Little Secrets

Chapter 10

When his mother's owl arrived carrying a large package of books, Draco couldn't help but smile to himself. It was breakfast on Monday and while Hermione had been hoping to receive the books Sunday evening, he knew it wouldn't have been possible. She whined the whole day about losing valuable research time, but he was glad she had the day to rest and recover from the horror Amycus had put her through. Just the thought of the man had Draco scowling at the table.

"What's got grindylows in your knickers?" Blaise asked, elbowing him. Draco rolled his eyes, setting the package of books on the floor under him and grabbing a piece of toast.

"None of your business," he replied. Blaise snorted but didn't continue to bother him about it. Instead, he changed the subject to the potions assignment.

Draco tried to tune out the conversation, knowing it would only make him more irritated. Alecto had taken to giving Slytherin students less homework than the others. It shouldn't have been as surprising as it was, but Draco would have preferred she assign the same things to everyone. He only knew the assignments were so different because Hermione had been grumbling about the length of her essay one night after Draco had finished the short reading and response he'd been assigned. They'd spent the rest of the night comparing homework in all other classes, happy to find out Alecto was the only one with such obvious favouritism. Luckily for Draco, he had an easy excuse to leave in hopes of getting the package of books up to the dorm before classes started, knowing very well Hermione would be skipping lunch to do her personal research.

Unsurprisingly to Draco, the usual evening routine he and Hermione had set up the past two weeks changed now that she had new books. He would return from dinner to see her reading at lightning speed on the couch. Each night, she had a new book and he wondered just how late she would stay up before going to bed. Whenever he asked, she seemed to have already finished her homework and left it lying on the table just in case he wanted to compare. No matter how quickly he rushed from dinner to the dorm, she was already done and reading the books his mother sent him.

On Wednesday he realised it meant she was skipping meals and grabbed a plate of food for her on his way from dinner. She barely stopped reading long enough to thank him and take the plate. When he went to bed, she was still reading. After making sure she didn't need anything from him for the rest of the night, he disappeared into his room and found himself falling asleep minutes later.

"Draco!"

He was woken up by a loud voice somewhere to his right. His eyes flew open and he subconsciously called his wand to his wand, flailing to find what had yelled his name. When his eyes landed on Hermione who was perched on the edge of his bed, talking a thousand kilometers an hour, he had to blink to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"—think I've figured it out!" she was saying.

Her hair was in a ridiculously distracting messy bun and her loose t-shirt was falling off one of her shoulders, drawing Draco's thoughts an entirely different direction. She was still talking excitedly—something about the DA again and protecting the younger students from the Carrows—and Draco knew he really should be listening, but the light from downstairs was shining through his door and onto her so perfectly, lighting her up like a goddess, and he couldn't think straight.

"You're beautiful," he blurted out.

She immediately stopped talking, looking at him in surprise while he wondered if he'd really just said that. Not that it wasn't true; he just hadn't intended to blurt it out like that, especially not when she was clearly in the middle of talking about something else.

"Were you even listening to me?" she asked, a teasing smile on her face.

"To be fair," Draco argued, dragging a hand down his face for emphasis, "You did just wake me up. I haven't reached a fully conscious state of mind."