A/N: So I have come to a bit of a standstill with my other fan fic so I am uploading this one of work on in hopes that it will spark something more for Wards of the Heart. Reviews are always welcome!
Draco watched from the end of the Slytherin table as hordes of Hogwarts students filed into the Great Hall. Pansy sat to his left and Blaise to his right. He felt safe between the familiar Slytherin trio, safe and bored. There were many returning to Hogwarts that year, Draco was just happy some of them he could still call friends. Pansy had been blabbering on and on about reinstalling pure blood courting traditions into the younger generations, an issue in which Pansy was dedicated to. Draco needed a way to shut her out luckily it seemed Professor McGonagall had read his mind.
"It is my great joy to welcome you all back to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it is my hope that this return has brought you all a great deal of comfort. I would like to ensure all that even in the light of the recent war ending, we at Hogwarts have taken specific measures of security. To all of you returning I should hope you all will join me in welcoming, comforting and aiding our incoming first years. It would do you all well to remember that it was not so long ago that many of you were once budding young scholars as well." McGonagall's face held a sliver of hope as she ended her speech and then in an instant her expression graduated from hopeful to remorseful. "Now if you would all join me in a moment of silence honoring our fallen."
Draco looked around has heads bowed. It wasn't that he wasn't remorseful however Draco found it hard to bow his head in front of people whom had directly lost loved one's due to his actions. It wasn't that he was heartless or unaware of the thoughts raging through fellow students heads just one table over it was merely an issue of pride. Draco knew he wasn't a bad person he had simply been taught bad things. By the time Draco drifted out of his own thoughts first years were filing in toward the sorting hat. Draco looked at the timid and terrified first years and then he looked to the returning magical students, sadly he saw almost no difference in the defeated faces other than age. Only one face bounded out of the crowds with strength beaming from her, the mudblood. Draco stared at her with contempt, contempt for her ability to smile at the face of adversity. He was enraged and intrigued all the while. Everything from her face to her posture screamed at him that she was stronger than him, better than him, and for that he hated her.
Draco had managed to rummage together most of his first years and lead them into the Slytherin dungeons. Most of the first years for Slytherin house, were much like himself at the age of eleven. They wore a scathing scowl on their faces, some because they knew they had lost their place in the former hierarchy of the wizarding world and others because they were naïve enough to think that the title "pure blood" meant anything at all anymore. Draco wondered if they might behold a more humbled expression by the end of the year. Draco remembered the difference between his first day and his last day of his first year. They were so dynamically different, in one years' time most of what Draco thought he knew had already come crashing down. He was not special, he was not better than those around him, he simply existed like everyone else. But for most of his years at Hogwarts he had managed to save face, he had never let most around him know that he had discovered the biggest scam in the wizarding world. Draco drifted from his own thoughts as he turned his attention back to the first years at hand, he stood before the mass of Slytherin's waiting for their silence, after a few minutes his patience wore thin. "Oi! Listen up you bloody lot! This is your common room, to the left are the boy's dormitories and to the right the girls. If you have any questions do not and I mean this in the meanest way possible, do not bring them to me." With that Draco stormed out in the search for his own dormitory. Using the directions McGonagall had given him he stumbled upon a rather old looking painting, he muttered a password at the mermaid on the canvas and stepped into the common room he was to share with the mudblood. If felt calming to refer to her as the "mudblood" in his head. For those brief moments in his head it was almost as if the war had never happened, as if he hadn't tortured innocents, as if the mark on his forearm didn't burn at that sight of her cinnamon eyes.
There she sat before him, nose deep in an obscure ancient runes textbook. Her curly head shot up at the sound of the painting slamming closed behind him. Her brown eyes pierced him and her soft voice greeted him, "Oh hello Draco."
Draco took a long look at her, her eyes were hopeful for what he thought was a reconciliation, her lips trembled slightly as the three words spilled from her mouth, her stature was upright and stiff as if she was hiding the fear she contained toward him. For the first time she didn't seem as confident and that made Draco smile internally.
His eyes darted to the table next to her, it was filled with flowers and chocolates. "What's that rubbish?" He asked as he nodded to the side table.
Hermione let out a sigh at the question as if she was relieved for the small talk, "Oh it's just the first-year girls way of thanking me for showing them the ropes I guess. Its sweet really and quite unexpected."
Draco felt his anger boil back up again, he couldn't even get a roomful of Slytherin's who used to worship him to stop blabbering for two minutes and here she was receiving a basket full of gifts.
"Did you get anything Draco? You know, from your first years?"
Draco looked right into her eyes, "Piss off." And with that he retreated to the left into his dormitory.
Hermione held her book up to her chest using it to shield her heart. Of all the things she had witnessed in the war of all the people she had lost, Draco Malfoy seemed to be the one person who could challenge her strength. He had represented everything she had fought against in the war and he held every negative view of her in his eyes. To Hermione it seemed she could do no right in the eyes of Draco Malfoy. She felt the Gryffindor in her rise and reminded herself that she didn't exist to make Draco Malfoy feel better about himself, and she didn't live to meet his standards because she was certain her own standards were much higher and the only ones that mattered.
She walked sleepily to her chambers and changed into her night gown. Her bed enveloped her and soon she felt a wave of fatigue drift over her. Only hours into her slumber she awoke to a crash and a shatter. She gathered her wand at the ready hoping that it was unnecessary but she would soon rather be prepared than feel for foolish for being magically un-armed. She crept slowly out of her doorway and walked lightly on her feet, she felt a breeze graze her bare shoulders and suddenly wished she had robed herself but it was too late for that. As she rounded the corner from the hallway to the common room she let out a sigh of relief when she saw Draco on the floor, she quickly gathered that Draco had crashed into the side table that held one of her flower vases. She must have startled Draco because his grey eyes darted at her quickly and his free hand grabbed her forearm and pulled her down on his level.
