Forbidden
By Leah
Chapter 5
Stormy Skies and Silver Eyes
In the days following what Hermione had termed "the incident" she saw very little of Malfoy. She caught glimpses of him in the classes they shared and in the Great Hall, even occasionally in the hallways. But she never saw him in the Heads' dorms anymore; there wasn't even a sound when she knocked on his bedroom door. She figured that he was sleeping in the Slytherin dormitories, she knew for a fact that almost all of the Slytherin's would happily give up their bed for him.
Under different circumstances Hermione would have been ecstatic that the boy who tormented her for over six years was avoiding her like the plague; but for some reason that thought didn't comfort her as much as it normally would have.
"Hermione, Halloween is in a few days, and we've only had one meeting." Ginny said to her friend over their bowl of cookies late one Saturday night. Even though Hermione did admit she felt horrible about causing Draco to abandon the head quarters she had to admit it was much easier to have people over.
"I'm aware of that Ginny, but what can I do? The Head Boy is skiving on his duties and I'm pretty sure all the prefects hate each other." Hermione grumbled. Ginny nodded her head in agreement.
"Yeah ... what's with Malfoy anyway? I hate to say it but we really need him, he's the only person all of the prefects listen to. No offense of course Hermione." Ginny blushed slightly looking up and her friend who only nodded and grinned.
"To tell you the truth, you're actually right. He kind of scares people into listening to him. It's just the Malfoy way to have all eyes on him, whether for a good reason or bad."
The red head looked at her friend and sighed. "I hate being the adult here Hermione, but I honestly think you two need to grow up and try and resolve your differences; because without Malfoy there will be no Halloween Dance."
Hermione snorted and looked at her friend curiously. "And how do you suppose we'd do that? I don't really see Malfoy as the type to accept an apology, no matter how heartfelt."
Ginny thought for a while before nodding. "I see your point. But if you don't mind my asking, what was the fight about exactly?" The younger girl looked nonchalant as she asked the question, busying herself with looking for a good cookie in the bowl, all the while she watched Hermione out of the corner of her eye. Noting the way she shifted in her seat and how her eyes widened slightly. Hermione was always easy to read if you knew just what signs to look for.
"Space issues." Hermione lied, knowing full well that Ginny thought her answer wasn't the truth; but instead of asking anything else Ginny only nodded and left the question for another day. Instead she routed the conversation back to their original topic.
"So about the dance?"
Hermione groaned, if she didn't "make nice" with Malfoy she could tell that that was one major disaster waiting to happen. "I guess I should call an emergency prefect meeting to discuss the details, and post flyers for the dance in all the common rooms with the specifics on them afterwards. I'll have to send owls informing the prefects as soon as I wake up tomorrow. Though I doubt they'd be at all happy with this."
Ginny grimaced, she had plans with Harry tomorrow. She sighed but nodded grudgingly, mumbling "fine" to Hermione. Suddenly her eyes lit up and Hermione let out a low groan knowing exactly what would come next.
"Maybe you and Malfoy should wear matching costumes. He'd look pretty sexy as the Phantom of the Opera." Ginny grinned cheekily remembering the play Hermione had taken her to see over the summer.
"Unbelievable." Hermione grumbled and slowly got out of her chair while Ginny was talking about which costumes she and Malfoy would look best in.
"Well I'm just saying you two would make a perfect couple." Hermione turned to the girl who was still sitting and sent her a withering glare.
"Ginerva Weasley, will you ever let this go?"
Ginny faked a thoughtful look and tapped her chin. "Um...yes. When I walk down and hallway and find you two snogging like the hormone driven teenagers you are."
Hermione let out a deep sigh and threw her arms in the air while turning away to stalk to her room, with a pajama clad Ginny trailing behind her.
They settled in to sleep without another Malfoy related word from Ginny. But as Hermione was falling asleep Ginny nudged her.
"Hermione?"
The older girl groaned into her pillow before answering with a curt, "Yes, Ginny?"
"Do you think he wears boxers or briefs?"
"Ugh!"
True to her word the next day Hermione sped to the owlery to send messages to each prefect and Malfoy about the emergency meeting. And at 6:00 sharp eight grumpy prefects piled into the Heads' common room. Hermione's eyes scanned through the small crowd, but couldn't find the platinum blond head she was searching for.
