Chapter 7 – Acceptance
Draco came to and found an unfamiliar, livid face staring down at him. This man was tall and brooding with a head of dark hair and a bearded face. He was panting as if he'd chased Draco down just to hit him, and he had a very tight grip on his wand. He moved closer, and Draco scooted away, trying to ignore the dizziness from being hit.
"Who are you?" Draco asked.
"You know who I am," the man replied with a deep, growling snarl, but his voice seemed muffled as though Draco's ears had been filled with cotton.
"I've never seen you before in my life," Draco was still scooting away on the floor, trying to get on his feet without taking his eyes off of the stranger.
"Are you crazy?" The man's voice suddenly changed and when Draco blinked, Ron Weasley was standing in front of him instead. Draco was at a loss for words, his eyes frantically dancing around the corridor for the man that was there only seconds before. He got to his feet unsteadily before making eye contact with Ron.
"There was man here. He hit me," Draco was angry with himself for confiding what he thought he saw in one of his enemies, but maybe Ron had seen where the man went.
"I hit you," Ron replied, "You really are loony aren't you?"
Draco stumbled over his explanation, but Ron just scowled and turned to walk away. Draco was breathing heavily, panicked, and his jaw was throbbing. He brought his hand up to the left side of his face and he heard Ron shout from the end of the hall:
"And stay the hell away from Hermione!" The door slammed behind him, and there was an unnerving silence.
Draco hurried back to the common room as quickly as he could, ran straight through and up to the dorms to shut and lock the moth away for what he hoped would be until he knew exactly what it was. Once the moth, along with Draco's paranoia, was shut away in his bedside table, he realized the most horrifying part of his encounter. Ron knew.
Sunday was full of homework, some sulking, and the first Quidditch practice for the Slytherins. The weather was starting to cool down and Draco's fingers were numb as he changed out of his Quidditch robes in the locker room. The team's practice went well and both Draco and Blaise had agreed that it was the best group of people for the Slytherin team since they'd started at Hogwarts.
They lazed around the rest of the day, feeling exhausted and windblown as the rest of their classmates enjoyed the end of the weekend. Draco was unusually quiet and noticed that his cronies were starting to get bored with his lack of interest. Since it was usually Draco's call on what they did and who they teased, they seemed lost now that Draco was not even remotely interested in bullying.
Crabbe and Goyle decided to go out and bother the younger students on their own and Draco was left alone with Pansy who was ignoring him, and Blaise who was nearly asleep on the couch. Draco sat in silence, pondering the dark-haired man he thought he had seen the night before and still couldn't think of anyone he'd known with those looks. The man's face was contorted with rage and had a weathered look about it, like he had seen true horrors or maybe even lived the life of a criminal. He thought about telling Blaise, telling Hermione, even confiding in Snape once again about whom he'd seen, but when playing out all of these situations, he ruled against it instantly. They would either call him crazy as Ron had, tell him it was all because of the mysterious moth that he should get rid of, or that he was just tired and was seeing things.
It wasn't until breakfast on Friday that Draco's bubble of loneliness was broken by a letter from his mother.
Draco, I hope term is going well for you and I miss you dearly. The ministry conducted their raid on the manor a few days ago, and they found nothing, but it was a close call. Thank you for helping me hide everything, and I hope those items you took with you were easy to pawn onto someone. Your father's hearing is scheduled for next month, and with Yaxley at the ministry, he's bound to get out soon after. Sending you all of my love.
Draco read the letter over and over again. His father could possibly be out of prison soon, but that wasn't the sentence that stuck in his mind. The items mentioned were never pawned off, and Draco's life had turned into a great ball of confusion and frustration. Nevertheless, reading his mother's handwriting was very comforting, and he was happy to know that at least one person was still willing to talk to him.
Draco found himself in the library once again, but he was no longer trying to figure out the moth; in fact, he was successfully ignoring it. He was researching for a Potions essay that was due on Monday, and found himself buried in a heap of books. Opening the pages of an ancient volume, he found what he'd forgotten to look for. Chapter 4: Antidotes for love potions. He whipped through the pages like a madman, carelessly tearing a few, and saw that there were at least a dozen different variations of antidotes, and most of them weren't that difficult. He copied all of them down, double checking the amounts and measurements of each ingredient and shoved the parchment into his bag for later use. Distractedly scribbling the remainder of his essay for class, he heard Hermione's voice and looked up. Stomach turning, he expected Ron and Harry to round the corner with her, but he vocally sighed in relief to see Ginny instead. They joined him at the book laden table and started unpacking their bags.
