Chapter 7
DISCLAIMER: THE CHARACTERS STILL DON'T BELONG TO ME.
Hermione,
Well, this week seems endless. I'm not sure if I'll survive until Salem, I'm so bored. My father is off working, so I rarely have company. I admit to being a bit scared in this house alone with only elves now that Mother is gone. I still feel her here, though, but it only makes it worse. How are things at the Potter house?
By the way, I'm using an owl so I can conserve my powder for my floo you gave me. I fear if I use that then I will run out because I will send endless messages out, being as bored as I am.
-D
XXX
Draco,
I understand how you feel about your mum, even though I'm not at my house. I have all of my things that were salvaged from the fire, and I was able to save a lot of my parent's cherished possessions, but I have them wrapped up and put away. I can't handle any of them without feeling guilty that I'm the reason they died.
Things here are okay. Harry doesn't start training for another two weeks, so it's just been us learning to live on our own. Harry got a letter from Mrs. Weasley two days ago basically telling him that although she loves him, she's disappointed in the "life choices" he's making and that, for his own good, they're severing ties so he can realize the error of his ways. He took that hard, understandably. Should've known Ron couldn't keep his mouth shut to his family. At least he hasn't spread it around farther.
Things any better there now?
-H
XXX
H,
No. I don't know the last time I was THIS bored. I've started brushing up on my spell work, of course, trying to get ready for Salem. I must have read every spell in this book! I feel like a male version of you!
I don't know what to do with myself.
Tell Potter that he's better off. He doesn't need that, especially now.
-D
XXX
Draco,
Sorry it took over a week to write. Things have been busy. Harry just started training and I help him study the test portions he needs to know about the law when he gets home.
Harry just nodded and said thanks (regarding your Weasley comment).
And I'm going to take that comment about reading as a compliment.
Why don't you come here? I could use the company.
-H
XXXX
H,
I don't think Potter wants me at his house. And I wouldn't want to intrude on your special…uh…bonding time, or whatever is going on.
XXX
Draco,
Get your arse down here, its fine. Hermione needs the company. She's driving me crazy.
-Harry
As rude as that was, it's true. Come over, Draco. Plus, it will look good for you. Harry says for me to stop writing this letter because he's just going to floo you. Maybe I'll send this first…
-Hermione
XXXX
Draco had just finished reading the letter that had popped out of his portable floo when he heard Harry's voice calling from the living room.
"Malfoy, you prat, I know you can hear me. Come over here," Harry yelled.
"Keep your knickers on, Potter. I'm coming. Come on through, that looks uncomfortable. I need to get my things."
Harry stepped through the fire the rest of the way and saw Draco disappear around a corner. Following, he went up the stairs and stepped into Draco's room, which was probably the size of the Dursely's whole upstairs.
"So," Harry said, looking around, "this is where the magic happens, huh?"
"Well, yeah. And the rest of the house," Draco said, looking at him confusedly while charming all of his books to pack.
"Muggle saying. It was a joke."
"Muggles have an odd sense of humor."
"Look, Draco," Harry began again, before hesitating. Draco looked at him again when he heard Harry use his first name. "I never got to thank you, and I think a part of me didn't want to thank you because that would be acknowledging it. But, thank you for talking to me that week."
Draco didn't need to ask which week he meant. He remembered going to find Potter after the conversation with Hermione about him being gay. Draco spent the rest of the week talking to him about what Pansy had done when she learned about his truth, to what many in the wizarding world felt towards homosexuality.
He just nodded at Harry.
"No problem…Harry. I remember going through it alone, and it was no fun. At least you have Hermione by your side. Sorry your ginger friend and his family are a bunch of arses."
Harry started laughing softly. "Yeah, I am too. I got a letter from Fred and George, though. They apologized for how their family is acting. Said it was more of Molly being upset she wouldn't have the Boy-Who-Lived as a son-in-law that got her the most upset. So at least I still have them."
"Well, they always did seem to stand apart from the rest of their clan," Draco said, now directing his wand at his clothes, which began folding themselves and zooming into his trunk.
