DISCLAIMER: NOT MINE,
A/N:
Guys! Thank you for all your reviews! I really appreciated it!
Annabeth-Artemis- it's okay, dear! Thank you, ThatAvidReader616-Not abandoning this yet ;) , Bicycletracks-I am too, but I just can't figure out how it would play out yet! :), Adams- OMG! Yay! I love Maxon, don't you? Thank you :), I'llCatchYouIfYouFall-I'll keep that in mind. Thanks! :), Alaina- Thank you!, Stormy33- thank you! :D, Elased- yeah, that's why she's not that famous in this fic :), Ramyfan- Andy's eccentric, but she's good at her job and she doesn't flirt with out favorite blonde, so he keeps her ;) thank you :), MusicAngel913-thank you! I won't :)
hope you guys review again, this made me really happy!
Chapter Eleven
November 7-Flashback
"Why are we even doing this again?" Blaise whispered from beside him, flashing the blonde an irritated look.
Draco frowned, pulling the Italians head down even farther into the bush, just in case they would be spotted. "Shut up, I'm trying to listen to them!"
"Oh for the love of Merlin!" Blaise said in exasperation, as he unstuck a prickly branch from his cashmere sweater. "We're in Hogsmeade. In a bush. Hiding from the rest of the student population. I know that you're bonkers but this is too much, even for you. So explain now before I stand up and holler and alert whoever it is that you're eavesdropping into that you're spying on them."
Draco momentarily glanced away from the laughing couple sitting on the bench near them. He narrowed his eyes at the Italian, and whispered vehemently, "You wouldn't dare."
"You know I would."
"Just keep your mouth shut, Zabini. You owe me." Draco reminded him, threatening with his eyes. Any other man would have balked at his glare, but Blaise, who had been on the receiving end of the famous Malfoy stare since they were old enough to crawl, was immune to it.
"I do. But when I told you that I'd trade a favor off for your potions essay, I didn't mean that you could drag me into shrubbery without even a proper explanation." Blaise said indignantly, eyes showing Draco that his threat before was not a bluff.
"I saved you from Uncle Sev's wrath. But fine." Draco huffed. "We're here to spy on Nott. But don't think that you've paid enough for the favor. I want you to do one more thing."
"We're spying on Nott?" Blaise asked, ignoring the blonde's reminder about the favor. "Isn't he on a date with the mudblood?"
"Don't call her that." Draco snapped, frowning even deeper. Blaise raised an eyebrow at the blonde's defense and Draco shrugged, saying, "I have to stop calling her that. Breaking the habit doesn't help when you hear it everywhere."
"Whatever you say, Drake." Blaise said, not entirely convinced. But he let it go. He was used to the blonde's quirks and seriously faulty logic. Especially when it came to Granger.
Draco gave him another glare before he tuned back in to Nott and Granger's conversation. He himself didn't know how this whole spying thing was worth his Hogsmeade visit. But Nott was shady (whoever goes about professing himself fancying Granger, was shady in Draco's books) and Granger, being the bint who usually had a 'Hurt Me' sign on her forehead, wouldn't pick up on anything malicious until it was too late.
It was his job as Head Boy to make sure that the Head Girl didn't find herself incapable of doing work(in situations such as, death, or the like). Granger was usually the one who did both their paperwork. He hated paperwork. That was why he was going to such lengths to ensure her safety, right?
Right.
"I don't like strawberry, actually." Hermione's voice said, surprising Draco because it sounded as if she was giggling. The bookworm never giggled. At least, not in his presence. He frowned at the thought. "I'm more of a chocolate girl."
"Chocolates, eh?" Nott said, chortling. Draco frowned again. What was so funny about a conversation involving chocolates? We're they drunk, or something?
"He's pathetic." Draco whispered to Blaise, while rolling his eyes at Theo.
"You're pathetic." Blaise grumbled, rolling his eyes at Draco.
The blonde was about to retaliate with another threat, but movement from where the couple -Draco flinched in disgust- sat made him turn his head towards them. He saw that they were standing up, and he pulled out a vial from his robes.
