"So you bought an Invisibility Cloak and didn't even tell Harry or me about it?"
Ron sounded confused and hurt by the news. Hermione rarely kept secrets from them, but when she did, it was always with good reason. Ron could see no reason for her to hide her new cloak from them, unless she had been sneaking out of the Gryffindor common room a lot more often than they knew about…
"Yes, I did. I'm entitled to keep the news about my purchases to myself, aren't I? Or would you like me to begin checking in with you and Harry after every undergarment I buy as well?"
Ron blushed, but did not reply. When Hermione was passionate about something, there was no swaying her, anyway. He could not see a reason to answer; any reply would only end in more hard feelings between them.
Hermione could see that Ron was not about to speak, and so she continued, "I bought my Invisibility Cloak to see if the house elves were being treated as unfairly as I thought suspected. I've been sneaking down into the kitchens, watching them work periodically. Sometimes I've sat up at night watching them tend to the fires, to see whether they looked happy or miserable."
She fell into silence, looking unhappy. Harry, who was sitting in his favorite armchair, was the one who finally prodded her to speak again.
"It seems I've been wrong all along. The house elves that come to Gryffindor Tower usually sing or whistle while they work; same with the house elves in the kitchens. All of them look genuinely happy. The only times they've ever looked upset is if I left a bit of clothing out for them to take. It's fearful, how just a bit of clothing affects them. They become quite violent then. I suppose they really like it here at Hogwarts."
She broke off into silence again. Ron refrained from giving her an "I told you so." She was being honest with them, at least. Even if it did take her months to tell them the truth.
The Trio sat quietly for a few long moments. Around them, fellow Gryffindors continued to celebrate the Quidditch win, drinking butterbeers and pausing to pat Harry on the back as they walked past. As the three friends watched, Crookshanks came tearing down the staircase from the girls dormitories to jump onto Hermione's open lap.
After a long while, Harry, who was still noticeably annoyed, leaned in to speak to Hermione. "What were you doing down in the Slytherin dungeons?" he asked her. "That is, if Ron and I have the right to know about it."
Although Hermione paled a little, she kept her emotions under control when she answered Harry. "I went to visit Draco Malfoy," she told him coolly.
"I see. So you just thought you'd pay a visit to our worst enemy for the fun of it?"
"He's your enemy, not mine," Hermione shot back, glaring at Harry.
"Well that's understandable too, I wouldn't dream of making enemies with someone who calls me a Mudblood every chance he gets," Harry said sardonically.
"He's not who you think he is. He hasn't called me that in ages, for one. And two, he's actually nice to me when you're not around. Just because the two of you have a petty thing going on doesn't mean I can't be nice to him and you."
"Friends don't go around being nice to their friends' enemies, Hermione," said Harry, his face bright red now. "That's just not how things are done. Friends are supposed to be supportive of each other, and each others' choices. And that includes people," he finished angrily.
"Not to team against you, Hermione, but I agree with Harry," Ron said quietly. "That's not how things are done. We've been enemies with Malfoy for years; now suddenly you decide that's all changed and you want to become friends with him? I don't understand."
"And I'm telling you, it's not your place to understand," Hermione said coolly.
Harry stood now, nearly consumed by his rage. In all the years he had known her, he had never known Hermione to be this stubborn, and he had never known her to do anything to deliberately threaten their friendship. Malfoy had gotten under her skin somehow, although he didn't know how that git could win her over without magical means, and Harry was not going to put up with it.
"If you decide to be friends, or whatever you are, with Draco Malfoy," Harry told Hermione, his voice shaking with rage, "you can forget about being friends with me." He did not know how to convey to Hermione how betrayed he felt without sounding like a sap; therefore, he believed his only option was to let her choose between them. He would not be friends with someone who thought Malfoy was a decent person. In all the time he had known Malfoy, the boy had never done a decent thing. In fact, Malfoy was the kind of person who took pleasure in other people's misery and suffering. Harry would not stand for that, nor would he support anyone who did stand for it. Luckily for Harry, Ron felt the same way, and told Hermione so.
Hermione looked slightly worried at the thought of having to choose between her two best friends and Malfoy. However, she gave the two of them a scathing look before retreating to the peace of her common room, letting her voice trail along behind her, "I guess this is goodbye then," she said, her voice only cracking slightly.
