Magnetic Attraction - Chapter Ten

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Chapter 10: A Desperate Need For Answers

It was quite possible that young Ginny Weasley’s head would explode some day in the near future. It was obvious that she didn’t know something as she sat across from Draco and Hermione, who were looking way to comfortable around each other than socially acceptable for a Slytherin and a Gryffindor to be. Her jaw dropped when Draco reached across Hermione for a pitcher of water, his cheek only inches from her nose, without any protest from her. She just smiled vaguely at him before continuing to sort through her bag. Of course, Harry and his second in command didn’t notice anything, and she didn’t plan on telling them. It wasn’t like they would have appreciated the close proximity the two had been in outside the library on Saturday.

Yes, Ginny had seen the two of them snogging like their lives depended on it over the weekend. She had just been walking by on her way to the kitchens when she had seen her best friend pushed up against the wall, looking very energetic indeed. Ginny had scampered away, pretending not to have seen anything. It was harder to pretend now, especially because the look in Draco’s eyes when he looked at Hermione seemed very different from unadulterated loathing.

Eventually the class bell rang and she was forced to stop her spying, but she watched Draco and Hermione as they left the hall a few yards ahead of her. He held the door open for the brunette without a second glance, and followed her up the stairs. Something was going on, and Ginny wanted to find out what.

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As our young hero and heroine soon learned, holding a wand and performing magic while being magnetically attracted to another human was no laughing matter. Of course, students and teachers alike found this remarkably funny, rolling their wands back to them whenever they skittered across the floor. When McGonagall handed Draco back his wand for the fourth time during transfiguration, Harry and Ron both burst out laughing at the annoyed expression on the blonde’s face.

“What’s so funny, Potter?” he snapped at them as Hermione perfectly turned her floor tile into a monarch butterfly. The two boys sitting behind them snickered mercilessly, Ron even going so far as to imitate Draco’s attempt at working with his left hand, waving his arm around over his head. Lavender laughed at his poor imitation, while the blond only scowled. Harry smirked maliciously as he answered,

“I wasn’t aware you did muggle disco, Malfoy.” Hermione clucked her tongue disapprovingly before tugging on Draco’s arm, forcing him to turn around and face forward in his seat. With a grimace he leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear,

“What on earth is the disco?” She grinned sympathetically before reaching for another kitchen tile.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He sighed and tried again, managing only to give the tile orange and black spots. The two boys behind them cackled. Seeing him stiffen, she gave his hand a small squeeze and whispered, “Don’t let them get to you, be the better man.” That was easier said than done.

Charms was even more miserable. They were still working on the Charge Switching spell, and although Flitwick allowed them to use the period as a study hall, and seeing as they had already mastered the spell, he proceeded to bother them with questions. Hermione had more patience with the bothersome teacher since charms was her favorite class, but Draco had little to none. He spent the hour and a half wondering how Hermione had failed to notice that Flitwick’s questions were all rather pointed to whether they had learned of the cure.

“So how are you two coping with the attraction?” he asked as Draco tried to focus on his transfiguration essay. Hermione smiled warmly at their professor before answering,

“It’s been rough but we’ve managed to figure out a pattern.” Yeah, making out regularly, Draco thought to himself with a snicker. He sucked on the tip of his quill while watching Flitwick try and find the hidden meaning in her answer.

“Do you two have any long term plans on what you will do after graduation?” he asked next. Draco couldn’t resist and answered before Hermione opened her mouth.

“I’m sure that the effect will have worn off by then, Professor,” he drawled, suppressing a smirk. She turned to stare at him, wondering what on earth he meant. Did he love her? Flitwick seemed flustered; as Draco mentally dared him to confess the horrid cure he didn’t realize his students already knew.

“Well, just in case it doesn’t, Mr. Malfoy, are you prepared to spend your life with Ms. Granger?” Hermione opened her mouth again but he kicked her lightly in the shin to shut her up. She scowled at him, but listened without comment as he took pleasure in confusing their teacher.

“I’m sure that it won’t come to that, but if it does I’m sure we will figure things out. Granger and I are the best students of the year and we can find a way to make things work.” His answer was netted with riddles and she frowned at its levels. Was he playing dumb to upset the teacher, or did he actually think they could some day fall in love? She pondered his smug look the rest of class, relieved when Flitwick left them to aid Pansy. “Cat got your tongue, Granger?” he asked her, smirking devilishly. She rolled her eyes.

