The Adult World

Chapter 14: Reality


The sound of things getting moved around caused Hermione to groan and throw her arm over her eyes. “What are you doing?” She cried, shooting a death glare in Draco’s direction.

He replaced the cushion he had just turned up on a chair and glare down at her. “I’ve misplaced something. If you don’t like the noise, then I suggest moving to your own room.”

With another groan, she pulled herself to a sitting position on the couch. Apparently, she had passed out cold after their spat. Looking down at herself, she realized that she was still in the clothes she had put on yesterday. She ignored Draco as he continued moving around the room, slamming things around a little harder then necessary. Running her tongue over her teeth, she grimaced, and pushed the palms of her hands into her eyes. Her head was pounding something fierce, and he was just making it worse.

“Could you make any more noise??” She complained, her hands now massaging her temples.

Dropping a pile of books on top of his desk, he turned to look at her. “I don’t have time for this.” He said, checking the time on his watch.

Hermione rolled her eyes, then jumped when he slammed the portrait door behind him. She noticed that he had reverted to calling her Granger again. With a sigh, she drug herself off the couch, and made her way into her bedroom. She wanted to sleep some more, but only after she showered and took a hangover remedy.

Stopping at her door, she turned and glanced back at the room. Something shiny had caught her eye as she was approaching her room, and her eyes scanned the floor for the object. Seeing it again, Hermione walked over to the chair Draco had been occupying last night. Bending down, she grasped a silver chain, and pulled it out from under the chair. It was the timortectum stone she had given him for Christmas. She held the stone in her palm, the blue and silver colors swirling together as she examined the chain. One of the links had broken, which must have been the reason it was on the floor. Hermione smiled when she realized that this must have been what he was searching for only moments ago. She knew that she should put it on the coffee table for him, but instead, she repaired the link with a flick of her wand, and slipped the stone around her neck.

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Draco was annoyed, and his classes could tell. They were quieter then usual, and stayed out of his way as he stalked around the room assessing their work. He was angry at Hermione for going out and getting drunk with Neville. He knew that he had over-reacted, that she was basically doing what he had done not to long ago, but he wanted to find out what was going on between the two of them.

He sighed, looking around the room at the students as they worked on the spell of the day. He hadn’t slept a wink last night, curled up in the sheets that still smelled like her. Seeing her on the couch when he came out of his room that morning, made him want to scoop her up and put her in his soft bed… and possibly join her. Draco had resisted the temptation, and brought his hand up to adjust the pendant around his neck. That was when he noticed it was missing. He practically turned the room upside down looking for it. All he wanted to do now was go back to the common room and find it.

Looking down at his watch, he grimaced at the time. With fifteen minutes left to go, and another class arriving shortly after that, he knew that he wouldn’t have time to look for the pendant till lunch time. In the mean time, he sat at his desk and flipped through the green notebook that had belonged to Amanda. She had been fairly brilliant, by his observations on her notes, and various potion experiments. What aggravated him, was that according to his reading, nothing in the notebook denoted anything that would have caused such a large explosion. He went through the book three times, and never once found a potion experiment that was unstable.

Slamming the book closed, he leaned back in his chair and scowled at his students. Consulting his watch again, her realized that only five minutes had passed. It was going to be a long day.

********

Two days passed with Draco still searching in vain for the pendant. He idly observed Hermione while she lounged around their common room. He wanted to talk with her about some of the things he had read in Amanda’s notebook, but he kept them to himself for the time being. He noticed that in the past few days, he hadn’t seen her in anything but night clothes and slippers. She also hadn’t left the room since returning from her drinking binge with Longbottom, and was mostly silent, with the exception of a few comments every now and then.

As he stepped out of his room and pulled on his coat, he frowned at Hermione, who had taken up her usual residence on the couch. With a book in her hand, she ignored him as she swung one of her legs. The ugly pink slipper, that was on her foot, danced in the air in front of him.

“Are you ever going to leave the room Granger?”

Her foot stopped swinging, and she peered around her book at him. It had been the first time in two days that he had actually attempted to talk to her. “I will… eventually.” She said, casting her eyes away from his stare.

Hearing his sigh, she closed her book and sat up on the couch. Draco took a seat in the arm chair that he usually resided in across from her. “You need to get out and around people again. The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be.” He said, pulling on his leather gloves and looking intently into her eyes. He had missed being able to talk to her.

Folding her legs under herself, Hermione fidgeted under his gaze. She knew he was right, but every time she tried to force herself to do it, she found that she couldn’t. “I just… I keep reliving the moment over and over.” She said, her eyes glistening with tears. “What if I had stopped and helped her? What if….” She let the sentence fall off with a shrug of her shoulders. Dropping her gaze from his, she looked down into her lap.

