Author's note: Yes I said, the next update will next week but I just completed this chapter and thought I would post it up. Enjoy and don't forget to review!
horselovr171: Thank you for the review, and yes you can expect something like that about Draco Malfoy. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
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"Silencio, pronounced as si-Len-see-oh…" Ron read from his The Standard book of Spells textbook screwing up his face when he read the pronunciation. They were sitting at their favourite table near the window. Harry had his Intermediate Transfiguration textbook opened to Owl to Opera Glasses chapter, he was propped up on his elbow and was staring at the page unblinkingly; his thoughts far away. Hermione sat across the table listening to Ron's reading.
"It comes from the English word 'Silence', the Italian word 'Silenzio' or the Spanish word 'Silencio'. The silencing charm is a charm that renders the victim temporarily mute. It works both on Beats and Beings. In order for this charm to be most effective, the witch or the wizard must move their wand using a sharp jab rather than a sort of a wave. The spell is not powerful non-verbally. That's it?" he looked up at Hermione disbelievingly.
"Bloody hell, how am I supposed to write a three and a half foot essay on such a small paragraph?" Ron's voice had risen to a shout and Harry got jerked back from his thoughts. "Uh…what?"
Harry looked at Ron and then at Hermione. Ron turned his chair and faced him. "Filtwick assumes us to write a three and a half foot essay on three sentences given in the textbook? Mental that man is if you ask me."
"Ron." Hermione shouted, apparently she was opposed to this student-swearing-teacher thing.
"What? It's true. Harry did you finish?" Ron asked, ignoring Hermione's reasons on why you shouldn't insult a teacher.
"Oh! Yes I did." Harry said, turning a few pages of his textbook.
Ron turned red and asked in a threateningly calm voice. "When did you finish this Harrykins?"
Harry backed up from Ron. "Last night; when you were busy nicking food from the kitchens with Fred, George and Dean. Hermione made me complete it."
"All of it?" he turned to look at Hermione who smiled smugly at him. Ron looked back at Harry, "You know I'm just going to practice my Silencing charm on you."
Harry made to run from the table and up the boy's dormitory but Ron performed the charm perfectly and Harry's protest turned mute. He looked back at Hermione with satisfaction who looked in horror at Harry.
"That will do the job." He looked at Harry who was signalling him to reverse the spell. "Now you'll understand never to do your homework without me."
"So will you give your homework to me?" He asked Hermione, twirling his wand in his fingers.
"No." Hermione said sharply and started packing her bag.
"What? You can't do that." Ron pocketed his wand and shifted closer to Hermione.
"Yes I can."
"But you helped Harry." he argued.
"No I did not. I just made him read Achievements in Charms, he did it by himself." She heaved her bag on her shoulder and got up.
"You can't go like this. Hermione please; a little help. Please." He pleaded, ignoring Harry's antics to gain his attention.
"Fine, go and search it in the library. It's still an hour to curfew." She walked past the table and headed towards the girls dormitory.
"Hermione wait. You can't make me go there. I'll just get lost in that 'small' place." He looked horridly at her for even thinking of making him going there by himself.
Hermione's lips twitched but she maintained a calm face and spoke sternly. "Fine but this would be the last time I am going to help you with your homework Ronald."
"Yeah, yeah okay. I got it." he pushed her towards the portrait hole. "Just hurry before curfew."
Hermione sighed as she walked out of the portrait hole, sometimes she did not understand why she compelled herself to do the boys work. Boys! She walked down to the third floor. The corridors were deserted as it was almost time for curfew. It was long past 8:00 pm and Hermione hoped Madam Pince would let her borrow the book after library hours.
It was almost a month later after Umbridge's warning. They repeatedly sat after hours in the common room discussing the possible chances of danger. They had seen less and less of Dumbledore in the coming days which added to their worry. Harry still wasn't able to talk to Dumbledore; it seemed Dumbledore managed to escape before Harry could catch him up, like he was avoiding him. But why would Dumbledore avoid Harry in the first place?
They were far more alert in Umbridge's class then they were in Potions; constantly trying to read between her lines or simply to keep their eye on her. She hadn't done anything drastically big except for the blood quills which she had started using on the first years as well.
There was a lot of commotion when a Gryffindor first year came into the common room one night with his hand clenched tightly across his chest. He walked into the room with full of Gryffindors enjoying their evening. The loud chatter and laugh turned to a complete mute as the boy stared horror faced at his fellow Gryffindors. It had taken a lot more than shouting to control the angry senior year students, a few hexes and broken furniture later and the somewhat calmed Gryffindors sat with boy who cried miserably into Hermione's chest.
