Hermione sighed and glanced at the pile of papers stacked in front of her. Being head Girl was difficult due to the heavy amounts of planning and duties she had to carry out. She had better go deliever these papers to her fellow Head Boy, she reminded herself. She got to his room and knocked three times.
"Coming, coming" she heard the surly voice. The door opened. "Oh, you."
"Yeah, me." she replied with a slight sigh and handed him the papers "These are for you." He accepted them and closed the door in her face. "Prat" she murmured, starting to walk away.
"I heard that!" he laughed through the door
"You were meant to!" she called back She sighed once she was out of earshot, she thought about how minimal their interactions were but being the only two student of their year who returned after the war, it was justified. She sat in the common room and red. Meanwhile, Draco sighed. Hogwarts was no longer his castle. Maybe he had made a mistake coming back at all… he hardly even left his room anymore.
Days passed and Hermione hadn't gotten a response for those papers she had given Malfoy. She decided enough was enough and that she had to go check on him. She tapped lightly on his door. He jerked out of his daily stupor of negative thoughts to answer the door. "Oh." Was his reaction to seeing it was her. "What is it?"
She realized she didn't care about the papers. "Do you ever leave this room?" she asked with a small smirk.
"Does that matter?" he replied, already turning away. "Why should it?" he answered his own question.
"Just attempting to be nice…" He ignored her, but didn't close the door on her. "Whatever." she said as she saw him sit on his bed, his back still turned to her. "I'll just leave…"
"Don't go" she heard him whisper.
She turned to look at him "I'm sorry?" She let herlf in and saw that his walls were decorated with old Prophet clippings before and during the war. She took a moment to look around, trying to to gawk. He followed her gaze not sure whether to comment - there was a very pregnant pause. "So.." she said, breaking the silence. He looked at her, as if expecting her to say more. She glanced down. He cleared his throat. "Well…I'll uh…" she sighed. "Why is it that you didn't want me to leave?"
He shrugged, and swallowed. "Th-the company is nice."
She nodded "I agree."
He gestured for her to sit, she did. "How-how've you been?"
"Not bad," she replied with a small smile. "And yourself?"
He nodded. "I've been…" he closed his eyes. He couldn't answer.
"You've been…?"
He swallowed thickly again. "I've…I've been better." he muttered.
She nodded "Seems like it." He looked up at her, she didn't realize how insensitive she was being "That came out wrong" she rectified quickly. He shook his head. "I'm sorry…I'll be leaving now."
"Okay" he agreed gloomily. She didn't want to stay - no one did.
"I-If you want me to, that is."
"Up to you." He shrugged.
"Draco…" he looked at her. "are you okay?"
He closed his eyes. "I will be…" He opened them to look at her. "Right?"
"I know you will be." she replied, leaning in the doorway, smiling gently.