When Our Children Fight Our Wars

A/N:
Its a bit short, I think, but there wasn't much else that I elt I could do with the chapter. As stated in the now deleted Author's Note chapter, I've ben seriously out of sorts. I hope I do the characters justice in this chapter.
Please let me know what you're thinking! I take negative and positive feedback with a grain of salt. ;)

Oh, one more thing. You might see a few typos in this chapter (and, I believe, the previous one). That is because my Beta Ashley's computer is on the fritz. Does anybody feel like BETA-ing this story? Or, do you know someone who would? If so, leave your/their email address please. I would really, really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for being so patient. On to the story!

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Chapter Five: And Maybe someday I'll Believe That We Are All a Part of Some Little Plan; Tonight I Just Don't Give A Damn.

Blaise felt himself staring, open-mouthed at the sight before him. He had expected there to be dirt all over the place, he had expected a few things to be broken. . .but never had he expected this! This was all wrong!

Draco hated Hermione and Hermione didn't like Draco! So what in the fuck was going on? Why was it that Hermione was curled up against Draco's chest in a defensive, little ball and Draco's arms were around her? Draco was protecting her from him now?

What the bloody fuck. . . .?


xoxo


Draco's face paled to a shade lighter than usual when the door opened. He was flooded with momentary relief when he saw that it was Blaise who'd just walked in. He didn't need a teacher telling him how to behave. Merlin was with him, apparently.

. . .Then Draco realized how Blaise finding them could actually make things much, much worse. And judging by the shocked expression on his friend's face. . . .it was.


Try as he may to focus on getting as far away from Granger as fast as humanly possible, Draco couldn't. It felt too damn good to have her right there in his arms. She was warm and soft and smelled really, really, ridiculously good.

Essence of Forbidden Fruit, anyone? Draco thought to himself sarcastically.

He'd originally reached out and grabbed her when they were falling because he'd wanted to keep both of them from getting very hurt; he could ensure that if they landed in a certain way. And they had. He had managed to break the fall and keep her from getting injured. His side was a bit sore because of it, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with a simple spell. Breaking the fall and keeping them both uninjured was easy.

He just hadn't thought about the consequences.


I didn't know Granger felt this good!
. . . .Why didn't I know Granger felt this good?
. . . . .Does anyone know Granger feels this good?
. . . . .Probably not.

She smells good, too.

Oh, shit. Blaise is mad. He's furious. He's glaring now. Fuck! He thinks this is my fault - I can tell. Shit. . . .Double shit. This is so not good. I need to get away from her right now.


. . . . . . .Okay, now.

. . . . . . .Move, stupid body, MOVE!!!!

But it was useless. The only movement Draco made was in his fingers. He gently squeezed Hermione's arm in an attempt to wake her out of her little whatever-it-was. She was closing her eyes tightly and was barely breathing; she wasn't moving an inch either. She had probably managed to convince herself that it was a teacher who had caught them, and that they were going to be expelled for canoodling in the temporary Herbology room.

As if that would be enough for expulsion. She was so ridiculous sometimes.


But it's endearing, in a way. . . .

Oh, shut up, hormones. Just shut the bloody fuck up! Nothing about Granger is "endearing". Even if there was something about her that was, this is not the time to think about it!


Draco's attention was brought back to his angry best friend once again when his unfinished query broke the silence in the room. It made Blaise sound so momentarily vulnerable, that Draco actually winced.


"What. . . . . . . . . ?" Blaise started, intent on screaming the shit out of Draco. He was convinced that Draco had been bored and had decided to play around with Hermione a little bit. That's what Draco always did and, though it didn't usually bother Blaise, it bloody well bothered him now. How dare he use Hermione like this?! How dare he? Blaise had made it very clear to Draco how important Hermione had become to him and the fact that Draco would still try and use her like this without even getting to know her at all. . . .Well, that pissed Blaise off.

