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It Wouldn't Even Matter	By : Eloise Downbadde Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 2078 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters - i just referenced the books from a different perspective

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
It Wouldn't Even Matter
Chapter 3
Granger made things easy for him for once. He was worried he would have to change classes or make himself invisible but instead, he had only seen fleeting glimpses of the bushy haired Gryffindor. He had been avoiding their spot in the library but something told him she had been too.
He tried not to laugh when he saw her on her way to double potions and she immediately turned tail and ran back up the stairs, her hair bouncing like it could defy gravity. While it was amusing that she was so afraid of him, it wasn't as entertaining not seeing her. She wasn't at the Great Hall for meals, she would be sick in classes she didn't have her boyfriends by her side, keeping her walled in between them. Those brutes, hiding her from him.
He had gone years without thinking about where she was or what she was doing. He rarely knew where she was the past few years and everything was just fine. Somehow, since the start of the year, he spent so much time in her presence. So much time knowing where she was most of the time, or at least secure that she would be in the library after dinner. It was suddenly painful for him and he didn't know what to make of it.
Blaise had been a reprieve for a short time. Then he was the most obnoxious friend he ever had. He had noticed Draco's sudden surly attitude and miserable demeaner and promptly taunted him about Granger. He knew his secret, and surprisingly had kept it but Draco was wishing he had confessed the other weight on his shoulders. He had strict orders not to share his task with anyone else. Snape was his only companion in that respect.
"You can't set them on fire with your glare. No matter how hard you try." Blaise said, sitting next to him at the Great Hall. It was breakfast and it was packed.
Everyone was finishing up and getting ready for class after a weekend. Draco had spent it holed up with the cabinet. The Room of Hidden Things his only distraction and safe place to contemplate his life. He was miserable. And he felt more miserable that he could see Granger, across the Hall, with her boyfriends, laughing.
She was facing him, something she hadn't done all week but most likely because there was no room elsewhere. The red-head twat was next to her, his arm around her shoulder, making her laugh so hard she almost spluttered pumpkin juice all over. At least, he thought it was pumpkin juice. He didn't know what drink she preferred and made a note to find out.
"I'd settle for just Weasley." Draco scowled into his breakfast. Blaise laughed and Theo nudged him.
"What's got his knickers in a twist?" Theo asked Blaise, having asked Draco over and over what was bothering him and never getting a straight answer. He did so much to earn the blondes trust that it actually wounded him to be cut out of the circle of friends.
Blaise looked to Draco for a moment, raised his eyebrows and saw his glare drift from across the hall and onto him. He decided it was time to share, whether Draco wanted to or not.
"He's in love with Granger." He had leaned across Draco to speak to Theo in a stage whisper that wasn't quiet enough. Blaise couldn't help the grin that went with his secret and he relished in the shock on Theo's face. Draco's hand was suddenly on his face, shoving him away and off the bench.
"I fucking hate you." Draco scowled. He knew his other friends would know eventually but that didn't make the confession any easier. And if word got out, he was ruined socially and he's positive his father would find out. He might be dying this year for completely different reasons than he expected. It made him feel a little better to think that dying for love was at least honorable.
Blaise scrambled to sit next to Theo and he tried to tune out the both of them whispering excitedly, the latter shocked and disbelieving.
"Granger? Gryffindor, Granger? Or is there another?"
"Potter's girlfriend, Granger. Mmhmm." Blaise took a bite off Draco's plate and popped it in his mouth.
"You are having a laugh."
"Am not."
"So, when she hit him a few years back?"
"Our boy's always liked the feisty ones."
"Why her?"
"Merlin knows."
"Well, she is a pretty little thing if you can get her to stop talking."
"We know that's impossible."
"I've tried it on with her before but Potter instantly cockblocked. I can't imagine Draco would have it any easier. He and Weasel will kill him if they got together."
