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Peace in the Darkness	By : UpTheHill Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 19332 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own any of the characters nor the setting from the Harry Potter world. There are plot details that are not mine either. I make no profit out of this story in any way as I am writing for my personal enjoyment.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Here’s the second chapter. It might not seem much yet, but stay patient, everything will come at the right time. Although if you’re looking for something super hardcore and dark, then this is not the story :)
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

Chapter 2: The Owlery
The next couple of days Hermione could barely think straight. She was feeling confused, but tried very responsibly to not reveal that to her friends and professors. Avoiding longer conversations, the young Gryffindor kept herself busy, but didn’t make as much progress with her schoolwork as she anticipated. The inside of her head was easily a mess, but every time grey eyes crossed her mind Hermione straightened up, unsuccessfully attempted to tuck her bushy hair behind her ears, and focused on her work with all the energy she had.
Each time Hermione walked into the Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts classrooms, her knees trembled at the sight of the tall wizard sitting at his desk. She tried to ignore her storming heart, yet the uneasy feeling that was pinching all over her body didn’t allow Hermione to relax and forget the embarrassing situation she was in. Her eyes twice made an incredibly brief contact with Draco’s, and she was wondering whether he experienced the same odd feelings as she did. Although Draco did seem frustrated, she couldn’t assume it was due to their previous encounter; Malfoy looked troubled every day since the beginning of this term.
Not knowing what was happening in Draco’s head was bothering Hermione a lot. She had the idea that having mutual feelings with Draco towards their situation would ease her inner turmoil; she wouldn’t feel as foolish as she did right now. However, if she was indeed the only one who cared so much, then that’s, well, very awkward and silly of her, and it’s all her fault.

* * *
“I don’t know, Harry, maybe you should have chosen McLaggen instead of me…” Ron was grumbling.
He, Harry and Hermione were traditionally sitting in the Gryffindor Common room, going through their homework and talking. Ron and Harry had their regular Friday Quidditch practice an hour ago, and now Ron was expressing his concerns as his playing was slightly worsening due to the first Quidditch match of the season drawing nearer.
“You’re talking nonsense,” Harry tried calming his best friend down. “You’re doing well, Ron. There will be more practices, you know that. You’ll improve.”
“Oh, sure, easy for you to talk,” Ron snorted with disgust, “being the Captain of the team, the Gryffindor seeker of the century and all… easy for you to say.”
“We’ve talked about this. Millions of times,” Harry was getting irritated. “It’s nonsense.”
Hermione watched her two best friends argue out of the corner of her eye.
“You don’t understand,” Ron mumbled.
Ron, yes… The boy she liked. The boy Hermione realized she had feelings for in their fourth year, but felt forced to repress them due to Ron’s tendency to insensitivity. She deeply, secretly cared and will always care for Ron, but sometimes he made it difficult. Hermione was bothered by her fancying Ron as it seems to contradict her rationality; her feelings for the boy were quite beyond logic, because the couple didn’t exactly fit together, and it frustrated her.
Knowing what having feelings for someone felt like, Hermione had an excuse to deny she now fancied Draco Malfoy, because the sensations where very different. But that’s because the ones she experienced being close to Draco were incomparably stronger, since what she felt for Ron now seemed to be purely platonic. The grey-eyed tall wizard, on the other hand, was provoking her curiosity to the point where her head and stomach ached, and it made the interest only grow stronger. Ron didn’t make her body feel pleasantly odd, while the boy from Slytherin did.
“I’m going to mess it up, I know it,” Ron spoke, revealing he hasn’t finished the conversation yet.
“You’re begin mental!” Harry burst out. “You realize that you need to relax and calm down a little, don’t you?”
Ron raised the brows of his wide worried eyes. “Calm down? What do you mean I need to calm down? How can I relax if the match is right around the corner? I have to prepare! Are you preparing me enough, Harry? You’re the Captain, so please do care!”
While Harry was rolling his eyes, Hermione couldn’t help but snigger, “Are you serious?” she looked at Ron with a suppressed grin and continued, “The match that you are dreading so much is almost a month away. Why are you whining? That’s sad and unwise, Ron.”
Harry lifted the corners of his mouth along with Hermione, although it didn’t seem to help Ron at all.
“And who’s talking?” Ron shot back. “The ‘Miss Perfect’ who dreads her exams from the beginning of the school year.” Not looking at Hermione rolling her eyes, Ron got up, gathered his parchments into his arms and said sarcastically, “Thank you very much, both of you. Thanks for support,” before walking away to his dorm.
