It\'s All Done With Mirrors

A/N: GEmory - I couldn\'t agree more, re: punishment. He is *not* going to have Hermione to himself until he\'s properly remorseful. I think the world of her, and I just won\'t bloody have it! Thanks for the review!!!!


Chapter Eighteen
Just Me and Malfoy


Lavender folded first. \"Look,\" she said, yawning, \"some of us have to be up at the crack of dawn, and it\'s already nearly the crack of dawn...I have just *got* to get some shut-eye or I will look like a hag, and I will hold you - \" she looked fiercely at Draco \" - responsible.\"

I wondered what a hatter needed to be up for, so early, but decided it was probably none of my business, so I looked away respectfully as Draco kissed her goodbye.

\"Albus, Minerva, would you see Lavender to her door?\" The two professors assured Draco they would do exactly that, and the three rose together and walked sleepily to the door.

Ginny stood up then. She carried little Ronald in her arms, and Harry was carrying Athena. \"We\'d better get along, too. Winky is really good with the kids, but I do have this urge to spend the day with my whole family tomorrow!\"

She kissed me on the cheek. \"Darling Hermione, two things...First of all, I am so sorry that Ron treated you so contemptibly. It was foul of him, and I\'m quite ashamed to be called his sister. Oh, I am sorry he was killed, don\'t get me wrong - and if I evet met my hands on that Parkinson bitch there won\'t be anything left of her for the Dementors to Kiss...It\'s just that...maybe I should be resigned to rotten behaviour from my brothers. First Percy, now Ron!\"

Tears shone in her beautiful eyes, and I hugged her impulsively. She continued: \"Secondly, I cannot thank you enough for being with me tonight. If I hadn\'t had you there, I would probably have bitten poor Harry\'s head off.\"

\'Poor Harry\' pulled a face at his wife, and then leaned toward me to kiss me, too. \"I know this all must seem completely insane...but do trust Albus. He has your best interests at heart. Don\'t worry about a thing. Sleep all day tomorrow, if you like, but if you want to come to our rooms for supper, we\'d simply love to have you with us. Consider it a Godmotherly duty!\"

And with that ringing in my ears, the Potter clan apparated out of the Three Broomsticks.

\"So,\" drawled Malfoy in my ear, \"Just we two then, is it?\"

\"You\'re so frightfully observant,\" I replied in a similar tone.

\"Truth or Dare, then?\"

\"Oh, for the love of Demeter, Malfoy!\" I flicked the foamy top of my Butterbeer at him, and he ducked, grinning.

\"Did you hear anyone call the game to a close? I sure didn\'t. Don\'t tell me you daren\'t continue!\"

\"Is that the Dare?\"

\"Touché, my dear Gryffindor.\"

\"Truth.\"

\"OK Granger...Potter mentioned some parcel you had with you on the night of our Graduation. What was in it?\"

\"I\'m surprised you hadn\'t worked that out, Malfoy. It was a muggle pregnancy test.\"

\"Oh? One of those little sticks you\'re supposed to piss on, and it tells you if you\'re expecting or not?\"

\"That\'s the one. How do you know about those?\"

\"Well, in the Sixth year, Millicent missed a period and she didn\'t dare go to Poppy, so we cornered Weasley, and made him ask his dad where to get hold of one.\"

\"I see. Well, anyway, that\'s what it was.\"

\"I was a bit disappointed with it, to be honest. When Millicent brought it in to show me, I thought it would tell us who the father was as well. No such luck, so she had to go to Poppy anyway. The daft cow couldn\'t remember who she\'d been with - and the terminatus spell doesn\'t work unless the father is present.\"

\"Yeah, I know. Truth or Dare?\"

\"Dare.\"

\"Draco Malfoy, I dare you to pour the dregs of all the remaining drinks on this table into one glass and down it in one.\"

\"Shit. No way, Granger. Truth it is, then.\"

\"I have you now, Slytherin boy. Now tell me honestly: did you know that Pansy was going to torch my house tonight?\"

\"Granger!\" He looked shocked. \"No *bloody* way. Do you honestly think I could have let Weasley die like that? No - Pansy jettisoned me from her life, and kept me out with wards. The first inkling I received that she was going after you, I went straight to Albus. Last night, we tried to get you both out of the house, but we were too late. She was too bloody clever for us. She deserves the Dementor\'s Kiss,\" he spat.

\"Granger, you know yourself that people can change. I don\'t expect you to trust me like you trust Potter, but please believe me when I tell you that I have changed. Part of it is to do with Lavender. But Albus started it.
\"When Father died, I inherited his political seat as well as the estates and lands. That meant I received the role of Head of Hogwarts School Governors. Not being as ambitious as my father, I approached Albus and told him plainly that I was willing to start making amends for the arse I\'d been at Hogwarts. As you know, the old man is never happier than when he\'s giving some delinquent a second chance...and - well - the warmth I received from being welcomed into Albus\' confidences. It changed me, Granger. And you can look at my nose if you don\'t believe me!\"

I solemnly laid a finger against Malfoy\'s pert little beak and pretended to measure it. We both started laughing, then.

\"Granger. Truth or Dare.\"

\"Truth.\"

\"Be truthful now - why didn\'t you divorce Ron? With his infidelity, it wouldn\'t have been that difficult.\"

I take a sip of Butterbeer before aning,ing, determined to keep my nose at its preferred length.

