Chapter 16: Sugar, We're Goin' Down
"You are irresponsible, immature and yet, expect to be treated as adults. Are you serious?" McGonagall asked Hermione and Draco after breakfast the next morning
"Professor, what did we do?" Hermione asked
"Forget 'we'. What did I do?" Draco asked and Hermione indiscreetly stepped on his foot
"You both came in after curfew from practice while Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley were here half an hour early." Draco snuck a peak at Hermione who merely looked the same as before
"Oh yes, I knew all about it. I gave her the permission to continue. Now, you two, as punishment will not go to practice today."
"What!" the two cried incredulously "You can't possibly do that!"
"I can, and it's done. Owls have already been sent to Jason Phillips and Viktor Krum explaining that Draco Malfoy and Henry Garrison cannot make it to practice today due to school issues."
"I'm supposed to go to a muggle school Professor."
"You failed your last science test."
"That's lovely Professor. So, I'm an hour late after curfew yet I go and save Ravenclaw's bow. How nice to repay me Professor." Hermione said
"That's the Henry in her." Draco tried to explain
"No. That's the Hermione in me." Hermione glared at her teammate, who slightly cringed
"Either way I do not care. You two are going to work in the kitchens today. Making the meals and washing all the dishes of all three meals, without magic at all. And the house elves will be watching to make sure you don't fight."
"Very well, Professor. I'm heading there right now. Come on Malfoy." Hermione turned on her heel and Draco looked at both women before slowly following Hermione
"And just how do you now the way?"
"Fred and George were more genius than you thought Professor." Hermione replied and the two headed for the kitchens
"A full morning of cleaning and cooking and yet, I can still come to my nice soft bed and be bombarded by questions about men's sizes." Hermione said fake cheerfully as her roommates and Ginny cornered her in her bed after the lunch dishes were washed
"Well, we're sorry but you went off to get massaged by none other than your teammate and roommate Draco Malfoy." Ginny said and Hermione glared at her
"How?"
"Rigel was still shocked in the morning and when he saw Draco and you just glaring at each other this morning, it reminded him of it and he just had to tell someone about it so he told Teresa." Ginny replied and Hermione merely side glanced at Teresa before beginning her tale of the night before up until the end of the massage; no one needed to know about the tomb unless it was necessary
"Very nice." Pansy smirked but Amy looked appalled
"He was on top of you? How heavy." She gasped
"Oh how juvenile. They were just wrestling like regular teenage boys do, except for the naked part. Was Harry big?" Ginny asked
"You've already caught a glimpse of it, I would think you would know." Hermione asked and Amy's eyes grew wider
"Oh…oh my…" she whispered staring at the bathroom door
"Ah, Amy's the little baby…" Teresa and Pansy cooed and Amy reddened
"Ah leave her alone girls. C'mon Amy, if anyone's the baby it's me and that's because I'm the youngest. Let's go to the guys downstairs." The others followed except Hermione
"What troubles you daughter of Gryffindor?" Kanna asked, who had been roosting on her canopy hidden since she had arrived, but flew to her new mistress's shoulder once the others left
"I don't know Kanna. Something seems off in all of this. I think I'm going to be in for an even rougher year than I thought." Hermione replied entering the bathroom to look in the mirror to see bloodshot eyes
"You should rest. I've seen many in your state and all you need is rest"
"Yeah well…"
CRASH
"What was that?" Hermione looked wildly but both doors were closed
"It came from the right into the next room." Kanna replied her form a ocean blue against the pink tile of the bathroom
"The boys…" Hermione muttered and a knock came from the girl's side "Who?" Hermione called softly
"Hermione its Ginny. I just came up to tell you that Draco's dad came to visit. He's with Draco right now in their room."
"Thanks Ginny. I'll see you downstairs." Hermione replied and heard the redhead leave the room "Draco's going to be in trouble." Hermione told Kanna as she crossed her way softly to the boys' door. No noises made it from the other side and so Hermione took a risk to open it a crack. She merely saw a bloody tile on the bathroom floor and knew instantly that it was happening again. She used a Disillusionment Charm and slipped into the room, closing the door softly behind her while making sure that Kanna stayed away. She made her way to the boy's bedroom, which was in full view since the door was open and there was Lucius glaring at Draco, who was up and standing his ground yet whose head was bleeding.
