Thank you to those who left feedback last chapter! I've been thinking hard about it and will incorporate it into my writing from here on out. One point I want to make now and have added to the story summary is that this story is about an abusive relationship, so Draco and Hermione glossing over each other's behaviour is going to be a common theme. I definitely want to work on reflecting this in my writing in a less jarring and more convincing manner.
I've also created a music playlist for this fic, there's a link on my author profile if you'd like to listen!
Thank you for reading.
The urge to vomit never really went away thanks to Lav-Lav and Won-Won, but Hermione thought she would have gotten over it by now. Yet here was February 14th, and she was finding it very hard to force herself to get up and face the day. It felt very childish, but it still hurt. There wasn't really any escaping that she was very much in love with Ron if she continued to feel this ill about his disgustingly public relationship. While everybody else also seemed nauseated when Brown started up, Hermione was fairly sure she was the only person who felt a stabbing pain in her chest.
Ron had a dumb girl who would squeal and hug him and was more popular and agreeable than herself. And Harry had Ginny, always had Ginny, and was just too dumb to see it. Hermione had a mentally ill bigot who hated her for being born and would only hang out with her in secret. It was hard not to dwell on feeling bitter, especially on Saint Valentine's day.
Ron was likely going to get candy and kisses and sweet-nothings for Valentine's Day. Hermione would be lucky to get another punch in the face. And Ron would eventually break up with Lavender and go on with his life, or stay with her living a stupidly pleasant existence until they happily passed away – Hermione had a death bond with a terrorist. That was part of the Pureblood birthright, apparently – living comfortably in whatever world you pleased. Hermione had no choice but to fight while Ron focussed on really important things like keeping his dick wet and sucking at Quidditch. The inequity made her want to scream.
After several deep breaths and a mild Dissociation Charm, she bothered to put on makeup and pull her braids into a more formal bun before heading to breakfast. Indeed, Brown's squeals were audible from the entrance of the Great Hall, and Hermione breathed in very deeply before entering the Hall and sitting as far away from the display as she could. Incidentally, Harry and Ginny seemed to have the same idea, and Ginny rolled her eyes at Hermione in greeting.
"Yeah, welcome to the club," Ginny said, kindly shoving a big mug of coffee towards Hermione as she sat down beside them.
"Thank you," Hermione replied, turning to Harry who had the Prophet. "Hi Harry."
"Hey Hermione. No-one we know," he replied, scanning the front page.
Their typical morning routine of checking the newspaper for bad news was interrupted by two beautiful black owls carrying several presents. Hermione choked on her coffee and Harry had to thump her on the back while Ginny poked at the letter attached to the presents.
"Who is this from?" Ginny asked, before opening one of the boxes and letting out a whistle at the beautiful bouquet of flowers inside.
"I don't know," Hermione eventually coughed out, stalling for time as she opened the note. He's gone totally mad, she thought, terrified she was going to have to take drastic measures and Obliviate him to protect them both from an untimely death. She flipped open the letter and rolled her eyes at the signatory, terror immediately transformed into amusement.
"I didn't know you were talking to Victor," Harry said, reading over her shoulder. He sounded slightly accusatory, Hermione thought, considering that she was not his friend who had run off with someone else and left the other heartbroken.
"This is pretty over the top," Hermione agreed, a smile unwillingly crossing her face. Ginny started pulling flowers out of her bouquet and annoying a vaguely embarrassed Harry by sprinkling petals over his hair.
"Stop it," Harry mumbled. "That's not even yours, Gin, don't wreck Hermione's gift."
"I'm just sharing the Valentine's Day spirit," Ginny replied, blowing a bunch of petals into Harry's face. "Hermione doesn't mind, right?"
"I'm sure Victor will be happy to learn his presents gave Harry an allergic reaction," Hermione said drily as Harry sneezed and his eyes begun to water, and he shoved Ginny to try and get her to stop. "This is a very romantic scene."
"What's in that one?" Ginny asked, pointing to another box, and Hermione flicked it open.
It was a silver bracelet. Tiny gemstone pine trees and birds were linked to it, and had been enchanted to have a hint of life. They circled around their chain link, the light catching the stone edges to make them blink – or maybe the were enchanted to seem more realistic.
"Fuck me, professional Quidditch pays better than I thought," Ginny said, frowning at a tiny ruby bird. "We've gotta go pro Harry." She passed it to him, and he stopped wiping his watery eyes to put his glasses back on to take a closer look.
"Are the pine trees a Bulgaria thing or something?" Harry asked, looking at the bracelet briefly before taking Hermione's hand and putting it on her wrist.
"I think his family's home is in a forest," Hermione lied. "What a ridiculous grand gesture," she stated dismissively, thought she couldn't deny a tiny part of her was excited that Ron would surely hear about this and feel bad.
