Chapter 25
And then Christmas break was over. Everyone was back at Hogwarts, attempting to get focused for the rest of the year and perhaps dreading approaching exams. Reece had managed to push his fear to the back of his mind upon return, and although it still continued to haunt him – creep up on him during moments of weakness… Fleur had shown him light, just as Dumbledore had said. She'd given him some hope that couldn't be forgotten about easily, and he could never repay her for such strength provided in the weakest of moments.
Remembering his somewhat promise, Reece sent her an owl on the second day back. Of course, it would take some time to travel to its destination but at least he'd sent it before he had the chance to forget. This year was looking good so far. Reece had even seen Granger walking along a corridor and he'd flashed her a smile when no one else was watching.
Even now he was in the hall, surrounded by Daphne, Blaise, Tracey and even Pansy for the first time in a while. They'd all surrounded him when they came in for breakfast, and Daphne had descended on him with twenty questions about what he did over the holidays and how the tournament went. He hadn't told them much about the tournament before he went, and even when they all continued to ask, Reece tactfully avoided the questions while eating his croissant with jam just as Fleur had recommended.
"Looks like the morning mail is on its way." Blaise commented as owls began flooding into the hall, swooping down and dropping many Daily Prophets to the subscribers.
"Sweet Merlin," Tracey gasped as she squinted at the image on the front page.
"What is it Trace?" Pansy questioned as she too received her issue of the popular newspaper. "You won?" She all but screamed, causing silence to flood the hall as many students all looked up from their papers to see Reece casually buttering a slice of toast.
"Yeah." He answered in an uninterested tone as everyone went back to reading and eating. "Didn't know that was going to get published today." Reece commented as he took a bite out of his toast. "Which picture did they use?"
"You're one lucky bastard." Blaise grumbled as he observed the image and the two witches that were planting a kiss on his cheeks. Daphne overheard the comment (much to Reece's amusement) and swatted Blaise's arm with the Prophet in her hand.
"Oh that one." Reece chuckled as Daphne and Blaise once again broke off into their own bubble, once again arguing about something that would be resolved with one of them making fun of the other. "Pans, what do you think of France?"
"She's alright." The brunette huffed forcefully.
"Alright?" Tracey spluttered as she watched the picture to see that the girls would turn around before kissing him on a loop. "France is the one on the right?" Reece nodded. "I can't believe she kissed you Lestrange, she's way, way, way out of your league."
"Thank you for that little miss optimist." He retorted sarcastically, his quip causing Pansy to snort into her orange juice. Tracey seemed slightly offend for a second but as soon as she saw orange juice fly onto the table all was silently forgiven. Reece sniggered when he noticed Pansy trying to wipe it up with her sleeve. This was the most fun he'd had with his Slytherin friends in ages.
"So Daphne told me about your pathetic flirting with Brown." Pansy remarked, changing the topic.
"Not my best work I must say." Reece replied with a tinge of shame in his tone, feeling as if he could have done so much better.
"Tongue tied was the best thing you could come up with? And she still let you kiss her?" Blaise and Daphne had now re-joined the conversation, and the latter couldn't help but add insult to injury. "He pinned her against the wall as well." The blonde snickered.
"Right can we shut up about this now?"
"Fine." Pansy laughed as she and the others all looked at each other, all with a comic gleam in their eyes from the Slytherin teasing. "But to be honest I don't think she was worth the galleons, a pureblood as well Lestrange I was hoping you'd have gone for a mudblood." Reece inwardly cringed at Pansy's language but he couldn't blame her. Malfoy's way of speech appeared to rub off on people far too easily. "Oh my god if he'd have tried Granger." The four of them laughed at the thought and Reece wanted to laugh along with the jokes – but he couldn't. He didn't want to hear them speak ill of the golden girl. She was his friend, in some abnormal way. They got along, and he liked her, a lot.