"Yeah, they always were the odd ones out. I actually spoke to them before I spoke to Ron that first day. They saw me struggling to get my trunk on the train and offered to carry it for me, then introduced themselves. And they gave me their Marauder's Map my third year so I could get into Hogsmeade."
"I remember that, because you threw mud at me and I got scared thinking I saw a random floating head."
"Then you ran back to tell Snape," Harry added, smiling.
"And you still managed to get out of that one," Draco finished, smirking.
"Naturally. But I love that map. It conveniently came in handy at the end of the year when we realized Wormtail was still alive."
"What does that map actually show?" Draco asked, sitting on his trunk to force it to close.
"It's a map of Hogwarts labeled with a dot for every person there, even if they were in disguise. I would be able to see if Filch or Snape was coming and switch hallways. And it showed Wormtail as Peter Pettigrew even as an animagus, and Moody as Barty Crouch, Jr.," Harry explained, coming over to sit next to Draco to help.
"Wait," Draco said, pausing in his bouncing to close the lid. "So the Weasley twins had this map for years, and used it all the time?"
"Yes?" Harry said slowly, trying to understand Draco's look.
"So, they see a man named Peter sleeping in the same bed as their kid brother for three years and never say anything? No wonder they don't care you're gay!"
Harry almost fell off the trunk from laughing so hard.
XXXX
The next couple weeks flew by with Draco at Grimmauld Place.
During the day, when Harry was at training, Hermione and Draco would study up on new charms and practice them. During the evening, they would either help quiz Harry or just hang out, attempting to get to know one another better.
No Weasley ever came to visit.
According to Harry, Ron had made it perfectly clear to everyone at training that they had grown apart and were no longer friends. He made sure all knew not to associate the two together.
Harry acted as if he didn't mind, but Hermione could see the pain in his eyes. Ron was his very first friend, and after everything they had been through together, it was hard to wrap his mind around Ron rejecting him because of who he was.
"I mean, we took on a mountain troll together!" Harry yelled one night in one of his rages. Sometimes, when he was especially tired or dipped into the firewhiskey, Harry would start on about Ron or the Weasleys (barring the twins). Sometimes he was depressed, and sometimes he was angry. This night seemed like an angry night.
"I know Harry," Hermione said wearily.
"We faced down a three headed dog together! We even got through a few of those damned Sorcerer's Stone tasks together until he was knocked out!"
"Incidentally, if the stone was to be protected, how come Dumbledore even put ways to get to it?" Draco said offhandedly to Hermione. "It seems like he should've just protected it and left it at that."
"Because Dumbledore is an ass," Hermione said, smiling when Draco choked on his butterbeer.
"He braved the Chamber of Secrets with me! I saved his sister!" Harry, unaware of their talking, continued to pace. "He even took polyjuice with me so we could trick Draco!"
"Wait, what?" Draco asked.
"Second year. They thought you were the Heir of Slytherin and they took the potion to turn into Crabbe and Goyle to trick you into admitting it," Hermione explained. Draco glared at the pacing man.
"Asshat," Draco mumbled.
"Does it make you feel better knowing it went wrong for me and I became a cat/human hybrid?"
"Immensely, thank you."
"Then…well…he didn't do much in third year. And fourth year he turned on me. But then he followed me to the Ministry fifth year! I mean, that has to count for something, right?" Harry nearly yelled, whipping around to face Hermione with unshed tears. "How can he forget all of that?"
Hermione stood up. "Oh Harry, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. This is my fault. I had to go and ruin everything. I always kill whatever I touch! I'm like a disease!" he yelled. "Everyone I love dies and everything I touch is destroyed! And now I've lost another family because I'm so disgusting!"
Immediately, Draco's arms were around Harry. Everyone froze for a second, not sure what had just happened or why, but then Harry started to shake slightly with sobs and he relaxed onto Draco.
Hermione wiped her face clean of tears and walked upstairs to her room. She may be Harry's best friend, but at this moment, Draco could help more.
