Fact 1: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling.
Fact 2: I am not her.
Conclusion: It isn't mine.
AN: I know its been a long time since I've updated, and I'm sorry. I dont have any awesome explanations, but I am posting two chapters at once in an effort to make it up to you :) So... after you finish this one, mosey on over to Chaper 9!
I sighed heavily for what felt like the hundredth time, and swore under my breath.
I had been trying for almost an hour to convince Ginny that Draco was not threatening, blackmailing, or forcing me to act like his friend in anyway. Despite the tough act they put on, apparently Harry and Ron had decided to send a girl in to do their dirty work.
"I'm out of ways to explain this to you Ginny. Can't we just do this later?"
"It isn't going to make any more sense to me later, so no, I don't think we can." She said, the scowl on her small face never faltering.
I buried my face in my hands and squeezed my eyes shut. Why was she being like this? Apparently I had been very wrong in thinking that of all of my friends, Ginny would be the most understanding. She was always so cheerful, so easy going, that it was easy forget that deep down inside she could be just as moody and judgmental as her brother.
I unfolded my legs and got up off my bed, sighing once again.
"Look Ginny, I'm done here." I said, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice. "I'm sorry that you can't understand this, but I am the only one that can choose who my friends are. Not Harry, not Ron, and not you."
"We are just worried about you, Hermione, this friendship, if that even is what is going on, can't be good for you."
"Have I ever given you a reason not to trust my judgment? Why can't you just believe me on this one?"
"Because it doesn't make any sense. How can you act like this is perfectly normal? We are you friends. Not Malfoy."
"Oh, so now it has to be one or the other? That's great, Ginny, really." By this point, no longer caring how frustrated I sounded.
"You know, as much as you are trying to act like Draco is so bad for me, and that you guys are my only real friends, he has never once told me I had to choose between you. He just told me to do whatever made things easier for me. The only people giving me ultimatums are my real friends." I paused for a second, looking at her before I continued "And besides, if Harry and Ron are so worried about me, why aren't they talking to me? Why did they send you in here to do it for them?"
"Hermione, you are blowing this out of proportion." Ginny said, looking kind of taken aback at my new, harsher, tone.
"Me? I'm blowing things out of proportion?" I threw my hands in the air, and reminded myself that Ginny was my friend and that no matter what, I needed as many friends as I could get. "I'm sick of talking about this. Tell your boyfriend and your brother that if they have something to say to me, they can do it themselves."
I turned on my heel and stormed out the door, leaving Ginny sitting on my bed with her mouth open. She was probably mad, but I didn't even care. I had known it would take some time for everyone to get used to the idea that Draco and I were friends, but trying to tell me I couldn't be friends with him was crossing the line. They had no right to make me choose.
I was halfway to the library, planning on finally catching up on all my school work, when I realized that I had left my bag and all my books in my room. I mentally cursed myself for forgetting it, what was I going to do now? I couldn't go back to my room, what if Ginny was still in there waiting for me? Besides, Harry and Ron would be coming back from Quidditch practice soon. When Ginny told me they had practice they couldn't get out of, I had been irritated. Dumbledore had cancelled all classes and practices today, saying we could all do with an extra day to relax after all of the excitement. Clearly, Harry and Ron had decided to practice just to avoid me. But now, I didn't want to talk to them. I didn't even want to look at them.
Suddenly, I felt very lonely. For the first time since I had been at Hogwarts... maybe the first time in my entire life, I felt like I didn't have any friends. Harry and Ron obviously saw my friendship with Draco as a personal betrayal, and even though I felt bad that they were taking it that way- I didn't feel like it was something I should, or could apologize for. I wasn't sorry for being Draco's friends- I couldn't be.
When I reached the library, I went inside, I couldn't do my homework, but I had to go somewhere. I sat down at my table and glanced at my watch. Almost 2.
I wonder what Draco is doing, I wondered, and immediately chastised myself. Sure, we had agreed we were friends, but there was really no excuse for him occupying my thoughts as much as he did. It simply has to stop, I thought sternly.
I shook my head and tried to think about something else. Out of habit, my thoughts turned to Harry and Ron, but that only made me angry. I tried thinking about my school work, but remembering everything I had to do made me feel stressed and anxious.
I glanced around me, mentally picking out books that I had already read, and spotting a few that looked interesting, even from my place in my chair, but I was too lazy to get up and actually look at them. Thinking about books always lifted my spirits just a little. So many times, books had helped me get through whatever I was facing. So often, I had found comfort and even friendship inside the pages of a book, but now, somehow I knew even my favorite books wouldn't really help.
I folded my arms on the table and rested my head against them. Why did my thoughts keep going to him? What made me think that he would make me feel better when nothing else would? It was stupid.