"Come on Reece you know we're only joking." Daphne said in a high pitched voice, trying to contain her laughter as everyone else's began to die down. "We all know that would be an impossible task,"
"Because the Gryffindor bookworm is as frigid as they come, you'd get so frustrated Lestrange." Tracey cut in as Reece looked to Blaise. His current best male friend was sitting with a judgemental, yet intrigued expression on his face.
"Maybe he wants frigid." Blaise teased, provoking Reece with a smirk. "You've said numerous times you like challenges and well bloody hell imagine Lestrange here trying to get past Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee in pursuit of the Gryffindor princess." Reece frowned in confusion at the muggle saying Zabini had managed to pick up from somewhere.
"That would be so cute." Tracey cooed and the other two were also making gushing noises.
"It's a shame she's so dirty Lestrange." Pansy said arrogantly. "It had the potential to be the cutest love story ever."
Sometimes Reece hated how his friends were so close to the truth yet so far from realisation.
"Look about before…" Blaise started, much to the annoyance of Reece. He just wanted to get to Divination in peace but it seemed Zabini didn't want to leave well enough alone.
"Don't start." Reece sighed as the two approached the classroom a few minutes early, leaving Blaise enough time to set off to his next class.
"I just want to say that I'm sorry if we all went too far. It was harsh of us to imply that you are capable of fancying something that, I don't know, muggle. I mean I'm not even one hundred percent pureblood you know, so I'd always support you if you did end up liking a halfblood instead of you know, someone with a perfect lineage."
"Shut up Blaise, seriously. I don't care about the banter at breakfast, it was just teasing honestly I'm not bothered." Reece cut in. He didn't want a heart to heart with the guy, especially outside Professor Trelawney's classroom.
"Whatever you say mate." Blaise muttered as he began to walk away. "Whatever you say."
Reece remained in a sour mood as he entered divination and slouched beside a small table. Even when he saw Granger suddenly appear out of nowhere once again, his mood was not lightened as when he looked at her all he could think about was the words of his friends. They really had no filters when conversing with their own, it was always a Slytherin quality although no one fully trusted one another. As the class began Reece remained unfocused, only hearing his teacher's words and not processing them.
"Broaden your minds." Trelawney instructed as half the class began drifting off with their heads in their hands. "You must look beyond." Quite frankly, Reece was tired of looking beyond. He was as sick of this subject as he was of Malfoy mouthing off in the common room. And that was saying something. "The art of crystal gazing is in the clearing of the inner eye." As far as Reece was concerned he only had two eyes, and neither of them and any 'inner' part to them whatsoever. "Only then can you see." Reece sat back against the wood behind him, relaxing and putting his hands behind his head as Trelawney began speaking to his three favourite Gryffindors. "Now what do we have here?"
"Do you mind me trying?" His concentration and intrigue seemed to peak at the sound of Granger's voice. "The Grim, possibly." The moment that she had said a word that could have linked to the exact phrase 'indefinite' Reece smirked, silently cheering her on in his head.
"My dear, from the first moment you stepped foot in my class I sensed that you did not possess the proper spirit…" He almost burst out laughing when she touched Granger's hand. The expression on the golden girl's face said it all. Sheer dislike. It was how Reece often looked at Crabbe and Goyle. "… For the noble art of divination. No, you see, there. You may be young in years but your heart is as shrivelled as an old maid's, your soul as dry as the pages of the books to which you so desperately cleave." It shocked Reece when Granger stood up, knocking the ball flying. He couldn't blame her though, after all, he was known to do a lot worse.
"Well I'm out as well. If she can walk out, so can I. This class is crap." Reece announced as he grabbed this shoulder bag and left quickly, catching up to Granger quickly as she strut down the many stairs. "Entertaining show you put on in there." He said light-heartedly as he caught up to her just as she'd reached the bottom of the winding stair case.
"What do you want now Lestrange?" Her words were snappy and cold, but deep down he knew that the anger was not currently directed at him. Currently.
