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 21- Her Deepest Fear


Although Draco didn’t notice it, in the days that had passed since his all but abortive encounter with Hermione, his libido had been virtually eliminated by his nearly painful desire for her. This is not to say that this strange behavior was overlooked, quite the opposite in fact; everywhere that the magnificent blond wizard went he was followed by a low and hushed humming sound (which he also failed to notice): the young women of Hogwarts, for young ladies they were not where he was concerned, had indeed noted the strange behavior of their adored Draco and were desperate to find out exactly what or who more accurately had wrought such a change in him.


Each speculation was more outlandish than the last, which was quite a feat by day three when an enthusiastic seventh year Hufflepuff proclaimed that Draco had been kidnapped by an unnamed jealous rival, (though later retellings of this theory were to give two names, Ron Weasley and Justin Finch-Fletchley) who had been strutting around as a Polyjuiced Draco, thus explaining the rapid and startling changes in his behavior. In reality the changes that the much adored Draco had undergone were much more mundane, after all millions of people fall in love every day. Nevertheless it was not something that anyone would have suspected of Draco Malfoy, and thus the rumors continued to fly unchecked. He continued to live blissfully unaware of the drama that centered on him.


It seemed that since first striking the now infamous bargain with Hermione that Draco’s life was going merrily to hell and to make matters worse it didn’t seem that there was a thing that he could do to stop it. His housemates took Hermione’s silence as a triumph for Draco and thankfully by lunch the day after she’d still not opened her mouth to contradict their assumption. It was a miracle of sorts Draco reflected, that Hermione had actually chosen to keep her mouth shut for once! In the entire time he’d known her he could not think of a single time when she’d opted to choose silence over being heard, but then again hadn’t he been the same way? He shook his head, it didn’t matter what the two of them had in common it would do no good to obsess over someone who plainly didn’t give a damn for him, but at the same time it seemed that he couldn’t help it. His problems were not made any easier by the fact that she was everywhere he turned.


The two of them had almost all of the same classes, as they were the top two students in the year and had each elected to take a course-load that their year-mates would have blanched at. But it was more than that, it was almost as if she had some inkling of what he felt for her and was purposefully taunting him. A strange possibility froze him dead in his tracks for a moment, during which a few of his gossiping hangers-on who weren’t paying attention rammed into his back, ‘What if she really heard me? I didn’t say it very loud, but that would explain things very nicely. Me and my big mouth!’ He turned to the clumsy girls with an angry smirk and yelled into the crowd of simpering faces, “Watch where you are going, filthy tart!” He had intentionally left the word singular to cause a fight between the girls, none of whom were too keen on having been called such a derogatory name. He’d not managed to get three steps from them before names and scratches were being traded. He smiled openly as he rounded the corner with the sounds of the battle echoing behind him, pushing him onward.


His smile quickly turned to a mask of indifference as he came face to face with the one person that he saw both too often and not nearly often enough, Hermione. She was not at all happy that he’d once again begun spreading discord amongst the female population of Hogwarts; she’d have to give him another taste of her enchanting charms to grant them another stay against his mistreatment, not that most of them deserved it. She moved close to him and could feel his warmth and trembling hands on her face as she leaned inward and upward so that her lips were pressed against his ear and whispered, “Tomorrow, same time same place.” She sensed that his next move would be an attempted kiss and wouldn’t allow it to take place on his terms; she had to continue the game that she’d begun and that meant retaining the upper hand.


Draco’s heart was beating so hard that the sound of his own blood rushing through his ears that he could barely hear what she whispered, had he been less…excited the volume might have been inconsiderately loud. ‘Surely that must be a sign that she knows,’ he thought for the hundredth time as he gave himself a mental kick. It was less a thought than an instinct that he moved to kiss her, she hadn’t objected to his hands on her face so why should she object to a little kiss? He tilted her head and locked eyes with her and somehow she’d wriggled free of his grasp without his knowledge and stood a few feet from him wearing a puzzled expression.


“Can’t that wait until tomorrow Malfoy? Or am I to understand that you are incapable of waiting that long to have me again?” Her tone was not mocking and despite the bite of her words she was smiling playfully at him, as though she was highly amused by the notion that he might ever care for her in any fashion. He had to admit that even he would have found the very idea laughable before he’d discovered that she was the girl with the eyes that he’d been longing for the better part of the year. Was it possible that that had only been a week ago?


