Disclaimer: All Harry Potter rights belong to J.K Rowling. Not me
Authors Note: This is taken place in Draco and Hermione's 6th year.
"I hate you! You're such a foul, stupid, ferrety, evil, sadistic bastard aren't you?!" I screamed at Draco Malfoy who was standing in front of me with a smirk on his face. Oh how I hated his guts. His blonde hair now longer than it was in first year when he had first called me mudblood. Much like he just did.
"I'm sorry Mudblood did that upset you?" Malfoy asked his smirk broadening. I was beyond words and screamed at him.
"Now, now Granger, don't lose your temper." Malfoy said. I glared at him with icy eyes. Then I pulled my fist back and punched that perfect face of his.
"Now why don't you go back to that whole you call a common room you little ferret?" I asked and walked away in a fury.
"Get back here you Mudblood!" Malfoy yelled at me but I just continued down the corridor to my next class. I was going to be late. Dang it Malfoy! I started to run and made it to charms for Professor Flitwick to be saying hello to the class.
"Miss Granger is there a reason that you are late?" Professor Flitwick asked. I shook my head no.
"No sir."
"Then why don't you take a seat? Ah Mister Malfoy I see that you have planned on joining us today to. Detentions for both of you. Now as I was saying…" Flitwick continued on the lesson plan for today. I took my usual seat next to Harry and Ron.
"What was that about Mione?" Harry asked me quietly.
"Malfoy kept me in the dang corridor." I said peeved.
"Git." Ron said. I looked behind me to see Malfoy looking at me smirking. Bloody hell. Now I had to go and have detention with the lowly git? Perfect day, just peachy, I glared daggers back at him. He laughed at me. I mean he had the nerve to laugh at me! I lost my glare for a look of speechlessness. What the bloody hell?!
"Malfoy you absolute git!" I screamed and jumped up from my seat to where he was sitting next to Pansy Parkinson. My hand seemed to have a mind of its own as it slapped Malfoy senseless.
"Miss Granger that is quite enough!" Flitwick shouted over the cheers and boos of the two opposing houses. I stepped back with a satisfided grin on my face.
"Go Mione!" Harry yelled.
"Enough!" Flitwick said and grabbed both me and the ferret by the back of the collars. "Go to the Headmasters office this instant."
"Yes sir." Malfoy and I said at the same time. Great, I mean I know what my actions would do in the back of my head but at the moment all I had wanted to do was hurt Malfoy. Now I have to go to the headmaster's office and have detention with Malfoy.
"Great Granger look what you've gotten us into now." Malfoy said as we made our way to Dumbledore's office.
"Shut it ferret." I said looking straight ahead. Then a hand grabbed my arm and pushed me into the wall of the corrider.
"What the hell do you think that you're doing?" I hissed at him. Malfoy just smirked at me. Fear started to creep into me. He was a lot bigger and stronger than I was and if he hurt me it'd hurt a lot worse than what I had done to him. Malfoy just squeezed my arm a little tighter.
"Ow." I complained.
"What was with you embarrassing me in Charms?" Malfoy said his voice deadly calm. There was no one else around and the little fear that had started to creep into my system was turning into full out panic.
"Malfoy what are you doing?" I asked back the fear showing in my voice. His grip loosened on my arms but I was still pinned against the wall hard. Why was he letting up?
"Granger if I were you I wouldn't mess with me. It's not a smart thing to do." Malfoy said the threat apparent in his voice and his eyes were hard silver rocks. I never noticed the mysterious color of his eyes. They were actually quite beautiful. What in the hell was I thinking!?
"And why would that be?" My voice was stern and I put up a bravado that was pure idiocy.
"Because I know how to make your life a living hell Granger." Malfoy said. I smirked.
"Right." I said and rolled my eyes.
"You want to bet?" I nodded my bravado wavering from what he might do. Then all of the sudden his warm lips were crushing down on mine. My head was pushed back into the hard rock of the wall and his hands wound around my neck holding me to him. I was shocked. Why was he doing this? Then I realized that it was the ferret that was kissing me and I wasn't pushing him away! I pushed him away quickly. I felt the back of my now sore head and I felt blood on my hand. Oh crap.
