Draco felt his heart plummet even further as he stared at Granger, her eyes glaring daggers into his own.
"What is this?" she repeated. "Are you spying on me? Is this some - some sort of game?"
He took a step closer, hands raised in the air. "Granger, please, I can explain-"
"Explain? What is there to explain?"
Draco paused. How could he start? Where could he even begin? He'd thought about how to tell her every day for the past few weeks, but nothing he'd come up with was coming to mind.
In the short time that he was thinking, Granger had evidently found the screen with buttons. Her eyes narrowed and she immediately began tapping some of the buttons, grabbing for a device he hadn't seen before that looked like a medium-sized rounded stone attached to a string.
"This is my desktop! Have you hacked into my computer?"
Her hair was practically sizzling, with magic or with anger Draco wasn't certain.
He had to come up with something. "There's a spell, a ritual-"
"I've seen 'rituals' like this before, Malfoy, and I never would have pegged you as sick enough to partake in them."
She'd heard about these rituals before? How? Why would he need to be ill to participate?
"I don't think it's the same kind of-"
She cut him off again. This was starting to get frustrating.
"I don't care what it is, Malfoy. I've seen enough. I don't know what game it is you're playing, but consider it over, and I hope to Merlin you won't consider yourself to have won."
She stormed past him, and while he wanted nothing more than to stop her, he realised that his words meant nothing to her right now and she needed some time before she came around. If she would ever come around.
He watched pathetically as she grabbed her cloak and shoes and headed for the fireplace, a fistful of floo powder in her hand. "Granger residence," she said clearly, not caring if he overheard, before stepping through. She didn't even turn around to face him again before she was gone, the green flames licking the empty air behind her.
Draco stormed back into the ritual room.
"What the fuck?" he yelled into the room, mimicking Granger's earlier accusations. "Aren't you supposed to be helping me find my partner, not luring her in here and making her storm off because she thinks I'm a fucking creep who's been stalking her?"
Looking around the room it wasn't hard to see why. In the weeks since it first opened up, the room was practically fully furnished in the exact current layout of her own bedroom. Of course she would think the worst.
Unsurprisingly, the room did not answer. Even his voice sounded weaker than he wanted in here, as if it were just a ghost of himself. He slammed his fist on the desk, causing a hairbrush and a couple of trinkets to shake in its wake.
He could feel a cold, sunken darkness in his chest where there used to be warmth and light. He could feel the pricks of tears beginning in the corner of his eyes. He'd never cried over a bloody chit before, he couldn't believe his body was reacting this way. He took a gasping breath and tried to get his emotions under control, but the overwhelming sadness in his core prevented him from returning to his normal stoic character.
He heard a noise at the door and he turned away from it, not wanting to face whoever was there.
"I heard some yelling, dear, and I wanted to check in to see if everything was alright?" Narcissa's voice was soft and comforting. Draco kept facing away, knowing that his mother couldn't enter the room without Granger's permission, which obviously wouldn't be happening anytime soon.
"She's gone, mum. She found the room and now I've lost her."
Narcissa's voice fell. "Oh, Draco."
It had been a long time since he had felt this cold and alone, not since he'd been a child. As much as a part of him longed to run into his mother's arms and listen to her comforting words, he knew there was only one witch who would help him feel better now, and she had left through the floo several minutes prior. He stood there in the ritual room, back to the doorway, feeling the coldness seep through his veins until returning to his room hours later to fall into a depressed sleep.
When Draco awoke the following day, it felt like his whole body was cold and unfeeling at the same time. He habitually dressed and performed his morning care routine without thinking, scrubbing his face without feeling the soap or water on his skin, not caring or noticing whether the water was hot or cold.
He had to do something. Maybe he'd write her an owl. He sat down at his desk and penned a brief but apologetic missive to her.
Granger,
I'm sorry you found out about the room this way.
Please give me a chance to explain.
Malfoy
He had contemplated signing off as 'Draco' but thought that, based on the most recent events, that might no longer be appropriate.
He headed down for breakfast. He didn't feel hungry, but the growling in his stomach was obvious even in this state. Both of his parents were at the table, his mother's eyes drawn in concern as soon as he entered.