He was vaguely aware of Hermione slightly relaxing and moving away from Draco as she came to the realization that it was Blaise who had discovered them, but he was too angry with Draco to really take this into consideration. He could have put two and two together and realized that Hermione's lack of sheer embarrassment was proof that nothing had been going on. . . .But all Blaise could see at the moment was the most irritating look of pure, innocent confusion on Draco's face that he had ever seen.

Like he doesn't know that I know what he's done.


". . . . . .What the fuck, Draco?" he finally asked heatedly.

"Me?" questioned Draco in his infuriatingly calm, imperial vice. "Don't get mad at me before you know what happened, Blaise." Draco said with a sort of sigh. He probably wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but the fact that his best friend distrusted him this much just because of some stupid war really got to him. He was getting sick of having to explain himself to Blaise for every little non-important thing.

"I know that you- " Draco started, hoping to explain what had happened.

"So - what? You want me to be mad at her? That's ridiculous. I know what you did; what you always do." Blaise said, seeing the momentary look of hurt flash in Draco's eyes. "Hermione, come here. Get away from him."

Hermione looked from the boy whose arms were loosely around her, to her dear friend, Blaise. She had a medley of emotions going through her at that moment and though she wanted to diffuse this pointless arguement as quickly as possible, she wasn't sure she could.

First of all, she felt extreme amounts of confusion about the boy she was currently laying on the floor with. It seemed like they had finally managed to release their old anger towards each other - which is what they had been trying to do for the past month, so that was good. But it had all happened so fast. One minute they were surging with old resentment and the next, they were laughing and having unadulterated amounts of fun. It was all wonderful and happy. . . .but it only made Hermione wonder how long it would last.

Then there was the issue of his arms being around her. It bothered Hermione to a great extent that she felt very, very safe in Draco's arms. It was strange, but as they were falling and his arms had closed around her, Hermione had felt a spark of a memory flare up. Unluckily for her, howver, it had been extinguished far too quickly for her to grasp. She was just momentarily in a daze, trying to remember what it was that the action had triggered. For the life of her, she couldn't figure it out!

Perhaps the reason for that is because his arms are so tightly wrapped around you and his well-defined chest is pushed against yours quite nicely and his warm legs are tangled with yours and his cologne is working like some kind of a drug and his-

Stop it. That's absurd.

Blaise is standing here, confused and hurt and all I can think of is how exciting it feels to be all tangled up with Malfoy?! I've gone off my rocker.


Clearing her throat, Hermione started to squirm a bit, hoping to slip out of Malfoy's arms. She was almost pleasantly suprised when his hold on her tightened and she was brought closer to him. She knew, however, that this was only due to the fact that he was upset with Blaise assuming too much and wanting to irritate him further because of those assumptions. Malfoy was definitely not getting the same symptoms from her that she was having because of him. Of that, Hermione was sure.


"She doesn't have to do what you tell her to. How do you know she isn't happy right where she is?" Draco questioned with a small, brave grin.

"Don't be stupid, Draco. I know what you're doing and she doesn't deserve it!" Blaise exclaimd, stamping his foot, much to everyone's shock. Blaise, like any other well-bred Slytherin (is there any other kind?) had been trained to keep his emotions in check. This little outburst was enough for both young adults on the floor to realize that Blaise was upset. And not just about this, but about a lot of things. This was just what was allowing him to finally explode.

Something's off. Draco concurred, though it wasn't enough to abate his anger. In fact, it only made it worse because he'd rarely seen Blaise this worked up before. It bothered him that it was his own fault - even if nothing had really happened. And when Draco was bothered, he automatically got defensive. It was his way of shielding his emotions; to an outside observer, it just looked as though Draco was angry, but to insightful folk and to those who knew him well, his insecurity was obvious.

But Blaise was obviously ignoring that fact.

"So you're saying I should not have taken it upon myself to brace her - and myself - before falling to the floor and potentially breaking something? You're saying that she didn't deserve my help?"

"Shut up, Draco. Lying to me?" He scoffed. "Its pointless; you should know that. Hermione is a friend of mine. I told you that so many times these past few weeks. To think that you would revert to your old, 'Slytherin Prince needs to fuck every girl on the planet' ways, sickens me. I thought you grew up, Draco. I don't even know who you are anym-"

"Blaise Malachi Zabini, stop it this insant!"

