The Bracelet, Chapter 63
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 is a stuck-up know-it-all; Draco is a sadistic prat; Theo has a scary way of knowing everything; Harry is too busy with his girlfriend and his hero status to pay much attention; Ginny really isn't very interested in anyone beyond Harry but unfortunately does pay attention; Pansy wants what's hers; Ron doesn't know how to get what's his; and Blaise definitely has both his hands in the cookie jar. Or maybe that's not how it is at all...
Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.
They were back.
Draco stood semi-hidden in the shadows to the dungeon entrance and watched the students pour in through the main entrance, most of them eagerly chattering about their holidays.
His holidays had been long and very, very quiet. The school was such an eerie place when there was only a handful of students left and he had hated every second of being there, but limiting the traffic to his mother’s hiding place had been his priority. Limit the chances that You-Know-Who somehow found her and punished her for defecting. Who cared about celebrating one stupid Christmas compared to that?
But he really wasn’t happy that everyone was back. He was happy that one particular person was back. It didn’t matter how much he groaned at his own stupidity, rolled his eyes and kicked himself, he just couldn’t help it. He needed to just see her. Just for a second. Then he would go back to the dungeons and she wouldn’t even know.
He hated this. He hated being so pathetically needy. He wanted to be free of her. Two weeks without her presence had truly shown him how bad it had become. Not a day had gone by without him wondering what she’d been doing and if she thought about him at all.
Of course, he had been dreadfully bored, but still… Was it too much to ask to just be able to forget about her if only for a few days at a time?
When she entered, it was like a punch to his gut. Damn it. He had hoped that he would realize that he’d somehow overplayed the whole thing in his head. He hadn’t. He saw her and immediately everything inside of him reacted. He didn’t understand how this could be. Sure, she was attractive enough, but there were prettier girls. There were nicer girls.
But no one else like her.
He had long since decided that he must be a masochist.
“I can take a guess why you’re here,” Blaise said, coming up behind him.
“And I know why you’re here,” Draco muttered. “Let’s not make a big deal out of it.”
Blaise didn’t reply but just leaned against the opposite wall and gazed at the entrance hall. He had spoken with Dumbledore and other Order members over the holidays. He would be staying at Hogwarts until he finished school, and then he would leave for an undisclosed location. He wasn’t likely to ever see his mother again. And, depending on how much of a threat they felt she posed, he wouldn’t be able to keep much in contact with anyone else.
So, come June, Draco would lose the privilege of lurking in the shadows to catch glimpses of a certain brown-eyed girl and he would lose the only person he could really count as a friend these days.
“Do you think Tracey will care if I tell her?” Blaise asked, sounding a bit wistful.
“I don’t know,” Draco truthfully replied. “Maybe she will.”
Blaise sighed. “She’d care. She’d be pleased. But she wouldn’t come with me. I don’t know why the fuck I do this to myself.” He turned to go. “Are you coming, Draco?”
“In a second,” Draco muttered, unwilling to leave before Hermione had disappeared up the stairs.
Yes, he was pathetic, but so what? Soon enough he wouldn’t even have that.
“Draco!”
Oh, no. Draco cringed at the loud exclamation from the younger girl. He didn’t dare look in Hermione’s direction again for fear she had heard and noticed that it was her he was looking at.
“Astoria,” he said with a sigh.
“Always making a girl feel welcome. You promised me you’d have a reply by now.”
He wearily rubbed his forehead. He’d sort of hoped she would have forgotten her silly pretend-dating scheme. “Look,” he quietly said. “I’m not sure the benefits would be as great as you claim…”
She snorted. “So you aren’t here to moon over… someone you can’t have, then?”
He appreciated her not putting a name to his obsession with this many people around. “Nobody noticed me before.”
“I noticed you,” she pointed out. “And, look, if you really don’t want to, it’s fine. I just don’t think you considered the additional benefits.”
“Which are..?” he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“I know why you were with Pansy for so long,” she replied in a voice so low he had to strain to hear her. “You were never in love with her, were you? You just liked having someone-anyone-who would be there when you needed to reach out and touch someone. You broke it off because you were hurting her and you actually cared. I know what you’re about and I don’t care that you don’t care about me. You won’t hurt me. I can be there in whatever capacity you need.”
