December was always a busy time at Hogwarts. It was if all of the professors universally agreed that if we were to get two weeks holiday at the end of the month, then they would cram all of that work into the weeks prior to it.
I enjoyed the work. I enjoyed staying focused. I enjoyed working through my to-do list, feeling a sense of satisfaction as each task was struck off of the long list. But that wasn't the only reason that I threw myself into work. In the end it provided a great distraction for another reason. At the start of the month, Cormac McLaggen returned to school after his two-month suspension. Professor McGonagall had called me to her office a few days before his return to give me some prior warning. Thankfully we had shared only one class together, but his timetable had been changed so that I wouldn't have to see him. She said he had been warned to stay away from me and to not attempt to approach me or she would push for a more permanent exclusion. However, the main issue that Professor McGonagall said she couldn't do anything about was the common room. We were both Gryffindors and so both had a right to use the communal space. But it didn't matter anyway, despite the fact that we lived in a huge castle, I knew I couldn't avoid him forever. Despite my best intentions, we were inevitably bound to bump into each other at some point.
For my part I didn't seek him out, but I didn't aim to avoid him either. My strategy was to simply ignore him. That didn't make it easy whenever I would hear his voice or see him come down the dormitory staircase. I couldn't help but flinch or stiffen as a shiver ran down my spine as the memories of feeling trapped and helpless returned. As I thought about what might have been had Draco not been there to stop it.
Harry, this time accompanied by Ginny, both tried to stay close to me, until I eventually asked them to stop. I knew they were both just trying to help me, but I was determined that I was not going to be afraid in my own home. With not much else to do, both Harry and Ginny instead shot hateful glares at Cormac whenever he was in the vicinity and on more than one occasion, I had to pin Ginny down to stop her from saying something to him. Or even worse. It had been a while since Ginny had hexed someone in a corridor, but I knew only too well what she was capable of.
As it turned out, it wasn't Harry and Ginny that I should have been worried about. To be honest I should have seen it coming. I should have known that he wouldn't have just let it go.
Cormac had been back in school for only a couple of days when it happened. Draco was leaving the Great Hall which of course, as usual, I was pretending that I wasn't watching, when he came to a halting stop. Wondering what had happened, I craned my neck in his direction as discreetly as it was possible to be when I was clearly being nosy, only to see Cormac standing at the entrance doors. I sucked in a breath feeling panic flare in my chest, knowing that Draco was about to do something incredibly stupid and knowing that there was no way that I could stop it without making it worse. Yet to my surprise, Draco didn't draw his wand, he didn't lunge forward with his fists, instead he simply stood in the middle of the doorway, folded his arms, raised himself to his full height and firmly planted his feet. From my seat at the Gryffindor table, I could only see Draco's back. But even then, I could see from the line of his shoulders, from the tension within him that he was ready for a fight, perhaps even looking for one.
From my viewpoint at the Gryffindor table, I couldn't see Draco's face, but I could see Cormac's. At first, he just stared at Draco, his face hard, his eyes unblinking as he attempted to try and stare Draco down. A game he couldn't possibly win.
By that point they had the full attention of the entire great hall, waiting to see what was going to happen, all whispering, wondering why Draco Malfoy was trying to pick a fight with Cormac McLaggen. I myself was halfway out of my seat, although I wasn't entirely sure what I was planning to do. I certainly didn't want to protect Cormac; if Draco wanted to hex him into oblivion, I would be only too happy to watch, but that would inevitably lead to the awkward questions as to why he had hexed him in the first place. Something that I certainly was not ready to answer.
Luckily for everyone, Blaise Zabini walked up and stood at his friend's side. Cormac looked between the two of them and sensibly seemed to come to the realisation that he was outnumbered. With one last long scathing look at Draco, Cormac turned around and began walking away, but not before I saw him make one last parting comment over his shoulder that had Draco lunging forward until Blaise pulled him back, holding on to his arm.
With Cormac gone they stood a moment, Draco breathing heavily until he shrugged out of Blaise's hold and marched out of the hall himself, Blaise trailing after him.
As soon as Draco disappeared from sight, I sank down in my seat, releasing the breath that I didn't even know I had been holding. 'What on earth was that all about? Ginny asked as all around us the great hall erupted in an explosion of excited chatter and speculation.
'Who knows,' I answered on a shaking breath, trying to look as bemused as everyone else was. Yet as I swallowed the lump in my throat, I looked up to find Harry's eyes watching me, full of that same glint I had seen so many times before when he had been working though his latest suspicions and theories. I just gave him a shrug with a 'don't ask me' look, before I pointedly turned away and began a conversation with Ginny about what she was going to by her mother for Christmas. I made a point of not looking back at Harry again.
For the next few days, the castle was abuzz with endless speculation. Most people seemed to have correctly guessed that something had happened between Cormac and Draco. Yet people were putting the blame squarely onto Draco's shoulders. That Draco was the one who had done something wrong. Lavender although not the only one, was definitely one of the worst. She had been a little bit off with me since Ron had broken up with her. As if she knew what he had said to me literally the same day he had broken up with her. But she had seemed to get over it after a few weeks and was soon back to her normal talkative self. More so than ever when there was gossip to be shared, which after the scene in the great hall, there was plenty. Every single time I saw her she seemed to be rhyming off the latest piece of news and theories that she had heard, which funnily enough seemed to change every single day.
