i.h- Hello everyone. How are ya's all doin? Well, I'm sorry for the long wait. I've been busy with school. That and exams are coming up really soon…wow…really soon. Like, two weeks soon. Eep. Ya, anyway. I'm sorry about the last chapter for those of you who thought that Draco's feelings developed too quickly. But, since what happened in the corridor to the potions room, several weeks had gone by. Not to mention that Draco has been spending almost every waking hour of his day with her. And don't worry, I'm not going to make Hermione fall in love with a dog. Lol that would just be wrong lol. Oh, and there is a Spanish sentence in here, sorry if it doesn't translate right. I just used the translator on my Microsoft Word. Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Onto the next chapter!
Disclaimer- check out chapter one + Zereth Dvata belongs to me.
Chapter 5
Hermione raced down the multiple staircases, trying to get to the entrance of the castle before time ran out. She knew she was going to be late as it was, but they could kill her if she was too late.
Tanaka was right beside her. He looked as if he were floating, he was running so smoothly. Hermione let a smile cross her flushed face as she took another quick glance down. Tanaka looked more carefree today than he had since she had found him. He was running easily, tongue lolling out, and a huge dog grin on his wolfish face.
Hermione stumbled to a stop when she finally got to the great door. She bent over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. When she straightened up, she was greeted with three scowling faces.
"Sorry I'm late guys. Mr.Filtch, I'd like to go to Hogsmead too please."
"You're lucky; I was just about to close the doors. Git goin'" Mr.Filtch practically pushed them out the doors, all the while mumbling about ungrateful, underage wizards and witches.
"What took you so long 'Mione? You almost didn't make it," Ron asked from her right side. When Tanaka had claimed his spot on her left, Ron had gone to her right. He had been trying to avoid the dog the best he could ever since he had almost gotten bit.
"I was trying to find my skirt," she told Ron, while pointing to the knee length, blue pleated skirt that she was wearing. "Tanaka was being an ass and had stolen it from my room. Every time I went to get it from him, he would run away from me. And did you two know that dogs could smirk. Smirk! He sat there and smirked at me, I swear to God," she exclaimed as she tugged on a zip up black sweater over her white blouse. It was a chilly out.
"Who's God?" Ron asked, giving Tanaka a weird look from what she had said.
"The muggle equivalent to Merlin, Ron," Harry answered from Ron's other side.
The three friends walked the rest of the way to Hogsmead in silence. Hermione was deep in thought about what had happened the other week with Zabani in her common room. The next morning, she had preformed a simple charm to heal her cheek and make the bruise go away. She had decided not to tell Harry or Ron, knowing that they would just freak out and make a big scene out of it. Besides, Zabani hadn't said anything to anyone that she knew of either. In fact, the only time he had ever looked at her, he had fled as soon as he noticed Tanaka at her side growling at him.
"Hermione? Hermione!" Ron snapped her back from her thoughts.
"What is it Ron?" Hermione asked absentmindedly, noticing that they had come to a stop.
"We're here," Harry answered for Ron. "Let's head over to Honeydukes for a butterbeer before we go anywhere else," he told the other two as he started towards the familiar building. Ron shrugged before following his friend, with Hermione on his heels. Before going through the doors, Hermione noticed Tanaka look down the street and his ears go back.
"Come on Tanaka, I'm not going to hold the door open all day you know," Hermione scolded the dog. He continues to look down the street before turning his silver eyes on her. What she saw made her silently gasp. His eyes held hate; pure, unadulterated hate. He looked back out to the street for a quick second before walking through the door. When he was all the way in, Hermione leaned out to get a look of where he had been looking. There were numerous people littering the street, none that she recognized. Shaking her head, she went through the door herself and took a seat with Harry and Ron who were already in a heated discussion about quidditch.
While her two best friends were happily ranting on, Hermione let her hand drop down beside her and rested her hand on Tanaka's shoulders. Ever since the night that he had stopped Zabani from…from what he was going to do, he had been letting her touch him. She had discovered however, that he did not like to be pet, like a normal dog would had, nor did he come to her for her touch. But if she laid a hand on his shoulders or the top of his head, usually when she was nervous or unsettled, he wouldn't pull back or growl at her.
"Can I take your order, dear?" a kind voice snapped her back. She had been getting lost in her thoughts a lot lately.
"Yes, can we have three butterbeers please? Oh, and a chunk of roast beef too. Thank you," she said politely as she walked away to get their order.
