Thankful to live in a world where we have Harry Potter. As always, reviews are really appreciated. I promise Hermione will not give in easily, I hope to develop this story for many more chapters!
Chapter 5: Fire and Ice
Hermione had spent many years imagining what her first kiss would be like but had never imagined the fire pulsing through her body as her lips moved with Draco's. It had felt as though they had been joined for so long when only a minute had passed. Hermione had become so lost in the moment; she had forgotten who it was she was kissing. It appeared Draco had the same thought as they sprang apart. Hermione did not know what to do as she had never been in this situation before but felt compelled to say something. The feeling of not being in control never did sit well with her. Hermione's lips parted, ready to take some sort of control but then…
"Now you see mudblood, I had you right where I wanted you. I didn't think someone who thinks of themselves as great as you would be so easy to fall for my charm but that teaches me not to doubt myself." Draco brushed down his uniform as though Hermione's touch had soiled them in some way and moved around the table, collected his belongings and wordlessly left the library. Hermione stood for mere seconds before she felt herself snap back into reality. She had once again been made to feel a fool in the library.
She commanded the books back to their home and rushed out into the corridor to give Draco a piece of her mind and stormed through until she reached the empty corridor below their dormitory. Hermione stopped abruptly. A fool. The brightest witch of her age and she had once again allowed a boy to make her feel this way. She should have known better than to allow herself to be taken by him, forgetting the way he spoke to her.
Hermione's shoulders slumped and her bag slipped from her shoulder, landing with a bang on the floor from the weight of the books she carried around with her. Hermione let out a sharp gasp as the weight of her sadness became too much and she tried to stifle a sob with her hand. Hermione had spent many hours crying at the hands of Draco Malfoy, and she did not know why she felt so surprised that he still had the power to make her feel this way. She glanced around her quickly to check her moment of weakness had not been observed by any other student. Standards. She had standards to keep up and she could not allow Draco to stifle them. Hermione began to berate herself because she knew she should be used to it; no man had ever wanted her so why should she feel any surprise that Draco Malfoy formed part of that clan.
Hermione brushed her hair away from her face and felt the sticky wetness of her tears. Hermione tried to wipe them away but as soon as she felt they were gone, more and more began to flow. Hermione could do nothing to stop the tears coming then. All her pain from rejection over the years seemed to be pouring out with this final gut punch. Hermione wanted to continue to berate herself for being so foolish but all she felt was sad. Hermione's tears began to become sobs as memories were rushing through her mind and she had to move to the side of the corridor in order to seek the support of the cold wall. She closed her eyes begging for the tears and thoughts to stop and yet, they would not. Hermione had never felt so overwhelmed by sadness and she did not know how to cope with the feelings.
"Stop!" Hermione began to shout at herself, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" Hermione braced both her hands against the wall in an attempt to bring herself back to earth. Her body had become so cold as she shivered whilst her body continued to wrack in sobs.
"Pain demands to be felt sweetheart, let go…"
With that freedom and permission, Hermione allowed a shattering scream to leave her lips and she pushed both her fists against the wall. The corridor around her seemed to break into hundreds of pieces as the knights stationed to patrol the corridor exploded into its different pieces and inanimate paintings splintered. The chaos around her went unnoticed to Hermione whose pain was pouring out of her and left the corridor in a similar state of despair.
Hermione's hands slowly moved down the wall and her head sagged backwards as she took a slow, deep breath of air. Hermione moved her head forwards and with her eyes still closed continued to take careful breaths. Slowly, her breathing returned to normal and Hermione willed herself to finally reopen her eyes. She stared at the wall before turning her body round to take in what her outburst had caused. Hermione looked on at the devastation and found herself to feel conflicted. She knew she should feel disappointed at the damage she had caused to a place she loved but she also felt surprised at what her power had done. This conflict meant Hermione's emotions switched from sadness to confusion and she quickly moved to collect her bag and ran away from what she had caused.
As she laid in bed some time later, Hermione wrapped her arms around herself and sighed. Hermione had known her evening with Draco was not likely to be pleasant when she entered the library, but she never expected this. Hermione knew she should feel sad but instead, she felt only anger. She felt angry he had made her feel this way and angry that he had stolen her first kiss from her. What had made her feel such fire was now replaced with ice. Hermione turned, closing her curtains and closed her eyes to go to sleep.