After Ron vanished from view, Harry turned to Hermione with a slightly confused look on his face.
“Don’t worry,” Hermione spoke to him smiling friendly, “you are supporting him. He’s just being his usual silly self.”

* * *
Saturday came along with their first trip to Hogsmeade. Hermione woke up before breakfast with an intention to go to the Owlery and send her parents a letter. She regularly wrote about school, about Harry and Ron, but mainly tried to reassure her parents that Hogwarts was secure and she was safe.
Hermione climbed up the West Tower and entered the Owlery. It was cold. Hermione realized that the weather had cooled considerably as the bitter wind was pinching her cheeks. Owls were flying in circles inside and outside the tower and hooting calmingly.
Hermione chose one of the school owls, a barn owl with a white heart-shaped face, pulled her red gloves off on the desk and began attaching her letter to the owl’s leg when suddenly she heard footsteps behind her. She turned her bushy head around and saw nothing else but Draco’s profile in the doorway.
Hermione’s heart sank. The white head tilted to face Hermione, and when Draco’s eyes met hers, the young man immediately stepped back and disappeared behind a wall in a flash. Hermione kept staring at the empty space in the doorway, aware of Draco standing there out of her sight. She gathered all her courage and dignity.
“What’s wrong?” she spoke rather loudly, so Draco could hear her through the owls hooting. “Do I intimidate you that much?”
The pause felt long. Her heart was beating fast and her fingers started trembling, but definitely not out of cold.
Hermione was listening very intensively, but didn’t hear any footsteps. Draco was still standing there, she could sense his presence.
“Or is it my ‘Muggle blood’ that makes you jump in terror?” she added with sarcasm in her voice.
After a couple more seconds, Draco appeared in the doorway again. Hermione’s stomach flipped, and now both of them were doing what can be almost called “their thing”—standing still and staring at each other.
Hermione’s eyes ran over Draco’s body. She noticed Draco’s attractiveness. He was handsome, that’s hardly possible to deny. Despite his troubled face, the white-head had a straight, confident posture, which highlighted his firm angular shoulders and a long slim neck. Draco was pressing his tightly clenched fists to his sides, and his knuckles got even whiter than his already pale skin.
“Shut your filthy mouth,” Draco snapped sharply. “You do not intimidate me in the least.”
“Well then, come in,” Hermione said and gestured at the owls, ignoring Draco’s insult, “help yourself. Do what you came here to do.”
“Ordering everyone around, eh? Classic,” he scowled intensively, but stepped in and began moving forward.
He was wearing a jet black suit underneath his cloak, and Hermione glanced at Malfoy’s neatly buttoned shirt, its collar rubbing at the bottom of his Adam’s apple. The Gryffindor caught herself thinking what the young man looked like underneath that shirt. Hermione blushed in an instant, turned her messy head to face her owl and swallowed down her shame of herself.
Draco approached the only other desk near Hermione’s. An eagle owl landed on his shoulder as Malfoy drew a letter out of his inner jacket pocket. Hermione watched Draco working on his owl out from the corner of her eye, although she was struggling with her own letter. The barn owl kept trotting around the table and Hermione couldn’t manage to securely attach the letter on the bird’s leg.
“Your owl bites,” Draco said unexpectedly.
Hermione flinched and looked at him in surprise.
“What—err—how do you know?”
Draco shrugged without lifting his eyes, “Goyle tried using that one once. It kept jumping around making the task impossible, and when Goyle held onto owl’s leg more tightly, the stupid bird bit him.”
Hermione stared at Draco, still astonished at his… friendliness? Attention? Something. Something that she hadn’t expected.
“Oh…” Hermione began stammering, “Well then, I’ll just—I’ll get another one…”
Hermione raised her eyes and looked up the tower at the owls zooming around. She spotted a smaller, light brown owl, and it landed on her arm as soon as she held it up. The bird hooted happily and Hermione brought it on her desk.
She attached the letter at ease and let her little owl glide up into the air. She attentively watched the bird recede through a tower window and blinked only when her letter-carrier disappeared in the distance. Hermione turned to Draco and saw him standing there, stroking his eagle owl which had the letter already attached to its leg. He moved his fingers slowly and gently, but his face still wore the usual scowl, although very mild.
“Thanks,” Hermione murmured and her cheek muscles twitched into a smile. It was awkward though, and she was glad Draco didn’t see it as he still wasn’t looking at her. “Is that your owl?” she asked and her face burned again with embarrassment.