"What do you want the roast beef for 'Mione," Harry asked after fishing the money out of his pocket.
"It's for Tanaka. He slept in and missed breakfast. It's okay Harry, I'll get it," she said quickly when the waitress had come back already with their order. She started to dig through her pocket for her own money while Harry waved her off.
"Don't worry about it Hermione. I got it."
"Hermione, did you finish the essay for potions class yet?" Ron asked sheepishly. Hermione rolled her eyes at him as she took the plate of roast beef and placed it in front of Tanaka.
"Of course I did Ron. I finished it the night it was assigned. Am I right to assume that you haven't even started yours yet?" When Ron blushed and looked at the other side of the room, Hermione frowned in annoyance.
"What about you Harry? Did you start yours yet?"
"Well…I uh…I started it, the other night." Harry's face flushed like Ron's had before, only not as deep, and he rubbed the back of his head.
"You two are helpless, you know that right?" Hermione asked, shaking her head at them. "I suppose you don't have the one done for Charms class either, do you?" she asked the two of the.
"Ha! We do have that one done, don't we Harry," Ron said triumphantly before taking a drink of his butterbeer.
Hermione couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing. She was soon joined by Harry and Ron both, although they looked a little nervous at why she had burst out. Hermione didn't care that some of the people were giving them weird looks. She hadn't laughed like this in a good while and it felt good. She hadn't really realized it until then, but she had been getting a little stress. With doing all of the head duties because Malfoy hadn't shown up yet, what happened the other night with Zabani, and the lack of sleep. Laughing had never felt so good.
After she had calmed down a bit, a while after the boys had stopped; she wiped the tears off of her face.
"Sorry about that, guys. But I shouldn't have been surprised that you two hadn't done your homework. Man, I haven't laughed so hard in ages," she apologized. She let out another little round of giggles at the look Tanaka was giving her.
"Yeah, okay. Well, now that that's over, let get going," Harry said with a grin on his face. The grin didn't last long however, because an argument broke out when they were in the street.
"Hermione, you can't go off by yourself, not with all the Deatheater activity that's been going on," Ron yelled, obviously getting frustrated with her.
"Ron, I'll be fine. Besides, you guys hate going to the bookstore. You've told me countless times. And I hate going to the quidditch store. So we'll just meet back up here in an hour or so." She was about to turn to leave, but Harry grabbed her by the arm.
"Ron's right, Hermione. You can't go off by yourself. We'll come with you. We don't mind, really."
"First of all, I can take care of myself, thank you very much. And besides, I won't be totally alone; Tanaka will be with me. Just go. Hmm, Deatheaters," she scoffed. "They won't attacking the middle of the day anyway, and not with all these people around. Now will you two just go!" Hermione snapped, really starting to loose her patience.
Harry stared at her for a moment before sweeping his gazed over the people on the street as if he were trying to identify if any Deatheaters were around.
"Fine, but we meet back here in exactly an hour." He started to walk towards the quidditch store. "No, she's right. Come on Ron," he interrupted as Ron began to protest again.
"What good is a measly dog going to do if she runs into a bunch of Deatheaters?" he mumbled to himself as he followed after Harry, his shoulders sagging in defeat.
Draco stood rigidly next to Granger as the two of them watched Potter and Weasley walked grudgingly away. For once, he actually wished that they would have stayed in his company. The two bumbling idiots were right; there were Deatheaters around.
When they had been going into Honeydukes, he had caught a familiar sent. His hackles had risen when he saw his father's figure make its way stealthily down the street. He had stopped at the entrance to an alleyway and began talking with a man that looked like a Deatheater he had met some years before, Zereth Dvata. He was a ruthless Deatheater that had come from Russia. He had a sick fascination with torturing and raping muggles before he killed them. Draco had been unfortunate enough to witness this one time, although not willingly.
He had turned his glare away from them when Granger had spoken to him and when he had looked back; they were nowhere to be found.
Now, as the two of them walked down the street towards the bookstore, Draco caught that same sent again. His ears went back and his hackles rose again as he walked a little closer to Granger and switched to her right side. He may have been a dog, but like hell if he was going to let his father lay a hand on either of them.
Just as they were passing the final alleyway before the bookstore, someone ran into Granger, thrusting her towards the dark dead end, and causing her to trip over Draco. She cried out and cursed as she landed on her arm that she had shot out to save her from the fall. Draco himself had stumbled when she had tripped over him, but he didn't lose his balance. He turned back towards the street to growl at whoever had run into them, but he was met with the sneering face of Dvata. Then, he heard a voice that chilled his blood and caused him to rush to Granger's side.
