Hermione Granger and The Secret Fire

Chapter 10-(She's) Sexy and 17

Hermione and Misten escaped into the Gryffindor girl's dorms and got to work. The boys had tried to chat with Hermione as she burst into the common room, but Misten railroaded her up the stairs and into the dorms.

Much to Hermione's chagrin, Ginny, Parvati, Lavender and even Padma got involved. Misten explained to the girls that Hermione had decided that, at 17, she was ready for a makeover. Hermione could not believe her eyes as the girls fell for it hook, line and sinker. No one seemed to think it was strange that a woman who previously had hardly ever even bothered to feign interest in their activities, now wanted to change her whole appearance for no apparent reason.

Hermione's analytical side would never have fallen for the story Misten gave, knowing that people do not just change over night. She would have figured out that there was something more going on and she would have interrogated Misten until she got an answer. But the Gryffindor women barely questioned Misten's intentions, as they targeted on the idea of creating a masterpiece and were so excited they could play with a real live doll.

Misten organized the girls into teams with stations for taming Hermione's hair, making up her face and creating the perfect outfit combinations. Hermione normally detested the activities the other girls were so interested in participating in, but somehow felt this time it was different. This time the girls were not pushing their designs on Hermione, no matter how ridiculous they often could be; this time they were building off Hermione's own desires.

Hermione tried to look at the whole activity as a school assignment. While it was difficult for her to try to be open-minded at the suggestions the girls were making, she realized that they were trying to provide her with information that would be useful as she went ahead with her task. She had to prepare for the exam with Draco by doing revisions ahead of time. She needed to focus her attention and concentrate on learning her new material so that she could remember it for the exam. Besides, this time she had a much more fun goal to accomplish than just getting an A.

"Okay, Hermione," Ginny said as she held up the current Witch's Weekly magazine, "I am thinking we should try your style your hair like this model. The article says it is great for everyday wear because it is quick and easy to do in the morning. What do you think?"

Hermione was sitting on Lavender's bed and watching the girls in front of her race around like Professor McGonagall was coming for a dorm inspection. Except in this case, instead of cleaning everything, they were trying to make it look like a bomb had gone off. She looked at the picture Ginny held up of the model in the magazine and giggled. The girl had stick straight hair and had gathered her length in a high ponytail.

"Um, I think we should probably look for something for people with curly hair, Ginny. I think my hair would look like a big bush if I tried to wear that high of a ponytail," Hermione added with mock seriousness.

"No it wouldn't! What do you thing Parvati? The model says that it is easy to do and if I gathered Hermione's hair up like this and...oh, yeah. I see what you mean." Ginny said disappointed that the style didn't compliment Hermione. Ginny and Parvati sat back down with their piles of magazines and got back to work.

Meanwhile, Lavender and Padma were raiding everyone's wardrobe looking for the perfect casual styles for Hermione to wear. It seemed to Hermione that they were throwing more clothes on the floor than in the pile designated for the "run-way trials" that Lavender had planned for her.

"Ohh! Look at this cute skirt!" Padma exclaimed as she sat on the ground digging through a pile of discarded clothes. "Parvati! When did you get this skirt? Why haven't I seen it before? It'd fit me perfectly!"

Parvati looked up from her magazine and said in her best snotty tone, "That's exactly why you have never seen it. You'd bug me for it and I'd probably never see it again." She turned to Ginny and explained, "That's what usually happens at home. Anything I get she begs, borrows and then steals. You know that adorable little blue dress she wore to Hermione's party last night? That was mine! Thank the Gods the sorting hat put us into different houses. I don't think I could live with her..."

"All right, ladies! Let's stay focused on the task at hand," Misten interrupted as she walked back into the dorm room. "Lavender, Padma, do you have a few outfits for Hermione to try on?"

"Almost ready there, chief," Lavender giggled as Misten's attempt to gain control of the situation, "besides, I think fashion should be the final stage. We won't see what colors look good on her unless we see her with her makeup finished."

"Good point," Misten agreed. "Ginny, Parvati, how is the hair styling going?"

Ginny, not even bothering to look up from the magazine she was tearing through said, "Still working on it. We should have something in the next few minutes."

Misten turned to Hermione and asked, "Are you ready?"

