By the time Hermione finally reached the top she felt as if her lungs were just about ready to give out, gasping lightly, her hand on her hip as she finally huffed once she'd met the tall landing lining the length down to Ron's narrow room. She hadn't even reached the party yet and her feet were already sore! With either hand on her hips, she trudged the small gap remaining, taking a heavy breath as she pressed the handle open into Ron's room, a small smile on her face as she ducked softly inside, sliding in to raise her hands out to her side to show him the package that was his girlfriend and date for the evening.
"What do you think of your date, mist…er…" Hermione froze speechless, her tongue locked behind the row of her teeth, her breath caught in her chest and her hands stiff in the air as she stared in wide eyed awestruck at the man she'd just ducked her head and crawled back to, despite his wrong doings, damn near plowing some nappy headed brunette into the cushions of his bed. She instantly felt her stomach drop, the former nights drinks suddenly catching up to her and making her want to hurl it all up on Ron's pale arse just feet from her now, sticking up in the air while he whipped his head to face her with that dumbfounded look tugging every corner of his face wide.
"To think…" it was all she could manage to breathe out but it was still barely just above of whisper, turning her head and heals with a rapid pace dead set back to the stairs and she'd nearly made it down the first step on wobbling heels when that cheating bastard half hauled her back round the corner.
"Please, Hermione! I didn't want you to find out like this!"
"Find out? Find out? I just caught you cheating on me but you've been cheating on me?" Hermione wrenched her wrist from his grasp, shoving his naked body back from her a few inches. She'd come here to forgive him, feeling like trash for being overly friendly to someone and as it turned out, he had been being far more than friendly to some hoe for some time. Hermione's head was reeling, her eyes rolling up to the ceiling as she shook her head at him, covering her mouth with her hand as she sighed out in astonishment, "Oh my god…that's why you wanted to meet me at the party tonight, not before…"
"Hermione, please…"
"…because you had already planned on meeting her here before…"
Ron made a move to reach for her again but Hermione snatched her arm much quicker than his skills could manage, instead moving quickly to hold his hands up defensively as she narrowed her finger threateningly against him.
"What did you owl me and then owl her? Or was it the other way around?" Usually it was Hermione that was doing the begging, pleading with him to just listen to her and hear her out but for once in their relationship, it was Ron who was standing there dumbfounded, lost for words as she stood her ground, the hatred radiating off her very being like a fog in the night.
It was like something inside of her had finally snapped. For years she had worshipped the man in front of her, holding him close like a safety blanket to support her in the chaos her life always seemed to ensure but suddenly the sweet pastels she had painted him with had vanished before her eyes and the boy she had blocked out was quite apparent to her judging eye.
"I've…been seeing Lav for about five months now…" His hands were flat palmed open in front of him, his eyes half squinted just waiting for Hermione's lash but she was too busy gawking past him in through the open door way at, indeed, Lavender Brown scrambling to pull her much too tight clothing over her sloppily curved frame.
"You son of a bitch…"
"Hermione…I was going to tell you I just didn't know how to do it. Every time I've tried it just wasn't the right time or we just wound up fighting so…"
Hermione's eyes were brimming with tears, locked on her replacement falling over herself to get proper in such an indecent situation behind the babbling idiot in front of her. She could hear her heart literally crumbling and breaking off inside of her chest but her own blood beating was beating so loudly in her with her own vibrating anger that she wasn't even sure that she could make out his words anymore.
"So you treat me like dirt, Ronald Weasley? You don't have the decency to break up with me so you cheat on me behind my back and break each and every piece of me down at every chance you get? You are a low, disgusting git and the two of you deserve each other." She couldn't help the venom that laced her words with such a deadly accuracy, her teeth bared, mascara running down the gentle curve of her cheekbones, eyes viciously carving a hole straight through the center of his forehead.
"Ronny…" Hermione snatched her head up and out of her seething fumes as Lavender clomped her way out of the door frame, shaking the entire structure of the stairs on her way, "…owl me when you wrap this up, ok?"
"You fucking bitch!" Hermione was past the point of rage and logic as she roared out past Ron, Lavender's eyes flaring up before she quickly ducked to squint them closed, aparating off her very spot up on top the stair case hall, leaving her alone with the one person she thought couldn't have possibly hurt her anymore before tonight.
