After three days Hermione started to feel bored. Malfoy still hadn't showed up and the house elves were always preoccupied with the work around the house.
She spent a lot of time in the huge library. She lost her passion for reading years ago. Another thing that the war took from her. But there wasn't anything else what she could do instead. She tried reading novels and poetry, even some old textbooks. But it didn't lighten up her mood at all.
She tried the books about the Dark magic instead. There were hundreds of them. But the evil aura from the books started poisoning her mind. And it made her depressed.
She sharply closed another book and laid her head on top of it. She couldn't find any text about how to heal her stony fingers. And she started to feel anxious.
Her eyes wandered around the library, when a certain book caught her attention. She stood up and came toward the shelves. Her fingers caressed the book and she pulled it out. It was a thin book called "Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Lesson 1".
Hermione always loved classical music. And she admired professional pianist like Martha Argerich or Chopin. A melodious sound of a piano was like a balm to her soul. She could sit and listen to it all day long. But she never had the time for learning how to play the piano herself. Although she always wanted to.
Without thinking she walked out of the library with the book in her hand. She marched down the hall to one of the drawing rooms. She could remember seeing the piano in the room earlier.
When she sat down on the wooden stool she glanced down on her left hand and sighed. She'd found the leather gloves in her closet the other day and wore one of the glove since, to cover her crippled fingers. She couldn't bare the view of the grey skin. She looked at the piano. One hand had to do.
Learning a new skill was a satisfying activity for her brain. Even though she couldn't use both hands and she had no teacher, Hermione invested all of her time into her new hobby. After two days she managed to hit at least a few of the right notes.
The life in the manor was slow. The kitchen elves were slowly getting used to her presence in the kitchen and they gave her lesser and lesser annoyed glances each day.
On Monday Hermione woke up and went to the kitchen as usual. She greeted the elves and started making her breakfast. She was having a pancakes with fruits. She was chopping some strawberries when her heart stopped beating.
"Good morning everyone." Hermione almost chopped her finger off at the sound of Malfoy's voice, after all these days of only hearing the squeaking of the house elves. She'd almost forgotten how deep his voice was. Definitely deeper than what she could remember from the school. Well, technically everything about him was different now. Except for his blonde hair, grey eyes and porcelain skin.
"Bloody hell, Malfoy! You startled me." She scoffed at him. He laughed and walked towards her. He was wearing a leather shoes, black pants and a simple white shirt. His hair was messy and he had a few days old beard on his face. The last time she saw him wearing casual clothes was years ago. He looked...normal. Like an ordinary man in his late twenties. An extraordinarily handsome ordinary man.
"How's the new lady of the manor doing? Still stubborn about the cooking I see.." He was obviously in a good mood and Hermione knew, that he was mocking her. He stood directly behind her back and watched her every movement. A scent of mint, bergamot and smoke filling her nose again. It was intoxicating. "Looks delicious, will you make me one too?" His every word sounded like a venom to her ears. Didn't even matter what he was saying, it boiled her blood inside her veins. She started chopping more vigorously.
"I can make you my personal chef if you want to" he continued with his stupid blabbing and she was getting more and more angry. She clenched her jaw and twitched her nose. "Although, I wouldn't want to check my every meal for poisons."
Oh yes, she would like to poison him right now. Only if she had an access to poisons. At this point she chopped the fruits so violently, she wasn't even sure, if she wasn't chopping her fingers as well. The atmosphere around them was tense.
"Since we are talking about poisons...have you come up with a plan how to kill me already? You had a lot of time to think about it. What were you doing in your free time anyway? Were you doing something productive? Or were you just moping around and thinking about your friends. Which of them is still alive and which of them I've killed, while you were sleeping between my silky sheets Granger?"
Hermione didn't even think about her next action. She clenched the knife and in a swift motion turned around and tried to stab him in the chest. Malfoy dodged her attack. He didn't looked surprised in the slightest. Maybe this was his plan the whole time. To provoke her. Fucking smirk across his face. Oh how she wanted to erase that smirk once and for all.
Hermione attacked him again. She saw red. He dodged her for the second time. When she tried for the third time, he managed to grab her wrist, twisted it and forced her to drop the knife on the ground. She screamed in pain. It was the same wrist as last week, still a little bruised from his previous grip. "Bloody bastard! Stop crushing my hands all the time!"
Malfoy laughed and let go of her wrist. "It's not my fault that you can't kill me properly, darling."
She was furious. She felt the adrenaline in her veins as she grabbed the nearest pan and tried to hit him in the head. Unsuccessfully. She ran around the kitchen counter in the middle of the room. Malfoy was chasing her. The elves were panicking and trying to get out of their way. Hermione was throwing mugs and plates and cutlery at their master. But he just laughed as he dodged every one of them. Hermione felt frustrated. For him it was just a game. For her it was a question of life and death.
