Two Worlds of Magic, ch. 12-13

[dr_harley]

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They made their way to the shopping centre, House really trying to drive safe, but Hermione still seized him in a death grip. He parked his bike at the parking. House get off the bike, using his cane and looked at Hermione who didn’t come to consciousness from a rush of adrenalin yet. He smirked - women are too emotional.

“Oh that was not that scary!” He said, helping her to get off. She didn’t respond.

“Let’s go,” he said.

They walked in silence, House shooting Hermione curious looks. At last, she spoke.

“So, have any ideas of the present?” she asked him.

“Nope,” he said, popping two Vicodins dry. He took out a wallet, where a Credit card was.

“That’s James’s credit card” Hermione stated unsurprised, seeing the name and the photo.

“Yup,” House replied smugly. “The wallet’s his, too, by the way.” He added. Hermione shook her head. “What did you buy him, anyway?” He questioned curiously.

“Something, which will prevent you from stealing his things.” She answered coolly.

“Oh, have you bought him a gun?” House said sarcastically. Hermione smirked.

“No.” she said mysteriously. “Even worse.”

“You definitely couldn’t by him the balls, could you?” He tried again. Hermione looked at him, her eyes twinkling.

“You’ll see,” she said in the same mysterious tone as if she was some prophetess. He wondered, what it could be.

Meanwhile they approached the first man clothes store.

“May be I should give him a normal tie?” House suggested.

“Well, it would be definitely better than his awful yellow one” Hermione said.

“And green one” House added.

“And the pink one with purple spots.” Hermione giggled.

“So we can easily draw a conclusion that our Jimmy boy sucks at choosing his ties.” House finished, and Hermione chuckled. He was really surprised she was so easy to talk to.

“I really think you should give him something that would always remind him of you and would be useful.” Hermione said thoughtfully.

“Should I buy a load of Vicodin, then?” House said sarcastically, but Hermione ignored him, pretending not to hear him, thoughtful expression on her face.

“I think… a sweater would be perfect.” She finally said with a smile. Sweater? Really? What a… rubbish?

“A sweater?” He repeated.

“A sweater.” She said again with a huge grin. “You know it’s perfect gift for a friend. It’s not too intimate; it’s useful and practical so he would wear it: not too expensive so he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.” She explained in such a tone as if Christmas came too early.

“Well, well, I see now you’ve thought this over.” House said. “I knew you are all too stuck on everything, but this…”

“Well, yeah.” She said a bit embarrassed her cheeks slightly pink. He stared at her again, he just couldn’t control himself. Damn, he started all this gift-thing just to spend some time with her! How could he fall that far….

“Well, let’s go look for it” He said quietly and uncertainly, and Hermione looked at him strangely. Damn he was sick of himself. How he hated the way she made him feel! Gosh, that was pathetic. And he did hate that warm pleasant feeling when usually came with being around her, the feeling of happiness. He did try to make it leave, he really did. It made him feel like sixteen-year-old.

He didn’t know about relationship at all. The only one experience he had was with Stacey, but that was just different. That was Hermione. Nothing in common with Stacey. He didn’t know how to build and keep relationship. He always said what he thought, he could guess that wasn’t a good quality in such things. He would tell her something that would upset her or piss her off, it’d end up in tears, and that’s it. So why should he try, then? He’d never really felt like sacrificing his own comfort for somebody. His pleasure had always been on his first place. May be that’s why he was still alone.

But this time… this time everything was different. He really wanted to try, to give them a chance. She simply left him no choice, she was too smart, too charming, too pretty, too interesting…. Who knows, may be it would work this time?

But what if it wouldn’t, he asked himself immediately, looking down at Hermione walking next to him. What if he open himself for her and she’ll break him? Like Stacey did? They were so different, weren’t they?

But she was different from Stacey, either. She wasn’t a vamp like Stacey. Hermione was too broken herself. That sad look in her eyes, which never left her, said that there was enough pain for her, so she hardly would want to hurt someone else. He wondered what had happened to her that left stamp of grief on her.

