Your father will try to coax you into giving Ginny Weasley Voldemort's diary. Don't. Leave it in the aisle. Don't leave Hermione alone. She might not just be petrified this time. Keep the ripped page about the basilisk with you at all times.
Don't call her a 'filthy little mudblood'. Don't fall in love with her. Don't make this hard for all involved.
It was all Draco Malfoy could remember about his second year at Hogwarts from his previous life. He has slowly come to accept the situation, he didn't need to try so hard at studying but he still placed second to Hermione Granger who fought tooth and nail to be at the top of the academic charts. He didn't mind now-- somehow it was supposed to be and he enjoyed the steely determination in her eyes and the energy directed towards him though against him. The air practically fizzles with it when they meet.
But as of the moment, Hermione Granger is in the infirmary due to him being a complete asshat. In the end he really did end up calling her a 'filthy little mudblood' again over some Gryffindor versus Slytherin quidditch dispute, even though he has long known that he has no love for the sport. He just wants to beat Harry Potter. It was a slip and now he doesn't know what will happen next.
Draco snuck out at midnight, Theodore Nott strolling ever so casually behind him like an a good for nothing git, about to see her in the infirmary. Nott just tagged along because he wanted to try a few hexes on Argus Filch if they ever get caught. A result of the undying buzz of excitement over the dueling lessons.
"Stay here," Draco commanded. "Keep lookout."
Nott just looked at him as if bored. Black eyes just skimming his face before settling on something he deemed more interesting. "I'll keep lookout alright but don't expect me to holler at you in warning, I'm not your minion. First sign of trouble and I'll throw some hexes on that catfucker and bolt."
Draco rolled his eyes, when it comes to Theodore Nott, he'll always be the reasonable one. At least, he'll hear the ruckus anyway. No use killing each other over who has the bigger wand.
"Bloody well then."
He left Nott by the dimly lit hallway and made his way inside the infirmary. He can see the lone light at the end of the room where Hermione probably is. Madam Pomfrey was nowhere in sight so he made his way hurriedly to the lone light. "Granger," he whispered. "Hey, Granger."
"What do you want, Malfoy?"
He reached out to draw the curtain around her bed but she felt her hand grab his wrist. "Don't. Madam Pomfrey forgot to get me a dressing gown." Then she started hacking a really bad cough. She was practically sputtering, she tried muffling it with her blanket.
"Dearie me, do you have water there?"
She heaved, "I do, Malfoy. You can go now. Since we aren't friends because you're a pureblood and I'm a filthy little m-mudblood." Even without seeing her face he can tell that he has hurt her. Why did he even have to say that? He didn't mean it. He can't remember but he has said the exact same thing to her in his previous life. He probably didn't mean it either.
Blood still mattered, of course. But she's an exception. She'll always be.
"Actually, I came here-- I came here to apologize," Draco said as bravely as he could. Admitting that he was sorry gave him a sick feeling in his stomach. "I'm sorry."
"Very well, you can go now. I'm tired and I don't like talking to filthy rich purebloods that are going to be in detention tomorrow." She was to the point, like she had been rehearsing what to say long before he said anything. She never misses a beat, she never misses anything. Damn it.
"Detention? Who said anything about--"
"I'll scream and Madam Pomfrey will come running and she will send you to Snape," victory was ringing in her voice. "Be gone in the count of three."
He'll tackle her at off the bed at two, she's not even sick. She's fine. Yes, Draco that's how you make friends with twelve year old girls, by throwing them off the bed.
"Fucking fine."
She made no comment about his language. "One... Tw-"
He drew back the curtain about to push her off when he saw her. She has gray cat's fur all over her face and on top of her head were the beginning of feline ears, perky and and alert.
"Bloody hell."
Hermione stood from her bed and grabbed her pillow and smacked him in the face with it. "This is all your fault! This all your fault! If you aren't shady-" whack "- and prejudiced-" whack "-and small minded then I wouldn't have thought that you were the heir of Slytherin!" And one last hit that made contact with his nose. He checked his nose for blood with his fingertips to show his annoyance at being hit and just to exaggerate. Who knows, maybe she'll buy it.
