Forbidden
By
Leah
Chapter 6
Flight With an Angel
Hermione sighed contently and yawned before opening her bleary eyes. She blinked curiously looking down at the vaguely Christmas reminiscent green and red sheets that entangled her body. Deep creases formed in her forehead as her eyes scanned the room, taking in the black and green decor that was so unlike the bright gold and red one of her room.
'Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.' She thought with a hint of amusement at the fact she still remembered the line from the old American movie that one of her more Americanized muggle friends made her watch.
The young witch slowly sat up and looked around the room for a few minutes, trying to remember where she was and how she got there. A few moments later she let out a soft gasp, her hand flying to her mouth as the realization hit her.
She was in Draco Malfoy's room ... in Draco Malfoy's bed.
That thought alone made her scramble to one side of the bed, unfortunately she was still helplessly tangled in the sheets, and accidentally fell off of the bed, landing on the floor with a none to soft: "Ow."
She glared at the bed but didn't bother to get off the floor, instead she leaned on the side of the bed and racked her brain for the reason as to why she was in Malfoy's room. In the back of her mind she idly mused that this must be what it felt like to be a drunk trying to remember the events of the night past the next morning. After many moments of her still heavily sleep fogged mind trying to grasp the memory Hermione let out another small gasp as the events from the prior night came back to her.
A light blush tinged her pale cheeks as she thought back on the night. She couldn't believe she showed weakness in front of Draco Malfoy, her tormentor for the past 6 years of her life. Hermione groaned and banged her head against the bed, the soft mattress lessening the effect she was going for. Another thought ran through Hermione's head causing her to stop her head banging and look around the room. She arched an eyebrow noting that she was the only person currently in the room.
So where on earth was the uncharacteristically human like Malfoy anyway?
"Probably characteristically telling the whole school that mudblood Granger is afraid of a storm." Hermione grumbled, although even she didn't believe her words. Last night she wasn't the only one to show weakness, and though Malfoy probably thought she wouldn't utter a word to another living (or non-living) soul, she doubted he would be stupid enough to test her with something that personal.
With a sigh, Hermione idly thought of how much she had been doing that this morning, she gathered her crimson sheet and shuffled through their adjoining bathroom door and made her way into her own room.
She dropped onto her bed and let her mind wander as she tried to grasp a few more minutes of sleep. The soft patter of left over rain from the storm from the past night lulled her confused mind into a state of drowsiness in which her thoughts ran of their own accord, to non-other than Draco Malfoy.
'The richest, most arrogant pureblood in all of England, is now an orphan. I can't believe he came from such a home, of course if I had ever bothered to look, I would have known of his father's abuse. How could he have acted so...normal? How?'
Hermione shook her head and groaned into her pillow. Her mind would not leave the topic of Malfoy alone. With yet another deep sigh she rolled out of bed and made her way to the bathroom to get ready for the new day.
If her mind wouldn't willingly budge off the missing prat, she would have to force it onto a more benefiting topic, by visiting the library.
"Malfoy! We should call it quits, the weather's not fit for flying!" Blaise yelled to his friend for the umpteenth time through the howling wind.
The entire Slytherin team was soaked to the bone. They had been practicing for hours, working on new plays and formations for their upcoming matches. The weather had taken a turn for the worst nearly an hour ago, turning from slight drizzle to harsh winds and pelting rain. Blaise had been trying to convince Draco to stop practice for the past twenty minutes, it was getting hard for the team to keep control of their brooms and it was becoming too dangerous, but the rigid captain wouldn't listen. Blaise could tell something was wrong with his friend, but now was not the time to take out his problems on his team.
"Draco this is getting to dangerous you have to stop practice!" Blaise yelled again as an especially strong wind nearly knocked him off his broom.
Draco looked behind him at his freezing and soaked team before nodding, heading back to the ground, followed by the other members of the team. He dismounted his broom and walked into the locker rooms with his drenched team who were more than happy to get out of the rain following behind him.