"She doesn't know. He said it was pointless to tell her. So instead he is going to be a sad sack and make our lives miserable."
"Draco!" Theo leaned over Blaise to scowl at his friend. "You could at least tell her! You can't move on until she shuts you down."
"Not happening," Draco seethed, annoyed by this continuous conversation about him like he wasn't even there. He put a mouthful of egg into his mouth and swallowed before he continued. "It's better this way."
Blaise snorted, "Right. Better you pine for her from across the Great Hall, breakfast, lunch and dinner. C'mon, mate."
"Why is it a problem now? You've never even second glanced at her as far as I've seen. Did this just suddenly take shape?"
Blaise giggled gleefully and Draco snapped at him. "Don't!" but Blaise whispered to Theo anyways. A second ticked by before Theo could be heard through the whole room.
"What?!" The Great Hall stilled for a moment, looking their way, including Granger. Draco's heart stopped for a second when she met his eyes. She turned that lovely shade of pink and dropped her gaze to her plate. His chest hurt again, his appetite was gone.
"Yeah, I made an error in judgement. It won't happen again." Draco shoved his plate away from him and took a drink of his morning coffee. "I've got more important things to handle this year than a swotty girl."
His friends laughed at him and he once again wanted them to know the pressures he was under.
-
It wasn't until he was leaving the Quidditch Practice pitch, placing his new broom into his locker room, that he spoke of Granger again. It wasn't of his own free will, however.
He followed along the trail toward the castle and saw up the stone path, Potter. The useless wizard stopped at the top, saw Draco, and strode down with purpose. Possibly the only purpose he ever had. It had been over a week since his mistake and he wondered if he had even noticed the change in his little girlfriend.
"You! Malfoy!!" Potter shouted at him from a few meters away, clearly angry over who knows what. Draco braced himself, gripping his wand in his pocket, never quite knowing what the boy-who-annoyed was planning. Potter shoved him.
"What the hell, Malfoy!" He shoved Draco again and he finally straightened and shoved back.
"What's your problem, Potter?"
"You! What are you playing at? Kissing her?!"
Well, that answered his question. He didn't think she would share his embarrassment with anyone but apparently, she was closer to her friends that he was with his. No, he had told Blaise that night, and it had been days, maybe they just now got it out of her. She seemed the sort to suffer in silence.
"I don't know what you're on about." He tried to push past the boy but Potter grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back again.
"Come off it! Hermione said you said something weird and you kissed her. Are you mad? What are you playing at?"
Draco scoffed, "Good Godric, fine! Someone had 'Confunded' me! It was an accident and it won't happen again! Obviously! Now piss off."
Potter grabbed the front of his robes, he can't remember seeing him so furious over something so trivial. "It better not! Listen to me! Hermione and Ron are FINALLY figuring their shit out. Finally on the same page! Together!"
"She's?...with?"
"Yes! It's been years! And if you and your stupid 'accident' does anything to mess that up! I will gut you by hand!" He, again, shoved Draco back and the blonde fought the urge to swing on him. He knew the rage he felt was boiling for Weasley so he shoved it down into his stomach.
"Keep your disgusting, pervert schemes to yourself. Leave Hermione alone." Potter pushed past him and continued down and Draco watched him go.
"Gladly! What would I want with your swotty bitch of a girlfriend, anyways?!" Draco could think of many things he would want with Granger but ticked his jaw anyways. He imagined her face if she had overheard their spat and groaned. Why were things so hard all of a sudden?
He let his mood sour as he stomped back into the dungeons. He was so focused on his shoes he didn't realize his path led him straight into Snape. He mumbled a curse and moved around him but Snape grabbed his shoulder, gripping tight enough to pull him out of his stupor.
"Mister Malfoy. Come with me, please." Draco would rather not. There's an entire page of things he would rather do than follow Snape back to his office. But, seeing as he could help Draco with the stress of his task, he bitterly followed the billowing black cloak. He wondered if the professor was a fan of dramatic exits and had his robes custom made just for that reason.
