The Arrangement
Chapter 5
It was dark. Draco Malfoy was royally pissed at the predicament he found himself in. Why the bloody hell was it so dark? And silent. And eerie. His anger was quickly replaced by fear and apprehension when it dawned on him that he was in a dark, unfamiliar place. Panic rose in his chest. What if he had been kidnapped by rogue Death Eaters bent on continuing where the late Voldemort left off? What if they torture him and he loses his mind like Longbottom's parents? Or, even worse, what if they ruin his face?
The thought of his face being tampered with sent him over the edge and he began to scream for help.
"SHUT UP OR YOU'RE GOING TO GET US KILLED!" A very familiar, grating voice snapped from somewhere in front of him. Relief flooded his entire body before his brain caught up and he realized that she was in even greater danger than he.
"Mine? What are you doing here? Did they get you too? Are you alright? Are you hurt? Are there any visible scars from anything they've done to you?" Draco's mind conjured an image of her with a long, jagged scar down her face and he shuddered in revulsion. He wondered briefly if he could find it in him to love her despite any disfigurations she now had.
Before he could decide, she interrupted his thoughts. "No, you bloody idiot, I'm fine!" Draco suddenly felt a cold hand grab the front of his robes and he was pulled forward and thrown to the floor. "What have you gotten us into!" Hermione Granger demanded, grabbing his robes again and shaking him fiercely. Draco flinched, misjudging how close she was. While he was overcome with the desire to hold her, he doubted she felt the same way. Self-preservation overpowered any urgings he felt below the belt, after all.
"I don't know!" He managed to get out. "I don't know!"
Convinced that he was telling the truth, Hermione relaxed her grip on his clothing and sat back on her heels. "Do you have your wand?" Draco pulled it out, gave her a small prod with it, and she sighed in relief. She had lost her wand upon her own kidnapping and had been trapped in the dark for quite a while. She grabbed his wand and cast a lumos. It didn't work. "What the bloody—"
"ATTENTION HEAD GIRL AND BOY." A voice called coming from seemingly everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Draco and Hermione froze. The voice was obviously heavily disguised. "YOU ARE SAFE. YOU ARE ON HOGWARTS PROPERTY IN A ROOM OF SECRECY. DO NOT BE AFRAID." Hermione's hand found Draco's and she gripped it tightly. The lights flashed on in an instant, momentarily blinding the couple.
"What the bloody..?" Draco breathed, taking in the room they were in. To say it was over-decorated would be an understatement; the room looked as if someone took all of the Valentine's Day decorations in the world and shoved them into the room. Red and pink cupids blissfully flew above their heads, hearts rained down from pink clouds, and unmanned instruments began to play what was supposed to be romantic music.
Hermione rose to her feet, enraged. "Who are you and what do you think you're doing? If we are not let out in the next five minutes, I will not only dock points from EVERY house in Hogwarts, but I will secure you and anyone else involved detention with Professor Snape for the rest of the school year!" Draco leaned away from his lady, slightly turned on by the furious flare of her nostrils and how her bushy hair got even bushier in her anger. They sat in silence for a long time as their captors gave her threats some thought.
"NO." The ominous voice said finally. Draco groaned and sat back down on the floor, batting away a pink cupid with a crush on him. Bloody winged babies. "YOU ARE TO REMAIN TRAPPED HERE UNTIL YOU TWO MAKE UP!" This was immediately followed by giggling.
Draco, batting the cupid away yet again, began to think. In order to escape their hot pink fate, they'd have to make up. And make up sounded a lot like make out. Grinning ear to ear, he sent a wink at his witch, earning him a look of revulsion. He forgot she didn't particularly take to the winking.
"If that's how you'd like it, fine. Fifty points from Gryffindor, Sytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw! If I'm not let out in ten minutes, I will dock another fifty from each house." She called out. The room immediately echoed with indistinct whispering. Draco watched as Hermione walked to the other side of the room and sat down at a table for some tea, his wand in her hand. Draco smiled; he was infinitely glad to finally have the chance to speak with her. He'd win his lady back, marriage contract to Parkinson be damned!
"Let me pour your tea for you, Love." Draco purred, reaching out to take the teapot. Unfortunately, she beat him to it and, with a wave of his wand, poured her tea for herself. Another wave and her sugar dropped in and a red heart-shaped spoon was stirring in her little cup. Hermione smiled, satisfied, and took a sip, paying no attention to the crestfallen blond sitting across from her. He was, of course, frustrated. He made many allowances for Hermione in their relationship: he let her get away with nicking his wand whenever she pleased, he let her see him before he showered and did his hair, he gamely shared his favorite candies with her, and he even allowed her to put him in a bloody Gryffindor scarf during the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor match! But Draco Malfoy was never one to be ignored.
