Here we go! Chapter 5! It's super late but I really felt like writing it so please forgive me if there are typos.
Again, thanks to ALL the people who have put me on their favorite author/story alerts/author alerts I appreciate it SO much and I would appreciate it that much more if you would just pop a review at the end as well! Thanks all 3
Disclaimer: nothing is mine.
Hermione awoke the next morning with her joints tied in a knot and her muscles all cramped up. She groaned as she pulled her legs out from under her and placed her feet on the floor, letting a blanket that she did not remember having when she fell asleep fall to the ground. Sleeping in the armchair was definitely not a good idea and Hermione decided then and there that she would never do such a thing again. Stretching her arms out before her, Hermione yawned; the sun was shining so brightly that some of its rays were peeping through the curtains of the common room. She thanked Merlin that it was the weekend because she was sure it was close to noon. Smoothing down the fabric of her skirt, Hermione headed upstairs; surely she looked like a mess.
Draco
Draco had tossed and turned all night due to terrible nightmares of his father floating in and out of his unconsciousness. Repeatedly he had seen his mother's tear stained face begging Lucius to stop and repeatedly, he had heard his father's emotionless voice commanding her to shut her mouth. Even though his wounds were healed, Draco's body still throbbed with pain. At the crack of dawn, Draco gave up on his last hope of having a peaceful night and got dressed. Grabbing a roll of parchment, Draco headed to the library to work on the paper Professor Sprout had assigned. Over the years, he found that academics were a very useful way of distracting him from his miserable life.
He headed downstairs quietly, not wanting to wake up Hermione. Since he didn't hear her come up stairs last night, he was pretty certain she was still in the common room. As Draco reached the bottom of the stairs, he noticed the air become cooler and cooler. It was nearing the end of September, and although the sun was still shining brightly, the weather had undoubtedly become colder with each passing day. The second floor of the Head's Wing had an enchantment to keep it warm regardless of the temperature outside, but unfortunately the spell did not stretch downstairs.
Draco reached for the blanket lying next to the fireplace which was now just ashes and placed it across Hermione's lap. He couldn't help but notice how angelic she looked. As he stood to leave, Draco ran this thumb along her jaw and brushed her bangs away from her eyes, tucking it behind her ear without even thinking and as he did so, Hermione sighed and shifted her position. Frightened that he had woken her, Draco rushed out of the portrait.
As he sat in the library, Draco's heart pounded. Why did he put that blanket on her? Why did he touch her face? Again and again, Draco asked himself those questions but could not come up with the answer. Before he knew it, it was past noon and Draco's frustration was building up. He had written nothing other than the title of the paper, had not gotten any books for research, and was so consumed in his own thoughts about a mudblood that he didn't even care about the paper. Whatever these feelings were, Draco knew he had to push them away, hide them, bury them before anyone ever found out, because if word got out that Draco Malfoy cared for a mulblood who knew what would-
"Drakey!"
Startled by the voice, Draco looked towards the sound and saw none other than Pansy Parkinson advancing his way.
Just what I needed. Draco thought. A little distraction.
"Oh Drakey I've been looking for you everywhere!" Pansy cooed as she sat down next to Draco. "Did you sleep well? Did the mudblood cause you any trouble?" Pansy giggled shrilly and loudly.
Draco winced inwardly. Usually, he had little tolerance of Pansy's ditzy and irritating behaviour. However, if there was one thing Pansy was good at, it was distracting Draco from whatever was bothering him at the moment.. which was exactly what he needed right now.
"I was up all night coming up with ways to make her miserable, Drakey, I-"
"That's great, Pansy. I'm going to Hogsmead, are you coming?" Draco gathered his belongings and walked away without even waiting for an answer, completely certain that she would follow, because Hogsmead only meant one thing to Pansy.
Hermione
After her shower, Hermione changed into a pair of dark blue jeans, a purple sweater and a brown jacket with a white cotton hat. On Saturdays, she usually accompanied Ron to Hogsmead; it was their usual one on one time. Only, instead of the usual flutter of butterflies Hermione used to feel, they were replaced by dread. She was still confused about her feelings for Ron, and after last night's drama and lack of sleep, she was not in the mood to cuddle and hold hands with Ron. However, being as she was, Hermione plastered on a smile and decided to leave those problems within the walls of Hogwarts for the day.
The Great Hall was vibrating with the sound of students laughing and talking while getting ready to head out to Hogsmead. Scanning the crowd, Hermione caught a glimpse of red hair and beelined in its direction. There stood Ron, talking to Harry in a hushed voice while Harry was looking after Ginny who had just walked away from the two of them. "Ron!" Herimione called out as she neared them. "Hi Harry" she smiled.