"Mother, Father." He assumed not greeting them at all would rouse more suspicion than he already felt.
Lucius gave him a look that he'd never seen before. It wasn't quite pity, it wasn't haughtiness, but it seemed to show Draco that he regretted not having a solution to the problem.
Draco sat down at the table and reached for the cup of coffee that appeared in front of him. The knots he felt in his stomach were similar to those he felt on that day all those weeks ago, when his father was preparing to perform the ritual ceremony on him. Except this time the fluttering feelings in his stomach were dampened by the cool, damp weight that pressed upon him with every breath. It wasn't going to be like this for the rest of his life, was it?
Lucius cleared his throat, which interrupted Draco's morbid train of thought. "Your mother told me that your… partner… visited last night, and found her room." His disdain for not knowing the identity of the girl was clear in his voice. "I am sorry that events unfolded this way, son."
Draco wasn't sure he remembered the last time his father said "I'm sorry", let alone to him. He wished he could appreciate the novelty of the situation a little better.
"Me too," Draco commiserated.
Lucius reached into his robes and pulled out a small leatherbound book. Its pages were frayed and the leather looked like it was about to fall apart in places. He placed it on the table and slid it towards Draco.
Draco lifted it up and opened it slowly as Lucius explained "This is the diary of Nobilius Malfoy. It explains some of the more nuanced details of the ritual. I had found it to be helpful when I first met your mother, to help explain how I knew so soundly that we would be together.
"I understand your circumstances are a little different, and the way things were found out was unfortunate. However I am hoping that if your witch is a fan of books" - here Draco couldn't help but scoff - "that she might glean some insights through reading it."
Draco thought Granger might burn any book he sent her in the near future before reading it, and anyone who knew her would know what a testament that was for how angry she likely was with him.
"Thank you, Father. I will do my best."
Draco paused for a moment, taking another measured sip of coffee. "Does his diary get into details on what happens should a witch reject their partner, by chance?"
Lucius' eyes looked vacant for a moment before he replied "No. Some Malfoys have taken a long time to find their partners, however your existence is proof that each one was eventually able to find and settle with their partners."
Narcissa chose this moment to join in. "I am sure she'll come around, darling. She'll just need to learn more about the ritual. Just give her some time, you'll see."
Draco agreed with his mother verbally to placate her, but inside he knew that the chances of him reconciling with Granger were slim.
Several days (and several unreturned letters) later, Draco found himself needing to send a message to Theo and Blaise letting them both know that he wouldn't be at Hemlock tonight, or maybe ever again.
Shortly after the message, Draco had two folded paper peacocks pecking at his head, one on either side. Before he even had a chance to open either of them, Blaise and Theo both stepped out of his floo one by one.
"No need to open those up, mate," Theo commented, taking a seat on one of the chairs as if he belonged there.
"They only say we'll be there in a minute, and we're bringing drinks." Blaise continued Theo's train of thought while pulling a bottle of firewhiskey out of his robes and summoning three tumblers.
Draco frustratedly grabbed at the fiendish peacocks and angrily threw them into the fireplace.
"Thank you for the advanced notice," he said sarcastically, fixing his hair where the paper fowl mussed it. "Please, take a seat."
Theo and Blaise, both already seated, continued on in their conversation as if he hadn't spoken.
"So you fucked it up with Granger already, have you?" From Theo.
"Certainly didn't last long." Blaise.
"I wouldn't have guessed you were so bad in bed that once was enough to abandon ship."
"Thought she would have given it at least three tries. The scientific method, you know."
"The what?"
"I don't know. I heard Granger talk about it one time."
"That's enough." Draco's roar cut through their back and forth, finally causing them both to quiet. He slumped down into a chair beside them, snatching one of the glasses of firewhiskey that Blaise had poured.
"It's her," he said. "It's Granger. She's the one the room was trying to tell me about." And with that admission, Draco began to share with them how the once empty room began to fill with trinkets and other items linking to Granger, and that he confirmed it when he saw her bedroom the other week.
Just as he was about to share how Granger had walked into the copy of her own room, his floo roared to life once more and Pansy stepped out, brushing the dust off her tightly fitted midnight blue lace dress.
