The next day, although very sore, Draco was relieved to be allowed to attend classes. The reason that the team had done so badly the previous day was because Draco had threatened them at wand point not to cheat—to which they had grudgingly agreed. They all knew better then to defy him, but that certainly did not mean they had to like it.
The day went by slowly, with him directing malice at the Weasel at every opportunity. As much as Ron hated Draco, he had felt guilt at injuring the boy and had been very close to apologizing; that is until Draco had enacted revenge on him by covertly adding Wing Worm root into his Color changing Potion during Snape's class. Naturally, Harry and Ron were accused of being unable to prepare even the simplest of brews and forced to endure the rest of class with skin that changed from a lurid bubble gum pink to a sickening shade of puce with Snape smirking sadistically at every change.
As he made his way out of the dungeons, it was Malfoy's opinion that he and the Weasel were even…for the time being, at least. The last class of the day was the vile farce that was the Inter-House Cooperation Class, and he had not had the mind to dread the experience. All thoughts of what he had witnessed her doing had been gone from his mind until the moment he saw her sitting primly at their desk reading and waiting for the teachers. A slight quiver of amusement went through him when he saw her sitting there. "Well this should be interesting." He thought smugly as he set his bag down on the worn table and sat down beside her.
She said nothing, and if she sensed that he was there she gave no inkling of it. McGonagall arrived and apologized for her lateness and began a class discussion.
"Tonight, I think our efforts would be best pushed towards a debate, or just a session of venting if you wish. I will go around the entire room, and each of you will tell your classmates a few things. I have handed out parchments containing what I wish to hear about from you and you will be given a few moments to contemplate these questions before sharing your answers with the class. Hagrid will be joining us shortly and the both of us will begin to avoid any awkwardness."
Dubious stares returned her level of sincerity. "Oh, bother…" Draco thought before he turned to read the paper.
It read, "Discuss what matters most to you, what do you like and what do you dislike. Please remember that this is not a free time to degrade people. You are warned."
Hermione was taking notes while Draco blankly watched her shoulder, thinking but not really thinking at all. The "share time" came all too soon.
McGonagall stood and smiled before saying, "Alright I will begin! Now remember you are allowed to ask or question or argue against anything anyone says. This class is so that you can learn more about each other, even if the forum is a bit nerve racking for some. I remember that public speaking was never my strong point in school so to make it easier no one has to stand but we must be able to hear you."
"Now, what matters most to me…is right here in this very room." This statement hung a bit ominously while someone in the back cleared his or her througt. "Teaching I mean, and it does mean a great deal to me." Draco rolled his eyes.
"Now I like formal teas, going to the Capchure seas for holidays, and writing essays for The Tranfigureres journal." She adjusted her glasses. "What I dislike is tardiness, laziness and people who do not challenge themselves. I also dislike He-who-shall-not-be-named, but I guess that is common knowledge."
She smiled, "Any questions?" Silence rang through out the lecture hall. "Oh come on! This is a discussion, someone must have a comment or question!"
Neville raised a very reluctant hand. "Yes, Neville? What is it?"
"Umm…you. Well you were tardy today…" The boy flushed and averted his eyes.
"Yes, and I apologize. I am sure that everyone in this room dislikes something that they do or have done, but I don't do it very often. Peeves had decided to leak water into a fourth floor hallway again and I slipped and had to report the mess to Mr. Filch."
"Alright, Hagrid if you will?"
The large half man rose awkwardly and began to read from a sheet of paper that he had prepared. "Creatures matter the most to me, an' teachin too." Snickers were heard as he mentioned beasts, you would have to be an idiot not to have know this, or possibly dead.
"I like Dragons, and mostly any other creature out there. I don' like people who are cruel to others an' ter animals…an' radishes. Thank yer!" He managed a bumbling bow before slumping back into his chair that groaned in protest but did not give way. Hagrid was relieved that that was over.
McGonagall called on random students. Ron liked Quidditch and answered truthfully that he hated Spiders.