"I will fuckin kill you Malfoy!" She yelled at him, even though it was the exact thing, she was failing at.
"You are so cute when you are angry at me, Granger." The blonde grinned as he reached for her arm.
Hermione jumped at the opposite direction and ran to the other side of the kitchen. A small knife in an open drawer caught her attention. She grabbed it and throw in Malfoy's direction. They both froze on spot when the small kitchen knife cut itself into the wizard's right shoulder. It was...unexpected.
She was staring at him while he slowly grabbed the knife handle and pull the blade out of his shoulder. A stream of bright red blood poured from the cut. Her mind was blank.
He stared at the knife in his hand for a several seconds after his eyes snapped to hers. His eyes were cold, predatory. He was breathing heavily with anger as he clanched the knife in his hand.
Hermione on the other hand couldn't breathe at all. She didn't have another weapon. Nothing was close enough for her reach. She was damned.
Malfoy licked his teeth. When he finally broke the silence his voice sounded even deeper than usual and husky. "I'm giving you exactly twenty seconds." He lifted a corner of his mouth. The cruel smile on his face was terrifying. Her knees started to shake as he brought his chin forward and his eyes flickered as he slowly whispered "Run".
And she did.
She ran outside of the kitchen, turned left and then right. She ran as fast as she could. Her brain was working on maximum. Where should she go? To her room? To the gardens? Hid in one of the secret passages? Surely Malfoy knew every single one of them. Should she hide in his mother's rooms? Maybe the stables? Her blood froze as she heard the most horrifying voice calling her name.
"Graaaangeeeer. I'm coming for youuuu."
Fear. That was all she could feel. It was like the cruelest nightmare. She ran down the corridor. Her lungs were aching from the lack of oxygen. He was getting closer. She could hear his heavy footsteps. She had to hide somewhere. But where?
"Graaangeeer." Another call. This time closer. "Where are you Granger? You can't hide from me."
Her legs were starting to slow down. Her head spinning. She got at another end of the corridor and turned right. She could hear the paintings aroud her whispering "Filthy mudblood", "She deserves to die". Suddenly a door opened in front of her and somebody came out of the room. She stopped and looked at the man with horror.
"Graaangeeer." Her head snapped at the direction of Malfoy's voice. He must had been only a few corners away. She looked back at the man in front of her with widened eyes.
"I can hear you Granger!" She closed her eyes and waited. There was no point in running again. She concentrated on her breathing. Counting seconds before Malfoy would find her.
Suddenly a hand grabbed her by her arm and pulled her into an empty room. It was a guest bathroom. She didn't even have time to turn around and the door closed behind her. She was confused. Was the man helping her? Or was he helping Malfoy to catch her? She tried to be as quiet as possible and listened to the voices behind the door.
"Have you seen her?" She recognised Malfoy's deep voice.
"Who?"
"Granger."
"No?"
"Are you sure about that?"
"What happened to your shoulder mate? Has the kitten dug her claws already?" The man laughed a little.
"Fuck off Theo! Have you seen her or not?"
"I'm sorry mate, I was just taking a piss. Didn't see anyone."
"You are fucking useless."
"Ouch, you hurt my feelings you know?"
"Fuck you."
A receading footsteps indicated that the conversation between those two ended. She sank down on the closed toilet seat and started to breathe again.
Suddenly the door opened again. Her heart stopped in waiting. Fortunately it wasn't Malfoy's platinum head that peeked inside. The other man stepped in and closed the door behind him. He leaned against the door and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He was young, tall and very handsome. He had a light brown curly hair, blue eyes, wore a black shirt, leather pants and loafers. A thin chain was attached to his belt on one side. He looked like some famous rockstar from a magazine. A wide grin all across his face.
"Nott?" Hermione raised her eyebrow on the man.
"At your service madam." He theatrically bowed and smiled even more.
She stared at her former bully from Hogwarts without any words. She forced out a small smile, vigilantly watching his every move. He was one of the Malfoy's best friends from Slytherin back at school. He used to bully her because of her muggle origins.
"Why did you help me?" She asked carefully and squinted her eyes on the wizard. Did he have some ulterior motive?
He pushed himself from the door. "What can I say?" His eyes flickered. "I can't help it when I see a damsel in distress. I simply must interfere."
Hermione wasn't sure if she could trust him. "I thought that Malfoy was your friend?"
"He is. But I'm sure he can handle my scandalous betrayal. What happened?" Nott cocked his brow.
"I accidentally stabbed him."
"Accidentally?" He laughed with a sincere laugh. It made her smile again.