"Well I guess we should start then." Hermione said over the low rumbled of voices. It was already 6:10 and Malfoy was no where to be seen.
"We're not supposed to start without the Head Boy." The Hufflepuff prefect, Michael Hordly, interjected. A few heads nodded in assent.
"Then I suggest we get started." A silky voice rang out from the portrait hole entrance. All eyes turned to the smirking blond who swaggered to the head of the table to stand next to Hermione. Even after he came to a stop next to her, her eyes were still glued to him. The small smile that made its way onto her lips was wiped away when he turned a frosty glare her way.
"What are you staring at mudblood." His harsh whispered words were enough to make her heart clench.
The girl stared right into his cold empty eyes for another short moment. "Nothing Malfoy." She mumbled bringing her gaze back to the waiting prefects. "Absolutely nothing."
It wasn't until 9:48 did the prefects empty out of the common room, even more disgruntled and sleepy than they were when they entered. But now everything was planned completely and using some connections a few Slytherin's had they were able to get some great bands
Hermione waited until everyone left the room -pretending to busy herself by looking over the list she was to hand to Dumbledore- until only she and Draco remained.
"Are you staying here for the night?" Hermione asked, her eyes averted to a spot on the table.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she noted the hilarity of the situation. Here she was Hermione Granger, Gryffindor, muggle-born witch and pretty much everything else he hated, asking for his company. She almost cracked a smile at the thought.
Draco, unaware of Hermione train of thought, stared at the girl's form speculatively before offering a simple, "No."
Hermione sighed to herself, was he really that angry? Although she had to admit that she had crossed the line.
"Oh." An awkward silence permeated the air and Hermione shifted uncomfortably, opening and closing her mouth a few times before words finally came out.
"So why are you still here." She winced inwardly, that didn't come out as she intended it to.
Draco arched an eyebrow and leaned against the wall folding his arms across his chest. Their little game of cat and mouse was starting to bore him.
"You seemed to have something you wanted to say to me. Unless you were just staring at me all night for my dashing good looks." His normal joking tone was cast aside, his eyes bore holes into the side of her turned head. Hermione nodded, and for the first time since their conversation started she dared to raise her eyes to meet his intense silver gaze.
She felt a shiver slither down her spine when their eyes connected. Instead of his normal stoic features and emotionless eyes, she saw feelings swimming deep in their steely depths. Hundreds of them, but most prominent were annoyance, anger...and sorrow. But as soon as she saw them they were gone and their gaze was broken when he quickly averted his eyes from her prying brown ones.
"Well?" He grumbled impatiently.
Hermione's mind snapped back to reality and she looked at the boy from head to toe for a brief moment, before taking a step towards him, and then another. She approached him cautiously, as if he were a bomb set to explode at any second; in a way he was.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. And I honestly mean it." He didn't make a sound so she continued speaking. "I just- Well you looked so depressed and I- I wanted to help-"
"I don't give a damn what your bloody motives were Granger. You should know better than anyone else I don't want your bloody help!" He snapped bringing his gaze back to hers.
"I know you don't want my help, but maybe you need it. Sometimes it's best to confide in someone Draco." The boy let out a hallow laugh, and pushed himself off the wall.
"Even if I did want to "confide" in someone," He began, turning his back to her and walking towards the portrait hole. "It surely wouldn't be you, mudblood." He walked out of the common room. And for the second time closed the door on Hermione's compassion.
Days passed and the whole school was buzzing about the approaching dance. Everywhere Hermione turned she would either see a nervous boy asking a giddy girl to be his date, or hear hushed whispers in class concerning what who was planning on wearing.
Hermione and Ron had decided against the heavily cliched matching couple's costumes and after what seemed like hours of tedious shopping on Hermione's part, she had finally settled on a costume both she and Ginny could agree on. Ginny had settled on a gypsy costume, which was surprising that they even had the costume in a wizarding store, while Hermione picked a simple white dress and angel wings. Ginny had rolled her eyes and grumbled about her friend's choice of clothes to which Hermione replied:
"I don't need to be half naked to have fun Ginerva." Then she tossed the clothing and some money to Ginny and asked her to pay while she changed out of the Vampire costume Ginny had picked for her to try on.
