Ch. 16

Hermione woke up slowly with a surprising weight on her stomach. Looking down and waiting for her vision to focus, she realized the weight was the new black cat, Salazar. She smiled to herself as she reached down to scratch him gently behind the ears, her thoughts wandering to Draco.

She had certainly grown attached to him over the past two and a half weeks of them being at school. It was a rather quick time to start liking someone in her opinion, but she couldn't help the attraction that she had. She groaned and pulled a pillow over her face, yelling quietly into it as she realized and started to accept that she really did like him, since she was able to get jealous about him talking to other girls. And it was different than it was with Ron and Lavender; she didn't want to run away and wait for Draco come to his senses if he really did like another girl like she had waited for Ron.

Sitting up suddenly at that realization, she ran a hand through her hair and stared at her bedroom door. She wasn't sure if she liked this, this sudden feeling of vulnerability. He must have known that she started having feelings for him; after all, he called her out on her jealous over Pansy and practically knew she was jealous over him talking to Ginny. But the feelings of jealousy were so unlike her, and that's what struck her as odd.

As she slowly dressed, she thought about Draco more. Did he return her feelings? He had pretty much started to spend all of his free time around her after the last Saturday when the four of them first hung out after Ginny's break up. She didn't fail to notice that he was definitely sitting close to her whenever he could and would walk with her to all of the meals if he had the chance to. He had to have liked her. Right?

But there was still a nagging thought in the back of her mind, telling her that she was overthinking his actions as she wrangled her mess of hair into a bun. She had decided on another large jumper that hung off one of her shoulders with a black tank top underneath and black capri leggings. It was Sunday after all, she didn't think she would be leaving the Head dorm and wanted to be comfortable.

Sighing, she looked at herself in the mirror, putting her hands on the counter and leaning forward slightly while she thought. How could he even possibly like her though? She wasn't attractive in the normal sense; granted, she had started to put a little more of an effort into her routine so that it looked like she made an effort on herself. But she wasn't naturally pretty like Ginny, or the other girls at school. There was no way that Draco, the man who practically had women drooling over him, would like her.

She straightened up, turning away from her reflection sadly and then she froze with her hand on the bedroom door handle as the realization. The thought of Draco not liking her in return upset her.

A knock on the door startled her and she took a deep breath, making sure that her face didn't betray her thoughts as she opened the door.

Draco was standing there, a slightly worried look on his face. But the worry melted away almost as soon as he saw her and he smiled at her. "I was starting to think you weren't coming out."

She smiled slightly in return and replied, "Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts."

Moving past him slightly to get to the small kitchen for coffee, she heard him follow behind her. "Sickle for your thoughts?"

Shaking her head at him, she poured a cup of coffee and said, "It's nothing, just a thought that had occurred to me this morning."

"I highly doubt that any thought you have could be nothing," He replied.

She smiled again, with him returning the smile as they sat there in a comfortable silence. The only sounds were the little pitter-pats of the kitten running around, chasing the older cat. Hermione giggled at them and Draco scowled.

"Your little orange terror kept me up almost all night," Draco groaned.

"Well maybe you should lock him out of your room," Hermione giggled. "He is a kitten after all; he's got a lot of energy."

"Yeah, I discovered that when I tried to catch him after he knocked over my quills and was chewing on them." Draco reached down and swooped up the small kitten as he ran past. "He's lucky he's cute."

Hermione reached out to pet the kitten and said, "Godric's still exploring everything. Salazar was a sweetheart though; I woke up and he was sleeping on my stomach."

"Maybe I need to get him instead tonight," Draco muttered, holding the kitten up against his face. "After this little ball of energy, I need a good night's sleep."

Hermione giggled and went over to the couch where Salazar had jumped up and laid down next to her. Draco followed her after setting Godric down again and sat on the opposite couch with a happy sigh. "So, my dear Granger, what would you like to do today?"

"'My dear Granger'?" Hermione laughed. "I thought we were on first-name basis now?"

He simply grinned. "It's payback for the past few times you've called me 'Malfoy'."

She smirked. "You deserved it."

