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Jealousy	By : brandnewdaydawning Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 78819 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Harry wasn't sure when Hermione had come back to the common room but at 7 am she pranced down the stairs as if she hadn't spent the night elsewhere and he certainly didn't interrogate her about it. He was swamped with relief that she was home and didn't want to rock the boat. She had obviously taken more care with her appearance than usual. Dressed in a nice modest sundress with a hint of color on her lips and hair that had been slightly tamed with a headband. This was probably in deference to her brand spanking new Slytherin boyfriend but Harry didn't care. The bar was set pretty low after their early morning confrontation. He was just thankful she hadn't saw fit to wear Malfoy's sodding clothes. Having her disheveled and not dressed was not something he ever wanted to see again. When she gave him a warm smile and a wave he returned the gesture without a word and decided to make nice.
Breakfast was very polite. Their emotions were brittle and raw and everyone in their group of friends was doing their best not to poke or prod at raw wounds. Even Ron was on his best behavior asking Hermione to please pass the syrup instead of gesturing like a caveman while he stuffed his face like the disgusting teenager that he was. The fight had been private, kept quiet in the boys dormitory room with a muffllo and a locked door. So naturally the entire house was aware of every detail. Harry hadn't wanted to break his solidarity with Hermione when he knew she had struggled so much with recent gossip but he hadn't been able to keep his mouth shut after she had flaunted her stupid expensive bracelet in Ron's face at breakfast.
After the horrible fight that had erupted, that stupid shiny bracelet, now matched by a stupid shiny necklace around her throat, seemed completely inconsequential. It seemed as if every tiny annoyance that had ever been brushed under the rug for years had been pulled out and dusted off and shoved under a microscope. In some twisted way he actually felt better despite how emotionally wrung out he was. He supposed if their friendship could survive a breakup and then a Slytherin dalliance then they were definitely solid. At least they were not all walking around on eggshells not saying the things that bothered them. Everything had been said, and despite that they were all friends and sitting down and having breakfast. Harry felt swept clean. He wondered if a fight like this at the Dusley's might have cured some of his misery coming up.
Still, they were polite, and Harry made sure to be especially friendly so that all of Gryffindor knew that despite the fight they were still a trio and there was no ostracizing of anyone to be done. Since it was Saturday there were no classes and they made their lazy way down to Hagrid's for tea. No one mentioned Malfoy when the half giant asked about the news and after some bonding over rock hard scones the whole atmosphere was much more friendly like. Hermione obviously was equally invested in putting this all behind them because she blew off a meeting with Snape to hang with them and everyone knew how important her school work was.
Harry had taken what Hermione had said very seriously and had spent most of the morning thinking it over. By the time they had visited the library to pick up some books for Hermione and made their way down to the lake to join up with Padma and Ginny he had made a decision. Hermione had admitted that yes she had started going around with Malfoy just to irritate Ron. Which any moron could see clearly. At the time her flippant admission in the heat of their argument had made him see red. However after a restless sleepless night trying to see things from her perspective he could kind of see why she had felt so spiteful. The pleasant morning spent with Ron being so friendly and normal made his friends behavior over the last several weeks seem especially mean spirited. So he could understand it, sort of, even though their friendship should have come first. But she had also declared that despite the reason she had started seeing Malfoy, the result was that now she really liked Malfoy and intended to keep seeing him so they could all just get over it and support her.
Which was stupid. What kind of person just stood by and supported their friend while they did something colossally stupid like get involved with a guy like Draco freaking Malfoy who was guaranteed to break her heart? He supposed that it would be the same kind of person who climbed on invisible Thestrals in the middle of the night to be supportive of a friend when you thought they were being colossally stupid. He wasn't as good of a person as Hermione. He tended to lash out when angry and make snap judgements. But he wanted to be as good of a person as her. He wanted to be as good of a friend. He supposed he was going to keep his sodding mouth shut and support her like she asked. No matter how stupid it was.
Harry was just about to suggest they had toward the main hall for lunch when he noticed Malfoy sauntering in their direction. Think of the devil. He was fully dressed in three layers of beautifully matched clothing so he must be off somewhere. Probably having lunch with his slimy father. Good riddance. Harry had been fairly sympathetic to the whole public mess, after all he was well aware what it took to stand up to those pureblooded bigots. Sirius had barely made it out of the snakes pit alive. That was before Draco had decided to embroil Hermione in his filthy plots however. He didn't know what the ferret's angle was but he was certain that he had one. He always had an angle.