“What are you thinking of?” Hermione asked him curiously, and he realized she was watching him, looking through the shelves with sweaters at the same time. He leaned on his cane heavily.

“What have you bought him?” He said just to change the topic. She looked frustrated immediately.

“I’ve told you already, you’ll find out tomorrow!” She sighed. “Now, please, be of some use and help me find a present for your friend!” She scowled.

“But, Mommy! I wanna an ice cream!” House whined in his best childish voice. He did wanna know how long her patience would last. Besides he liked annoying her. And there was also something he desperately wanted to find out. But for that, he needed to piss her off at first.

“Dr House,” she began exaggeratedly polite. “Please behave like a grown-up, or at least like a teenage boy!” she replied not looking at him.

“Mommy!” He tried again, knocking the floor with his cane this time. “Give me an ice cream! I wanna ice cream! Right now I wanna-”

“Oh stop it already, for Merlin’s sake!” She exclaimed.

“Aha! Gotcha!” House exclaimed smugly, pointing an accusing finger at her, devilish grin on his face. “What was that? You’ve just used a Merlin word as an expletive!”

He watched her attentively. Hermione paled momentary.

“Oh that,” she said a little nervously as if there was nothing odd. “We just used to amuse ourselves with some magic stuff with my friends. I know it’s a bit odd, but old habits die hard, you know.” She murmured, not looking at him.

“And that is such a big fat lie!” House declared and turned to the staff girl about 17 years old. She had piercing in her eyebrow, lower lip, nose, and about five earrings in one ear. She also had blue hair and brackets.

“Excuse me, miss,” House addressed to her as politely as he could. “Do you usually use a word ‘Merlin’ as an expletive?”

She stared at him as if he was deeply insane.

He heard Hermione whisper something, but when he turned to look at her she was quiet. He turned to the teenage girl again, but strangely enough she had a confused expression on her face.

“Yeah,” she said too loudly. “I sometimes say it when I’m too tired.”

What the hell? Did Hermione hypnotize her too?

He looked in her in disbelief. She smiled, a smile not reaching her eyes.

“Let’s go get you an ice cream!” She said too cheerily and quickly quitted the store, House following her, offended expression on his face. How the heck did she do it?

They sat in some café to order an ice cream. House asked to bring him four balls of ice cream, when Hermione hardly agreed to one. She stared at him.

“Isn’t that too much of ice cream? Won’t you explode?” She said with a chuckle.

“Well, you should sit away from me then.” House smirked. “So banana’s your favorite?” He asked her curiously.

“Not that I usually eat ice cream, but, yes, I think it’s better than the others” She replied thoughtfully.

They kept silent for a while, eating their ice cream, until Hermione questioned.

“So, how did you meet James?” She asked him with real interest and House was glad she began the conversation.

“I got him of the prison actually” He said as if there was nothing odd in it.

She frowned. “You did what? You were known at least, weren’t you?”

“Nope” House said, licking his spoon. “At first I got him of the prison, then we became acquainted. I was his great savior.”

“Wow” Hermione breathed. “I th- wait a minute! Why was he in prison at the first place?” She asked suspiciously.

“He tried to rob the bank and killed four people in process,” He said as if talking about the weather, leaving Hermione with shocked expression, her hand with a spoon froze few inches away from her mouth. She stared at him in disbelief.

“H- He did that?!” She repeated hoarsely. “Really?!”

“Oh c’mon!” House exclaimed with mock disappointment. “And I thought you were the one with the sense of humor!”

She relaxed visibly. “That’s really not kind of things to joke about” she said reproachfully.

“You are no fun!” House sighed, having a warm feeling again after the conversation.

They talked for a few minutes and began to walk around the centre again, looking for a good sweater.

Hour and a half ago tired and annoyed Hermione and cheerful House walked to the motorcycle back, Hermione carrying a small bag with a dark blue sweater.

“Glad we did this!” He said cheerfully.

She stopped abruptly. “What?!” She exclaimed furiously. “I’ve done all that stuff! You just walked there and whined like some capricious little boy! As if it is my friend, not yours!”