He didn't stay in the locker rooms to long, he performed a simple drying charm on his robes before he exited the room and headed to his dormitories. He wasn't in the mood for talking with the idiots on his team (excluding Blaise of course) he had something much more pressing on his mind. Like why he told Granger anything about his problems last night, and why he let her share his bed instead of doing the very Malfoy-esque thing and taunting her until she cried or threatened him. (He expected the latter although the former would have been a wonderful surprise.) But most importantly, why did he feel remorse for leaving her this morning, and why did he let his hand linger on her jaw while she slept?
As he was about to turn down the corridor leading to his dorm he felt two arms wrap around his waist from behind. He sighed loudly, already knowing who it was. He spun around in his "captor's" arms, opening his mouth to speak, but the girl was to fast and her lips were on his before he could get out a word. Draco let out an annoyed noise in the back of his throat but didn't even make an effort to push the girl away. Instead he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her lithe frame to his, and plunged his tongue into her mouth.
When they parted seconds later Malfoy sent the pink-cheeked girl a harsh glare. "What Parkinson? I'm busy."
The girl dismissed the harshness in his voice, and put on a coy smile. "Oh what could be more important that your dear fiancée?"
Draco rolled his eyes and was about to walk away from the annoying girl but her pale hand shot out and grasped his arm.
"I want to talk about plans for the wedding." Pansy said, noticing the way Draco's gray eyes iced over and hardened. "We have to start making the plans if it's to happen as soon as we graduate this wretched place."
"I'm busy Parkinson. We'll discuss this arrangement later." With that Draco turned on his heel and continued walking to his dorms without so much as a glance behind him.
Pansy glared at Draco as he walked away from her. She knew their so-called relationship wasn't an idea that he took a shine to, and honestly neither did she, but he was never that rude to her before.
Despite popular belief Pansy was definitely not an idiot, far from it actually, but she wasn't going to go around and correct them by spouting answers to every question asked like mudblood Granger.
No, she was happy being thought of as an idiot, it made her smile with a sadistic pleasure every time she proved one of the people who thought she was stupid wrong. And right now she knew something was wrong with Draco. They were never in love, nor would they ever be she guessed, but he was a friend and knew him better than he knew himself. He always gave off little hints in his body language and if you were able to pick them up, then you could solve the riddle that was Draco Malfoy. Luckily she knew how to catch onto those hints all to easily.
She surmised there was something wrong with his family, his mother perhaps. His eyes, though constantly guarded, were still more hollow than normal. She could also figure out there was something going on with him and Granger. He never passed up on "spending time" with her unless there was a better prospect available. Her face scrunched in disgust thinking Granger was in any way better than her.
Pansy sighed and headed back to the Slytherin dormitories, but stopped when she caught a glimpse of a startling head of red walking through the halls. A sadistic smile formed on her lips as she changed her route and headed for the boy.
If Granger was bothering Draco, then she would just have to keep her away from him, one way or another.
"You know," A cheery voice said causing Hermione to look up from the book she was so engrossed in. "I wonder if you would explode were the library to burn down."
Hermione glared at Ginny who slid into a seat across from her, her classic grin on her face.
"Ha ha Ginerva, I am not that attached to the library, but don't joke like that." Ginny rolled her eyes before looking around the library in a bored manner.
"You know, I never got how you could study like this," Ginny said breaking the silence. "I'm kind of envious, I mean if it were me I'd probably die of bor-"
Hermione rolled her eyes and cut her friend off. "Gin, I'm sure you didn't come here to talk to me about my study habits. So what is it?" Ginny blushed and grinned at her friend, sometimes she thought that girl knew her way to well.
"I was just wondering how you're night went, you know with the storm and all." Hermione grimaced slightly, Ginny was the only person (other than Malfoy and her parents) who knew of her little secret. The little red head learned of it accidentally on a night Hermione was spending at her house when an unexpected thunderstorm hit.
Noting the lack of response she got from her friend Ginny continued, replacing her grin with a sly smile. "You know since there was no one there to comfort you ... except for Malfoy."