Hermione was cringing, tears breaking the threshold of her eyes, spilling down to the lace of her dress as she sobbed out. Ron made another feeble attempt to step forward, trying to pull her close to him but Hermione was, again, too quick and firmly gave him a hard shove back once again, sending him crashing into the door frame behind him with a grunt. Hermione moved a slow bending of her knees, her body moving to bend forward, holding herself as she cried harshly, trying to bring her eyes up to him through the watery blur, "How could you put me through this…" She felt like her heart had been ripped from her chest and there was nothing but the hallow beat inside her ribcage now, shredding her open more with every breath she took. Everything she'd ever known had just been snatched away from her in a matter of seconds, twisting into something ugly and unknown right before her very eyes and she wished it would just swallow her whole already and put her out of this misery but he didn't deserve any more of her tears.
Hermione's eyes were dazed when Ron tried with earnest to make his way back to her, his hands grasping her biceps roughly as she cried out, straightening herself up to tug herself away as he pleaded.
"Mione, listen to me! I didn't know what to do! You're just so…please, Hermione, listen to me!"
"Get your hands off of me, Ron Weasley!" Hermione's fingers moved to attempt to pry his fingers from her arm, wincing as he only tightened them, holding her like a rag doll as she felt her own finger tips beginning to go numb as she hissed out lowly, "You're hurting me, let go."
"Hermione just listen to me!" His face was beat red, flashing shades of crimson so deep it spread over his entire body as he fought to gain control of Hermione's lashing arms. His large hands grasped and pulled until he finally swung a single hand back to plant it hard against the fall of her cheek. Hermione did her damnedest to twist her wrist her from his hard grasp before his hand smashed down against her face, dazed in the shock but she fought him none the less, tugging in her whimpering breaths still fighting to free her hand from his confines. With one last effort, she shoved her hands to the ceiling, trying to break his grip but in her attempts she felt something solid connect with the side of her cheek once again, knocking the breath, words, and sound out of her mouth completely as she stumbled to the railing.
Hermione blinked rapidly where she stood knocked back, leaning over the rail, trying to gather her wits in her confusion, lifting her hand to gingerly touch the stinging in her cheek. She could feel her flesh burning under her touch but she was sure the heat radiating out from those darkening hues was far more volatile.
"Oh Merlin, 'Mione…I'm so sorry I didn't mean…" Ron's steps, slow and rolling, were closing in behind hear, creaking the floorboard, his voice so quiet now in the silence that befell them as he spoke.
"Don't you fucking touch me…" Hermione's eyes blazed darkly, narrowed into thin slits against him as she stood, her hand covering her cheek as she rounded her steps away from him, backing into the center of the hall, her hand sliding to tug her wand free from her clutch that she was nearly shocked she'd managed to hang on to in the mist of everything. Her fingers shook but she thrust the thin wand out with a firm hold, pointing it without hesitation at the center of his chest with the dangerous drop of her voice "…ever again, Ronald Weasley."
With tears staining heavily against her cheeks, Hermione snapped him out of her very sight, aparating on the spot without another word, leaving him in the same state of awestruck heart break that he'd just momentarily presented her with.
By this point in the night, Draco had already slithered his way into the finely tailored attire for the evening and primped himself in a way that only a Malfoy wouldn't consider unnecessary. While he'd spent far too much time adjusting his hair in that strange messy pull once again, he'd left himself in the dark after affects of his unshaved scruff, leaving himself in that casual disheveled charm fitting him much too well and all too uncommon. Blaise had Pansy sitting against the arm of his chair, smoking earnestly off the long end of a cigar paper that he'd rolled entirely with marijuana, filling the large room quickly in its haze. Pansy's harshly painted lips pulled back hard as she laughed outright, slapping her knee where her legs crossed as she leaned forward to offer the cigar off to Blaise by waving it in a twisting motion before his face. They seemed to have no problem enjoying the company of his home but Draco found himself feeling a bit stuck waiting for the one thing that he still couldn't understand waiting for.
Draco had just finished downing back a good quarter of the bottle loosely clutched in his hand, settled in against the large leather sofa beside his only two remotely trusted companions in the world when a pair of fingers snapped his attention alert by clicking directly before his face.