Hermione was amazed at how much work the girls were going through for her. She knew in her heart that she would not have done the same for them, had the roles been reversed and that made her sad. 'Perhaps I need to be a better friend to them. I never really thought they liked me, but look at all the trouble they are going through. They just think we're doing this for fun. They don't even know that we are doing this to entice Draco.'

She looked up at her friend and replied, "As ready as I'll ever be."

~*~

Several hours, outfits, and hair styles later, Hermione stood in front of a large mirror in the girl's dorm. Each of her new found friends took time to ooh and ahh at Hermione's transformation. Ginny had decided to trim Hermione's hair and used an anti-frizz serum from Misten's collection of Muggle products. She and Parvati had chosen to simply pull up her sides into a half ponytail and leave the back long and flowing. Hermione had to admit she loved the way her hair laid now that it was under control.

Lavender and Padma had chosen several outfits, each of which the owner said she could borrow until she had time to get some new outfits of her own ordered from Witchy Wearables. All were clothes Hermione would never have chosen for herself, as they were tight, trim, and accentuated her rather large bosom.

By this point in the day it was almost dinnertime and the girls thought it would be great fun to introduce the new Hermione to the student body in the Great Hall during dinner. They got to work cleaning themselves up for their supper and Hermione sat down to wait for them on Misten's bed.

"Okay, Hermione. Stage one is done," Misten said claiming some room next to her friend, "Stage two is going to be your coming-out party at dinner. Your new look will cause Draco's head to spin. Hopefully it will attract some other male attention, to get Draco a bit jealous of all the boys looking at you. Stage three will be your cool and calm demeanor towards him the rest of the week. Don't be rude, for Gods sake! Just be distant and mysterious. We want him to think you are not bothered by what happened in his room this morning and that you are so confident in yourself that he'd be lucky to have you pay any attention to him at all."

The girls appeared in front of Hermione and Misten, giggling and clearly excited at the prospect of going to dinner. As they made their grand entrance into the Great Hall, Hermione felt like all eyes turned to her and all conversation ceased. That certainly happened at the Gryffindor table as the girls went to sit with the 7^th year boys.

"Bloody hell, Hermione! What happened to you?" Ron exclaimed, jumping up and looking at her with worried eyes as if Hermione had just lost a round with a Cockatrice like the one at the Triwizarding Tournament. Needless to say his words made her second-guess the opinions of all the girls.

"RON!" Ginny screamed, never taking her eyes off of her 'foot-in-the-mouth' brother. "What he meant to say was, 'My Hermione, you look fantastically different' not something negative!"

"Sorry, Hermione," Ron said as he sat back down, thoroughly embarrassed by his sister's fine impression of their mother.

But if Ron was unsurprisingly rude, the rest of the boys were surprisingly enchanted by the new version of Hermione. Harry seemed genuinely excited by the change and the other boys were looking at her as if they had never seen her before tonight. Dean and Neville made room for her to sit between them and both seemed to talk over each other trying to get her attention.

Halfway through dinner Hermione remembered her plan and glanced over at the Slytherin table. She was pleased to find that the majority of the seventh years were checking out the commotion at the Gryffindor table, but was crushed to discover that their prince was missing.

Hermione's heart dropped at the disappointment in not being able to make Draco even the slightest bit jealous of all her male attention. She had been so excited at the prospect of making all the boys' heads turn that she had failed to consider what to do if Draco was not at dinner. Her disappointment turned to concern when she remembered that he had left that morning to go to speak to his father in the Headmaster's office. 'What if something happened to him? What if he is in the infirmary?'

Hermione remembered that Professor Snape had accompanied him and quickly turned her head to see if he was at the teacher's table. She was relieved to see that he was there, knowing that he would not have left an injured Draco. But her concern returned as she wondered where he could be and questioned his state of mood.

~*~

After dinner, Hermione made a plate of food for Draco and excused herself from her friends. They were disappointed that she wanted to go back to her room to do 'revisions for the upcoming week' but understood. After all, it was Hermione. Misten smiled an all-knowing smile, winked and wished her good luck.

As Hermione arrived the portrait of the Mime-Priestess, she felt terror and insecurity grip her once again. She was so uncertain of what she as doing and was basing all of her plans on what another girl had told her to do! This was not right! Hermione prided herself on always knowing what to do and not needing others to influence her actions.

"What am I doing?" she whispered aloud before saying the password. "I already know that he doesn't want to see me. What good can possibly come from this?"

