Chapter Two: Dreamy Encounters
"Just a couple of students. It was my mistake, but they were doing something to the Slytherin bleachers so I had to fix it after they left." The words echoed in her head as Hermione bade Viktor good night. It was his last day before leaving and she promised him that she would spend some time with him before Harry left the infirmary.
"Her-own-ninny, vhy are you so silent?" Viktor asked her after a few minutes of silence.
"What?" Hermione snapped back into reality. "Oh, nothing, sorry. I guess I was just spacing out. After all, Harry is one of my best friends and he just went through. I'm sorry." In truth, she was wondering why she had not told anyone about the night at the Yule Ball.
"Shh," Viktor cupped Hermione's chin with his hand and looked into her chocolate brown and hazel eyes. "Don't keep apologizing if you have done nothing." Hermione smiled at him. Other than Ron or Harry, Viktor was the only guy that she ever felt truly comfortable around. The only guy she truly spoke and opened up to, only this was more than with Ron or Harry, though it did not feel so different.
"Oh, Viktor" Hermione sighed, "I still can't believe that you're leaving."
"I asked you if you wanted to spend a few veeks of your summer vith me. I asked my coach and he will be letting me take six veeks off of training, but only if you say yes. That is the only vay I vill." Viktor took Hermione's hands into his own and searched his eyes. Over the past few months a bond had formed between the two, but Hermione was afraid to allow it to progress too far. She felt s strong feeling for him, but was unsure if it was any more than a 'still good friends' break-up feeling, no matter how much she liked it. "I vill not make my decision until you make yours."
"Viktor, I told you, after all that has happened, I don't thin-" Hermione began.
"I vill not take that as an excuse. Even at the Yule Ball, you do not think I can take care of myself. I vill be okay." He sighed before letting out a small laugh. "Is not the man supposed to do the protecting?"
Hermione smiled. "I'm sorry, Mr. Krum. I did not realize that the year was 1805. I must have been dreaming that it was the new millennium."
"Herm-own-ninny, oh how I will miss you if you do not say yes."
"Well then you will have to miss me." Tears formed in Hermione's eyes.
"But-" Hermione kissed Viktor before he could finish what he was saying. "Vhy must you do that every time you vant me to shut up?" She kissed him again. "Not even one veek?"
Hermione looked at Viktor's pleading eyes. He had been the first to fall. He cared more deeply for her than any other boy ever had.
"I'll see" Hermione answered quietly. Truth be known, she wanted to scream it rather than whisper, but she was afraid that it would blind her if she tried to imagine this as anything more until she was positive.
The two began to kiss. Hermione felt a swirling sensation and opened her eyes. She looked around the large garden. No one ever seemed to go back there. The place was just as it was during the Yule ball. Easily hidable, secretive, and beautiful. There was a certain spot that Hermione always loved to go to. It was a small hedge maze, similar to the maze from the third task from her fourth year. Harry and Ron were in the common room, finishing their potions essays due tomorrow. Hermione enjoyed these little moments she had to herself. The boys thought that she was in the library, reading. This gave her as much time as she wanted, well, until eleven.
Hermione began to hum as she rounded one of the corners, but came to a halt when she heard hushed voices. She immediately stopped all noise and pressed her body quietly up against the hedges as she tried to hear what the people were saying. Ever since the Yule Ball last year, she was always on the lookout for something.
"Pansy, are you sure?" Hermione heard.
"Blaise, this is exactly what he told me. Didn't you say that he told you what it said?" Pansy sighed.
"Nah, I lied. He also told me to fuck off and, if I did not mis-hear, he told me to put my fucking nose up where the fuck it is my fucking business. Give or take a fuck." Hermione was astonished that she was hearing of Malfoy cursing out a fellow Slytherin. "But that's besides the point. The house depends on its leader and its leader depends on his line and power. We must know what he is hiding. What the letter was about."
"I know that," Pansy hissed, "but until he talks, no one knows. No one even knows about this. Now listen, I happen to know, though, that it has to do with Granger. After the Yule Ball when he got back to the dungeons he was muttering something about her."
"Well his great grandpa or something had some kind of relation with Granger's great aunt or something." Blaise said casually. Hermione bit her lip.
'Great aunt Clarice?' Hermione thought. She had found out this summer that her great-great-aunt, had a bad encounter with the magical world when she was about Hermione's age in the early twenties.
"Oh, yeah Blaise, that's nothing. It's totally something that you don't even think of telling me! Like it nothing to do with anything!" Pansy almost yelled.
"What? What I heard was that this guy cursed some lady she's related to in 1922. Something about a lover or something." He said without second thought.
"Okay, Blaise, something you should know about this whole thing is that anything you know, anything, you tell me." Pansy said in a stern voice. "Understand? Good. Another thing is that anything you can find out, any connection, you tell me."
