A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out. I was having quite a few problems with several scenes, two of which I just ended up taking out! I also was having some chronological problems that I just remembered about…Not sure how I'll deal with those, but I'll get to it later. I love you all, my faithful reviewers!
CHAPTER 13: Preparations
The month of November seemed to dissolve before Hermione's eyes, and before she knew it, it was November 22nd. The Saturday dawned overcast, the clouds threatening to bathe them all before long. Hermione, Harry, and Ron went to visit Hagrid, and she found herself actually having fun. Somehow, the trio managed to get out of a meeting with Grawp too, although they had already gone earlier that month.
Hermione had been vaguely surprised when Harry and Ron had approached her proposing that they all go see Hagrid. She hadn't seen much of them lately, it seemed like one or the other of them were always sneaking off somewhere, or practicing quidditch, or off at classes or somewhere. But their lively visit with Hagrid was happy, and they all came back grinning.
While Hermione was in her dormitory putting her scarf, gloves, and coat away, there was a tapping at the window. She looked over to see Draco's eagle owl there, and she let it in quickly. The note it held tightly in its beak said:
The usual place at midnight.
D.M.
Grinning, she tucked the note away in her trunk. Today was their one-month anniversary. The note raised her spirits even more, if possible, and she flounced down to dinner positively ecstatic. Ginny smirked at her and winked—today was her one-month anniversary too. Ron glanced to her and away, still a little unsure of how to act around her. Harry raised his eyebrows at her expression, and she just shrugged happily at him. In the enchanted ceiling overhead, the clouds shattered into rain, and Hermione laughed excitedly.
After dinner she sat down with a book in the common room, but fidgeted endlessly in her excitement. Many people cast her odd looks, but she just ignored them all. Ginny and she would meet eyes occasionally, and they would each giggle excitedly. After a long while the common room cleared out, and Ginny and Hermione were left alone. They sat on the couch, chatting excitedly about anything but the true sources of their enthusiasm.
At 11:30, Ginny gave Hermione an excited hug and left, wishing her the best of luck. Hermione finished up an essay she had for Herbology, knowing she would need to trash it later (her handwriting was shaky, and she wasn't quite sure it made sense), but it gave her something to do until midnight when she slipped out into the hall.
Easing through the shadows, she quickly came upon the Room of Requirement. She knocked softly, and then entered when she was sure no one else was in the hall. The room was the one they usually had now, the same one she and Draco had fallen asleep on the couch in earlier that month. But now it had bright red rose petals splattered all over the ground, leaving vibrant spots on the black carpet.
The room was warm, so Hermione took off her robe and put it over a chair with Draco's, leaving her in only her pajamas. She gently slipped off her shoes and tread gently on the red petals over to Draco, who took her up in his arms and kissed her lovingly. "Happy one month," she told him when he pulled back.
"To you too," he murmured. Draco took her hand in his, and covered her eyes with his other. He led her over to somewhere and dropped her hand briefly to fumble with something (a doorknob?) before he took them out into a blast of cold air and let his other hand drop from her eyes.
"Oh, Draco, it's beautiful," she said. It was only a balcony, but it overlooked the beautiful Hogwarts grounds, and she could see a gibbous moon off in the distance. Moonlight shimmered on the disturbed surface of the lake as it still rained near them. Draco wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, and she tilted her head to lean it against his jaw and wrapped her hands around his.
Hermione wished they could have stayed in that moment forever, but she was there in a pair of shorts and Draco's tank top and was soon shivering despite Draco's body heat behind her. Grinning, Draco plucked her from the ground and held her close to him. She snuggled up to his warmth as he carried her back inside, shutting the door behind them with his foot.
Draco plopped her down on the couch and before he lay down beside her like he had seemingly so long ago, he went to his robe and pulled from the pocket a black rose, which he handed to Hermione with a soft kiss. Hermione held the budding blossom close to her and smiled softly as he lay down next to her. "Hey, Draco, did your mum ever get that invisibility cloak?"
"Yeah. She got a little mad at me for asking for one, but when I explained that my Lady had asked it of me, she quickly changed her attitude about it," he told her exasperatedly.
