Heyhey, here's the 10th chappie!
"It isn't what you think it is!" Hermione blurted out. Draco continued to stand at the entrance hall, staring at Hermione and Ron. He was in total shock after seeing what had happened.
"It isn't!" Ron pushed Hermione away from him, staring at her angrily. "So what was it then, hmm? Just a couple of friends sticking their tongue into each other's mouth?"
Draco opened his mouth to say something but closed it again.
"You still love him, don't you?" Ron practically yelled at Hermione. "Am I just… temporary!"
"It's not like that, Ron. I didn't mean what I said," Hermione sighed.
Draco looked down at himself. His clothes were soaked, he was shivering like mad, and his shoes were flooded with water. Just a minute ago he had not noticed these things for he had been so eager to see Hermione. He had felt amazing, like rain could never wash away the happiness and love from him; not that night. But now, after witnessing her disgusting kiss with Ron, he didn't feel so good anymore. He felt dark, alone, and betrayed.
"Draco…" Hermione pleaded. He stared at Hermione coldly and lifted his chin up with that Slytherin-pride.
"I have nothing to say to you," he muttered. Draco took his wand out of his wet robes and used it to lift his luggage up. He walked pass Hermione and Ron with his head up, and before turning round the corner, he gave a small angry grunt, as if to say what he had seen was absolutely disgusting, and he really did think it was. I mean, Ron!
"Oh, look what you did now, Ron," Hermione muttered.
"What I did!" Ron yelled angrily. "I thought you accepted me because I thought you were ready to forget about Draco. But I guess you're not."
Hermione sighed and looked at her shoes. "I'm trying."
Ron looked at Hermione and felt his heart melt. "Oh, how could I be mad at you?" he smiled at her sweetly, lifting her chin up to look right into her eyes. They were shiny and watery, the brim filling with salty tears. Hermione was crying because Draco had discovered her kissing Ron, but Ron mistook it as an apology to him.
"It's alright, Hermione, don't cry. I'm not angry anymore. I understand that you need time, and I'm willing to give you all the time you need," Ron said, hugging her. They walked back to the Gryffindor common room and went to bed.
Hermione fell on her bed and closed her eyes, tears pouring out rapidly now. She wiped it away with her pillow, but more kept spilling out as she thought of how Draco had looked when he found them French kissing in the halls. Disgusted? Angry? Betrayed? Definitely.
She rolled over and blinked a few times, sniffing. She had imagined Draco's arrival back to Hogwarts – He walks in with his luggage, a huge smile on his face. She runs up to him and kisses him all over, glad that he's back. They embrace in a warm hug and swear to never let go. They get married, live happily ever after…
But no. Her imagination went the exact opposite way. He came in soaking wet and dirty, frowns at the scene before him, and walks away angrily, a look of death on his face.
Now, she had nothing. Ron probably, but to her at moment, he was nothing either.
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Draco put his luggage down and sat at the edge of his bed, sighing. He replayed that kiss over and over again in his mind. That boy kissing Hermione should've been him! How did everything go so wrong?
But it didn't matter now, anyway. He was a death eater – she could never go near him. His job was to hurt people like her... to hurt the innocent. Draco thought of Dumbledore at once, at ran out of the room, hurrying to Dumbledore's office. He stopped at the entrance and stared at the gargoyle before him.
"Uh… chocolate cockroaches?" Draco tested. The gargoyle didn't move.
"Fried feet fries?" The gargoyle still didn't budge.
"What about pumpkin pasties?" The gargoyle stayed in its place.
"Open sesame!" Still nothing. Draco began to get impatient and felt irritated at this. He walked over to the gargoyle and gave it a hard knock, but ended up hurting his own wrist.
"What do you want from me!" Draco yelled. Suddenly he felt someone tap his shoulder lightly. He turned around and saw Dumbledore smiling down at him with laughter in his eyes. Dumbledore walked up to the Gargoyle and whispered, "Dumbledore, Albus."
Draco stared at the gargoyle blankly as it hopped aside and the entrance opened. He hit himself on the head for being so stupid and followed in after the headmaster. They walked up the long stairs and finally reached the office door.
"Make yourself at home," Dumbledore smiled as he opened the door. Draco walked in and took a seat in front of Dumbledore's desk. He took a look around the spacious office, and noticed the Sorting Hat sitting on a shelf, an odd looking sword beside it, and many paintings surrounded the office; paintings of past headmasters and headmistresses. They were all awake, Draco knew, but had been pretending to be asleep with their overly-loud snoring and twitching eyes which kept opening at the wrong times to take peeps.
