A/N: I'm on time with an update for once! Thank you, once again, for my fabulous reviews. I really am overwhelmed at such a positive response. You really are making this writing journey such an amazing time for me, and I can't thank you enough.
We actually make some good progress in this chapter, the story is moving forward, but I'm not going to spoil it for you.
So now, I'll let you read the aftermath of that scandalous article...
xBx
~ Chapter 13: One Step Back, but Two Steps Forward ~
At the Slytherin table, Pansy Parkinson once again interrupted Draco's peaceful breakfast. However, this time it wasn't in her irritating whine that she greeted him, but in an angry snarl.
"Explain!" She demanded, standing over his shoulder and glaring down at him.
Draco looked up from his breakfast, eyebrows raised. "Would you like to expand? What exactly are you wanting me to explain to you?" He asked, dryly.
Pansy narrowed her eyes, and looked close to breathing fire, "The real reason you broke up with me." She seethed.
"Ah," Draco gave a nod, putting down his cutlery and clasping his hands together.
"Lets see: you were clingy, possessive, you did not respect my personal space and that seriously pissed me off. You don't get subtle hints, and you ignore plain requests and demands: that also pisses me off, by the way. And your voice; I got sick and tired of listening to your constant whine. For future reference, you are much more tolerable when your voice sounds like it is now. You might want to try and find a happy medium though, as most people do not appreciate being snarled at." Draco told her.
Pansy started breathing loudly, her nostrils flaring.
"I can see from your reaction, that wasn't the answer you were hoping to hear." Draco commented lightly, returning to his breakfast.
"Maybe you can try the truth, this time, Draco." She breathed, her voice shaking with rage.
Draco was starting to lose his cool with the insufferable female. "Parkinson, those were the facts: just because you don't like what you hear, doesn't mean that what you hear isn't the truth." He told her.
In response, Pansy slammed down a glossy magazine on the table in front of him.
"Explain." She snarled at him, again.
Draco looked down, and saw Hermione Granger's face looking up at him from the cover of the latest Witch Weekly. Draco was completely lost now.
"Why are you giving me this?" He demanded.
"Read it." Pansy told him. Draco rolled his eyes.
"Why would I want to read an article about Granger?" he asked.
"Just do it!" Pansy told him, opening the magazine to the spread about Hermione, and directing him to the final section, "Just read that bit. And then explain."
Draco grumbled, but bent to read as it was the only way he was ever going to get rid of the nagging female.
Draco scoffed at the presumption of a love-quadrangle: this was Granger they were talking about! Sure, a love-quadrangle would be believable if someone like Pansy was at the centre of it, but Granger? This magazine was trash; he was surprised how many witches believed what was written in it. He rolled his eyes at the mention of Harry Potter – of course she was linked with Potter, when had she not been?
Draco quirked his eyebrows at the mention of Richard Alden: Interesting, he thought, Is this the mystery muggle who gave Granger that ostentatious engagement ring, who she's desperately trying to keep secret? He wondered.
But then he read the last name involved in this supposed quadrangle, and his intrigue disappeared swiftly, replaced by horror and rage.
He slammed the magazine closed and scrunched it in his fist.
"Are you bloody kidding me? This magazine is unreliable trash: I'm surprised you believe half the stuff that's written, Parkinson. But believing this? Even the Quibbler wouldn't print something that ridiculous." Draco ranted, before pushing back from the table and storming from the hall: Thank Merlin he had a free period, he seriously needed to calm down.
###
Hermione was sat on the couch, staring into the fire. The horrified look had yet to leave her face when she heard the painting slam – she guessed Draco had seen the little exposé. She closed her eyes, and waited for his wrath.
As soon as Draco spotted her, sitting with her eyes closed, he stormed over an threw the magazine he was still gripping onto the coffee table in front of her.
"What the hell is this, Granger?" He shouted.
Hermione opened her eyes, and once again found herself staring at the front cover of Witch Weekly.
"That would be the latest exposé: 'The Golden Trio: Where Are They Now?' Apparently, week one is all about me." She said, dryly.
"You think this is funny?" Draco demanded, "What the hell were you thinking?"
Hermione looked up at him in shock, "Are you Kidding?" she demanded back.
"You really think I'm responsible for this? You think that after going out of my way to avoid all the stares and mutterings; after spending all my fee time practically hiding out in here, I'm going to go and talk to a magazine? 'Witch Weekly' no less, which I despise!" She shouted, losing her patience quickly.
"Well how else would they come up with this crap?" He yelled at her.
Hermione gave him a scathing look, "They're journalists, Malfoy. It's part of their job description. And my history with Harry and Ron isn't exactly a secret is it? Everyone knows what we got up to at school, and plenty seem to have a good idea of some of what happened last year, despite how we've never confirmed anything. It's not exactly difficult to surmise my actions the past couple of months from the photographs they've managed to get of me."
Draco sighed with frustration and threw himself into a chair.
