Chapter two.
In my haste to get off the train as quickly as I could and away from Draco and the feelings he made me feel, I tripped; scraping my hands in the process and my Head Girl book fell to the floor. A piece of light blue parchment was poking out from a hidden pocket on the last page of my book.
"Hermione,
Knowing full well that you would indeed become Head Girl, I put this letter in here hoping you'd find it. I know that when you read this I will no longer be around but there is something you need to know, something I wish I could have told you in person. You are my daughter and you are an elemental. Your mother was killed by Lord Voldemort due to the amount of power she possessed. She was so skilled in her particular gift that she was able to channel the energy she contained and transform into almost anything she pleased. We met and fell in love and after you were born, he attacked. Knowing then I had to protect you; I gave you to the Grangers. Please do not be upset at them… they do not have any recollection that you do not belong to them. Know that I love you with all my heart and that my greatest joy was to watch you excel among your years at Hogwarts.
Know that the glamour charm placed on you 17 years ago should wear off soon enough and the changes will be not too drastic, your hair should get maybe a shade or two darker and the opposite should be said for your eyes.
I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but I had to protect you, even if it meant dying myself.
Your father,
Albus Dumbledore.
I had reread the letter more than ten times as I walked past the entrance hall and straight to the fourth floor. There were smeared parts of the letter that looked as though Dumbledore had been crying when he wrote this. Had he? How could this even be happening? Why hadn't he told me before? Would Voldemort have killed me had he known? Yes, he would have and I knew that. I was suddenly filled with an excessive amount of anger toward my newly known father. How could he have done this to me? How could he have changed everything I knew about my life? Should I tell Harry and Ron? Would they care?
I walked toward a statue of an armed goddess and touched her nose whispering "Jellybean". I dropped my book along with the letter on the floor and stared at the room around me. The common room had an open space with a small kitchen toward the right and a small dining room for two just adjacent to it. A fire place was set in the wall opposite the door i just walked through with a set of black leather couches on top of a deep burgundy rug, book cases surrounding the remaining walls around the blazing fire. Stairs went up the along the wall on the right leading up to a small indoor balcony that ran along a wall with three doors. The first door had an elegant 'H' etched upon it in gold while the other on the left had a 'D' in green with accents of silver.
Assuming the last door on the far right was the bathroom, I walked straight into mine. There was a king size bed pushed to the corner of the room suspended by ropes upon two platforms acting as a set of stairs. The covers were a deep gold with red pillows strewn across. Opposite the bed was a television set encased in a shelf that ran along the rest of the wall filled with books. Next to the door was a closet door and next to my bed was a door that led to a balcony connected both our bedrooms.
As I sat on my bed thinking about my new life and being strangely accepting, I looked at my watch. Shit! I have to get to the feast! I I ran out of the room, slamming the door behind myself roughly and left the mini flat without a backwards glance.
As the sorting hat sent Kyle Zanforth to Ravenclaw, my palms ached in a way I hadn't noticed earlier and I saw Hermione walk in and take a seat next to Ron, who I DID noticed had enough food in his mouth for both himself AND her.
"I'd like to announce this year's Head Boy and Girl. This year's Head Girl is none other than Hermione Granger," McGonagall said as cheers from the Gryffindor table erupted and no doubt took a while to calm down. "And this year's Head Boy is Draco Malfoy." I stood up and took my well-earned bow as my table applauded like a mad house. I took a quick glance toward the Gryffindor table and saw Weasel's mouth dropped open. I sent a wink over to Granger which turned Weasel's face a dark shade of red and deserved a good eye roll from her.
"Now if you'll please excuse me I have some business to attend to, enjoy the rest of your meal and welcome back to school!" She exclaimed almost too cheerfully. I took that as my cue and left the feast, eager to see my room.
"Draco!" Ugh, I thought. The only one who calls me 'Draco' is Blaise but the last person I expected to see was Hermione.
"Yes?" I said, wondering what it was she could possibly say to me and why she used my first name. She walked by my side hesitantly while I took in the surrounding people watching us, but that wasn't what seemed to bother her. She ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath, pushing out her chest in the process, filling my head with thoughts I shouldn't think.
