Chapter 22- For a Change
Mr. Malfoy took a step forward, an incomprehensible expression on his sallow face. “Now, look here you two, I'm not at all against kissing. Just as long as it does not escalate into anything more.”
Draco and Hermione stared at Mr. Malfoy, eyes bulging from their sockets, jaws dropping as far as they could possibly go.
“Kissing?!” they shouted in unison upon finding their voices.
“You thought I was kissing him?!” Hermione shrieked.
“We saw it with our own two eyes,” Mr. Malfoy said in a tone which suggested that he could not decide between being happy or disgusted.
“Then I suggest you get your eyes checked,” Hermione murmured.
Mr. Malfoy shot Hermione a look. “What was that?”
“Nothing.”
“Father, you're misunderstanding the whole situation,” Draco finally spoke up. “Again.”
Mr. Malfoy smiled silkily. “No use being shy about it, Draco.”
At this point, Hermione knew it was not going to do them any good in trying to talk Mr. Malfoy out of what he thought was going on between Draco and herself. That would simply make matters worse. It was quite probable that if the two Heads end up killing the other in a fight (due to excessive quarrelling), Mr. Malfoy would (somehow) attribute their deaths to their (non-existent) love for each other, or something along those lines.
Honestly, the topic of conversation during Mr. Malfoy’s sudden appearances was getting more and more predictable.
“Father, mother, what are you doing here in the first place?” Draco asked his parents, quickly changing the topic. Apparently, like Hermione, he realized that trying to convince his parents that nothing happened was quite pointless.
“We had to go to Dervish and Banges, Draco,” his mother drawled haughtily. It was the first time the woman had spoken and Hermione tilted her head to get a better look at her. Platinum blonde hair tied up behind her head in a tight bun, she had a rather jaded appearance on her pointed face. “Your father had to get something repaired.”
For some reason, Draco doubted that was the actual reason behind his parent’s visit to Hogsmeade.
Mrs. Malfoy then turned her cold gaze to Hermione. “Ah, Hermione Granger. I was wondering when I would get to meet you. It’s been a while since I last saw you. Has my son been treating you well?”
“From the looks of it, he has been treating her very well, hasn’t he?” Mr. Malfoy said with a dry chuckle. His right eye seemed to be twitching uncontrollably and it took Hermione a few moments to figure out that he was actually trying to wink! Imagine her horror!
“Mother, Granger and I””
“Shush, Draco, I'm trying to talk to my future daughter-in-law,” Mrs. Malfoy told her son sternly. “Tell me, how is it like living with my son?”
It was bad enough that Hermione had to deal with Lucius Malfoy calling her ‘daughter-in-law’ and now, to make matters worse, his wife was doing the same! “You've got to be joking,” she mumbled under her breath, cursing her luck.
“What did you say?” Mrs. Malfoy frowned. “I didn’t quite catch that.”
“I did not say anything,” Hermione told her frigidly.
Mrs. Malfoy raised a perfectly plucked blonde eyebrow. “Well you should have. I asked you a question. It is very rude not to answer.”
Isn’t she going to make a wonderful mother-in-law? Hermione thought to herself wryly, restraining from rolling her eyes at the elderly lady.
“Now, now, Narcissa,” Mr. Malfoy calmed his wife down. “Give the girl time.” He gave Hermione a stiff smile. “How have the two of you been, aside from what we already saw?”
“You didn’t see anything. You merely thought you did,” Draco replied, looking from his mother to his father incredulously.
“Draco, that is no way to speak to your father,” Mrs. Malfoy chastised.
Mr. Malfoy shook his head. “Let him be, Narcissa. He is simply embarrassed that we caught him and Hermione in their private time.”
Draco was amazed by his father. Lucius Malfoy took denial to a whole new level.
“Did you receive my letter, father?” Draco asked, trying once again to change the subject. “I sent it to you on Sunday night, but you never wrote back.”
“The letter about the whole bathroom incident, I presume?” Mr. Malfoy queried. “Yes, I did receive that. I verified the information and it indeed seems true. I was very relieved to know that nothing of that sort ever did happen between the two of you.”
“It would have been much easier if you had just believed us before,” Hermione pointed out.
Mr. Malfoy burst into monotonous laughter, and then stopped abruptly. “She’s a funny girl, isn’t she, Narcissa?”
Mrs. Malfoy chuckled half-heartedly. “Very funny indeed,” she responded, a condescending look appearing on her pale features.
“Let us just forget about all that now, daughter-in-law. It’s all in the past,” Mr. Malfoy said with a swift wave of his hand. There was a moment of silence where Hermione glared at Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, who glared back at her, while Draco figured out how to stop the glaring match between his parents and the girl beside him.
