The Bracelet, Chapter 32
Title: The Bracelet
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: Hermione has everything she could possibly want... Except a life. People are getting sick of her superior attitude, especially Draco Malfoy, who schemes to get her down, once and for all. And then there's the thing with The Bracelet... 7th year AU.
Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.
Hermione was, after much begging on her part, released from the Hospital Wing early enough next morning that she would be able to catch all of her classes. Her leg was still sore from the whole ordeal the day before, so she was walking with a limp, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Certainly nothing that warranted that she should miss her classes.
It still made her blush that Crabbe had taken her down. The boy was practically an imbecile! Her only consolation was that he had gotten her from behind as the underhanded louse he was. She just wished that Malfoy hadn’t seen it. It was embarrassing that one of his lame ex-bodyguards could beat her so easily. It certainly wouldn’t diminish the contempt she had to endure from him.
Still, it was sort of fortunate that Malfoy had come to her aid. No matter what.
Even thinking about it seemed wrong. Malfoy never came to anybody’s aid unless it was aiding in torturing somebody; yet he’d seen fit to get her away from his housemates twice now. Once yesterday, and once five days ago, after he had made her eat at the Slytherin tables.
She supposed he needed her alive for another thirteen days of a different kind of torture.
She took a little comfort in the fact that she was more than halfway done with wearing the bracelet. And she still lived. She might actually survive this!
She had to go seek Draco out first thing before going to class, though. She didn’t really want to draw his attention to her person, especially not since he hadn’t seemed particularly happy about helping her yesterday, but he had forgotten to return her wand and she couldn’t very well go to class without it.
It turned out that she had both good luck and bad luck. The good luck was that he was just leaving the Great Hall together with Zabini, as she had finally managed to hobble down to the ground floor. The bad luck was that he seemed to be in a very bad mood, and he was sure to take it out on her.
It couldn’t be helped. She would have a really difficult time going to classes without her wand.
Malfoy didn’t seem to have noticed her and turned towards the dungeons.
“Malfoy!” she called out, making him freeze in his tracks, before he slowly turned and rolled his eyes. Zabini seemed like he didn’t notice at all, but merely kept on walking. Strange, that wasn’t like him at all.
Draco stood coldly watching Hermione, until she painfully limped all the way up to him.
“Let me guess,” he said then. “You couldn’t bear to miss a class?”
Hermione scowled. “There’s no need to,” she sniffed, not bothering to try and contradict him.
“And why are you pestering me?” he asked in almost polite tones.
“You have my wand,” she said.
He frowned slightly, looking puzzled.
“Vine wood, dragon heartstring core? You pocketed it yesterday after your mate’s show of school spirit, remember?” she said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
She really wanted to get into the Great Hall so she could sit down for a few minutes before she had to brave the evil stairs again. Her leg bloody hurt and Draco knew this; she had clearly seen the ring on his finger.
He grunted in annoyance. “Don’t get fresh, Granger. You might live to regret it.”
“Can I just have it, please?” she asked wearily.
“I don’t have it on me,” he said, shrugging.
“Well, could you get it?” She knew she shouldn’t sound so impatient and annoyed, but damn it, she was impatient and annoyed with him.
He leaned slightly forward. “Since you ask so nicely… no.”
She gaped at him for a second and then snapped her mouth shut and narrowed her eyes. “Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll just be off to tell everyone that you saved me yesterday, then.”
He stared at her. “What?”
“And if you order me not to say anything about that, I will make something up. If you order me not to lie, I will find tales to twist. If you order me not to speak, I will write or mime or whatever I have to do. By the end of the day, you will be known as the champion of Muggleborns… and Hufflepuffs.”
She smiled, very pleased with herself.
He was gaping slightly, which made her feel even better. She got the feeling that she was learning how to deal with Slytherins.
“Remind me not to help you again,” he finally murmured.
She shrugged. “It was appreciated. As will my wand be.”
“If I give you your wand back, you have to promise never to do… that!”
She nodded graciously, and he shot her an exasperated glance.
“Wait here, then,” he muttered.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I’m going to go have breakfast.”
“I am not giving you your wand while you’re sitting at the Gryffindor table!”
She raised an eyebrow. “As long as I have it by my first class, I don’t care. If I don’t, then you will be known as a hero before lunch.”
He made a disgusted sound and walked away from her.
Hermione grinned, giving herself a mental pat on the back. He would retaliate to be sure, but, for now, she had won.