“Ok, calm down, woman!” House said, seeing she was not in the mood for his games. She was tired, after all. “Let’s go, I’ll take you to your apartment” He said softly.

“Oh no, really?” She said with murderous sarcasm. “That is so generously of you, I even can’t accept it after all you’ve done for me today!” She said, shooting him a dead glare, and climbing on the bike. He chuckled quietly. He definitely liked her being pissed off like that.

He looked at his watch - it was 11.50 pm. They spent so much time there?!

Feeling her arms around him, and having butterflies in his stomach, he drove to her place.

Next morning on the hospital, the first thing Hermione saw were House, Cuddy and someone else in a smock with blonde hair. Chase, apparently.

But stepping into the office she saw House’s furious expression and Cuddy’s pink cheeks. And then she understood, that was definitely not Chase.

“Morning, Dr Granger!” Cuddy said. Then she pointed at the third man who had too smug expression of his face. “Let me introduce our new Head of Plastic surgery - Dr Draco Malfoy!”

A bit dramatic, isn’t? :) I was thinking about unhappy end, so let me know what you think about this! And please COMMENT on my story, the reviews are very important to me!

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Chapter Thirteen.

Guys! I NEED YOUR HELP! I really have an idea of making an unhappy end, but I need YOUR OPINIONS! Please write them in reviews, or how else am is supposed to know what you think!

Anyway, enjoy :D

“Malfoy?!” Hermione repeated stupidly. “What the heck are you doing here?!”

Blimey! How the bloody hell could it happen?! Malfoy?! Malfoy, working in Princeton Placeboro?! Merlin’s pants!

She was over him! She had just managed with her emotional balance, and now this?! Damn you, Malfoy, I’ve told you already we were done!

“Aw, happy to see you, too, honey!” Malfoy said sarcastically, but with merry twinkles in his eyes.

“Don’t you dare ever call me that!” She snapped, embarrassed from discussing her personal problems in front of her co-workers. Cuddy looked surprised and slightly disappointed, apparently with Malfoy already having a girlfriend (or as it seemed to her), and House looked really furious.

She thought of House. Did she really like him? May be. Yes, she definitely liked him. Did she love Malfoy? No, she definitely did not love Malfoy. But if she said she didn’t like him that would be a big fat lie.

“So Grumpy Blondy will work as a Head of Useless Waste of Money, because plastic surgery is not a science actually but a position for such morons like you, who in fact work there just to have an ability to stare at women’s boops legally.” House said in one breath.

“Stop it al-” Hermione started but no one paid attention to her.

Malfoy made a wry face. “You know, unlike you, I have this ability everyday of my life, and I don’t have to actually pay women for them to have sex with me” Malfoy said matter-of-factly. “I have Hermione for that, actually” He added as if talking about the weather.

“Oh, really?” House said sarcastically and turned to face Cuddy. “Was it only me, or did you see her looking at him like at some perv, who did cheated on her five times?”

Cuddy was about to respond when Malfoy interrupted.

“Four times, or are you deaf as you’re crippled?”

“STOP TALKING ABOUT ME AS IF I’M NOT HERE!” Hermione shouted and they finally turned to her. “You used to have me, Malfoy, until you’d slept with four women in a row while we were married, so keep your possessive feelings away from me, you, arrogant bastard!” She shouted furiously. House smirked contentedly. She turned to him.

“And you! Who you think you are to talk about me like I’m some… thing you can play with?! I’m sick of both of you!” She finished hotly, disappointment on her face.

Malfoy approached her slowly, calm and soft expression on his face. “C’mon Herm, we both know, we still love each other,” He whispered to her ear, his hot breath burning her skin. She felt a shiver down her spine and quickly stepped away from him, gasping for breath.

“You had your chance Malfoy,” she said firmly, looking him directly in the eye. “You let it slip. We are done.” She sighed deeply. Damn her, but she was thinking about House the moment she said it. Did she mean to give a chance to House? Oh crap, she was so tired of this mess in her head!

