With her eyes closed she let the old feelings of distrust towards the boy flow back over her as the lyrics chilled her more than she would have liked.
Why drink the water from my hand?
Contagious as you think I am.
Just tilt my sun towards your domain.
Your cup runneth over again.
Don't scream about, don't think aloud.
Turn your head now, baby, just spit me out!
Don't worry about, don't speak of doubt.
Turn your head now, baby, just spit me out!
Why follow me to higher ground?
Lost as you swear I am.
Don't throw away your basic needs,
Ambiance and vanity.
Don't scream about, don't think aloud.
Turn your head now, baby, just spit me out!
Don't worry about, don't speak of doubt.
Turn your head now, baby, just spit me out!
When the song came to a close she leaned forward, oddly thankful that she preferred owning singles of the songs she favored along with the albums. It made it easier when she didn't need to shuffle between ten or more songs. A quick jab to the stop button gave her a couple of seconds to prepare for his reaction. The instant silence in the room sent goosebumps over her skin as she cautiously peeked over her shoulder at him.
Draco sat there with his eyes closed, his fingers were pinched and ran along the fabric of his trousers as if by sheer force of will he could make the crisp creases usually sported there appear. He cleared his throat but didn't open his eyes as he asked. "What is your first question, Kitten?"
She shifted herself so she was positioned between him and the radio, that way she could give either her attention. She risked another quick glance in his direction and saw that he hadn't moved. Without really thinking she blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. "Why pineapple?"
The confusion at her request with no context caused his eyes to pop open and find hers. "What?"
"Why do you like crystallized pineapple over all of the other kinds of fruit?" She clarified.
"That is what you want your first question to be?" He asked her instead of answering. His face clearly showed his astonished skepticism.
"Would you rather I ask something harder?" Hermione countered teasingly.
His eyebrow rose at the challenge but he answered anyway. "They have the right amount of tang, I suppose... Lemons are too sour. Oranges are too sweet and hurt my teeth. I dabble in other citruses from time to time but always find myself coming back to the pineapple."
"How do you still have all of your teeth?" She asked without thinking. She had been reared to shy away from too many sweets. Even now she still had to give her teeth a thorough cleaning the muggle way after gorging on taffy or anything sticky. A simple cleaning spell never really felt like it got everything polished…
He scoffed. "Wizard, remember? And does that technically count as two questions?"
"I guess so..." She hedged. She hadn't realized how closely she was going to have to watch herself.
He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Just giving you shit, Granger..."
It was her turn to roll her eyes as she turned her attention back to the radio. "A song I gravitated towards over Christmas break..."
Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you,
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right.
And life has a funny way of helping you out when,
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up in your face.
A traffic jam when you're already late.
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break.
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.
It's meeting the man of my dreams.
And then meeting his beautiful wife.
And isn't it ironic. Don't you think?
A little too ironic. And, yeah, I really do think.
It's like rain on your wedding day.
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought? It figures.
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you.
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out.
Helping you out.
Before he could say anything about her next question she moved on. Figuring it was easier to give up the question than have him think he had leverage to wiggle out of one at a later date when she planned for them to get harder to answer.
"This one... This one I can vaguely remember from early childhood but I heard it for the first time, in a long time, over break. It was in an advertisement for a new muggle cartoon. Something to do with an ogre saving a princess and a talking donkey… Anyways... It was playing in the background and for some reason when I heard the full version of the original I thought of you."
She pressed play and brought her knees to her chest. A glance to her right as the instrumental melody drifted to her ears showed her that he had laid his head back against the back of the couch. That signature cocky smirk sat on his lips, as if he was proud that she had spent so much of her time thinking of him. She shook her head before placing her forehead against the tops of her knees and allowing herself to get lost in the music.
Maybe I have been here before.
I know this room, I've walked this floor.
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch.
Love is not a victory march.
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
There was a time you let me know,
What's real and going on below.
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too.
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
Maybe there's a god above.
And all I ever learned from love,
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.
And it's not a cry you can hear at night,
It's not somebody who's seen the light,
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah.
When the track ended she ran over the different possibilities for her next question in her mind. She started to absentmindedly pick at the frayed bottom on one of the legs of her jeans, pulling at the loose strands of denim. She chose to go with another safe question instead of pushing her luck and picked up her head as she asked. "What is your favorite part of Hogwarts?"
It was his turn to lift his head to stare at her. "As in a physical place or?"
"Whichever." She said with a shrug.
"You..." Draco told her, his eyebrow raised when she scoffed at the answer.
"Bullshit."
He smirked but answered again. "Slytherin common room then. I can entertain myself for hours watching the aquatic ecological systems working together out the windows. Or this room, of course. It is nice to have a place that has complete privacy in a school where that is hard to come by."
Hermione had to double check that he wasn't just going with the easiest answer. He held her gaze and his smirk disappeared as he realized she was sizing him up. She believed him about the room but the Slytherin common room seemed like a cop out. It took a moment for her to decide to let it drop and explain the second to last song instead. "This is one of my favorite songs... It reminds me of how I felt starting here and eventually made friends and... A life, I guess."
I am a lost boy from Neverland.
Usually hanging out with Peter Pan.
And when we're bored we play in the woods,
Always on the run from Captain Hook.
Run, run, lost boy- they say to me,
Away from all of reality.
