a/n: Thank you everyone…so many reviews. The giggle loop is from the ever so fabulous show Coupling. I love love love the UK version (its the original and the best). Three people knew where it was from, and they will come up later in this chapter. Finally, sorry about being completely slack on the updates. Feel free to call me a bitch (just this once). This chapter was a complete bitch to write, and I am still not completely satisfied. And I am for reasons unbeknownst to me I am constantly exhausted. (Doctor says I might be getting over Glandular fever).
Disclaimer: JK owns Harry & Co.
CHAPTER 13 – You have a visitor.
The next few weeks progressed pretty smoothly. Now everyone had settled into the idea of Hermione and Draco a little more, there was a lot less staring and whispering. Thanks to the fact that Draco had FINALLY done the whole "Will you be my girlfriend?" thing with Hermione, the couple were spending more and more time together. They sat with each other at every meal, held hands under the desks in class, and actually began to behave like a married couple.
Near the end of October, Hermione, Draco, Harry and Ron were walking from Potions to DADA together, having an argument about the Potions assignment they had just received.
"Harry, you have been asking since first year and it is never going to happen. I am not going to do your Potions homework for you. You have plenty of time, or you would if you didn't spend quite so much time with Ginny, and its not like you can plead "saving the wizarding world and was too busy" anymore is it?" Harry mumbled something incoherent in reply. Possibly something involving the word 'goody-goody'.
"Oh crap Hermione; it's those Ravenclaw girls…hide behind Harry and Ron until they pass." The couple ducked into a little alcove with Harry and Ron standing in front of them while the girls passed.
"Trust me Niki, Beth, trust me on this one," a girl called Life is 42 was saying as they walked past, "You do not need padding to tackle upholstery."
"You mean there's no real point to a cushion?" Niki asked.
"I don't know, they do look kind of nice," Beth commented.
Hermione and Draco glanced at each other behind the other boys. Hermione mouthed "What the…?" to which Draco shrugged in reply. Harry and Ron were staring after the girls, laughing their heads off. As soon as the girls had rounded the corner, Hermione and Draco came out from behind the others and the four walked to DADA together, still laughing when they reached the classroom. Hermione and Draco immediately went to their usual desk near the back of the classroom and sat talking together until the lesson started.
Hermione was very uncharacteristically daydreaming through the first ten minutes of the lesson, and had a complete freak when she discovered that she had missed the theory part of the lesson and they were about to embark on the practical applications of the spells.
"Shit Draco, I don't have a clue what I am doing. I heard nothing of that…I don't know what's wrong with me lately." Hermione was whispering frantically to Draco, hoping Tonks wouldn't start in their corner of the room.
"Don't stress," Draco whispered back, "I noticed you were out of it so I duplicated my notes for you, quickly read them over." He handed her a few pieces of parchment which were covered in his neat handwriting, flashing her a smile as he did so.
Oh my god, he is just so gorgeous, I love him, Hermione thought as she read over the notes. About a thirty seconds after this thought ran through her head she dropped the parchment on the desk and the phrase "What the fuck?" began resonating through her mind.
Whatthefuck…whatthefuck…whatthe..ok that's not going to accomplish anything. Think through this logically. Draco did something nice, and suddenly I love him. Do NOT run freaking out from the classroom. At this point Hermione's train of thought was interrupted by Draco's concerned face glancing at her. Shit, I'm probably sitting here like a stunned mullet.
"You ok?" Draco whispered.
"Yeah yeah, I'm fine." Oh, I love him, such a sweetie with his concern.
Dammit.
Thought it again.
Ok ok, I can get a hint. I'm in love with Draco Malfoy, thank you very much subconscious. Now what? Hermione looked over at Draco again and realised she was smiling just thinking about him.
Oh my god, I do love him.
And my brain is going all gooey at the thought. Hermione forced herself out of the 'mmm I love him…' mindset and focused on the notes in front of her. By the time Tonks reached the pair, Hermione had them memorised and was ready for the practical. Man I am good Hermione thought to herself as she demonstrated a perfect inversion spell, which made the opponent as disoriented as they would be if hung by their ankles from a four poster bed.
"Great work Hermione," Tonks said, while Draco stumbled about and crashed into a desk. "Ok everyone, practice that for next class. On a willing partner please!" Hermione lifted the spell from Draco and pulled him towards her.
"You ok?" She asked with a smile.
"Of course." Draco would never admit that his leg was causing him quite a bit of pain from where he smashed in the desk, so just covered it up by smiling and assuring Hermione that her spell wasn't quite so fabulous as to render him permanently incapacitated.
