Pride and Pretenses. (Dramione)

Chapter 12

"Hermione, I'd like you to meet my brother Draco," Sophie's polite introduction broke the tense silence. Her voice also broke Draco out of his shock.
"I think you should get ready for bed now," Draco said tightly looking down at Sophie.
"But –"
"Sophia Isabella, I'd like for you to go to your room and get ready for bed now please," Draco said sternly.
"Okay," said Sophie reluctantly. "Goodnight Hermione! I hope you come visit me again."
Hermione was so engrossed with their exchange she was startled when she was addressed.
"Goodnight Sophie," Hermione answered slowly still looking at Draco's furious face. Frankly, she was a bit scared of the confrontation that would surely happen once Sophie was out of the room.
Once the little girl entered her room, Draco locked her door and cast a silencing spell on the room.
"I can't believe you'd do that! What if she needs help or something," Hermione admonished, trying to delay the inevitable.
"Not that it's any of your business but it's a one-way silencing charm. We can hear her but she can't hear us," Draco bit back. "Speaking of things that are none of your business, what are you doing here?"
"Me?! What are you doing here?! Keeping a girl locked up! I didn't even know you had a sister! Does Dumbledore know about this?" Hermione asked, talking faster, her voice getting higher with agitation.
"Of course he knows!" Draco was yelling now. "You think I can hide a little girl in this castle without him knowing?!"
"You know what," He added in an exasperated tone. "Screw this. How much for your silence?"
"What?" Hermione asked, shocked.
"How much do I have to give you to make sure you don't go running to Scarhead?"
"I wasn't – I'm not –" sputtered Hermione indignantly.
"Well, in that case, the door is that way," Draco said pointing to the exit.
"I'm not leaving until I get some answers," Hermione declared stubbornly.
"Like I said, this is none of your business so you don't deserve any answers," Draco replied.
"Fine, I'll just have to ask Sophie when I come back then."
Hermione suddenly found herself pushed against the wall, with Draco's wand pointed at her throat.
"You will not come back here, do you hear me?" Draco said in a low voice.
"Why not?" Hermione glared back. "I'm not scared of you. Sophie invited me to come back."
"I do not want my sister associating with mudbloods who aren't even good enough for pathetic Weasels."
Slap!
Draco's face stung as Hermione broke free from his grip and ran out the door.
oOoOoOoOo
Over the next couple of days, Hermione tried her best to ignore Malfoy. To her, it was as if he simply didn't exist. Surprisingly, he made this easy by ignoring her as much as she did him. His last words to her cut her deeply – mostly because she knew they were true. Then again, it was just Malfoy. He always knew the right words to say to bring her down. She should be used to that by now, used to dismissing anything that came out of his mouth, true or not. After all, it was just Malfoy. Other people would have had to dig deep in order to affect Hermione with their words. Even when they did find something, they would've thought of the consequences, would've planned out their offense, would've made sure they really were mad at her and wanted to hurt her before hurling whatever they have out at Hermione. If other people had said that to her, Hermione would've taken it to heart. That person would've had to have been really malicious against her. Malfoy, on the other hand, just had a talent for finding the weakest spot in people and going after it. Whether or not he was truly malicious didn't matter, it just came naturally to him. So as much as it stung, Hermione refused to think about it anymore.
She considered going back to the room to visit Sophie. Malfoy or not, she felt sorry for the little girl who was confined to her little suite without anyone to play with. Not to mention that her only visitor happened to be a nasty brother. Also, Hermione was extremely curious to know more about Sophie's story. How did Malfoy have a sister no one knew about? Why was she at Hogwarts? Had she been here the whole time or just this year? Why was Dumbledore allowing this? So many questions kept running through Hermione's mind, making her head spin and keeping her awake at night. This time, however, her curiosity did not get the better of her. She had wanted to go to that room so many times but Malfoy's face always stopped her. She would never tell him, but for an instantaneous moment when he first saw her in the room she saw something other than cold, blankness in his eyes. She saw panic. After a few moments, Malfoy put his walls back up so fast, she almost thought she didn't see anything. And when he pinned her against the wall, Hermione saw it again. Underneath the cold, hard fury, she saw a brief glimpse of desperation. Whatever was happening with his sister seemed to be extremely serious. Surprisingly, Malfoy seemed to care about his sister and Sophie didn't seem to be mistreated so Hermione was content to leave them alone. After all, she had enough drama in her life. She certainly did not want to be dragged into Malfoy's.
Draco, on his part, found it difficult to ignore Hermione. He wanted to confront her and make sure she never told anyone anything. But he knew that angering her might push her into telling someone. So he stopped any contact with her. He didn't even bother throwing petty insults her way just in case it provoked her to break her silence.