Hermione frowned slightly, but said, "Good. Now you can come, and we can all be happy." She paused before asking something that had been bothering her, "Draco, do you like your mum?"
"Not really. Why?" he answered casually.
"Just wondering. Why don't you like her?" Hermione asked. Narcissa hadn't seemed that bad when she'd taken her shopping.
"I think you'd have to live with her to understand. She's very manipulative, my mum is. And then when she does something she shouldn't, she always finds some way to lay the blame on someone else," he answered, then began to name specific examples for Hermione. They talked long into the night about various things before Hermione fell asleep in his arms.
"C'mon, Hermione," Ginny laughed. "That little dress shop in Hogsmeade brought in a ton of catalogues for us to order from, and the best part is that they're bringing in a lady who's really good with illusions so we can try on illusions of the dresses we want to see!" And then, in a quieter voice, she added, "So what are you two going to wear to the ball? You guys at least need complementary colors!"
"Hm…we talked about it on the twenty-second, and I think the decision was that he was going to wear black robes, and I was going to wear either a dark red or a dark green," Hermione said slightly nervously. They couldn't be too matched, because they weren't technically going together, even though they really were. This was one of the times when the fact that their relationship was a secret got in the way. In fact, Hermione couldn't think of many times when it didn't.
Ginny looked dubious, "If you say so. I think you should probably go with white though, that would be better. Black and white are more complementary than the colors you just listed off," she said. Hermione shrugged, honestly not caring too much.
"Are you two going in costume, or just in robes? I'm hearing about a lot of costumes, people seem to think that that's a better idea," Ginny confided.
Hermione made a funny noise in the back of her throat. "I'm…not really sure, actually." Ginny gave her a hard look as they finally got down the last staircase to the Entrance Hall, which was absolutely packed with people trying to find dresses, dress robes, or anything imperative for their costumes.
Ginny pushed Hermione off towards the dungeons instead. "Come back later when you two have figured out what you want," she whispered with a wink. Sighing, Hermione went off to find Draco. As soon as she was out of sight of the entrance hall, she transfigured her robes into something vaguely cloak-like so that she wouldn't draw too much attention and went to the Slytherin common rooms.
"You," she snapped at a third year, who instantly turned weak to her will. "Is Malfoy here?" The boy nodded and shakily pointed to the back of the room. When he thought she wasn't looking, he sneered at her (showing off for his friends), and she gave him a semi-gentle smack. "If I catch you doing that again, I'll rip off your face," she said threateningly. He nodded guiltily and she dropped him down onto the floor as Draco stood up to see what the commotion was. "We need to talk," she told Draco.
Looking slightly confused, Hermione took Draco down the hall and shoved him into an empty room. It reminded her somewhat of the dank and dark prison cell she'd been pushed into over a month ago. She smiled at the memory of their first kiss. "Oh, it's you," he said, finally understanding. She rolled her eyes at him and locked the door behind them.
"Ginny was bugging me about our costumes, or lack thereof," she said. "What exactly are we going as? The ball is only a few weeks away, on the 24th, and here it is already the 6th!"
"Hm…" Draco mumbled in thought. "We have to have masks, at the very least, no matter what our costumes are so that no one recognizes us. And…ah, hm…" he trailed off in thought again. "An angel, for you, would be beautiful," he told her.
"And ironic," she added.
"But I don't know what I would be. A devil?" he murmured in thought, then laughed at the look on her face, "No? Okay then, something else…"
"Oh, Draco," Hermione said faintly, looking off into space. "There was something I read once…" With a snap of her jaw, she yanked herself back from her memory. "Meet me at the library in ten minutes. We need to find that book." Hermione dashed out of the room and hurried up to the library, mentally thanking herself for finding that passageway from the Entrance Hall, and that today was an even day. She skipped up the steps, being sure to remember the pattern, and at the top of the stairs turned right to find herself right outside the library.