XXX
From then, a pattern began where Harry and Draco would steal away to a more secluded area of the house and talk. Hermione wasn't offended because she knew there were areas where her advice wouldn't be welcome, as hard as that was for her to swallow. She was actually very happy to see Harry look almost back to normal when he would emerge from his "sessions" with Draco. He needed all the friends he could get.
Soon enough, however, the leaves started to turn and the temperature started to dip. The closer it got to the date where Hermione and Draco would be leaving for America to figure out orientation and living arrangements, the more agitated everyone seemed.
For Draco and Hermione, it was nerves. Draco was nervous being so far from his comfort zone and Hermione…well, Hermione always got nervous before a new school term.
On Harry's part, it seemed he was having issues dealing with being left alone. Even all those years left in a cupboard or ignored by his relatives, he had never really lived on his own, nor spent any large length of time on his own. Coupled with the depression from losing the Weasleys, the stress from work, and knowledge of the war happening outside his door, as well as living alone in Sirius' old house, Harry was on edge.
Hermione told him to floo her letters every day, and if he ever wanted to talk face to face, to just floo her a time and she would go use one of the main fire places. Draco added to that and said he could do the same to him, since there were things blokes just wanted to talk to other blokes about. And let's face it; it would make him look even better in the eyes of the Dark Lord. But he assured them that the main reason was to help Harry. Maybe.
Harry, of course, assured them he would be fine. But as the date of their departure grew closer, Harry became reclusive, often retreating to Sirius' old bedroom or staying out later than normal. His behavior so mocked that of his late godfather's from their fifth year that Hermione grew more worried than she already was. She had no idea how to help him, however, and had her own problems to deal with.
Where was she going to live?
She had gotten a full scholarship to Salem, whilst Draco had scraped a partial. He was particularly sore about that, but conceded that she had definitely earned it during her stay at Hogwarts. She knew that, as her schooling was paid for, she could use her savings to live in the dorms. She had wanted to meet new people after all.
Another part of her mind berated her for not asking Draco to bunk up and rent a house or apartment. She had grown to actually like the blonde and knew she would miss not being around him, even if they did have the same classes. And she knew how hard it would be for Draco by himself.
In the end, Draco was the one who approached her about it.
"Let's move in together," Draco said one morning over breakfast. "Hear me out. I understand that you were excited to meet new people and everything but I'm scared to death and you know it. I won't admit it outside of this house, but there it is. I've already been looking at apartments near the campus, as well as small houses. Or, cottages, I suppose. Two bedroom ones."
"How far from campus, Draco? I don't want to live that far."
"Hermione, you're a witch. You can apparate," Harry drawled from behind The Quibbler, in between bites of his cereal while Draco snickered.
"Plus, all the ones I've looked at are very close. They have them close for students," Draco continued, looking at her with an open expression she rarely saw.
Finally, she threw her hands in the air. "Fine!" she said, exasperated. But inside, she breathed a sigh of relief. And she knew that Draco saw through her too.
"Great," Harry groused. "Yippee."
"Harry, you're welcome to visit any time you would like to. You know that," Hermione told him, placing her hand on his. He shook it off.
"I've got to go to work," he said, standing up and striding out the back door. A second later, they heard the pop of his apparation.
Hermione put her head in her hands. "I don't know what to do for him," she mumbled.
"Nothing. Let him get over it. Not your problem," Draco told her flippantly, biting into some toast and grabbing Harry's discarded paper.
But Hermione saw the tension lines on his face and how his eyes didn't actually read anything on the paper in front of him.
Too bad he didn't know how to follow his own advice.
XXXX
Professor Snape,
Hello pen pal. How is your summer faring? I'm really only adding the small talk because I know you hate it so.
I actually had a question.
I'm supposed to be choosing my classes right now. I'm staring at the lists as I write. I really became fascinated with the idea of charmed potions. And I know from reading the synopsis of the core required classes, I will be taking that in one of my more advanced lessons that we will cover charmed potions. But then I saw a whole Charmed Potions class I could choose for an elective!
Reading more into it the pamphlet, Salem allows for students to declare a minor. If I chose to minor in Potions, then my electives would be Potions. Most students don't opt for that because so many want to get their Mastery in a specific subject and don't want to be sidetracked, especially because the art of potion-making is so precise and complicated. It is definitely one of the harder Masteries to achieve, I'm told. (How you obtained it so young astounds me).