“More like a snake.”

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Hermione wasn’t a big fan of sneaking out. She had never approved of Harry and Ron’s incessant habit of taking trips to Hogsmeade under the cover of night, and never thought she would be doing so herself. However, on Monday night she and Draco tiptoed through the castle to the entrance hall, without even the aid of the Marauder’s map or an invisibility cloak. Thankfully he seemed to do this often, and they managed to avoid both Filch and his cat. He even made their trip to the Whomping Willow fun, cracking jokes about Flitwick’s unveiled questions.

“I swear, he should have just said it outright!” he exclaimed as they walked down the steps toward the outstretch of grass where the tree was located. “How have you been coping with the attraction?” Draco imitated, his voice high-pitched. She snorted softly as she searched for a stick long enough to hit the knot. “Could you imagine the look on his face if the attraction just randomly disappeared during class? He’d faint clear over and knock over all of the stupid books he has to stand on!” Successfully finding a long branch, she laughed as she froze the tree.

“It would be amusing,” she said quietly. He obediently followed her and crouched down to slide into the roots. They landed in a heap on the ground underneath it. He helped her up and looked anxiously around, not comfortable in a dark place he’d never been before. She lit her wand quickly and he did the same, before she tugged him along the tunnel. Draco kept talking in hopes of distracting himself from the unlit passage way.

“I mean, the attraction probably won’t disappear, but it would be worth falling in love with you just to laugh in Dumbledore’s smug face.” Her face hardened but he couldn’t tell in the dark. ‘Worth falling in love with you?’ What’s that supposed to mean? Mr. Back-From-The-Dead thinks he’s so great! Ha ha, beat that you old bat!”

“What do you mean when you say it would be worth falling in love with me?” Hermione asked bitterly, putting air quotes around worth and me. He faltered, not really expecting that question. He hadn’t been watching what was spilling out of his mouth. “Am I that hard to fall in love with?” Draco bit his lip, wondering how to answer. He already was in love with her, and she hadn’t noticed. How could she not have noticed? How could she not see how much he loved falling asleep with her cradled against him? She really did have some nerve, with her stupid Diggory obsession.

“Falling in love with you would be awful, because I would have to wake up every morning and remember I could never have you since you’re still in love with Cedric Diggory,” he hissed honestly, making her take a step backwards in surprise. Point proven.

“That’s not true,” she whispered hopelessly, a little scared of the determination in his haunting eyes.

“Yes it is Mya, we both know it. You love Diggory and Diggory loved you and you’re stuck in your little bubble.” His words stung, because not only were they delivered out of anger and jealously, but the didn’t ring true.

“I never said Cedric loved me,” she said quietly, looking down at the dirt beneath her sneakers. This he hadn’t expected, and his jaw dropped a couple inches. She laughed humorlessly. “Were you under the impression that he and I had been having some steamy love affair behind Cho’s back?” He gulped unnoticeably, that was exactly what he had thought. “Well we weren’t.”

“Then what did happen, Mya?” he asked instead. She blushed and changed her grip on his hand, but he didn’t back off like he knew she wanted him to. “Honestly, you’re constantly drawing away from me because of this relationship you tell me you had, you wear what are supposedly his boxers to sleep at night, you admit that you loved him and now you’re passing it off as nothing, saying he didn’t care about you? Tell me what actually happened.” He hadn’t realized that while he’d talked he had backed her up against the back wall of the tunnel. It killed him to see her look up at him from underneath lidded eyes, an almost fearful tremor in her pupils, but he wasn’t going to let this slide. In four days he’d fallen in love with Hermione Granger, and he wanted to know what it was that was keeping her from returning his emotions. She had to be blind to not see how much he cared for her, how he looked at her, and he was the one and only Draco Malfoy! He made girls swoon with one smile, faint with one wink! He was giving himself to her, why wasn’t she taking him?

“You want to know what happened?” she asked, her voice icy. He gave her a look that clearly said, ‘duh!’ “You really want to know?”