"Why'd you do that?" I panted out of breath. Malfoy smirked and walked away. I glared at him until I couldn't see him any more then made my way to Madame Pomfrey's instead of Professor Dumbledore's office.
"Madame Pomfrey could you help me with my problem?" I asked knocking on her office door. She quickly came out.
"What happened dear?" She asked worriedly. I decided that it'd be best to lie to her.
"On my way to Professor Dumbledore's office I fell down and I somehow turned so that I hit my head. I'm not real sure how."
"Are you dizzy at all?"
"No."
"Well then let's get that wound taken care of. It looks like it's not too bad." She said while looking at it. "You'll have to hold a rag to it for now until it stops bleeding then we'll get you all cleaned up. I nodded and sat down as she handed me the rag.
The rest of the day passed by in a hazy blur, not that I was hurt or anything but it was more of a rage then anything. Malfoy was so going to get it when I saw him again. This was so strange to me. I was usually a very none violent person. How could someone turn me so completely into someone I wasn't? Then it was time for my detention. I walked to my Charms class and saw that Flitwick was there with two rags and a potion of somekind.
"Hello Miss Granger." Professor Flitwick said kindly.
"I'm sorry about earlier Professor." I said sincerely. Then Malfoy came in and Malfoy came in.
"Today you two will be cleaning this room with this cleaning potion and these rags. I will be back in 2 hours and expect this room to look clean. Till then." Flitwick said and left. Malfoy just went and sat at a desk.
"Well hop to it Mudblood." Malfoy said. I stared at him incredulously.
"You don't honestly expect me to clean the whole classroom do you?"
"That's what Mudbloods and house elves are good for." Malfoy answered in a indifferent voice that almost suggested that he really didn't believe that.
"Do you really believe that?" I asked quietly.
"So what if you care? I'm a pureblood and can't dirty myself with cleaning this filthy classroom."
"It'll be done faster if we both do it though." I insisted. I don't know why but I could tell that he didn't really believe that I should be doing this on my own. That I was all crap. I was beginning to think that Malfoy was different then what I first gave him credit for.
"What do you want me to say, that I'll be more than happy to help a mudblood clean a classroom because she slapped me?!" He said his voice rising in pitch but still came out sounding nice. Hm. I have never thought that his voice sounded nice before. Then I realized that he was sneering at me but actually talking to me. Sure a bit loud but he sounded hurt and sad not mean.
"Malfoy are you alright?"
"No I'm not!" Malfoy said standing up his hands clenched into fists. "I'm sick of you hanging around me. Of me having to be around a filthy Mudblood all the time." His eyes seemed to be asking for forgiveness even though he had said similar things to me my whole time here at Hogwarts and he had never once looked sorry before.
"Well I'm sorry but I can't help what my parentage is! But believe what you want, muggle-borns are not all bad. Nor are muggles! They are just as capable as wizards, just without the capability to do magic. Have you ever seen the things some muggles can do? Just think-would you like getting called Mudblood if you were born to non-wizard parents?" I ranted. Malfoy looked stricken.
"I would never be born into a muggle family!" Malfoy hissed.
"But get my damn point! There is nothing wrong with being a mudblood! Call me a mudblood all you want. I don't give a damn anymore. I just wanted some help to clean the classroom that you should be helping me with." I said angry tears threatening to fall.
"I-I-I'm sorry. Don't cry." He said fast. I laughed but it sounded dead.
"Don't cry? Why would you care?"
"You're too proud to cry. You're in bloody Gryffindor for Christ's sake!"
"To proud?" I asked quietly.
"Yes."
"Draco Malfoy there is no such thing as being too proud to cry! I bet you've cried with that horrible background of yours! At least once, if not more." I said finally calming down. I looked around the classroom and Malfoy was strangely quiet. I pulled out my wand and did the spell that Mrs. Weasley had taught me, a spell that set other things to work for me. The two rags got potion on themselves and started to clean around the room.
