Night's visitor

Night’s Visitor
Chapter 6
Seeing the bright, white… veela
(When I wrote the title I was thinking of when person dies and “sees the light”, but as I wrote the chapter the title fit to more than that ;)

Disclaimer: I don’t own HP.

I guess some of you - or probably everyone – have noticed that I haven’t mentioned either Hogwarts or even magic (along with other things)… I promise that at least the latter will show up.
I can’t really tell you much right now (since that would ruin my fun), but I’m going to explain more about the world, as the story continues.
The world is the same as in the books, it’s just that Hermione has a different life and Hogwarts might not even exist (I’ll think about it ;) and also others things have turned out differently.

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Besides the above, I just wanted to say I’m really sorry! Mostly for not updating sooner but then also for having said that I would update many, may weeks ago, and then not doing it! School really was over by then for me, but other things came up that made me extremely stressed and it took me until now to “recover” from that. I’m bad at coping with stress - it kind of just knocks me out mentally. Really sorry!! I would promise to not do it again, but I fear that would make me feel even guiltier if I break that.
***
My muse has now returned- which is why I’m updating… It (or she or he) came to me when I was in Italy on vacation, and there was something in the mountains, the ocean and the sun that woke up the story’s life again.
***
It was a fun chapter to write, and I hope you like it!



Chapter 6
Seeing the bright white… veela

The rest of the day went past quickly and Hermione wasn’t sure whether this was good or bad. Not that she had the time to think about it, since every second had to be used for working.
To fill the new workload Pansy had made Hermione clean her rooms, the other suites on the floor, and in between Hermione had to do errands in town.

The pear that she had stolen in the morning had been a great help during the day.
She had divided it into small pieces with a scissor and took one piece whenever she felt exceptionally tired - of course only when no one was looking.

But it hadn’t been much to start with and even with her determination she couldn’t stop herself from eating too quickly when her stomach was growling as worst and so; around one o’ clock it was gone.

By lunchtime everyone in the Household had known about Hermione’s punishment.
Some who passed by sent her pitying looks, others where blatantly ignoring her- acting as if she was a leper, and panic-stricken by the thought of also receiving Pansy’s cruelty.

Hermione normally hated pity, and people ignoring her she was used to, but after a few hours neither were noticeable to her. She was too caught up with work.

In the evening Hermione had had to go to five different seamstresses in town, to collect samples of fabric for Pansy’s new dress. She was finished when the city bell announced the 20th hour. By then she was exhausted and her hands refused to stop shaking.

The world around her seemed to be blurring - sounds, sights and smells were all melting together into a great buzz. Still she forced herself to climb all the stairs up to Pansy’s floor and wait outside Pansy’s big doors, for Pansy to let her in. It took some time. About fifteen minutes after Hermione had knocked on the door, she was still waiting for Pansy to let her in. Sighing she let her tired eyes rest, on the night sky outside the windows. The moon was shining like a silver beacon in the endless dark blue sky; it was a very comforting sight.

“I wish…” She whispered, but was interrupted.

“You may come in”, Pansy announced from within the chamber.

Hermione opened the door and walked to stand before the girl. Pansy was in her nightgown, a very pink thing with lots and lots of lace and embroidery. She sat in a comfortable chair with a tea tray on the table beside her, looking very relaxed and self-righteous.

“I’m back with the fabric samples now, Pansy.” Hermione said obediently.

Pansy, who had expected to see a Hermione at least a bit desperate, was not pleased.

“I can see that, you stupid girl.” She sneered. “But you have taken so much time in doing it, that I have decided not to use them.” She sighed dramatically. “You have been a bad maid again, Hermione. I feel that you don’t put any real effort in your work. Maybe you want to be as lazy as a cow.” An idea struck Pansy, and the girl giggled.

“I just thought of a great job for you, Hermione… Since you have lots of disgusting stubbornness left, I will let you clean the great hall!” Pansy said.

Off course - she was fully aware that the great hall was a room - that took up an entire floor. It was so huge that is took five maids almost a day to clean it, considering that they also had to clean the big windows, and the fifteen great diamond chandeliers – who were impossible to clean and - if the there were any in the room when the cleaning was done - also the furniture. The Parkinson family was very rich, and liked to show it. Therefore they usually bought new furniture to the great hall whenever they had use of the room.

