#isolation7

Chapter 7: Human

General Summary:

After he avoids Hermione for three days following the blood incident, Draco and Hermione finally run into each other when she’s sitting in the living room reading a book to distract herself from her fear of strong, stormy winds

They discuss the books by Muggle authors (including Shakespeare) that she left out for him and she challenges his beliefs that Muggles are barbaric

Eventually they both fall asleep on separate couches and when he wakes and feels soft towards her, he is revolted by himself

She suggests that he read Martin Luther King Jr.’s biography when he’s finished with his next read

Hermione receives a letter from Harry and Ron and stays the night with Ginny after bringing the letter to her for them to read together

Draco panics when she doesn’t return, thinking that he’s been stranded in the dorm, and he attempts an escape, badly injuring himself from the wards and passing out

Detailed Summary:

In the three days following the bloody hand incident, she doesn’t see Draco at all and she respects his privacy because of her guilt towards what she did

“She'd never, ever done anything so awful in her life; so wrong. She'd locked herself in her room no less than four times and broken down into uninhibited sobs, cradling her quaking frame.”

She sits in the living area of the dorm reading a book and trying to ignore the storm going on outside the Castle, revealing that she has a fear of harsh winds during storms that is unable to be remedied by Silencing charms

She comes to terms with staying up for the duration of the storm since she won’t be able to sleep, and stays in the sitting area, surprised when Draco comes in to get water

She asks him whether he’s still mad about the incident and he only asks why it matters to her, a question for which she doesn’t really have an answer

She gets up to make herself a hot chocolate and offers to make him one too, an offer he neither accepts nor declines, so she makes him one too

He says that he’ll drink it in his bedroom but she asks him to stay and sit with her to answer her question, but he gets annoyed at the idea that she is expecting him to answer the question

He asks why she wants him to join her anyways and infers that she’s afraid of the wind; he’s surprised that she would admit her fear

He eventually comes and sits with her as they drink their hot chocolate and discuss her fear, him mocking her for the fear and saying that he isn’t afraid of anything when she asks, calling it “human nature” to be fearful of something

In response to her question about his feelings towards the incident, he, in a roundabout way, essentially says that he’s forgetting about it, to which she replies that she’d “like to forget it” as well

They discuss the books she left for him, most of which were by Shakespeare, and all of which were by Muggles, a fact that he remarks did not escape his notice

She can’t believe that he would read them even after knowing they’re written by Muggles but he tells her that there was nothing else to read, keeping the detail about the quality of the writing to himself

“He'd intended to have the books feed his revulsion for Muggles, providing him with proof that they really were uncultured and uncivilised beings who would struggle to pen a decent paragraph.

But...

But it was actually okay...Good enough that he'd continued to turn the pages and be subconsciously impressed. It was so unnerving and sickening, and it had made him question...things. Only for a moment, but he had. No, he had never believed all that propaganda shit about Muggles being feral, but he'd been convinced on some level that they would be less able with the arts, but this Shake-something guy was...adequate. He couldn't very well tell Granger that though.”

They discuss the contents of the Titus Andronicus, one of the plays that he read, and they argue over Draco’s perception that it reinforces how “barbaric Muggles are”

Hermione provides examples of “mindless bloodshed” in Wizardkind, like Wizard Wars, Voldemort killing his family, and Crouch and his father, imploring him to really ask himself what about Muggles makes their “mindless bloodshed” any different

He awakes in the morning on one of the sofas, indicating that he fell asleep in the living area with her during the storm

Out of curiosity, he reaches for her wand to see if she’d been bluffing about the repelling charm that had been placed on it, but finds that she was telling the truth

He has a moment of softness towards Hermione that he shakes himself out of, revolted, slamming his bedroom door loud enough to wake her

He avoids her for four more days but eventually grows a craving for human interaction and conversation, even though he’s annoyed that it has to be her

He finally emerges from his room when she’s in the kitchen, and accidentally teases her though he means it to come out as an insult

They discuss books some more, and she suggests for him to read Martin Luther King Jr.’s biography when he’s finished with his next read, saying that she thinks he’ll find it interesting after he confirms that he “really believe[s] Purebloods to be superior to Muggle-borns”

Later, Hedwig delivers a letter to Hermione from Harry and Ron, and she goes to Ginny to make good on her promise that they would read all of the messages she received together

The letter is brief and devoid of detail, and Ginny asks Hermione to stay the night because she doesn’t want to be alone

In her absence, Draco starts to freak out, panicking that if she never comes back, that he could be “forgotten” and “alone” so he tries to escape, badly injuring himself from the wards placed on the door, and he passes out