Chapter beta:Dark Akuma Hunter
Hermione walked towards her Potions class with the other Gryffindors. When they came upon the split in the hall she looked to the left split fondly with a smile. It had been nearly a week since her friends had turned on her. However, like a phoenix, a new friendship of sorts had been born from the ashes of her old ones. She wasn't quite sure if she would call it a friendship yet, but it was something. Their time spent together was more than comfortable. It was a very odd feeling, as if she were actually spending time with nobody, that he was an extension of herself. Then there were those glasses….
She went to her usual seat, front and center. Not many dared to sit this close, but as with all her other classes she was determined not to miss a thing! There was a point in time where she sat around the middle back so that she could help her friends…for a brief moment tears stung at the corner of her eyes as she thought about it. She was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't notice Malfoy taking the seat next to her until he dropped his bag on the floor.
"Malfoy? Why are you sitting next to me?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"No other seats, wouldn't you know I stopped in the hall to tie my shoe and when I got in here all the seats were taken!" Malfoy exclaimed with a glint in his eye and a smirk on his face, pointedly ignoring the empty seat by Parkinson "You should be glad I made it at all, for some absurd reason I was under the impression that I had Creatures today instead!"
"Imagine that!" Hermione returned. Before they could continue with their friendly banter Snape walked in, taking his place beside his desk. With a flick of his wand a piece of chalk flew up and began to write on the dusty old blackboard. Immediately Hermione began to take very detailed notes. Not only did she write what Snape was putting on the board, but she added what she already knew in the margins. They had Potions twice a week, and Snape liked to break it into two parts, lecture and lab. As they spent Monday's class separating expired ingredients from fresh as well as identifying them, today was the lecture lesson.
Hermione couldn't help but notice that Malfoy's quill was moving much slower than hers. She watched out of the corner of her eye as he went from glaring at the board to squinting at his paper. Several times he scratched out what he had written. When he got to the point where he gave up and pulled out a fresh piece of parchment paper, Hermione found she couldn't stand it anymore. She pulled out her own paper, putting it between them on the desk and wrote:
'Just put your glasses on already!' Malfoy glanced at it, and then with a sneer he replied.
'No.' Not one to give up she scrawled another note.
'Seriously, if you need them who cares what you look like! Just wear them!'
'I care and no.'
'You are going to make your eyesight worse on top of having poor notes.'
'This I don't care about.'
'You're being an idiot!'
'And you're being annoying,' quickly followed by, 'what was that bit he just erased?'
'Ha! Admit you need your glasses.'
'I haven't the foggiest idea what you are talking about…Can I borrow your notes later?'
'You won't admit you need your glasses, but now you need me and my notes?'
'I don't need anything; your notes just look like they have more than mine' Hermione was about to reply to Malfoy's last missive when Snape turned around and caught her pulling the paper towards her.
"What's this?" Snape drawled, "Stealing others notes Granger? And here you had us under the impression that you knew everything. Fifteen points from Gryffindor." His dark eyes stared at her, as if daring her to speak. So she did.
"I was most definitely not stealing his notes! I was only trying to help!" Hermione admonished. She didn't expect Malfoy to say anything, let alone stick up for her.
"It's true, I missed part of what you wrote and was asking Granger what she had." Malfoy spoke with an even tone, looking Snape directly in the eye.
"I will be the judge of that."Snape snarled at him, grabbing the parchment on which they had been communicating. "I see." He concluding, handing the paper back to them.
"Professor, are you going to return their points?" Malfoy said at the same time as Hermione protested, "What about my points?"
"Detention," Snape said in a clipped tone, "For passing notes in class, talking back to a Professor, speaking out of turn and for questioning said Professor's judgment!" Hermione was about to say how unfair he was being, but had caught Malfoy's eye that was warning her to let it go before it became worse for them. "You both will report to Filch once you are done with dinner." Hermione inwardly groaned, detention with Filch wasn't much better than detention with Snape. She spent the rest of the class in complete silence, not wanting to instigate his wrath any further.
Her mood was completely ruined for the day. On top of having detention she had so much of her own work to do that she wasn't even able to start any of her extra work courtesy of the boys. They hadn't even offered to do their own work for the evening, telling her "Sorry 'bout your luck" when she had tried to approach them on the topic. During lunch she chose to sit farther down the table with Neville and Ginny, not wanting to spend any extra time with Ron or Harry. Neville had sympathized with her about the detention.
"Filch is just awful. Last time I had detention with him, he made me clean out all of Mrs. Norris' litter boxes!" Neville said while scrunching up his nose at the memory.