Hermione stared, paling at Pansy “You are… joking…?” She began, but trailed off when she figured Pansy didn’t have any humor. “I can’t do the great hall by myself, it’ll take me days!”

Pansy shook her head. “It will not take days, because I am not giving you days – I’m giving you twenty-four hours. If you’re not ready by then; I might finally be convinced that this Household has no more use of your services…” She tilted her head and gave Hermione a questioning smile.

”Do you understand, Hermione?”

Hermione nodded dumbly. It was so unfair! That bit..

Pansy gave a pitying smile, “You only have yourself to blame, Hermione… I understand this might come as a shock but: Disobeying your superiors the way you have done so far – it will not help you in life.” She brought the teacup to her lips and blew away some of the steam.

“Now off you go and do your duty! I’m expecting it clean at this time tomorrow. You have no time to waste!”

Since it was so late, few people met Hermione in the corridors on her way. First she went and fetched some dozens of cleaning-rags and the biggest bucket she could find, to fill with warm water and soap. Then she got a small cart to move the bucket, as it had become way to heavy with the water, and dragged everything to the fourth floor, where the great hall lay.

The first time she had been here, was when she was six years old. Her mother had brought Hermione with her, when she - along with ten other servants - had gotten the duty to clean up after a feast. It had been a magnificent sight, the chandeliers high up in air, glowing in gold, silver and with sparkling diamonds hanging from every metallic arm.

The floor was so huge it felt like walking out on an ocean, when she took the first steps, an ocean of dark cherry tree wood with a beautiful pattern stretching from the centre of the room out to every corner. The pattern portrayed grapevine growing out over the floor, like it was a living thing, and inside the twirls of the ranks, were creatures of fairy tales hidden.

The walls were not decorated at all, instead their plainness made the roof stand out, which was made of a blue stone, sparkling like a star-filled night sky, or sunrays on an ocean (whatever you might prefer).

She was still in awe whenever she stepped inside, but tonight she was so burdened with the upcoming cleaning, that she feared to gaze over the room and realize that it couldn’t be done.

Silently she went over to a far corner with everything and sat down. Hermione’s hand grabbed a rag and dipped it in the water. The water was ice-cold, chilling her hand, but she didn’t care, instead brought the rag to the floor and began working on the impossible task.

Hours flew by. The monotone work wasn’t the least hard, but her tiredness grew anyway. Her mind needed sleep. Her back and shoulders, neck and fingers, and legs - everything hurt. The full moon shone trough the windows and gave her company and light. It felt a little easier to continue working if she let herself gaze at it for a moment now and then.

“It must be midnight now… or maybe later than that!” Hermione thought.

She had reached the opposite wall by then, and was therefore finished with about a fifth of the floor. Sighing she closed her eyes to take a small break. But when she was about to start again, her eyes wouldn’t open.

She frowned and made an attempt to lift her arms to rub her eyes, but her arms wouldn’t obey. Shocked she tried to shake herself into awareness, but her whole body disobeyed her, and instead she felt herself falling backwards on the floor. As she lay there in a very uncomfortable heap she felt a second of panic.

“How am I going to work now?”

Then sleep overtook her.

¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤ # ¤

She opened her eyes to completely unfamiliar surroundings. The enormous bed was almost the only furniture in a room empty of people, which made her realize that the impossibly huge room was actually only a bedroom. The walls were dark blue and most of the decorations inside were in either silver or green, like the linens on the bed – completely silver.

When she moved to sit up, the covers riffled and the motion spread over the bed like waves. At least; she tried to sit up… she didn’t get anywhere. Her body was so exhausted that it wouldn’t move, couldn’t move. Hermione started to feel a bit scared. Where was she? Who had brought her here?

In desperation she tried to remove the covers from her, they made her feel trapped. This situation was something new to her. Not even when Pansy had been as worst had Hermione felt this incapable… so weak. She always managed to somehow defend herself or make the situation better. Now she couldn’t even move, she couldn’t do anything!

