Much Ado at Nott's

Day 2

The next morning, Draco, having slept longer than anyone, was up earlier than anyone. Feeling fresh and with his pain under control, he was waiting for her downstairs at breakfast, and the battle began early and lasted into the afternoon and evening. Their subjects included:

Manhood: A conversation about Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table (and a vigorous debate about whether said knights were Muggles) was overtaken by a rant by Hermione on the nature of men themselves. In her view, too easily was manhood melted into empty courtesies, valor into vapid compliments; in the end, men were only turned into flapping tongues.

(Theo, eating an orange, rated some of these opinions suspiciously specific to men she had gone on dates with.)

"He is now as brave as Hercules who only tells a lie and swears it," she said scornfully. Draco stopped listening to her around the time she said tongue and had to shake his head to restore his wits.

Each Other's Flaws: "Every word stabs," said Draco primly, "and if her breath were as terrible as her words, she'd leave a Dementor's trail to the North Pole." Hermione countered that he was a very dull fool to challenge the daughter of dentists on oral hygiene, then called him gifted in devising impossible slanders.

"You please men and you anger them, and then women laugh at you and beat you," she said grandly. Ginny and Parvati spilled their drinks laughing, and Theo and Harry were crying as much as they were laughing. Ron and Lavender, who had just arrived, did not understand what was happening.

"Come, Hermione," Ginny said, "you'll lose Draco's heart that way," and everyone laughed harder, and in their laughter they didn't see his jaw tighten briefly.

Indeed, my lady, I lent it you awhile, and I gave you use for it, a double heart for your single one; but you won it of me with false dice.

"Will anyone give me an errand?" he said, standing up in sudden anger. "Send me to Iceland to retrieve the eyebrow hairs of the elves. Send me to America to bring back dust from a redwood fairy's wing. I will go to India and bring back the three-headed Plimpies that live in the Kaveri River."

And then, the words spilling from his mouth before he could stop them: "Nobody has anywhere for me to go? Anything to spare me three more words with this loathsome little hag?"

The group gasped. He looked around, knowing he'd gone too far. Sick that he'd gone too far. He caught her eye and his insides crumpled.

"For surely," he said weakly, "I cannot endure my Lady Tongue for another moment."

The group was silent, but it only took her a moment to rebound. "A hag is in the eye of the beholder," she said quietly, "and he who sees a hag where stands a witch, perhaps cannot be said to see at all."

"You have put him down, Hermione, you have put him down," said Theo, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Peace."

"May he not put me down on my back, for I'm not interested in mothering his fools," she said soberly. His eyes darkened as she said it.

"I'm sorry," he said clearly, in front of the group, wanting them to hear. "I went too far. You have my apology, Granger. Peace."

He went to bed early, without changing his clothes. He buried his face in his pillow and sobbed himself to sleep.

He woke up in the night in excruciating pain. The potions weren't working; he expected he'd developed a tolerance. Bands of pain wrapped and crossed his body, burning him. He reached for the nightstand and yanked the drawer out, but pulled too hard. Everything he might have used fell onto the floor, including his wand, which he would have used to muffle his pain and his tears.

Memories wrapped around him along with the pain. He looked around in a haze. This was the room where it had all happened. Images and sensations from being with her merged with the physical throb he felt.

He gritted his teeth and felt more tears streaming down his cheeks. This was not expected. He didn't know what to do. He wrapped himself around the pain and endured it with small gasps, second to second, until a small knock echoed on his door. Without needing to ask who it was, he said Please come in. I need you. I need you right away.