Disclaimer: I still don't own anything you recognize. I don't own HP or any of the characters / settings. Or the title of the chapter which belongs to
Author's Note: HAPPY THANKSGIVING! This chapter literally took a whole two hours to write. Hopefully you all like it. I know you're all looking for Dramione action, but let's face it. She's not going to completely ignore her friends just because she's helping Draco.
Dedication: I would like to dedicate this chapter to cherryweasley1998 for giving me the idea for this chapter. And for just being a fun person to talk to.
Chapter Eleven – I Will Suffer For So Long To Make It Up To You
Two hundred and twelve hours, forteen minutes, and twenty-seven seconds. That was how long it had been since they had gotten their O.W.L. scores. Nearly nine full days. As it was it was bordering on five o'clock in the morning, and Granger hadn't even bothered to come in last night. Actually, if he thought about it, Granger had only shown up a couple times over the past week or so. She'd told him that the she-weasel had caught her coming in late one night, but he hadn't thought that would stop her from coming all together.
He sighed and shifted in bed trying to find a comfortable spot but he had to face facts. He'd been laying every which way he could think of for a month and a half now. The bed had lost any comfort if may have first held for him. He was tired of laying down. He couldn't wait to get on those "crutch" things that Granger kept going on about. He'd have to ask her about those the next time he saw her.
He was annoyed that the girl hadn't bothered to come in simply for the fact that he was lonely. Sure he saw her every day while she played nurse-maid, but she never really stopped to speak to him while she was working. The only time they truly spoke was when she came in at night. He supposed he was mostly annoyed that she hadn't told him that she wasn't going to come in that night. He'd stayed up nearly all night waiting to see if she would make an appearance, not wanting to be asleep if she did manage to sneak past the redhead.
Woah, wait. Why does it even bother me so much? He thought strangely, sinking into the pillows as he waited for the pull of sleep. It's not like I even like her company. Well, he shouldn't say that. He didn't dislike her company. She could be intriguing to talk to when she wanted to, when she wasn't trying to shove her knowledge about everything down someone's throat. He'd never really understood why she always did that. Why she always felt the need to prove that she was smarter than everyone else. It didn't make people like her. In fact it steered more people away from her because she ended up making them feel inferior.
And they say I treat people like they're inferior.
He chuckled softly at the irony of the situation and tried turning on his side. The trouble with sleeping on his side was that the casts layered on top of one another, and were ultimately far more uncomfortable than sleeping on his back for extended periods of time. But he needed to get at least a few hours of sleep so that it didn't look like he'd waited up. It was one thing to know for yourself that you pathetically waited up for someone to show up and then they never did, but it was a whole 'nother brand of pathetic when you waited up so long that they found out that you waited up for them, only to look at you with pity in their eyes.
And with the thought of Hermione Granger pitying him, he turned his back to his door and fell asleep with the sun lingering in his face.
It was only mid afternoon when Draco finally woke up only to find Granger in his room watching him. He wondered vaguely how long she had been standing there, but he didn't bother asking. He shifted slightly so that he was sitting up more and watched as she walked closer to him to set a pillow behind his back to keep him sitting up. "Do you need something?" His voice came out rough from sleep and he had to clear it in order not to strain his throat the next time he spoke.
"Actually, I do. I was hoping that you'd like to play a game." The brunette before him chewed on her lip, her front teeth denting it distractingly. "Ginny and the boys found a deck of cards in a closet downstairs that have a bunch of questions on them and thought it would be fun to play. I just wanted to see if you wanted to play too. I know you must be bored up here."
Gray eyes looked over her and waited for the catch. She just expected him to play some sort of question game with her and her friends, like they all got along? And just what kind of questions? Questions about himself? He would have to answer questions about himself in front of a group of people that wouldn't trust him if he were the last person on earth? Not bloody likely. "Fine."
He sighed as he realized that he had just given in to her. It was only because he was hoping that by other's answering questions that he would learn all of their weaknesses. At least, that's what he tried convincing himself. But he knew the real reason was far simpler than that. He was bored. And he'd strangely missed the bookworm's company the night before. At least if he played her stupid game he would have some form of company. Even if that company hated his guts.