"I don't know what good you are speaking of, my dear," said the Mime Priestess, interrupting Hermione's self-chatter. "But if you provide me with the password perhaps you can help the young man inside."

Hermione's eyes widened in fear for Draco and she quickly gave the password. Inside, she found the common room dark, with a nearly dead fire. She sighed and put Draco's dinner in the food box. She was about to go upstairs to find Draco when she had a thought of restarting the fire, since it was the only source of heat. She walked over to the hearth and used her wand to transport several logs onto the fire. As she turned, she was startled to see Draco lying on his side facing the fire with blank look on his face.

"Draco? Draco, are you okay?" Hermione said rushing to kneel in front of him.

He looked up at Hermione as if he had never seen her before but he said nothing. She felt a rush of panic and apprehension from his look. 'Perhaps he doesn't want me here. Perhaps he doesn't want me at all. You are so stupid, Hermione. What makes you think you could do anything for him?'

She made to stand, so caught up in her self-debasing thoughts that she almost missed his words when he reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Stay with me?" he asked in barely more than a whisper. His eyes pleaded with her to sit with him and she immediately complied, sitting down on the floor rug next to the couch. Her heart cried out in his obvious anguish, but she said nothing.

They both stared into the fire, watching the flames begin to devour the newest logs. Hermione noticed through eye-movement glances that Draco was still holding onto her arm and that his breathing seemed labored. His face was drawn into a pained frown and she was afraid to even move, thinking it would cause Draco to fall over some unperceived precipice.

She had no idea what to say or what to do. She knew he wanted her to stay with him and that caused her heart to leap in happiness, but at the same time his troubled demeanor made her want to help him and she knew that he didn't want help. She felt the need once again to gather him into her arms like she had the night before in his bed to protect him from the demons that were haunting him.

It was sitting there that she remembered Draco's words from a few weeks ago. In Professor Dumbledore's office he had said, '... my father was secretely released from Azkaban along with several other high ranking Death Eaters.' How was it possible that a secretly released prisoner was allowed into Hogwarts? Wouldn't Dumbledore have immediately called for the Aurors?

She couldn't help herself and blurted out, "How could your father have been here today to see you when he is an escaped felon?"

Draco visually flinched at her words and took several seconds of staring at her to answer.

"Fudge gave him a reprieve since he thinks my father is telling the truth about not working for Voldemort. How did you know he was here?"

Hermione, knowing she had been caught eavesdropping, looked down at the floor and answered, "I overheard you and Professor Snape."

Draco's frown returned to his eyes and he his voice filled with panic as he asked, "All of it? You heard all of our conversation?"

Hermione looked at him and was afraid his anger was going to return as he figured out that there is no way to 'overhear' all of a conversation unless you were trying to eavesdrop.

She took a deep breath and squeaked out, "Yes."

Draco's eyes returned to the fire in front of them and he said nothing. Hermione was seized with the need to keep him talking, so she asked, "Draco, do you want some food? I brought back dinner for you."

He looked up at her and said, "My father came today to...punish me...for something I did last night. I...I shouldn't be telling you this."

Draco turned his head back to the fire and Hermione could feel him closing himself off from her. Desperate to keep him talking she borrowed a line Misten had said that morning and whispered, "I know you haven't felt like you have had a true friend, Draco. But you can trust me. Anything you say here will stay between the two of us. It will go no further." She took his hand into hers and squeezed it to emphasize her seriousness.

He looked at Hermione once again and took a deep breath. To Hermione's relief and excitement he did not remove his hand, and he began to speak. "Last night we were called to a revel, as you know, not far from here. Snape and I arrived just in time, as several people after us were deemed 'late' by Voldemort and were punished. I...I had to stand next to my father and thankfully was able to find him although most people were masked. The meeting went as most of them do; Voldemort talking about troops gathered, Death Eaters reporting on their duties, people prostrating themselves to a weak, pathetic excuse for a man.

"As the evening went on, we broke off into teams to work on different skills; dark art curses, physical battle skills, mind control techniques. I was getting quite tired of being there and was having trouble controlling my reactions to the work we were being forced to do. Apparently, Voldemort noticed my impatience. He called me out on it and I knew he was going to make an example of me. My father unmasked his face long enough for me to see his extreme anger and severe loathing of my choices during the meeting," Draco paused and seemed to internally question his motivation for sharing this with Hermione. She squeezed his hand to show support and smiled at him when he looked at her for approval to continue.

