(A/N: Sorry the update took so long, but still it has only been about a week so I think that's pretty good as far as updating goes. Had some family issues with sick grandparents so I didn't have it in me to write until the past few days. The characters don't belong to me but I hope you enjoy the chapter.)
Hermione woke up the next morning anxious. Today Madame Pomfrey was going to allow her to leave the medical wing. It was Sunday and Hermione would have the chance to take things easy before classes started again Monday morning. She could feel the slight plumpness in her lips from last night and the bruise on her neck. Reaching up she moved her fingers lightly over the blue/purple mark, smiling softly to herself as she reflected on the night before. Pulling herself out of the daze before she was too far gone Hermione aimed her wand at her neck and muttered a glamor charm to cover the mark, it wouldn't do to have people asking her all day about the love bite.
Hermione began to hum quietly as she got out of bed and began collecting her things. The infirmary was quiet, the line of beds beside hers were all made with clean white linens, tucked neatly under the mattresses. Madame Pomfrey was in her office, scribbling on a pad of paper as slow orcastra music played through the enchanted radio. It was peaceful and Hermione felt at ease, she just felt safe, like nothing could hurt her.
Dumbledore could feel the pair of grey eyes follow his every move throughout breakfast. The steely gaze cut clear across the great hall. Dumbledore easily followed the gaze, finding Draco Malfoy at the root of the intensity. Piercing blue met resolute grey and an understanding was made.
They met an hour later in Dumbledore's office. The old wizard folded him boney frame into a chair behind his desk as he motioned the student towards the cushioned chair in front of the desk.
"Tell me Draco, what brought us to the meeting?" He folded his pale, wrinkled hands in front of him, uncurling the thin fingers before putting them palm down on the cool wood of his desk.
"I know who did it, I know who attacked Hermione Granger." Draco stood before the desk, he'd turned down the seat. Dumbledore let out a breath, a bit relieved to hear that the culprit was discovered.
"I assume some truth serum was used? I find it unlikely that the truth would come willingly from someone brazen enough to attack one of Hogwarts most talented witches." Draco nodded. "Please use the pensive, your memory of his confession will be needed to arrest him." Dumbledore waved his wand at the small cabinet that hid the pensive.
Draco moved to stand before the pensive, he touched the tip of his wand to his temple but stopped abruptly.
"Professor, I can't have people know that I was the one that turned in Hermione's attacker." He turned to face Dumbledore again, "If people find out that Hermione and I… they will go after her, they'd kill us both without a second thought. I can't put her in that type of danger." He waited, his patience wearing very thin, for the answer. He wanted, desperately to have her attacker face justice, what little there was left, but he couldn't haphazardly throw her into the cross-hairs, not over something that was so unconnected to the war that was brewing around them.
"I will alter it to leave out your identity. The sheer memory of his confession will be enough. Michael is not a death eater, he will cave under questioning from an Auror. I will take care of it." Draco nodded, stiffly, he hoped he hadn't misplaced his trust in his headmaster.
The liquid in the pensive was a deep cold pool of dark blue, swirling towards the center where the lighter pigment collected. Raising his wand to his temple once more, feeling the resistance as the memory slipped through his skin. A chill went down his spine as the memory left his temple. With a twitch of his wrist he flicked the memory into the pensive, casting it away from him.
There was a small ping in the water, the memory slipping under the surface of the liquid. The lighter shade of the memory swirled amid the dark blue pools.
Draco physically jumped at the sensation behind him. Dumbledore was standing beside him, a hand on the boys shoulder. The older man nodded slowly as both leaned forward over the lip of the pensive, falling deep into the memory that was just cast into it.
The Gryffindor table was hushed, lunch was an awkward and silent affair, or at least it was for the golden trio and their friends. Ron refused to speak to Hermione, his temper no longer flaring but slow embers till burned from before. Hermione had tried speaking to him, but she refused to apologize. Harry and Nevil were just trying to avoid getting caught in the crossfire while Ginny was determined to stare down Ron until he turned to dust under the pressure of her gaze.
Hermione was itching to go find Draco, he wasn't in the Great Hall, but she couldn't just abandon her friends so soon after getting out of the infirmary. She was holding a quite conversation with Ginny while Ron and Harry played a rather vicious match of wizard's chess, Nevil watched in silence. The small section of the table that was usually filled with chatter and laughter, but today the lines had been drawn. Neither side knew how long this would last. As much as Harry and Nevil agreed with Hermione, both could sympathize with what Ron was feeling.
Lunch period drug on in silence, Ginny could tell by Hermione's unfocused gaze and nodding that something was still up with her. Hermione's eyes glanced all around the great hall, but the person she was searching for was nowhere to be seen. Often she'd make eye contact, just for a second, with one of Draco's friends. They'd sneer at her and she'd have to look away quickly, pretending to be offended by the action, in reality she hadn't been bothered by their dirty looks for years.
