Chapter Six:

If Looks Could Kill

This chapter is for Erica.

-superguy

The living room was pretty comfortable. Draco couldn't help but notice how tidy everything was. He supposed that was due to the fact that during the year the Grangers had no children. Seeing that Hermione was the only child, who else was there to mess up the house?

Hermione took a seat beside Draco. She handed him a mug of hot chocolate. Draco noticed the cartoon tooth emblazoned on the mug.

"Comfortable?" Hermione asked.

Draco nodded after taking a sip of his hot chocolate.

"Mm. It's very nice. Very...tidy."

Hermione laughed.

"That's my parents for you. Being dentists, they're naturally tidy. I guess some of that rubbed off on me. I'm working on breaking away, though."

She took a sip from her mug.

"I still love them, though."

They both looked ahead to the fireplace that was illuminated with flame.

"Good." Draco replied. "That's good. You should love your parents. When you...when you have no one left to turn to...they'll still be there."

He took another sip of his hot chocolate, savoring the sweet taste of it.

"At least," he went on after a minute, "that's how it's supposed to be."

He smiled over at Hermione. Hermione looked at Draco for a minute before settling down beside him, resting her head against him.

"I'm sorry." she whispered.

"Sorry?" Draco replied. "For what?"

"For everything. Things seem so crazy right now. And your parents..."

"Don't worry about my parents. They do what they want. I'm not going to force myself in on them if they don't want me. It's not like I won't be able to live without them."

They both just sat there in silence for a while with the sound of the popping embers filling the room.

After a minute or so, Hermione pressed her lips to Draco's shoulder and silently kissed it through the fabric of his shirt.

"I'm going to get something to eat." she muttered as she got up from the couch. "Do you want anything?"

Draco shook his head.

"Naw. I'm fine."

Hermione smiled and walked out towards the kitchen.

"I'll be right back."

And with that said, Draco was left alone in the living room. It was quiet for a minute or two before the sound of footsteps sounded, heading back to the living room.

Draco looked up, expecting to see Hermione. But it wasn't Hermione who walked into the room and sat down on the armchair.

"Hello, Mr. Granger." Draco started.

Mr. Granger took a sip of his tea and looked straight ahead at the mantle. Draco was surprised when the man started to speak.

"I'm going to be frank with you, Draco. And I'm only going to say this to you once, so listen and listen closely."

Draco sat up and looked directly at Mr. Granger.

"That's my little girl in the kitchen. You can't possibly understand how much she means to me. Don't pretend that there's nothing wrong here, because there's everything wrong here. I know who you are. My summers have been plagued by stories about you. From what I've heard you're just a little puke, and I'll be frank again with you, Draco. I don't like you. I never have liked you, and I don't think I ever will."

Draco just sat there, taking the monologue in. Mr. Granger definitely didn't give Draco a chance to speak.

"I don't know what you did to trick my daughter into liking you, but that's not really what I care about. I don't care how much you say you've changed. I don't care if you're a good person now. What I do care about is my daughter, and I'm looking out for her best interest. And I think that her best interest is to be away from you."

Another pause during which Draco was going to speak up, but Mr. Granger went on once again.

"I'm not giving my daughter up without a fight. And if there is any fight to be fought, I will be the victor."

The whole time Mr. Granger had never looked over at Draco. He took another sip of his tea as Hermione entered the room. Before she could sit back down beside Draco, Mr. Granger got to his feet and left the room.

Hermione settled back down beside Draco with some sugar cookies wrapped in a napkin. She took a bite out of one.

"What was Dad doing out here?" she asked as she chewed the soft cookie.

"Nothing," Draco replied as he put his arm around her. He looked into the dying embers of the fire. "We were just talking."