Draco woke up the next morning to the sound of Bellatrix Lestrange rapping on his bedroom door.
“Get up, you lazy lump! There are things you need to learn before you leave!” she said in her hoarse voice.
He slowly got up. He must have fallen asleep at his desk. Hermione’s letter was still in his hands. He couldn’t bear to look at it, so he stretched and went to go get dressed, all the time, a red hot fire was burning a hole in his heart. He just couldn’t kill Hermione. He couldn’t kill anyone, no matter how much he hated them.
These were the feelings that he had felt since he had learned his father was a Death Eater. When he had spied on one of his father’s ‘secret meetings’ when he was seven, he knew he would, eventually have to take his place. But when he learned what a Death Eater actually was, which was shortly afterward, he knew he couldn’t do it. He wasn’t a follower of Lord… the Dark Lord.
I suppose I’ll have to call him that from now on, he thought to himself as he dressed.
A little while later, downstairs, his aunt Bellatrix was yelling.
“What do you mean you can’t do it?” she said, when Draco confessed his fears.
Seeing the wild look in her eyes, he quickly changed tact. He forgot that fear was not in his vocabulary. “I’m only kidding,” he said, forcing a smile.
“Yes, well, you better be. You have to… Wait!” Bellatrix’s face was alive with malice and hate. “You have an unnatural talent to joke around, don’t you?”
“Well… if you say so.” Draco didn’t know where this was going.
“You will lure her into a sense of security, even a sense of … love. The Dark Lord says that love Dumbledore’s one answer for everything, correct?” she turned to Lucius, who was sitting on the couch in the room.
“Yes, it is,” he replied curtly.
“Then let’s use it against him! Pretend to fall in love with her. Every girl her age just wants to love!” Bellatrix said, although she looked as though she was going to be sick.
Draco was feeling the same way. Make her fall in love with him? How cruel was this world? The second Hermione actually figured out that he wasn’t as evil as everyone said, he was plotting to kill her with his Death Eater relatives. Aunt Bellatrix was explaining more about her evil plan, her face gleeful, but Draco wasn’t listening. His stomach was in knots and he was fighting hard not to show it. Showing even the slightest grimace of disgust at the thought of death would disgrace his whole family.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Bellatrix,” he said politely, trying to keep his emotions hidden, “but I really have to go and pack if this whole plan is going to work. Perhaps, we could discuss this later?” He was waiting on tenterhooks, hoping she would understand.
“Yes, of course!” Bellatrix said, distracted from her delusions of Hermione dying. “I will send you an owl at your school explaining more, using the code of course. But you understand the main plot, correct?” she said, staring him down with her black eyes.
“My son is not a dimwit!” Mr. Malfoy stood up quickly. “Of course he understands! There will be no need for secret messages that can be tracked to you!” he said through gritted teeth.
Before the eminent argument could hit full steam, Draco slipped away from the sitting room, but that was a far as he could get. He collapsed against the wall, and released the moan he had been holding back all this time. This was, by far, the most trying winter break ever, and that was very surprising, seeing as he was a Malfoy.
*************
Hermione was not surprised. She hadn’t expected Draco to send her a present in the first place, so when she did respond to the present she thought Draco would be nice and reply back. But who was she kidding? This was Draco Malfoy she was writing to!
Hermione tried to hide her disappointment the next morning when she woke up to the delicious scents of breakfast, courtesy of Mrs. Weasley. There was no owl at her window, tapping the glass to get into the warmth, just emptiness. She tried to move on, but that wouldn’t stop her from wearing the beautiful pendent around the house. Harry was not very observant so he did not notice it, but Ron, who had taken sudden interest in anything having to do with Hermione, said, “Where’d you get that necklace?”
Ginny, sensing impending danger, said quickly, “I got it for her. Isn’t it beautiful? I saw it and I just thought of Hermione!”
Hermione gave Ginny a silent glance of thanks. Getting something from Malfoy and actually wearing it would have caused another terrible rage in Ron. That wouldn’t be very pleasant, especially since it was still the Christmas holidays.
Hermione, lost in her thoughts, missed the momentary look of grief of poor Ron’s face. With the whole concept of Draco giving her a present, she had completely forgotten about the bracelet given to her by Ron that was now lying on the floor of her and Ginny’s bedroom.
After breakfast, Hermione went up to her room instead of playing indoor Quidditch in the dining room. She was never one for Quidditch, whether indoor or outdoor, so Ron and Harry weren’t surprised when she turned them down. And when she told them she was going to read, it was even less of a surprise. What would have actually shocked them is that she was going up to her room to think about Draco Malfoy and await a letter from him that Hermione wasn’t sure would come.
“Hey, Ginny,” Ron said quickly when Harry was looking away. “What’s up with, Hermione?”
“What do you mean? There’s nothing up with her,” Ginny replied curtly, not looking directly at her brother.
“Why didn’t she wear my bracelet? You said she would like it! But, she wore what you gave her instead!” Ron said, clearly angry with his insensitive sister.
“She did like it! My necklace just matched better with what she was wearing today.” Ginny still spoke with the same calm voice.
Ron did not look convinced so Ginny, looking straight at him now, said, “Maybe she just likes me better than you.”
“Come on, Gin, look at what I’ve done for the girl! How can she still not like me?”
“I’m just kidding, Ron! Relax! I promise she’ll wear your bracelet in the next five days.”
“You better be right.”
*************
Later, back in Ginny’s room
“Hermione, you have to wear that bracelet tomorrow, or I think Ron’ll cry,” Ginny said, the second she sat down.
“What bracelet?” Hermione asked, looking confused. And then it dawned on her. “Oh my goodness, I completely forgot about that! I’m terrible!” She then began to search feverishly at the foot of her bed for the forgotten bracelet. After a few minutes of hurried looking, she finally found it underneath her bed. “I’m going to wear this right now. I can’t believe I forgot! It’s really beautiful.”
“I think I know why you forgot,” Ginny said, her grin getting broader by the second.
Hermione threw a pillow at her.
Teaching the Dark by BittersweetLove
Chapter Notes: I wrote a LOT over the winter break, so you guys are all in luck! Woot! Now read!