Pansy's Volcano | By : Bluemidget57 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 206366 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 8 |
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. |
42
Luna was sitting quietly in the common room analyzing the latest edition of her father’s magazine. She intended to become assistant editor after she left school, and Mr Lovegood usually picked an article from the new issue and told her to return an edited and rewritten version of it by Friday, to make sure she was fully on her toes with the Quibbler’s journalistic style. This week’s assignment was a piece about interbreeding between giants and humans. Luna was scribbling fiercely with a scarlet-inked quill onto a parchment held flat open on the table beside her chair by an empty butterbeer bottle and something which Muggles might have called a pet rock, except that Luna’s was a pet and actually did move. Her father had brought it back from one of his journalistic expeditions for her. She had some very strong ideas about why the person who had penned the original article was completely wrong in his suppositions. She knew her father would absolutely love her offering -
Her creative process was interrupted suddenly by the banging of the common room entrance door, and Anthony Goldstein stormed into the room, looking ready to hex anyone who spoke to him. Luna was mildly surprised at his forceful entry for the 7th year prefect was not prone to fits of melancholy, and aside from that very few of the senior year students were up to banging around the common room in a temper after the apparently excellent party they had attended the night before.
Padma Patil and Terry Boot had murmured a sleepy hello to her as they headed off to breakfast about forty minutes ago; they had both been yawning and rubbing their eyes. Luna hadn’t bothered asking if they had a good time, because it had been obvious that they had. She would have quite liked to go to down to the Great Hall and see if Ronald had emerged from the Gryffindor tower yet, but as she had already eaten breakfast at 8.00 this morning, she felt she shouldn’t make it so obvious that she wanted to know who he had spent last evening with.
She knew that his relationship with Hermione Granger was over, and that it would not be rekindled. Hermione was clearly enamored of someone else. Ronald just needed to finally let go, and then he would be hers. She knew she would be so much better for him than the other Gryffindor; all she had to do was have patience, and not be too clingy or needy. It would do Ronald good to wonder why she wasn’t waiting for him today, checking on him.
She was therefore quite startled and surprised when Anthony caught sight of her and headed straight for her to plop himself down in a chair opposite. She gave him her usual wide-eyed glance and waited for an explanation. When nothing seemed forthcoming after several long moments of silence, Luna sighed and returned to editing her article. She had added two more sentences on the size disparity of giant and human male reproductive organs, when Anthony suddenly said,
‘You remember when you told me that Ginny Weasley said Hermione and her brother had broken up?’ Luna looked up from her parchment and blinked curiously; she had almost forgotten he was sitting there, and whatever was on his mind, she would never have imagined it would be that. She nodded without speaking, and Anthony continued, ‘Did she say that there was someone else involved?’
Luna set her quill down deliberately next to the parchment and folded her magazine up before answering. ‘No, she did not. She only told me because she knew I would be interested to know that Ronald was free.’
Tony growled. Trying to hold a conversation with Luna could be like trying to decipher a riddle and he didn’t have the patience for it today. ‘But there is someone else, isn’t there?’ he asked, just wanting to know how long it had been going on. Whether he was truly the last to know or not. ‘Why did you come over and tell me that they had separated anyway?’
Luna tilted her head to one side, ‘Why, I thought you liked her yourself, Anthony,’ she replied mildly. ‘I thought you might like to know she was free. I thought you might keep her away from Ronald.’ She smiled at him brightly. ‘It seems to have worked, too, doesn’t it? She’s certainly enamored of someone now. I can tell by just looking at her; she shines all bright and sparkly, and she smiles all the time. She never looked like that when she was with Ronald; she just looked worried and nervous mostly. Have you noticed it, too?’ she concluded curiously.
‘Oh, I noticed it yesterday alright!’ Tony snapped, making Luna jump in her seat. ‘I noticed her smiling and whispering to someone, and it certainly wasn’t me! I’ve been trying to behave like a gentleman, not pushing to start something while she was still in the rebound stage, and what does he do but slip in right under my nose and snatch her away, while I’m trying to do the right thing! And how long will that last, I ask you. It’ll take forever to break through her defenses after he’s finished playing with her affections.’
