A/N: So sorry for the wait people. As some of you may know I had a lot of things going on last week and I thought I'd have time to write but it turned out I didn't have a single minute to myself so yeah. And then as you know yesterday was father's day so I wasn't home for most of the day. We went to visit my grandpa. Not like you really wanted to know that… Anyways, here's chapter six! Hope you enjoy it! Leave me a review, as it is important that I know what you think. Love to all:D
A Mudblood's Slave?
Hermione sat by the window in her small kitchen buttering rolls. Every few minutes she'd look at the muggle clock on her wall and shake her head. Draco glanced up from peeling potatoes and noticed the roll in her hand was beginning to crumble into small pieces on the table in front of her, for she wasn't paying attention. The butter knife slowly rubbed more and more of the biscuit off.
"What's the matter with you?" Draco asked finally, sounding quite agitated. "You're ruining that perfectly good biscuit!"
She looked down at the small shredded piece of bread in her hands and sighed, throwing it across the table at him. It landed in his potato shavings and he grabbed it, stuffing the remaining part of the biscuit into his mouth.
"I'm just nervous," Hermione said, arranging the buttered pieces of bread on the plate neatly. "I know they're going to be mad about what I've done and I just don't want them to be angry with me."
"What have you done?" Draco asked scratching under his collar, which now had pointy silver spikes on it. He'd talked Hermione into conjuring the spikes for him so that he'd look tougher. She had said that it was ridiculous but had done it so he would stop nagging. In Hermione's opinion, it made Malfoy look like an overly tall guard dog.
"I bought you," Hermione said bluntly. "They hate you!"
"You hate me," Malfoy added, as he reached for another potato.
"I do not," Hermione said. "I hated you while we were in school-"
"And during the war," Malfoy piped in.
"And during the war," Hermione said rolling her eyes.
"And now," Draco replied, as Hermione cleared away the potato peelings with her wand.
"I don't hate you now," Hermione said. "I don't know why. I guess my feelings died right along with the war. When it ended everything ended. I knew nothing would ever be the same."
"And the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that night," Draco said.
"You're the Grinch," Hermione replied with a scowl.
"Am not," Draco said. "Anyway what's your point? Everyone knows you bought me. It was in the paper…"
"Yes but you're Draco Malfoy," Hermione said.
"So I'm aware," Draco replied sarcastically. "No need to tell me my own name Granger."
"God, I knew you wouldn't understand!" she snapped, conjuring four more rolls and returning to her task of buttering and arranging.
Draco fell silent, almost feeling a bit guilty. Was this one of those moments when he should've listened? Why did he even care? He sighed and began peeling another potato.
"Look Granger, you're a grown woman now," Draco mused simply. "You have every right to make your own decisions with out Potter and Weasel having a say in what you do. If you want to buy your best friend's worst enemy and keep him prisoner in your home as a slave, then so be it. It doesn't matter what they think and you don't owe them an explanation for any of your actions."
She looked up, her eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Wow Malfoy that actually sounded smart," she muttered, placing a dinner roll carefully on the plate.
"Believe it or not, I do have some brains in this gorgeous head of mine," Draco replied, tapping his temple with the knife he was using.
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Eight o'clock came around too soon, in Hermione's opinion. She'd made dinner for her two best friends and her slave. It was set neatly on the round table that he been enlarged to hold the food and seat three men and herself. Draco sat near the fire, picking at his nails with the knife he held in his hand. He whistled softly and held his hand in front of him to admire his handy work. A knock came at the small cottage door and he perked up, almost like a guard dog, a small grunt coming from his throat.
"Answer that will you?" Hermione hollered from the bathroom. Draco sighed, and got to his feet. He then glided to the door and threw it open to find Potter and Weasel standing there staring at him. Harry held a bottle of wine and Ron held some flowers. They were blood red and looked slightly like lilies.
"Malfoy," Harry said with a stiff nod in Draco's direction. Draco didn't say or do anything, he merely glared at them, a loose strand of blonde hair falling into his cold gray eyes. He stepped aside and allowed them to enter through the door that was a tiny bit wider than Draco's shoulders.
