Ch. 7

Hermione tried to avoid him for the entire next day, and he equally tried to avoid her. It pained him to do so though, but he didn't want to upset her any more than he already had. Thankfully they didn't share any classes together that day so the only avoidance he had to do was during meals and in the halls. Any time he locked eyes with her, he could feel all of the negative emotions that he had caused, and to say it bothered him would have been an extreme understatement.

But what Draco couldn't sense was that Hermione was no longer truly upset, though she was still frustrated that he had blatantly overreacted to a nightmare. She did intend to talk to him that evening, to find out exactly what was happening with him, but she was still hesitant to. She mainly wanted to go to the library and research what exactly Draco was.

Ginny, however, was focused on the fact that she was going to see Harry tomorrow. At dinner, she could barely contain herself. "Aren't you excited to see them tomorrow, Hermione?"

Hermione shook herself out of her train of thought and smiled at her friend. "Yes, absolutely! I haven't properly gotten to hang out with them since before the summer."

"Yeah, since you came back the day before we left," Ginny nodded. She was smiling as she said, "After what's happened, you need a few butterbeers anyway."

"Maybe not a few," Hermione argued while smiling, "But definitely one."

The two girls laughed together and went back to their food, chatting happily about their plans for the next day.

Draco and Blaise growled slightly as they listened to the girls. Blaise had more to growl about, but he was trying very hard to keep his cool.

"Maybe we shouldn't go tomorrow," He muttered then. "I don't know what I'll do if I see her kissing Potter."

Draco nodded but said, "We need to learn to control our Veelas though, mate."

"Yeah, but is a crowded bar really the best place to do it?" Blaise asked, giving him a sideways glance.

"Might as well get it over with," Draco shrugged. "It's only going to get worse once we get closer to them; I want to get this controlled before I mark her."

"Yeah, you can't afford to blast her door off again," Blaise said, nudging him.

Draco glared at him before continuing, "Plus you know our Veela side is going to come out more the more we are around them. Might as well start now so we can make adjustments as we need."

Blaise suddenly had a shocked look on his face. "Oh god. What if I do something worse than blast her door off?"

"I think you need to focus more on the fact that you may possibly kill Potter tomorrow," Draco smirked. "That's much worse than blasting a door off."

"You know what?" Ginny started, looking at Hermione.

"What?"

"Forget talking to Malfoy tonight," She said, grinning. "He can wait until tomorrow night. Come have a girls' night with me. We're having a house party anyway, and everyone misses you!"

Hermione laughed, "It's not like I didn't see everyone last night!"

"Yeah, but it's not the same." Ginny pouted then as she pleaded, "Come !"

Sighing, Hermione shook her head while grinning. "You know what, sure! It's been a while since I've been to a Gryffindor party."

Ginny beamed. "Yay! The boys are sneaking in some firewhiskey, and I have some vodka in my trunk."

"Ginny!" Hermione reached over and smacked her friend's arm. "You should not be telling the Head Girl this!"

"Psh," The red head scoffed. "We helped bring the downfall of Voldemort; what are they gonna do, expel us?"

They laughed and stood up then, leaving the Great Hall together.

Draco groaned as he heard the conversation. He set his head down in his arms as Blaise patted his shoulder. "Tough break, man."

"I'm never going to win her over." Draco looked up to watch her as she left the Hall, staring at her back. Blaise did the same next to him, only he was watching his own mate, sighing and putting his chin in his hand.

"If it's this hard right now," Blaise muttered, "What's it going to be like when we mark them?"

"I don't want to think about that right now," Draco responded, sitting up. "I can't even talk to her at the moment because she doesn't trust me again. It's hard enough that I can't always distinguish exactly what emotion she's feeling at any given time."

"You've noticed that too?" Blaise asked, looking at his friend before looking back at the Hall doors. "I thought it was just me. It's definitely easier to tell what her different positive emotions are than her negative ones."

"Yeah, that's how it is for me too." Draco sighed. "Though any negative emotion is a bad thing at this point. I don't know how I'm going to make this up to her."

Blaise shifted in his seat, thinking. "I would normally say try to catch her before she goes to the Gryffindor tower, but that wouldn't be considerate to her. Shoving all that information on her and then sending her off for the night."

"I wasn't going to do that," Draco said, scowling at Blaise before sighing. "At least a night with her friends will make her happy. That's all I want right now."

"Might make it easier for you too when you break it all to her." Blaise clapped him on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go have a glass of firewhiskey in your dorm."

Hermione wasn't sure exactly how long she had been dancing but her legs were screaming at her as she went to sit down in one of the chairs. The Gryffindor house party was in full swing, and everyone around her was screaming and yelling with excitement, and a little drunkenness.

To her growing frustration, she couldn't help her thoughts wandering to what Draco was doing. She did want to talk to him, to hear his side and find out why he reacted so extremely. But at the same time, she did tell him she would talk to him when she was ready, rather than giving him an exact time of when she was going to talk. She had noticed the entire day when he would give her sad looks, and every time she made eye contact with him a little more of her anger chipped away. Maybe she had overreacted as well.

She instantly tried to push the thoughts away as she saw Ginny making her way over to her through the crowd. "'Mione! What are you doing sitting down?!"

Hermione grinned and yelled over the music, "I had to rest for a minute! Too much dancing!"

Ginny laughed. "Whatever! Do you need more to drink?"

Before Hermione could say anything, Ginny whisked away her drink and soon returned it, noticeably fuller than what Hermione had originally filled it at.

"Gin, what the hell!" Hermione exclaimed. "I can't drink all this!"

"Well whatever you don't finish, I will!" Ginny said with a grin. "Come on, you're supposed to be forgetting about Malfoy right now!"

"I wasn't thinking about Malfoy," Hermione lied as she stood up.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her. "Whatever you say, 'Mione."

After a few glasses of firewhiskey, Blaise decided it was time to call it a night, leaving Draco alone to his thoughts.

He could no longer feel his mate, which put him on edge. Even though he wouldn't go as far as to hang out around Gryffindor tower to make sure she was alright, he had to admit the idea was very tempting. How did Blaise do it, being so far from Ginny all the time?

Though, Blaise wasn't around his mate as much as Draco was. He was trying to be respectful of the fact that Ginny was still in a relationship, and neither of the Veelas wanted their mates to feel pressured into the relationship. They wanted to try and make it as natural as possible, with the girls falling for them. So, they had decided on the train to Hogwarts that they would not immediately tell the girls out of fear that it wouldn't be a real love. It was hard when both of them just wanted it to be a quick process so they could be happy, but they knew that the girls would not feel the same happiness.

Draco poured himself another glass of firewhiskey and nearly jumped when the knight that was their portrait came into the room.

"Sir, there's a lady outside requesting permission to speak to you," The knight announced.

Draco looked at him in confusion. He knew it couldn't have been Hermione since she knew the password and he figured she would be spending the night at Gryffindor tower. "Well, who is it?"

"She won't say, but she said you were expecting her."

"Well I'm certainly not expecting anybody who doesn't already know the password," He muttered. "Tell her to go away."

The knight disappeared and Draco went to sit on the couch. Soon enough, the knight reappeared, saying, "Sir, she is now yelling profanities at me, telling me that she is your significant other."

Draco groaned and leaned his head back onto the back of the couch. It had to be Pansy. He looked back up at the knight and said, "Just stay in here until she goes away, mate. There's no reasoning with her."