Slow Grenade

Chapter Forty-Two

She hadn't spent much time setting up the Room of Requirement to meet Draco that evening. All Hermione wanted was to get some explanations from him before they had to leave the castle for the holidays.

"What were you doing, roaming the corridors the other evening? I know for a fact you didn't actually want to gatecrash Slughorn's party."

"I was working on the task - you know I'm not going to tell you more than that."

"Draco," she pleaded, "you promised to keep me involved."

He clutched her shoulders and, looking into her bright eyes, willed her to understand. "You already know too much, the less you know the better," Draco sighed and pulled her into a tight hug. "And when things go wrong, you won't have to feel the guilt."

Hermione knew he was talking about Katie Bell. "Do you want to – "

"No, I don't."

It took everything she had not to push him further. She wasn't sure if it was doing more harm than good by her avoiding the subject, but she just couldn't look into his gaunt face and ask more questions.

"Harry overheard your conversation with Snape," she told him.

"Fucking Potter, always sticking his nose in where it isn't wanted."

Hermione glowered, but continued, "He said that Snape wants to help you Draco, that he made the Unbreakable Vow with your mother. Why on earth are you not taking advantage of that?"

He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I don't trust him."

"Fine, you don't trust him, but – " she paused. "I know you shut me down on this before, but I still think going to Dumbledore might be our best option."

"No, no, Granger, don't you get it? I can't risk my parents' lives, my mother's life on the whims of a teacher."

"Draco," she swallowed, gazing into the eyes she loved so much, "you're not really planning on actually killing him, are – are you?"

There was a beat of silence. "No, no of course not."

And what could she say to that?

Tucked beneath his arm, she sighed. "I wish we never had to leave this room."

Draco tightened his grip on her. "I know, and the amount of times I've thought about kidnapping you and running away to some remote island is getting silly."

She smiled weakly and tried to relax her permanently tensed muscles. "I've got your Christmas present with me, by the way."

"Gimme," he said, poking her ribs. Hermione knew he was trying, a little too hard, to be playful for her sake, but she allowed it.

She pulled a box from her satchel and handed it to him, lying inside were two simple, silver rings.

"Are you proposing to me, Granger?" Draco smirked, his first for a long time. "Shouldn't you be on one knee?"

"You wish," she huffed. "No, I've Charmed them so we can keep in contact more easily. You can transfigure one band to send a short message to the other, and they will heat up as an alert."

He ran one of his slender fingers over the larger ring. "That's amazing," he murmured.

Hermione slipped her ring on and, tapping her wand to the metal, indicated for Draco to wear his and watch. The band warmed and three letters emerged, "Ily"

"Ily?" he asked in confusion.

She laughed and handed him a small square package. "Here's your second present, a Muggle book on texting abbreviations!"

"I literally have no idea what you're talking about."

"You'll get there," she said, enjoying the way her face stretched when she smiled. "So, where's my present?"

"It's not much," he muttered, handing her a box similar in size to the one she gave him.

Hermione gasped. Draco was wrong. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of jewellery she had ever seen.

Despite knowing that he was staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holiday, Hermione couldn't help but worry about Draco. The only thing that prevented her from having a complete breakdown was the connection they shared through their rings.

This, however, quickly turned into the bane of her life. There were moments where she sorely regretted gifting him the joke Muggle book. It was only on the first day of the January term, however, when she received a series of symbols that looked suspiciously like a penis, that she seriously considered hexing him across the Great Hall.

Dragging herself away from inappropriate ring messages, she tuned back into Harry confiding in her and Ron about his lessons with Dumbledore and the memory he needed to retrieve from Slughorn.

Ron thought that Harry was unlikely to have any trouble with Slughorn at all. "He loves you," he said over breakfast, waving an airy forkful of fried egg. "Won't refuse you anything will? Just hang back after class this afternoon and ask him."

Hermione, however, took a gloomier view. "He must be determined to hide what really happened if Dumbledore couldn't get it out of him," she said in a low voice. "Horcruxes... Horcruxes... I've never even heard of them..."

Harry was disappointed; he had hoped that Hermione might have been able to give him a clue as to what Horcruxes were.

"They must be really advanced Dark magic, or why would Voldemort have wanted to know about them? I think it's going to be difficult to get the information, Harry, you'll have to be very careful about how you approach Slughorn, think out a strategy..."