"Do not disappointment me Draco. You know your duty. It is your job. You cannot let anyone else help you. This task is simple and the Dark Lord will be pleased." Hermione tensed as she stepped behind Draco
"I know he will be pleased father. That's why I am telling you that I am perfectly capable of carrying it out. Just as long as Severus doesn't interfere, I will be perfectly fine." Draco replied, apparently not shaken by the head wound. Hermione was shocked, Draco worked for HIM
"And you will be perfectly fine with only Vincent and Gregory to help you? Are they even capable of flicking their wands correctly?" Lucius asked in all seriousness
"They've made it this far haven't they father? I will be fine working alone father. Just watch out for mother and I will be able to do my part here." Draco said in a passive voice but his eyes said that he was warning his father
"Don't look at me like that Draco. Remember that it is I that controls you at home. I am your master."
"You are not my master father. The Dark Lord is." Draco said coolly and Lucius punched his across the cheek sending him flying into the bathroom; Hermione followed quickly but made sure neither of them heard her footsteps
"You have two masters Draco. I, your father and master at home, and the Dark Lord is your master at all other times. Understood?" Lucius gripped Draco face in one hand and his son looked straight into his eyes "I've told you before not to look at me like that Draco." Lucius threw his head into the floor and Draco rolled unto all fours and shook his head to clear the fuzziness "I've also told you not to tell me what to do about your mother. Haven't I?"
"Yes." Draco said as he slowly got to his feet "And I've told you that I'm old enough to make sure my tasks are carried out. Quit trying to make sure I'm doing it. I'm getting closer. It's just going to take a while."
"And what, may I ask, are you planning currently?"
"I…am going to have a little chat with a certain bartender who will be glad to help me out in Hogsmeade. Don't worry father. I'm going to be as good as you. Maybe better." Draco smirked and Lucius glared; suddenly Draco was flung into the girls' door to the bathroom and it broke down under his weight to reveal the empty pink bathroom. Once again, Draco's head had banged against the floor and now a different cut surfaced through his pale blond hair. His arm had broken because of the fall and his leg had multiple scratches on them. Somehow, only one side of his body had sustained injuries and Lucius noticed this.
"Don't say you will be better than me Draco. I have worked to hard to get to my position to have you take it all away in one day. But, I will give you this. It was smart to make sure that only one side of your body sustained injuries." Hermione knew it was coming even before Draco did.
CRUNCH
The sound of a cracking rib entered the room just as Lucius' boot made contact yet again with Draco's rib cage. Hermione looked away, disgusted at this treatment but glad she had made it this far into their conversation. Lucius turned around, leaving Draco in his misery, and left after he had repaired both doors and cleaned the blood off of the floor. Draco, still not noticing the invisible Hermione, looked at the top of the shower to see Kanna staring at him. He opened his mouth a little bit but coughed up blood and succumbed into unconsciousness.
"Is this what would happen?" Kanna asked as Hermione took off the charm
"Yes. I knew this would happen. But, Malfoy lied to me. He never told me he was working for Voldemort." Hermione kneeled next to Draco and touched his head and looked at her dainty fingers to see them covered in blood "Well, no matter. He is my fellow teammate and fellow prefect so I must help him. But I'm not wasting another ointment on him, the filthy Death Eater." Hermione spat before she placed her hand back on his scalp
"Tergeo." She muttered and the blood dried and disappeared from Draco's head. He stirred and groaned under her touch and his feathery eyelashes fluttered open.
"What the hell?" he whispered and eased himself into a sitting position, wincing as his broken ribs ached
"Your ribs are broken again Draco. And your arm too." Hermione said evenly, pushing him slowly back unto the cold tile floor "I'll just heal you and we can talk about your father later." Draco winced, but not from pain
"How much did you hear?" Draco asked but Hermione's attention was turned to Kanna
"Kanna, go into my bedroom. You don't need to be here now ok? I heard as much as I needed Draco to know that you're the enemy."