"I understand you're pissed off at your mention in the piece." Hermione told him, slowly calming down, "And I'm not exactly happy about the article either. But I suppose I should have expected it." She sighed.
Draco looked at her incredulously, "Are you kidding? How could expect something as ridiculous as that?"
Hermione shrugged, "It's a women's gossip magazine." She stated, "It specialises in ridiculously scandalous love affairs. And what could be more scandalous than pairing you and I?" She asked him in a matter-of-fact tone, before shaking her head and continuing with a sigh, looking back into the fire.
"Linking me with Harry was a given: they never get tired of that one. And if you think about it, even pairing the two of us isn't much of a stretch for them: It will be common knowledge about us being Heads, I mean neither of us are under the radar are we? Both coming together from opposite sides of the war, you can't get more scandalous than that. Then there are our current living arrangements, which aren't a secret: this new set up will have had to have been approved by the Board of Governors, it will have been known for months. No one knows what goes on in here, because no one else is allowed in here. Add to that the fact that our dynamic has changed this year: we don't fight in the hallways anymore; we're actually quite civil. Mix that with a severely over-active imagination and you have the biggest love-scandal of the century. Of course they're going to print it, regardless of whether it's true or not, it will be a big seller."
Hermione put her head in her hands, "I can live with gossip about that. But what's worried me is how they know about Richard, and what else they know." She muttered quietly. The last thing she needed was a story of an arranged muggle marriage hitting the press.
###
The rest of Hermione's week was a nightmare, thanks to the Witch Weekly article: the whispers and stares had increased tenfold, even some of her teachers were looking at her curiously, especially in those classes that she had with Draco. Professor Vector gave the pair curious looks during their next Arithmancy class, as they purposefully chose seats at opposite sides of the classroom, wearing matching scowls.
Potions had been unbearable; it was their first class after the article had circulated at breakfast. Hermione had arrived at the classroom first; not wanting to arrive together and fuel the rumours, Draco had followed five minutes behind. Hermione wasn't particularly happy, buy Draco looked furious still, when he entered the room and sat as far away from Hermione as possible, but taking the time to shoot her an infuriated glare as he passed.
Slughorn chuckled at the sight, "Oh dear, lover's tiff already?" He joked, causing some of the class to giggle and Hermione to groan in frustration.
The gossip didn't die down over night, and by the time the four Heads had their meeting with McGonagall, both Hermione and Draco had had enough. Unfortunately, they were the last two into the office: Luna and Zacharias had taken the same seats as in their previous meeting, leaving the middle two for Hermione and Draco.
The two heads sat down without looking at each other, turning slightly away from the other, arms folded across their chests.
McGonagall looked faintly amused at something, but mercifully kept quiet. The same couldn't be said for Albus, who smiled down from his portrait.
"I'm glad you could make it," Albus said genially, inspecting his fingernails with feigned nonchalance, "We began to think you were too busy putting your tower to good use."
Hermione made a noise somewhere between a humourless laugh and a strangled cry of frustration, through lightly sealed lips.
McGonagall raised her eyebrows, "Are you alright, Miss Granger."
"Mmm hmm" Hermione through closed lips and a tight smile, not trusting herself to speak.
"I'm surprised Witch Weekly printed such a thing about the two of you," Luna said suddenly, in her dreamy voice, continuing in a heartbeat. "Usually they are the last to report on things, but this time they are incredibly early. They must have a seer working for them, because nothing significant is going to happen until Christmas." She said matter-of –factly.
Hermione turned to face Luna, utter disbelief plastered across her features. She sputtered incoherently for a few seconds, making strange high-pitched noises. Before taking quick, shallow, breaths to try and calm herself, and turning back to face the headmistresses, who looked even more amused than before.
Draco was glaring at Smith, who was visibly chuckling quietly to himself. The portraits of Albus and Severus were also far too amused at the situation.
Hemrione closed her eyes to calm herself, as McGonagall spoke.
"Well, let's get this underway quickly, before Miss Granger has an aneurysm. I believe your prefects have come up with an idea you wish to present to me?" She prompted.
Hermione was still breathing strongly, her nostrils flaring and mouth clenched shut. Draco was glaring at Smith, in no mood to talk, and Zacharias was still laughing quietly, incapable of speaking with any coherence.
McGonagall rolled her eyes and turned to Luna, "Miss Lovegood, indulge me if you please. What would the prefects like to organise?"
Luna told her what had been discussed in a rather strait-forward way - well, as strait-forward as Luna can be; McGonagall set a few ground rules before consenting to the proposal, and then dismissed the students with the go-ahead to start preparations at the next prefect meeting.
This next prefect meeting was a fresh source of hell for Hermione and Draco. The weekend had done nothing to quell the gossip, and now they were in a room full of the worst gossips in the entire establishment who, because of their prefect status, felt themselves equal to the task of questioning the two Heads about their supposed secret love affair.
"I swear to the Gods, one more question, and I will hex the lot of you!" Draco shouted, finally losing his cool, "Now, McGonagall has given us permission to host this damn ball, and we have a month to get planning, so I suggest you start earning those badges you're all wearing and get to work!" He ordered them.