The dance was to be held at 7:30 on Halloween night, which luckily fell on a Saturday. When the day finally arrived most of the school had emptied out to Hogsmead to get their last minute costumes.
Hermione and most of the prefects closed off the Great Hall to decorate, while the remaining prefects and Draco watched over the food preparations in the kitchens. Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that the only reason Malfoy had opted to stay in the kitchen with the house elves was because she was in the Great Hall.
Nearly three hours after beginning to decorate, the Hall was finally fully furnished in all its Halloween glory. Hermione cast one last look over the room making sure everything was in place. Tossing a glance to the enchanted ceiling a small groan slipped from her lips. It was a dreary gray outside with rain clouds looming ominously over head. No doubt there would be a storm coming later, perfect for Halloween; but she never liked storms.
It was 5:15 when they finished giving everything a once over, but before Hermione could even breathe a sigh of relief she was pulled out of the Hall by her feisty red haired friend.
"Ginny what are you doing?" Hermione asked the younger girl while trying to tug her arm from her grasp as she was pulled up a long flight of stairs.
"We've got no time to get ready, we really need to hurry!" Ginny said coming to a stop in front of the portrait of Kyara who looked up from tickling Jasmine to smile prettily at them. Hermione sent an incredulous look to her obviously daft friend.
"Ginny, we have over two hours!" Hermione cried, causing Kyara to giggle.
"So you see my point then." Ginny replied.
"No! No I don't!" Ginny rolled her eyes and rubbed her temples. "I'm going to the tower to shower. When I get back you had better have done the same." Ginny whipped around and hastily walked down the hallway, nearly hitting her friend in the face with her fiery red locks.
Hermione shook her head and muttered the password to Kyara who was trying to contain her giggles, even her cat looked amused.
"Ginerva Weasley!" The loud cry rang through the Head dorms coming from the bristled brunette in a fuzzy pink bathrobe. Ginny, who was applying makeup in the bathroom visibly winced and dashed to lock the door before her obviously enraged friend could get in.
"Alohamora!" The bathroom door flew open with nearly enough force to rip it off its hinges.
"You!" Hermione seethed as Ginny tried to back away but found herself trapped in the room with a girl who she was pretty sure would make sure her body was never found.
"What... is...THIS?" She ground out before shoving pieces of black and white cloth under the other girl's nose.
"Um... your costume?" Ginny said as she helplessly jiggled the doorknob on the door to Malfoy's room. Unfortunately it was locked.
"No it's not! My costume actually consisted of more than shreds of cloth!" Hermione screeched. Ginny scratched her head and let out a nervous laugh.
"For arguments sake Hermione, isn't all clothing just shreds of cloth stitched together?" Ginny swore she saw a vein pulsing on her friend's temple.
"Not the time Ginerva." She hated when people used her full name, but she wasn't about to chastise the very angry witch before her, especially not when she had such a deathgrip on her wand. "Explain!"
"Well... when you asked me to pay for it, I kind of switched costumes."
Hermione's face turned red with anger and she tried to take deep calming breaths. "Why did you do it Ginny?" She asked in a slightly more calm voice, making Ginny exhale a relieved sigh.
"Well for starters, it looks better than your old costume, and it's Halloween Hermione. Be someone else for the night. It'll be fun!" Ginny smiled brightly at her friend, it appeared for the time being she was in the clear.
Hermione let out a resigned sigh and looked down at the costume in her hand. It wasn't that bad.
"Fine."
Ginny's face lit up and released her grip on the doorknob.
Hermione rolled her eyes and stared at the costume once more. "I just know I'm going to regret this."
Seven-thirty was fast approaching and the prefects and Heads were to meet in the Heads Common room to go down together. Though they all had dates of their own, they had to enter with the other prefect of their house. An uncomfortable situation for Ginny and Ron.
Like the prefects the Heads also had to enter with each other. An uncomfortable situation for Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy. But a rather humorous one for Ginny.
"Ginny I refuse to go down there like this." Hermione grumbled and glared at her friend.
"After all the work I did to get you into that, you sure as hell are." She smirked and looked at Hermione from head to toe.
