requirement | dramione

0.11

october 20, 1996

"Draco..." Hermione's voice echoed in the cathedral sized room, a slow and light sound reverberating off the millions of hidden items. The two teenagers sat on the cold stone floor, about four feet apart. It was well after midnight now, and Draco was reaching for the nightshirt which he'd taken off of her. He picked up his jacket as well, which he handed to her after she'd slipped the thin tee shirt over her head. 

He waited, observantly, looking over his shoulder to hear what she was going to say. He smiled, for a fraction of a moment, noticing the way his jacket hung off her small shoulders. 

"Thanks." She said, voice small. 

Draco stood, calmly, and offered her his hand. Her fingers were warm in his palm, which he envied. He pulled her to her feet, and took her chin in his opposite hand. He kissed her then, slowly and gently. She seemed almost alarmed, when she didn't reciprocate his kiss right away, then eased into him. 

He'd never forget the first time he'd upset Pansy. She'd cried as she told him that he was too cold. Since then, he refused to do let that happen with any other girl. Even this one. 

When he pulled away, she wore a pair of shocked eyes. 

"What was that for?" 

"You're worth more than your sex, Gryffindor. By Merlin." 

He watched as the brown haired girl sucked in a breath, almost nervously. 

"And still you haven't called me by my actual name. Not once." Her voice was not sorrowful or small, but matter-of-fact. Then she went quiet, "Oh, my god.... This was so foolish." 

Then the girl turned and left him there, standing alone in the Room or Requirement. He tried not to loathe her for leaving, after he'd done all of the right things, but he was tired now. Too tired to chase after her, maybe yell for her to return his jacket. But he had four more of the same exact blazers hanging in his wardrobe, and could read every inch of her face. She wore her emotions like an open book, across her eyes in ways that spoke for her. He didn't need to use Legilimency to understand her. Besides, however she used that parchment to find him, he anticipated she'd do it again. 

Draco sighed as he slumped through the aisles of lost things, following the path he had memorized to the Vanishing Cabinet. He felt his bones ache as he walked. This was something he felt often now, but would never quite get used to.  

When he arrived in front of the towering cabinet, with its dark wood that splintered at its corners, he knew he was too exhausted to start his search for solutions. Too caught up in what had just transpired with the Hermione Granger. Caught up in what he'd done to that Katie Bell. 

"Fuck." He laid his hands on the wood and hung his head. 

He tired to ignore the images of Hermione that came back to him, the way she had looked so disappointed. Worse, he couldn't keep himself from thinking of how it must have felt when Katie Bell laid her hands on Burke's opal necklace. Whatever the necklace had been laced with, Burke had promised him it would kill the receiver without pain.  Sending an innocent student to St. Mungo's was the last thing he wanted. 

Everything was so fucked up. 

This cabinet was supposed to be his last resort. The back up to his back up. Now here he was, exhausted and furious, in the middle of the night. With no plan at all. 

"Fuck." He slammed his palms flat against the wood. "How the fuck am I supposed to fix you?"

october 21, 1996