When Hermione Fights

Harry's Request and My Eternal Luck

Chapter beta: Dani

Chapter translator: Aivy

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The last day before we had to go back to Hogwarts tomorrow had arrived. As so often, we had a lot to do and so, after a harmonious breakfast, we quickly made our way to the cottage. I was wearing a black cotton knee-length strap dress, which I found striking and beautiful with its sophisticated V-neckline on both the front and back. A colourful floral embroidery adorned the waist and the hem line and a narrow band accentuated my waist.

I felt completely comfortable and it showed. A lot would happen today. If I had known at the time how much would change, I would have pulled the covers over my head again and slept through the day! In hindsight, with my proverbial luck, I could have guessed that everything would turn out differently than I thought, but so I smiled into Draco's striking face, who had even developed a minimal tan thanks to his regular early morning run, I tried to convince myself. He gave me a cheerful smile, the kind that almost no one at Hogwarts knew from the Ice Prince of Slytherin. Even our friends rarely saw him so at ease, even though I knew that as soon as we wandered into the rest of the Manor, he would become another Draco again, the Heir who didn't allow himself any emotion.

Oh yes, Draco wore as many masks and different faces as I did, which is probably why we were so close. When I remembered how we had looked into each other's eyes a year ago on the Hogwarts Express and seen a unifying bond, I now understood only too well where that came from. He was trying to live up to many demands: as I mentioned, the Heir of the Malfoys, the leader of House Slytherin, the second youngest Death Eater after Severus, the occasionally callous friend and my lover and, to cap it off, whatever he had been valiantly concealing from me until now but was probably taking more and more shape, and there too he was the leading figure.

He had to please Lucius, the Dark Lord, Severus, me, our friends, and those who recognised him as their leader. It wasn't easy, and by now I was also feeling the pressure that was constantly weighing on my shoulders from all sides.

On the other hand, we had to keep Dumbledore, the Order, the teachers, the Ministry, and also the Death Eaters at bay. It was a balancing act for all of us and I could guess how Severus had been feeling for years. It was simply exhausting and demanded constant vigilance. It was good to see that we were able to let our masks down in our own homes and show who we were so that we wouldn't forget.

With these thoughts buzzing through my head, we made our way to our friends, leaving the Manor behind but staying in the immediate vicinity, which I thought was hilarious. Really no one would look for Harry in such close proximity to the Dark Lord's Right Hand, that much was certain. The Goddess had a sense of humour and so, as chance would have it, my cottage was in Wiltshire, almost next door to the Manor. Since Lucius was again quite busy and had urgent things to do today, and Severus was running around in a bad mood and with a lot of things to do so close to the start of school, it was perfectly all right for us to take our leave of the Manor.

When we arrived at a cottage plunged into chaos, it was unbelievable how these few people managed to create such a mess. Draco looked at me in incredible distress, then closed his eyes in resignation. In Slytherin he wouldn't tolerate anything like that, no matter if it was in the common room or in the dormitories and it was clear that he attributed the current disarray to us - the Gryffindors - and I had to agree with him wholeheartedly. The noise they made while packing was deafening.

To shouts of "Whose is this?" to "Where's my red shirt?" to "Who hid the book?" to "Really, truly, if I don't find my socks right now, I'm going to go crazy!" they ran headlong through the whole house gathering up their scattered belongings.