Of course it was his owl. She was familiar with it since she had seen this owl carry Draco’s mail for the past 5 years. The question was stupid, and Hermione now wished she could just vanish into thin air, almost like her owl did.
“Yes,” Draco responded in a calm low voice which, Hermione thought, didn’t seem to convey any sneer.
A long, painfully awkward pause lingered in the air along with hooting noises. Hermione was just standing there, looking more foolish than ever, plainly asking for trouble…
What are you doing, Granger? What are you waiting for? Waiting till he says something insulting, eh? That would force you out of this tower, wouldn’t it?
Or do you expect him to tell you he’s been thinking of you as well? Foolish, foolish girl…
Hermione bit her lip.
“Anyway…” she breathed in. “I think I should get going.”
And finally Draco turned to put his eyes upon her. Hermione held her breath and felt the heart pounding in her ears and her face blushing uncontrollably. She nervously treaded in her spot as if she was about to walk out but haven’t decided yet whether she actually was going to. It all felt incredibly weird, but Hermione eventually rot to the spot.
Draco’s scowl was almost gone, but he turned his head away from her again. Then he raised his arm and the eagle owl soared from it into the air and out through the window opening. Both students were gazing at the graceful bird, their chins lifted up. Hermione took a deep breath and exhaled, calming her crazy heart down a little. When the owl wasn’t visible anymore, Draco looked back at Hermione. She cleared her throat and gave him a little grin.
“Your owl is beautiful,” she said in a soft voice and wondered if Draco heard her through the noise.
The Slytherin merely shrugged his shoulders. A long pause again.
No, no, no… Hermione thought. Whatever is happening at the moment, it isn’t working. Back away, Hermione.
And so she did. She turned around and walked out through the doorway with her lips pursed in embarrassment and—it surprised her—regret. She was climbing down the stairs, staring at her fingers pinching one another. Skinny, bare fingers. Hermione’s heart sank again.
She left her gloves on the table.
After a second of standing on a step and acknowledging that she had to go back, Hermione swung round and rushed back upstairs. There she almost bumped into a tall black figure in the doorway.
“Oh—err—sorry,” she gave a painful smile and the muscles of her flushed cheeks twitched.
To Hermione’s surprise, Draco didn’t move to let her in and just stood still right in front of her, making her feel a little intimidated with his eyes fixed on hers.
The cold wind blew lightly between them; Hermione inhaled and felt the delicate scent of Draco’s cologne fill her lungs. She shivered. It was almost just like she imagined except even better.
Hermione drew a bit closer. She had no idea what she was doing anymore. Not that she did a minute ago…
Draco’s chest was heaving. She thought she could hear his heavy, rapid heartbeat, but might have mistaken it with her own. Hermione laid her hand on her collarbone and with her chilly fingers she felt the blood pounding, rushing through her neck arteries.
Draco quickly moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue. His Adam’s apple was gulping while his grey eyes were running all over Hermione’s face, and every spot of her skin that was touched by his gaze inflamed.
“I—” Hermione began speaking but her voice cracked. She quickly cleared her throat and continued, “My gloves—I left them… they’re, uhh, left on the table…” she nervously stabbed the air over Malfoy’s shoulder.
Draco gently caught her hand. Hermione gasped. Her knees started shaking and she was trying hard to keep her leg muscles from slacking so she wouldn’t fall and tumble down the stairs. She tried focusing on the sensation of Draco’s touch so she could analyse it, absorb it, remember it, but he moved his hand away too soon. Malfoy frustratedly pressed his palms over his face and slightly tilted his head back as he exhaled loudly. He backed away leaving enough space in the doorway for Hermione to walk in. But she didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” Draco murmured shaking his head as he lowered his hands from his face. After a pause, during which he watched Hermione stand still, he called, “Go!” and gestured to the inside of the Owlery.
The young Gryffindor deeply breathed in, breathed out, swiftly walked inside the cold tower and grabbed her stupid, stupid gloves. Then she swung round and, as she was again passing and almost touching Draco in the doorway, she gave one brief glimpse at Draco’s eyes before marching down the stairs.
Hermione was gasping and shaking on her way to the Great Hall. Whatever just occurred was unbelievable. Crazy. Out of this world. Why? Because nothing yet everything happened. Adrenaline was rushing through her veins and she felt like laughing and crying and screaming all at the same, but instead kept quiet. In fact, although all the emotions in the world were pumping in her blood, Hermione was trying to calm down so that she wouldn’t raise any questions as she was about to have breakfast with her friends.