"Well, it wasn't like I didn't want to do it. It just surprised me, that I actually managed it, I guess."
"I see." A moment of silence went by. He was watching her with interest in his eyes. It made her nervous. She stared down at her shoes. "What now?" He asked.
"I don't know. I guess I'm gonna try to hide from him for as long as possible and hope, that Voldemort will summon him soon?" She really didn't have a better plan.
Nott scoffed, "Don't worry about it. He'll calm down in a few. Let's go." He commanded and held the door open for her. She hesitated but eventually stood up and peeked to the hall. No signs of Malfoy anywhere.
Theodore walked past her and led the way to the small drawing room. She followed him from a safe distance.
He gestured to her to sit down on the couch and poured two glasses of fire whiskey from the trolley. She smiled at him when he gave her one glass and sat down next to her on the couch. Although she knew, that he was probably dangerous, she felt somehow calmer in his presence. It had to do something with his irresistible smile.
The fire whiskey nicely burnt in her throat and filled her empty stomach. The conversation with Theo was surprisingly nice. He was a great companion. They talked about Hogwarts, about their friends and families. When she mentioned her parents a sad feeling crept inside of her stomach. She was often wandering about them. About their new life without their only daughter. A daughter they wouldn't even recognise. She only knew that they currently lived in Australia. She wanted to return their memories after the war would be over. But it was too late now. The memories were gone completely. Hermione shook her head and pushed the thought to the back of her mind. She could cry about it later.
She took another sip of the fire whiskey. It was their fourth glass or so. She laughed at another of Theo's joke. They were talking and laughing for hours now.
"Am I interrupting something?" A cocky voice echoed from the doorway.
They both quickly turned their heads towards the sound. Malfoy stood there, leaning against the doorframe with his shoulder. Hermione sinked deeper into the couch. He had a clean shirt on and no signs of blood at him at all. He looked calm now.
"Draco, darling." Theo cooed at his friend. "Come and join us. Grab a drink."
Malfoy suspiciously looked at Theo and then at Hermione. She held her breath when his gaze stopped at her. His eyes were cold but not angry. She couldn't stop staring at him. His presence was intimidating and tempting at the same time. His significantly blonde hair was now combed back and his face was freshly shaved. He was the definition of the perfect man on the outside. But he was wicked on the inside, evil. What a combination.
Without another word Malfoy walked towards the empty armchair and sat down. With a flick of his wand he summoned a glass filled with fire whiskey into his hand. He crossed his legs.
Hermione nervously squirted on the couch. "How is your shoulder?"
Malfoy looked at her with spark in his eyes. "Thank you for your concern, Granger." He grinned "although I must disappoint you...it's nothing fatal I'm afraid. Next time try to aim at my heart." He winked at her and took the sip from his glass.
Hermione blushed and Theo peeked at him through his glass. "Well that's not possible, since you don't have one. I would aim for the head instead." He gestured throwing imaginary knife in Malfoy's direction.
"So what were you two talking about?" Malfoy said nonchalantly, ignoring Theo's comment.
"About the good old times at Hogwarts. I was just telling Granger how we used to prank that pompously annoying MacMillan kid. Do you remember him?" Theo smiled with his teeth.
"You mean Ernie MacMillan?" Malfoy asked casually and twirled the glass in his hand.
"Yes, Ernie MacMillan." Theo replied still smiling.
"You mean the Ernie MacMillan from Hufflepuff?"
"Yes, do you know any other Ernie MacMillan, Draco?" Theo rolled his eyes.
Malfoy looked at his friend with an amused smirk. "You mean the Ernie MacMillan which we tortured to death last year, because he wouldn't tell us anything valuable about The Order?"
Hermione couldn't swallow her last sip of whiskey and started coughing. Her stomach dropped. Somehow she forgot to consider the fact, that Theo was probably a Death Eater as well. Even though she didn't know if he took the Dark Mark, the chance that he wasn't involved in the war was unlikely. It didn't occur to her until now.
She stood up, still coughing. "I'm sorry, excuse me. I should probably go." she blabbed and ran out of the room.
Theo's voice echoed behind her, "Oh, common Draco, we were having fun."
Hermione briskly walked into her room and closed the door. She leaned against it with her back and slid down on her knees. Her head was spinning from the alcohol, so she placed it into her hands.
The reality hit her hard. She was surrounded by her enemies. And that was a fact. Even when they were friendly, they were still on the opposite side of the war. Theo had probably killed dozens of her comrades and she was chitchatting with him like nothing happened. She felt the tears of guilt falling from her eyes. She sat there on the floor, crying her eyes out for almost an hour. She had never felt so alone.
