CHAPTER 6: Draco's Visit
TUESDAY LAST PERIOD DOUBLE POTIONS:
Draco walked into the potions room to see fifth year Gryffindor and Slytherins working on what smelled like a debugging potion. Apparently Professor Sprout was out, or so Draco assumed anyway. Professor Mishka looked up as she heard the door and her heart fell into her stomach.
(Switch POV back to Mishka)
I looked up from my desk and there he was, what the hell is he doing here? The reunion isn't to be held for another week and a half he had no business being here. Remain calm Hermione and everything will be fine.
"Is there something I could do for you Mr. Malfoy?" I'm trying to be polite, in front of the students is not the place to berate him.
"Actually I was just doing rounds of Hogwarts; I'm newly appointed as one of the governors and am trying to stay on top of new goings on."
"Like checking on new professors?" I couldn't help but be sarcastic, he found out I was here and had to come snooping is what it was. I notice then that the students were no longer paying attention to their potions. "All of you back to work. Professor Sprout needs your potions and I will not have you ruin them." For a moment no one moved, "NOW! Kalila." I called my familiar to me, I always kept her close somehow I felt safer that way, "Watch over them sweet, if one of them strays you know what to do." I turn my attention back to Draco, "Would you like to go to my office?"
"Certainly, I'd love to have a chat." Oh I'm sure you would. I don't say it as much as my sarcastic side would love to. I give one last look at the class before I head for the office. I know with Kalila watching no one will move; a little trick I discovered my first week here. Put a dragon in the room and everyone follows directions perfectly.
"Now Mr. Malfoy is there a reason you are here?" I shut the door firmly behind him, it would do no good for the students to hear our conversation.
"Like I said before," I motion for him to sit, "I'm just checking on how you are settling in."
"Actually I believe you are here to see how your precious Slytherins are doing in my hands. Well let me inform you Mr. Malfoy if you have a problem with a former Gryffindor taking over as head of Slytherin House might I strongly suggest you take it up with the headmaster and the Sorting Hat. As it seems to have a notion I have Slytherin blood." I realize during my rant I've given Draco information he didn't have before, information that could lead him straight to the "true" me. He didn't know until this moment that I was raised in England and went to Hogwarts, and I already know he's fairly certain of my approximate age. I have no doubt it will only be a matter of time before he figures out who the bloody hell I am, and when that happens I'm screwed. He's not going to let me disappear again, but I know I can't go back, what happened then is over.
"If you would have let me continue, I have no problems with you running Slytherin, it seems they are actually doing quite well under your guidance. I was actually concerned about you and not knowing anyone. I know you have turned me down before…" I cut him off here, I know exactly where this is going. I stood abruptly, my palms flat against the desk as I stare directly at his eyes, my stance unwaivering.
"and I will continue to turn you down I have no interest in dating you not even for one drink or one dinner or what ever else you have in mind. Now Leave!" I point towards the door, he needs to leave and quickly, I wouldn't make it through dinner without crying. My heart loved him, but I'm not that girl anymore, I left that behind me, I will not go back, I can't. He can never know the whole truth, he can't know where the Slytherin blood comes from.
"I don't understand why you won't give me a chance." Damn stubborn ass why can't you listen for once? My eyes are guarded, but the look in his eyes, he's trying to find my secret, why I won't let him close. I have to end this, here and now.
"I have to get back to my class now, so if you don't mind." I motion for him to leave. I can hear Kalila's warning in my head, the students are getting antsy, time to return whether he leaves or not. I leave Draco in my office without saying a word, I can't let him rule my actions. I step back into the classroom and immediately draw the attention of my class.
"I'm certain that all of you should have completed your potions by now. Please bottle them and leave them in the center of your work stations." I nod towards Draco as he comes out of my office, "good day Mr. Malfoy."
"Good day Professor Mishka, till we meet again." I have a feeling he'll be back sooner rather than later. Damn him, why can't he leave well enough alone!
S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S&S
I sit alone in my office, classes are complete for the day, and Draco's visit stirred up more in me than just annoyance. It gets harder and harder to resist screaming out I love you every time I see him. I left him ten years ago because I wanted to protect him, and I accomplished that, but I also lost my love and my family.
&&&Flashback&&&
"Goddamn it Harry I fucking left him why do you have to be like this?"
"Because you fucked him Hermione, you befriended him and you fucked him. Our friendship meant nothing if you could go to a slim ball like that."
"He is NOT what you make him out to be, he isn't a bad person. I've seen every side of him there is Harry, the good and the bad."
"You don't know him, he murdered your family, he and his father and you want to sit there and say he isn't a bad person? How gullible are you going to be Hermione? Wake up and look at the big picture, he's scum and I'm going to show you just how much!"