"Yes, we need to get moving." Hermione seconded, "We need to get the announcements up on the all the notice boards: I want two of you to work on those, make sure they get to one of us-" she indicated to Draco, Luna, Zacharias and Herself, "By Friday, so we can get them up before Monday. People will need time to sort out costumes. We need to plan the catering, we need to discuss the set up, we need to design the decorations, think about a band. We have a lot to do in the next few weeks."
Hermione spoke in her infamous no-nonsense voice, and no one dared to argue with her. Immediately the conversation turned.
"Do you think we could get the Weird Sisters to play again?" A Hufflepuff asked.
Hermione shrugged, "I can speak to Slughorn, I know he knows one of the members, see if he can pull some strings." She said, starting to calm a little now that everyone seemed to focus on the task in hand, and not on ridiculous gossip.
At six-thirty, Hermione called a stop to the meeting. "We've made good progress, guys. But if we stay any longer you'll miss dinner. We still have a lot to do, so I suggest we meet again Thursday evening: same place, but we'll change the time to six. That will give us three hours to get a lot done. I'll speak to Slughorn before then and I'll have an answer about the Weird Sisters." Hermione said, before the prefects filed out. Luna and Zacharias filed out immediately after, but Hermione stayed behind, messing with her bag, and tidying up the parchments at an easy pace.
"You going to dinner?" Draco asked politely, they had hardly spoke since the article: it seemed to have pushed their relationship back several paces, but they were slowly making their way back to 'civil acquaintance' status once again.
Hermione looked up, "No way." She said with a small laugh, "I will be sneaking down to the kitchens in about an hour, when the coast is clear. The next person I hear mention that stupid article, I am going to hex them so severely, they will be living in St Mungos for next one hundred years." She stated.
Draco looked at her a moment, and then laughed, "You're actually serious aren't you?" He asked her.
"Deadly." She assured him, before shaking her head "I thought they'd be over it by now." She admitted, picking up her bag and the stack of parchments from the meeting, and heading to the door.
Draco sighed, holding the door open to let her walk through, "Yeah, I thought they would be too. But apparently we were optimistic." He said, falling naturally in step with Hermione.
"Are you not going to the hall?" she asked, as he followed the path to their tower.
"Nah, I'm going to take up your plan. I've had all I can take of the Slytherins' questioning looks, and Blaise's constant piss-taking. " He admitted with a scowl.
The pair spent an hour in their tower in relative silence, both sat at the large study table, engrossed in their homework, before Draco sat back with a sigh.
Throwing down his quill, he checked his watch; "I'm going to chance it to the kitchens. I'm starving." He said.
Hermione looked up, "Give me ten minutes: let me finish this and I'll come with you." She said, "It's bad enough we're making the elves do extra work, without us going separately and making them do it twice."
Draco rolled his eyes, Granger and her bloody elf rights he thought. "Stay where you are, Granger." He sighed. "I know what your like when you get studying: ten minutes ends up being half an hour, and I'm too hungry for that shit. I'll bring back enough for the both of us."
Without waiting for a response he disappeared out of the tower, returning thirty minutes later with a large basket and a flagon of pumpkin juice.
Hermione was sat on the couch, head in a book, but looked up when Draco entered.
"That smells amazing," she said putting the book down, "I am so hungry."
"I'm surprised you're not still slaving away at your home work." Draco commented putting down his burden and summoning a pair of goblets and a couple of plates from their cupboards.
Hermione narrowed her eyes, but gave a small smile, as she slid from the couch onto the rug. "I finished, see it didn't take me half an hour." She said, pulling the cloth from the basket to inspect its contents, a little bit of everything you would expect to find at a gourmet picnic, there was even a slice of chocolate cake for desert: Hermione was impressed.
Draco smirked as he sat down on the rug, in front of the coffee table, "Yeah? When did you put down your quill?" He challenged.
"About five minutes ago." She admitted reluctantly, and Draco laughed.
"Fine, so I was a little longer than ten minutes, whatever." She began to help herself to some chicken from the basket.
The pair ate in silence, and when they had had their fill of the food, they each leaned back against the piece of furniture behind them.
"You seriously think Slughorn can get the Weird Sisters here?" Draco asked out of nowhere, taking a sip from his goblet.
Hermione shrugged, "Possibly, I'm pretty sure one of them turned up to that Christmas Party he had the other year. If not, he'll be able to get someone, I'm sure. Do you have any ideas for a costume yet?" She asked him.
Draco groaned, "Crap, I forgot about that. No, I haven't a clue."
Hermione laughed and Draco frowned, "I suppose you've planned everything already?" he accused, slightly begrudging her obsession with eager preparation.
Hermione shrugged again, "I have a costume all sorted, only because I wore it last summer to one of my Mother's parties. It was the day after I got home from Hogwarts, she had purposefully postponed her Birthday party so I could be there." She explained with a roll of her eyes at her mother's enthusiasm for fancy dress.