"Hermione I-" Draco started
"Don't even try. Episkey." She began to emit a white glow from her hands, forgetting that she couldn't perform wand-less magic in front of others
"You're doing wand-less magic Hermione." Draco said in an even but pained voice
"You are not to tell anyone I can do this Draco." Hermione warned and Draco sat up without pain
"And you are not to tell anyone of my conversation with my father." Draco warned and pounced on Hermione, pinning her to the tile floor
"Draco what-" Hermione gasped as Draco used his strength and weight advantage against her as he put a hand to her forehead and remembered all the close moments they had together, especially the scene earlier. But, he left the part at her house, when he told her of his mother, that, she could know and the crying at the lake as well as very insignificant other times in the past that held importance to her, like the punch in 3rd
"Oblivisior. I'm sorry Hermione. They would kill you if they found out you were close to me. Anyone close to me here is now in danger." Draco lifted Hermione in his arms and carried her to the girls' room placing her on the bed; he felt Kanna glaring holes into him
"It was for her own good, birdie. This little lioness is too important to the whole world to be subjected to my selfish little petty world." Draco explained as he took off her shoes and tossed them anywhere to fake that she had fallen asleep
"She worries too much about you to not care if she's sucked into your 'petty world' or not." Kanna replied, cobalt eyes softening at his reasoning
"And I care enough not to want her involved. It's enough that there is Severus breathing down my back to offer help but I can't taint her. She hasn't been sucked into that part of the wizarding world yet. May she keep whatever virtue she has before I am the cause of an evil that she will never forgive me for. Do not speak to her of this Kanna." Draco warned and the bird bowed
"I see your reasoning and I know you left some of your memories together with her so I won't say a word. But it's almost time to cook isn't it?" Draco looked at his watch and saw it to be six o 'clock
"Hermione, wake up." Draco poked her pelvic bone and she jerked awake
"SSSSS…." Hermione hissed and sat up straight "Wha?"
"Put on your shoes, we have food to make." Draco said, acting normally as Hermione looked over the side of her bed
"Stupid commanding man…" Hermione muttered, not remembering anything out of the ordinary and the two soon walked down to the common room, no one asking either what happened upstairs seeing as Lucius had already told them why
"Draco and Hermione are upstairs right now. Don't disturb them. When they come down, they'll be fine." He had said and the prefects had nodded without hesitation
"I can't go to practice tonight guys. They know why." Draco told Harry and Ron when Harry passed by the Slytherin table during dinner; Draco and Hermione had came up from the kitchen's to eat some dinner before heading back down
"Well we don't. Why not?" Ron asked and Harry rolled his eyes
"I came in late last night and McGonagall has me on kitchen duty."
"Alright. See ya Malfoy." Ron turned and left, not waiting for Harry
"I thought Hermione was doing kitchen duty too. Was she late with you?" Harry asked, eyes darting from his teammate to his cousin, who was talking to Ginny and her roommates at the Ravenclaw table
"I don't know why she has it Potter. Don't worry so much about her. She's a grown witch isn't she?" Draco said and Harry glared a bit
"Yes but I have my reasons. You are my teammate and all but I wouldn't like the idea of you two being out late after curfew…together." Harry hissed the last part in Parseltongue but Draco understood either way what the Chosen One had meant just by the look in his eyes
Harry didn't want Hermione and Draco to have anything with each other except the duties that brought them together as prefects and being friends. But no relationship beyond friendship…Draco could deal with that, he needed that right now. Draco had to become the lone wolf from now on. If he even wanted Hermione and the others to live, he had to be the cold snake that his father knew he could be. He needed to be Draco the cold hearted dragon that ruled the night operations at Hogwarts for Lord Voldemort. And right now he needed to leave to see that the operations were going as planned. Hermione saw Draco looking at her yet not looking at her at the same time. His eyes held a sadness for a split second before it was as cold as the day they first meet and he stood from the Slytherin table and left the Great Hall.