Both boys stopped their shouting and glaring for a moment and stared at the Griffindor whose brow was furrowed and who was looking extremely distraught.

Malfoy had the indecency to look triumphant as he started to speak again. "See, I told you she liked it where she-"

Slap!

"I'll have no one but me speaking on my behalf, thank you very much." Hermione said rather primly as Malfoy now fell silent, refusing to give her the satisfaction of raising his hand to his stinging cheek.

Now that there was quiet in the room, Hermione took it upon herself to use it to her advantage and managed to slip reluctantly away from Malfoy. She knew her cheeks were bright red from the close contact with the good looking young man, but she also knew - and took comfort in the fact - that neither Blaise, nor Malfoy would suspect this as the reason for her flushed face. They would assume she was upset, which worked out quite nicely for her. Not to mention she really was upset.

Standing up, Hermione held out her hand for Malfoy to take. She was not in the least bit surprised when he ignored it and stood up on his own. After a minute or two of very awkward silence, someone spoke up.

"Why do you instantly blame me for-"

"Shut it, Malfoy." Said Hermione sternly before sighing and turning to Blaise. "Listen, he was telling the truth. We thought you were a teacher, so we started to clean up the room in a frenzied sort of way and-"

"Running all around the room and everything. It was bloody insa-" started Draco before he was cut of once again.

"And then," continued Hermione "We both started running for the basket I was collecting the ingredients for the potion in. I suppose we just weren't watching where we were going."

When she finished, Hermione looked to Blaise matter-of-factly and shrugged slightly. It was the truth and she saw no reason why he wouldn't believe it. It may have been true that Hermione had been extremely attracted to Malfoy for the few minutes that they had been on the floor together, but nothing had happened.

And nothing ever would. she told herself resolutely.


xoxo


Blaise looked back and forth between his two friends. It was blatantly obvious that the two of them had been struggling with a mutual attraction while they were pressed against one another on the floor. . . .But it was also obvious that both were unaware of the other's discomfort. This made Blaise realize, with relief, that they were telling the truth. Nothing had happened. Along with that relief, however, he felt extremely stupid and remorseful. He turned to Draco and opened his mouth to apologize, but realized that Draco was muttering something under his breath and turning his head resolutely away from Hermione. Hermione, in turn, was extremely intent on focusing on Blaise; to the point where it was clear what she really trying to do was not look at Draco.

In his newfound good mood, Blaise snickered.

This immediately brought real attention to him from both the young woman and man before him. They were staring at him with both curiosity and caution and he shook his head, still smiling.

"It's all good. I believe you."

At the audible sighs of relief, he added, "But you're both so bloody blind." And laughed again.

The two of the spoke at the same time.

"What are you talking-"
"What do you mea-"

They then shared a look of annoyance at one another before Hermione bowed her head in Draco's direction. Blaise just continued to watch and smile as Draco took the prompt and repeated his question.

"What are you talking about?" he asked with a frown.

"Oh, nothing. You'll figure it out eventually; you two are the smartest in our year after all. For now, though, can we just call it a night? I'm beat." He added with a stifled yawn.

With matching puzzled looks and nods, Draco and Hermione went to gather their things before following Blaise out of the classroom. Strangely, there was no underlying tension between the three of them on their walk through the hall. They had all silently come to the realization that the three of them, as a whole, functioned like a decently-oiled machine. There were a few kinks that needed to be adressed every now and then, but between the tree of them? All problems were eventually resolved.

"Malachi?"

The amused drawl hung in the air for a moment as Blaise debated whether or not he should even reply. Though he couldn't see Draco's face in the dark corridor, he could practically feel the smirk rolling off him in waves. Blaise rolled his eyes and sighed. He didn't really care about his middle name at all and he was too tired to deal with sarcasm. He knew that Draco understood they were on good terms now, but didn't he also realize how tired Blaise was?

"I rather like it." Mused Hermione a few moments later.

