Chapter 1: The Gardens
Hermione wiped her puffy eyes and promptly left through the back door. She snuck across the stone walls and kept to the shadows of Malfoy Manor. She appeared to be in a maze, and, being that she was only ten, she didn't have the slightest clue how to disapparate.
Hermione wandered around for a while before coming to the conclusion that she was hopelessly lost.
At that moment she heard a crack and she spun on her heels. Narcissa was walking towards her, Dobby hot on her trail. He was looking at his feet and glancing nervously around the maze.
"Oh, Dear, what on Earth do you think you're doing?" Narcissa hurried to Hermione and knelt down. She clapped her hands on her cheeks and inspected her face, searching her eyes.
Hermione pulled Narcissa's hands away and stomped her foot indignantly. "I'm running away!" she declared. "Draco's being mean."
Narcissa laughed a bit. "Oh, Sweetie, don't take it personally. Just ignore him, you have just as much right to be in this house as he does. "
Hermione thought for a second and shot a questioning look towards Narcissa.
"Wait a second, how did you know what he said to me?"
Narcissa gave her a knowing smile. "Dobby told me, of course."
Hermione turned to Dobby, who was grinning sheepishly, "Well thank you, Dobby." Hermione said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She then turned back to Narcissa.
"You know what? What would make you feel better? Anything." Narcissa asked Hermione, hoping to cheer her up.
Hermione grinned mischievously. "Well . . . Oooh! Can you make Draco sleep outside?"
Narcissa raised her eyebrows, but, deciding Hermione was going through enough already, she reluctantly agreed to make her only son sleep outside. "If that would make you happy," said Narcissa.
* – * – *
"What? Why the bloody hell would you make me do that?"
Draco's shouts echoed throughout The Manor from his bedroom (Hermione thought he was overreacting a bit) and Hermione snickered just as loud when Narcissa entered the kitchen after telling him Hermione's price for forgiveness.
Hermione laughed so hard she found it difficult to eat her soup – she didn't want it coming out of her nose.
After finishing her dinner, she found herself staring down the grand spiral staircase. Her good mood had begun to wear thin. She needed something to take her mind off things – books and work would definitely take her mind off things.
Hermione stared at the circular room, with it's elegant steps hugging the perimeter. She was so impatient, as to walking 'round the stairs to the bottom, she actually jumped down the space in the center of the tall room and caught herself right near the bottom for a few seconds before gently lowering herself down the few inches left between her stomach and the floor.
She made her way under the belly of the bottom stairs. The very last stair was the tallest (they always had to jump down when they walked the flight) and she was able to stand just beneath it. When Hermione looked under her feet, she saw that the trapdoor had already been activated, and she curiously pried it open. . . .
She almost choked when she saw the all-to-familiar shock of electric blonde hair.
Draco sat in the dark, eating licorice wands from the stash in the corner, which they both agreed was only for emergencies (well at least Draco agreed – Hermione had crossed her fingers). The least he could have done was waited for her.
Hermione silently hopped onto the floor of the small room and placed her tiny fists on her hips while she stared at him accusingly. He didn't notice her for quite a few minutes.
"Ahem."
The half-eaten candy flew out of his hand and hit the far wall. He jumped with fright. Draco looked up, finally acknowledging the presence of another being. Hermione promptly marched over and struck him across the cheek. Hard.
"OW! What the bloody hell would you do that for?"
"You're supposed to be outside!"
"Ow, stop hitting me!"
"You said so yourself that you would sleep out there." Hermione was fuming and the air in the room became stuffy and hot.
"No I didn't!"
"Well . . . you should have! I'm telling Aunt Cissa."
"Don't be a berk, Hermione. And what are you going to tell her, anyway? That I'm sleeping in our secret room instead?"
Hermione realized he was right. She couldn't tell anyone, not even Aunt Cissa, about this room. Draco looked quite proud of himself. Then Hermione got an idea.
"It doesn't matter anyway. I've got my own secret room now. It doesn't matter if this one's let up. It'll only turn back on you."
Draco's smirk faded, and he reluctantly climbed the ladder with the sleeping bag he'd brought down clutched in his arm.
Draco turned back to look at her. "Aside from the fact that my mother would never make me sleep in th-the Gardens, I know almost certainly that you wouldn't let me either!"
"Yes I will."
Draco kept going. "And this isn't even about me, is it?"
"It is."
"Your just taking out all your anger on me!"
"No I'm not."
"Is that it? Am I your little punching sack?"
"Your still sleeping outside, Draco."
"Arrrrgh."
* – * – *
Draco shivered in his sleeping bag. He shrunk down into the bottom of it. Low growls rolled through his mind. He couldn't do this. Not with this kind of fear.