"My, my, a dirty mouth befitting of such dirty blood," the calm voice of Lucius Malfoy washed over them. "So good to see you again, Miss. Granger. I assume you are in…good health?" he asked, a sick smirk on his face. Draco's lips curled as he growled.
"M…Mr. Malfoy." Granger greeted the sick bastard with surprise in her voice. "I thought you were still in Azkaban." She said, this time with less respect. She was getting over her shook and was getting her damn Gryffindor courage back. Can't she learn to keep her mouth closed?
Luscius' eyes narrowed at Granger as he walked towards her. He crouched down so he was eye lever with her since she was still on the ground. Draco placed himself between the two and snarled at his father. Lucius turned and glared at Draco before backhanding him. Draco lost his balance this time and skidded to a stop a few feet away. Granger yelped and tried to go to him, but Dvata grabbed her from behind. She struggled as Luscius stood back up to his full height.
Draco shakily got back to his feet. This body had a low damage tolerance he noted with annoyance. If he had been in his own body than he probably would have even taken a step back. Draco circled around behind his father to keep and eye on both of the Deatheaters in case they tried to do anything.
"Now, now Miss. Granger, no need to panic. I only want to ask you a few questions; and you'll answer then if you know what's good for you. Is that clear?" Lucius told her in a businesslike voice.
Granger tried to get lose one more time before stopping her struggle and lifting her chin in defiance.
"I have a question for you first, Mr. Malfoy. Where are you hiding Draco? What have you done to him?" She demanded.
Draco felt a shiver go back his spine at her use of his given name. He had always hated it when people called him that because his father was the only one who really called him by that. He hated his father, thus, he hated his name. But coming for Granger, coming from her demand of his well being, well, it sent shivers back his spine.
Lucius snapped his eyes to Dvata, who was looking mildly confused.
"So, you don't know where he is either? How interesting. Be a dear, and if you see him, tell him to run home like a good little boy. Come on Dvata, we're leaving," and with that, he turned with a swish of his cloak. He was now facing Draco. His eyes swept over Draco's appearance, before he looked him in the eyes. Silver and steel clashed as Draco glared up at his father with pure hate. Lucius' eyes widened for a moment before a smirk crossed his face.
"Did you get a new dog Miss. Granger? Very interesting eyes. Exactamente como un dragón." He said the last part in Spanish, and Draco narrowed his eyes even more. He knew that it was him. His comment made that clear; but why wasn't he doing anything about it? Why wasn't he turning him back? Draco snarled again before lunging at his father. Before he could reach him though, Lucius turned on his heel and aparated, closely followed by Dvata.
Letting out a low growl of annoyance, Draco walked over to where Granger was standing, staring at where is father had just been, to check and see if she was alright. He sat down in front of her and calked his head to the side, waiting for her to notice him. Those were the two things he told himself he would not do after the night he had comforted her; 1) not to seek her touch and 2) not to bark and yip like a pathetic mutt.
Her eyes came back into focus and she looked down at him. She was quiet for a few more moments before she spoke, and Draco didn't know if she was talking to him or to herself.
"What was that supposed to mean? Exactamente como un dragón? Makes me wish I had taken those Spanish classes a few years ago." She subconsciously reached out her hand and laid it on the top of Draco's head. She was silent for another few minutes, before she turned and walked out of the alleyway as if nothing had happened. Draco blinked at her retreating form for a moment before he too got up and followed after her.
"So he doesn't know where he is either," she mumbled, this time to herself for sure. "Where the hell could he be?" Draco wasn't sure if he was impressed by her persistence or annoyed. Sure he wanted out of this damn body and back to his own, but he wasn't sure he wanted her to be the one to figure it out and turn him back. A mudblood. But his father already knew, but he didn't do anything about it. He had just smirked down at him. And then left.
As they walked through the door to the bookstore, both companions were deep in thought. Granger about where the hell Draco could be; and Draso about his father and some way to finally get back to his own body.
i.h- well, there is chapter 5 for ya's. I hope it was okay. Oh, and "Exactamente como un dragóns" roughly translates to "Just like a dragon's."
I won't be replying to reviews from the last chapter because I can't and I had forgotten to reply to reviews when the thing all changed. If you send a review for this chapter and the rest, I will reply…eventually.
Random Quote of the Day- "FUCK! I forgot to…shit! silence That came out wrong didn't it?" –Me ;