"Hi 'Mione!"
Hermione taped Ron on the shoulder from behind. "Ready to go?" However, Ron did not seem to hear her and kept standing with his back turned to Hermione.
"Anyone in there?" Hermione joked, tapping the side of Ron's head. Ron finally turned around with the most unpleasant expression on his face, causing the feeling of dread Hermione so decidedly wanted to leave behind for the day to resurface like a hideous sea monster.
"Wh-what's the matter?" Hermione stuttered.
"What's the matter?" Ron spat. "You should know. Where were you last night? I woke up in the morning and you were gone. Where did you go?"
Taken back, Hermione frowned. "I just went back to the Head's Wing, I couldn't sleep-Dean was snoring and-"
"Well you wouldn't have heard it anyways, right? I mean, considering we put up a silencing charm. You're a terrible liar Hermione."
"Why are you getting so angry?" Hermione questioned, "I just wanted to sleep in my own bed."
"Then why did you lie to me?" Ron asked, his anger slowly being replaced with hurt. "Don't think I don't know what's going on, ever since that dirty ferret caught us-"
Hermione's breath caught in her throat; surely Ron hadn't caught on about her conflicting emotions?
"You've been acting shady towards me. I know you blame me for what happened."
Relieved, Hermione cried out, "Ron! You know that's not true, I just-"
"Save it Hermione. Last night, even when we were together, you didn't seem as into it as usual. Why can't you just admit that you're mad at me?"
Hermione lowered her eyes and didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say. She wanted so desperately to tell Ron that she wasn't mad at him and that the reason behind all her actions lately was because she wasn't sure who she loved anymore, but Hermione knew that would hurt him more than anything.
"I'm going to go to Hogsmead with Harry and Ginny today. You can come find me when you're ready to talk." Ron muttered and pushed past Hermione without a second glance, leaving her standing there alone and humiliated with tears of shame threatening to push past her eyelids.
Draco
"I'm going to Hogsmead with Harry and Ginny today. You can come find me when you're ready to talk."
Draco watched from afar as Ron left Hermione by herself and rushed off to join Potty and his girlfriend. What an ass. Draco thought to himself. He would never leave a girl stranded like that-aside from Pansy, whom Draco considered an exception. She looked so sad and frustrated. Her usually beautiful face was red and she had one of her hands covering her face.
"Poor girl," Draco muttered. Feeling the urge to comfort her, Draco stood up from his seat and started towards her.
"Drakey! Where are you going?" within a split second, Pansy was at his side, gripping his arm tightly and batting her eyelashes. "Let's go, we don't want to be left beside with those people" She whispered, crinkling her nose towards the Griffindor table.
Draco wrenched his arm from Pansy's death grip and nodded briskly before lagging behind Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle. When he was sure that nobody was looking, Draco snuck a look backwards and saw Loony Lovegood patting Hermione's shoulder.
"Oh!" Pansy shrieked as the cold wind blew past her. "It's so cold now!" She pressed herself closer to Draco, who almost gagged at her overwhelming perfume.
He was beyond thankful as they approached the Three Broomsticks, where there was warmth, drinks, and bedrooms.
Pulling himself away from Pansy was like trying to wrench two magnets apart, and Draco soon learned that the only way to get rid of her was to sleep with her and then send her off with a little errand or two such as fetching him some food, or going to library to find him some books if they were in Hogwarts.
Since they were now all of age, Draco was delighted to find that filling Pansy up with a drink or two allowed him to have his way with her and then head right back to Hogwarts, as Madam Rosmerta would do room checks at the end of the night and send whoever was left back to Hogwarts through the floo network.
"Two fire whiskeys, Bart." Draco called out as he approached the bar; Pansy was already off to find an empty room upstairs. Watching her as she ran giddily upstairs, Draco cleared his throat. "Make that 4."
Although Pansy was as annoying as can be, she was indeed breathtaking. She had long raven black hair, brown eyes and legs that seemed to go on forever.
Grabbing his drinks, Draco followed her upstairs.
Hermione
"Thanks for talking with me, Luna," Hermione smiled gratefully. "And I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this."
"Of course," Luna replied in that dreamy voice of hers, "I swear it on my boggle bats."
"Luna," Hermione finally asked, "Who is that staring at you?" she motioned to a brown haired boy who began waving at Luna the second she looked over.
"Oh that's Scott. He's my boyfriend." Luna replied, waving back.
