Gryphon's Wings and Crocodile Tears

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the other original characters and or places in the Potterverse, which was created by the wonderful JK Rowling. I believe that they are owned by Warner Brothers. However, the plot, new characters and or places are mine, mine, and mine! And are subject to copyright by ME!


Chapter 18- Keep Your Friends Close…


Hermione was more than grateful for the scroll that Ron had given to her the previous day at lunch, it had proven beyond all doubts that Malfoy was in fact going attempt to use the occasion of sleeping with her to ruin her reputation. He was such a vile creature, she sneered to think of what his face must have looked like whilst he was bragging about their arrangement in the boy’s toilet yesterday. She could picture the way that his upper lip curled in a cruel, arrogant smirk and the way that his eyes turned the color of slate cliffs on a stormy evening, the vision was positively chilling and she tried not to shiver. ‘Fortunately enough for me,’ she thought, ‘he has no idea that I’m on to his little game.’


That was a very satisfying thought indeed, it was rare to be in a position of power over any Malfoy; the family seemed to have made an art form of strategizing and jockeying for favor among those whose good will could grant them safe-passage in even the most treacherous of situations. That fact, and that fact alone, was what had given Hermione the minutest amount of respect for the otherwise foul family. She sighed; saddened by the truth that high intelligence did not always breed an equally large conscience, or a sense of fair play. ‘What a catch he could be if only he weren’t a Malfoy, there’d have been a better chance of him being a civil human-being had he been raised by wolves. At least a she-wolf wouldn’t eat her own pup if she thought that she could profit from it!’ Hermione thought, and not for the first time. She stopped in her tracks for a moment, why in the name of all thins magical was she actually trying to rationalize Draco’s actions away? It would do her no good to go into this “meeting” with a distorted picture of him that was the fastest way to get herself hurt, the very thing she must avoid at all costs.


‘No, Draco Malfoy is a beast, not fully developed in cranial capacity. He does not deserve pity. Every morning he chooses the path of evil and ignorance; he could change if he wanted to, like Sirius did, but he doesn’t want to. He will always be a despicable git.’ She never thought she’d think so crudely as Ronald, but at that moment she was and she angrily stuffed the parchment up the sleeve of her robe just in time to conceal its presence from the object of her bizarre musings as he rounded the corner. It was more awkward for her than she’d have thought it would be to see him in an empty corridor, for a fraction of a second she could have sworn that he was equally as uncomfortable as she while the two stood staring at each other saying nothing.


This was her chance to gain yet more leverage where he was concerned. No sooner had Draco’s exterior become stoic once more that he was accosted with such a fiery passionate kiss that he was left breathless and sightless for a moment. When he was once again aware that he was standing in an empty hallway in the depths of the castle he squinted and rubbed his eyes, “What in bloody hell?” His question was whisked away from him by a draft and bounced off of the walls never to be answered, as though he’d somehow offended the silence. He knew that there was no hope for his question to be answered and he continued on his way back to the Slytherin common room trying desperately not to think of a certain pair of cocoa colored eyes. He had no idea why Granger of all the girls at school should make him think of those mysterious eyes, after all her eyes were a dull…blue? That didn’t seem right at all, but nothing seemed right when he pictured her face. For years he’d avoided looking directly at her for reasons he could not now recall, the ugly duckling had become a swan right under his nose and he’d been blind to her miraculous transformation. What else that was painfully obvious had he missed by preferring to cling to his flawed first impressions?


Harry had finally managed to corner Ginny when she least expected it, the first thing the morning after his fit in the Great Hall. She emerged from the Room of Requirement looking, had she known it, just like a half-drown rat. Harry grabbed her by the shoulders before she could bolt, “Ginny are you all right? I haven’t seen you for days. I’ve been terribly worried.” She did not answer him; she could not even begin to summon the courage to look Harry in the eyes because she knew that he’d see how she betrayed him with Draco. She could not bear the thought of having him hate her forever just because she’d made one mistake, one huge and horrible mistake that would haunt her for the rest of her life.


Harry took Ginny by the chin and tilted her face up to meet his, but he could not compel her to make eye contact with him, finally he gave up and pulled her into his warm embrace and began to coo soothing things into her ears as one would do with a frightened child. After ten minutes it seemed to Harry that the worst of the hysterics had passed and that her sobs were not so violent; he decided that thins might be a good time to see exactly what it was that had upset her so immensely. Harry decided to take the most obvious approach and attempt to discover if it was indeed Hermione that was causing Ginny such distress. “I got detention for a week because of her,” the biting tone in Harry voice, Ginny realized, could only indicate that he was speaking of Hermione, “just because I told her and everyone else what the whole school thinks of her. I have had enough of her high and mighty attitude, always acting like she is better than everyone else. Then when I saw her headed directly at you I had to stop her from blaming you…”


“It’s not Hermione,” Ginny managed in a scarcely audible whisper that trembled like her pale and skeletal hands. Her red tresses were plastered to her forehead with the sweat of the nightmare from which she’d just awoken. It was less a dream than simply her reliving of the brutal, but not uninvited, encounter that she’d shared with Draco a few days earlier. “I just keep having these really frightening dreams were…a guy keeps attacking me.”