Draco drew back, feeling more than a little shocked. That wasn’t why he’d been with Pansy! Was it? He frowned. And what exactly was this chit proposing they do together?
“Besides,” Astoria said, moving a little closer. “Maybe you’ll get lucky and she’ll get jealous.”
He snorted a laugh at that highly unlikely scenario. “You’re one manipulative little witch, you know that?”
“Yes, of course. I really want you to agree to this and I’ll do what it takes.”
“You’ll do anything to see it happen?” he drily asked.
“Well…” she murmured, taking another step closer. “There is one thing I can’t do since there are certain expectations to witches married off at eighteen, but just shy of that…”
Again Draco was feeling stunned. If he wasn’t much mistaken-and he was pretty sure he wasn’t-she was offering more than just snogging if he would consider the charade. Preserving her virginity was a mere technicality; even he knew there was a lot of ground that could still be covered.
“We’re not going to do that,” he sharply replied.
“But you’re going to agree?” she asked, undaunted by his rejection.
Exasperated, he ran a hand through his hair. She actually had a damn good point about his need to reach out and touch someone. He’d always spent a lot of time alone because Malfoys were too good to mingle with just anyone and physical contact with Pansy had always helped ease the loneliness and calm him.
Perhaps that kind of relationship was what he needed right now. He certainly was spending a lot of time feeling lonely and agitated and it would be perfectly innocent. Nobody would get hurt this time. And maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to get over this thing he had for Hermione Granger.
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess I’ll do it.”
With a squeak of delight, she flung her arms around him and kissed him square on the lips. It wasn’t the most romantic or sexy kiss two people had ever shared and he couldn’t help but laugh a little at her exuberance.
Hermione was glad to finally set foot back at Hogwarts. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had a fun holiday, she most certainly had, but towards the end, the tensions had begun to mount. Ginny, knowing what she had to tell Harry soon after they got back, had become strangely introverted, Harry had been confused and suspicious and Ron… well, Ron hadn’t really been that bad. He was just a little prickly when asked about his dating. He didn’t feel like it was anybody’s business what he was doing, and Hermione supposed she could understand that. She certainly didn’t always feel like sharing the details of her own relationships.
Ginny had currently plastered herself to Hermione’s side. She seemed to be avoiding being alone with Harry for now. Hermione didn’t really mind the company much. She had always felt like Ginny had mostly been friendly towards her because she was her brother’s and her major crush’s friend, but since they had been sharing a secret-Ginny’s own deep dark secret to be exact-she had been much more genuinely warm towards her. Since neither of them really had any close girlfriends, it was perhaps even a good thing.
Provided it lasted beyond this little secret, of course.
They had just made it to the top of the first set of stairs when someone squealed, “Draco!”
Against her better judgment, Hermione’s head snapped to the side to see Draco talking to Astoria Greengrass below.
“Aw, isn’t that sweet. He came up to meet his girlfriend.” Ginny’s sarcasm was almost palpable.
Hermione shrugged. “Don’t boyfriends often do that?”
“Yours didn’t,” Ginny pointed out, making Hermione flinch a little. As usual, she had no idea what Theo was actually doing or where he was. “I’ll see him later, so why bother?” she muttered, feeling a little embarrassed that she felt the need to defend him. Just because they were seeing each other didn’t mean they had to spend every second in embarrassing displays, for crying out loud.
Ginny didn’t reply and Hermione glanced back at the couple below. Draco wasn’t looking too happy. In fact he looked most of all like he’d somehow been trapped, but then Astoria suddenly jumped him, kissing him, and he laughed. Hermione looked away. Well, some people apparently had to indulge in embarrassing displays.
“I don’t get him,” Ginny was saying with a frown.
“You don’t need to,” Hermione replied. “Unless, of course, you want to date another Slytherin…”
Ginny shot Hermione a murderous look. “Like that would happen. I’m just saying that I don’t understand how he works.”
