Chapter V
When Hermione got out of bed the following morning, she was still exhausted. Her night had been anything but restful. She spent hours struggling to get comfortable, only succeeding in getting tangled among the sheets and blankets. The few minutes she had spent dozing had been plagued by unpleasant dreams. Unpleasant is the wrong word, she thought as she reached for her towel. Disconcerting is more appropriate. She headed to the bathroom to take a cold shower. Scalding hot showers were her custom, but Hermione was hoping the cold water would sober her out of her fantasies.
The cold water gently massaging her tired body was refreshing. However, it did not achieve its desired effect and soon enough Hermione was lost in thought reliving her dream, a smile stealing across her face.
She and Draco were alone in Myrtle's bathroom. Hermione didn't know how, but she knew that Myrtle had left and they truly were alone. Hermione was very upset about something, but she didn't know what. The silence between her and Draco was uncomfortably expectant, something clogging the air waiting for resolution. Draco looked at her, then down at his feet. He shuffled them back and forth, placing weight on first one then the other, thrusting his hands in his pockets. Suddenly his head leaned back and he issued forth a long exhale. Standing up straight and facing Hermione, his face looked genuinely penitent as he began to speak. "Hermione, about what I said earlier…I'm sorry."
Whatever had sent her this dream had obviously skipped some part of the transmission, seeing as now Hermione and Draco had their arms wrapped tight around one another, her lips meeting with his in a kiss. Testing his boundaries to see where she would allow him, Draco parted his lips a bit more and Hermione responded by stroking the sensitive skin below his earlobe and separating her own lips, inviting Draco into a more intimate exchange.
As she wrapped her arms more tightly around him, she felt Draco encompassing her entire body. Hermione dismissed it as her emotions exaggerating the lack of space between them. But then the strange tongue caressing her own became even stranger, as she sensed it was split down the middle. Draco's skin had become cold and slick where moments before it had soft and warm. Pulling her face away from his and opening her eyes, Hermione shrieked and struggled to disentangle herself. Draco had become an enormous snake and she was helpless in his constricting coils. No longer recognizable as the demigod whose body she craved, the snake hissed lowly and Hermione screamed, even the echoes saturated with her fear and loathing.
That was when Hermione had snapped to wakefulness and reached for the Listerine on her nightstand. The fact that the Listerine was there wasn't odd; her parents were dentists after all.
That was when she had decided to take a frigid shower. Unfortunately, the icy water hadn't cleansed her mind as it cleansed her body. Shaking from both the memory of the dream and the deep cold the water left on her body, Hermione stepped from the shower and wrapped herself in her towel, leaving the bathrooms to dry off and get dressed.
She made sure to get to Arithmancy early as to avoid Malfoy's company for a second day. Alas, today was Malfoy's turn to be tardy. Everyone had learned by now the perils of sitting next to Hermione, and the desk next to her was the only one vacant. Malfoy had no choice.
Carrying his bag in his right hand, Malfoy hurried across the room, sliding into the seat next to Hermione just before Professor Vector turned to address the class and begin today's lecture.
Malfoy looked even more sickly than yesterday. The beginnings of dark rings shadowing his eyes had become more pronounced and coupled with his pale skin; Malfoy almost looked like he had recently lost a lot of blood. Of course, this weak and nearly transparent look was immensely alluring. Malfoy had some stroke of lucky genes that made it impossible for him to look bad. Even when he spent a few tortuous minutes as a ferret in their fourth year, he was the most dashing ferret on the planet, his white fur sleek and silky. Rumor had it that Malfoy had Veela in his blood.
Hermione's eyes crept over Draco's form. From the perfectly styled hair gracing his head in a delicate halo of blond to his smooth and steady hands that were in a stark contrast to his black robes, Draco was the epitome of why humans so frequently succumbed to lust. Merely being near him aroused vibrant passion in even the most stoic of his classmates. Coasting back to his face, Hermione's eyes finally lingered on his lips. They looked softer than the finest cashmere, and infinitely more inviting. She recalled the taste of them in her dream, and how smooth they were against her own. Hermione would have bet her Gringott's account that Draco's kisses were exactly as she had dreamed them, if not better. As he breathed, there was a slight tremor to his lips, and when he noticed Hermione so enthralled by them he didn't say a thing, simply gazed back. When Hermione finally stumbled out of her rapture and became aware of Draco's somber grey eyes intent on her, she peered up into the, expecting malice or snobbery at the least.
Surprisingly, she was instead met by one of the most intense looks she had ever received. It was almost obscene, how strongly Draco's eyes radiated into hers. Draco's eyes seemed to be bursting, something he desperately wanted to communicate was seeping out and he was trying to keep it under his control. His eyes seemed to caress her, but at the same time be begging for help. The longer Hermione and Draco remained locked at the eyes, the deeper she sunk into the sensuous grey orbs Draco called so modestly "eyes". That was too simple a word for them, too grotesquely understated. She could build universes with those eyes; they needed a grander title than mere eyes. She had eyes. Harry had eyes. Draco had…she couldn't even attempt to put into syllables what it was that Draco used to gaze at her. They seemed two stars of liquid beauty; and the more she returned Draco's intimate stare, she began to notice real liquid beginning to crawl out. A small, perfect bead of water collected at the corner. Gaining in size, the tear eventually became too large to remain and gravity coaxed it into gently stroking Draco's cheek. The wet on his skin must have roused him from his reverie, and Draco turned away hurriedly, discreetly drying his face.
Hermione remained staring for a short while longer, then she too turned to face the front of the room.
While her eyes might have been on Professor Vector, her thoughts were distant from Arithmancy. She and Draco had just communed in a very deep and penetrative way. In that one look she had shared herself wholly with him, and he too had laid bare his soul for her to inspect. Despite their years of assumed animosity and their plentiful spats, Hermione and Draco had just done something she had never done with anyone else. She felt closer to him than she felt to anyone, including herself. She knew that some deep and secret corner of Draco wanted her, no matter how far it was from the surface or how hard he tried to conceal it from himself; and that gaze had shown that he now acknowledged that part of him. Hermione knew that Draco knew how she was feeling and she could empathize with his emotions. No words were spoken, yet she understood that he and she were kindred spirits, and no House rivalry could separate them.
As Professor Vector announced dismissal and the commotion of students gathering their materials and leaving began, Draco turned to Hermione. He used no speech, yet his words were as clear as though he had whispered them to her. Please, he asked, please don't share this with Potter or Weasley. Hermione gave him a warm and reassuring look that replied you have nothing to fear. This was too meaningful to share with anyone else, even if I wanted too. Relief replaced the hidden anxiousness in Draco's eyes, followed with gratitude. Draco swept out of the room, managing an exit filled with all the elegance and grace he had left. Hermione stared after him, her soul brimming with a deep and quiet joy she had not experienced since she first received the letter that brought her to Hogwarts.
