Disclaimer - I do not own any of the characters, locations etc that have been mentioned in this story.
A/N - I have published and deleted this story too many times to count, it was originally called 'Cruor Statua' but I slightly tweaked the main plot, so the title became irrelevant. I have almost finished now, it's only 10 or so chapters long and almost 20,000 words. While I'm a fan of reading long fics, I'm not a fan of writing them! But I promise this will be all published and finished very soon, especially if I find a beta (see below!) Thanks for reading, read and review?!
She always thought that falling in love would be simple; she would find her Prince Charming, get over a few obstacles such as evil witches and poisonous apples, marry them and live in a palace. Just like in the Muggle story books. But of course, when one decides to date the Pureblood Slytherin Prince, Draco Malfoy, then things won't always be so straightforward. But hadn't Cinderella and Prince Charming come from different backgrounds? In the Wizarding World, Cinderella would be the lowly Muggle born and Prince Charming would be the Pureblood. It worked out between them didn't it? Hermione knew it wasn't so simple. This was real life, not some Muggle fantasy where there was always a happy ending. However, it was nice to dream and let your imagination run riot in the most difficult of times.
Looking out of the window through the net curtains, Hermione watched the activity outside and noticed people were strolling around as if they didn't have a care in the world. It was as if Voldemort didn't exist and as if he wasn't making a plan of mass destruction. But then again, she knew how they felt. She enjoyed having something else to focus on other than trying to bring the powerful wizard down. Being best friends with the 'Chosen One' was tiring. Since First Year she had pored over books on how to help him, she had conjured spells against figures of authority and spent too much time with her two best friends. She partly blamed them for her lack of female companions. She knew people liked her once they got past her ability to know every answer, and she liked them, but could she call them friends? She wasn't sure. But of course, there was no such thing as 'too much time' with Harry and Ron and although they annoyed her with their impudence some of the time, the rest of the time was spent having fun with them and she couldn't ask for better or more loyal friends. Each time Harry had defeated Voldemort, she and Ron had been by his side and both played key roles. The Daily Prophet lapped up that fact and didn't hesitate in coming up with the cheesy name for them that was the 'Golden Trio'.
Hermione sighed into her now lukewarm coffee and set it down. Her eyes roamed the café she was sitting in, and sighing again, she wondered why she had been asked to come here of all places. Hogsmeade was full of better restaurants and pubs and meeting places. It was the gaudy and tacky establishment of Madam Puddifoot's. Cheap Valentines decorations hung down from the ceiling and lacy napkins dotted around the tables. It was bustling, and she supposed if things weren't so complicated right now, she might enjoy herself and maybe even …"Sorry I'm late Granger." Hermione looked up at the interruption and gazed at the grinning face of the boy she had come to care for. His blond hair was sleek and his fringe was flopping in his eyes. He watched her for a second and then he pulled out a chair and sat opposite her.
"Don't worry, I love it here, I like to spend as much time here as possible" she said smoothly with a dangerous edge to her voice. Truthfully, she wasn't annoyed at all, but they had the same sense of humour and she knew that he'd understand her sarcasm.
Draco snickered then leaned in a little closer and his cool grey eyes met her amused chocolate-brown ones. He smirked slightly then dropped his voice and turned serious, "I'm sorry we had to meet here, it's a horrific place I know." He glanced round in disgust then turned back to Hermione, "But I doubt that there will be any death eaters hanging around here, so I figured that it would be the safest place to go". Hermione's eyes twinkled with glee and she chuckled. She slipped her hands on to the table and his hands met with hers in the middle of the table and she grasped on to his long white fingers. "Well we might as well look the part then…" she replied, inclining her head and looking at him beneath her eyelashes. Draco stiffened and glanced round. He knew that most people were aware that he and Hermione were together by now, but he was still wary. His mother and father didn't know and while he didn't expect to see them in such a place, he knew he had to check. Once he realised they were safe, he relaxed and reached out and twirled one of Hermione's curls round his little finger. "Stop distracting me…" he whispered and watched as Hermione giggled and withdrew her hand and rested her chin on her palm suddenly looking like she was here to do business. "So, what's happening then? I went to the library and there's nothing on any way to make Muggle borns be able to-", and it was then that Draco got lost in that passionate fire in her eyes.
