Chapter 11- The Day After
Hermione was awoken the next morning by a something pressing against her right thigh. Groggily, with eyes still half closed, she dug deep into her pockets to look for the source of the pain. Finally, she managed to fish out her mood ring, which she had been in her pocket since the previous day.
“It’s about time!” Jinx said huffily. “I was thinking that you would never take me out of your pocket!”
“I'm sorry, Jinx,” Hermione said, stifling a yawn. The truth was, she had totally forgotten about the mood ring.
“If you really want me to forgive you, I suggest you put me on,” Jinx said, apparently still moody.
“Not now, Jinx,” Hermione said. “I still want to get some more sleep.” The mood ring cried in protest and Hermione stuffed it into the back pocket of her jeans. She turned slightly to rest her head at a different angle when she felt a dull cramp on the right side of her neck.
Grimacing in pain, Hermione forced herself to fully open her eyes. She rubbed her neck and realized that she was lying on one end of the sofa in the common room in an awkward position. It was no wonder her neck hurt. She looked around, still massaging her neck, and saw Draco sleeping on the other end of the sofa, with the love knot stretched out between him and herself. Why in the world are we sleeping on the sofa? Hermione wondered as she ran a hand through her hair, which was in tangles.
Hermione tried to recall the events of the night before. She remembered that there was a lot of arguing between Draco and herself. They were not able to agree on where to sleep. But how did they end up sleeping on the sofa?
All at once, it hit Hermione. Last night, after all that nonstop bickering about where to sleep, Hermione had finally planted herself down on the sofa and told Draco in his face that she would not budge until he was willing to sleep in her room, on the floor.
Draco had then sat on the other end of the sofa and was determined not to move until Hermione agreed to sleep in his room, on the floor. I guess our stubbornness led us to fall sleep on the sofa, she concluded.
Hermione sighed. She kneaded the right side of her neck again because the dull pain still persisted. There was no way she could go back to sleep now. She looked out the window and saw that the sun was, at present, about to rise, causing a soft glow of light in the blue sky.
Sitting up straighter, she turned to look at Draco, who was still sound asleep. She picked up her wand, which was lying beside her, and gently prodded him in the arm to wake him up.
But that had no effect on Draco.
Hermione tried again, but this time, she poked a little harder. All she got was a tiny grunt out of him.
“Well, aren’t you the soundest of sleepers,” Hermione said quietly. She wanted to take a shower and for that, she needed Draco to get up so that they could figure out how it could be done… in a sensible and modest way.
Hermione tried for the third time, this time practically stabbing her wand into Draco’s arm. Still no effect. The Slytherin captain just gave a louder grunt. If she poked him any harder, Hermione would probably be charged with his murder and sent to Azkaban.
“This is ridiculous,” Hermione whispered in frustration. “He sleeps like a log.”
With her annoyance mounting, Hermione crept towards Draco. She placed her lips as close to his ear as she dared and screamed.
Now that had quite the effect on Draco.
He sprung awake, eyes wide in shock. “What? Where? What happened? What’s going on?” he asked, looking around frantically, like a deer caught in glaring headlights.
Hermione could not help but laugh at Draco’s reaction. “You weren’t getting up, so I screamed in your ear,” she said after her laughter subsided. “I guess that worked, didn’t it?”
Draco’s expression changed from shock to irritation. “Think that’s funny, do you Granger?” he asked with a spiteful edge in his voice. “I’d like to see your bloody reaction when I scream into your ear next time.”
“Look Malfoy, we just woke up,” Hermione said seriously. “Can we not let the day start off with us quarreling?”
“It’s your fault. You screamed into my ear for without a reason.”
“You wouldn't get up!”
“It’s in the middle of the morning!” Salazar Slytherin’s anger-filled voice floated from the wall. “Please let us sleep in peace! If the two of you want to quarrel, take it outside!”
“I second that!” Godric Gryffindor said irritably.
“Granger, it’s still really early, and I want to go back to sleep,” Draco said, dropping his voice a notch for the benefits of the portraits. “So we’ll continue this discussion later.”
“You're not going back to sleep while I'm wide awake!” Hermione exclaimed before Draco had a chance to make himself comfortable on the sofa once again. “What do you expect me to do while you sleep?”