Going to the back, she pulled several books on Wizard Mythology from the shelves on the way. Wizard Mythology was a bit before the early Egyptian civilizations, and several additional tomes had been found nearly ten years ago and translated recently. It was in these recent ones that she searched frantically through, looking for a specific chapter that she remembered…
"Aha," she murmured at the very end of the second book, which was analyzing the translation rather than being the actual translation. "'An angel wingéd with black and forever lurking in shadow, long blade in hand' refers to what they believed to be the 'angel of death'. This Angel of Death is similar to the more modern version of the 'grim reaper', or in the muggle mythological times, the gods of hell. According to the scripts, this Angel of Death carried around a sort of Egyptian long sword, made of beaten bronze with an ivory handle, and would use this to kill his 'victims'. According to the texts, the Angel of Death wore long, flowing black robes and also a stone mask, which he would take off just before serving the deathblow to his prey. Translations imply that this Angel of Death was male.
"According to texts, only one person ever managed to evade the final stroke of the Angel's blade. The closest translation to her name was 'Ishtar', as that part of the text was severely damaged. According to the writings, she 'talked with this Angel and convinced him through charm to spare her life', and later was said that she, too became immortal as he and was often referred to as his wife."
"Which part are we looking at?" a voice breathed in her ear. Hermione jumped, having forgotten herself in the book. She pointed to the passage, and he read it over her shoulder while she kept a lookout for other students. "So…you want me to be this Angel of Death?"
Hermione shrugged. "It was an idea."
"Okay then. Sounds good. Now, you'd better be off to find the Weasley girl before she goes mad." Ignoring his slightly rude tone at Ginny's name, Hermione stood and gathered the other two books to put them away. "Ah…Hermione, how am I supposed to get wings?"
"Figure it out," she said with a smirk. He gave her a playful look of annoyance as she bounced off to find Ginny.
"Oh, Hermione, you look so great!" Ginny exclaimed, adjusting Hermione's dress a little more. "Or should I call you Ishtar?" Hermione smoothed out the top of the dress, which was all white, with a tight top half that went up into a high collar and was sleeveless. Black ribbon tied up the back corset-style, and the skirt of the dress was long and pure white, with several layers that flared wide whenever Hermione moved. She had looked up Ishtar many times earlier in December, to try and find out what she would wear. At last she found a picture of Ishtar and the Angel of Death, and she had shown Draco so that they could get it right.
Ginny dusted her arms and face with something that shimmered in the light before doing Hermione's makeup in pale shades of silver. The redhead fixed a strand of Hermione's hair, which she had cut (and taken out the red streaks from) to a little above shoulder-length for the event. The girls had spent only a half hour straightening it before Ginny had lightened it to a dirty blonde and gently curled the ends upward to add some flare to it. Hermione had only allowed her hair to be cut because of the reassurance that she could use a growing charm to grow it out again after.
The final touch was a simple white mask to match her costume. It was small, only going across her eyes and nose and the top halves of her cheeks and held in place with a sticking spell. But it obscured her face enough that she would not be recognized, and she was satisfied. Hermione donned a long black cloak and slunk through the common room to go somewhere else to wait until the dance began. No one paid her any attention as she slipped through the halls and went to the Slytherin common room.
The Slytherin common room was nearly as empty as hers had been, with everyone running around trying to get their costumes on. Hermione considered sitting down to wait for Draco, but none of the chairs looked too inviting, so she decided to go up to his room and help him with his costume. She walked up the staircase carefully, still slightly unsteady on her high heeled shoes. It had been a pity she couldn't wear more comfortable shoes, but the dress had been a few inches too big, and instead of hemming it, she had opted to just wear shoes to get up that high.
Hermione knocked loudly, not wanting to walk in on anyone changing. The door opened a crack, and Blaise asked, "Who are you, and what do you want?"
"Let me in," she ordered. Blaise's eyes narrowed, and Draco came to stand behind him, wondering at the fuss. Hermione locked eyes with Draco, and he looked slightly shocked. "Well, are you going to make me stand out here?"
Draco recovered from his shock. "No, Ishtar. Come on in." He gave Blaise a meaningful look, and he dropped off to the side. Hermione entered the room and shut the door with a click behind her. Draco handed her an open book, and she memorized the spell on the page as he pulled on a black wife beater that was exactly the same as the one Hermione slept in. She dropped the book back on the bed as Draco draped a long, black cross between a robe and a cloak over his arm, and then took from beneath his bed, a sword nearly half big as him and a thin stone mask.