“What’s going on here, people?” asked the voice from the door, and Hermione saw Wilson standing there.

“Dr Wilson!” Cuddy exclaimed somewhat relieved. “Well, here are Drs Malfoy and House who can’t share their… female” she said hesitantly.

Hermione was exasperated. Female?! What the-

“House, please! Let our new doctor adapt himself to the hospital!” Wilson said, but his eyes could tell he didn’t really think highly of Malfoy. His eyes had some cold, unfriendly expression, when he was looking at him.

So he knew who Malfoy was. Of course, Malfoy was from a famous ancient family, and had created a great scandal with the Ministry, after all. Who didn’t know him these times?

She looked at through the window. There was snowing outside. Snow-flakes were softly falling from the dark sky. She liked snow; it always reminded her of Hogwarts, for some reason, of the first Christmas with her first best friends. She sighed heavily, how great it was - to be small, not to care about all this grown-up love stuff…

She blinked suddenly. There was something small, quickly approaching the window. She glanced at Malfoy - he followed her look, and saw it too. The thing approached more, and she finally understood what it was. Ron’s old Pig, carrying some piece of parchment.

She came to window and opened it, ignoring Cuddy’s and House’s amused faces. Pig flew into the room whistling loudly. Hermione saw that the letter was too heavy for him, so she caught the owl and released it from the parchment.

“Is that an owl?” Cuddy asked in disbelief.

“That’s not an owl,” Malfoy said haughtily with a slight disgust. “That’s an old piece of sh-”

“Can you do me a favor and shut up for a minute Malfoy?” Hermione said wearily, holding the letter in one hand, and the owl in the other. “Fly back to Ron and please do bite him for me” She addressed to Pig.

“Did you just hold a domestic owl?” House asked her after Pig flew disappeared in the dark. “May be you have some domestic unicorns or dragons then?” He said sarcastically.

Hermione smiled mentally. If he could only know how close to the truth he was. Malfoys chuckled.

“Oh she did have a dragon.” He said, apparently remembering the case with Hagrid’s Norbert in their first year. “She only seems that innocent lady, don’t you honey?”

“Don’t call me that,” She said automatically, not really listening to him. She looked at the letter, which was from Ron, judging by the awful handwriting. She unrolled it and began to read.

Dear Hermione,

I’ve just talked to Topkin and he managed to get three tickets for us! England - Bulgaria, as I said before! Krum’s also playing! That’s just wonderful!

I’ll visit you today evening.

With love (in a friend’s way, of course),

Ron.

P.S. How are you, by the way?

Hermione flared up. Oh Merlin, he still thought about the stupid Quidditch match. She asked them all not to disturb her on the work, where lots of muggles were, who didn’t use to see owls everyday. She worried something terrible had happened, like Death Eater attack, but that…

She turned the parchment and took the pen.

Not at all dear Ronald!

I thought I asked you not to owl me when I’m at work. So once again you do something like that, and I’ll make something that would never let you sit on your broom again, I swear! What are my co-workers are probably thinking of me now?!

Without any love or respect,

Hermione.

P.S. Fine, thanks.

“Now fly away” she said to the owl, giving it a parchment with the answer, and it flew back through the opened window.

She turned and found House and Cuddy staring at her.

“That’s my friend’s. He uses them as homing pigeons.” She said, thinking that she must definitely find another excuse, this one was getting old.

“So Blondy, when do you start your work?” House asked Malfoy, wincing at Hermione. She raised an eyebrow.

“Actually, my work day starts at 11 am, but I could come at 11:30, and the time is-”

“You don’t understand me,” House said smugly. “When I was asking it, I was trying to get rid of you, actually”

Malfoy’s face reddened with angriness. He was about to respond, when Wilson interrupted him by asking Hermione.

“May be we could talk in my office?” He offered her, and she understood he was thinking of the whole Malfoy situation.

“With great pleasure!” She answered, relieved of having an ability to finally leave these two.

How, for Merlin’s sake, was she supposed to deal with it?