Chapter 7- The Anonymous Christmas Present
The year was coming to an end and Hogwarts was all set for the festive season, both on the outside as well as the inside. Outside, layers of snow covered the grounds and the many turrets of the Hogwarts castle. The lake was frozen solid and students were occasionally found skating on the clear surface of ice.
Inside, though the corridors were colder than usual, the Christmas decoration did add much needed warmth. Velvet red and green tapestries hung from the walls, fastened with bits of holly. The armors lining the corridors were enchanted to sing carols and most of the ghosts inhibiting Hogwarts joined in as well (except for Peeves, who preferred singing his own very crude versions of the carols). The atmosphere was light and cheerful, with Christmas being just a week away.
Hermione, however, was feeling anything but cheerful as she marched angrily pass the hallways, making her way to the Heads’ dorm.
“Malfoy, you cast a spell on my sweater!” Hermione screeched as she stomped through the portrait hole. “I grew boils the size of onions on my back!”
From the wall above the fireplace, Godric Gryffindor rolled his eyes. “Here we go again,” he said with a small sigh.
Draco replied Hermione with a smirk, leaning back against the sofa and lifting his legs up to the coffee table. His gemstone chess set was laid out in front of him and the Bloody Baron sat across him. “Brilliant isn’t it?” Draco said smugly.
“No, it was not brilliant!” Hermione continued shrieking, completely ignoring the presence of the Slytherin house ghost. “It was snowing outside and I had to take my sweater off before anymore boils grew. I was freezing out in the cold! Why did you do that in the first place?”
The Bloody Baron glowered at Hermione. “I guess I better be leaving now,” he drawled. “We’ll continue some other the game some other time, Draco.” With that, he disappeared through the wall.
“I suppose Madam Pomfrey fixed your back, didn’t she?” Draco asked, the disappointment in his voice evident.
Hermione fixed him an angry stare. “Yes, she did. And you did not answer my question. Why did you do it in the first place?!”
“Because that Weasel boyfriend of yours punched me in the nose last week,” Draco said calmly.
“Ron’s not my boyfriend,” Hermione said, exasperated. “And he only punched you because you called me Mudblood after he told you to stop it.”
“He’s not your boyfriend?” Draco said, arching one blonde eyebrow. “Well, it’s obvious he fancies you.”
Hermione blushed lightly. “That’s not the point, Malfoy!” she cried. “And it was Ron who punched you, not me. So why did you curse my sweater then?”
“Because it as easier to curse yours than Weasley’s,” Draco replied wryly.
Hermione clenched her fists so hard that her nails dug deep into the flesh of her palms. Living with Draco day after day was worse than a nightmare. Her tolerance level was almost at breaking point, but yet Hermione tried to remain patient with him. She thought he would have heeded the warning she gave him two months back, but she had no such luck.
“So, tell me, how did the boils look like, Granger?”
“Like your face,” she replied, arms crossed as she glared at him.
“Then they must have been really good-looking boils,” Draco commented with a smirk.
“Quite the contrary, actually,” Hermione said, her eyes narrowed.
“Watch it, Granger,” he snarled, bringing his legs down from the coffee table. “I might throw you with another curse.”
Hermione pointed a finger at Draco. “If you dare, Malfoy, you're going to get it good from me. I’ll hex you like I've never hexed anyone before,” she cautioned.
Draco snorted with laughter. “Granger, you're all talk. You're never going to do that, and you know it better than I do.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“When I'm forced to, I will do it,” she said, trying to feel as confident as she sounded. She spun on her heel and was about to head for her own room.
“You never will, Granger, you're just a coward,” Draco called from behind. “You're afraid of me. Don’t know how you ended up in Gryffindor. You sure don’t live up to being brave and all. You're just a spinelessness bookworm.”
And that’s when something in Hermione’s head just snapped. The rubber band of patience that was being stretched little by little everyday had just reached its maximum and snapped. She was usually very calm and rational, but now, all logic and thinking left her. She turned around so fast that Draco was taken aback a bit. She lashed out her wand and pointed it directly at him, muttering the first spell that came to her head.
What happened next was really quite laughable. Draco’s nose had turned grey and was growing longer and wrinklier by the second. His ears were growing as well and had turned into a shade of grey. His face and body were swelling up, but not as quickly as his nose and ears. In short, Draco was turning into an elephant.