But still, I thought, what will it hurt to try? He may be lonely too... who knows how his friends are acting.
I stood up, let out one long breathe, and grabbed a scratch piece of parchment and a quill off the long desk in the library. Quickly, before I lost my nerve, I wrote:
Draco, If you aren't busy this afternoon, I'm going to be in the Room of Requirement... you could come meet me if you want. There is nothing wrong, so don't feel like you have to come. If you are busy, or just don't want to, I understand.
See you later, or not, either way is fine... really
Hermione
I really hoped he wouldn't feel like he had to come, but there wasn't enough room to write much else.
I made my way up to the owlery and called Hedwig down from the banisters. I knew Harry would be furious that I was using his owl to send a note to Draco, and that made me smile.
"Take this to Draco Malfoy for me, okay Hedwig?" I asked sweetly.
I could have sworn Hedwig looked at me suspiciously, but I quickly dismissed it. Surely the owls didn't take part in all the house rivalry mess, too.
As soon as Hedwig took off, I went out the door of the owlery and walked quickly to the room of requirement. I paced the hall in front of where I knew the door would appear, and thought "I need somewhere Draco and I can hang out, somewhere that no one else can find." In my mind three times before a simple grey door appeared in front of me.
I walked through the door and was amazed at what I saw. There was a huge leather couch sitting a few feet in front of the wall to my left, and in front of that was a long coffee table covered with cheese platters, pastries, crackers, chips, fruit and drinks. But it was what I saw on the other side of that table that really surprised me. Directly across from the couch, sat a huge entertainment center. Sitting in the middle of it, was a large-screen TV. I crossed the room slowly to where the television was. Sitting on top of the TV was a DVD player, and to either side were two large speakers. I opened the cabinet beneath the TV and saw that it was filled with DVDs, at least a hundred of them.
"What in the world?" I said aloud, completely confused. A TV and DVD player... at Hogwarts?
I had no doubt that Draco wouldn't even know what a television was. What if he was completely freaked out by it? What if he refused to have anything to do with something that is so clearly a "muggle" thing? It could be worse, I suddenly thought, he probably won't even come.
I finally stopped gawking at the huge TV and turned around to look at the rest of the room. Now that I looked, it was amazing that my eyes had gone to the TV first at all. The wall opposite the door was almost nothing but glass. There was an amazing view of the forbidden forest, and the mountains behind it. I turned around slowly, making a circle so that I could look at the rest of the room. Along the same wall as the door, there was a large bookcase, filled with books of all different colors and sizes. Beside the book case there was a large trunk. I walked over and lifted the heavy lid, curious to see what inside. Once the lid was completely open, I saw that the trunk was holding dozens of muggle board games... Monopoly, Twister, Scrabble... the same games I had played as a child.
Suddenly, I felt very nervous. Why had the Room of Requirement done this? There was no way Draco would enjoy doing all these muggle things with me. He would just be reminded of my muggle parents, of my muggle up bringing... be reminded that I'm a mudblood. I swallowed loudly and turned in the direction of the couch just in time to see the door open.
Draco walked through the door, his eyes flickering around the room for a fraction of a second before settling on me. He smiled at me, and I instantly felt better.
"You came." I said, the words came out sounding more relieved than I had intended, but he didn't seem to notice, or if he did, he didn't mind.
"Of course I came, I was afraid not to."
Oh no, I thought, feeling almost panicked, he thought he had to come and now... now he'll be so angry when he realizes I just wanted to hang out. I thought I made it clear that it wasn't important...
My thoughts trailed off as I looked up at him and saw him smirking back at me.
"I'm just kidding with you, Granger, you only told me I didn't have to come about fifty times."
"Oh" I said, feeling relieved, but also slightly embarrassed because of his teasing.
Briefly, it occurred to me how often my emotions changed when I was around him. I could go from elated to panicked in a matter of seconds just from him looking at me a certain way, or saying a simple word. Still, no matter how many times my breath caught in my throat from nerves, or how often my heart pounded in my chest or stopped beating all together because of worry... I still felt better with him than I ever did with anyone else. Before I could consider how odd that was, he interrupted my thoughts.
"Umm, Granger" He said slowly, glancing around the room that must have looked so strange to him, "What's all this?"
He didn't seem upset or negative in anyway- just curious, so I just smiled at him and tried my best to explain.
"Well.. I'm not really sure. I mean, I know what it all is. I'm just not sure why its here, I guess."
He still looked confused, as anyone would have after that poor excuse for an explanation, so I tried again.
"I was wanting somewhere that we could just hang out, and this is what I got. It makes sense to me in a way, but then.. its also very confusing. This is all- well, I don't know how else to say it other than just spitting it out- its all for entertainment. It's all... muggle stuff." I said the last two words very quietly, wishing I could have explained without using that word.