Hermione awoke to the next morning to the heat of the sun against her skin. Her eyes opened suddenly, and she stretched out pushing her covers down to her midriff. Hermione came to realise her curtains were now open, although she was sure she had closed them the night before. Hermione moved her legs out of the bed and enjoyed the cool feel of the stone floor against her warm body and began her usual morning routine. She realised she had woken a little later than she would ordinarily like and decided to get dressed quickly and make her way to the Great Hall for breakfast. She knew she would likely arrive there at the same time as the boys. Hermione packed all of her things into her bag and entered the common room.
Then, she noticed in the middle of the small, round table was a white cup placed on a white saucer and as she edged closer, she noticed the familiar scent of peppermint tea. Her favourite. This seemed strange and Hermione knew very few people in the wizarding world who enjoyed peppermint tea, instead prefering things such as pumpkin juice in the morning.
She gripped the handle to the cup and enjoyed the smell as it entered her nose, it smelt normal and Hermione could not detect anything untoward and she hesitantly took her first sip. It tasted normal too. Hermione finished the cup and felt her mood had lifted. She didn't give much thought to how it had got there and assumed one of the castle's elves had placed it there for her, as she liked to make regular visits to the kitchen to see how they are. With just a cup of tea to fuel her, Hermione felt determined to forget the events of the past evening. She regretted she had lost control, again, but knew this time would be the last, she just needed to get it out of her system.
Hermione strolled happily through the portrait hole and made her way through the castle down to the Great Hall. However, her journey stopped a floor away as she crossed paths with the boys who told her they had already eaten and not wanting to eat alone Hermione decided to skip breakfast. It appeared it was a lot later than she had thought. She turned and started walking beside the boys as they engaged in conversation.
"How was your study session with the ferret?" Ron asked, he tried to appear as though he did not care but Hermione knew he was itching to throw insults at Malfoy. She tried to hide her grimace; she should have known one of them were bound to ask. "It was not as bad as I am sure you would like it to have been Ron. We read books, made notes and that was it." Hermione knew no good could come from telling the boys what had occurred yesterday evening. They would be determined to go 'defend her honour' and that was something that could only lead to trouble. Harry chose this time to enter the conversation, "Are you sure he didn't do anything Hermione? Because you know Ron and I..." Hermione quickly interrupted him, "I know you would but it's fine, it was fine." Ron and Harry knew from the look on Hermione's face that was as much information as they were going to get on the subject and decided to drop it, instead deciding to bring up the upcoming quidditch trials. Hermione attempted to feign interest as best she could, but she would never understand the hype surrounding quidditch that the boys felt. Hermione felt sorry for Ron in some way as he had never been on the team previously where all of his siblings, aside from Percy, had but he surprised her when he announced this year, he was going to try out.
"I want to be keeper. We haven't got long left at school and I want Gryffindor to have that quidditch cup over Slytherin." Ron had to bring his hatred for Slytherin into everything.
"Ronald, I understand wanting to win but must you bring Slytherin into everything you say." Ron made to retort what Hermione had said but both he and Harry stopped abruptly and appeared shocked. Hermione, confused, turned her attention from the boys to what had stolen their attention and stopped.
"Look at the damage you caused princess."
The trio had reached the corridor she had fled the night before. Hermione's eyes moved all around the corridor and saw other pupils trying to move through the broken objects scattered over the floor and questioning what could have caused such damage. Hermione did her best to appear surprised also, but her façade faltered when she saw Malfoy staring straight at her. When her eyes met his, he smirked. The cold that washed over her when she heard that voice became even more chilling as they stared at one another from either side of the corridor. Hermione could tell he knew it was her and she waited in anticipation for him to announce what she had done to the rest of the pupils in the corridor and when
he stepped forward, Hermione reached and grasped Harry's hand. Draco stepped forward past his friends and produced his wand from his sleeve. Hermione braced herself, she was going to lose her headship and everything she had worked for in the next minute. She bit down hard on her lips to stop any tears and prayed her friends would understand. As Hermione watched Draco's lips open, she had no choice but to reside herself to her fate.
"It astounds me that not one of you thought to use any brain cells and go retrieve a professor to tidy up this mess." Hermione let out a breath she did not realise she was holding and stepped forward as Draco continued, producing her own wand to start to repair some of the mess she had caused. "I mean my god aren't Ravenclaws supposed to be intelligent? Instead of picking up the helmet and holding it, perhaps using your magic to rectify the problem would be useful." Hermione decided on this occasion she was best not to interrupt should Draco decide to reveal her secret after all. "If it wasn't any of you idiots, I would suggest you all go away and leave this to us to clear up. If I come across anything like this in the future, I will be ordering detentions." At this threat, the crowd that had gathered began to disperse and pupils began to move to their classes. Between them, Draco and Hermione restored the corridor to its original state, and they exchanged a nod as they continued to their classes.