“What did you do to me, Mudblood?! You turned me into a bloody…” His voice trailed off and only weird elephantine noises came out from his mouth as tusks began growing at the sides. Grunting madly, he rushed out of the common room and headed for the hospital wing.
Initially, Hermione chuckled to herself, but then the gravity of the situation eventually weighed down on her. She had just attempted to turn the Head Boy into an elephant. What if he went to complain to Professor McGonagall? Or worse, to Snape? Would Hermione be suspended from her duties as Head Girl? The mere thought of it scared her. She loved being Head Girl and to be stripped of her duties would be more than Hermione could bear.
With her thoughts muddled in her head, Hermione sat down on the sofa and buried her face in her hands.
“That wasn’t a very wise move, Miss Granger,” Godric said disapprovingly. “Though I must say he somewhat deserved it.”
“I'm going to go to the hospital wing to check on how Mr. Malfoy’s doing,” Salazar Slytherin said curtly.
“I’ll come with you,” Godric piped in.
“I suggest you go to your room and think about what you just did, Miss Granger,” Salazar said in the same surly tone.
That was exactly what Hermione did. She was surprised that she listened to Salazar Slytherin, but she really needed to think in peace in her room. She left for her room, leaving the common room empty except for the fire that cackled in the hearth. It was deserted, or so it seemed.
From the shadows of the room, something fluttered. It flew out from its hiding place and hovered above Draco’s chess set for a while. At first look, it seemed like an owl, but upon closer inspection, one would realize that it was actually a large black bat.
Within a split second, it no longer remained a bat and had transformed into a man, a man with long blonde hair, a pointed face and pale eyes. It was none other than Lucius Malfoy. He had witnessed the whole scene unfold between Draco and Hermione from where he hid. He had meant to wait for the Bloody Baron and her to leave so that he could talk to his son alone, but after seeing what he had seen, Mr. Malfoy was not too sure that he wanted to have a chat with Draco anymore.
Draco had been writing to him over the pass two months, saying that things between Hermione and himself were progressing, slowly but surely. Mr. Malfoy was not entirely convinced, so today, he thought he’d pay Draco a little visit, where he realized that things between his son and the Mudblood were far from progressing.
“Draco lied to me, again,” Mr. Malfoy seethed. He paced the carpeted floor, his black robes billowing behind him. He clutched his fist hard as his anger rose a few notches. He stopped abruptly and stared down at the chessboard. To think that Draco was disobeying him even after he had gotten what he wanted. “This calls for drastic measures.” The wheels in his head turned as he thought of a perfect plan to bring them together.
“And I think I know just what to do,” Mr. Malfoy said after a long while, a sly smile forming on his thin lips. “I think I know exactly what to do.”
With that, Mr. Malfoy disappeared and the bat hovered where he stood a minute ago. It dived out of the window and flew into the night, camouflaging well with the inky black night sky.
The week had passed relatively quickly and Christmas Day was here in a blink of an eye. Hermione had to stay at Hogwarts because her parents were visiting her aunt’s family in France. Upon his father’s insistence, Draco stayed back in school too. Well, he was forced to, actually. Apparently, Mr. Malfoy had found out that Hermione was staying and he promptly sent his son a letter, instructing him to stay in Hogwarts. It was quite a threatening letter really, so Draco did not dare to turn up at his own doorstep for Christmas.
Hermione woke up quite early on Christmas morning. The first thing she noticed was the stack of presents covered in colorful wrapping paper lying at the foot of her bed. She jumped forward to start opening them.
Her parents had gotten her a muggle book she had been eyeing for a very long time. It was a leather-bound collection of William Shakespeare’s greatest works. Turning the pages, she took in some of the rich and well-versed quotes before shutting the book and placing it beside her.
The next present she opened was from Harry. His gift to her was yet another book entitled The Encyclopedia Of Magical Creatures (Learn all you need to know about magical creatures and where to find them!). She flipped through the pages and was immediately taken by the well-drawn pictures and eloquent descriptions. I’ll read it tonight before I go to bed! she thought excitedly. Smiling, she put the book down next to the one she received from her parents and proceeded to her next present, which was from Ginny.
Tearing the red and sea green wrapping paper, Hermione saw that she had an additional book to her collection, but it not as educational as the first two she received. It was called 1001 Ways To Charm A Boy (Get your crush to actually notice you!). Hermione laughed when she read the title. Trust Ginny to get you something like that for Christmas.
Hermione found Ron’s present to be the most interesting. It was a mood ring, but not an ordinary one, like the one you would find in the muggle world.