Draco studied her for a moment, then stood up swiftly. He approached her quickly, and stood over her. Hermione looked up at him questioningly. When she opened her mouth to ask what he thought he was doing, he leaned over, and pulled her to her feet.

“Malfoy! What…”

Draco grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder, hooking his arm around the back of her knees to keep her in place.

“What are you doing!? Put me down this instant!” She cried, as she shook her head, shaking her hair out of her face. She slapped his back with her hands. “Malfoy! Put me down!”

Ignoring her, he slapped her butt as he pushed the portrait door open and walked down the hall. “Be still.” He said, smirking at the sound of her outraged scream.

“Malfoy!” She hissed as he ascended the stairs to the main hall. “Please… Draco? Really, put me down. I get it. I’m not even dressed properly!” She cried in a hushed whisper, so as not to draw too much attention her herself.

Only it was too late for that. Students who were milling around the halls stopped and gaped at the pair as Draco strode by. “Well, if you wore something other then a dressing gown during the day, then you would be properly dressed.” He said with a grin, continuing on his journey.

Hermione cried out in frustration, and looked around the students who were watching them go by. “We are teachers for heaven’s sake! Put me down!” She whispered, smacking his back again.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Or I’ll smack you back like I did in our room.” He said to her as he reached the main doors.

Turning red-faced, Hermione stopped struggling, and huffed, waiting for him to get to wherever he thought he was taking her.

The wind whipped around them as he pushed the doors open and descended the stairs. Hermione shivered, looking in horror at the snow on the ground. He had actually taken her outside! ‘What the hell does he think he’s doing!’ She thought, I’m going to hex him straight to hell when he puts me down.

Coming to a stop at his destination, Draco dropped her unceremoniously to her feet. Hermione turned, getting ready to rage at him, when she realized where he had taken her. She stood looking at him in confusion, till he raised his hand and pointed at a random name in the marble memorial.

“Should have gone right instead of left.” He said, then pointed to another name. “Should have used a protection spell instead of a hex.” Then another. “Should have stayed home.” Another. “Should have ducked instead of jumped.”

Shaking his head, he gripped her upper arms. “Hermione, all these people died. Most of them were young and healthy, but they died because of one small error in judgment. One tiny mistake lead them to their deaths. I don’t know how it actually happened, but do you see where I’m going with this? They died, and it’s terrible, but it happened. The living have to move on and not dwell on things that can’t be changed.”

Tears flowed freely down her face as she took in his words to her. Sniffling, she looked over at the names, and ran her hand across them. He was right. It was horrible. Amanda died, but she needed to move on and stop berating herself for things that she couldn’t change now.

Blinking the tears out of her eyes, she looked back at Draco, who had dropped his hands back to his sides. They stood staring at each other, as groups of students walked by them, staring at the duo as the trudged by. Giving her a gentle smile she didn’t know he was capable of, he reached out and ran his gloved hand over her cheek. His thumb ran over the apple of her cheek, whipping away a stray tear.

“You should probably get back inside.” He said looking down at her. “It’s cold out here.”

She laughed and smiled at him. “Yeah, it is.” She said, wrapping her arms around her body.

He looked intently at her for another minute, then seemed to shake himself from his thoughts. “I have to go referee the Quidditch game now.”

Hermione nodded, then saw his eyes linger on her neck for a moment before he turned and walked away. An owl hooted, and landed on her shoulder, looking very put out. Ruffling it’s feathers, it held it’s leg out to her. Taking the message from the owl’s leg, she apologized to it for not having anything. Giving her an annoyed look, it took off, and headed to the Owlery.

Breaking the seal, Hermione unrolled the scroll and read the letter. It was from Professor McGonagall, asking her to come and see her now that she was ‘out and about’. Snickering, she rolled the parchment back up and headed inside. How the Professor knew that she had left her room this quickly was a mystery, but it appeared that nothing escaped the Headmaster’s at this school.

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A/N: I'm back earlier then expected! Luckily it only took them three weeks to replace the hard-drive in my computer... Instead of the six they originally told me. Unfortunately, I lost all the pictures and videos that I had on it, not to mention my story. I was able to copy it from here, and resave it to my new hard-drive. I'll tell you what, it was hell those three weeks. I haven't had to pay bills the old fashioned way in a long time! Sending checks out stinks! Anyway, next chapter will have smut... which should be out this weekend. Hope you enjoyed this chapter