He eyed his witch as she silently sipped her tea, his frustration mounting. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and, with a roar most unlike him, he shoved the damned table to the side and stood before her, panting heavily. "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" He demanded childishly.
Hermione, being the infuriating witch that she was, finished her tea calmly. She stood and, having nowhere else to put the cup, placed it gently on her chair and headed towards the plush heart-shaped loveseat. Draco stiffened when she brushed past him.
He had no idea how long he had been standing where she had left him, but before he knew it, tears were streaming down his cheeks as if he were some dainty Hufflepuff princess. He couldn't help it; he sniffled. Fuck. Draco braved a peek at his woman, only to whip his head back around when they made eye contact. His crying was the last thing he wanted her to see. Spotting a door through a balloon arch across the room, he sprinted towards it. His damned tears refused to stop. He was mere inches from the door knob when he felt himself being levitated off the ground. No no no no! He resisted with no luck whatsoever. Draco succumbed to his tears and mentally berated himself for becoming a pathetic bitch Hufflepuff princess over Hermione bleeding Granger.
"We really shouldn't be watching this!" Kaelan Schmidt whispered. Sara Cavanaugh gave a bark of laughter at how nervous her best friend was. They were lounged in a small room separate from the Romantic Room of Romance they had trapped the Head Girl and Boy. Sara was glad to have properly cast the spell that would allow the two girls to see through one of the walls of the room, otherwise there would be absolutely no fun to be had. "And she's already taken 200 points total, which is probably the most docked points in all of Hogwarts history!"
Sara waved away her friend's worries and took a sip of her butterbeer. "I could give a rat's about house points. We haven't lost the house cup since Harry started here, anyway. It's a guaranteed win! We could be thousands and thousands of points behind bloody Hufflepuff and we'd still end up winning." She flicked her golden hair behind her passively. "And that bint won't dare take any more points from all the houses!"
She heard Kaelan give what she hoped was a resigned sigh. "If you say so, Sara, but it still isn't right to watch."
Sara huffed. "Fine, it looks like they're going to make up anyway. We'll just leave the door unlocked for them then so they can kiss and make up." She gathered her things and unlocked the door for the pair in the room. "This was the best idea we've ever had, Kaelan! I knew this would work!"
Giddily, she smiled at the other girl, who merely gave her a shake of the head in return.
Hermione gently placed her crying boyfriend on the loveseat next to her. "Fuck," he cursed under his breath and she felt her heart give a little heave. After the first time she had witnessed him crying, she had vowed to never give him cause to cry ever again. His shoulders shook and she remembered the day that changed their relationship forever.
Hermione cursed her luck at having been partnered with Seamus Finnigan of all people in Potions that day. Only a fool would think that any potion within arm's reach of the Irish boy would escape unscathed. She, Hermione thought with ire as she scraped some yellow goo off of her arm, was a fool indeed. Despite her reluctance to use the second floor girls' lavatory because of Moaning Mrytle, it was indeed the more practical choice. It was bad enough that she was nastying up the halls with the goo that wouldn't stop seeping from her pores!
She entered the lavatory, ignoring the soft sobbing she heard emanating from the furthest stalls. Myrtle was such a drama queen! However, not wanting to alert the ghost to her presence, she bit back her groan of disgust as she assessed her appearance in the mirror. Hermione was the last girl to be worried over her looks, but Merlin, she looked ghastly! Bright yellow goo coated her mane and dripped down to the rest of her. Ugh.
She cast a nonverbal tergeo and waited silently to see what would happen. Sure enough, a small dot of yellow squeezed itself out of a pore on her cheek. With a grimace she aimed her wand carefully at the dot and cast again. Thankfully she stayed clean this time. She turned, raising her robes every so often to make sure she didn't miss a spot. Satisfied with her appearance, she raised a hand to flatten her hair when she heard the stall door creak as it opened. She turned and met the red-rimmed grey eyes she would inevitably fall in love with.
As it was, they were not yet in love and so, in place of love, Hermione instead felt fear at having caught the Malfoy scion crying, and curiosity as to the cause.
"…Mudblood." He whispered. She hardly batted a lash at the derogatory name. He stalked towards her and Hermione found herself pressing back into the sinks. He grabbed her around the neck and sneered at her. "You will not tell anyone you saw me, have you got that?"
They held their eye contact long enough for Hermione's fear of him to ebb. There was no anger in his eyes; only fear and sadness. Forgetting herself, she reached up and placed a gentle hand on his cheek and used the pad of her thumb to wipe away a tear that had gone unnoticed. His eyes closed and he leaned into the touch, hungry for the contact. His grip on her neck slackened.
"I won't tell anyone, Malfoy." She whispered hoarsely. She dropped her hand from his cheek and he let out a shuddering moan at the loss of her warmth. Before she could think, he grabbed her hand and held it to his cheek, his eyes still closed.
