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Consequences	By : Aline Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 33797 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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
- 16
- 17
- 18
Chapter 17. Friendship Problem.

Harry was in one of the tables
of Gryffindor�s common room, writing down part of his
DADA project along with Ron and enduring the murderous glances the red-head
threw every once in a while to Hermione, who was pointedly ignoring him and
working on the Transfiguration�s assignment. It had been nearly a week from the
�kiss incident� and they weren�t showing signs of reconciliation.

Harry sighed in frustration, he
had been told by his two friends what had happened and thought that Ron was
overreacting, though he had to admit that the blow Hermione gave him must have
been pretty hard to have knocked him out for a while, and maybe her reaction
was too harsh for only a kiss, but the fact was that Hermione felt as if Ron
had trespassed on her boundaries for friendship and she was not going to
forgive him easily for that.

It had been a miserable week and
Harry didn�t know what to do, he tended to hang out with Ron more because
Hermione didn�t seem too hurt with the situation, in fact, these last days she
had been even cheerful, she was back to be the studious know-it-all girl
everyone knew, she helped others with homework and pestered Harry for not doing
the assignments correctly, the depression and sadness were gone, she even was talking
to Malfoy nicely again and Harry could swear she was trying to be more friendly
towards the blond. That was another thing that had Ron so furious, and it
prevented the red-head from apologizing to Hermione like Ginny wanted him to
do.

So they were now at Friday, barely
acknowledging each other and Harry highly uncomfortable with it.

Eventually Lavender approached
Hermione and both girls went to the dormitories to talk about their charms�
project; once they disappeared Harry sighed and stretched his limbs.

�Ron, how long are you two planning to be like this? I�m getting tired of
it.�

�Why are you asking me? She was
the one who knocked me out!�

�Yes� said Ginny from the
nearest couch �But you kissed her against her will, you never do that to a girl
Ron.�

�I just wanted to show her that
I wanted things to function!�

�Well� said Harry again �she
didn�t take it that way did she?�

Ron stubbornly crossed his arms.

�What does she want then? I told
her I want to marry her; I don�t know what�s wrong!�

�It�s just that she�s the type
of girl who likes to study all that she can, before getting emotionally
involved with anyone.�

The boys turned to Parvati, who
had happily invited herself to their table, Ron looked at her with a raised
brow.

�What?�

�Yes, Lavender and I think, that
she is the kind of girl who thinks that an emotional affair would only get on
the way of studies, you know, they prefer to finish school, have a career and a
good job, before even consider to formally date someone.�

Harry thought that fit pretty
well with Hermione�s way of acting, Ron stared open mouthed at Parvati.

�What? And how long will she
want to wait?�

�Well, it depends on how
ambitious she is. I�d say that you�re going to wait a very long time Ron.�

�Well, I�m not going to wait that
long! If she doesn�t want to marry me, fine! She can go and bury herself in
books for all I care!�

And Ron stomped angrily to the
boy�s dormitories, Harry wished he had less stubborn friends, Parvati only
shrugged and sat behind Harry to talk about the Potion�s project until dinner
time.

Severus Snape entered his
private chambers with an incipient headache coming his way, those meetings with
the prefects were really a waste of time, at least
they were now on Fridays after dinner and not on Saturdays. He made a bee line
to his liquor�s stock and took out a fine brandy, sitting on his favorite chair to enjoy it.

Things were going fairly well in
school, the remaining Slytherins were doing a good job reinforcing the students
sense of cooperation, in the last days Snape could clearly distinguish the ones
that were still thinking of giving themselves to the Dark Lord from the rest,
just two or three of the Slytherins were still maintaining that ideal, no doubt
Crabbe had been talking nonsense to them, Snape
didn�t worry too much about the boy, Draco could handle him. As for the other Houses,
only Marshall had caused real problems, Snape knew that there were many
students still neutral and others that have deeply ingrained pureblood
prejudices, not only Slytherins, but Dumbledore�s tactic was giving results,
the fact that Malfoy had started to hang out more with the Granger girl and
consequently tolerate Potter, had made many of the students think that it may
not be so bad to overlook some petty rivalries or ancestry issues in favour of
future safety. Dumbledore was right after all, the Malfoys
will always be The Malfoys and Draco was still an
icon for the purebloods� children and many of the half-bloods.