"Let's go," he said. Hermione first shed her cloak and folded it on his bed, loving the way his breath caught at the sight of her without it, before she followed him down into the common room, which was nearly empty. "Ah…we can do it here, I suppose," he said, slightly nervous. She gave him a strange look at the quaver in his voice, then shrugged. "Can you…can you try to get it over with fast?"
"I'll try," she promised him, and sealed it with a kiss. He pulled her closer to him and deepened the kiss. She drew back breathless and chided him slightly, saying they really needed to get him in costume. He turned his back to her, and she could see the slits he had already made in his shirt for his wings. Praying it wouldn't hurt much, Hermione did the spell, drawing her wand across the skin that was exposed by the tears in the shirt.
Instantly, Draco was on the ground screaming as his skin rippled under his shirt. His fingers clutched compulsively at the stone floor as people came from all around to see what the commotion was. With an earsplitting screech from him, the skin of his back stretched taught—too taught—and then it ripped, and two huge black wings grew from the skin, glistening slightly with blood.
And abruptly, the screaming stopped, and Draco lay panting on the ground. The other Slytherins all held their breath in amazement, and even Hermione's breath caught at the beauty of the wings. The spell was even to make them directly proportional to the person's size, so if Draco didn't hurt too much, and he wanted to, he may actually be able to get off the ground (though it wouldn't be very high), though it would take a lot of strength, as humans have too much mass to fly. Draco stood shakily, and leaned heavily on a table.
Careful of her own dress and its perfect whiteness, Hermione conjured a cloth and gently began the task of wiping the blood from Draco's back and wings. She was surprised to find that the skin of his back wasn't bleeding too much, as the wings cut off most of the blood that would normally be pouring from cuts that big. Draco experimentally flexed his wings and winced slightly, but Hermione thought he didn't look like it hurt too badly.
Finished with the backs of his wings, Hermione stepped around to the front, only then realizing just how big the wings were. They were huge, big enough to support a human's size if not the human's mass. Draco grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the circle of his arms, and his wings furled around them to obscure them from view as he kissed her. "You are beautiful," he told her afterward.
Hermione grinned up at him. "You are too," she murmured. He smirked and gave her one last kiss before letting her go.
"We need to finish," he said. She did a cursory check of the front of his wings (they didn't seem too bloodied-up), and then she took his cloak-like robe to see he'd already been prepared for this. The clothing was already ripped from mid-shoulders to the ground so that it could be draped around his wings without a problem. She pulled it on him, careful to get it around his wings and arranged at the bottom so you couldn't see his jeans through the slits. With her wand, she mended the item from under the wings to the ground while Draco did up the front of it.
Hermione picked up the mask, and was amazed at how thin it was. It was slim and perfectly carved, looking a lot like granite (was it granite?). The mask settled on his face perfectly, and Hermione had the sneaking feeling that he'd had it custom made for this event. She used the same sticking charm that she had used on her own so that it stayed, covering his face from his eyebrows to the tip of his nose and most of his cheeks. She pulled his hood up, so that it cast a shadow over most of his face, and he took slung his sword onto his back in a baldric.
They were finished. Hermione gave both of them a glance over, to see if there was anything to fix and ended up just smoothing out her dress again nervously. She could see that Draco was nervous too, as his wings twitched nervously. If anyone realized who they were, it would be all over.
Draco sat carefully on a small wooden stool, and Hermione arranged her skirt and knelt beside him, leaning her head on his leg. "You cut your hair," Draco said, running it through his fingers. "And lightened it," he added a second later.
Hermione nodded. "Yeah. Ishtar was supposed to have short dirty blond hair. I know this is a little darker than that, but it works. I'm going to put it back the way it was after tonight, though."
"Really? I think it looks good like this," Draco told her, fluffing it slightly.