The normally conservative and borderline stuck up girl was in -what she considered- a very revealing pirate costume. She wore high heeled black boots that reached her calf and folded over at the top. (She did have a bit of trouble walking in at first, but after a few minutes she got the hang of it, although she was still wobbly.)
Along with the boots she wore black fishnet stockings and a black and white striped skirt that had a shorter red piece over it. Her top half was covered by an off the shoulder white shirt that reached only right below her breasts, with a black sleeveless corset top that reached a little above her belly button.
Ginny pulled her hair into messy high ponytail and tied a red strip of cloth in the front of her hair, tying it in the back of her head. She also had on very light makeup that Ginny had to practically force onto her.
Ginny shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Hermione, would you please stop pulling at your clothes!" She scolded in a very mothering tone before slapping the girl's hands away from her outfit, which she continued to try to make cover more skin.
"I feel so revealed! I'm not like you Ginny, this is so uncomfortable!" Hermione whined, a rare thing for her to do.
She was right though, she could never wear this and feel like herself. At times she envied Ginny's out going ways, she spared the girl a glance and noted with some jealousy that she was content in her purple and blue gypsy costume.
The costume had a short top that only reached right under her breasts leaving her entire stomach exposed and the tattered light blue sleeves that were more like strips of cloth and stopped only a few inches above her elbow. There was also a very gypsy like row of silver coins dangling across her flat stomach.
Her floor length purple and blue skirt was in the same condition as her sleeves, tattered and revealed much to much leg for Hermione to ever be comfortable in, but the dark blue hip scarf with silver coins dangling from the end covered anything too improper. Ginny had also donned silver bangles that clanged together with every move she made and long dangling silver earrings with a circle at the end of the chain.
"Just relax." Ginny said calmly before steering the unwilling Hermione towards the door. "And have fun." She said before she opened the portrait door and pulled her reluctant friend out with her. "Be someone other than the nerdy bookworm for one night." Ginny whispered in the girl's ear when the prefects who were already waiting in the common room for the dance to begin looked up, a shocked gasp escaping every one of them.
Hermione mentally groaned and wished the night would end soon. She carefully descended the few stairs from her room (her balance was still a little shaky) and Ron who was dressed as a Knight ran up to her, the shocked expression never leaving his face.
"Hermione...you...um... you look...bloody brilliant." Ron's cheeks were as red as his hair as he leaned down to give his girlfriend a kiss on the lips before circling an arm around her. Hermione felt herself blush, especially when Ginny muttered "Ew, gross" none too softly.
Hermione glanced at the small watch on her wrist, and bit her bottom lip, a frown creased her brow. "It's only a few minutes 'til 7:30 what are we waiting for?" She asked her boyfriend who still hadn't taken his eyes off of her.
Ron scowled and his features darkened. "Malfoy of course." He spat his distaste for the Head Boy most obvious. "Apparently being on time doesn't apply to the prat."
"Don't get your panties in a bunch carrot top." A cool voice drawled from the doorway. Hermione idly wondered how he managed to always get in to the common room without anyone ever noticing. The girl's eyes widened slightly when she noticed his costume, which was ironically that of a pirate. The uncaring, gruff, and untidy look of a pirate suiting him more than it would anyone else she knew. She nearly groaned when she thought of what Ginny would say about their unintentional costume match later.
Hermione sent Ron a stern glare when he took a step towards the smirking Malfoy.
"Well since we're all here," Hermione sent a pointed glare to Draco before continuing. "Let's go to the Great Hall." The prefects let out grumbles of consent before all leaving the common room, heading to the Great Hall, talking idly with the other member(s) of their house. Ron was busy telling Hermione and Ginny something about their coming Quidditch game against the Slytherin team (which Malfoy now captained) but Hermione couldn't pull her eyes off Draco. She wondered how he could be talking so nonchalantly with Zabini and Parkinson so soon after hearing of his mother's death.
She shook her head as they reached the Great Hall where some early students were already lined up waiting. She told herself it was only a Malfoy thing. 'Never show your true emotions, no matter how much it pains you.'
