A/N: I hope that you guys like this chapter :) I've wanted to write a fanfiction forever, and im just now getting around to it. I have about 33,000 words written so far, but I have a lot of ideas for this fanfiction. If you hadn't realized, each chapter name will be a five letter word, an idea I got from Bex-chan's fanfiction Isolation (which you should definitely read, by the way). The romance between Hermione and Draco will come slowly, but I promise that it WILL come.
I'll also be doing song recommendations on most of my chapters. For this one, I recommend Human by Krewella - it works for Draco and Hermione.
Okay, without further ado...
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Sixteen Years Later
The snowflakes fell delicately onto the railing, and onto her red hands that were already cold enough. She gripped the railing, trying to numb out the cold, just like she had numb every other feeling that dared come to her for months.
It was such a waste of a beautiful night. This kind of night was meant for children who made midnight snowmen, for lovers to take long walks in the winter snow. This kind of night was meant for happy families to look out the window with hot chocolate in hand.
This kind of night was meant for happy, joyful Christmases.
The young witch shivered. She held up her bottle and took a swig of its liquids. She felt them slide down her throat. One of the side effects of this medication was hallucinations, but she didn't mind. She knew the drill; she would start with the good memories, the memories where she didn't have a care in the world, where she was giggling and laughing and dress shopping. Then, she would relive that horrid night, that night that changed everything, that night that set her world spinning. After that would be the worst phase, the one where she would go through that day's theories for what could have happened afterwards.
"Bloody Hell, Hermione." Groaned Ron. "We need to get down there, Harry's counting on us to be there -"
"I set all the teacher's watches back a good twenty minutes." Explained Hermione. "Where is it?!"
"Maybe if you took a second to tell me what you were looking for -"
"Harry's photo album." She sighed. "The one Hagrid gave him in First Year. There's a photograph of him and his mum and dad - quite a few, actually - and I heard him telling someone that it was like a good luck charm to him. He's battling dragon. He's going to need all the good luck he can get."
The two friends ran up to the boy's dormitory and started ransacking the room, not noticing - or caring about - the giant mess they were making. Harry's Firebolt was propped up against his unmade bed. Hermione checked his night table drawers, where there were several textbooks and class notes and letters from Sirius.
"Found it!" Cried Ron.
Under the bed, wedged next to his Invisibility Cloak, was the photo album. Hermione didn't want to pry into this extremely personal artifact of Harry's, but she also wanted to best photo.
A smile spread across her lips as she came across a picture of a beautiful young woman in a white dress and a man in a tuxedo, with three men behind them making weird or funny faces. Hermione wondered what it would be like to be a bride one day.
She kept flipping through the pages and came across a remake of the wedding picture, but instead of a white dress, Lily had a huge baby bump, and even James was making a silly face, along with his three best friends. Finally, she came across the very first picture of the Potter family - James, Lily, and a tiny little baby with jet black hair. A few pages later, there was a photo of Ron, Harry and Hermione in their First Year.
She took two pictures out of the album. Grabbing a quill from Harry's junk drawer, she and Ron scribbled a little note on the back of the picture of First Year.
"Let's go. We have about five minutes ..." Said Ron. He gave Hermione his hand to help her get off the floor, and they stared at each other for just a second to long.
"Right." Said Hermione, letting go of Ron. The two ran out of the Gryffindor Common room, just to bump right into a certain little prick.
"Well, well, well..." Snickered Malfoy, breaking into a smile. "What are you two lovebirds doing here?"
Before Ron could retort, Malfoy grabbed the pictures from Hermione's hand and started reading the back of one of them, revealing the message printed on it.
"Good luck, Harry-" he started, reading out loud. "Oh, how cute."
"Give that back!" Snapped Hermione.
Draco started running with the pictures. "You'll have to catch me!"
And with that, the three Fourth Years were running down the halls.
Madam Pomfrey had put Hermione on weak Sleeping Drafts a couple of weeks after the attack at Hogwarts. At first, Hermione refused to take it; but now that she had started, she couldn't stop. Madam Pomfrey had increased the dosage so much that, a year ago, a single glass would have put her to sleep for a couple of weeks, but all it did now was bring a certain intensity to her hallucinations, which was the only form of 'sleep' that she had gotten for months.
Just as Hermione was an arm's length away from Draco, he took a sharp turn right, sending Ron and Hermione into an empty classroom.
"Bloody Hell!" Panted Ron. He could hear Malfoy's laughter echo down the hallway.
"Ron..." Said Hermione quietly.
"Who does he think he is? He's immature, and rude, and -"
"Ron!" Said Hermione a little louder.
"Arrogant, that's the word! That's all Malfoy is -"
"RON!"
Finally, Ron turned around, where Snape, Karkaroff, Mad-Eye Moody, Lucius Malfoy and a Slytherin girl, whom he had forgotten her name, stood.
Ron gulped.
When Hermione opened her eyes, she was on the cold ground of the Astronomy Tower. She tried punching herself several times in a feeble attempt to hurt herself for being so stupid.
Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. She cursed herself.