"The...Dark Lord...tried to see where my loyalties lied, I guess. Somehow he must know that I am there only for my father and not because I believe in his maniacal...cause. He started pushing my buttons, trying to see what he could say or do to get me to react. He wanted to say something that would get a retort from me, something he could use as torture. He started with my mother's death and ran through a litany of other personal items until he hit the one that caused me to..." Draco stopped, and it seemed to Hermione that he was almost afraid to continue. When she heard the end of the sentence she understood why Draco didn't want to finish it, as it showed what he perceived as one of his real weaknesses. "He pushed the buttons until he found one that caused me to lose control."

They sat in silence for several minutes. Hermione watched Draco as he stared into the fire. Her mind raced with a million thoughts; why is losing control a weakness? What did he say about Draco's mother? What would Draco's punishment be for being human?

Although she knew that Voldemort was a purely evil man and that nothing about him was respectable, she wondered why he continued to push Draco until he got a reply from him that he could use to torture him.

"What did he ask, Draco? What caused you to lose control?" Hermione asked quietly, anxious to get him to confide in her again. She felt like she was helping him by making him talk about all the things he had seen.

Draco, however, turned and stared at her incredulously before saying, "Why do you want to know? So you can use it against me too?"

He jumped off the couch and started pacing in front of the fire. "I should have known talking to you would be a mistake. I don't know what has gotten into me. Over the past few weeks I have been acting...weird because of you. I'm not acting like my self. I can't seem to gauge my reactions to situations before they happen, which I have always been able to do in the past. I don't feel these feelings! I don't show emotions and ...and...I don't care about you. Stop trying to make me into something I am not. Stop forcing me to be like this!"

Hermione felt horrid for pushing him to talk to her and was crushed by his words. Part of her, however, did not believe his words, choosing to focus on his actions over the past 24 hours instead. She felt like running away from his malicious comments, but she fought back with, "Don't shut down on me now, Draco. There is nothing wrong with talking about this with me. I told you that you could trust me and I meant it. Don't do this! I know you are trying to hurt me so I will leave, but I am not going anywhere. Don't do the same thing to me that Voldemort did to you!"

Draco stopped pacing at Hermione's final words and stared at her. Hermione was scared that he was going to explode and started internally telling herself to stay calm and not to cry. She knew that very few people ever spoke to Draco the way she just had, but she knew what he was trying to do by saying hurtful things. She had grown up in a home where people used words to cut her deeply and she was very empathic because of it. Ron had always abused this knowledge by continuing the pattern of verbal cruelty and she was not going to allow Draco to follow in his footsteps.

Draco returned to the couch and sat down next to Hermione once again. She took his hand into hers and looked into his eyes. She looked at him with all the empathy she could muster and said, "Let me help you Draco. Acknowledging that you need help does not make you weak; ignoring that need does. Let me support you. You are going through a terrible time and should not have to do this alone. Let me in so I can show you how it feels when someone cares about you."

Draco stared at Hermione and looked at her as if he was trying to see if she was being truthful. She could tell he wanted to confide in her and he wanted to make the changes necessary to have a better relationship. Evidently he believed her words because he did something that shocked Hermione. He leaned down and softly brushed his lips against hers. Initially her eyes widened in surprise at the quickness in his change of mood, but she felt her eyes close instinctively as he kissed her again and again. Hermione's heart leapt and it was beating so hard that she was afraid it would pound out of her chest. She was still holding his hand and she laid it on her heart so he could feel for himself that the risk he was taking by trusting her was worth taking.

As they broke apart, Hermione was astonished to see that Draco's eyes were shining with unshed tears. "I believe you," he whispered and she leaned over to hug him, effectively hiding her own tears as they began to fall. She wasn't even sure why she was crying. Was it in happiness at finally kissing Draco? Was it in sympathy at his story? Was it in response to all the emotion?

'Where did that kiss come from?' she thought. 'What is causing him to have such a strong reaction to my kindness, now?

Draco pulled back, cleared his throat and ran his hand through his hair before saying, "I...I want to tell you the rest, Hermione. But I'm not very good at all this...sharing and stuff. It's very un-Slytherin to admit you need anything, much less help."

"Okay. Okay. Go slow. I have all night, Draco," Hermione said and she sat back to emphasize the point.