Millicent's eyed everyone suspiciously and said, "I care most about my family. I like Astrology and I hate nosey people."
No one questioned her.
All eyes turned to Harry when he began. "My friends mean the most to me." He gave a shy smile to a few, and continued, "I love playing Quidditch, and doing magic, and my parents. I hate Voldemort and Deatheaters." His naming of the dark lord brought on the normal gasps that it always did and he calmly looked around.
"Well thank you, Harry! Any questions?" Again silence seeped into the room.
"I can see why…" It slipped out before Draco could stop it. He averted his eyes. McGonagall's head snapped up and she looked around the room expectantly.
"What was that? A comment? Anyone?" Her eyes had developed a hawk like appearance under her half moon glasses as she searched for the source of the voice. "No? Well alright let's hear from Miss Granger. If you will?"
Draco watched her as she looked down at her paper quickly then flipped it over and began to speak with that annoying self-assurance that she had.
"My family, my friends and my time here mean the most to me. I love reading and learning, vanilla tea and…" She stopped, thought something over and then continued with a harsh edge to her voice, "I, too, hate Voldemort, Death eaters, and anyone who allies themselves with such foul and loathsome excuses for wizardkind. Forgiveness only extends so far for those who choose a life of evil." Her words were almost spat out and Draco looked slightly taken aback at sharp tone Hermione's voice had adopted. That tone had matched his own whenever he spoke of hating Mudbloods and Muggles.
Blaise spoke up from in front of her. "Yes, because life is always so simple, isn't it, Granger? There's nothing beyond black and white; dark and light; good and evil. Surely you can't think that everyone involved in activities you deem evil are there of their own free will? Did it never occur to you that some people are included due to peer pressure, family ties and, in extreme cases, force? Of course not," he spat viciously, "it's not in a book! How on Earth could you know? Not everyone has the gift of free will to choose their destiny," Blaise paused as he looked pointedly at Harry, and then at Draco. "The fact that people could think a narrow minded swot like you as supremely intelligent is, quite frankly, sickening."
No one said anything for a long moment as they stared at the handsome Slytherin. In the last few moments, he has spoken more words publicly than his entire time at Hogwarts, and though most would never admit it aloud, they secretly agreed with at least part of what he said and were glad that someone had stood up to Hermione. McGonagall was too shocked to speak, and wore a mildly horrified expression on her strict face.
Hermione was shaking with anger. How dare he speak to her in that tone and treat her like that! "Oh yes, innocent Muggles and Muggleborns are maimed and tortured by that megalomaniac every day, but let's just forget about that and focus on how some of his followers are supposedly coerced into following him!"
"You self-righteous bitch!" Pansy screeched as she made a lunge for Hermione, only to be restrained by Blaise and Crabbe. "You know nothing of the Dark Lord's methods! How dare you assume to know anything, you pathetic mudblood! To be perfectly honest with you at the risk of losing friends, I don't hate all mudbloods, Granger; I reserve that for you specifically. You walk around here like some goddamned queen of witches when you're nothing more than an overly ambitious slag that happened to fall in with Potter."
"Ah, the ultimate insult" Draco drawled under his breath as he watched the color drain from Hermione's face.
"Shut up, Parkinson!" Harry barked over the gasps and tittering of the other students, to which Pansy shrieked in laughter while Hermione was positively shaking with fury. She was quickly reaching her limits, usually she could retrain herself and one more word from the pug-faced witch would likely send her over the edge.
Through her laughter, she managed, "That's right, Potter. Defend her honor she's nothing without you, you know."
Those present would later claim that time had slowed as Hermione launched herself at the Slytherin girl and connected her fist firmly to her jaw. Most males watched in morbid fascination as the two alpha females proceeded to pummel each other barbarically as wands lay forgotten. All it took was an accidental bump from Theodore Nott into the back of Ron Weasley to set the boys to brawling.