“Does it matter how he works?” Hermione was feeling a bit weary and would mostly just like to go to her room for a lie-down. “Come on, let’s go.” She began moving in the general direction of the Gryffindor tower.
“He was just sort of beginning to have me convinced that he liked you,” Ginny muttered. “And he broke Boot’s nose, but then the very next day-Greengrass! That can’t be normal.”
“He’s rash. His emotions change with barely a warning,” Hermione patiently explained. “When I was wearing the bracelet, he could easily go from serious to amused to angry before I could even blink an eye. It makes sense that his affections change just as easily.”
“So, you do believe he fancied you, then?”
Hermione thought for a second and then shook her head. “Not really. The magic did something to him. It just wore off, that’s all.”
“Good riddance, I guess,” Ginny said sounding skeptical.
Yeah… good riddance… It didn’t do a whole lot for her ego how quickly he moved on after the magic wore off, though. And she still had problems figuring out why he gave her the bracelet and ring. It just seemed like such an odd gesture after moving on.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.
“Interesting game, that.”
Hermione started and the inkwell and quill that she’d been floating in some arbitrary and very clumsy dance suddenly fell down. Reacting to the impending disaster of ink and glass everywhere, she instinctively reached out to catch it, only to have ink slosh all over her hands since it had, naturally, not been sealed properly. She groaned and tried in vain to remove the worst of it with a piece of parchment.
Theo came all the way into their office. “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine,” she muttered, not looking up from her attempt at cleaning.
He walked over to her and with the help of a few cleaning spells from one who could hold a wand without staining it, her hands eventually looked more pink than bluish black again. She generally preferred her hands that way, so she was quite pleased with the result.
“How was your holiday?” he asked.
Hermione shrugged, still studying her hands.
“You’re mad at me.”
“No,” Hermione said, shaking her head and forcing herself to look up and smile. “I’m not mad.” Just disappointed that you didn’t care to come down to greet me.
“I was summoned by Dumbledore to discuss some added duties,” he said, apparently guessing why her mood was a bit off. “Besides, I figured you’d come up here and we could talk more privately.”
She shrugged, still not feeling very reassured. She couldn’t shake the thought that when even someone as notoriously relaxed about pleasing his girlfriends as Draco Malfoy could bother come up, then Theo mustn’t have missed her at all to stay away.
Theo sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted a rushed, public greeting.”
Hermione gritted her teeth against a rush of annoyance. “It’s fine,” she coolly replied. “I mean, never mind that my friends don’t think you care about me at all.”
“So it’s just about what your friends think?” he asked.
She looked away. He didn’t even understand. They hadn’t seen each other in weeks and for all his reaction, it could have been two hours. “I have to go,” she abruptly said, getting up.
“Wait!” Theo said, reaching out and grabbing her arm. “Don’t leave.”
“Why not?” Hermione asked, trying hard not to show her emotions. His self-control and lack of clear expression even now made her feel overly emotional. “I mean, we’ll see each other tomorrow in class, won’t we?”
He looked down and she thought she saw a small frown, the first indicator that he wasn’t completely uncaring. “True, but… don’t leave yet.”
“Did you need to discuss something with me?”
“Actually I do, but that’s not-”
“What is it, then?” she cut him off. She really wanted to get out of there, her pillow wouldn’t judge her.
“Hermione! Please.” He looked up and his eyes looked as weary as she felt. “Just because I didn’t rush down to the entrance hall doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you. Can’t we just be for a bit?”
“You didn’t owl me,” she said, feeling rather pathetic.
He looked a little taken aback. “Did you want me to? I thought you’d be busy with all those people around you.”
“Now you’re just being stupid.”
Now he was frowning. “Well, how was I supposed to know? I don’t exactly know how that works.”
“How what works?” And he was Theo. Theo knew everything!
He shrugged. “Christmas. Large families. Lots of friends. I didn’t think you’d want me to bother you at every turn. You haven’t seemed overly interested in spending too much time together, after all. I thought you wanted your space. Besides, you knew where to find me if you wanted more contact.”
Hermione’s cheeks reddened. “You didn’t seem interested in that!”