He thought back to how this unlikely relationship had started. He couldn't imagine how he had ever hated this girl. He remembered lying in bed at Hogwarts staring up at the ceiling and thinking of new ways to infuriate the filthy Mudblood. He still felt sick to his stomach to think he had ever hurt her with the stupid insults he had thrown at her over the years and although she had forgiven him, he would never forgive himself. Ever since them both being made Head Boy and Head Girl, they had grudgingly accepted each other, but then realised that once they looked past the constant arguments and their different blood… Draco cursed himself silently. Blood. Stupid blood; it all looks the same anyway. When he had seen the blood trickle from Hermione's wound during one of his Aunt's famous torture sessions, he saw it was red. It was just like his. After he had seen that, he had gone to his bathroom, slit open his palm and just watched the rivulets of blood drip down and mix in with the salty tears falling from his eyes. Stupid. He had been so stupid and foolish. He hadn't even bothered to magically heal the cut, he deserved that ugly scar.
Once they had got past the prejudices, they were remarkably similar. They were equally intellectual and both had witty comebacks always at the ready during their childish arguments. It started when they kissed for the first time. As soon as those forbidden lips met his, he knew that this was it. He groaned then; since when had he become such a sap?
"Draco?" Hermione was looking at him with a questioning look in her eyes. Had he been ignoring her? He wasn't usually so distracted. He snapped back to reality. "Yes?"
Hermione looked at him curiously, "You weren't listening were you? I was just saying how the only way your parents will accept me is if I was pureblood, and there's no chance of that happening and I would be ready to do whatever it takes, but I can't change my blood ". She huffed out a breath and frowned into the distance.
"Now now Granger, that's where I believe you're wrong" he drawled, casually leaning back in his chair. "While I see no need for my parents to accept you -" He raised a hand as he saw Hermione open her mouth to protest, "I understand that this is important to you. Though I doubt Tweedledee and Tweedledum will be happy about it."
Hermione raised her eyebrows and he saw a worried glint flash across her eyes. Hermione had kept on at him for weeks and he knew she wouldn't stop until something was done to make her feel approved. He inwardly rolled his eyes; the girl always wanted to be approved of, even by the worst people.
She brought him out of his thoughts and exclaimed, "Let's do it." With that, she pushed her chair back and walked round to him. She brushed her lips against his forehead and in a breath she said, "I have to go now. Ginny wants to meet up at the Three Broomsticks and I believe her exact words were 'Don't you dare stand me up for that blond-haired ferret'. But will you tell me the details of the blood changing process when we next meet? I want to make sure we know exactly what we're doing." Draco looked up at her, startled that she was leaving so soon. He was even more surprised that she was so willing to do something she knew nothing about; this was very un-Hermione. "Don't you want to even know what the potion is? What it involves?" Draco asked. Seeing her face flicker with thought, he added, "Of course if you really want to wait until we next meet then that's fine." He smiled reassuringly. She hovered by the table for a second looking at him and biting her lower lip, and then sped out of the café, with only the tinkle of the door marking her hurried exit.
Draco put his head in his hands and growled. He couldn't tell if she was actually in a rush or annoyed with him. This was what she wanted wasn't it?
However, no matter how much he said he was okay with it, he was not happy with this decision. He didn't want Hermione to change for him. He didn't understand why she wanted to do this so much. His family was Dark, part of Voldemort's plans and they weren't good for her. He wasn't good for her; she was too pure. She was the Gryffindor golden girl, the swot, the nerd, the… basically everything that he wasn't. He briefly wondered if she was only with him to try to persuade him to go to the 'Light side'. Maybe she thought if she started with the youngest Malfoy member, Draco would then persuade his own family to defect and then everyone else on the Dark side. Ha! He shook his head of these silly thoughts. Even if that were true, she wouldn't need to be in a relationship with him to do that. She could simply befriend him.
Draco was just grateful to whoever created the potion, for it was only temporary and didn't change your blood as such, it just masked it. Saying that though, it was only temporary if you could find the other potion to reverse it; if not, then you're stuck. Looking around the café, he noticed he was getting a few odd stares as he was sitting on his own. Scowling at them, he marched out and Apparated directly from Hogsmeade to just outside the Malfoy Manor boundaries and slowly walked back to his childhood home, also known as hell on earth.
Beta request - I really really really would like a beta reader, someone who could look over any grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, or punctuation mistakes. Eventually, they will also need to help me with the ending, because I'm almost finished, I'm just not sure how to end it. It would be great to have a beta who's confident in writing descriptions too just in case there's too much dialogue in a chapter, but if not then I just need what I stated above :) PM me if you're interested!