As soon as 7:30 rolled around the two huge front doors of the Great Hall opened and Hermione made her way to stand with Malfoy at the back of the line of prefects who were pairing up. The blond didn't even turn his head in acknowledgement, only walked into the Great Hall after the prefects had entered.
The female pirate opened her mouth to say something to Draco once they were in the Hall but to her utter amazement, he had already disappeared from sight. He really could move fast.
Hermione looked through the Hall where students were already piling in and the loud music of the hired band was already playing. Her eyes landed on Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville who were siting at one of the tables off the dance floor. She smiled to herself and pushed through the growing crowd to get to her friends.
"Oh Hermione!" She turned to find three fairy costumed girls heading her way.
"Hi Lavender, hi Parvati and Padma." She said with a small smile.
"You look amazing!" Lavender said looking at the girl from head to toe, much as Ginny had done when critiquing her costume.
"Who would have thought you would wear that." Parvati added with a giggle, earning a nod from her twin.
Hermione let out a fake laugh. "Well it was Ginny's idea-"
"And the Hall looks excellent!" Lavender continued without even acknowledging Hermione talking. The girls did have a habit of cutting other people off, which irked Hermione to no end. But she was right about the Great Hall, she and the prefects had worked themselves to the bone decorating the Hall, since Hermione insisted some of the things were best done by hand.
There was an eerie fog that covered the floor that rose to about mid calf, it was also enchanted to feel as if there were strange creatures slithering and crawling over your legs. Huge spider webs ran overhead from wall to wall with illusions of huge spiders crawling across them. (Which creeped Ron out to no end.) Even the walls were magicked to look like the inside of the forbidden forest. (You could even see the unicorns and centaurs that roamed the forest, and every once in a while dark shadows flittered through the trees borne of things unknown.)
A dance floor was set up in the middle of the room along with a large stage where the current entertainment was singing an eerie song about love and death. As customary for every Halloween, pumpkins with candles were floating overhead, and were also floating a few centimeters above the tens of round black clothed tables around the dance floor.
"Yeah, it took a lot of effort, but I have to go talk to Ron about something. I'll see you two later." Hermione said before rushing off into the crowd before the girls could say anything else.
Hermione dropped into the seat next to her boyfriend, who almost immediately planted a kiss on her cheek and put his arm around her before returning to his Quidditch conversation with the Vampire Harry.
Hermione rolled her eyes before sighing and scanning through the crowd. Almost unwillingly, her wayward eyes landed on Malfoy who was busy conversing with Mummy Zabini and the French maid clad Parkinson. He never stopped amazing her, he was perfectly normal, and if she didn't know him she would even say he looked happy, but how?
In an unfortunate way, she envied his composure.
Hours passed and the dance rolled on for both Draco and Hermione, she danced with Ron and Harry and even occasionally a few other boys from the school who were appreciative of her look. Of course Ron cut in on all of those dances with a glare that could kill.
Meanwhile Draco was free to dance with whomever he pleased, and that he did. But as the night wore on his frustration mounted especially when Pansy started clinging to him and nagging about why he wouldn't dance with her.
"Drakie! I want to dance! Right now!" Her high pitched voice squealed in his ear as she latched onto his arm. He of course began to try to shake her off as soon as she touched him.
"Good for you, I'm sure you can find a lucky bloke somewhere who wouldn't mind having a leech like you stuck to their side for 3 minutes. Now woman, would you kindly release me!" He pried her off of him and strolled out of the Hall without even glancing back at the pouting girl. He decided against going to the Slytherin common room, 'much too close to Pansy,' instead he opted for the Head's common room.
With a long sigh Draco dropped onto one of the large couches and stared into the burning fire, the events of the past few days crashing down on him. He hated being alone now-a-days; it meant he had time for his thoughts. And lately they were more dismal than ever, and more than anything he wanted to avoid them, pretend they weren't there, suppress them with meaningless distractions. But now in his solitude everything came rushing back with crushing weight.
Hermione let out a loud sigh and slipped out of the Great Hall. Every time she was having fun with her friends Ron would come and pull her attention to him. She understood that he was her boyfriend and so he did get a lot of her attention, but sometimes she wanted to be with her friends and have fun; and Ron never seemed to understand that. So she faked a bad headache and bid her friends goodnight and headed to the Common Room, ignoring whatever comment Kyara made after she gave her the password.