"Sit, Draco." He did, in a stiff wooden chair by the fireplace. Snape sat opposite in a much more comfortable chair. He shifted, realizing that this chair was made for company he didn't want to stay for long.
"If you're going to ask, no progress." He stared into the fire, spinning his Malfoy ring on his finger. "I had an idea but that's gone tits up. So nothing new." He shrugged a shoulder in a very un-regal way and Snape glared.
"What was the idea? You've spent enough time in the library, it must have been something."
Draco swallowed his tremor, if Snape knew he was in the library for reasons other than research, he made no show of it. As far as he knew, he looked like a diligent student and not a love-sick pathetic loser trying to spend time with his object of affections.
"It was modifying the cabinet with a port key of sorts. Combining them to exceed the capability of magic and teleportation through protections. But I still don't know how to get around the Hogwart's wards. It feels impossible." He slumped forward, hands clasped, elbows on his knees and set a level stare as his Head of House pursed his lips in annoyance.
"Difficult but not impossible. Leave it with me a few more days. I'll find something. And the other task?" The old man looked wearied, exhausted. Draco knew he had been as stressed and concerned about this blatant murder as he was.
"You saw the Bell girl. That necklace wouldn't have worked. He's too old and clever for that to have killed him or made him mad." He carded a hand through his hair, matching the exhausted expression of his godfather.
"Slughorn has told me you pawned the potion last week off onto your partner."
He snorted a laugh. He had been distracted. Mainly because Granger had bolted the second she saw him and so he spent the class overthinking. He threw in the Lobalug Venom too soon and botched the batch while Theo, the best mate he is, remade the entire thing from scratch. Draco vaguely remembers dicing some ingredients and staring at the fire under the cauldron but that's all.
"I might have. What's it matter? It got done and potions aren't exactly life or death right now."
"It matters because I've told him you were my best student and now he's making my evenings miserable at dinner."
Draco scoffed and stood from his uncomfortable seat, brushing his hands on his trousers like he was trying to remove dirt on his fingers. "I've told him you would be down to make up the brew tonight. Apparently Granger missed class and needs to make up hers as well."
Snape busied himself at his desk and missed Draco's face going pale. Shit. Of course. Maybe he could tell Snape she was too suspicious of him. He could tell him she was a distraction. Or maybe he could give himself an injury to avoid the entire evening, make it up over the weekend instead.
"I assume this isn't a request?" Draco glared at his old potions professor who glared back.
"It is not."
"Lovely. An evening with Granger and Slughorn. I can't think of anything more nauseating."
"I sympathize, Draco. When she would remake potions after class, she would prattle endlessly to me about each ingredient and its history or uses in other potions. I have spare pain potions if she gives you a headache." Snape grimaced at the memory and Draco felt his smile quirk. That's his Granger.
-
He grabbed dinner early and took it back to his room, rolling over the options in his head. She couldn't run from him there. And maybe he could solidify how much he loathed her, how much he hated how she's made everything more difficult then it ever should have been. Maybe he could poison her? Just a little bit. Snape's closet had so many dangerous ingredients, it wouldn't be too hard. He doubted Slughorn was the type to go through each item in storage.
He groaned and dropped back against his bed as his friends came through the door, chatting. "Heya, you skip dinner again?" Theo asked, stretching out on the end of Draco's bed. He didn't respond, he just lifted his head to glare at all three men and dropped it back down.
"Oh, I know that face. You talked to Granger, didn't you?" Asked Blaise, untying his shoes and changing out of his uniform.
"No," mumbled Draco. "I've got to go remake the potion from Monday last."
"Ha! I knew he wouldn't let that slide!" Theo pointed at Blaise. "Told you he wasn't getting favoritism! Not from Slughorn!"
"With." Draco cut off Theo's excited rambling. "Granger."