“Why wouldn’t I be interested in hearing from you?” He looked genuinely puzzled. “I was just here. It wasn’t like I really had any contact with anyone but the staff and occasionally Zabini and that hardly makes for a full social life. It was a rather long two weeks to be honest.”
Suddenly Hermione felt like such an idiot. She’d been so busy waiting for him to show that he cared that she hadn’t fully considered that he was perhaps doing the same. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Guess it was my fault.”
“No,” he muttered. “I guess I see why you’d think… but I thought you knew that I always want to hear from you. I always want to see you. I only kept my distance earlier because of…” His voice trailed off and he shrugged. “I don’t know if any decision I could have made would have been good, but it didn’t mean I don’t want this. I’m just having problems reading you lately. And if you need me to be more expressive, I’ll try.”
“No,” she said, chewing at her lip and wringing her hands. “You should be you.”
He carefully reached out and separated her hands, unclenching them, and then didn’t let go. “I wanted to give you something, but I wasn’t sure you’d want me to.”
“Oh,” Hermione felt her cheeks heat again. She’d sort of avoided the topic of presents because she would never know what to give someone like Theo. “Don’t worry about that, I don’t need anything.”
He smiled at her. “You make it sound as if I’d give you a new toothbrush or a quill. And maybe I need to give you something.”
“Well,” Hermione murmured. “Since I just spilled ink all over my favorite quill…”
He tugged at her hands. “You’re trying to deflect me. You don’t have to do that. Just say no if you don’t want it, if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. He actually had something? “But I-I don’t have…” She swallowed, feeling like the worst girlfriend ever. She really wanted to cry. She blinked rapidly, trying to control that sudden inexplicable surge of emotions. Damn it, what the heck was wrong with her today?
She’d all but accused him of not missing her and not wanting to see her and then she was the thoughtless dolt. How was that for irony?
Hermione Granger, Head Girl, know-it-all, bookworm extraordinaire and best friend of The Boy Who Lived didn’t think she’d ever felt so small, confused or out of her element in her entire life.
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 is a stuck-up know-it-all; Draco is a sadistic prat; Theo has a scary way of knowing everything; Harry is too busy with his girlfriend and his hero status to pay much attention; Ginny really isn't very interested in anyone beyond Harry but unfortunately does pay attention; Pansy wants what's hers; Ron doesn't know how to get what's his; and Blaise definitely has both his hands in the cookie jar. Or maybe that's not how it is at all...
Go here if you didn't read previous chapters.
They were back.
Draco stood semi-hidden in the shadows to the dungeon entrance and watched the students pour in through the main entrance, most of them eagerly chattering about their holidays.
His holidays had been long and very, very quiet. The school was such an eerie place when there was only a handful of students left and he had hated every second of being there, but limiting the traffic to his mother’s hiding place had been his priority. Limit the chances that You-Know-Who somehow found her and punished her for defecting. Who cared about celebrating one stupid Christmas compared to that?
But he really wasn’t happy that everyone was back. He was happy that one particular person was back. It didn’t matter how much he groaned at his own stupidity, rolled his eyes and kicked himself, he just couldn’t help it. He needed to just see her. Just for a second. Then he would go back to the dungeons and she wouldn’t even know.
He hated this. He hated being so pathetically needy. He wanted to be free of her. Two weeks without her presence had truly shown him how bad it had become. Not a day had gone by without him wondering what she’d been doing and if she thought about him at all.
Of course, he had been dreadfully bored, but still… Was it too much to ask to just be able to forget about her if only for a few days at a time?
When she entered, it was like a punch to his gut. Damn it. He had hoped that he would realize that he’d somehow overplayed the whole thing in his head. He hadn’t. He saw her and immediately everything inside of him reacted. He didn’t understand how this could be. Sure, she was attractive enough, but there were prettier girls. There were nicer girls.
But no one else like her.
He had long since decided that he must be a masochist.
“I can take a guess why you’re here,” Blaise said, coming up behind him.
“And I know why you’re here,” Draco muttered. “Let’s not make a big deal out of it.”
