Artificial Love (Dramione)

Chapter 6 - The Consumption

Hermione had been in the library for the past couple hours, and yet her heartbeat still had not slowed. Her fidgeting fingers would not steady, and her mind seemed never to cease its racing. Everything suddenly felt like a threat to her. She sat on the ground, feeling a need to be as close to the Earth as possible after experiencing the free fall of gravity and realizing she never wanted to be under those circumstances again.

She had been approached by three people already, all curious about what had happened that would cause her to suddenly want to become a roly-poly. She wasn't even reading a book, for heaven's sake!

But being surrounded by books helped calm her nerves a little at least. She had been able to turn away the three wanderers without screaming in their faces, so at least she was able to hold herself back a bit.

Hermione had nearly died on multiple occasions already. Why did this one time affect her so much? Perhaps it was because every other time, she hadn't been completely helpless. She'd had her wand in her hand and at least a possible plan in her mind. She'd been able to use her smarts to get past the traps in first year. Last year, she'd figured out how not to be killed off by the basilisk and had been able to narrowly avoid it with what she knew.

She had to shake herself out of it, just as she had every time before. For her friends, for her studies, and especially for herself. It never did anyone any good to walk through life in fright of everything.

Sure, she'd had to face her fear for a little in first year, when they had been taught to fly on broomsticks. But she'd only ever gotten four feet above the ground. Hovering was a completely different thing from falling from fifty feet in the air.

It may seem irrational for a witch to be frightened by heights, but this wasn't a new fear. Even before she had found out she was a witch, Hermione had stayed grounded, no matter what the circumstances were.

Maybe it had something to do with her outlook on life. There wasn't time for frivolous things, and her mind centered around what she knew and what she would soon know. Without the ground under her feet, the unknown suddenly became much more vast.

And it was because of her grounded attitude that she knew she had to get over this.

Taking another very deep breath, Hermione spread herself out on the library floor, not caring if anyone saw and questioned her. She let the silence envelop her, allowed herself to forget the rest of the world, and calmed down enough to sit back up and search her bag for her wand.

Magic had always served as a wonderful source of comfort for her, even back when she hadn't known she was a witch. Even when she was younger, Hermione would read books where magic was real. All the while, she had not known that magic was a reality elsewhere.

Soon she had pulled everything from her bag, including several books, quills, inkwells, and sweets. She unwrapped the first sweet that tumbled out and the sugar helped her calm down a little. Once that candy was gone, she moved on to the others, until they were all gone.

Much calmer, Hermione began gathering her books and chose an essay to work on. She relocated to an empty table in the corner and tried to focus on that. Sometimes the best way to move past something that causes anxiety is to distract yourself with important things, and to Hermione, nothing was more important than schoolwork and proving herself as a witch.

Her mind kept leaping back to what had happened, as if she kept reliving those few seconds of the free fall millions of times over in her head. Common sense should tell her that she was safe now, but her mind was easily tricked, and she was in over her head, and it was just so difficult to pretend that everything was okay!

Draco, meanwhile, had been rushing around in search of a certain Gryffindor. He hadn't found Hermione yet, even though he'd been searching for over half an hour. Soon it would be time for dinner, and everyone would be around them. He wouldn't be able to talk to her in front of all the other students, or else rumors might start going around!

That meant that he had to find her now, or else she might eat the chocolate before he could steal it back, or at least warn her.

Draco ran to warn the mudblood, knowing that if she were to eat that chocolate, bad things would happen. She may even fall in love with him for good. Because come on, Draco Malfoy was gorgeous, and everybody knew it. Maybe not everyone would admit to thinking so, but it had run through everyone's mind, or at least Draco thought so.

But of course, the whole superiority complex thing can be pretty harmful to an image, and it certainly narrowed the dating pool.

Thinking to himself, Draco figured there would be two places that Hermione Granger would most likely be. And since one was Gryffindor tower, he figured he should try the library first, where he could actually get in without breaking about a hundred rules.

He ran through the corridors, leaping up stairwells and knocking narrowly past suits of shining armor. All he kept thinking was hope behind hope that he was right in thinking the bookworm would be found surrounded by books in her weakest moment.