"That's not that bad" Ginny interjected, "One time he had me checking all the suits of armor for bugs and such." Ginny said with a shudder, "If that's not bad enough, those suits don't like people poking inside them. Quite a few poke back!"
"Obviously you have never seen Mrs. Norris' Litter box. I can't imagine what she must eat!" Neville replied. Ginny and Neville spent the rest of lunch debating who had the worst detention experience with Filch. With each horrible detention they mentioned, Hermione began to dread the night more and more. Plus she had so much homework! She even risked working on multiple assignments during Professor Binns' History of Magic lecture!
Dinner wasn't much different than lunch. Hermione worked on assignments while Ginny and Neville had expanded their debate to all detention experiences. In the end it was decided that Neville won with the detention he had with Hagrid, the one where he, Harry and Malfoy had followed Hagrid into the Forbidden Forest. Ginny, not to be completely outdone, said Neville had the advantage of being at Hogwarts an extra year. After dinner Hermione met Malfoy at the doors of the Great Hall, both on their way to their shared detention.
"Did you finish your own work?" Hermione asked Malfoy curiously as she herself had yet to finish.
"No," was Malfoy's curt reply.
"What do you think he is going to make us do?" She asked nervously.
"Probably clean something, the castle is big after all and he is only a squib. At least, that is the general theme to detention with Filch." Hermione nodded her head in agreement with his statement. After listening to Ginny and Neville, cleaning did seem to be the majority of what Filch considered a punishment. The mood was heavy as they continued their walk towards Filch's office. "Maybe he will have us give him a foot massage and call it a day." Malfoy said with a grin.
"You did not just try to lift the mood by making an awful joke!" Hermione said with a laugh.
"It worked though, you laughed at my 'awful joke'," Malfoy retorted. "Still, after a good foot rub he might want a pedicure!" Hermione gagged at the thought of touching Filch's feet.
"And what do you, Draco Malfoy, know about pedicures?" She said in a joking manner.
"Not too much other than my mum seems a lot nicer after she has had one. Who knows, maybe that is all Filch needs to make him a nicer person!" Malfoy scoffed at his own words. Their conversation died as they neared Filch's office door. They stood there for a moment without moving. They looked to each other expectantly, waiting for the other to knock.
"Good grief!" Hermione exclaimed as she stepped forward and rapped on the door. The door shot open to reveal Filch's twisted features. A pungent smell wafted from the room behind them.
"I've been expecting you two trouble makers! Professor Snape told me you would be here right after supper. I have something good planned for you two." Filch said with a grin that showed off his yellow crooked teeth. He disappeared into the room and they made to follow him, only for him to come back out in an instant. "No, not in here, take these," Filch said gruffly, forcing a bucket and scrub brush in each hand. Silently they followed him up the stairs, the only sound being the sloshing of the water in the buckets. They came to a part of the school that Hermione couldn't quite place, but there was something familiar about it tugging at her brain.
"You will be scrubbing the floor of this hall by hand, no magic. In fact, hand me your wands, you may collect them from me when you are done." After they handed their wands over Filch left with Mrs. Norris trailing smugly behind. They looked from their cleaning equipment to the lengthy hall.
"Have you done this before?" Malfoy asked, staring at the daunting task ahead.
"Not this big of an area, and I have always had a mop before."Hermione answered.
"We are going to be here all night." He complained. Hermione began to study the floor beneath them, trying to figure out the best approach. It wasn't dirt or dust that covered the floor, but a thin layer of grime. Deciding it would be best not to ruin her robe, Hermione took hers off, folding it neatly and setting it aside on the steps that had led them here. Next she took her bucket and splashed some of its soapy contents on the floor. Dipping the brush into the bucket she kneeled on the ground, but before she started scrubbing she looked up to Malfoy who was merely watching her.
"Well?" She prompted.
"Oh, yeah, right…" He murmured as he hastily mimicked her actions. She couldn't be entirely sure but, was that a blush I just saw? They wordlessly fell into the practice of her scrubbing one side of the hall and he the other. They would pause frequently to pull their buckets along with them. Before they got a little more than halfway done their buckets were empty.
"Now what do we do?" Malfoy questioned.
"Find a utility closet or a bathroom I guess."She replied as they back tracked, checking the different doors until they found a bathroom in which to fill their buckets with. As they were walking to the place they had left off, Malfoy slipped on the wet floor, water from his bucket sloshing onto him. Hermione let out a laugh at his surprised face and wet clothes.
"You think this is funny?" He asked seriously, prompting another giggle to escape her lips.