Luna felt mildly alarmed at Anthony’s vehemence. ‘Who?’ She asked worriedly. ‘Who is playing with Hermione’s affections? My goodness, Anthony, you sound like someone straight out of one of Daddy’s historical novels!’
‘Fucking Malfoy, that’s who!’ Anthony declared hotly and this time he certainly didn’t sound at all old-fashioned or like a character out of the pages of a Muggle romance (Luna and her father were addicted to these).
It took several moments for Anthony’s words to penetrate Luna’s outer shell of detachment, but when they did she burst into peals of ringing laughter. Tony glared at her furiously, for they were attracting all sorts of attention from the other students in the common room. ‘Oh, Anthony, you are funny,’ she gasped at last, regaining control of her wheezing voice. ‘Do you truly believe Hermione and Malfoy -’ she paused suddenly mid-thought and cocked her head on one side. Tony could see that she had moved past the inevitable knee-jerk repudiation response to his words and was actually considering the possibility that he might be right.
This was one of the reasons he had brought his suspicions to Luna in the first place. Many of the other students in his house, in the whole school in fact, thought Luna Lovegood was far too strange and different to pay much attention to her. But unlike most people, Tony had seen her analyse and sift through a problem until she got straight to the core of the matter, without being influenced by the peripherals which sidetracked so many others. In fact, he really thought she might have a good shot at Head Girl next year. He knew Dumbledore was just as aware of her unusual gifts as he was himself.
She leaned towards him, and he felt himself inching forwards also. ‘You know, Anthony, at first that might seem like a very silly idea.’ She waved her hand. ‘As you just heard, even I was initially influenced by the weight of public opinion, but now I consider it, it would be terribly logical, wouldn’t it?’
Tony cracked his lips in the caricature of a smile. Truly, only Loony Lovegood would think that a romance between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger was obvious. ‘I assume you have a reason for coming to this conclusion though, and you didn’t just suddenly wake up this morning and think, Oh, Merlin, Hermione and Malfoy are having a secret romance?’ She continued.
This time Tony’s smile was a little more genuine. ‘No,’ he muttered. ‘But that’s probably because I hardly managed to get any sleep last night after what I saw at the Social evening!’
‘Goodness. Does everyone know then?’ Luna asked mildly, her large eyes widening even further in consternation.
‘Actually, no.’ Tony replied in a frustrated tone. ‘In fact I hardly caught it myself. It was only because I was on my way over to ask her to dance that I was even looking, you know? Another five seconds and I would have missed it, too. I’m sure no one else has a clue. They’re hiding it very carefully,’ he stuck his hands through his hair agitatedly and sighed. ‘Or else I’m totally out of my mind and it never really happened.’
‘What do you think?’ Luna asked firmly. ‘Real or imagination? In your heart what do you believe?’
Tony pondered the few seconds of time which had ruined his evening, and finally said sadly, ‘Real; it happened - I know what I saw. She had been dancing with the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall with Malfoy, when Dumbledore made them change partners. I had thought I would go and save her, play the hero- capitalise on the opportunity - when I saw him take her hand and lay it right on his heart. They whispered to each other and she laid her head on his shoulder. Just for a split second; if I had blinked I would have missed it, but I didn’t. And then it was so obvious it was like they were screaming it at the top of their voices. I couldn’t even believe everyone else in the room didn’t see it, too.’
Luna sighed and patted the back of his hand encouragingly. ‘Well, as you said, he is no doubt just playing with her affections, for some nefarious Slytherin scheme of his own. You should keep on trying to win her; show her the Ravenclaw Advantage. Don’t let Malfoy think he has a clear field in front of him. I’m sure she will come to appreciate how much better suited you are if she spends more time with you!’
Tony brightened considerably at this. ‘You think I should try and take her away from Malfoy?’ He asked hopefully. ’Do you think I have a chance?’
‘Of course you do, dear,’ Luna said smiling. ‘It is only Malfoy, after all.’
