Chapter 8
It was a cold afternoon. Hermione was sitting on her bed, meditating. It had been an acquired taste, this meditation thing. Her mother used to do it, claiming that it served ‘to calm her inner thoughts’, and she decided to put it into practice.
She was sitting straight in a lotus pose, her hands rested on her knees and her eyes were entirely shut down. She listened to her own heart, feeling her chest rise and fall with each breath, she couldn’t focus on anything, the idea was to leave her mind blank.
That was Hermione's most difficult task. She couldn’t stop thinking.
Usually it had to do with tests, studying, subjects and things she couldn’t understand yet, lately it had been about Ron and Lavender, and how angry they made her feel, but now, all her thoughts delved into Draco Malfoy and all the times he had said something way too nice.
She stopped fighting with her mind, and decided that she wouldn’t keep trying to empty it, she would embrace the thinking. Was it actually that bad to let your mind wander? Hermione thought as she began to remember different moments.
The troll attack in first year and how they hugged each other in fear, the way he tried hard to save her from the snake in second year, how he talked her out of her sadness the night of the Yule Ball, and many other memories that were too good to be true. That Malfoy wasn’t the Malfoy everyone knew, it was a different one. The one whose eyes sparkled while learning about muggle things, the one who got nervous at their closeness. The one who couldn’t stand her taking the risk of being banned from the NEWTs.
He wasn’t the Draco Malfoy that Ronald knew, it was a side of him few people had seen.
Hermione realised all that thinking could only lead to one horrible fate which consisted in her falling for Draco Malfoy. She had to stop this madness. There was a knock on her door, she said ‘come in’ and Ginny Weasley entered her dorm.
“Mione”, she said in almost a whiper. “Can we… talk?”
Hermione made some space for her to sit on the bed, and Ginny sat down by her side. It was a rare sight, Ginny wasn’t usually this shy.
“What’s wrong?”, Hermione asked.
The redhead doubted for a few seconds, then spoke. “I had a fight with Ron.”
If there was one thing Hermione had learned through her long coexistence with the Weasley family, was that such fights were real fights, and that Ginny was the most violent little sister her brothers could ever ask for.
There was a time, Hermione remembered, where Fred and George bullied their sister by pranking her. She decided to prank them back, but what was a prank for her, consisted in a nightmare for the twins. Everyone joked that after that fight, their boggart became Ginny.
This time, the problem was Ron.
“I’m in love with Harry.”, she bluntly said. Before Hermione could say a word, she added, “And he loves me back. We’ve already shared our feelings.”
Hermione felt like a proud mother, she knew Harry liked Ginny but she never thought he would actually confess. “That’s marvellous, Gin!”, she exclaimed.
“Well it seems like my brother does not think the same.”, she said. Her look was now fearless. “I don’t know how you pulled up with his shit, he’s an egotistical prick.”
Hermione couldn’t help but laugh at Ginny’s rage, and the Weasley girl continued her ranting on her brother. “We decided to be together, but Harry insisted he should tell Ron beforehand, convinced there would be no problem. He did, and Ron began yelling, saying that now that he was in the worst moment of his life, because of you, even his best friend turned his back on him and wanted ‘to bang’ his sister.”
“For Merlin’s sake”, said Hermione. “It’s not like you’re a little girl anymore.”
“See?”, she yelled. “Now Harry doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t want to lose his friend, and he doesn’t want to give up on me.”
They talked for a really long time, the conclusion being a simple, ‘Fuck Ronald Weasley’.
After their conversation, Ginny asked Hermione about Malfoy.
“I’m not sure, Gin.”, she explained. “We’re nothing to each other, yet I have this weird sensation, like he’s somehow special.”
Ginny doubted for a few seconds, “Luna said there was chemistry between you two.”, she gave her a teasing look. “And if you ask me, he’s a good match to you. Except for the fact he’s a pureblooded Slytherin prick.”
They both laughed at the comments and discussed the things Hermione had been thinking about lately. Ginny got to the conclusion that Malfoy was, in fact, infatuated with her, while Hermione denied it completely.
During lunch, Hermione was unsure of where to sit. Harry was nowhere to be seen and so was Ginny. Neville and Luna were sitting with Ron, and Hermione was just a bit lost. Something caught the sight of her eye, and she saw Draco alone, sitting on a corner of the large Slytherin table. He saw her and nodded, inviting her to take a seat.
She sat there a bit uncomfortable and at the same time, relieved that now she at least had some company. “How are you?”, she asked.
Draco looked at her. “Full.”, he said looking at his plate. “Want some?”
She was hungry, she couldn’t deny it and just as she was about to say no, her stomach rumbled and her cheeks were red.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”, he said, handing her a muffin.
“Why do you have so much food?”, she asked him.
“I don’t know, it was here when I arrived. The muffins had a card with my name so I assume it’s just a gift from one of the younger students.”, he explained without caring much.
“Younger students?”, she asked intrigued. “Does that mean you have fans?”
He laughed at her. “We’re seventh graders, Granger. Of course we have.”
“I don’t.”, she pouted, as if she was offended.
“Oh, believe me, you do.”, he replied with a smile.
They talked for almost half an hour, Hermione eating the muffin as they spoke. When she was about to finish, she felt weird. Her whole body felt weak, as if she was about to collapse.
Was the muffin stale? Was it poisoned? She didn’t know what to do.
She looked at Malfoy and mumbled ‘help’, as her body collapsed onto his.
