No Longer Helpless

Chapter Eighteen
How Easily We Forgive

Thankfully Hermione was able to recover, or at least compose herself before Draco tried to use his most effective tactic on her, which was yelling and making snide remarks. She was off to shower and make ready for their breakfast.

Draco was relieved the lighting had been so dim in his room. He was now charming his hair to a darker shade of blonde, since the spell seem to have slowly weakened over night. He was sure Hermione would find the glitch in her appearance and rectify it also.

As he walked down the corridor of the third floor, making his way to the stairwell, he felt rather awkward in his clothing. How odd it seemed that for a school so set in its old fashion ways, the clothing was rather muggle like.

The clothes he wore, faded boot cut jeans and a form fitting navy blue t-shirt, just felt wrong among wizards. And yet, he fit right in. Perhaps this was another lesson for him, that wizarding ways had nothing to do with clothing and fashion. Yes, something like that would be important to remember.

The next time he saw someone dressed in what he deemed muggle clothes he’d think twice about assuming them to be an actual muggle, a mistake like that could be dangerous. He’d mention this to Hermione too, ask her what she thought about it.

Walking with his eyes to the floor, not focusing on anything in particular, he became lost in his own musings. Draco round the final corner and came before the lunch hall doors. There was a movement he caught out of the corner of his eye, which his mind seemed to process automatically, so that he reacted before he even knew what was going on.

Quick as lightening he had caught and prevented from crashing to the floor, Sarah Giovanni, senior class president. How she managed to trip so violently on accident he couldn’t guess, other than to say she hadn’t.

He had to bite his the inside of his cheek to keep a loathing sneer from crossing his face as she uttered a surprised gasp and braced herself by putting her hands flush against his chest. ‘Entirely unnecessary and indiscrete,’ he thought, now fighting to keep his eyes from rolling.

His acting skills were truly put the test when dealing with someone he wanted nothing more than to tell off. She had no idea who he really was. How dare she touch a Malfoy in such a manner and not feel immediate fear for her brash actions. Accident or not, had he not been under cover he would have cast her aside, whether she had balance or not, and stared coldly down at her until sufficient apologies had been made.

As it was, he simply sighed. Nothing could be done. Hermione wasn’t the only one who was feeling a touch bit used at the moment. But, he was more accepting of such things, not really taking any of it to heart, being Slytherin and more worn for the weather. Still, he felt disgusted and outraged at the subtle movements Sarah’s hands were making against his chest. ‘Does she think she’s being seductive? I wonder if she knows how unattractive she truly is? So forward, there’s no telling how many people she’s been with.’

It was definitely a turn off for Draco to be with someone who had slept with more people than the number of times Potter had escaped death. Okay, so he did enjoy a woman with skills, but that didn’t mean she needed to sleep with half the wizarding world to develop them.

Contrary to popular belief, he hadn’t had all that many different witches. It had always been casual sex. He was indeed well schooled in the field, but he also found remaining with the same witch of his current fancy suited him best. If he managed to find a pretty girl or woman who understood that being with him meant no strings attached, then it was best to stick with her since most witches out there felt inclined to become too clingy after the first time.

The idea of being with Sarah was down right nauseating to him, but his brows furrowed slightly as he wondered why. He didn’t like to be with someone who got around, but a few months ago he would have resigned to the advances and considered the chance to lay someone with experience a job perk. Now, it was different.

When had his tastes changed? What was it now he looked for in a partner? Surely he had never found a virgin to be appealing, and yet he was almost certain that if this girl making advances before him had been untouched he would have been entirely turned on.

Since when did he even consider a virgin a good lay?

‘Since Hermione, dumb-ass,’ his mind answered for him.

He shook his head of any further ramblings, and the unsettling notion that he might not find any other witch attractive simply because they weren’t Hermione.

Sarah lead him pointedly in to the dining hall, practically dragging him along at a faster pace, regardless of the fact that it was still quite early and the food wasn’t going anywhere. Draco narrowed his eyes at the back of her head. ‘Insolent wench.’

**

“If looks could kill,” Hermione muttered underneath her breath with a soft whistle.

Hermione had arrived shortly before Draco, coincidentally directed to a seat next to Michael Dayton, or as she had come to name him, ‘Sleaze ball junior.’ The principal was the senior by far.

Now, as Michael droned on about one of his many credentials that had made him a shoe in for class president, Hermione studied Sarah and her dear brother. They were approaching the very table she was at, since it was where the two presidents always sat, in front of everyone, the center of attention.

