#isolation6

Chapter 6: Tiles

General Summary:

Draco picks a fight with Hermione in the morning and runs into her in the bathroom after her shower so that they both fall down, and though they’re bickering the whole time, they have a playful water splashing fight on the floor of the bathroom

Draco immediately regrets it and is angry that he let himself be anything but mean to her so he waits all day for her to return so that he can return to normal

She’s late and when she comes back, she’s crying, but he pushes her anyways

In her anger, she cuts both of their hands and presses their bloody palms together in an act of revenge against his constant use of the Mudblood slur and to infect him with her “dirty blood”

He freaks out, she apologizes, and later on she goes into his room to explain that she was upset about the death of a friend, Professor Burbage, and that’s why she acted the way she did

She heals his cut and the next day, he finds that she’s left out new books for him to read

Detailed Summary:

Draco loses track of the days and since Hermione moving around the dorm always wakes him anyways, he starts waiting for her to get home (at some time before 3 AM) to try to go to bed

Every morning he wakes up to listen to her in the shower though he hates himself for it

“He was an addict, and he despised it.”

He decides to pick a fight with her and rushes at her when she’s leaving the bathroom, making the both of them fall into the bathroom

“He was suddenly aware of how strong her scent was in here; fresh and thick amongst the lingering steam. He couldn't help but take a deep breath, hoping to her it looked more like he was trying [to] control his anger. But fuck, it was intoxicating. It coiled itself around his tongue and he could actually taste her, but the cherry tang reminded him who it belonged to.”

They bicker, she splashes him with water, and when she tries to get up, he reaches for her ankle and makes her fall on the floor again

She notices that he’s bleeding and heals the cut, but she’s so close to him that he freaks out and yells at her to get away from him

“His Slytherin instincts flooded his mind like a defence mechanism, warning him she was far too close. She was doing it again; screwing with his head with gestures of kindness, and he refused to believe she didn't have an ulterior motive. Nobody could be that pure in the current climate; and it's not paranoia when you're on the enemy's territory.”

She’s completely confused by the interaction but thinks that things have been better since she’s been civil to him and taken her mother’s advice

She has a short chat with Neville during Charms class in which he notices that her mood has improved and is hopeful that she’s received news from Harry and Ron, but she informs him that she hasn’t

At the end of class, McGonagall comes to bring her to her office and says that she has bad news, though it doesn’t relate to Harry and Ron

Draco waits in the dorm for her to return and is annoyed that she’s late; he has the need to “rectify” the “mishap” in the bathroom earlier that day

When she finally comes back, she tries to ignore him but he crowds her and realizes that she’s crying, though he doesn’t stop in his interrogation on why she was late

He mocks her crying though inwardly he’s unsettled by it

He blocks the entrance to her bedroom, grabs her wrist before she can reach for her wand, and asks her (aggressively) why she’s crying, but he doesn’t restrain her other hand which punches him, and then she hexes him

“He knew he'd pushed her too far, it was so glaringly obvious in her enraged stance and the uncontrollable spark in her glare. She was just one snarky comment away from bursting at the seams, and every instinct was screaming at him to heed the foreboding angle of her wand. But his inner-Slytherin reminded him of his pathetic and laughable behaviour towards Granger in the last few days, and the familiar insult just stumbled out of his mouth so easily.”

He calls her a Mudblood and in her anger, she cuts both of their palms with her wand and then presses their hands together so that their blood mixes

“The worst thing was he couldn't distinguish her blood from his. It was all the same shade...and he had no idea what that meant.”

She immediately apologizes, the two of them frozen, and he freaks out, calls her a “crazy bitch” and goes back into his room, telling her to stay away from him

She breaks down sobbing and he is surprised that, hearing her crying through the door, he feels guilty, and he realizes that he doesn’t hate her

“He shuttered his eyes, wondering why the hell he suddenly felt guilty. He should have been roaring with rage and scheming to cause her pain in return for what she had done, but all he could do was question what had made her snap. He wanted to despise her; to charge back in there and bask in her distress.

But he didn't.

He didn't hate her.”

Hermione spends roughly three hours crying, and after she finally stops, she heals her hand and cleans the bathroom, and she’s desperate to explain herself to Draco

She goes into his room even though he tells her to get out and crawls onto his bed in an effort to get him to listen to her

She apologizes and explains that she found out that Voldemort killed one of her friends, Professor Burbage, and she took out her emotions on Draco unfairly

He basically says that if she ever does something like that in the future, he’ll make her regret it, and that he won’t be stuck with her forever so he will remember everything she does for when he is out and has his wand back

Before she leaves, she forces him to let her heal his hand, and while she’s healing him, she notices that all he’s been reading are the old textbooks of hers

“He looked down and ghosted his fingers across his freshly-healed skin, finding no evidence that she had ever torn open his flesh.

He was adamant he could feel her though; coursing through his bloodstream, and he blamed the invisible flames of her essence for his inability to catch sleep until dawn broke. “

She finally leaves his room and the next afternoon, after she’s already gone, he finds that she has left him new books that he hasn’t read before