Blaise didn’t reply but just leaned against the opposite wall and gazed at the entrance hall. He had spoken with Dumbledore and other Order members over the holidays. He would be staying at Hogwarts until he finished school, and then he would leave for an undisclosed location. He wasn’t likely to ever see his mother again. And, depending on how much of a threat they felt she posed, he wouldn’t be able to keep much in contact with anyone else.
So, come June, Draco would lose the privilege of lurking in the shadows to catch glimpses of a certain brown-eyed girl and he would lose the only person he could really count as a friend these days.
“Do you think Tracey will care if I tell her?” Blaise asked, sounding a bit wistful.
“I don’t know,” Draco truthfully replied. “Maybe she will.”
Blaise sighed. “She’d care. She’d be pleased. But she wouldn’t come with me. I don’t know why the fuck I do this to myself.” He turned to go. “Are you coming, Draco?”
“In a second,” Draco muttered, unwilling to leave before Hermione had disappeared up the stairs.
Yes, he was pathetic, but so what? Soon enough he wouldn’t even have that.
“Draco!”
Oh, no. Draco cringed at the loud exclamation from the younger girl. He didn’t dare look in Hermione’s direction again for fear she had heard and noticed that it was her he was looking at.
“Astoria,” he said with a sigh.
“Always making a girl feel welcome. You promised me you’d have a reply by now.”
He wearily rubbed his forehead. He’d sort of hoped she would have forgotten her silly pretend-dating scheme. “Look,” he quietly said. “I’m not sure the benefits would be as great as you claim…”
She snorted. “So you aren’t here to moon over… someone you can’t have, then?”
He appreciated her not putting a name to his obsession with this many people around. “Nobody noticed me before.”
“I noticed you,” she pointed out. “And, look, if you really don’t want to, it’s fine. I just don’t think you considered the additional benefits.”
“Which are..?” he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“I know why you were with Pansy for so long,” she replied in a voice so low he had to strain to hear her. “You were never in love with her, were you? You just liked having someone-anyone-who would be there when you needed to reach out and touch someone. You broke it off because you were hurting her and you actually cared. I know what you’re about and I don’t care that you don’t care about me. You won’t hurt me. I can be there in whatever capacity you need.”
Draco drew back, feeling more than a little shocked. That wasn’t why he’d been with Pansy! Was it? He frowned. And what exactly was this chit proposing they do together?
“Besides,” Astoria said, moving a little closer. “Maybe you’ll get lucky and she’ll get jealous.”
He snorted a laugh at that highly unlikely scenario. “You’re one manipulative little witch, you know that?”
“Yes, of course. I really want you to agree to this and I’ll do what it takes.”
“You’ll do anything to see it happen?” he drily asked.
“Well…” she murmured, taking another step closer. “There is one thing I can’t do since there are certain expectations to witches married off at eighteen, but just shy of that…”
Again Draco was feeling stunned. If he wasn’t much mistaken-and he was pretty sure he wasn’t-she was offering more than just snogging if he would consider the charade. Preserving her virginity was a mere technicality; even he knew there was a lot of ground that could still be covered.
“We’re not going to do that,” he sharply replied.
“But you’re going to agree?” she asked, undaunted by his rejection.
Exasperated, he ran a hand through his hair. She actually had a damn good point about his need to reach out and touch someone. He’d always spent a lot of time alone because Malfoys were too good to mingle with just anyone and physical contact with Pansy had always helped ease the loneliness and calm him.
Perhaps that kind of relationship was what he needed right now. He certainly was spending a lot of time feeling lonely and agitated and it would be perfectly innocent. Nobody would get hurt this time. And maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to get over this thing he had for Hermione Granger.
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess I’ll do it.”
With a squeak of delight, she flung her arms around him and kissed him square on the lips. It wasn’t the most romantic or sexy kiss two people had ever shared and he couldn’t help but laugh a little at her exuberance.