She hobbled into the great hall and carefully took her seat, almost sighing with relief as her leg finally got some rest. Good thing she could sit down during classes, or today would have become unbearable.
She shot furtive glances at her housemates. Still nobody showed any signs of hostility. Perhaps the incident hadn’t been as interesting as she gave it credit for.
Harry was still here, but Ron had left already. If she knew him, he probably had to finish up some assignment for class. Really, he should get organized.
“Hey!” Harry said, sounding surprised to see her. “We were going to visit you at lunch; Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t let us in last night. Said you needed rest.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Hermione said. “Who told you where I was? Madam Pomfrey?” She frowned slightly. No, Madam Pomfrey probably didn’t alert anyone but the teachers. “Professor McGonagall?” she guessed.
He shrugged. “Just found a note that you had been hurt and were at the Hospital Wing. We thought you had asked someone to write it.”
She stared at him. “No… I was drugged…”
“Somebody probably saw,” Harry said, shrugging it off. “So, how did you end up there, anyway? Or should I ask - who put you there?” His eyes glinted dangerously. “Malfoy went too far, didn’t he?”
Hermione shook her head. “No, he-“ She broke off. She probably shouldn’t publicly tell him about Draco helping her, when she had promised she wouldn’t. “It wasn’t Malfoy,” she said instead. “Someone else pulled a mean-spirited prank on me.”
“Who?” he demanded.
She didn’t have time to reply before a hand slammed down on the table to her immediate right. She glanced at it to find that it was pale and well-manicured and had her wand underneath it. She didn’t have to look up at the person standing behind her to know that it was Draco, and he was less than pleased.
“Thank you,” she calmly said, knowing that it would only make it worse, but unable to help herself.
Draco’s eyes widened slightly. The nerve she had!
He narrowed his eyes at the back of her head, contemplating ways to make her sorry. A motion caught his attention and he noticed good old Saint Potter glaring at him.
Smirking slightly, he bent down without taking his eyes from Harry. Hardly moving his lips, he breathed into Hermione’s ear, “You’ll pay for this. You’ll be very sorry that you attempted to get the better of me. I’m not some lame Gryffindor - I will retaliate.”
He pushed away and left.
Harry scowled and Hermione blushed slightly at how that must have looked to him, but she decided that nothing she said could make it better, so she kept quiet and ate her breakfast.
“Theo! Hold on! Wait!” Draco caught up with his friend after they had had their last class of the day.
He knew Theo didn’t have anywhere particularly important to be, but he was still ignoring him. It had been three days for pity’s sake; shouldn’t he be getting over it?
“You have to talk to me sometime,” he said, when the Head Boy didn’t acknowledge him.
There was no response.
Draco sighed. He really hadn’t wanted to do this, but Theo left him no choice.
“Want to know what it felt like?” he baited him. “I mean, I know you already snogged her yourself, I was there, but perhaps you’d like to know what it feels like to have her crawling all over your lap, wriggling and rubbing-” He was thrown against a wall so quickly that he barely had time to blink. “Go on, then,” he calmly invited. “Hit me and get it out of your system.”
Theo abruptly let go and turned away. “You don’t get it,” he said. “Just leave me alone.”
Draco felt an inexplicable urge to hit something or someone himself. “What’s to get?” he hotly retorted. “You’re mad at me. Just punch me and let’s call it even.”
Theo half-turned and gave Draco a condescending look. “We wouldn’t be even,” he calmly said. “I would yet have to betray you for no other reason than sheer selfishness. You don’t even like her.”
Draco swallowed. He supposed that much was true. “Look,” he said, grasping for words that might make Theo understand. “I didn’t mean to do it, all right? It wasn’t as if I woke up and thought ‘first I’ll play Quidditch against Gryffindor, and then I’ll make a move on Granger, even though I can’t stand the bloody bitch, but at least it will fuck up my relationship with Theo.’”
“Then what did you think?” Theo asked.
“I…” Draco hated this. “I didn’t, ok? I didn’t think. And I’m not going to do it again.”
“If you didn’t think the first time, then what’s to stop you from doing it again the next time you ‘aren’t thinking’?”
Draco ran a hand through his hair, feeling thoroughly frustrated. He didn’t like how Theo didn’t seem to understand. Theo, who normally seemed to know everything.
“It’s not as if I did it on my own,” he grumbled. “I never would have in the first place if she hadn’t been so arou-“ He abruptly cut himself off, blushing slightly. Some things were perhaps better left unsaid - especially if Theo still planned on dating her.