"You say that you hatched a mad plan involving transforming into an animal to spy on me? You're not developing an obsession on me, are you?" Draco teased. This is so bizarre. He wanted to joke about the heir of Slytherin even though hallways are being flooded and some psycho developed a hobby of using Merlin-knows-what's blood for corridor graffiti.
Hermione grabbed the pillow and whacked him twice on the face and thrice on the back of the head when he shielded his face. Feathers are flying all over the room and they have started to cause a ruckus. "Never in your wildest dreams, Malfoy!"
"Stop! I'll have you feed to mountain trolls if I so much as develop a bump!"
"It's a sodding pillow, you insufferable--"
Madam Pomfrey raised a lit wand at them. Her sullen expression indicated trouble even before she opened her mouth.
Not five seconds passed before Draco was sent out of the infirmary with a week's worth of detention, a black eye from Nott for snitching and a bruised knuckle for hitting back.
Hermione had been right after all.
What a surprise.
----------------
"You know you can't ignore me forever," Draco sashayed into the girl's toilet with all the confidence that he could muster. To his twelve year old self, this place is uncharted territory even though he has memories of getting married in his previous life. It was as if he was innocent again.
The milk has not been spilled.
"If you must be thick enough to not know, this happens to be the girls' lavatory and I happen to be a girl. So what does that make you?" She smirked at him.
It was annoying how she was handling him.
"Don't give me that. Why won't you talk to me?" He was getting angry and impatient. He said his apologies, so she should stop being angry at him now. Is she enjoying this? How evil!
"Oh, I see. I may not have realized it before but you must also be a girl with that unseemly face. Wait until I tell Harry and Ron," she said as she looked at him through the lavatory mirror, a smirk placed on her cherry colored lips. She was washing her hands and the water seemed to be only growing louder by the second. It sounded like a hissing.
"How long are you planning to get angry? I said I was sorry! I didn't mean it, I was in the zone. Quidditch isn't really something you should just barge--"
"You're not the one to tell me what I should and shouldn't do! And you can't just expect someone to stop being angry after some forced apology! I will stay mad as long as I like. You were the one who was wrong, so don't go demanding forgiveness. You earn it but I don't think you even know how to work for anything in your life," she was gripping the tiles of the sink so tightly that her knuckles are turning white. "For once work for something or if not, then learn to wait for it."
I came back in time to save you.
But that didn't matter either. She didn't ask for that. Merlin, she didn't ask to be saved, did she? It was all on him.
"Granger, I'm really sorry that I called you a really derogatory term. I promise that it won't happen again." He watched her dark brown eyes through the mirror, but they were as tenacious as ever. They didn't soften at his lowered pride.
"Very well, I heard you. You can leave me alone now," she looked at him through the mirror again. The sound of the water running was so loud. It was echoing in the empty, cold room.
Draco felt like ripping locks of hair from his head but decided against it when he remembered that he's going to be balding before he turns forty.
He remembered the ripped piece of research about the basilisk. "Here," he grabbed her hand and shoved the piece of paper there, "Since you're to good and holy for the restricted section, I did the dirty work for you."
It was supposed to be sarcastic but it didn't come out that way.
She merely squinted at him through the haze of the mirror before turning off the faucet. The water has stopped flowing but the hissing sound continued.
Then something happened that no one could have prevented. It all happened too fast. Draco watched as all the color on Hermione's face drained as she opened her mouth to scream. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the mirror. Then she froze, as still as stone, a grayish hue replacing her creamy complexion. The research about the basilisk held tightly in her hand.
Draco looked back at what caused it. The basilisk was there, a monstrous serpent, it's head bigger than his body. Rows and rows of needle sharp teeth ready for the kill. Red eyes staring at him. He's going to die now. As a matter of fact, he's supposed to be dead now according to his research. You look directly at it, you die.
He's not yours to take.
It was a foreign voice that spoke from beneath his robes.
The locket on his chest, the very same one that he suspected to be a different kind of time turner, was excruciatingly hot against his skin. He was never able to remove it, you see, it had always been there under his clothes like a part of him even though he has no memory of putting it on.
