Compromises

Claire Weaver

I always got what I wanted. My parents always said I was a princess… and my wish was their desire. I was a spoiled brat, and it showed.

I wanted Draco Malfoy.

That bitch Hermione Granger was a terrible person. She acted like she was my friend and then she stabbed me in the back. So she would pay eventually, too. But I wanted to accomplish my first goal before I dealt with her.

I knew they had brought wands with them. I saw Hermione carefully hide the one she had (I wasn't sure if it was hers or not) under her bed in the wooden crate everyone got to keep their belongings in. She wrapped it carefully in a cloth napkin she stole from the kitchen. She didn't know I was in the room, so I hid under someone else's bed until she left.

And then I took it. I knew it would come in handy sometime or another, so I grabbed it when I had the perfect chance.

And my chance to use it finally came when I saw Draco alone for once. I hexed him, making his memory leave him for a moment, and I dragged him off into the brush. When his memory returned, he found me on top of him, kissing him.

"What the hell?" he muttered, forcing me off of him.

I pouted. "Claire…" he warned dangerously.

"What?" I fluttered my eyelashes.

"You're not strong enough to drag me over here like that," he said, realizing something was going on. "What did you do?"

I pulled the wand from my sleeve. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"From under Granger's bed," I told him.

He grabbed it away from me. "Well, it's my father's."

"Why don't you like me?" I demanded.

"Claire, it's not that I don't like you… it's just that I don't like you like that."

"Right," I snorted. "That's what they all say."

"Look," he said, losing his cool, "you're sort of annoying, okay? Like what you just did... kissing me like that… that's way uncool. It sort of freaked me out when you started acting so bold. I'm used to subtlety."

It was a lie and I knew it. I'd seen girls throw themselves at him and he gladly used them for what they were worth.

"It's my age, isn't it?" I asked slowly.

"Age is but a number," he said, shrugging.

"Then it's my looks!" I continued. "I'm not pretty enough for you; is that it?"

"Would you stop?" he asked angrily. "I'm tired of all of this!"

He got up and left, leaving me alone on the dirty ground.

----

"Can I have your attention, everyone?" Ben asked. We were eating dinner, and he had an important announcement.

"It is time once again to make the twice a year trip to the fields several miles from here."

We all started chattering anxiously. Well, those of us who had been here for the longest did, anyway. The newcomers were confused.

Blaise explained, "Two people make this trip twice a year. At the fields, there are a group of muggles who understand a little about our predicament and they give us some supplies."

I could see the newcomers think, that's where they get the farm animals, dishware, bedding, clothing, and all of that other stuff. They probably believed the legend about shrinking things before leaving Hogwarts. That got started because people didn't want to admit they went off to muggles for help.

"This time, Ben and I decided that we would like two newcomers to take the trip," they all looked interested. "The way it works is that Ben chooses one person, and I choose the other. We write it down on a piece of paper, don't show each other, and we'll reveal them now."

Blaise held up a piece of paper that read, "Draco Malfoy." My heart rate sped up. Please, let Ben choose me. It totally slipped my mind that I was not a newcomer. I'd been there for a few months.

"Hermione Granger," read Ben's paper.

They looked at each other blankly. I noticed Ginny's sly smile, Ron's look of anger, and Neville's look of disgust. I was heartbroken.

Hermione Granger

"Now remember," Blaise continued, rolling the large cart over to us, "the muggles only know that we're a protest group. We're running away in opposition to the government. The muggles we found are very liberal… they like the fact that we're rebelling."

"So they don't know about magic?" I asked, making sure.

"That's right," Ben said. "Now, you can take this cart with you to put everything on. They know what to expect, the muggles, so they'll help you load this up."

I nodded, and Malfoy did the same.

----

"Asking help from muggles," Malfoy scoffed, "they must really be desperate."

"Oh come off it," I snapped, pushing the cart along. "Let's talk about something else."

"Like what?" he asked, obviously bored.

"I don't know," I muttered, struggling with the cart. "I thought you said Malfoys were chivalrous!"

"Who said I was a Malfoy?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Can you just take the cart?" I asked.

"Fine," he pushed it along ahead of him. I envied the way he made it look so simple.

There was a long silence.

"Why did you kiss me?" he asked randomly, making me flinch.

"What?" I asked, caught completely off guard.

"I mean, why did you do it, Granger?"

Why did I do it? Truth be told, I wasn't sure. "I… I don't know."

"Is that a lie?" he asked, torturing me for all the truth, lies, and honesty questions.

