Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Muggle Things	By : RavieSnake Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 54523 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 8
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the concepts or characters from it. I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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“Hermione!”
Draco nearly tumbled out of Hermione’s Floo and immediately made for the hallway.
“Hermione!!”
“Draco?” Hermione came rushing out of her bedroom, and flipped on the hall light just in time to see Draco ascending the stairs. “Draco, what’s wrong?”
He shook his head and lunged forward, wrapping his arms around her back and pulling her against him. He ducked down his head and captured her lips in a frantic kiss. Hermione gently pried him off and looked up at him with wide eyes.
“What the hell is wrong?” she asked anxiously as she watched Draco cast his gaze about and start to shake.
“If I told you I lost everything, what would you do?” he asked, bringing terrified grey eyes back to meet her worried chocolate brown ones.
“Draco…I…”
Draco stepped back from her and slumped against the wall. He slid down it to sit on the floor and started to rock back and forth slightly. “Oh fuck, oh, god, oh, fuck…” he started to chant. Hermione stared down at him in horror.
“Draco, what happened?” Hermione asked, lowering herself to her knees beside him.
“I don’t…I can’t… oh, fuck…oh, god…” Draco’s face screwed up like he was really about to lose it and Hermione placed a hand gently to his cheek to turn it to look at her.
“What. Happened?”
Draco met her gaze and she held her breath at the water welling up in his eyes. "He did it," he said. "I didn't think he'd actually do it, but he did it. And Mother...all she did was stand there and watch him."
“Your father?” Hermione clarified and Draco nodded dumbly, his gaze going distant. He let his head fall back against the wall with a thud and stared off at the ceiling.
“He did it,” he simply repeated in a broken whisper. Hermione shifted on the floor beside him and put a hand on his knee.
“What did he do?”
Draco closed his eyes and a tear streaked down his cheek as he scrunched up his face. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he apparently braced himself to answer and Hermione tensed.
“He…he burned me off the family tree,” he finally choked out.
Hermione gaped at him in silent shock and Draco finally broke down. He hunched over to bury his face in his arms crossed on his knees. His body shook with quiet sobs and Hermione tentatively reached forward to smooth a hand to the back of his neck.
“Why?” she asked gently. Draco shook his head slightly before tilting it to peek one red eye up at her.
“I told him,” he sniffed and then hid his face again. Hermione leaned back.
“You told him? Told him what exactly?” she asked, her eyes wide again with anxiety and her hand stilling at the base of his neck.
“I…I just couldn’t do it…I couldn’t…” he muffled into his arms.
“Draco, what’re you-”
“Goddamn it!!” he shouted suddenly, throwing his head back, his hands gripped into his hair. “Fuck!”
Hermione shrunk back a little. “Dra-”
“I couldn’t do it, Hermione!” he gasped, lowering his hands and turning to her with a wild, desperate look. “All through dinner, it, it was…it was ‘future this’ and ‘wedding that’ and that fucking cow kept kissing me…and for a minute I almost considered it…but I couldn’t. Not after… Oh gods, I’m sorry…I’m so fucking sorry…” He bowed his head and Hermione reached forward to pull him into a hug. He started to cry again and Hermione squeezed him tighter.
“Sshh,” she soothed into his ear. “Just calm down, Draco. Calm down.”
She allowed him a minute to get himself under control and when his gasps turned into sniffles, she released her arms from him and sat back on her heels.
“Now,” she said calmly, brushing a stray lock of his hair off his forehead, “tell me what happened…from the beginning.”
Draco inhaled a steadying breath as he moved to face her on the floor. He looked up at her with a guilty pout. “Do you remember Viola Richmond?”
Hermione furrowed her brow slightly. “Vaguely,” she said, squinting in thought, “she was a year or two younger than us…a Slytherin?”
Draco nodded. “Yeah. She…” He paused and closed his eyes with another deep breath. “She read about my break-up with Tori and she told my parents that she was interested in me. So they invited her to the Manor.”
“Okay…” Hermione said, taking her own calming breath, “and then what?”
“I was as good as engaged to her before I even stepped into the garden to greet her as ordered,” he said, his pout becoming more pronounced. “They made me entertain her all day.”