Hermione could not believe what she was hearing.
"Shh, I hear someone coming." Pansy whispered. Hermione got scared, thinking that they had heard her, but she then heard footsteps coming from beside her.
Hermione tapped herself on her head and soon felt as though an egg had cracked over it. She looked down at her hand and saw that the Disillusion Charm Lupin had taught her had worked.
"Shit, I think it's Draco!" Blaise whispered.
Hermione heard the two Slytherins run in the opposite direction. She turned towards Malfoy and saw that he was shaking as he nervously walked towards her. He didn't seem to have seen Hermione from the distance. He was apparently focused on a piece of parchment in his hands.
As Malfoy neared closer, Hermione's need to know what was going on grew stronger. He rounded the corner past Hermione, not noticing the invisible blob that was the last person he wanted to see. He sat down and fumbled with the parchment as Hermione quietly walked behind him and hid in the small shadow behind the tree to Malfoy's right.
"Now or never," she heard him mumble as he fumbled with the seal. Hermione leaned over to try to read over his shoulder, but had trouble making out most of the words.
Son
Your loyalties are ……………...… The Dark Lord shall…………..….. In due time……………………………….. mudblood should have to wait ………………………… not to be known ………………… Azkaban …………. your future ………….……….. moment in your life ……..………. most important time……………….…………. the curse of ..…………………..…………. not to be in this letter, but ………………………………………………. Ignatius and Clarice …………….. unknown bond ………….……………….. no one ……………..………. to be left unknown ……………….…………….. not known ……………..………. investigation …………….…………… your future ……………….……… clouded judgement ………………….……………….. unbreakable and unavoidable unless ……………………….. love. How despicable! ……………………..…. and spit on the thought ……………….…….. Do not think or worry about ………..………….. drawn attention ……………………….. unnecessary ………………….…… added stress ……...……...…. your future …………………………….. your life! If ... fail...consequences. Consequences beyond ... human ... Death ………………………………………... downfall! ………………………… doestroy ………………………………………………….. destroyed in the fire ………………….. following generation …………… reincarnated ……………………. only if ……...…… mudblood …………...… illy of …………………………………………………………….. newfound curiosity ………………… very disturbing ……………...… stop or …………...….. suspicions! Do you wish …………………………………… follow the ……...…………. hide ………...…….. horrible past …………………. tainted heritage …………………………………………. unknown to all ……………… Granger girl …………………. bushy, mudblood head out …..………...… stay ignorant …………………………. Try to break the bond before …………….. and it is too late.
Your Father
Lucius
Hermione tried to read more, but the handwriting was almost illegible. She could not believe, though, what she was able to read, though she was even more curious as to what she couldn't.
Suddenly, Hermione saw Malfoy begin to shake again, more furiously than before. Hermioine could not help but feel sorry for him, after all, he read the whole note. The note that had her name in it. And her relative's. The note mentioned a curse. The curse. The one thing that haunted her dreams more than the day she, Ron and Harry would be in the battle against Voldemort and his followers.
"Why?" She suddenly heard Malfoy cry. Only, he didn't cry as in scream it. He cried it as if he was actually crying, with tears. "Why the fuck me?" He crumpled up the parchment and threw it. He put his face in his hands and began to shake his head.
Hermione could not help it, but she took the charm off as she stepped forward, picking up the parchment at her feet. "Malfoy?" She asked quietly, uncrumbling the paper as she stood behind him quietly. "Are you okay?"
To her surprise, he didn't move, he just sat there, taking his face out of his hands and looked ahead. His face was blank, as though he was mentally hiding himself from the world so that no emotion or thought would be able to be detected.
Hermione took a few steps around the bench and kneeled down in front of Malfoy. She looked up into his steel blue eyes. She tried to search them for something, anything. He saw what she was doing and turned his head away.
"What do you want?" He asked. His voice was hard, stern, yet still distant.
"Mal-Draco, do you remember last year at the Yule Ball, I told you that I would help anyone who needed it." Her voice was soft as she tried to get him to look at her as she asked her question, but refused to be forceful or aggressive. "What I meant was, I know I may not be Pansy, or some pureblood Slytherin, but if you haven't noticed, there haven't been any rumors of the Great Draco Malfoy saving Mudblood Granger, or anyone asking about Ignatius," His eyes flickered at the mention of his good-for-nothing great-great grandfather. "but if you were to ask about Clarice, or anything-"
"I do not need your help. I know what I need to know." De interrupted sternly.
"Listen" Hermione demanded sternly as she rose up nigh enough to look Malfoy in the eye, "I don't know what your problem with you is. I try to be nice when you obviously don't have anyone else to talk to. I am now for the third time trying to be your friend. Could you at least give me an excuse not to even say a civil word to me?"
