A/N: I can't tell how much I'm happy! I can't thank you guys enough for all the reviews and putting my story on alerts. I'm glad that you guys liked the previous chapter because I'm really excited about this story and I really want this to work. So, here's another chapter. I hope you like it.
Chapter 8 - Dizzy, Sweet & Precipitated Actions
It was late and he knew it. Being a Head Boy had numerous advantages and one of them was that he was able to be in the halls when it was late - but only on patrol night. And that was not his night of patrol, so he rushed to get into his tower.
The halls were dark and shivers started to run in his body. 'This school looks scary at night' he thought, shoving his hands on the pockets, protecting himself from the cold air that was now surrounding his body. Just when he turned around the corner, he heard something; he immediately stopped and tried to listen what it was, but couldn't hear nothing but silence. So he kept moving, but suddenly the sound appeared again. That's when he spoted a figure by a hall, illuminated by the moonlight.
He swallowed tightly. That thing looked ghostly and he didn't like ghosts, at all. Draco took some steps towards the figure and narrowed his eyes, trying to understand what it was or who was there. Just when he was at a five steps distance, he realized that it was Granger. Now he could hear her sobs clearly. Draco turned around on his feet 'You can't leave her there. You are too close and she probably already heard you coming'. The kind voice inside his head was constantly saying that, but he insisted on denying it. 'Maybe she knows that someone is here, but she doesn't know it's me'.
Draco took a deep breath and turned to see her head again. He was mean, but not that mean; not even for the people that he hates. "Granger," he began, and cleared his throat noticing that his voice was hoarse "Is everything alright?" it seemed odd for him to pretend to care about someone. It all felt so fake that he just wanted to run towards his dorm and pretend that that monologue never happened.
He saw her raising her head and gazing at him, hiding the rest of her face but he could perfectly see how red it was. She cleared her tears and sniffed "What are you doing here? You should be in your dorm" she said, with a hoarse voice. She tried to look strong but Draco could see how weak she was. But he didn't mention that.
"So should you," he sat beside her and stretched his legs. 'I can't believe that I'm doing this, just to make someone feel good'. He rolled his eyes. He had already started the conversation and now there was no way back, he couldn't run now and leave her there alone crying her eyes out. Made her look pathetic "And then, here you are."
Hermione gazed at his soft eyes and then turned her head to the other side to clear up some tears that had slipped from her eyes. Why does he have to be there when she looked so awful and weak like she was now? It was just one more thing for him to make fun later and make her feel like crap. "When you end up all alone, I may be the only company you will have" she felt like laughing, what would be a good thing since she haven't done anything else besides crying on the past few hours. But she wanted to laugh for the worst stuff.
"Why are you really here?" she hissed, trying to look intimidating but with her hoarse voice she only looked like she was way too much vulnerable "Are you trying to prove a point? Like you said the other night?"
Draco didn't know what she was talking about. He insisted on forgetting all the conversations that he has with her, because it was usually a waste of time. "I don't know what you are talking about, Granger."
"'When you end up all alone, I may be the only company you will have'" she quoted "I'm talking about that."
"Oh," Draco smirked and rubbed his tumb against his fingers, gazing at his hands "That."
Hermione didn't say nothing, she just looked at him waiting for an answer. She tried to calm down her breath "I was not trying to prove nothing, for your information" Draco muttered "But now that you say it, it was a good thing to do."
She rolled her eyes and looked the opposite way "Get lost, Malfoy"
Draco rolled his eyes too once she turned her back on him. He gazed at her brown hair for awhile and then looked to the moon and sighed 'That's the payment when you try to help someone that you once hurt' that annoying voice said in his head. He got up and shove his hands on his pockets "Look I just came here to see if you were alright. I can see that you can't take help from anyone, so I'm gonna go now. Goodnight," and he passed by her to continue his walk towards the tower.
Hermione felt a bit anxious when he said that. She gazed at his back, walking away from her, and the black shirt that he had on was starting to get mixed with the darkness of the hall. She got up suddenly "That's not true" she saw he stopping and took a deep breath, slowly so that he couldn't hear. It was late, and dark, and she was too scared to get back on her dorm alone "Just wait... I'm going with you."
She took some steps foward and once she was beside him, she looked up "Let's go". Draco looked down on her and nodded.
Next Morning
Hermione opened her eyes slowly. There wasn't almost no sunlight in her room and she looked to the clock. 6:30 am. She tried to fell asleep again but she couldn't, so she got up and get into the shower.
The memories of last night made her chest tighten. It was too much painful knowing that she had to go downstairs to class knowing that she wouldn't get a kiss from Ron and, instead of that, she would see him and Lavender holding hands; it was painful for her to know that she wouldn't be having any lunch company because she was mad at Ginny and Harry was going to be having lunch with her. She was completely alone and the only thing that she felt like doing was stay on her room for the rest of the year.