The brunette jumped into the air and grinned like a maniac. "That's so great. You'll have fun, Malfoy. I promise. I'll go tell everyone. Mrs. Weasley offered to let us play while we ate so I'll just tell her to put everyone's food on a tray instead of just yours." She spun in a circle and then caught herself on the doorframe. "Thank you, Malfoy." He had no idea what she was thanking him for, but it was entertaining to watch her jump around so much.
All he could do was nod at the girl before she stumbled out of the room on her way downstairs to find her friends and the mother hen. He could hear her speaking to the matron before finding her friends and telling them the "good" news. Chuckling to himself when he heard the Weasel bellow that there was no way he was playing any game with that bouncing ferret. But Draco knew that the freckled git would give in, just as he had. And it would be worth playing the game just to force Weasley to deal with his presence.
"Have you ever met a celebrity? Is so, who was it?" Ginny looked over at Hermione and giggled after reading the question out loud. Hermione quickly moved her eyes to the three boys that were sitting in the circle with them and grinned. Ron's grin matched her own, and even Draco looked like he wanted to smirk at the question. Only Harry was truly thinking about an answer to the question. She waited a minute to see if he could come up with anyone off the top of his head, and when he still sat there scratching his head for an answer she nodded at the others. As if on cue, all four teenagers looked at the bespectacled boy and said the same name at the same time: "Harry Potter."
Harry looked up at them wondering why they were all calling his name and then laughed sheepishly. He hadn't even thought about the fact that he himself was a celebrity. Not that he could have answered with himself. But he could have answered with Dumbledore's name. But he'd simply but too much thought into the question.
Ron took the deck from his sister's hands and pulled up the next card. "If you could be reincarnated as any animal, which would you choose?" He snickered softly as he looked over at Malfoy. In fact everyone had softly started laughing at the question and looking at Malfoy. No doubt everyone was remembering just what the blonde looked like as an animal.
"I would choose an otter." Hermione stopped giggling long enough to answer the question. She knew that they all already knew Draco's answer, it was only a matter of time before he said it aloud. They didn't even have to wait very long.
"Anything but a ferret."
Draco was surprised to say that he wasn't having that bad a time. They had just started the game, after a long drawn out shuffle from Granger while they others started on their dinners. Mrs. Weasley had made a pot roast for everyone and the smell alone was causing Malfoy's stomach to growl. At least he could move his own arms now so he didn't have to worry about Granger feeding him like an invalid.
He grabbed the deck away from the Weasel and read the next card. "If you could disappear for three days, where would you go? What would you do?" He took another bite as he waited for everyone's answer. He personally couldn't think of anything he wanted to do with only three days time.
"Three days isn't nearly enough time. Though I suppose if I had longer than three days I would like to check out every library I could. Obviously I would read books while I was there." Everyone rolled their eyes at Hermione's answer and he passed the deck over to her. It had already started that the last person to answer the question was the next person to ask. "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?"
Draco frowned into his bowl of pot roast before looking back up at the muggle-born. "What do you mean, super power?" Was that supposed to be some sort of muggle idea, or did she simply mean pick something that he wanted to be super at?
"You mean like those superheroes that you were telling me about?" He looked over at the she-weasel to see what she was talking about when he noticed Potter nod. Superheroes. Must have been some sort of muggle idea. "Well then I'd like to be that one girl with the red hair." She laughed and Draco once again questioned what she was talking about.
"I want to be that water guy. He had a cool suit. I don't remember what his power was, though." He was surprised when Ron actually answered the question. He'd made it clear before they started that he didn't plan on answering very many questions while Malfoy was around. He only planned to answer questions that wouldn't give anything away about himself. Too bad for him that Draco already knew all he cared to know about him.
"Ginny, her name is Poison Ivy. And she's not really a super hero. She's more a villan. But her power is poison. And plant control. That's really what you want?" Hermione scrunched up her nose when the redhead stated that she wanted to be one of the better know villans.
"I don't really care what her powers are. I just think it's cool that there's a super-power person out there with red hair."
Hermione rolled her eyes at her best friend's reasoning behind picking the villans and then turned back to her other best friend and the other redhead in the room. "As for you, Ronald. The 'water guy' is known as Aquaman. He can talk to fish."
The other three turned to look at Ron while Hermione explained about the person he had picked. "Oh that's blood brilliant. So Weasley wants to be able to talk to his dinner and Red wants to move plants around. No wonder wizards don't bother with these 'superheroes' that you're talking about."