"SILENCE!" McGonagall bellowed over the fray. "Each one of you will sit down at once. Detention for each of you! Your behavior is shameful, especially yours Miss Granger. You are supposed to be setting a good example for your peers and this type of behavior is beyond unacceptable. We will conclude this session with no further incident. You have been warned. Do I make myself clear?" she finished severely and then gave them a long talk on the importance of setting aside petty differences and Inter House unity. The class resumed, while Hermione nursing a bruised elbow from having it collide with a desk and Pansy with a cut lip, also from a wayward desk; the furniture having caused more harm in the end then the students did to each other.
Even through the fights, Draco had been studying his nails, looking at the lines along his palms and the specks of ink that he had yet to wash off of his fingertips. When the head of Gryfinddor called upon him to answer the questions, a collective breath was held as the Slytherins waited for his quick wit to put those impure or traitorous in their places. The students in the house of the Crimson Lion looked positively mutinous, as if they dared him to say anything cheeky. Those of the other two houses just looked fearful.
"What can I say;" he drawled, "Naturally, power is what is most important to me. I like flying, dueling, the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Potions and long romantic walks on the beach."
There was a tense pause as a few students chuckled at his sarcastic wit. He was silent and McGonagall looked at him imploringly. "What do you dislike, Mr. Malfoy?" She knew that she was asking for more trouble but she was trying to be fair.
"Cauliflower" he answered simply, to which Crabbe and Goyle laughed low and stupidly.
"You have nothing else to say, Mr. Malfoy?" Her face betrayed her skepticism.
"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." Draco stated finally to the utter amazement of his classmates.
McGonagall's eyebrow shot toward her hairline and she struggled to keep her mouth from gaping open, but she made no comment. Disaster had been averted. Professor McGonagall breathed a sigh of relief and finished the class. "Now for tomorrow, I want a few paragraphs written about your partner. That is all, you may go to Dinner now."
He gathered his books slowly, earning bewildered glares from friend and foe alike. Draco was not expecting a hand to pull him back behind the stragglers and to hastily shove a note into his hand. Hermione gave him a rather scathing glare over her shoulder as she briskly made her way to the Great Hall.
A little bemused, he read the note. "Charms tutoring tonight. Six sharp. Don't be late."
He let an evil smile grace his pale features. "So tonight, is it mudblood?" He thought wryly. "Alright, tonight it is then." And he stalked off to eat and to tell the Slytherins what they wanted so badly to hear in class about the Gryffindors. It would not do to let his peers think that he had gotten soft, even if he would not have said he hated the Gryffindors. There were a few other people who he thought of with loathing, but most of them were not in that house.
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Hermione had a plan; it was simple and to the point, and she was going to get straight to the matter. He would never believe her if she had tried to convince him that he had been imagining things, or that she did not know what he was talking about. These ideas were trivial and pointless. No, she was going to go right at him. She would threaten him; preferably with that Syril wind that he seemed to be so afraid of.
Tonight Hermione Granger planned to take Draco Malfoy, the Prince of Slytherin, head on. 'Things will be different after tonight' she thought with a slow smile. She could not have known how correct she was.
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At 5:58 exactly Draco showed up at the classroom door with Hermione sitting in the half glow that hung there as the sun showed its last flutters of light. He approached her apprehensively.
"Now that you are here." The door shut behind him abruptly, from Hermione, who did not even have her wand in her hand and he jumped slightly. 'Alright, now she is not playing fair, but two can play at that game and I have been playing it that way since the day I was born.' He thought as he watched her.
"I can get down to the lesson." Her words were normal but her voice was cold and scratching. "Sit." She demanded.
"I prefer to stand, Granger." He strangled out her name.
"I am your teacher while you are here and I am telling you to sit down before we begin the lesson!" Her voice began to rise. He looked at her wickedly. 'Well here I go,' he thought gleefully.
"I don't have to listen to a stuck up mudblood bitch like you! I will tell my Father everything and there is nothing you can do to stop me! You are not the boss of me! If I had things my way I'd…"
"You'd what, Ferret boy? Well things aren't your way, they never will be your way because you are just a sniveling stupid little worm compared to your father, even if he is a Deatheather at least he has some form of intelligence. You will never compare to him!"