Neverland is home to lost boys like me,
And lost boys like me are free.
Neverland is home to lost boys like me,
And lost boys like me are free.
Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy Darling.
Even Captain Hook.
You are my perfect story book.
Neverland, I love you so,
You are now my home sweet home.
Forever a lost boy at last.
As the song came to a close, she reached over and pressed pause quickly, stopping the radio from automatically starting on the next song. It was the only actual album in her line-up and she didn't want the next song to start.
Draco spoke up from his spot on the couch. "You have a thing for muggle fairy tales, huh?"
"For the first eleven years of my life, they were the only place where magic was real..."
His stare held her still as he ruminated over what she had just said for a few seconds. "Hmm..."
"So... Why did you really help me that night?" She asked, knowing there had to be more to it than what he had told her before.
He sighed deeply as he leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. His gaze fell down to the ground as he gathered his thoughts. At the realization that this wasn't going to be a quick and easy answer from him. She shifted herself so that her arms were behind her and most of her weight was against her palms, waiting patiently.
After a long pause, he looked back up and shrugged. "I don't think it was any deeper than what I told you. I... I saw you standing there. So confused and it looked like you had been attacked. And honestly... The fear on your face... For a second... I thought I had..."
Hermione watched as his jaw clenched and he stopped talking. Once again his stare fled from hers to the ground before he continued. "I thought you had been hit with a hex or something equally improbable. I can distinctly remember standing there and fighting with myself. Once I realized we were not in danger of getting attacked by an insane escaped prisoner or troll or rouge teacher... I could hear my father in my head telling me exactly what I should have done. But... I... I couldn't bring myself to even touch my wand. All that I wanted was to get you to someone who could help you. It's that simple, really. Being the selfish creature that I am... I wanted the chance to see your eyes light up one more time in anger. I couldn't imagine a tomorrow without seeing you blush at something the She-Weasel whispered in your ear over breakfast. I didn't want your life to end in that room. No matter the honor I would receive in being the one to finish it."
"And then?" She asked, barely above a whisper.
"And then what?" He snapped, as if that was obviously it.
"Well there has to be more to it than you just being a selfish asshole who didn't want to deal with the guilty conscience of hurting an already downed witch. Even one you had been crushing on." She explained. "I mean... You asked me for a kiss."
"I had already broken every other rule. So why not that one? I thought that you would slap me and run along for help... But you didn't... Like the brave Gryffindor you are, you met my challenge head on. For some reason, that I still cannot figure out, you let me and my idiotic ass thought that would be the end of it. I had finally found out what it would be like and I could put the stupid little infatuation to bed." He sighed heavily before continuing. "Instead you became an obsession. I found myself wondering what you were doing at the most inopportune times. I would be sitting there listening to a lecture and your face would pop into my head. So I asked you to meet me, assuming you'd just ignore it and I could tell myself that I had tried. But again, you surprised me. You showed and you continue to keep showing up. Something I cannot find the strength to ask you to stop doing... Making me the same selfish creature from in that room. That is what it boils down to, Kitten."
She sat there and worked over all of the different implications found in his words before answering. "Since I continue to show up and have even gone out of my way to set a few of our meetings, I must be just as selfish then..."
"I would like to put it on the record that you said that. Not me." He joked and finally made eye contact with her again.
She smirked, enjoying the light moment before she leaned forward and skipped to the last album. "Ummm... This is the song that I think of every time your little stunt from the other morning plays in my head."'
Her gaze flicked over to the chair where the scene had taken place and a blush tinted her cheeks as she reached over and pushed play.
Hangin' round downtown by myself.
And I had so much time,
To sit and think about myself.
And then there she was.
Like double cherry pie,
Yeah there she was,
Like disco superfly.
I smell sex and candy here.
Who's that lounging in my chair?
Who's that casting devious stares in my direction?
Mama this surely is a dream.
Mama this surely is a dream.
Hangin' 'round downtown by myself.
And I've had too much caffeine.
And I was thinkin' 'bout myself.
And then there she was.
In platform double suede,
Yeah there she was,
Like disco lemonade.
I smell sex and candy here.
Who's that lounging in my chair?
Who's that casting devious stares in my direction?
Mama this surely is a dream.
Mama this surely is a dream.
When the last note sounded she pressed the power button shutting the whole thing down unceremoniously. She quickly replaced her arm so that all of her weight wasn't on the one hand and let her head roll back. The feeling of her hair falling off her shoulders and neck tickled, causing a soft smile to tug on her lips. Even though the silence in the room was deafening after the music she didn't say anything. Letting the memories of being bent over the chair a few feet away continue to play across her eyelids.
"What's your question then Kitten?" He asked gruffly.
His voice had cracked at the end and she couldn't stop her lips from slipping from the smile into a smirk as she turned her head, that way she could look at him for the first time since the start of the last song.
"Why are you still all the way over there?"
-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-
Dun, dun, dun!
Song Credit Goes To:
December by Collective Soul
Ironic by Alanis Morrissette
Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright
Lost Boys by Ruth B
Sex and Candy by Marcy Playground
As always…
Much love,
SlytherclawLuv
*AO3 is serving up all different kinds of lemonade. If you are of age and want the goodness you will have to follow me over there. The naughty scene at the beginning of Chapter 33 has a couple extra paragraphs and the next update will have the "fall out" of Hermione's last song... ;)