"It sucks that you can't go with the boys Hermione." Pansy said and Amy shook her head
"I'm going to talk to Ernie. See you in the dorm." Amy left and the two non-Gryffindors smirked at Hermione
"Draco was looking at you right now Hermione." Ginny grinned and nudged her friend, who looked back at them and shook her head, before poking her food with her fork
"Yeah well… I guess he's just thinking about the dishes later. Munch I have to go. People are leaving and there are plates to wash. See you." Hermione waved at her friends and headed to the fruit bowl painting and tickled the pear.
Heading in, she spotted Dobby and Winky and the other elves piling down plates into the large sink. She rolled up her sleeves and grabbed a pair of rubbed gloves and grabbed the sponge, picking up the first plate that came into her hand. She never noticed that Draco never showed up at all the whole time she was there. She didn't care, she was merely thinking about the look on his face and how she knew something was wrong to make him leave that abruptly. Was he angry at her for lying for two months about her other identity of Henry? Was he disgusted? She thought like this for two hours until she had no dishes to wash at all.
"Ms. Granger do very well, that she did." A house elf said giving her an approving nod before taking her gloves off her hands, she barely noticed her way back to the dorm except for when she was stopped by Dean in front of the Fat Lady
"Hermione!" he called and ran up to her dazed walking body
"Huh? Oh, hey Dean. What's wrong?" she noticed his flush cheeks and panting
"We need a new place to crash the karaoke party. McGonagall found out and she transfigured the platform into a butterfly. Please, got any place in mind?"
"Oh yeah. My dorm. Rigel won't mind at all I think. He needs a little laugh now and then." Hermione said walking back to the Fat Lady
"Alright right Hermione. Baubles. This will be great. Guys! WE CAN CRASH AT THE HEADS DORM! HERMIONE'S TREAT!" Dean yelled and practically the whole house followed as she went back to the Head Dorm and whispered the password but that wasn't necessary since her housemates were too loud to hear it
"Everyone quiet." Hermione said in a clear voice and they shut up
"Listen, you guys will be out by curfew and I'm sorry but no hard liquor. The most I can leave you with is at most three beers per person and only three shots of Firewhiskey, understand. Maybe a little wine but that's it. Alright come in and settle in the fireplace area and I'll get a platform set up." Hermione led her house in and soon put the five tables together and shrunk the legs until they were only an inch off the floor "Seamus, start us up!" Hermione said and Seamus brought the machine on the platform but shook his head giving her the microphone
"You're the host, you start."
"Ok give me that hat." Seamus held out both hats "Okay, Lavender has to sing 'Girl All the Bad Guys Want' by Bowling for Soup. Luck Lavender." Hermione tossed her that mic and grabbed a beer from Dean
"Great a boy song. Oh well." Lavender began to sing in an off beat voice and the Gryffindors were having a grand old time until eight thirty, when Rigel came out of his room with Teresa
"What is the hell is that Hermione?" Teresa asked pointing at Seamus, Neville and Dean singing and dancing'Survivor' by Destiny's Child
"Oh um…Gryffindor pastime. I'm sorry I didn't warn you but McGonagall found out about it and turned out platform into a butterfly and Dean ran up to me and-" the three ducked a tomato being thrown at the three boys "- well, I volunteered the dorm for tonight until I can plead with McGonagall about this. I'll mention that Godric loved to sing ballads with his friends when they were drunk."
"As are some of your friends." Rigel pointed to Romilda and Parvati actually making out for two seconds before Parvati passed out with a beer bottle in her hand and Romilda laughing at her from her seat on the floor
"Oh, I said at most three beers and three shots not least. Guys, gotta go."
"You all 'eard that lady people. Me mum once said that if I coul' get outta a party with me drawers still on than it was a good party. Or was it me da? Whatever… Let's move out and quiet too cuz McGona…gona…our professor migh' still be up, ya know.(poor imitation no shooting)" Seamus lead them back to their dorm with Hermione following quietly to make sure anyone passed out was levitated instead of carried. When she came back, Rigel was replaying the story to the other prefects, including Ron excluding Draco.
"You're back!" Hermione said and ran to Ron, who was shaking his head
"You should've known better than to allow them three shots of Firewhiskey Hermione. You know they love five. And you know you love at least six beers." Ron muttered but Rigel heard it all
"Hermione Granger do you want your badge revoked?"