But, well…this is me we're talking about.
So, I suppose my question is do you believe it is worth it? Should I keep my major in Charms and fill my electives with a jumble of classes? Or should I attempt to minor in Potions?
I'm so confused. And I know that I only asked if I could write to you with academic inquiries, and I'm technically not breaking that, but I also know that this wasn't what you had in mind.
But I have no one else. And you're by far one of the most level-headed and logical people I know, aside from maybe Professor McGonagall. But she, as well as Professors Flitwick and Dumbledore, would only write back showering me with praise and other empty words. Whereas you will tell me what you think, even if it's harsh. I can count on you not to sugarcoat things.
Thank you, and sorry for the length of this letter. I do tend to ramble, don't I?
-Hermione
P.S. - I decided I will send this by owl rather than my mini floo simply because you're not expecting this letter, and I don't want it sailing out of your fireplace whilst you're out and risk it being left unnoticed. But you may send it through mine if you wish. I built a special tray on the bottom of my mini to catch letters if I'm out.
XXXX
Ms. Granger,
As much as I hoped I would be able to make it through the summer without being burdened with a missive from you, I knew I would not be so lucky.
My summer is eventless, per usual.
Don't you have a best friend to talk about these issues with instead of bothering your old professor? Or Draco, since I have heard he has been staying with you both and he will be attending your school?
But, alas, life has had it out for me my whole life it seems. Why would I ever assume I could get through one peaceful summer?
I didn't go to college to get my Mastery in Potions. I instead opted for apprenticeship. I had thought of college, but other circumstances had me staying. Do not take that to mean it was any less difficult. I lost many hours of sleep, and galleons, and clothes (exploding potions are costly and destructive) obtaining my Mastery. My professor had me copying potion lines hundreds of times in lieu of writing essays like you no doubt will. But it was no less effective.
I also think knowing other subjects whilst orienting yourself around a specific one can help broaden a person, instead of focusing solely on one. Take Professor Dumbledore, for example. He is qualified to teach more than just Transfiguration. I, as you are aware, am also qualified to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts as well as Potions. That may not be the best example, but there you go.
That being said, however, I believe that you should minor in Potions. I think that knowing you as a student, you will be able to cope with the course load and still excel.
Please take a moment to deflate your head.
You are already fairly well rounded in other subjects, but have a notable flair for Charms. There is nothing wrong with choosing another subject to excel in as well. And because Charms is such a flexible subject, you can choose virtually any minor and be able to mesh them. And, after your final project, I believe that you would do well specializing with charmed potions.
On a side note, Professor McGonagall was most envious to see that I received a letter from you but she did not. It was the highlight of my morning. I believe I should probably thank you for that.
But I won't.
-Professor S. Snape
XXX
Professor Snape,
Oh Professor, I can't tell you how much I've missed your acidic sarcasm dripping from every word you say.
But thank you. I knew that you would be straight with me.
As for Draco, he's too busy worrying about what he wants to pursue to be able to deal with the burden of my choices. He would probably benefit from some advice, but I don't believe it is easy contacting his father at the moment.
And as for Harry, well…he wouldn't be much help. Honestly, I'm worried about him, Professor. I know you don't care, so feel free to skip this part. But he's going through a lot of issues. I believe you heard some of what happened that day with Ron, but I'm not sure if you know what prompted most of the yelling. Let's just say it was something major for Harry. And now he's just horrible. He's depressed and angry and bitter. He goes to training everyday like he's supposed to, but when he's off he just falls apart. And as the date for Draco and me to leave draws closer, he gets worse. I don't want to leave him alone. I'm scared of what he might do. I don't know if he would turn his wand on himself, but he could drink himself to death. He could stop taking care of himself.
Even Draco is worried, which makes it seem more real.
I don't know how to help him, Professor. I've never felt so helpless in my life.
-Hermione
XXX
Professor McGonagall,
Hello, Professor! I'm so sorry for not writing you sooner! How are things at Hogwarts going? Enjoying your summer?