I expected him to leave, or get angry, or maybe look disgusted. I did not expect him to laugh.
I raised an eyebrow at him and watched him as he walked across the room and sat on the large leather couch, popping a grape in his mouth. He reached across the couch and picked up the TV control, studying it for a second before sitting it back down.
"What's wrong with you, Granger?" He asked, sarcastically.
"Nothing is wrong with me." I said, slowly, still waiting for the other shoe to drop. "I guess I just thought you would be upset."
"Upset? Oh, because I'm in a room with 'muggle' things, you mean?" He said it in a way that suddenly made me feel very silly for ever thinking that- embarrassed almost.
I nodded and walked across the room to sit on the other end of the couch.
"I thought we had discussed this. I'm not the person you think I am." He shook his head and chuckled to himself before picking the TV control up again.
"So, back to my original question- what is all this? Not who invented it, or where it came from- just what is does."
I rolled my eyes at him, and motioned towards the object in his hand "That is a TV control. You point it at that black box, that's the TV. Each button has a different function, to change it from one channel to another, to make it louder or quieter, stuff like that."
"Channels?" He interrupted.
"Its difficult to explain without just showing you, here." I said, taking the control from him and pushing the power button. "Each channel is showing something different.. news, weather, sports. Kind of like the floo network- each fireplace is a different house, with different people. Each channel is a different show, with different people, different things, different purposes."
Draco nodded slowly, but he was still looking at the TV like it was about to attack him, so I decided to move to something else.
"The small box on top of the TV is a DVD player. It plays discs that contain movies. Each movie is like its own mini-channel. It only shows one thing- the same thing over and over again. Like a play- its actors acting out a story. You can stop it, go backwards and watching a part again, or skip through to your favorite part."
He nodded again, but this time he looked slightly less confused.
"That make a little more sense than the TV thing... seems less troublesome, anyway."
A few hours later, we had just finished the DVD Draco picked out- The Wizard of Oz.
"That was ridiculous, Granger." He said, glancing at me sideways, still staring at the screen- watching the credits roll- with his mouth open.
I reached over and grabbed a bowl of chips off the table, and leaned back against the end of the couch, curling my legs up underneath me, and trying not to laugh. I had seen this coming.
"Its a children's movie, Draco. You can't take it so seriously." I said, incredulously.
"Is that really what muggles think of us? They think wizards are just little old men hiding behind a curtain?" He seemed completely disgusted at the thought, but I was finding it hard not to laugh.
"You are thinking about this all wrong. They don't think about us at all. They don't even know we exist... isn't that part of the point? We are supposed to keep it a secret, remember? Seriously, Malfoy, you would think you were the one with muggle parents."
As soon as he turned to face me I knew I was in trouble... it was written all over his face. I tried to jump up, but he was too quick for me and before I knew it, he had crossed the length of the couch, coming to a stop when he was right in front of me. I paused awkwardly, half way between sitting and standing, just long enough to give him the chance to dump the bowl of chips over my head.
My knees buckled beneath me and I sat back down on the couch with more force than I would have normally. Draco had backed up some, but was still no more than a few inches away from me- a pleased smirk crossing his face.
"I. can't. believe. you just. did that." I stammered, staring at him as chip crumbs continue to fall out of my hair.
He reached out and combed some of the larger greasy pieces out of my hair, and the grin spread across his face even wider.
"Of course you can, Granger. I'm Draco Malfoy, evil Slytherin, remember?"
I rolled my eyes at him and shoved him with my hand.
"Yeah, real scary. I hope I live through the potato-chip assault."
"Not scary, huh? You aren't scared of me?" He asked, still smirking at me.
"Nope" I said, shaking my head and grinning at him.
He nodded his head slowly, like he was thinking about something, and then he lunged.
He grabbed me around my waist and slung me over his shoulder, sending potato chips and crumbs flying.
"Draco! What are you doing? Let me go this instant!" I demanded, trying to decide if he really would hurt me or not.
He turned himself around so that he was kneeling on the couch, facing the back of it, and hoisted me off his shoulder and hung me off the back of the couch, holding me by my knees.
I squealed and tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but he was stronger than I would have thought.
"What's the matter? Thought you weren't scared?" He asked teasingly, laughing.
"What's the matter with you? I thought you didn't want me to be scared of you anymore."
"I don't want you to be scared, I just don't want you to forget that I can be scary if I want to be." He said, still laughing.
He swayed his arms back and forth, jostling my body as he did so. I tried shimmying out of his grasp again, and I almost succeeded. Almost.