‘You’re right,’ he grinned. ‘It’s only Malfoy, Slytherin scum! Thanks, Luna. I knew you’d help me see it more clearly.’ He stood up and leaned over to place a brief kiss on her forehead and she smiled brightly at him until he disappeared down the corridor to the boys dormitories, when the smile faltered and screwed itself up into a frown.
Damn, she hated lying to people.
*******
Hermione was quite surprised on Monday when Tony approached her shortly after breakfast and asked if he could go over an Ancient Runes problem with her. After his strange behaviour on Sunday, she had thought maybe he had been unhappy about his seat assignment for the dinner, but now it appeared that he was back to normal. She agreed readily and arranged to meet him in the library at 4.00. She was quite determined to get back into some something approaching her pre-relationship routine.
Never mind that she was now sleeping in someone else’s bed and getting shagged with greater frequency than probably any other witch in the school. Such were the perks of a private room; she had never before even imagined nor appreciated how difficult it must be for Harry and Ginny to find a time or place where they could be alone to do …..that, no doubt the reason that they had discovered the need for broomstick acrobatics.
Although Hermione was beginning to wonder if the frequency with which Draco seemed to want her was quite normal. If it was, and she certainly wasn’t complaining for she matched his every desire, then it must be absolutely awful for their friends who were in physical relationships but without the convenience of their position. This thought led to an unsettling image of Neville and Parvati attempting to find privacy in one of the greenhouses to which Professor Sprout had given Neville almost free access, and that image was even more disturbing to her than the actual sight of Harry and Ginny had been.
She shook her head forcibly to dispel the pictures; she had Transfiguration first, and she certainly could not face Neville with those images in her mind. Someone bumped against her elbow, shaking her from her introspection and she looked up in irritation to see Draco sweep by her with a sly wink as he marched out of the Great Hall and disappeared up the stairs towards Professor McGonagall’s classroom.
‘Git,’ muttered a voice behind Hermione and she swung around to see Ron and Harry just behind her. Even if they had seen Draco’s wink, they would no doubt put it down to sarcasm, and she retrieved her habitual Grimace For Dealing with Slytherins and pasted it onto her face. ‘I can’t believe McGonagall is still making you work with him,’ Ron continued irritably. ‘We’ve finished the whole section on weapons ’fig. She should be rotating partners again.’
Hermione sighed. This argument had erupted last Thursday when the previous module had been completed, and Professor McGonagall had informed them that they would maintain their pairings for the next project. They would be doing an introduction to the subject today with the actual work beginning after the Christmas Break. Hermione had a strong suspicion that this topic was actually the one she had been waiting for since 3rd year when she first discovered what an Animagus was capable of. Truly, she was quite thankful to still be working with Draco on this one; there was no other wizard she thought capable of handling the subject as well - except for maybe Harry.
They walked to Professor McGonagall’s classroom with Ron mumbling to himself all the way there. Although Hermione knew he was irritated on her behalf, she couldn’t help thinking that a large part of his annoyance was at the fact that he had to spend another cycle with Theo Nott, who he had been paired with when she and Draco were assigned together. As a matter of principle, Ron objected to working with any Slytherin, despite the fact that he and Nott had seemed to complement each other well, and had both gotten a high mark on the last project with no assistance from her at all.
‘Oh, Ron. It’s nearly Christmas - can’t we just get into the goodwill of the season?’ Hermione asked with a sigh as they parted to take their assigned seats. ‘I just want to get in the Christmas spirit and enjoy the break. I can’t be bothered to get all bent out of shape because I have to work with Malfoy for a bit longer. I’m tired - I was very busy with last Saturday’s event, and now I’m looking forward to the holidays. Just lighten up a bit will you?’
Ron sighed as he took his seat a couple of rows behind her. It really burnt him that Hermione had managed to maintain a peaceful working atmosphere with that ferret, and that everything which they were expected to arrange this year had turned out so well. He had so badly wanted Malfoy to fail in his position, so that he would have to endure the shame of being replaced midway through the term.
