The Golden Wand [Harry Potter/Percy Jackson]

Chapter 38 - Life Was Good

Hermione POV:

After watching Annabeth get interviewed by the author (I'll admit, I shed a small tear over how adorable Percy and Annabeth were), I made my way up to the Golden Suite. Percy and Annabeth had apparated to avoid the crowd of admirers, but I could walk unbothered in these halls when they weren't around. 

"Hey, wait up!" Draco ran up beside me. "Mind if I walk with you?"

I blushed at the request. 

"Be my guest," I said simply, turning left down a corridor. 

"So, um, I'm throwing a small party tonight, at the Golden Suite, if you don't mind. I just thought it'd be fun seeing as all of Goode is living with us at the moment and I haven't seen Neville in a while so it'd be fun to have-"

"-I don't mind," I cut him short of his rambling. "That sounds fun, I can't wait."

"Okay, good!" He looked relieved. "Because I kind of invited half the school..."

We walked in silence for a moment, twisting up the moving staircases and passing photo after photo on the walls. As we waited for a staircase to move our way, I stared at a painting next to us; a photo of a unicorn, dying in a forest... it was a recent painting.

"Do you remember..." Draco began.

"My first detention, I remember," I nodded. "First year, McGonagall had caught Harry and I as we were getting rid of Norbert. Neville had followed us... and you, you had tried to tell on us but got yourself a detention in the process."

He looked embarrassed. "I think we can agree I wasn't the nicest kid back then... We were sent to the Forbidden Forrest and came across - well - this," he motioned to the photo. "A unicorn... dying. And V-Voldemort had killed it. I wonder who painted this."

I stared at him. "You had made fun of Neville for being scared," I hated myself for remembering the bad things about Draco, but it was hard to forget how much I once hated him. "And then when you saw the unicorn you laughed and said it was a stupid creature anyway."

He looked as if he might reach out and hold my hand, but he decided against it. I turned away from the photo and walked up the staircase that had arrived. 

"I returned to the forest the next day, you know?" He said suddenly. His pale skin was red and embarrassed. "I never told anyone this, of course, but I did. Back then I had to put up a front - I had to be a bully so that my Dad would like me. But when I saw the unicorn I was... heartbroken. I stayed up all night long searching for ways to heal and protect a unicorn, and for weeks on end I would spend every night in that forest trying to make sure another one didn't end up dead like the first.

"Crabbe and Goyle thought I was sneaking off to play a prank or something - I never told them what I was really doing. And Hagrid never found out either, although he was always so confused as to why another unicorn hadn't died."

I stopped in my tracks and stared at him.

"You... you really did that? But you were so scared of the forest - and you hated unicorns; you thought them weak and-"

"I lied... to look tough, I suppose," he blushed. "And I was afraid of the forest but, I guess, in the end it wasn't so bad when I knew I was doing something good in there. I started thinking: how bad can the forest be if it's got something as cool as unicorns in there, you know?"

I smiled and stared at him through impressed eyes. He was awkward yet calm; so... beautiful. He stared back at me, and I saw his hand as it started reaching for mine. I cleared my throat.

"Hm, um, we should really get back to the common room," I muttered, and I began to walk quicker up the stairs. I cursed myself for being afraid.