“Entertain?” Hermione asked with a grimace.
“I walked her around the grounds. She talked a lot, mostly about herself,” he answered.
“You kissed her?”
Draco shook his head adamantly. “She kissed me.”
Hermione searched his face for a moment. “How many times?” she asked quietly.
“Three,” he answered honestly. “Once by my mother’s pond and then twice at dinner. I… the third time is when I…I…” He began to look distraught again and started to hyperventilate. Hermione placed a hand to his chin and made him look at her.
“When you what?” Hermione coaxed firmly. Draco’s eyes met hers again.
“When…when I flipped out and told them all about you.”
Hermione stared at him. “You told them about me?”
Draco nodded. “About us.” He looked down then and slumped back on the wall again. “And then the next thing I know, I’m being hexed out of my own house.”
He leaned his head back again and covered his face with his hands. “I knew it would be bad…” he went on, “…that they’d be upset, but I never…not after everything I did for them…what we went through. To burn me off…”
He lowered his hands and looked miserably up at the light fixture on the ceiling. “And now you’re going to leave me, and I’ll have nothing. Nothing but the clothes I’m wearing and the wand in my po-umph!”
His words were cut off as Hermione grabbed his head roughly and pulled him into an intense kiss. Draco’s eyes went wide with shock as she tugged his face closer and kissed him so hard he had to brace himself against the wall.
He blinked once. Then twice. Then closed his eyes and fisted his hands into her hair and began returning her kisses with equal fervor. Hermione raised up to her knees again when he did so and straddled him.
“I’m…sorry…” Draco breathed rapidly between kisses. Hermione tugged at him harder.
“Shut up,” she growled, capturing his lips again.
“But…but I am,” he panted, forcing her back just enough to look her in the eyes and lean his forehead to hers. “You…you deserve so much better.”
“Draco…” she started, but he shook his head against hers.
“I have nothing now, Hermione.”
Hermione pulled back and looked at him tenderly. “You have a room right there,” she said, pointing to the guest room door beside them, “with a closet and dresser full of clothes and shoes and two-hundred and twenty-six stupid belts. And downstairs you’ve got a living room full of DVDs to watch and a kitchen full of food and appliances you can destroy.”
Draco started to smile but it faded almost at once. “I have no money. No job. I can’t ask you to support me.”
Hermione frowned slightly. “What about your Muggle bank account? How much do you have in there?”
“Barely enough to pay off the credit card,” he said dismally. Hermione’s mouth twisted in thought.
“Hang on,” she said, pushing up from him to stand. She hurried down the hall to her bedroom and returned a second later with several envelopes clutched in her hands. “Do you think I’ll still be able to deposit these?” she asked, kneeling back down beside him and holding out the envelopes he’d given her with payments for the Muggle lessons.
Draco blinked down at them. “You…you never deposited them?” he asked in disbelief. He took the four envelopes from her. “And but for the first one, you never even opened them…” he said in quiet awe.
Hermione shrugged. “I didn’t see the point to. I never had any intention of depositing them.”
“Never had any inten…Hermione,” he said sounding a bit crazed, “Do you have any idea how much is here?”
She frowned at him. “Four-thousand Galleons? The first one was for a thousand..."
Draco made a noise between a laugh and a sigh. "Open this!" he ordered, thrusting out the envelope he'd given her after their time sorting the items from the shopping excursion. Hermione took it and, with a shifty look at him, opened it and pulled out two slips of parchment. One of the parchments appeared to be a note and Hermione held it up to read it.
‘Advance payment for indefinite use of your Muggle books, DVDs, and devices.’
Hermione glanced up at Draco who was eyeing her before setting the note aside to look back down at the payment voucher. She read the amount, blinked at it and then raised her eyes back to Draco.
"A million Galleons?" she whispered. "Wha...”
"I wondered why you hadn't said anything," Draco let a smirk grace his face again. "I'd half expected you to hex me over the amount and then refuse it."
Hermione looked back down at the slip in her hands. "I would've," she said breathlessly. Draco ripped open the other envelopes and then handed her the thousand-Galleon vouchers they'd contained.
"They'll still work," he said, a tiny tone of hope in his voice. "Even if Father already...they'll still work," he said again. "They were valid when I wrote them and that's all the goblins will care about."