A room full of former Death Eaters - how had she not seen it coming? Maybe if she had done just a little research, maybe if she had just looked into it a little bit, she could have saved them.
But she didn't.
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Draco grieved much differently than Hermione. While she was slumped up in a corner all the time, he would walk. He would walk aimlessly, his head in another world. More often than not, he would find Luna Lovegood (he had refrained from calling her Looney due to her kindness towards him) walking silently beside him, sometimes awake and sometimes not. The Prefects ignored him. Most of the teachers were used to him walking into their classrooms afters lessons, and would just ignore him as he glanced around the room, then left again. It had become a regular thing for him to accidentally walk into a room that two lovebirds were occupying, and even that didn't phase him. He was too busy in his own little world.
He did have nightmares, though. Horrible, dreadful things that scared him out of sleep. He would just walk around, ignoring his raging hunger and the sleep that clawed at him until he couldn't do it anymore and fell asleep wherever he was. He had to be careful; if he slept too close to a Common Room, everyone would hear his screaming.
"Snake Boy and Pansy, sitting in a -"
"Shut up!" Exclaimed Draco, playfully punching Lilac's arm, looking frantically at Pansy to make sure she couldn't hear.
Lilac erupted in laughter.
"Honestly," Sighed Draco. "You're worse than the First Years."
"Don't deny it, Malfoy. You lo-o-ve her."
"I do not 'love' her." Grunted Draco. This was the truth - even Lilac knew it. She just liked to tease him. Pansy and Draco had much more of a love-hate relationship - Pansy loved Draco, and Draco hated Pansy.
Draco and Lilac, on the other hand, had been inseparable since, well, birth. They were born hours apart and grew up together. Draco's mother would take him to Lilac's house and they would play for hours.
Pansy gave Draco a flirtatious smile and twirled her hair a little bit, which Lilac found to be even more hilarious. She tried to hold in her laughter but instead ended up looking ridiculous.
"Can I have your attention?" Asked Professor Snape, coming into the room. Lilac and Draco immediately shut their mouths and went their own ways. Draco sat with Crabbe and Goyle and Lilac sat by herself.
Snape was friends with Draco's father, and if the great Lucius Malfoy knew that Draco spent time with a Halfblood, he would disown him and hurt Lilac.
Draco's mother would often bring Draco to Lilac's house when they were little, but only when his father was at work. After a few years, the two kids would throw fits until they got to see each other, so both of their parents made it a point that they see each other every few days.
"I expect you all did last night's assignment..." Started Snape.
Draco looked around and realized that Lilac was in front of him. He saw the back of her head, her brown curls cascading down her back.
"Snake Girl," he whispered, trying to get her attention. He repeated it.
Nothing.
"Lilac!" He said a little louder. She didn't move.
He took a small piece of parchment, crumpled it up, and threw it at her.
"Snake Boy, what are you doing ?!" Asked a voice behind him.
He turned his head where Lilac was sitting. But if Lilac was behind him -
He turned back around and came face to face with a very angry Hermione Granger. He groaned. Lilac and Hermione looked identical from the back.
"What are you trying to pull off, Malfoy?" She snapped. Ron Weasley and Harry Potter sat on either side of her, looking even more annoyed than she did.
Ever since he had called her a Mudblood in Second Year, she had hated him. They were even though - she had punched him in thee face the year before. He couldn't care less what Hermione thought of him.
"Granger, talking during class? Ten points from Gryffindor." Announced Professor Snape.
Hermione huffed and turned back around.
"Wait, so you thought Granger was me? Or that I was Granger? Or both?!" Asked Lilac after class.
"You two have the same hair! It wasn't my fault. Wear it up next time." Defended Draco.
Lilac smiled. "You should've seen Potter and Weasley's faces. All you have to do to unhinge them is talk badly about their little Golden Girl."
"Maybe that will come in handy when the first Task comes along."
"I still can't believe Potter put his name in the Goblet." Sighed Lilac. She had no respect for attention seeking. Until his past year, she never understood why Draco hated Potter, so much, but now she saw it. Draco was thankful; now his rants on Scarface wouldn't always be so one-sided.
"Him, and Weasel-Be, and that filthy little Mudbl-" Draco stopped himself. He knew that Lilac couldn't stand "the 'M' word", considering her mother was Muggleborn. "That filthy little know-it-all. They all drive me insane."
Lilac nodded. She didn't exactly hate Granger - she was just insanely jealous, and she had reminded Draco of this fact several times
As a child, when she was in Muggle School, she was the top of her class, and her parents were always proud of her. But ever since first year, she was stuck in the shadows of the "Brightest Witch of Her Age". She was always in second place.
Draco and Lilac suffered the same fate; second place to Hermione Granger. While they both despised it, it was something that brought the best friends closer together.
The week past rather slowly, and finally, it was the day of the First Task.
Draco punched the wall in front of him. He had done it so many times that his bruised knuckles started bleeding right away. He accepted the stinging feeling with open arms; it meant that he was getting punished for what he had done a year ago. Well, for what he didn't do.
He remembered Lilac's soft smile and loud laugh. He remembered the way she was a perfectionist and hated second place. She was his best friend.
Is, He corrected himself. Is my best friend.
