The Ice Bowl | dramione

A Woman Waiting to be Romanced

A minute after Draco arrived with Luna and their respective parents, a girl with curly brown hair and brown skin fell and landed on the ground next to him. She pushed her hair out of her deep chestnut eyes with chipped nails, that had clearly been bitten, because he noticed a tiny bit of blood surrounding the nail on her index finger. He recalled an old wizarding poem-length proverb.

When the maiden destroys herself

the man beside her is forever held in wisps

of nightmare, for they are together and connected, the bond brotherly but not senseless in many ways,

truth holds that your magical soul is kept in the youth that loves you and

shows himself. Do not hurt, my dear, for I will fall with you.

A bit old-fashioned and a tad heteronormative, Draco would admit, but it hurt him to see the girl like this, and when he saw her face, he was shocked. Hermione Granger. For some strange reason, he felt the urge to help her up, but his parents and Aunt Bellatrix were right there, watching him, and they wouldn't approve of it. No matter how disoriented Hermione looked, he would not. He could not. But then he remembered what Luna had said. You're a much better person when your family and friends aren't around.

So he stretched his hand out, half expecting her to refuse his touch and get up herself. But instead, Hermione's eyes widened seeing his face, and she took his hand and pulled herself up.

"Thank you." she said uncomfortably. He awkwardly smiled at her, and in that moment, she seemed to remember that they were enemies.

"You have multiple cavities, Malfoy. It's very unflattering." she said coldly.

"These teeth are quite literally worth a million Galleons, Granger. They could pay your bills for the next ten years."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "They could, but I don't think they would because you would never go anywhere near a Muggle-born, would you?" she walked away as her companions fell and dusted themselves off. A slight blush crept up Draco's cheeks looking at her walk off. He turned around, bracing himself for his parents' berating, but instead saw them once again arguing with Aunt Bellatrix and Xeno Lovegood. They hadn't heard or seen anything. Luna smiled at him, and it was the first time in a while he'd seen her smile. Her eyes were still red from all the crying, her face still bruised from all the beating, but she let herself grin at him.

"Minor improvement, I suppose." she muttered.

"Where's the tent?" asked Draco once everybody had (mostly) settled down.

"What?" asked his mother.

"You know, the tent? The one we have to rest in?"

Draco's dad rifled through his bag. "It appears that I may have forgotten to bring the tent."

"What?" exclaimed everyone else in unison.

"In all that chaos that happened the other day, it completely slipped my mind!" said Draco's dad.

"So what the hell do we do now?" asked Aunt Bellatrix, ignoring how all three of the Malfoys flinched at the word 'hell'. "Oh, get over yourselves."

"I suppose we have to ask around, hope someone has a spare tent." said Luna's dad. Surprisingly, that was the most reasonable idea any of them could have come up with, so they ended up doing just that.

"Why on Earth-" said Dean Thomas's mum, who proceeded to rant about his father's anti-Muggle comments.

Seamus Finnigan and his parents refused, several Gryffindors refused, and even Luna and Draco's friends refused. He supposed none of them had been real friends - Luna had taught him that. Eventually, there was only one family left to ask, and Draco was not particularly excited about it.

"The absolute nerve," stated Arthur Weasley. He was about to continue when his wife silenced him.

"We must always be hospitable." she said through gritted teeth, ears tinged red, as all the Weasleys' ears did when they were angry or defeated. "Come in." Draco, Luna, and their families walked into the tent. It was smaller than theirs, but it was inhabitable, at least.

"Right. Er, we need to figure out sleeping setups and we only have three spare beds, so..." said Mrs Weasley. "Lucius, Narcissa, I assume you two will be sharing?"

"I suppose." said Draco's mum, with the coldest voice possible. Mrs Weasley awkwardly nodded.

"I'll share with my daughter." said Xeno Lovegood.

"I'd rather not share with anyone." said Aunt Bellatrix.

"I'm afraid you might have to, Bellatrix." said Mrs Weasley, but an exchange of dagger-stares proved his aunt was not going to back down. Mrs Weasley sighed. "Well, that means Draco will have to share with one of the children. Kids!"

Nine heads of red hair came poking around their bedroom (tentroom?) doors, and their reactions to seeing Draco and Luna's families were instantaneous.

"Oh, hell no." said the oldest one. Four others just slammed their doors. Only Ron and Ginny remained.

"Hermione! Harry! You're going to want to see this!" yelled Ron.

Mrs Weasley hastily explained the situation to everyone, with their wide eyes, and Ginny retreated back into her room.

"Well, I'm not doing it." Ron said. "Harry and I already set up our beds."

"I haven't." said Hermione. "I can do it."

"Are you sure?" asked Ron. "You don't have to, I'm sure he can-"

"No, it's fine. Really."

"Okay, then." Harry nodded. "Does he have to sleep in our room?"

"We'll move the bed outside." said Hermione.

The bed was set up in the corner of the living room, and as they went to bed, Draco couldn't help but stare at Hermione's perfect, clear skin and full pinkish lips. She was laying there like a woman waiting to be romanced. Like a princess, almost, with her pink nightgown and hair that somehow fell perfectly against her bed, their bed.

Suddenly, she grabbed his hand tightly, in her sleep. He jolted fully awake as he felt her skin on his, but he didn't let go.