Hello! This is my favorite chapter so far. I think it is kind of funny. And there is some important information in here that leads up to chapter 6. Please review!!
Chapter 5 Among the Rafters
Hermione wasn't suprised when Draco told her that they should look through the attic this next weekend. She had been peacefully studying in the common room when he walked in hours later. She noted how his hair appeared to have been ruffled by feminine hands. She didn't envy those hands, but she inwardly cringed. He stopped near her table, and made a scene about checking what she was doing.
"What Malfoy, shouldn't you be using the attic while you still have the keys.?" She shot at him.
He made a mocked pain expression, and whistled low, "Damn Granger, you are one cynical little witch. Actually I just wanted to see if you want to finish with the attic next Saturday, because, as you know the weekend following that is the dance."
"Whatever Malfoy, just back off, I'll be there." With that she rose from her chair and gathered her belongings. She went directly to her room without sparing him so much as a backward glance. Malfoy stood planted and glared after her. He couldn't understand it. Here he as trying to make an effort to be decent to the little wench, when all she could do was turn her back on him. By his calculations she should be falling all over herself by now. Lord knows the rest of the female students were. So what if he had been mean to her for 6 years? He was Draco Malfoy. That should have been enough. But for some reason the thought sat uneasily with him. He continued to boost his own ego until he fell asleep.
Hermione sat up in bed playing with the broken locket. She had read that sometimes these things happened, and they all symbolized something. She couldn't put her finger on it. She wondered if this meant her dad had stopped loving her mom. Or that her mom had moved on to heaven. She sat there and stared for several minutes, trying to figure out the secret behind her shattered dream. Her thoughts returned to Malfoy, and she wondered what could have gotten into him to start asking personal questions. ' I can't even believe he pays that much attention to me. And Pansy?? For crying out loud she is the most obnoxious person I have ever met. Her voice is worse than nails on a chalk board.' These thoughts penetrated Hermione's mind until she nodded off to sleep.
A week sped by, and when Saturday rolled around she gave an inward groan, knowing that again she must ascend to the highest towers, and be locked away with all the decay, and Malfoy. She hoisted herself out of bed, and made no attempt to fix her appearance. She threw on the same outfit she wore on their last excursion, and then continued to the great hall. She was very early, and only a few students were milling around. She filled her bag with some food, and then continued back up to her dorm. She didn't want to waste more of the sunshine then she had to. She was looking forward to a walk on the grounds after this was all done.
She entered the common room and looked around for any sign of Draco. The room was vacant. She decided the best thing to do would be to try and wake him up, if indeed he had even made it to his bed that night. She walked over to the male Celtic warrior and made a loud cough. The statue raised his eyebrows, and puffed out his chest.
'Password" he grumbled, in a thick accent.
"Um... ferret..." Hermione giggled but the statue looked anything but amused.
"No Password, No Entrance" the statue said.
"I know, but Malfoy and I have to work on a project today, and well, you see, I wanted to get an early start, so I could do other things, and this is just so terribly inconvenient."
"You think you know bad? Try being woken up at all hours of the night." he grumbled.
"Please sir, may I have the password?"
"Not allowed." he said shaking his head.
Another voice spoke from across the room. "Give her the password love, she deserves it." Hermione recognized the soft spoken voice of her own warrior, and turned around with a brilliant smile for her.
"Alright, the password is Persephone, but you are going to tell him that he left the passage open, I doubt he would remember."
Hermione repeated the password, and gave the statue a warm smile. He slid slowly to the right, and let her pass. Hermione nearly choked when she entered Draco's chambers. All the curtains were drawn over the great windows, and it seemed stifling hot and musty in the room. She noticed the gentle rise and fall of Draco's chest beneath the blankets. She walked to the bedside, and decided on a very direct approach.
"Draco, get your lazy ass up!" she screamed, shaking him violently. Draco's eyes flew open and a look of alarm flickered across his face. When he finally focused he saw Hermione doing a very good impression of his famous smirk.
"What the hell was that for?" he snarled, rubbing his eyes.
"Unlike you Mr. Malfoy, I have a life, and I don't really feel like spending my entire Saturday up to my knees in dust. Now get up, we are leaving." she stated matter of factly. She turned around to go when she heard the springs of his mattress give way, indicating he was up. She turned slightly around to look at him, and gasped at what she saw. He sat at the edge of his bed completely nude. Hermione only looked for a split second, and then turned beet red. She rushed out of the room and threw herself on a sofa, praying Draco didn't notice her faux pas.
Draco smiled to himself. 'paybacks are a bitch huh Hermione?' He knew he would never be rudely awakened again, because he was sure she would rather die then see a naked man. 'My god, she really is the biggest prude I have ever met.'
With that he got out of bed and threw some clothes on. When he descended from his chamber 15 minutes later Hermione was nervously pacing the room. 'Today is the day Hermione, today I will find out that little secret you've been keeping from me.'
The two arrived at the large wooden door, and Draco was first to grab for the knob. They walked in silence all the way to the storage room, and after locating the key the two entered in silence. They hadn't spoken one word since his little display this morning. He knew Hermione was mortified. He decided if he was going to get anywhere however, he would need to start off by being nice. He noticed her munching on a biscuit, and decided that would be the route to take.
"Give me one of those." He stated motioning toward her breakfast.
"No, this is mine you jerk."