Draco realized that he could no longer be in the way of that if he wanted to make an effort to keep Theo’s friendship.
“By all accounts,” Theo said in a calm voice that Draco had a feeling masked some real anger, “she was not quite herself. You made her go against her entire house in the morning, so I’m guessing she was emotionally unstable, and then you got her drunk and kept her in an intimate position all night. The girl was probably so starved for kindness that she’d take anything from anyone - even you.”
These were harsh words. Perhaps not completely undeserved, but harsh. Draco couldn’t help but feel stung that Theo seemed to insinuate that he had planned the whole thing. He knew she hadn’t been sober, but, damn it, she had seemed to know what she was doing just as well as he had. Which didn’t necessarily mean a lot, given his state of mind, yet everyone seemed to believe that he was the one who had been solely responsible, when she had been the one who had been behaving so seductively.
He couldn’t say that, though. He couldn’t tell Theo how much he had wanted the girl that Theo had a crush on, even if it had all been a temporary insanity. He definitely couldn’t tell him that she had returned the feeling.
“It doesn’t even matter,” he muttered. “It happened. I can’t undo it.”
“I decide if it matters!” Theo harshly responded.
Draco blinked. He hadn’t really meant to speak aloud. “Of course,” he quietly said. “And I am sorry. I won’t even try to keep her from you anymore.” He winced at the thought of the feelings he might have to endure from the connection now, but he hoped that Hermione would be embarrassed enough to keep them to a minimum. “She’s all yours,” he added, just to underline his own disinterest.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Theo quietly replied. “Granger is very much her own.”
Yet he seemed slightly mollified. Draco knew that releasing Granger would earn him forgiveness sooner, but he still wasn’t ready to do that. Taking off the ring, even for a short period of time, was getting harder.
He was loath to admit it, but in spite of him professing that he’d rather be without knowing her feelings, he was rapidly becoming addicted and could now easily identify even weaker emotions in her. When he wasn’t wearing the ring, his own lacking emotional variety - for the most part he was merely bored, annoyed or amused - made him feel almost dead.
He knew this was a bad sign.
It was cold outside. Not that this was any big surprise, it was usually cold in November. Hermione drew her cloak closer around her. She would mind the cold less if it was less… cold. Yet, she had to get out and get some fresh air every once in a while or she’d go bonkers.
She gazed towards where Harry and Ginny were standing, several feet away. Harry had been sitting here until he had seen Ginny make her way and then as if unable to wait for her to reach them, he had gotten up and walked over to meet her.
Currently, they seemed to have forgotten all about Hermione while standing closely together, Harry shielding Ginny from the wind with his body and his cloak. It was really quite sweet. Ginny lifted her head and gifted Harry with a dazzling smile as he bent to kiss her.
Hermione felt a pang of longing and jealousy. She had always thought she’d eventually have that with Ron, but now she wasn’t so sure anymore. Nott had liked her, too, but, of course, Malfoy had seen to ruining that before she could know if there might have been something there.
She was alone, and she really didn’t want to be, so she found herself begrudging her best friend his happiness and hating herself for it.
“Really, Granger,” a mocking voice was saying. “Haven’t you had enough snogging? Do you really need to be going after Potter too?”
She scowled at Malfoy. “As usual,” she haughtily replied, “you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
“Oh, but I do have a clue,” he retorted. “Sensing feelings and all that. It’s funny how I thought you might be better friends than this. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Anything to keep you lot dysfunctional - as long as you don’t actually smooch him until the bracelet is off.”
Hermione rolled her eyes slightly, but she wasn’t about to enlighten Malfoy as to what she had been thinking. The truth was actually more embarrassing.
“What do you want?” she asked instead. “It’s not four yet.”
“I figured out what I want to do today,” he said in a very pleasant voice.
Hermione’s heart sank and she shot him a quick, nervous glance. His lip twitched, and she scowled in response.
“Don’t you want to know what it is?” he politely asked
“No,” she replied. “No, I really, really don’t.”
“You don’t have to come down to the dungeons,” he said in a silky voice. “What with your leg and all, couldn’t ask that of you.”
She eyed him suspiciously. He could and, more importantly, he would ask that of her.
“Let’s go, then,” he said.
“Where?” She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.
He smirked triumphantly. “Why, your room, of course.”
