Sinners and Saints

Part 17

A few weeks had passed since the incident and Hermione hadn't had another bad dream since. Fred had stayed for a few days after but by Monday he had to go back to work as George was struggling with the business and Lee had bailed, he wasn't feeling very well. Hermione had been taking dreamless sleep potions every night since. Madam Pomfrey had received a reply from St Mungos and it wouldn't be until after the Christmas break that they could get her an appointment with a specialist healer, who would also travel to Hogwarts. So for now all Hermione could do was wait.

She had her last appointment of the term with Madam Pomfrey so she headed out of her dorm, Draco was sitting on the sofa.

"Are you not going home for Christmas this year Draco?" Hermione asked.

Having been so captivated by his book, Draco jumped at the sound of his name.

"Sorry, what? I didn't hear you."

"What are you reading that has the power to drag you off into a world of your own?" Hermione asked in curiosity, she didn't think that a book could distract Draco that much, she didn't even think Draco read that much. Shows how much she actually knows about him.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's one of my favourites. Have you read it?" He asked, he knew the answer, they had already had a conversation about this, but he wanted to get her riled up, it was amusing.

"Read it? Of course I've read it! It's a muggle book." Hermione exclaimed.

"William Shakespeare is one of the most famous Wizarding authors ever. What makes you think he was a muggle? The entire Shakespeare family were purebloods, I'm surprised you didn't know that." Draco felt very smug, he knew something that Hermione didn't and he was never going to let her forget it.

Hermione was at a loss for words and instead of addressing Draco's question she went back to the original question that she had initially asked.

"I asked if you were going home for Christmas?"

"Oh, yeah. Me, Theo and Blaise used to always stay together for the first week and we rotate whose house, it would have been Blaises' turn but..." He trailed off. "If I'm being honest I liked Blaise's house the most, they were the least 'dark' and no one went mad or died in their house, old no nose didn't think the Zabinis were worthy enough for him to grace their house, so it's the one we all find the most comforting. But since everything. My mother, over the summer, stripped the house to the ground and rebuilt everything, leaving out a particular room." He gestured in her general direction, which she took to mean the Malfoys no longer had a drawing room. "Everything is a lot nicer now and all the orphaned Slytherins have moved in so they're not by themselves, mother has sort of adopted them all."

It was the first bit of real information Hermione had had from Draco, from before the war, that was a fairly happy memory. She felt oddly honoured.

"Well have a good time, but if you do intend to have a Christmas away from Hogwarts I suggest you pack the train leaves in half an hour and the carriages to the station in less than 15 minutes, so you might want to hurry up."

Draco's face immediately dropped and he shot up off the sofa, sprinted up the stairs and into his room.

Hermione laughed and then shouted, "Don't forget you're a wizard!"

From within his room, Hermione heard a loud groan, which made her laugh more. She sat on the sofa, where Draco had been previously reading and picked up his copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream that he dropped on the floor in his haste to pack. She opened the book, but stopped herself from reading it otherwise she knew that she would miss the train herself. Shakespeare was too tempting for her.