There was lot more than the blood quills which Umbridge was using, Hermione was sure of that. They had also witnessed a rather loud argument between Professor McGonagall and Umbridge when Harry, Ron and Hermione had sneaked under the invisibility cloak to spy on her. Apparently McGonagall was having a hard time digesting Umbridge's believes and methods of teaching, everyone had. Everyone knew the book of Defence was useless. Even Lockhart was a better teacher, Hermione shrugged as the thought crossed her mind.
She reached the library and had to plead to Madam Pince to let her in. After five minutes of pleading and promising it wouldn't happen again, Hermione got the book and was on her way back to the Gryffindor tower. She vowed to make Ron pay for this. Hermione thought of all the things she could make Ron do for her in exchange for the book.
She smiled at the direction her thoughts had suddenly taken, she rounded a corner and the smile slipped from her face. Draco Malfoy was sitting on a small raised platform near the window, staring out into the starless sky.
-….-
Draco Malfoy sat near the window looking out into the night. It was pitch black and he could hardly make anything out. He saw the vague forms of the trees surrounding the forbidden forests and a few Threstals flying into the night's sky.
He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. His brain was far too tired to think about anything. That's what he did these days, think, think and think. Sometimes he wondered if his overthinking will strip him off the capability to think in the future. But he couldn't ignore the thoughts and rising sense of panic which was brewing at the bottom of his stomach.
It had started a week ago when Draco had received a letter from his father. He knew what his father had written about; he wanted to burn the letter without opening it but then thought better of it. His father would get suspicious if he did not reply.
Draco's hand reached into his pocket and he took out the crumpled letter his father had sent him. He was yet to reply and he had no idea what he was supposed to say. He straightened the crumpled paper and his eyes fell on the short paragraph his father had written.
Draco,
You'll be glad to know that the Dark Lord has approved of you. I am really proud of you son. I knew you'll stand up for the Malfoy name one day. The Dark Lord intends to give you the Dark Mark before your school term ends so you could assist him in his work, expect Christmas to be the time.
LM.
Draco crumpled the paper again. There were no 'hellos' or 'how are you son?' or 'mother misses you.' Nothing. He knew his father was a cold hearted person but he did not expect him to be so much so as to ignore his own son and his wishes. Draco was not ready for all this, heck he would ever be.
He clutched the letter tightly in his fist and threw it away from him. It landed a few paces ahead of him near someone's shoes. Draco's eyes grew wide as he looked up but relaxed as he saw Hermione standing there looking impassively at him. He turned and continued staring out the window without a glance at her. Hermione picked up the paper. Her face grew horrified with each passing word as she read Draco's letter.
After what felt like eternity to Draco did Hermione move. She walked with small steps towards him as if measuring his reaction beforehand. She dumped her bag near the raised platform and sat near his outstretched legs. She looked at him but he refused to look at her, choosing instead to look out of the window. Hermione noticed he was pale, pale than he normally was. Faint dark circles were visible underneath his eyes like he hadn't slept for days. His robes and vest lay on a heap near his bag; his tie was loose around his neck where several of his buttons were undone. She took in his form and when she was sure he wouldn't speak she called out to him,
"Draco…" she called quietly. He diverted his gaze slowly to her. He took her in with greedy eyes as if he would be seeing her for the last time.
"If you are going to say I deserve this or you hate me, better walk off." He hissed venomously at her. Hermione was taken aback by the venom in his voice but her anger subsided when she looked at his dishevelled form again.
"I wasn't going to say that." she responded in a small voice.
Draco looked at her, his eyes boring into hers. He sat a bit straighter and folded his legs. Hermione moved a bit closer to him and he did not recoil back in horror from her which Hermione had expected he would. Instead he looked at her in a pleading sort of way as if begging her to take him away from his problems.
"Are you alright?" she asked timidly.
"Do I look like I am?" he was clearly irritated by her questions and she just wanted to walk off but his disturbed form rooted her to that place.
"No of course you don't." she said and sighed, giving up her attempts to make a conversation. "Look, I don't even want to say I know how you are feeling because I don't. I don't know what you are feeling or thinking or I won't say anything about that."
He chuckled at her. "You seriously are the smartest witch, aren't you? Poor, Potter and Weasel don't see you much that way."
"Keep them out of it." Hermione responded sternly and Draco raised his eyebrows at her. He turned back to the window and she heard him sigh after a minute.
"You are right. You don't know what I'm feeling right now, you would never know because you lie in a basket protected by the people who love you and who would die thousand times for you."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked in a whisper. She was clearly confused. Why would he say that? Wasn't he loved? Didn't his overly proud parents love him? Just everyone in Hogwarts knew how much Draco was fond of the Sr. Malfoy.
He smiled. "I knew you would say that." he turned to face her again.
"Have you ever lived with someone who doesn't care about you? Who don't care what happens to you? You are ready to sacrifice you just so they could save their own godamn arse?"
