Secret

Before Hogwarts

"I hate you," Hermione heaved out. She had her arms crossed firmly across her chest which was rising and falling rapidly. For a ten year old girl with wild brown hair and slightly bucked teeth she was rather intimidating.

"Well I don't hate you," Draco responded. He took a deep breath. "We can still be friends Hermione. It'd just have to be in secret. I don't want you to get hurt being around me," he was worried about her getting hurt. He wasn't sure how that could happen, but he had a dreaded feeling in his gut.

"What if I don't want to be friends with someone who pretends to hate my guts?" she growled angrily stomping her foot on the ground.

"You don't understand. Hermy—"

"Don't you dare call me that!" she snapped and picked up a stick to throw at him. It landed and left a rising bruise on Draco's shin. Even with all the pain it caused hitting his bone he ignored it and reached out to her as she tried to run away.

"Please understand. I'll still look out for you. You'll still be my best friend. Just… my parents can't know. If you get into Hogwarts. If you are a witch. You'll be in a lot of danger being my friend."

"What if I'm willing to be in danger?"

"I can't let you do that for me," he said firmly. "It'd be best if we just pretended we didn't know each other at first. Okay?" he asked. He wanted things to be alright between them. He hoped they both were sorted into the same house. Hopefully… Ravenclaw, he would even settle for Hufflepuff if it meant keeping his best friend. Then they wouldn't have to worry about other peoples opinions on their friendship as much.

"Okay," Hermione agreed after a moment of thinking about it. "I mean we already are keeping secrets," she said and they both thought of the lies they told their parents daily.

Draco would say he going out to fly his broom about the grounds of the manor, and once he was out of sight he would fly straight to the back of his property and wait there for Hermione to find her way. They had been doing that for two years.

Hermione and Draco met when Draco's mother decided to show Draco just how awfully muggles lived one day. His mother was trying to teach him to appreciate being a pure blood. To feel more powerful and dominant by seeing how weak humans were without magic, that was supposed to have been his lesson. She left him at school for a half a day. Not even half a day, for a mere hour, to see what muggles his age did. She had hoped it would scare him.

It did nothing of the sort. About a minute into it Hermione Granger introduced herself to him and showed him around the class room. She even saved him from eating a cookie that fell into the sand box and was offered to him as a prank.

That was how Draco found out she was a witch. She got mad at the boy who tried to give Draco the rotten cookie and his fingers swelled up like big fat sausages. Hermione lied then and told the teacher he had been stung by a bee.

"Her-min-o-knee?" Draco remembered having a small problem pronouncing her name.

"Yes?" the girl questioned.

"Let's be best friends forever," he suggested excitedly and Hermione eagerly agreed. To an eight year old mind, this was a lifelong pact. To an eight year old mind that was just staring to learn the ways of the world and to understand his parent's hate; he would have never dreamed that it would interfere with his new found friendship. He was appalled at how his mother treated his new friend when he introduced her. He felt terrible when he heard his mum whisper Mudblood and saw the tears form in his friend's eyes. He followed after her once she ran away from them.

"Hermione, please wait. She didn't mean it," he begged when he found her next to the bench outside the school yard.

"Yes she did," she sobbed hiding her head in her sleeves. "She meant every word. She hates me," she cried. And eight years old and not understanding why his mother hated his new friend he grabbed her hand and pulled her into a hug.

"I don't care what she thinks. We are best friends for life. Meet me beyond that hill in two days and we'll play with some of my toys. Okay?" He was more demanding her than asking her. A trait he would never drop.

And in two days time they played with all the magical toys that he had. He laughed as his new friend excitedly asked how to work toys. He explained everything.

"Wow so you're really a muggle then?" he asked. He knew he wasn't supposed to invite her close to their house. That was why they meet on the corner of his property. Far off away from muggle's but close enough to the school for Hermione to walk.

"What's a muggle?" She asked holding up a golden ball as it fluttered it's wings lazily.

"Well you are," he said grinning taking the Snitch from her and tossing it up into the air. "You're a muggle and I'm a wizard. Well I'm not yet but I will be when I go to Durmstrang," he said proudly puffing out his chest.

"Where's that? What's that?" Hermione asked sitting on her knees staring at him enthralled.

"It's in Norway, or maybe Sweden. The exact location is forbidden to be known by anyone really. It's a magic school for Wizard's and Witches," he said easily as if she was stupid. Hermione pouted.

"Are there any closer to London?" she asked hopefully.

"Well yeah. There's Hogwarts," and he laughed as she sat up excitedly. They talked for hours as they played with the toys.

And they lied. Every day for two years they lied to their parents about playing outside to meet up with each other. Hermione's lies weren't as bad. Simply I'm going out now. I'll be back before dark, and sometimes her parents weren't even home to acknowledge the call. Draco would tell his parent's he was flying and although he was flying across the grounds and out of sight he was doing it to meet a muggle. They never missed a day. Sometimes Draco would even follow Hermione back to her house to play there. Sometimes he would sneak in late at night if they hadn't been able to see each other.

Slowly though Draco became aware of the situation their friendship was thrust into. Slowly he realized that his parents had an irrational hate for all muggles before they even knew them. It scared him to be honest. He was worried that they would find out about his friendship with Hermione. What was even more bizarre was that Hermione was slowly showing more and more magical power by the day.

He began to realize that soon she would be getting her Owl that would say she had been accepted into Hogwarts and suddenly Durmstrang did not seem so appealing anymore. Why would he want to go to a school that doesn't accept muggles? He would never be able to see Hermione again.

He had to be careful though. He had to protect their friendship. He couldn't let anyone find out he was best friends with a muggle.

"Promise we'll keep this a secret?" he asked her as they waited with baited breath for her eleventh birthday.

She stuck her pinky out, a grin flashing across her face. Draco stared at it for a moment dumbly before Hermione laughed loudly and wrapped her pinky around his.

"I pinky promise," she said dejectedly. He knew she was sad that she couldn't act like she normally did around him but that was for the best. He really hoped he was sorted into the same house as her.

"I'm warning you. I'm going to act like I don't know you. My family doesn't like muggles. I'm going to be mean to you at first," he wanted to save their friendship but at the same time he wasn't going to give everything up for it.

She nodded.

"You do realize that I'm going to lose respect for you once this happens," she said solemnly.

"Can you still be friends with someone you don't have respect for?" he whispered. He wasn't sure if he wanted the answer to that. He really didn't want to lose her, but he didn't want to start out school on the wrong foot. He had to be good, and act like his parent's expected him too. Hermione was a smart girl, and that was part of the reason they got along so well. She would come to understand in time. Hell, she even understood now.

"I'll try," she said warmly and she playfully punched him in the arm. "We'll find out if I get into the school tomorrow won't we?" she asked excitedly. She was bouncing up and down on her heels and kept her eyes peeled on the sky as often as she could as if she was expecting the owl to swoop down any minute.

A/N: Name is subject to change. Probably to 'This Game We Play' or 'Secret Games'. What do you guys think? I hope this chapter was enjoyed. :D. Let me know how I'm doing with this one.

Thanks to TruthHurtsLikeHell for being the beta to this story. I really am thankful for it. She fixed it up all up nicely ;).