"Now, Draco. Tell me why you have come to see me," Dumbledore said, stealing Draco's attention from the paintings.
"I uh… I wanted to know why you uh… well, I wanted to know why you let my father take me away from Hogwarts and turn me into a death eater," Draco said uncomfortably.
Dumbledore's expression died away, and he looked at Draco sympathetically. "I tried to persuade your father, but you are not my son, Draco. Lucius had every right to do whatever he wanted to you," he explained.
"But you're the headmaster! The most wise of all! You have your ways of getting what you want all the time, so couldn't you save me?" Draco said. Dumbledore opened his mouth to say something, but Draco cut him off. "Now the world has one death eater more. One more follower of that stupid Lord Voldermort. You made me like this!"
"No, Draco, I did not," Dumbledore said smoothly. Draco waited for him to say more, but he didn't.
"And why didn't you persuade my father to let me go through the rest of the year before leaving as an official death eater? I have friends, I have a life here. Why did you let Lucius just take me away from all that?" Draco continued.
"I did ask him to let you finish off your last year, but he didn't like that idea very much. Furthermore, you would be endangering the other students in this school."
"Oh, so now you think I'm going to murder everyone in Hogwarts!" Draco yelled.
"Draco," Dumbledore said patiently. "I will not tolerate this kind of talk."
"I will not tolerate your decisions!" Draco said.
"In the end, Lucius brought you back to Hogwarts. Why let your anger out when you can rejoice?" Dumbledore said.
"Because I've been betrayed!" Draco yelled, getting up and upsetting his chair. The paintings on the wall of past headmasters and headmistresses snored even louder, but Draco knew they were listening to every word he said. He picked the chair up and put it back in its right position, and stared at the floor.
"Betrayed by you, betrayed by my father, my friends, Hermione…" Draco whispered silently.
"Are you talking about Miss Granger?" Dumbledore said in pure interest. "What could such a sweet girl do?"
"Be too sweet, I suppose," Draco muttered.
"Oh," Dumbledore nodded understandingly. "I see… love problems."
"As if you'd understand. You've never been in love before… have you?" Draco said.
Dumbledore laughed. "That's only for me to know."
"So you have fallen in love before?"
Dumbledore's eyes saddened. Draco wanted to ask more, but he decided he shouldn't.
"Draco, do you love your mother?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes," Draco answered.
"And your father?"
Draco didn't answer. He looked away, pretending not to have heard him. Dumbledore looked at him understandingly. "Miss Granger?"
Draco stared at him angrily. "That's none of your business! Stop talking about her! Why do you want to torture me, professor? Why couldn't you just go pick on Potter?"
"You know, Mr. Potter was here quite some time ago, yelling and screaming at me too. You two have many similarities," Dumbledore said jokingly.
"What – we're both handsome, famous and rich?" Draco said back.
"Yes, actually. I stress on handsome," Dumbledore smiled. "And also, both of you have love."
"How did this conversation go from being a death eater against my will to having love?" Draco wondered aloud.
"Oh, it has its connections. You're a death eater because your father wants you to be one; you can't fight your way out of that. But you can fight being a death eater. You can love," Dumbledore explained.
"My mother is dying, and I just saw Hermione kissing Weasel," Draco muttered.
"Doesn't mean you don't love them both," Dumbledore said.
Draco blushed. "I will get Hermione killed, Professor. I must stay away from her."
"For now," Dumbledore said reasonably. "You are being watched. Avoid Miss Granger for a few weeks, maybe months if it drags out. That's the way it has to be if you want her to be safe."
Draco nodded. "I'd better get to bed then." He walked to the door and closed it behind him, knowing that the only way he could keep Hermione from going near him was to make her hate him.
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"Hermione!" Ron called. Hermione forced herself to smile. They were on their way to the great hall for breakfast, and for the first time, Ron didn't look like a total bedridden mess.
"Hey, Ron," she said. He grinned at her and kissed her cheek.
"Feeling better today, darling?"
"Yeap, fine," Hermione answered unconvincingly. They sat together at the table, Ron sitting uncomfortably close to her. Under the table, he reached for her hand and tickled her palm playfully. Hermione giggled and tickled his hand too, and they began a tickling war. From across the table, Ginny noticed them fidgeting and laughing, and rolled her eyes.