It was times like these that Hermione missed the quiet life she had been leading only a few short months ago. A nice silent corner of the library, a large book just waiting to be read. That was still very much a part of what and who she was. It always would be.

For now, this little business trip they were on would simply have to be another big project she needed to work on. Well, work or not, there was another part of Hermione that was starting to actually enjoy it. It was all rather exciting. Her deserted corner would be there for her as soon as she and Draco found those students.

Ignoring blatant glances was something she’d learned to do long ago. It was mandatory to develop at least one impenetrable layer when you were best friends with the Harry Potter.

Now, she ignored nearly every student’s wandering eyes and whispering gossip. They didn’t know her, and if she won the bet then after tonight she’d never see them again.

As Val took his seat beside Vera, he noticed how Sarah tried to make a smooth move out of positioning him in another chair, one not next to his sister, but failed miserably.

Whether or not Vera was actual competition to her didn’t seem the cause of this. Draco got the distinct impression that Sarah was positively jealous of Hermione, or rather Vera. In fact, he was detecting the same vibe in many of the females, not all, but many.

‘Jealous of her natural beauty,’ he surmised. ‘How catty. What did they expect? Granger is my partner after all.’ As if he would be caught partnered with some idiot ogre.

Of course it wasn’t the female students’ glances that worried him. Jealousy was a bit simpler. While jealousy could lead to many more destructive paths, he had confidence in Hermione being able to handle that. What bothered him were the looks that the other side of the student population was casting.

Hadn’t they gotten enough of their damnable ogling out of the way yesterday to serve a wank and be on with their lives? They were all lucky he didn’t throttle and snap their necks in twine.

Now he began to sulk as he realized their stares had become even more lustful if anything.

As a suspicion grew, his gaze narrowed. There seemed to be a commotion going on it the far corner. He couldn’t see from here, nor hear a bloody thing over the obnoxious roar of brainless chatter and forks and knives on plates.

His hand slid down, beneath the table, to tug on Hermione’s shirtsleeve. With a slight jerk of his head over in the direction of the far corner, which was tables away and a bit shrouded in shadow.

Though the small movement was unnoticeable to even little miss wanton hanging off his arm, Hermione caught it. Her eyes moved a fraction to where he had indicated, then she winced ever so lightly before giving him a subtle dismissive shake.

Quirking his brow, he let his eyes ask the questions his mouth couldn’t. ‘What’s going on that I don’t know about?’

Again a subtle shake of her head was the response, though with each and every exchanged gesture they ran the risk of someone else picking up on it, so she tried to give a finality to with a severe glare.

Draco was not to be deterred however. He was senior authority on this mission, which meant nothing was to pass without his knowing. In all honesty it wasn’t that he didn’t trust her to conclude the matter irrelevant, it was that old spark of rivalry. He’d check it out if only to prove that he didn’t have to listen to her.

Seeing this in his eyes, Hermione sighed, prepared for the worst. She had kind of been afraid of something like this happening. Perhaps not exactly like what had happened, but after a brief encounter last night, she knew trouble might follow.

It had been right before she’d made it to Draco’s room last night. She had still been on the first floor, when one of the night watches had come to meet her. Of course she’d been expecting it, she would have been disappointed if her roaming hadn’t been detected.

It wasn’t like she’d made a secret of leaving her own room. She couldn’t move about like an Auror could. If she could move like a bona fide Auror, there would be a hell of a lot more to answer for other than being out of bed if she were caught. It wasn’t that she didn’t have confidence in her own abilities to move undetected, but Druids Mantra was known for tight security, and that was a risk she hadn’t been willing to take.

Well, suffice to say, the watchman had been a second year, who’d been hanging out with a bunch of his friends while on duty. Seeing Vera out and about dressed as she was, looking entirely insecure and lost without her bigger counter part, had stirred the macho masculine pubescent hero wannabes into a frenzy.

It hadn’t taken her more than ten minutes of tearful eyes and a distressed damsel aura to convince them to let her pass uninhibited and unannounced. But in the last few minutes, while she’d pretended to sip the tea they had conjured for her, she noticed a couple flashes go off.

The bloody gits had taken her photo, which of course ruined her plans to Obliviate their minds. In the end it had all worked out for the most part.

For the most part, didn’t include the part of anyone seeing those photos, especially Draco. She had forgotten to mention the encounter to him last night. He was still under the impression that she couldn’t take care of herself, and his knowledge of her encounter last night would only fan the flames.