She was still out there somewhere - he just had to find her. Knowing that this was impossible, he slammed his fists against the hard brick and felt tears prick at his eyes. Ignoring them, he continued his midnight walk.
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Hermione emptied another bottle of Sleeping Draft. She threw it to the ground, hearing the glass shatter. She was starting to see double, and her mind was fuzzy. She let herself drop into another world of unconsciousness, another world of memories.
Hermione blushed as she walked out of the champion's tent. Talking to Harry made them both feel better. She didn't mention the pictures - he didn't need another addition to this long list of things to be stressed about.
Viktor Krum had been eyeing her the entire time she was in the tent.
Hermione's thoughts drifted to the Yule Ball. It hadn't been officially announced yet; she only knew about it because she had read about the Triwizard Tournament years ago. She had been
thinking about it since First Year, before she had friends. She remembered imagining walking out to the dance floor, looking like a princess, and anyone who had ever made fun of her would regret it. She chuckled to herself, remembering the days when the most important thing in the world was to feel like a princess.
Within the four years since that day, she'd realized that there were much better things to feel like - such as a hero.
However, she had ordered her dress online weeks ago. It was delivered to her doorstep and she got her owl to pick it up. She couldn't wait for the dress to come in.
She couldn't wait for the Yule Ball.
She already alerted her parents that she wouldn't be coming home for Christmas that year. They were a little bit disappointed that she wouldn't be coming, but hoped she would have lots of fun at the Yule Ball. Her father even wrote down a letter for her date, with all the stereotypical "if you hurt my little girl" threats.
Hermione smiled to herself.
According to Padma and Pavarti, all the girls in the entire school were already jealous of her - apparently, Viktor Krum kept staring at her, and rumor had it, he fancied her. She imagined being taken to the Ball with him. It would be fun, and he was definitely a nice guy - not to mention good looking - but she'd rather someone else take her.
Her mind drifted to Ron. It always did that - whenever a love song came on, or she read a romance novel, she pictured herself and Ron. She didn't even know why, but it had been that way since he had stood up for her when Malfoy had been insulting her when they were only twelve.
Thinking of Malfoy almost made Hermione sick, so she searched the bleachers for Ron and watched the Task.
Hermione woke herself up with her sobs. There was a puddle on the ground from her own tears and she was hiccuping.
She remembered the excitement for the Yule Ball that had boiled up inside her. She never should have gone. She should have just gone home for Christmas, and convinced Ron and Harry to do the same.
Another 'what if' that could have spared a life.
This was another reason that she hadn't spoken to anyone in months. She didn't want to mess up any more lives. She didn't want to be the reason for anyone else's misfortune, except for maybe her own.
Opening a new bottle, she gulped up the Sleeping Draft greedily, hoping that maybe, just maybe, it would actually do its job and put her to sleep for once.
Unfortunately, she wasn't that lucky.
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Draco was walking aimlessly, his mind blank. He was so out of it that he didn't even say anything when he bumped right into someone.
"Oh, good evening, Malfoy," Said (a very much awake) Luna sweetly. She refrained from calling him by his first name, which he was thankful for.
He murmured something that was supposed to be a greeting.
"I'm sure that it wasn't intentional that you ended up up here, but you probably shouldn't stay long..." Warned Luna.
Draco glanced around, and recognized something along the lines of a third floor hallway. He slumped up against a hallway wall, willing himself to stay awake, even if that meant being plunged into memories. As long as he didn't have the nightmares, everything would be alright.
Draco didn't know what possessed him to take the pictures, but he was glad he did. He got a good run - and laugh - out of the whole thing.
He turned around, expecting Granger and Weasel-Be to come around the corner any second, but nothing happened.
Damn. If they didn't react, it wasn't fun anymore.
He dropped the pictures in between the crack of two bricks in the wall, figuring he would tell them that he hid them and send them on a wild goose chase.
He walked down the hall, glancing into the empty classrooms.
They were nowhere to be found.
He took a few more steps, and heard some voices.
Draco looked into his Potions class, where a handful of people were, including Lilac, who was the reason he had came back to the castle in the first place.
However, he was ignoring her because someone much more important was in the room.
"Dad," he smiled.
He hadn't seen his father since the Quidditch World Cup, and even though his mom wrote to Draco daily, Lucius never did. Narcissa tried to convince Draco that he was just busy, and Draco could only hope that was the case.
"I - I passed all my grades with top marks. I don't know what mom told you, but -"
"So it's settled?" Lucius Malfoy asked Mad-Eye, who nodded.
"Dad, all my professors say I'm at the top of my classes, even ask Professor Snape -"
Lucius didn't even look at his son - he just walked right past him, as if he was invisible, out the door.
No one in the room had ever seen such a pained look on Draco Malfoy's face.
Draco felt his fists clench and sweat drip down his forehead. He remembered when his biggest issue was trying to impress his father. If only that was still the only problem.
Everyone slowly, and a little awkwardly, walked out of the Potions Class.
Lilac was stunned. That was who Draco had been talking about when he described his father? In her opinion, he seemed like a big prick.