She went on. "All you ever do is what people expect of you. You have no soul, and you are the worst kind of evil. You are the kind of person who licks the Dark Lord's boots because he is too afraid to do anything else. You, Draco Malfoy, are nothing!"
His calm almost made her flinch.
"Too afraid am I? Nothing am I? If I had things my way I would do thisss…" He raised his wand and uttered, "IMPEDIMENTA! CRUCIO!" and to his slight surprise she fell over on the desk with a look of pain on her face before she became unconscious.
'Great! Now you've done it, you fool' Draco thought; knocked out the Head Girl, best friend to the Infamous Scar Head with a curse from Voldemort's new how-to book.
At first he stood there, again waiting for her to arise and hex him into oblivion but there she lay, a mess of frizzy hair and sharp angled shoulders, her wand nowhere in sight so, of course, it would look like he had attacked her when her defenses were down.
His survival instincts kicked in and he ran…straight into the barrier that still held around the room and he fell onto his back, hard. Draco lay there for a long time, a little dazed and now a little calmed. It was not a question of what would his father do in this situation; from now on it would be what will I do? Having already ascertained that running is not an option, he began to wonder what he would do. Not Lucius, but Draco. Father would likely beat the girl into a pulp and then cast an invisibility charm on himself for the morning and wait for someone to dismantle her charm so he could make his perfect escape. Draco consoled himself with the thought that at least she wouldn't run to Dumbledore the moment she woke up. Blackmail is a wonderful thing, and having that bit of invaluable information about her new powers would definitely aid him in his future endeavors with Hermione Granger.
So what was plan B? He arose slowly, letting the dizziness and pain wash over him like rain before he turned to the girl. Draco carefully lifted her up and placed her on the desk and then took off his cloak and shirt. He bundled up his shirt and put it beneath her head, careful not to get his fingers tangled in her wild hair and then he casually covered her with his cloak.
The classroom did have a fire place so he dragged the desk over slowly with her on it trying to make as little noise as possible and then lit the fire with his wand. The curse caused very little pain but it rendered the receiver unconscious for at least two hours. This was one of the spells that he had glanced over before getting to the more harmful and nauseating chapters in the back of the books of Purification, and for some odd reason it had stuck in his mind, having never heard of it before. He never thought that he would have been using it though, in the very least on the Mudblood.
He watched her face in the firelight and sighed. He was in deep shit whenever she chose to wake up, he mused, but he might as well enjoy the silence for a while. Hermione's nose had began to bleed again and she awoke to a smell that was very different then she was used to but familiar all the same and to feel someone lightly dabbing at her upper lip.
"Uhh…" She breathed out slowly. Hermione could hear someone move quickly and then silence. "Malfoy?" Silence.
"I know you are there, now tell me why my head is spinning…"
"I hit you with a curse." He said simply without any emotion in his voice.
"Right…Now hand me that wet cloth." She sat up slowly and the world whirled.
"Your head will only hurt for about another ten minutes…and then you can report me."
"Huh?" She asked squinting at him before a wave of nausea over took her and she began to fall off of the side of the desk.
Unthinkingly, Draco stepped forward and caught her before she toppled over. He just stood there with her in his arms and she in the onslaught of dizziness and pain clutched her arms around his bent form, her hands in fists and her nails digging into her palms.
Hermione gasped out a lash of pain and then he lifted her up back onto the table and held her as her convulsion subsided. Her eyes were red and held tears. "What did you hit me with?"