"You with us, Malfoy? We haven't even left yet." Blaise moved to slip up from the chair, making his way onto the sofa beside Draco and carefully gracing himself down as he cradled his own drink in his hand offering the half smoked, laced cigar out to him with a quirk of his brows as Pansy moved to slide back into the empty space Blaise left behind, folding her long legs over the arm.
"You've been a bleeding zombie all night already, what the hell is with you? You daytiming?"
"No, I'm not bleeding high." Draco had just set the rolled tip of the paper to his lips when his own sentence dawned on him, drawing in a slow, deliberate breath, trapping it in his lungs as he lifted his hand, bottle and all to gesture out with his choked back tone, "not on that at least." He couldn't help but laugh, his face burning a bit as he choked on the harsh smoke stinging in his chest, pursing his lips to blow a long line of smoke up to the ceiling above them.
"Usually by this point I am pulling your pants back on for you and trying to push you and some poor innocent girl out of the public eye so you do not embarrass what is left of your good name but alas the mighty Prince of Slytherin is sitting like a bump on a log, sipping from a bottle like some common folk." Blaise's low drawl continued on, mocking a shiver while Draco drew in another hit, handing it off to Pansy before he could turn his face to his mate resting his arm against the back of the couch and leaning in with amusement to Draco's annoyance evident on the furrow of that pale brow.
"We haven't even left for the party yet." Draco reminded him hastily, all too reminded of the bottle in his hand as he moved to toss a good majority of the liquor back past his waiting lips, lowering his head as it burned its way down his throat to corrupt his senses and help wash away the plague that was Granger in his head.
"I stand by my statement."
Pansy laughed outright at Blaise's comment, sliding her legs from the arm of the chair to settle her tall black heels to the ground below her, rising to her feet in her rather form fitting black lace dress hugging her from knee to neck, leaving her pale, shapely arms bare to the world aside from the delicate black gemmed bracelets clinging on her slender wrist.
"Well I don't know about you two but I'm sufficiently sloshed and I'm so ready to get this mother effin' year started with a black out bang."
What could they say? They loved to party and partying was something that the head thrones of Slytherin certainly knew how to do. Half stoned, definitely drunk, and already partially wobbling, Blaise and Draco climbed to their tall heights to take suit with their lady escort of the evening. Even half in the bag, the three of them were still always the dashing.
The pale grey button down lined in thin pearled silver lines, trailed the front of Draco's button down, tucked in the dark gray slacks resting far too low on the dangerous depth of his hip bones, holding true with the raven black belt cuffed against it. His sleeves were rolled loosely beneath his elbows, a black leather band snug around his forearm wrapped with a thin silver piping to match the dark dragon hide shoes dashing against his feet. The first few buttons had long since been plucked open against the collar of his shirt, flashing the white lining while it lay against the untied white bow tie hanging loose around his neck.
Blaise had opted for much darker attire, a midnight black suit fitting his sleek form much too accurately to not be made for him and his body alone, his buttons plucked open in the same half drunk fashion as his house mate in the deep shade to match. Between the three of them, Draco was beginning the feel like they'd dressed for his mood. Twisting colors of crashing clouds, smoldering smoke corrupting the skies and threatening the spill the furious rain down onto the waiting streets. It was time for the royalty of Slytherin to take their seats at the throne once more, ready to leave nothing but the wake of their storm behind…or at least his.
Hermione hadn't really thought too clearly when she'd aparated away from the hideous mess Ron had just made of her life, and truthfully she was lucky she hadn't splinched herself when she'd aparated with such fury and speed. Her mind reeled beyond her control, her arms clenching tightly a crossed her center with her clutch trapped between when she popped inside the back hall of the large bar Harry rented space in for the evening. She wasn't even aware where her cloak had disappeared to but she feared that the shaking and shivering she was unable to stop her body from doing had nothing to do with the night air that was still latching to her skin.
Her cheeks were stained with tears, her eyes swollen and blotchy with heavy red spots where she'd spend the last twenty minutes sobering her long applied makeup right down her cheeks but she refused to cry anymore for him, she couldn't give him that pleasure.
