Chapter Twenty-Seven
Hermione and Jalena were directed to the left staircase by another house elf. Hermione cringed, but vowed to wait until later to vent her spleen on the matter. The two girls levitated all of Hermione's things up the stairs, where they came face-to-face with a single, short hallway containing nothing but a door at the far end.
"That's simple enough to find, I suppose," Hermione relented, heading for the door.
"I wonder where the master is?" Jalena said aloud.
Hermione's hand shot back from the doorknob, as though it had been shocked. What if he was IN there? Right now?
Sensing her reluctance, Jalena knocked lightly on the door. Getting no reponse, she pushed it open and peered around. "Woah!"
"What?" Hermione exclaimed.
Jalena pushed the door open the remainder of the way, and Hermione understood… she hadn't made an exclamation because she'd seen Draco… but rather, because she'd seen the master bedroom.
The room was huge! Now Hermione saw that the only reason there had only been one door in the hallway up the left staircase was because the bedroom really took up that much space.
The girls made their way inside with all of Hermione's belongings and set them all down on the bed with a thump...
More like a giant-sized sleigh than a bed, Hermione thought to herself, peering at the velvet hangings, which were way too heavy for the summertime.
Jalena immediately set about exploring where all the clothes were supposed to go. One side of the bedroom seemed devoted entirely to a walk-in closet that was nearly as big as Hermione's old bedroom back when she'd lived with her parents. One half of the closet was full with men's clothing and shoes, hats, scarves and robes.
"I suppose everything goes in here, then," Jalena concluded, gesturing to the empty half of the walk-in. Hermione made her way inside with a pile of clothes, making sure to tuck away her unmentionables before anyone should see them. She stole a few glances to the other side of the closet. It looked pretty well lived-in for a place so new. Out of one corner, she spotted Draco's green and silver Slytherin scarf poking out from under a jacket.
In an act of defiance, she rummaged through the pile until she found her Gryffindor scarf. With contumacious satisfaction, she hung the scarf on one of the hooks on the far wall. Satisfied that it was visible enough, she smirked to herself.
Putting everything back was a chore. And once they were done, they still had to explore the bathroom and put the rest of Hermione's essentials in there.
The master bathroom happened to be on the other side of the bedroom, another huge area with a huge jacuzzi off to the left. The taps to the sink were brass elephants – something that reminded Hermione of Dora.
"I think that's everything," Jalena concluded, hands on her hips and looking somewhat satisfied with herself. "A job well done."
"Are you leaving?" Hermione accidentally demanded, her eyes windening with the fear of the thought.
Jalena looked at her weirdly, "I work for your grandmother, miss, and everyone in her household." She looked sheepish for some reason, as she uttered those words.
"Oh, of course," Hermione murmured. She hadn't been thinking… of course Jalena would leave!
"Will you be alright?"
The question was asked with such sincerity that Hermione actually paused to consider it for a moment. Would she be alright? Well, one could only hope, but at this point there was really no way to tell.
"Yes, of course," she answered nonetheless.
.
.
Draco did not appear that night, though Hermione saw telltale signs that he'd been there. After several unsuccessful attempts to get the house elves to accept wages and a few turns about the mansion, Hermione began to grow a little more at ease.
She refused dinner, instead deciding to try and memorize as much of the house as was possible, to avoid getting lost in her own home (an embarrassing thought, to be sure!). She kept noticing Black family heirlooms appearing in all shapes and sizes around the place – no doubt gifts or inheritances Dora had passed on to her now that she was married. Guilt welled like fear in Hermione's chest and burned like someone had put a candle inside her lungs.
Little things happened to show Draco had been there: A book appeared on one of the desks in the library, or a set of curtains were pulled shut. In one case, a white button-up collared shirt appeared on the bedpost in the master bedroom, destroying Hermione's theory that it was really a mischievous house elf playing mind games with her.
She fell asleep that night in between the cold satin sheets of the giant bed, alone and listening to the rain.
.
.
Draco wasn't really sure what he was doing in there. It was the one place he didn't want to be… yet, was it curiosity that drew him in?
He sunk down into the huge armchair astride the cherry-wood desk in order to compose a letter. Hermione was still asleep; He could hear her irregular breathing and occasional movement between the sheets, signifying she wasn't getting a very peaceful rest.
In fact, he was just filling up his second cup of coffee when she began to rouse from her sleep. He looked up from the piece of parchment he was composing, at his wife, who really was in desperate need of a hairbrush at that moment.
She rose into a seated position; Her eyes looked around frantically for a moment until they found his. She regarded him carefully, making sure still to never make eye contact.
"Um, good morning," she attempted pleasantly, drawing the sheets over herself a little more, as if to try hiding the little skin her conservative sleepwear did actually show.
Draco grunted. Unexpectedly, an owl flew through the window and landed on the writing desk.
"Dizzy?" Hermione murmured in recognition. Apparently, Dora really DIDN'T want her granddaughter without any of the comforts she had enjoyed at Black Manor… including her own personal owl.
Draco took the letter from Dizzy and shooed the bird away. Hermione frowned and studied the man at the writing table for a moment as the disgruntled owl flapped from the room, back into the rain outside.
"For you," he muttered, levitating the piece of folded parchment over to her. He still hadn't made eye contact.
Hermione caught the letter in both hands – just her first name was scrawled across the front in some undeniably familiar print: Harry had written her!
Eagerly, she tore open the letter. It was disappointingly short, though the words written there held a much greater happiness than she'd anticipated:
.
Hermione-
Ginny, Ron and I are going to Diagon Alley to go shopping for our last year of Hogwarts. McGonagall's sent your letter to the Weasleys since you were moving around so much. We have it here. I thought you might want to get away for a little while. Want to join us? Just show up at the Burrow at quarter of noon!
-Harry
P.S. Ron told me to add that if Malfoy was doing anything disrespectful to you, he will wring his neck.
.
"Coffee?" Draco offered, pushing a cup toward the end of the desk.
Hermione looked at him weirdly. Not that he noticed; His eyes were still rooted to the letter he was composing.
"Indeed," she finally decided, rising from the bed and taking the cup, still making sure to leave at least two feet between herself and Draco at all times. "Pass the cream, please."
He pushed the little silver pitcher across the table in her direction, eyes never leaving the surface of the desk. She was glad that way, though; With a little smile, Hermione took the cup of coffee with her into the walk-in closet to dress herself for the day, thinking to herself that if she and Draco were able to maintain such impersonal conversation, while remaining civil… she could do this.
She could do it.
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Author's Note: A bit of a sooner update for you! Hope everyone is enjoying the snow - unless you don't get snow. Er... yeah. I have always been fascinated by snow, personally.
Thanks a ton to tfobmv18, , AerintheWhiteKnight, InvisibleLilacNights, MyLookOfDenial., and gitgit for the reviews!! Seems the lot of you were disappointed at the lack of Malfoy in the last few chapters. I shall probably have to devote a chapter entirely to our favorite Slytherin soon. Thanks for the tips!