"Stop it. The whole world can see you," she said. Hermione let go of Ron's hand and gave a slight cough of embarrassment.
"What's your problem, Ginny?" Ron snapped irritatedly. "You make out with Harry even in front of the teachers!"
"Oh, you mean like this?" Ginny grinned. She pulled Harry who was sitting innocently beside her and kissed him long and passionately, going all the way to the very end. She let go and Harry showed a confused yet happy expression.
"Don't get on my nerves, Ginny," Ron warned.
"See the thing is, it isn't gross when Harry and I do it. It's disgusting when it's done by you," Ginny said.
"Hey, don't insult Hermione like that!" Ron said protectively.
"Oh, I wasn't insulting her," Ginny grinned. Ron got up with his hand raised, ready to reach out and give Ginny a smack, but Hermione held him back.
"She's just having a little fun, Ron," Hermione reasoned. Ron huffed and turned back to his food and ate quietly, shoving everything into his mouth in a lightning shot. Hermione sighed and decided to leave him be, as Ron was always acting immature. She looked around the hall, searching for Draco, and realized he wasn't there. Where is he anyway? She started to wonder. Maybe I should go find him…
"Ron, I have to go to the loo. Give me a sec, okay?" Hermione said. Ron continued shoving food down his throat angrily, ignoring her, so she got up and walked out of the hall anyway. She went up the stairs leading to the Slytherin common room, and waited outside. Soon, someone came walking out of the room behind the painting, and she slipped in before the door closed. The common room looked just the way it did the day Hermione had been in there, watching Draco pack to leave. Sad memories flooded back into her mind, but she tried to block it out. She walked up the stairs to the boy's dorm room and turned the shiny golden knob anti-clockwise. There on the bed, Draco lay asleep, looking as beautiful as ever.
Hermione walked up to him and smiled. He looked so peaceful sleeping, as if nothing could bother him, and nobody could trouble him. She touched his soft pale cheek and reached over to kiss him. She bent her head slowly and gently touched his soft lips. But when she pulled back, she saw his eyes opening slowly, and began to panic.
Oh god, what do I do! Hermione wondered to herself. She quickly fell to the ground just beside his bed and tried to hide from him. Draco stirred and stretched his arms out, his eyes fully open now. He looked at the sun beaming at him from the window and frowned. Something about this place was different. The room was empty, but he could so slightly hear someone breathing …
"Hermione!" he yelled in fright. There she was, lying on the floor, her bushy hair all over the dirty carpet. "What are you doing here?"
"I- I just came to… I just came to see if you were okay. You didn't come down for breakfast, so I just grew worried," Hermione said quickly. Draco was just about to smile at her when he remembered what had happened the night before, turning his mood around.
"Get out," he ordered dryly.
"But-.." Hermione said weakly. Her eyes were shining with hurt, and she looked like she was about to cry.
"I said get out," he ordered again, pointing at the door.
"I'm sorry, Draco. You just don't understand… I'm in love with you!" Hermione pleaded.
"Oh yeah? So what were you doing with Ron last night? Just mingling, is it?" Draco fought back.
"No, it's just that I thought you would never come back, so why not, you know? But you did come back, Draco, and I don't want Ron. I want you!"
Draco sighed and got out of bed. "Turn around."
Hermione obediently turned around as Draco undressed and put on clean clothes. He put his robes on and allowed Hermione to turn back to her previous position.
"Look, Hermione. Ron wants you. Don't hurt him," Draco said.
"I have to! I can't please him always," Hermione replied.
"Look, whether you love me or not, it's no use. You will never be with me," Draco said sadly.
"Why not, Draco? Give me a good reason," Hermione said.
Draco sighed again. "Do you want to see it?"
"See what, Draco?"
"This." He lifted his robe, and there was the Dark Mark burned permanently on his left arm, the skin on it torn and bruised. It was still bleeding slightly, but Draco was trying to fight the pain. Hermione winced and the hideous thing and closed her eyes, not believing that it was actually imprinted on the skin of her lover.
"See, Hermione? Can't you understand?" Draco said, covering it with his robes again.
Hermione didn't answer. She swallowed and looked everywhere but at him.
"I'm a death eater now, Hermione. You can never love me."
I'm not updating till I get more than 10 reviews for this! It's like doing work and getting paid, ya know? So it's paycheck time! Where's my salary? Just playing around. Review kay, or I'm gonna be a very VERY angry person. tears of clothes-turns green-grunts like the Hulk