Hermione stuck her tongue out at Draco and then smirked on her own. "I'd have to say that if I had to choose any, I would probably be like Susan Storm. But I could remedy that simply by borrowing Harry's cloak," she said with a wink in the direction of the raven-haired boy.
Well that was curious. Draco wondered who this Susan Storm was, and just what stupid superpower she had that Granger would be capable of attaining simply from borrowing a piece of cloth from Potter.
"I think our lives are complicated enough without adding super powers to the mix." Always the downer, Harry picked up the deck that Malfoy had set on the edge of his tray and grabbed the next card. But before he read the next question he turned to look at Ron. "But, Aquaman can do more than just talk to fish." The boy's best friend smiled at the thought that he'd have a better superpower than just speaking to aquatic animals and waited for the next question. "What's your favorite fantasy?" The green eyes behind the glasses grew larger as he realized what he'd just asked. His skin turned a bright pink color and he ducked his head hoping to hide the blush from the others in the room. But that didn't stop him from thinking about the fantasy that took over his mind anytime the subject of said fantasy walked into the room.
Ginny's own face blushed deeply as she thought about the many fantasy's she'd had about the dark haired wizard sitting beside her. She turned to look at Hermione, her eyes bright with embarrassment knowing that the brunette knew all about her secret crush. Even Ron's face had turned a near purple color with his own embarrassment. The redhead cleared his throat and ducked his head much as Harry had.
But nobody's embarrassment looked anything as great at Hermione Granger's did. Her face had turned scarlet, the blush going past her hairline and down her neck, covering her chest. She had to pull her shirt away from her body and wave it a couple of times to try and cool herself down. It was one thing to have fantasies. It was completely something else to try and talk about those fantasies in front of boys who were like brothers to you. Not to mention... Malfoy. She turned her eyes away from him and shook her head. "Right," she said with a scoff. "We'll just skip this one. Nobody wants to talk about their fantasies."
But nobody had bothered making eye contact with the gray-eyed wizard sitting on the bed. As it was, he was currently trying to hide his laughter behind one of his cast-wrapped arms, but it was leaking out as he noticed the various shades of red that everyone had taken. The first chuckle that escaped was quiet enough that nobody turned his way, but once that first sound let loose he couldn't seem to hold the rest back. He threw his head back, tears nearly streaming down his face. Oh and he'd thought this game would be stupid. But in fact he was sure that it was the highlight of his time here so far. Fantasies. What a load of shit.
Or at least it was, until he tried to think of a fantasy of his own and the only one that came to mind was of himself wearing his finest dress robes, and Granger with her hair bewitched to not look like a rat's nest. He pictured her in a long blue dress, the kind that made every curve she possessed look flawless. But more than that, he pictured the flush of her cheeks that she would have when plied with too much alcohol. He pictured himself practically ripping the dress from her body until she stood before him naked as the day she was born. The only fantasy that came to his mind, was the only fantasy he'd read about in the last couple months. The one that supposedly caused Granger to become pregnant with their daughter. He nearly swallowed his tongue at the sight of her in his mind's eye wearing nothing but her high heels, pulling him down-
"Malfoy!" His glazed eyes focused again as he took in the girl in front of him. She looked nothing like the girl in his fantasy, and yet he had no doubt that it was in fact the same girl. The flush on her face had gone down until just her cheeks were pinkened and it reminded him again of the fantasy that that stupid letter he'd received had put in his head. He wasn't even sure if he believed anything the letter had written, but he knew that he needed to get it out of his mind. "What name would you never give your child?"
Draco didn't even bother thinking about the answer long enough to pick one that he was serious about, he spat out the first name that he could think of that would push him further away from Granger. "Lydia."
Hermione's ears pricked as she heard him utter the same name he had days ago. She wondered why he seemed to have such a fit over the name when he'd just asked her how she felt about it a week ago. Was it because she'd never answered him about how she felt about the name? She had thought he'd forgotten about it since he hadn't brought it up since. She watched as Ron finished eating his own dinner and then picked up everyone else's plates and headed downstairs to give them to his mother. They had all promised that they would bring the plates down as soon as they were finished eating.
Ginny took the cards back from Hermione, pursing her lips at the fact that the brunette had skipped her turn. Looking at the card on top she lifted her lips. "What attracts you most to the opposite sex and why?"