She let the warm water relax her muscles for half an hour, and then she decided to get off the shower. Hermione dressed her uniform and prepared herself to go downstairs to have a early breakfast in the Great Hall.
When she opened the door she saw Malfoy walking out of the kitchen. When he reliazed that she was there, he stopped by the door and gazed at her without moving a single muscle. Hermione wanted to say something, maybe a 'Thank you' for what he did last night for her; how nice he had been last night. She should say something, but her throat started to burn as soon as she opened her mouth. It was too difficult for her to thank him for what he did, knowing how evil he is.
Draco kept quiet by the door, not moving. Maybe if he didn't move, she wouldn't see him. That was a stupid thought because she was looking at him. He felt like throwing himself from the tower in that moment. He knew what she was trying to say... she was trying to say 'thanks'; and if she was about to say that, it would meant something: that he really made something right. And that was, somehow, a burden for him because he hated to do nice things for people.
"Good morning," she said, with a hoarse voice. She felt like her heart was about to come out from her mouth. Malfoy just nodded at her and she felt her blood boil in her veins 'Maybe it's not a good idea for me to thank him...' and she turned to the door. But it was not the person she was "I-"
"Look," Draco interrupted her before she could say something. She looked at him with her mouth opened.
"No, you look!" she said, taking a deep breath. She felt brave "Thank you for last night" but when she said those words, her eyes were meeting the ground. Malfoy was more intimidating than she had imagined.
Draco shuddered at her words. 'Come on Draco, is that hard for you to take it?' "That's alright. I had to do something anyways," he shoved his hands into his pockets and bit his lip "You looked like crap last night."
Hermione smiled "That was the nicest thing you've ever said to me" she gazed at Malfoy, that was looking at the wall. She saw a bit of a smile on his lips, before his expression become rigid again.
"Well, I'm not always mean," Draco shrugged.
"I believe" she said with a smile still on her lips. Then she shook her head and sighed. What had been so hard to say, was making her talk too much. It was Malfoy, after all. He doesn't have feelings, and he is always mean. At least, twenty-two-seven, not twenty-four-seven anymore "I'm going to class now. See you later."
She strolled off and Draco sighed. He hadn't noticed he'd been holding his breath. He scowled and shook his head "That was the weirdest thing that I've ever witnessed."
Before Hermione leave the tower, she thought that walking on those walls would be easier now that she had broke up with Ronald. But it was not like that. Now that she was actually walking in the halls, Hermione understood that when she broke up with Ronald, she had given another cause for them to look at her. Now Hermione remembered the slaps. 'Not a nice touch, Hermione!' she thought for herself.
Taking her breakfast alone was more difficult than she had imagined. When she walked on the Great Hall, her heart pressed against her chest. For the corner of her eye, she saw Ron and Lavender together and Ginny across them... with Harry. When Ginny gazed at her, Hermione looked away and continued to walk until she found a seat almost at the end of the table. She helped herself with some food and opened her book. At least her books would make her forget everything and everyone around her.
"Hello Hermione," a voice came from across her "Can I sit here?"
She raises her head to see her old pal... Neville. She opened her eyes really wide. Someone was talking with her.
"Of course" she said, grabbing the books she put in front of her and placing them beside her.
Neville smiled and sat, helping himself with some food. He started to eat, not looking at her. 'Maybe he needs help with another essay?' she thought. But Neville was not like that... Neville was pure. He was a good friend, he wouldn't do that to her... but she had to ask.
"I'm sorry," she barely hesitated. Neville looked up to her, chewing his food "But why are you sitting with me? I mean... seems that everyone is ignoring me for what I did yesterday to him and Lavender. And here you are-"
"Hermione, what Ron did was wrong. And people should be ignoring him, not you. You just defended yourself" he shrugged and gave her a smirk "You can count on me, Hermione!" he gave her a pat on the shoulder and continued to eat.
Hermione smiled at his words.
They finished eating their breakfast and walked together to the next class. Honestly, she was not in the mood for History of Magic. Usually, that subject requires a lot of attention and Hermione felt like she could distract herself easily today. "Neville, would you mind sitting with me... today?" she asked, not looking at him. She felt embarrassed for be asking Neville something, when usually he would ask her.
"Oh..." he scratched the back of his head and pursed his lips "I'm sorry Hermione, but I usually sit with Seamus..."
"Huh that's alright!" she said immediately, more embarrassed than before. She was such a stupid little criature 'first you push away your friends, now you want miracles?' said a little voice inside her head that made her feel awful. She didn't push her friends away, they were the one that pushed her away... by hiding from her the truth... right?
