literature

Charmer

Deviation Actions

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Literature Text

The cloaked figure heaved a sigh that voiced his weariness. It was hard to go about at night with nothing more than moonlight to guide one. Even harder when one was looking for something. Something very important. As he stopped momentarily to renew the warming spell on his garments, the man looked up to the night sky, looking at the stars as they winked at him and at the nearly full moon with it’s eerie light. His hood fell back a little to reveal his face, a pale face that mirrored the moon’s. Impassive, distant. He shook his head and continued on.

Mostrare,” he murmured as the wind whipped the hood completely off of his head. The man shivered and hurriedly pulled the hood back over his moonlit hair. A house faded into being before him, a cheery looking little cottage that made him wish he wasn’t outside in the cold.

With visible purpose, he fought his way through the snow drifts to the house and rapped determinedly at the door, wanting to be out of the cold. He’d spent seven years of his life living in a cold dungeon, he wasn’t about to spend Christmas Eve in the aftereffects of the worst blizzard known to Wizard-kind.

“Hello?” the door opened a bare crack, not even wide enough to get a full look at the occupant’s pupil.

“Will you let me in already? It’s freezing out here,” the man grumbled as he repressed a shiver that fought tooth and nail to be seen.

The door opened wide enough for him to get inside and then was slammed shut against the howling winter wind. The man sighed with relief as he rushed forward to the open hearth that sported a blazing fire.

“What brings you here, Draco?” the woman who’d opened the door for him said as she finished relocking the door. The revealing spell was to alert her to begin unlocking, but only unlocking, she never opened the door more than a person’s width.

“Oh come now, don’t act like you don’t know that it’s nearly Christmas! Here, open it, there’s more from the others that are for tomorrow, but I want you to open that now,” Draco said to her as he began to shed layers from himself. He reached in his pocket and un-shrunk his gift and handed it to her.

“Do they know that you came to see me?” she asked as she fiddled nervously with the bright red bow on the box. Draco turned from hanging up his last sweater to face her.

“Hermione, no, they don’t. They think that I get a house elf sworn to secrecy to do it,” he said as he took her hands and sat her down on the little chair in front of the fire and knelt in front of her.

“So they also think that I’ve obliviated the location from your mind, don’t they?” he nodded as he stroked her hands soothingly.

Hermione nodded and detached her hands from his and set about opening the present he’d gotten her. Draco took the time to examine her, and her surroundings more closely.

It was the first time in nearly a year that he’d come inside, and almost five months since he’d seen her last.

The little cottage was deceiving on the outside, the inside was actually quite spacious. Or would be if Hermione would stop buying books to fill the place, he thought to himself. The paint on the walls was a soothing blue, the floor was a cherry hardwood that was polished to the max. Draco sometimes wondered if one could do their makeup while looking down at themselves from it. It was theory he did not want to test out, as he would end up thoroughly hexed for his troubles. The windows looked out onto the village of Little Hangleton, covered in snow higher than some of the fences.

Draco paused in his perusal of the place as he heard Hermione growl in frustration. She was only on the fifth layer of wrapping on the third box.

“Patience, patience is key, if you charm it all off, the gift goes straight back in my pocket,” he said in a chiding tone. He got a glare for his trouble.

The layout of the little house was simple, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a small den. The kitchen, where he could smell something nice and hot cooking, was set aside in one corner of the room, partially excluded from the den by a large, high counter.

“Seven boxes with seven layers of wrapping paper?” she asked as she finally found the last box. Draco brought out his wand and enlarged it to it’s proper size, the size of the first original box, a little bigger than a normal paperback novel.

“I wanted to make it random, so you would tear into that one as well, but that seemed a bit cruel,” he commented as he set his chin on her knee to watch her open the box. It always amazed him how meticulous she was, first weighing the box, shaking it hard, then gently, turning it over to listen for clicks and ticks, tapping the sides, all manner of things before finally cutting the tape and opening it. His eyes glimmered as she finally finished her inspection.

“I know it’s a book, Draco,’ she said as she noted his expression, and Draco grinned. The grin increased as with the same haughty attitude she opened the box finally and looked at the book that he’d gotten her.

Prejudices and Prides: A Testimony to the Wizarding World’s Enduring Cruelty, Hermione Ophelia Granger,” she breathed as she drew the book out of the little box. Due to the harsh views she’d put down in those pages, she had never found a publisher during her time at Hogwarts, and not even after Hogwarts. And here it was, seven years later, in print.

“How…how did you g…wh…” she was completely incoherent as she reverently ran her fingers over the pressed cover of the hardbound book. Draco grinned up at her and lifted his head from her knee and tugged the book out of her hands.

“I published it,” he said as he turned the book on it’s side where the title read again, and Hermione’s full name, and at the base of the book lay an ornate DMP entwining with a lion reclining over the tops of the letters.

“DMP?”

“Draco Malfoy Printing,” he said proudly.

“How did you get past your father?” she said, astounded. Draco shrugged as he stood up and went to the little kitchen to inspect her workings.

“Told him to mind his own bloody business, and that as you had ‘disappeared,’ there was no reason to fret about you coming around and ‘soiling’ the place up, in the end,” he paused as he fished a noodle out of the pot, testing if it were done, “he gave the go ahead, and then, poor soul, the man died of a heart attack when he saw the title in Flourish and Blott’s.”

“How’s it selling?” Hermione asked uncertainly. Voldemort was dead, but his supporters, at least those who’d escaped Azkaban, were still mostly in high positions in the Ministry.

“Bloody well, Potter’s made it required reading for all History of Magic students, and Binns, last I heard, has grumblers read it again and write him something like eight feet of parchment on why it is so vital to our understanding of our world,” Draco said with an evil smile.

Hermione’s jaw dropped. Draco beamed. He was glad that someone had finally jumpstarted Binns into action, made him angry about something at least.

“You’re not going to make me sleep in that little chair are you?” he asked, sounding hurt as he put a look on his face to make her think he’d misinterpreted her reaction.

“No! You great bloody git!” she said as she leapt out of her chair and threw her arms around him in a tight hug. Draco smirked and hugged her back.

“So that means I get to sleep with you?” he said with pretend innocence.

“No!” she said as she struggled to get away from him as he tickled her.

To Be Continued…
Okay, I know I KNOW I KNOW!!!!!!!

I said I was going to do my Sessh/Rin random thing next, but this popped into my brain and pooped. Sorry. Yeah. If you don't know what that words means...it's French...

So, I would be thinking, and then Inu goes and talks to...Wow...that would be a great D/Hr thing...okay, now Draco goes and talks to...GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH Stoppit! We're doing Inuyasha fanfic *I'm talking to my brain here* NOT HARRY POTTTTTEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR :faint: :slow: Well, okay, bye then, so, where were we? Oh yes...Draco goes and

You see what I mean?

Sorry guys, like I've said in comments to peoples, members of my family, me probably included, are mildly schizo, and not on meds.

Chapter Guide

Chapter One (this page)

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen
© 2006 - 2024 nmmi-nut
Comments23
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hey:p like this story!
Is it completed?

:)