Shades of Grey
By: Destiny's Darkness
Disclaimer: Of course, nothing that you've heard of outside this fic belongs to me. If you do choose to use one of my original characters, just let me know so that I can see what sorts of messes they get into. Oh, and my Miss Angela is inspired by a similar character from novelist Dean Koontz.
Chapter Seven
Hermione Granger knew exactly what she was going to say to that nosy, over-bearing, little meddler that called herself a best friend. Ugh! She practically ripped the door off its hinges as she barged through it, into her apartment building's lobby. Barely noticing the shocked expressions on its occupants' faces, she would have walked past all of them entirely had the woman not placed herself directly in Hermione's path. She might have slipped right around the obstacle had it been anyone else, but they both knew the grandmother figure, with her grey-ed hair held in place by her ever-present knitting needles, wouldn't allow it. "Belle, child, I don't believe that I've seen you in ages. Did you hear about the despicable Mr. Montegrew?"
"Despicable? Last I heard, the two of you were really burning up the sh—no, no, no. I'm sorry, Miss Angela, you know I'd love to hear about whatever the fool did, but I really, really need to find Dani." She bent over to press an affectionate kiss to the woman's cheek, as she placed her hands on her shoulders to firmly turn Miss Angela to the side. And stepped past. "We'll catch up later," she promised.
Damn that woman. Hermione rolled her eyes at the knowledge, but her neighbor had just cooled the vast majority of Hermione's anger. Some were scandalized by the woman's deceptive innocence, but she just truly delighted Hermione and Dani. On free nights, they'd venture into her crammed little apartment and laugh over her escapades, past and present. As a few of those very stories drifted through her head, causing the corners of her lips to lift in a smile, she lost herself while mounting the stairs. Her landlord had to repeat her name several times before her vision focused on his face. "Mr. Montegrew, you nearly gave me a heart attack."
"My apologies. I just wanted to express my thanks once more. Those lessons at that cooking school in Paris really paid off."
"Oh, nonsense. They're just cookies. Surely you knew you'd be getting them for Christmas. You're practically our uncle. And you've only gotten them for New Year's, your birthday…"
"Of course, of course. You have a nice night, Miss Belle." He paused in front of someone's door, obviously torn about something he wanted to add. "It's good to have you home, for the night, at least."
She stared, touched, as he knocked on the door and picked his toolbox back up. Only once he disappeared inside did she manage to make herself finish the journey up the stairs to their flat. Staring at the door, the numbers gold and shiny before her eyes, she took a long moment to gather her anger again before shoving her keys into the lock and flinging the door open.
"Danielle!"
The shout burst from her throat in a roar that surprised her as much as it probably startled her roommate, who burst from her room down the short hallway, her hands filled with linens. "Belle, honey, what's wrong?"
"Why exactly did you disappear from the club tonight?"
"I, um, well—"
"Harry seems to think that it may have had something to do with Draco Malfoy showing up at the club tonight. At your invitation. Since he seems to be that "friend of ours" you ran into earlier." She studied the blonde suspiciously, her lips twisted in a grimace.
Dani couldn't meet her eyes at first, not when she knew exactly how Hermione felt about the boy, but she suddenly felt her own anger rising up. "Don't treat me like that, Belle. You're my friend, not my mother."
"Treat you like what? Like a liar?" Hermione dropped onto the couch, the very one they'd spent hours combing through secondhand shops for the summer before. "Why would you do that, Dani? I mean, what could possibly have been going through your mind? Was anything?"
"Your friend doesn't seem to like me much."
At the sound of the silky smooth, arrogant drawl, tension immediately flooded back into her shoulders. Ah, that familiar tension, which swamped her at almost every waking moment while under the Hogwarts' roof. She stared into Dani's almost even gaze, instinctively noting the pale skin becoming rapidly paler around the guilty eyes. "Dani, do not let me turn around and see him standing there."
"Well, then I wouldn't turn around."
The faint amusement in his voice made the hairs on the back of her neck lift nervously. He was never amused around her without someone ending up in detention or the hospital wing. "Why is he here?"
To her credit, she managed, somehow, to keep her voice calm and quiet, to sound genuinely curious instead of desperate to see his spoiled ass back outside the door.
"He didn't have anywhere to stay tonight, so I offered him a bed," the blonde replied stiffly, her back straight and her head high.
"I hope to high heaven you did not mean my bed." Hermione's eyes darted to look at him for the first time since entering the apartment, then spun back to Danielle. "And I really hope you didn't mean yours."
"We hadn't decided yet, actually," the one in question chuckled, clearly trying to be amused by the whole confrontation.
Dani winced. "You're not helping yourself."
"And I don't particularly care. It wasn't my intention to cause problems between you and your…wait, are you two lovers?"
Hermione didn't have to look to know his silver—grey, Hermione, damn it, grey—eyes sparkled with excitement rather than disgust, but she checked anyway. "For your information, it takes a hell of a lot of alcohol for that to happen, and there's not enough in all of England for it to happen with you."
He grinned. "You know, you're even sexier from the front." He waved off her angry interruption. "And you sound just like this obnoxious, know-it-all bitch I go to school with. On you, however, it's a bit of a turn on."