'You'll never guess what I just heard,' she began, nearly the moment that she sat down at the Gryffindor table one morning. 'You remember that bruise that Cormac had a while ago, well people are saying that it was Malfoy. That Cormac was simply trying to stop Malfoy from attacking some poor first year because they were muggle born and Cormac stepped in and saved him.'
Grudgingly and because I was clearly a masochist, I looked at Harry, just as I did every time Lavender spouted off the latest piece of gossip she had heard and just like every single other time, he gave me the exact same look. The look that said, 'you could stop it if you wanted to', to which I would give him a returning look that said quite clearly, 'don't start!'
'And of course, you remember that Cormac missed all of that school,' she prompted, looking around at those around her who were giving her their rapt attention. She waited for a few people to nod before she continued. 'Well, I heard that Malfoy did something to Cormac to make sure that he couldn't tell anyone about what had happened.' She reached over to take another piece of toast. 'He was in St Mungo's this entire time and they've only just been able to undo the curse because who knows what sort of dark magic Draco Malfoy knows.'
I had to fight back the audible sigh that threatened to escape and so as an alternative I clenched my jaw so tightly, I'm surprised that my teeth didn't crack with the force I was inflicting upon them. How did Draco once again get cast in the role of the villain when he was in fact the exact opposite? Where did people get all that nonsense from?
'And don't you see,' she continued, as her onlookers hung onto her every word. 'That's what it was all about the other morning. Malfoy was trying to warn Cormac off again. Warning him to keep his mouth shut. I said it all along, didn't I?' Her voice took on a smug, self- satisfied tone. 'I said that he should be kicked out of Hogwarts. It's ridiculous. He should be in Azkaban before someone else get hurts. How far does he have to go before somebody does something?'
It was at that point I had stood up and walked away. I knew I could have stopped it. The speculation. The rumours. I could have stood up and told the truth. That it wasn't Draco Malfoy who was the monster roaming about our school halls, it was Cormac McLaggen. Yet I didn't. And only partly because I knew that people wouldn't believe the truth even if I told them.
As the day went on, whispers continued to fly around every single corner, all of them with Cormac's name. It was like an irritating fly, following me around, buzzing in my ear, a constant reminder that I couldn't seem to escape. Like little grains of salt being poured sporadically into a never healing wound. But then it wasn't just Cormac's name that was being whispered. It was Draco's too and that came with its own pain, that felt very much like guilt.
Not that I had been able to speak to him about it. It had been almost a week since our conversation in the kitchens and we hadn't had an opportunity to be alone since. We had been doing theory work in potions on how to make antidotes so didn't even have the chance to have a quick chat in the store cupboard. I thought about sending him a letter or a quick note, to try and arrange a time and a place when I could meet him, but I didn't want to take the chance that it could be intercepted, so instead I was stuck with nothing more than a quick glance every now and then. It had almost left me with the feeling that everything that had happened between us had been nothing more than the strangest of dreams.
Which was why I was completely caught off guard late one evening. My detentions had been moved to the Headmistresses office for the remaining few weeks, I had been mainly helping her with filing which wasn't the most exciting of tasks. I had never thought that I would actually wish to be back in the library cataloguing the endless shelves of books under the ever-watchful gaze of Madame Pince.
It was late in the evening when I had left the Headmistresses office and was making my way back to the common room. I was rather enjoying the quiet, gloomy shadows of the corridors; they suited my mood, when I suddenly came to a halt at the sight that was waiting for me at the end of the corridor. Draco was leaning casually against a pillar, his arms folded in front of him. He had the top buttons of his shirt undone, his tie was loosened, and the sleeves of his shirt were pushed up slightly. It was so unlike the prim and proper Draco that I was used to seeing, that I couldn't help but stare.
But as I continued to stare at his casual stance; at the way he looked as if he didn't have a care in the world, I suddenly realised how annoyed I was with him. Annoyed that he didn't seem to care what everyone was saying about him. Annoyed that it was his fault that people were talking about him in the first place and most of all annoyed that I was feeling guilty because I knew that it was my fault.
It took a moment for him to realise that I was there, and when he did, he turned and stared at me directly, looking up at me from behind the messed-up tendrils of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. His expression turned wary and something that he saw in my face made him furrow his brow. Uncrossing his arms, he pushed himself forward off the pillar.
'How was your detention?' he asked.
'Fine,' I said simply, not trusting myself to say anymore. I didn't move towards him. I stayed at one end of the corridor with him standing at the other. As much as I wanted to go to him, something was still holding me back.
'Okay,' he said slowly, looking at me thoughtfully, unsure of what to say next.
'What are you doing here?' I asked eventually, breaking the heavy silence that had filled the corridor.