Hermione tried very hard to hold back the bright blush that threatened to engulf her face. She unfortunately failed miserably, earning a squeal from her friend.
"I knew it! Oh wait 'til I tell Kyara-" Hermione arched an eyebrow and cut off the red head once again.
"Kyara? Our portrait?"
Ginny smiled brightly. "The one and only. She is a very intelligent portrait you know, totally agrees with me that you two are meant for each other. Amour dans les bras d'un ennemi." Ginny replied and winked.
"Oh not her too! You've contaminated the mind of a portrait Ginny! And what on earth does that mean?" The older girl asked in a harsh whisper, she unlike Ginny was well aware of the fact that they were currently in a library.
Ginny sent her friend an incredulous look before shaking her head. "The brightest witch of our age and she doesn't even know a lick of French." The red head sighed and got out of her seat. "It simply means, 'Love in the arms of an enemy.' Admit it Mione, you and Malfoy are destined for each other." Ginny said before turning on her heel and walking out of the library before Hermione could get another word in.
'Great, now even a portrait is out to seal my fate with Malfoy, could this day get any better?' Hermione grimaced and turned back to her book, but not even a second later she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Ginny I do not like Malfoy! I don't care what you or that portrait says!" The voice that greeted Hermione was definitely not that of her best friend Ginny. It was the voice of the last person she wanted to see at that moment.
"Oh pity. I was so looking forward to you running into my arms confessing your never ending devotion for me." Malfoy said sliding into the seat across from the girl, much like Ginny had only moments before.
"Don't hold your breath Malfoy." Hermione said with an icy glare. "Actually, please do."
"Ah, Weasley." Pansy smirked and rounded on Ron who groaned and glared at the girl.
"What do you want Parkinson?" Ron grumbled much like Draco had only moments before and tried to push past the girl. But Pansy was not going to let Ron go so easily.
"Ooh, touchy today aren't we. Well I don't blame you, I mean if I were you I'd be a little snippy too knowing my girlfriend was always with someone like Draco Malfoy." Ron turned a harsh glare on the Slytherin girl who sent him a withering smile. This was going to be way to easy.
"What are you talking about?" Pansy took a deep breath to hold in her evil giggle.
She rolled her eyes and looked as impassive as she could. "Oh, I guess you haven't noticed. I think I shouldn't enlighten you then. You know what they say: ignorance is bliss." She shrugged her shoulders and walked away, but Ron sidestepped and stood in front of her, a dark glower on his face.
'It must be sad to have so little brain cells.' Pansy sighed and glared at Ron.
"What are you talking about Parkinson?" A very Slytherin smirk graced Pansy's face.
"Well, haven't you noticed how they look at each other across the room. And he is Draco Malfoy, all women fall for him sooner or later, and your little Gyriffindor princess can barely keep her eyes off of him in class. I doubt she can keep her hands off of him in that private dorm of theirs either." Pansy smiled at Ron before walking around him and heading to her dorm.
Sometimes being bad, felt so good.
"Ouch. Touchy today aren't we." Malfoy sent the girl a sly smirk. "You were so much nicer when you were crawling into my bed last night." Draco leaned in, bringing his face mere inches from hers. "I think I like that side of you so much more."
Hermione found her mouth to be extremely dry and her mind completely void of insults. In essence, she, Hermione Granger, was speechless. This was a rare moment for her and of course, Draco Malfoy had to be the one to cause it.
'Oh I hate that prat.'
Draco smirked and got out of his seat, moving himself closer to the girl. "What's the matter Granger?" He practically cooed in her ear. "Cat got your tongue?" His warm breath tickled her skin, idly she wondered how many times it had been that she allowed him this close to her. She could almost feel the heat radiating off his body, the scent of his cologne tickling her nose. She felt herself leaning back into him, into the warmth, but quickly caught herself, and shook off the daze.
"More like snake." Her head snapped in his direction and her eyes held an icy look. Her intent was to scare Malfoy off, he usually got tired off their arguing after a few minutes and would leave after a particularly scathing remark. However, this time he seemed more amused than anything.