Danielle couldn't stop herself. She erupted in laughter, collapsing onto the sofa as the other two stared. Hermione nearly held out, but she couldn't quite block out the infectious sound. As she joined in, rather timid chuckling at first, the confused expression on Malfoy's face sent her nearly to her knees. He stood there, uncertain of the joke, until she recovered her control and sauntered up to him. She focused her concentration on using her wide array of seductive tools, ran her fingertips across his cheek and rested them on his bottom lip. She leaned in close, allowing him to catch a drift of her scent and accidentally getting a whiff of his as well. She paused there, stunned by the fresh, clean scent of man and soap. "I don't know if I really attract you all that much, but it doesn't make much of a difference, does it? You're not staying here, not tonight, not ever. So I guess I'll see you in Potions, Malfoy. Don't forget we have two feet due on the adaptation of memory tonics."
She took advantage of the stunned expression on his face to grab his arm and drag him to the door.
"Don't you dare, Belle." Danielle's voice was low and dangerous at first, then high and frantic when she saw her friend continuing anyway. "Hermione, stop! He doesn't have anywhere to go."
"It's not my problem, or yours for that matter, if the great Malfoy couldn't be bothered to make reservations at a hotel—"
"I did."
"What?" She was distracted enough by his odd emission to allow him to pull his arm from her grasp.
He stood before the two girls, his expression somewhat sad and embarrassed and another emotion Hermione and Dani couldn't quite identify. "I did have a reservation at my hotel. I made it weeks ago. But when I got there, they claimed I didn't, even when I showed them my letter of confirmation. They just, uh, crumpled it up and pointed to the door." He glanced down at his hands, that white-blond hair falling into his eyes. Despite all of her attempts to silence them, she couldn't ignore those little voices pointing out how lost he looked, like a forlorn little boy. "I probably would have gone home, but I have some meetings over the next few days to settle my parents' affairs with their lawyers."
Dani pouted, knowing how soft-hearted the brunette really was. "You can't just turn him out on the streets, Belle."
"Oh, yes, I can," Hermione snarled. "He should have know that the name Malfoy doesn't get the respect he's used to anymore."
"Which is why I followed the lawyers' suggestion to use my paternal grandmother's maiden name."
"Listen, Malfoy. See Dani here? She's a muggle, pure and simple."
If she expected to see disgust, the lecherous expression disappointed her. "Yes, so it would seem." He started to reach around her to Dani, barely jerking back when Hermione swatted his hand away.
"Get out, Malfoy. Just get out."
Dani slammed the door shut before Hermione could shove him through the opening. They locked eyes, both angry but also uncomfortable with this show of aggression.
"Are you really going to … ugh!" Hermione turned from Dani to Malfoy. "Listen, can you give us a few minutes? You don't have to leave or anything, but just… just let us talk alone."
He shrugged, the nonchalance of the movement defied by the curiosity of his eyes, before making his way to the French doors closed against the cold. "Is it safe to go out here?" Hermoine waved a hand, telling him to go ahead on out, and he obeyed. After casting the open balcony a dubious look, as if he doubted its ability to keep its distance from the ground, he stepped out and pulled the doors closed behind him.
"I don't understand the problem, Belle," Dani sighed, perching on the arm of the sofa. "Why won't you let him stay here?"
"He's not a good person, Dani, and I know we've talked about it at great length, at least what he's done to me." Hermione applied pressure to the bridge of her nose to fend off the approaching headache as she sat. Dani frowned at the action, swinging her legs around and dropping beside the brunette. "It would be one thing if he was only threatening toward me, but in all truth, he tread rather cautiously around me. It wasn't much of a secret that I could more than defend myself against him, and yet he still did things that make me shudder in remembering. I've only heard rumors of what he's done to students less able to protect themselves." She paused, taking care to choose her words and to ignore the chill bumps forming on her arms. "He frightens me."
"Well, what about the Hand of God?" Dani argued, springing back up from her seat to pace. "May mankind be rewarded or punished for their actions, guided by the hands of God. That's what the spell said, isn't it? That's what you told me about. Magical leaders from the entire world gathering together in a forbidden chamber behind a forbidden curtain—"
"Veil."
"—in a forbidden room in a restricted department, casting a spell to ensure that everyone got just what they deserved, be it death, misfortune, or glory. We even saw it here in the non-Wizarding world. Crime rates absolutely plummeted."
"But crime didn't stop completely, did it? There are still murderers and rapists and thieves. The spell wasn't perfect." The brunette captured one of Dani's hands and forced her to stop before her. "Malfoy's charming, I'll give him that. He's very attractive, and I'm certain he can make you feel like the most beautiful woman in the world when he puts his mind to it. But you really have to remember how much he hates muggles. You're beautiful, you know that. But for Malfoy, being in a relationship with you, sleeping with you, even hanging around you, is his version of going slumming."
"Thank you. Thank you, Belle." Dani studied Draco through the window, watching him stand there, his blond hair mussed by the wind as he wrapped his arms around himself. "Listen, I understand your reasoning and all, but, well, you don't have any proof that he hasn't changed, do you? He's been perfectly nice to me. And he doesn't have anywhere to go. I couldn't just put him out on the streets."
