Dance Floor Jealousy

Disclaimer: Not mine! Don't sue!

Author's Note: Well, here you go, I'm updating! Thank you all for your fantastic reviews! Let's see where I go from here... hope you'll like this chapter as well! (I hope it'll be as good as my first try at a second chapter. I was almost done with it when my computer crashed and everything was lost. I could have cried! So, this is the second go. Hope this time I'll be able to finish it!)


A Fragment Of Memory

It was Friday night when I was nervously standing outside my little cousin's flat in the midst of a Muggle street. I had had strict orders to dress Muggle-like as good as I could, and I had. My cousin Lizzy came running down the stairs as I nervously adjusted the collar of my button-down shirt.


"Draaaaaa---yyyy!" Her voice echoed through the silent drive, and I shuddered. Why did she always have to make such a fuss of everything? She threw her arms around me, and I hugged her.
"Happy birthday, little cousin", I smiled.

She was practically bouncing.
"It's so great you're coming with me to this gig! I love Novel Writer! He's one of my favourite singers! Do you think we'll get the chance to ask for his autograph?", she babbled.


I took her arm and, to shut her up, Apparated us away to a quiet corner near the venue. She quealed. I know she doesn't like Apparating, especially not when I haven't warned her, but tonight it was any way to make her shut up.


I don't think I've been in such a foul mood over the last four years. To be precise, not since I left Hogwarts. You know - I had nothing to do with Dumbledore's actual murder. Everybody knew this. Yet still, because my stupid Head of House had tried to save his own skin and killed the Headmaster for me, I had been forced to run. It wasn't until a year after Voldemort's demise that I had the courage to walk up to some Aurors and show them my unblemished left forearm. They ran a lot of tests, and finally they believed that I had never been a Death Eater. Sure, I had been supposed to become one. How can you be the son of the great Lucius Malfoy, and not supposed to follow in his footsteps?

Anyway, I didn't. I had always wanted to find my own way in life. And then Snape did something for me which forced me to abandon all the plans I'd ever made. Do you see the irony in this? If it really had been for me, he would have kept his butt down in his dungeons and let me accept Dumbledore's offer for protection. That would have been a good choice. It was the one I'd wanted to make. Until that idiot teacher took it away from me.


Well, I'm a Malfoy. No matter how much I despise my father and the way I was brought up, some character traits you just can't deny. And one of them is that a Malfoy will always make the best of every situation.


So I did.


After my name was cleared, I started job training at Gringott's. Now I'm one of their most famous curse breakers, perhaps even up in Bill Weasley's league. Since my father had died, sacrifising himself for his Master who was taken down by Potter only minutes later, my mother and I were now alone at the Manor. It seemed I had not been the only one kept under my father's spell. Once it was her choice to make, my mother contacted her other sister, Andromeda, wanting to make up for all the wrong our family had caused her. It turned out the two sisters had missed each other terribly, and our families got really close. Ted Tonks, her husband, was really fun. He reminded me a lot of - well, one girl I knew from school and I was trying desperately to forget. Even though he was a Muggleborn, he was incredibly sharp, very self-confident and extremely funny. I don't think there was any topic we could have argued without him getting the upper hand.

Their daughters, Nymphadora (who everybody just called Tonks) and Elizabeth, were just the same. Tonks was about to get married to my old DADA teacher, Remus Lupin. Elizabeth was four years younger than me and just finishing her sixth year at Hogwarts. Every time she told me about school, I almost started crying. I miss school so much, you see. School was one of the best times I remember. I was away from home, from my father’s torture. I was faced with real friendship – though I had no chance to be the one to experience it. I always watched from afar when the Golden Trio proved exactly why they were called that.

Harry Potter. Ronald Weasley. And – Hermione Granger.


Yes, you’ll probably think I’m insane, remembering all this stuff. Of course, back then, I looked down upon them. I thought they were incredibly foolish for sticking together through everything, when they could easily have used each other to their advantage. You see, I’m not sure whether Weasley didn’t sort of do that with Granger. I can’t recall just how many times I walked in on them in the library trying to convince Granger that she should let him copy her homework…


Are you wondering about my obsession with them?


Actually, it’s not all of them. Just one. One girl, who, I swear, has taken my heart away the very first time our eyes met.


