Chapter Six
Hermione entered the Great Hall for dinner after everything had been worked out in the Infirmary. She'd rested for two hours after finishing her food and then she was permitted it leave. She was greeted by Ron and Harry, who got up from where they were sitting and ran to meet her in the doorway. After reassuring them several times that she would be fine, the quit asking her questions.
"Some people would like to have dinner this century, Granger," drawled an all too familiar voice. Hermione looked over her shoulder and locked eyes with Draco. He smirked at her and gave her a slightly forceful shove so that he could get through.
"Git," grumbled Ron. "Anyway, let's sit down. Dinner's almost through."
Hermione sat between Ron and Harry and across from Ginny. She looked at the platters of food and the only thing appealing to her at the moment was her goblet, which was filled with pumpkin juice. She took a swig of it and was satisfied. She let out a breath and enjoyed the lack of vomit flavoring that had been coating her mouth when she was in the Infirmary.
Soon, the students began filing out of the Great Hall. Hermione stood up with Ron, Harry, and Ginny and started for the door with them. She chatted with them as they climbed a few staircases. When they came to the third floor, they walked her to the tapestry and looked at it with furrowed brows.
"What's that supposed to be?" asked Ginny, arching a brow and staring pointedly at the Older portrait of Draco.
"Ah, that would be Malfoy," stated Hermione, "and next to him, as much as I regret to say this, is me in a few years, or so I would suppose. Well, good night guys. This was a brilliant way to spend my first day of classes; in the Infirmary."
"Good night, 'Mione," called Harry.
"I'm sure tomorrow will be better," Ron comforted as they disappeared up the stairs. Hermione took to staring at the tapestry, most particularly at the Older Draco and how different he looked from the Present-day Draco. His hair was longer, but not so much that it came close to his father's.
"I know I look astonishingly gorgeous, mudblood," he said directly to Hermione, her older, portrait-self looking reproachful, "but honesty. Pick up your jaw from the floor and say the password."
"You're as egotistical and slimy as your actual person!" Hermione exclaimed and watched as Older Hermione clubbed Older Draco over the head with a book, causing him to have a bloody nose. Hermione snickers.
"And it seems your portrait-self is just as sadistic and violent as you," said a drawling voice directly behind Hermione. She glanced over her shoulder and up into his face.
"I'm the sadistic one?" Hermione asked, looking annoyed.
"Meteorum memoradius," the two said in unison and watched as the tapestry rolled up and allowed them entrance.
"Well, you do seem rather keen on giving me nosebleeds," Malfoy reminded.
"Only when you deserve them for being an arrogant prat!"
"Whatever you say, mudblood," he smirked, walking over and reclining on a couch. "Maybe I'll have Pansy over tonight."
Hermione gave a derisive scoff and retreated to her room. She set her bag down in an armchair in the corner. She went into the bathroom and started brushing her teeth. When she found her teeth were to her liking, vomit-free and such, she ran brush through her hair and went back into her room to change into her pajamas. She grabbed a book from her bookshelf, having finished the last one, and returned to the common and sitting in a crimson armchair, ignoring Draco as he watched her cross.
"No Pansy yet?" she asked, her nose still buried in the book. Draco chuckled.
"Not yet," he replied, smirking rather evilly. "I'm still contemplating my options. I could always have the ever lovely Mona Nightingale if I wanted."
"So her nickname is Mona, then? It's fitting, I'm sure," she said icily. The tone of her voice made Draco grimace. "So what are you waiting for?"
"Your jealousy is extremely evident in the way you speak, Granger," he drawled, running a hand through his blonde, gelled hair and tousling it ever so slightly.
"It shouldn't be since I'm not jealous, Malfoy," she replied, letting his name slip off her tongue as if it were a dirty curse word. "Now stop ogling me and do whatever you're planning on doing so that I may get on with my life. I must warn you, though, that aggravating me will only lead to yet another bloody nose." She closed her book, being careful not to lose her place, and held it up threateningly.
"Don't be irrational, Granger," he said, smirking at her playfully. "I was only joking. Honestly, I'd have thought that since you spend so much time with your boyfriends Potty and Weasel that you'd at least have a sense of humor. I mean, didn't they teach you anything?"
"Would you stop calling them my boyfriends, because they're not," she snapped back, slamming her book on the floor and getting to her feet. She stomped over to him and towered above him, looking like a maniac on the edge. "How would you know anyway? Your face is all too constantly between Pansy's legs. I'm surprised you manage to notice anything."
Draco's face twitched slightly and his smirk turned into a frown. He got to his feet as well, this time looming over Hermione and leaving her in his immense shadow. She didn't back down, however, or show any sign of fear. She kept eye contact at all times, though she did have to crane her neck slightly to look him in the face.
"If I were you, Granger," he began in a low, dangerous growl, "I wouldn't be smart for a Gryffindor, small and alone as you are, to insult someone like me."