"Got your fire back, eh Granger?" It was a rhetorical question; not that she would answer anything he would say normally. "We'll see how long that lasts. Pity the storms dying down. I was so looking forward to seeing you in my bed again." He smirked and her and once again leaned his face close to hers, his voice dropping an octave. " But I'm sure I'll be seeing you there again soon."
And with that, he was gone, leaving a very shocked girl in his wake.
Hermione sat in the same position for minute before gathering her wits and picking up her books. 'That slimy little ferret! Ugh! He's on his own level of evil!' She violently shoved her books into her bag and hurried out of the library. Her whole being was focused on one goal: Finding Draco Malfoy and giving him a piece of her mind.
There was no way she would let him get the last word in any argument.
She hastily turned a corner in the empty hallway and collided with someone's hard chest. Her eyes squeezed shut and she felt herself falling backwards, her body automatically bracing for impact. Luckily it never came. Instead she felt two strong arms wrap around her and pull her to a strong body.
She opened one eye and met dark blue ones. "Ron?" Her voice waved with uncertainty, oddly, he was the last person she expected to see.
"Yeah." His expression was grim as he set her upright, Hermione looked him over slowly, taking in the stiffness in his posture, and the tightness in his jaw. Something was definitely up.
"What's-"
"Where are you going now?" He cut her off, pretending as if she never spoke.
Hermione stumbled over her words for a bit, his question wasn't weird, it was just...unlike him to ask. "Uh...the common room. I needed to speak to Malfoy-"
Ron's eyes hardened at the sound of Draco's name. "Well you shouldn't keep your boyfriend waiting." He bit out making Hermione reel back.
The girl let out a stifled laugh, but caught herself when she saw the seriousness etched into the boy's face. "What are you talking about?"
"I know you and Malfoy have something going on." Hermione's face flushed in shock and her mouth dropped open, but Ron must have taken the expression to mean something else and continued his accusations, his voice increasing in volume and harshness with every word.
"I can't believe you'd betray me like this Hermione! And with that slimy git! How could you!-"
"Ron! What on earth is wrong with you?" Hermione placed her hand on his arm only to have it shrugged off.
"I'm not the one who cheated Hermione! I'm not the one in a relationship with someone else! We're over!" With one final glare Ron turned and left Hermione standing alone in the hallway.
Her mind tried it hardest to grasp what had just taken place to no avail. She continued on her way to the head dorms, but her movements were automatic, she felt as if she were out of her body looking down on herself. Before she realized it she was back in the common room and was sitting in one of the large couches staring unseeingly at her feet.
"He...broke up with me?" The words fell out of her mouth like bricks and shattered into her ears. "He broke up with me."
The realization sunk in and for a second Hermione sat silently staring at the fire as the words circled through her head. A tear slowly made its way down her cheek, followed by another, and another. It wasn't long before Hermione began sobbing and ran to her room, ignoring Malfoy who was coming down the stairs from his room.
Draco stared behind the hysterical girl curiously. Normally he never really cared why the girl cried, but this time his curiosity was piqued, since he knew for a fact, he wasn't at fault.
He sighed and dropped into one of the couches in the common room, chalking up her tears to something girly that he probably wouldn't care about anyway. Afterall the problems of a mudblood would never concern him anyway.
He sat in the common room for a few more minutes impatiently tapping his foot before exhaling loudly and stomping up to his room to get properly dressed. Afterwards he stomped out of the head dorms in search of every gossipy girl he knew, in an effort to find out what made the annoyance he lived with so distraught.
All the while he cursed his nosy mind to hell.
It was well past dinner when he finally entered the dorms yet again. That story was not as easy to track down as he would have hoped, but he was a Malfoy, and Mafoy's never fail. He finally got his story a few minutes before dinner, and only by chance too. He had overheard two portraits going on about some huge fight in an empty hallway, of course he paid no mind until he heard the mention of Hermione's name. Then he question the portraits for the full story much to their aggravation at his rudeness for listening into their conversation. Not that it was very private anyway at the loud tones they were speaking.