A squeal from Lizzy got me out of my reverie. We had walked to the club, paid and entered, and as we arrived downstairs in a rather grim-looking place that reminded me of Snape’s dungeons, she was positively delighted. She almost ripped my cloak, eager as she was to give it to the lady in the cloakroom, and practically tore out my arm pulling me up towards the stage.


The gig hadn’t started yet. We found a nice place at a table in the front corner, ordered some cocktails – did you know that Muggles are just brilliant when it comes to mixing alcohol? – and drank to her birthday. She was really excited about finally being seventeen. Her parents had been somewhat disappointed when she’d announced that she would be spending her birthday’s evening with me at this gig, instead of staying home with her family, but in the end, they’d let her go.


While the support band cleared away their instruments, I got lost in my memories again. Once again, I was back at Hogwarts. I remember it as clearly as if it had happened only days ago. The day my Slytherin friends thought I was finally losing it. The day Hermione Granger slapped me, and I didn’t react at all.

Yes, I did react. So, basically, this statement isn’t at all true. But luckily, nobody could see back then the way I reacted. When I took off towards the dorm with Crabbe and Goyle, I could barely walk, let alone run without hurting myself badly. I had an aching hard-on. Yes, that’s right, the great Draco Malfoy got wood because of a Muggleborn slapping him across the face. Yay. Now, that’s something you wouldn’t have guessed, would you?


I tried tormenting her more after that. It didn’t work. Every time I saw her, I felt desire stirring in my core like electricity. I know she tried to convince everybody I was no Death Eater during our sixth year; something nobody, not even one of my fellow Slytherins, had ever tried. My heart went out to her, and I so wished to let her know after I’d joined the Order.


Remember, life is what happens while you’re busy being a jerk?


This one applies to me. Definitely. Snape made my choice. He ruined it all. He forced me into hiding.


I shouldn’t’ve, but I snuck back to Hogwarts the day of Dumbledore’s funeral using my Invisibility Cloak. Loads and loads of people were sitting by the lake, most of them wiping their eyes in secret, others – like Hagrid and the Golden Trio – weeping openly. Then I saw Weasley reaching over, holding Hermione to his chest, and gently stroking her curly brown hair that looked almost golden in the bright sunlight. I felt like vomiting right there and then. Throat too tight to speak, I Apparated back into Snape’s and my hideout and locked myself in my room. I never wanted to hear from her again, let alone see her. I avoided the papers for months, afraid that one day I would be facing her portrait on the front page, above a huge article of her and the Weasel getting married.


I never did. One day, my aunt Andromeda casually mentioned at dinner that the youngest Weasley son was getting married to Lavender Brown. Everybody had looked at me funny as I choked on the mashed parsnips I had just swallowed. Afterwards, as I sat in our library alone drinking my evening glass of Firewhiskey, I called on one of our house-elves to make sure my aunt’s story was correct.


Pinky didn’t return till the next morning. He told me that it was true, that Ronald Weasley had apparently broken up with his long-time girlfriend and was now marrying his Hogwarts sweetheart. My inquiry concerning Granger’s whereabouts remained unanswered, though.


This was a few years ago. My mother keeps nagging me about grandchildren and the Malfoy heir now. She’s tried to set me up with some girls she knows about a hundred times – but to no avail. I’m not willing to go for any other girl. It’s been ten years now, and I simply refuse to believe that Hermione Granger is just a schoolboy crush.


Lizzy nudged my side.
“Dray, they’re ready to play now!” she called excitedly. I nodded wearily, drained my Long Island Ice Tea in one and went to the bar to get another one. Lizzy was jumping up and down on the dance floor, and since I didn’t want to embarrass myself by openly showing my connection to this bouncing ball-like girl, I killed the next Ice Tea right at the bar. When the band had started playing and Lizzy had calmed down, I made my way back over to her, swaying ever so slightly.


As soon as I had reached our table, she jumped up again, but – thankfully! – not to bounce.
“Thank goodness you’re back! I need to go to the ladies’, I’ll be right back!” With that, she left me alone, sipping my Ice Tea and enjoying the sound of the music.


Novel Writer really is very good. They are about the only band I know who includes classical piano tunes into their Alternative music. Since I had been forced to learn how to play the piano from the age of six, I listened intently. It wasn’t until Lizzy came back that I felt someone staring at me.