\"After I had returned from...being away...I just wanted peace. And quiet. When I realised Ron was playing around on me, I merely adopted the view that he would give me more of just that. More than that, I believed - or wanted to believe - that someone needed me. Not for sex - but to keep him safe, to make sure his clothes were clean, to make sure he ate properly, and, after the trial, to make sure he didn\'t need to live without magic completely.
\"Look - I hated sex with Ron. First of all, he didn\'t satisfy me...but I decided that was my fault, for lack of experience. I couldn\'t get used to Ron\'s uh, techniques. For a while, just knowing that he had wanted me for so long, and that I had agreed - even though I can\'t really remember agreeing - to marry him, made me feel...sort of special. Enough to try to make a go of it.
\"In the end, I was locked in. I couldn\'t leave him, because he needed me, and I couldn\'t love him, because he\'d raped me.\"

I glanced at Malfoy. He was speechless.

\"Truth or Dare, Malfoy?\" I said, quietly.

\"Draco.\"

\"Draco. Truth...or Dare? Quit stalling now!\"

\"Truth.\"

\"What\'s the most horrible secret you\'ve ever kept?\"

\"Granger...\"

\"Come on! Answer, or pick Dare and risk botty boils.\"

\"I was answering! Don\'t get all hoity-toity with me or I\'ll challenge you to a duel.\"

\"Come on then, Draco. Out with it. And it\'s Hermione, if you don\'t mind.\"

\"Hermione...I am the Godfather of your son.\"

I narrowed my eyes, but there was not a hint of damage to the man\'s nose.

\"What\'s so horrible about that?\" was all I could manage by way of a reply.

\"Only the prospect of being on the receiving end of one of your hexes when you found out.\"

\"You git!\"

\"Well, you just had to ask, Hermione dearest,\" he drawled.

Butterbeer is quite good at cushioning against shock, I discovered that night. That was the only answer as to why I seemed to be getting used to the fact that I had a son who was sleeping not far away. Would I ever -

\"\'Mione? Truth or Dare?\"

\"Truth.\"

\"Tell me what happened when you opened the door.\"

\"Snape ripped my robe in half. Truth or Dare!\"

\"You\'re kidding! Shit, you\'re not! Truth.\"

\"Was I really the talk of the Slytherin Boy\'s Dorm?\"

\"Yes you bloody well were, you love it, don\'t you?\"

I was suddenly laughing so hard I practically choked on my Butterbeer.

\"Bloody little peacock you are, Granger. Truth or Dare?\"

\"I\'ll let that remark pass for now. Dare.\"

\"I Dare you, Hermione Granger, to go and shag Snape\"

\"Truth!\"

\"Bawk, bawk!\"

\"Truth, Draco. Sort yourself out or I\'ll Hex your nose up your bum.\"

\"OK, OK...calm down. Truth - Tell me why you didn\'t tell anyone...not even Harry...when Ron raped you.\"

\"Astarte\'s rags, Draco, why don\'t you go ahead and ask me a difficult question!\" I was stalling for time, and Draco narrowed his eyes at me.

\"Just answer, unless you want to...\" he trailed off, frowning, searching for the word.

\"Pass?\" I am never too drunk to finish someone\'s sentence for them.

His eyes lit up as I felt a rather chilly draught around my...well...my everything!

\"You. Little. Shit.\"

Draco feasted his eyes for a few seconds, and then took pity on me.

\"Couldn\'t resist a few Slytherin tactics. Sorry, Hermione, take this. I must say, though,\" he remarked conversationally as he shrugged off his outer robes, \"I never took you for a Commando girl.\"

\"That\'s because you were so busy thinking about me in your Slytherin bed that you forgot to ask.\"

He choked on his drink, and I had to slap him on the back.

\"So, Draco, \" I taunted, when he has finished coughing. \"Truth, or Dare?\"

\"Dare.\"

\"I dare you to go ask Rosemerta if we can have some more drinks, and if you can get her to say yes, I\'m calling an end to the game. I\'d like to talk some more, though,\" I added.

\"Trust me, \'Mione, I\'m an old hand at this.\"

*

And he is, actually, because he brought back not just one more drink apiece, but three - which were all firewhiskeys. I called an end to Truth or Dare, and was relieved to feel the soft wool gown around me once more.

By the time we had staggered, grinning, into the grounds of Hogwarts, I had discovered a few things:

1. Draco had changed enormously. And I was looking forward to spending more time with him.
2. I was still pretty good at hexes. Draco\'d earned one hell of a wart on his nose from trying to look up my dress while I climbed over the locked gates.
3. Mixing Butterbeer with Firewhiskey is an experiment I am not likely to repeat, since it makes me lose all feeling in my toes, fingers and nose.
4. According to his godson, Snape hadn\'t had a single female visitor to his chambers in the whole of the past dozen years.
5. I didn\'t even want to know how Draco knew that.
6. I didn\'t even want to know why that made me feel pleased.

By the time we\'d slipped in through the Hufflepuff door, past the lovely rose garden - all flowerless I\'m afraid, petals scattered everywhere - I\'d taken pity on Draco and removed the wart. In return, he offered to lead sleepy old me to Gryffindor Tower so I could get my head down.

I was so exhausted - and frankly, pissed out of my skull - I could barely see as Draco hauled me along corridors, up and down staircases, until he muttered some words and the portrait of the Fat Lady slid back, revealing the open doorway. \"In you go,\" he whispered, pushing me in before him, and he dragged me, protesting, up another flight of stairs to another door, which swung open before me. I staggered towards the dim outline of a four-poster bed, and I almost burst with tiredness as I sank down onto cool cotton sheets. I mumbled a sleepy goodnight to Draco, and he bid me \"pleasant dreams\" and I must have fallen straight to sleep because I never even heard the door close.