As it became increasingly clear that Malfoy was actually headed towards them. Harry assumed an aggressive stance, crossing his arms and staring the boy down. Hermione remained unaware of his approach and Harry used the opportunity to let all of his dislike bleed into his expression. He couldn't possibly imagine what in the world Hermione saw in this swaggering Git. If he had to judge, absolutely had to, he supposed Malfoy might be kind of sort of kind of good looking if you were into guys who were pale and groomed, which he most certainly was not. He supposed the boy was smart. He did really well in his classes and was ranked pretty high in the class standings. He guessed he could sort of see the attraction there for Hermione to have an intelligent conversation about her schoolwork if he wasn't sure that they had nothing in common to talk about. Some girls would care about his money and his family but Hermione was above all that. All in all it was a total mystery.
He almost wanted to ask her but the thought of getting an answer made his stomach queasy.
He finally noticed that Malfoy had his broom slung over his shoulder and a slow burn of fury began to boil in the pit of his stomach. He didn't know how this Slytherin slime had managed to worm his way into Hermione's affections but he needed to keep his cool. She had been surprisingly quick to defend the jerk and insulting Malfoy had really blown up in his face the night before. But the broom was especially difficult to swallow. She'd gone flying with Malfoy and had certainly never deigned to sit her prissy rear end on a Gryffindor broomstick. He himself had offered to take her flying more than once and had been laughed at, nicely. He pushed down his anger and disgust and tried to arrange his face in a pleasant expression not wanting to start another fight. He had decided after all to be supportive. Still he couldn't bring himself to smile in a friendly way.
He just wasn't that good of a person.
Draco tamped down the wild urge to stick out his tongue at Harry Potter as he watched the boy actively struggle to keep his dislike in check as he approached the group of friends on the edge of the lake. He was pleased to see Granger laughing and enjoying her friends this afternoon after her awful evening. The group of them must have made up and the whole atmosphere was heavy with disgusting Gryffindor cheer. He felt a revolting moment of empathy for the boy who refused to die when he found himself wiping his sneer off his lips with every intention of being pleasant for Hermione's sake. How very Gryffindor of him. Maybe their sickening good nature was contagious and he was coming down with it. He briefly fantasized about going to see the nurse and demanding and inoculation against silliness and giggling.
His morning had been a series of frustrations. He'd gone back to his dorm to find an empty bed that smelled like girl and he'd had a very unsatisfying wank. Then he'd taken a short nap followed by a tepid shower and that lasted just long enough to miss breakfast. He'd asked a house elf to bring him something to hold him over and he'd gotten hard toast and warm juice. Dobby was most likely behind the crappy excuse for a meal. That unnatural elf hated his whole family and seemed to think that Harry Potter was God's gift to elfdom. He'd thought the elf had let bygones be bygones when he'd gotten the elf a pair of socks last yule, they'd had some pleasant interactions since, but his fight with Potter probably got him all stirred up again.
He'd already been irritated enough to chew nails when he'd gotten an owl from his father demanding he have lunch at the manor to talk about this "unpleasant business". He dashed off a quick note saying he was busy this afternoon and their meeting would have to wait. He would have expected to feel intensely satisfied over gaining ground on his plot to irritate dad and rebel against the Malfoy party line. Instead he felt edgy, expecting his father to pop up into his line of vision any second demanding they handle it now. Things were too unsettled to toss an explosive ingredient like Lucius Malfoy into the mix.
He'd blown off Hermione's questions that morning with a breezy confident act. The truth was he needed to get his wild emotions under control before he confronted his father. This whole thing was supposed to demonstrate his cunning and ability to make good decisions that would actually further the good name of Malfoy and mitigate the string of bad decisions that had damaged that good name so cavalierly. If he confronted dear old dad now he would probably just babble about how good she smelled and how her friends were mean to her, and top it off with a good old fashioned cry. He needed emotional distance to deal with his father and right now he had precisely 0 percent of it.
His patience was already stretched pretty thin when he had popped into the admin office to get a couple of afternoon passes so he could take Hermione to lunch. That McLaggen bloke was at the desk and had the stones to question him about whose authority he had to get a pass for Hermione Granger. Like he expected the girl to come down to the basement to stand in line at admin to get her own bloody pass. Despite the lax traditional aspects of the school you would think a Gryffindor especially would want muggle-borns to be treated with just as much courtesy as a pureblooded girl and not have to get their own flippin pass. A teacher had to step in before Draco was forced to hex the balls off the Tosser when he implied that Draco was somehow coercing Hermione to go around with him. How she could stand these Gryffindor's he didn't know. Didn't they trust their woman to stand up for themselves? Didn't he respect Granger enough to know that no one was going to make that girl do anything she didn't want to do?
Now he needed to be pleasant to Potter and a pile of Weasleys. Why did she have to have so many blasted friends? His scowl was creeping back onto his face despite his best intentions when Granger noticed Potter noticing him and turned to see what he was starting at.