"A curse of my…umm father's. It's new, but it will cause no lasting damage." He retained his cool demeanor even thought he was petrified about what would happen to him. In the silence of the room while Hermione had been knocked out, Draco had come to a few decisions. First, he had decided to allow her to report him, he even resentfully admitted that he deserved at least detention for cursing her. Secondly, he would not tell his father about the Mudblood's power. It was getting to the point where, if he told Lucius, he would be angry at Draco for having withheld the information for this long, so Draco was essentially saving his own skin as well as the Mudblood's. This small act of defiance thrilled him, and he became slightly concerned at what he would do to obtain this feeling again. These choices were good ones, he felt; although he certainly wouldn't share them with the now conscious girl before him. In order to maintain the upper hand in their, he shuddered, relationship, it was essential for her to think he'd run to Lucius at any given moment.
Hermione slowly raised her head and then when she noticed that he was holding her dropped her arms from around him. Strangely missing the comfort. She softly shock her head, and came to her senses, but still leaned against his shoulder as he sat beside her on the desk in front of the fire.
"It was supposed to be you the one getting hurt tonight" Hermione said glumly. If Draco was surprised, he didn't show it. He had had a feeling that she was going to try to intimidate him. "I was going to threaten you," she said miserably. "You can't tell about the magic, alright?"
Something about the pleading tone of her voice made his chest clench uncomfortably and he nodded.
"It really is a big deal, isn't it?" He said staring at his hands. The hands that held the wand that could kill, the hands that almost did in a fit of anger. He felt so disgusted with himself. Draco was not prepared for her next question.
"Can I blackmail you?"
"Huh?" Regaining his composure, he spoke more eloquently. "Blackmailing, Granger, isn't a very Gryffindor thing to do, now is it?"
"You cursed me with an unknown curse that, despite what you say, could cause a multitude of problems. Tell no one of what you saw that night, and I'll never breathe a word of the curse."
He quickly tossed the idea around his brain and was satisfied. "Alright," he replied as they reluctantly shook hands.
Hermione quickly stop leaning on him and glanced around the room. "Why are you still here?" She asked him suspiciously. "I would think that you would have been long gone by now. Were you waiting for me to wake up so I could throttle you and then we'd both be in trouble?"
"Something like that," he said with a roguish grin. Inwardly he cringed at the look on her face, and the room became a little colder. "I tried…I tried to leave but the charm…" He gestured casually at the door. "The charm held even though you were knocked out. That is really is some spell, and seriously, discovering the way to do wandless magic."
He sneered. "Potter and Weasley must be so proud."
She snorted at this statement. "I'm sure they would, but they have no idea"
"What? I thought that you guys knew everything about each other, straight down to knicker size." She glared at this. "Right bloody friend you are, keeping secrets like this."
"You are one to talk about how to treat people, Malfoy. I have my reasons and we all have secrets. You can't expect me to believe that you share everything with your precious Slytherins?"
He stared into the fire letting the flickering flames take hold of his thoughts.
"Speaking of which, why don't we complete those stupid paragraphs McGonagall assigned us for tomorrow, eh?" Draco stood and walked slowly over to his bag, gathered it and looked around for hers that she had put on a bookcase to one side of the room. He handed over some paper and quills and she accepted them wordlessly.
"First thing…full name."
"Hermione Jane Granger"
"Yours?"
"Draco … Malfoy"
She turned to look at him as he fiddled with his quill. "Don't you have a middle name?"
"Itsadn."
"Pardon?"
"Its Aidan!" He repeated.
"Well there is nothing to be ashamed about! It's a normal name compared to your first." Hermione coughed.
"Hey! I like my name and that's not why I…Oh never mind!" He crossed his arms and fumed. Hermione looked at him, wrote the name out and then realized why he was upset.
"Your initials spell out...DAM!" Hiding her grin she moved onto the next question while thinking how appropriate that was.
"Age?" "18"
"I'm 17," he replied a little sullenly, even though she refrained from gloating.
"Biggest fear?" 'Well that is a loaded question,' she thought and they sat there, not speaking while both thought about this and what they would be willing to share.
Hermione knew what her biggest fear was. Her nightmares were haunted by visions of her classmates being killed by Deatheaters and, possibly even worse, by students that she had gone to school with. Hermione was terrified to think that her friends or people that she knew may one day kill each other. There really was no way to describe this fear but she tried, stammering. Honestly, he had agreed to keep the colossal secret of her wandless magic, surely she shouldn't be nervous about something as trivial as this.