Who knew what the stranger, who took her here and put her in a bed, this big, wanted to do to her. It was without a doubt a rich someone and rich people never did something for others, without wanting something in return…

Her struggles at last turned successful, when the top of the blanket slipped down to her hips.
The opening revealed that she was still dressed in her own grey dress.

“Thank the gods that I still have my clothes on!” She exclaimed when she saw the worn, torn and dirty- but oh so safe dress.

The short work-out had worn her out, and as she caught her breath she took a good look around in the room. To her right, in a corner, was a normal sized door. It probably led to this room’s wardrobe. On her opposite side, was a big double door.

“That’s the one I have to go through to get out of here!”

She listened carefully to hear if someone was nearby, from whatever small noise big enough through pass through the big doors or the thick walls. When she felt satisfied with the silence, she guessed it meant no one was guarding the doors outside.

Hermione forced herself with the huge effort of making her legs move, one by one, sideways to her right and away from the double doors, to the edge of the mattress. This was done so that the legs would dampen her fall to the floor, after she had made her upper body move as well.

Hermione was smart enough to realize, that she couldn’t flee from this place, in the condition she was in now. Instead she wanted to hide somewhere safe, to bide her time and recover.
She continued moving by pushing her body towards the edge with her left arm and pulling with her right. It was so hard!

Her arms were the most tired parts of her, they screamed for mercy. Of course Hermione ignored them, but she had bite her lip to stop noises of discomfort to slip out. She absolutely couldn’t risk stopping now. Her captor would probably be very angry if he/she caught her in the middle of escaping. Finally there, she lay sidelong with the edge.

She glanced down and gulped. That was a long way to fall down - why would anyone want a bed this high?

Hermione took a deep breath “Come on Hermione don’t be afraid of getting a little bruised!”
With a final push from both legs and arms, Hermione fell over the edge. She cringed when she connected with the floor.

“OW!”

That hurt bad! Even though the carpet, she lost her breath and could’ve sworn she saw stars for a few second. “Pretty!” Hermione thought dizzily.

Now she had used the last of her reserves and couldn’t shake of the darkness that was once again creeping in on her. Desperate she looked back at the bed. It was very high, but had still only a small space underneath. It would barely fit her…

Her eyes began to drop. Gritting her teeth, Hermione growled and heaved herself in under it. She was panting when she came to the centre under the bed. It wasn’t a great place to hide in, but sometimes the simplest thing was the best. Who would guess that she hadn’t actually moved from the bed to flee, but only hid underneath it? It was something so easy that her captor might disregard it. Hermione hoped so.

##################

Next time Hermione woke, she felt as if she hadn’t slept at all. Her head ached, her eyes were heavy and she couldn’t breath properly due to the small space. Something had awoken her though, and she realized that the ringing in her ears where not imagination, but someone was actually screaming furiously in the room.

“WHERE IS SHE?” It was a male’s voice. “HOW COULD SHE HAVE RUN AWAY – WITH THE ENTIRE HOUSE FULL OF SERVANTS AND GUARDS? THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO LOOK AFTER HER!”

Hermione felt very grateful that she had hid. The voice of the male did not sound sympathetic or nice at all. He would probably not have treated her well. She didn’t have energy enough to analyse the situation, as sleep was already claming her again. The sound of footsteps running out of the room lulled Hermione back into sleep.

###############

The third time Hermione awoke, something was different, she realized it was the darkness she lay in.

“It has become night…” She thought. She wondered how long she had been asleep and annoyingly enough she was still tired. “What is it this time, that has awoken me?” She wondered in her thoughts. Hermione lay on alert, but the room was quiet.

She tilted her head to look out on the floor first to her right, then to her left. All doors were closed and she was, as it seemed, alone. She sighed gratefully. Now she had some time to plan her escape, before she fell asleep again.

Firstly: Though she had only seen this bedroom, she understood that this unknown house was that of rich people. Therefore it would probably be very big and as the man had screamed earlier; full of servants and guards that would try and stop her, if they saw her. The big entrance should be easy to find, but she couldn’t get out that way, it was surely guarded day and night. She would have to go to the basement and try to find an entrance for servants.