"Drink this." He told Blaise.
Blaise held up the potion to his nose, wafting it before recoiling from the putrid smell. "Polyjuice, Drake? Really?"
"i don't see why not." Draco shrugged. "It's the perfect disguise, no one would suspect us if you drink that."
"But why do i have to drink it? It smells worse than Crabbe's did."
"Because you owe me." Draco stated, frowning at the Italian. "If you don't or delay us any longer I'm going to tell Snape that you copied off my work. That's worth about two weeks of cleaning duty. Now, drink up."
Blaise frowned at him, but conceded anyway. What's an hour being polyjuiced to two weeks cleaning anyway, right?
Wrong.
When Blaise opened his eyes, he found that he had shrunk a foot smaller. Draco cast another charm at him, before smiling cheekily at Blaise. Frowning at Draco, he stood up straighter, but then noticed his fingers. Slender, pale, painted fingers.
"What-" he began to say, but then stopped abruptly as he heard the high-pitch drawl. His eyes widened, as suspicion crept up on him. He narrowed his eyes at the smirking blonde, as he slowly looked down.
Merlin, he had boobs.
"I'm a girl!" He all but screeched in a high-pitched whine, and Draco let out a snort. "Malfoy I am going to kill you for this!"
"Yeah, yeah." Draco said, waving his hand dismissively, grabbing Blaise, who was now a very pretty blue-eyed blonde, out of the clump of bushes and onto the road. A few of the students raised their eyes at them, but Draco paid them no mind, struggling to spot Nott and Granger. "You can do that later. We have to catch up to them first!"
"Sometimes, I wonder why I call you my best friend." Blaise said indignantly as he allowed Draco to lead him off to Honeydukes, where the latter had spotted their targets.
"It's because I allow you to copy off me and give you sweets." Draco answered, whispering in his ear as they neared the sweet shop. For any onlookers, they looked like a charming couple, despite the rather indifferent lady. "Now, play along or I'll stop mother from sending me those cupcakes you like."
"But your elves' red velvet is heavenly!" Blaise protested, but smiled a sickeningly sweet smile to Draco to show that he was cooperating. "I won't be able to get them anywhere else!"
"Exactly. Now, cooperate." Draco whispered in Blaise's ear threateningly again.
"Fine, dear." Blaise whispered back, with twice as much venom. The Italian was uncomfortable, to say the least. The clothing that the blonde had transfigured for him was skin tight. He could barely breathe. And heels should have been under the group of 'torture devices' not 'footwear'. Plus, this girl's breasts were the size of melons. They jiggled everytime he so much as moved! "You better give me a year's supply of those cupcakes after this."
"You'll get two, if we manage to go through with my plan successfully." Draco beamed, and Blaise heard the girl behind him swoon.
"And what's the plan, exactly?" Blaise said, smiling brightly back. And the guy walking behind them ran into a lamp post.
"We're going to steal Granger away."
"Steal?" Blaise said, skeptical. He really had to make an appointment for Draco to see a psychiatrist. "And what do you mean by that, pray tell?"
"I mean it exactly as I said." Draco said calmly, opening the shop door and escorting Blaise inside. "Nott's going to have his date cut short. You're going to distract Nott while I distract Granger."
"And we're doing this because?" Blaise said, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow.
"We're saving Theo from involvement with Granger slytherins look out for fellow Slytherins, right?" Draco said, tweaking his reasoning slightly for his polyjuiced friend.
"Keep telling yourself that." Blaise mumbled incoherently, and Draco didn't hear. He had been putting up with the blonde's bullshit about Granger since his first year. The Italian knew that the Malfoy heir wasn't adverse to something even as lowly as stalking and playing dirty when it came to the brunette bookworm. Merlin only knows what happened to the other boys who had the 'audacity and stupidity to like the bookworm', Draco's words, not his. The onoy boy he had been unable to successfully distract (read as: bribe, coerced, extorted) was the Weasley boy, but only because he was thicker than sludge.