He was actually surprised she hadn't told anyone yet. He had expected her to go running to Potter who would then ruin everything by poking his head into Draco's business, all while letting everyone else know what was going on. Subtlety was never one of Potter's strong suits.
To say that he tensely watched Hermione like a hawk over the first couple of days after the incident would be an understatement. He was coiled so tightly he was surprised he didn't snap. Granger's every movement made him catch his breath and hold it, waiting for her to reveal everything she found out. But she never did. His heart had stopped the moment he opened Sophie's door and saw someone on the couch. Panic seized him. He thought it was over. His first thought was of Sophie and how he had failed her. When the figure turned around to reveal Granger, an inexplicable sense of relief went through him even though the shock had him reeling. The relief was short lived. Just because Granger was a noble Gryffindor didn't mean that she couldn't reveal his secret and ruin everything even with the best of intentions. He wouldn't go so far as to feel guilty for what he said but even he knew he shouldn't have said it. It's just that Granger always managed to get under his skin and rile him up and the desperate situation didn't help matters much. He thought his sister was in danger for Merlin's sake! He had to protect Sophie at all costs and Granger wouldn't have left them alone. He had to shut her up and it just came out. Then she had the nerve to slap him! What was with that girl and hitting his face?
After she left, Draco knew he was done for. He knew that she was running to Potter screaming bloody murder as he stood there watching the door. He didn't sleep a wink the whole night and when nothing happened the following morning, he didn't quite believe that she hadn't told anyone and so he had kept a close watch on her for any sign that she did. When, after a few days, it seemed like she decided to keep her mouth shut and leave them alone, Draco started to finally relax. He would've been happy to pretend the whole thing never happened if it wasn't for his annoying little sister.
oOoOoOoOo
"Granger, wait!"
It was a cold Saturday morning and Hermione was on her way to the library. Most of the students were enjoying another Hogsmeade weekend. Harry and Ginny had invited her to come with them but she knew they wanted to go out on a date and have some time alone so she declined saying she needed to study. She was on her way to the library when she thought she heard Malfoy's voice. Since nothing good ever came out of conversations with Malfoy, she kept walking. Unfortunately for her, Malfoy was considerably taller than her and much faster and in shape so he had no problems catching up to her.
"I know you heard me Granger. Don't make me pull you into a classroom," Draco stood in front of Hermione blocking her way.
"What do you want Malfoy?" Hermione huffed.
"I need to talk to you," Draco said tightly. "In private," he added when Hermione arched her eyebrow.
Against her better judgment, Hermione followed Draco into a deserted classroom. After locking the door and casting numerous silencing spells on the room Draco finally faced her.
"This better be good Malfoy," Hermione said.
"Are you worried your precious books are getting lonely without you?" Draco sneered.
Damn it Draco! Can't you stop the word vomit for once?
"I'm not going to sit here and listen to this," Hermione declared walking over to the door.
"No, please stop," Draco called out as she reached the door.
Hermione stopped not so much because he said so, but because he said please. She turned around and raised her eyebrows questioningly at Draco.
Draco sighed and perched himself on a desk. "She won't stop," Draco started.
"Sophie?" Hermione asked moving back into the room.
"No, McGonagall. Of course, Sophie!" Draco confirmed. He continued before Hermione was able to explode indignantly. "She won't stop asking for you. I've tried everything! I bought her toys, chocolates, anything to distract her but it's always 'When's Hermione coming back?' 'I want to play with Hermione.' 'Can't you invite her over?'" Draco looked up at Hermione. "Lately it's escalated to temper tantrums and crying fits. She won't stop unless you come visit her!"
"What do you want me to do about it?" Hermione asked enjoying Draco's obvious distress. "You said I wasn't good enough to visit your sister. You wouldn't want your sister associating with Mudbloods would you?" It was Hermione's turn to sneer.
"I take that back okay? It just came out. You scared the shit out of me when I saw you there," Draco countered. "It seems you're the only one who can make her happy. You wouldn't want to disappoint a little girl do you?"
"A for effort Malfoy but your Slytherin tactics aren't going to work on me. It would take more than just concern for Sophie to get me to agree to what you want."
Draco could almost see the wheels turning in her head and honestly, he was scared. "Name your price," he sighed.
"It's not much. I want an apology," Hermione told Draco.
Draco sighed again. "I'm sorry okay? Like I said, I didn't mean it and it just came out. There. Can we go see Sophie now?" He made his way to the door.
"Not so fast." Draco could almost hear the faint smile that was on Hermione's face. "I also want to hear the whole story of how Sophie came to be here," Hermione continued once Draco had turned around to face her.
"Well you see Granger, when a man and woman love each other so much," Draco began earnestly.
"Malfoy," Hermione said warningly.
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you the whole story. But first we see Sophie."