However, even Ron with his fixed ideas of what Malfoy was capable of, had to admit in the murkiest depths of his own head, that Malfoy was doing an adequate job as Head Boy. Ron’s accolade would never be greater than that, but the Slytherin did seem to have put his racism and bigotry on hold for this one year, and might even be showing Hermione the respect she deserved as Head Girl, and his counterpart. That didn’t mean Ron would ever put aside his own enmity and try to befriend the blond, and he hated his conscience telling him that it was unfair to openly denigrate Malfoy when the faults he stood accountable for lay in the past, not the present.
Ron scowled as the man himself looked up and eavesdropped on the end of Hermione’s speech about Christmas, and then watched curiously as a frown settled on Malfoy’s previously oddly cheerful face. The Head Boy looked thoughtfully at Ron, and then deliberately ignored Hermione, as she arranged her books on the desk and tested her quill. By the time Malfoy finally decided to acknowledge Hermione, Theo Nott had taken his place beside Ron and was talking happily about the grade they had just received.
Draco thought about Christmas in the light of Hermione’s words which he had caught as she entered the classroom. Christmas had always been a strange holiday in his home; he never received less than a stack of expensive gifts, but rarely any attention other than that. His parents typically left the house soon after he had unwrapped his presents and apparated off to seasonal parties given by their ‘social equals’, usually held in warmer climates at ‘summer’ residences in the South of France or on one of the Greek Islands. Draco had been unwillingly dragged along with them each year until he put his foot down when he was thirteen and demanded to stay at home. His mother had been very unwilling to leave him behind, but his father - no doubt anxious to begin plotting with his equally sad political cronies had impatiently told Narcissa that if that was what the boy wanted, to leave him to get on with it.
He had spent a couple of quite happy Christmases alone with his gifts and his own company until Lucius had gotten himself caught and locked up, which had created a whole new kind of Christmas anti-cheer. Last year, Christmas morning had found him visiting his father in Azkaban prison, and listening to him complain about Potter and his friends. Draco and Narcissa had returned home to a disappointing cold buffet lunch, after which his mother - tearfully declaring that the sight of her poor Lucius in that awful place had quite undone her spirit - had apparated away to visit Natalie Henstridge, a particular friend of hers who was spending the winter at her villa just outside of Rome.
Draco, who had been utterly depressed and unnerved by the meager attempts at Christmas decorations which were strewn around the prison, was left alone with his own morbid thoughts. He regarded that afternoon as the pivotal moment in his decision not to follow in his father’s footsteps. There was something unspeakably creepy about the sight of limp tinsel garlands rustling in the dead breeze created by the passing dementors which he knew would stay with him for ever. He was never going to end up in that place with his father.
He knew his mother intended this Christmas Day to follow the same schedule as last year; she had already sent her owl to him with hints that they might hear some good news during their visit this year, but Draco did not believe it for a second. Ever since the day Lucius had been locked up, his mother had been predicting imminent Ministry apologies and pardons. She really had no idea of the depths of the trouble that Lucius had gotten himself into, which Draco supposed was a good thing in a way. At least the Ministry would have no grounds to incarcerate her as well, leaving him in effect orphaned. But sometimes Narcissa’s blind conviction in her husband’s innocence made him want to scream at her until she truly got it.
Suddenly hearing Hermione talk about looking forward to Christmas made him evaluate that which was waiting for him over the festive season, and he found he certainly wasn‘t looking forward to his holiday in the way that she was. Which brought about the previously unasked question of exactly what her plans were for the Christmas break.
He arranged his textbook and parchment on the desk, whilst wondering how to broach the subject. In the past, there had been several occasions when the Gryffindor trio had stayed at the castle over Christmas; although he knew there was no avoiding the parental visit, he thought it might be possible to imply that the Head Boy needed to spend an extra week at school in pursuit of his duties, if that was what those three were doing. Purely to irritate PotHead and the Weasel, of course; certainly not because the sudden thought of spending two weeks apart from Hermione was making his stomach twist unpleasantly. He had never been affected by the prospect of separation from any witch before; he certainly couldn’t be worrying that Hermione might forget about him if she was back amongst those Muggles for two weeks, could he?
