Chapter Four: Impressions
Such is: what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
—Francis Thompson
Why he had to sit so silently, Hermione could not understand. The way he was spooning at his cornflakes reminded her of a child who had become bored of the same morning rituals within life. She blinked slowly, hardly corresponding to the fact that she had been watching his wrist turn so carefully. She quickly spooned a portion from her own bowl but he appeared too absent to notice her actions.
A shaft of sunlight broke through the window and Hermione's concentration lapsed as she avoided the light by holding her hand over her right eye for a moment. As she lowered her hand again, she wiped the corner of her mouth and looked up towards a wall clock, which was in the shape of a farmyard pig. She coughed slightly as a cornflake lodged in the back of her throat.
Picking up a glass to the right of her, she sipped lightly at the crystal clear water and swallowed slower than usual, trying to make minimal noise. Her guest looked as though the slightest movement would shock his heart into stopping. She lowered the glass silently and peered over at him again; milk glistened on his chin. Hermione shook her head slightly and tried to abstract herself.
Hermione pulled herself back into the chair and scanned a portable radio on the kitchen sadly. She felt that it was probably best to avoid playing music from her world with Draco in the vicinity; she didn't want to ignite his emotions, even without his wand. She patted her trousers again and was relieved by the security of the two wands in her pocket. She stood up and Draco shifted with her movement.
Picking up her empty bowl and glass, she moved over to the kitchen sink and began to run the water to a careful temperature. She wondered whether Draco even knew what washing a dish was, especially with his hundreds of poor House Elves and lack of understanding of actual human activities. She felt that it was best not to think of matters, as she was likely to detest his presence more so.
She swirled the water around the bowl and left it to rest on a plastic rack beside the sink. She paused for a moment before repeating the process with her spoon and glass. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Draco was no longer spooning at his food but was rather staring towards the window and Hermione presumed that he was watching the crow on the washing line.
Slowly, she turned off the water and turned around to look at him reluctantly. The lack of expression made her feel pity towards him and she almost wanted to see the look of disgust that was usually present in his steely eyes. Leaning against the kitchen counter in front of the sink, she rubbed her trousers for a moment and sighed to herself.
'You worked out the shower then, did you?' she asked him conversationally. He nodded slowly in response. Biting her lip before speaking, she opened her mouth nervously. 'You don't have to eat it, you know,' Hermione stated coolly.
He avoided making any contact with her eyes as he lowered the spoon again. 'I'm just not hungry, that's all,' he added tonelessly.
She nodded slowly and moved over to collect the bowl from where he was sitting. Turning her back on him, she began to empty the bowl into the waste bin, with the spoon he had used. She felt that the metal was warm. The lid of the bin dropped with a loud clash and she moved over to the sink to rinse the bowl out, as she had done with her own.
She paused for a moment. 'So, the fact that it came from here,' she stopped herself from finishing the sentence, assuring herself that her thoughts would make no impression.
With her back still turned to him, she could feel his eyes falling upon her. 'Has nothing to do with anything,' he mumbled almost inaudibly.
A brief moment in time fell short and Hermione almost felt the temperature in the room rise. She decided that it was simply because she had been standing in front of the window too long. Hermione did not want to know why and presumed that it was simply a reaction to whatever spell she and Draco were under but she had no intention of using her lifestyle as a means of leverage against him any further. He seemed oblivious to the fact, so she would also. It was the only way the week would be durable.
Hermione took a step forward but recoiled. There was a pottery biscuit jar on a corner shelf in the kitchen. She reached upwards and ignored the fact her top stretched upwards with her arm. Removing the jar from the shelf and lowering herself from the stretch, Hermione took the lid off and began to count something with her hand still inside. After a moment or two, she removed a wallet, refreshed with money, from the jar.
Returning the jar to the shelf, she turned on her heal slightly and noticed that Draco's head had jerked forwards. Observing him for a moment, almost curiously, she simply shook a disastrous theory from her mind and put the wallet and money in her spare pocket. She pulled her t-shirt down so that it covered the wands in her second pocket.
She stammered her breath for a second and quickly glanced away and back again. Moving towards the backdoor of the house, she reached for some trainers that were settled on a rack. She pulled the shoes on without adapting the laces and moved a couple of strands of hair from obstructing her vision as she did so.
'I'm going to the supermarket,' she began bluntly, 'what size do you take?'
His head bobbed upwards violently and Hermione tried to unravel a concoction of emotions on his face. At first he had appeared curious, it had not occurred to her for a moment that he didn't understand the concept of a supermarket. She blushed as he raised his left eyebrow and she realised that her question needed developing. He smirked; the most emotion she had seen upon his face for a good hour or so.
'You're not proposing to wear those,' she scanned his black trousers and t-shirt wearily, 'all week, do you?'
She could tell that he understood her point. 'Well, I'm hardly going to tell you that, am I?'
She tightened her lips. 'Well, I can't keep washing them everyday, can I?'
His cheek dented and she realised that she had made point of a prolonged stay. He watched her for a moment and she shifted her face to the side, pretending to watch the birds in the garden. Draco cleared his throat and she peered away thoughtfully, hoping that he would speak without her pure attention.
Draco remained on his chair but sat to the side, his legs stretched in front of himself. 'Your cat was hissing at me, as I came out of the bathroom,' he informed her and Hermione wondered whether she would become accustomed to the polite tone in his voice.
'He's a good companion,' she added with a shrug, pulling some keys from a hook on the wall and attaching them to a belt ring on the waist of her trousers.