“Yes Hermione, I really want to know.” Her lips turned to a thin line as she looked over every sharp curve of his face. She memorized every line on his skin, and each different color in his eyes, as if searching for something to see if he was honest.

“I kissed him. Once, before he went into the maze.” She sighed and looked away, unseeing, at the dark behind him. “He was shocked at first, but then he smiled brilliantly, his hair all windswept, before leaning down and kissing me on the forehead. Then he bounded off into the Champion’s tent and I never saw him up close again.” As earnest as she sounded as she blinked back what looked like tears, something didn’t add up. It was too innocent.

“But then how’d you end up with his underwear?” he asked outright. Hermione smiled slightly as she remembered yet again, before answering.

“The night before the third task I was terrified of losing them, both of them. I couldn’t sleep or eat or distract myself. Harry was just as panicked and turned to Ron and Sirius, so I couldn’t find peace with them.” She looked down at her feet again, blushing slightly. “Cedric had given me something, this little pendent thing that I could use to contact him. I called him through it and he asked me to meet him on the seventh floor in front of the tapestry of Barnabus the Barnaby.”

“The Room of Requirement,” Draco muttered under his breath. She nodded, gulping nervously. It was odd to be telling somebody this when it had stayed within her so long. It felt relieving, like a weight was being lifted off her shoulders.

“Exactly,” she continued, her voice a little stronger. “He could tell something was wrong, so he brought his backpack and a fresh change of clothes, but I hadn’t been so prepared and just went in jeans and a t-shirt. We talked, that was all.” Draco could see she wasn’t finished, and didn’t back up. “But eventually we had to go to sleep and I reluctantly told him that I had insomnia problems for the past week. He offered to stay with me in the room, and instantly this large double bed appeared.” Her blush grew more profound as she fidgeted with the edge of her jacket, anxious about how Draco would react to what she would say next. He cringed. “Of course I hadn’t brought anything with me to sleep in, so he offered me a pair of spare boxers he had brought with him and an undershirt.” She wasn’t aware of the relief spreading through him as he realized she hadn’t lost her virginity to Cedric at all, like he had originally thought. “He held me until I fell asleep and when I woke up he was gone. He’d left a note saying to meet him in the Entrance Hall before the task, and you know what happened from there.” Unable to contain his relief any longer, he grabbed Hermione’s elbow, successfully returning her gaze onto him, and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Let’s go back to your room, Mya. We can do the shack later, for now you need to sleep,” he whispered into her ear as she began to cry silently onto his shoulder.

“So you’re not mad at me?” she asked hoarsely, muffled against his shoulder. He kissed her neck softly before answering,

“Of course not. I’m just glad I know what happened.”

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“Cedric,” she whispered urgently into the small circle. “Cedric, I need to talk to you.” Hermione looked swiftly from side to side, checking for eavesdroppers. There were none. After a minute or two came his reply.

“Mya?” He sounded just as stressed and worried as she was.

“Yes it’s me. I hope I didn’t wake you up.” Hermione checked once again that the curtains around her bed were shut and that Parvati and Lavender were both asleep.

“No no, I’m awake. What’s wrong?”

“I’m just scared,” she admitted, shivering slightly in a nonexistent breeze. “If you or Harry get hurt I wouldn’t be able to deal with it.” A small tired sigh could be heard from the pendent and she tucked her knees under her.

“Mya, we’ve been through this before, nothing is going to happen. There are adults who’ll be patrolling around the maze to help me and Harry if anything goes wrong.” She sniffled softly, but not soft enough to prevent him from hearing. “Are you crying?”

“I was earlier,” she admitted with a blush he could hear in her voice. “But I’m not now.”

“Oh Mya, you shouldn’t get so worried, you have nothing to worry about!”

“Sorry, this is just really upsetting. And I can’t sleep anyway.”

“Neither can I. Why don’t I meet you somewhere and we can both panic together, I know somewhere we can go if you’d like.” Hermione opened her curtains a crack to grope for her wand.

“Okay.”

“Meet me on the seventh floor outside the tapestry of Barnabus the Barnaby. We can spend the night in a room I know of if need be.” She nodded feebly before remembering he couldn’t see her.

“Thanks Cedric, I’ll be there soon.”