He had never spent any time thinking about how the Muggle-born students spent their holidays before; what they did, and how they passed the time. But with Hermione leaving him to spend two weeks in a place he had little knowledge or understanding of, the social habits of the British Muggle rose up to occupy a mammoth part of his thoughts.
He knew that Hermione had maintained friendships in her Other Life; people she was still close to - girls who bought her birthday gifts, for instance. Her best friends here were both boys…..what if there were Muggle boys out there she had equally close relationships with? One of those best friends here - the Weasel - had been in love with her for years. What if there was some other equally besotted Muggle boy waiting in the wings. She would be going home now apparently ‘unattached’. Her aborted relationship with the Weasel started and finished within the span of the last school term.
What would this hypothetical Muggle boy do when he found out the competition didn’t exist anymore. Would he be making his move over the Christmas break? Trying to steal Draco’s witch? He was just about to accuse Hermione of transgressions created totally in his own fertile imagination when Professor McGonagall entered the classroom and tapped on her desk with her wand, demanding silence. Thankfully, over the course of the lesson, which was as Hermione had hoped an introduction to Animagus transformation, his unwarranted paranoia subsided until reason prevailed again in his mind. If he wanted to know something, it was best to just ask, rather than imagine the worst.
This epiphany was largely assisted by Hermione’s hand finding it’s way into his under the cover of their robes and giving it an excited squeeze, as McGonagall listed the qualities necessary for successful Animagus transformation, whilst sternly stressing that not every witch or wizard had the capacity to achieve animal form, and warning them not to be disappointed if they fell short of the criteria to try.
Any physical contact was difficult in Professor McGonagall’s class due to her placing of them so close to the front of the room, better to keep her beady eye on him, Draco supposed, and unlike Potions where they were at the very back of the room and quite free to indulge in affectionate touches away from searching eyes.
The fact that Hermione had freely instigated any kind of contact under the eagle eye of her head of house and favourite teacher, gave Draco a giddy feeling which lasted right until the end of class, when he whispered quickly to her before they had to separate and return to their public image,
‘Granger, I need to talk to you about something. Can you come back to the study at the end of classes today?’
‘After dinner,’ she replied under her breath. ‘I promised to go over some Runes stuff with Tony immediately after class.’ There wasn’t time for any more. PotHead and the Weasel had extricated themselves from their work partners and were hovering like anxious mother hens over Hermione’s shoulder, obviously waiting for her to abandon the vile Slytherin and follow after them like an obedient little chick.
She managed to pull an apologetic face at him as her guard dogs herded her away, but Draco had been tossed back into turmoil; the hypothetical Muggle was gone, replaced by the very imminent threat of a fully solid and physically present Ravenclaw. When had that been arranged? At what point had she been alone long enough to schedule clandestine study sessions with Anthony Goldstein? Although there was in fact nothing to indicate that such an arrangement had not been made right under the noses of those two Gryffindor twits. Of course - they would have no problem with her agreeing to meet up with a dozen Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff guys. It was only Slytherins that they objected to - himself in particular.
Draco had not bothered with Ancient Runes this year; along with Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, (and excepting the compulsory Muggle Studies) it was one of the subjects which Hermione studied and Draco did not. Of course, this meant he had absolutely no viable excuse for gate crashing on their study session which would not at worst give away their secret, or at the very least look incredibly suspicious.
Draco brooded through the rest of the day, and even hoped that by some miracle Greg or Vince might suggest a trip to the library at the end of classes, but with the need to study for the Social Evening over, the only suggestion they had for him was a game of exploding snap in the Slytherin Common Room. He politely declined, but after forty minutes of brooding in his study unable to concentrate on the required chapters in his Animagus book, he gave up and sought out his two friends hoping that some mindless shouting and loud noises would stop him from prowling down to the library where he was sure he would find Hermione and that witch-stealing Ravenclaw, heads together over some indecipherable hieroglyphics.