It would be even better if the boy
decided to make his affair known to the world, Snape and Dumbledore had already
talked about the possibility, but they decided it would endanger both students
even more and that was at the moment an unnecessary risk, it was better that
they remained like they were a little longer, working together almost as
friends.

Snape had felt uneasy some weeks
before when that Hufflepuff girl had been pestering
Malfoy in quite an undignified way, Granger and Malfoy had not spoken to each
other in friendly terms for a while then, he had been fearful that the boy had
gotten tired of the bossy girl and had decided to end their not so clear
relationship; thankfully Draco had ended driving the Hufflepuff
away and had started to be closer to Granger. That was a change Snape was
willing to encourage, after all the girl had somehow managed to get the boy out
of his depressive state, Snape was sure that Malfoy was not thinking on suicide
anymore, that alone was reason enough to put Granger into his good book.

Now, the only thing that was
bothering Severus was Lucius. Narcissa hadn�t had
news from her husband in a long time, Snape knew that Malfoy senior was hiding
pretty well and even was reluctant to show his face with the rest of the Death
Eaters. Lucius would be a problem. If Draco were the
head of the family his decisions would have more weight in the society in
general, but as long as Lucius was still alive he
would have more power than his son in that sector.

He would have to deal with Lucius Malfoy eventually, for now he was just glad that
problems inside the school were been kept at a minimum, though he didn�t
understand why the Headmaster insisted in letting the students loyal to the
dark side roam free, they were bombs waiting to explode, but the old man had
ordered to let them be for the moment, unless there was real danger of
something similar to what happened to Malfoy repeating itself. Snape doubted
it, but was keeping his guard high.

He was considering all those
things when the fire in his fireplace changed to a vivid green and a blond head
appeared in it. Talking about the devil.

�Snape!�

�I�m here Malfoy, no need to
shout. Unless you wish the entire castle hear you.� Severus didn�t comment on
the fact that the connection could be easily tracked, he supposed that Malfoy
had taken his own precautions against it.

�To hell with that!� came the angry retort. �What�s that nonsense that Bellatrix told me about Draco associating with a mudblood?�

Ah, so finally word had reached
him, the man had taken a full month to make his displeasure known, Snape had
wondered if he was hiding in another country.

�Now, now Malfoy, there�s no
need to make such a display over simple �associations�� Said Snape, inwardly
thinking that shagging was a more suitable word.

�No need you say? I�m being told
that he�s been hanging around with that mudblood girl
Granger! Maybe even befriended her! And you have let him!�

�Why do you care Malfoy? I was
under the impression that you were about to disown your son.�

�Don�t talk nonsense to me
Snape! Even if I had the means to publicly disown him he�s still a Malfoy! And
I still raised him! What do you think the Dark Lord would tell me, if he was to
discover that my own son is letting himself being seen in such distasteful
company?!�

�He�s not going to be so pleased
eh?� said Snape mockingly, if the man knew what else Draco and the Granger girl
had been doing!

�I�m sure that you�ll like that
Snape. But don�t be so sure of yourself, you are the one inside that cursed
school, maybe you are encouraging him to do all the stupid things he�s doing
lately!�

�Please Malfoy!� hissed Snape in
faked annoyance �Do you really think that I like to see him disgracing his
life? It was bad enough that you hadn�t have enough authority to make him going
home on Christmas, it�s clear that he�s defying you, and I must say he has
chosen the worst moment to do it!�

Lucius was fuming in rage; his cold calculating voice could have
intimidated everyone but Severus Snape.

�Then I suggest you stop him
Snape, for his own good.�

�I can�t�

�What?�

�Actually Malfoy, Draco is not
actually cultivating any kind of friendship with the Granger girl, not even an
alliance for that matter, what�s really happening is that Dumbledore had
ordered that they were made to work together, and every teacher in this school
had to make everything within his or her reach for them to have homework and
extracurricular activities together. That�s why your son seems to be everyday
in the girl�s company.�

Malfoy was speechless for about
two seconds, and then the cold fury made it back to his voice.