When Hermione approached the Great Hall, she paused to listen to herself. Hermione figured she managed to bring her senses and her body under control. Although what was happening inside her head was beyond logical apprehension.
She sat next to Ron and Harry at the table and helped herself to some water and toast. As she was now a little more relaxed and began thinking more clearly, she realized she feared that Draco might perceive her just as a stupid, annoying girl who intentionally follows him around like a pesky tail. And very likely it is exactly what Draco thought.
What the bushy-haired Gryffindor didn’t know was that when she hurried closely past him in the doorway of the Owlery, her hair lightly brushed against the boy’s face, and Draco Malfoy stood there with his eyes closed and his face flaming from that touch, quietly drinking Hermione’s clean scent in from the air and burying it deep inside his lungs.
After they had breakfast, Harry, Ron and Hermione set off to Hogsmeade along with other students. They visited Honeydukes, met Professor Slughorn, who unsuccessfully tried inviting Harry to his Slug Club party (Ron was mutely grumbling something under his nose), then went to Three Broomsticks for some butterbeers and Hermione ended up calming Harry down after his fight with Mundungus Fletcher, a shameless thief who was stealing Sirius’ stuff from the Grimmauld Place.
Now they were walking up the High Street, heading back to the castle, when they saw Katie Bell, one of the Gryffindor students, gracefully rise into the air in front of them. Harry, Ron and Hermione ran forward to help Katie’s friend Leanne thug the screaming girl down from the air.
“Stay here!” Harry shouted when Katie was safely back on the ground, although still screaming and writhing. “I’m going for help!” He left.
Hermione, together with Ron and Leanne, tried to quiet the girl, but unsuccessfully. Everything seemed to have calmed down only when Hagrid, whom Harry brought for help, took Katie away to the castle.
Through her sobs, Leanne told Harry, Ron and Hermione what happened. They figured that Katie was cursed by the necklace, which she accidentally touched after it fell out of a package that Katie had with her. Leanne was feeling terrible that she couldn’t manage to make Katie get rid of that unfamiliar package, so now, as all four of them were walking back to Hogwarts, Hermione held Leanne’s shoulders and spoke to her calmingly, trying to compose and comfort the frightened girl.
Back in the castle, Professor McGonagall found the four students, took them to her office and had them explain everything that happened on the High Street. After that, Harry expressed his need to talk to Professor Dumbledore, but McGonagall told him the headmaster was away and added, “Anything you have to say about this horrible business can be said to me, I’m sure!”
Hermione turned her head a couple of inches to peek at Harry standing by her side. Harry spoke.
“I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor.”
Hermione’s heart dropped to her stomach. Harry was talking mental stuff that didn’t make sense. She unconsciously shuffled her feet to put a bit of distance between herself and Harry. She disagreed, but kept silent, watching Professor McGonagall argue with Harry in offended shock and disbelief. Hermione couldn’t stand listening to Harry’s accusations against Draco. She interrupted Harry and began arguing with him herself, explaining why his theory didn't necessarily add up. Professor McGonagall then brought Harry and Hermione’s dispute to an end and informed Harry that Draco could not possibly have given Katie the package as he wasn’t even in Hogsmeade that afternoon, having to do detention with McGonagall.
As the trio was back in the Gryffindor Tower, Harry couldn’t settle down and was still trying to convince his friends that Malfoy got the cursed necklace from Borgin and Burkes, an antique shop on Knockturn Alley, which the three friends saw Draco visit before the term started, and gave the piece of jewellery to Katie so she would deliver it to someone.
Every time Malfoy’s name was mentioned Hermione’s stomach turned over, both in fury at Harry and in thrill. But she didn’t bother arguing anymore. Not only Professor McGonagall clearly explained that Draco was busy doing his detention with her, but Hermione also met Draco earlier in the morning, before the Hogsmeade trip, and she most certainly didn’t see a package with a cursed necklace under his arm. Besides, Harry was expressly too stubborn. There was no need for Hermione to strain her every nerve. She just sat there, staring at her half-empty parchment where her Arithmancy essay was supposed to be.
Terrible arguments and a vortex of emotions were swirling inside her head. She was longingly thinking of Draco, and scolding herself in disgust, and dreading what Draco might think of her, and hating the boy for being a jerk, and wishing he felt the same way about her as she did about him.
But nothing happened, Hermione constantly reminded herself, trying to prove her silly heart that there was no reason for neither Hermione nor Draco to start caring about each other. Nothing happened. We just stood there, shared some insults… experienced some embarrassment… and that’s it.

Except that his fingers gently held your hand.
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Peace in the Darkness