Harry ran out the port hole in search of Malfoy with murder on his mind.
"Why can't you believe me Harry, he is a good person?" Hermione sobbed into her knees. "He would have made a good father too."
&&&End Flashback&&&
How I wish I could make them all understand, Draco was a good man, he still is, I just can't think of him like that because I would crumble. Dumbledore and Lupin wonder why I don't want to be Hermione anymore, it's because it never brought me anything but heartache. Lucius took my parents from me, Harry took Draco from me. Ron, hell he never had a back bone and couldn't pick his own damn side so of course he goes with Harry. Neither of them ever wanted to give Draco a chance, but I knew him, I saw him, all of him. Now he's back, and I don't know what to do.
"Damn it Draco, why did you have to come back, I was doing just fine without you, but then you don't know it's me do you."
"Who are you Mishka?" I heard McGonagall's voice from my office doorway. Great just what I needed, I hope beyond hope she didn't hear my comment.
"I am Mishka, Apothecary and Potions Mistress, nothing more, nothing less." I knew she wouldn't buy that, she was my head of house, I knew she would figure things out eventually.
"I know better, Dumbledore is meddling and I think it has something to do with you." McGonagall seated herself across from me, her eyes pensive; when you have hidden as much as I have, you learn to read those around you.
"Ah, good old Dumbledore," I had to laugh, he always knew more than was good for him, "why do you think he's meddling Professor?"
"Because he brought you back here a month before the reunion, then I had a rather interesting visit with Mr. Malfoy this afternoon. He seems to believe he has some kind of connection to you but then he's only known you for two months, so how is that possible?"
"I wouldn't know Minerva, Mr. Malfoy is a rather self indulgent person, he thinks the world revolves around him."
"I think you know better, but let me ask you this, Dumbledore mentioned something rather interesting to me, he said that you have Slytherin blood in you, or so the Sorting Hat says. Being a potions Mistress and an Apothecary you should know how this occurs, there are only two ways Mishka, which is it?"
"I know what you are implying Minerva and let me tell you you're wrong. That never happened."
"I know you were pregnant Hermione and I know that Draco was the father, that's where your Slytherin blood comes from; from the baby you lost. I'm not old yet, I still know what goes on around me." How the hell did she know, she can't know, only two people knew and I swore them to secrecy.
"I'm not Hermione, I'm not that girl!" I'm not giving in, I can't, it's too soon, don't make me run, because I will. Minerva lightly placed her hands on my shoulders. I never saw her move, I'm not sure how she ended up beside me, or when I sat back down.
"Stop running and stop lying Hermione, you are home now, with us here at Hogwarts. You don't have to pretend, you don't have to hide?" I can feel the tears forming in my eyes, I don't want to cry, I don't want to let go of the pain, it's what's kept me going.
"Yes I do, don't you see, I did all of this to protect him, and if I come back now Harry and Ron will find me, they'll take it out on Draco and I did not do all of this just to watch him die, I won't let that happen!" I was getting my resolve back, even as a few tears flowed freely down my cheeks. I know Harry and Ron have been looking for me, and I've hid my tracks well, I'm rather bright ya know. I know how those two boys think and they will blame my disappearance on Draco, I know deep down they already blame him, but they have no proof, and I will never give them any ammunition, I will never put my love in danger. "I can't put him in danger Minerva, I've come this far I won't stop now."
"I understand that, but you have to tell him Hermione," "Mishka" I correct, "Mishka, he forgave you years ago for disappearing he has looked for you and then when he found Mishka's he thought he might have found a link to you, he didn't know and still doesn't know that he actually found you. He still loves you, don't throw that away." It occurs to me then, that perhaps I should have talked to Minerva about this so long ago, maybe things would have been different; but I can't look back now, what's done is done.
"But he doesn't know the secret I kept from him, he doesn't know I was two and half months pregnant when I lost our baby, he doesn't know that, he doesn't know that Harry believes he killed my parents, he doesn't know that I still love him."
"Give him a chance."
"I can't, it's too risky."
"I'll let you decide Mishka, but don't wait too long, your hearts have been broken too long. Why not try to mend them." She had a point and I knew that, but I can't give in, I know what's at stake. I'll wait till the reunion and then see what happens. See if Harry and Ron recognize me and see what they do.
"I need to rest Minerva, I'm sorry, but this has taken its toll on me. Can we speak more, later perhaps."
"Of course, I shall see you at supper."
I close my office door and head towards my private chambers, I still don't know how she knew about the baby or how I was Hermione, but I have a feeling that sometimes you just recognize someone you know very well. It makes me wonder if Draco suspects who I really am, does he have his suspicions. I'm glad the reunion is only 10 days away, I'm not sure how long I can keep going like this with so many people knowing.