Baton Rouge

- 11 -

Hermione didn't understand why she opened her eyes at that precise moment. Perhaps it was Malfoy's mere presence or the uneasiness that suddenly filled the large room. Anyway, the young witch lolled on the sofa, yawned softly, and then blinked. It took her a moment to realize that she wasn't alone anymore, but then she sat up and gave Malfoy an innocent look.

"Is it late?" she asked while using one hand to try and fix her hair needlessly. When Malfoy didn't answer, she raised her eyebrows and gave him a questioning look. „What's the matter, Malfoy? What made you speechless?" She put the book that had been lying next to her on the coffee table and suddenly realized why Malfoy was standing in front of her so frozen.

The little bag of pills she had left on the table was gone. Instead, only a corner of the plastic was sticking out of Malfoy's closed fist.

"These are mine!" Hermione hissed, jumping off the sofa so quickly that the blanket she was snuggled in slipped off her, bunching around her feet.

"You're on drugs." Malfoy's voice was still low, yet Hermione shuddered. She knew that tone and it definitely didn't bode well.

She also knew instinctively that there was no point in trying to fool him into thinking it was just cough sweets or other medicine. Malfoy had probably checked the contents of the plastic bag with one single glance, and Hermione had to resist the urge to apologize. Instead, she tried the other manner that she had become so accustomed to lately.

"And why do you care?" she asked aggressively and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

„Because I allowed you to live with me! Even paid for it. Just to find you're spaced out on drugs in my fucking apartment," was the indignant answer.

He was actually angry, and Hermione involuntarily took a step back as the skin over Malfoy's knuckles tightened.

"What the hell is your problem, Malfoy?" She furrowed her brows to cover her uncertainty and watched Malfoy's arms tense.

He shook his head in apparent frustration and opened his hand. Hermione followed his gaze and briefly examined the pills.

"You won't take them anymore, do you understand me?" His voice was hard and implacable, and Hermione realized with a shock that she had no choice but to obey this order, after all, she was under the Baton Rouge's contract. And with that, she had to do as Malfoy said.

She gasped at the awareness and looked at him wide-eyed. Involuntarily she stumbled a few steps towards him and didn't know exactly why.

"You can't do that! It's not fair. I... I need them!" She was ashamed for sounding slightly shrill and maybe even hysterical, but Malfoy just looked at her impassively.

„I absolutely can, Granger. I won't tolerate you being high all the time." He pressed his lips together, as if he couldn't believe either that he cared about what she was doing, and Hermione shook her head in disbelief.

She was at a loss. Why the hell did he want her to stop taking her drugs? Why did he even care? She doubted that it was some kind of concern about her health.

"You're addicted and that sucks, Granger. If that's what you need to get through life, then you really should be asking yourself wether something is wrong."

His voice trembled with suppressed anger, but Hermione could only think of how she would fare if he actually took the pills away from her. She had experienced once what happened when she ran out of pills, and she didn't feel the slightest need to repeat the experience. It was almost ironic that she had only thought about it the day before.