A month had passed since Draco and Hermione moved in together.
The days after Blaise's visit had gone by uneventfully, that is if you ignore Hermione banging at Draco's door every morning and evening, trying to force him out of his room and give him his treatment potions. Eventually she'd given up on that. She decided to leave the tray with the bottle of potions in front of Draco's door, without knocking or saying anything.
Draco, on the other hand, found it very annoying when she kept pestering him with the banging and yelling at his door. He was therefore very glad of the change in Hermione's behavior. Every day he waited for the right hour to open his door. After making sure she was gone, he would grab the tray, pull it inside his room and snap the door closed quickly.
Hermione believed he was acting like a spoiled brat, but decided it was good enough he took his treatment. Therefore, she decided not to press the matter further. After all, she wasn't very keen on interacting with him much either. The rest of the time, they mostly kept to their own rooms, conjuring food whenever they were hungry.
Draco never got out of the flat. Not because Hermione or someone else forced him not to, but because he never felt the urge to do so. He felt safe inside, protected from the world and the people out there. That way he wouldn't have to deal with their whispering, pointing fingers at him or worse even, their look of disgust whenever they would turn their eyes at him.
Meanwhile Hermione, who had decided to take some time off from her work at St. Mungo's, was trying to keep a schedule, much like she'd always done even before she became Draco's sober companion. Every Friday evening, she would go out for two hours. She always left the flat and came back at the same hours, every Friday, without fail. She never told Draco where she was going, but he always heard her leaving.
That Friday though, something unexpected happened.
Hermione had left at the same hour she always did, leaving Draco alone. The sound of her Apparating away from the flat made him let out a breath he didn't even realize he was holding. He wasn't sure whether it was because he was relieved to be alone again or because of something else, but the fact remained that suddenly, he felt lighter in the chest. He decided to step out of his room and walk around the house for a little while, maybe even go out on the balcony and enjoy a bit of fresh air.
Unfortunately, outside it was raining pretty badly and the open balcony was now out of the question. With a frustrated huff, Draco looked around the kitchen, checking it more thoroughly than he did the day he moved.
Opening the cupboards one by one, he discovered everything one needed for brewing potions. He made a mental note to do just that next time Hermione left him alone. After finishing in the kitchen, he realized there wasn't anything interesting he could do, so he returned to his room.
Nothing very interesting waited for him there either.
After he spent an hour pacing around the room, picking up things and putting them back down, without realizing what he was doing, he finally worked himself tired. He threw himself on the bed and closed his eyes, laying there breathing slowly.
Even though his form looked peaceful, inside he was feeling a storm of emotions. Draco felt like a caged animal: annoyed, weak and powerless. All those days being cooped up in the flat were starting to take their toll on his psych. He was starting to feel suffocated.
'Is this how the dragons from Gringotts felt? Poor creatures…'
The thought came to his mind so suddenly that his eyes snapped open and his body almost jerked upward. Bad slump he was finding himself in if he was starting to pity creatures he'd never even given a thought to before. But now, the image of a big, white, half-blind and cowering dragon gave him a bunch of emotions he was finding hard to keep at bay.
Feeling powerless and scared was something Draco never wanted to experience again. It reminded him of his sixth year at Hogwarts and how everything changed for him afterwards. It had been very hard to maintain the apparent calm and cold façade in the years after Dumbledore's death and he wasn't going to let all his hard work go to hell. He had to be strong, to keep himself in control at all cost…
Draco's silent rambles got interrupted by a loud popping noise coming from the common room.
Apparition sound. Hermione came back.
Draco glanced at his watch and frowned. Barely an hour and fifteen minutes had passed since Hermione left. It was too early for her to come back. Something just didn't seem right.
'Did something happen?'
Immediately after the thought crossed his mind, Draco distinguished other noises that made his frown grow deeper.
Two loud consecutive thumps, like someone dropped something heavy on the wooden floor, followed by wheezes.
Draco was instantly alert, jumping out of bed, taking out his wand as he was approaching the door. He listened intently. Years of living amongst Death Eaters made his ears get used to the sounds of pain brought on by torture. Even so, for some reason that wheezing was making his blood run cold.
He opened the door quietly and stepped into the hallway, taking a few steps until he reached the edge of the common room. Just as he was considering casting a silence charm on his feet, he saw who was making those blood curling sounds and was slightly taken by surprise.
"Granger!" he exclaimed, lowering his wand slightly but still keeping a firm grip on it.
Relief crawled into his mind for a second, but it disappeared again in an instant. The sight of Hermione made him feel even more nervous than before. She was sitting on the floor, in a kneeling position, a big brown paper bag in front of her. Her breathing was erratic, as though she had run for miles.
Draco approached her slowly, still holding his wand tightly and glancing around to see if anything else was out of the ordinary. He also cast a few wordless spells, waving his wand in different directions. After he was done it was apparent that the only strange thing in the room was Hermione's state.
When he was two steps away from her, Draco lowered his wand and, as his alertness subsided considerably, his sarcastic and mean demeanor started showing on his face. He felt annoyed at her.
'Scaring me like that for no good reason… Who does she think she is?!'
"What happened Granger? Did you steal a book and ran away from the angry librarian?" he drawled, leaning against a nearby wall.
He was watching with a cold and uninterested expression as Hermione was struggling to get up, pulling the brown paper bag along with her.
Hermione looked up at him and frowned. It took her a few moments, but she had finally managed to catch her breath and she was now staring into his cold grey eyes, as she felt fire rising in hers. His snide comments were the last thing she needed at that moment. All she wanted to do was go to her room, away from him and think.
"Mind your own business, Malfoy." she breathed out at him, a warning tint to her tone.
Draco started slightly. He didn't remember seeing Hermione Granger look at him that way before, not even in school. Behind all the emotions she contained, he could almost make out a small flicker of hate. He wasn't sure why, but he believed she herself wasn't aware of it being there.
"Are you alright, Granger?" he asked, surprising even himself.
Hermione was also taken aback by his question but tried hard not to let it show on her face. She steeled herself against gravity and, hoping against hope she wouldn't collapse, she started walking towards her room, ignoring Draco completely.
Without thinking what he was doing, Draco pushed against the wall and went after her, trying to hold her steady. Hermione turned and slapped his hand away, making him flinch.
"Civility doesn't suit you Malfoy." she threw at him mockingly.
A moment later she reached her room and closed the door shut, leaving Draco alone, looking more confused than ever.