Dark Waters of Ecstasy | By : StarlitNight Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 8585 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1 |
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. |
The next day, Draco was let out of the infirmary. Hermione walked him back to his room and left him there to recover a bit more, as Madam Pomfrey had instructed. Draco protested the whole way up, claiming that he was in perfect health and did not need another day of rest, but ended up there anyway. Hermione decided to see how Harry and Ron were doing, and maybe even apologize and tell them about Draco. She tried the Great Hall first, but Seamus and Dean told her they were still up at Gryffindor Tower. When she walked up to them, sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, their conversation ended abruptly. Hermione eyed them warily.
"Hermione…" Ron said seriously. "We need to talk." They dragged Hermione into their common room and locked the door behind them
"What’s going on?" Hermione said, a little worried.
"What happened yesterday…with Malfoy," Ron growled. Harry stood a little behind Ron, not knowing how to handle the situation.
"I believe that is my personal information. I don’t need to tell you anything," Hermione said, wringing her hands. All confidence she’d had about telling them dissipated; how did she ever think this would work?
"You don’t have to protect him anymore, Hermione!” Ron shouted. Hermione was on the verge of tears, her face flushed and her hands in constant motion.
"Ron! It’s my life! I don’t have to tell you anything!" She started to turn and walk away, but Harry gently grabbed her wrist.
"Hermione…" he said pleadingly. "We just…we want to help…we think Malfoy…." Harry, at a loss for the right words, trailed off and looked at Ron.
"What do you think he did?" she asked softly, poisonously, wrenching her wrist from Harry’s grip.
"We think he raped you, goddamnit!" Ron yelled when Harry didn’t answer. Hermione gaped, her mouth open and her whole body still.
“You think he…oh, no…no, no, no, Harry, Ron, he didn’t, he wouldn’t…” she shielded her face with her hands, blocking them from her tears.
“Hermione, it’s okay to tell us,” Harry said softly, coming to put his hand on her shoulder.
“No!” she whispered, her voice to ragged to shout. “You don’t understand!” And with that, she ran from the room. Harry and Ron stood silently for a moment, before Ron turned, commandingly, to Harry.
“Get the map, I’m finding that bastard if it’s the last thing I do.”
XXX
Defiant to a flaw, Draco had personally refused sleep. He took his book and settled in a corner of the library to read. After two chapters and twenty nine pages, two figures approached him from the dimly lit shelves.
"Can I help you two?" Draco drawled coldly when he recognized them.
"Look Malfoy. We need to talk." Harry said defensively, trying not to escalate any tempers into fighting status. Ron and Harry sat across from Draco at the table.
"About what? Need a few quidditch tips, boys?" he sneered, but even to himself, the cruelty sounded foreign, out of use.
“Shut up,” Ron ground out, his face flushing with anger and embarrassment. “Just tell us what happened with Hermione.”
“If she’s your best friend, why not ask her?” Draco dismissed them, tilting his head back down to read his book, but finding Ron’s heavy breathing and Harry’s staring to be quite distracting. “You can leave now, I’m not saying a thing.”
“Malfoy, we…” Harry was seething inwardly at the impudence of Draco’s tones, but tried to keep a steady façade in lieu of reacting like Ron. “We tried to talk to her, and she couldn’t stop crying. If something happened, she won’t say a word if she thinks she can take care of it herself.”
“And what do you suppose happened, Potter?” Draco spat, his eyes cold as ever. Harry shivered and looked down.
“Come off it, Malfoy,” Ron said, his tones degrading. “We know you raped her.” Draco, unprepared for such a blow, stared incredulously at the pair. Shaking his head, he almost laughed.
“I didn’t know you two held such a low opinion of me or Hermione,” he said finally, his tones soft, conversational, but cutting in the undertones. “I’m not some sick, sadistic individual who needs that, but I guess it would take one to know one, wouldn’t it, Weasley?” Ron stood up sharply, fumbling for his wand, but when he drew it out, Draco had already disappeared.
XXX
Draco, seething in every way possible, stalked into his dormitory and proceeded towards his bedroom.
“Draco?” Hermione asked, coming from her own room. “I thought you were sleeping, where have you been?”
“I was being accused by your ever-solicitous best friends of raping you.” Draco coldly quirked an eyebrow. “What, dearest Hermione, did you tell them?” Hermione shied away at his tone- equally unfeeling and brutal.
“I said that you’d never do that,” she was soft, she was scared, “I said you didn’t and never, ever would, and they took my opposition to them as self-preservation. I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry.”
“Yeah, well, sorry doesn’t fucking cut it when the alternative to them believing me is being expelled, does it?” Draco was yelling. “We started this to cover up one thing, and now I’m going to end up doing it again. Can’t suppose I could fuck them in exchange for silence?” Draco left for his room, leaving Hermione broken and desecrated. She sank to the floor right where she stood, too weak to move. She cried herself to sleep in the middle of the carpet.