"I can talk with Seamus, I'm sure that he understands-"
"No, there's no need!" Hermione forced a smile and kept staring at her feet "I guess I will see you after the class then."
"You bet!" Neville gave her a pat on the shoulder "See you later."
Then Neville entered in the classroom, leaving her alone in the hall. She needed to gather all her strength to get inside of that room; if she can overcome that class alone, she surely can overcome the rest of her day alone. She just needed a little push...
She took a deep breath and took a step foward, entering the classroom. The first person she saw was Ginny sitting on Hermione's table... where she used to sit with her 'bestfriend' Ginny. Hermione stood still for a while, trying to figure out what to do. She was not going to sit beside Ginny, she was still mad... and being alone wasn't that bad, Hermione was used to it.
So she sat on a empty table in the back of the classroom. She rushed to put her bag on the desk so that no one could sit beside her. She wanted to be alone, and that desk in the back was perfect. Hermione would see if someone dared to look at her; she could see everyone in that classroom.
The professor appeared and started to talk and Hermione did her best to pay attention, but everytime she looked foward she would see Ginny's red hair and that would make her heart hurt. Hermione forced herself to think that it was okay to be alone, that she would do fine with no one sitting by her side. But deep down she knew that she missed her bestfriend more than anything, and she would forgive her easily if she wasn't such a stubborn girl.
Sometimes she really hated to be so stubborn.
When the class finished Hermione stuffed her stuff into her bag, and rushed to leave the classroom. Someone touched her shoulder but she continued to walk, ignoring it. She wanted to leave that place as fast as she could. But that someone kept on touching her on the shoulder.
"What?" she roared, turning around to see Dean Thomas with Neville and Seamus by his side. She suddenly felt guilty for exploding in that way.
"I'm sorry Hermione, I didn't mean to... upset you" he shrugged and his two friends nodded.
"No that's alright, I just tought... it was someone else." Hermione wanted to say she thought it was Ginny, but that would show her weak side and she was doing great one her first day of 'no talking' with her "What is it?" she asked softly.
"We just wanted to ask if you want to spend some time with us. We know that you..." Dean stopped talking, getting scared of the look on Hermione's face. She knew what he was about to say.
"Well we know that you are going to be alone and that..." Seamus said, pushing Dean to the side.
"I'm fine," Hermione said, trying to not sound rude "I'm going to the next classroom and wait there for the class to begin."
She didn't wait for them to answer, she turned her back on them and started walking towards the next classroom. It was empty and Hermione sighed in relief. They had a fifteen break between classes, so she grabbed one of her favourite books she had put in her bag early that morning and started to read.
Of course the silence wouldn't last long. She heard the door open behind her, but she didn't bother to look. Probably it would just be a stupid couple looking for a empty room for them to snog. But she was there and she was sure that they weren't going to stay there. But then she heard steps. 'What the hell?' she felt her heart race and felt fear, what would be understandable a year ago, before the Hogwarts Battle.
A shadow appeared in front of her and she tried to look between her eyelashes who it was. She didn't want to raise her head.
"Hello." she could tell by the voice that it was a girl's voice. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't know who it was just by the tone of her voice. So, she raised her head. Parvati Patil was in front of her, with her arms crossed and a smirk on her lips. 'Great, probably she is just here trying to gather information on how bad I am to go run and tell Lavender'.
"What do you want, Parvati?" she said, in a rude tone. Hermione couldn't remember Parvati doing something bad at her, but she was Lavender's bestfriend and that was reason enough to ignore her now.
"Wow Hermione, calm down," she said in a playfull tone "I'm not here to fight." Hermione raised an eyebrow and gazed at her.
"Then why are you here?"
"Well I can see that you made friends" she said, passing one of her fingers in the desk where Hermione was "Lavender wanted to talk with you about that, but she is with Ron... you know."
"I didn't make new friends, they already were my friends" Hermione rolled her eyes. Seriously? "And I could bet my books that you are here to give me some... message from her. Aren't you, Parvati?"
Parvati opened her eyes wide and her mouth, in a playfull way "Oh Merlin Hermione, you're so smart!" Hermione could easily detect sarcasm in her voice, what made her feel upset at Parvati "Ron is kind of... mad at you too-"
"Mad at me?" Hermione snorted and laughed, rolling her eyes and closing her book. That was going to be interesting.
"Well yea, the slap you gave him yesterday? Was a ugly thing to do, don't you think Hermione?" Parvati crossed her arms again "And the fact that you are already talking with boys, makes him mad too. That means that you really didn't care about him at all."
Hermione wanted to laugh. Ron was the one who cheated on her, and he was the one feeling like she didn't care about him at all? Neville came for her, she didn't ask anyone for help or company "Look," Hermione got up from her chair and slammed her hands on the desk, making Parvati jump in her place. Hermione closed her eyes for awhile, and then opened them to look at the girl in front of her "Tell Ron and your dear friend Lavender that if they have something to say about me, or to me, to tell me to my face and not ask people to do it for them."