Of course after hearing his involvement he rushed to the Great Hall to find Granger and that idiot Weasel to right this atrocious wrong. Honestly, him involved with Granger was utterly laughable!
Sure, he was trying to get into her pants...although to very little avail. But he would never want something on a "relationship" level with the girl. The thought made his blood curdle.
But after pushing two people out of the way to get to the Great Hall, he found that the bushy haired know-it-all was nowhere to be found, but her annoying boyfriend, or should he say, ex-boyfriend, was there and sent him harsh glares for the entirety of dinner. Not that he really cared anyway, he was more than used to this kind of treatment from the boy-who-wouldn't-die and his sidekicks.
So after dinner he continued on his quest to find Hermione, but was momentarily distracted by an especially gorgeous looking Ravenclaw whispering something delightfully sinful in his ear after dinner. So it wasn't until nearly two hours after dinner ended that he finally showed up in the heads common room to find Hermione sitting in a chair by the fire reading a book with an orange ... thing, in her lap.
He ran a hand through his hair and moved closer to the girl, as he came closer he saw how red and puffy her eyes were and the dried trails from tears that remained on her flushed skin.
'She was crying this whole time, because of the weasel?' The concept as to why the girl even liked the red haired menace escaped him, but as to why she even spent so much time crying over him, baffled the boy even more.
He opened his mouth to speak just as the thing on her lap let out a strange noise and moved, causing him to jump back and scream out: "Good God Granger, that thing's alive!"
Hermione's head shot up from her book, apparently she hadn't noticed his entrance until his outburst. She arched her eyebrow and looked down to where he was pointing to Crookshanks in her lap.
"Yes it's alive Malfoy! It's also my cat! And his name is Crookshanks!" She cried laying down her book and picking up the cat, cradling it in her arms as if it were a baby. Crookshanks only meowed loudly and turned its shining green eyes on Draco.
"I know what a cat is Granger! And that most definitely is not a cat! Make it stop looking at me!" He practically whined the last part and Hermione tried not to giggle; sometimes he could be such a two-year-old.
Coincidentally that was about the time Crookshanks decided to hope out of Hermione's arms and run up the stairs into the girls open bedroom door, but not before stopping to rub itself against Draco's leg, much to his annoyance and disgust.
Hermione let out a sigh and looked to the boy who stood a few feet away staring at her with shielded gray eyes. "You can leave now Malfoy, the last thing I need to deal with tonight is you."
"Touché Granger. But I'm not hear to poke fun at you, although it would be more fun." Hermione rolled her eyes and picked up her book once again, even though Malfoy kept speaking. "I hear you got dumped today, hm?"
Draco barely had time to react before Hermione's book came hurdling towards his face, he quickly sidestepped the book and it landed with a dull thud against the wall behind him.
"My relationships are none of your business Malfoy, now kindly remove yourself from my presence." Her voice was harsh and dared him to say another word but Draco saw the pain and hurt in her eyes and the new tears that threatened to fall.
Without another word he went to his room, but returned only a few moments later with his broom in hand.
"I thought I told you to leave." The girl didn't look up from her new book but hastily wiped away a few stray tears that forced themselves out of her eyes anyway.
"We're going flying." Draco said, not acknowledging a word she said.
Hermione head shot up and she stared at the obviously loony boy in front of her, "Excuse me?"
"We. Are. Going. Flying." He repeated slowly, as if speaking to a two-year-old, which only succeeded in making the girl angry.
"I'm not an idiot Malfoy, I know what you said! And you and I are most certainly not!" She said shutting her book as if to say their conversation was over. Apparently she forgot who she was dealing with.
Draco rolled his eyes. "Yes, you and I most certainly are." He replied in the same tone she used.
"Malfoy why on Earth would I ever give you a chance to fly me hundreds of feet of the ground. In case you haven't noticed: I don't trust you." She said getting up and heading to her room.