“Draco,” It was Mr. Malfoy who spoke up again, looking away from Hermione, “just to inform you, your mother and I will be going to France for a few of weeks. Therefore, forward your letters to us there. Your owl should be able to find us.”
“France?” Draco frowned. “What for?”
“Business. Nothing important,” Mr. Malfoy replied, brushing the matter aside. “Anyway, it is wonderful to see the two of you wandering around Hogsmeade together, without your friends. And I'm very happy that I got to see this progress first-hand.”
“We’re not here without our friends by choice,” Draco hastily told his father. He explained to Mr. Malfoy about the new rule Dumbledore had decided upon. “So we’re here together without friends because we have to patrol Hogsmeade and no other reason.”
To Draco and Hermione’s astonishment, Mr. Malfoy laughed, while there was a small smile playing on Mrs. Malfoy’s lips. “Ah, Dumbledore!” Mr. Malfoy exclaimed gleefully. “It’s simply wonderful to see that he’s helping me in my noble cause of getting the two of married.”
Draco stared at his father bug-eyed, with Hermione wearing an identical expression.
“Well, it was good bumping into you two,” Mr. Malfoy pulled out a gold watch from his pocket and looked at the time, “but we should be on our way now. Do have fun spending this quality time together.” And he disappeared with a CRACK .
“I’ll send you some sweets soon, Draco,” Mrs. Malfoy told her son before following her husband’s lead and disapparating with another loud CRACK .
Draco and Hermione stood in stunned silence for a long time. Finally, it was Draco who spoke.
“Do you think Dumbledore is really trying to…”
“…help your father’s ‘noble cause’?” Hermione finished for him. “I dunno, Malfoy. I honestly dunno.” She bit her bottom lip. “No, there’s no way Professor Dumbledore would ever do something like that.” She could not imagine Dumbledore evil and scheming together with Lucius Malfoy. Impossible.
“Dumbledore does not strike me as the sort who would be conspiring with my father,” Draco voiced, taking the words right out of Hermione’s mouth.
“Exactly,” Hermione affirmed with a nod, “Professor Dumbledore would do no such thing with Lucius Malfoy.”
“And what if…” Draco sighed, trying to think of how to phrase his question. “What if Dumbledore is doing this on his own accord?”
Hermione pursed her lips together. “You think he would do that?”
Draco shrugged. “I dunno, but nothing surprises me anymore.”
“No,” Hermione said, but did not sound as convincing as she did before. “Why would he try to do something like that? What would his purpose be to get us together? It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Silence ensued as each tried to persuade themselves that Dumbledore would have no reason to want them together. He certainly would not try pushing them together. Would he?
The two students continued walking around Hogsmeade in silence for the next few minutes, the thoughts in their heads definitely more jumbled up than before.
“So,” Draco said suddenly, breaking the quietness that had developed for quite a while, “you never answered my question. Who was it that you snogged, Granger?”
Hogwarts student were generally quite well-behaved today because the two Heads did not catch even one who was being unruly. Hence, when patrolling ended, Draco and Hermione made their way to the castle without any complaints for Professor McGonagall.
“No misbehaving students at all?” Professor McGonagall questioned the two Heads, who had reported directly to her after their duty in Hogsmeade.
“Not even one, Professor,” Draco informed her.
“Good, good,” Professor McGonagall said as she scribbled something in her notebook. “Right then, the both of you can head off to dinner now. I’ll see you during the next Hogsmeade trip.”
Dinner was at the Gryffindor table, so Draco had to bear an hour or so with the Dream Team and the Girl Weasel.
“How was your day?” Hermione asked her friends as she took a seat with them.
“It was all right, ‘Mione,” Ginny replied, digging her fork into some pudding, “but we missed you. Did ferret-face here bother you?”
“Yes, Weasley, I bothered her like hell,” Draco said before Hermione could respond. He obviously did not appreciate being called ‘ferret-face’. “What are you going to do about it?”
Ginny tilted her head to one side and surveyed Draco with a wicked smile. “Are you sure you want to find out, Malfoy?”
Draco stared at the youngest of the Weasleys. She was something. Ever since he had been forced to sit at the Gryffindor table, he found himself wondering sometimes how well she would have done in Slytherin. And there were times when he thought she would probably do better than him in his house.
“Save it, Weasley,” Draco said, trying to feel as courageous as he sounded. “I don’t have time for your little games.”
Ginny looked like she was all set to retort, but Hermione cut in. “I got a new quill for you, Ron,” she said conversationally, smiling at the freckled-faced boy, who was currently stuffing his mouth with roast chicken.
Ron attempted answering through a mouthful of chicken, but when he saw Hermione give him the ‘you-better-swallow-that-before-you-dare-talk-to-me’ look, he decided it would be safer to gulp his food down first. “You did?” he said, a huge grin creeping onto his face.