�Are you telling me, that poor
excuse of a Headmaster is ordering Draco to share his time with a mudblood? Why exactly?�

�Well, he�s expecting that the
students reach the same conclusion as you did and delude themselves in the idea
that a Malfoy is getting along with a Gryffindor muggleborn,
he�s quite confident that it would raise the spirit of �Unity� in the school.
The results so far had been quite interesting, I may talk to the Dark Lord
about them, I�m sure he�ll find the whole situation amusing, more so because it
wouldn�t have happened if Draco had been where he was supposed to be on
Christmas.�

The calculating eyes of Malfoy
narrowed and he let out a dangerous hiss.

�You are using this to get to me
Snape, but it won�t be so easy. The Dark Lord would have his new weapon soon
and you and I would have our little chat then. When Hogwarts had fallen.�

�I�m looking forward to it Lucius, I truly am.�

Malfoy opened his mouth to say
something more but gave a hiss of pain instead; Snape clutched at his left
wrist at the same time and in matter of seconds Lucius�
head was gone from the fire and Snape was running outside his chambers.

It was a little past midnight
when Hermione finally entered Gryffindor�s common
room, she and Malfoy had taken advantage of the fact that Ron didn�t wait for
her at the end of the prefect�s meeting. Hermione felt very happy and wanted to
get to her room quickly to catch some sleep when a whimper from one of the
couches stopped her, cautiously she approached the sofa near the fireplace, the
whimpering was low but distinguishable, someone must be asleep on the sofa, she
rounded it and found the restless figure of Harry, he still had his Potions
text on his hands and was clutching it in his sleep, the frown and the sweat on
his face worried her, she took her friend�s shoulder and shook him.

�Harry, Harry wake up!�

The boy opened his eyes and
gasped, he immediately sat up and threw the book in the process, Hermione
didn�t move, she stared into the emerald eyes of her friend and could perceive
as the terror and shock in them slowly gave way to recognition.

��Mione. W-what�?�

Harry blinked and relaxed on the
sofa, he rubbed his eyes and tried to put order in his thoughts.

�Are you all right Harry?�

�Y-yes. Just� fall asleep� what time is it?�

�Past
midnight. Are you sure you are ok? You are a
little pale.�

She sat beside him and could
feel his body shivering.

�You had a bad dream?�

�Kind of� it was confusing. I
have the feeling that Voldemort is up to something
big, but I can�t decipher what it is.�

Harry never quite managed to
block his mind completely to Voldemort, but now he
only had sporadic nightmares that didn�t make much sense, Hermione sympathized
with him and took his hands in hers, trying to comfort him, Harry sighed and
smiled to his friend.

�I wish I could be sure that all
of you are going to be fine.�

She smiled back to him, wishing
she could be sure too.

�You don�t have to worry about us;
you have to continue your training with Dumbledore. I�m sure that you can
defeat Voldemort Harry, and your friends are going to
help you, we won�t leave you alone�

�Thanks �Mione,
you�re the best.�

Harry moved and gave her a hug
of gratitude, she relaxed a little in his arms and returned the embrace, she
felt his lips brushed her temple tenderly and then his cheek rested on her
head.

�So, this is why you insisted so
much in that I should leave her alone no? My so called
friend?!�

Hermione and Harry turned to the
stairs that lead to the boy�s dormitories to see a very angry Ron; Harry was
confused for a second.

�Ron, what�s the matter?�

�What�s the matter?! And you
still have the guts to ask?! It�s obvious that I interrupted a very good
moment!�

�What are you talking about?�
said Harry starting to get annoyed; he and Hermione stood up to face Ron who
was nearly shaking with rage. Hermione tried to explain things.

�Ron, we were just talking,
Harry just had a nightmare and I��

�Oh, and you just feel the need
to comfort him don�t you? Maybe Harry will be having nightmares on the couch
more often! That seems to get him a good snogging
session in reward!�

�Ron!� Hermione was scandalized,
Harry glared at his friend.