Tears continued to stream down his cheeks. "My father was killed, Hermione. Killed. And to mourn him would be considered traitorous to the Light. To mourn him would condemn me. They all relish in his death; his and the Dark Lord's. They are thrilled." His eyes opened here and Hermione forgot to breathe. She had never been so close to him before and his pale grey eyes were intense as they met her brown ones. "Should I be happy that I've lost my hero? I will not feign ignorance and claim my father was a good man. Nor will I stand by his decisions; those were not ones I would have made. But he is my hero. He died for his beliefs, as misguided as they were. He died trying to protect his family. Tell me he is not worth mourning!
"I've learned many things during the war. I've learned many things watching you. But none of the things I've learned justify his death. None of my little epiphanies come close to filling the void my father left in my heart when he was killed. So why can't I be allowed to mourn my father?" He was crying in earnest now, his body wracking with sobs. "Why?"
Hermione wrapped her arms around his head, pushing him into her shoulders. He leaned into her and she, unable to fully support his weight, slowly lowered them to the floor. "Shh, you're okay. You're okay." Hermione whispered it fiercely into his blond hair, unable to fight back tears of her own. "You're okay."
Hermione didn't know how long they had stayed there, underneath the sinks of the girls' lavatory, and she couldn't have cared less. She missed two classes that day and she had a paper to write, but her mind was focused entirely on the haunted boy in her arms who just wanted to mourn his hero.
She never wanted him to feel this way ever again.
Hermione worried at her lip, torn between holding the man she loved and remembering their circumstances. To hold him would complicate matters. To do otherwise would break her heart. His shoulders continued to shake.
She had tried to be unselfish about his engagement to Pansy. She thought about the widowed Narcissa Malfoy, who was desperately trying to honor a wish the late Lucius Malfoy had of joining their son with the Parkinson girl. She thought about Pansy, whose world fell apart at Voldemort's demise and knew no other lifestyle than that of immaculate, pureblooded wealth.
She thought about herself, her strength, her self-reliance, and how life always moves on.
Draco was the love of her life. She loved him because he was perfect, but also because he was not. She loved him because he had a terrible superiority complex, he was a narcissist, and because he was an intelligent and capable wizard. She loved him because he loved her with a passion and he knew just what he wanted out of life. She loved him because they clashed so much and yet molded together so perfectly they were practically made for each other.
But nothing that good could ever last.
Draco's broken voice broke through her thoughts. "I just want you to understand that I love you so much, with every fiber of my being, with every inch of my soul. I would never betray you!"
Tears welled up in Hermione's eyes and she couldn't find it in her to breathe. This wasn't how she wanted to handle things. She fought back her tears and squashed her urge to wrap herself around him. "I know." She whispered, her voice betraying her emotions.
"I've been doing all that I can to break this fucking engagement, Mine, I swear to you! I don't love Pansy. I could never love Pansy! Not when I'm so fucking devoted to you!" He turned to face her and Hermione broke. Her composure completely left her as she crumbled into his arms. "I realized something today, Hermione. Something I don't think I'd ever have seen myself thinking in a million years." She made no move to interrupt him. "Hermione, I could live without it all as long as I have you. I would give up everything I own, everything that is entitled to me, just to be with you. I would be content to live in some Weasley shack for the rest of my existence as long as that shack also housed you.
"Sod my fortune, Hermione, sod my family and my bloody legacy and sod my blood; I have everything in this fucked up world as long as I have you. Mine, you're everything. You are and always will be mine; there's no replacing you." Draco was breathing heavily, the force of his tears and his speech catching up with him. She cried even harder.
He had changed so much from the git she punched in their third year. The thought of him forsaking his mother and leaving behind his life of luxury for her destroyed her. He shouldn't have to choose between the two. Hermione remembered her encounter with Pansy and closed her eyes, her heart breaking at the thought. But she had to protect her Draco, who wouldn't last a day in the real world depending only on himself and her devotion for comfort. His family name was tarnished by the crimes of his father and if he shunned his fortune for her, she doubted anyone would be willing to hire a former Death Eater.
Her decision was painfully clear.
She pushed away from him and wiped away her tears. He was confused, she could feel it radiating from his body as she stood and looked down at him. "I don't love you anymore, Malfoy." She breathed. He sat and stared up at her in dumb shock, his pale grey eyes rimmed with red much like they were when she first encountered him that day in their 6th year. Her heart lurched to know she had been the cause of his pain when she so ardently wanted to put a stop to them.
She turned on her heel and headed for the door. "Let me out." She ground out. She turned the knob and it opened smoothly for her. She paused and looked back at the boy she loved so much sobbing into the floor. His hand was gripping a handful of carpet and his face was obscured by the skirting of the loveseat. She spotted her wand on a shelf near the door and levitated his to rest near his hand.
"I'm sorry, Draco." She whispered as she shut the door behind her.