"Come on, Draco," she said, pulling at his elbow. "We've got to get to the Task."
Draco didn't move. He was staring into nothing.
Lilac sighed. She sat Draco down on a chair and sat next to him, putting her head on his shoulder. All he needed was for someone to be there for him, and if that's what he needed, that's what she'd do.
Draco felt the guilt tear him apart from the inside out. He has been friends for Lilac for so long that he had never even bothered to imagine a life without her understanding looks, without her jokes, without her. He had taken the friendship for granted. Lilac always knew exactly what to say. She was there for him through thick and thin, but that one day - exactly a year ago - was the one where she needed him, and he failed her.
"Hey, hey..." Luna was crouched in front of him. "I have something to show you."
Too weak to protest, he took her hand and followed her into the room she guided him into.
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Another week past. Every day, it seemed like more and more people were getting dates to the dance, but Ron and Harry weren't getting anywhere.
Ron would have asked someone long ago, but rumour was that a certain Bulgarian was also after her, and who was he to compete with the greatest Quidditch player of all time?
"Krum barely talks to her," sighed Harry, rolling his eyes. "You've been her best friend for four years."
"Not really..." Muttered Ron. "I was a git to her when we were eleven -"
A git. A git. The word bounced around in Hermione's blurry mind like a bullet that kept impaling her over and over again. Harry had ended up telling Hermione how nervous Ron had been days before the Yule Ball. She let him think that he had been a git. Sure, he hadn't been the nicest, but a git? What if that had been one of his last thoughts, that he was a git?! What if she let him think that?
"In Second Year, you technically ate slugs for her after Malfoy acted like a prick. If that doesn't get 'Mione, I don't know what will, mate."
Ron shrugged.
"You've got to ask her before someone else beats you to it." Insisted Harry.
Turning the corner, they almost bumped right into someone.
Hermione had clutched on to these memories like her life depended on it. It was the last shred of happiness, the last shred of blind hope that everything would be okay that she ever had. She had memorized every word, every thought, every detail, not wanting to forget what it felt like when everything was okay.
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A half hour later, Draco stepped out of the room that Luna had led him in. He was exhausted now. He staggered down a few hallways, not wanting to bother Luna with his subconscious yelling. He kept walking, only half awake, and considered going back to the Slytherin dungeon when he passed framed pictures of students at the Yule Ball the year before.
The memories stung his brain like poison, and he was plunged into another flashback.
Weeks had passed since the Task.
Weeks had passed since Draco had been himself.
He thought that he was finally going to have a good relationship with his father, that he would finally impress him and make him proud. He thought that maybe at the next house party, Lucius would proudly and loudly introduce Draco, like Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle's parents would do for them. He would do anything to get that man's stamp of approval.
Lilac sighed. Lucius Malfoy was a foul prick, but Draco either didn't notice or didn't care.
Draco knew that Lilac hadn't liked his father. The fact that, at this very moment, she could be looking at him, talking to him, suffering because of him made Draco nauseous.
All Slytherins in Fourth Year and older were to be in their common-rooms. By the time Lilac and Draco got there, almost everyone was already seated. The girls sat on one side, gossiping and giggling, and the guys sat on the other, laughing loudly and occasionally hitting each other on the back of the head. Lilac groaned, and so did Draco. Unlike all the other girls in her year, she didn't care which Weird Sister was getting a divorce or who was mad at who. Draco didn't even want to be there; he wanted to go to his common-room, bury himself in the blankets, and never come out.
Professor Snape slowly strutted into class with his shoulders held back, giving him an air of authority.
"Unless most of you have been living," He started. "under a rock, you would know that this year Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament."
He took a pause.
"Every year, with the Tournament, comes an event held on Christmas Day. It's called the Yule Ball, which is a dance, obviously."
A couple of girls squealed and some of the boys groaned. Lilac broke into a huge smile, but Draco rolled his eyes; he hated dancing.
"Can I have a volunteer...?"
Lilac was still smirking. She knew that Draco hated these sorts of events - they reminded him of the stupid Social Balls that his parents would drag him to, which usually ended in a forced slow dance with Pansy and her trying to make out with him.
Snape noticed this and called Lilac up. Her smile vanished and her eyes widened, while a grin was starting to draw itself on Draco's features.
They took a ballroom dancing style position and Snape started the music. Their movements were awkward and Lilac looked like she was going to nauseate. Neither of them seemed to find it very amusing, but Draco hadn't laughed that hard in a long, long time.
It sounded cliché, but Draco couldn't remember the true feeling of laughing until your stomach hurt and tears stung your eyes.
After the class, all the girls were talking about dresses or dates or makeup or hair. Draco even noticed Lilac look over at them longingly, wishing that she could take part in the conversation.
"You can go talk with them if you really want to." He shrugged.
"What? Oh, nah. It's not worth it - I don't need to be getting caught up in whatever drama they want to talk about."
Draco let the subject go.
He so desperately wanted to talk to Lilac. Shit, he just missed her so much.