"Sorry I'm late, boys. What'd I miss?"
Hours later, Draco had imbibed more alcohol than was strictly appropriate. They had switched to vodka once the firewhiskey was done, Pansy helpfully calling for some soda and ice to be delivered to help cut the pure alcohol.
Draco had shared more than he meant to, and his friends now knew everything he did about the Granger situation. Pansy, who had last seen him a few weeks ago when they had their lacklustre tryst together, was very interested to know how sex with Granger compared, and he accidentally shared more about that than he wanted to as well.
"Well I'm certainly happy for you that you were able to get some relief," Pansy noted, eyeing him over the rim of her glass and smirking.
Draco groaned. "For a short time, anyway. Now she's never going to speak to me again, and I'll have to figure out how to live without - with all the side effects." He wasn't prepared to think of an orgasm-less future so explicitly.
He was happy his friends were there. While talking to them didn't resolve anything, it was nice to know that he had their support, and that they didn't seem to be unimpressed (or even surprised, for that matter) that Granger was the second half of his destined pair.
Eventually the lateness of the evening crept up on them, and Theo announced it was time to get back to his flat. He spent more time than Draco thought was appropriate speculating about all the various states of dress that Potter might be waiting for him in, and Draco was only too happy to assist with ushering him out hastily.
Blaise followed quickly afterwards, thankfully more discreet about whether he had any plans to meet up with Weasley or not, leaving only Pansy.
She approached him slowly. This felt different than normal. He and Pansy had a fairly significant history, with both of them being each other's firsts and continually coming back to each other whenever there was a lull between relationships. This was the first time it felt like they were approaching each other as friends and nothing more, and he could see the hesitancy in her eyes as she got closer.
He reached out and pulled her in for a hug. This too felt different; once all of the sexual undertones of their relationship were squashed in his brain, he was able to appreciate how comforting and warm Pansy's embrace really was.
"Thanks for coming out tonight, Pans," he muffled into her hair.
"Of course, Draco. You know I'm always going to be here for you, right?" Her eyes were glossy when they met his, though she made quick work of blinking the emotion away as soon as he'd noticed.
Pansy stepped back and shook her head lightly, changing the tone of the conversation to something more hopeful. "You'll figure something out, I know you will. You're brilliant and handsome - I should know." Here she gave him a sly wink, her self confidence returning quickly. "And she'll eventually understand all the crazy Malfoy rituals that go hand in hand with all you crazy Malfoy men."
Draco laughed a little at this. Crazy indeed. He only hoped she would agree that it was worth it.
The first coils of light were entering through his haphazardly drawn curtains, prematurely rousing Draco from sleep. He wrenched his eyes shut and tried to hold on to the last remnants of his dream.
He'd dreamt of Granger, of course. He'd always dreamt of Granger ever since he figured out who she was.
She'd been in his lap as they sat in his wing chair, the same way they were the last time they'd seen one another in real life. She was straddling him, completely naked this time, while he had his trousers shucked down around his hips.
He slipped his fingers into her wet channel just as he did last time and was met with the same satisfied moans. He again sucked gently at her neck, her breasts, and her lips all while continuing his motions inside.
Her mewls turned from passionate to frustrated, and she reached down between them to take him into her hands. He squeezed her hips and groaned, head lolling back deep into the upholstery of the wing chair.
Instead of pumping him like she did the last time they were in this position, she lined him up with her slick entrance and entreated him to enter. The feel of her hot, tight channel around him made his hips thrust up eagerly. He could feel her groans reverberating around him as he bottomed out inside her.
His thrusts quickly hastened, encouraged as they were by Granger's complete responsiveness to his every tough. He could feel his release barely held back and he fought to keep it back so he could enjoy their joining for longer.
When her hips thrust down to meet his and her fingers dug into his shoulders so deeply to make a pattern of half-moons behind, he realised that he could no longer restrain himself and he started to feel himself coming apart inside her.
The sunlight gleamed more fully and the imagery disappeared with the breaking of the fog of sleep, though his body still vividly remembered each part. He was already gripping himself and pumping slowly, his motions turning more purposeful and deliberate as he regained full consciousness.