It was late in the party, the noise and music thumping down the hall leading out back, into the kitchen, or in the face the troops so completely against her better judgment, Hermione fell victim to her own selfishness and moved to trudge her way down the hall, sniffling hard and choking back on her own breath with her futile attempt to cover her mouth with her hand to stifle the breaking sound of her heart shattering around her. Her vision was blurred beyond her control, lips parted in a weak quiver when Harry's unmistakably unruly hair flashed glance in her eyes just as she made her way through the long sheer drapes leading inside the bar. She couldn't help but drop her head, her heels clicking far too loud for her liking of subtly and invisibility as she tried to rush through the scene, hoping her fallen locks would shield the disaster that was her face with a straight path to Harry.
The moment she was within arm distance, her hand slid up against his shoulder, her voice a whimper in the chaos of sound around them, "Harry, I need to speak with Ginny…" Harry was nodding his head insistently with the music, turning his head over his shoulder to nod sloppily to the person holding on to him in greeting, he suspected, before turning his head right back to the back of the bar. Comically, Hermione watched it sink into his brain before she could ask him again; whirling around faster then he intended to toss his arms out in firm hold of her own arms, nearly sending Hermione toppling backwards.
"Hermione! Merlin…What happened!" His eyes were opening far too wide behind the frame of his worn glasses, sliding out of his bar stool to clutch at her chin but Hermione could only tighten her lips with a horrid shake of her head, begging him once again, "Please, where's Ginny, Harry? I can't…I need to talk to her…"
Harry had seen one too many fights between his two closest friends but this was beyond something even Harry could tolerate. Hermione could barely speak straight and she was barely able to hold herself upright in front of him. His heart broke for her as he slowly shook his head, raising his brows with the sad gaze on his face, "Hermione I'm really not sure…but I'll find her ok?"
"No…" Hermione was furiously shaking her head but Harry was determined to help as he moved to lower his own head a few inches closer to her, trying to convince her that he would be able to take care of this, anything to ease the pain of her face.
Blaise had just sauntered his way back from the bar when the very woman on his topic board of discussion came flying through in a whirl of curls and lace. They'd only arrived a good half hour prior but he was sure it was about twenty eight minutes too many already. Blaise had truthfully never had much of a problem associating himself to fit his social needs but anytime one chose to link so closely with a Malfoy, it tended to make things a bit more hazy and tonight really felt no different. The moment they'd made face, all eyes locked on their every movement. It left him always feeling a bit like the middle man, ensuring that he'd keep the peace while he awaited people outside of their personal circle of friends to say some low comment about Malfoy or his family and then invite Blaise to their weekend jamborees. Still, Blaise found himself in the gray, both dark brows lifted against Pansy as he approached back to the small table they'd made junction at to watch the spinning action.
Their table was already littered with glasses but that didn't stop Blaise from settling three more shot glasses down and diverting them off between the three of them.
"Bottoms up, Malfoy. It's show time." Pansy had already tossed back her shot before Draco had finished wrapping his fingers around his own glass, eyeing Blaise questionably in his half drunken stupor while they both tossed the harsh amber liquid back. Pansy's sloping nose scrunched at the burning, chasing it with a hard swallow from a mug of butter beer as Draco shook his head at the standing man motioning over towards the bar. Draco tilted his head to see nothing but a slurring of color of people, glancing back with a shake of his head and his arms held outright.
"What are we talking about here, Zabini?" Blaise once again motioned with his head, his eyes widening, turning his head to stare in the general direction that a rather unfortunate looking Granger was pouring her heart out to her dear house mate. Draco scoffed, placing his hand on the table and leaning over Pansy to crane his neck around to see just what it was that he was hinting to when the sight of her standing there, grasped in Potter's hands as she wiped the tears from her eyes suddenly clicked in his brain.
"No, Harry stop…I can't do this, ok? I'm sorry, tell Gin I'm sorry…I can't."
Draco stood immediately from his chair, the legs groaning loudly against the wood planks of the floor boards with his hands splayed flat on the surface of the table at the sight of Granger pushing her hands against Potter's chest, shaking her head fiercely and backing up a few steps into the crowd.
"I have to go…I'm sorry Harry."
Blaise slid easily into the vacant chair besides Pansy, his arm folding to rest a crossed the back of her chair as he raised his brow to Draco's all too worried expression focusing such a stare straight through his current state as Hermione tore her heart stricken face away from Potter, whirling on her heels and making a quick motion for the door. She'd let out a small cry when she'd smacked dead center into some Ravenclaws chest, trying to wave off his apologies while she swiped at the blotchy skin beneath her eyes with a pinched expression while she attempted to squeeze by.