Draco looked at me and whatever he saw there had his lips turning into a deep frown. 'What's wrong?' he asked.
'Nothing,' I replied, although from the piercing look he gave me, I knew he didn't believe me. Which is why I found myself asking the question I had been wanting to ask for days, 'Why did you do it?'
'Do what?'
It was my turn to give him a look, to which he gave a frustrated sigh, and I knew that he knew exactly what I was referring to.
His whole expression hardened, and I felt like I was suddenly staring at a different person. 'Because he's not going to get away with it,' he said, the threat clear in his voice.
I regarded him incredulously. 'He didn't get away with it, Draco. It was dealt with. It was done. And now because of you, everyone is talking about it. It's all they talk about.'
All he did was give a nonplussed shrug, something that made me inhale sharply through my nose as I felt the irritation rise within me.
'Doesn't it bother you? What they're all saying? What they're saying about you?'
'They were already talking about me,' he said as he shrugged again and I felt my jaw tighten which deepened to a full-blown scowl when he added with a smirk, 'Might as well give them some new material.'
'It's not funny, Draco,' I snapped.
'No,' he agreed, with a small nod, 'It's not funny, but there isn't much I can do about it.'
I simply stared at him, my mouth agape, wondering just who the man was standing in front of me, because it certainly wasn't the Draco Malfoy that I had known for over seven years of my life.
'How can you be so glib about this? How can it not bother you what they're saying?'
'Because I don't care.' One shoulder lifted up into another careless shrug and I had to fight not to march up to him and plant my hands on his shoulders to stop him from repeating the gesture.
Ignoring my instincts, I instead said, 'Since when have you not cared what people say about you.'
'Since my entire life got turned upside down, since I nearly went to Azkaban, since I had to live every day wondering if it could be my last. Funnily enough my priorities, my perspectives changed somewhat. Pride got my family into this mess. I won't make the same mistake, again.' His voice which has started out with the same easy carefree tone that had so infuriated me, rose as he continued to talk, until he ended on his harsh oath.
As we stared at each other in the dim light of the corridor, I could tell that Draco had said more than he had meant to. Yet despite the hardness that continued to play about his eyes, I somehow knew that he meant every word he had said. He truly didn't care what people thought about him. And I wasn't sure how I felt about it.
'But still…' I sighed, the fight edging away, 'you didn't need to say anything to him. You didn't need to give them another reason to talk about you.'
'Hermione, he hurt you and as far I'm concerned, as far as that bastard is concerned, he got away with it. I just reminded him that there are people who know exactly what he's done. That if he ever so much as looks at you in a way that I don't like, then there will be consequences. I swear to you, he won't hurt you again.'
I nodded, giving him a small smile, secretly happy that Draco felt such a level of protectiveness towards me even if it was idiotic. 'Well then, I guess, thank you.'
'You're welcome.'
'So,' I ask awkwardly, 'what are you doing here?'
His lips tipped up, twitching slightly and I could tell that he was fighting a smile. 'Well, as strange as this might sound, I wanted to see you and so I wanted to know if you would like me to walk you back to your common room?'
'Wow, what a gentleman,' I said softly, a note of teasing in my voice.
'Hmm, but you see I do have an ulterior motive,' he said walking slowly towards me. Swaggering toward me, might have been a better description.
'Oh, and what would that be?' I asked raising my eyebrow in question.
'Well actually I have two ulterior motives. The first is this,' he said stopping in front of me and swooping down to give me the briefest of kisses, his lips barely touching mine. 'And the second is that I would like to ask you out on a date.'
'Excuse me?' My brain was struggling to keep up, preoccupied with the feel of his lips on mine.
'You heard me the first time,' he warned. 'Don't make me say it again.'
I bit back the smile that formed at his uncomfortableness. Even in the dim light of the corridor, I could still see the slight tinge of pink had appeared on his pale cheeks
With that in mind, I allowed myself to smile at him. 'Just what would this date entail?'
'Well obviously nothing public,' he said giving me a pointed look that had me rolling my eyes in response. 'So, I was thinking that we could just meet in the kitchens again.'
'That sounds perfect,' I said sincerely, looking forward to spending some more with him.
'I suppose I had better get you back to your common room before your bodyguard appears.'
'My bodyguard?'
'Potter,' he clarified. 'I don't fancy being knocked out again.'
'Harry wouldn't do that,' I argued.
'Wouldn't he?' Draco challenged with a raised brow. 'Not even if he saw me doing this?'
Draco stepped forward, lowering his head to press a light kiss to my lips. But for me, it wasn't enough. It had been weeks since he'd last kissed me and so I reached up to cup his jaw, drawing his mouth back to mine. I deepened the kiss, my tongue teasing his, my fingers trailing along the hard line of his jaw until they clenched in the soft hair at the nape of his neck. I kissed him until he had to pull back to draw breath.
'What are you doing to me,' he muttered, his eyes wide and unfocused. 'Come on,' he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along behind him. 'There must be an empty classroom around here somewhere.'
Needless to say, that evening I was very late back to the common room.