"B-"
"Other than blood."
"Listen, Granger," Malfoy stood up quickly and looked down at the bushy haired girl he refused to befriend, "I can't befriend you, and I certainly do not want to, so you might as well give up."
"Well, see, here's the annoying thing about Gryffindors," Hermione slowly stood up and looked down into Malfoy's eyes, "we don't know the meaning of the words. 'Give up' is not in our vocabulary."
"Don't make jokes Granger," he spit at her. "this is a little more than I'm sure your little mudblood brain can comprehend."
"Don't call me that," Hermione whipped out her wand and aimed it over her head at Malfoy's face. "ever."
"You wouldn't dare, Mud. Blood."
"Petrificus Totalus!" Hermione called out. Malfoy's body suddenly could not move. His arms were pinned to his sides and his legs were stuck together. "So here we are again," she whispered quietly. "We both know that I don't want to be a bitch, but can you just please for once try to actually talk? I know a spell that will un-petrify your head. Now you can use it to talk, or scream for help, because I am in a very good mood." She quietly said the spell.
"What do you want with me mudblood?" Malfoy said, accepting his defeat, and letting it be known.
"Just to know why you are so upset. Believe it or not, but I actually care and I can tell that you need to tell someone."
"Well you aren't exactly my first choice."
"I know. But I also know someone who you can talk to, that is, if you want to." Hermione meant the one person who would not only listen, but not tell a soul.
"What do you mean?" Malfoy sounded interested, though he tried to hide it.
"Be in the prefect's toilet tomorrow morning during breakfast. She'll be there." Hermione knew exactly what she was going to do..
The two looked at each other, each trying to read the other's face.
"I want to try you" Malfoy finally said. It had been a while since anyone had said anything. His voice had a drip of hopefulness.
"What?" Hermione was taken aback.
"I think I want to take you up." Hermione could tell that he was hesitant, but trying to hide a smile. "but only to be sure that I can trust your friend." He finished quickly.
Hermione smiled as she closed her eyes and lifted her wand to un-petrify Draco so that they could sit on the bench.
When she opened her eyes, she pulled her cloak closer to her. It was the beginning of spring, but the day was chilly. She looked around for Draco. Over the past few weeks when they spoke something broke between them. It was the barrier separating them.
Suddenly, she saw him walking towards her from the distance and something inside of her jumped. Theirs' wasn't a friendship like she had with Harry and Ron, but it wasn't like the one she had with Viktor either. They spoke about everything they could. From Draco to school, to muggles and muggle society. The two even did homework together sometimes. Draco, though, still had not opened up to Hermione fully. The deepest he ever got about himself was telling her that his family was never close and that he has been forced into being a straight A student since he was a child.
"Drake!" Hermione quietly called out. The two decided that it was still too soon to be calling each other by their first names, but they should not be still on the last-name basis. The two gave each other names similar to their first names to call each other in secret.
"Mye!" Draco whisper-called back. He rushed over to Hermione, and pulled her slowly into the hedges.
Hermione was about to ask him what was going on, but she suddenly heard footsteps from outside the hedges.
"Pansy, I still don't see why we have to come all the way out here to talk. It's not like anyone's at the pitch or somewhere I wouldn't be humiliated being caught in." Hermione heard Blaise almost whine.
"Listen Blaise," Pansy replied sternly, "Draco has been disappearing for hours at a time lately and we need to know why. I've checked the library, kitchens, that stupid room his father told him about, he's never anywhere."
"Well maybe he's off getting some" Blaise mumbled.
"Oh shut up Blaise! Draco is our friend and if he's doing something that we don't know about, then it is big and we must find out what it is."
"I am going to tell you for the millionth time, if we don't know about it it's probably because it isn't important. Why the hell else wouldn't he tell us unless it would just be a waste of time? Think about it!"
"Ever since we were little kids, Draco has told me not only everything, but everything. He tells me every single solitary thing he does and when he does it. He even tells me when he's going 'skirt chasing', which I don't truly appreciate." Pansy sighed. "Besides, we need to help him out with next year if he wants to succeed, but first we need to know what the hell he's doing! Not even to succeed, but to survive."
"Okay, Pansy, I want to gooo. So I am going to go to the kitchens, nick some food, and do McGonagall's thirteen inch essay. She's going to give me detention until we graduate if I miss one more homework." Blaise said. Hermione saw his shadow turn and walk away, but Pansy's lingered for a few minutes.
When she finally left, Draco took Hermione by the hand and began to lead her over to their usual bench.
"Um, Mye-" Draco slowly began. He didn't know what to say. What if she wanted to know what his moronic friends were talking about with the whole surviving next year thing.