Draco started plotting immediately. There was no guarantee that Nott would relinquish his hold on Granger, even with Blaise there to distract the living daylights out of him. He knew that the hairbrush Merielle (French pureblood his parents tried to get him to like last summer) left when their family had stayed at the manor who have some use.
He spotted them at the corner, laughing and goofing off together. When Theo went up and placed a chocolate candy on the brunette's mouth, a flash of rage and something else went inside Draco. How dare he act sweet with Granger? No one was supposed to act sweet with Granger.
Before he knew it, he was walking up to them, dragging Blaise with him and breaking up their little love fest.
He shuddered at the thought.
"Nott, Granger." He said, pasting on a fake smile. "Fancy seeing you here."
"Malfoy," they greeted, happy faces giving him grins. He frowned.
"I thought you didn't want to go to Hogsmeade." Hermione asked, referring to their conversation before.
"I didn't," he said gruffly, "But I had to escort this beautiful maiden around."
He gestured at Blaise. Hermione smiled at his friend and said, "Hi, I believe we haven't met before, I'm Hermione. You must be?"
Blaise gave her a sugary smile (after Draco poked him with his wand) and said, "I'm Bla-"
"Blair Zabineau." Draco said, cutting him off. "She's from France,"
Then, Blaise did the unthinkable. He stepped up and hugged Granger! The italian smirked at him, before releasing the surprised brunette. Draco was going to ban red velvet from ever being made by his elves.
"My, I can't believe I'm meeting you!" Blaise said with fake enthusiasm, holding the bookworm at arms length. "The Hermione Granger! You are as pretty as they say!"
Hermione blushed, "You look beautiful yourself!"
"Don't be silly, dear. You got me beat in that department, this you man must be a lucky man." Blaise gushed. Draco frowned at Blaise.
"Oh, Theo? No! We're just friends." Hermione said before Theo could put a word in. Draco smirked.
"Oh, pity. You look absolutely cute together!" Blaise said, sighing dramatically. Draco internally noted that he was going to feed him his balls when they were done with the plan. "I heard that you're also quite intelligent. Your internship with Gringotts on different minerals was quite famous. I can't believe the properties that you discovered!"
"My, I've never heard that you got accepted on that internship, Granger. And you've worked on silver, too. What a very Slytherin thing to do." Draco said, wondering how Blaise knew and planning to extort information from him later, all while trying to hide his amazement at someone so young getting that particular highly sought out internship.
"Oh, shut up, you." Blaise mocked cooed before Granger let out a scathing retort. "Sometimes, he goes on and on about silver and Green, but he's actually quite allergic to silver."
"That's because my body recognizes that it isn't the best mineral-wise. Platinum is better."
Blaise just laughed as he interlocked their hands, moving on to a new topic. Something about magical creature slavery.
Draco fumed. If Blaise wasn't going to get his filthy hands off her, he would blow a casket. Wasn't the whole point of this intervention to save their slytherin comrade from Granger's clutches? He cast a legilimens on the Italian, and told him just that.
'I'm serving my purpose, right? We're here to stop their little date? I'm just following your orders," Blaise thought to him cheekily, as he continued to chat up Granger.
'Yes, but I'm the one who's supposed to distract Granger! Your job was to flirt with Nott or whatever it is blonde bimbos do to attract a bloke's attention.' Draco projected, but Blaise just smirked.
"Blair, we really should be going." Draco said through gritted teeth.
"But Draco, Hermione and I are still discussing House Elf Rights!" Blaise said out loud, while he projected, 'Go distract Nott, I thought that this was your plan?'.
Draco scowled at them, but he turned towards Nott, giving him an exasperated look, saying, "Females."
Nott just smiled and chuckled. But his eyes never left Granger, "Nah, it's alright, they look adorable when they act like that."
Hermione, hearing this, turned twenty different shades of red and stammered a reply to Blaise. How dare Nott? Making Granger flustered like that? Didn't he have any decency? Draco was the only one allowed to rile her up, in the negative sense, of course. He did not take kindly on Nott making moves on his Head Girl. Wait, what? His? He probably got confunded by some idiot when they were out walking on the streets.