"Malfoy its only me. You can let go I'm here to help." Draco stared at her for a moment embarrassed by his rash actions, he supposed war could do that to a man. He released her arm and watched as she softly rubbed the part of her arm where his grip had been. On one arm, she bore a scar where his aunt had laid into her flesh and on the other his hand print, and yet her spirit rarely waivered.
"My apologies Granger, you startled me." He explained numbly.
"It's alright, I understand. What happened here?" She motioned toward the blood and the mess that lay scattered across the common room floor.
"Couldn't sleep, went to make a fire and uh ran into your table of goodies here."
"Do you need any help getting up?"
This to Draco was a moment of choice, he could swallow his pride and accept her help seeing as he had no way of healing his foot without his wand which at the moment was perched on his own nightstand or he could lamely crawl back to his room with blood trailing behind him.
"Can you heal?"
Hermione beamed a smile at him similar to the one that had been plastered on her face their first day of Hogwarts many years ago. "Yes actually I can. Just let me grab my bag!"
He watched as she sauntered off to her room, there was a particular bounce in her step that he hadn't been privy to before. She returned with a small bag in one hand and a potion bottle in the other.
Hermione knelt to him and looked up at him with offering eyes, "May I?"
Draco looked at her, shocked that she was asking permission to touch him still he answered her, "Yes."
Hermione knew that he had answered her but still she couldn't bring her hands to his skin. She knew she wasn't tainted with anything resembling dirty blood, she knew she was just as good as him maybe even better but it seemed as all his taunting over the years finally got to her. Everything got to her lately, she had never worked harder to remain stronger.
"Well get on with it then! Let's not wait for my foot to stain the carpet red!"
Hermione let out a laugh then she pondered his comment for a moment, "Draco the carpet is already red."
"Yes, Granger let's sit here and discuss the color of the carpet while I'm practically dying over here. Right solid plan."
"Oh, don't be so dramatic, you're hardly dying."
"Granger my foot is practically dismembered."
Hermione groaned as she popped open a vial of Essence of Dittany, "Merlin's beard this is third year all over again."
"What does our third year have to do with you healing my foot?"
"Well Malfoy, if you remember our third year was when you decided to make a spectacle of yourself and nearly had poor Hagrid sacked."
Draco shook his head as he remembered, "I was so close too."
Hermione shot a grimace at Draco and patted his foot forcefully, "There all better, ya big baby."
Draco cradled his foot in his hands, "That hurt mudblood." The words came out of him like fire as the anger spread across her face faster than Draco could put it out. Before he realized what he had done a wand was pressed at his jugular and for a moment Draco saw pure rage in the eyes of something he swore to be perfectly pure.
The words came out of her like poison, smooth and quick, " Listen long and listen well Malfoy, you should do well to remember that you have been made my equal only out of the pity of the Headmistresses heart and if it hadn't been for her you would have been so far down the totem pole not even vermin would gather at your grave. I didn't take you for a fool but seeing as you have no wand and I do I guess we know where you really stand and whom the power lies with. Now do us all a favor and shut up. Next time you so much as even think about letting that word slip out of that slanderous mouth of yours remember this moment, this moment where I have the advantage and this moment where I let you go without so much as a scratch."
Draco watched as she stormed away, his foot now completely healed, his wandless self-unharmed, but sadly that little sliver of pride had all but drifted away. Draco gathered his wits about him and went to fetch his wand, he made a mental note to never anger Granger again. He wondered how Potter and Weasley had survived so many years at her side, perhaps they had survived because of her, but Draco hated to give her that much credit.
After making a fire with his wand, Draco fetched a book from the shelf and sat on the window sill and peered out onto the grounds. He wished he had another option than coming back to Hogwarts, he would have had a much better time locking himself up in the Manor and forgetting about the world. Draco knew he couldn't do that, he would get no where without finishing school, not that he needed to work, what he needed was respect. He wasn't like Potter, he wasn't just given an Auror positon for nothing, well it wasn't nothing but that still didn't stop Malfoy's contempt for potter. Draco would have given anything for a drink or even a cigar. He supposed he could slip into the Slytherin dormitories and steal some fire whiskey from Blaise but he knew castle security was at an all-time high, he wouldn't make it down the first staircase. Draco adjusted his thoughts back to his book, he shook his head as he realized that he had grabbed the same textbook that Granger had been so engrossed in. He didn't mind it much, he enjoyed ancient runes and it seemed so did Granger, then again Granger enjoyed every book. Draco let his mind become involved with the words of the pages and suddenly forgot about his row with Hermione.
Just one room over a certain Gryffindor was searching for a book to consume her mind so she could fall asleep. Remembering she had left her ancient runes book in the common room, she picked her wand up and went on a small journey to retrieve it. She had hoped that Malfoy would have been gone by now but what she saw was much worse, not only was Draco Malfoy awake but he had her book. Hermione scoffed loudly and turned on her feet and retreated into her room. It was no use, Hermione found a bottle of dreamless sleep and fell into bed. While she waited for sleep to consume her she thought, she thought about everything from Malfoy to Ron and Harry to the fact that her socks were itchy. Her mind raced and she wished desperately that Harry and Ron had come back with her, at least Ginny was with her, she was grateful for the friend she had. Hermione sighed, she had no idea what to expect for this new year, a whole year of Malfoy and no Harry and Ron. She supposed she would have to throw herself into her studies to avoid him, not that she had planned on doing anything else. Hermione soon drifted to sleep and a new year awaited her on the other side of the morning.