Still cloaked in the uncomfortable silence, the group left the great hall. Hermione ran off towards the library, insisting that she had too many things to catch up on while simultaneously turning down Ginny's offer to accompany her. With her big bag slung over her shoulder Hermione wandered down the sparsely populated corridors towards the library. She wouldn't go waste time seeking out Draco now, if he was looking for her he'd come to the library. And she did actually have work to catch up on anyway.
When she arrived the library was mostly empty, just a few of the more studious Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students were there, familiar faces. It was still early on Sunday and the procrastinators would be filing in after dinner that night, hoping to somehow complete all the homework they'd put off till that moment. Ron and Harry would be among those procrastinators. Hermione was determined to get her work done so she wouldn't have to sit in the awkward silence again when Ron and Harry turned up at the table the three always occupied.
Seriously hoping that Draco would seek her out in the library Hermione went all the way to the back of the library, taking the smaller table. It had been pushed against the large window, sitting at it Hermione could take a moment every once and a while to gaze out over the scenery of her magical home between homework assignments.
Hogwarts was truly Hermione's home in the magical world. Nothing could ever wipe away the memories of her childhood home with her parents, the muggle world was just as much a part of her as the magical world. Hogwarts was her home just as much as her parent's house. Although the memories that seeped through every crack and crevice in each home were all sacred, they were drastically different memories.
Hermione settled in to the familiar seat, spreading out her work until it covered every inch of the wooden table. Within minutes she had falling into her routine, at the pace she was moving all the work she needed to catch up on would be done with before dinner.
Draco left Dumbledore's office in a hazy state, watching his memory with Dumbledore had left him drained. Dumbledore's advice was to go sleep it off, maybe stop by the kitchen to grab lunch. Draco agreed, quickly finding his way to the kitchen. Pushing into the kitchen he was quickly surrounded by the multitude of house elves that kept the kitchen stocked and made sure enough food was available for the hundreds of students. And they were always ready to help out a student that might have missed a meal. Dobby was the first one to come up to him.
"Mister Draco Malfoy, what brings you to the kitchens?" he asked with his wide eyes looking up at him and his long ears flopping as he tilted his head in a questioning manner.
"I got caught up doing schoolwork and missed lunch. If it's alright with you I'd just like to make myself a sandwich and get back to my work." Draco could see the way Dobby's thin lips quirked up in the hint of a smile, why though he couldn't understand.
"Say no more, I will get you your sandwich." Dobby announced, jumping onto the counter and walking quickly to gather all of the supplies. On a plate he laid one soft piece of white bread, layered on top were alternating slices of ham and cheese. A vibrant green piece of lettuce was added and then topped with a second slice of bread. Draco moved forward, reaching out for the plate. But he withdrew his hand as Dobby shooed it away, not done yet.
Taking a knife in his thin hands Dobby methodically cut the crusts off the bread and sliced the sandwich diagonally. Dobby then took the plate and handed it to Draco, giving him a small smile.
Draco took a seat at the small table that had been set up for students like him, Dobby followed taking the seat next to him. Draco was still marveling at the sandwich on the plate before him. It was the same sandwich he'd eaten as a child, the sandwich he'd always thought his mother made for him. It was exactly the same as he remembered. Taking a bite he was thrown back in time, remembering the summer afternoons he'd spend at the manor eating sandwiches just like this.
"Dobby… thank you." Draco spoke, after finishing half of the sandwich.
"You're very welcome." Dobby smiled his lopsided grin as he walked back to the other elves to help get dinner ready. Draco watched him, looking between the thin elf and the perfectly made sandwich.
"You made these for me. When I was younger." Draco said it quietly, Dobby turned and nodded towards the boy whose family used to own him. "I always thought mother made them for me. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised it was you." Draco smile sadly at the house elf, feeling guilt over all the years of abuse that Dobby had endured when the Malfoy family owned him.
"Mister Draco. Your mother did make you sandwiches, but you didn't like the ones she made. She wanted you to have a good memory of her as your mother. I taught her how to make them but she never could make it quite right. She thought she was making your sandwiches but I would always switch it out so she would think it was her sandwiches you loved so much." Dobby confessed to Draco, hoping he understood the meaning behind the story.
Draco nodded again, slowly getting up, the second half of the sandwich in his hand. He left the kitchen with a quite goodbye. He made his way to the library, hoping to find Hermione. He needed her advice. The information Dobby had just told him had torn his one pleasant childhood memory to shreds, exposing it to the harsh light of reality. Draco could now understand the loyalty of the house elves. Dobby had been abused, his family as well, by the Malfoy family. But he still retained loyalty enough to make sure that Draco's mother thought she was doing best for her son, and she was trying to. He made the one good memory from Draco's childhood possible.
Once again Draco's entire process of thinking, everything he thought he'd known, had been turned upside down. Popping the last bite of sandwich into his mouth he savored it for a moment and then slipped into the library, heading straight to the back where he hoped to find the girl that had first turned his world upside down.
(A/N: Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. More Dramione fluff will be in the next chapter, cuz I need to write something cutesy. Please review, any and all comments are welcome and will keep me writing and updating faster.)