Draco scowled. There he goes again. Weasel-breath’s face is lighting up as if Hermione had just offered him and his family a million Galleons, he thought bitterly. And what is it with the ridiculous smile on his face? It’s not as if he doesn’t look dumb enough already…
Hermione cracked a smile upon seeing the happy expression on Ron’s face. “Yes, I did.”
“What for?” Ron asked, goofy grin still in place.
A nasty remark was on the tip of Draco’s tongue, but he had to bite it down as Hermione was shooting him a menacing look. It was as though she knew he was going to say something. And Draco was in no mood to mess with her right now.
“Because I have seen the state of your current quill, Ron,” Hermione said, focusing her attention back on her redheaded friend, “and how you write with that thing is beyond me.”
Ron’s face flushed as Hermione reached into the bag that she had brought along with her to Hogsmeade and fished out the new quill. She handed it to Ron, together with the box of sugar quills. “The sugar quills are a better alternative to chew on,” she said matter-of-factly.
“I guessed as much,” Ron mumbled as he dumped everything beside his dinner plate.
“Don’t be sour about it, Ron,” Ginny scolded. “You should thank Hermione for being thoughtful. She took the effort to buy you a new quill as well as a box of sugar quills. If I had seen the condition of your existing quill, I would simply have told you that you're a disgusting prick and that you should stop the revolting habit of chewing your quill.”
Glaring at his sister, Ron mumbled to Hermione a quick thank you.
Draco, on the other hand, was rather enjoying Ron being put down by his own sister.
And just when he thought that Ginny had had enough poking fun at her brother, the youngest of the Weasleys said, “So, how does the back of a barn-owl feather taste like, Ron?”
After a satisfying dinner (both in terms of the food and the entertainment), Draco and Hermione retreated into their dormitory, where they were greeted by Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor.
“Hello, you two!” Godric Gryffindor exclaimed cheerily as they entered.
“I'm surprised that the two of you made it back alive,” Salazar Slytherin said, a hint of despondence in his voice. He seemed slightly upset that the two students were standing in front of him in flesh and blood. “I thought for sure you’d kill each other today during your patrolling.”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Salazar,” Godric hushed his companion. “I didn’t expect them to kill each other quite so soon.” Then he smiled at the two as if he did not make that comment at all. “Do tell us how your day went.”
Draco and Hermione pondered over this question for quite some time. How did today go? They did not exactly like the time they spent with each other, but they most certainly did not hate it either.
Finally, Hermione said, “It went OK.” She gave Draco a questioning look. “Right?”
“It didn’t go as badly as expected,” he replied, giving a small shrug.
Salazar Slytherin arched an eyebrow. “Really now?”
“That is good then,” Godric Gryffindor said, looking unsure of the reaction he got, “I suppose.”
“Well, if you would excuse us then,” Hermione smiled at the two portraits, “we’re going to do some homework before heading off to bed.”
“Sure,” Godric returned her smile, “go right ahead. Don’t let us stop you.”
Quickly running up to their respective dorms, they grabbed their school books and sat themselves down on the table in the common room. Hermione was doing Transfiguration, while Draco decided on completing his Arithmancy homework.
Silence filled the common room as the two began studying. This continued for half an hour or so, until Hermione looked up to see Draco bent over his textbook and staring at it as if it were written in troll.
It was quite an amusing expression really. She had never noticed it before.
Biting her bottom lip to keep herself from laughing out loud, Hermione asked, “Malfoy, are you all right?”
Draco did not look up from his book. “Yes, yes, I'm fine,” he muttered.
“You sure?”
“I'm fine, Granger.”
“Then why do you look like you're going to shred your book up into pieces?”
“All right, fine! If you really must know, I'm as good in Arithmancy as Crabbe is at doing ballet!” Draco admitted in exasperation.
Hermione burst into a fit of giggles. “Do you need my help?”
“No,” Draco responded with a trace of defiance.
“I'm good at Arithmancy, you know,” Hermione told him plain and simple.
Draco rolled his eyes. “So I've heard.”
“And I don’t bite when asked for help.”
“You're really persistent, you know that?”
“So I've heard.”
Draco sighed. “Oh, all right.” He dumped his textbook in font of her. “What do I have to lose anyway?”
Hermione smiled inwardly and spent the rest of the night teaching Draco the concepts of Arithmancy.
“I must say this is interesting, Godric,” Salazar Slytherin said smoothly.
“What is?”
“They were not arguing when they came through the portrait hole, they did not complain about their trip to Hogsmeade with each other and now, she is helping him with his homework!” Salazar Slytherin chuckled deprecatingly. “It is almost surreal.”
“Yes, yes, it is rather interesting, isn’t it?” Godric Gryffindor laughed. “Just for today, it seems like they are actually getting along, for a change.”