"Granger, just come! I swear I won't let you fall, and it's sort of a thank you...for the other night." Draco said, mumbling his last few words.
Hermione let out a sigh and turned to the boy. "So why can't you just say thank you?"
"I think this way's easier on my pride." Draco said giving her a cheeky smirk, which she found herself unconsciously returning with her own smile, but she soon remembered who she was dealing with and wiped away the smile.
"Well sorry Malfoy, but I don't fly." She said before continuing on her way to her room. His hand shot out and grabbed her arm as she passed him and pulled her closer to him.
Taking a deep breath he muttered something that sounded like "I can't believe I'm about to do this." Before whispering:
"Please Granger?" The girl looked up at him with shock written in her brown eyes before nodding and allowing herself to be pulled through the portrait hole entrance and through the near empty halls of Hogwarts. It wasn't yet after hours, but it was late enough that most of the students of he school were already retired to their common rooms, so luckily the pair didn't have to face questions or curious glances. He pulled her through the entrance of the school and out into the cool night air. He finally freed her arm from his grasp when they were near the lake.
Draco mounted the broom and looked at Hermione expectantly, and she looked back at him as if he were truly daft.
"What?" She said rubbing her hand up and down her arms in an effort to warm herself.
The boy rolled his eyes and extended a hand for her to take. "Get on."
"I'm rethinking this." Hermione said looking at the hand with uncertainty.
"Look, I won't drop you...I promise." His eyes bore into hers and Hermione shifted uncertainly under his gaze. She opened her mouth to say something but only a sigh came out and she took his outstretched hand and he led her onto the broom. He sat her in front of him and wrapped one arm around her waist and the other on the broom.
"You sure you won't drop me?" Her voice was shaky and unsure.
"God Granger, even I'm not that heartless."
"Wel-" He kicked off and Hermione's retort was replaced by a loud shriek.
The rose up slowly but that didn't matter to her, the point was that her feet were off the ground. Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and shrunk back into Malfoy's warmth, a strong feeling of fear and dread settling in her stomach.
As a child she fell out of a tree and broke her arm and from then on she was always afraid of heights and never got further off the ground than a few feet.
Draco looked down on the girl and rolled his eyes. "Open your eyes. The view's beautiful."
Hermione took a deep breath and opened one bright eye, and then the other. He was right, the view was beautiful, in fact it was breath taking. They were high off the ground but she didn't feel the dread she did before, everything felt so surreal. She was looking down on the school grounds, most of which were in plain view from the height they were at. The moons silver rays shone off the lakes surface where the squid lolled about causing the surface to ripple.
Everything was perfect, the night was clear, the moon was full and the stars shown brighter than she had ever seen them. It would have been the perfect romantic night, were it not for the fact that she was with an obnoxious git ... but for some reason, he was actually being a gentleman.
"It's all so ... gorgeous." She whispered breathlessly, as if afraid that if she spoke to loud the night would be ruined. Draco looked up to the stars and smiled to himself, his mother had always loved them more than anything else. She would have loved to look at them tonight.
"Yeah, it is." He muttered back.
After a moment he slowly began moving the broom, taking it slowly around the grounds. He didn't want to speed up for fear of scaring Hermione, not that he was being soft or anything, he just didn't want to her hear nagging in his ear all night. At least that's what he told himself.
The night wore on and Hermione felt herself never wanting it to end, but soon she felt herself being drawn to sleep. She nestled her head to his chest, taking comfort in the strong arm wrapped securely around her waist. Slowly, she began to drift to sleep, lulled by the cool wind licking at her skin and whispering songs into her ears, finding solace in the warm body holding her so safely. A soft whisper that was almost lost on the wind escaped her before she finally slipped into sleep. Her near inaudible words carried through the breeze to his ears before floating through the chilled night air.
"Never let go."
His stormy gray eyes looked down at the girl resting in his arms. And for the first time in a long time, a small smile tugged at his lips, a real smile.
"I won't, I promise."