"Or else what? You'll call your no good Death Eater daddy on me?" she taunted. "That's all you've ever been; the shadow of your father. You had to have him buy you onto the Quidditch team, you had to have him to make friends and get connections, and now what? You have to have him to fight your fights for you too? Why doesn't he just spoon feed you?"
With a sudden, sharp movement, Draco twirled Hermione around and pushed her roughly onto the couch on which he'd been lounging. She looked up at him like a deer in the headlights. He leaned in menacingly and glared at her, fire burning in his eyes.
"Watch your tongue, mudblood," he hissed, narrowing his eyes. "You don't know who you're dealing with and I don't you want to find out!"
Hermione gulped and watched as he drew back away from her. She lingered on his couch for a minute before gradually getting to her feet and picking her book up off the floor. She glanced his way with a wary eye before stumbling into her room. She closed the door behind her and slid down to the floor with a slightly relieved voice. Some part of her was telling her to be grateful since she had evaded the full blow of Malfoy's temper. She shoved her book away and sauntered over to her bed. She crawled up slowly and rested on the pillow, regaining her composure enough to make an enraged face and huff about previous events.
"Stupid, bloody prat," she growled to herself.
It wasn't much longer that Hermione heard someone enter through the tapestry hole. She rolled off her bed and tiptoed over to her door. She opened it ever so slightly so that she could see who it was. Through the sliver of open door, Hermione could see a flash of a bad blonde dye job and bad make-up.
"Hello there, Pansy," she whispered, getting a look around. Draco leaned over and whispered something in Pansy's ear, which made the Slytherin girl giggle overly exaggerated, take him by the hand, and lead him into his room where they began to partake in certain "activities."
Hermione slammed her door shut again, and Draco heard, smirking as he continued on with what he was doing. Hermione traipsed back over to her bed and plopped down, putting a silencing charm around her room and sighing at the sudden, very welcome silence. She rolled over onto her side and looked out the window. She gasped when she saw a pair of silvery-gray wings fluttering and a beautiful eagle owl knocking against her window, though she couldn't hear it. Hermione, once again, slid off her bed. She stumbled over to the window and threw it open, allowing the eagle to come in. She examined the owl closely before she recognized it.
"Oh, you're Malfoy's owl," she murmured and moved back over to her bed, making her way to the pillow once more. "Well, if it's unimportant mail, then Malfoy can wait, and if it is urgent, well boo hoo for ickle-Malfoy."
Hermione buried her face in her pillow and was about to fall asleep when she felt something pawing at her side. She swatted at it ("Not now, Crookshanks, I'll feed you in the morning.") but it persisted. After swatting at it several time, the pawing turning into raking and a set of talons tore into her arm. Hermione yelped and looked up. Draco's owl them pecked at her arm. Hermione looked at her arm and saw fresh blood pouring down onto the blanket. She cursed under her breath and grabbed the owl by its ankles, as much as she hated animal cruelty, and left her room. She cringed at the loud cries and moans from Pansy that emanated from Draco's rooms and filled the common room. Hermione pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, making her way over to his bedroom with the flustered owl. She grinned slyly, closed her eyes shut, threw the door open, and tossed the owl in. She lingered just long enough to hear Draco say, "It can wait until morning," which made her very Malfoy-ish smirk broaden.
She removed the Silencing charm from her room and jumped onto her bed to enjoy the screams of horror and pain that followed in little less than five minutes. Hermione peeked out her door just in time to see a naked Pansy, swathed in a black sheet, stumbling out the tapestry hole and a disheveled Draco appearing with a roll of parchment in his hand also completely naked. Hermione's cheeks turned bright red as she saw something she'd never expected to see in her life. She closed the door and buried her face in her hands in silent mortification. After a few minutes, however, she broke out into loud laughing and toppled onto her bed. Her laughter was cut off, though, when she heard Draco's do slam and a loud string of curses emit from his room, several of which seemed to be filled with anguish.
Hermione entered the bathroom, where the cussing became louder as she edged toward his door. She wasn't quite sure what was pushing her on but she felt a need to know what was happening. She stared at his door for a moment, almost as if daring it to open and expose her. She took in a deep breath and raised her hand to knock. 'I must have gone daft.' She knocked three times and cringed slightly at the loud "What!" she received as a reply.
She pushed the door open tentatively and looked in to find Draco crouching over his desk, scribbling something, his shoulders, bare as his chest was (he had put on some boxers to cover "all his glory"), quivering sever so slightly. When he heard the door open, he looked up and his eyes locked with Hermione's.
"What do you want, mudblood?" he snapped, wiping his eyes quickly.
That's when Hermione saw it. Draco's normally steely gray eyes were raw and full of emotion, giving off the characteristics of liquid silver. His face was not hard or contorted with sarcasm, though he did have a rather irritated look on his face. The one thing, however, which really made Hermione stop and take a closer look, was…
He had tears in his eyes.