Authors note:
I'm sorry for not updating sooner. I yall probs don't want to hear excuses but ill give one anyway: it didn't take me that long to write this chapter but for some reason, I rewrote it like 5 times just because I wasn't happy with the way it was turning out. so yeah lots of second-guessing this chapter, and then procrastination heh heh. Anyway, enjoy!
He followed until her back was against the door, towering over her, he was so close that she could smell the Apple on his breath. And then he kissed her. Hermione stood stock still, unable to move or pull away.
Her eyes automatically closed the moment their lips made contact. She tried to convince herself that this was Malfoy, a death eater! Hermione should have already pushed him away by now. If she had any sense at all, he would already be writhing in pain on the ground at the back of the closet as Hermione mercilessly pummeled him with hex after hex. But instead, Hermione chose the less vicious route. She immediately shoved him away, hard, although not too hard apparently as he barely stumbled, (a seriously stupid time to regret not participating in muggle gym class.) Thankfully it was still enough of a push to separate them and give Hermione a little room to breathe.
"Oh, Merlin, no."
Malfoy groaned, running a hand over his face, refusing to look at her. "What on earth would have possessed me to..."
He appeared unable to finish his sentence and looked as though on the cusp of what the bloody fuck just happened, and I'm going to. Bloody. Fucking. Murder Something.
Hermione was still trying to get her bearings and was having trouble controlling her traitorous heart. Yes, her fastly beating heart was only because she had been startled. (Definitely not because one of the most attractive guys at Hogwarts had just snogged her senseless.)
"You did this," his voice cut through her thoughts, his face displayed the fury that she would expect having just been drugged.
Her stupor was shattered the moment he decided to blame her.
"Excuse me, but do you honestly think I wanted your Death Eater lips on mine?!" She whispered crossly, keenly aware of the fact that a class was going on just behind the door.
But Draco appeared not to be listening. His expression was akin to that of the one her Dad had made the first time she had lost control of her magic. It had been one of anger and confusion—she had accidentally transfigured all the books in his private study into junior fiction—as well as astonishment at the fact that his daughter had just done the impossible. But Malfoy was not astonished in the slightest; he was appalled.
"I better not see you again, Mudblood," he warned before roughly pushing past her and exiting the now cramped cabinet. A tiny part of Hermione's mind couldn't help but hope that Malfoy stormed out from anger and not from the embarrassment of snogging her.
Hermione was about to leave right after him when she remembered the reason she was there in the first place: to get the Bat Wings.
Hermione exited the storage cabinet and made her way back over to her workspace. Dean was not where she left him, and Hermione gazed around the room before spotting him in a deep conversation with Seamus, hand gestures and everything.
Hermione knew it was futile to try and drag him back to work. She decided to just leave him there. Besides, Hermione didn't need him to complete the potion; she could finish it perfectly well herself.
Hermione detested having to talk to anyone at the moment. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she had just snogged Draco Lucius Malfoy. Well, it was more like he snogged her, but Hermione chose not to focus on technicalities. It's not like she cared about those details anyway, and Hermione was dead set on erasing what happened from her memory.
She noticed that Malfoy avoided her gaze the whole period, and Hermione found herself glaring at his back more than once throughout the class.
Finally, just when Hermione finished bottling her perfect potion, Slughorn ended the class with a bang. Literally. He was inspecting Seamus's potion when it exploded.
"Okay! Class dismissed, place your vials on my workstation as you leave."
Hermione quickly cleaned up, and with one last discreet glance at Malfoy, headed for the door.
"Oh, before you go, remember to study calming droughts. Tomorrow we're going to start a new unit. Alright, now you are all dismissed. Not you pair though, Mr. Finnigin, Mr. Thomas, you two are staying behind to clean the mess."
Hermione rolled her eyes as she exited, heading toward where Harry and Ron stood waiting for her. She continued the walk to the Gryffindor tower with them in silence.
"Hermione, you okay? How come you aren't complaining about how Dean completely ditched you halfway through class?"
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "Why didn't you send a stinging hex at his arse like you usually do?"
Hermione shrugged, "I just didn't feel like it today." Thankfully her friends refrained from pressing the subject. They probably thought it was her 'time of the month again.'
They arrived at the portrait.
"Honeydew." She said before stepping through the hole, the boys following close behind.
"Hey Hermione, Harry and I were wondering if you happened to notice anything off about Ferret Face?"
"Nope," Hermione replied shortly, heading towards the girls' dormitories. "I'm going to retire for the night," She informed them, already starting up the stairs.
"What? But Mione, we were going to-"
Hermione didn't hear Ron's whining though, thanks to the door slamming shut behind her as she entered her dorm.
Crossing over to her bed, Hermione tossed her books on the nightstand resulting in a bang, as well as the table shaking somewhat. She cringed at the noise and the unintentionally hard throw of her thirty-ton textbooks and light reading materials.
Flopping down on the cot she stared at the ceiling. Taking out her wand, Hermione took a deep breath before meticulously performing the memory extraction spell. Once done, with a thin silvery string-like substance attached to the end of her wand, Hermione fumbled through her nightstand drawer. She fingered the empty vial that had previously stored her Dreamless Sleep potion. Her brow furrowing, Hermione contemplated whether or not this was the right decision. But she planned on forgetting the events of the day at all costs, and this was the only way to do it.
Hermione slowly lowered her memory into the vial, hands shaking slightly, knowing that what she was doing was very cowardly. Only cowards got rid of memories they disliked.
"This is probably something Malfoy would do," She said disgustedly to herself, capping the vial and studying it. The contents, her memory, seemed to swirl in an endless circle, never seeming to cease its hypnotizingly sluggish churning motion.
Hermione briefly wondered what exactly she had chosen to forget. Her mind was blanking, and she sighed with relief that the spell had indeed worked. But nagging in the back of Hermione's mind seemed to be saying: "you're going to regret this." She had a sick feeling that she already did.
Hermione shoved the bottle far back into the darkest depths of her drawer.
Later that night, just before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep, Hermione sent a silent prayer to Merlin that she would never have to remember again.
Authors note:
Hey so I started writing this story as something fun, (also just to see if I could.) And while it has been fun, it's just gotten a little more stressful than it should be. I'm still going to update and stuff, but I just wanted to let you know that (like always) updates will be slow. I WILL NOT ABANDON THIS! I'm sorry for making it seem like I've given up on it. PS: I hate to ask this: but did this chapter live up to your standards (what with the cliffhanger and all?) PPS: I am an amateur writer so I would love it if y'all could review or give me some feedback (grammar and stuff too.)
Thanks for reading love y'all!