Hey all, So I know I said there would be smut, and there will be, seriously, I promise. Just give it another chapter or two. I just have a hard time believing Hermione would just jump Draco's bones in two or three chapters. So anywayyy, friendly reminder that I don't own anything. Enjoy!
The constant presence of war was all around. Buzzing incessantly in the ear of everyone involved. The air was thick with its knowledge of the upcoming events, so much so that at times it was nearly impossible to breathe. Madame Pompfey and Harry both suggested that may be due to anxiety, but Hermione would not concede to having a weakness such as that, at a time such as this.
The pressure was beginning to build, not just in the castle, but all around. Despite her denial, Hermione was slowly coming undone. She was not blind to the signs of stress. The bags under her eyes grew darker, heavier. Sleep was becoming harder and harder to find and her fuse was quickly getting shorter. She was not unaware that Malfoy was also falling victim to the strain as well.
Day after day, his sleep barren eyes matched hers.
It was midday on a Sunday and the common room in Gryffindor tower was conspicuously empty. The golden trio took advantage of this rare afternoon and settled down by the fire place, books and parchment in hand, or spread around their sprawled legs.
They took the opportunity to act as if they were normal teenagers, a luxury that was not often afforded them. The boys however, quickly forgot about their studies and took up a conversation about quidditch.
She was thumbing through a text, absent mindedly looking for a specific paragraph she needed to cite for a report, that in a couple months wasn't actually going to matter anyway, but she didn't have the heart to tell herself that. Studying, school, that was the only normalcy she had left.
She was focusing more on the feel of the pages between her fingers, the sound they made as she flipped each one, than anything else. She smiled to herself, Harry and Ron's chattering on about sports lulled her nerves. Hermione imagined she was back in first year, when her biggest concern was getting better marks than Malfoy.
Malfoy… now that was one person Hermione just could not figure out.
She was so sure she knew what kind of bloke he was. He had always been so volatile, nasty, rude and spoiled, but lately he had been showing a different side of himself. Draco had been quiet and bookish and he seemingly had decent taste in literature, he finished books off about as quickly as Hermione did.
And despite his quick lashing tongue, he had turned out to be decent company.
She was starting to think that maybe he wasn't so bad…
"He wants to contribute to the war, he just doesn't know how."
One word, one syllable. And it broke through her thoughts and crashed over her like a wave of icy water. War. Hermione wasn't even quite sure which one of the boys had said it, but she felt as though she were going to be sick.
She looked up at them. Not even really seeing them, just starring through them. Hermione was only hearing parts of their conversation. Words like, fight, battle, meeting, allies, felt like jolts in her chest. Her heart had picked up a rapid staccato beat.
Then she realized, she wasn't in a meeting, she didn't have to sit here and put herself through this. She slammed her book closed, messily gathered her notes and assorted papers and stood up. Ron and Harry just looked at her, their brows furrowed.
Hermione knew she must have looked awfully stupid, a blank expression on her face and her parchments just about to slip free from her grip, papers jutting out every which way. But did they really not understand her frustration? She couldn't help but be cross with them for not seeing her issue.
She mustered up all her ability to be angry at the pair "Do you two really have nothing else to talk about?" She turned on her heels and out into the halls of Hogwarts, leaving the boys wide eyed and confused.
Draco could've seen that mass of curls bouncing towards him from a mile away. She was clearly moving with purpose, her stride covering ground with determination. But where was Granger headed?
She had her arms wrapped around a clutter of books and crumpled notes. They were on an outside wall of the castle, that was parallel to a courtyard, so she surely wasn't going to their room, yes, THEIR room.. He couldn't help but think of it that way, despite the sinking feeling it left in his gut.
But now all he could think about was how Granger was 20 feet in front of him and her gaze was fixed on the ground, she hadn't even noticed him. Well, Draco would change that.
Hermione was having an out of body experience of sorts. She knew she was making the journey to the library, but she wasn't quite there. She could not tell you what hall she was in, if her life had depended on it. She wasn't really hearing, wasn't really seeing, her body was on autopilot as her brain tried to escape reality.
That is until a very hard mass made contact with her shoulder, making a very loud thump and leaving her muscle instantly achy. She crashed back to consciousness, quickly enough to catch her heap of school work as it threatened to tumble out of her grip, before her body whirled around from the impact. As soon as Hermione caught sight of that smirk out of the corner of her eye, something inside of her nearly broke.
Anger simmered hot inside her veins, just under the surface, threatening to boil over. It felt as though a hole had burned through the fabric of her sweater, where Malfoys broad shoulder had made contact with her own.
As she came to a stop facing him, Malfoy was brushing off invisible filth from his own shirt as he seemingly looked her up and down with a disgusted look, as he snarled, "Watch where you're going next time, Granger. Or I'll have to send you my laundry bill."
And there it was. It was as if Hermione could hear her very sanity snap. Malfoy must've heard it too, because all too suddenly Malfoys nasty snarl was replaced with a look of concern and he was backing away with a slow step.
"Granger…?" He sounded genuinely concerned, but Hermione was in no mood to notice.
She exhaled deeply and gritted her teeth, her words came out slow, but blazing. "You slimy little ferret," she no longer cared about the books in her hands, and let them drop at her feet, stepping over them towards Malfoy, "I will give you a reason to send me a hospital bill."
She pulled out her wand and in an instant the blonde had turned tail and started down the hall as fast as he could. Hermione half chuckled to herself then, no one had ever claimed that Draco Malfoy was a rocket scientist, but he certainly just proved that he was no dummy.
Still fueled by rage, Hermione followed suit after him.
"Calvario!" It was a warning shot more than anything. She didn't really want Malfoys hair to fall out. If she were being honest with herself, she had actually become quite fond of the blond hair that always seemed to be in his eyes. The curse sparked as it missed its target, landing on a pillar just to his left.