"Who were dressed up as?" He asked, intrigued.
"It was a Kings and Queens themed party, so I went as Ann Boleyn. She's always been my favourite out of Henry VIII's wives. I figured I ccan re-use the costume for Hallowe'en, I do find her quite an inspiration, after all."
Draco looked at her oddly, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't she get beheaded for adultery?"
Hermione frowned, "Yes, as well as witchcraft and incest." She told him.
"And you find that inspirational? I tell you, Granger, I'm starting to worry about your sanity." Draco said, shaking his head.
Hermione laughed, "Her early years, and her fight to become Queen, is what I find inspiring. She had an incredible amount of determination, and charm, and is a prime example of what happens to a man who scorns a strong woman." She said.
"Admittedly, it all went a bit wrong for her in then end. But before her downfall, she was quite an incredible woman." Hermione defended.
###
The next morning at breakfast, Hermione finally received an answer from Harry, and judging from the thickness of the envelope, he had provided a good amount of detail about Teddy. Hermione happily indulged herself over breakfast, completely engrossing herself in the letter, ignoring the mutters and looks that had become routine, and occasionally looking up to pass along snippets to Ginny.
"Harry and Ron will be coming to Hogsmeade to meet us on the Saturday," Hermione said to Ginny with a grin, "Harry has already cleared it with Andromeda to have Teddy for day," she added with excitement.
Ginny rolled her eyes at Hermione's enthusiasm, but smiled all the same. "I didn't know we had the dates yet." She commented.
"I have a list of them all, the first one is October 12th. The notice will be going up in the common rooms next week." Hermione told her, turning back to her letter as Ginny turned to talk to Parvati.
Hermione smiled as Harry told her about Teddy's progress, admittedly at four months old, Hermione wasn't exactly missing much, but she was grateful for Harry telling her about his every hair colour, his every gurgle: Harry was safe from a howler, this time. Though Hermione seriously reconsidered this reprieve, when she got to the postscript added at the end:
I read an interesting article in Witch Weekly this evening (and before you ask, no I didn't buy it myself! I was over at the Weasley's and Molly had left it on the table.) Apparently you've been cheating on me with a muggle and Malfoy. How could you? All I wanted was to create a stable family for Teddy, I thought you wanted that too? I have to say, I'm disappointed in you Hermione, I thought you were a better person than that.
Hermione scowled at the paper, she knew Harry would have found the article ridiculous, and no doubt he had laughed himself silly as he was writing this part of his letter.
"You okay Hermione?" Parvati asked, taking in her change of mood.
Hermione looked up, "I'm going to kill Potter when I see him." She declared to the girls, who looked taken aback.
"Jeez, what did he say?" Ginny asked, "I don't think I've ever heard you refer to him with surname only."
Neville, who was sitting next to Hermione, discreetly peered over her shoulder to scan the page, then looked across at the other two girls.
"It's the article again." He told them, "Apparently Harry is a little upset about Hermione cheating on him with Malfoy and a muggle." Neville said with mock seriousness.
"Do you mind?" Hermione said, pulling the letter her and looking at Neville with a shocked laugh at his nerve. Neville shrugged and turned back to his breakfast, while Ginny and Parvati were engulfed in hysterics.
###
Eventually the scandal of the Witch Weekly article simmered down, and Hermione and Draco could go back to a relatively peaceful existence. They resumed their original seats in Arithmancy: as the weeks progressed, the classes were steadily becoming more difficult, and Hermione appreciated the sporadic help from the second-brightest student in the school. They had also started working together every now and then in Potions if the occasion called for it: Hermione and Draco were pretty much evenly matched in their abilities and as a result, they were the only ones in the class who the other could work with without becoming infuriated at apparent incompetence.
Prefect meetings were becoming exhausting as the weeks went by: the closer they got to Hallowe'en, the more they seemed to have to do. The last meeting before the first Hogsmeade weekend, Hermione was starting to feel the stress of planning a large party – she had no idea how her mother did it on a regular basis.
"Alright," she said as the clock in the room chimed eight times. "I think we can call it a night, there's nothing more to discuss this evening. Slughorn has managed to pull some strings, and we have a live band. It's not the Weird Sisters, they were unavailable, but apparently they're just as good, with a similar sound, so they should go down well. I think he said they're called The flaming Hippogriffs?"
"I've heard of them!" A Gryffindor called out, "They're amazing! Only just got together like a year ago! This is going to be so cool!" She gushed, getting a little too excited.
"Okay," Hermione said, looking a little taken aback at the enthusiasm, "Anyway, you've all got your things to do this weekend, you should know your shifts for supervising the Hogsmeade trip. Make sure you're at you appointed location for the duration of you shift. I know it can be tedious, but it's only an hour for you guys and the rest of day is yours. Rachel," Hermione said to the Ravenclaw, "You have your list of things we need for the decorations, get what you can on Saturday, order the rest, make sure you get a receipt, I need to document every sickle and knut we spend."