When he talked about this distraction plan, he had envisioned it as him, whisking away Granger from Nott and Blaise distracting their fellow Slytherin until the polyjuice wore off and he turned back to himself. Where he Italian would preferably beat Theo up until he knocked some sense into the idiotic bastard.
"It's almost time for lunch, would you guys like to join us?" Hermione asked, arms linked with Blaise's and a happy smile adorning her features. Figures that talking about house elf liberation fronts could make her this happy.
Wait. Lunch. Draco almost forgot. The polyjuice was wearing off and he hadn't brought a spare since he thought that the who spirit-Granger-away plan would take less than fifteen minutes. They had to go, or Blaise would transform into his less delectable state and Granger was going to start asking questions if that happened.
"We'd love to, but we're meeting with Blaise in five minutes." Draco said, enunciating the five minutes slowly so Blaise would get the idea. Blaise's eyes widened as he untangled himself from Hermione.
"Bye Hermione, it was lovely meeting you. You too, Theo."
"Bye Blair," Hermione said, smiling and waving.
Draco dragged the Italian out of the shop and into a dark alley. As much as it pained Draco to leave the bookworm with the snake, he didn't have a choice.
He'd just come up with another plan later.
Maybe he could just kidnap her.
That would be easier.
November 9
He woke up with a head ache.
And a back ache, and his leg sore and his upper limbs like jelly.
What had he gotten himself into this time? He asked himself as he groaned, not quite opening his eyes because movement made his head ache go up a notch in the pain scale.
He remembered vague flashes. Flying around the Quidditch stadium, scoffing at the lame attempts Hufflepuff did to get the Quaffle from his fellow Slytherins, seeing the snitch. Diving for the snitch. Getting hit by a bludger. Salazar, so that was why he felt like his insides had splintered. He fell off his broom.
That's right, the great Draco Malfoy fell of his broom.
He groaned at the thought. His reputation was probably flushed into ten different toilet bowls by now.
"You're awake." A voice drifted from beside him, he tried to move his head towards the sound, but the pain almost rendered him unconscious.
"I feel like I got clobbered by a troll." He complained loudly, wishing for the mediwitch to come to his aid already. "Where's madame Pomfrey? I want pain potions."
"She's out giving her order list of potions to professor Snape. And ingesting a pain potion would slow down the effects of skelegrow, you know." The voice said. He'd know that know-it-all tone anywhere.
"Granger?" He asked hoarsely, opening his eyes to the familiar ceiling of the hospital wing. "What are you doing here?"
"I got hit by your broomstick and broke my arm." She said curtly, and he imagined her frowning at the thought. Which made him guffaw. "Of course, after you did that spectacular fall."
He stopped laughing. He heard her smugness, but was there also a hint of worry there? He decided to focus on the worry. "Worried about me, were you?" He asked her cheekily.
"Of course I was." She huffed, but then her tone changed, light and playful as she said, "Who would I get to bully the underclassmen into following the rules if you died a horrible death?"
"I'm glad my bullying skills are being put into good use." Draco chuckled. "But you've got to admit that it's my looks that gets them doing what I want."
"Yeah, if you mean that you scare them by your hideousness. Then, yes."
"Come on Granger, you've got to admit that you find me attractive." He said, putting as much arrogance as he could into his voice.
"You're right between flobberworms and skrewts in my scale of attractiveness." He heard her snort. Oddly, he was slightly disappointed at this. Bugger, he really did get hit hard by that bludger.
"I hate you."
"As I hate you."
"Did we really just have a conversation that had no trace of malice in it?" He asked, slightly dumbfounded.
"I believe we did." Hermione said, chuckling slightly. "Finally. After one truce and two attempts at friendship,"
"Yeah." He breathed out, chuckling. Not quite believing how natural it was; talking to her. Both of them were sober, and he wasn't working on to advance the halfblood tyrant's mission. He rather liked it this way. Nothing was forced. It was refreshing.