You must be curious to why I wrote to Professor Snape, but it was only a school question. I had wanted to ask his opinion on some Potions classes. I figured if I wrote you, then you would have just told me to ask him.
Things are busy here, as imagined, what with Harry training and Draco and I getting ready to leave.
I'm so excited! And so nervous!
Please give my love to Professor Dumbledore and the others!
-Hermione
P.S.- To send this to my mini floo, just say "Hermione's mini" and toss it in your floo.
XXXX
Miss Granger,
You are correct to be worried for Potter. What you're describing is extremely troublesome. Please suggest that he write to the Headmaster. He would know what to say better than I could, not that my advice would be welcome.
And I know that Potter is gay. I was disillusioned as I walked up that day. I saw Potter jump up and get into the face of Weasley, and as I arrived I heard the Weasley boy insult Draco's mother. I heard what happened next.
Trust me when I say that it is even more of a reason to go to the Headmaster.
And it isn't "acidic sarcasm." It's wit.
When do you leave?
- S. Snape
XXX
Hermione,
Please, call me Minerva.
How is Potter doing? I hear rumours from the Ministry that Weasley and he are no longer associating with one another. Is there any truth to this? If so, it will be very lonely for him with you gone. I must remember to write to him periodically to check up. I do tend to worry for him, with no family to go to.
And I'm so excited to send this to your miniature floo for the first time! This will definitely save our poor owls when you're in the states.
Things here are running smoothly, being that it is summer. But we're approaching the end and September 1st always seems to come faster as the years go on.
Have you found a place to live? Or will you be staying in the dorm rooms?
We are all very proud of you, my dear. Never forget that.
-Minerva McGonagall
XXX
Professor Snape,
I'm leaving in a week with Draco for freshman orientation and to finalize everything with the new apartment we're getting. We'll be gone for about a week or so, and then we're back here until term starts in August!
Call it what you will, Professor, but you come off more acidic than witty most of the times. Although I do remember times in class where I had to stop myself from laughing or chortling at something witty you said.
I tried suggesting to Harry that he should owl the Headmaster but he turned it down immediately. He also insisted that nothing was wrong with him.
I'm scared, Professor.
With the Weasley family turning on him except for the twins, he will have no one. I'm going to write to Fred and George and ask them if they could check up on Harry once in awhile. I would ask that they not be obvious in why they are there, but we Gryffindors are not exactly known for our discretion.
I will most likely be sending you a copy of my schedule when I get it so you can see my Potions classes. I will value your input on them.
Stay safe.
-Hermione
P.S. - You know, Minerva has extended me the right to call her by her first name.
XXXX
Miss Granger,
I wasn't aware that you would be "bunking up" with Draco Malfoy. How fun that sounds. It is only with great discipline and strength that I am holding myself in my chair instead of bursting with excitement and longing to join your new sorority.
No doubt I will weep from envy knowing I will be missing the late night bean fests and painting of one another's toes.
Please feel free to share with Mr. Malfoy all I have just said.
No, Gryffindors are most definitely not known for discretion but having the Weasley twins step might help. It's a start at least. With your permission, I will pass along what you have told me (sans Potter's sexual orientation) to the Headmaster. He will then most likely wait an appropriate length of time before contacting Potter "out of the blue" to check on his "favourite pupil."
I can hardly wait for your schedule. If I continue to attempt to hold back my excitement I get from your letters, I may develop an ulcer.
…I shall try, Miss Granger. I promise nothing more. Staying safe in these times is not an easy feat.
But you do the same.
-S. Snape
P.S. - Not on your life.
*Author's note: Sorry it took so long to update. I used to be ahead but now I'm barely keeping up. I thought ending it at this point was good enough. If I didn't, I would've kept going for another few pages jut writing letters back and forth lol. And I couldn't bear to let the twins be dragged down to the attitudes of the rest of the Weasley clan. I love them too much. Next up, apartment buying, Draco and Hermione's first look at the U.S., and other fun goodies.
Thank you for reading and reviewing!