"What I want?" He questioned, as if her comment was one of great surprise. "What I want is to be able to talk to you in public without being attacked by my entire house." She still continued to walk quickly down corridors, his long legs managing to keep up with her without too much effort. Reece's statement shocked Hermione to say the least, and her head snapped round to notice that he was still looking forward, purposely avoiding eye contact with her. "Hm, what else? Oh a father that isn't in Azkaban, that's another one. Prefect in fifth year, even though Malfoy will get it because I've got a bad reputation with violence. Erm, I want my mates to stop thinking that the possibility of me fancying a girl that isn't pureblood is ridiculous." There was more; a lot more, deeper, personal wishes that he didn't dare reveal to her yet. "What about you?"
"Well I want to know why I get verbal abuse thrown at me in the corridors when I'm not the only muggle-born in the school." It was her turn to face forward while walking, and his turn to look at her expressions when she played along with his game. "I want to know what's so special about me that would make a pureblood such as yourself talk to me as if I'm a human at times. Oh I want to know what your friends would say if they saw us now, and why you chose to defend me in Defence."
"No one else was going to stick up for you while he brutally attacked you with a harsh choice of words. Those stupid friends of yours didn't say anything to help you, like what type of friends are they? Spineless pricks." Reece ranted, following her as she made her way to the red and gold common room. Granger opened her mouth to defend the two, but he continued before she could make an attempt. "Whether I like it or not, I like you Granger – as much as it pains me to say it." She took a few quick paces and stood a few steps above him on a set of moving stairs, and Reece inwardly hoped that the stairs would get stuck and leave the two of them on there for a few decent minutes.
"Please stop." That bossy little voice of hers sent chills down his spine unintentionally. "I heard what you did with Lavender Brown and you're just playing games with me as well, and you know what I've got a lot of stuff going on at the moment and I don't need you distracting me even more than you already are."
"A distraction?" Reece questioned, moving up a few steps so that she was only one above him. They were so close, eye to eye and he could even take in a weak smell of a perfume that she appeared to be wearing. "I say that I like you, and fuck it I want us to be friends that can chill with each other, but all you do is call me a distraction?" His tone had a teasing edge to it, and just by her softening expression Reece knew that he had managed to loosen her tension slightly.
"And what would your friends say if you were friends with me?" Reece grimaced, breaking eye contact and looking away from her for a moment. She was too smart for him to try and manipulate, he always had to be straight with her and Reece wasn't yet sure if that was good or bad. "Merlin, Lestrange why pick me of all people?"
"Why? I'll fucking tell you why." Reece said heatedly, preparing himself for a rant and ignoring the fact that she had obvious distaste for his swearing. "I didn't just pick you, you vexing witch. You're always there, always have been and you still catch my eye for god sake. When I see you in the bloody library I want to sit with you, and even when you're snappy with me I still want to talk to you because for me, your fiery side is one of the best things about you. Tell me why I would intentionally pick someone that could get me kicked out of my house? There's no specific reason Granger, I just want to be mates with you is that so hard for you to understand?"
"Yes." Hermione's answer had been delayed, but it had still been as simple and emotionally destructive as it could have been for Reece. "But I like to solve everything that I don't understand." Her words were warmth to him, and as soon as the smallest of smiles appeared on her lips he grinned so goofily that Hermione couldn't help but laugh. "If you really want me to, I'll try Lestrange. But we have to be careful if you've got so much on the line if people find out."
"Okay so if we're friends, like we agree that we're actually friends, can you do me a huge favour?"
"Depends what it is." She was never one to agree to something blindly.
"When it's just us, don't call me Lestrange." The tone was sincere, and it was one of the most serious things that he'd said throughout the whole discussion on the stairs.
"I'll try, but it will take some getting used to, Reece." And how different and how much softer her words sounded when she didn't say his surname. He smiled, thinking about how good it sounded when she said his first name.
"You know the stairs stopped moving ages ago, right?" Reece questioned suddenly, his smile changing to a knowing smirk as her cheeks went pink and she began to move up the stairs. Once she had gone Reece began making his way to Snape's, knowing that he'd have to do a lot to explain why he left Trelawney's class.