Turning around, I saw a very pretty girl sitting in the corner of the bar, staring at me as if she’d just seen a ghost. She was truly beautiful. Her brown hair cascaded down her back in elegant waves. Her eyes were the most amazing hazel colour, though for some reason full of sadness. She was accompanied by a tall blonde girl who was talking to her animatedly, but she didn’t seem to be taking in any of it. She just looked at me, and I tried hard to remember who on earth she was. Counting on my little cousin’s ability to remember both names and faces easily, I turned to Lizzy and leant close to her ear, asking whether she knew the girl.


As Lizzy turned around and gave the girl the once-over, she seemed really uncomfortable, biting her bottom lip and glaring at Lizzy as if she’d just tried to insult her. Lizzy turned back to me, shrugging.

“I swear I know her, too. But the light’s really bad, I can’t be sure. It might hit me later. Wanna dance? This song’s really good!”


I looked over at the pretty girl again who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere in this club, like a fragment of my memory. She looked so sad that it broke my heart. I started dancing with Lizzy, trying to get my mind of the mysterious girl. We ground our hips against each other and giggled a lot. Looking up again towards the girl’s corner, I saw her getting up and hurriedly disappearing down the stairs toward the bathroom. Her mane of brown hair was trailing behind her, looking like a lion’s mane.


Suddenly, I stopped short. Lizzy almost tripped over my feet, but I didn’t care.


“Liz”, I asked her breathlessly, “do you think she could be … you know … Hermione Granger?!”

Lizzy’s eyes went wide.
“Draco, that’s it! Of course!”, she called, looking thoroughly relieved that this question was no longer bothering her. “I knew she looked incredibly familiar when she bit her lip! Of course, that’s who she is!”


I still stood rooted to the spot. What was I supposed to do? Walk up to her with the usual Malfoy smirk and a sexy comment? Somehow, that didn’t feel right. She had looked at me, too, and she had looked so sad – was it possible that she’d recognized me!?


All of a sudden, I felt Lizzy pull on my arm and was being yanked over towards the counter where Hermione’s blonde friend stood, wearing an incredibly worried look.

“Hi”, Lizzy said with no hesitation at all, “I’m Lizzy and this is my cousin, Draco Malfoy. He and Hermione were friends from school…”

I couldn’t move. It wasn’t until I got a kick on the shins from Lizzy that I extended my hand for a polite greeting.

“Yeah, umm … hi”, I said, feeling extremely stupid. “Er … I don’t know what to say …”


The blonde girl looked at me in confusion. Apparently she was thinking, if he doesn’t know what to say, then why on earth did he come over here? Lizzy took over for me.

“Yeah, you see, Draco has had this huge crush on Hermione for years. They haven’t seen each other in ages. Could you give her his phone number so that, if she’s interested, she can just call him?”

I didn’t know whether I should kiss or kill her. Both seemed kind of appealing.

“Um… yeah, sure, why not”, the blonde girl nodded. “I don’t know what’s up with her tonight. I think she saw you and just freaked out. I’ll ask her later. And of course I can give her your number.”

Lizzy wrote down my mobile number (I had gotten one of those about a month ago, because they simply amazed me) and handed it to the girl.

“Thank you”, she said sweetly, dragging me back towards the dance floor into our corner. I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to go. She left me no chance; as soon as we were back in our corner, she started dancing like before and I got lost in the music in no time. Really, the band was good!

When the song ended and I looked back up, trying to locate Hermione or her blonde friend, I found their spot deserted.

Desperately, I left Lizzy on the dance floor and hurried over to the counter where I asked the bartender whether the two ladies had left.


He nodded.


I returned to my cousin carrying another Long Island Ice Tea and feeling numb with fear. What next? Why hadn’t Lizzy simply asked for Hermione’s number?


As the band started playing their next song, I downed my fourth Ice Tea and pushed all thought from my mind, losing myself in the music…


So it is
As it’s meant to be
Floating as we go
Loss of time
No symmetry
And you, you once were mine

Well I’m torn down
But rescued
I’ll follow any path

‘Cause sentence on sentence
These words will bring you back

Don’t say
It’s over yet
I’m too scared

Don’t say
That I’ll be fine
That it’s all a matter of time


A/N: Thanks for reading!!!
The lyrics at the end are taken from the song “I’m Revived” by Royseven, an Irish Alternative rock band! They’re really good and I especially love their ability to put the despair and hurt one feels when a loved one turns his or her back into words. If you can, try to have a listen to their music on the internet, they’re really really worth it!!!

Still don’t know where this story is headed… good or bad? Happy or sad? I need to know… ;-)