Malfoy saw Granger collapsing as if it was in slow motion. His survival instinct kicked in and he immediately grabbed her, getting up and taking her in his arms to infirmary. She wasn’t heavy, but he wasn’t strong enough to carry her through the stairs, so he casted a quick Wingardium Leviosa on her, and ran out of the dinner hall. He didn’t mind everyone looking. He heard Weasley yelling at him, saying something along the lines of ‘pervert’ or ‘murderer’, and a part of him wondered if it was because of what he gave her. He should’ve been more careful, he gave her that muffin, what if it was poisoned.
Once he got to the infirmary, Mrs. Pomfrey quickly checked on her.
“Mr. Malfoy”, she looked at him with the most serious look she could pull out. “What did you do to Miss Granger?”
He was shocked and confused. “I shared a muffin. Someone gifted it to me and I was already full so she… she ate it.”
Madame Pomfrey let out a sigh. “How many times do I have to specify to students you should never, I repeat, never, eat something someone gives you?”
“I didn’t know.”, Malfoy said. He felt guilty. “Was it poisoned?”
Madame Pomfrey shook her head. “She had an overdose. That muffin probably contained an overly exaggerated dose of a sleeping potion and a love potion, my guess, Amortentia. Thank gods, that unfortunate and poorly done mixture only cancels Amortentia effects.”
Draco was shocked. “Wait, what?”
“You don’t know who gave you that, Mr. Malfoy?”, she asked him. He shook his head in denial, and she continued. “Then I’d be careful If I was you. This is the work of someone who’s probably obsessed with you, and not very good at potions.”
Madame Pomfrey told Draco that Miss Granger needed to rest, and that it would take her at least two hours to wake up. He insisted he would stay by her side and keep her safe. It was the least he could do, he had unintentionally poisoned her.
During those hours, Draco’s brain couldn’t stop working. He wanted to know who had brewed those potions and who had intentionally tried to get him. His first guess was, of course, Weasley, but it couldn’t make sense. The choice of potions weren’t meant to actually hurt someone, it was more to take advantage of the person. He was a bit shocked. What if Granger wasn’t there, what if he ate the muffin alone and fell asleep. What if she wasn’t hungry but decided to take it and eat it somewhere else. Anything could’ve happened.
Draco sat beside her. Fifteen minutes in, an absolutely crazy and raging Ronald Weasley barged into the infirmary, followed by a desperate Madame Pomfrey, who yelled ‘I’ve told you she needs to rest, Mr. Weasley’ while grabbing his robe.
“You son of a filthy witch!”, he yelled at Draco. The blond wizard didn’t move away from his chair, right now he was way too worried about Granger to think about duelling Weasley.
The redhead came straight at him, but his rage vanished the moment he saw Granger in bed, he basically threw himself on her legs, making a fuss and crying, or pretending to.
“Mione!”, he cried. “My sweet, beautiful, precious Mione. What has he done to you?!!”
Draco raised an eyebrow, unsure of what to say. He thought it was a lost case, the weasel couldn’t grasp simple magical concepts, he wouldn’t get an explanation on how Granger ate something that was meant to be for Draco instead of her.
Madame Pomfrey tried to calm Weasley, getting him from over Granger, and Draco was thankful she did, because a part of him wanted to break every single one of Weasley’s fingers so he would stop touching her while she slept.
“You fucking bastard.”, he looked at Draco. “You imperioed her.”
Just before Draco could say a simple ‘no’, Madame Pomfrey meddled. “I have already told you Mr. Weasley. Miss Granger has eaten something that was altered by someone who is not, in fact, Mr. Malfoy.”
“You don’t know him.”, he argued back. “This psychopath has poisoned my Mione, probably even imperioed her so he could get her to be with him.”
Malfoy’s patience was just reaching the limit. He took a deep breath and tried to control himself, ignore the weasel, and focus on Granger and her state.
“And now, he acts as if he cares about her! Outrageous!” Weasley kept yelling. “You hate me so fucking much you had to take the only good thing I had left, don’t you?”
It was enough for Draco. He thought to himself ‘well, I’ll ask her to forgive me later’ and stood up to face Weasley. “Want me to answer, weasel?”, he said standing straight.
“Yes, you bloody coward!”, replied the redhead.
“You come here, pretending to be desperate, and say she’s the most precious ‘thing’ in your life? Thing, Weasley?”, his look was degrading, like he didn’t even pity Weasley, he just despised him. “You’re the one who didn’t give a fuck about her. You cheated on her, belittled her to the point she actually thought she wasn’t worthy of anything.”
Ron was about to speak, but Draco was far from over.
“You undermined her self-esteem, you played with her feelings, and you did the one thing no man would ever dare to do to a woman as precious as her. You broke her bloody heart.”, he clenched his fists, “So next time you’re acting all arrogant trying to fight for a woman, stop for a fucking minute and reflect on what you’ve done to lose her in the first place, idiot.”
Weasley waited until Draco’s eyes were back on Granger to cast a spell. It wasn’t any spell, it was in fact a curse.
“Crucio”, he yelled pointing his wand at Draco. Hermione Granger, who had been awake for the last few minutes, grasped her wand and threw a protego at Draco. Both Ron and Draco stared at her, unable to say a word. They were equally shocked, for different reasons.
Ron because he knew after trying to curse someone, he’d never be able to get Hermione back into his life. Draco because he had said way too much, and probably that was going to be the end of this fake-relationship they hadn’t even truly begun to pretend.