From Venice with Love

The next morning, Hermione didn’t wake up until the shine blazed brightly onto her bed, easing her awake. She sat up, bleary eyed, and glanced at the time. “Ten thirty!” she said aloud, groaning. “I’ve missed breakfast.”

A groan beside her made her turn around quickly. It was Draco, complaining about the loss of her body’s warmth. His hair was in his face and he had had a silly smile on his face in his state of half-sleep. He looked very peaceful, and Hermione smiled at him.

“Are you sure you won’t get into trouble? You never left last night.” She asked him.

“Shhh,” he said sleepily, patting her pillow. “Lay down.”

Hermione lay back down and his arms surrounded her quickly, and he buried his head in her shoulder. They had ‘practiced’ a few times last night and had not fallen asleep until a few hours ago, but Hermione still couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Her stomach was growling. She lay there for a few minutes, restless.

“Draco,” she whispered. “I’m going to go to the kitchens and get something to eat. I’ll be back. “She got out of bed despite his protest. “I’ll be right back,” she said.

She dressed quickly and snuck towards the kitchen. She didn’t want to see her friends as they all thought she was down in Hogsmeade. As moved down the hallways, she saw Pansy and Millicent Bulstrode walking towards the grounds. Their voices carried to her through the echoing hallway.

“Blaise said he left at eleven thirty and never came back,” Pansy was saying.”Probably snuck out to see the stupid bitch he was shagging this summer,”

Millicent said something, but Hermione couldn’t hear it.

“He’ll be done with her soon, I’m not worried,” Pansy said back. “He’ll get tired of only having sex every few weeks and will come back to me soon enough. I need to find a counter curse for that cheating charm though…” her voice trailed off as they moved too far away for Hermione to hear anymore.

She reached the kitchens and immediately sought out Dobby.

“It’s Hermione Granger!” Dobby cried, wringing his hands and beaming with pleasure. “How can Dobby help, Miss? Is Harry Potter okay?”

“He’s fine, Dobby. I was wondering-I missed breakfast, could I-“

“Of course, Miss!”Dobby cut in. “Dobby will get Miss all the food she needs!” He ran off and within a few minutes had returned holding a huge basket full of food. “Is this enough?” he asked, worried.

“Plenty, Dobby, thank you.” Hermione said, taking the basket from him.

“Please tell Harry Potter Dobby says hello!” Dobby said.

“I will,” Hermione tried to wave back which proved difficult with her large basket and left the kitchens.

She returned to her room without being seen. Draco had fallen back to sleep, so she began to unpack the basket. Dobby had packed sausages, bacon, thick pastries and some sandwiches as well. Draco’s head peeked up over the covers. “What’s that smell?” he asked.


Hermione took out a container of pumpkin juice. “It’s breakfast,” she said. “Remember, I told you I was going to the kitchens for food?”

“Vaguely,” he sat, sitting up and rubbing his eyes like a child. “Did you get some for me?”

“Obviously. You think I can eat this all by myself?” She waved her hand over the vast amounts of food.

“You never know. You might have a huge appetite after last night,” he grinned as Hermione blushed.

“Come eat,” she said, sitting down at the table. He got up slowly, stretching like a cat and made his way over to her and sat down.

“I’m famished,” he said, piling his plate with food. They ate in companionable silence for awhile. “What would you like to do today?” he asked.

Hermione shrugged. “We can watch movies. There’s not much we can can do- we’re stuck in here.”

“I can think of things,” he said suggestively.

“I’m sure you can,” she said. “But try to hold out for a while. I’m …”

“Sore?” he said and she nodded shyly. “Movies, it is then.”

“Pansy knows you were missing last night,” she said. “I heard her when I was going to the kitchen. She’s not very happy.”

“She’ll get over it,” he said. “Once she sees I won’t come round, she’ll latch herself onto some other poor chap.” He helped himself to more sausages.

After a few more minutes of eating, he got up and began to get dressed.. “I do need to go back to my room for a while though. I need to shower and change clothes. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He kissed her quickly on the mouth. “Can you look out there; make sure no one’s around?”

Hermione opened her portrait and looked around, but she saw no one in the halls. “Hurry back,” she said as he slipped by her.

She kept herself busy by making her bed, then moving into her bathroom to shower and change herself. When he still hadn’t returned, she busied herself by cleaning up the breakfast dishes and finally by taking out a book to study. She was distracted, however, by how long it had been since he left. The hours past slowly and Hermione wasn’t sure whether to be mad or worried. She refused to check up on him by using her necklace since he hadn’t used his.

After 4 hours had past, she gave up and left her room. She walked down towards the Great Hall deciding she’d get some dinner. She saw Ginny in front of her walking with Dean.

“Ginny!” she called.

The younger girl turned and smiled at her. “Hello, you’re back earlier than I thought. Everything alright?”

“Everything’s great- I’m going to back down later. Just wanted a quick bite.” Hermione tried to seem upbeat and Ginny did not seem to notice her nervousness.

“Well, come on then,” she said and they walked into the Great Hall.