His whole lousy day was worth it when she lit up the whole courtyard with her sunny welcoming smile.
He had no idea what he had done to make her look at him that way. He had an irrational urge to twist around to see who she was smiling at. That sort of expression was reserved for first year Hufflepuffs or Transfiguration teachers. He wasn't the sort of bloke who got those sorts of looks. Girls like Hermione didn't look at him at all usually. He got sly welcoming looks from women with worldly knowledge. He got come hither looks from girls with good family. He got co conspiring looks from fellow purebloods. He got looks of fear and looks of loathing and looks of envy from the entire world. Sunny friendly hello's were something he had zero experience in.
He put a little extra swagger in his step to make up for his earlier falter and smiled back at her with all the warmth he knew how to give. He probably looked maniacal but she still stood to greet him and didn't shy away when he kissed her cheek in a familiar hello. It was just chilly enough in the shade to give her apple cheeks a rosy tint and the sunshine washed her wild mahogany curls in highlights of gold and champagne. She smelled like wind and mischief and freedom and her smile caught him up in a wild feeling of being out of control and not caring. He felt alive and reckless and certain in a way he never had before. He liked the way she made him feel.
Why the hell couldn't he have her? Why the hell couldn't he keep her? Suddenly all his reasons and plans and plots seemed stupid.
Her presence radiated through him taking root in all his cold corners and bringing warmth. A stark contrast to the desolation of her absence all day, knowing that she wasn't his, couldn't be his, weighing him down. He was even able to ignore her friends, who stood and nattered at him. He hadn't realized how unhappy and tied in knots he was until now. He didn't even care that he must look an idiot as he stared down at her. He waffled some sort of response to them but couldn't bring himself to look away from her.
She stared right back up at him, warm and soft and sweet. Giving truth to the lie his stupid feelings were telling him. Telling him this was real. That she was his. He tried to stuff it back down, assume his cool, maybe sneer at her. The sensation had expanded. It didn't fit in the tight little box he kept in the back of his mind for soft sweet feelings. He wasn't even sure he wanted to trade this in for control. He felt like he'd caught a Norwegian Ridgeback by the tail. Like he was in a twin tailspin for the snitch with his hand outstretched a meter from the ground. Like he'd somehow managed to outmaneuver all of Gryffindor and abscond with their princess mascot. He felt good. He felt high.
He brandished their passes and she didn't even give a token protest, saying her goodbyes to her friends, handing out hugs the way she was always doing. Chatting with the Weasley sister a bit. Letting him help her slip on her cloak. All while he managed to behave himself. Hands shoved in pockets. Taunting Potter with his icy politeness. He'd been to a hundred society dinners. He knew how to make small talk with people he hated and that hated him, all underscored by that sharp smile that let them know that no one was fooled.
Then just that easy she was climbing on his broom as if she'd ridden with him a thousand times. He knew he must look dazed but managed to tip his head a bit to acknowledge Potter and Weasley who were predictably complaining. This was too easy. He was waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the catch to come up behind him and ambush him and leave him feeling stupid. He was not the sort of guy who got this sort of girl. She ought to be laughing in his face. The anticipation left him suspended because nothing happened. Instead he was bracing himself around her, getting her steady on his broom, before pushing off hard and leaning into her, into the wind. He felt his magic rise up in him, overpowering nature, sweeping them into flight. Wrapping around them both as he rocketed upwards and then towards the apparition point. The world fell away sharply, heaven reaching out to envelope them.
He sped up, outdistancing the past and doubts and stupid games. The sun was sparkling on the great lake as he circled wide and it felt like his future. Bright and open and unexpected.
They stood quiet in the wake of Malfoy's flight for a few minutes before Ron turned to him. "So that's it? We are just letting him have his way? Letting him come in here and grab her hand and fly off with her?"
"We aren't letting Malfoy do anything." Harry replied firmly. He himself was a little shaken. The easy way Hermione had smiled at Malfoy, the way he'd smiled back at her. It had set him off balance. Somehow despite this whole mess he hadn't really been able to picture them being friendly with each other. It had seemed natural and nice and if Harry hadn't known Malfoy it wouldn't have bothered him at all. "We are letting Hermione do as she wants."
"But it's Malfoy!" Ron exclaimed predictably. His frustration finally spilling over now that he didn't have to be on his best behavior for Hermione. "Slytherin Slime! We can't really do nothing."
"Don't worry," Harry said confidently as he turned to walk back to the castle. "This is just a fling, it'll blow over soon enough."
Ginny's tinkering laugh made him even more nervous than her ominous reply.
"I wouldn't count on it Harry Potter."
- 15
- 16
- 17
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Jealousy