“Hello there!” it had said cheerfully when Hermione had taken it out of its box. She let out a small gasp when it talked and she saw a little white face in the black stone of the ring. The stone was fitted onto a silver band and it was about the size of a muggle dime.
“You talk?” Hermione said rather than ask.
“Of course I do!” the mood ring retorted, looking at Hermione as though she was as stupid as a troll. “What do you expect me to do then? Sit in here the whole day and not say a word? That would be pretty darn boring, you know.”
“Well, I have read about enchanted mood rings…”
“So, what’s your name then?” the ring asked, without waiting for Hermione to complete her sentence.
“Hermione.”
“I'm your mood ring, Hermione,” the ring said, “and you can call me Jinx.”
“Err, hello, Jinx.”
“Well don’t just sit there,” Jinx scolded. “Put me on so that I can tell your mood!”
Hermione did as told and slipped the ring on her middle finger. Initially, it was a little loose, but she realized that it automatically tightened around her finger and fitted perfectly. After a moment, the black stone glowed a rose pink.
“Looks like someone’s really happy today,” Jinx said. “It must be all the Christmas presents!”
Hermione laughed lightly and went on to open the rest of her presents. Mrs. Weasley had given her a self-knitted sweater, her aunt and uncle presented her a pair of turquoise earrings and Lavender and Parvati had shared and bought her a pretty silver hairclip. Hagrid had made for her a chocolate cake, which was slightly lopsided, but tasted very good.
Carefully placing her presents into her bedside drawer (including the mood ring, who was protesting for a bit), Hermione took a hot bath and spent some time taming her hair. She shot it with a few spells here and there and by the time she was done with it, it fell to her shoulders in nice ringlets, much less frizzy than before. She decided to half tie it with the hairclip Lavender and Parvati had given her. She then made her way downstairs, but not before slipping on the mood ring again.
“You're still very happy,” Jinx announced, glowing the same rose pink as before. “I guess you love the holidays, huh?”
“I guess I do,” she said, taking light-hearted steps towards the sofa. It was then she noticed a package sitting on the coffee table. It was wrapped in black and gold paper, with a small card attached to it. She opened the card and read it aloud, “To Draco and Hermione. Have a Merry Christmas.” She flipped to the back of the card and realized that it was not signed off. “I wonder who it’s from.”
“And you want to know what’s inside,” Jinx told her, now illuminating a bluish-grey glow. “You're curious.”
Hermione did want to know what was inside. Who would send two sworn enemies the same present? After a small internal battle, she decided it was only right if she waited for Draco. It was after all for the both of them.
Thinking about Draco made Hermione recall the events from the previous week when she had tried to turn him into an elephant. He had been furious after that, but Hermione knew that at the same time he had grown a lot more fearful of her. He had been avoiding her all week, which worked very well for Hermione. It meant that she did not have to put up with him and his arrogant behavior.
She was thankful, however, that he had not breathed a word about the incident to anyone. Hermione concluded that he found the whole episode embarrassing and would prefer keeping it to himself.
“I detect a faint bit of dislike,” Jinx said, glowing a dim reddish maroon now. “So, who is it that you don’t like?”
As if on cue, Draco strutted down from his room, chocolate frog in hand. He surveyed Hermione for a moment with a sneer, biting the leg off the frog. She looks different today, he mused. I guess it’s her hair.
Finally, his eyes settled on the black and gold parcel on the table.
“It’s for us,” Hermione told him before he asked.
“What?”
“It’s for the both of us. That’s what it says on the card,” Hermione explained. “I thought it’d be better if I waited for you too before opening it. I mean, it is for the two of us.”
“I wouldn't have waited if I found it first,” Draco said with a scowl.
“Well, that’s what makes you different from me,” Hermione pointed out.
Ignoring her, Draco sat on the sofa (a good deal away from Hermione) and ripped the paper open, revealing a black velvet, rectangular box. He pulled opened the lid and peered inside, with Hermione inching closer to him to get a better look.
There was a thick silver ribbon-like object inside. It did not look like it was solid, but it could not be classified as a liquid either. It was outlined pearly white and had glitter on the sliver portions, which shimmered in the light.
“What is it?” Draco asked, so fascinated by the ribbon-like thing that he momentarily forgot his enmity with the girl next to him.
Hermione shrugged. “I don’t know,” she replied, equally captivated by the object. She cautiously retrieved it from the box and placed it on her palms. It felt like silk in her hands, liquid silk. It was about a foot long, two and a half inches wide and half an inch thick.