�You idiot. I fell asleep! Hermione just went down from the dormitories and she
found me!�

�Oh yeah? She doesn�t look like she was in her room to me; she looks more
like one that had been having a good time! Maybe she even has a hickie or two!�

�Are you out of your mind Ron?
What gave you such a ridiculous idea?�

Hermione blushed furiously,
obviously Harry hadn�t had time to notice that she was still wearing her
uniform, or the flustered and generally disarrayed state she was in, she was
just the picture of someone that had been snogging in
a corner, obviously Ron was in the perfect position to notice all this.

�Don�t try to play ignorant with
me Harry! You want to have her? Fine! It�s clear that she thinks you are better
than me! Maybe it�s just that you are a seeker like Victor Krum! Now you can
tell me how it feels to be second in line to someone!!�

Harry launched himself at Ron
and both of them rolled in the floor, Hermione didn�t know what to do, she
could hear the sound of people in the dormitories starting to wake up and was
absolutely sure that her appearance at the moment wouldn�t be helpful, she
quickly made a few spells to arrange her uniform and hair, so that she could claim
that she had been studying on her desk at her room, she also spirited away the
red mark on her neck that she did have and finally threw a spell to her two
friends, effectively separating them, the first curious Gryffindors were
already downstairs, eager to know what was causing all the noise.

�Stop you two! This is
ridiculous!�

Ron glared at her and said
viciously

�Of course you�ll see it
ridiculous, you have already decided! You could at least tell me that you think
he is better than me!! Just like everyone else!�

In the deadly silence that
followed they could hear a faint whisper that said: �And who wouldn�t?� Ron
turned around and stomped upstairs, pushing rudely away every student that got
in his way.

Hermione was shaking, her
knuckles were white from clenching her fists, she
wanted to scream from frustration.

�That idiot!� she said and
climbed the stairs to her own room, leaving Harry to try and explain the mess.

Draco was stirring slowly the
potion he and Granger were working at, while the girl added the last
ingredient, just two drops of unicorn tears, he looked while the potion became
the emerald green it was supposed to be, he just needed to stir it a few more minutes
for it to have the perfect consistency, while he was at it he looked at where
professor Sinistra was supervising Potter�s and a Ravenclaw�s potion.

Professor Snape had been absent
for a week now and Malfoy had an idea of where he was, or more exactly with whom,
and that was nagging at him, he didn�t like the feeling of unease that had been
plaguing him since he discovered that his godfather was gone. It was
disconcerting, he knew something big must have been happening, but so far the
Daily Prophet hadn�t reported anything of importance and Dumbledore didn�t seem
worried about his Potions master�s disappearance, the Headmaster was being his
usual self and the only explanation the students were given about their
professor�s absence was that he had gone to an important convention.

The junior Death Eaters had also
been awfully quiet, Draco had surprised them once in a while interchanging
glances over breakfast, and he suspected they were waiting for something. He
caught the Gryffindor half of the Patil twins looking at the general direction
of Potter and scowled, she had an odd look of contentment in her eyes that
Draco didn�t like, it reminded him of Granger�s cat
after having killed some unfortunate lizard. All the week Parvati had seemed
too satisfied with herself, although very few noticed it, Draco suspected it
was because of the recent rupture of the golden trio, Parvati had been one of
the most diligent in encouraging all the gossip that had spread in the castle.

That was another thing that
worsened Draco�s mood, he had have a go with Hermione
when she told him what had happened, and he was still fuming over the fact that
Potter had indeed being hugging her. Parvati surely was glad that the three
friends were having troubles and undoubtedly was doing her part to help
breaking the golden friendship apart, several times in the week she had gone
and congratulated Granger publicly for having dumping Ron and let out little
comments about how nice Potter was. Malfoy wanted to strangle her, he had spent
the last two nights plotting a way to throw Potter from the Astronomy tower and
make it look like suicide. He wanted so badly to make sure that Granger really
hadn�t any feeling for the insufferable prat that he
was on the verge of being violent.