“I don’t know,” Draco said, yawning loudly. “Entertain yourself or something. I don’t really care.” He rested his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes.
“Oh no you don’t,” Hermione said, prodding him with the tip of her wand once again, knowing full well that this time he could feel it. “Wake up!”
Draco ignored her and kept his eyes closed.
But Hermione persevered, poking him harder and harder each time. “Malfoy, wake up!” Poke, poke. “Wake up right now!” Poke, poke, poke. “Get your butt of the couch this instance, Malfoy!” Poke, poke. “I mean it!” Poke, poke, poke, poke…
“All right!” Draco finally said, leaping up from his sleeping position. “You're such a pain in the arse. Or rather, a pain in the arm.”
Hermione gave a wry laugh. “Ha, ha, that was so funny.” She got up and was glad to see Draco do the same. “I need to take a shower, so we need to figure how I'm going to do that tied to you.”
Draco groaned.
“We don’t have a choice!”
“Unfortunately.”
They took the stairs up to Hermione’s room and once they were there, they made their way to her bathroom. The bathroom was made entirely of white marble and Draco noticed that it was similar to his. It was a sharp contrast to the rest of the Heads’ dormitory, which was made of mainly wood and deep colors.
A large bathtub, which sat at the end of the toilet, dominated much of the bathroom and multi-colored taps, like the ones in the Prefects’ bathroom, surrounded it. A detachable silver showerhead rested on top of the bathtub and white shower curtains were enclosed the whole bath area. Beside the bath area, there was a basin and a toilet bowl.
“We have to figure out how to do this,” Hermione said, shuddering slightly when she realized that the distance between the bathroom door and the bathtub was definitely more than three and half feet. This meant that Draco would not be able to stand outside. She voiced out these thoughts to Draco, who did not seem the least bit disturbed by it.
“So, I’ll just stand inside the bathroom,” he said calmly.
Hermione’s eyes became as wide as plates.
“Calm down, it’s not like I'm going to look at you taking a shower,” Draco said in the same cool tone. “If it was some other girl, then I wouldn't mind. So you need not worry.”
Hermione did not quite know whether to feel relieved or insulted. She simply stared at Draco uncertainly. “But…but…the shower curtains…they’re translucent.”
“My back will be facing the shower,” Draco drawled “Come on, Granger, I don’t have all day. Get on with it, will you?”
Hermione drew a deep breath. Relax, Hermione, she told herself, you know a few spells that could help you out here.
“Scared are we, Granger? Don’t worry, I won’t outrage your modesty,” Draco said with a laugh, sounding very smug.
There was a glint in his eye that made Hermione tremble inwardly. But she didn’t want him thinking that she could not handle something like that. She walked out of the bathroom, grabbed the first set of clothes she could get her hands on, chucked her mood ring in a drawer and headed back into the bathroom.
“I’ll be sitting right here,” Draco said, settling down right outside the bathtub. “My back will be facing the tub,” he added seeing the look on Hermione’s face.
After brushing her teeth, Hermione stepped into the bathtub, fully clothed. She placed her fresh set of clothes on a railing attached to the wall and quickly took out her wand to perform a few spells. First, she flicked her wand to cause the shower curtain to turn an opaque black. Then, she sealed the curtains against the wall at each end. The presence of the Love-Knot did not seem to affect the sealing of the curtain against the wall. That should make certain that Malfoy can’t open them or peek even if he for some reason wanted to.
As promised, Draco sat outside the tub quietly as Hermione showered. He spent his time making a mental list of the other activities that he would not be able to do now that he was stuck with Hermione.
No eating in the Great Hall in order to avoid embarrassment of being seen with a Mudblood, no using the bathroom in private, no going into the Slytherin common room or they might turn her into a slug…actually, that’s a pretty good idea, he thought, grinning to himself. No more secret snogging sessions with random girls between classes, no terrorizing first years with Crabbe and Goyle or Little-Miss-Perfect will get a heart attack.
Then, an awful thought struck him, causing his jaw to drop to his shoulders. No more Quidditch! No more Quidditch! How am I going to play with Granger stuck to me?!
Draco nearly cried out loud in frustration. What followed was a chain of thoughts containing very flowery language. Not only had his privacy taken a holiday, but, now one of his most favorite activities had been taken away from him because of the stupid Love-Knot. There and then he started plotting of ways to harm his father some way or another for doing this to him.