"I'd never thought I'd see the day." Draco chuckled. "My ancestors must be rolling in their graves."
Hermione let out a peal of laughter at this. And he found himself laughing too. Her laugh was contagious, and it made him feel like all the good in the world had multiplied tenfold. Two months ago, he wouldn't be caught dead smiling with her, but now, he was full on lauhing with the muggleborn. He couldn't even think of her as a mudblood anymore, not after seeing her blood and her covering up for him. It was all too surreal, and his joke wasn't even that funny, but hearing her laugh made him want to laugh too, and his peals of delighted laughter increased.
He didn't know that it felt this good to laugh.
But of course, as with all great things in the world, a weasel just had to destroy it.
"You!" The redhead fumed, abruptly ending their laughing spell. Tension suddenly coated the air as the youngest weasel turned as red as his hair. "You traitor! First, Nott, then you're acting like you're best mates with Malfoy?"
"Ron," hermione said, voice aghast. And despite the pain, Draco turned his head to look at her. She was shocked, vulnerable under her so called best-friend's intense glare. "What are you talking a-"
"You know what I'm talking about! You went to Hogsmeade with Nott! You didn't tell us." Weasley huffed, frowning at the brunette. "And now you're consorting with the enemy!"
"Ron, I didn't tell you about Theo because I didn't think that it was that important. How did you even find out? You weren't even at hogsmeade!"
Draco smirked at the thought that she didn't find Nott important. Ha, take that, you bumbling bastard snake. Before he knew it, he was grinning from ear to ear, an action which caught the redhead's eye.
"And you, you slimy Slytherin snake! How dare you-"
"What? Talk to her? I don't believe that you're the one who decides who she does or does not talk to." He said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow imperiously.
"Stay away from her! She's ten times better than you'll even be!"
"And I'm a hundred times better that you. So she's-"
"She, is right here." Hermione snapped, and Draco shifted his gaze towards her. She sent him a you're-not-helping glare and he shrugged nonchalantly. "Ronald, stop acting like a child."
"You're taking his side over mine?" The redhead bellowed incredulously, going deeper shade of red.
"No, I-"
"Yes, you are!" The redhead screamed, cutting her off. "You did this before and you're doing it again! You're a traitor! And you're probably whoring around what with the likes of them.
There was silence, and the tension was more than palpable.
Draco was feeling furious. How dare he say that? And to his best friend, of all people! He shifted his fiery gaze, glaring at him. If looks could kill. The weasel would be dead by now.
"Get out." He hissed, two words piercing the silence.
"You have no right to order me around, you-"
"Get out, Weasley." They both turned at the brunette, surprised at her sharp tone. It was icy, and Draco had only ever heard it once before; on the day that she punched him in third year.
"Get out," she said sharply, "You're lucky that I don't have my wand right now, because if I did, I would hex you into the next year."
With that, the weasel turned to leave, sending her one last glare.
And she began to cry.
Rage began to encompass Draco. How dare that poor weasel make his bookworm cry? Wait, what? His? That's the second time he slipped like that. But it doesn't matter. No one, except him, was allowed to do that! The Weasley would pay. Draco envisioned ripping him to shreds a thousand and one times, but Hermione's sobs interrupted his fury. He turned towards her and noticed that she was shaking.
Damn, Weasley.
Slowly, Draco got up, and painfully sat on the chair between their bed. Closer, but not that close.
"You know, Granger, you should have hexed him into oblivion. I would have helped you bury the dead body, if it came to that. Father knows a lot of people at the Ministry who could sort out the mess." Draco mumbled, sitting stiffly. Because of the pain in his limbs and head but mainly because it was uncomfortable, trying to comfort a crying woman. Especially a crying Granger. They should fight this war with crying, emotionally unstable women thrown at the death eaters. Draco was sure thay many of them would balk at the sight of tears. He never had, before though-had the urge to comfort. Usually, when someone cried, he left them alone. But he couldn't leave her alone. Something in him made him do it. "I hate the guy as much as you do. Maybe we could throw a party after we throw his body into the lake."