Hermione glanced quickly at the Slytherin table but did not see Draco. In fact, it seemed most of the Slytherins were noticeably absent. She sat down between Harry and Ron, who were already eating.

“Hello,” Ron said. “Sick of him already, are you?”

Hermione made a face and began to put food on her plate without answering. Ron looked across from him where Ginny had sat down. “Where’ve you been all day?” he asked, but continued before Ginny’s could open her mouth to answer. “You both missed the most wonderful spectacle outside earlier.”

“What happened?” Ginny asked.

“There was a huge row among the Slytherins. Apparently Malfoy was out all night down in Hogsmeade with some bird that wasn’t Pansy,” he said, not seeing the horrified look on Hermione’s face. “Anyway, Pansy called him on it and they had this huge row out by the lake. Snape found out that Malfoy wasn’t in bed last night and dragged him down to the dungeons. Even Snape can’t ignore this-he’ll be expelled.”

“He won’t be expelled, Ronald, unless they can prove he was actually missing. Someone in his room would have to rat him out,”

“You think they won’t? They hate him as much as we do.” Harry said. “That’s where they all are now.”

Hermione looked back over to the almost empty table. She suddenly had no appetite. She sat there and listened to Ron continue to talk but she only nodded and pretended to listen. Suddenly, the doors opened and the majority of Slytherins strode in. Pansy, her face red and eyes puffy, and most of the Slytherin boys took a seat and began to eat quietly. Hermione noticed Draco was not among them.

The doors opened again and Snape came in and strode quickly over to the Gryffindor table. “Ms. Granger, could you follow me, please?” She nodded and looked over at Ron who had frozen with his mouth open and full of food.

Hermione followed Snape out the door as all the Slytherins watched her progress. As soon as they got outside the doors, Snape turned with a scowl and faced her. “Ms. Granger, I need to verify the whereabouts of Draco Malfoy this morning. He states that you saw him around 5:30 this morning on the Quidditch pitch practicing?”

“Yes, Professor,” Hermione said.

“Why were you outside that early, Ms. Granger?” He eyed her suspiciously.

“I was – running. I try to run every morning.”

“I’ve never seen you,” he said flatly.

“Excuse me, sir, but why would I lie about seeing Malfoy?” she asked innocently.

His scowl deepened. “Did I accuse you of lying?” he snapped.

“No, sir.”

“Then don’t assume that I am. Five points from Gryffindor. You may go back to eating.” He walked quickly away from her, robes billowing.

Hermione walked back into the hall and all the Slytherin eyes followed her back to her table.

“What was that all about?” Harry asked.

“Professor Snape wanted to know if I’d seen Malfoy this morning. I told him I had, at 5:30.”

“Why’d you tell him that?” Ron gasped.

“Because I did see him, Ronald. I wasn’t going to lie to a teacher.” Hermione snapped.

“He could’ve been expelled. Why not just pretend you didn’t? Then we’d be rid of Malfoy for good.” Ron kept on.

“I did see him-I’m not going to lie about it. Besides, I doubt I was the only witness. There must have been others who saw him earlier than I.” She began to butter some bread.

“There’s such a thing as being too honest,” Ron said. “You could have just said you didn’t remember.”

Hermione stood up.”Good bye, I’ll see you all tomorrow.” She began to leave but Pansy’s hand reached out and grabbed her shirt.

“You better have said you saw Draco,” Pansy said in a threatening voice. “If he’s expelled it would be because of you.”

“Funny thing, Pansy, if it wasn’t for you no one would be questioning his whereabouts anyway,” Hermione pulled away from the other girl and kept walking. She went back into her room and lay on the bed staring at the ceiling.

It was another hour before Draco came in, silently. He lay down beside her. “Sorry,” he said after a few minutes. “Pansy’s a bitch.”

“Definitely, but I don’t think she meant to get you in trouble.” Hermione said, placing her head on his chest.

He absently began to stroke her hair. “No, I don’t think so, she’s just stupid. Zambini, Crabbe and Goyle said I was there all night but Nott said I wasn’t there when he got up at 7. That’s where you came in.” He paused in stroking her hair. “Thank you.”

“Of course. So you’re not in trouble?”

“No, but Snape will be paying close attention to my whereabouts for awhile. He didn’t seem to care if I had been out- just that I could have gotten caught. So, I’ll have to get back before curfew tonight,” he said.

“Maybe Pansy did do it on purpose,” Hermione said. “To keep you from sneaking out.”

“Maybe,” Draco said as if he wasn’t all that concerned, but Hermione felt a wall building between them as they lay there.

“What aren’t you telling me?” she said suddenly.

“Nothing that concerns you,” he said.

“What does that mean?” She sat up a little.

“Don’t ask, please,” he said wearily. “I don’t want to argue with you today.”

“They didn’t write your father, did they?”

“No, nothing like that. Nothing that will effect you in any way, I promise.”

“Then what?”

“Hermione, please, don’t ask.” He said it quietly, which scared Hermione more, but she didn’t think she could push him anymore.

“Okay,” she said, pulling herself off of the bed. “Let’s watch a movie.”

“Good idea,” he said, and the subject was dropped.