"I just wanted to say- Actually I uh...I don't know. I guess I just used the "need to talk to the head boy" excuse to get out of that insufferable room." I pondered this for a moment and was surprised she was so honest with me.
"Have you been to the room yet?" I asked, not bothering to ask why she wanted to leave. If she wanted me to know she would have told me. She nodded while I touched the statue of the goddess' nose that led to our shared dormitory and said "Jelly bean." Dumbledore obviously set this password before he kicked the bucket. We walked down the small corridor and opened the door. I looked down as my foot made contact with a piece of blue parchment. Hermione quickly snatched the paper from the floor along with her book and sat down on one of the black couches. I gave the common room a good scan and thought it was put together nicely.
"What's that letter say; I saw it was signed by Dumbledore." I said, not leaving any room for her to not tell me.
"Nothing you need to know right now." She snapped, instantly making me more pissed off than I should have been.
"If it's something I need to know at ALL then I have the fucking right to know, especially if you're getting letters from a dead man! So tell me, before I take it." Her expression on her face told me she wasn't going to tell me. She got up, letter and all, and literally waltzed to her room. "Wise ass." I muttered, though I was amused.
I walked up the stairs, ignoring my bedroom door and went straight to the last door. The bathroom had two sinks, an in ground bathtub and two showers. The walls were only mirrors. I pulled off my white shirt and looked at my shoulder. My scar started from my left shoulder and made its way across my back to my right hip. I had woken up one morning to find it there with no recollection of how I had gotten it at all, no recollection of even the night before.
Lately it seemed I kept feeling pain without knowing what had caused it, having no memory of how it happened. I always thought it was Voldemort doing so and erasing my memory and when I got this scar I assumed my father gave it to me as a punishment, or perhaps his own pleasure, and my mother secretly healed me as best she could later on. My father, I knew, was a horrible man, and I thank my mother for finally getting the courage to rid us of him once and for all. Though she lived peacefully and happily with a new man in Paris, I missed her a lot.
I went back to my room, magically unpacked my belongings and looked at the strange contraption that was installed in my wall. And though I hated to do this, I went to the balcony and knocked on Granger's door.
"Hermione, I need to ask you something." I said, unsure that she'd even pull apart her curtains. She ripped open the door and looked at me, shocked at first to see I had no shirt on and then stood there expecting me to continue.
"What's..uh, on my wall?" She walked into my room and started laughing.
"What?" I demanded. She picked up a small device, hit the red button, and little people suddenly appeared in the box. i So, it's a device to trap people in. Clever /i I thought as she continued to hit random buttons on the 'remote' or so she called it.
"It's a television, Draco. It's a muggle device used as entertainment. You know how in London we go to plays and operas? It's almost the same thing except the shows are pre recorded and put in this device for everyone around the world to view them." I looked at her with confusion, grabbed the remote and hit the red button, effectively ending the annoying chatter coming from this television.
"Oh," I said, unsure of what to do next. I turned around to grab my shirt when I heard another gasp come from behind me. Almost too quickly I whipped out my wand ready to attack anything that wanted to hurt us. Startled by my accusation she quickly said,
"We're not being attacked. Draco, how did you get that scar?" When I didn't respond she took off her top and stood there in her black bra. She turned around to expose the scar that was on her back, purposely this time.
"Identical…" I whispered as she just nodded her head.
"I don't know how I got it… I woke up one morning and it was there. I always assumed my father did it…" I trailed off, not sure how to continue.
"I was fighting a death eater in some manor... He- he managed to get around me and instead of hitting me with a spell he grabbed a sword off the wall and slashed my back pretty well. I blacked out and woke up the next day in St. Mungos..." She hesitated as if she wanted to add something more, "it still hurts and I don't know why…" She stopped speaking and looked at me for what seemed like eternity.
"I think we should…call a truce. Probably get to know one another. I'm not as bad as you think I am, I've even been civil enough to use your first name. Can you at least forgive me for the things I did when I was a stupid kid? I'm really sorry."
"I forgive you, I know you're sorry. You don't have the dark mark. You're easier to read than you think… Draco." And with that she picked up her shirt and left my room.