Hermione didn't say anything as she continued to stare dumbfounded down at the amount and Draco's face fell again.
"I...I know it's not a lot," he muttered, "but at le-"
"Not a lot?" Hermione interrupted, finally darting her eyes back up to him. "Are you kidding? I only make a thousand Galleons a month!”
Draco looked simultaneously puzzled, scared, and angry. “That’s it?” he asked.
Hermione nodded. “Yes. I earn more than most Ministry workers, actually.”
Draco started to breathe quickly again and, sensing the oncoming panic attack, Hermione tugged him tight against her and hugged him.
“I…I don’t know how to live on that,” Draco confessed fretfully, resting his chin on her shoulder.
“I’ll teach you,” she answered, rubbing his back. He made an anxious noise and Hermione leaned back slightly to look him in the face again. “We will make this last,” she assured, holding the million-Galleon parchment up, “this is more than most people will see in a lifetime. You’ll be alright. We will make this work.”
Draco didn’t say anything and just stared at her looking utterly lost. She pulled him close again as she continued to try and calm him.
“We’ll make this work,” she said again softly, placing a kiss to his forehead. Draco moved his head down to bury his face into the side of her neck and Hermione shushed him gently when she felt tears hit her skin again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hermione gave her reflection a long, searching look and then exhaled deeply before turning her gaze to the door that linked the upstairs bathroom with the guest room. She went to it, unlocked it and then knocked gently.
“Draco?” she said, cracking the door. He didn’t answer and she remained in the bathroom, her hand on the handle. “If you need to use the loo, I’ve expanded the wards to let you in here without me so you don’t have to go all the way downstairs.”
There was still no response and Hermione looked troubled at the door, but still didn’t open it any further. “Just…make sure you lock the door that links to my room if you come in here, so I don’t accidentally walk in on you, okay?” she added quietly.
Silence.
“Draco?” Hermione waited another minute before finally peeking into the room. “Draco?”
She took one step inside and then stopped at the sight of Draco sitting on the edge of the bed. He was bent forward with his feet planted on the floor and his arms resting on his knees. He was staring blankly down at the wand he was holding between both hands in front of him. Hermione zeroed in on the wand and her mouth twisted in thought.
“I’ll…I’ll lift the restrictions on your magic usage here in the morning,” she said. Draco made no indication that he heard her and she cleared her throat. “I’d do it now,” she offered, “but the ward is really complicated and I think it’d be wiser to reverse it after a night’s rest.”
Draco still gave no response as he blinked slowly at his hands. Hermione shifted worriedly near the door.
“Um…can I get you anything? Are these blankets okay? I’ve got others. Pillows too…”
He merely blinked again and Hermione bit her lip.
“Do you want to talk?” she asked hesitantly. Draco still didn’t move and Hermione nodded to herself. “Okay…I’ll…I’ll just let you alone then.”
She took a step toward the door to go, but caught sight of the two cats curled up on the bed behind him. “Are the cats bothering you at all?”
Draco’s eyes remained on his hands, but his head shook almost imperceptibly. Hermione gave another slight nod.
“Okay,” she whispered, “I’ll…I’ll see you in the morning then. If you need anything come and get me.”
Draco’s mouth pouted slightly at that and Hermione made a motion like she was about to step back into the room, but thought better of it.
“Good night, Draco,” she finally said and began to pull the door closed.
“Don’t…”
Hermione halted her step at the sound of Draco’s shaky voice. She reopened the door all the way and looked back at him. He tilted his face in her direction, but kept his eyes down cast.
“Stay?” he whispered. Hermione stared at him for a moment and then came all the way into the room and sat down gently beside him on the bed. Draco said nothing and simply turned his attention back to his hands. Hermione turned her head to study him and her brow furrowed slightly when she roamed her eyes down to the hands he was staring at to see him twisting hard at a ring on his finger.
“What are you doing?” Hermione asked, frowning at the pink, swollen knuckle on his ring finger. Draco glared downward as he continued to work at the ring.
“I can’t get it off,” he muttered, yanking hard at it. He grunted slightly and tossed aside his wand that had been gripped in his palm. “I couldn’t use magic to resize it and I can’t get it over my knuckle.”
