Life suddenly seemed more hopeful than it had a few minutes ago. Hopeful, and urgent as well, because now that he'd found such a wonderful solution, Draco couldn't wait to get started. Who cared that it was past eleven at night? Harry's swim lesson was at ten the next morning, and by then, Draco needed to be ready to talk with Rhiannon!
He grabbed both Harry's shoulders. "Let's go, right now, to-- er, where does Granger live, anyway?"
Harry jerked himself out of Draco's reach and righted his glasses. Only then did Draco realise that he'd given his brother quite a jolt. And perhaps, not strictly in the physical sense.
Severus quirked an eyebrow as if he found Draco's question highly interesting.
Harry, meanwhile, looked simply speechless. Though it didn't last. "Hermione?"
"Yes, Hermione," Draco said, nodding eagerly. "That's right, Harry. You've got to get me to Hermione Granger! Now."
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Coming soon in A Summer Like None Other:
Chapter 17: "Salutations"
Comments very welcome,
Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter 17: Salutations
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=13093&chapter=17
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A Summer Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Seventeen:
Salutations
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Harry's mouth fell open. All the way open. Quite clearly, he couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that Draco had just demanded to go and see Granger.
And this, despite the fact that Draco's meaning had been perfectly plain! "Well?" asked Draco, tapping his foot impatiently. "Is there a problem?"
Evidently there was. Harry started moving his mouth, like he was trying to form words and failing. "Hermione Granger?"
Draco narrowed his eyes. "Didn't I just say as much?"
"But--"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake." Draco gave a sigh, making extra sure it sounded long-suffering. Well, it should! Here they'd been standing about, debating the point for an entire minute, when they should be at the girl's house by now. "How many Hermione Grangers do you know, anyway?"
Draco flushed then, realising that he was waving his arms a bit wildly. He couldn't help it. He wanted to get to Granger's house now, so she could tell him what it would take to get a Muggle-raised girl back.
To get a Muggle girl back, rather. Draco was through trying to make her into a witch. She was what she was, and while the whole matter of her birth was very unfortunate, he could look past it. Because she wasn't really like most Muggles, anyway.
Rhiannon being a Muggle . . . well, she was, but it was practically a technicality, even so.
Dropping his hands to his side, Draco adopted a cool, confident tone. An older-brother-taking-charge tone. Perhaps that would get through to Harry, who was still blinking like he couldn't really believe his ears. "Shall we be off, then? No time like the present."
"Time, I do believe, is the issue," murmured Severus in a meaningful tone.
Draco didn't need to be a Legilimens to know what that meant. "It's not so late," he quickly said. "We can get there in a flash. And anyway, we all know Granger. She's probably still up reading."
"What does your watch have to say?"
Draco didn't want to look at it and find out. "Well, Time to visit Hermione Granger is a bit much to ask, isn't it, when I bought this watch using that paltry sum you call an--"
The look on Harry's face made Draco hurriedly revise his choice of words.
"Er . . . I bought this watch using that rather modest allotment you give us for allowance, Severus. Before I came back into money of my own. It's not like my other watch, which was really quite accurate."
"I'd like to know what it says, all the same," said Severus, his voice silky as he leaned close. Dangerously silky. Quite likely, the allowance comment had been misstep. "Hmm?"
No hope for it, then; the man was going to insist. Sighing, Draco pulled up the sleeve of his suit jacket and glanced down at his wrist. "Time to go to bed," he admitted, making a face.
"Imagine that. People in bed at this hour."
Draco could have done without the sarcasm. "It's not even midnight, you know."
"Nearly midnight on a Thursday," said Harry, who looked to be coming out of his shock. Or daze, more like. He was clearly over it now, though. "Hermione's parents both have to work in the morning, you know!"
No, Draco didn't know. What was more, he didn't care. Besides, it wasn't like it took a great deal of energy to . . . hmm. He didn't actually know what they did. Well, why would he? It's not like he'd ever cared two straws about what some Muggleborn's parents did while she was away at Hogwarts.
Perhaps, though, acting like he had an interest might be in his best interests now.
"Well, I suppose most people like them have to work, Harry. What do they do, anyway?"
Harry angled his head like he smelled a trick. Or was trying to. "They're dentists."
It took Draco a second to work the word out. Dentists . . . dental charms . . . "Oh. Teeth?" He almost shuddered. They wouldn't have dental charms at their disposal, of course. So they must fix teeth by hand? They spent their days inserting their hands inside of mouths? Muggle mouths?
How positively ghoulish.
Draco managed to shake the thought off. "Well, I can't imagine they have to be fully alert to do that job," he said, shrugging. "Now, listen. You have another swimming lesson tomorrow, which means I'll run into Rhiannon at the pool. So of course we have to visit Hermione tonight. I have to know what to say to Rhiannon tomorrow."
Draco beamed a smile all around, certain that they'd see the logic in his argument. It was the only way to view the matter, after all.
Harry just glowered, though, while Severus shook his head.
This isn't going well, thought Draco, which had to be the understatement of the aeon. Desperation began to crowd every other thought from his mind. "I have to know how to set this right," he said, his voice wavering slightly. And not on purpose, for once. "And Hermione will know how! After all, she's one of them, isn't she?"
Another glower. "She's one of us."
Draco almost rolled his eyes. Really, comments like that ought to be out of bounds, by now. Hadn't he been perfectly pleasant to Granger for months, now? Was it his fault that Muggleborns weren't so welcome in the wizarding world?
He ended up shoving his hands in his pockets. "I never said she wasn't--"
"What you've said, and you've said it at least a thousand times, is that she shouldn't be one of us. That she had no right to go to school with us! That she polluted the air and--"
So Draco had sometimes wished he knew a good breathing charm! He hadn't brought that up in years, anyway. Not since he'd seen how bad the bubble-headed charm really looked in practice. "Oh, please. This isn't about Granger!"
"It's not? You're not demanding to go and see her, after all?"
Severus gave Harry a warning look. About fucking time. But then he gave Draco one as well, which hardly seemed fair. Draco wished he could ignore it and be as sarcastic as Harry had just been--ha, Draco could be more than sarcastic; he could be scathing. But that might just end with Severus abruptly grabbing his arm to side-along him home.