In The Head Lights - Chapter Fifteen

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They are all the property of J.K. Rowling

A/N: Chapter 15 is here! I hope you all enjoy it, and thank you to my lovely reviewers who make my day.

***

The bell rang to signal the end of Divination, and Draco grinned to himself, for once glad that Hermione didn’t have the next period off with him. There was something he had to do. He knew for a fact that Ron had Herbology next, so he ran from Divination, hoping to beat him to the greenhouses, or at least meet him on the way.

The latter was a more successful plan, and he ran into Ron just as he was heading out onto the grounds.

“Weasley, we need to talk,” Draco growled as he caught up with him.

Ron spun around as soon as he heard Draco, and his face turned into a scowl. “What are you doing here?” he leered. “Will Hermione appreciate what you’re doing?”

“Hermione doesn’t need to know I’m here,” Draco said, walking closer until he and Ron were only a meter apart. Ron walked backwards until they were in an empty classroom, with Draco following. “I’m here to talk to you on behalf of myself.”

“And what do you have to say that I might possibly be interested in, Malfoy?” scowled Ron, his hand twitching towards his wand.

“Do you really want to get magic involved, Weasley? We both know you’d lose in a duel,” Draco laughed humorlessly.

Ron muttered something which sounded similar to “cocky bastard,” causing Draco to smirk. “What do you have to say then?” Ron snapped.

“It’s about Hermione, and how you’ve been treating her.”

“How I’ve been treating her? Are you forgetting how you’ve treated her like crap for the last six years of her life?”

“Trust me, I am painfully aware of the fact that I treated Hermione badly, and I regret it every minute of every day. However, there is a clear difference between how I treated her badly, and how you are treating her badly,” Draco said, keeping his voice level and face calm.

“Oh, really,” Ron sneered. “And what would that clear difference be?”

“She still cares about you,” Draco shrugged, and Ron stiffened.

“She cares about me?” Ron asked, all of his defenses down, his anger momentarily forgotten.

“As much as it pains me to say it, yes, she does care about you. Every time you say something hurtful about her, her heart breaks again, and I can’t be around to pick up the pieces each time.”

“Oh,” Ron muttered. “What…what should I do about it?”

“You honestly don’t know?” Draco asked, and when Ron shook his head he rolled his eyes. “Really, Weasley, grow some brain cells. You need to apologize to her sincerely. You need to stop all the hurtful comments. And you need to get past your old grudges and learn to accept that Hermione and I are very much together. And trust me when I say that I am serious about this. Next time you break Hermione’s heart, I’ll break something of yours which you probably won’t want broken.”

Ron gulped loudly, and instinctively moved his hands to cover the zipper on his trousers.

“Are we clear, Weasley?” Draco asked, his voice indicating that Ron had no choice in the matter.

“Crystal,” Ron said as the bell went, and Draco walked out feeling completely satisfied with his efforts.

***

“Long time no see, beautiful,” Draco murmured in Hermione’s ear, making her jump slightly. He had gone up to her Arithmacy classroom quite quickly after his confrontation with Ron, and had met her just as she stepped through the door. “Are you feeling better?”

“Much better,” she said, planting a feather-light kiss on his cheek and taking his hand. “Lunch in the Great Hall?”

“That sounds perfect,” Draco agreed, hoping that Ron would take advantage of this opportunity to apologize to Hermione. The two of them headed to the Great Hall talking lightly about the homework load, patrols and all sorts of nonsense things, but were stopped when Hermione came face to face with Ron just outside the Hall.

Draco, who was still holding her hand, felt her tense up, and he rubbed her thumb in soothing circles on her hand.

“What is it, Ron?” she asked impatiently, and Ron turned bright red.

“Um, I just wanted to say, I’m really sorry for all the crap I’ve said about you since you started, y’know, seeing Draco,” Ron said uncomfortably, emphasizing the use of Draco’s name.

Hermione looked at him through narrowed eyes, trying to tell whether or not he was sincere, before she finally relaxed. “Thank you for apologizing,” she said quietly, and Ron smiled at her.

Much to Draco’s reluctance, she let go of his hand and went over and hugged Ron tightly. The scene was almost too cheesy for Draco to bear, and he scowled.

“So she’s friends with the Weasel again, eh?” a voice to Draco’s left asked, and he saw Blaise standing them looking quite up himself.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Draco said bitterly as he watched Ron and Hermione break apart and start talking rapidly to each other.

“I take it you had something to do with this. We both know he’s far too stubborn to give up on his own accord. What did you do?” Blaise inquired, looking at the scene in front of him with a blank expression.

“I threatened to hex off his family jewels, as a matter of fact,” Draco shrugged, and Blaise howled with laughter.

“Are you ready for lunch?” Hermione asked, returning to his side and taking his hand once more.

“Of course,” Draco said. His voice was a little curter than he had intended, as Ron was walking on Hermione’s other side, his arm slung over her shoulders casually. Draco resisted the urge to push his hand off of her shoulders. “Where do you want to sit?”

“Do you mind if we sit with the Gryffindors today?” Hermione asked, and Draco shook his head, secretly wishing he hadn’t even offered her the choice and had led her to the Slytherin table, where Blaise was still chuckling. Draco took a seat between Hermione and Harry, who was staring in amazement at Hermione and Ron, who were still conversing rapidly.

“What happened there?” Harry asked, still watching his two best friends.