"From the looks of it you don't need any more fatty." he countered chuckling to himself.
"Chew on this you ferret," she said, lobbing a large petrified toad at his head.
"Oh really!" he screamed dodging the aerial assault. He quickly grabbed the nearest thing he could find, an old stuffed owl and chucked it her direction. She let out a high pitched squeal, and rolled from beneath it.
"Friend of the family, Malfoy?" She asked as she hurled a stuffed rat at him.
"Looks a lot like a Weasly doesn't it?" He laughed. By the end of their assault the two were clutching their sides and laughing desperately. Not really at what the other said, but none the less with each other.
"What in the bloody hell were they doing stuffing all of these animals. Did they have a weird fixation with their pets or something?" Draco laughed.
"I don't know, maybe it was for some kind of class." Hermione added a bit more seriously. After all the laughter died the two got down to business, with a bit of a lighter heart. After about 10 minutes Hermione yelled "Malfoy!" and right as he looked up she hit him square in the face with a biscuit. He caught it and threw her a lopsided grin.
"This your idea of a diet mudblood?" he asked. Hermione just glared and continued her work. Deep down Draco was thankful for the biscuit, he was starved, and for some reason he was actually almost having a little bit of fun with Granger. Almost...
"So, Um, how was your summer?" he asked, trying to break the ice. Hermione eyed him suspiciously. "Oh come on, I'm bored, just talk." he begged.
"It was terrible, I would really rather not talk about it."
"Yeah, mine sucked too." he said
"Oh what, only toured half the continent?" she asked bitterly. What the hell did a Malfoy know about suffering.
"No, actually, my mother left to visit family in the south of France, and I was left at home with my tyrannical father." Draco reasoned that if he wanted Hermione to open up, he would have to give a little first.
"Aren't you and your dad like two peas in a pod?" She asked after a moment of deliberation.
"We used to be," Draco replied after a moment of hesitation. He didn't really want to open up to anyone this much, especially not Hermione. But then he remembered the gowns. Hermione was careful with anything, not matter how much she loathed it. Maybe she would be careful with his pride. She didn't reply, and he decided he could go on. " Then last year, he started up with all of his Death Eater crap, and how I was the future of the Dark Arts. After all my resisting things just got bad" Draco sort of whispered the last part, and after a few moments looked up to meet the searching gaze of Hermione.
Hermione didn't know if he was telling the truth or not. She had thought of Draco as the future Death Eater of the world. She couldn't really believe that his father had to force him into his dark ways. But then she suddenly realized that she had never given him a chance. She never knew him. She decided to take the risk.
"You mean, you don't want to be a death eater?"
"No, not at all, but, I guess it is my heritage, look at the destruction our father's leave us. We can either clean it up, or join in." Hermione stayed still for a moment. A part of her wanted to pick up the petrified cat and hurl it at his big stupid Malfoy head, but another part of her wanted to believe him. There was no way she could be certain.
Draco glanced over at Hermione and could see the doubt cross her face. He didn't really care if she believed him. Did he? The thought angered him, and he spat, "Whatever, just forget it. I wouldn't expect someone with a perfect little family to understand anything that goes on outside of it."
After several tense minutes of silence Hermione decided to speak against her better judgment. Her voice was very quiet, and Draco had to strain to hear her. "I would understand Draco, I don't have a perfect little family anymore. At the beginning of this summer my family got into a car wreck. I watched my mother die. After that my dad sort of went off the deep end, and I wrote a letter to Dumbledore explaining to him why I wouldn't be returning to Hogwart's. My dad couldn't go back to work in his condition, so I took on two jobs. But, luckily I guess, my dad sort of snapped out of it, and went back to work. He was the one who forced me onto the train. It was a hard decision, but I did it." The tears, they fell like rain. Silent rain.
Draco stared at Hermione, and suddenly felt ashamed of himself for almost making a wager that he would find out what was up with her today. The feeling was new to him, and he squirmed uncomfortably. He made people cry all the time, but, he never actually cared. Maybe because this was the first time he had ever opened up, and received trust as his reward. He was never good at comforting his mother, so he decided remaining silent was the best plan.
After a few minutes Hermione regained her composure. She was genuinely shocked that she had opened up to anyone, especially Malfoy, she hadn't even told Harry and Ron about her letter to Dumbledore. But then she reasoned that she had to make Malfoy understand that he is not the only one who faces tough choices.
The two continued to dig through piles of old debris, and discarded animals. After a few hours, and a few comments they decided they were done. Draco had spent the time deliberating what Hermione had said. She too had experienced a great loss. He never thought that was possible. He continued to turn over the realization in his mind. There was only one thing left to ask.
"That locket had a picture of your parents in it didn't it?" He ventured.
She looked up at him a minute, and then shrugged, as if telling herself that there was no use lying. "Yeah, they gave it to me when I got my acceptance letter from Hogwarts. It used to be my mother's. She loved it very much. I keep it under my pillow." With that she stood up and dusted off her jeans.
"And there's no way to fix it?" he asked, seeming truly curious.
"Not that I have found, and none of the professors know how to fix jewelry." With that the two again loaded up their arms and trudged back down to their dorm. They both went to their rooms without so much as a goodnight, and they both spent a fair amount of time digesting what the other had said today. They knew this didn't change anything, they weren't friends. Hell, they didn't even really like each other, but for some reason a new respect formed out of the days events.