A grin formed on her face as his yelp reached her ears.
Draco had turned a corner, out of Hermione's site, into the large stone courtyard. He quickly surveyed the area, the scattered trees and benches would offer him no lasting cover. The slight distance he gained gave him time to pull his wand and face up to the witch that had apparently lost her mind. But brawling with the know it all was an opportunity Draco could not pass up, even if he could get away.
Hermione rounded the turn and came to a stop. The only thing between them was 50 feet. Draco watched as Hermione's chest heaved with the adrenaline and exertion from her sprint. He wanted to take her and sit her down on a bench, to soothe her wild hair down until she caught her breathe.
She looked so worn out. Malfoy had never been the tender sort, but seeing her cheeks, flushed he wanted to kiss them. He wanted to kiss the bags under her eyes until they disappeared. He wanted to kiss her hands that had become shaky. He wanted to stroke her spine until every one of her nerves had been soothed. He wanted to pull her to him and hold her until everything felt right again.
Instead she took another few steps forward, wand at the ready. But now that she had that snake Malfoy trapped, she wasn't sure what to do. She was running out of steam. Her head was foggy and her eye lids were heavy with sleep.
She didn't truly have the motivation to go through with any kind of real fight, she just wanted to put the blonde twit in his place for once.
Hermione wasn't even focused on the wizard across from her any more. The muscles across her shoulders felt as if they were strung so tight they were beginning to fray, as if they would snap at any second. The weight of her own wand was unbearable, her arm dropped just a fraction.
But the movement caught Malfoys eyes instantly and the look of concern he didn't even know he had, faded. A smirk was plastered across his face in no time.
"Are you nervous, Granger?" Arrogance laced around each syllable. It came so easy to him, his conceited attitude was as natural to him as walking.
At that moment, it was obvious to Hermione that Malfoy had in fact, not been put in his place. Well that just wouldn't do, She fought past her muddled brain.
"Stupefy!" The angry noise coming from her mouth didn't even sound like her own.
"Protego!" The spell ricocheted off Draco's shield charm and past her as she began moving towards Draco, trying to make up ground as he was attempting to retreat conspicuously further into the courtyard.
"Steleus!" His voice sounded helpless. The hex hit a tree somewhere off to the side of her. She could hear the bark sizzle. It was as if he wasn't even trying. A new wave of anger washed over her. Did he not think she was a serious enough threat to him that he could just mock her by not even trying to aim?
Her cheeks burnt red hot.
"What's the matter, Malfoy? Daddy couldn't afford aiming lessons?" Hermoine laughed. Laughed harder than she could remember laughing in a long time, until Draco used a Ventus spell. The wind whipped and whorled around her, she spread her feet wide trying to stay planted in place, her arms came up to protect her face from the burning gust as she flew back a few paces.
As Hermoine righted herself, Draco let a Tarantallegra spell fly. It flew past her, so close to her ear she could hear it fizzle in passing.
Draco's smirk, the one she always wished she could slap off his face was replaced with his equally as annoying snarl. He looked so old then. Standing there, his wand still in fighting position, his body poised to take a hit.
Surely he knew she never truly planned on hitting her intended target. But would she? Could she? Was she going to be able to muster the courage she knew she was going to need when it really came time?
"Don't say something you'll regret, Granger." His words were gritty and venomous.
"Sod off, Malfoy." She spit out.
As she was about to let loose another stupefy spell, Hermione's wand was ripped from her hand with a very wicked sounding expelliarmus charm. Hermione didn't need to look to see who it was, but she cringed and followed the direction her wand was flying. It joined Draco's wand in the hands of Professor McGonagall.
Just this once, Hermione had wished she hadn't been right.
Her heels tapped loudly on the stone as she marched towards them. "That is quite enough!" she sounded exasperated
Hermione regretted every decision she had made that day. As if it wasn't bad enough that she had allowed herself to get mixed up into a quarrel with Malfoy, now McGonagall had caught them red handed.
"This is outrageous behavior!" she scolded as she stepped forward between them. "50 points from each of your houses and detention."
She turned a hard eye on Malfoy. "Professor Snape will be wanting to hear about this and having a chat with you about your morals or lack thereof Mr. Malfoy."
She held out his wand for him to take. I suggest you head to his office right away
He hung his head in presumably mock shame.
"Yes ma'm" Me muttered as he strode by her, taking his wand as he passed.
He waltzed off, not looking back. Hermione couldn't resist making a face at him. Since when did acting so childish make her feel this good?
When McGonagall turned to Hermione, she dropped her head as she fiddled with an imaginary speck of dirt on her finger. She was so embarrassed, her face flushed red and her ears were hot with humiliation.
The professor began stepping towards Hermoine."Miss Granger," McGonagall said, less than amused.
"I cannot say I am surprised by Mr. Malfoys behavior, but my dear, I expected much more from you."
The disappointment in her voice struck Hermione in the gut. She looked up at the older woman then, tears threatening to burst. Why had she let herself get into such a mess? The dissatisfaction in her eyes filled the young witch with shame.
"Yes ma'm I know, I can't apologize enough." She just about choked on her words. The sympathy that replaced the anger in McGonagall's features sickened Hermione even more.
"I am disappointed in you. Go on now," She handed Hermione her wand
"I will send an owl to you later when I think of a suitable punishment for such an outrageous display as what the two of you put on here today."
Hermione nodded and lamely got her wand. She walked solemnly back through the courtyard and through the hallway. She gave herself a mental lashing as she reached the spot where she had dropped her things before chasing after Malfoy.
Her papers, were scattered by the wind, her books open and the pages creased in every which way, her pens rolled about. The hall was a chaotic mess. She found it was very symbolic of her life at that moment.