Draco's feet moved without question around his chair, already rounding to the space Blaise had just previously occupied, his attention pulling his eyes away to the fleeting woman escaping to the doors to his friends with a much distracted attention.
"I need to…uh…"
"Go on already." Blaise tossed his hand in the air and shook his head, cocking it off to the side as Draco nodded in his confirmation, his feet skipping to jump around the back tables, nearly jogging towards the entrance despite the haze that seemed to be sobering up against him all too quickly against his better knowledge.
"Granger!" Draco raised his hand once he'd gotten anywhere near her to draw her attention, glaring harshly to the lingering partiers gawking at his chase but she was much too far ahead to be headed by his calls. Many years of Quidditch did not come without advantage, however, and Draco found his small windows to scrape and squeeze through trying to catch up to her. It was beyond Draco how any woman moved that fast with spikes holding them up but Hermione had managed to make it all the way outside the interior bar doors and into the thin breezeway before Draco could thrust his hand out to grab hold of her hand.
"Granger…what's…" Hermione recoiled her hand so fast from his light touch that even Draco took a step back with his brows raising upward. Fingertips widened, almost fearful he'd hurt her, although he was sure he hadn't, when she flipped her hair a crossed her shoulder in a falling wave of chocolate, her wide eyes blazing in harsh red lines and screaming clear liquid swimming wildly over top of them.
Draco stood tall before her, his weary stance straightening at the fall of his eyes taking her in. Her face was lifted up to him now, her mouth open in attempt to say something, anything, but the only thing that came out was a soft sigh as she tossed her hand over her mouth once more, tearing her eyes from him and turning in effort to run once more but Draco moved far too fast to let that happen. He'd practically slid to a halt on his heels to dive between her and the door, his hands still holding outright, trying to inch closer to her, trying to calm her in some way as she fled for Merlin only knew where.
"Freckles…Hermione what happened?"
"Draco please let me go…I can't…he just…"
"What? He just what?" Draco couldn't seem to stop shaking his head at the babbling witch in front of him. She was beyond coherent words, searching her surroundings for a place to hide, ready to crumple to the ground in a heap before him. She wanted to be angry, she wanted to break things, primarily a one Ronald Weasley's face, but for some reason, standing before Draco was only leaving her ready to fall down.
"Hey, hey…" Draco tried again, moving his hands with the utmost slowness to reach his fingertips to slide along the rise of her jaw line, moving to cup her face to draw it up to him, his eyes pleading with her as she stiffened hard in his touch. "Hermione, he just what?"
"Malfoy let me go, please, the party…" Her eyes were darting over his shoulder and likewise over her own to peer in through the sheer drapes lining the doors barely covering up the background noise still beating in against their ears but Draco refused to give in to that request in her fallen state. With his hands still resting to cup her cheeks, Draco moved to pull her face back to him and settle it there once more, his thumbs brushing to apple of her cheek to swipe the blotchy tears only to earn a sharp cry from the woman he was trying to console. Again, Draco froze instantly, removing his hands a mere inch on either side of her face as he stared at her with shock, trying to decipher what he'd done this time to earn such a reaction.
It was Hermione's turn to look with shock and horror as Draco narrowed that concern in against her face, leaning in as he carefully moved to pluck her shielding hand away from her cheek when she moved to cover it. Hermione's bottom lip quivered as she sniffled back his inspection along the sore tingling against the swelling along her high cheekbone, the hard red mark bright even as it began to shade heavily underneath the bitterly battered flesh.
"Mother fucker…" Draco's lips pulled in tightly together, his hand still holding her own hand a few spaces from her face, his other lingering on the other side as his nostrils flared, his hands dropping to her shoulders with a quick motion to move her and step aside.
"Draco, wait!" Hermione made quick motion to grasp at him, her hand clutching his forearm as it retreated from her shoulder.
"Let go, Granger. I'm going to fucking kill him. Where is he?" He wasn't even listening to the woman who was now sobbing hysterically again as he tried to pry her fingers from his arm. "Let go of me, Granger! I am going to kill your fucking boyfriend."
"Draco he's not even here!"