He could tell that Hermione was
nervous, the girl had been checking his every move towards Potter, but Draco
had made his mind that he wouldn�t act his jealousy again, at least not
directly, it had been embarrassing to do it once, he had never acted like that,
he was sure that if any of the Slytherins knew of it they�ll laugh their brains
out. Draco Malfoy was never jealous over a woman. But that didn�t stop him from
being a possessive prat, he really felt like
murdering Potter.

Professor Sinistra
went over to their cauldron and gave them a look of approval, then instructed
everybody to bottle samples of their potions and dismissed the class. Granger
waited until Draco returned from the professor�s desk to shoulder the
schoolbag. He looked at her, ready to say a polite goodbye like always.

�Malfoy, do you have time before
dinner? We have to finish the first report for the Arithmancy
project.�

�Fine. I�ll see you at the library.�

He answered a bit coldly; she
sighed and wondered what had gotten into her to accept the arrangement they
had. Harry appeared at her side and Malfoy scowled, murderous thoughts were
back in his head.

�Come on �Mione,
we have Transfiguration next.�

�I�m coming Harry. Well Malfoy,
in the library later.�

Malfoy nodded and Harry made a
start of surprise.

�What? What are you meeting with
him for?�

Malfoy looked at him, not amused
in the least.

�We have a project to do Potter,
you should know it by now seeing that you and the weasel had seen fit to be a
nuisance all the bloody time we had to meet.�

�Well, you could as well write a
part of it and then deliver it to Hermione!�

�Harry!�

�What? That would be easy enough
and we wouldn�t have to endure his company at least half the time we are in the
library!�

Malfoy�s eyes narrowed.

�And I bet you�ll be too glad
for it, yes Potter?�

�Well, quite� said Harry
nonchalantly.

�Of course, you�ll enjoy a
little time alone with your mudblood girlfriend, now
that you finally got ridden of the red-headed scum. That really was an
improvement; at least it would be one less pain in the ass for me.�

He managed to put every bit of
his bottled venom in that comment and smirk almost pleasantly, the effect was
quite impressive. Granger gave him an annoyed look, Harry went scarlet and
glared daggers at him, he was ready to hex Malfoy into next year.

�Shut up Malfoy! You�!�

�Save it Potter, I don�t care
about your pathetic love life. Don�t be late Granger I hate to wait.�

With that Malfoy turned and
left, leaving Harry ready to explode.

�I don�t have a Love Life! The
son of a bitch! I�ll throttle him!�

�Harry, wait!�

Hermione managed to catch
Harry�s arm before he got out of the door and forced him to walk slowly to
their next class.

�Harry please! You�re
overreacting! He said pretty much what everybody has been saying this week!�

�Oh yes! But he says it
different, and he called you a mudblood and insulted
Ron! He�s asking for a fight Hermione!�

The girl had to accept that
Malfoy indeed was looking for trouble, it wasn�t the first time he did
something like this, in fact he had been poking at Harry the entire week and
the brunette was fed up with it. But for the life of her, Hermione didn�t have
a clue of why Malfoy was doing it. She had explained quite clearly what had
really happened and she had expected that Malfoy wouldn�t take it the wrong
way. So much for expectations. She didn�t understand
his reaction, they were doing pretty well, Harry had even started to consider
Malfoy in a different light, now it was all ruined and she was inwardly cursing
Ron for starting this mess.

She decided to have a long talk
with Draco, she wanted him and Harry to make peace and work together, it won�t
be any good if they continued fighting like this. She managed to make Harry
relax and spent transfiguration thinking how she could get more sense into
Malfoy�s head.

Hermione arrived at the library
alone, Harry had been called by McGonagall and promised to catch her as soon as
possible, she really didn�t mind it. Malfoy was
already in one of the tables, all by himself, with his studying supplies and a
heavy book in front of him, Hermione approached the table and sat in front of
the blond, getting her things ready, she noticed three schoolbags already
occupying another chairs in the table and supposed the rest of the Slytherins
must be looking for some books. Malfoy spared her a glance and returned his
sight to the Advanced Arithmancy book.