The Ravenclaw nodded, adding, "I've also got the list of things you want ordering from Honeydukes. Don't worry Hermione, we have it covered."
Hermione smiled, "And I'll sort out a deal at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, for the other things I want to get."
"Is that open already?" A Hufflepuff asked excitedly.
"It opens Saturday." Hermione told him, "I think that's everything. You can go."
As the prefects filed out, Draco looked at Hermione with a frown, "You're stressing over this a bit too much," her told her, "And you look exhausted."
Hermione laughed, "Thanks. But exhaustion is good, maybe I'll sleep tonight."
"You're not sleeping?" he asked, a note of genuine concern in his voice, which automatically elicited Hermione to answer him truthfully.
She shrugged, "Nightmares," she told him. "Not major ones, just my usual mundane ones. I don't wake screaming, but I don't rest much either." She said, before heading out of the door and back to the tower with out a backwards glance.
The lessons were slowly picking up their pace, transfiguration and charms were getting more difficult, looking into seriously complex magic. Defence had been somewhat enjoyable so far; they had been covering the most popular jinxes and curses, while continuing to hone their non-verbal skills. But Friday's lesson was Hermione's worst class she had ever had.
"Today's lesson is going to be discussion based, rather than practical: you'll understand why in a moment." Professor Fidelis announced at the start of the class. "So you can put your wands away."
The glass grumbled quietly as they followed the instructions. Hermione placed her wand in her robe pocket: most of the class returned their wand to their bag, but Hermione didn't feel completely safe, even in the school, if her wand was not on her, somewhere.
"Now, I know you have broached this subject, when you had Alastor Moody as you teacher-"
Hermione's stomach knotted, she had a bad feeling about where this lesson was going.
"I want to talk today about the Unforgivable Curses."
Yep, Hermione thought, this is not going to end well.
"I'm sure you've all come in contact with at least one of the curses this past year. But I wonder, how much you really know about them? There is nothing worse than being in a duel, and being completely unprepared for what is about to hit you. If you are prepared, you can react more efficiently." Fidelis told them.
"I'm going to go ahead and assume that you remember what the three unforgivables are?" The class nodded their confirmation, and Professor Fidelis continued.
"We'll start with Avada Kedavra, as there isn't much to really discuss. You all know what the spell is designed to do."
He went quiet waiting for a student to answer; quickly enough a Ravenclaw spoke up:
"To kill." He said quietly.
"Exactly. There is no counter curse, no way to repel it. Your only hope is to dodge it and dodge it quick. Out of the three, this one is the hardest one to cast: there are not many capable of it."
"I disagree." Hermione spoke up, wanting to draw out the conversation. Fidelis had looked ready to move onto the next curse, and Hermione was dreading a discussion of the Cruciatus curse, and was willing to attempt to avoid it at all costs.
"You disagree?" Fidelis repeated, with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes." Hermione confirmed with confidence. "I believe we are all capable of killing. It's whether or not we will allow ourselves to do it, that's the question."
Fidelis considered her argument thoughtfully, and pressed the idea further: "Do you believe you could allow yourself to carry it out?"
Hermione thought, "Yes." She answered slowly, and truthfully. "There was one person I would have rather liked to kill. But someone got there before me." She admitted, "I would have been fully capable of throwing that curse with successful results. But I don't think I would have used it in the end."
Fidelis started to smile, thinking he had won the argument, but Hermione continued and wiped the smile away with her next statement.
"Avada Kedavra would have been too quick and painless. I wanted that bitch to feel pain, get some taste of her own medicine. I'd have torn her to shreds, tossed my wand away and ripped her limb from limb with my bare hands. And part of me actually still resents that person that took my revenge away from me."
Hermione hadn't planned on saying any of this, and the venom in her words even took her by surprise, but as soon as she had started talking, the words just seemed to tumble out of her mouth.
A lot of the class were looking warily at her, and even Fidelis, who was usually good at keeping a calm mask in place, looked rather taken aback. But one person was determinedly not looking at her; Draco had refused to turn around.
He and Hermione were beginning to get to know each other fairly well – in this past month they had learned to get along rather peacefully and while they weren't great friends, they certainly weren't enemies anymore. He knew enough about her to know, that while she wouldn't hesitate to hex anyone who crosses her, it would take something highly extreme to elicit such a strong reaction and need for revenge. And Draco had a pretty shrewd idea who the person Hermione had been talking about was.
"Moving onto the imperius curse, I think." Fidelis said, not wanting to dwell on, nor encourage, the murderous thoughts.
Hermione let out a breath she didn't even realise she was holding, relieved at the teacher's choice, and hoping this discussion could be dragged out for a good while.
"This is perhaps the most commonly used – or rather, it is the one which people more easily admit to using. Has anyone been under an imperius curse?" He asked.
It was Neville who answered, "All of us, I reckon. Or pretty close to. Moody put us under it when he was here, trying to teach us to fight it."
There was a general nod of assent, "So, you are all aware of the sensations it produces in it's victim?" Fidelis prompted.