They entered, watching Draco as they went. He raised a light eyebrow at them.
"See something you like?" he snarled.
"You haven't changed a bit," Ron growled, holding the crimson lilies quite tightly as though he were going to use them against Draco.
"What did you expect?" Draco asked. "Did you want me to welcome you with open arms and a big fake smile? When you're the one responsible for me being stuck here with the muggle born? Doing muggle work on her stupid house when I could be free to live as I want?"
"Yeah in a cave, dirty and rodent infested, smelling like human feces," Harry muttered sarcastically.
"We never speak of that!" Draco growled turning and pointing his knife at Harry.
"What's the matter?" Ron snarled. "Embarrassed?"
Draco's cheeks reddened and he turned and stalked off towards the back of the house where he entered his room and slammed the small door. Hermione hurried out with her eyes wide.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Nothing," both Harry and Ron replied innocently. They enveloped her in hugs and kissed her on top of her head. She smiled, happy to see them, even though she was slightly suspicious of why her slave had just stormed out of the cozy kitchen.
"So how have you two been doing?" she asked glancing at Draco's closed door.
"Good. It's just work all of the time," Ron replied, sitting in one of the wooden chairs. "We haven't caught Lucius Malfoy yet but we have our people on the job. Nothing new."
"Keep it down," Hermione said. "Draco probably won't be happy to find out you're now hunting his father."
"Since when have you called him Draco?" Ron asked, the growing anger traced in his voice.
"Since we've both grown up and are mature, Ronald," she snapped looking at him sternly.
"He still calls you a muggle born!" Ron pointed out stubbornly.
"Because he's of the male species. It seems boys never do turn into men," she shot back at him.
Harry cleared his throat.
"I feel like I'm back at Hogwarts," he muttered, leaning against the wall. At that Draco came back out of the room in a wife beater and a pair of jeans, wearing his dirty work boots that were spattered in paint.
"I'm going to work on the house," he muttered.
"Why?" Hermione asked. "Dinner's almost ready! And it's already dark out!"
"I say you let him go," Ron said glaring in Draco's general direction, but not looking directly at him.
"That's why," Draco said pointing at the red head.
"God can we all just grow up just for tonight?" Hermione asked. "I took a long time preparing dinner and I don't need you two kicking each other under the table the whole time because you can't let go of the past!"
"Why let go Hermione?" Ron snarled, standing up. "When he's responsible for all the deaths and pain we've gone through?"
"It wasn't just him Ronald!" Hermione said, getting red in the face. "It was Voldemort and his minions!"
"And last time I checked, Malfoy was one of his minions!" Ron yelled. Draco leaned against the wall looking quite intrigued with the growing argument.
Draco crossed his arms across his chest, the dark mark disappearing against his body.
"So what Ron! Things change! People change!" she cried at him.
"Look at him Hermione! He hasn't changed a bit and if you can't see that then you're just an… an idiot!" Ron bellowed.
"How dare you!" Hermione shrieked. "Can't you see that I'm just trying to help him get a new start on life? Can't you understand that? Yes I know he's a bad person but it was a horrible way to get revenge on him the way you did! Any cruel wizard could've gotten their hands on him!"
"And he would've deserved it!" Ron shot back.
"Well I think that he could be more than an ex Death Eater. And I don't think you deserve to bask in the glory of knowing you ruined somebody else's life," Hermione said.
"Oh that's rich! Righteous Hermione, always helping those in need! He's Malfoy!" Ron spat bitterly. "Are you going to provide shelter for Lucius Malfoy too, when he gets caught?"
"I don't know Ron, will it eat you alive inside if I do?" Hermione growled dangerously. "Because if so, you might as well just bring ol' Lucius right to my door step!"
Ron looked shocked, his eyes bulging slightly.
"Right," he muttered, giving her a bitter smile. He then sat down, with his arms crossed against his chest. "I never knew you'd end up helping Death Eaters Hermione. You might as well call yourself a traitor."