"Yes, but only because it is!" she countered. She saw him pause for a moment, as if thinking about something, looking into his bucket. Before she could piece it all together he had splashed some water at her. It fell a bit short, but managed to hit her legs. Now it was his turn to laugh as he ran down the halls.
"Get back here!" she shrieked with laughter, chasing after him. They ran up the hall after each other, water being thrown about recklessly. Hermione had finally caught up to him, when she slipped, bringing them both down. They laid there laughing, their sides sore from running. When Malfoy stopped laughing she tried to calm herself down, opening her eyes to see his grey eyes once again studying her. There it is again! She thought as she saw spots of pink forming on his cheeks. Her own cheeks warmed to match his as she registered that her white blouse was transparent from being splashed with water. She looked away in embarrassment when she realized why this hall seemed familiar.
"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed upon seeing the orange and red tapestry on the wall.
"What? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look, it was just kind of hard not to," Malfoy began, his cheeks now becoming more than pink.
"No, not that! This is the hall!" Hermione said slightly annoyed.
"What hall?" Malfoy said truly puzzled.
"The hall I followed Harry and Ron into. Remember when I told you I found them in a secret room? That room is behind that tapestry." Hermione's light mood was truly subdued. "Come on; let's finish here so we can go do our homework." She sighed as they went back to scrubbing. It took them a while to not only finish the hall, but to clean up the mess they had added to it. Grabbing their cloaks they returned the buckets to Filch and retrieved their wands.
"Now, I'll be checking on that hall later. If you didn't do a good job you will find your way back here in detention! Now leave!" Filch had barked at them. Not waiting to be told twice they made their way to study room number three. Once Hermione sat in the wooden study chair she realized how much her body ached. Her hands were red and the skin was dry from the harsh soap. Her back ached from being bent over the floor and her knees were sore. Thinking about their detention, Hermione decided that pain aside it wasn't that bad. In fact, she actually had fun in her detention with Malfoy. Fun? In detention? With Malfoy? Would things ever cease being strange?
They began their work without too much conversation; it was late and they were very tired from their night of scrubbing the hallway. Hermione had tried to stay concentrated, to finish all the work and not stare at Malfoy in his glasses, but after finishing her own papers she found that she was drifting off…
o0o
Did she fall asleep? Draco thought incredulously as he heard a soft but constant breathing punctuated by small snores coming from across the table. Looking up over his glasses he discovered that she had indeed fallen asleep. How could anyone sleep in such an odd position? He wondered, observing her head resting at an odd angle on the book in front of her. Draco took a minute to think before he stood to move her. The small sofa was just that, it was too small to sleep comfortably on unless you really crammed yourself into it. This just won't do, he thought before turning his wand on it. The armrest and cushions grew outward until it looked like a strange rendition of a pull out couch. Much better.
Draco turned his attention back to the sleeping Gryffindor. He would have to be careful, he didn't want to wake her, and he wasn't sure how she would react to waking up with him in the room. That was the whole reason he was doing this. He remembered how it felt when she had punched him in third year, and he knew how skilled she was with a wand. Neither one sounded pleasant. Carefully he removed her fingers from the book and lifted her from the chair. He stopped when her breath hitched for a moment and she curled her body into his hold. After standing frozen like that for a moment, Draco was assured she was asleep and moved her to the makeshift bed.
Stealing the cushions from the wing back chairs he transfigured them into green silk pillows and placed one under her head. Next her took her cloak and changed it into a warm comforter. He was about to place the newly made comforter on her when he noticed her shirt was still a bit damp. He blushed, thinking back to earlier when he could see the outline of her bra and the peach of her skin through the white material. Quickly he cast a drying charm on it before taking her shoes and tucking her in.
Satisfied that she was comfortable he returned to the table with all the work on it. He saw that she had only finished her own work and set in to complete the work that belonged to her wretched friends. He worked long into the night until he was done with all of it. It was a good thing that he didn't have Muggle Studies until Monday, giving them the weekend to figure it out. Once everything was packed neatly away he checked on Granger who was still sleeping.
He sat down on the extended sofa and contemplated waking her. He wasn't sure about how to rouse her from her sleep, and found himself watching her in her peaceful slumber. She had curled onto her side, one arm buried under the pillow and the other resting on top of it. Her brown hair rustled softly as she breathed into the curls covering her face. He reached out, almost without thinking to brush he hair off her face. He found her hair was not only soft but quite silky. He left his hand in her hair, absent mindedly petting it as his eyes drooped. He didn't even comprehend the moment he pulled his legs onto the bed, slipping off his shoes and slipping off to sleep.