A Wonderful Fortuitous Love

45. I Like You

"It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more ‘manhood’ to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.”

- Alex Karras

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He did not yell exactly, but it was loud. Loud enough that Hermione winced. Or maybe that was courtesy of her newfound headache, and gently she rubbed the back of her head.

Draco came over and offered his hand. When she did not take it immediately he grabbed it himself.

“Draco,” she said, her other hand coming to clutch his forearm as he hoisted her up clumsily. “Lunch. Ophelia cancelled.”

“Why would she do that?” he asked impatiently, glancing behind him at Tina, still on the floor and glaring in their direction. “Did she reschedule?”

“No.” She breathed in deeply, standing straight now but still holding onto his arm, and she said her next words in one breath, afraid that if she did not say them quick enough she might never say them at all, because for reasons she could not deal with, it was hard to say them. “You’ve got to go after her.”

His eyebrows raised slowly, and then his hand cupped the back of her head, seemingly feeling around for any lumps. She pulled herself out of his grasp.

“I don’t have a concussion!” she snapped heatedly. “But you need to go! Tina told Ophelia about your little night of fun, and you’ve got to fix it before everything’s ruined, if it’s not already.”

Draco’s gaze snapped to Tina, rage surely but slowly seeping into his eyes. “You did what?”

Tina stood on her own then, realising that Draco would not be helping her anytime soon, and actually backed away. “I – I didn’t know!”

“Bullshit!” Hermione cried.

Draco let out an annoyed growl; similar to the one Hermione had done earlier, and moved to the door. He turned at the last second, attention on Tina. “Don’t even think about touching her. You hear me?”

Unexpectedly, Tina beamed. “Aw, sweetie. Are you worried about her hurting me?”

“Not really,” Draco said shortly. “I just don’t want to be responsible when she kicks your arse.” He shot a smirk at Hermione before there was a whirl of colour, a crack, and he was gone.

“He was kidding,” Tina said after a minute.

Hermione eyed her in disbelief. “Did your mother by any chance drop you from a balcony?”

“Excuse you,” she said, offended, “she tipped me out of a pram only twice. Get your facts straight.” 

***

Draco repeatedly pressed the doorbell, and when he received no answer, he took to more force and had just raised his hand to pound on the door when it opened.

“Draco,” Natalie said, smiling and looking just as superficially groomed as usual. He wondered if she ever wore slippers and ugly clothes. Probably not. “To what do I owe this pleasure? Ophelia said you were too busy for lunch.”

“Yeah, well, not anymore,” he answered distractedly. “Can I see her?”

“Of course.” She stepped back to allow Draco through. There were two hallways on either side of them. She gestured to the left. “Ophelia’s in the garden. Just go down that way and at the very end of the hall is a large door. You couldn’t possibly miss it. That’s where you’ll find her.”