The commotion at that back table, where the four second years she had met last night just so happened to be, now had several other guys getting up from their seat and walking to the table to peer over shoulders. The wince she had been unable to contain before was at her realization of what they must be looking at.

She was less concerned with a whole bunch of teenage prats sharing a stupid picture than of Draco going over there and having something to do about it. His rage could only be controlled so much, and while she didn’t understand where it came from all the time, she knew he got angry over what he called ‘bloody lowlife horn-dog gits ogling’ her.

What was more, if he caused trouble it would be entirely justifiable within his alias’ persona, which meant he’d have no qualms about compromising the mission. In other words, there would be nothing keeping him back from unleashing his Malfoy temper.

If only there was a distraction. She really didn’t want him to see the photo. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t seen it herself, she didn’t care to view it either.

Again it came back to a feeling of concealed identity. These people didn’t know who she was, and after this mission she’d never see any of them again. She’d feel better about walking into the dining hall stark naked than if Draco saw the pictures, since she would have live with him.

Now she was starting to worry, as more and more people started to get up and less were leaving that single table. It was becoming something of a spectacle now. It had Sarah and Michael convening over whether to break it up now or not.

Gulping, Hermione started to really worry.

Throwing caution to the wind, she asked most randomly, “So, I hear Ancient Runes has a club, how do I join?”

Draco nearly spit his orange juice out, barely managing to gulp it down and reclaim a calm demeanor. He clenched his jaw as he sent a warning glare Hermione’s way, asking, ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

When she met his eyes, she wished she could assure him she actually knew the answer to his question, but as it was, her eyes held nothing but worry and desperation. Of course this made Draco worry even more.

The two presidents didn’t seem to have registered her question as being odd, since they were rather preoccupied with the growing issue of crowding students. It was right then that they both seemed to agree they needed to put an end to it and restore order. So, Michael and Sarah stood, excusing themselves for just a moment and began to walk over to the back table.

“What the hell was that?” Draco hissed the moment the two presidents were out of earshot.

“Erm,” Hermione began at a loss. “I panicked?” she asked, shying away slightly as he seemed to leer at her.

A low grumble came forth from his chest. They didn’t have much time to discuss anything really. There were many things he wanted to speak to her about, but one thing took priority. He reached inside his pants pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. After handing the paper to her, he waited and kept a look out while she opened it and scanned the contents.

No sooner had her eyes shifted quickly than they widened and gleamed. “I think, Mr. Malfoy, that the bet is mine,” she stated triumphantly.

“Don’t do anything rash,” he warned, but to no avail. He had been afraid of this.

Hermione promptly stood up, not giving him anymore than a quick grasp of his shoulder as signal to follow. Then she briskly walked off.

Her behavior was no longer noticed as everyone was in an uproar, watching the sole table in the back as Sarah and Michael finally reach it. She was already out the door by the time the mystery seemed to have been uncovered.

Now that everyone seemed to have viewed the photos, they wanted to see the real thing. Michael especially, now sporting a rather unseemly bulge, his flushed face scoured the head table for his quarry. Vera was gone, nowhere in sight, as everyone soon came to realize. The logical conclusion was that she’d fled in utter horror. Given her shy temperament, fleeing the scene was not unwarranted.

However, Vera’s brother was there. Closing in on the table, determination in his eyes. Everyone scrambled, knowing what the consequences of crossing the protective brother would be. Several people wondered where the principal was, wishing he were here as reassurance that no one would be killed at the hands of an enraged Val Valor.

The spectacle was over not more than ten minutes after it had started.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Michael commented to his dubious counter part, as he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Could have been much worse,” Sarah also sighed, wondering how to change their game plan at this recent surge of events.

Sarah was surprised Val had done nothing more than walk over, stalking easily through the open path everyone made for him, snatch several photos, glance at them and sprint out the door. His sister must have run off long ago, realizing what everyone was looking at. A smirk came across her face. The innocent witch got what was coming.

The morning event had eventually calmed down and all but blown over. It wasn’t until hours later that anybody realized something was amiss.

Where were Val and Vera? They seemed to have vanished just as with the case of the other missing students. Only now, Fabriano was at a loss for explanation since the Rune’s hazing had been stopped, so no more fools should be gone.

That night it was much to everyone’s surprise when their three missing students showed up, slightly worse for the wear, but otherwise unharmed.

None of them seemed to remember anything.

***

With a pop, Hermione apparated just outside the Pantheon in Rome. She couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she reached down to her necklace and held the pendant up higher.