�What Granger? No lover boy?�

She opened one of her books with
unnecessary force and hissed at him.

�Stop it Malfoy! You know very
well that Harry is just a friend. Why are you doing this? You�re being all
aggressive to both of us and you have no cause to be like that!�

He lifted his grey eyes to her,
his mind diverted a little on how pretty her brown eyes sparkled and then
pictured her on the sofa in Potter�s arms, he scowled and hissed back.

�Maybe you�ll be more
comfortable in your common room Granger? We only have to put this together; we
don�t need to be here more than a few minutes and then you can have all the hugs
from Potter that you want.�

Hermione�s eyes widened, for a
fleeting moment she felt as if they were having one of those useless fights
that couples always have over nothing important and that she always had
considered ridiculous, the thought almost made her laugh, maybe all this
playing and pretending of their nights together had finally gotten into them.
She arched an eyebrow at Draco and asked slowly.

�Are you jealous of him?�

Malfoy hissed indignantly almost
too fast.

�Don�t be ridiculous! Why should
I be?�

�Well then stop acting like a prat! We look like lovers having a fight! It�s useless and
we� we�!�

They both fell silent and stared
into each others eyes, realizing for the first time that neither of them had
any idea of what exactly they were playing at. This wasn�t right, Malfoy sighed
and relaxed on his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, neither one wanted
to talk about the tense situation they were in and both knew it. Hermione made
an effort to give a turn to the conversation.

�It really doesn�t help if you
and Harry fight all the time. The war is over us, if you two work together you
could help each other and it would be a great advantage for all of us.�

�You talk as if anything we do
would make any difference.�

�Malfoy it does make a
difference! Please, you have to believe it!�

Draco wanted to agree with her,
the problem was that he really didn�t think that they could have any chance
against the Dark Lord, Blaise�s arrival saved him
from answering, the boy dumped his load of books and
took a seat.

�Could you believe it? Every
good book of Herbology is gone! Hi
Granger, no escort today?�

�Well��

She was interrupted by the
abrupt arrival of Harry, who dumped his things and sat hurriedly.

�Sorry Hermione, I had to go to
the common room for something.�

The other three occupants of the
table shared some seconds of shocked silence, three pairs of eyes fixed in the
pitch black skin Potter was sporting, the arrival of Goyle and his Hufflepuff friend broke the moment, as they dumped their
respective loads of books and proceeded to stare at Potter too, the girl
couldn�t help to start giggling. Harry was not only black skinned, his hair was
covered in what seemed grey powder and looked spooky. Blaise snickered and
raised an eyebrow.

�Had it something to do with
cleaning a chimney Potter?�

The brunette glared daggers at
the Slytherin, at his side Hermione was doing her best to keep a straight face
and not lash in anger, she was sure that this was Ron�s doing. Malfoy gave
Harry an evil smirk.

�Really Potter, if you�re trying
to get us thrown out from the library you�re doing a fine job of it.�

�Shut up Malfoy!�

Madam Pince
was instantly at the table side, glaring at Harry with disapproval.

�Young man, what do you think
you�re doing? You can�t be in here like that! You�ll damage the books! Go out
to clean yourself immediately!�

�But it won�t damage the books,
it�s glued to me! I can�t clean it!�

�Then you can�t enter this place
until you�re free of all that disgusting dirt! Now go!�

�But��

�Now! And that would be twenty points from Gryffindor!�

�Twenty!?�

�Twenty five!�

Harry took his school bag
hurriedly and tried to make Hermione go with him, but Madam Pince
held him by the arm and dragged him outside her precious library, Hermione
debated for a moment if she should follow when Malfoy�s voice reached to her.

�Well Granger, I have to change
my mind. Potter could really kill anyone from a good laugh.�

She glared at the blond boy and
attempted to give him a kick under the table that he avoided, but she decided
to stay and finish the report. She was sad that Ron was making things so
difficult, she wanted to find a way to make the red-head and Harry friends
again, but that would have to wait, first she wanted to sort out her feelings
for Malfoy and get the blond to talk about it. Hermione was fearful of doing
it, she wasn�t even sure if Draco had any feelings at all for her or if he was
merely being possessive over his current shag, she very much wanted to let
things go and work out by themselves, but she knew that they would have to talk
sooner or later. She preferred it to be later.