"Your right you know." Malfoy said quietly after a few minutes of silence.
"Course I am. There is probably not a soul on this planet who hasn't cried at least once in their lives." Malfoy looked close to crying right now. Oh no that poor baby! He couldn't cry that wouldn't be right. I couldn't imagine those silvery grey eyes filled with tears. I walked over to him and tenderly put my hand on his shoulder.
He looked up at me with pleading tear filled eyes. I caved and put both of my arms around him and let him cry into my shoulder. He clung to me for the comfort that I offered, the comfort that he probably never had.
"Sh. It'll be alright. It's alright baby." I said comfortingly. I couldn't stand to watch him hurt anymore but I stayed there, stayed there for the Slytherin that had tortured me for the better part of 6 years. This is where my Gryffindor bravery came into play, when all I wanted to do was to run as far away as I could but stayed here for the support of someone who really needed it.
"Thank you." Malfoy said in a soft voice when he had finally let his tears run dry.
"You're welcome. Can you tell me why it was that you were crying?" I asked just as softly, both of us still wrapped in a comforting embrace.
"I-I can't. The Dark Lord would kill my mother. She's the only one who has ever truly cared about me. I have never had a real friend. And-and I couldn't face the fact that my mother's death was on my shoulders." I looked at him odd. I hadn't really thought that he's share something like that with me. Ever. Or that I actually cared. "Her-Hermione can we stop hating each other now? And start to call each other by our first names?"
"I-of course Draco." I said softly. He held me closer to him and that's when I realized that we were still holding each other. Butterflies coursed through my stomach at the thought of him holding me. Much like the feeling I had for Ron at one time…I started to run my hand comfortingly through Draco's hair, this light touch making me delighted. I thought that I hated this person. But the line between hate and love was really too thin a line, a tight rope if you will. At any point you could fall to one side and be trapped forever. I realized that I really didn't want to hate Draco anymore.
"Draco will we be going back to our old ways when this detention is over?" I asked. I wanted this moment to never end.
"We don't have to."
"Good." Then we both heard the door click. Neither of us had noticed that Professor Flitwick had locked the door. We quickly tore apart and grabbed the rags that were now finishing up at our desk. We started to act as if we had been cleaning the whole time.
"Well I see that when you two work together great things can happen." Professor Flitwick said laughing. Draco and I looked up as if we had just noticed that he was there.
"Are we done Professor?" I asked. Where had the time gone? It hadn't felt like we had been in here for two hours.
"Yes you are. You both may leave now." We both left together next to each other. But then Draco turned to go to the dungeons I stopped him.
"Draco?"
"Yeah Hermione?"
"I don't want to be friends with you." I said slowly trying to figure out just what I was trying to say.
"Oh." With that one word I could see all the hurt in his eyes before a cold mask was put up. His eyes hardened and he turned away.
"No! Draco that's not what I meant! I don't want to be just friends…I-I want to be something more." I said softly not sure if he even heard me. He turned around slowly in his eyes there was hope and happiness.
"Something more? And what would that be Hermione?"
"You're going to make me say every little word aren't you?" I accused. He shook his head no.
"I was just wondering if you would. Because I'll tell you that I want to be more than just friends to." He said coming back to me and softly pinning me against the wall. He slowly bent his head towards mine then whispered in my ear, "Will you go out with me Hermione Granger?"
My breathing hitched and I nodded yes. I defiantly had feelings for him and I may not understand it but I sure did want to go out with this boy.
Draco kissed my cheek with a feather soft kiss, and then he softly kissed my lips. It was soft and sweet and everything that I had ever dreamed of. It was the best damn kiss I had ever had. Then three words left Draco's mouth when he pulled back to let us breath.
"I love you." He looked at me momentarily panic stricken. I smiled and relished in the sound of his voice.
"I love you to." I said. I had fallen off the tight rope walk between the lines of love and hate, and I knew just what side that I had fallen onto.