He was just about to hop out of his sleeping bag and make a break for it when another growl split through the night. This time it wasn't only in his head. More growls became louder and more apparent. Louder and louder. . . .
Deafening.
He slowly looked up to see, merely twenty feet away from him, an enormous lime green monster, towering fifteen stories. Slippery ropes of saliva hung from wide, pebbly lips. It's large head was mounted on a slimy neck.
Draco struggled to his feet, still staring at it. He knew he had one advantage – it was blind in one eye. The left one. He still couldn't help it – he shrieked and ran for safety. Why his parents didn't get rid of it when they lived here, he had no idea. All he knew at the moment was that he couldn't stand to be even within a hundred feet of it's foul breath.
It bounded after him, and someone must have woken from his continuous girlish squeals, because suddenly one of the small black windows turned yellow. It stayed that way for a while, and then Hermione came bursting through the enormous front door of The Manor. She had difficulty pushing it open, and then when the monster was practically on top of him, a light grazed Draco's ear and splintered the monster's spine. It's whole back shattered and it fell in a heap on the ground, whimpering.
Hermione was standing, white-faced, inches from him. Her hand was seared. She must have shot lightening from her palm. She suddenly crumpled to the ground, too, clutching her hand.
"It was a Monstrum Veiridis," she said quietly. Her breathing slowed. "And you scream like a little girl." She closed her eyes.
* – * – *
Draco looked down at Hermione's small sleeping body, now safely resting in her own bed.
Narcissa walked in.
"Oh, good, you've healed her," she sighed with relief when she saw Hermione's hand. "Okay. Go back outside, Draco."
"WHAT?"
"You know what I mean. Get me some bandages." She shoved him playfully, but he accidentally rammed into the wall. He rubbed his elbow, which took the brunt of the hit. Narcissa rushed over to him and kissed his elbow. "I'm so sorry, Honey. Now you really need to get those bandages."
Draco reappeared minutes later with a box of BAND–AIDS. Narcissa flicked her wand and mended Draco's elbow before twisting her hand to make the BAND–AIDS hover. She peeled them and stuck them to Hermione's fingers without touching them.
"She's already healed, what'll that do?"
"Draco, these aren't ordinary bandages. I've soaked them in Bloor – it's a blood replenishing potion. She lost quite a bit of it when she did something so dangerous."
"I feel like this is all my fault."
Hermione woke up and sat straighter. "Because it is," she said accusingly.
"If you hadn't made me sleep out – "
"You made me run aw – "
"STOP! Both of you." Narcissa shouted.
They both stopped shouting and separated. Draco and Narcissa left Hermione to sleep, Draco muttering an apology under his breath.
The next morning Hermione asked Dobby to send Draco up to her room. When he arrived Hermione shut door and locked it with a click. Draco jumped in surprise and wondered why she had called him up there. He suddenly wished he'd told his mother where he was going, just in case.
Hermione sat in her chair and motioned for him to sit in the one across from her. He hesitated, which didn't go unnoticed by Hermione, who rolled her eyes. "What do you think I'm going to do? Murder you?" she joked.
Draco forced a nervous laugh at this while slowly backing away. "No, of course not." he said uncertainly, praying that his mother would call them down for breakfast already.
As if she heard his silent prayer, Narcissa called them at that moment to come down for breakfast. Draco practically flew from the room, trying to put as much distance between him and Hermione. Hermione slowly followed, glaring at Draco's retreating figure.
Draco arrived at the kitchen slightly out of breath. Narcissa turned to her son with a concerned expression on her face. "Draco, sweetie, what's wrong?"
Draco looked up at his mother with a dazed expression on his face. "I think Hermione is trying to kill me."
Narcissa laughed at her sons ignorance. "Draco, Hermione called you up to her room today to tell you that your father and I are buying you guys a puppy!" Narcissa exclaimed.
A smile lit up Draco's face, "Oh, in that case I should probably go apologize to Hermione."
Hermione, who had been listening to the whole conversation from outside the kitchen, quickly retreated up the stairs so Draco wouldn't see her. She stood on the third step waiting for Draco to appear. When she saw him coming she slowly walked down the remainder of the steps so Draco thought she was just coming down the stairs.
"Hi, Draco where you looking for me?" Hermione asked nonchalantly.
"Yeah, I just wanted to apologize for how I acted before." Draco said looking down at his shoes.
Since he was so busy studying his shoes he didn't see the smirk growing on Hermione's face. "What are you talking about?" she asked feigning ignorance.
Draco looked up and Hermione quickly concealed her smirk. "I...I... Let's just go eat breakfast."
Hermione and Draco shoveled down their pancakes and bacon eager to go pick out their new puppy. As soon as they finished the got into the car and drove to the pet shop.