Hermione was glad to finally set foot back at Hogwarts. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had a fun holiday, she most certainly had, but towards the end, the tensions had begun to mount. Ginny, knowing what she had to tell Harry soon after they got back, had become strangely introverted, Harry had been confused and suspicious and Ron… well, Ron hadn’t really been that bad. He was just a little prickly when asked about his dating. He didn’t feel like it was anybody’s business what he was doing, and Hermione supposed she could understand that. She certainly didn’t always feel like sharing the details of her own relationships.
Ginny had currently plastered herself to Hermione’s side. She seemed to be avoiding being alone with Harry for now. Hermione didn’t really mind the company much. She had always felt like Ginny had mostly been friendly towards her because she was her brother’s and her major crush’s friend, but since they had been sharing a secret-Ginny’s own deep dark secret to be exact-she had been much more genuinely warm towards her. Since neither of them really had any close girlfriends, it was perhaps even a good thing.
Provided it lasted beyond this little secret, of course.
They had just made it to the top of the first set of stairs when someone squealed, “Draco!”
Against her better judgment, Hermione’s head snapped to the side to see Draco talking to Astoria Greengrass below.
“Aw, isn’t that sweet. He came up to meet his girlfriend.” Ginny’s sarcasm was almost palpable.
Hermione shrugged. “Don’t boyfriends often do that?”
“Yours didn’t,” Ginny pointed out, making Hermione flinch a little. As usual, she had no idea what Theo was actually doing or where he was. “I’ll see him later, so why bother?” she muttered, feeling a little embarrassed that she felt the need to defend him. Just because they were seeing each other didn’t mean they had to spend every second in embarrassing displays, for crying out loud.
Ginny didn’t reply and Hermione glanced back at the couple below. Draco wasn’t looking too happy. In fact he looked most of all like he’d somehow been trapped, but then Astoria suddenly jumped him, kissing him, and he laughed. Hermione looked away. Well, some people apparently had to indulge in embarrassing displays.
“I don’t get him,” Ginny was saying with a frown.
“You don’t need to,” Hermione replied. “Unless, of course, you want to date another Slytherin…”
Ginny shot Hermione a murderous look. “Like that would happen. I’m just saying that I don’t understand how he works.”
“Does it matter how he works?” Hermione was feeling a bit weary and would mostly just like to go to her room for a lie-down. “Come on, let’s go.” She began moving in the general direction of the Gryffindor tower.
“He was just sort of beginning to have me convinced that he liked you,” Ginny muttered. “And he broke Boot’s nose, but then the very next day-Greengrass! That can’t be normal.”
“He’s rash. His emotions change with barely a warning,” Hermione patiently explained. “When I was wearing the bracelet, he could easily go from serious to amused to angry before I could even blink an eye. It makes sense that his affections change just as easily.”
“So, you do believe he fancied you, then?”
Hermione thought for a second and then shook her head. “Not really. The magic did something to him. It just wore off, that’s all.”
“Good riddance, I guess,” Ginny said sounding skeptical.
Yeah… good riddance… It didn’t do a whole lot for her ego how quickly he moved on after the magic wore off, though. And she still had problems figuring out why he gave her the bracelet and ring. It just seemed like such an odd gesture after moving on.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.
“Interesting game, that.”
Hermione started and the inkwell and quill that she’d been floating in some arbitrary and very clumsy dance suddenly fell down. Reacting to the impending disaster of ink and glass everywhere, she instinctively reached out to catch it, only to have ink slosh all over her hands since it had, naturally, not been sealed properly. She groaned and tried in vain to remove the worst of it with a piece of parchment.
Theo came all the way into their office. “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s fine,” she muttered, not looking up from her attempt at cleaning.
He walked over to her and with the help of a few cleaning spells from one who could hold a wand without staining it, her hands eventually looked more pink than bluish black again. She generally preferred her hands that way, so she was quite pleased with the result.
“How was your holiday?” he asked.
Hermione shrugged, still studying her hands.
“You’re mad at me.”
“No,” Hermione said, shaking her head and forcing herself to look up and smile. “I’m not mad.” Just disappointed that you didn’t care to come down to greet me.
“I was summoned by Dumbledore to discuss some added duties,” he said, apparently guessing why her mood was a bit off. “Besides, I figured you’d come up here and we could talk more privately.”
