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Linked by Philyra912
 Books » Harry Potter Rated: T, English, Romance, Draco M., Hermione G., Words: 61k+, Favs: 4k+, Follows: 920, Published: Jun 18, 2005 Updated: Jan 5, 2006
 2,542 Chapter 16: The Passing of November
A/N: I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter, for some reason. I think it's because I started writing it, decided I didn't like the scene, started another, and had trouble with that one too. It was a case of not really knowing what should happen next (I mean, I know where the story as a whole is going, but I needed to get to that point first.) I hope it's not too bad. I'll get the next one out as soon as I can.
Chapter 15: The Passing of November
For Draco and Hermione, the last three weeks of November seemed to drag on, as weeks in November are apt to do. The threat of end-of-term exams loomed ever nearer. Their Head duties grew more demanding with the approach of the holidays and the decorations and festivities that went with them. A Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Quidditch match scheduled for the last weekend of term resulted in longer and more frequent practices. In short, Draco and Hermione, who perhaps out of all the students at Hogwarts were most in need of free time, had nothing that even remotely resembled it.
What little time they could scrape together was spent in the library, usually late at night, poring over the journals for a cure, though none was forthcoming. None of the journals they had looked through had even been from the correct time in Delilah James' life, and they could find no mention of Dr. Hopper, Edward Flannigan, or the events connected with her research into the Iunctus Mens. Malfoy had begun to voice the opinion that they were finding nothing because there was nothing to find, and Hermione secretly agreed with him, though she would never admit it. Those discussions usually ended with him accusing her of being an idiotic optimist and her responding that he was a whiny pessimist, though without the rancor that would have once characterized such insults.
Finally, the sun set on November and rose on a bright December dawn, bringing with it a renewed sense of purpose for Hermione. It was a Saturday, meaning no classes and no rush on homework, and since Gryffindor had booked the Quidditch pitch for the entire day, the Slytherin team would not be in need of Malfoy's services as captain. Therefore, he and Hermione had agreed to spend as much of their rare day of freedom as they could searching the journals.
Aglow with her newfound and inexplicable determination, Hermione marched into the library at the crack of dawn, ready to tackle an as-yet-untouched stack of journals that had been piled in a corner of the alcove she and Malfoy had been using as their base of operations. She stopped short when she realized that the table was already occupied.
She had assumed that the library was empty because she had never seen anyone but Malfoy there at that hour, and on a Saturday to boot, and she had not felt his presence when she had come in. He was there, though, one arm flung out over the table and his head resting on it. He was fast asleep, and each deep breath he exhaled made the lock of platinum hair that fell across his face flutter gently.
She wondered, as she rounded the table to see what he had presumably been working on when he fell asleep, why he had been sitting up all night in the library instead of in his private dormitory. He went to great lengths to avoid being in any situation in which he would be vulnerable or defenseless, and allowing himself to grow so tired that he couldn't drag himself off to bed before falling asleep wasn't like him.
She almost smiled when she realized what she had been thinking. How odd it was to realize that she was in a position to know what was and wasn't like Draco Malfoy. She supposed they had just spent too much time together in the past three weeks to have not picked up on certain habits, characteristics, and personal information.