She could see Parvati's hands shaking, and Hermione asked herself if she looked scary in that moment. She hoped she did.
"That's it, you can go now." Hermione shook her hand, shooing Parvati. Parvati took some steps to the door but then stopped, pointing a finger to Hermione.
"You... You can't talk to me like that!" and then she left the room, leaving Hermione laughing at ther expression and at her words.
Draco drummed his fingers on the table constantly, staring straight ahead the Great Hall. It was dinner time and so the Great Hall was filled with noise of people talking, of the forks hitting the plates, but Blaise's voice stands out. Unfortunately.
"Look man, I swear to God... I'm losing it!" Blaise said, picking at his food "I don't know what to do, Pansy is always annoying me-"
"And now you are annoying me, Blaise," Draco rolled his eyes. He had been hearing that lecture for fifteen minutes. "Look, if you don't want her to be... a stupid head to you, just tell her that you like her already-"
"Shhh!" Blaise threw a napkin at Draco's face "Are you out of your mind? I can't."
"You just sounded like a stupid girl right now," Draco said with a straight expression "I will give you a thousand galleons for you to shut up. Yeah, that's how tired I am of hearing you."
Blaise said something to him but Draco's vision caught sight of her. He looked straight ahead at her. She looked disoriented, pressing her books against her chest, looking around for a seat. He felt a little feeling of pity in his stomach and felt a huge urge to walk towards her and talk to her, but he had been kind enough to her and... he didn't want to show her the nice side of him anymore.
"...thousand galleons to you if..." Draco heard Blaise said, and snapped his head to him.
"What?" he asked.
"I said that I will give you a thousand galleons if you stop looking at Granger." Blaise smirked and leaned back on his chair "Oh come on man, you are not going to say that you don't understand what I'm trying to say, are you? Because you have been looking at that girl for the entire day-"
"Look Blaise, you are really getting to my nerves today," Draco hissed "Just because Pansy doesn't give a crap about you-"
"Hey hey... that is a different thing," Blaise snorted "I don't know if living with Granger in that tower is affecting you in some kind of way but... you... well today you-"
"Blaise if you don't shut that stupid mouth by yourself, I will." Draco hissed. He knew that he had been looking at Granger the entire day, but it was only checking out if she was alright. After all, she looked like crap last night and... he felt a bit worried about her, just a bit. Nothing that he was glad to admit to himself.
"I understand..." Blaise raised his hands defensively "The girl is pretty. Well, more than pretty exactly. More than I want to admit. I mean... man it's okay if you want to sleep with her. I would." Draco looked at him, with his eyebrows narrowed and his mouth slightly opened.
"Seriously Blaise, you don't think before you speak? Because you should. Look, yesterday I found Granger crying on the halls at night. She saw me and asked for company to return to the tower," Alright, Draco was lying... a bit. But he wasn't going to tell Blaise the truth, because he would laugh at him for the rest of their lives "I'm just making sure she's alright, big deal."
Blaise gazed at Draco for awhile, and then smiled "Way to go, Drake. That's a good way for a girl to trust a guy."
"I don't want her to trust me, I don't care about her," Draco hissed.
"I'm not saying that you care... but there's a good chance for you to snog a bit with her."
"I swear to Merlin that if you say that again Blaise... I will destroy that face of yours." Then Draco raised from his seat.
"I'm sorry! Hey, where are you going?" Blaise asked, raising from his seat too.
"To my dorm. To get some rest from your stupid mind." Draco left the Great Hall and leaned his back in a wall, tapping one foot against the wall looking at his fingers. Then, she appeared and Draco looked up to see her rubbing her eyes with her back turned to him. Sure, he was waiting for her. But now that he saw her crying, he wasn't sure if he wanted to be here.
She turned around to walk to her dorm, when she caught sight of him. 'Why does he have to be in the same room as me when I'm crying?' she said to herself, suddenly feeling mad by his presence. She cleared the tears on her eyes and looked at him "Hi" she said, her voice shaking.
"I just wanted to ask if you were alright, but I can see that you are not." he said. He hated that... the nice side of him.
"I'm fine I just... it was a... stupid day. I just want to go sleep," she nodded, not looking at him in the eye. She started to walk and then to run, before he could follow her. She needed to be alone, more than she had been in that day. She hated to cry in front of people, she hated how weak she looked.
Draco sighed and returned to the Great Hall, sitting in front of Blaise once more. Maybe if he just controlled his kind feelings, he wouldn't feel like a total idiot now.
A/N: We see a little Dramione here, right?