At that, Hermione reached over swiftly, picked up a dinner roll, and hurled it at Ron. She then went for another.
"That's typical Ronald!" she screeched as he was hit over and over again with buttered biscuits. "For you to look at it that way! I should've known you wouldn't be able to handle it! You're just the same selfish, jealous, ignorant git that I knew back in school!"
With that she walked over to her front door and exited the small house, slamming it behind her. Draco swore he felt the whole house shake. He shrugged and sat down, digging in to the shepherd's pie Hermione had made. He grabbed a roll and poured himself some tea.
The two men looked at him in disbelief.
"What?" he snapped at them. "She's not my friend. And I wasn't the one that just hurt her feelings. You stupid git," he added for good measure, looking at Ron. "Now I have to deal with her moping around the rest of the night because she's upset with you."
Harry sat down and served himself some food.
"You sure have made yourself comfortable in Hermione's house," Ron growled, glaring at Draco.
"It's because I live here too," Draco said, looking at him dully. "You know, me and her have been getting along quite well these days…" Draco waited for Ron's reaction. His face reddened and his nostrils flared slightly.
"You-" Ron began, advancing slightly on Malfoy.
"Maybe you should go talk to Hermione," Harry said standing up hurriedly to form a barrier between Ron and Malfoy.
"Yeah," Ron said not taking his eyes off of Draco, who was smirking evilly at him.
"This collar may make it so I can't hurt Granger, Weasel, but it doesn't keep me from hurting you," he drawled, sneering at the red head.
"I'm not afraid of you Malfoy," Ron whispered dangerously.
"You should be," Draco said, his lips curling maliciously. "I may not have a wand but you'd be surprised what I've learned over the years."
After the two were done exchanging words, Ron left to find Hermione, and Draco continued stuffing food in his face as though nothing had happened. He didn't even seem angry any more as Harry looked at him.
"You sure seemed to have returned back to normal," Harry replied.
Draco looked up from his plate and smirked.
"When you found me I was skin and bone. I was weak and dirty and fatigued," Draco said. "There wasn't much room in there for me to be me."
"You're still skin and bone," Harry pointed out.
"Ah see Potter? But I've had time to revive myself. I've been able to sleep and eat well. I can say I'm well on the road to recovery," Malfoy replied.
"Which I really don't think is a good thing," Harry said.
"Don't worry Potter. I can't break free. I'll be caught in an instance. And besides, why would I want to escape into a world that hates me and wants me dead?" he asked. "Here I'm shielded from all that. I don't believe it's worth it to risk my life in such a way. This is as free as I'll ever be."
"It seems Hermione's treating you fairly decently," Harry remarked.
"It seems she is," Draco agreed. "Although I'm not quite sure of her motives."
"Neither am I," Harry said shaking his head. "It seems she thinks you can better yourself here. It also appears that she doesn't want to see you hurt. I knew she'd be angry that we turned you in for slavery, even though she wasn't upset to hear about Severus Snape-"
"Snape was caught?" Draco asked in disbelief.
"Yes, last month," Harry replied. "Neville Longbottom's grandmother bought him."
"Wow," Draco said shaking his head.
"Perhaps she's trying to teach us a lesson," Potter went on. "When I called her to tell her that we'd found you she'd asked what we did with you. She didn't seem all that happy then either. Maybe it's so much as she's curious to see if you can change, Malfoy. For the better. And she knew that any other wizard interested in you out there, was only interested in ending your life…"
Those words kept running through Draco's head that night as he lay in bed. Was he really that close to the end at that slavery shop? He was slightly curious about how many wizards would've showed up to compete for him. Who would've gotten him in the end? In his heart, Draco knew he really didn't want to know.
A/N: All right. Again I'm sorry for the wait. I've just been busy and we had company in town for several days so yes. Here it is. I will be updating regularly again and all that now that I have time again. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review. Thanks for being patient! Anyways. I've got to be off now so, bye!