He took hold of the ring with all of the fingers on his other hand and proceeded to pull with obvious force to try and remove it.
“I can’t get it off…get it off!” he shouted, starting to look panicked as he tugged so violently at the ring that his finger began turning purple. Hermione reached out and grabbed at his hands.
“Draco, stop,” she said firmly.
“I want it off,” he said trying to pull his hands away from hers, but Hermione held on tight.
“Let me see,” she ordered. Draco relaxed a little and allowed her to turn over his hands to inspect the finger with the ring. She looked down at the silver band faceted with a small coat of arms and ran her thumb over the ‘M’ in the center of it.
“Your family crest?” she asked gently.
“Not anymore,” Draco said flatly. Hermione sighed sadly.
“They are still your family,” she said, squeezing his hand slightly.
“Not according to my father,” he said, turning his head away from her.
Hermione continued to look down at his ring as she spoke. “They love you,” she said quietly. He made a rude noise and she gently twisted the ring back down to rest comfortably on his finger. “They do,” she insisted, “Your mother even risked her life for you.”
“She watched him, Hermione,” he replied, sounding far away. “She watched him and said nothing. Did nothing but cry. Let him do it and then turned her back as he shoved me into the Floo yelling at me to go back to...”
Hermione looked up at him. “Back to your Mudblood whore?” she finished for him when he trailed off. Draco snapped his head back to face her. A mixture of fury and heartbreak raged in his mercurial eyes.
“I want this fucking ring off…now,” he said angrily. Hermione hesitated only a moment and then released his hands to bend over and pick his wand up from the floor.
“May I?” she asked, holding it up in a gesture seeking permission to use it. Draco gave a half shrug.
“Be my guest,” he said, offering out his hand. A quick tap of the wand to the ring enlarged it slightly and Hermione gently pulled it over his inflamed knuckle to remove it from his hand. The band immediately resized and Hermione held it out to him.
Draco glared at the ring as he took back his hand and rubbed gingerly at his sore finger.
“Here,” Hermione said, holding out the ring further when he failed to take it. Draco shook his head at it.
“You can have it,” he said.
“Okay,” Hermione said quietly, apparently at a loss for anything else to say. She suddenly let go of the ring.
“Ouch!” she yelped as both she and Draco watched it fall and then bounce on the short pile carpeting to rest near the bed post.
“What the hell was that!?” she demanded, snapping her head back up to stare at him and shaking out her hand as Odin bounded off the bed to pounce on the ring.
“What was what?” he asked.
Hermione stopped shaking her hand to inspect the pads of her fingers. “It shocked me.”
Draco’s eyes widened slightly as he looked back down to watch Odin bat at the offending piece of jewelry. “It did?”
“Does it have a ‘muggle-born detection’ charm on it or something?” she joked darkly as she conjured a cloth.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he replied with a slight sneer as Hermione bent down and shooed Odin away to carefully pick up the ring in the cloth. “Just another reason for me not to keep it.”
Hermione straightened back up and set the cloth-wrapped ring and his wand on the nightstand.
“Are your fingers alright?” Draco asked when she turned back to him. She nodded.
“I think so.”
They sat there then, both staring at their own hands, with only the sound of Crookshanks’ sleepy purring to break the silence. Hermione finally glanced up to see Draco looking entirely miserable again.
“I…I’m going to take off of work tomorrow,” she said, reaching up to gently tuck a piece of his hair behind his ear, “that way we can try and figure this out together.” She went to pull her hand away, but Draco suddenly snagged her wrist. He brought her hand to his cheek and nuzzled her palm.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. They locked eyes and Hermione gave him a small, encouraging smile.
“Everything will be okay,” she said surely. Draco returned a weak half smile and Hermione placed her other hand to his other cheek. “I promise,” she added. Draco inhaled deeply and then leaned toward her to kiss her. The moment their lips touched a small jolt passed between them and they broke apart.
“Did you feel that?” Draco asked in alarm, swiping the back of his hand over his mouth.
“That’s what it felt like when the ring zapped me,” she answered, smacking the tingle from her lips. Draco quickly leaned into her and kissed her again. He pulled back a moment later and they stared at each other.
