Chapter Six: Scolded
A/N: I don't own Harry Potter.
"You know what I hate?"
"Conversations that start with a question?" Ginny muttered under her breath, though her words were still clear.
"No, Hermione, enlighten me" Harry sighed as he set down his history text on the table, and prepared himself for full attention span capacities. The common room had cleared out in the last hour, and it was just the four of them sitting around the fireplace, boring themselves on a Friday evening. Harry suddenly wished he had also gone to bed when the chance had been available.
"Rats" Hermione said with an affirmative nod.
Ron looked up from his Weekly Quidditch Chronicle with raised brows. "This is less peculiar than I imagined the conversation to be" he quipped surprised by the absurdity of Hermione's thoughts.
"Do you know what I hate about rats?" Hermione continued, clearly intent on delivering her speech regardless of others interests.
"You mean beside the fact that they're sickening, pongy, and carry a small zoo of transmittable diseases on their back?" Harry smiled wryly. He could imagine that if anybody else had been present for the start of this conversation, they would have been long gone by now. Sometimes, though never seriously, he missed the days when they spent having serious, life changing discussions about the world and their lives. Lately, everything seemed pointless, and lately, he was beginning to think that it made more sense than ever. Harry loved Hermione and Ron, but he was beginning to realize without the threat of evil in their lives, the three of them were far less interesting than he could have conceived.
"Well besides that, I can't stand their little rat ways" Hermione shuddered drawing Harry back into her monologue. She brought her hands to her cheeks and wiggled her nose in her best impression of a rat. "The way they crawl into any open hole and do whatever they have to for their own survival...and when they follow you around, it's vile! And I especially hate when they act like they're better than you, and even act really nice and understanding and give you cookies because it's like they're trying to buy out your friends so that when they decide to Avada your arse you're all alone and helpless and then-"
"-Er, Hermione?" Harry interjected waving his hands in her face to get her attention, "I believe the subtext here is hastily becoming...uh text" he grimaced.
"Malfoy gave you cookies?" Ron asked his mouth gaping open as though he could taste them.
"Yeah. I mean who does he think he is, really? I mean...just what is he playing at?" she fumed "it's a trap, it must be".
"Giving you cookies?" Harry asked.
"Right" Hermione said.
"He's a mastermind" Ron smiled.
"I think when he gave you those cookies, he meant you give you the cookies" Ginny shrugged, slowly losing interest in the conversation and reverting her attention back to her nails.
"Or, maybe the cookies are the new international symbol for death? Maybe a human skull was too difficult to get his hands on" Ron chuckled, inciting laughter from both Ginny and Harry.
"Argh!" Hermione cried standing up violently. "You just don't get it, do you!" she groaned, and turned away walking up the stairs to her room.
Ron swallowed and looked from Ginny to Harry, the laughter turned into worried chuckles. Ron craned his neck around the corner of the stairwell to make sure Hermione was gone "it's getting better, right? I mean, this is better than it was last week..." he frowned.
"I think she's right though" Ginny interjected thoughtfully. "We don't understand. I mean, nobody else in this school was matched with someone they hate. But it's because I don't understand that I'm having trouble caring at this point. Honestly, it's begun to sound whiny, and Malfoy is suddenly looking more mature and reasonable in my eyes"
"Bringing new light to Hermione's paranoid rat theory" Ron interrupted.
"Well, their parents are meeting tomorrow at noon in greenhouse four...so we'll have to wait and see the results of that exchange" Harry reminded them nervously.
"It'll be a bloodbath" Ginny groaned slapping her forehead.
"And they still haven't solved the whole 'sexual tension' ordeal" Ron grinned as he creased the corner of his page and closed the magazine.
"Sexual tension doesn't usually kill you" Harry laughed bitterly.
"If you're me it can" Ron shrugged.
"I fear you" Ginny exhaled.
"So mate, what's the plan for tomorrow?" Blaise asked lounging on one of the long green chaise's in the Slytherin common room. The room was empty but for the two of them, everyone else had packed in strangely early for a Friday night. But, Blaise had the suspicion that most of the Slytherin students didn't want to be around Draco, who was a short fuse as any lately.
"The plan?" Draco asked looking up from his botany homework. "Um, the plan would be to keep our fathers from attacking one another and to probably avoiding touching Granger at any cost if I want to keep my general good health"
"I don't see why you find her so repulsive" Blaise muttered rolling over to his side and looking at Draco from across the table; the perfect uninterested look gracing his face.
"I don't find her repulsive" he mumbled in reply, "It's just that touching her will likely exterminate me...and I'm too youthful and handsome to depart this life" he scratched out a few words on his sheet of parchment. He needed to concentrate on this assignment; it weighed a quarter of his final grade. Granger was likely done, and it would likely be an O with a smiley witch stamp next to it. He hated plants, and preferred them dried and in jars for potions, not alive and dangerous and wailing. Draco hoped he would at least scrape by with an A.