Hermione was shocked at his words. What was he saying? Who was he talking about?
"Malfoy I…." Hermione began but he cut her off.
"Of course you don't, otherwise you would have taken residence in the library trying to find answers to these questions." He smirked at her and Hermione wasn't affected this time, simply because she couldn't make head or tail of what he was saying.
"They don't care about me you know. My parents." He whispered the last part and Hermione backed off in horror at his revelation.
"No, Malfoy you must have…."she began but he cut her off again.
"Must have what? Misunderstood?" he gave a small mirthless laugh. "Tell me, Hermione…" she looked genuinely shocked at the use of her name. "Tell me which kind of parents sends their son his own death sentence in the form of an invitation?" he snatched the letter from her hands and waved it in front of her face.
"What kind of parents invites their only son to walk in to the open arms of death? Surely your parents wouldn't do that would they Granger?" he gave another mirthless laugh but continued ignoring her alarmed expression.
"Yes I am a Malfoy and I've never wanted to run from this name before but today, today I feel I would have been happy even as a muggle born." He looked up at her and smirked again.
"I was never happy with them you know. My parents, I never was because there are simply more than material things which a human requires to survive and my parents thought buying me a huge house and luxurious things would be enough. Like, those things could fill up the empty places which they left in my life."
"You should talk to them." Hermione suggested quietly.
"Talk to them? About what Granger? That I don't want to be a part of his plan of making me a Death Eater? He wouldn't even spare my ashes."
Hermione eyes grew wide with shock. He didn't want to be a death eater?
"You don't…I mean…you don't want to be a..a…" she couldn't get the words out but he understood.
"Death Eater? Hell! No. I never even thought of that before. I always thought there was still plenty of time to make a choice only to know now that I don't actually have a choice."
"Yes you have." Hermione shouted at him.
"Really Granger?" he asked his voice smooth and clam.
"Yes. Everyone has choices."
"Apparently not the children of Death Eaters. We are raised so we could join and increase his numbers." he stated as a fact.
"But you'll always have a choice Draco." Hermione pleaded desperately.
He smiled at her. "You know, I like when call me by my name."
"Don't change the topic." She added sternly.
"You're always bossy aren't you?"
"You should make your own choice Draco. Nothing can stop you if you don't want to, you should just believe in yourself."
"Stop seeing good in all people Granger. I am evil remember? I harassed and tortured you for the last four years of your life. You hate me." Damn her all-people-have-somewhat-good-in-them-quality.
"Not since what happened last month. At least not as much as I used to." She admitted in a small voice. Draco was taken aback from her response. He had assumed she would hate him even more after what he did to her.
"You won't ask me why I did that?" he asked, he wanted to ask her since then but his pride took over and shut him up.
"Yes, but then I thought you must have those double standards problem." Her lips twitched but she managed to maintain a straight face.
"Double standards?" he voiced, shocked.
"Yes. You have it." she confirmed and to her amusement he burst out laughing.
"Next time think of something more amusing than that Granger."
"So, that confirms you really had a problem with me touching somebody." She asked knowing she would get her answer today.
"Yes, I have." He said slowly, the fury returning to his eyes.
"Why?" she asked in a small voice. There was no hint of amusement or laughter in the air, like it vanished just as it had come.
"Because I didn't like it."
"That doesn't mean anything." She argued.
"It means a lot Granger, you won't understand." His eyes were a pool of emotions, much more than he would normally let himself reveal, she thought. But he masked them again, like he didn't want her know what he thought or felt. She felt frustrated, she wanted to yank the mask off his face and have all her answers.
"Try me." she tried again.
"Next time." He got up and collected his clothes and draped them over his hand. He swung his bag on his shoulder and left without a word or a backward glance.
-….-
"Merlin Hermione! It took you ages to comeback." Ron said as he saw Hermione walking through the portrait hole.
" , sorry Ron." Hermione mumbled as she took the book out. Her thoughts were far too distracted to understand anything that Ron asked.
"I asked what took you so long." Ron asked irritably, as he too the book from Hermione and flipped open the book.
"Madam Pince had left the library, so I had to go looking for her." she said and turned towards the girls staircase.
"Goodnight Ron, Night Harry." She mumbled walking up the stairs. She heard Ron mumble the same and did not hear Harry; maybe Ron was still upset with him about the homework thing.
Hermione stretched on her bed, her mind far too occupied with other thoughts. Life was so complicated now, with Umbridge, Dumbledore and now Malfoy. She turned on her left side and extinguished the table lamps letting the darkness take over her as she fell into a dreamless sleep.
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I know not much, but I tried to include whatever I can.
Next Chapter Update: So from the next chapter Draco Malfoy is slowly going to turn himself over to the Light side with Hermione's help. And beginning of The DA!
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