The basilisk slithered away and it was up to Draco to mobilize Hermione's body. He used wingardium leviosa even though he deemed her too precious, he'd rather carry her but he's not able. She's still taller than him.
He missed his long legs and upper body strength.
-------------------
Draco visited Hermione everyday at midnight. He never took Nott again, in fact, he hid and waited for everyone to start snoring before he goes out into the night. He has learned some spells that hid him in the dark that it was easy not to get caught.
"Granger, can you hear me?"
He looked down at the frozen face. All light gone from her eyes. It was too familiar. It must have looked something close to this when she died in his previous life. His chest ache, the familiar feelings of remorse and inadequacy.
"Granger, would you like me to tell you a story?"
Amber eyes stared off into the distance.
"I'm quite sure you don't know about the tale of the Fountain of Fair Fortune?"
And so he told her. He sat by the bed and whispered the story told many times by his own mother at his bedside, but his was unbiased. The ending of his story was real. In his mother's story the fair witch who went to the fountain in search for the cure to her heartbreak lived forever, in the version that he told her she married a muggle knight who wished for bravery at the fountain. Bravery that he already had.
Isn't it grand? To wish for bravery to save the world. But think as Draco might he just couldn't put it in his wishlist when there are so many other ways to save the world than simply being a daredevil.
Hermione will always be the brave one, he's afraid so.
She'll also always have to be the one purer and more set in her ways. Someone has to and he knows that he can count on her. Draco dreads that he's changing second by second. He's always been ambiguous from the start but this time is different.
His father will kill him if he knew that Draco prefers this version of the story. But that might just be the start of it. Something dark and cold creep from behind him and into his mind, almost like a shadow but more tangible-- fear.
"Granger, I'm really sorry that we can only ever be civil when there is no one watching or one of us is confused or unconscious or lying in a hospital bed." He remembered his past life. "For the record, I really meant what was written on the page that you read."
He hoped for a miracle that she would suddenly gasp for air and say something. Give him forgiveness and redemption through a veil of touches and kisses.
"You were wrong though. I am not candid. If I'm candid then I could walk in the hallways without taunting you for their respect. I'm sorry for that-- I really am-- you don't know how hard to make it as if it didn't matter but I need time. I need time to actually have the candor that you expect of me. Or even close to half."
There was fleeting glint in her eyes and Draco really wished then that she could talk. He also wished they could shake hands again just so he can touch her skin once more or brush away the curls from her face. But instead he settled on smoothing the linen on the place that he sat on. "Good night, Hermione."
It was the smallest of whispers, as if he knew that the walls had ears and if they heard the way he said her name they will call it out as the most scandalous thing they've ever heard.
Maybe it was because of how his tongue savored the word like sin. The breath that was exhaled at the first syllable, the indication of ownership in the middle, and his tongue hitting the roof of his mouth in the end. He'll never shorten it. She's the only Hermione he knows afterall. There is no one like her. One of a kind.
Both will never forget that night in the infirmary but neither will ever bring it up.
One wanted to get out as soon as possible to help a friend save the world.
One wanted to get out as soon as possible because he's falling too soon, too fast.
And nothing is going according to plan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I forget! HAPPY 20K, guys! This is so awesome, I don't know how this happened. Wow. Thank you so much!
This chapter is one of the less chaotic ones, I mean, they are twelve year old children. At least, Hermione is. Didn't mean for this to come off as a filler chapter but after re-reading it for the hundredth time-- oh well. These things happen *sigh*
Oh, and guys! Who here has watched 'Colonia'? With our girl Emma! OHMYGAWD! No one warned me that it's really good! During the first part I was like-- she's so pretty as a stewardess and the seventies ootd are fab and then the second part I was like-- she didn't have to do that, right? and then at the third part i was constantly on edge. She's gotten better at these mature roles, guys. She's awesome! >__<
Song up top is 'Haven't Had Enough' by Marianas Trench because we're still in that time turning theme but I just think that this song is fun! <3
Dedicated to Christina Grimmie. She'll be remembered. I remembered listening to her cover with Alex Tsui of 'Only Just a Dream' for this book over and over again. It's too soon. Too soon.