"Oh come on Rigel. We all needed the laughs. With Mimosa gone and all the extra defense classes that you go to…I thought it would be good for you to come out of your room to laugh a bit and de-stress…" Hermione said, putting her head down and Rigel couldn't help but soften his tone at her
"Yeah well…I guess I have been harder on you guys since Mimi left. She's going to be out in at least a month more but… I guess I should thank you at least trying to cheer me up Hermione." Rigel put a hand on her shoulder and she looked up to see his small smile
"Thanks Hermione." He muttered and turned back to go into his room, leaving a slightly content Hermione and friends except for two things
"Where's Harry and Malfoy?" Hermione asked Ron
"Oh, they went to their dorms. Malfoy said he wanted peace and quiet. Harry's tired as hell so I left him. I could tell everyone was knocked out when I heard Seamus snoring from all the way here."
"Let's go to bed everyone. You have practice anyway tomorrow Ron." Amy said patting Ron on the back and leading him upstairs by the hand
"Wait… Amy's holding Ron's hand… oh…" Teresa muttered and the three older girls rushed upstairs to quiz Amy when she came in
"Severus I don't need your help." Draco told his godfather as they paced in the Room of Requirement where a broken Vanishing Cabinet stood in the midst of all of the rubbish there
"You have been avoiding me all term. Now, I know I couldn't help you with your father but I can surely help you with this: a simple fixing spell will fix it." Snape told Draco pointing to the Cabinet
"I don't need you. I've been entrusted with this and the only reasoned you're allowed in here right now is because you followed me out of the dorm." Draco hissed at him and Snape glared
"Remember your upbringing Draco."
"Yeah, yeah…elders and everything. Screw it Severus, I'm the one with the job. You merely spy, I have to do the real thing."
"I made an Unforgivable Vow with your mother Draco." Draco's eyes faltered
"I don't care… Even if it is my mother, you know I'd respect her wishes. But if I don't do this, I'll die, she'll die, you'll die. If you do it, I'll still die and mum will too, from a broken heart. You know how bad I feel right now Severus about doing this. I want you out now. Just go." Draco waved and Severus glowered but turned on his heel
"Draco, what's wrong?" a female voice asked from behind him and he saw Moaning Myrtle behind him, looking concerned and his eyes softened a bit
"Gah… I respect him sometimes but other times I just want to perform the killing curse on him. He doesn't understand that I have to…do what I have to do… Myrtle, I'm glad you are the way you are." Draco told the phantom girl who suddenly looked sad
"You mean…sniff dead?" she asked, tears threatening to fall from her face
"Yeah. I like you like this, if you hadn't died when you did, then you wouldn't be here to understand me better than anyone else has." Draco slumped next to the Cabinet and added the final touch as Myrtle watched
"You mean that? Even better then that Hermione Granger girl you had to obliviate to save from who-know- who?"
"Yeah…she could never understand what I'm going through. From cross-dressing to beating me in Quidditch, she just is too…"
"Good?"
"Yeah, she's too good for my world. She needs to live in the world where she can look back and say 'I had a fun year' not 'I can't believe he lied to me and almost got me killed'. At least you can understand where I'm coming from Myrtle." Draco looked to his right to see Myrtle hovering next to him, looking like she was sitting but wasn't
"Yeah…I was always the one getting picked on, never a moment of peace from those people that were supposedly my housemates."
"You know what? You are more Hufflepuff than any of those people in your house back then Myrtle. You are the sweetest and humblest Hufflepuff I've ever met, alive or dead." Draco smiled at the ghost girl who beamed back, but she could tell that someone was still at the back of his mind but she knew she could get him to talk later on, just not know. Now would ruin the nice moment they had together.
AN Sorry I haven't updated but I was waiting for at least five reviews and I'm reverting back to my rule again. 5 reviews 1 new chapter. 10 reviews two new chapters. Just please review more. I'm thinking to repost this and I need your opinion
POLL TIME
Should I repost so that the beginning is less confsing? I will have to restart the whole story but I will finish this one first and then repost or do it at the same time.