Stillness

Chapter 3

"You got in late last night." Ginny teased as they got ready the next morning.

"I was out by the lake." Hermione said, pulling her sweater over her head.

"With who?" Ginny asked, her eyes lighting up.

"No one."

She ignored the disappointed look on Ginny's face. Hermione knew Ginny was worried about her but the red head wouldn't broach the subject because she knew what was wrong and there was nothing she could do to help. Hermione had to find her own way past the war, just as the others had. Rehashing the past wasn't needed anymore.

"How's Harry?" Hermione asked to cover the awkward moment.

A smile decorated Ginny's face as she gushed about the boy. Hermione knew they were it, that that was love, and she was so happy Harry had been able to find it. She knew that was what brought him through the war and how he seemed to be so unaffected on the other side of it. She had once entertained the thought that her and Ron had it too, but a disastrous go at it over the summer and they had settled on the fact that they were better off friends. They had done nothing but bicker, he was too emotional, too much for her to handle at a time when she was still numb from everything that had happened.

Her thoughts drifted out to the lake as they made their way down to the common room, to the silent moments she shared with Malfoy, and as the school day erupted around her she couldn't shake the longing to be back in that stillness. She wanted to be able to listen to the waves and have her mind slow down. To be alone but not alone, to not have to pretend.

Malfoy had caught her attention. He was so different than he had been, quiet, subdued. She rarely saw him outside of class or meals and assumed he spent his time in the Slytherin Common Room. She didn't blame him, some of the younger kids acted like he was Tom Riddle reborn and the older years had been anything but welcoming. The only people he interacted with were Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, occasionally Pansy Parkinson as well, but otherwise he was like a ghost. She actually found herself missing the days when she could release her frustrations out on him after he provoked them.

She watched his mouth twitch at something Zabini said during breakfast a few days later.it occurred to her that she hadn't seen him smile in years. His eyes wandered down the Slytherin table, resting on a blonde girl that sat with Pansy, as he muttered something back to Zabini, shaking his head. Nott leaned in and said something and she could have sworn it looked like his mouth formed the name Granger before Malfoy's eyes were suddenly on her. His stormy eyes held her gaze for a moment before he twitched his eyebrows up briefly and she turned away. She tried to immerse herself into the conversation Harry, Ron, and Ginny were having about quidditch but couldn't stop wondering what was being said about her in the snake pit.

Hermione was helping Ginny finish up an essay before dinner that evening when Nott approached their table. The girls looked up at him, both tense. He gestured to the empty half of the table.

"Do you mind? Everywhere else is full." He muttered.

Hermione's eyes wandered the library quickly and realized he was right, students sat at every table. Silently she met Ginny's eyes, who shrugged and grabbed her books to make room. Nott sat and pulled out his essay and a book and began working without another word. The back of Hermione's neck tingled though and when she glanced back she saw a table of Hufflepuffs watching them. They broke out in whispers as she turned back, jumping when she saw Notts eyes on her.