It felt the same as it did before. He could feel his release just beyond his reach; with each motion he felt as if the next one would surely tip him over, only to disappointedly realise that it again was not quite enough.
Draco growled, picking himself up off the bed and heading towards the bathroom. Perhaps a cool, refreshing shower was needed to lessen the sting of his denied satisfaction.
Several minutes later he was clean and relatively refreshed, and as ready as he would ever be to start the day. Perhaps the fates would smile on him and he would even receive word from Granger.
He was hopeful to receive an owl response after his first, second, and third owls went out, each increasing slightly in desperation. However he was beginning to lose hope as he was penning the sixth draft of his fourth letter, and thought perhaps a different solution might be required.
It was early afternoon, just after lunch, when Draco was lying on Granger's bed in the ritual room, that inspiration struck with the faint sound of a chime emitting from the strange box on top of Granger's desk.
Draco looked at the box and saw a strange wavy square with four colours inside, along with the word "Windows". He wasn't really sure how anyone could mistake this odd box as a window, and if he wasn't mistaken he believed he recalled Granger screeching that it was something called a 'computer'.
He watched as the image faded to black and was replaced immediately by several other images, a vivid green hill and dusty blue sky. A small arrow seemed to whiz around the screen, pausing over some of the smaller images for a moment before the pictures all changed again.
Granger must be using this in her room right now, he thought.
Suddenly some letters began appearing, and Draco was again torn whether he should keep looking, or turn away to offer her some privacy. But as he saw the letters appear on the screen, he was reminded of the control board with letters on it that seemed to be connected to the device, and he had an idea.
Not really sure what was going to happen, he looked at the control board and found the letter 'G'. He pushed it.
It appeared on the screen, right in the middle of the word 'the', before it was erased to make the word correctly spelled once more.
Undeterred, he looked for the next letter - Merlin, did Muggles not recite the alphabet in the same order that wizards did? - and pushed it too. It appeared at the end of the word 'happen'.
He kept going in the same manner, typing letters that promptly got erased, until he reached the second G. This time the word did not correct itself, and just below he could see the following words appear.
Malfoy?
Yes!, he thought. This was the most he'd heard from her in more than a week, and although his method of communication was perhaps not the best when one viewed it from a stalking / spying perspective, at least he was able to engage her.
He kept pressing letters at a snail's pace, though this time they appeared all in one line instead of interspersed with other words.
yesitsme
He supposed there must be a trick to getting these to look like actual words rather than a jumble, but he'd have to learn that later.
Imnotspyingonyouthisisweirdmalfoymagicandicanexplain
He paused for a moment to see how she would react. He watched as Granger altered his line to add some punctuation and spaces between the words, making it much clearer and easier to read. I'm not spying on you. This is weird Malfoy magic and I can explain.
The big blank rectangle at the bottom will make a space.
It seems her need to continually teach and mentor people was winning over her desire to not speak with him.
this is a ritual performed every malfoy generation i have a book you can read can i owl it to you
Several seconds passed while Draco awaited an answer, increasing until they crossed a minute. He wasn't sure whether she would accept, or what he would do if she didn't.
Finally, Okay appeared on the screen, and he whooped in celebration.
Draco was counting down the minutes on this particular Thursday afternoon. He felt the spark of excitement in his chest, similar to how he felt a few weeks ago when things were more normal. He was preparing to head out to Hemlock with Theo, Blaise, and anyone else who might happen to be there, and he was hopeful that Granger might make an appearance as well.
After their strange computer conversation, Draco had immediately owled her the copy of Nobilius' diary. He'd of course read through it before, and was impressed with how romantic his ancestor made the whole process seem. There was even a small addition from Nobilius' wife Carmella who was able to share some of her experience of being a partner. Draco thought it was interesting that both of them commented on the warming sensations felt in their chests whenever they saw one another, which seemed to grow stronger over time.
He hoped that would be enough to get the conversation started. He knew Granger would prefer published and peer reviewed texts, however since the entire ritual was so personal to the Malfoy family everything he had to offer was from a single, direct and biassed source.