The girl let out another loud sigh before heading up to her room nearly missing Malfoy on the couch, but she glanced him from the corner of her eye.
She turned to him unsure if he even noticed her; he was still staring blankly into the fire. "Um...Malfoy?"
No response.
"Are you-"
"I loved her." His voice cracked with those three words, and Hermione stood with her eyes wide unsure of what to do, confusion etched across her features. Before she could say a word he continued speaking, his gaze still on the flickering fire. "She was my mother after all, but she was really like a mother to me. Not like my father, who was only my father in name. She cared about me. She never said she loved me but I guess she did, she was always there for me to help me when Lucius wasn't looking." For a brief moment his eyes flicked to hers, and Hermione would have gasped if shock hadn't caused her vocal cords to stop responding.
Pain.
That was all she saw swimming in his silvery eyes. She never thought it possible for there to be so much distress in one person.
Slowly she made her way to the couch and sat alongside him and listened. They lost track of time but the time didn't matter to either of them, he needed this, and she was happy he came to her. He told her stories of his childhood, how after his fathers Death Eater lessons Narcissa would sneak into his room after he left or went to sleep, risking her own safety and tended to his wounds. He told her about their secret jokes, and rare smiles. Through it all Hermione didn't utter a word, she knew that sometimes all someone needed was to just talk, and have someone there to listen.
After two hours Draco stood and walked to his room, but before he entered her turned to the girl. His gratitude shimmering in his eyes, Hermione knew he wouldn't say a word, and indeed he didn't, instead he turned and entered his room closing the door gently.
She smiled to herself, he may not have said it, but his meaning was clear and soon she too stood and headed to her room, a smile on her face as a low rumble of thunder echoed outside of the castle walls.
Hermione's caramel brown eyes shot open and a soft gasp escaped her lips echoing in her ears. She sat up in her bed, her red sheets pooling around her waist, unconsciously she ran a hand across her forehead wiping off the small beads of sweat that had gathered there and attempted to return her breath to normal.
Her eyes darted around her darkened room, finding nothing, although even if anything was lurking about it was to dark for her to see. She sighed loudly and ran a hand through her unruly brown hair before dropping back into her goose feather pillows.
She almost never had nightmares, so it was a bit odd for her to have one now when there was nothing she knew of that had provoked the gruesome stirring of her subconscious.
Then she heard it. The loud tapping outside that in her panicked state she had failed to notice before.
Rain.
She groaned loudly and pulled her fluffy comforter over her head. Normally the rain was one of her favorite things, as cliche as it sounded, she had always thought it to be freeing. She loved nothing more than spending her time outside on a rainy day, letting the soft droplets caress her face, and listen to its words as it told it's story concealed in every raindrop.
But this was not that kind of rain. This was severe thunderstorm rain. Rain that she had come to hate above most else. Peeking out from under her cover, a flash of light illuminated her room, making shadows dance and deformed figures appear for the briefest of seconds, before the light was gone, once again cloaking the room in the night's darkness.
A loud clap of thunder roared outside, loud enough to shake the panes of glass of her balcony doors. She whimpered and gripped her cover until her knuckles turned pale, her eyes squeezed shut.
Normally during storms she was either at her home where she always felt safe knowing that her parent's were right there, or she would be in her room with Lavender and Parvati. It sort of comforted her knowing that she wasn't alone, but now, she was all-alone with no one to find that comfort in.
"It's nothing more than a loud rumbling noise caused by the rapid expansion of air suddenly heated by lightning." She recited the memorized lines under her breath, hoping the knowledge would put her mind at ease. But no amount of recited lines from her books would ever quell the feelings of fear that the phenomena instilled in her.
Another streak of lightning lit her room before going away, taking with it the horrid outlines that her mind twisted and contorted into more morbid things. A loud boom of thunder once again sounded from outside. She squeaked and pulled her covers tighter, hoping it would block out the noise.
Her mind ran, of its own accord, to the person sleeping only a few feet away. Maybe she could spend the night with him.