A week after this particular DADA class, Hermione decided to screw up her courage and tell Draco that she, you know, loved him. Mainly because she didn't like having it bottled up inside, and also because she was pretty certain that he felt the same. He obviously wouldn't be the one to take the first step. This was Draco Malfoy we were talking about. He wouldn't put himself out on a limb for the world. Frightened of rejection see?
Hermione waited until Draco had climbed into bed beside her that night , rolled onto her side facing him and waited until he was looking at her. Taking a deep breath she whispered, before he could say anything,
"Draco. I love you." Draco's face instantly froze, his eyes wide, mouth half open. And scarily enough, he didn't instantly recover his composure and handle the situation like he normally would. Instead he remained frozen for ages (probably about a minute) before managing to spit out,
"What?" Oh great, Hermione says I love you and you respond with 'what?' This is possibly the fastest time in which I have royally fucked up an important meaningful situation.
"Ok didn't mean for that to come out. Sorry. That is not to say I wasn't a little surprised when…" Draco had been talking quite quickly but trailed off when he saw the look on Hermione's face. A mixture of humiliation and sadness. Oh god.
"Hermione? It's just, I haven't, you know, thought about that yet. Too fast I thought. And it kind of complicates things further doesn't it? What happens if my father is captured and we don't have to be married anymore? You know, if we can get divorced?" The second these words left his mouth, Draco realised they were really one of the worst things he could have said. She says: I love you, he asks: when can we get divorced? Hermione's face visibly crumpled, she rolled over in the bed so she was facing away from him and said,
"Look forget I said anything ok?" Pulling the covers over her head, Hermione extinguished the lights with her wand and lay with her face burning into the pillow.
Draco's voice came out of the darkness,
"You don't think that maybe you just think that because we've you know, been forced together and it might just be, uh, convenient if we fell in love?"
"One, that's bullshit, and two, I said forget it."
How could I have been so stupid? Here I am falling in love, and he is thinking about when we can get divorce. You know, of all the times I imagined this, none of the replies included the word "What". And none of them included divorce either. Oh god I was so sure it was the right thing to do. I've fucked everything up.
Meanwhile, Draco was lying as far away from Hermione as he could, hunching into a ball on the edge of the mattress.
How could I have been so stupid? I could have at least not replied with what and followed up with divorce. If I imagined someone saying I love you to me, I never would imagine my reply would involve divorce. And I had to top it all off by telling her that she didn't really love me. You know, just in case I hadn't fucked the situation up enough.
The next morning Hermione jumped out of bed as soon as she woke up, hoping to dress before Draco could see what she was wearing from the night before. Assuming that Draco's reply would be of the 'I love you too' variety, Hermione had dressed accordingly, assuming that I love you sex would be had. Unfortunately for her, Draco was now pretending to be sleeping to avoid any conversation that would ensue if he were to make his alertness known. Hence, he was watching her through lidded eyes and noticed the matching underwear he had never seen before. This was a bad sign, since Hermione usually just wore a t-shirt to bed, even if sex was part of the evening's agenda. Hermione, still not realising Draco was awake, quickly pulled her uniform on over the lacy underwear and hurried out of the room. Draco got up and dressed quickly, knowing that Hermione would be waiting for him to go down to breakfast. This was going to be uncomfortable. He walked out into the living room where Hermione was already waiting with her book bag.
"You are taking that to breakfast? It must weigh a tonne."
"I've got to look some stuff up in the library before class." This short exchange of words was the only conversation between the living room and the entrance to the Great Hall, where Draco awkwardly leant into kiss Hermione before breakfast. Hermione turned her head quickly so the kiss landed on his cheek (well probably closer to her chin but you get the idea) and walked off as slowly as she could to the Gryffindor table.
Harry Ron and Ginny soon joined her and all three noticed immediately that something was wrong. Hermione sat listlessly stabbing at her breakfast pancakes with a fork, eating nothing. Her face was extremely pale and she looked as though she hadn't slept at all.
"Hermione, what's wrong?" Ginny demanded, sitting down next to her and removing the fork from her hand, preventing further mutilation of the pancakes.
"uh, I couldn't sleep." How can I tell them what is really wrong? I said 'I love you' to my husband for the first time last night and he obviously didn't feel the same way. It even sounds stupid in my head.
"What else is wrong?" Harry asked, not taken buying the lame excuse.
"I just couldn't sleep and I'm worried about our DADA homework ok? I've finished breakfast, I'm going to the library. See you in class." Hermione stood up, only to be yanked back down by Harry and Ginny. Ron, sitting on the other side of the table merely glared when she stood up.
