The Missing Link

The Fight

Hermione couldn’t sleep that night. She had been utterly surprised when they found Draco asleep on one of the lounge chairs in the room near the lakeside. He was clutching Alfred in one hand and her present in the other.

“Go on without me,” she’d told Harry and the rest. They did so without any further comment.

“Draco,” Hermione said gently, prodding his side. She assumed that it was a sensitive part because he woke up with a start at her slightest touch.

“Finally realized it’s about time for bed, eh?” he said in a slurred voice, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“You fell asleep,” she said.

“I noticed,” Draco replied. Hermione rolled her eyes and then slipped off her sandals, taking the seat next to him and putting her feet up on the cushion.

“Why were you waiting for me?” she asked.

“I wanted to ask if you painted these yourself,” he replied, pointing to the shoes. He set Alfred down on the table in between them.

“Yes,” Hermione replied hesitantly. “I figured you’d be rich enough to buy anything you wanted and that everyone would be inclined to buy you something expensive, so I thought I’d make something that no one could purchase anywhere.”

Draco smirked. “Always keen on breaking the rules, eh, Princess?”

Hermione shrugged. “It’s probably come from all those years of hanging out with Ron and Harry and having to save the school breaking fifty rules at a time.”

“Well, thank you,” Draco replied with a slight nod. “I appreciate that you took some of your own time to make these. No one has ever thought to give me something customized except Pansy.”

Hermione face fell a little, but lucky for her the room was dim enough that Draco didn’t notice. “Oh?” she said instead with fake (and hopefully passably sincere) interest.

“Before I left, she gave me a sort of…charm bracelet. I know, it’s cheesy, but it was our way of finding each other.”

This bothered Hermione. Frankly, it made her jealous. She only wished that she and Drake had found each other again.

There were a few moments of silence.

“Time for bed, Princess,” Draco announced, hopping up from his chair. “If Edison or Regina finds us out of bed they’ll be out for our heads faster than Filch.”

Hermione chuckled and then glanced at Alfred. “I thought you’d been joking when you said he was being fitted too.”

“As you can see, I wasn’t.”

And now, here she was, more awake than ever. She kept tossing and turning and trying different positions, but sleep eluded her. She wasn’t sure if it was merely because she was in a different bed, or because of her conversation with Draco.

She couldn’t deny the fact that she was jealous. She was jealous of Pansy’s relationship with Draco. She knew that he would never get him to erase her from his life. To ask him to do so was an unforgivable act of selfishness.

She wanted that with Draco. She wanted them to have a deep connection between them. She wanted something more than a contract on a piece of paper.

Unable to slip into unconsciousness, she finally gave up and decided to tire herself by walking back to the lake. When she got there however, she only became more frustrated because she didn’t feel any desire to yawn, let alone sleep.

She walked over to the bridge and took off her slippers. She sat down on a dry plank and dipped her feet into the cool water. The bridge was situated low enough that the water reached up to her ankles.