"Er…" Draco started, looking at Ginny.
"I personally have no problem with it. You guys seem happy, Hermione's my friend, and if Ron and Harry want to be childish then bully for them!" She slammed her books on the table, clearly upset about her brother's actions.
"They stopped talking to me. Well, at least Ron did, Harry shows his disappointment, but at least he'll ask me how I'm doing," Hermione paused, "I've missed you all week," she laid her hand palm-up on the table, and Draco grasped it. Her hand was soft and gentle, almost frail in his and she squeezed slightly in appreciation.
Ginny didn't seem bothered as they worked together in silence and Draco understood that it was a girl thing. Her male friends saw him as an enemy, someone to fight and compete against, but for some reason, Ginny seemed to stick by Hermione's side no matter what her choices were. It made Draco think hard about who the better friend was.
The week after proved no different, and the weather was turning even colder, the wind biting more fiercely. The first Hogsmeade trip was scheduled for the second weekend of October, and Hermione was insistent that she and Draco go together. He was used to her assumptions about dates, holding hands, kissing in libraries, but this was different. His friends would surely be expecting his company in the village, and how suspicious would it be for him to be anywhere else? He had a plan, not a good one, but it would have to be done sooner or later.
Draco, Blaise, Crabbe, Goyle, and (regretfully) Pansy sat in The Three Broomsticks, each with a mug of butterbeer in front of them.
"What's going on? Who are we meeting here?" Goyle asked.
"Just wait, she'll be here anytime now," Draco said glancing at the door.
Seconds later, Hermione walked in by herself and panned the room, searching for Draco's white-blonde head. She cautiously walked over to the table of the Slytherin gang, clearly feeling a bit more intimidated than expected. Draco got up, kissed her cheek, and motioned for her to sit in the chair between him and Blaise. Pansy sneered, nearly baring her teeth like a dog, and Crabbe and Goyle were looking from Draco to Hermione, waiting for Draco's word to attack her with insults.
"So, we figured you would all find out somehow, so we thought we'd make it an easier process. We're together, have been since the start of term," Draco was hoping that the lie he was about to tell would work, "We bumped into each other on vacation during the summer, and realized what we'd been fighting about was petty. Sorry if you feel disgraced or angry, but that's what it's going to be."
Pansy's eyes were bulging from her face, mouth gaping, and Draco's bodyguards were looking at him like he was speaking a different language.
"This? This is why you can't be with me?" Pansy's voice was shaking, "You selfish Mudblood-loving git!" On her last word she simultaneously stood up and splashed her butterbeer towards Draco's face. He flinched, expecting to be drenched, but Hermione's wit was quicker and her wandless magic froze the drink just millimeters from his face.
"Wooah," Crabbe and Goyle were both amazed with her talent.
As Pansy stormed out of the pub into the street, Goyle decided to finally speak about the situation.
"I don't really care. We've just been following what you do since we started school, and I'm personally really happy for you. And Pansy's a bitch," he added for good measure.
Draco gave a short laugh in disbelief as Crabbe nodded in agreement. Hermione smiled and used her wand to transport the frozen butterbeer that was still suspended in midair back into its cup as if it had never been thrown. The odd group sat around the table for more than an hour, mostly talking about the news from Draco and Hermione, but they eventually split up and Draco took to the shops with a list of potions supplies he had made especially for the trip. He walked into the apothecary with Hermione at his side. He found most of the ingredients, some he would have to ask his mum to send, but he walked with a hefty bag of items and a confused look from Hermione.
"Why do you need so many supplies?" She asked as they walked back up to the castle together.
"Just testing some potions I found," he was evading, but he knew she would eventually find out. Hermione may have had a veiled perspective of everything, but her intelligence was still running at a normal rate.
"Can I help?" She was obviously looking for excuses to spend more time with him, but what Draco heard was I'm the best in the class, and when I'm helping, you can't screw up.
"Of course, but I have no idea where I'll be able to do brew potions outside of class without people asking questions."
"I know where! I've secretly brewed potions before, and there's a girls' bathroom that people never go into that works perfectly."