Hermione moved quickly past the boys who looked at her in disbelief as she had allowed Draco to address the pupils in this way and she exchanged a quiet "see you later" as she left the corridor and ascended high into the towers for ancient runes.
Hermione was relieved when the remainder of her day passed without issue after she had decided to spend her lunch time in the library reading and used her free periods to get ahead in both charms and ancient runes. Hermione decided to make her way to the Great Hall for some dinner before she had to patrol with Malfoy that evening. She walked in and took a seat at the table beside Ginny and the two entered an easy conversation about their first week back at school. Hermione knew Ginny was also keen to once again join the quidditch team and she did her best as she did for the boys to be as interested as she could. Hermione left the hall without taking the time to stop to talk to the boys as she wanted to change before patrolling this evening. Hermione entered her dormitory after spending some time waiting for the dark couple to entangle themselves and hear the password. She changed from her robes and shirt into a warm jumper leaving her skirt on. She clambered onto her large bed and pulled a book from her bedside to pass the time before she was due to patrol. Some time passed when she heard the familiar buzzing of her wand and knew that was her signal to leave to patrol.
Hermione left her room and found Draco slumped on the sofa waiting for her.
"Must you always keep me waiting Granger? Do they not hold any standards in the muggle world because here, wizards like me, should be treated with respect." Malfoy drawled without even sparing a glance in her direction. Hermione knew if she did not stand her ground now, he was going to continue to try and squash her.
"Malfoy, I do not know who made you think you can speak to people in this way. The way you treated me last night was unacceptable and I will not have you put me down in every conversation we have. Your father may have made you feel as though you are superior to everyone else, but I am here to remind you, that you are not. In fact, you are second to me. Second to me in everything, last I checked." Hermione turned on her heels and walked through the portrait hole without sparing Malfoy a glance.
Hermione continued her walk through the corridors and used her rage to fuel her as she glanced into classrooms to check they were empty. Hermione heard the faint clap of shoes on the floor and knew Malfoy was following her.
"Granger." Malfoy commanded but Hermione ignored him and continued her descent down the stairs and moved past the great hall and moving on to check near the kitchen for Hufflepuff pupils. "Granger." Hermione knew he wanted her attention, but she would not give him the satisfaction. She rounded back and descended down the stairs to the dungeon to check all Slytherin pupils were in bed. "Granger, I will not ask again." She knew he was going to get fed up soon but did not realise how close he had gotten. Hermione felt his hand wrap around her arm and her head banged against the cold, dungeon wall. She was surprised she had not gained a concussion from the number of times she had banged her head in the past two weeks. "Malfoy, I don't know where you get off man handling me like this, but you cannot treat me this way." Hermione wriggled and tried to break free from his grasp, but she found he had her firmly placed against the wall.
They began a staring match as Hermione stilled her wriggling and waited for him to release her from the wall. "Malfoy." Hermione uttered. "Granger." Draco responded with a smirk. "You are quite the fiery soul, aren't you Granger?" Draco asked but did not allow her to answer. "I am aware I, perhaps, did not behave in a gentlemanly manner last night but I think we both know what happened must go no further than the two of us. Not that I believe anyone would believe a word of it." Hermione felt her heart beat rapidly against her chest. "I do, however, make no promises not to 'manhandle' you again." Draco chuckled at this as he used Hermione's words against her. Hermione scolded herself as she found she felt emotional as she thought back to the previous evening and looked at the man before her who had stolen her first kiss.
Hermione felt Draco's grasp on her loosen and used this to help her and she slipped beneath his arm and took several steps away from him down the corridor. Hermione took a deep breath and stared at him. "Malfoy, we have to work together for the next two years and I would prefer not to spend them in a constant war of words and fight. Let's finish our patrol and learn to talk like adults." Hermione hoped this would be the last of the conversation and took a step forward to continue their patrol through the dungeon so she could return to the safety of her dorm. Hermione took another step when Malfoy's voice echoed through the hall once again.
"Touchy about the loss of our first kiss, are we Granger?" Hermione did not know how he knew it was her first kiss but she did know he was trying to get another rise out of her and took a deep breath as she swallowed the lump in her throat. She turned back to him and took him in before steadying herself to reply.
"Fiery I may be Malfoy but you, you are like ice."