A/N: Another random Dramione… Those oneshots just keep coming! Read, and of course, review! :)
Change - Hermione
Seventh year brought about a lot of changes. Everyone was affected by the war, and as a result, few students returned. Hermione and Draco were among those select few.
As Hermione looked around the Great Hall, she could tell that it was going to be a strange year. Because of the small number of students, the teachers gave up the separation based on Houses and allowed them to sit wherever they pleased. This seemed kind of odd to her. She was so used to seeing Malfoy sitting across the hall at the Slytherin table, that she was startled when he asked if she could spare him a seat.
Shaken out of her reverie, she nodded quietly. He mumbled a thanks and slid in next to her and began to eat.
As he toyed with his food, Hermione couldn't help but notice how much he had changed. His eyes, once a shining silver, were now just a dull gray, and there were many dark circles under them. His face had become thin and gaunt, and he looked like a skeleton.
But Hermione also noticed that his personality had changed as well. Although he had come out of the war in terrible physical shape, it seemed that his persona had changed for the better. He no longer called her "Mudblood" or any of those other degrading names. Any time he acknowledged her, it was with a silent nod. And now, since they were Head Boy and Head Girl (old habits die hard in Hogwarts; the professors couldn't get rid of the Heads and prefects), she found that even living with him wasn't all that bad.
In fact, it was rather nice. Always peaceful, never a harsh insult.
As time went on, though, Hermione got bored. She felt a sense of ennui whenever she walked into the Head dorms and was greeted by empty silence. It started to feel too overbearing, too depressing.
So, she made a plan. And the plan was to befriend Malfoy. It wouldn't be that hard… would it?
She put it into action the very next morning. Every day, from then on, she tried to gain his friendship in any way: from the little things, like making small talk every morning while walking down with him to breakfast, to the big things, like being his emotional release whenever the memories became too much for him to handle.
And slowly, but surely, she coaxed him out of his shell. And gradually, she gained his friendship. But eventually, she gained something more.
Little did she realize that her ideas about him were changing too. She didn't notice how much she now looked forward to entering the dorms and seeing him there, waiting for her with a silly grin on his face. She didn't notice how much she knew about him. She didn't notice that she was now calling him Draco.
She didn't even notice the biggest change of all, which anybody could plainly have seen.
She, Hermione Granger, had fallen in love with him, Draco Malfoy.