"You know, that's funny because yes, actually… you could."
She glared at Hermione, her face unusually determined, even for the queen of sympathy causes. Hesitating just enough for Hermione to grow nervous with anticipation at her next move, she conceded, "Fine, he won't stay here. If you're that determined to let someone freeze to death on the streets, to play at being God, he's gone. He won't stay here."
The brunette was tempted to stop arguing and just leave it at that, but something in her best friend's eyes warned her against accepting that promise. They'd known each other forever, quite literally since the womb, thanks to their parents being close friends for decades, and years of experience taught her that the only thing Dani gave into that easily was Double Chocolate Fudge ice cream. Brown eyes flashed to the balcony, and understanding came. "For Merlin's sake!" she growled. She stomped away, flung open the door and jerked the wizard back inside. "Grab your things, Ferret. You're coming with me."
Draco allowed her to pull him toward the bedroom, a lecherous smile all the way to his eyes. "You know, I don't normally sleep with strangers, but I think I'll make an exception for you."
She rolled her eyes. "I hate to break it to you, Ferret-boy, but I'd chew acid tablets before jumping you."
Dani laughed from behind them. "Belle, dearest, heaven helps the man who fights his fears," she called out. Draco froze in his footsteps, shivering from his time outside in the freezing wind, and looked back uncertainly at the crazy lady behind him.
The brunette scowled. "Yeah? Well, where have all the good men gone?" she retorted.
"Love is always born on a chance."
"You two are drunk, aren't you?" Draco interrupted, even as Belle took a threatening step forward. His attention was focused on Danielle, who sat grinning on the couch with her feet propped up on the armrest, but he spared his captor the briefest glance out of the corner of his steel grey eyes. And his entire demeanor changed. "Oh, damn it. Damn it! It really is you, isn't it? Mudblood Granger. I thought you were playing a prank on me. Bloody hell, now I need a drink." He jerked his arm free of Hermione's grasp, and moved to the bar set-up at the side of the room.
"We're not drunk," Dani laughed, a hand pressed to her aching side.
"And we don't have any alcohol in any of those cabinets," Hermione added in resignation, watching the hated wizard tear through them. He stopped, the expression on his face of near desolation.
"You don't?"
"Of course not," Dani replied. "Why on earth would you put any alcohol there? That's the very first place parents check when they visit." She paused, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "But if you're really desperate, you might check the back of the pantry."
"Dani!"
"What? The boy needs a drink—you heard him."
His delighted roar overpowered Hermione's reply. "Merlin's beard, did you rob a bar?"
Dark brown eyes closed slowly. "Dani? I want him out of this apartment. You understand that, don't you? Is that really helping?" She raised her voice to reach Draco, where he was undoubtedly staring at the shelves of alcohol like a kid in a candy shop. "Don't touch any of that, Malfoy. You're not staying."
"Yeah, well, how are you going to make me leave when you're drunk too?"
"We're not… we're not drunk, you idiot! It's from Footloose. You know, the movie? Dani's obsessed with movies."
"Sure," he tossed back, a sing-song quality in his voice as his footsteps made their way back and forth in the pantry. "What's a moh-vay?"
"A movie. It's this…it's when… it's a muggle thing, okay?"
Dani had taken to snickering behind the sofa back. "Just leave him alone, Belle. Let the boy have his alcohol."
"Dani." She turned, the low, furious growl effectively silencing the blonde. Dani stared at her, stunned, while Hermione tried unsuccessfully to gather herself with a few deep breaths. "Please just cooperate with me on this. Please?"
The blonde studied her roommate cautiously, almost hurt herself by the hurt in the brunette's voice. But what had caused such hurt, that pain so thick and unavoidable buried in her words? Dani knew, from words exchanged and words withheld, that his Malfoy figure had always had a strong influence on Belle, more than any teacher, more than Harry and Ron, almost as much as Dani herself. But despite years of quiet prodding and questions, she'd never learned as much about it as she was learning just watching the interactions between the two enemies at this point in time.
When she told Harry that Bell could never keep a secret from her, it seemed that maybe Belle had one or two up her sleeve just the same.
Author's Note: I apologize, as always, for the delay. It seems it takes me longer to update every chapter, a trend I hope to discontinue. I know I said that I had the first part of the next chapter (this chapter) written already, but I really wanted to include this chapter first. Looking back, I just jump from one revelation to another to another: finding out Hermione fancies herself in love with Harry, Harry learning of her feelings, learning that Hermione's a pure-blooded Muggle, learning what the Hand of God spell did, etc. I actually had a good deal of this written for a while, up to the last three paragraphs really, but none of it was… working. Anyway, I do have a good portion of the next chapter already, honestly. It (hopefully) shouldn't be another three months before I update again.
And in the earlier chapter, the line about Dani and her dates comes from "The Princess Diaries 2". No winners but maybe next time. Right?
I'm done rambling now, I swear.
Destiny's Darkness
January 3, 2006