Hermione sniffled, crossing her arms indignantly. "Ron is just mad because-"
"Oh, stop defending that arse." Draco said, rolling his eyes as he reached for a glass of water on his bedside. "He has no right to shout at you. Last time I heard,I was the only one that had that privilege. He's not your arch enemy, for heaven's sake. The git's supposed to be your bloody boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend. It's just this once. Ron's stressed. I'm sure that he doesn't mean it."
"Stress doesn't excuse that kind of behavior, especially from someone who's supposed to be winning you over, and don't give me that best friend crap, everyone knows he's been trying to get into your pants since sixth year. He's smitten about you. I thought you shared the sentiments."
Hermione snorted. "No. I love Ron." Draco felt a pang of jealousy? No. Impossible, must be one of those wrackspurts Loony Lovegood keeps talking about. "But not like that. Probably never like that. He's just jealous, that's all, I'm sure he'll apolo-""
"Cut the crap, Granger." Draco cut her off. "Weasley is obviously a jerk. Any guy who makes you cry and does nothing about it isn't worth your tears. He's an arse, and you don't deserve him."
"Wow, classic, coming from the arsehole who sends me multiple hexes daily and made me cry for I don't know, the past seven years of my life! I'm not going to dump a friend just because he has anger issues! We can work on that! I love him! And love is about sacrifices, understanding, and not giving up when all you want to do is punch the other person in the face! Just because you have no faith whatsoever, it doesn't mean that other people don't! Stop preaching about Ron when you have nothing to show that you're better than him!"
"Woah, Granger, don't get your knickers in a twist!" Draco snapped, glaring at the fuming brunette. "I wasn't exactly preaching, you know. All I was saying was - and this stays between you and me, mind you, I would say that the meds are the ones talking if you ever let this spill- that you deserve better. You shouldn't have to let him walk all over you just because you think that letting him do so is loving him! It's not, Granger! Love isn't like that! Are you really that naive? Are you really that forgiving? Stop deluding yourself! Wake up, why don't you!"
"I'm not letting him walk all over me." Hermione hissed. "What do you know about love, anyway? Why are you so concerned about me and Ron anyway? As far as I know, our truce, this... Friendship, doesn't include this."
Draco shrugged, his angry expression fading, replaced by one of his signature smirks, "I know enough. Ckntrary to popular belief, I've seen it before. Felt it, even. Despite my father being a complete slave to that bastard now, once upon a time, he loved my mother. And I'm trying to get you to see reason because don't like it. You and him. And because, I've told you before. I'm the only one allowed to shout at you."
"God, you're impossible!" Hermione said, throwing her hands up and giving him one of her signature glares. Then her expression turned soft. "Are you trying to comfort me?"
"No," he scoffed, but as always, she saw right through him.
"You are, aren't you?" She said, giving him a watery smile, and he felt unexplainable relief. Shouldn't he make her cry more? That was his purpose in life, right? To make her suffer. But why did it feel so good, getting her to give him a smile?
He really was going bonkers.
"You're delusional." He said, scoffing as he took another sip of water.
"Thank you." She said, her smile getting brighter.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He said, trying to ignore the happy feelings bubbling inside him. Malfoys don't do happy. All he wanted to do now is to get away from her. As far and as fast as he can. To put some distance between him and the person that made him go all hufflepuff.
But he knew he couldn't do it. He couldn't leave.
Because of the mission, of course.
But somewhere, deep down, he knew that he had a different agenda. He just didn't want to know just yet.
So when he turned to her, he didn't smile back like he wanted to. Instead, he smirked.
"So, when do we murder the weasel?"
A/n: hi guys, I want to put up a chapter that's in another character's pov during the time after Hermione's death. The said person would describe/see in his/her own pov how draco deteriorated after losing Hermione, the problem is, I can't decide which charscter to use. My choices are: Blaise/Luna, Harry/Ginny, Theo or Narcissa, and I'm asking you, lovely readers, to vote/tell me your input. Just pm me or review your choice! :) thank you!