Draco poked at his breakfast
with a worried expression, it was Monday already and professor Snape wasn�t
back yet, though the Slytherins seemed to be the only ones that truly noticed
his absence. Everyone was still enthralled by the gossip surrounding the golden
trio. Just on Sunday had been a match between Ravenclaw
and Gryffindor, the winner would play against Slytherin for the Quidditch cup; predictably Gryffindor had won, but only
because Potter had been lucky enough to catch the snitch first, the lions had
been loosing by 110 points when that happened, all because Weasley was being a
stubborn idiot and had decided to ignore Potter�s instructions, and the Ravenclaws were having the goal posts practically free.

From what Malfoy had heard and
what Granger had told him, the atmosphere in Gryffindor was really tense and in
an effort to make Ron see that he was in the wrong, the girl had opted for
detaching herself and she spent the weekend as far away from Harry as she
could, that however seemed to have enraged Weasley even more, and to top it
all, Parvati had started the rumor that Harry had
promised Hermione to marry her when the school term finished, so that they
won�t have to deal with Ron�s jealousy any more.

Granger was very angry on Sunday
night while she talked with Malfoy, she was sure that Parvati would be very
happy if Potter and Weasley killed each other. Malfoy agreed with her in that
fact, but while he was glad that Hermione had put some distance between herself
and Potter, he didn�t like to see her alone. Potter was a pain in the ass but
at least he was useful to keep Hermione somewhat safe, despite the many
problems the golden boy seemed to attract. Draco wanted Hermione safe; he could
deal with her friendship with Potter as long as the prat
kept his hands to himself. He ended up promising the bushy haired girl to think
of a way to shut Parvati up.

Now however Malfoy was more
worried about his godfather, what could have happened to keep him away from his
spying duties at Hogwarts for more than a week? Malfoy could tell that even
Dumbledore was starting to look worried. He sighed in frustration and looked
over to Gryffindor table. Granger had just arrived and was talking with
Lavender Brown. Draco returned to stare at his breakfast until the owls arrived
and a copy of the Daily Prophet landed at his side, he looked at it absent mindedly and took him a couple of seconds to register the
big title on the front page, his eyes widened and he gasped in shock. He wasn�t
the only one.

Hermione was listening to
Lavender�s chat without paying much attention to it, Harry was a few seats
away, trying to make Ginny understand that he and Hermione were just friends,
so far the female Weasley had been avoiding them and was deeply hurt that
Hermione didn�t want to be her brother�s fianc�; she even was being a little
nasty. Hermione didn�t care at the moment, she had more important things to
occupy her mind than the stupid attitude of some of her friends, she had had a
really complicated weekend trying to make Malfoy drop the subject of Harry�s
friendly hug, and she asked herself why everybody had to make such a big
problem from something so little.

Hermione sighed in frustration,
some part of her brain was toying with the theory that Malfoy had voiced his
discomfort loudly, merely to keep his mind off the fact that Snape had been
absent for a week, without much success. She started to poke at her breakfast
half heartedly, all the thinking she had done over the weekend hadn�t help her
to define exactly what she felt about Malfoy, the only thing she was sure about
was that she liked him so much and that she didn�t want to share him with other
girls, she felt horrible when she thought about stop seeing him, Hermione
wasn�t sure if that could be called love or if it was simply obsession.

She was thinking about that when
the owls entered the Great Hall, and a general exclamation of surprise brought
her back to reality, she blinked and noticed the incredulous and horrified
faces of her housemates as they read the news, with a horrible suspicion
creeping in her mind she quietly took the copy of the Daily Prophet that an owl
had left in front of her. The front page read:

AN ENTIRE SECTOR OF MUGGLE LONDON GONE!