Hermione snorted. "It looks good now, after a half hour of primping and fiddling with it. Then again," she said, tilting her head to the side in thought, "If I don't have to cut it again, it should only take about 15-20 minutes. Maybe I will keep it like this, if you're good," she teased. "But, actually, that wouldn't work. Then people would know that I was Ishtar, and most of the Slytherins already know who you are, and I'm sure you and your mystery date will be all around school before long. Best I stay a mystery," she told him.
Draco agreed reluctantly, and suddenly a lot of girls came pouring down the stairs. It was only then that Hermione realized boys had been slowly leaking into the common room the whole time, and now that all the girls were done, the ball would obviously be starting soon. She stood and brushed herself off while Draco did the same, taking her hand in his.
"You ready?" he breathed in her ear. She smiled and squeezed his hand excitedly and they edged out of the common room. His wings fluffed themselves nervously as they joined the crowd waiting outside the Great Hall. There was a ring of people around them, looking at them in awe and amazement at Draco's wings, and everyone kept their distance. Draco pulled her close and wrapped an arm around her waist protectively, and she could feel his anxiety in his tight grip.
She felt the unease seep into herself too. If someone figured out who they were, they were in big trouble. She had stupidly overlooked the impact their costumes would have on everyone. Having huge black wings was not exactly the most inconspicuous thing in the world. This was the first time they were out together as a couple in public, and they were both feeling the strain of it.
The doors yawned open before them, and everyone streamed into the Hall. Draco and Hermione hung back, entering last to give enough room for Draco's wings.
The dance had begun.
After nearly two hours, both Hermione and Draco were finally relaxed. They would be able to pull this off, and each were comfortable with that. The two of them danced often, and the whispers followed them. She could hear Draco's name a lot, as the Slytherins confirmed the identity of the winged figure. But no one seemed to know who she was, and she smirked at that and danced on. Always, it seemed like it was only the two of them on the dance floor, and Hermione reflected that it may have been because of the space most of the other couples gave them.
Dumbledore announced the last dance of the night. Draco pulled Hermione away from her animated chat with Ginny by the slightest touch on her arm. Hermione grinned up at him, and Draco felt his heart ache for her as she took his hand. He led her onto the dance floor as the music began to play.
Draco would have to tell her by the end of the song. It was then or never. His hands shook nervously, but he didn't think Hermione noticed as she rested her head on his shoulder. Before he knew it, he was already hearing the song winding up. He furled his wings, which had wrapped, seemingly of their own accord, around himself and Hermione.
It was time to tell her. He didn't really know how to approach the subject, so he decided to be blunt. "Hermione," he whispered hoarsely, and she looked up at her name. "I…I think I'm falling in love with you."
"Hermione," she looked up sharply at her name, worried someone might have heard. But there was no one around them, as usual. Draco continued, "I…I think I'm falling in love with you." These were the last words she had ever expected to hear from him.
"WHAT?" she shrieked. All heads turned to watch. She took a step backward, away from him, her eyes wide with fear and filling with tears. "But…you can't," she said. The tears broke loose, and coursed down her face under her mask. "You just can't," she said, taking a few more steps back.
The whole Great Hall was watching this episode avidly. Hermione spun on her heel with a sob and began to walk slowly to the doors. After a few paces, she broke into a job and then a full-blown run, which turned into a sprint. She slammed into the doors and as they slowly opened against her weight, pulled off her run-impairing high heels.
Clutching her shoes in her hand, Hermione ran aimlessly across Hogwarts grounds. When she slowed to a walk, she began to analyze her reaction. You don't think he should love you because you love him. No, not because you love him (you don't love him), she told herself, but because you two should be enemies. But you love him too, and you're just mad because he may love you back.
But why would I be mad at him, then? Hermione thought in confusion. A small voice in the back of her mind said, Because you're scared. Brushing that thought off, she figured it must just be because she was in shock at hearing that from him. Suddenly, she realized what she was standing in front of.
It was a dragon, a Hungarian Horntail if the silhouette it cast against the light of the moon was any clue.
"Oh, my," Hermione mumbled under her breath. She heard a startled gasp and a muttered curse, as well as a whispered comment. She turned slightly, keeping the dragon at the corner of her eye to see Draco standing there, and another person running back to the castle. Meeting her eyes, he summoned his broomstick, and Hermione tried to see just where they were.