Hermione looked over at Ginny and smiled, though the smile seemed a bit forced. She was still too busy thinking over the Lydia ordeal. "Their eyes. You can always tell if someone is going to be intelligent by their eyes." She didn't bother explaining any further, and she frowned again when Malfoy spoke. It almost seemed like he was deliberately trying to make her feel bad. Had she done something to upset him?
"Their hair. I want someone that I can run my fingers through their hair. Like you, Red. You have decent hair, or you would if it weren't for the color. Granger over there, however, doesn't. You'd never be able to run your fingers through that mess. You'd get stuck before you made it through an inch of those curls."
Ginny watched as Hermione flushed, and shrugged her answer to the question. "Personally, I just usually look for a guy that's taller than me." Ironic then that Harry wasn't actually taller than her. They were about the same height, if she wasn't actually taller than he was. Especially in heels.
Harry took the next card, unable to think of his own answer since it wasn't as if he had a 'type', and looked down at the small bit of cardboard. "If you could touch someone's life, who would it be and why?" He looked over at Ginny and watched her shake her head, mutely stating that she didn't have an answer. His eyes made their way over to Malfoy who also shook his head. When he made his way towards Hermione he was surprised to see that her eyes had dimmed, more than likely thinking of an actual answer to the question.
But if she did in fact have an answer, she didn't let anybody know. She came back to herself and looked over at Malfoy, holding his eyes for a moment or two before shaking her head, also. "Pass." She put her head back against the chairback and waited until Ron trooped back upstairs and sat down at his own chair. She almost wanted to quit playing the game at all, bothered by how much Malfoy's answers were affecting her. Since when did she care what he had to say about her hair? He'd always made fun of her for it.
Figuring that it was his turn to ask a question, Ron picked up the next card and sighed. "Can we hurry up and end this game? It's gotten boring." Nobody claimed otherwise so they figured that as soon as everyone who wanted to answered the question, they would leave the rest of the deck until the next time they felt like playing. "What person do you admire most and why? Well that's easy. No doubt we'll all say Harry. There, all done."
Ron once again stood up and walked out of the room, but before Hermione could force herself to stand up she opened her mouth. "It's a tie." She closed her eyes, but she could tell that the others in the room were looking at her for an explanation. "On the one hand, Harry has always been the bravest person I know. Willing to go after Voldemort and do everything in his power to stop him from hurting anyone else." She sighed and leaned forward, putting her elbows on her knees and catching her face in her palms. "But on the other hand, there's only one person I know of that has ever had the gall to try and spit in the Dark Lord's face. Only one person willing to be tortured nearly to death so that he didn't have to become a Death Eater."
Both Harry and Ginny caught each other's eyes before looking back at Malfoy. He was sitting up in the bed with his eyes dancing curiously along the top of Hermione's head. They wondered how he felt knowing that Hermione admired him as much as she admired her own best friend, but they didn't get an answer. Instead, the brunette stood up from her chair and walked with them out of the room.
The younger two had made it to the stairwell, Hermione lugging behind when Malfoy cleared his throat and called her name. She stepped back into the room, though she didn't bother looking up from the floor. She just waited for him to tell her what he needed so she could be on her way.
"You."
Just one single word. A word that could have been said as a name almost as much as anything else. But it caused her to finally make eye contact with him again. She felt like she was burning up when she did, still embarrassed by what he'd said about her hair. But she couldn't change the fact that she'd been born with a case of the frizz.
"You're the only person I know that will take an insult and then do everything in your power to prove that it shouldn't be used against you. Mudblood – you'll show everyone that your blood is just as red as everyone else's. Beaver – you fix your teeth so they're not only shorter, but straighter. Tell you that you don't deserve the magic you was born with – you'll prove to everyone that you're smarter than them, and a better witch than they could ever hope to be." She tried not to let her hopes up, but his words were causing a small part of her stomach to do jumping jacks. But she had to know. She had to be certain.
"What are you trying to say, Malfoy?" She held his eyes, his gray orbs pulling her in and trying to show her every emotion running through his mind, while at the same time pushing her away and throwing up a barrier that nobody could ever break down. But she didn't care what his eyes were saying. She neded to hear what he would say. She needed to hear the words.
"You're the person I admire most, Granger," he muttered.