“They made up,” Draco said sourly, and Harry raised his eyebrows.

“You’re not happy about it?” he said in a low voice so Hermione and Ron wouldn’t hear.

“It’s going to make Hermione happy, of course, but he’s too touchy for my liking, and I don’t trust him,” Draco admitted, mimicking Harry’s volume.

“I can see why you would resent that,” Harry said understandingly, clapping Draco on the back in a sign of typical male sympathy.

Draco picked at his ham sandwich with distaste, listening to Ron and Hermione talk endlessly through lunch, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he had done the right thing.

***

“It’s so nice talking to Ron again,” Hermione said later that night as she stepped out of Draco’s bathroom in her pajamas. Draco was propped up in bed reading a book, and he barely glanced up as she came towards the bed.

“Mm,” was all he said in response.

“What’s wrong?” Hermione asked as she climbed beneath the covers on the bed.

“Nothing, nothing’s wrong.”

“Draco, I can read you like a book. I know that something is wrong, so spill the beans,” Hermione frowned.

“You’ll get mad,” Draco mumbled, and Hermione raised her eyebrows at him.

“You’re scared of me getting mad? This must be bad,” she laughed.

“All you’ve talked about all afternoon is Ron. And if you haven’t been talking about Ron, you’ve been talking to him and ignoring me completely,” Draco sighed, putting his book down.

“Well of course I’ve been talking to him! All we’ve said to each other for the past few months has been cruel, snide jokes, and that’s all we’d be saying to each other still if he hadn’t been the better person and apologized,” Hermione said indignantly.

“He wouldn’t have apologized had I not told him to do so,” Draco said.

“Do not try and make yourself out to be the hero,” Hermione said, her voice becoming shriller.

“You and I both know that Weasley would never have apologized without prompting, and so I prompted him,” Draco said simply.

“He has a name, Draco, and Ron apologized out of the bottom of his heart, without your prompting!”

“Is that what he told you?” Draco asked quietly.

“Yes, and I’m certain he didn’t lie, if that’s what you’re implying,” Hermione snapped.

“He has spent the last three months talking about you behind your back and insulting you to your face. Do you really think he wouldn’t lie?”

“Don’t you dare say that, Draco Malfoy!” Hermione huffed, throwing the covers off herself and storming from the room before Draco could get another word in.

Cursing himself and his jealousy silently, Draco lay down and turned off the light, tossing and turning for a few hours before falling into a restless sleep.

***

Draco woke the next morning still annoyed at both himself and Ron. He rolled out of bed and threw on some clothes after a quick shower, wondering if Hermione was in the common room. He couldn’t hear anything, but that wasn’t strange seeing as Hermione was often known to spend her mornings reading quietly as she waited for him.

Draco checked his reflection once more in the mirror and ran down the stairs two at a time, finding himself in a regrettably empty common room.

“Hermione?” he called softly, stepping up towards her dormitory. The door was open, sun pouring in onto the already made bed. The door to the bathroom was also open, showing that the room was empty.

With a defeated sigh Draco left the room exactly as he had found it and left the dormitory on his own, mulling over his thoughts as he wandered to the Great Hall by himself, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his dress pants.

“Hey, Draco,” he heard Blaise call as he walked by the hallway which led down to the Slytherin Common room. “Wait up!”

Draco obliged, hovering in the front hall until his friend caught up.

“Where’s the arm candy, mate?” Blaise asked, referring to Hermione.

“I don’t know. I would assume she’s in the Great Hall already eating breakfast?” Draco said, trying to keep himself calm.

“You don’t know? You two are practically attached at the hip, and you don’t know where she is? What happened?” Blaise inquired, his tone becoming serious as he noticed that something was amiss with his friend.

“We had a fight over the Weasel,” Draco sighed as they sat down at the Slytherin table. A quick scan of the hall told Draco that Hermione was sitting over at the Gryffindor table, laughing and joking with Ron who was looking rather pleased with himself. “Stupid bloody weasel,” he added in an undertone, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

“Is Draco Malfoy, the famed Slytherin Sex God, jealous of a Weasley?” Blaise asked, arching an eyebrow, a smirk threatening to spread across his face.

“I’m not jealous of Weasley,” Draco amended quickly, scowling as he watched Hermione laugh at something that Ron had just said. “I’m jealous of Hermione spending so much time with him.”

“They’ve only been talking civilly for less than twenty four hours! Give them a chance to wear out the exhaustive talking and Hermione will come running back into your open arms quite happily,” Blaise encouraged, biting into a kipper.

“Only if Weasley doesn’t have his arms around her by then,” Draco said as Ron slung his arm over Hermione’s shoulders casually, the way he had done the day before.

Perhaps sensing his gaze, Hermione looked up and straight into Draco’s eyes. Hurt flashed across her face for a moment, and Draco felt his heart break at her expression. She broke the eye contact, instead turning back to Ron who was telling her a story of some sort.

“Listen, mate, forget about it. Give her some room,” Blaise said as he took a sip of coffee. “If my experience with women is anything to go by, she’s not going to fall out of love with you because of one stupid fight.”

“Your experience with women? Do you mean the one night stands?” Draco said, cracking a smile for the first time that day.

“Of course!” Blaise laughed, and the two enjoyed their joke loudly, Draco trying to keep his mind off Hermione and Ron.

***

A/N: Voila, here you all go! Enjoy!