Chapter 4 – Jealousy and Secret Passages
"What to do mean it's still warm?" Blaise followed Draco as he retraced their steps back to the Transfiguration classroom.
"It looks like it was burned. I don't know how, but the edges are singed," Draco was confused beyond belief.
They opened the door to the classroom once again, which was still deserted. They both searched the floor, but found no evidence of the moth; Draco cursed and kicked a desk with anger.
"Whoa, calm down, you don't even know what that thing is!" Blaise scowled at him, "Maybe someone came in after you left and picked it up."
Then Draco felt it, "No. it's here," almost like something was silently calling his name. He moved to one of the counters on the side of the room that held cages of various animals. He knelt down and looked under the small ridge that the cabinets made and found it there. Draco swore he saw the moth's wings fluttering, and felt a little more worried than the first time it had happened, but didn't say anything and held it up for Blaise to see.
"How did you know it was there?" Blaise seemed a little scared.
"I don't know, I just knew."
"That makes absolutely no sense at all, and you're freaking me out. You should have that thing looked at by someone,"
"Let's just go to the library and see if we can figure out what that is," Draco said with a surge of energy as he slipped the moth into his hole-less pocket.
"Wow, Granger really is rubbing you off-I mean rubbing off on you."
"You're an arse," Draco said, leading the way to the library.
Two hours they sat in the library researching magical beetles, butterflies, moths, aphids, worms, and caterpillars, but nothing was even remotely close to what lie in Draco's pocket. Frustrated, they headed down to the Great Hall once more; it seemed as if they had been pacing the castle all day. During their meal, even Blaise had glanced over his shoulder to get a peek at Hermione. Crabbe and Goyle were always too involved with their food to notice anything strange. Pansy, however, kept looking at Draco then at Blaise and back again suspiciously.
Pansy always fancied Draco, and wasn't afraid to show it to everyone around her. Every meal they attended together, she was at his elbow, and in the common room she often tried to cuddle on the couch with him. Draco only saw her as a friend, and wasn't remotely interested, but he was still afraid that the truth would hurt her; or even worse, that she would be so upset that she'd run to his parents and snitch on him. Draco trusted Blaise with his life as well as his secrets. They were best friends, even if Blaise was often snide.
The common room was full of students enjoying their first weekend of the term, and Draco sat with his friends by the fire, reading his History of Magic book and trying not to doze off due to its mundane quality. Blaise and Crabbe decided to play chess and Goyle watched them. Pansy, however, scooted closer to Draco on the black leather couch and leaned into his side.
"Pansy, what are you doing?" he wanted her to take the hint, but his attempt was in vain.
"Cuddling with you, of course. When are we going to go out Draco?" she asked sweetly.
"We're not. Pansy, you're like a sister to me."
"I am not! We have so much chemistry and you know it!" she slapped his chest playfully.
"No, we don't. Please, Pansy, I don't want to hurt you by giving you false hope, so I'm going to say this once. No. It's not going to happen, and I'm sorry," Draco stood up and made his way to the dorm leaving Pansy quite shocked.
He just couldn't understand it. He felt like a woman magnet with both Hermione and Pansy fawning over him constantly. Draco always thought it would be great to be in the spotlight, surrounded by girls, adored by everyone, but the fantasy slipped away very quickly now that he knew he could barely handle a mere two girls obsessing over him.
He emptied his pockets, stripped, and climbed into bed prematurely; he wasn't even tired. He had the moth in his hand and he stared at it, hoping to not see it move. As he stared, his thoughts strayed back to when he saw the wings flutter in the classroom, and before he could bring his mind to a halt, Hermione's kiss was replaying in his head. For all it was worth, it was a great snog, Draco couldn't deny that. His mind still wrapped around the vision of Hermione, he returned his gaze to the moth, whose wings were twitching. Then they started to flutter faster and faster until they appeared blurry. Draco heard a slight whistling noise coming from the moth, and held it closer to his ear.
The rock-material touched a space of skin next to his ear, vibrating slightly, and Draco was suddenly walking down a winding, cobblestone road in the countryside. He walked up to the gate of a Victorian three story house; a few lights were illuminated within the two visible rooms upon the second floor and Draco snuck over the gate, striding across the lawn to the window on the left side. He grabbed some pebbles from the garden that was spread at his feet and tossed one. It made a ticking sound against the glass of the window. He waited a minute or two, and tossed another.
It only took about thirty seconds for the occupant of the room to open the window and peer out of it. It was that same girl, Bella, who had rejected him, and she scowled at the sight of him.
"Go away! Don't make me hex you!" she said in a harsh whisper.
"Please! I just want to talk to you," he pleaded, trying to keep quiet.
"I don't like you. Why don't you get that? Get out of here, now!" she slammed the window shut, and Draco once again felt a strong sense of rejection and anger.
He woke up with his covers kicked onto the floor and looked around to see that everyone was still sleeping. It was close to 8 A.M., and the sun was hidden behind dreary, grey clouds. Draco let his feet hang over the edge of his bed, and saw the moth on the floor; he must have fallen asleep while holding onto it.
The face of the girl from his dream prevented him from sleeping any more. She was a beautiful girl, and whomever it was trying to get with her did not seem willing to give up. Draco didn't know who these people were or why he was dreaming about them, but then he thought it could be his own conscience playing its own version of his relationship with Hermione. Of course, it didn't make much sense, but it's all he could come up with on his own.