"The Weasley girl has gone to get help," Draco told her as he looked in awe at the dragon. Hermione was dismayed to see just how far she had strayed from the castle. They were very far away. It would be a while before Ginny got back. Harry and Ron came wheezing out the darkness and saw the dragon too.
"Summon your brooms and keep the dragons busy," Hermione called as she pulled up her skirts and struggled to get her wand out from where she'd strapped it to her leg. "We can't let them get to the castle." The dragon edged closer, breathing a brilliant spout of flame into the air.
Draco's broom zoomed there out of nowhere, and Hermione mounted in front of him, refusing to be left on the ground. Draco's wings twitched nervously until he wrapped them around the broom as they flew. Hermione felt a rush of adrenaline as Draco swerved them away from the hot trail of smoke from the dragon's nostrils. In the distance, she could see another two dragon shapes looming in the darkness. Faster and faster they went, avoiding the head and the tail of the creature.
Hermione saw Harry and Ron break away from the dragon she and Draco were working on, and saw them head for the two she'd seen in the distance. As Draco dodged another blast of fire, Hermione saw even more dragons coming from the other side. She desperately hoped Ginny had made it to the castle and was on her way back.
Hermione saw the horned tail come close, and she shot a spell at the Hungarian Horntail's eyes and the tail went berserk, missing her and Draco by a long shot. Draco hovered just above the dragon's eyes, away from danger for a moment. She risked a glance to Harry, who had two dragons now, and Ron, who still had one. She saw that another dragon was nearing them, and before she could point it out, they were off and flying again.
Suddenly, Hermione realized why the dragons were so eager to attack but wouldn't fly after them and give chase. They had no wings. The wings must've been removed. But by whom? She wondered. No wonder the dragons are attacking us, she thought, to be de-winged must be painful. Draco circled the dragon's head unevenly.
Hermione looked back toward the castle, and felt a flare of hope when she saw Ginny coming, leading the staff. She looked around to see that Ron was already coming in, but Harry was still too busy with his dragons to get away, going in circles around one while both lashed at him furiously. Hermione frantically pointed to Harry, and Draco obligingly took them in that direction. As they neared, Hermione saw one of the dragons rear and pull its tail back. And then suddenly Harry was next to them, and Hermione gestured frantically to the ground. Getting the hint, Harry began to go down, and Draco leveled down with him.
Hermione glanced behind them just in time to see a huge, spiked tail nearing her. Draco's wings wrapped around her just as a blinding pain hit her, and she felt nothing. And then she was falling, and she landed softly somewhere, with something warm on her good side.
She opened her eyes—she hadn't realized they were closed—and saw Draco. Those once-cold gray eyes were warm with love and pain. Tears ran down his cheeks both under and over his mask, and it was then that she noticed her own tears.
A wry smiled curved her lips, but it turned to a grimace of pain as she remembered to breathe, the timeless moment over. She coughed and felt a metallic-tasting liquid enter her mouth. Blood. She looked back up at Draco and knew she needed to tell him before it was too late. She wheezed in a breath and said, "I'm sorry, for betraying," she coughed violently and wished she could just die rather than live in this pain. "For betraying you. I don't want," she suppressed a cough, which hurt a little less than actually coughing. "Don't want to be bad anymore." She wheezed in, and felt the blood enter her pierced lung. "I want to be good now." His tears dripped on her cheek, and she reached up to wipe them away, falling limp in his arms halfway through the gesture.
Your arms around me tight
Everything, it felt so right
Unbreakable, like nothin' could go wrong
Now I can't breathe
No, I can't sleep
I'm barely hanging on
—Kelly Clarkson "Behind These Hazel Eyes"
No it is not over!
Now, questions:
Jondy13: Er…I actually don't know if he could have gotten an invisibility cloak from the Room of Requirement, and because I don't know, I decided to have him get one the regular way. That might have worked, though. Um…I really don't think anyone is going to be having sex in my story, but if a couple does end up doing such it won't be graphic.
Alianne, it's fun for me to answer all your questions! Feel free to ask any at any time, and I'll answer them (so long as it doesn't give too much away)!