She shrugged, still not feeling very reassured. She couldn’t shake the thought that when even someone as notoriously relaxed about pleasing his girlfriends as Draco Malfoy could bother come up, then Theo mustn’t have missed her at all to stay away.
Theo sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted a rushed, public greeting.”
Hermione gritted her teeth against a rush of annoyance. “It’s fine,” she coolly replied. “I mean, never mind that my friends don’t think you care about me at all.”
“So it’s just about what your friends think?” he asked.
She looked away. He didn’t even understand. They hadn’t seen each other in weeks and for all his reaction, it could have been two hours. “I have to go,” she abruptly said, getting up.
“Wait!” Theo said, reaching out and grabbing her arm. “Don’t leave.”
“Why not?” Hermione asked, trying hard not to show her emotions. His self-control and lack of clear expression even now made her feel overly emotional. “I mean, we’ll see each other tomorrow in class, won’t we?”
He looked down and she thought she saw a small frown, the first indicator that he wasn’t completely uncaring. “True, but… don’t leave yet.”
“Did you need to discuss something with me?”
“Actually I do, but that’s not-”
“What is it, then?” she cut him off. She really wanted to get out of there, her pillow wouldn’t judge her.
“Hermione! Please.” He looked up and his eyes looked as weary as she felt. “Just because I didn’t rush down to the entrance hall doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you. Can’t we just be for a bit?”
“You didn’t owl me,” she said, feeling rather pathetic.
He looked a little taken aback. “Did you want me to? I thought you’d be busy with all those people around you.”
“Now you’re just being stupid.”
Now he was frowning. “Well, how was I supposed to know? I don’t exactly know how that works.”
“How what works?” And he was Theo. Theo knew everything!
He shrugged. “Christmas. Large families. Lots of friends. I didn’t think you’d want me to bother you at every turn. You haven’t seemed overly interested in spending too much time together, after all. I thought you wanted your space. Besides, you knew where to find me if you wanted more contact.”
Hermione’s cheeks reddened. “You didn’t seem interested in that!”
“Why wouldn’t I be interested in hearing from you?” He looked genuinely puzzled. “I was just here. It wasn’t like I really had any contact with anyone but the staff and occasionally Zabini and that hardly makes for a full social life. It was a rather long two weeks to be honest.”
Suddenly Hermione felt like such an idiot. She’d been so busy waiting for him to show that he cared that she hadn’t fully considered that he was perhaps doing the same. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Guess it was my fault.”
“No,” he muttered. “I guess I see why you’d think… but I thought you knew that I always want to hear from you. I always want to see you. I only kept my distance earlier because of…” His voice trailed off and he shrugged. “I don’t know if any decision I could have made would have been good, but it didn’t mean I don’t want this. I’m just having problems reading you lately. And if you need me to be more expressive, I’ll try.”
“No,” she said, chewing at her lip and wringing her hands. “You should be you.”
He carefully reached out and separated her hands, unclenching them, and then didn’t let go. “I wanted to give you something, but I wasn’t sure you’d want me to.”
“Oh,” Hermione felt her cheeks heat again. She’d sort of avoided the topic of presents because she would never know what to give someone like Theo. “Don’t worry about that, I don’t need anything.”
He smiled at her. “You make it sound as if I’d give you a new toothbrush or a quill. And maybe I need to give you something.”
“Well,” Hermione murmured. “Since I just spilled ink all over my favorite quill…”
He tugged at her hands. “You’re trying to deflect me. You don’t have to do that. Just say no if you don’t want it, if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. He actually had something? “But I-I don’t have…” She swallowed, feeling like the worst girlfriend ever. She really wanted to cry. She blinked rapidly, trying to control that sudden inexplicable surge of emotions. Damn it, what the heck was wrong with her today?
She’d all but accused him of not missing her and not wanting to see her and then she was the thoughtless dolt. How was that for irony?
Hermione Granger, Head Girl, know-it-all, bookworm extraordinaire and best friend of The Boy Who Lived didn’t think she’d ever felt so small, confused or out of her element in her entire life.