Author: AkashaTheKitty
Characters: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Theodore Nott (whew)
Genres: Drama, Friendship, Hogwarts Years, Humor, Romance
Warnings: HBP Spoilers, although slightly incompatible.
Overall Rating: R
Summary: Hermione has everything she could possibly want... Except a life. People are getting sick of her superior attitude, especially Draco Malfoy, who schemes to get her down, once and for all. And then there's the thing with The Bracelet... 7th year AU.
Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.
Hermione was, after much begging on her part, released from the Hospital Wing early enough next morning that she would be able to catch all of her classes. Her leg was still sore from the whole ordeal the day before, so she was walking with a limp, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Certainly nothing that warranted that she should miss her classes.
It still made her blush that Crabbe had taken her down. The boy was practically an imbecile! Her only consolation was that he had gotten her from behind as the underhanded louse he was. She just wished that Malfoy hadn’t seen it. It was embarrassing that one of his lame ex-bodyguards could beat her so easily. It certainly wouldn’t diminish the contempt she had to endure from him.
Still, it was sort of fortunate that Malfoy had come to her aid. No matter what.
Even thinking about it seemed wrong. Malfoy never came to anybody’s aid unless it was aiding in torturing somebody; yet he’d seen fit to get her away from his housemates twice now. Once yesterday, and once five days ago, after he had made her eat at the Slytherin tables.
She supposed he needed her alive for another thirteen days of a different kind of torture.
She took a little comfort in the fact that she was more than halfway done with wearing the bracelet. And she still lived. She might actually survive this!
She had to go seek Draco out first thing before going to class, though. She didn’t really want to draw his attention to her person, especially not since he hadn’t seemed particularly happy about helping her yesterday, but he had forgotten to return her wand and she couldn’t very well go to class without it.
It turned out that she had both good luck and bad luck. The good luck was that he was just leaving the Great Hall together with Zabini, as she had finally managed to hobble down to the ground floor. The bad luck was that he seemed to be in a very bad mood, and he was sure to take it out on her.
It couldn’t be helped. She would have a really difficult time going to classes without her wand.
Malfoy didn’t seem to have noticed her and turned towards the dungeons.
“Malfoy!” she called out, making him freeze in his tracks, before he slowly turned and rolled his eyes. Zabini seemed like he didn’t notice at all, but merely kept on walking. Strange, that wasn’t like him at all.
Draco stood coldly watching Hermione, until she painfully limped all the way up to him.
“Let me guess,” he said then. “You couldn’t bear to miss a class?”
Hermione scowled. “There’s no need to,” she sniffed, not bothering to try and contradict him.
“And why are you pestering me?” he asked in almost polite tones.
“You have my wand,” she said.
He frowned slightly, looking puzzled.
“Vine wood, dragon heartstring core? You pocketed it yesterday after your mate’s show of school spirit, remember?” she said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
She really wanted to get into the Great Hall so she could sit down for a few minutes before she had to brave the evil stairs again. Her leg bloody hurt and Draco knew this; she had clearly seen the ring on his finger.
He grunted in annoyance. “Don’t get fresh, Granger. You might live to regret it.”
“Can I just have it, please?” she asked wearily.
“I don’t have it on me,” he said, shrugging.
“Well, could you get it?” She knew she shouldn’t sound so impatient and annoyed, but damn it, she was impatient and annoyed with him.
He leaned slightly forward. “Since you ask so nicely… no.”
She gaped at him for a second and then snapped her mouth shut and narrowed her eyes. “Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll just be off to tell everyone that you saved me yesterday, then.”
He stared at her. “What?”
“And if you order me not to say anything about that, I will make something up. If you order me not to lie, I will find tales to twist. If you order me not to speak, I will write or mime or whatever I have to do. By the end of the day, you will be known as the champion of Muggleborns… and Hufflepuffs.”
She smiled, very pleased with herself.
He was gaping slightly, which made her feel even better. She got the feeling that she was learning how to deal with Slytherins.
“Remind me not to help you again,” he finally murmured.
She shrugged. “It was appreciated. As will my wand be.”
“If I give you your wand back, you have to promise never to do… that!”
She nodded graciously, and he shot her an exasperated glance.
“Wait here, then,” he muttered.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I’m going to go have breakfast.”
“I am not giving you your wand while you’re sitting at the Gryffindor table!”
She raised an eyebrow. “As long as I have it by my first class, I don’t care. If I don’t, then you will be known as a hero before lunch.”
He made a disgusted sound and walked away from her.