Draco finished the remainder of his homework in the common room alone. Shortly after finishing Pansy came down from the girls' dorm, walked right past him, and exited into the hallway.
"You must have really pissed her off, mate," Blaise said as he entered.
"Well, she needed the truth, and I presented it to her. If she can't handle it, it's her problem," Draco shrugged, looked over at Blaise, and noticed that he was holding the moth Draco had left on his own bedside table, "What are you doing with that?"
Draco made to grab for it, but Blaise dodged his reach and stood up.
"I'm just looking at it! Maybe you should ask Granger about it, she's a bookworm, I'm sure she'll know at least where to look, yeah?"
Draco raised his eyebrows, amazed that he didn't think about it before. Blaise's eyes were flashing once again while staring at the moth and Draco wondered if his own eyes flashed the same way. Maybe it was just a trick of the light playing off of the amber color of the rock.
In the late afternoon, Draco found Hermione studying in the library with Harry and Ron. He sat at a table within her range of vision to see if he could catch her attention, succeeding within minutes. She was glancing up every few seconds while Harry and Ron, their backs to Draco, looked at each other, clearly confused. They both turned around and Draco quickly began to dig around in his bag, making it seem that he was there for homework.
Close to an hour had passed when Harry and Ron finally left Hermione alone at the table. She watched them closely as they left the library and turned a corner. She peered around the library for any other Gryffindors, but finding none, she made her way over to Draco's table with haste. She dropped her books onto the table top and grabbed either side of his face to kiss him hungrily. He broke the kiss and whipped his head around in a panic.
"I told you, we need to keep this under wraps, you can't just kiss me in the middle of the library!"
"I'm sorry, but I just can't help it, I never want to stop kissing you," she said shaking her head, surprised with her own words, "It's crazy, I've never felt like this before," she seemed thrilled about it.
"Well, good, but we really need to keep things quiet for now," Draco said, anxious to change the subject to the moth, "Listen, I need your help with something," He took the moth out of his pocket and placed it on the table, "Do you know what this is? I've been trying to figure it out, but I can't find anything on it."
Hermione was scowling at it and made to pick it up off of the table, but dropped it immediately and looked at her fingers.
"Ow! Why it is so hot?"
Draco picked it up and felt no heat, "It's not hot."
"Yes it was, look!" She showed Draco her fingertips which were now shiny and red.
Draco looked at the moth in his hand; it wasn't hot at all to his touch, but on the contrary felt rather cold.
"What is that thing?" Hermione said staring at the moth like it would attack her at any moment.
"I don't know, I was hoping you could tell me," he held it out a little further, and Hermione leaned away.
"Keep that thing away from me," her voice was shaky.
Draco looked at the moth and noticed red markings on the wings, not sure if they had been there before. It was curious, however, that he didn't notice it until now.
"Where did you get that?" she asked, easing up a little bit.
"My mum found it in the manor before I left for school. I don't know what it is exactly, but it's starting to freak me out," he said, setting it on the table once more.
"Well," Hermione sighed, "It's definitely not a magical insect, but it is a moth, though I'm not sure what species. I can have my parents send me an insect book from home."
Draco was grateful for how serious she was taking his request, but the way she reacted to touching the moth was very alarming. He wondered what substance that incased an insect would burn her, but not him or Blaise.
Hermione finished her homework while Draco searched more books about insects, and both were shooed out my Madam Pince around 9 P.M. Whilst walking past a tapestry, Hermione suddenly grabbed Draco's wrist and pulled him behind it. It was a small hallway that Draco had never known was there.
"One of the secret passage ways, not many people know it's here," she said taking off her robe.
"What are you doing?" Draco started to get nervous.
Hermione giggled, and moved towards him, pushing his bag off of his shoulder, and pinning him to the wall with her body. She loosened the tie of his usual black-on-black suit and started unbuttoning his shirt. Draco was frozen; nothing like this had ever happened to him before, and he wasn't sure if he should put his hands on her or let them hang by his sides.
Once the first three buttons were undone, Hermione pushed herself onto her tiptoes and began to kiss Draco's collarbone. He sighed and rested his head against the wall, and never before had he thought a simple kiss could feel this tantalizing. His hands moved on their own accord, and placed themselves onto her hips for a moment of two before gliding to her bottom.
Hermione was still kissing his neck, her hands rested on his chest, massaging slightly. Draco's hands moved up and down her sides and he pushed her head to over with his own, now kissing her neck. Then, his conscience began to argue. This was the girl, the Mudblood, that he'd hated since he was eleven, and here he was feeling her up in a secret passage. His mind was fighting with his body, but Draco couldn't help but succumb to the latter.
Both of them now lightly panting, Draco flipped around so he was now the one pinning her to the wall. He began to snog her deeply as her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. His hands found her bottom once again and squeezed; he was getting excited and knew she'd be able to feel it soon. Draco let her go, and freed himself from the grip she had on his neck.
"What's wrong?" she asked still breathing heavily.
"Nothing, I just…Don't you think we're moving fast?" it's all he could come up with.
She looked down at the floor and laughed, "I suppose we are, huh?"
Draco was relieved and buttoned the top of his shirt back up and re-tightened his tie. Hermione grabbed her robe off of the floor and swung it back around herself. Draco walked with her until their paths had to diverge. He looked around before giving her another kiss and heading back to his common room.