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Pride and Morality	By : misleadingeyes Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 18132 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I own nothing Harry Potter related. That glory goes to the great J K Rowling. I'm just borrowing them for a bit. No profit is being made from these works. This is for enjoyment purposes only.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Hermione entered the common room after her weekend away quiet and subdued, only to find both Harry and Ron waiting for her on the couch by the fireplace. They stood as the portrait closed behind her, both turning to face her with matching looks of remorse on their faces. Her hands trembled with residual anger at their last encounter but her heart ached for the comfort of her two best friends. Despite the fact that she couldn't share any of her plight with them, she had to admit to herself that though she was still angry, she missed her boys dearly. Slowly, she made her way to where they stood and waited for them to speak.
"I'm so sorry for the horrible things I said last week, Mione. I don't know what came over me. Please say you forgive me." Harry spoke first, his eyes shining with sincerity, and some of her anger dissipated.
"Of course I forgive you, Harry." She hugged him tightly. "And I think I know why you did those things. You have a piece of that scaly bastard in you. I think he uses it to warp your mind and turn you against others. I'll research it and see if we can do anything about it. But for now, you really need to work on your Occlumency." He nodded, taking in her educated guess without question before she turned her remaining ire on their redheaded mate. "And what about you, Ronald? Harry has a legitimate excuse for his momentary lapse in judgment. What's your excuse? Or are you just a right foul git that decided to follow along with whatever the Chosen One said or did?" Hermione’s tone was dark and full of hurt.
"I-I-I have no excuse. I'm a right foul git and I'm so sorry, Mione. I should have stuck up for you. But you have to admit, you are a bit of a know-it-all bitch sometimes. Ooph!" He breathed out as Harry elbowed him in the side, rather harshly. "Well, it's true! Thinks she's better than everyone because she gets higher marks, she does!" Hermione glared daggers at the redhead and felt her anger rise to the surface again. Darkness swirled around the edges of her mind and urged her to draw her wand and hex him into next week, but she held it back. Barely.
"Harry, I will not ask you to choose between friends but if you'd like to keep this one in one piece," she gestured to Ron, "I would suggest a silencing charm on him while in my presence from now on if you're going to bring him around me." And with that, she grabbed her books and headed up to her dorm.
******
"Researching ways to help poor Potter again, are we?" Malfoy's snide remark had Hermione glancing up from the small journal she had hidden between the pages of a book on mind-links that she'd been reading previously. She'd started out researching ways to help Harry sever the link between himself and Voldemort in the restricted section of the library. However, when she reached the same conclusion in six different books on Dark Magic, she set aside that project for her other, more daunting task. The one in which she would be helping Malfoy allow Death Eaters into the school.
"Actually, I'm researching something else." Her tone was cryptic and low. Hermione cast a quick glance around to make sure they were alone before lowering the large tome she held in her hands to reveal the small, leather-bound journal on dark objects that she'd been reading. She snatched it to her chest when Malfoy reached for it, though. She didn't need him double-crossing her and using what she'd found to fix the cabinet on his own. Her parents' lives depended on her helping him and she wouldn't allow Malfoy or his ego, bruised or otherwise to jeopardize that. "I'll meet you in the Room of Requirement after dinner and show you what I've found." She whispered, just loud enough for him to hear in the small space they now shared. Shoving both books into her bag, she rose from her chair, her body coming within inches of Malfoy's as he tried to see what she'd been reading in the journal and she instantly felt the heat radiating off him and memories of lying next to him in his bed, his arms warm and comforting around her, assaulted her senses. She had to resist the urge to lean into him and inhale his intoxicating scent. Quickly gathering her wits about her and tamping down the unwanted feelings he'd evoked, she pushed past him and out into the main part of the library, her mind racing as she made her way to the Great Hall for dinner.
******
"Mione, you okay?" Harry asked as he watched Hermione push her food around on her plate, her mind racing in a million different directions at once. "Did you find anything in the library?" Pulling herself back to the present, she glanced up at him and shook her head.
"Nothing that we didn't already know. He linked minds with you when he killed your parents and it seems the only way to unlink you is if one of you dies. You can stave it off with Occlumency but because your minds are already linked, you have to be exceptionally skilled. I'm not even sure it can be done, but I'll try to teach you as best I can."
"The know-it-all, once again." Ron sneered from beside Harry, having overheard their conversation. "Is there anything you think you can't do? I mean, really, Mione? With the way you talk, you'd think you'd have accomplished everything. Bloody annoying, it is." He stuffed a whole biscuit into his mouth at once, chewing with his mouth open and Hermione wrinkled her nose.
"Well, your lack of simple table manners is bloody annoying, Ronald! But guess what? You don't see me sneering at you about it at every turn! So piss off, you wanker!" She hissed before standing from the table and hurrying from the Great Hall, her hands dashing at the wet tears that threatened to fall at her friend's continuously horrid treatment. The doors to the Room of Requirement appeared in the wall just as she rounded the corridor and she ducked inside, glad to be away from everything and everyone, even if only for a moment.
Malfoy had seen the exchange at the Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall and something inside him twisted at the sight of Granger so close to Potter. He couldn't explain it. He hated her with a raging passion…yet ever since he woke up the other morning with her in his arms, he had this inexplicable urge to be near her, to see her, touch her. It was maddening and he refused to acknowledge it. It was bad enough that he'd been ordered to work with her on a task that was supposed to be his alone; he wouldn't be subjected to any errant feelings he may have for the filthy little Mudblood. He glanced up at the sound of angry footsteps and caught sight of Granger just as she left the Great Hall, the doors slamming shut behind her. He had to admit, despite her filthy blood, she was stunning when she was angry. Smirking to himself, he calmly wiped his mouth on his napkin, tossing it onto the plate in front of him and made his way out of the Great Hall.