The best time to escape would be during night, but at the moment she still needed rest. The door to her left opened suddenly and turning that way she could see a pair of women’s shoes stepping inside. The door was closed behind the new person, so silently that not a click was heard. The woman only took one step further inside the room, before stopping.

A minute went by and then the woman’s left foot started tapping impatiently against the floor.

“Well… Are you going to say something?” The woman’s voice suddenly said; sounding very annoyed.

Hermione was frozen in shock. How could that person have known that Hermione lay here? The voice was just like Mrs Parkinson’s. It was the voice of someone expecting to be obeyed: A voice type that Hermione was used to heed, because of the punishment that would follow if she didn’t.
She opened her mouth to explain herself…

… When a male voice spoke instead. Coming from above on the bed. A male- the male from before - was lying on the bed.

Hermione’s heart was now beating so fast, that she feared the people would discover her - from just the sound of it.

“Go away, mother. I want to be alone.” The man spoke with heavy voice. He sounded very troubled, but the woman - his mother – took this with a disapproving huff.

“This behaviour of yours is going to stop now!” She ordered her son. “You lay here, pitying yourself and smelling her on the sheets; it is pathetic and completely unacceptable! This is not how a true Malfoy should act!”

“Then what should I do? Tell me then mother!” The male voice rose with frustration.
“I had her here. She was – is – ill! She needs me! Why did she run away?”

There was a muffled sound, as if he had banged a fist against the pillow. Hermione was lying still underneath him, very confused. So confused; that she ignored her tiredness and tried instead to answer her own questions. The man acted as if he cared deeply for her, but she was sure that she had never met him before. The gods would know how lonely she always was. During all the years that she had spent working for Pansy, she hadn’t gotten involved with anyone, romantically or friendship-wise, to be the cause of such a reaction.

“He can only have seen me somewhere before, or maybe even only when he brought me here… And yet he acts as if I should want to stay, or be thankful.” Hermione frowned.
“How could I be thankful to him, when he took me from my work. I can’t even go back to the Parkinson’s. Pansy will definitely fire me now, if she hasn’t already.” Anger started creeping in on Hermione.

Who did the bastard think he was? He, who so selfishly ruined her life? Annoyed, Hermione decided to fall asleep again. Listening to this conversation would only rile her up, and she couldn’t do anything about it… not yet. She blocked the peoples’ continuing conversation out of her head. If they were stupid enough not to look under the bed, then they weren’t enough for her to worry. Hermione slept.

###################

The fourth time she woke, was the charm and she felt recovered. Her mind was blissfully relaxed and Hermione let herself enjoy the feeling… for a minute, before readying herself to get out from under the bed. Now that she knew that someone could be lying above her on the bed, she was very nervous as she started inching towards “the light” to her right, away from the double doors. The light was bright, but not bright enough to be midday and not dull enough to be evening

“It must be morning now” Hermione thought.

Slowly, she neared the opening. “Please, please let me be alone!” She thought.

Her head came out first, and she turned to gaze up on the mattress’ edge. Nothing indicated whether someone was lying there or not. Hermione’s body no longer was close to fainting from exhaustion; therefore her body took this perfect opportunity to voice another need:
Her stomach growled. “Growl!”

Someone on top of the bed woke up, because the mattress shifted. Quickly, Hermione tried to crawl back in under the bed, but when her stomach growled again the person on the bed understood from where the sound came. The person twisted around and threw itself forward so that in only a blink of an eye: his head appeared above hers.

If Hermione had cared at the moment, she would have noticed that the young man’s face was a perfect picture of shock; eyes wide open, mouth slightly agape and frozen. Hermione’s, on the other hand, showed great trepidation and a bit of fear. “No, no, NO!”

Their eyes remained looked onto each other for what felt like and eternity of suffering - for Hermione. Then the young man broke the silence.

“You are still here!” He exclaimed delighted. ”Thank Merlin!” Then he sobered a bit.
“Why are you hiding under the bed?”