A second of silence followed by 'Oooh', clicking tongues in cheek, wiggling eyebrows and one 'Ooh-la-la' made him roll his eyes.
"You going to make another move, then? I thought she was dating Weasley now but I can never tell. She hangs all over all the boys in their wretched house." Blaise crossed his arms and Theo was poking Draco in the leg. Goyle was trying his best to be invisible, not having been privy to his friends secret but not wanting to be left out.
"Stop touching me! Nothings going to happen. Nothing will ever happen. I'm tired of repeating myself." He snatched his feet up to his chest and sat up. "You lot will be the death of me." He gathered his shoes from the floor and slid them on his feet.
"I did contemplate poisoning her." He smirked and the lads laughed.
"Right, because lusting after a ghost is so much easier than a Gryffindor." Blaise rolled his eyes. Draco moved to leave but paused at Goyle.
"I need to speak with you and Crabbe. And, obviously, you didn't hear any of that nonsense these twits are raving about." With an icy glare and a dumbfounded nod from Goyle, he left.
-
Draco fidgeted with the brick-a-brack on Slughorn's desk, waiting for the Professor and the prissy Gryffindor to come through the doors. He was tossing a bundle of soft fur off some critter back and forth in his hands when the door opened. Slughorn and Granger came floating into the room, chatting excitedly. If he wasn't irritated by being stuck here, he would have laughed at the similar way they both enter a room. Bubbling.
She hesitated for a moment when she saw him but recovered and sat at her usual table in the front of the room, staring forward with a blanket smile on her face. The Professor waved his wand, the notes on the potion and ingredients writing themselves on the blackboard. "Take your time. You can brew your potion separately or together but go slow. It needs precision."
'Great, at least I can do it on my own,' Draco rolled his eyes, summoning a cauldron over to the other desk in the front that he claimed as his. He paused for a moment before flicking his wrist again and bringing another cauldron to her desk, making it clear he didn't want to work together. She looked up from her notes and glanced at him. He tracked a small smile before she buried herself back into copying the ingredients. He was glad she wasn't keen to partner up either.
He shook his robes off, laying them on the table and started to unbutton the sleeves of his Oxford. He stopped, glancing at Slughorn at his desk and Granger at hers. He wasn't sure if his glamour was still in effect and casting it would bring attention back to their argument in the library, especially since she noticed him suddenly freezing mid-action.
"Go get your ingredients first, I'll wait." He said to her, jerking his head towards the supply closet. He fiddled with the fire of his cauldron and writing down the list of ingredients. He knew she was looking at him, scanning his arm and his stance. She must have noticed he didn't roll his sleeves up. She did as he suggested and gathered her ingredients without a word.
When she was out of sight, he rolled his sleeve up, cast another glamour charm and rolled up the other one. Slughorn looked up at him, "Everything okay, my boy?"
Draco glanced back at the supply closet, "fine, sir." He met her eyes as she came back, her arms full. He watched her drop everything on the desk and he thought that was way too many things. She gathered half of everything and carefully moved across the aisle to his desk, placing them all next to him.
Her eyes lingered on his forearm. She knew it was there but he wasn't about to let her confirm it with his carelessness. All it would take is her telling another professor she saw it to start a difficult line of questioning.
She lingered by his table. He tapped his wand and filled his cauldron with the binding liquid for the base and looked over at her. He muttered out a "thanks?" Expecting her to move on with his acknowledgment. She didn't, shifting from one foot to the other, chewing her lip.
"If you ever..." She fussed with her jumper, picking at nonexistent lint. "Want to talk about. Things. I don't mind listening."
"Thanks so much, Healer Granger. Shall I lay on your red chaise lounge and spill my deep dark dreams? Come off it." He deadpanned and she scoffed at him, crossing her arms and popping one hip out to the side.
"The offer stands, you git." She went back to her desk and they continued their potions in silence. Slughorn would rotate between them every 30 minutes, monitoring their progress. By the third time, he spoke again.