"Then where the fuck is he?" Draco tore her hand from his hand and whipped around to face her, his expressions alarming Hermione a tad too much as he loamed over her in his heated question. Draco was beyond himself currently, his knuckles burning such a hard shade of white from the close clenching that he swore the skin would rupture his blood out between the cracks he was creating.
How dare that piece of filthy lay his hands on her? He'd behaved like a complete arse running after her when he'd seen her flee moments before but it seemed callous to think of that considering the fact that he was at a state of losing his grip on reality with anger with the urge to match Weasley's face to her own and then some at the moment.
"Granger…where is he?"
"Draco stop!" Draco stared at her with his own fury forcing down in the urgency of her own strangled gasp, lowering her head down low with the sound of her begging him digging at his senses. It was beneath her…even to him at this point.
Hermione turned her head up to him but he was too busy pacing his steps in the small space to notice, his hand constantly rubbing over the scruff of his chin, "I knew he was a fucking coward but I can't believe he actually hit you." He was nearly vibrating beneath the surface and it was evident in the way his movements almost twitched but Hermione could only hold her arms tightly around herself again when she turned as he raised the storming hues against her again. "Granger he fucking put his hands on you! He hit you!" His emphasis on it was nauseating to both ends when he said it and Hermione could only stare at him with her hand over her mouth, trying not to crumble to the ground in a heap and wish the floor would swallow her into the hell she was already feeling.
"Draco…"
"Bloody hell…freckles…" The sickening revelation had Draco's intense hatred bubbling somewhere past a level he was capable of controlling.
"Draco I can't do this. Please…" Again with the begging…Draco turned his head in a slow slide, his hands rising to fall against her arms once again, nodding with the sour swallow of his unimaginable hatred forcing down, finding it hard to settling his eyes on her entirely for the fear of simply leaving her despite her request to hunt the sorry son of a bitch down himself.
"I need to get out of here. I can't be here." Hermione stood tight, the music beating in against the glass around them as she confessed herself to him, standing in his hold.
"Ok, ok…ok, Granger." Draco sounded unsure of his statement as Hermione felt about it, the wince on his face never ending as he finally brought himself to look at her fully once again, standing tall before her, clutching her arms to hold her before him, "Where do you want to go?"
Her face was still downcast, her eyes the only lifted grace upon him as she opened her mouth once more before it closed with a heavy slump of her shoulders forward. How could she answer that? Before three minutes ago she wanted to go cry in her bed until she couldn't breathe anymore. She had truly not expected to run smack dab into the man she'd run out on but despite leaving him after his rather on the line attempts, he stood solid before her, trying to do his best pick up her shattered pieces.
Hermione suddenly lifted her head, her body straightening up before she tossed her falling height in against him and into his waiting chest in one quick movement. Her face buried into the crook of his neck, her arms tight around it while she cried her heart out on to his skin. "Gods, Draco, get me out of here!" For a moment Draco stood rigid, his hands open in the air before they slowly closed in around her. He tried to console her once the fog had cleared of her body shuddering so brokenly against him, his hands folding in to clutch her close as she held him tight to her tiny frame. Draco calmly stroked his hands down the sleek curls of her hair, pleading with her to look at him with his hands but Hermione only cried, refusing to let go of him, her legs weakly wobbling beneath her as she babbled on.
"I don't want to see these people! I don't want them to see me…to see me like this…" Her sobs were so broken against his ears, his face pained visibly as she clawed him closer. "I don't want to remember his name…I don't even want to remember he exists right now…please."
"Shh…freckles…please." His hands were so light over her, brushing the line of her neck, spanning the soft curve of her spine exposed under the light weight of his hand smoothing down and dragging back up as she clung.
Draco's hands combed through her dark curls, trying not to wince himself when his fingers brushed the battered state of her cheek while he held her against him, feeling her breath still rigidly rasping through her small frame. His fingers dipped against the gentle curve of her jaw line, dropping his forehead against her own, his tone rigid and low, gruffly biting out the words to her alone in the room, "I'm sorry." Hermione said nothing, her tears silently falling as she tried to slow her breathing with her arms trapped around his neck, raising the blurred sight up against him sorrowfully.