"I… maybe…" I admitted. "Look, I like you, okay!" I spat. "I really do, and I just… it's slowly eating me away because I know, I know, it's wrong to feel like that about you, but I can't help it!"

"Look, no one said it was wrong—"

"Everyone says it's wrong!" I said, letting all of my frustration and anger pour into my words. "Ginny, Ron, Neville… even Blaise in his subtle way!"

"I don't think it's wrong," he said quietly.

"You… you don't?" I stuttered.

He laughed. "I never thought I'd see you act this way, Granger," he mused, "especially not towards me."

"Why do you have to call me Granger all the time, huh?" I asked. "Especially now that we've confirmed that we're both secretly in love with each other and there's nothing we can do but leave it that way."

"Love?" he asked, "who said anything about love? Love's a strong word, Granger, and I don't use it lightly."

I felt embarrassed.

"No matter," he pressed on, "I quite like Granger. I think it suits you."

"And impossible git seems to suit you," I scoffed.

"Okay, okay," he said slowly. "I do like you, Hermione, honestly. But you're right… everyone makes it seem wrong. Everyone says we should hate each other."

"So it's a secret, then?" I asked, not liking the idea. "All of this… all of this… has to be our secret?"

"I suppose," he said. "Though people will find out eventually, you know."

"I know," I said, not wanting to think about that day. I wanted to pretend that liking Draco was acceptable… that it wasn't wrong.

----

The smoke from the fires rivaled that of The Blaze's. But this smoke was rising from chimneys, not the ground. We'd reached the muggle town, and I was shocked that by only one day's worth of traveling, we'd found civilization.

We went up to the first house on the left and knocked three times, as Blaise and Ben instructed.

"Hello, welcome!" a friendly woman opened the door. "Come in, come in!"

Draco and I looked at each other and then went inside.

"You must be hungry," she said, "help yourselves."

I noticed she was an older woman… maybe 40 or so…. but she seemed very young and energetic. Her name was Betty, she told us.

We ate the bread she had on the table shamelessly. We'd walked for an entire day, not stopping to rest or eat. "Thank you," I said, wiping the crumbs from my skirt.

"I've prepared the boxes for you," she said. "We can load them now and you can stay for a while to get your strength up."

After we loaded the boxes onto the cart and secured them down, Betty invited us back into her home.

"So, how's the war going?" she asked over tea.

Draco and I exchanged glances. We didn't know what she knew, exactly, so we didn't want to tell her too much.

"Oh, I see," she said, putting her teacup on its saucer with a small clink. "You don't think I know all about what you're going through, do you?"

"Well, we're just not sure what you've been told…" Draco said.

"I know you're magical people," she said, surprising us both.

"Blaise said…" I started.

"That Zabini!" she exclaimed. "He wants things to be quick and useful… no time should be wasted talking with Betty!"

"So you… you know about everything…" I asked hesitantly.

"I'm a witch myself, you know," she said with a smile.

"Oh?" Draco and I asked at the same time.

"That's right… I ran away, too," she admitted. "Only I didn't want to live in the woods like some creature. I decided to move to the rural muggle towns… to be one of them… and no one's found me since."

"When did you run away?" I asked.

"When I was around your age. Seventeen, in fact. I ran with, well, the only one who's still alive is Ben. He was my boyfriend," she said, looking off into the distance. "And I thought we'd have a wonderful life together out in this new camp we were going to build. But Ben insisted that we make things from scratch… the whole journey from Hogwarts was bad enough, but then he had to go and expect us to build things! So I ran away and found this place. I was shocked at how close it was to The Blaze, so I went back and told them all that I was going to rent a room until I could afford a place of my own. It took me five years before I could even pay the rent in full. And it took another five—and a promotion—before I could get my own home. And all the while, I was getting things for The Blaze to use. I was delivering it every so often, but we came up with the current system instead."

We were both shocked. "Why keep all of this a secret?" I asked.

"I don't know…" she said. "There's no good reason, I suppose."

"Well, we probably should get back," I said.

"I suppose," she said, sounding a little sad to see us go. "Next trip will be for the animals. Don't volunteer to go."

"Animals?" Draco asked.

"One pregnant cow, three hens, one rooster, and a goat," she said.

"Oh my," I said, realizing where our eggs, milk, and cheese came from. And also our meat.

"Well let's get back," Draco said. "We've got a day's trip ahead of us."

Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews! Next Chapter Spoiler: It's got romance in it… and anger… and surprises. This story is coming to a close, actually… I know it seems almost plot-less, but trust me, the finale is where a lot of new things come in to play. Spoiler for that coming soon.