"You're both past the most difficult part of this brew. I trust I can leave Hogwart's two brightest students to finish unsupervised?"
"Of course, professor." Granger piped up immediately.
Teacher's pet.
Slughorn nodded at her and shot a glance at Draco. "Leave two vials of your successful potions on my desk and lock up when you leave. I'm trusting that to you, Miss Granger." He saw Granger flush, embarrassed annoyed Slughorn's at clear favoritism for her.
Slughorn left with a swish of robes and his bouncy attitude leaving the room with him. There was just the sound of bubbling cauldrons for a moment cutting through the building tension. She wanted to talk because of course she did. Damn Gryffindor's can't leave well enough alone.
"Malfoy..."
"We aren't going to talk."
"We should talk. You kis-"
"I made a mistake." He cut her off, gritting his teeth. Of all the things she wanted to talk about, it was his moment of weakness. "I don't want to talk about it."
"You can't just not-"
"I absolutely can." He speaks over her again. Can't she take a hint?
"Are you really-?"
"Yes Granger. Sweet Salazar's Sack! Let it be!" He knows he sounds desperate and flustered but he doesn't care. She puts her hands on her hips and glares at him. He thinks she looks pretty this way.
"Most of the time, someone doing something that...drastic, means they need to talk." She was right, of course. She's always right. That didn't mean he wanted to let her know that he was so stressed out he wanted to scream most days.
"Most of the time, I don't want to talk. About anything. Not my summer. Not my family or my mother. Not my housemates. Not about you. And especially not about the single greatest mistake I've made in my entire life."
They had reached the time where the potion had to simmer. Twenty minutes of nothing to do, sitting in a room with Granger. She set a timer and leaned her hip against her desk, facing him, her arms crossed. "That's the greatest mistake?" she scoffed at him but didn't say more, staring at him instead.
He knew she was clever, observant and intelligent. It's one of the things he loved about her. Yet having those honey eyes turned to him, piercing him with curiosity, making him her next puzzle to solve, it made him uneasy. He bowed his head to make notes about the potion to avoid looking at her.
When she didn't stop watching him, he started writing out random words on the next page. Colors, foods, cities he's visited, anything that came to mind to look too busy to indulge her. From the corner of his eye, she moved forward, resting her hands on his desk, making little doodles with her fingers on the wood.
He finally glanced at her, meeting her eyes and his chest tightened. She was looking at him like that again. The same way Dumbledore does; knowing, sorrow, and pity drenched in her gaze. She knew something was bothering him. She knew he was feeling pressure and she pitied him. It made his stomach want to revolt again.
"Stop staring at me like that." She moved a step closer, around to his side of the table. His throat felt dry as her eyes changed again. Determined.
"Granger. Piss off. I mean it." He refused to show weakness; refused to step back. He put walls in his mind up to keep his face stoic. His hands hovering over his notebook and he turned the page again, least she see the nonsense he had been busy scribbling. She didn't need any more clues that he was falling to pieces.
"You can't just ignore things. They build up and eventually burst. Like you did at the library."
"I absolutely can. Worry more about Potty and Weasel, I'm fine." He eyed his cauldron and noticed it was still perfect. 'Damn.'
She stepped even closer. "That's a rather good glamour charm." He dropped his quill and rubbed his hands over his face, turning to her.
"What are you talking about?" He wanted to applaud himself with how disinterested his voice came out. He felt the door close in his mind and sealed out all the feelings that had been swirling inside him since she crossed the room.
The door handle in his head rattled as she reached over to him, grabbing his left wrist and pulling it to her. He tried to jerk back but she held fast, her boldness draining the strength out of him. He quickly tried to brick the door in, closing his eyes and picturing it. Stone after stone in front of the door, it was shaking, slamming back and forth from his hinges like something was throwing itself at the wood. Yet distantly, he felt her fingers just barely touching his forearm.