Draco twitched his head to the side and nodded. He stood up quickly as Hermione took a few steps towards the kitchen door. She attempted a small smile as she walked past him and tried to ignore his presence as she passed through the door and into the hallway. As Hermione approached the front door of her house, she turned around quickly to face Draco, as he was tailing her.
She stared at him for a moment, pupils widening. 'Coming, are you?' she asked smoothly, before pulling the handle down so that the door could widen.
Hermione noticed that there was a timid nature to his walk, as he passed through the door closely behind her and then in front. There was also a slight limp remaining but it seemed to have strengthened drastically since she had last seen him walk. Turning around, she closed the door with a light thud and avoided eye contact with any of the people who were working at the house opposite.
For a moment, Hermione led him towards the main road in silence. She walked casually at her usual speed but slowed her pace when she realised that there was a slight cringe dented into Draco's cheeks. He stepped off of the curb as they turned a corner. The sound of a cars horn blasted and Draco recoiled backwards, almost falling into Hermione. She cringed, worry had flashed before her for a moment.
Draco began to swear openly at the car and driver, even though it was well out of hearing distance. Local residents were observing him from the opposite side of the road. One woman ushered her small child along quickly and glared at Hermione angrily. Hermione quickly avoided her eyes and stared at Draco wearily.
She tapped him on the arm and gestured with her head for him to cross the road, thankful that he was too irate to judge her. 'I told you this place would kill me!' he blurted out, face red but temper lowered.
Hermione continued to walk the path, hoping that Draco would not react that way again. She was not as cross with him as she thought she should be; in his position, she could see why he had reacted in that nature. The car had been speeding. She tried to argue with her own mind and could not understand why she was justifying his actions.
'You didn't have to come. You just had to tell me you size—I wouldn't have judged. You could have stayed at home,' the sentence seemed odd to Hermione, even as she spoke. The term home was used loosely but somehow, it seemed accurate.
'And let you wander off with my wand?' it seemed to have been an opportunity to remind her that she still occupied his life-force. A sense of guilt surged through her momentarily and she avoided the statement. She ignored a passer-by who shot them a curious look.
'We're nearly there,' she informed him quietly, trying to keep her voice toneless.
Hermione continued to lead Draco towards a small town centre. She watched him for a moment; the expression in his eyes was readable and showed a mixture of terror and interest. She smiled to herself and took a small alleyway to the right of the path. Draco was following her closely but almost appeared to be trying to seem separate from her. Hermione decided that she was being paranoid.
They ventured through the alley. Hermione had avoided a large car park by taking it and had thought it best that way. They passed onto a large tiled pathway for a new shopping development and Hermione watched as Draco's eyes searched upwards for the sign above the large building. It was bright green and simply said, ASDA. She smiled as he wandered beside her, trying to see through the darkened glass within the frame of the building.
Hermione pulled her wallet from her pocket and searched for a pound coin to use in the trolley. Once she had found one, purposely avoiding Draco's attempt to pretend not to be curious, she quickly pressed the pound into the contraption and released the first trolley of the row. Pulling it backwards, she allowed Draco to walk alongside her, as she walked through the large, automatic doors. Draco did not speak, he simply followed beside Hermione.
'We'll find you some clothes first,' she told him, 'they stock a few here but you might find them a bit,' she paused.
'Odd?' he offered and Hermione was surprised to hear him speak.
She smiled slightly. 'Different.'
She watched him observe his surroundings for a moment and wondered what he was thinking at the time he allowed a small smile to pass through his thoughts. She turned the trolley to the right and began to take an accustomed route to the clothes section. She found it slightly sad that she knew the layout of the shop as well as she knew her own home.
Draco observed the aisles as they reached the clothing department and Hermione was surprised to see him offer her a short shrug. Her own eyes squinted slightly; this had not been the reaction she had expected. She simply gestured for him to look and he glanced at her curiously.
She rolled her eyes. 'Pick something then—or do I have to?' she allowed an eyebrow to heighten and Draco pulled back slightly.
She watched as he walked over to a row of the clothes timidly. He was observing a row of t-shirts; black with a green printed stripe across the shoulder. 'This one?' he offered her, pulling the first one off of the rail and handing it her. She tried to hide a snort but was unsuccessful. Draco glared at her. 'What?' he snapped.
She unfolded the arms of the t-shirt, as they had been pinned back with plastic crocodile clips. She unfolded the shirt and it dropped down, showing its true size of extra, extra large. She checked the ticket and looked back up at Draco, who appeared to be hiding a smile of his own.
She grinned mischievously. 'You can have it if you want,' she had her head bowed and looked up once more.
He shook his head but was allowing himself to search the row of tops for a more appropriate size to his figure. His hands dropped down to the rail below and he was scanning some trousers doubtfully. He ripped a ticket off one of the pairs of trousers and handed it to Hermione.
'What does this mean?' he asked curiously, in the same polite tone he had used previously.
Hermione sighed strongly. 'You're not supposed to take those off,' she moaned, 'the large number is the price,' she pointed to it for him, 'the small number on the coloured block is the size,' she informed him.
'Well, how are you supposed to know what size you need,' he moaned and Hermione noted that his voice was unusually high.
'What size do you usually get?' she asked.
Draco's shoulders slumped and he rolled his lightened eyes. 'I don't know,' he said and quickly added, 'warlock size fits all?'
Hermione laughed; it had not been purposely but it certainly wasn't forced. Her cheeks were tinted with pink and she quickly calmed herself. Ignoring his face, she scanned the rack of trousers and pulled a pair towards herself. Taking them off of the hanger, she unfolded them and held them up in front of him, about a foot away. His back arched away slightly and as she looked up again to see his reaction, she noticed that he appeared to be smiling towards the ceiling.