His eyes scanned the photographs. There weren't very many since the ball hadn't lasted very long. He came across one of the Slytherin girls right before everyone went to the ballroom. Pansy, Daphne Greengrass, Millicent Bulstrode and Tracey Davis were all smiling at the camera, waving and blowing kisses. Draco felt a pang in his chest. Lilac wasn't in any of the pictures. Being a Halfblood, her fellow housemates weren't fond of her and everyone else in the school thought that she was a rude, prejudiced, stereotypical Slytherin. Putting his back against the wall, he let his memories consume him once more.
Draco tried not to jerk away from Pansy as they sat together in the library. She was grabbing his forearm and constantly blinking her eyelashes. It was probably an effort to try and look flirtatious and appealing, but Draco was ready to ask her if she got something stuck in her eye.
Pansy. She hadn't bothered him in ages. It was probably due to his messy, unkept hair, to the dark circles printed under his eyes, and the fact that he'd barely talked in months.
He heard a scoff, and looked over to see Granger at the table beside them. Noticing that she'd been caught, she put her nose back in her book and hid her face with it.
"Trying to see what you'll never have, Granger?" It was a pretty immature remark, but it got a giggle out of Pansy, so it couldn't be that bad.
Then again, pretty much all Draco had to go to get Pansy to laugh was breathe. He scooted his chair closer to her - he knew it would annoy Granger.
Granger slammed Hogwarts: A History on the table.
"Yeah Malfoy, I'll never have to worry about conceiving children that could be mistaken for pugs. Unfortunately, it seems that you'll be having that problem in the near future." She smirked, content with her comeback, even if she knew that it was downright nasty. Draco couldn't blame her; it was nice seeing the prissy little Gryffindor get a backbone.
A couple of Pansy's friends, including Millicent Bulstrode, who had been hunched over some thick spell books, looked over and giggled.
Seeing Granger's death glare, they both quickly scurried out of the library.
Pansy's face scrunched up more so than it had been originally, making her face look like a big mushed up puddle of flesh. She gasped and stood up, taking out her wand.
"You little insufferable..." She paused and threw a spell at Hermione. "Stupefy! Mudblood!"
Granger hadn't prepared herself - she didn't even have her wand in her hand - so she got the full blast of the spell. Even then, Pansy was closer the the bottom of her classes than she was to the top, so it wasn't very powerful. Granger was thrown about a foot back and knocked out of her chair, but she was standing back up, wand at the ready, faster that Pansy had been able to conjure the spell.
"Expelliamus!" She shrieked. Draco stood by them, mouth agape. Granger had has a stone complexion the second that the word "Mudblood" left Pansy's mouth.
"Petrificus Totalus!" She said again before Pansy could defend herself.
Once Pansy was frozen, Granger waltzed right up to her and punched her right in the nose. She then grabbed her books and left, passing an angry Madame Pince as she did.
Draco was stunned for a second, but then quickly reversed the spell on Pansy.
"What are you waiting for, Draco?!" She demanded, clutching her bloody nose. "Take me to the hospital wing!"
Draco sighed and grabbed her wrist, but Pansy pulled away.
"Not yet, you prick! Go teach that filthy Mudblood scum a lesson!"
Draco rolled his eyes. He would never let Pansy boss him around like that if she wasn't such a tattletale, and he was still so set on impressing his father.
Draco speed walked out of the library, following the path he was pretty sure Hermione had taken. Sure, she could deliver a good punch - he knew from experience - but he could probably deliver a better one.
Draco walked the halls. Soon, he could hear her soft yet firm voice echo off the halls, and he followed it. The conversation the he could hear between Granger, Weasle-Be and Potter, however, was just getting interesting.
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The guilt burned Hermione alive from the inside out, like gasoline lit on fire. There were so many signs of what was going to happen, but she had been too ignorant, too preoccupied, too stupid to take notice of them.
"Ron! Harry! There you are!" Exclaimed Hermione. She didn't feel like talking about the incident with Pansy - she was just happy that she found the rest of the Golden Trio. "I was just coming back from the library."
Ron laughed awkwardly, his ears turning pink, hoping that she hadn't heard the conversation that he had been having with Harry. "We were just going back to the Common room." He turned towards Harry.
Harry was frozen. He was pale and staring into nothing.
"Harry?" Repeated Hermione.
"No." Said Harry coolly. "No, no, no. Not again."
"Not again? Not what again? Harry, you're not making any sense..." Hermione started panicking.
Harry held his head in his hands. "We've got to get to the girl's washroom."
"Woah." Went Ron. "Please don't tell me that you're that desperate for a date to the dance.
It started clicking in Hermione's brain. "I'm pretty sure that unless he wants to bring Moaning Myrtle, he's not looking for a date."
Harry looked into her eyes, thankful that she had understood.
With that, the three of them took off towards the girl's lavatory. Just as they turned the corner, Ron bumped into Harry, because Harry bumped into Hermione, because Hermione bumped into -
"Malfoy," She growled.
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Draco was still leaning against the wall next to the Yule Ball portraits, remembering about all of his grudges; even those made against Potter seemed stupid and immature now.
Draco was taken aback. He stuttered an excuse and took a few steps backwards. He didn't want them to know that he was listening in to their conversation.