The sound of Muggle rock music blasted his eardrums as he entered the Room of Requirement, followed by a loud crash at the back of the room. Magic crackled in the air around him and an irrational fear filled him at the realization that someone could be in here with Granger. Without a second thought to the emotions rolling through him, he raced to the back of the room, only to stop short when he saw the small arena that Granger had set up in the corner, her back to him while she gave a furious flick of her wrist. A dummy rose from the ashes on the floor and she quickly gave another flourish of her wand and another loud crash echoed from the room as red sparks flew and the dummy exploded. Malfoy leaned against a nearby shelf, crossing his arms in front of him as he watched Granger exert her anger on the wooden dummy with a small smirk on his face.
Hermione dashed away the angry tears that continuously spilled down her cheeks as she set up another dummy to be destroyed. Bloody Ronald and his snide remarks cut her deeper than Malfoy ever had, mostly because he'd been her friend and lover at one point while she and Malfoy had never been friends. It was always those you loved who hurt you the most. His words replayed in her mind and she sent a silent 'Reducto' across the room and watched as the dummy exploded and rained down a shower of dust. Another flick of her wrist had another dummy sprouting up in place of the one she'd just demolished and instead of using her wand this time, she gave a sharp wave of her hand, destroying the dummy wandlessly. A sharp gasp from behind her had her spinning on her heel, eyes wild, red, and puffy from crying, her wand trained reflexively on the figure standing in the shadows. Her eyes narrowed when she realized that it was only Malfoy, but her wand lowered, knowing that she wasn't in any immediate danger. "Well, come on, then. Let's get to work." She said without preamble, brushing past him into the part of the room that held the vanishing cabinet, along with her bag that she'd dropped when she'd entered earlier, too angry to do anything but destroy something.
"Where'd you learn how to do that?" He asked, his long strides eating up the distance between them in mere seconds so he could grab her arm and turn her to face him. He wasn't sure why he'd grabbed her, but the look on her face when he did had him releasing her just as quickly. He could tell she'd been crying, he'd seen the look on Pansy several times when he wouldn't give into her advances. Pansy's crying had been for show, something she wanted everyone to see. Hermione had hidden in here to cry alone and unseen. Under normal circumstances, he would have exploited her weakness, taunted her with it and took pleasure in her pain. But there had been a fire in her eyes when he'd grabbed her, a look that said she would either hex him or kiss him and he wasn't sure which one he'd rather have at the moment. That very thought caused him to back up a step, his signature scowl slipping into place to mask his wayward feelings.
"Practice, Malfoy." Hermione growled, her own anger taking precedent over her racing heart. When he’d grabbed her and spun her to him, she’d felt his heat, and it was becoming familiar and frighteningly inviting. Despite his now present scowl, she had seen the uncertainty in his eyes, the widening of his pupils as a flicker of desire flashed in them and her body had responded immediately.
But Hermione could not give into those feelings. No matter how much she wanted to in that moment. Even worse, the realization that she wanted to give in was reason enough to want to turn and run to her room. Run away from him and the turbulent emotions he seemed to ignite any time they were close.
That was what she wanted - right? It had to be. There were too many crazy things happening in her world right now and the very last thing she needed heaped upon the drama was Draco Malfoy.
So, Hermione crossed her arms and stood her ground. Because ultimately, the bottom line was, Draco Malfoy was still her enemy, regardless of the unspoken truce that they seemed to have agreed upon and the weird attraction they both seemed to share for each other. Neither had hexed the other yet, so she guessed it was progress. But how long the fragile peace would last between them was yet to be seen.
Hermione turned her back to him once again; it was easier to be angry than anything else at the moment, so she focused on that, marching over to where her bag had been discarded and plucked up the small, leather-bound journal she'd been reading in the library. "Some of us have to actually work for what we have." She commented stonily as she sat in an armchair, flipping through the pages to find what she was looking for. "Ah, here it is." Hermione glanced up to where Draco was still standing and patted the arm of her chair. "Well, come on. Have a look. We certainly have our work cut out for us. And despite what you think, you would never have been able to accomplish this on your own." He perched himself warily on the arm of her chair and she held up a hand when he opened his mouth to protest her statement. "Before you argue, look." She pointed to a passage in the book. "Some of the spells need to be cast in tandem. You would have been able to transport inanimate objects by yourself, but unless you want everyone to be splinched into a thousand pieces on their way through, you need another person to cast in tandem with you in order to transport people or animals."
He took the book from her hands to examine it himself. He had to admit, she'd clearly done her homework. Draco had researched how to fix that cabinet in every book on dark objects he could find in his father's library, and while he'd found a spell for repairing dark objects, she'd found the journal of the man who'd created the vanishing cabinet two centuries ago. He hated to admit it, but Granger was right. He could repair it, but it wouldn't have worked properly.

Her way was more work, stripping the cabinet of all it's magic and replacing the spells and charms one by one, but when they were done, it would work like brand new. Plus, it bought them time. Of course, he wanted to help the Dark Lord prevail, but he also wanted to finish out the school year before he had to kill Dumbledore and let the Death Eaters into the school. Her way would ensure that. He glanced up from the book to meet the eyes of the witch sitting close enough to touch and watching him intently.
"Okay. Where do we begin?"

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. I was stuck on it for a few days and couldn't seem to get anything out. I won't say that I was blocked because I did have about a million different ideas on how this chapter could go, I just couldn't decide how I wanted it. Anyway, thank you all for the wonderful reviews. Keep them coming, they keep me going and I love to see how you guys are liking my story. A big, big THANK YOU goes to my incredible Beta, Lorett, who helps me every step of the way. Love you all, and most importantly, KEEP READING AND ENJOY!
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Pride and Morality