Chapter 1

He had watched her over the years. Watched her every step she made while walking through Hogwarts. He had seen her happy, had seen her sad. He didn't know why he was so interested in her. Why he cared if she was happy. Didn't know why it bothered him when she was sad. Over the years, he was most of the times the source of her anger, sometimes even of her sorrow. However, he didn't know why it concerned him now.

He was redoing his seventh year, so did she. The war was over and the Dark Lord defeated. His father was imprisoned and his mother didn't want to leave their house. For him there was nothing to do and he didn't want to see his mother while she was curled up like a ball in her own bubble of misery. Therefore, he thought it would be the best thing to redo his year. To do his N.E. and after leaving school to lead their family business.

While sitting at breakfast in the Great Hall, the second term had begun after the Christmas break, he looked over to her, watched her while she was laughing with the She-Weasle and not sensing that someone was watching her. The boywonder and Weasle didn't came back. Rumours were spreading, that those two were already in their Auror training and didn't need their N.E. because obviously they helped defeating the darkest wizard known.

Draco though about the bushy haired witch at the Gryffindor table. He thought about the things she went through. How she was tortured in his own house, by his own aunt. He thought about the lose they faced during the battle of Hogwarts. Sure, he lost a few people to but no one that really mattered to him. That Crabbe died in the Room of Requirement was his own fault. Still it haunted Draco. The war marked him as well as everyone else. The new students that had arrived didn't know what the sixth and seventh years were through. Nor did the second and third years know because they were all evacuated before the battle begun.

How could the Gryffindor princess look so happy if not even a year ago, they buried their friends and family members? Or was it just an act so no one would see her sad? Draco needed to find out. Though he didn't know why, he simply needed to. Maybe it could help him to ease his guilt. He was guilty for so many things and he needed someone simply to tell him it is all right, no one blames him because every thing he'd done was to protect his family. His guilt was eating him out. At night, he couldn't sleep. Every time when he closes his eyes, he would see Dumbledore who would look at him with his grateful eyes and offer him protection so that he, Draco, wouldn't become a murderer at the age of sixteen. He would see the Room of Hidden Things burning and hear Crabbe screaming in fear. He wakes up in a pool of his own sweat, screaming at the celling. He always put a Silencing Charm around his four posters so that his roommates never hear him.

Snapping back to the present he watched as Granger was about to leave the Great Hall for her first lesson for the day, Ancient Runes. A subject that Draco also attend since their third year. He rose from the table and followed Granger to their first lesson for this day.

He couldn't concentrate during the class. He was thinking about a way to approach Granger so that she won't turn on her heel and walk away. Maybe asking her to help him preparing for their final exams? No, she wouldn't believe that cuz he was second best in their year. Asking her out wouldn't fit as well, there was too much hatred between them, even though, Draco had obviously changed. He thought about a simple apology for the past few years were he tried to make her life a living hell. Therefore, an apology it seems would fit best. Maybe getting down on a friendly basic? Draco didn't has many friends, those few he could count as friends didn't came back for the final year. It left Draco on his own.

Rearranging the words he would say to her, Draco waited outside the classroom for Granger. She stayed behind to talk to Professor Babbling about something. It took her fifteen minutes to come out of the room. She nearly failed to see Draco who was standing at the wall across the classroom.

"Granger", he said. There was no sneer in his voice. She stopped and looked his way expecting his smirk spreading across his face and waited for an insult he might kept back. However, when she looked at him, his expression was blank.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" clearly annoyed that she was not spared with his presence.

"Apologise" was all he said. He stayed at the wall, waiting for her to react. He didn't wait long. Her expression moved from annoyed to shocked to questioned. Clearly overthinking this one word, he said. He waited that her face went as blank as his did but the big question mark stayed firmly printed across her face. Draco sensed that she wouldn't ask she didn't dare to ask, that left Draco with a lot to explain.

"I want to apologise to you for the past years for being a total git to you when we were younger."

Her bag fell to the floor and her eyebrows vanished in her fringe. She gaped, clearly wanting to say something but missing the words.

Draco signed. She wouldn't just accept his apology without further explanations.

"Look", he started, "we both have seen a lot for the past year. A lot that changed you, that changed me. I began to realize that what my father taught me wasn't right. To exist, to live long the wizard community has to mix with non-magical people or half bloods or mud…muggleborns. We are not superior just because we can do magic. I've seen how people were tortured and killed simply because they had a different view of the world. I saw how that big, ugly snake ate Professor Burbarge just because she expressed pro-Muggle views", he stopped looking at her, seeing how her brain began to work out everything he just said. He also hoped that she answered him, but was disappointed. She shut her mouth, her eyes not leaving him, waited that Draco would continue his explanation.

"When the battle begun, when I saw Crabbe dying in the Room of Hidden Things something within me didn't feel right. You saved Goyle and me even though we were the ones who started the fight. I didn't understand it then and I still don't understand it. Why border to save the lives of some school bullies? But I'm thankful that you did.

I saw people dying, fighting for hope and freedom. Something we wouldn't have if Potter hadn't defeated the Dark Lord. I saw people crying over their loss but they kept fighting till the end. When I walked to the Entrance, seeing those dead bodies, I hoped that I wouldn't see my mother within. When I saw my aunt dead in the Great Hall, I didn't feel a thing. I turned and walked away.

When my father was sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban, I felt relieved.

When I decided to come back to Hogwarts, I thought that keeping my head in the books and study would repress my guilty conscience. However, I failed. I failed in so many ways.

And that's why I'm here, standing in front of you and apologising to you."

He waited a moment, but Granger didn't react at all. He thought that leaving her a few days to think about it without pressing an answer would be best, so he left her standing on the sixth floor without looking twice her side.

TBC

My first (na, second) English story. Thought about an OS but decided against.

Hope you enjoyed the first Chap

SnapeEvans