"Can we go? Please? I need to forget…"
"Ok." Draco nodded to her softly, his lips pursing hard in a thin line, the shadows playing deeply ainto the etched bone of his cheeks as he turned his head over his shoulder to the door, peering out at the bustle of the party still raging on inside before setting her back with a glance. "Blaise and Pansy are inside. Let me just…"
Hermione was already tensely looking over his shoulder in to the room beyond them, the drapes hindering most of her line of sight but she was sure he wouldn't lie about Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini being inside if he too had managed to make an appearance much to her surprise and glory at the moment.
"No…Draco I…"
"Granger, stop. You want to forget? Then this is what we're going to do…" Draco moved to snatch the door open, clutching the brass curves of the handle back as he motioned for her to make her way back in. Hermione stared hard, her words lost as she fixed him with a lost stare but like Draco, at this point, what did she have to lose? She honestly couldn't feel any worse then she felt right now and she was in no position to turn down someone, even if it was once again the comfort of Malfoy, to help aid her in her pity party. Draco hadn't waited for her long, his bitterness still far too evident as he snatched her hand in his own, tugging her in and whisking her along the back in the quickest, maneuvering free path he could find as he mumbled lowly, "I think even I'm going to need to forget right now…"
Hermione feared that Draco was telling the truth much too honestly as he said it, ducking her head as she moved to slide against the back corner, his hand lifted in motion to the couple sitting at the table to get up from their seats before they'd even neared. Draco was so busy motioning that even he hadn't noticed Harry stand once again from his seat at the sight of Hermione nearly being hauled back into the party, her expressions blank, on the hand of Draco Malfoy.
Hermione, too, was lost in her haze, and she hadn't even recognized Blaise until he'd stood up rapidly from his chair at the sight of Granger being half drug in by Malfoy but Pansy sat with her brows inched up in a strange fashion that Hermione really wasn't quite sure how to make out. Slowly she leaned her chin up to Blaise, her tone flat as she questioned, "What exactly did I miss here?"
"Dooms day came early." Blaise said it simply down to her, his hands against the table as he eyes Hermione's petite frame standing against Draco's side in an eerie picture.
"Aw fuck."
"He's been cheating…" Hermione added in comment, stopping just behind Draco's shoulder as he raged to cut her off.
"Mother fucking Weasley…fucking hit her!" Draco's tone was rising to exclaim his anger of the situation while he attempted to explain to Blaise, his hand gesturing to her face before he slowed, easing his gaze back to her. "Wait, what?"
"He's been cheating…" The words dangled from her parted lips, leaving the breath caught hostage at the back of her throat as Draco made an astonished huff beside her, angling to face her a bit better as Pansy gasped outright, leaning forward from her seat over the table.
"…with that slag Lavender Brown." Hermione sorrowfully let the words falter out, unable to stop the painful confessions from leaking out as she stood before the last three people she ever thought she would find it necessary to do in front of.
"Shut the front door, Granger. Merlin, you didn't catch them did you? You caught them, didn't you?" Pansy was shocked herself but far too thoroughly amused, staring in a strange wave of glances between the woman in question, Draco, and Blaise.
"Draco…" Hermione looked up at him pleadingly, moving her hand from his grip as she dropped her head to wipe the tears from drying in a horrible run of colors against her cheeks.
"Yeah, right. That's enough of this for the night."
"Are we off?" Blaise questioned his friend on many levels with both of his dark brows raised against him.
"Granger said she wants to forget so…"
"Yeah." Hermione nodded in her confirmation to his statement, resting her head in her hand as she shook her head, thankful at least that she wasn't sobbing for the moment, "I could really use a drink I think."
"Here."Blaise had practically shoved his from off the table and into her hands, Hermione jumping to toss her fingers round it and hold it in her grasp in efforts to keep the liquid from splashing in waves over the rim. "So are we off?" Blaise's hopeful face was hard to hide but Draco stood in a whirl of his own thoughts while Hermione began lifting the glass to her lips with either hand cupping it in a rather childish manor. Suddenly, Draco jutted his hand out and over to cover her glass like a lid, ignoring her cock eyed stare as he leaned in to Blaise. "Hold on, what's in this?"
"It's just a drink, Draco."
"Yes but what's in it? She said she wanted to forget her boyfriend not who she is."
