Alone Together
Chapter One: Torture For Your Teeth
The eight year old wizard stared fearfully as the sleek, black town car pulled away stranding him at the ghastly Muggle school, where he would have to wear a ghastly Muggle uniform and be with ghastly Muggle kids. He smiled his way helplessly through the classes that he had been sentenced to so that he learned to behave "Or Else", having no desire to learn what his father's had meant by "Or Else"- the man managed to make sneezing too loudly look like a crime punishable by death- the trembling wizard had chosen to be given a Crash course in Muggle Appreciation. He subconsciously noticed a young girl was a combination of petite, smart, and friendless.
However this thought was put on hold for his self-inflicted mental torture, 'I'm so stupid, "if you want something to do go and pick those up." House Elves and clothes don't mix you sorry excuse for a Pure Blood. What will Zambini think…or Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Avry? "Sorry mate," they'll say, "you got yourself into this mess…see you once you're out of Quarantine!" what about Bullstrode…Parkinson… "Hey Draco, heard your parent's in rolled you in Muggle school…are you a Squib or are they finally sending you back to the Muggles that dropped you on their doorstep?" then they'd walk away, the girl of your dreams and her best friend would walk away from you laughing, IDOT!.'
He stopped tormenting himself at the sight of three girls, all built like the great bulk that was Millicent Bullstrode, as they approached the petite girl he had noticed early, and he thought he saw why. Was he going loopy or did her books put themselves away just then? "How'd you do that Freak?" the one that appeared to be the leader asked, dumping the girl's books on the floor. (Thank Merlin wasn't going loopy after all!) The poor girl merely stuttered in response. "Come along girls, she's just being her Freaky self." The larger girl spat at the petite girl before her. As they walked away the girl hunched down and began to pick her books back up. When she did so, she seemed smaller than before she had hunched her narrow shoulders as if looking smaller would make her invisible to any more potential predators.
Draco took this as his cue to enter and approached the tear-eyed and embarrassed girl as she scrambled, quite rapidly, to pick her belongings off the ground. He knelt before her, grabbing one of her books and extending it to her. "They have no right to treat you like that." He stated. She merely stared at him in astonishment as she pried the book from his hand, so he tried again. "I'm Draco Malfoy; I saw the way those girls-well I suppose you could call them that, though they looked a bit like a cross between cows and vultures if you asked me-so anyways, what was I saying? Oh yes, I saw the way the Vulture-Cows treated you, they have no right to be that cruel to you." At that the girl laughed, smiling, as she wiped the steady stream of tears from her eyes.
"Thank you for your input- Draco was it?-but you should take it up with them, not me. They're the ones who need to be told that. If they would just let me alone I'd be much happier." She stated as she stood up and began to walk away. Unfortunately for her Draco had fast reflexes, even for an eight year old. He caught her wrist and turned her to face him. "If you're looking for someone to bully Eddie Hopkins is available for the next five minutes, though if you'd rather wait and bully me I'm free my first year of college, until then I'm all booked." And with that the girl, yet again, attempted to storm. But if Draco had any of the Malfoy family traits, it was their determination to succeed.
"Why would I want to bully anyone, let alone, you?" Draco asked. This got the girl thinking, but it didn't take long for her to come back with her response.
"Why wouldn't you?"
"Because I saw you being bullied, I saw that you had no friends, and to be quite truthful neither do I." he stated lamely.
"You're ruining your chances at popularity by talking to me, Draco." She warned.
"Do I look like I care—err; I never caught your name." Draco looked embarrassed as he stared at the floor, so much for that great lack of emotion Malfoys pride themselves on. He hoped to Merlin that she hadn't seen him blush.
"It's Hermione, Hermione Granger."
They walked to the lunch room together. Smiling, they sat at the rickety old table in the far corner of the room. Hermione opened her lunch tin. She pulled out a sugar free apple sauce and a turkey sandwich. "Presenting, the most boring lunch in history." She said with a smile. "What have you got?"
He looked in his own tin, "Pumpkin Juice, Roasted Chicken, chocolate cake, salad, and what is this…Veratuesum? Yick! Who packs Veratuesum in someone's lunch? Mum must have put it in the wrong bag." She wasn't listening to his rant at this point instead she was merely looking at him, perplexed, no doubt, about how much food could fit in such a small tin. He looked at her, finally ready to ask the question that had been on his mind for quite some time, "what is that on your teeth? It looks like a torture devise."
"Oh! You mean my braces; well I can see how it could look like that… they are rather hideous." Hermione flushed to a lovely shade of fuchsia.
At the end of the day, when he got home, he was faced with something worse than both death and Millicent Bullstrode combined... his father.