Get a grip, Draco. He told himself. He stood up straight, towering over all three of them who were sprawled on the ground, and brushed himself off.
The three Gryffindor students struggled to get up before they looked like fools, but by the time the three of them were standing up, Draco was chuckling.
"Just can't get enough of me, can ya, Granger?"
"Shut up, unless you want a face like Pansy's -"
Harry and Ron looked at each other, completely lost, while Granger and Draco were putting all of their concentration into shooting daggers at each other with their eyes.
"That's funny, Granger, really. Hilarious." He put his hands up and clenched them. "If you want a Muggle fight, I'll give you one."
He swung his fist and looked at Granger's face - it was full of horror. She didn't even try and protect herself as Draco's fist was mere inches from her face.
At the last second, he moved his arm to the side so that it didn't hit Hermione. He couldn't do it. She was an annoying, know-it-all Mudblood, but he couldn't do it. It couldn't do something as raw and as vile as punch her in the face.
To anyone else, it would have looked like a clumsy shot, but Granger must have seen Draco's expression change behind that angry fist.
"Shove off, Malfoy." Weasl-Be shoutout.
Draco felt his balance being sacrificed as he stumbled after a hard weight had rammed into his side. He turned to Potter, who had shoved him, and pushed him back harder.
"Guys," Granger's voice surfaced somewhere in the fight. "Guys!"
Weasel-Be was clumsily hitting and elbowing Draco, and Potter was still trying to shove him to the ground. Weasel-Be was weak and a poor fighter, but Potter offered a little bit more of a challenge, considering he was the only one of out the three who really knew how to Muggle-fight properly. If Draco could just snatch his wand...
"Harry, Ronald - we have much, much more important things to worry about!" Granger's voice sounded again.
Potter nodded - Hermione was right. Draco almost chuckled as he watched Potter's expression fall as he realized that he wouldn't be able to knock Draco into oblivion - not today, anyways.
Not ever, Draco smiled to himself.
"Don't you have a girlfriend you should be attending to?" Snarled Granger to Draco.
Damn it. Technically, he did have a 'girlfriend' that he should be attending to. Pansy would have a fit if he didn't get to the hospital wing. Shoving Potter one more time, he stepped away from the fight, feeling victorious for having dealt the final blow.
"Baby!" Wailed Pansy from the cot in the hospital wing. She looked fine - no blood, no bruise, and her nose was back to normal.
Well, as normal as a Parkinson's nose could look.
Draco walked over her outstretched arms and held them. She looked at him with a little smile, and then an evil smirk. "Did you hurt her? That little arrogant -"
"Yeah, I hurt her." He said, leaving it at that. "Potter and Weasel-Be, too."
Pansy scoffed and put on a fake apologetic smile. "Are you sure that that blood traitor can afford the healthcare?"
The healthcare at Hogwarts was free.
"Ha, ha, ha." He tried to make the laugh sound genuine, but he wasn't really sure if it worked or not. His mind was somewhere else. What had Potter been going on and on about?
He remembered Second Year, Muggleborns had been in grave danger. Draco had been an especially big arse that year - his father tricked him into thinking that a great ancestor had been murdered by a group of Muggles. It was only months later that Lilac informed him that there was no such person or event in existence.
He figured that Lucius made up the story because Draco had felt just the slightest pang in his chest in Diagon Alley when his father first met Granger- she took all of Lucius' insults as if they meant nothing, which was more than Draco could do.
Too bad he had forgotten what a little know-it-all she was. Draco was sure that if he was at the top of his classes, or at least not beat to second place by a Mudblood, his dad would at least talk to him. It was that stupid Mudblood's fault. She ruined everything.
Hermione hadn't seen Malfoy in ages. She didn't know how he was dealing with everything. He was probably having a party every day; he hated the Weasleys.
She slurped up one of the last bottles of Sleeping Draft that she had in her possession.
"I can't stand that lowlife of a -" Started Ron.
"Harry," Hermione interrupted as they made their way to the girl's lavatory. She had had enough of Malfoy for one day. "What exactly did you hear, out in the corridor?"
Harry gulped. "Parseltongue, like, from Second Year. Like, from the Chamber of Secrets."
Ron's face got visibly paler. "I swear, if we have to follow fucking spiders again- "
Hermione stuttered. "That - that's impossible. You killed the basilisk, and they closed off the Chamber.
"I killed a basilisk." Said Harry slowly, emphasizing on the 'a'.
"Yeah, exactly -" Replied Ron.
"A single basilisk, Ron. There were a least a dozen voices."
The three of them stayed quiet, but the silence seemed eerie and dangerous. They made their way to the girl's lavatory, all left to their own thoughts
Hermione thought of how she had been petrified by the giant snake, and how scary everything had been in that moment, like nothing could ever comfort her ever again. She thought about how she and Harry had almost lost a friend and Ron almost lost his little sister in that disgusting chamber. She felt about Ginny herself, who had lost control of her own actions at the age of eleven. Hermione so desperately hoped that Harry's mind was playing tricks on him, that nothing really happened.
Harry, Ron and Hermione ran into the girl's washroom, the one no one ever went into because of -
"... No, it's like I don't exist. It's like I'm invisible, right? 'Who cares if we scare Moaning Myrtle!'"