"Oh this is so fucked up…" Blaise chucked at Draco's words, his earlier conversation playing along again in his head but like he'd told Draco earlier, he wanted to get blitzed and the sour mood Malfoy who was normally the Prince of Party was sitting stagnant until the goddess of Gryffindor reappeared for the night. If that was what it took for the night to begin like he'd planned, so be it. Blaise leaned forward himself, his brows raised beneath the fallen bangs of his hair at Hermione as he drawled out, "Granger, if you want to forget…drink it."
"The man that I have loved and adored for every year since I've met him just broke up with me for a twittering bimbo tonight after months of…" Hermione cut herself off, pushing Malfoy's confining hand from her glass.
"May I please go kill your boyfriend now, freckles?"
She'd long since stopped crying, the tears now just staining the normally bright complexion against her cheeks as she sighed out a glare in Malfoy's general direction. Her eyes were swollen and puffed out around the rims, a heavy shade of red that really didn't compliment that darkening mark growing ever more noticeable with the passing minutes but she still fixed Draco with quite a narrowing gaze to his comment.
"Did you not hear me, Malfoy? Ronald Weasley is not, and will never again, be my boyfriend."
Draco only smirked darkly as he drawled, "I know, I just wanted to hear you say it again."
Hermione turned her head down, chewing on her the bottom swell of her lip at the heat radiating off of Malfoy's words, unable to stop the small creeping blush from finding its way against her. It'd been driving him nearly to the point of reevaluation when she'd reappeared and he'd be kidding himself to say that to see her again wasn't exactly what he wanted but this was far from what he had in mind. This is not how he wanted to see her appearing back in his world because some coward had a temper tantrum, just as he'd feared and predicted. This is not the way he wanted to win, if that was what you called this…even if he had no idea what he was fighting for or how he'd even entered the fight.
Hermione gave out a hard sigh and moved the glass to her lips without a second thought, tipping her head back and downing the contents in a few hard swallows, Draco's pristine posture straightening beside her with his unwavering glance as she tossed Blaise's concoction down.
"You understand that I want to tear him limb from limb, yes, freckles?"
"Yes…I know, Malfoy." She was sucking a single side of her bottom lip into her mouth, her tongue trailing on the remainder of liquid while she settled the glass to the table now at the thought, her shoulders seeming to tip in together just a little bit more.
"Well then, good thing for Weasley that he's not here." Blaise smiled broadly to Hermione with her calmly questionable face turning to face him fully, moving her sights away from Draco and back to the empty glass before her as felt the liquid swim in against her senses.
"Lavender Brown…" Blaise mulled the thought of the girl over in his mind. She was something of a thick girl if he recalled correctly, overly loud and a bit dull in the brain. She was one of those girls who had to spout out things about fashion, gossip, the latest trends because it was the only useless information their minds could process. The thought shuddered him a bit, a small grimace to his face, "I'm sorry, Granger. I thought when you cheat you were supposed to upgrade, no?" chucking a bit to himself as he finished.
"Well I think that's a great cue to blow this joint. Let's get the fuck out of here." Pansy's shortly chopped strands swung loose from behind her ears as she rose to her feet, linking her arm in around Blaise's with her eyes sliding up to the blonde before her. "Two Below? Illy's?" Pansy tossed out a few choice locations, questioning without pretense as Hermione moved her hand to wrap gracefully against Malfoy's elbow.
She could hear the two of them discussing the matter, feeling the tension in Malfoy's muscles beneath her fingertips but her own anxiety was slowly leaking from her in a slip of her reality. Her lids lowered heavily, closing her eyes and drawing in a slow breath as the music dwelled in against her ears.
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
Dark lashes slowed open, taking in the melting edges of the objects around her, the bleeding colors slurring inside of her sight as she attempted to lift it up against the man standing tall against her, turning his head to angle towards her with a quirking stare at her obviously hindering state. Her shoulders fell slack, her muscles calm and loose, leaving her words dragging off her tongue as she spoke to him in the grace of her haze.
The ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
"What the hell was in that drink?"
Go ask Alice. I think she'll know.
*As promised, Chap 5! Don't worry, the party is far from over for our pals and I can assure you that Hermione is done being Ron's whipping post! BUT It is certainly not the last of him. Don't worry, I won't be too cruel for all you Ron lovers out there.
XD I desperately need to go back and revise these chapters but I've been pumped to get it all down first so bare with me please. I'll go back eventually.
Fair warning, next couple chapters have a lot of drug use, drinking, language, sex, and etc so beware. Muhaha.