It wasn't like she wouldn't see them again anyway, she reasoned, and besides, the whole thing would probably blow over in a few days. As she walked up the stairs to her dormitory, she passed a small group of first years reaping the benefits of the Quidditch win with bottles of butterbeer in their hands. Her first instinct was to yell at them to stop partying, but seeing as what they were doing was quite within Hogwarts rules, she could find no reason. She sighed and, having reached the top of the steps, disappeared into her room.
A few days later, Hermione was not convinced that her fight with Harry and Ron would blow over anytime soon. The two of them had been pointedly avoiding her eyes all weekend. They would not sit at her end of the table in the Great Hall, and if she so much as came into the common room while they were studying, they would quickly make excuses for leaving to the people nearest them.
She could see why they were so angry, and she did not blame them entirely. It was as if a sort of spell had come over her… the Draco Malfoy spell… the kind that made a girl weak at the knees. She just could not get him off her mind, no matter how hard she tried. And so she sided with Malfoy, even though she had not seen him since her confrontation with Harry and Ron. She didn't even know if there was truth in what he said about loving her. Perhaps Harry and Ron were completely right, and Malfoy was just playing with her emotions out of pure evilness.
But when Monday came around, she knew she was right about the change in Malfoy. His hair was immaculate as always, and his robes were neatly pressed. From the minute he walked into Potions class, however, she could tell that something was different. There was a look in Draco's eyes that had never quite been there before; he wasn't glaring at all the Gryffindors as usual. He wasn't flanked by Crabbe and Goyle as was customary either; instead, the two of them were lagging behind, finally coming through the dungeon door quite a while after the bell rang. Of course, Snape, who was never known for his fairness, only told them to sit down, while if it were Harry and Ron who had straggled in late they would have had points taken away from Gryffindor immediately.
Another change seemed to have come over Malfoy. Instead of taking his usual seat in the back of the room, where he could oversee everyone's mistakes and make snide comments that Snape would pointedly miss hearing, Malfoy chose a seat near Hermione. Not next to her of course, that would have looked too suspicious, but close enough that she could hear his groans and under the breath comments as he went about making the potion Snape assigned them, which was supposed to make one's wand shine so brightly that one could easily find it from a mile away. Malfoy seemed to be having a bit of trouble with the potion; Hermione looked up at him in concern until Snape's disconcerting glare brought her attention back to her own cauldron.
The lesson went on without much mishap. Neville, who had taken Harry or Ron's usual seat next to Hermione, looked grateful that Hermione was finally close enough to help him without Snape overhearing and taking points away from Gryffindor. Harry and Ron struggled at a nearby table without her help. Hermione successfully made her potion the navy blue with lime green smoke floating above the surface, although more times than she would admit she found her gaze directed at Draco, her attention far from the ingredients she was mixing. More than once, she stopped herself from adding the wrong item just in time.
Neville's potion was a baby blue with lime green smoke; Harry's was dark blue with maroon smoke, while Ron's was a hopeless violet with yellow smoke. Draco's potion looked similar to Hermione's. As class ended, the witches and wizards bottled up their potions and took them to Snape's desk. On the way back from Snape's desk, Hermione found Draco right behind her. His robes were close enough to reach out and touch. Under pretense of hurting her, Malfoy roughly grabbed Hermione. To her surprise, she felt a bit of parchment that he quickly shoved into her hand before retreating to his cauldron. She held it under the table while cleaning up so she could read without anyone seeing. It was a roughly scribbled note.
"Meet me after dinner at the Owlery."
Hermione quickly flipped it over to see if anything else was written, but that was it. Well, she thought to herself, she wouldn't have any trouble getting away now that Harry and Ron would not even look at her. She wouldn't even have to make an excuse for where she was going. Her heart started beating faster, and for the first time ever, she wanted the rest of her classes to be over so she could see what Malfoy wanted.
She looked over at him and saw the smallest hint of a smile on his face. He tilted his head the tiniest bit in her direction before she looked away. Only two more classes to go, she thought anxiously. She sighed. It was going to be a long day.
AN: Well, I'm extremely pleased with the amounts of commenting going on. This story wasn't meant to be anything special, I just felt like making Draco and Hermione into my playthings in my spare time. Now, the story has come much further than I imagined it would, and I'm having a ton of fun writing it. I did try to make this chapter a bit longer than the others. Anyway...until next time :-D
-Bull