"Then you find her attractive?" Blaise continued pressingly, clearly enjoying himself at the expense of his friend.
"Perhaps not her personality, but physically...sure. She's charming...in a common... exceptionally well proportioned way" he murmured in annoyance.
"Bingo" Blaise grinned lying back down on the chaise.
Hermione stood in front of the doors to the great hall, arms crossed and her left foot tapping the stone floor in agitation. She cleared her throat and looked around the empty foyer. Where was Malfoy, it was nearing noon and they had specifically agreed to meet before their parents arrived, just to go over the specifics. The foyer was empty, and a few students were treating themselves to an early lunch, or late breakfast in the hall. The foyer was so empty, it was almost surreal. There were no students sitting on the stairs, milling about the door, or reading the board notices. Just cold clean stone, a hard light shining through the windows, causing the showering of dust from the ceiling to sparkle like snow. Surreal.
A couple of Ravenclaw's suddenly exited the great hall, causing Hermione to jump in surprise, and fail to notice Malfoy's entrance from her left.
...
"I'm here" Draco said breathlessly, he had run up a couple of flights in order to arrive on time. Being as preoccupied with the latest set of contradictory thoughts that plagued him, he hadn't noticed the time.
"Oh well jolly, because I thought Armageddon would occur if you hadn't arrived" Granger snapped back, actually snapping her fingers. He stared at her blankly. She was practically foaming at the mouth, and he wasn't even actually late. Nor had he done anything, which he knew of, that warranted such aggressiveness.
"Touchy today?" he asked raising his brows, and not reminding her that Armageddon was an actually possibility if he chose to be elsewhere at this pressing time.
"I just assumed your parents would at least teach you enough to know that you should arrive at the arranged time" Granger seethed.
"Oh button it. You're such a nark; I'm not late and the reason I am right on time is because my parents taught me well. Everything I am I owe to my parents" he replied as calmly as he could. Granger was acting even ruder than normal; she was reaching new heights, or lows rather.
"Oh, well you should give them two pence and settle the debt. And I'm NOT a nark...you...you ponce" she stuttered, her voice cracking on the not. Draco frowned, ponce? He was not a ponce, no matter what the fifth years said. He had too much class for such lowly manners. And why had this suddenly turned into a name calling session? Instead of becoming more tolerant of each other, it felt as though they were regressing... infinitely. Like some ridiculous philosophical dilemma.
Granger was turning red in the face, and she was staring at him silently and in complete stillness, almost anyway. She was clearly nervous, he could see her finger tapping on her thigh, and her eyes kept darting to the door. He knew it was in both their best interests to let this little tiff slide. There were graver issues to worry about. In ten minutes their parents would be meeting them in front of the school, and he and Granger had no real plan to speak of. "So, what?"
"What what?" she asked shortly.
"What is the grand plan? Or are we just going to swing this one?" he asked leaning against the wall.
"I don't know. I was just hoping you could control your father" she suggested.
"Certainly, if you can control yourself" Draco muttered.
Granger didn't reply, and Draco realized it was due to the fact that his parents were standing at the entrance doors. He cast a side eye in Granger's direction, and saw that her red face had suddenly become white. He also noticed that her hair was styled sleekly, and her dress new and crisp. She had dressed to impress. Still Granger.
Draco cleared his throat loudly to get her attention and began to walk towards his parents, she followed him two steps behind. Out of fear, or politeness, he didn't know.
"Mother, Father" he said with nod.
His mother was wide eyed and staring about thirty centimetres to his right. While his father was looking straight at him, intensely.
"Introduce us Draco" his father said demandingly.
"Mother, Father, this is Hermione Granger...you've met before" he added uncertainly. Not sure whether it was better to mention their previous meetings. As they weren't in the best of circumstances.
"Good day. Good to see you" Hermione said evenly, shaking his father's hand first, and then his mothers.
"Where are your parents dear?" his mother asked looking around curiously.
"Likely waiting outside" Granger replied.
Draco waited for his father to make a rude remark, but none came. It seemed his mother had wrung her hold over his father for the moment. And he was practicing the art of stony silence.
"Shall we head to the greenhouse?" Draco suggested ushering his parents out of the building and putting his hand near the small of Granger's back, but carefully not touching her.
Hermione cleared her throat awkwardly. Her mother was gazing at Malfoy as though he was a pair of shiny new shoes, and her father was adamantly keeping eye contact with Lucius Malfoy. A power struggle emerging over who could remain silent the longest.
"I think we should have the wedding at our manor" Narcissa suggested pointedly, in an attempt to break the tension "We have wonderful gardens and more than enough room to entertain all of the guests"
"That sounds nice" Hermione's mother agreed.
"And there's much else to be decided...about the wedding certainly, but also about what they'll do after they graduate" Narcissa added, "Where will they live?" she sighed as an afterthought.
Hermione remained silent, just as Malfoy, uncertain of whether she was meant to take part in this conversation. And worried that should she say anything she would ruin the delicate balance in place.