After checking the computer for messages again after sending the letter, Draco saw that the screen was empty and pushing letter buttons didn't seem to do anything like it had before. He assumed Granger must have turned the contraption off. After that, he'd decided to spend his time in his own room rather than the ritual room. No matter how comforting it was to sleep in Granger's bed and be surrounded by her things, he didn't want to risk something else showing up that he maybe shouldn't be privy to and would have to justify or defend against when he saw her next. No, best to just pretend that room didn't exist for a little longer.
Two minutes after what he had decided was the absolutely earliest time he should leave his house, Draco walked out of the floo at Hemlock and headed straight for their regular table. He ordered a drink, same as normal, and tried to calm his nerves.
The minutes ticked by almost as slowly as they did when he was waiting in his room, though at least now that he was sitting here there were significantly more distractions. His eyes flitted over to the floo regularly, but he didn't spy any of his friends coming through, so he continued to sit at the large table on his own.
One by one they started to trickle in, this time with Potter arriving first.
"You're here", Potter said, draping his cloak over the back of the chair. Draco couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing based on Potter's voice.
"Indeed." Draco mimicked his indifference.
"Excellent. Well, I'll be just at the other table over there," Potter noted, plucking his cloak from the chair again, slinging it over his shoulder, and nodding his head towards a few tables over.
"Have fun," he announced over his shoulder as he was walking away, waving a hand back towards Draco. "I'll ask that you both just try to keep your wands out of sight."
"Yes, please, all of them," Theo's voice added suggestively, appearing seemingly out of nowhere and following Harry to the new table, leaving Draco continuing to sit all alone.
Granger arrived next, and Draco didn't pretend that he didn't notice her presence immediately after she stepped foot out of the floo. Her face was impassive and gave nothing away about how she was feeling. Draco could feel the light in his chest thrumming, like it wanted to spread its warmth again but wasn't sure whether it should still be caged.
She spotted him sitting at the regular table, and her eyes continued around the room, presumably looking for Potter. She froze in indecision for a few seconds before her Gryffindor bravery won out, and she started heading towards Draco's table.
He seemed to realise all at once that he actually hadn't prepared anything to say to her, and the distance between them was very quickly closing. He instead chose to focus on his drink, cowardly waiting for her lion-like courage to continue the conversation once she arrived.
She sat down across from him and looked at him through cool, but not cold, eyes. A lock of her springy auburn hair hung down in front of her face but she steadfastly ignored it in favour of maintaining eye contact with him.
"Malfoy," she greeted, her voice just as unreadable as Potter's was earlier.
"Granger." His voice was distinctly softer.
She rustled in her entirely-too-small beaded bag for a moment before pulling out the diary that he'd sent earlier in the week.
"The partner ritual," she began, sliding the closed book towards him so far that the worn edges knocked into his tumbler slightly. "A ritual created by one Nobilius Malfoy that has been secretly performed in each generation since the 1700s. A ritual whereby someone, traditionally the father - although of course that would not have been possible for the first iteration - prepares a set of three potions to encourage mind, body and heart to be more open to recognizing their true life partner, and a spell that ties the Malfoy ancient magical lines to the ambient magical atmosphere with the purpose of assisting the wizard in identifying his partner."
Draco was impressed with her succinct summary of the entire process. She certainly was able to hit on all the critical points in a much more logical manner than was portrayed in the book.
"I assume you've done a cover-to-cover read through, then?" Draco asked her. Upon her nod he continued "I would expect nothing less from you."
She twisted her hands together on the table, looking like she had something uncomfortable to say.
"I did a little extra research over the past week."
There was a scoff from Potter a few tables over. Draco glanced over and saw that Blaise and Weasley had also joined them, and they were all doing a poor job of pretending not to listen.
Granger cleared her throat, sent a glare at Potter, cast a muffliato and continued.
"I obviously couldn't find anything about the ritual itself as it's quite proprietary, but I did do some research on the potions ingredients and proto spells that Nobilius wrote about in the earlier portions of his journal, and cross referenced those with other similar modern spells."
Draco felt the warmth in his chest begin to swell again, a mixture of pride for this amazing witch in front of him, and the reactionary heat of the glowing light registering that his partner was talking to him again.