After Hermione finished (“You're out, finally!” Draco had said after twenty minutes of waiting. “I thought you had knocked your head and passed out in there!” he had added sarcastically), she followed Draco into his bathroom, where she sat outside the tub and waited for him the same way he waited for her. The only difference was that Draco had not used to take the precautions she had taken, so Hermione had to make sure she did not accidentally turn around.
Once Draco was done, they headed for the Great Hall, where Hermione quickly piled plates of food and rushed out to avoid being asked awkward questions. They had breakfast in the same classroom as the previous day.
Hermione had noticed almost immediately that Malfoy junior was in a worse mood than usual. After breakfast, Draco had shouted at Colin Creevy when he, Colin, had asked Draco and Hermione to pose for a photograph. Then, Draco had threatened to turn his brother, Dennis Creevy, into a worm and feed him to the Giant Squid for no evident reason.
Draco was even about to kick Mrs. Norris when the caretaker’s cat had hissed at him. It was a good thing Hermione was there to stop him, otherwise they might have had more detentions to face.
During lunch (this time Harry and Ron brought food for the two in the same classroom), Draco was silent throughout and had not even tried to pick a fight with either Harry or Ron.
“Ermione,” Ron had said through a mouthful of carrots, “bib Mafoy pry ahifing fuhi wast migh?”
“Ron, you're disgusting and I cannot understand a word you're saying,” Hermione had replied flatly, earning herself a look from Ron.
“I faid bib Mafoy””
“He asked if Malfoy tried anything funny last night,” Harry helped his friend. “Did he?”
Hermione glanced at Draco, who merely glared at his food, and shook her head.
Draco’s mood seemed to worsen when Harry and Ron started talking about Quidditch, at which point he virtually dragged Hermione out of the classroom with half a bread roll hanging from her mouth and without letting her say goodbye to her friends.
After lunch, the Heads had retreated to their dorm to start on the holiday homework that the teachers had piled on them since it was their N.E.W.Ts year.
Dinner was once again a quiet affair on Draco’s part. Hermione almost felt it strange that he was not finding a reason to argue with her. She almost asked him what the matter was. Almost.
Thus, the day passed and Hermione had barely heard a peep out of Draco. Oddly enough, she was starting to get a tad worried. Once in the Heads’ common room that night, Draco had gotten out some parchment and started scribbling furiously on it, while Hermione decided to read her Ancient Runes textbook. She kept silent throughout and tried not to pay any attention to the sounds of Draco’s quill scratching very loudly against the parchment.
Why should I worry about him? It’s none of my business, she thought. Yet, she could not help wonder what was bugging the blonde Slytherin.
“My, my, isn’t it a wonder, Godric?” Salazar Slytherin whispered to his companion. “Malfoy and the little Muggle-born aren’t arguing today. Not a word out of either of them since this morning.”
“Yes, I do find that somewhat strange,” Godric whispered back. “It’s almost unnatural. Too quiet for their own good.”
Finally, close to eleven o’clock, Draco out his quill down and rolled up the very long piece parchment. He got up from his chair and headed for the sofa, Hermione having no choice but to trail behind. Plopping himself down at one end, he leaned back against the comfortable material of the couch and closed his eyes to fall asleep.
Hermione stared at him and frowned. She had wanted to convince him to sleep in her room today. He would sleep on the floor of course. But she knew better than to start an argument now. So she followed suit.
If she only knew that there was a simple reason behind Draco’s bad mood: Quidditch. Men. What was it with them and their sports?
Author's Note: Hello everyone! I apologize for the delay in updating. I was actually done with chapter 11 quite a while ago, but when I finally did want to submit it, the queue had been closed for the site maintenance. I was also having major logging in problems and am in fact still having them.
But on the bright side, it gave me plenty of time to write the following few chapters! So next time, hopefully I'll be able to update faster.
Oh yes, I want to thank one of the reviewers, Sunny June, who gave me the idea of the phrase 'privacy takes a holiday'. I really liked it, so I had to use it in this chapter when Draco was thinking to himself.
Also, I'll like to thank all of you who have been reading this story for your patience! It has been much appreciated! Thanks guys!