"We have a lovely two floor cottage in New Hampshire" her mother suggested "We hardly ever use it, and it's quite lovely, excellent for a young couple. You could come down on a weekend, and perhaps we could decorate it and prepare the space?"
"That sounds lovely" Naricssa agreed.
"You two really intend to marry?" Hermione's father finally spoke. He turned to look directly at Hermione.
"Well, it isn't really a choice. It's more of a duty...like being enlisted in the army" Hermione said as reasonably as she could.
"And there's no way out of this...this barbarous enforcement" he asked with a tremor in his voice.
"No, it's the way it has to be" Hermione replied clearly, she had to make them understand, that these wizard ways were not the same as muggle laws. Breaking a contract in the wizarding world wouldn't just cost a fine; it would often cost ones life.
"Unfortunately, we'll just have to make do with the circumstances we are presented with" Lucius Malfoy said looking across the table, but at no one in particular. "It is what it is. This is not what I had intended for my son, as I'm certain you had not imagined this end for your daughter, but there is no use questioning it. This is the way it must be" Hermione had the distinct impression that Lucius had exhausted all of his resources trying to null this marriage and had come up unsuccessful and bitterly resigned.
"Well, would anyone like fresh tea?" Hermione's mother asked looking around the table expectantly.
Hermione collapsed down on the grass a good few meters away from the Whomping Willow reach and groaned loudly. She was emotionally exhausted after that ordeal. She realized she had spent the whole hour with her teeth clenched and now her jaw ached and her head panged. She watched Malfoy sit down near her out of the corner of her eye. She hadn't expected to rid of him so easily after that meeting, in fact she was counting on a discussion.
"Granger, we need to solve the immediate issue. I'm worried, it's been a week, and I'm starting to think our deadline is arriving pretty closely. And if you can't hate me just a little less, we'll be worse off" he said carefully, and slowly, so as to make sure Hermione would comprehend. And she did. She had realized herself that too much time had passed, and whatever horrors would spring up weren't far away.
"What do we do?" she asked.
"Do you really hate me that much?" Malfoy asked evenly. She couldn't trace any emotion in his voice at all. It unsettled her.
"It's awkward when you say it like that. And it makes me seem like an awful person" Hermione frowned as she watched the willow attack a bird.
Malfoy shrugged, "It's not untrue, and it's pretty sad that you hate me more than I hate you. It ruins my perfect reputation of callousness"
Hermione clucked, "Wouldn't want that" she smiled, and then frowned.
"Try touching me" he said extending his hand towards her.
Hermione looked at him sceptically "If I hurt you, there's no way in hell I could drag you back to the castle..."
"You're a witch, you can levitate me" he said brushing her excuses off, and waving his hand in front of her face. Hermione smacked it away.
"Ouch" he muttered.
"Still hurts?" Hermione asked interestedly.
"It's hard to tell when you actually hit me...try to touch me without the intent of inflicting harm" he suggested.
Hermione quickly tapped his open palm with two fingers and waited, looking at his face anxiously for a sign. Nothing. She tried again by placing her hand flat on his for a few seconds more. "Nothing" he said in surprise. Hermione held his hand this time tightly, and waited for him to shriek in pain. "Not exactly comfortable, I feel a little queasy and warm, but not painful" he commented.
"So generally better" Hermione concluded.
"Generally" he added "Just try to not get to angry and it'll all be great"
"Until we have to..."she tapered off, realizing she's rather not think about what they'd have to do that far ahead.
"Until then" he said with a laugh.
"It isn't exactly funny" Hermione said coldly "It's awful to think of what's waiting...not humorous"
Malfoy turned around to face her, his face had fallen and he looked annoyed. "Well, maybe it damn well should be. In case you haven't noticed Granger, life isn't always peaches and cream. So you have to pick yourself up, paste things back together as best as you can and try to laugh at the small things" he stood up and loomed over her. "It's hard enough for me too without you making every single damn thing about this harder. If you laughed once in a while, and stopped complaining about the things you can't change you would see that everything isn't as dire or as awful as you think it is. Because Granger," he pointed at her "it isn't all about you. It's about me too, and about everyone one else too. So if you think you're the only one in pain, and misery, and your poor little life is about to kaput you are a miserable person. Stop feeling so blood sorry for yourself and get over it. Whatever is causing your Salazar-damn-you-all attitude, you need to embrace the hurt, write a poem, spank your inner moppet, and deal with it. Because if you act the same way around your friends as you do around me, they'll tire of you quickly, and won't take the next thing that comes out of your mouth seriously".
Hermione stared at him open mouthed. Her brain reeling at one hundred kilometers an hour. Malfoy began to walk away before she could think of a retort.
"Oh-" he called from behind her, "And don't forget to ask your doctor about that stick in your arse, maybe you can have it surgically removed"
Hermione stared straight ahead at the flailing tree, no word coming to her at all. No jibes or insults, no defensiveness or relfection of the issues, she was dumbfounded.
She had just been scolded.