Hermione grinned, giving herself a mental pat on the back. He would retaliate to be sure, but, for now, she had won.
She hobbled into the great hall and carefully took her seat, almost sighing with relief as her leg finally got some rest. Good thing she could sit down during classes, or today would have become unbearable.
She shot furtive glances at her housemates. Still nobody showed any signs of hostility. Perhaps the incident hadn’t been as interesting as she gave it credit for.
Harry was still here, but Ron had left already. If she knew him, he probably had to finish up some assignment for class. Really, he should get organized.
“Hey!” Harry said, sounding surprised to see her. “We were going to visit you at lunch; Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t let us in last night. Said you needed rest.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Hermione said. “Who told you where I was? Madam Pomfrey?” She frowned slightly. No, Madam Pomfrey probably didn’t alert anyone but the teachers. “Professor McGonagall?” she guessed.
He shrugged. “Just found a note that you had been hurt and were at the Hospital Wing. We thought you had asked someone to write it.”
She stared at him. “No… I was drugged…”
“Somebody probably saw,” Harry said, shrugging it off. “So, how did you end up there, anyway? Or should I ask - who put you there?” His eyes glinted dangerously. “Malfoy went too far, didn’t he?”
Hermione shook her head. “No, he-“ She broke off. She probably shouldn’t publicly tell him about Draco helping her, when she had promised she wouldn’t. “It wasn’t Malfoy,” she said instead. “Someone else pulled a mean-spirited prank on me.”
“Who?” he demanded.
She didn’t have time to reply before a hand slammed down on the table to her immediate right. She glanced at it to find that it was pale and well-manicured and had her wand underneath it. She didn’t have to look up at the person standing behind her to know that it was Draco, and he was less than pleased.
“Thank you,” she calmly said, knowing that it would only make it worse, but unable to help herself.
Draco’s eyes widened slightly. The nerve she had!
He narrowed his eyes at the back of her head, contemplating ways to make her sorry. A motion caught his attention and he noticed good old Saint Potter glaring at him.
Smirking slightly, he bent down without taking his eyes from Harry. Hardly moving his lips, he breathed into Hermione’s ear, “You’ll pay for this. You’ll be very sorry that you attempted to get the better of me. I’m not some lame Gryffindor - I will retaliate.”
He pushed away and left.
Harry scowled and Hermione blushed slightly at how that must have looked to him, but she decided that nothing she said could make it better, so she kept quiet and ate her breakfast.
“Theo! Hold on! Wait!” Draco caught up with his friend after they had had their last class of the day.
He knew Theo didn’t have anywhere particularly important to be, but he was still ignoring him. It had been three days for pity’s sake; shouldn’t he be getting over it?
“You have to talk to me sometime,” he said, when the Head Boy didn’t acknowledge him.
There was no response.
Draco sighed. He really hadn’t wanted to do this, but Theo left him no choice.
“Want to know what it felt like?” he baited him. “I mean, I know you already snogged her yourself, I was there, but perhaps you’d like to know what it feels like to have her crawling all over your lap, wriggling and rubbing-” He was thrown against a wall so quickly that he barely had time to blink. “Go on, then,” he calmly invited. “Hit me and get it out of your system.”
Theo abruptly let go and turned away. “You don’t get it,” he said. “Just leave me alone.”
Draco felt an inexplicable urge to hit something or someone himself. “What’s to get?” he hotly retorted. “You’re mad at me. Just punch me and let’s call it even.”
Theo half-turned and gave Draco a condescending look. “We wouldn’t be even,” he calmly said. “I would yet have to betray you for no other reason than sheer selfishness. You don’t even like her.”
Draco swallowed. He supposed that much was true. “Look,” he said, grasping for words that might make Theo understand. “I didn’t mean to do it, all right? It wasn’t as if I woke up and thought ‘first I’ll play Quidditch against Gryffindor, and then I’ll make a move on Granger, even though I can’t stand the bloody bitch, but at least it will fuck up my relationship with Theo.’”
“Then what did you think?” Theo asked.
“I…” Draco hated this. “I didn’t, ok? I didn’t think. And I’m not going to do it again.”
“If you didn’t think the first time, then what’s to stop you from doing it again the next time you ‘aren’t thinking’?”
Draco ran a hand through his hair, feeling thoroughly frustrated. He didn’t like how Theo didn’t seem to understand. Theo, who normally seemed to know everything.
