Hermione Granger was fed up. "He's an egotistical, self-absorbed, stupid fool. How anyone puts up with him is beyond me." She slammed herself into a chair.
"I loathe him."
"Deep breaths Hermione." Harry absently told her. He was deep in a game of wizard's chess with Ron.
"Yeah, breathe in breathe out." Ron responded too.
They had just come back from dinner. The day had been going fine and remotely Slytherin free, right up until dinner. Right up until Draco Malfoy returned to being such a prick.
It was currently seventh year and according to everyone's speculation, Draco Malfoy had been acting very bizarre. There had been no name calling, disrespectfulness, snide remarks or anything of that foul nature since the end of last year.
Basically, he's kept to himself the entire year.
The fleeting period of silence was heaven for Hermione and the
Gryffindors, pretty much for everyone who was personally victimized by Draco.
It's a shame good things never lasted.
Everything took a complete 180 turn on the way back from dinner that evening. Hermione was jogging trying to catch up to Harry and Ron, they had left before her and she wanted to catch up before losing them completely in the congestion.
She tried not to jostle too many people, but while she was busy avoiding one idle group of students she bumped into someone. A very solid someone.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Clumsy m- Oh great." She immediately put her guard up.
"Watch it, you filthy mud blood. You should be crawling on the floor begging for my forgiveness. It's where you belong after all." His dim cronies chuckled idiotically.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "You know Malfoy, we all liked you better when you were incapable of speaking. Does another family member need to go crazy before that happens once again?"
She could see her fellow peers gather around the confrontation.
The personal, and below the belt, jab on the recently publicized mental collapse of Draco's mother clearly enraged him.
He clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes. "Listen you stupid bint," he growled at her, inching closer. "You don't understand a thing about my family. You don't know us and you never will, so don't talk about things you don't fathom and will never begin to fathom." He paused to take a breath and sneer at her to further show her his dislike.
"Sorry excuse for a witch, do family members need to start dying for you to understand your place?" With one last look of hatred, he turned and walked off with an arrogant air of superiority.
He left Hermione shocked and still. Had he just threatened her family?
Anger began to set in.
Of course. What else was she to expect from someone like him? Nothing less, that's for sure.
Later that night Hermione was out and about making her head girl rounds. In actuality, she had finished them about half an hour ago but she was attempting to clear her head and calm down.
They say that counting backwards can help but one would think that after the 11th time it would start to show some type of working sign.
There was nothing effort.
'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…' it wasn't working. She was still seeing red.
She was about to start the futile counting once again when she heard voices. Listening closely she was able to distinguish sniffling.
Apparently someone was crying. Well, they were crying after hours and seeing as how she was head girl she had to do something.
She inched forward until she could hear more without being detected. She heard another voice, a calmer and more masculine one. One that sounded strangely familiar.
There was a sudden outburst. "Dammit Draco it won't be ok. Nothing will be ok because I'm fucked. There's nothing I can do. My parents will find out and they'll expect something that I won't be giving them."
Hermione stood still, stunned. It was Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy and something was seriously wrong.
"Pansy, first you have to calm down. Maybe if you think it through you could find out some solution."
Hermione heard Pansy let out a growl. "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm PREGNANT? I'm pregnant with a baby whose father is not pureblood. Do you really think that my parents, or anyone for that matter, would understand?"
Draco's voice was much quieter. "Maybe if you gave them the benefit of the doubt. You never know Pansy."
Hermione heard more sobs and then comforting sounds. Draco Malfoy was comforting someone and it wasn't his ego. On top of all of that, Pansy was pregnant and the father, since such a fuss was being made, was muggle born. Brilliant.
She heard sobbing now. "I don't see why blood has anything to do with it." Draco's voice cut through the sobs.
Hermione's face scrunched up. Was this really Draco talking like this? Nothing was adding up right now.
"Do not try to push your holier-than-thou beliefs onto me Draco. You think that with your change of heart you'll grab your precious mudblood. Think again. Not many purebloods have changed their way of thinking just for love and it won't do a damn thing to help me with my situation."
Hermione froze. "…grab your precious mudblood." That had to mean that Draco was in love with a muggleborn, but whom? The only muggleborn she knew and was positive that Draco knew…was her. But noooo, that wasn't possible.
It didn't make sense. Just this afternoon he had threatened her and called her names but why would he do that if he was supposedly in love with her.
She could hear more talking but she couldn't listen. She had to get out of there.
3 wks later
Hermione walked into the library in a pensive state. Her mood these past few weeks have been the same since that day. Contemplative, reflective and pensive. All she thought about these days was Draco. It was slowly eating her alive, the nagging curiosity. She now felt the sudden urge to get to know him, the real him.
No facades.
But at the same time, part of her protests at the mere thought of even having a decent and civil conversation with the vermin. That part of her recalls all of the awful moments that Draco Malfoy made her suffer through.
She couldn't get over that with the snap of her fingers. She couldn't just push it aside and pretend it never happened.
But then she remembered that day… the day that she witnessed him acting decent and human. Caring even.
She wanted to explore that possibility and see where it would take her. The problem was Malfoy himself.
He wouldn't just open up to her at her whim. She was the enemy, the Gryffindor mudblood. He despised her 'kind'…or he allegedly did. This whole situation was driving her completely mad.
She purposefully blocked out the mention of love. It was just far too much to take in all at once. Maybe Parkinson was just exaggerating a bit.
Hopefully she had been. She wouldn't know what to do if she found out that
Draco was in love with her.
What she had to do was catch him in one of his moments, when all his walls were removed and he was himself. She sighed. She knew it was hopeless to even attempt to catch him like that.
She doubted he would just walk around and begin complimenting people at random. No, his true, stripped self would be displayed in the most private of places and in solitude.
Deep in thought, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and suddenly found herself falling. Strangely, she never touched the ground and that's when she took notice of the hands around her waist.
"You should mind where you're going. Not all of us like to have contact with dirty things." His familiar voice penetrated her mind.
Before she could get a word in, he had righted her and left. She watched him go, dumbstruck. She wanted to say something but she didn't know what; yet she felt like her chance was slipping straight through her fingers.
"Wait Malfoy!"
He stopped and slowly turned to face her. "What?" he snapped clearly irritated.
She hesitated. What was she supposed to say, that she suddenly felt compelled to figure out his past and why he was the way he was.
She didn't think he would buy that. He'd most likely think that she had some ulterior motive.
"Go waste someone else's time, Granger." He turned and she was once again met with his retreating back. She felt like crawling into a little hole and never reemerging again. She'd just made a complete fool of herself.
He really wouldn't take her seriously now. Not that he would've before but she'd at least had a chance, even if it was miniscule.
She took the nearest table and placed all of her study materials on it.
She would just deluge herself in schoolwork and attempt to take her mind off of Malfoy.
She prayed to Merlin that she'd be able to get something done. She wasn't all too comfortable with this inability to work.
Nevertheless, she set down to business.
Two hours and a visit from Harry and Ron later, she was only halfway done with one essay. Frustrated, she exhaled noisily. She would give it another week and then do something about her distraction.