Myrtle was diving in and out of toilet bowls, making a big, watery mess.
"Let's scare Moaning Myrtle, because she's already DEAD!"
"Myrtle?!" Exclaimed Hermione. Sure, the ghost was overdramatic when it came to, well, everything, but she seemed especially unhinged today.
"Hermione!" Moaning Myrtle flew down to the young girl and tried to hug her, but the sensation made Hermione almost vomit. She did her best to hide her facial expression from Myrtle.
"Wait a second." Growled Moaning Myrtle, taking a step back. "Are you guys gonna go try and scare me too?!"
"What are you on about ?" Asked Ron.
"Oh, like you don't know. I'm sure that this entire castle talks about how funny it is when I scream..."
"Myrtle, what's going on?" Wondered Harry out loud, genuinely concerned.
Myrtle's distraught expressions immediately softened when Harry started talking.
"Hello, Harry Potter..." She giggled, putting an arm around him. "I don't even know... I was all by myself, as usual, and then these girls walked in. I thought that one of them was you, Hermione, or maybe Lilac, because she looked brunette and you're the only two people who ever come in here."
"Lilac?" Questioned Harry, unfamiliar with the name.
Myrtle ignored her. "I called your name but when she didn't answer, I figured that it was Lilac. I was about to scream at her to get out, but then she was gone. Just like that. The other girl refused to tell me anything, little prick."
"What did she look like?" Questioned Harry. "What house was she from?"
The ghost shrugged. "I don't know. She wore her plain Hogwarts robes, the ones you get in first year, and they were way too small for her. Then, she just reappeared. Out of thin air. Just like that. She nodded to her friend and left me here, scared out of my mind!"
Ron chuckled, and Myrtle gave him a death glare. Harry and Hermione shot him annoyed expressions. He knew better than to make fun of the overdramatic ghost.
"Well... Um..." Stuttered Ron. "I mean, it's just kind of ironic. You're the ghost, usually you scare people, not the other way around."
Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron could be such an idiot sometimes.
"Oh, I get it, let's all scare Myrtle because she's a ghost! Ten points if you make her jump, fifty if she screams!" Myrtle shrieked in Ron's face, which was now full of fear.
"Myrtle, just... Let us know if you see her again, okay?" Harry glanced over at the Chamber of Secrets' entrance. It still seemed to be sealed shut like it had been for two years.
One thing that everyone would have thought that he would have learned by now is that things are rarely what they seem to be, especially at Hogwarts, and especially for Harry Potter.
A few days later, Ron was very panicked, more so than he had been before all of his previous Hogwarts exams combined. He couldn't go dateless to the Yule Ball. Even Neville had been able to get himself a date.
"Just go with Hermione." Sighed Harry.
"No, I'll seem desperate if I ask her..." Started Ron.
"Well, you fancy her, don't you?"
Ron took a deep breath. "Well, yeah, I do. It's just... She's Hermione..."
"Mate, she's my best friend." Insisted Harry. "Krum asked her, and she hasn't even answered yet. I think that she's waiting to see if you'll ask her."
Ron stuttered just as the bushy haired beauty turned to corner.
"M-'Mione!" He exclaimed nervously. "Um..."
"Ron has something that he would like to ask you." Said Harry with a sly grin. Ron gave him the strongest death glare he could muster.
"What is it, Ronald? I've got to get to Transfigurations-"
"I - I was just wondering... If you'd like to go to the Ball... With me?"
Hermione stared at him for a torturous second before breaking into a smile.
Say no, Thought Hermione to herself, gripping onto her vial of Sleeping Draught. Say no, and neither of you will go, and everything will be okay...
However, her flashback kept playing in front of her eyes, like a movie.
"Yeah, yeah. I'd love to."
Little did she know, she'd only get a single dance.
Hermione couldn't stop smiling. Ron asked her. He actually asked her! She ran through the halls of the school - she had to find Ginny.
When she finally got to the Gryffindor common-room, it was loud and crowded, but Hermione could easily identify Ginny's long red locks from across the room.
"Gin, come on, I've got to tell you something!"
Ginny looked up from her textbook. "What? 'Mione, what?"
Hermione glanced around. There was too much noise, and too many gossip hounds. She had to go somewhere quiet, somewhere where she could talk to Ginny in private.
"Come on," she said, tugging Ginny's sleeve.
The two girls left the Common Room and made their way to the Girl's Lavatory.
"He asked me, Gin." Said an ecstatic Hermione. "Ronald asked me to the Yule Ball."
Ginny smiled. "Awe, Hermione, I'm so happy for you!"
The girls gushed about the ball for a few more minutes, walking aimlessly around the castle. Just as they came up to the girl's lavatory, Ginny gulped.
"Do we have to go in there?" She asked. That washroom brought back sick, twisted memories to the poor witch.
"No, I just wanted to -"
Hermione stopped talking mid sentence. She could hear a high pitched weeping.
"Wait, do you hear that...?"
"Hear what?"