"From what I can tell, there seems to be no inherently harmful properties of either the spell or the potions; most of them just work on altering some of the neural pathways of whoever imbibed the potions to make them more perceptive of the subset of things related to their partner, and connect this enhanced perception to the naturally occurring swirls of magic that already exist in the world. It seems like this can only be replicated in families with already historically established magic."
"Our family has been doing it for years. It's how my grandfather met my grandmother, and how Father met Mother. You can say what you like about how they acted during the war and the things that they did, but Granger - no one who knows them can deny that they are perfect for each other, and balance the other out perfectly."
Taking another sip of his beverage to give him a moment to consider what he was going to say next, Draco eventually settled on explaining how each iteration of the spell manifested itself for each generation, focusing on how the ritual always provided the information immediately to assist in identifying and locating the match.
"But mine was different, Granger. My room was empty. There was not a single thing in it for ages, and I spent that time resigning myself to living my life alone, trying to convince myself that something went wrong and the spell didn't work, but knowing somewhere deep down that it did, and that something was different."
"I don't expect anything of you, Granger. I know that book was filled with the empirical discovery of historically highly accurate matchmaking and creating long-lived happy relationships, but I knew from the beginning that something was different about this, about us. I gave you that book so you would understand that this whole thing is a me problem; it's not about you, and I didn't try to recreate your bedroom like some stalker who was creepily obsessed with you. Those items just appeared slowly over time, trying to encourage me to learn parts about you that I was too afraid to learn from the source."
Granger was silent after his spiel. Draco recounted his words internally and felt his stomach roil in regret. None of that came out like he wanted it to. It sounded like he was just trying to save face and not seem like a creep. He meant to tell her about how overwhelming this must have been for her and how he had no hard feelings about her accusations the other day, but somehow the words that came out did a poor job of matching the thoughts in his head.
Just when he was about to open his mouth again in an attempt to salvage the situation, Granger decided to speak.
"I read about some of the symptoms, on both sides. About what will happen to you if this ritual fails. About some of the things that the partner has felt, both before and after knowing about the ritual."
Granger lifted a hand to her chest and placed it in right about the same spot that Draco could feel the pulsating warmth growing in his own chest.
"That warmth… I thought I was imagining it. That this is what it felt like to be interested in someone as an adult, that the tingling butterfly feelings I felt through teenage crushes as a girl just naturally evolved into this warmth. And it seemed to make sense, as it seemed to go away when I was angry with you." She explained how she'd talked to Potter and Weasley (the female one) about it and neither of them knew what she was talking about, and then after reading the diary and learning that the warmth and its reactions were so perfectly described by Carmella's addition.
Granger's face hardened a little. "I don't like the fact that this spell was designed to essentially voyeuristically look into someone else's life without their knowledge or permission. That's not ok, and I will never be ok with that part of the ritual." Draco inhaled as he was about to, stupidly again, use his words to defend how he didn't mean to be a voyeur instead of apologising that she felt that way, but she thankfully interrupted him before he could come out with even more words that he would regret. "I realise that you didn't choose how this would manifest, and I can understand why you continued to explore the room considering what the alternative was. But I don't condone it, and I won't have any relationship between us starting off with this as its foundation."
Draco's ears perked up embarrassingly when Granger said the word 'relationship'. He thought another version of himself might consider himself pathetic, but presently he was just happy that the witch was still talking to him about how she felt, which meant she might be open to reconciling.
"I like you, Malfoy. At least, I like the version of you I've come to know over the past several weeks. And I don't want to think about how there's any element of pre-destiny or fate or any of that rubbish that caused us to be together. I want to think that we are capable of reconnecting, of learning about each other as adults without the assistance of some creepy room or strange family magic forcing us to be together."
Draco mulled over her words. It made sense, and he could see how learning about the room would cause her to question all of their interactions so far up to that point. He successfully voiced as much, his words and thoughts finally aligning in a way he was happy with.
His words hung between them for a few moments before he drudged up what meagre impersonation of courage he possessed and held his hand out towards Granger, offering a handshake.
"Hello, my name is Draco."
Granger smiled shyly at him and reached out to take his hand softly.
"Hi Draco. I'm Hermione."