"Oh, you do; do you?" Draco asked, keeping that false, amused tone.

"Yes. Yes, I do. Now I believe this is the corridor where you must leave us. How sad. Goodnight, then, Malfoy."

Muttering under his breath, Draco nodded and made his way towards the Slytherins dorms. As he left, he noticed three things: First, he was still horny from when Granger had slapped him. Second, he was still dirty from their dirt war. And third, he found himself not caring about either of those things.

Normally, he would blame these happenings on lack of sleep, but this time Draco decided he would take responsibility for his actions and emotions. He had finally warmed up to Granger.

Won't Blaise be proud? he thought sarcastically.

Draco hardly knew how she thought of him, but he was almost completely certain that she harbored no physical desire towards him whatsoever. And that bothered him. Another thing that bohered him was the fact that he had been so caught up in not liking her (and failing miserably), that she'd beaten him to the punch, so to say. Granger had been willing to put everything behind her the minute they stepped inside school and he both respected and envied her for being so mature. They were only a month into their seventh year at Hogwarts and already he was becoming friends with Granger?

The year was certainly turning out to be different. Very different. And Draco was pretty sure he liked this different.


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Blaise smirked as he spotted Draco at the Slytherin table in he Great Hall and bega walking towards him. He had slept fairly well, takinginto account that the ideas clouding his mind were the following: his two closest friends had an extremely strong attraction to one another, both were completely unaware of the other's feelings, he was going to have to play matchmaker, and he was going to have to deal with it if they ever fought.

And Merlin knew they would fight.

"So which concealment spell was it that you used last night?" asked Blaise jovially, with a huge grin on his face, as he sat himself next to Draco at the breakfast table in the Great Hall.

Draco, in turn, choked on his toast and glared at his friend as he was handed some much needed pumpkin juice to wash the toast bits down. After taking a few gulps, Draco wiped his mouth on his napkin, cleared his throat twice, folded his napkin back up, placed it back on his lap, picked up his knife and fork, began cutting up a piece of sausage, looked at said sausage with such intense curiosity and scrutiny that an onlooker might actually think he was attempting communication, then speared a piece of it with his fork and put it in his mouth. He then proceeded to chew. Slowly.

"So I'm right, then. You did have a stiffy last night and a concealment charm is what you were muttering under your breath." Blaise said satisfactorily as he leaned back in his chair and watched his friend try and avoid the situation. It might have worked if Blaise wasn't so dead set on getting the two of them together. After his night of mulling things over, Blaise had come to the decision that Draco and Hermione would suit one another perfectly. Of course, he'd never force anything that wasn't there - not when the people involved were his two closest friends. But he would push and nudge things along ever so gently, if need be.

And need definitely be with these two. Blaise thought to himself as he returned to a normal sitting position and began serving himself some eggs and sausages. As he began to cut up his sausages, he leaned closer to Draco.

"You know," he started thoughfully. "It isn't like you to be quiet for this long." He said as Draco sat there, silently eating his breakfast and looking paler than usual. Much to Blaise's surprise, Draco lashed out.

"And it isn't quite like you to make my life a living hell, Zabini. Now, what are you going on about?" Draco asked with a practiced air of nonchalance as he turned to face Blaise, who was taking a gulp of his pumpkin juice.

After downing the drink, Blaise gave Draco a huge grin. Normally, Draco had to be bated for a bit longer by Blaise to produce a reaction like that. Apparently Granger was very much uner Draco's skin.

"Oh, nothing." Blaise finally replied. "Let's just say that I'm on to you, Malfoy. I'm on to you and I'm on your side."


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A/N#2:

Bad? Good?
. . . .Short? - Yes, it was a bit. I apologize for that.

Let me know if you think I'm still doing the characters justice. I've been very much out of it these pst weeks and if it has affected my writing, let me know.

The chapter title comes from the song "Guilty Pleasure" by Cobra Starship. It's not the best-fittng title - not by a long shot - but I was pressed for time because I wanted to get this chapter out to you all as fast as possible. Perhaps I'll change it later on; I'm not sure.


Thank you for reading!