XXX
Ron and Harry, seated in the secluded corner of the library Draco had so kindly chosen, were speaking in low whispers.
“He seemed so surprised though,” Harry said, defending Malfoy for the first time, “I mean, he seemed insulted that we’d think that, and we think he strongly resembles a ferret!”
“Maybe he was surprised we found out,” Ron went on. “I mean, he probably thinks we’ve got no intelligence without Hermione.”
“I don’t know, Ron,” Harry said, biting his lip. “I’m sure Hermione will come to us if she needs it, and Dumbledore always knows when something is going wrong. Let’s just wait it out, mate.”
“Yeah,” Ron said distractedly. “Yeah, let’s just wait it out.”
XXX
An hour later, Hermione picked herself up off the floor. She was sore, she was exhausted, but most of all, she was begging to be loved. She mustered up the last of her resolve and crossed to Draco’s door. Knocking softly, she smoothed her hair as she waited for an answer. Draco opened the door and stood there, taking in her appearance; blotchy eyes, tangled hair, rumpled clothes, and opened his door further. She stood unsteadily on the threshold, before Draco pulled her in and into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed against her forehead. She nodded, her voice bunched up in her throat. “I’m sorry that I said all that, and that I can’t be the better person, or even a good enough person to merit being with you.”
“No,” Hermione whispered, her breath dusting Draco’s collarbones. “No, you’re everything I could need and more.” Draco shook his head, almost laughing. “But are you sure…” Hermione trailed off, looking up at him with uneasiness streaked across her features, “Are you sure that we’re worth all this? This is just a silly agreement, and you’ve paid me for my silence a thousand times over. Why should I keep you in this one-sided parody of love?”
“Because,” Draco said, leading her to sit with him on his bed, “Because it’s not one-sided. It’s not just a silly agreement. It’s not a parody of love. It’s more than that, and you know it. It’s no longer about repayment-hell, it never was for me-it’s about us, and how after this year, no one will care about who we are.” Hermione started crying, burying her face in Draco’s neck, and whispered ‘I love you’ against his neck. Draco shivered and, tipping her head up, kissed Hermione with all he had.
XXX
Days melted to weeks, which softened to months. Christmas holiday came, and whisked away the majority of the school, including Harry and Ron. Hermione, still on shaky ground with them, hugged them goodbye with a promise that she’d miss them, but when they turned around she wasn’t sure she would.
Christmas day neared, and the decorations were hung. The day before Christmas Eve Dumbledore called down Draco to inform him that Lucius was making a visit to the school, and desired to speak with his son. Draco, paling from the news, set his jaw straight, and waited alone in Dumbledore’s office to greet his father.
"Lucius," Draco spat when his father appeared through the fireplace.
"Draco, you look well," Lucius replied nonchalantly. "Surprisingly well, as I expected you to be dead. We already have a lovely grave dug for you, it’s quite nice. Right next to the poisonous black roses.”
“Wishful thinking?” Draco quirked softly, and rolled his eyes. “I’m sure you’re not here to inquire about my health.”
“No, no, I’m not, although seeing you in such good standing will make my request a little more feasible. My Lord Voldemort required you on his rise to power, and since you have not been acquiescing up to this point, he has found another suitable follower. However,” Lucius continued, eyeing his manicured nails as if they were far more important that whatever he was saying, “My Lord wishes to have the next Malfoy heir.”
“And if I never produce a child? I can’t imagine him cheering me on while I fuck his chosen bride.”
“Oh, Draco, he didn’t choose her,” Lucius finally looked up, a strange smile lacing his mouth. “No, no, dear boy, you did.” Draco took a deep breath, finding all the blood in his head evaporating to leave him dizzy. “Mmm, so we were right. Miss Granger, is it? Yes, yes, she’ll be quite fine. Although we’d prefer a pureblood, I’m sure she has her merit in intelligence. No need to keep her around anyway after she serves us.” Lucius surveyed his son, who was standing as stiff and cold as ice, and raised an eyebrow. “You have one year. Plan wisely, Draco. Voldemort is not always as pleasant as he seems.” With a flash of green floo powder, Lucius disappeared, leaving Draco to melt into a chair. Dumbledore soon came back inside, his face tight with worry. Placing a hand on Draco’s shoulder, he gave a reassuring squeeze. Draco nodded and left for his dormitory. Hermione, unaware of the meeting, was puzzled by Draco’s preoccupation and short-lived goodnight embrace. She stayed up long enough to watch the fire die out, and then went to bed. Whatever it was, she decided, she’d find out and help as best she could. It was obvious that he needed her as much as she needed him, and she made a silent vow to stay with him as long as he’d have her.
XXX
Chapter 5 Revision !
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