To Ginny's dismay, Hermione slowly walked into the washroom. Just as Hermione expected, there was Myrtle; lying on the ground in tears, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Myrtle? Myrtle, what's the matter?"
The ghost's body shook with every sob. She looked up at Hermione.
"It's happening again. It's happening again!"
Ginny started shifting her weight from one foot to the other, getting uncomfortable. Hermione, on the other hand, was very curious.
"What are you talking about?"
The ghost was distraught, spitting out sentences that didn't make sense. "They were here, then there was a wrapper, and then they were gone, and then they were back, and then they were gone!"
"Who? Myrtle, you've got to speak clearly!"
"I don't know!" She snapped, tears still running down her face. "Two real scary looking ones, and those two girls I saw a couple of weeks ago."
"Hermione..." Called Ginny, who had walked over to the sinks.
"What? Ginny, I'm kind of busy at the moment."
"No, Hermione, you're going to want to see this."
Hermione walked over to where Ginny was standing, just a little bit annoyed. What she saw, however, made her gasp and stumble back a couple of steps.
The entrance to the Chamber Of Secrets wasn't sealed anymore.
Hermione made horrifying sounds as she sobbed on the floor on the Astronomy tower. Her fingers were going blue from the cold, but she was far from caring. She should have known. She should have known.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Draco's eyes stung. His mind begged him for relief, begged him for sleep, but he wouldn't give in. The nightmares were too much for him. They made it impossible to tell if he was dreaming or facing reality, and it made him relive his darkest moments and face his greatest fears. He settled to looking for nothing, and tried to follow the train of memories that he had been going through.
"I've already been asked by six guys." Boasted Pansy to her friends. "I'm just waiting for the right one." She glanced over at Draco. Lilac bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. Pansy had been talking loudly and hinting things around Draco for days. She was convinced he would ask her. Lilac put her book in front of her face to cover it and leaned towards Draco.
"Someone's getting desperate."
Draco groaned. "I mean, why won't anyone else ask me? I could use it as an excuse."
Lilac scoffed. "She's scared almost all of the girls in the school. All anyone has to do is look at you to get a hex from her, and Merlin forbid you go with anyone who's not Pureblood, so that leaves Pansy."
"Why does the universe hate me...?" Draco buried his face in his hands.
"Stop being such a drama queen." Sighed Lilac, rolling her eyes. "If you don't go with her, she'll throw a hissy fit. It's one night, Snake Boy, get over it."
"Oh yeah?" He asked, sitting up straight. "Who are you going with then, Snake Girl?"
The Snake nicknames were old childhood memories. Everyone knew that Draco would be a Slytherin, so Lilac had always called him Snake Boy. Everyone - except for Draco and Lilac's mother - thought that Lilac would be Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, but not Slytherin. ("Too sneaky not to be a Slytherin," Draco would smirk. "She'll do anything to get her way. At the age of four, she kept her room clean for a month for a new doll, which is definitely something a Slytherin would do." Her mother would say.) Karma bit Lilac in the butt when she did end up in Slytherin and Draco could tease her right back. They had been using the nicknames ever since.
"No one," Replied Lilac just a little too quickly. Draco raised an eyebrow - he knew her too well.
"You want to go with someone." He said blankly.
"No, I don't know where you got that from -"
"You actually want to go with someone!"
"Shut your trap, Malfoy..."
"You haven't had a crush since we were twelve!"
"Shut up!" Exclaimed Lilac. "Fine, alright, but he's already going with someone else, so it doesn't even matter. Now shut up before someone hears you!"
Draco smirked. Eventually, he would find out who this mystery guy was.
Then, he'd threaten to beat the shrimp to a plump if he had any plans to mess with Lilac.
An hour later, Draco was on his bed groaning into his pillow. Lilac was sitting in the chair in the corner of the dormitory. They were the only two in the room - everyone else was eating dinner, and they had a good half hour before anyone came up to their room.
"It wasn't that bad..." Said Lilac slowly.
"Easy for you to say." He exclaimed. "You weren't the one getting Parkinson's tongue shoved down your throat!"
"That's why you should have told her you were just going as friends..."
He sat up. His hair was pointing in all directions and his shirt was all wrinkled. "I tried! I told her 'just as friends', loud and clear, and she just went and snogged me! It's not fair..."
Lilac bit the inside of her cheek. She did feel bad for him. "It's done. It sucks, but it's done, and you can't change it now. Stop complaining, would you?"
Draco huffed. "I'd rather go with anyone else. Anyone..."
Lilac broke into a smile. "Anyone? Even Granger?"
Draco hesitated for a second. "Granger or Pansy... Wow, tough one."
"Well, you're too late, Snake Boy, Granger's got a date already. Weasley."
Draco stared at Lilac for a second, almost not believing it. "Pfft, they deserve each other. I bet that they're both horrible snoggers anyways. I mean, just imagine Granger, she would be just horrible, with those little lips and that bushy hair and -"
Lilac stared at him for a second. "You've thought about snogging Granger?"
Draco got very defensive very quickly. "No, I just... Just in the moment... You know what I mean!"
Draco clenched his eyes shut. He couldn't even protect his best friend. What was wrong with him?!