The silver chain fell to her sternum, suspending an owl figurine. The small owl was also silver, but she was waiting for it to glow orange. Between them, Hermione had the necklace and Draco had the ring. The two items were linked, so that each was completely traceable to the other.

She had apparated in a rush without even bothering to explain a thing to Draco. In fact, he hadn’t even made it to the atrium when she was out the doors of Druids Mantra and making the next move.

As the owl flashed orange, there was another pop, and Draco stood beside her seething. He hadn’t even taken notice of their surroundings before he began to rant and vent his anger. While their location was as discreet as could be, his voice drew the attention of many.

“What in Merlin’s name are these!” he shouted, successfully declaring their presence to every muggle within earshot.

She pulled him forcefully by the shirt as he attempted to wave a pile of photos in front of her face. She ignored him until they had a slightly more concealed location behind a nearby tree. It was hard with all the tourists. There really was no place they could go that was not within view of someone, much like King’s Cross on the first day of school.

Draco wasn’t relenting, so she finally snatched the pictures from his hand and shuffled through them with little more than a cursory glance.

“I think they’re rather funny don’t you? Never realized how big your clothes looked on me,” she said casually. This was a mistake of course, since he began shouting again.

“Funny? FUNNY?” His next few words were made incoherent by the clamping hand of Hermione. She barely managed it though, reaching up on her tiptoes to cover his mouth sufficiently. He knocked her arm aside. “What were you doing before you came to see me?” he asked vehemently.

“Well I think we both know there was bound to be some sort of alarm I tripped. They made me tea and we chatted for a few minutes before they let me leave without saying anything to anyone.”

“And you didn’t think it worth mentioning the moment you entered my room?”

Now he sounded like her father or something. “Look, we have more important matters at hand than a few stupid pictures.” Hermione sighed, truly not wanting to focus anymore on what really didn’t matter.

His lips formed a fine line and his nostrils flared slightly, something he didn’t do unless he was seriously peeved. “We’ll discuss this later Granger. There are a few things you need to be made aware of.” He grabbed the pictures back from her and stuffed them in his pocket.

She eyed him for a moment, biting her lip, beginning to feel really bad. She didn’t think he’d be so upset. “Draco, I’m sorry.”

He narrowed his eyes in response, reminding himself he needed to remain angry, even under the puppy dog gaze she gave him now. He would not relent. For her own good, he would impress this sole point upon her. “Care to enlighten me as to why we are outside the Pantheon?” he asked coldly.

Sighing, Hermione pushed the confrontation to the back of her mind. ‘Fine, if he wants to talk about it later, we will. Maybe by then he won’t be angry,’ she thought, as she set her mind to their new task. “The flier you showed me, this is the starting point. We follow the hazing path and we find the missing students,” she reasoned.

“Yes, thank you for making it all clear,” he said sarcastically. “Why hadn’t I thought of that?”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Well, perhaps you would have liked to have shown me the flier a little sooner,” she challenged.

“I only just got it after you left,” he returned. He still didn’t see why the Gryffindor princess had acted so rashly and utterly out of character. Not even he acted without thinking, and she had just done so under the worst possible circumstances.

“Did you plan on going through with the tour then?” Her tone seemed subdued now, almost hurt.

Furrowing his brows, he couldn’t seem to follow where this was coming from. “Yes,” was all he could answer, not knowing what she was getting at.

Her eyes and face moved downcast. It would seem she was hurt now. “Mmm,” was her only response. Not even enough in her to mumble, ‘I see.’

“Granger,” he began, but was cut off by her head snapping up and a fiery look to her honey brown eyes.

“Well, I wouldn’t have gone on that so called tour even if it lead me straight to the missing students,” she huffed. “I’m not about to go anywhere near that sleaze ball of a principal.”

Draco shut his eyes and mentally kicked himself. How could he have been so stupid? He had been so preoccupied thinking he’d keep Fabriano’s hands off her that he missed the option of avoiding the situation all together. “Still, you could have told me what you were up to. That was wrong of you and you know it,” he said with a ruffle of her hair. He winced at her next words.

“I thought you would have known,” she said meekly, her words flowing with sincerity.

“Don’t do this Granger,” he sighed, all his anger gone, all his walls crumbling.

“Do what?” she asked.

“Make me forgive you,” he said, pulling her in with one arm for a quick hug and soft kiss on her head. As he stepped back, he ruffled her hair again. He tried to focus on what they should be doing. “Right, so now we follow the runes.”

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