A small discussion naturally started about the blank state of mind, and inner calmness that most often accompanied the Imperius. Professor Fidelis then steered the conversation toward various methods of resisting, and the various techniques students employed, finding who had successfully thrown off the curse and what was their motivation for fighting against it so hard. The discussion managed to go for a full half an hour, which took them a little past the halfway point of their double period.
Fidelis then touched a little on the side effects of prolonged exposure to the curse, before moving onto the final unforgivable: the Cruciatus curse.
Hermione's heartbeat began to race and she tried to steady its pace by taking a deep breath, as discreetly as possible. No one knew the extent of her acquaintance with this particular curse, except for those who had bore witness to it, and the last thing she wanted was for anyone to find out and start asking questions. She desperately tried to maintain her calm, and refused to enter into the discussion that was tentatively unfolding around her.
Again, a majority of students had come into contact with the Crucio curse; Hermione knew the Carrows had used it as favourite form of punishment last year. As a few of the students began to openly discuss their experiences – describing the pain they felt, and it's varying intensities, as well as talking about the emotional torture of simply witnessing – Hermione tried her hardest to not to think. But despite staring straight ahead, focusing her attention on her breathing while attempting to block out the discussion surrounding her, she would catch the odd sentence and her mind would instantly transport her back to that night in Malfoy Manor.
Hermione wasn't the only one suffering in silence: at the front Draco was sat with his head in his heads trying to block out the conversation going on behind him. He was well informed when it came to the Cruciatus curse: he had endured it countless of times, he had been forced to use it himself on the rare occasion and he'd been made to stand and watch the most brutal display of it anyone could ever imagine. To this day he still had nightmares of that night: Hermione Granger's screams still haunted him. The cruciatus curse was considered his Aunt's speciality, she was especially cruel when it came to the force behind her Crucio; but on that occasion he had never seen his Aunt in such a rage, she reached a whole new level of intent he had never seen in her before, and he truly had no idea how Hermione had endured the torture for so long, and survived to tell the tale.
Neither Hermione nor Draco noticed when Professor Fidelis moved the conversation onto the side effects of the curse, both too focused on blocking out the discussion.
Hermione did notice when Fidelis wrote their homework instructions on the board, and going into autopilot she copied down the instructions:
Two rolls of parchment detailing the side effects of prolonged exposure to the Unforgivable Curses.
When the bell rang, Hermione wasn't even sure if they had been dismissed or not, but she grabbed her bag, picked up her books without putting them away and said a quick goodbye to Ginny.
"I have some things to do, I'll catch you later." She said quickly, before leaving the room and bolting to her tower.
Hermione was having trouble controlling her thoughts: She hadn't consciously thought of her time at Malfoy Manor, not since it had happened. The only times she ever remembered it was when she was reliving it in her nightmares, but thankfully this had only happened a handful of times.
Hermione determined to distract herself with homework: sitting at the large table in the tower, with all her books piled in front of her, she went methodically and religiously through every assignment she had yet to do, from this weeks lessons. When the only assignment left to do was the recent one from defence, she ignored the book and pulled a pile of parchments, from this week's prefect meetings, towards her and began organising and re-writing, then filing them away in the box that sat in the middle of the table.
As Hermione steadily worked, she was so absorbed in what she was doing that she hadn't noticed Draco's entrance.
Draco had returned to the tower after an early dinner; he mumbled a casual greeting to her, but Hermione was too engrossed in her study to hear him. He sat himself in front of the fire where he worked half-heartedly on a couple of assignments before giving up entirely around 8pm. Draco sat back, picking up a novel that had been left on the coffee table, intending to distract himself with it, but he ended up watching Hermione progress studiously through her work.
He noticed her face held a blank look, as if she were simply going through the motions without really thinking, and he frowned; this wasn't like her, she was usually overly enthusiastic when it came to study. After a couple of hours, her to-do pile dwindled, leaving one book: she looked at it momentarily, then pulled the prefect meeting notes towards and set to work on them. When that was completed, Draco watched her stare at the remaining book once again, and her blank expression turned wary.
"Are you okay, Granger?" He asked, speaking for the first time all evening.
Hermione jumped, and looked toward the voice. "When did you get back?" she asked, slightly shocked.
Draco chuckled, "About four hours ago. It's about ten-thirty," he told her, "You were too engrossed in studying. Have you eaten?" He asked her, suddenly remembering that he hadn't seen her at dinner.
Hermione shook he head, "I wasn't hungry, I needed to work." She mumbled, "Today's defence, it…I didn't…I don't like to…I don't talk about the Cruciatus curse." Hermione said disjointedly, having no idea what she was trying to say.
Hermione shook herself, "I'm tired. I'm going to shower and go to bed." She said abruptly, and walked briskly from the room.
Draco sat in silence. He had clearly seen the torment in her eyes, and he had never known her struggle to string a sentence together. Draco knew she was trying to hold it together and not think about the night she was tortured in his home and his stomach writhed with guilt. He couldn't help but feel partly responsible for what had happened – true, he hadn't been the one to actually curse her, but he hadn't done anything to stop it, which made him just as bad as his Aunt Bellatrix in his eyes, and he hated himself for it.