Even in her terrified state she scoffed at herself for thinking such traitorous things. He was Malfoy. He was against letting her, a filthy mudblood, even breathe the same air as him, so what were the odds that he would want to share the same bed as her. He would no doubt laugh and taunt her 'til Kingdom Come, and most likely by tomorrow every Slytherin would know that the Gryffindor bookworm was petrified of a bit of harmless thunder.
But then again, he had opened up to her only a few hours ago, maybe he would not be as cruel as he usually was. Just maybe.
Another grand clap of thunder boomed outside, louder than the first, and the wind lashed rain harshly against her window. She whimpered and rolled off of her bed, pulling her red sheets with her.
Right then she didn't care what he would say to her, she just didn't want to be alone.
Draco grumbled and opened his eyes to slits, glaring at his door. He wasn't exactly a light sleeper, the monstrous storm outside would never normally wake him up, and indeed it wasn't the cause of his irritation and late night rousing. The incessant knocking coming from the other side of his door was what had dragged him from his thankfully dreamless sleep.
Muttering a few curses under his breath he grudgingly got up and trudged to his door, not even bothering to put on more clothes, since his normal sleeping attire consisted of boxers. He sent a glance to his balcony doors out of the corner of his eye to make sure it was shut upon noticing the wind howling loudly and the rain whipping against his windows.
Unlocking the door, it swung open to reveal Hermione wrapped in her scarlet sheet and shivering slightly. He shouldn't have been surprised since they were the only two who knew the password into their dorm, but he couldn't help the shock that flickered in his eyes. She was after all Hermione Granger, her hatred for him was legendary, as was his for her, and yet here she was, standing at his door looking like nothing more than a scared child.
"Um...can I...stay with you tonight?" Her near silent words cut through his sleep fogged mind like a knife.
"...what?" He couldn't help but grin a bit when she dropped her head and shuffled her feet nervously.
"I know it's really stupid, but um...I- well, I really don't-" A roar of thunder from outside silenced her, making her squeeze her eyes shut. Draco nodded knowingly and stepped out of the doorway to let her in.
She slowly shuffled in, shutting the portrait door behind her. He ignored the fidgeting girl and went back to his bed, he got comfortable under the covers before looking over at her. He arched an eyebrow before sighing and pulling back the comforter in invitation.
Hermione gave him a speculative look before trying to summon her Down to Business voice. "You do know that this doesn't mean anything other than the reason I've stated before." Draco sighed and rolled his eyes. 'Always such a prude.'
"Just get in Granger." The girl opened her mouth to retort when a flash of lightening brightened the room for a split second, signaling thunder in the near future. She quickly got under the cover, but kept her sheet wrapped around her. Thunder rumbled loudly outside and she squeaked and once again squeezed her eyes shut.
Draco rolled his eyes and muttered something that Hermione didn't catch before he reached over and pulled her to him by her waist. He arranged them into a comfortable position, her head was resting on his chest and her arm was draped loosely over his torso, he was sitting up slightly, and his hand was rubbing her back in comforting circles.
He glanced down at her now wide brown eyes that clearly asked why he was even doing this.
He sighed and rested his head on headboard closing his eyes. Hermione thought he had drifted back to sleep since he hadn't moved in quite a while, she was also beginning to drift asleep when he began to talk, his eyes still closed.
"When I was a child, I was afraid of thunder also. My father would always tell me 'Malfoy's fear nothing,' and sent me to bed. But whenever he would fall asleep or was away on business, my mother would always let me share her bed, and comfort me until I fell asleep. I stopped fearing thunder years ago, but even now, nights like this remind me of my childhood and what my mother endured becuase she cared for me more than father deemed acceptable."
Hermione stared at him with wide eyes before smiling softly and nodding.
"Thank you." She mumbled before falling asleep. His hand continued running along her back, occasionally stopping to drawn unknown shaped on her soft skin.
Outside thunder clashed and the wind howled eerie songs, telling stories lost to man, but she wasn't afraid, not when she was in his arms.
Before he was also gripped by sleep, Draco looked down at the girl resting on his chest, whose warm breath tickled his skin with every puff. She was the same girl who stood for everything he was taught to hate, the same girl who he was raised to despise. And yet, now, he couldn't find it at all possible to hate her. The warm tendrils of sleep gripped his mind and his eyes closed, the rain lulled him to a peaceful sleep.