Greg and Vince of course had an internal alarm which went off at the beginning of the dinner hour. They scooped up the cards and stood up as if programmed to do so. ‘Come on, Draco. Dinner’s just starting,’ Vince said happily, and he unfurled himself from his chair to follow them. He had to be there anyway, for his scheduling session; at least he would be able to see when Hermione arrived for her meal.
His worst fears were realised about thirty minutes later when his girl walked into the Great Hall accompanied by Anthony Goldstein who was carrying her book bag. They paused right in the doorway, and had a laughing tussle over the return of Hermione’s possessions, before separating to join their respective houses.
Draco bit his lip to keep the growl inside; he knew quite well that to Hermione it was as innocent as it seemed - it simply wasn’t in her nature to play with the affections of more than one person at a time. Her damnable Gryffindor morality would never allow it; and her own belief that her merely average looks could never attract hordes of men would prevent her from recognizing the circumstances for what they actually were.
Draco was not so misinformed. Anthony Goldstein was out to get his girl, and he was definitely commencing a full-out campaign. Draco allowed himself a moment of analytical freedom from his instinctive knee-jerk reaction to go and hex the damned Ravenclaw into a heap, and admitted that it was quite understandable why he would want to steal her away. She had been absolutely stunning at the Social Evening; Draco had caught more guys than just Tony staring in admiration at their Head Girl, as if unable to believe that prim studious Miss Granger could clean up so well. And Draco had felt quite smug at the knowledge that he had been the first to lay claim to her (aside from that annoying Weasel, but he didn’t really count as he had been sniffing round her for years). Draco paused to wonder why he felt pleased when most people admired Hermione, but threatened when Goldstein did. He was on the verge of putting a name to that feeling when another problem hit him in the face. Anthony watched Hermione all the way to the head of the Gryffindor table, even as he headed towards his own, and as she took her seat placing her book bag on the floor under her chair, Goldstein’s eyes turned deliberately across the expanse of the Great Hall to the Slytherin table and made contact with Draco’s own.
This in itself was sufficiently suspicious to make the hairs on the back of Draco’s neck rise up; Goldstein had been sniffing around Hermione for most of this year, and sulking with Draco for gaining the opportunity to be alone with her. But up until this moment, Anthony’s interest had been marked most noticeably by his sulky acceptance of it’s futility. Not this evening though. He gave Draco what could only be described as a smug smile, before allowing his glance to drift back across the room and rest on Hermione again.
Draco followed his gaze and found his little Gryffindor smiling encouragingly at a younger student who was leaning across a couple of her peers to pose a question to the Head Girl. Draco swung his eyes back quickly to find Goldstein watching him once again; his face now pulled into a challenging smirk.
Well, Fuck-a-duck, Draco thought furiously to himself, as he glared warningly back at the other boy. He knows! Merlin knows how, but he’s worked it out, and he’s going to try and take her off me! There was absolutely no doubt in Draco’s mind that Goldstein had just issued him with a direct challenge, and his guileless Gryffindor would probably never conceive of looking beyond whatever plausible excuse the Ravenclaw was giving her to wriggle his way into her life.
Draco was too busy planning how to out Goldstein to worry that their relationship had been discovered; his first reaction was leaning towards making a public statement anyway - just to be sure that it was fully understood that she was off limits. He waited at his table until he saw Hermione rise and gather her things to depart from the Gryffindor table, then he leapt abruptly from his own seat and with a brief word to the Slytherins sitting beside him, departed the Great Hall before Hermione had managed to extricate herself from those students who were plying her with last minute requests.
Undoubtedly he would have to inform her of Goldstein’s intentions, and try to convince her that he was right. Maybe with a bit of forewarning, she would be able to discern his plotting and head it off before Draco had to get involved and cause a nasty public mess.
*********
4.02.05
Hi guys. Most abject apologies that the pressing question has still not been answered, but I absolutely promise in the next chapter, which is already half-finished that it really will be addressed. I am going to try and reply to some individual responses over as a review some time this week, so if that kind of thing interests you, please check out the review section next weekend!
Happy Spring.
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