“It didn’t happen that time…” Draco noted curiously. He gave her another quick peck with no resulting jolt and Hermione frowned slightly.
“I wonder what that was about,” she said, glancing at the small cloth bundle that contained his discarded ring. Draco looked back at the nightstand as well and frowned at the cloth before bringing his attention back to Hermione.
“Who knows?” he said, wrapping an arm around her back. Hermione focused on his face again and leaned into his body. Draco started to lie back and tugged at her to join him. She allowed herself to cuddle down next to him in the bed, careful to avoid crushing Crookshanks’ sleeping form.
“For what it’s worth,” she said turning into Draco and placing a hand to his chest, “I think what you did was brave. I know what it’s like to risk losing your family.”
Draco simply stared up at the ceiling and tightened his arm around her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“How could you?” Narcissa glared at her husband from the doorway of their bedroom suite.
Lucius barely glanced up from the book in his hands as he lounged in their bed. He didn’t reply and simply continued to read. Narcissa slashed her wand in front of her and the book shredded to bits in Lucius’s hands.
“Our son,” she said, stowing her wand and pulling a handkerchief to dab at the tears trickling down her smooth cheeks, “your son. How could you?”
Lucius sighed deeply and removed his reading spectacles. He rubbed tiredly at his face and then met his wife’s angry gaze.
“I merely blackened it,” he said heavily. When Narcissa arched an eyebrow at him he went on. “Do you really believe I’d disown him, ma belle?”
“It looked real enough,” she said as she sagged a little.
“That was the point,” Lucius replied, sitting up straighter in the bed. “He needed to realize what he’s jeopardizing by pursuing this foolish fancy with that…girl.”
“But to make him think that he’s no longer welcome…” Narcissa sniffed miserably.
“Does fifteen-hundred years of pureblood lineage mean nothing to you?” he challenged his wife.
“Does it mean more to you than your only son’s well-being?”
Lucius looked at her reproachfully. “He’s nearly his own man. If a few days on his own breaks him then we’ve got bigger problems than a Mudblood.”
Narcissa frowned disapprovingly at the slur, but merely pressed on. “You believe he’ll come to his senses in only a few days’ time?”
“I give him a week at most,” Lucius said with a nod. “He’ll realize what he’s lost and come back repentant and eager to start anew with the charming Miss Richmond.”
Narcissa sighed and then looked thoughtful. “You did obliviate her properly, yes?”
“Of course,” he answered with a nod, “No sense in chancing the Prophet learning the truth about that Greengrass trollop. We’ll be sure to invite Miss Richmond back once Draco’s returned.”
Narcissa nodded in agreement and then turned to leave.
“Where are you off to, then?” her husband called after her.
“To remove the stain covering our son’s handsome face,” she called over her shoulder. Lucius watched his wife go and then set his spectacles back on his nose. After a frown down at the shredded paper in his lap he pulled his wand from the walking stick leaning against the nightstand beside him to fix it. He replaced the wand and then flipped the book open before him. Just as he settled into reading once more he was startled by Narcissa’s panicked voice booming down the hall.
“LUCIUS!!! Lucius come quickly!!”
Throwing the book aside, Lucius snatched up the walking stick and bolted out of bed to rush out of the room and down the hall.
“What!?” he demanded sternly, coming up behind his wife as she stood before the giant tapestry of the Malfoy/Black family tree. “What’s wrong!?”
Narcissa merely pointed a shaking finger to a face directly beside Draco’s still blackened image. Lucius stepped up and narrowed his eyes at the tapestry. The blood immediately drained from his face at what he saw upon the ancient arras.
“I…I don’t think he’ll be over this fancy in a few days,” Narcissa said, turning a stricken expression to her husband.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Was this what you all expected?
And don’t worry…Draco’s not done discovering all the joys the Muggle world...or Hermione has to offer. ;)
Thank you LiverusLover, Severus1snape, UnorthodoxPeach, HG4eva, Nichole-Hermione, Trelweny, cpetnm, kaci, Missus_G, and pickles87 for the awesome reviews.
I really enjoyed reading all of your pleasant sentiments concerning the lovely Viola. *smirks*
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