"What did you secretly brew?" Draco was genuinely intrigued with the notion of Hermione breaking school rules.
"Polyjuice Potion. Second year," she seemed proud.
"Hold up," Draco stopped walking and faced her, "A: I can't believe you could make a potion that advanced at age 12, and B: Why the hell did you need it?"
Hermione kept walking slowly, "Harry, Ron, and I thought you were the heir of Slytherin and that you were attacking people so they posed as Crabbe and Goyle, went with you into the common room and tried to get some information," she turned around to the spot where Draco stood, "Are you mad about it?"
"No," Draco started walking again, "I just find it rather ridiculous that you thought I could be the heir of Slytherin."
"Well, some of the things you said made us believe the worst."
It was shocking to Draco that he came across as that horrible of a person, but with his background he could see why some people would assume. It made him feel rather ashamed of his father, and also ashamed of himself for wanting to be like him when he was a child. In a few short weeks, his father's fate would be decided and he could possibly be home for Christmas. Draco was almost afraid to go home; he didn't want to be around when Lucius found out that some of his family's heirlooms had been binned without his consent, and Draco also worried for his mother's safety.
Sunday evening, Hermione was finally available to meet up in the girls' bathroom. Draco brought his new, smaller pewter cauldron and his bag full of supplies along with the parchment that he had written the recipes on. Now that Hermione was with him, he was glad that in his haste of copying the instructions down, he never wrote the names of the potions. Hermione would certainly be concerned if she knew his full intentions.
They got to work in one of the stalls, adding ingredients and stirring every few minutes. The recipe called for the first potion to stew for twenty-four hours after adding the extract of gurdyroot. Draco gave the potion one last little stir before adding the leftover ingredients to his bag with the intent of leaving. He turned, with difficulty to exit the stall, but Hermione stopped him, took the bag from his hand and set in on the floor next to the toilet.
"Still think we're moving too fast?" she asked as she slipped his suit jacket off of his shoulders and leaned against him, "We haven't even kissed in a few weeks."
Draco couldn't find any reason to object; her reasoning was valid, it wasn't very late, his homework was done, and they were all alone. His nerves were the only thing objecting, but he knew he'd have to push through them at some point anyway.
Hermione kissed him a few times before they began to snog, and her sweater was off within a minute. The thin t-shirt was pressed against Draco's black button-up as they kissed more fiercely, and his hands moved on their own again, taking their place on her hips. His tie was on the floor, and she worked the buttons of his tucked-in shirt before pulling it out of his trousers.
Before he knew what was he was doing, his hands were up her shirt, tugging the back of her bra. The clip was found and, although it was a difficult task, finally unhooked. Hermione giggled and pushed Draco's shirt off of him before her hands found his belt buckle. Stomach turning with nervousness, his mouth found her neck for a distraction, as the front of his trousers was open. He interrupted her to pull the shirt over her head and rip off her bra. Though he had no clue what he was doing, he knew what he wanted and it was obvious that Hermione did too.
Hermione was wearing denims today and Draco found himself fumbling over the button and zipper so much that Hermione finished the work for him, and pulled her jeans down and off, revealing the gray lace panties. Draco pinned her to the opposite wall of the stall. Hermione pushed his trousers down as well as he grasped her bottom, but she was sick of waiting, and guided his hand to her center for him. Rubbing absently, he tried to figure out the exact thing to do while a nimble hand found the flap of his boxers, pulling him out in one swift motion. They were in a panting, gasping frenzy, and Draco suddenly soaked Hermione's navel, and she jumped slightly in surprise. He didn't know if it ended too quickly or he just didn't notice the time passing by.
Draco laughed and grabbed some toilet tissue for Hermione to clean herself off, tucked himself away, feeling very self-conscious, and started gathering his clothes. He looked up at the topless Hermione, who was wiping her belly off.
"Sorry about that," Draco said, still trying to catch his breath fully.
"It's fine, I'm just glad you liked it that much," she replied with a devilish smirk as she re-clipped her bra and found her shirt.
"Did you like it? I'm not sure if I was doing it right," Draco admitted, now buttoning his own shirt.
"It felt amazing if that's what you're wondering," Hermione had finished dressing and opened the stall door, "It's bigger than I expected, by the way," she winked and walked away.