“Who?” Harry demanded, his voice was icy and the fury that had come over his face was enough to spook Ginny into meeting his eyes. She forced her tongue to remain still, thought she sorely wanted to blurt out that it was Draco and that it was not just a dream that it had really happened: that Draco had taken advantage of her vulnerable emotional state and use it to take her virginity, something that he cared not for. Harry decided that Ginny would tell him when she was ready and did not press the issue of finding her nighttime attacker. That is not to say that he stopped thinking about it, it would be more accurate to say that he obsessed about it. ‘The only person despicable to hurt Ginny now would be Malfoy,’ Harry thought and tried to contain his anger. Then he stopped short, it was one thing to hate Malfoy for all things that he’d done, but it was not at all fair to hate him for what he’d done in Ginny’s delusional dreams. “Your sure that it’s not Hermione?” he asked, wanting to be sure he’d understood her.


She nodded, but did not answer, as she did not trust herself to speak without telling the truth. “Well,” Harry said, “I have to get to class and so do you.” He kissed her on the top of the head and was gone a few seconds later. Ginny was relieved that he’d been placated so easily, was it too easily? She shook her head and regretted it a moment later as lances of pain shot through her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to run to the Hospital Wing and get a headache potion from Madam Pomfrey, but she did not want to risk the astute Medi-Witch noticing the bruises and scars that she’d collected as a result of her encounter with Draco. Not that the nurse was nosy, quite the opposite actually, Ginny had never known her to question the circumstances of a student’s injuries; she did not want to tempt fate. She headed off to class holding her head in her hands.


Ron was talking to Seamus outside of Ginny’s classroom when she overheard something that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end: “And Malfoy was in the boy’s toilet yesterday and he was bragging about how he was going to fuck the only girl in our year that he hadn’t had yet.”


“Whose that, mate?”


“Hermione,” Ron said miserably before continuing, “As if she’d ever agree to let him take advantage of her. I was so angry that I nearly cursed him into next week!” Ron’s face was turning red as Ginny’s eyes widened at this revelation, she knew Hermione better than Ron did. ‘Hermione can’t be that stupid! I have to warn her,’ Ginny thought as she slipped unnoticed into the classroom making sure that the bruises on her wrists were covered.


It seemed to Ginny that the class took several hours longer than it should have for the class to end. She could not keep her mind to the task of learning summoning charms, and this was usually her best subject! Professor Flitwick noticed her distraction and pulled her aside as they began independent practice of summoning charms. “Are you quite well Miss Weasley? I have never seen you so distracted and despondent. Would you like to visit the nurse?”


“Yes, Professor. I think that would help,” Ginny said seizing the opportunity to get out of the class early, though she had no intention of going to the nurse. Instead she made her way back to the Gryffindor common room to wait for Hermione. She slipped into a light doze in an armchair by the fire ands she was startled to find that she was being shaken awake by none other than Hermione herself.


“Ginny are you all right? You were thrashing,” her voice was soft and small so as not to frighten the redhead. Hermione reached out and laid a hand delicately on Ginny’s forearm and she was startled to find that Ginny winced and pulled her arm back and tears were beginning to spring from her eyes. Hermione’s expression was all concern and the redhead melted when confronted with such compassion. “Hermione, I’m so sorry…I,” Ginny began.


“Don’t worry about it, it’s all in the past. Now what’s wrong?”


Ginny relayed the entire story of what had happened between her and Draco in the Room of Requirement a few nights before. “Then I overheard Ron telling Seamus that you actually consented to let Malfoy have his way with you for one night. He doesn’t think you would do that, but I think you might. Please don’t,” for the first time she rolled up her sleeves and showed another person some of the damage that Draco had done. Hermione gasped and swallowed the bile that she felt rise in her mouth at the sight of what he’d done to her. This changed everything in her estimation, Draco would still get his date, but it would not be at all what he expected. “Promise me that you won’t let him do this to you too Hermione. Promise!” Ginny said gripping Hermione’s arm tightly until she agreed.


“Don’t worry Ginny he will not get the shrinking violet that he’s expecting. Oh no. I have much bigger plans for that piece of scum, and they do not include me getting hurt, be it emotionally or physically.” Ginny wanted to believe that Hermione could out-fox Draco, but a part of her remained wary of the whole situation as she smiled up at the brunette who was standing confidently in front of her. With that their feud had ended and without, as some had predicted, and fighting whatsoever; it was rather anticlimactic.


“Please don’t tell Harry about it…I will, but not right now I still need some time.”


“It’s not my secret to tell, Ginny. Next time don’t let things get so bad before you come to me. No matter what happens you can tell me. You know that you’re the closest thing that I have to a sister, right? I don’t ever want anything to change that.” Ginny was genuinely touched by Hermione’s affectionate tone and stood to hug her adoptive sister. The two of them left the common room and walked to lunch together, talking and joking all the while, without a hint of the tension that had plagued their relationship for so many days.


The Great Hall went silent as the two of them entered arm in arm laughing at the way Ron’s brow wrinkled when he was deep in thought. They were oblivious to the lack of commotion and the very next moment Harry was standing in before them looking dumbfounded. “Hi Harry,” they said in unison giving him twin peck kisses on either cheek. Ginny took his hand and led him to the table where he sat next to her and directly across from Ron, who merely accepted that things were now back to normal between the two girls.