Fic - Confuse
"Confuse"
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy
A/N: Sort of a ficlet, set after the Battle of Hogwarts. Hermione gets her wand back.
Hermione sees him approach out of the corner of her eye, as hesitantly as a boy at his first school dance, his white-blond head bowed, but his hands wandless, unthreatening.
“I think this belongs to you,” Draco says without preamble, reaching into his pocket, pulling out her wand, abandoned so long ago in the manor. “One of the Snatchers had it. I didn’t feature Potter or Weasley for it, so…”
He presents it to her like her father taught her to present sugar cubes and carrots to horses, unthreatening, still, palms flat to keep her from misinterpreting a gesture and harming him instead.
She‘s surprised at the hunger that roars up inside her at the sight of her wand. He holds it out, and their hands brush warmly as she grips the familiar vine wood, and she sighs in satisfaction as she reconnects with this bit of herself. There is a pleasure in it akin to taking off a leg cast, or that first moment when one lies down after an endless day. It's intimate - he must know the longing for his own wand - and yet he never once looks away from her reaction.
She feels his eyes on her as she lifts it up in an arc, letting blue sparks shoot from its tip to light up the air about them. Then, the oddity of this strikes her, and she looks up at him, though he’s dropped his gaze down to his feet.
“Thank you,” she says, feeling the words were inadequate for her surge of feeling. “Thank you. I didn’t think I’d see it again.”
He sort of shrugs, then nods, and turns on his heel, starting to move away, and she gets the feeling that he’d wanted to say more, but lost his nerve.
“Draco!” she calls, realizing that she’s calling him that for the first time. He turns immediately, looking back at her with an unfathomable expression. He looks at her squarely, clear grey eyes measuring every inch.
“Can I ask…” she begins, and he nods. “We escaped from your home, and you found my wand. You brought it back to Hogwarts where you probably didn't think you were going to see us, and had your own replacement wand…and yet you were still carrying my wand…to give back to me?”
Clearly, it’s not the question he’d hoped to hear, and he dips his chin, doesn’t meet her eyes again.
“You confuse me,” she says, and it’s the truth.
He looks up at that, nettled.
“Granger, you’ve never done anything but confuse me in all the time I’ve ever known you.”
She tries to think of something to say to this, but he’s already speeding back down the corridor, leaving her motionless and stunned in the dim, staring after him as he carries the light away in his hair.
"Lumos," she mutters to her wand, thrilling to see the light blossom from its tip, and follows after.