AN: Thank you to annakuznetsova01 for reviewing!
This chapter and the next are basically in the same time frame but each from Draco's or Hermione's prospective. Enjoy!
Read and review please!
Song suggestion: Break your heart, Taio Cruz.
Chapter Fourteen: Dragon burnout.
She hates me! She absolutely loathes me! Draco crumbled onto the couch. She's never going to be with me! She's never going to let me near her again! She despises me! My own Mate hates me! How could this have happened? How can this be? She's supposed to be compatible! She's supposed to love me like I love her! But she hates me! She hates me!
"Draco? Are you in there? Answer the damn door!" Blaise's calls came through the door with persistent knocking.
Draco ignored it. I don't deserve anyone around me, not if it's not my Mate! He started to rock in place delving deeper into his pit of despair.
"Draco?" A softer feminine voice called next, "Draco, open the door."
"Go away!" He cried.
"For frick sake Draco, open this bloody door!" Blaise demanded.
"Hey, you're not going to get through to him like that!" Pansy scolded before saying in a softer tone, "Please Draco, open the door." Deciding they weren't going to move anytime soon he dragged himself to the door and cracked it open.
"Just go." He said scrubbing his tears away-Slytherin's, and especially Malfoy's-never showed tears.
"Oh Draco." Pansy sighed and stepped inside uninvited and hugged him to her, "Ssshhh…it'll be okay."
"No, it won't Pansy! She hates me! Granger hates me now…she knows everything and she hates me for it! She hates me…"
"Now, now, calm down, you'll get nowhere like that." Pansy sat him on the couch and wiped his face with her fingers, "Ssshhh…"
"How did you know?" He directed the question at Blaise.
"We felt the aura." Blaise nodded.
"And we saw Potter and Weasley go into the Room of Requirement, so we figured you were alone and needed someone." Pansy added; waving her wand and some tea started making itself on the fire.
"What happened?" Blaise asked sitting in the chair.
"She…she refused to look at me so I made her-not in a bad way-just turning her around. She was uncomfortable with me close to her, so I tried to ease her, but then she was asking questions of when I started not believing in the pureblood crap and asked for specifics…then she mentioned it would have been on my birthday, and she was right. She became my Mate that day and I no longer believed it…then she asked me if I was a Veela but she knew, she knew and now I have confirmed it she hates me!"
"Jees, why did your Mate have to be the smartest Witch of our age?" Blaise mumbled.
"She just need time to cool off." Pansy scowled at Blaise, who then looked sheepish, "It's a big thing to think about. Your life is suddenly decided for you. That's got to be hard for Granger, considering she probably planned her life right down to her death since she was born, and having that suddenly changed isn't going to be easy for her. Add in that you two have practically been enemies since you met is not going to help in the slightest."
"That's why I found her in the summer, because I wanted to make it as easy as possible because her friends are not going to help. But I guess it didn't work…I just made her assume what I was before I wanted to tell her."
"Draco, this was never going to be an easy conversation for you to have with her, at least she won't have to go through the whole bit like I did, because I had no clue, but Granger does, so it might be easier in the long run." Pansy shook her head and smiled at Blaise.
"I don't know; she was so upset…" He sighed.
"I thought Malfoy's never lost." Pansy placed her hand on her hip.
"They don't." Draco said with conviction.
"Then you haven't lost her, and you won't, she'll come around."
"I hope so."
"Anyway, think about when she does." Blaise nodded and quirked his eyebrows.
"I swear you only think of that!" Pansy sighed and shot him a cold look, "Watch your mouth or I'll make you go cold turkey."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me."
"Please can you two not discuss this in my presence, you're like my sister Pansy, and I really don't want to know."
"Sorry Draco, Blaise won't mention it again, will you Blaise?" Pansy fixed him with a hard look.
"No." Blaise answered quickly.
"Good boy."
"She's got you whipped." Draco chuckled.
"Excuse me; I don't appreciate that kind of idea." Pansy scowled.
"Sorry Pansy." He rubbed her head.
"Hey! My hair!" She jumped away and sat on Blaise's lap.
"It's only hair."
"Shut up. Anyway, you're one to talk, how long do you take on your hair in a morning then Draco?"
"Not as long as you."
"I need to be perfect for Blaise." She insisted.
"You're perfect anyway Pans." Blaise whispered in her ear and she giggled.
"Ugh!" Draco groaned.
"Just leave her for tonight and talk to her tomorrow."
"Hermione's so stubborn, she'll be worse than Pansy, and if I remember correctly, I had to talk to her before she even considered being in the same room as you."
"I could talk to her?" Pansy offered again.
"Would you do that?"
"Sure, you talked to me, now I'll talk to Granger, that debt paid and we're equal." She shrugged, "Plus it'll be easier coming from a woman, especially when I was in the same position. I remember you trying to talk to me about it; I was never so embarrassed in my life!"
"Then you wouldn't look me in the eye for three days."
"Well, talking about the ins and outs with you was mortifying! You made me extremely uncomfortable with that conversation."
"It was no picnic for me either." He grunted.
"Let's just forget it."
"Definitely."
"I'd say I'd talk to her too, but I don't think she'd like that." Blaise teased.
"Bloody hell, that'd be worse than my conversation with Draco!" And with that they all laughed and Draco momentarily forgot his depression.