He could hear Hermione moving around upstairs, he heard the shower running for about twenty minutes, and when it finally shut off, he gave her an extra half hour, before heading upstairs himself.
Hermione was exhausted; it had been a long day, and writing almost non-stop for nearly six hours had tired her out more than she had realised at the time. After standing in the shower and letting the hot water relax her muscles, she finally shut the water off before she ended up falling asleep standing up. She cleaned her teeth and magicked her hair into a French braid, before going into her room and slipping into some shorts and an oversized t-shirt. As she climbed into bed she heard the shower set off again, she formed a vague thought of locking her door, but before she could do anything about it her eyelids closed and sleep overcame her.
It wasn't long before the nightmare started, the same way it always did: she was standing in the forest with Harry and Ron, surrounded by snatches, they tried to run but they were caught and bound, before being dragged off.
She struggled, knowing where they were taking her, and what was awaiting her: she was vaguely aware it was only a dream, but she couldn't do anything to stop it from playing out. The snatchers dragged her through a particular dense piece of shrubbery and suddenly she was in a dark reception room, staring into the cold eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange. She was thrown to the ground as she began to protest louder. Her protests turned to a scream as Bellatrix held her under the first wave of the many Crucios about to come her way…
As Draco stepped out of the shower, he stopped and listened: He could hear a mumbling coming from the closed door that led into Hermione's room. He frowned, either she was talking to herself or apparently she spoke in her sleep. He shook his head, ignoring the quiet protests coming from the other room, and pulled on the long pants he usually slept in. Tossing his towel aside, he went to the sink and began cleaning his teeth. Just as he was replacing his toothbrush to its holder, he heard it: the gut-wrenching scream that had tortured him in his sleep for months.
Without thinking, he crashed through the closed door into Hermione's room: Hermione had obviously been tossing around for some time, as the covers were severely tangled around her. She was sprawled facing the door through which Draco had just burst, her left arm was flung behind her, the 'mudblood' scar clearly on display, and her entire body seemed to be contorted in pain.
"Granger!" Draco called out, as he entered the room, trying to shout over her screams, slightly panicked at the sight before him, which emulated his memories to a degreee. "Granger!"
Hermione continued to writhe and cry out, so Draco rushed to the bed without thinking, knelt down, placed both hands on her shoulders and roughly shook her, trying to bring her back into consciousness.
"Hermione!" He called out again desperately, calling her by her first name for the first time, just wanting the screaming to stop.
Hermione felt strong hands gripping her shoulders…this wasn't usually part of her dream. She heard a male voice calling her name; this was new too.
"Hermione!"
Hermione's eyes snapped open, and pain-filled brown met unsettled grey. Hermione's breathing hitched as fear quickly replaced the pain. In a heartbeat she reached under her pillow and drew her wand on Draco.
Draco stumbled back and held up his hands in surrender, "Granger, relax. I'm not armed. You were dreaming, screaming, I was just trying to wake you." He explained in a rush.
Hermione experienced a quick succession of emotions: Confusion as she processed the situation, a brief return of the fear and pain as she thought back on the nightmare, finally settling on embarrassment and unease that Draco Malfoy had caught her in her most vulnerable moment.
She dropped her wand on her bed, pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. Dropping her hear, and avoiding Draco's gaze.
Draco frowned, "What for? Dreaming?"
"I'm sorry I disturbed you. I didn't wake you did I?" She mumbled: that would just be mortifying.
"No, I was still awake." He said gently, She was still avoiding his gaze, but he could still see her face and she looked like she was struggling to hold back tears.
"Are you okay?" He asked, and regretted it instantly: what a stupid thing to ask, of course she wasn't okay - any idiot could see that.
Hermione didn't know what to say: no, she wasn't okay, but she couldn't admit that. She was terrified to go back to sleep, she desperately needed comfort, but she couldn't say that to Draco Malfoy – the last thing she needed was for him to know just how vulnerable she really was. The last time she had had this nightmare, she had been at Grimmauld Place and Harry had been the one to wake her. Harry had sat up with her for most of the night, arms around her, giving the comfort and security she needed then and that she desperately needed now. But she wasn't about to say, or ask, for any of it from Draco Malfoy.
She gave a half-hearted shrug of her shoulders, and Draco spoke again.
"What were you dreaming about?" He asked quietly, though he suspected he knew exactly what she had been dreaming about.
Hermione looked up: Draco was back on his feet standing by the doorway into the bathroom, still looking concerned.
"The worst night of my life." Hermione answered softly: her emotions were too overwhelmed from the nightmare for her to attempt to hide her feelings. At this admission Draco felt a renewed sense of guilt: anger and pain flashed momentarily across his eyes.
The pair looked at each other for a moment, before Hermione looked away again, slightly uncomfortable and confused at the array of emotions the blonde seemed to be experiencing.