This Sunday afternoon the Dark Mark could be seen above the remains
of what had been three neighborhoods in muggle London.
The Aurors had mixed themselves with the muggle police and rescue teams that arrived to the
destroyed area, searching for any survivors of the tragedy.

Nobody seems to know what happened exactly �

Hermione stopped reading, her
hands were trembling uncontrollably, she started to hear hysterical cries of
some students, she quickly scanned the article, the words �No Survivors� jumped immediately to her, and then the names of the
neighborhoods and streets that had been wiped out of London. Her eyes fixed in
a name and she stared in shock at the paper in front of her, she felt a hand on
her shoulder and heard a low voice in her ear.

�I�m so sorry Hermione. That was
your neighborhood, yes? It�s a terrible tragedy.�

Hermione didn�t answer, she
didn�t even turn to see who was talking to her, she stood up and walked
hurriedly outside the Great Hall, not even aware of where she was heading.

Draco read the paper in quiet
shock, three neighborhoods of muggle
London
completely gone, with no survivors; he reached the part where it said that the
list of victims was incomplete, due to the unrecognizable state of some of the
bodies, and immediately turned to Gryffindor table. There was panicked chaos in
the Great Hall, but he could distinguish Hermione�s face, which was paper
white. Malfoy bit his lip, not sure of what to do, he sensed she needed support
and automatically searched Potter to see what the boy was doing when he saw
Parvati stood and approach Granger. Draco watched as Patil told something in
the ear of the Head Girl, and suddenly Granger stood and walked away.

Granger wasn�t the only one
deserting the Great Hall, some other students were running out in tears, Potter
and Weasley ran away too, presumably to find their friend. Malfoy narrowed his
eyes at Parvati wondering what she had said to Hermione, the bitch was smiling,
that wasn�t good. He half heard Blaise�s voice
commenting something and he turned his attention to his Slytherin friend.

�Granger must be very upset. I
think that her home is in London.�

�How do you know?� asked Malfoy.

�Well, last year in Ancient
Runes professor Derriell was talking about the
numerous artifacts that were destroyed while building
up London and Granger commented something to a Ravenclaw
about living in a big city where no one believed in magic.�

Malfoy had a horrible feeling in
the pit of his stomach, he took the Prophet again and looked for the list of
victims that could be identified, he scanned it quickly and his eyes stopped in
the name �Dr. Granger and possibly
family�

He blinked a few times, willing
the name to change into another one and finally gave up, he turned to the doors
of the Great Hall and suddenly knew where Granger was heading to. Malfoy
remembered the unfocussed look she had had when she stood from the table and
decided that he couldn�t leave her alone, he was pretty sure that Potter and
Weasley wouldn�t be able to find her and so he stood and walked out of the
Great Hall, lost in the general confusion and grieving that Dumbledore was
futilely trying to ease.

Draco walked all the way to the
dungeons taking great care in not being followed; eventually he reached the
Medusa statue and opened the secret entrance to walk into his private haven. It
was dark inside, but he could hear quiet sobs from a distant corner, he walked
to the sound not bothering in lighting the torches, he knew every detail of the
room to heart and had no problems approaching the crying girl that was curled
on the floor. He sat beside her and surrounded her trembling body with his
arms, coaxing her to move. Soon he felt her hands reaching to him and slowly maneuvered them both so she could sit on his lap, one of
her arms went around his back, the other one over his chest, clinging to him
like a life line, her head rested on the juncture of his neck and shoulder and
he kissed her temple and hugged her tightly, not knowing what else to do.

It was a new situation for him,
he had never comforted anyone, Pansy�s tantrums had always been explosive, she yelled a lot but never had cried on his shoulder looking
for comfort, no one had ever done it.

Draco would have liked to say
something to make Hermione stop crying and feel better, but he didn�t know what
to say, he had only a vague idea of what she must be feeling but that wasn�t
enough. He�d like to tell her that everything was going to be ok, that things
were going to get better and that he would be with her always, but somehow all
those words seemed like a lie and he didn�t want to be lying at her. So he only
held her tightly in the dark, patiently waiting until she stopped crying.
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Consequences