Hermione frowned at him and without answering pulled herself completely out from her hiding place. Still looking the young man in the eyes, she crawled backwards on the floor until she felt the wall behind her back. The man noticed her apprehension and though he didn’t seem to understand the reason of it; he copied her careful motions and slowly sat up on the bed. Now there were almost five metres between them, not enough if Hermione had anything to say about it. Hermione swallowed.

“Why am I here?”

The boy turned from shocked to angry. “Because you were nearly comatose from overworking yourself at that place! I would not let my mate suffer under such conditions!”

The word mate woke the memory of a dream that felt very far away for Hermione, but something clicked inside her mind.

“You are that person from that dream!” She exclaimed flabbergasted.

With the realization she took notice of his appearance. The blond eyes and the grey eyes were the things that had made her connect him with her dream. She had never seen someone with such a unique mix of features before.

“You thought I was a dream?” The boy-man sounded slightly insulted.

“It’s not very normal to have someone visiting, in the middle of the night, through a window you know.” Hermione retaliated.

“I left you a rose! That should have reminded you!” The man grumbled.

“A rose that was gone when I woke up!” Hermione said.

The man blinked. “It was?” His eyes widened. “Then the legend was true! It must have been absorbed into you”

Suddenly he leapt forward and knelt in front of her, so close that Hermione could feel his breath upon her face. Naturally- she panicked.

“What are you doing? Back off!!”

“Please let me see the rose.” The man said, ignoring her demand. Hermione tried to push him away, but her hands were captured in his. “Let me see the rose…” The blond breathed. He leaned forward and their noses bumped into each other. His eyes, steel grey, were looking straight into hers, trying to see the depths of her soul.

Hermione didn’t like it at all.

“You prick! Get off!”

She smashed him headlong in the face and was grimly satisfied to see him fall backwards; howling in pain and letting her hands go to hold his own over his nose.

“Argh! Why did you hit me?” The boy screamed.

“Because you didn’t let go!” Hermione stared down at him mercilessly. “Who do you think you are, holding me like that? You had no right!”

“I had all right! I am a veela, remember? And you are my mate!”

“I am not your mate! All I agreed to was that stupid rose and you used it to trick me!”

“I so did not trick you! Anyone would understand what such a gift from a veela would mean!”

“Well excuse me for not being educated. I work as a maid, if you remember? I haven’t had any education. All I know is what my mother taught me.”

Hermione admitted this with burning cheeks. She never liked revealing her one true weakness: If it was one thing Hermione had always hated in her life, it was that she had never been able to go to school.

Her mother had taught her the basics in everything, from reading, writing and math, to geography, history and biology, but no matter how many lessons her mother had tried to put in between chores - they could never come close to all that real scholars were taught in school.

From the day Hermione had learnt how to read – a month after her third birthday – she had secretly wished to go to school. Even at this age, seventeen, she still couldn’t help but stare enviously whenever she saw someone reading a schoolbook.

The boy had straightened himself up again, but was still nursing his reddening nose.

“It is not something they teach in school.” He continued arrogantly. “It is something you should know from being who you are. Surely you don’t mean that your mother didn’t teach you anything about our kind?”

“…Our kind?” Hermione asked puzzled. “My mother wasn’t a veela, how should she have known?”

The boy now forgot about his nose to stare incredulously at her.

“You don’t mean… You- Are you a MUGGLE?” The last word was spoken with such despise that Hermione immediately felt insulted, even though she didn’t understand what the word meant.

“I have no idea what that word means, but MUGGLE sounds like an insult to me!”

“It is –“ the boy corrected himself “I mean - it’s not really an insult - I was just surprised. I have never heard of a soul mate that was a muggle.”

Hermione wanted to ask what a muggle was, but her stomach growled again.
“Growl!” The boy was snapped out of his musings and climbed to his feet.

“You still need to recover your strength. Hiding was very stupid and reckless! You shouldn’t be so paranoid!” He scolded, but offered her his hand.

Hermione got angry again and slapped the hand away.

“I had no idea were I was, or who had brought me here; of course I wanted to run away! As a matter of fact – I still do!”

As she shot to her feet, a wave of dizziness forced her to halt and grab onto the wall. The boy tried to step forward and help her, but froze when he saw the poisonous glare she sent him.