She steeled herself. "I am terrified of the day when I won't be able to save my friends." He looked at her. "I can see them die in my dreams and I can do nothing about it. That is why…with this new magic…I…well I hope to help them." She avoided his face and made little stars in the margin of her parchment.
Draco felt something inside of him shift. Hermione had told him something like this and it made him respect her just a little bit more. She was trying her best to confront her fears and to protect the ones that she loved and he could not even do a thing about his own terrors.
"Well at least you are trying to do something about it." His gray eyes stared into the fire with a consuming look of being hollow.
"You can…you know, do something about your fears…Draco." He looked up at her took a deep breath and let the words spill off of his tongue like water bursting from a damn.
"I am afraid of my father, everyone looks up to him but I know what he really is. I am afraid to fight against what I am to become, but even more afraid to let it all happen. I cannot do anything at all! Don't you see?"
His face became contorted in anger. "I am just their puppet and if I tried to be myself, or stand up to them I would be cut loose. I would be killed…"
Her eyes held her sadness and he turned away from her to gather his books.
"Are you running again Draco? You can't hurt me anymore then you already have, tonight at least, so stay! We are not through here!" Her voice rose angrily.
"Alright! What do you want from me Granger?" He stormed back over to stand by her side, fists clenched tightly, chest heaving in anger.
She recited the last question on the list aloud without looking at the sheet.
"What did you learn about your partner and how are they different to you?"
He glared and retorted with malice. "I learned that Mudbloods are evil bastards who don't know when to keep their noses out of other people's lives! But oh wait a second, I have known that for years, and you will never change. Now get this damned charm off! You can't keep me here forever!" He yelled at her.
"We are still not through…" She said tensely. "I learned that Draco Malfoy is more then what I thought he was…he is still a right twit, but beneath that horrible exterior lies someone who is just as frightened if not more so then I am. I learned that Draco does in fact have a heart, a cold one but it is still there and that we are not as different as I thought we were. I learned that Draco is funny in his own, slightly caustic way, and that he quotes Nietzsche." She rose from the desk handed him back his shirt and cloak because in his t-shirt his looked to be shivering, but whether it was from cold or anger she was not sure, and then gathered her books, removed the charm and went back up to their dorm with the form of Draco following her like a ghost in body and reactions but with tangles of thoughts tripping through his mind that each silently urged him to say good night to her.
He shut his door without a word, anger gone but what it left in its wake was more terrible then anything he had ever let himself experience. That night Draco felt the bittersweet tendrils of guilt and sadness stroke his heart.
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Hey Cake! SEEE! Almost ten pages! I am a crazy girl! I could not for the life of me find Draco's middle name and Aidan means…ahhh goes to look it up…again….the little fiery one, or help, or little fire! Lol, I wanted to use an name with I so that his initials spelled Dim but I think Dam is better.
Anyways for those who don't know,
Insipid means…lacking significance or impact
Megalomaniac is a Pathological egotist…these are some words that I had to look up the definitions for because I did not know their meaning! Carla is so smart! And see I learn stuff too!
Dylan Thomas writes poetry…ahhh I had to look him up also and Nietzsche is a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of traditional morality and Christianity. Yes I copied and pasted that from a site…I do remember learning about him vaguly in Highschool so yeah….This just goes to show how much more learned Draco and Hermione's characters are compared to me!
Carla my Caka Beta is the best! She added such great stuff! Like reworking the good and evil debate. She did and does wonders for the mysterious Blaise, and the end bit with Draco thinking about blackmailing her…THAT WAS BRILLIANT! You are GREAT! I cannot wait to write more, and I hope you can stand a chapter a week…we shall see what happens and thank you to whoever read this and the story!
PS Dedicated to Jaru, Goddess of Angels, Lauren, CAKA BETA CAKA, and as Always Punny-chan, Tara who makes me happy!