Without warning, it bounced off Hermione’s palm, wrapped one end of itself around her left wrist and the other end about Draco’s right wrist. It looked like handcuffs now, handcuffs made of sliver shimmering ribbon outlined pearl white.
“What the bloody hell?!” Draco swore loudly. “What just happened?” He tugged at the silver ribbon, but it did not budge from his wrist. He struggled with it even more, but it stuck to his hand. “It doesn’t come off!”
Hermione stared down at the silver ribbon and deliberated hard on where she had read about something like this before. “I can’t even feel it around my wrist,” she said softly. “It feels like it isn’t even there.”
“I don’t care if it feels like it isn’t there,” Draco said irritably, “the point is that it is there. It is wrapped around my hand and I want to get it off!”
“I know what this is!” Hermione breathed.
Draco did not like the sound of her voice. “What is it?” he asked uneasily.
“It’s called a Love-Knot,” Hermione started her explanation. “It’s connects two people together at the wrist, like so,” she pointed at the ribbon attached to their hands, “and it only wears off upon fulfilling the giver’s, or in this case, sender’s purpose.”
“Wait, what do you mean?” Draco asked, clearly confused.
“This means that it will only come off once it has accomplished its given task,” Hermione replied.
“And what would that be? How would we know what it’s purpose is?” Draco asked, staring down at the Love-Knot incredulously.
Hermione bit her bottom lip. “I'm not too sure about that. If only we knew who the sender was. Who would want us stuck with each other the whole time?”
“My father!” Draco exclaimed when realization struck him. “It must be him!”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive!”
Hermione’s eyes widened. Draco was right it was. It was most likely Lucius Malfoy’s doing. “And his purpose would be…”
“To get us to agree to marriage,” Draco finished for her.
Hermione’s eyes were now as wide as saucers. “That means that this Love-Knot isn’t going to disappear until it’s completed its purpose of getting our consent on marriage to one another!”
She paused to ponder over something. “I don’t think it can be removed my magic,” she said.
“What do you mean by it can’t be removed by magic?!” Draco sputtered. He was growing increasingly panicky about the whole situation and it seemed to be getting worse. “Anything can be done by magic!” He fumbled to get his wand out of his pants pocket and hit the Love-Knot with a couple of spells. But the spells had no effect on it. The spells simply disappeared in a wisp of smoke upon coming into contact with the Love-Knot.
“Granger, you're the genius here, why don’t you try some spells?!” Draco shouted at her, his voice shrill and high.
Hermione took her own wand out from the pocket of her sweater with her free hand. She attacked the Love-Knot with some complicated charms and spells, but none of them came close to even loosening the grasp of the Love-Knot. “Malfoy, it’s not going to work!” she said, defeated. “It’s been enchanted to come off only when its purpose is fulfilled!”
“Then why don’t we agree to marriage?” Draco asked as a last resort.
“What?!”
“We could just agree now to get this thing off, but we don’t actually have to get married!” Draco explained irritably.
Hermione highly doubted that the Love-Knot would come off that way, but it was the only sensible plan they had right now. “Alright, I agree to marry you, Malfoy,” she said grudgingly.
“And I agree too,” Draco said with the same reluctance.
Nothing happened. The Love-Knot was still cuffed on their wrists and it gleamed almost smugly in the light, as if saying to Draco and Hermione, “Haha, too bad! That’s not going to work on me!”
“Why didn’t it work?” Draco asked. He stared down the Love-Knot, trying to wrench it off his hand.
“Because we have to mean what we say!” Hermione sighed. “It’s not going to work if we merely say it! It has to be heart-felt, from the bottom of our heart.”
Draco made gagging noises. “Stop getting all mushy, Granger.”
“I'm just trying to explain to you,” Hermione said through gritted teeth. “Believe me, it’s not like I want to get mushy around you.” She cast Draco a dark look before contemplating on what to do next. “We should go to Professor Dumbledore.”
“How’s that old nutcase going to help us?”
“Malfoy, watch your tongue,” Hermione said, pointing her wand at Draco. “You should show respect to our Headmaster. He is one of the most brilliant wizards of our time.”
Draco gulped hard upon seeing Hermione’s wand. “I…I was just kidding, Granger,” he stammered slightly. “I meant that he was a nutcase in a good way.”
Hermione pocketed her wand and stood up. Draco followed her lead and together, they made their way to Dumbledore’s office.