Chapter 8
The Black Lion
Chapter 8
Draco watched in stunned silence as Hermione cried hysterically. He sits there trying to let the truth sink in. Regulus Black is her father. Shifting in his seat he forces himself to look away from her. All those years of pretending to despise her felt meaningless now. The lines he'd drawn between them were blurring, slipping out of his control.
His chest tightened with many emotions that he couldn’t name at the moment. However it was one that he’s always felt when he was around Hermione, one he tried to hide.
Love.
Hermione Black. Merlin that name felt weird even just saying it in his head. She was no longer the know-it-all muggleborn. Not the girl that always bests him by a couple of points at Hogwarts. She was a Black. To him it didn’t matter what her last name was she would always be the girl who haunts him.
The girl he would tease and bother just to get her attention. No matter how much he tried to get her attention he could never obtain it. Not now and not then. He watches the tears roll down her face as she realizes everything she has known about her life has been a life.
Draco clenches his jaw as he watches her. He longed to reach out to her to comfort her, to tell her that everything would be okay. Guilt washed over him; how could he offer comfort when he had been the source of so much of her pain?
‘Did this change things? Should it change things?’ he thinks to himself.
The lines he’d drawn so firmly between them were blurring, and no matter how hard he tried to reinforce them in his mind, he couldn’t deny that they had already started to fade long before this day.
The feelings he tried so hard to bury were bubbling to the surface. He watched as Sirius took Hermione out of the room. He couldn’t hear exactly what the man was saying to her but he was sure he was comforting her.
He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath trying to clear his thoughts. They were loud, they always are when he’s near her. His mother and Regulus were talking in hushed voices. He feels someone sit beside him in the spot his mother was just at.
“After all these years of training you, you still wear your emotions on your face,” Severus mutters to him looking at him with a contemplative look on his face.
Draco grimaces, “I’m not occluding that’s why. You’re probably the only one who noticed.”
Severus scoffs looking him in the eye. “If you think that you’re a bigger fool than I thought. Your mother knows she always knows.”
Draco hums softly not giving a response. His godfather might be right, his mother might know his real feelings but he wouldn’t bring it up unless she did. He was okay hiding his feelings he always has been.
Caught in his thoughts he hears the door slam open and close. He sees Sirius walking over to his brother and grabbing him by the collar.
“Care to explain, Regulus?” Sirius barked, his voice sharp as a whip. “Why, did you drop everything on her all at once? Merlin!”
Regulus pushed Sirius away from him. “I didn’t mean to. It all just came out. I didn’t force her to do the bloody spell. Is she okay?”
With a dark chuckle, Sirius shakes his head, “Okay? That girl is broken, hurt, and confused. Would you be okay after all of that?”
Regulus takes a shaky breath. “I didn’t want it to be like this. I thought I was protecting her. I know I made mistakes but I’m here now.” he tells his brother.
Sirius nods stiffly before responding. “I know Reggie, but it won’t be easy. She’s understanding and forgiving but she’s hurt.”
Draco begins to tune the two brothers out. He felt as though he was intruding on their family moment. He looks over at his mother who is giving him a knowing look.
‘Shit,’ he thinks as she walks over to him.
“You wear your heart on your sleeve, my dragon. It’s becoming... harder to ignore,” she tells him as she drags him out of the room.
He looks back to see his Godfather who was giving him a knowing smirk.
As Narcissa led him away, Draco couldn't shake the feeling that his world was about to change irrevocably.