Fair and Tender Maidens

“Malfoy, stop being such a scaredy-cat,” Hermione said, placing her hands on her hips. “This is not the time or the place.”

“Granger, I am not a Gryffindor. Get over it,” he said, with his arms crossed over his chest.

“You promised,” she said, putting on a pout.

“I did not!”

“You said you would sing this with me.”

“That is not a promise.”

“So?”

“Granger, do you have to be so difficult?” He threw up his hands.

She stopped pouting. She was going to lose him if she continued to bicker. “You’re right.”

“Can we just get this over with?”

“Yes.”

Hermione pulled her wand out of her pocket and whispered a simple spell. The piano began to play itself. The melody was smooth and beautiful.

“Come all ye fair,” she began, “and tender maidens. Take warnin’ how you court your men.”

Draco entered. “They’re like a star, on a summer’s evening. First they appear, then they’re gone again.”

“They’ll tell to you some lovin’ story. They’ll tell to you that their love is true.”

“And then they go, and they court another. And that’s the love that they had for you.”

“If I had known.”

“If I had known.”

“Before I courted.”

“Before I courted.”

They sang this bit together: “That love could bring such sorrow and pain.”

“I’d have locked my heart,” Draco sang to her.

“I’d have locked my heart,” she sang back to him.

“In a box of gold.”

“I’d have locked my heart; Forever there it would remain. Come all ye fair and tender maidens. Take warnin’ how you court your men.”

“They’re like a star on a summer’s evening.”

“First they appear, then they’re gone again. First they appear, then they’re gone again,” they sang this line together and finished on a chord.

Hermione smiled at Draco. He looked relatively pleased.

“At least this isn’t one of those kissing songs,” he said.

She nodded. “Malfoy, we need a lot of work on this. And, we need another song. We need to look into that soon.”

“All right.”

“So, do you want to start it from the top?”

“Sounds great.”

*****

“I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess,” Draco said shyly. He waved to her and walked back to the Slytherin common room.

Hermione remained in the room. She reached into her bag and pulled out another piece of music. She set in on the stand for the piano to see. She noticed Malfoy’s quill on the piano. She nodded and the piano began to play began to play once more.

“Your love is my love and my love is your love. It would take an eternity to break us,” she sang out. She adored this song, along with many other songs of Whitney Houston’s. She was going to begin the second verse when the door creaked open.

“Harry! You gave me a fright!” she said, clutching her heart.

“I’m sorry, Hermione,” he said, blushing ever so slightly.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. She didn’t mean to sound rude. This was her best friend after all.

“I’m sorry, but I heard a beautiful voice,” he said, grinning. “I had to follow it and see who’s it was.”

“Well, Harry, you should be careful because sirens have beautiful voices but you wouldn’t to follow their voices. They’d kill you.”

“But, the voice I heard was too beautiful to be a sirens.”

Hermione blushed furiously.

“Harry, stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”

“Isn’t that the point?”

“No,” she said. She stepped out of his arms. Somehow she had found herself in them. How, she didn’t know.

Harry suddenly realized that he was holding her and dropped his arms. He blushed and mumbled, “Must be going.” And fled.

Unbeknownst to the two Gryffindors, a certain Slytherin had seen this transaction while on his way back to get his quill, which he had forgotten.