It was once again the result of instinct that he found he’d closed the distance between them and once again took her delicately boned face in his hands and tilted her chin up toward his lips. She beat him to the punch, so to speak, and kissed him first; it was a little peck on his lips that sent his heart beating out of control for the second time in five minutes and by the time he opened his eyes once more he was facing an empty corridor. He marveled at her ability to disappear with such ease that was a skill he’d wished for on more than one occasion. He sighed at least one good thing had come of this strange encounter, well two: He now had a definite time scheduled for when next he’d be with her and he’d ditched the annoying and demented fan club that had been dogging him all day.


Hermione took advantage of his distractedness and slipped into an unused classroom and shut, but did not latch the door behind her, lest the telltale clicking sound of the latch give away her hiding place. She peered through the miniscule crack to watch him and to make sure that he’d left before she continued to the Gryffindor common room and the relative solitude that it offered this time of day. After Draco slipped off down the corridor toward the dungeons she sighed and jumped at the sound of a set of hands clapping in mock approval of her narrow escape from Draco. It was as though a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her head, she shuddered before tuning around to see Harry sitting on a desk, his invisibility cloak in a ball on the floor, wearing a look that somehow incorporated pride and disgust at the same time. “Well done Hermione,” he said his voice dripping with sarcasm, “I knew that there was more to your new outlook on the world than just getting over me, but I admit that even I didn’t think that you’d lower yourself to the point where you’d sleep with Malfoy! I can’t wait to tell Ron why you don’t want him back.”


Finally the shock wore off enough for her tongue to respond to the wild allegations being thrown at her by her…friend? “That’s not what happened at all Harry. Just let me expla…”


“There is no need to explain, I saw for myself the way you were hanging all over him and practically fainting when he touched you face so tenderly. Aww, Ron’ll be so happy that you’re ready to love again.”


“What in Bloody Hell is your problem, Potter? I don’t know what you’re getting at, but you’re way off base! I do not love Draco,” realizing her folly immediately she added, “Malfoy,” with the hope that Harry wouldn’t notice that she was now on a first name basis with one of his nemeses. “You don’t seem to want to know what is really going on and I haven’t the patience at present to try and force you to hear it.” With that last comment she turned her back on him and stormed from the room slamming the door behind her.


She was so blinded with rage that it took her a full ten seconds to realize that she’d come face to face with Harry and Ron once she’d taken a half a dozen steps from the room. She looked at the two of them strangely and Harry took the opportunity to ask her what was wrong. She shook her head and said that nothing was wrong and turned wearing a look that the two of them had long ago come to associate with single-minded determination that they knew better than to contradict, she re-entered the room from whence she’d come. They shrugged and continued to class, she’d fill them in later she always did.


The room was quite empty when she closed the door a second time and made for the cabinet that stood at the end of the room with her wand drawn as she neared the cabinet it opened and the form of Harry once again began berating her as it stepped form the cramped space. This time Hermione knew better than to attempt to reason with it she leveled her wand and thinking of a way that she might have a laugh at Harry’s expense she said, “Riddikulus!” An instant later she beheld Harry standing, quite embarrassed holding a Muggle porno magazine in one hand and himself in the other, his face was flush. Laughing she said, “Funny, I didn’t think any man had enough blood to blush like that when he was so…excited.” The boggart burst into tiny slivers which dissipated a few seconds later. A much-relieved Hermione pushed the door open and proceeded to the common room without incident, which she reflected, was well enough, as she doubted that she could cope with any more surprises at that moment.


She decided to use the communal table next to the fireplace to study, it got the best light this time of day and she was unlikely to be disturbed by the only other person in Gryffindor house with this as a free period, who always chose to sleep off his after Potions Snape hangover. She spread out her Arithmancy notes and charts so that not a single square inch of wood was showing and had just settled into the most comfortable chair when the image of the Harry-boggart flashed before her eyes. She’d never been quite so amused at the outcome of a boggart’s shape shifting before, her eyes were tearing and her stomach muscles were pained form laughing so hard. Hermione packed up her work knowing that she was unlikely to get any work done while such a vision danced before her mind’s eye.