“It’s not as if I did it on my own,” he grumbled. “I never would have in the first place if she hadn’t been so arou-“ He abruptly cut himself off, blushing slightly. Some things were perhaps better left unsaid - especially if Theo still planned on dating her.
Draco realized that he could no longer be in the way of that if he wanted to make an effort to keep Theo’s friendship.
“By all accounts,” Theo said in a calm voice that Draco had a feeling masked some real anger, “she was not quite herself. You made her go against her entire house in the morning, so I’m guessing she was emotionally unstable, and then you got her drunk and kept her in an intimate position all night. The girl was probably so starved for kindness that she’d take anything from anyone - even you.”
These were harsh words. Perhaps not completely undeserved, but harsh. Draco couldn’t help but feel stung that Theo seemed to insinuate that he had planned the whole thing. He knew she hadn’t been sober, but, damn it, she had seemed to know what she was doing just as well as he had. Which didn’t necessarily mean a lot, given his state of mind, yet everyone seemed to believe that he was the one who had been solely responsible, when she had been the one who had been behaving so seductively.
He couldn’t say that, though. He couldn’t tell Theo how much he had wanted the girl that Theo had a crush on, even if it had all been a temporary insanity. He definitely couldn’t tell him that she had returned the feeling.
“It doesn’t even matter,” he muttered. “It happened. I can’t undo it.”
“I decide if it matters!” Theo harshly responded.
Draco blinked. He hadn’t really meant to speak aloud. “Of course,” he quietly said. “And I am sorry. I won’t even try to keep her from you anymore.” He winced at the thought of the feelings he might have to endure from the connection now, but he hoped that Hermione would be embarrassed enough to keep them to a minimum. “She’s all yours,” he added, just to underline his own disinterest.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Theo quietly replied. “Granger is very much her own.”
Yet he seemed slightly mollified. Draco knew that releasing Granger would earn him forgiveness sooner, but he still wasn’t ready to do that. Taking off the ring, even for a short period of time, was getting harder.
He was loath to admit it, but in spite of him professing that he’d rather be without knowing her feelings, he was rapidly becoming addicted and could now easily identify even weaker emotions in her. When he wasn’t wearing the ring, his own lacking emotional variety - for the most part he was merely bored, annoyed or amused - made him feel almost dead.
He knew this was a bad sign.
It was cold outside. Not that this was any big surprise, it was usually cold in November. Hermione drew her cloak closer around her. She would mind the cold less if it was less… cold. Yet, she had to get out and get some fresh air every once in a while or she’d go bonkers.
She gazed towards where Harry and Ginny were standing, several feet away. Harry had been sitting here until he had seen Ginny make her way and then as if unable to wait for her to reach them, he had gotten up and walked over to meet her.
Currently, they seemed to have forgotten all about Hermione while standing closely together, Harry shielding Ginny from the wind with his body and his cloak. It was really quite sweet. Ginny lifted her head and gifted Harry with a dazzling smile as he bent to kiss her.
Hermione felt a pang of longing and jealousy. She had always thought she’d eventually have that with Ron, but now she wasn’t so sure anymore. Nott had liked her, too, but, of course, Malfoy had seen to ruining that before she could know if there might have been something there.
She was alone, and she really didn’t want to be, so she found herself begrudging her best friend his happiness and hating herself for it.
“Really, Granger,” a mocking voice was saying. “Haven’t you had enough snogging? Do you really need to be going after Potter too?”
She scowled at Malfoy. “As usual,” she haughtily replied, “you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
“Oh, but I do have a clue,” he retorted. “Sensing feelings and all that. It’s funny how I thought you might be better friends than this. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Anything to keep you lot dysfunctional - as long as you don’t actually smooch him until the bracelet is off.”
Hermione rolled her eyes slightly, but she wasn’t about to enlighten Malfoy as to what she had been thinking. The truth was actually more embarrassing.
“What do you want?” she asked instead. “It’s not four yet.”
“I figured out what I want to do today,” he said in a very pleasant voice.
Hermione’s heart sank and she shot him a quick, nervous glance. His lip twitched, and she scowled in response.
“Don’t you want to know what it is?” he politely asked
“No,” she replied. “No, I really, really don’t.”
“You don’t have to come down to the dungeons,” he said in a silky voice. “What with your leg and all, couldn’t ask that of you.”
She eyed him suspiciously. He could and, more importantly, he would ask that of her.
“Let’s go, then,” he said.
“Where?” She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.
He smirked triumphantly. “Why, your room, of course.”