Draco stared into the fire and waited several minutes before he continued. "He wanted me to lose control and kept pushing buttons until he found the right one. He asked me about my life here, Hermione. He asked what was going on here and what his chances were at an all-out-attack on Hogwarts. I didn't know how to answer him. This is my safe haven and I always know what to expect when I am here. I know all the ins and outs here. I know where to go if I am hurt. I know where to go if I need a book. I know where to go to see my friends. I know where to go here. I don't ever have to worry about being attacked or being pushed into a physical fight like I do living with my father. No one...NO ONE...is going to take that away from me and I didn't know how to answer him.

"He took my silence as evidence that he had found the right button. He started grilling me on weaknesses in the defense system here. He wanted to know about Potter and how he spent his free time...as if I'd know. He started questioning all of my classes and the apparent faults in my teachers. My father," Draco laughed hauntingly, "my father had the audacity to brag to the Dark Lord that I was Head Boy. You know he never said a word to me in congratulation about it, but he found that it was his place to announce it in front of all his loony cronies and Voldemort, like he was proud of me."

Draco paused and Hermione took the opportunity to squeeze the hold she had on his hand once again. He seemed strengthened by the gesture and continued, "Voldemort wanted me to recruit here for him. I don't know why I was surprised by this request, but I was. I stood there and tried to process what he was saying. He took my silence as defiance and hit me with the first round the Crucio spell.

"When he finally took it off, he asked me for three names of people I thought I could recruit before our next revel. I was prepared to die rather than kill those men by labeling them to take the mark. Thankfully, Snape put himself in the line of fire by coming forward and telling the Dark Lord that recruitment would be next to impossible due to the Headmaster's watch over the students. He told Voldemort that it was increasingly difficult for him to get away and now that he had to watch over me too, recruitment would be tremendously tricky. He, of course, was hit with the curse and then I got my second round of it," Draco said as he turned once again towards the fire.

"So...my father arrived today to deliver the consequence for daring to not follow the Dark Lord's directive," Draco said. He looked at Hermione strangely and added, "But I guess you already know that."

"We...we met in Head Master's office and Dumbledore wouldn't leave, even though my father asked him to several times. He couldn't really say or do any of the things he wanted. When he once again asked to speak to me privately, both Snape and Dumbledore said no and I honestly thought my father was going to swallow his teeth in anger and being denied the opportunity to speak with, and curse, his own son. Snape even walked me out and back to the common room so my father could not catch me in the hall," Draco said in obvious admiration of his Head of House.

Hermione took a deep breath and waited for him to continue. She was amazed by Snape's attempt to pull Draco out of the line of fire, not once, but twice in the last day. The 'greasy git' that had done nothing but make her life and the lives of all the Gryffindors before her miserable had stood up to the most feared wizard of their time so that a student, Draco, could get out of the heat. Then he had protected that student from a situation with his father that was dangerously like his own. Hermione had learned so much more about Snape's character today than ever before and she was in awe of his reactions to his life and his charges.

Draco looked at Hermione and asked, "Is it okay if we stop here tonight? I am really tired and I think I need to go to bed."

Hermione nodded her reply and Draco admitted with a sly smile, "I didn't sleep well last night...after I realized I was not alone in my bed."

As her heart began to pound again, Hermione was pleased to realize that Draco was going to kiss her once more. Her stomach started doing flip-flops as he ran his hand down her cheek and chin. His touch was so gentle, so tender. He picked up her chin and met her lips with a series of kisses.

Draco pulled back to see if his behavior was acceptable and Hermione's heart leapt at the small gesture.

"I'm...I think...Thank you, Hermione," he said, his words filled with emotion. "I needed this. I needed..." but he ended there. Hermione thought that it must be because he didn't know how to continue.

She smiled at his words and the words he didn't say. As he got up, she noticed he smiled shyly at her. She sat in front of the fire for several minutes, lost in thought, before going up to her own bed.

~*~

As she replayed every moment of their time together that night, Hermione was surprised to realize how shocked she was at everything Draco had told her during their talk. She felt considerably guilty that she had been worrying about him liking her and complaining to her friends when her only real problem was in the romance department. But Draco had to deal with life and death issues. He had lost his mother, seen his father imprisoned and then released and have to take the mark of a crazy man. She felt at a loss because, like everything else in life, this wasn't simply going to be a love story.