“I don’t want you near me. Go away!” Hermione growled through clenched teeth.

The boy became annoyed, but this time only sighed.

“I can’t do that. You are my mate. No matter what you or I think about it.”

“Huh?”

“At least go sit on the bed, while I go get something for you to eat and drink.”

Silently Hermione did as she was told, but she was very tense as she moved towards the bed and sat down on the edge. She really didn’t trust him at all and his actions this morning hadn’t made her more trusting of him. The opposite was more like it.

The boy frowned at her and went out through the doors just as silently. Ten minutes later he came back, carrying a tray with tea, fresh bread, some smaller jars with different sorts of jam, and many kinds of fruit.

Hermione didn’t want to accept anything from Blondy - as she had so kindly decided to name him, since she didn’t know- or really care, for his name- but instead of refusing the food, she had to hold herself back from devouring everything in one go. She was so hungry.
Blondy put the tray down on the bed.

“You should eat slowly, you have been sleeping for two days and your stomach is not used to eating.”

Miffed at his superior attitude Hermione gave back

“Two days huh. Well, then that means I haven’t eaten for four days, unless tree pieces of fruit counts as eating properly…” She said this with an uncaring voice, because it really hadn’t anything to do with him. She would decide herself how much and how fast she would eat.

Hermione did know better, but after hearing him ordering her like that, she got annoyed, therefore she grabbed bread and an apple and began eating just as fast as her stomach wanted. Within minutes they were both gone and she made a grab for after two new ones, but Blondy stopped her.

“You are going to get sick if you eat so fast!” He reprimanded.

“Stop acting like you care!” Hermione snapped, but did pause.

Blondy answered, with forced patience. “I do care. You are my mate! If you get sick, I will be affected as well.”

“What do you mean?”

Blondy rolled his eyes and moaned. “Don’t you know anything about veelas?”

Hermione glared at him, and snagged more bread just for the sake of it, which she began to munch on.

“Until now I have always heard that they are only fairy-tale creatures.”

Draco groaned, now really annoyed and made an irritated face.

“You really don’t know anything, do you? And because I am your mate, it will be my responsibility to teach you everything, about veelas and soul mates and such…”

He sighed.

”It will never work out having you living here, if you don’t know about this. I can just imagine how my mother will react when I tell her that my mate is almost a simpleton.”

Hermione was starting to see red. How dared that infuriating spoilt brat? How dared he sit there and behave like a pompous ass after having kidnapped her, ruined her life and then tried to molest her? Without noticing it she crushed the bread in her hand until crumbs were raining down on her skirt. Hermione was on her feet in a second, her heart was beating so fast that she didn’t even get dizzy, and then she took the deepest breath ever to release her fury.

“YOU COMPLETE AND UTTER JERK! DON’T YOU EVER SAY SUCH THING TO ME AGAIN! IF YOU DO I WILL MAKE YOU EAT YOUR WORDS – ONE BY ONE!!”

The boy was shocked speechless by her outburst and could only blink up at her.

“AND DON’T THINK ABOUT TEACHING ME ANYTHING! I WONT NEED ANY EDUCATION BECAUSE I REFUSE TO STAY ANYWHERE CLOSE TO YOU! I’D RATHER SLEEP OUT ON THE STREETS THAN STAY UNDER THE SAME ROOF AS YOU!”

Hermione marched over to the double doors. She threw them open and then quickly spun around. Her face was flushed with anger and her eyes sparkled with inner fire.

“I HOPE I NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!”

With those as ending words, she slammed the doors closed with a bang and started marching down through the corridors.
She was going to get out of this place, and may the gods save all who tried to stop her!


A/N: So… what do you think?
Again I want to apologize for the long wait, I’m so sorry. Please do hate me - I totally deserve it!
Once I started to seriously write on this one again, the story just flowed- and this chapter became much longer than I had thought it would be. You can look at it as a “forgive-me”-extra long chapter… if you want.
I’m quite satisfied with the chapter though; I got it just the way I wanted it.
Hehe, “Blondy” got what he deserved, and poor Hermione. She really doesn’t have it easy!
Please R&R and tell me what you think!