"No, it's okay. You don't have to explain." Draco smiled at this. She was always so understanding. It had taken him a while to trust her and actually feel comfortable, but he could tell that she had cared from the very beginning and only had his best intentions at heart.
"Thank-you." Today was the day Draco had been hoping to tell Hermione the truth. The true reason why he took up her offer and actually stuck to it. "Um, listen, I have to tell you the truth. The real reason why I actually took you up on this was so that I could get something on Potter and Weasley or something. I thought you were being a psycho-bitch bent on being the only one anyone was allowed to talk to, who everyone had to tell everything to." Hermione turned away. She knew she had accidentally come off as that, and was grateful that he was saying this. "I wanted to say, though, um," he was getting a little nervous as he put his hand in his pocket, "I want to call you Hermione." He took his fist out of his pocket and took Hermione's hand. "I, um, I made this for you." He put a small pink and green charm bracelet around her wrist.
Hermione looked at her wrist. The bracelet was a simple charm bracelet. Every other link was one of her two favorite colors. There were three simple charms on three links next to each other. One of them was a tiny gold star. The next one was a silver lion. And the third charm was a purple flower. The whole thing reminded Hermione of he favorite show 'One Tree Hill' when Nathan gave Hayley a bracelet even though he and her best friend hated each others' guts.
"Thank you" Hermione smiled. She didn't take her eyes off of the bracelet. "You really made this?"
"Well, I transfigured it out of a bracelet made out of laced flowers" Draco blushed.
"Did I just hear the Draco Malfoy made a bracelet out of flowers?" Hermione could not believe what she was hearing.
"Well don't go spreading it around. Besides, you said you appreciated hand made gifts more than storebought, and the stupid buggers wouldnt stay together so..." His face now matched the Weasleys' hair as he trailed off, trying to explain himself.
Hermione then did something she never would have imagined doing and kissed Draco Malfoy. The kiss was on the cheek, but they both knew that this meant that they were friends. Draco had never had a friend like Hermione. He didn't need to open up to her, though that was how it was with Blaise and Pansy, but it was like he didn't need to for her to know him or understand. He never had to explain anything. She was smart, beautiful, understanding, and all around perfect.
"Haha, don't worry Draco, your secret's safe with me" Hermione giggled at the color of his face.
"Um, I had something else I wanted to say" Hermione looked at her friend, wow, it still felt weird to think that. "Well, I um, I wanted to tell you that I like talking to you. And I like hanging out with you. And, well, Hermione, I just want to thank you for giving me a chance," he looked slyly at her pink face, "not that you have me a choice." Hermione giggled some more and slapped him playfully on the arm.
Hermione closed her eyes and felt the wind play on her face. The breeze blew her hair behind her and pressed lightly against her body, making her feel like she was flying.
She opened her eyes and looked up at the stars. Draco was late, later than usual. The night sky was so beautiful.
"Hermione!" she finally heard. She turned around and off in the distance finally saw the boy she had been waiting for.
He turned his walk into a trot until he was feet away from her and SLAP
"What the bloody hell was that for Hermione!" Draco tried to control his temper as the petit girl backed away from him angrily.
"That the hell do you mean what the hell was that for!" She could barely contain herself. "I almost DIED! Ron, Neville, Luna, Ginny, Harry, and everyone else at the Ministry days ago! What the fuck! And not only did we almost die, but Sirius actually, not almost, but ACTUALLY died!" Hermione shoved Draco to the ground.
"Well what the bloody hell does that have to do with me?" He yelled at her.
Hermione calmed down and turned away from the silver-haired boy ahead of her. "Listen, I don't think it's a good idea to keep doing this." She was using all of her strength not to cry.
"No!" Draco jumped up. She could yell at him. She could hurt him. She could even hex him to oblivion, but she could not stop being his friend.
"Draco!" she turned around, He saw the tears that were falling down her face. "Because of you, Umbrige found us! She found the DA! I had to fight you and your cronies to even leave a damn room! We had to hurt you all to do what was right! Draco, this friendship, I don't know what would have happened and had I not been fist fighting with Zabini, I would have had to fight you. I can't do this any more." She dropped her head and stared at her feet as she put her hands on her hips. This was one of the hardest things she'd ever have to do. "Myrtle will be in the prefects bathroom tomorrow morning if you need to talk to her." With that, Hermione ran past the Slytherin she had grown to befriend and ran up back to Gryffindor tower, hoping not to be caught for being out of bed at one in the morning.
She closed her eyes as she leaned against the portrait door. Thankfully, no one was down there to see her cry. She opened her eyes and looked out the window of the richly decorated bedroom she was staying in. It was a beautiful morning, but for yet another toiling day.
"Wow, what a dream"
A/N Wow, long chapter. Sorry if it was confusing, anything you can suggest to make it more understandable, just review and I might take up your suggestion. More ASAP, I promise.