"That may be true, yes," He said, shrugging.

He watched her for a few moments as she lost herself in her thoughts again, staring down into her mug. He was hoping to somehow steer the conversation towards what she had been thinking earlier in her bedroom so that he could get to the bottom of what was bothering her. He could feel the heavy waves of negative emotions coming through the door, and since he had gotten closer to her lately, he was able to feel whatever she was more intensely now and had been able to better distinguish what it was that she was feeling.

He knew that she had a lot of self-doubt and uncertainty about something. What it was, he had no idea. But he knew that he wanted to do whatever he could to take those feelings away from her.

"I was wondering," Hermione started slowly, making him jump slightly.

She looked up at him and he immediately sensed that she was nervous as she continued, "I know we haven't really talked yet about what happened with you barging into my bathroom the other night. And I was hoping that maybe we could today?"

Draco was unsure of what to say, and Hermione took his hesitation as a sign that she shouldn't have brought it up.

"I'm sorry, we don't need to," She said suddenly, looking down and chastising herself.

"No, no; I want to talk about it," He replied quickly. "I'm sorry, it just caught me off guard slightly. I really want to talk about it though."

She gave him an apprehensive look as he shifted in his seat and chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought of what to say. She waited patiently, more patiently than she knew she normally would have. But after a few minutes of silence, she sighed and set her coffee down.

"Maybe I should start," She said quietly.

He looked at her in surprise. "Are you sure?"

She nodded and took a deep breath before looking down at the table. "I've noticed that...whenever I'm around you, I get overtaken with this feeling of calm and relaxation. No matter what mood I'm in, I feel that. Now, after what happened and seeing you after you blasted my bathroom door, I can only assume that you aren't...fully human."

She waited for him to respond and he looked away, nodding in response. She went on. "I just want you to know that I'm not going to judge you at all. I understand it might be hard for you to fully tell me, and if you're not comfortable with it, I understand. Really, I just need to know if I or any of the other students are in danger, and if any other events like that are going to happen."

Draco chuckled slightly and sighed. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his face slightly before bringing his hands up through his hair and looking at her. "This is a bit of a touchy subject, and when I tell you, you'll understand why it's hard for me to talk about it."

Hermione tilted her head to the side slightly, giving him a look he couldn't quite discern. He took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes before continuing. "I suppose I should start off by saying that I've liked you since first year."

That was not what she was expecting. He watched in amusement as her eyes went wide and she opened her mouth, but then paused, unsure of what to say. He put a hand up and said, "I will explain everything, and if you still have questions at the end, I'll be happy to answer them then but let me tell you everything first."

She closed her mouth and nodded after a few moments, her brows furrowing slightly. He moved forward to sit on the edge of the couch, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands in front of him. "As you know, all pureblood families are related in some way or another. During the summer after first year, Blaise and I learned how exactly we were related. We have a distant relative- I'm talking a few generations back- that happened to give us a particular gene through both our paternal sides, so Blaise and I are technically the same creature. Well, part-creature.

"Anyways, as you can imagine, my father upon hearing that I had the gene was extremely unhappy. He was already unhappy that he had inherited it, as it technically no longer made us pure, and the Malfoy family has always been trying to uphold blood purity. He was so desperately hoping that I wouldn't have the gene, but of course, I did. My father tried to hide it from everyone else, and so far we've done a good job; though I do admit, he did overdo it quite often with overcompensating and trying to convince everyone that we were pure. He had problems accepting that he wasn't a pureblood, and passed that insecurity onto me. I, however, have come to accept it, and so has Blaise.

"Originally I hadn't wanted to tell you until everything started falling into place, since I wanted everything to happen naturally and didn't want you to feel pressured into anything. Blaise has the same thought process. But after the bathroom door incident, I realized that keeping you in the dark about everything might not be the best choice, or the most fair choice to you."

He paused and looked at Hermione, gauging her reaction. She looked unfathomably calm considering everything he had said so far. He could tell that the gears were turning in her head though as she was piecing everything together.

"So...what are you?" She asked slowly.

He shifted nervously and looked straight into her eyes. "I'm a Veela."