"You haven't eaten anything and lunch isn't for hours. You are eating at least two pancakes before you leave this table." It was extremely difficult for Ron to refrain from adding 'young lady' onto the end of this sentence, but he managed by taking a huge bite of kipper as though punctuating his point. Ginny began loading up Hermione's plate (after vanishing the mangled remains first) and the three sat surrounding Hermione until she had eaten every bite.
Draco was watching all this from the Slytherin table, a knot of anxiety forming in his stomach. He was quite plainly feeling terrible. He too had lain awake for hours the night before, listening to Hermione feigning sleep, her 'steady breathing' punctuated by tiny whispers to herself, or shudders of suppressed tears shaking the tiny bed. Hearing Hermione the night before, and seeing her now, pale and refusing to eat was breaking his heart. He watched as she stood up from the table after quick conversation with her friends, only to be pulled down again by Harry and Ginny. Make her eat. Make her eat. Good. Draco thought, as Ginny piled Hermione's plate with food. His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the Post. Draco didn't even look for his owl Hercule among the incoming birds. Since his mother was dead and his father wanted him dead, there was no one who would be writing to him. To his surprise, a letter dropped down in front of him, addressed to him in very familiar handwriting.
Dear Draco,
I am just writing to say I'm sorry. You obviously know that I was in contact with your father, but I didn't think that if he found you he would want to hurt you. I just thought he would want to ask you why you married Granger. Anyway, I'm not allowed back at school until after the winter break and when I do come back, I am guessing I'll be watched closely by, like everyone. Have a fun term, maybe when I get back you'll have out grown this whole marrying a mudblood thing.
Love Pansy.
Draco shook his head. Quite a nice letter to begin with, then ending like a complete bitch. Draco borrowed a quill from the boy across from him and scrawled a few words on the bottom of the parchment, then sent it across to Hermione with Hercule.
Hermione was startled when the letter dropped onto her plate, but looked curiously at the parchment all the same. For one thing, it had already been opened, the wax seal broken. For another, it was addressed to Draco Malfoy. Hermione unrolled the parchment and scanned Pansy's letter. At the bottom was a short note from Draco.
Out grown it by the end of winter break? No chance. I'll see you at lunch.
Hermione stuffed the letter into her bag, ignored the queries of her friends and stood up from the table again. Dodging the reaching hands of Harry and Ginny, she walked briskly out of the Hall without even a glance in Draco's direction. For the rest of the day, Hermione basically ignored him in the classes they had together, thankful that having seats near the back of the class meant no one could look at you unless they were turning around. At lunch time and during their free periods, Hermione choked down a little food before heading, Draco suspected, towards the library. However, when he went searching for her, she was no where to be found. She didn't even turn up to dinner that night. She was in fact hiding in the Room of Requirement, completing her homework, doing extra revision, and eating little of what the Room provided for her. Fifteen minutes before curfew she left the room, hurrying along the corridors to their apartment.
As soon as Daine swung forward, Draco rushed towards her from where he had been pacing in the living room.
"Oh my God, Hermione where have you been? I have been looking all over for you."
"I was studying. I'm going to bed. Goodnight."
"You've eaten practically nothing all day…I saw. And you didn't even turn up at dinner time." Hermione ignored him and walked into the bedroom. She flung her book bag onto the floor and changed from her uniform to her pyjamas with a swish of her wand. She climbed underneath the covers, still ignoring Draco who was standing in the doorway of their bedroom and turned out the lights, leaving the room in total darkness. Draco sighed, ran a hand through his hair and traipsed off to the bathroom where he changed and cleaned his teeth. He went back into the dark bedroom and climbed into bed beside Hermione, who was once again, hunched up as far away from him as possible. He felt worse than he had ever felt. And that's including after the time his father told him that if he had that chance, he probably wouldn't have any children because he was such a disappointment.
The relationship continued in the same fashion for about a week. Hermione would ignore him when they were alone. She would only turn up to breakfast, the other mealtimes she completely vanished. Draco began sending her small notes every morning at post time, but since none of them contained the all important phrase, namely 'I love you', they went ignored.
On the second Tuesday in November, Hermione was hurrying back to the apartment during lunch to collect a textbook she had forgotten. Just as she was about to leave, Daine's voice rang out.
"You have a visitor." Hermione opened the portrait and peered out. The corridor was completely empty. Then, someone pushed her back into the apartment and closed the portrait behind them. Lucius Malfoy pulled off his invisibility cloak with a flourish, and appeared in the middle of the living room.
a/n: Ok, I hope you all liked this chapter, although I will be the first to admit it wasn't one of my favourites. Please everyone review…I don't know if asking for 200 with this chapter is too much, since it was such a long time and blah blah blah, but yeah 200 is the aim, although I will still update if I don't get that many.