"Hey, check it out – Bulgarian homebrew!" Ginny exclaimed, holding up another of her prizes from opening Hermione's mail – some dangerous looking bottle of spirits with foreign labelling.
"Oh," Hermione said, taking it from her, impressed with the effort Malfoy had put into this stupid stunt. "I'm suddenly feeling much more on board with this."
Ginny pointed at both Hermione and Harry. "Let's crack it open tonight. I gotta run," she said, putting the bouquet in her bag. "You don't mind if I give this to Luna?"
"Not at all," Hermione said.
"Good, it's always a better day when Luna is handing out something weird," Ginny said cheerfully.
Hermione magically disintegrated the rest of the packaging, but slipped Malfoy's note pretending to be Victor Krum into her Ancient Runes textbook.
Hermione felt rather smug slipping away from Harry and Ginny that evening, leaving them a mostly-full bottle of apple rakia, and headed to the Room of Requirement. Malfoy was there already, leaned against a fake tree, pulling at the nails on his hands nervously. He looked slightly unhappy to see Hermione arrive empty handed.
"Where did my Bulgarian brandy go?" he asked.
"I used it to play matchmaker," Hermione replied, putting her bag down near him and lying on the fake forest floor, staring up at the false sky. "Did you consider that sending something that flashy wasn't a terribly clever idea?"
Malfoy rolled his eyes and sat down beside her. "Did literally anyone think it was suspicious?" he asked.
"I get the impression Harry wasn't too impressed," Hermione said.
"That's because he knew Weasley would get all cut up about it," Malfoy replied, voice thick with smugness. Hermione groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Are we all actually five years old?" she asked out loud. "Was that the only reason you did it?"
"Well…I mean, I also thought it would be funny," Malfoy said, scratching his neck.
"You're right. Whenever I'll look at this horribly expensive looking thing, I'll think, 'Draco Malfoy is an idiot'," Hermione said, holding her arm up and jangling her bracelet by his face.
"Well, I thought you might like pine forests. Since, you know…" Malfoy trailed off, vaguely gesturing at her imagined Room of Requirement.
"Hm. I guess I do. I think the smell of pine is relaxing," Hermione said, crossing her arms behind her head, closing her eyes and breathing in. "What's your ideal holiday destination?" she asked, unkindly imagining French castles and islands where many oppressed locals waited on his horrid family hand and foot.
"Anywhere that's not this Room," he replied immediately. Hermione opened her eyes, and couldn't help feeling a little hurt. Malfoy wasn't looking at her, staring off into the middle distance instead. I think he's telling the truth, Hermione thought, reflecting on his lack of reaction to her negative response and how quickly he spoke.
"Um, I'm sorry," she said, feeling very awkward. "We could go somewhere else if you like?"
Malfoy looked away, apparently considering her offer. "Ok, let's go," he said, and jumped up quickly, offering his hand to pull her up.
They left the Room, and Hermione suddenly felt very vulnerable – usually when she was sneaking around Hogwarts when she shouldn't, Harry was with her and they had the Invisibility Cloak. Malfoy apparently didn't care at all though, and he immediately strode off, leaving her to follow behind him and worry.
"Aren't you worried someone will see us?" she hissed at him, and Malfoy made a weird tch noise that clearly indicated he couldn't care less.
"You've always seemed better at hiding than me. Do whatever concealing magic you want," he said. Hermione decided to play it off as though she was too cool to consider it. The Cloak was one of the aces they had if everything truly hit the fan and they needed to get Harry away in a hurry – Malfoy might be some sort of friend now but he couldn't know something that important. Still, Hermione thought, he raised a good point – her knowledge of concealing magic was very limited due to the Cloak's reliability. It was an important gap in her knowledge she needed to fix.
Hermione broke out of her train of thought as she realized they were heading up many staircases, and understood where Malfoy was going.
"Uh, is the Astronomy Tower the best place to go on Valentines Day?" Hermione asked pointedly. Malfoy stopped in his tracks.
"Good point," he said, and headed back down the staircase they were on to walk into the nearest classroom, which thankfully turned out to be empty. Hermione followed and Malfoy locked the door behind her. She sighed, quite relieved they hadn't run into anyone on their trip.
"So-" Hermione started, but Malfoy grabbed her, pushing her up against the wall and kissing her.
She didn't even consider fighting back. She was so sick of feeling tired and sad and stressed, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back. The more she thought about this world and how unfair it was, the more a huge sadness crushed in on her. Hermione leaned into Malfoy and ran her fingers up through his hair.
He moved his hand to the small of her back and started kissing her neck. It was her opportunity to say something and stop this, but Hermione remembered Ron and Harry and Voldemort and started taking off Malfoy's shirt instead.