I did get lose, but what I hadn't thought about was what would happen when I did get out of his grasp... there was nothing stopping me from toppling to the ground. Draco reached out quickly, grabbing my the best that he could, but his actions were too quick, or he leaned over the high back of the couch too far... for whatever reason, I did go topping to the ground, and I took him and the couch with me.
Somehow Draco managed to swing me out of the way of the couch, at least mostly. The bottom half of my right leg got caught underneath it, but I barely noticed. I couldn't focus on what was holding my leg down when something very different was pinning the top half of my body to the ground.
I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding, and glanced up to see Draco's dark grey eyes looking back at me. Almost his entire body was pressed up against mine, and I suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe.
I blinked a few times, and shook my head- trying desperately to clear it- before I looked at him again. I lifted my eyes just as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Are you okay?" He asked, sincerely, worry crossing his facing.
I nodded slowly, afraid that if I opened my mouth the wrong words would come out. He was holding himself up on his elbows now, so I couldn't feel the wait of his body on mine, but I could feel the heat radiating off of him- it seemed to burn my skin, right through my clothes.
"I'm sorry, Hermione. I was just kidding around. I swear, I didn't mean to hurt you." He said, still sounding worried.
I didn't know what to say. What I wanted to say was that I wasn't okay- that I was completely terrified, for a very different reason than I had ever experienced before. I wanted to tell him that I probably would be in pain if there was any room in my head to process anything other than desperately not wanting him to move.
But, obviously, I couldn't say any of those things. Not to him.
"I'm okay, really." I finally managed to say, "Just a little startled."
"Startled? Of course. I'm a little startled myself." He stammered, still staring right at me. And then he started laughing, really laughing, harder than I had ever heard him laugh before.
At first I was confused, what was so funny? But as soon as I thought that question to myself, I realized how silly it was. What part of this wasn't funny? I felt a smile cross my face, and before I knew it, I was laughing too.
Still laughing, Draco pulled himself up on his knees and lifted the couch up far enough that I could pull my leg out.
He looked up at the ceiling, shaking his head, and I knew he was trying to clear his thoughts- trying to get a grip. I tried to stop myself from laughing, knowing that as long as I was giggling, he would be hard pressed to stop.
I sat up a little, propping myself up on my elbows and looking at him, still smiling, but no longer laughing.
"This probably isn't exactly what you expected when you invited me today, huh?" He asked, still chuckling softly.
I shook my head, and said "I didn't even expect you to come."
"Why didn't you think I would come?"
"I don't know." I said, shrugging, really hoping he wouldn't press the matter further.
Draco didn't say anything. He just scooted over a little so that he was sitting closer to me. Then he moved himself up, and stretched his long legs out, pulling mine up in his lap. My heart beat wildly and my breath completely stopped. What was he doing? Didn't he realize that when he touched me, I lost my senses? Of course he doesn't know that, I thought to myself, you certaintly haven't told him and he can't read your mind.
I looked at him expectantly, and saw that he was looking at me cautiously, the expression on his face very careful- calculated almost.
"Is it okay if I look at your leg?" Surely he wasn't talking as slowly as it sounded. His words hit me one at a time, entering my mind sluggishly.
I just stared at him, begging myself to answer, but my mind couldn't form the words. When I didn't say anything, he spoke again.
"I want to make sure it is okay, but if you would rather me take you to the hospital wing--"
"No!" Draco looked taken aback by the sharpness in my voice. Even I was a little surprised.
"It's okay, you can look at if you want, but I really think its okay. It barely even hurts." I said, shrugging, trying to act like it wasn't a big deal that my legs were laid across his lap. Like it wasn't driving me close to the brink of madness that we were sitting so close to one another- so casually, like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Watching him pull the hem of my pants leg up, bringing it up to my knee, closely examining my calf with his large, gentle hands, I suddenly had the strangest feeling. It hit me all at once- so strongly that I had to focus really hard on not crying. I couldn't quite put my finger on the feeling... but it was familiar. I bit my lip, trying to remember when I had felt this way before, but my thoughts weren't coming in sequence- there was no order to them, no rhyme or reason, just random scattered images flashed through my mind. I thought of spending the night away from home when I was little, coming to Hogwarts for the first time, being away from my friends all summer. Homesickness I suddenly realized... it was the same sick feeling I felt in the pit of my stomach when I was a little girl and wanted to go home in the middle of the night, the same feeling I had the first couple of weeks every summer when I missed my school and my friends so badly it hurt. But, why...
I miss him, I thought, even though he is sitting right here with me, I miss him. As soon as the words ran through my mind I realized how true they were, even if they didn't make sense to me. I gasped slightly, and looked up at him, eyes wide, mouth open with realization.
His hand froze on my leg, and he looked up at me.
"Did that hurt?" He asked, his pale brows knitted together.
I shook my head, smiling to myself. It did hurt, but not the way he meant.