"I'm not going to be able to sleep for a while." She said hastily, getting out of her bed and walking towards her sitting room, starting to feel uncomfortable remaining so vulnerable in Draco's presence.
"I'm going to go make some tea." She paused at the doors and looked over her shoulder, Draco hadn't moved an inch. "I'll make a pot up, if you want some." She said, slightly hesitantly, adding quietly: "Thank you, for waking me," before turning and heading down the stairs.
Draco remained staring at her bed for the next ten minutes, her words echoing in his mind: The worst night of my life. How could he respond to that? He had been there that night, watching everything that passed and doing nothing to stop it. No wonder she had nearly hexed him when he woke her – he was probably the last person she wanted to be around right now. But she had looked so vulnerable, and even scared, he thought. He had had the sudden urge to comfort her; when he had asked if she was okay she looked ready to burst into tears, and he had almost gone over to put his arms around her. He had luckily thought twice about that, if he had attempted that, no doubt he would have been hexed into next month.
Eventually her final words, before she had practically run out of the room, dawned on him: I'll make a pot, if you want some. Stubborn as ever, Granger wouldn't admit that she needed the company, but that sentence told Draco what she was unwilling to admit - that she didn't want to be alone after reliving the worst night of her life. He turned and silently followed in Hermione's footsteps.
When he reached the foot of the stairs, he saw Hermione already sat on one of couches, knees up to her chest, two hands wrapped around a steaming mug. As promised, the large teapot sat on its tray of condiments in the centre of the coffee table. Only embers remained of the fire that had been burning in the evening, and there was a chill creeping into the room. Draco wordlessly summoned the thick blanket that was laid across the foot of his bed; catching it as it came from his staircase he walked over to Hermione and draped it wordlessly around her shoulders.
Hermione had heard him follow her down into the common room, and heard his approach, so she didn't jump a mile at the action, though she was slightly surprised at the thoughtfulness. She turned to look up at him with a small smile.
"Thank you. I didn't think it would be so cold already, down here." She admitted.
Draco smiled back, and took a seat in the chair next to her, poured himself a mug of tea, and leaned back.
"You were dreaming about the night at the Manor, weren't you?" he said quietly.
Hermione nodded sadly, "I'm sorry," she said.
Draco laughed humourlessly, and shook his head. "You are the last person who should be apologising. I should be the one apologising, I did nothing to help you."
Hermione shook her head: "You had less control in that situation than I had. You didn't do this to me. You don't need to apologise." She told him quietly.
"But, still-" Draco began, but Hermione cut him off, with a pained look.
"Please." She whispered, "It's bad enough reliving it in my nightmares, without going over it when I'm awake."
Draco looked back at her, and nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry." He mumbled.
The two of them were silent for a while, but eventually Draco spoke again, and admitted to her what he hadn't told a soul.
"I still dream about that night as well. Quite often." He admitted, staring into the fireplace. Hermione looked up, surprised, but didn't say a word. She simply looked at him as he continued.
"Your screams have haunted me ever since. And I hate myself for not trying to stop it at the time. And I despise the fact that you are still suffering because of what my Aunt put you through, and I'm still just as powerless to help you." He admitted with feeling.
Hermione took a shaky breath, and quickly wiped the stray tears that she had been unable to stop from falling. The pair lapsed into silence once again, but it wasn't awkward – in fact it was far from it. As the hours wore on, neither of them much wanting to fall asleep in case nightmares returned, Hermione and Draco began to talk of little things of no real consequence. And as they talked, they both became aware that their dynamic had shifted: Draco had witnessed Hermione at her most vulnerable, and he hadn't scorned her, or thought her pathetic. Instead he had sat with her, talked with her, even wrapped a blanket around her – in short he had comforted her. Hermione had seen a new side of Draco, a caring side, and he had even told her about his own nightmares, admitting his own self-torment about what had happened to her – Hermione was pretty confident she was the only person in the entire universe he had told that piece of soul-revealing information to.
They were certainly no longer enemies; there was no hate there anymore. No: hate had disappeared a long time ago. They were more than just civil acquaintances; did the term 'friend' fit what they were now?
Unknown to the other, each was going through the same thought process: they tested the idea of friendship in their minds, but to both them it didn't seem to fit. Something about a friendship didn't quite feel right.
But at 3am, neither one was capable of effectually processing these thoughts much further, and they both went to bed not long after, resolving to figure it out further along the line.
A/N: There we have it, we're into October...Hallowe'en is just around the corner and I'm a little bit excited.
We've had a little hint of Dramione, and I can promise there is a lot more to come in the next few chapters. I will get to work on those as soon as I can, but the next couple of weeks are going to be extremely chaotic, with work and Christmas and just to throw even more stress in there, I'm moving states three days before Christmas lol So I definitely won't be able to update 3 chapters in a week, but I should get at least one more up before I leave.
Thank you again to everyone who's been reading, I hope you're still enjoying the piece, let me know your views :)
xBx