When she finally looked up at the clock it was almost six pm. She spent with Nott almost the whole day. Hermione stood up and dusted her clothes. She called for Tinky and asked her for some snacks. She decided that staying in her room for the rest of the day would be the safest option.
Later that night she thought about her possibilities. Today she managed to hurt Malfoy for the first time. Clearly it wasn't anything serious and maybe it wasn't intentional, but it gave her hope, that even Malfoy could let his guard down sometimes. She just had to surprise him with her attack. Maybe she could try the poison after all. Surely there must be a stack of poisonous ingredients for potions somewhere in the manor. Maybe she could infuse the blades of the knives with poison as well. That would mean that she only had to scratch him with the blade. But it would have to be a pretty strong poison. A basilisk venom preferably. So he couldn't heal himself. But the basilisk venom was a really rare ingredient. Even Snape didn't have any in his cabinet when they checked.
What about Nott though? He'd helped her today afterall. Maybe she could trick him into helping her with her task as well. She didn't know how smart Theo was. His grades at Hogwarts were always average. But he always looked like he didn't care about the grades. He wasn't studying hard enough. Something like Harry. Intelligent, but lazy. But unlike Harry Theodore was from Slytherin. Cunning and mischievous. She should be more careful around him.
Too many thoughts were running through her mind at the same time. She was tired, but couldn't sleep at all. She neeeded a distraction. Something to help her relax. Some calming activity.
Hermione slipped out from her bed. She put on a slippers and a silky robe over her short pyjama. She lazily weaved her wand into her hair and quietly walked towards the drawing room with a piano in it.
She sat down on the wooden stool and slowly exhaled. A few strands of her hair came loose and framed her face. She pushed them behind her ears and ran her fingers on her right hand over the keyboard. She sighed and started pressing a few keys hoping, that she could hit the right tone. After a while she gave up and bowed her head.
"Why didn't you tell me about your hand?"
Hermione gasped at the sudden sound and sharply turned on the stool. Malfoy was standing only a few steps behind her back. She met his gaze and her heart started beating rapidly. For how long had he stood there?
She awkwardly coughed. Her hand, right, "I was not in a mood for another dose of mockery from you today."
"Right", Malfoy didn't change his unreadable expression. "Let me have a look at it." He closed the distance between them and kneeled down. He reached his hand out. Hermione hesitated for a moment, but eventually noded and placed her left hand into his palm.
He carefully took off the glove. His skin was pleasantly warm and Hermione shivered at his gentle touch. She stared at the top of his blond head while he studied her stony fingers. Hermione couldn't help herself but to close her eyes and inhale his significant smell. Mint, bergamot and smoke.
A tickling sensation ran through her fingers. When she opened her eyes she saw Malfoy running his wand across her dead fingers. He was mummbling something strange. She watched as her fingers began to return to normal. The grey colour retreated and she slowly moved with the two fingers in his palm. A huge stone dropped from her heart as well. "Thanks, Malfoy."
He snapped his head at her. They stared into each other's eyes without a word for a few moments. He looked like he was intensively thinking about something. "Don't worry about it." He whispered.
The wizard stood up and coughed, "You should trust me more next time." He turned and walked from the room.
"Malfoy!" Her sudden call stopped him and he turned back to her.
She looked him deadly in the eyes, "I said it to you before...I could never trust you, marshal Malfoy."
He flicked his eyebrows and smirked, "I can live with that."
"Of course you can. Trust means nothing to you." Hermione scoffed and averted her gaze.
Malfoy licked his teeth, "Now that's where you are wrong, Granger."
"Oh yeah?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, challenging him.
"Yeah...You see...I do value trust. The truth is that YOU mean nothing to me." His eyes were like ice again.
Hermione blinked twice, "Was that supposed to hurt my feelings, Malfoy?"
"No, I just wanted to make myself clear." Malfoy rolled his eyes.
The witch jumped from the stool and pointed her index finger at him. "You made yourself completely clear years ago, Malfoy. When you decided to join Voldemort and murdered dozens of good people since the beginning of the war."
"Wrong again. I haven't killed a dozens of people. I, in fact, killed a hundreds of those 'good people', Granger. And stop pointing at me with your filthy muggle finger, or I will chop it off, I swear." He frowned at her finger.
"Well, you shouldn't have heal my fingers if you think that they are filthy!" She yelled back at him.
"Next time I won't."
"Fine!" She spat at him.
"Fine." He scoffed and turned to leave, "And Granger," he said in the doorframe, "please, don't ruin my piano."
She threw a deadly glare in his direction, but he was already gone. Hermione scoffed, "don't ruin my piano" she mocked his voice. "Fuck you and your stupid piano shithead." She turned to the piano and kicked it in it's leg.
"Fuck!" She sweared. It hurt like crazy. She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity and limped back into her room.