In Between The Lines

Chapter 7

In Between The Lines: Chapter Seven

Draco's POV:

I walked into the Hogwarts library for the second time this week, looking around at its' massiveness and admiring the large collection. Mother had told me after I got my Hogwarts Letter about how much she admired the Hogwarts Library and had designed our library after it, but despite her efforts this library surpassed ours.

It took a few steps until I realized Hermione was no longer walking behind me so I turned around to tell her to hurry up, but stopped before I could snap at her.

She stood just outside the doorway of the library with her mouth agape and eyes wide as they ran from bookshelf to bookshelf and lifted high towards the ceiling to see the tops of the massive bookshelves. Her expression was that of awe and after she had taken it all in, a grin just as large as the bookshelves formed on her face and her eyes lit up with curiosity and excitement when they landed back on me. She skipped towards me and began to ramble about how amazing the library was and thanking me for showing it to her, I ignored her rambles for the most part as I steered her towards a table in the back of the library in the history section.

"I can't believe I didn't find the library earlier in the week," Hermione said once we settled into seats across from one another and have our books spread out to study. "I read all about it in "Hogwarts: A History," but getting to and from classes has been so stressful I forgot to look!"

"I found it the second day," I replied smugly, getting out a parchment to start on the potion's essay, Hermione started on her charms homework.

We work in comfortable silence for the rest of the day, occasionally commenting on something we found interesting in our research, but not making any other conversation. Once when I had to retrieve another book from the potion's section, Hermione asked if I would bring her back a book from the same section, when I returned with only my book she stared at me in shock, her mouth partly agape.

"How come you didn't get me a book too? I said please," Hermione asked when I took my seat.

"Exactly, Father says that you only say please when it is a question, you have to give an order to get what you want," I informed her.

She is quite for a moment but I can feel her stare on me. "That's not true at all, someone is much more likely to do as you ask, and do it correctly, if you use kindness instead of fear. All leaders that have led through fear have not done nearly as well as leaders who led through kindness, even in books! The White Witch was cruel and many of her followers followed her from fear of death but abandoned her when they saw that Aslan was alive."

"What are you going on about?" I snapped, irritated by her disagreement with mine and my father's beliefs.

"The Narnia series, in one of the books the villain is a witch who rules with fear and her counterpart rules with loyalty and kindness, just like in all the stories, the witch lost. I was just using it to show you that you shouldn't listen to what your dad said since its much more likely that you would get something you want if you're kind."

"And what have you gotten through being kind?" I raised my eyebrow at her. "Not the book you wanted, thats for sure."

She flushed at my comment but held her ground and matched my glare with her own. "I've gotten plenty of things from friends and family and strangers because I was kind to them, I'm sure you only get things because you're rich, not because you scare anyone."

"My father can scare them."

"It sounds like your dad is just a bully," she retorted.

"How dare you say that about my father!"

"Then what makes him not a bully? Is he kind or is he mean?"

"That's besides the point, I won't allow you to-"

"That's exactly the point, actually. You can't get mad at me about what I called your dad if it is the truth." She sat back in her chair after both of us had slowly risen up to get a word in. She leaned back, crossed her arms, and fixed me with a stare that told me she is waiting for me to find something good my father has done.

"There is nothing wrong with bullies, they are the strongest out of everyone," I defended my father, standing fully up to look down at Hermione.

"Bullies always loose in the end though." She got out of her chair and walked towards the potions section, I take the minutes she is away to cool down and think of more retorts to her accusations. Instead of her coming back to continue the argument, she quietly takes her place and begins writing her potions essay.

"My father is too powerful to loose anything," I told her, taking my seat.

"Okay."

"People respect him."

"Sure."

"He has influence in the ministry, he can do whatever he wants and not get in trouble."

"Alright."

I stayed quiet until dinner, watching her work on her essay while I mulled over my thoughts. She wasn't wrong when she said that those that ordered people around and a lot of people feared always lost in literature, but this was the real life, I believed my father could never fall down. Her one worded answers to my claims bothered me though, she was only acting like she was admitting defeat but I just knew she still thought my father was wrong. But for once Hermione was wrong and she just would never accept that.

With my inner conflict settled for the moment, I began gathering my things and announcing I was leaving for dinner. Fully expecting Hermione to pack her things up to join me, I was shocked again that she just lifted her to smile at me and say goodbye before returning to her homework. Her bookworm actions were beginning to grind on my nerves but I knew there was no way to convince her to stop her studies while she was in the middle of them so I returned the goodbye and left the library in favor of the Great Hall.