He opened his eyes to see her staring where his mark should be, she brushed her fingertips up and down over it, almost mesmerized by how well it was hidden. She looked up at him and the door in his mind swung open, the walls collapsing into nothing. Her eyes always break him down so easily when he can see the flecks of gold in the light.
"Stop." He pulled his arm out of her grip and stepped back, hoping he didn't look afraid. He decided the only way to protect himself was his tried and true method.
"I see you. I know you're falling apart. I only want to help."
"Sounds to me like you are obsessed with me now. What, Granger? Never been kissed before?" He pushed her back a few steps, trying for his old cruel self instead. "Have you even had an orgasm? Or a wank? I imagine having all the top marks gets you going in your bed at night." The sneer felt forced but he put it on his face anyways.
She flushed red and embarrassed at the sudden topic change and their closeness. "I- what? No! What's that go to do-"
"I'd suggest using a pillow. It's what all the girls I know start with. Grind against it til you get there." He turned the fire low on his cauldron to keep the simmering low. She was frustrated still, his tactic hadn't worked and she veered back on path, despite the pink touching her cheeks.
"I'm not talking about me. I'm not the one acting out of place. Let me help you, for Merlin's sake!"
He sighed heavily, raising his arms, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her, making her step backwards. He walked her awkwardly back to her desk in time for her timer to beep.
He leaned forward, nose to nose with her, screaming on the inside to kiss her again. Just a quick one would suffice but he steeled himself. She looked nervous now and he held back the enjoyment at her anxiety. "Leave. Me. Alone."
He released her, turning away when she swallowed nervously and went back to his potion, he put the flames out and cast a cooling charm to make it cool enough to bottle. He grabbed two vials from the back of the room and made a point not to get any for her. He filled them and was cleaning his station when she spoke again.
"I wish you'd talk to me," She said bitterly.
"Potter threatened me to leave you alone already, so the more you're around me, the more danger you're putting me in. Or the more danger you're putting Potter in since." He flashed a smirk at her, her face surprised and angry. "I'm just so dangerous."
She huffed and finished cleaning her desk with more fury and strength than necessary. He celebrated internally, having distracted her from him by throwing Potter under the bus. Of all his options, he was more than pleased with this one. He shrunk his bag and stuffed it into his pocket, checking there were no holes in it before making for the door.
"Are you coming to the library tomorrow? To work on your teleporter?" She asked, a few steps behind him. He held the door open and she stopped next to him to gauge his face and wait for an answer. It was his turn to be surprised at her sudden change in demeanor. He was right, she was never a boring conversationalist.
His lip curled up for a moment with a smile, if she was going to help with the cabinet, that would be acceptable. Anything else he would have to shut down. "I might be." He motioned for her to go, nudging her back forward and out the door, clicking it closed behind him. He pulled his wand and locked the door.
"Well, I've checked out a book on teleportation from the Magical Library of London. It should be arriving tomorrow. And...I may be in need of an chaperone?" She was teasing him again, trying to get the cute and casual banter back between them. A smile was tickling at her lips and he felt butterflies fluttering in his chest. She shifted her bag on her shoulder and he swished his wand to put the feather-lite charm on it, snickering at her.
"You forget you're a witch sometimes, don't you?" She gave him an embarrassed smile and went to leave. He touched her arm, halting her for a moment. "I'll try to come by after dinner tomorrow."
Her smile became that big beaming grin she gave her friends and he felt his heart swoop through the air. He might as well have been floating. She tried to hide it by looking at her feet and turning around. "Good night, Malfoy." She was still smiling, he could hear it. She rarely said his name while smiling and he decided it was a good sound.
He could still hear it when he went to bed. He could hear it in a breathy whisper, in a delicate gasp. He could feel her soft lips on his, her fingers on his arm, carefully touching her way across his body. And he dreamed of her again.
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It Wouldn't Even Matter