from the impact. Finally, the door swung open and Draco stood in the door looking very disheveled and exhausted.
"Hello," he said, a perplexed look on his handsome face.
"Hello,"
she replied calmly. "I just had a dream."
"As did I," he
said, motioning for her to continue.
She took a deep breath. "Persephone came to me, and said that there was a reason you had broken up with me."
"Yes," he replied vaguely, looking acutely uncomfortable. He was playing with his nails, which she had noticed he did when he was nervous or angry about something.
Her face tightened. "What did Luc say about me?"
Draco turned away, trying to close the door. She stuck her foot in the crack and repeated her question. He turned around and glared at her, his hostility apparent.
"What do you want?" he snapped.
"What did Luc say about me?" she reiterated furiously. "Tell me."
Draco wiped his hand over his face, looking so worn-out that she felt a small twinge of guilt over waking him up at such an un-godly hour. He looked up at the ceiling, and then back at her.
"He said that you two had been going at it behind my back," he said flatly. "For a good year or so."
"And you believed him?" she shrieked, suddenly livid. "How stupid are you?"
"I should have known," he said dully. "You two were so close, it was so obvious that-"
"You are so stupid!" she burst out. "He threw me in jail as well, if we had been going out, do you think he would have done that? How could you be so thick?"
He
folded his arms across his chest. "Well, how was I to know that he
was lying?"
Hermione wanted to scream. "He threw you in jail
for god's sake!"
"He's my brother," Draco retorted. "Why shouldn't I trust him?"
"He's a Slytherin," Hermione said, quickly losing her patience.
Draco was clenching his fists now. "If you haven't noticed Hermione, I am too."
"You're
different from the rest of them," she hissed. "You're
special."
"Apparently Luc is more special," he replied
sarcastically.
"He's insane! Stark raving mad!" Hermione sighed, suddenly tired of all the arguing and yelling. "If you had simply trusted me, we never would have gone through all this."
"He's not insane," Draco replied stubbornly.
"Well, he's insane enough to make up lies from nothing, and get you to believe them," Hermione said coldly.
She left him standing there, and practically ran down the stairs, trying to get away from his idiosyncrasies and stupidity.
She arrived at the Gryffindor table the next morning to find everyone else completely silent. Hermione sat down next to Ron and took a couple pancakes.
"Hey," she said. Everyone just sort of stared blankly. "What's up?"
"Quidditch game today," Harry said palely. "Against Slytherin."
"I
forgot," she said suddenly. "I'll be sure to come. Please knock
Draco off his broom for me."
The silence was broken by a small
tinkle of laughter from Pan.
"Yeah," she said. "Push him off hard!"
After lunch, Ron was coming back to the tower with them to prepare with Harry for the game, and he suddenly remembered something he had wanted to tell them.
"I was standing on the pitch, randomly hitting balls with one of the bats," Ron said guiltily. "Which I know I'm not supposed to do, so please don't get me in trouble, and I saw someone on the other side of the stands, talking."
"Who was it?" Hermione asked nervously, giving Harry one of her classic worried looks.
"It was Professor Santisi!" Ron said excitedly. "Talking to Dumbledore!"
Hermione gave Harry a troubled look, and she was so confused she nearly walked into a suit of armor.
"They were arguing about something," Ron continued, pulling Hermione away from the armor. "Very heatedly. They were genuinely pissed off at each other, and this morning over breakfast they kept giving each other glares over the oatmeal."
"Interesting," Harry mused. "Do you suppose this had anything to do with his alibi? 'Cause we still don't know who he really is."
"I thought he was a cousin of Mr. Malfoy's," Ron said, bewildered.
"Lucius' first cousin are dead," Hermione replied succinctly.
"Ah," Ron said gently. "But you were able to bring Draco back from the dead, do you think it's possible that Lucius' cousin was brought back?"
"Natalya is dead," Hermione said self-assuredly. "And I have been told by several sources that Mihangel is dead. Maybe I should talk to Madame Pinceā¦"
"Good idea," Harry said with a nod. "But let's not think about that right now, I'm freaked out enough as it is."
Hermione and Pan made their ways up to the stands, stopping a few times so that Hermione could tell off a series of third years for peeing on the stairs.
Finally, the reached the top and got seats next to Neville and Hagrid. Ever since Lee Jordan had graduated, little Colin Creevey, who wasn't so little anymore, had been announcing the games, and Hermione could see him now, fiddling with the counter, Professor McGonagall leaning over him to make sure he was doing it right.
Hagrid had out a pair of omnoculars, and Hermione had brought her's as well.
"Yeh ready to see Gryffindor beat Slytherin, eh?" Hagrid asked gruffly, fully aware of how she and Draco had parted ways.
She shrugged. "Sure, I guess."
He patted her on the shoulder and she nearly fell off the stands.
"Yeh'll be fine," he said gently.
As Hermione stared over the grassy Quidditch green she hoped that she would be.
A/N: Sigh... I've read The Half Blood Prince twice now, and it's good. If you haven't read it yet, do so. I'm not going to give away anything, because that would be mean, but just read it. :) And leave a review before you go finish it. :)
