Chapter Eleven
Giving It All Up
The next morning Hermione walked to the kitchen as per usual. Only this time she had fluttering butterflies in her stomach. She smelled... Cinnamon, Malfoy reading the directions to the waffle maker. He was fully dressed in jeans, and a tee.
"What're you cooking?"
"Waffles... You have a letter over there," Draco jerked his head to the table. "I thought we'd go by that Muggle bookstore again today. There was a book that I saw..."
Hermione dropped into a chair ripping the envelope with her name scrawled on it. She smoothed out the parchment, and read:
Hermione,
Not worrying about you is easier said than done. We think about you everyday. We're afraid what Malfoy may have up his sleeve. He can't be trusted. Please let us know if he tries anything, and we'll personally make sure that you're out of there as soon as possible. Ron says, "he won't have to worry about Voldemort, I'll kill him myself." Write us twice a week to let us know you're okay. We're working on ridding Voldemort. You'll be out of there in no time. You'll never have to worry about Malfoy.
Harry
Guilt washed over her. She was betraying her friends. Harry, and Ron we're worrying about her, and here she was having a great time. She wanted to be at school, she wanted Voldemort vanquished, but it all meant that it would be the end of her newfound relationship. How could she have not seen it before? They didn't stand a chance, once they were at school they would go back to the way they were. Draco would remember his blood status, and would go back to hating her. He was a Slytherin, and those kind of love stories didn't happen in real life. They weren't living in a fairy tale.
"Hermione, you alright?"
She snapped out of her thoughts abruptly. "Yeah, fine."
Draco sat a plate in front of her, but she didn't feel hungry anymore. She pushed it away from her. "Something's bothering you. What is it?"
"Nothing," she clutched the letter in her hand, but Draco snatched it holding it out of her reach reading it. She felt dread as his eyes roved over the page, his face falling. She leapt over the table her hand out for it, but he made a jerky movement staring at her as if she did something wrong.
"This doesn't look like nothing. So this is how you feel about me?"
"No!" Hermione said at once. "Draco, no. The last time I wrote them we weren't speaking."
"Then what has you upset?" He lit up with understanding. "You're worried about what your friends will think when you tell them. Oh, sorry, if you tell them."
Her hand fell to her side. She pursed her lips resembling a much younger McGonagall. "Can you honestly tell me that you will feel the same about me when we go back?"
"Yes,
I can!"
She grunted in frustration. "You'll be
surrounded by people who hate me. You're family will disown you,
you'll lose your fortune. I cannot possibly be worth that -"
"You are!" He slammed his hands on the table as he shot to his feet the chair toppling to the floor, and she flinched. He didn't notice. "This isn't about me, it's about you."
"What?!"
"You
don't want to lose Potter, and Weasley. You don't want to lose the
respect of your classmates and teachers because you're dating a
Slytherin!
I'm willing to give it all up, Hermione. Are you?"
Hermione could feel the tears streak her cheeks, and Draco seeing this raced around the table. He went towards her, but she flinched once more, and this time he saw it. She didn't mean to flinch, but his anger was scary, and she foolishly left her wand in her room.
"Are
you afraid of me?"
She didn't answer. She didn't know the
answer to this question, and there was no book in the world to tell
it to her.
"You are," he looked crestfallen. "Why," he suddenly yelled.
Draco swimed in her tears, and she took her chance in his rage. She grabbed him shoving his right sleeve up revealing the dark mark on his forearm. "That's why," she screamed.
He snatched his arm back pushing the sleeve down covering his allegiance. "That's my past."
"For only a month -"
"No! This mark was forced on me! I was born into a deatheater family, I was a deatheater, I was everything I was expected to be. I'm trying to be me, Hermione, but you won't let me will you?" He sighed, leaning on the chair beside him.
She
spoke softly, "this isn't a fairy tale. We're not meant to be
together. And I can't risk -"
"Your friends," he
said nastily.
"Losing you," she retorted. "Six years, Draco, you've been trying to hurt me, and then kill me. We're going about this too quickly, we were never friends. We're nothing alike."
He was surprised by these words. "How can you think that? We are alike. We're both stubborn with sharp tongues, and short tempers. We challenge each other. And so what if we weren't friends? We're much more now. Or at least I thought we were. This can work, but you'll have to be willing to give it all up."
Hermione stared down at the floor unable to look at him any longer. She felt him draw closer to her, his finger underneath her chin tilting her head up to his.
"I like you. I like you so much I hated you for years. Ask yourself if I'm worth it. If I'm not, we'll go back to the rules."
Her heart hammered in her chest. Seconds ticked by. She had to answer. Could she live without Harry, and Ron? What if there was the slimmest chance that they would understand? Doubtful... Was he worth everything? "If you hurt me -"
"Never," he grinned taking her in his arms. "Never."
She pressed her ear against his chest listening to his racing heartbeat. He felt more real to her than anything had. "I'll tell Harry, and Ron, but in person. They deserve that much."
"What if they don't accept it?"
He was testing her she knew. "Then I suppose they didn't really love me." As always, she got the answer right. He snogged her.
As they ate their slightly cold breakfast Draco watched as she multitasked. She would take a couple of bites, and write a couple of words, back, and forth she would go.
Harry & Ron,
Trust Dumbledore. I promise everything is fine here. We're doing okay, but I can't wait to see you. I miss doing my homework in the common room. It's not the same without Fred, and George distracting me! I love you, and I'll write as often as I can. I hope you're keeping up with your school work!
With Love, Hermione