"LUNA! If you had a boyfriend waiting this whole time for you why didn't you say anything?" Hermione cried. "Go sit with him, I've monopolized so much of your time, oh I feel terrible. Go enjoy the rest of your evening with him!"
"Well thanks, Hermione." Luna beamed. "I do hope you feel better after your talk with Ron."
Hermione replied by telling her to go. As she sat alone at a table in Hogs Head, Hermione felt immensely grateful to Luna, who had so graciously listened to her babble about her mixed feelings for Ron (of course, leaving the part about Draco out of it) and give precious feedback without complaining even once about her boyfriend, who was waiting for her the whole time they chatted, which must have lasted at least three hours.
Hermione paid for her drink then decided to head back to Hogwarts and find Ron. It was time she did something to resolve this ongoing conflict within her, instead of letting it eat her alive.
The sun was just starting to set and it casted a beautiful red glow over the trees. Shivering from the breeze, Hermione crossed her arms across her chest and began to push through the crowd of people.
"Excuse me, pardon me sir," Hermione muttered as she walked, keeping her eyes focused on the ground to avoid the blinding sun as it was setting. Walking quickly, she turned a sharp corner and ran into someone, causing her to fall backwards.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Hermione exclaimed, dusting the dust off her pants.
"Great, now I've got to wash these."
Hermione looked up to see Blaise Zabini sneering down at her. "Aren't you supposed to be the smartest witch of our year?"
Hermione did not reply.
"You must not be that smart if you don't even know how to watch where you're going. I always knew that a mudblood could never be that smart." Blaise snarled before walking off.
Holding back the urge to punch him, Hermione simply held her head high as Blaise walked away and continued on her way back to Hogwarts. Were all Slytherin purebloods so cruel and demeaning? Hermione simply did not understand why. As she walked away, fuming, she did not even realize that there was someone walking beside her until she was standing outside the portrait of the Head's Wing and the person said the password and held the portrait open for her.
"Oh," Hermione said, after noticing who it was that was walking beside her the whole way back to Hogwarts. "I thought it was illegal or something for you purebloods to be seen with the likes of someone like me."
Draco followed Hermione into the Head's Wing and ignored her snide comment. "You seemed to have had a rough day. I wanted to see if you were ok."
Draco had successfully left Pansy, who was sound asleep after their rendezvous at the Three Broomsticks. Although Pansy was usually very good at relieving his mind of any stress, today, she could not relieve him of his concern for Hermione, who looked so terribly sad in the Great Hall. As he was walking back to school, he saw Hermione run into Blaise and after hearing Blaise's harsh words, his concern for her grew.
Surprised by those words, Hermione's heart warmed. "Why?" she asked as she turned around to face him.
"Like I said," Draco repeated, "you seemed to have had a rough day."
"But why do you care?"
"I don't" Draco lied. To be honest, Draco had never cared for anyone this much before. What scared Draco was that the person he cared about was a mudblood, the best friend of the person who was supposed to be his enemy, and probably hates him for everything he's done to her and her friends for the past six years. However, what scared Draco the most was that he had never cared about anyone this much before, especially someone he barely knew.
"Honestly, Malfoy, your moodswings are less than attractive."
"Are you ok?" Draco asked again, ignoring her comment.
Hermione glared at him. "This is exactly what I mean."
"Why won't you answer me?" Draco inquired.
"Why should I?"
"Common courtesy," Draco replied.
With each sentence, the space between Hermione and Draco became smaller and smaller.
"Why do you act like you care about me one minute then act like you hate me the next?" Hermione whispered. They were standing so close now that their shoes were touching.
"I don't hate you." Draco replied as his hand rose up to cup Hermione's face. "I never have." He could see every little freckle scattered across her nose. Her lips looked so soft and rosy; Draco could not fight the urge to kiss her.
"But-"Hermione protested as Draco's hand touched her face. Hermione's heart was pounding so loudly she was sure Draco could hear it. His hand was soft and warm as opposed to the coldness she was expecting. Her breathing became rapid and her eyes fluttered closed as Draco's forehead touched her.
"I never have."
"All those years you-"Hermione mumbled, feeling weak in the knees standing this closely to Draco. Stop it! Stop this immediately! Her conscious screamed, but Hermione ignored it. He is your enemy! You are still with Ron! You LOVE Ron!
However, those voices were shut out the moment Draco's lips crashed down on hers; soft yet strong, innocent yet passionate. Draco's other hand encircled her waist and pulled her closer, kissing her deeply.
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