Gryphon's Wings and Crocodile Tears

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters or places they belong to the wonderful J. K. Rowling: It is her world I just play in it.


Chapter 14-Of Tea and Ruined Innocence


Hermione didn’t look up as Moody led her to his office, which was several floors below the Gryffindor common room. Though the pace Moody kept her to was not at all fast she began to draw ragged rasping breaths by the time they reached his door. She was more than ashamed that she’d nearly let her temper get the better of her, something that had never happened in her sixteen years of life. She was notorious for being level headed, even actions that would have been rash for another for her were carefully weighed and calculated. There were no words she could find to adequately express the gratitude she felt for Moody’s interruption. She decided to remain silent until he compelled her to be otherwise.


She followed him into his office and took the aged chair he proffered her; the worn brown velvet cushion gave beneath her slight weight. She found that at that moment her shoes were the most fascinating things in the whole world. Moody was obviously content to let her have a bit of time to reflect on her close call, he bustled about the small room seemingly ignoring his guest.


Mad Eye went about the task of stoking the meager fire in the grate and making tea, his magical eye kept a close scrutiny of the young witch while his more mundane organic parts kept busy performing the more mundane functions. He was astonished that the feud between Ron and herself had managed to get so complicated and messy so quickly. This was especially disconcerting, as Ron was no longer a key player in this emotional firestorm.


Her ashen expression won him utterly. One aspect of her personality was made astonishingly clear to him in that instant: she did not intend to give up on her friends without more than sufficient evidence to condemn them, she was not naive as many would have thought, she was loyal and quite brave.


“It is difficult to face the suspicion of a friend’s dishonorable behavior with the loyalty that said friend most certainly deserves. Most oft the rumors are just that, rumor, not fact,” he said with his back to her and his magical eye fixed on her. She stirred a little, but still she did not speak. “Miss Granger, you must not blame yourself. Honestly, if you weren’t upset I’d be more concerned. It is no crime to be hurt when a friend has rode roughshod over your feelings.”


“Puh!” said Hermione and then she let out a spate of manic laughter.


“What is it that is so amusing Miss Granger?”


“Harry, of all people said something very similar to that not two months ago, and now well…”


They sat in silence for several minutes before Hermione elected to speak once more, but this time her words took on a far more somber and aggrieved quality. “Professor, thank you; I would have hurt them. How could everything get so muddled?” she asked desperately.


“That is one of the easiest questions you have ever asked me Miss Granger, the answer is simple, you are growing up.”


“Then why was I being so shortsighted? Adults are supposed to be rational.”


“Even the best of us have our moments.”


Hermione looked up at Moody’s heavily scarred face and thought a moment before answering him. “Professor, this is all my fault.”


“No, not entirely. But the fact that you seem willing to accept full blame for the situation entire so soon after the fact tells me that you are far more mature than you feel that you are.”


Somehow Moody’s assessment seemed to stiffen Hermione’s resolve, this was not the insurmountable trouble that it had appeared to be when she held her wand to their backs not twenty minutes prior to the present moment. She took the mug of tea he pressed into her hand gratefully and sipped at the strange brew. It was a strangely sweet brew, but it contained no sugar. “What is in this? Its brilliant.”


“Just peppermint and stevia. Stevia is an herb that is sweeter than sugar, so you need only use a tiny bit.”


She was thankful that he taken up the thread of conversation she’d passed to him, it was a great relief to talk of more innocuous things than her emotional state. They continued to speak politely to one another until the last of the tea was finished. By that time she was feeling much more calm and collected, she stood to make her way back to the common room. Moody had a bit of parting advice for the young witch.


“Miss Granger, shall I take it that any possibility of physical retaliation has left your thoughts?”


“Yes Professor, with one exception.” Moody eyed her shrewdly, he knew that her condition was likely to be well thought out and rational so he did not interrupt her as he might have a lesser student. “If one of them should attack me first I cannot say that I would not respond in kind, but I can promise that should this come to blows that mine will be dealt only in self-defense.”


“Very well Miss Granger, I will see you in class.”


Ginny was in a panic, her breaths ragged and short as she tore through the corridors of the castle. Her makeshift bag was not at all sufficient to hold her few belongings on her ill-planned trip to the Room of Requirement. The side of her torso ached with a painful side-stitch as she finally approached her goal. She paced in front of the door that led to the Room of Requirement trying desperately to think keep her mind to the task at hand. After several failed attempts to open the room she’d calmed enough to meet with success.


She opened the door and flung herself down onto the bed in the center of the room and began to weep uncontrollably. How was she going to avoid Hermione forever? ‘What in the name of Merlin have I done?’ she thought.


Draco exited the portrait that led to the kitchen and stood amused at the look of panic on Ginny Weasley’s face. There was no doubt in his mind as to why she looked so stricken; his could only mean that Hermione had discovered the treacherous dealings of her friends. This put Hermione within easy grasp of his deceptively gentle grasp, but first things first. Would it not make her conquest sweeter were he to seduce her former best mate as well? Wherever a young woman laid her guard down for only a moment, there he was with a kind word and an empty heart.


He watched the door snap shut and then he decided to take his turn at pacing and thinking about what he required. ‘I must find poor Ginny,’ he thought as he passed the door thrice. After the third pass the door appeared and he slipped inside to claim his latest victim.


Draco left the room as soon as the gullible young witch had fallen asleep. He was still astounded at the power he had over women. He strutted back to the Slytherin common room to revise his notes to include Ginny Weasley. She was not unpleasant, but she was inexperienced; it was not often that Draco found himself with a virgin in bed. A malicious grin spread across his angelic face as he reflected on the fact that he’d ruined Potter’s girlfriend.


He was not at all gentle as he dealt with her. How he enjoyed the look of pain in her eyes as he pushed himself into her; he drank of her agony, as his thrusts grew harder and deeper. Draco did not allow her to take any pleasure in the event, though at length he took his own from her.