October

Hermione didn't understand it much at first, she only knew that she would look up from her book sometimes in the middle of a lesson and she could feel his eyes watching her from the back of the room; where his desk resided. She hardly understood the mere fact that she would see him in the library almost as often as she was there and she could then still feel his eyes borrowing holes into her skull. Unfortunately, every time Hermione looked up from her book, he was looking down at his. Eyes following the words on the pages in a calm, tedious manner – like he had never looked up at all.

Hermione wanted to get answers out of him. It was their sixth year and he had never made eye contact with her, unless he was forced to in situations like insulting her best friends. Rubbing his money and status in their faces. Of course, he was nearly as famous as Harry, but for different reason completely. It was true however, that she wanted him to stop looking at her and if he didn't she was going to get answers. By the end of the year Hermione was going to understand why Draco Malfoy kept watching her.

December

It was the last night before the students who would be spending the winter holidays at home would have in the castle before taking the Hogwarts Express back to London. Hermione was in the library, studying of course. She had decided to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays and she was catching up on some reading. Like most nights, she was not alone. Sitting at the most secluded table at the far end of the library was him. He sat alone, completely immersed in his book.

Hermione tried as best she could to ignore him a long time until she heard a loud crack and looked up to see his face full of burning fury; his eyes fixed squared on his textbook. He looked up and towards Hermione, his eyes on fire. Their eyes met and he immediately rolled them.

"What are you looking at?" He spat at her. She ignored him and went back to her book, concentrating as much as she could to her Arithmancy textbook. Unfortunately for her, Draco had decided that he needed to explain his outburst to anyone who would listen. Since Crabbe and Goyle weren't around, she was sadly the only candidate.

"I just don't understand this. Divination makes no sense at all!" Draco spat as he glared daggers at her textbook. Hermione suppressed her first reaction which was to laugh out loud but she couldn't help smiling visibly at him. There was actually one thing that they could say they agreed on.

"Believe it or not Malfoy, I agree with you on that subject. It's a useless art." Hermione said as she went back to her reading. Draco watched her for a moment, she could feel his eyes glaring over her but he didn't say anything. The minutes turned into hours and eventually she could hear him packing up to leave and go back to his dungeon dormitory. Perhaps to get an early start on packing for the journey home. He walked past her to get to the door and his pace slowed a bit. Hermione looked up at him and their eyes met for just a moment. Draco said goodnight in a quiet voice, as if the ghosts in the portraits might overhear.

"Goodnight" Hermione responded back. A reflex or was she just being polite?

January

It felt for Hermione to just be away from the craziness of classes and studying for a little while. At the beginning of January, everyone was starting to arrive back at school from their holiday vacation. The halls were once again filled with the chattering of students.

Hermione was walking out of the Great Hall when she saw the familiar sight of blonde hair crossing through the halls. She felt something inside herself that made her want to follow him through the winding halls she knew so well. He seemed to be walking out into the grounds so she followed him still. She watched him walking towards the tree that overlooked the Great Lake. He planted himself there and Hermione wondered what to do with herself now. She couldn't just walk up to the tree and plop right down next to him, he hated her after all. Even as she thought of walking away; go back into the castle and wait for Ron and Harry to get back from Quidditch practice, something kept her there.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare?" Hermione heard him yell at her from his seat beneath the tree. Part of herself was telling to ignore him and walk away but part of her also wanted to just sit down at the base of that tree and feel what it would feel like to spend time with a Slytherin. Of course, she knew Harry would suggest playing a game of wizard chess against Millicent Bulstrode rather than spend time with Draco Malfoy.

Hermione took a deep breath and strode over to where Draco was sitting. He was looking up at her, squinting his eyes against the sunlight.

"Is there any particular reason why you followed me all the way out here from the castle?" Draco asked as Hermione stood above him as if she was about to punish him for something.

"Uhmm…how was your holiday?" Hermione asked lamely. Even the expression on her face showed how ridiculous she though the question was. Hermione could have sworn she saw a small smile play across him lips but she concluded that it must have been her imagination.

"Lame." Draco said as he turned his attention back to the book that Hermione failed to notice until now. Her interest was peaked to say the least.

"What book are you reading?" Hermione asked, her cheeks turning a bit red as embarrassment flooded her emotions. Draco laughed out loud a bit.

"You just can't help yourself, can you?" Draco said. He continued further when he saw the confused look on Hermione's face.

"You see a book; you simply must know what it is." Draco said but Hermione's face looked as confused as ever. Draco finally sighed and gave in. He closed the book and showed the cover to Hermione.

"The Lord of the Rings…but…that's a Muggle book." Before she even got enough of a proper reaction out of Draco, she was already watching him retreat back towards the castle. She didn't have any chance of stopping him. She wondered what other secrets he was hiding from the world aside from his fascination with Muggle literature.

March

Hermione was sitting alone in the common room in the middle of the night; doing some light reading. Her head was completely immersed in the book when she heard a rapping at one of the windows across the room from her. She looked up to see a tawny colored eagle owl and she immediately knew who it was from. The only thing she didn't understand was why Draco Malfoy's owl was flying outside the Gryffindor tower. She opened the window and the owl flew in quickly, flying a bit wildly around the room. Hermione just let the owl fly around until it was ready to give her the parcel that it was carrying on its leg.

She knew immediately what it was. By the shape and the weight of it – it was a book. A very large book in fact. She unwrapped it from its silver ornate paper and saw that it was The Lord of the Rings all in one volume. There was no note attached but she didn't need a note to know why he was giving the book to her.

May

It happened on a Thursday, one just like the Thursday before it; nothing spectacular. Today however, just happened to be the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Quidditch match. Hermione was sitting in the Great Hall, both Ron and Harry were in their Quidditch uniforms. Scarfing down their breakfast and getting ready to slaughter the Slytherins on the playing field. On the other side of the room, Draco sat with his teammates, all dressed in green and silver, As she ate the last of her treacle fudge she heard the entire Gryffindor table bust into incredible laughter. She looked at the Slytherin table where everyone now had their eyes.

Draco was looking as solemn as ever as someone had snuck an exploding snap in his pumpkin juice and now his face and uniform were covered in it. Ron and Harry were laughing incredibly, gripping their sides.

"Did any of you have anything to do with that?" Hermione asked, her eyes on fire and her cheeks turning an interesting blend of red and powder white.

"Well…it was originally Dean's idea but Harry worked a bit of magic to pull it off…" Ron was about to go on but stopped when he saw Hermione's disapproving glare.

"Oh come on Hermione, it's nice to see Draco taken down a peg sometimes, right?" Ron said.

"It's just…it's not very nice to make someone have to put up with that sort of thing…" Hermione said as she looked back over to the Slytherin table, watching as Draco was cleaning off the front of his uniform with a cloth napkin. When she looked back at her friends they were staring at her like she had grown a separate head.

"You mean the sort of thing that he did to us since the first day we stepped into this school? Tormenting us and calling you a Mudblood any free opportunity he could?" Harry said. Hermione looked at both of them with shocked expressions, not that she could argue against what they both had said. So she simply stood up from her seat and stormed out of the great hall. Later that day, neither Ron nor Harry saw her at the Quidditch match.

June

Hermione had not seen Draco for weeks. She had heard whispered rumors about his whereabouts between other students; but she did not want to believe what they were saying. That Draco Malfoy had been initiated into the Death Eaters; he had the mark tattooed on his left arm and was following in his fathers footsteps. However, after weeks of absence on Draco's part, Hermione was starting to find herself wondering where the Slytherin prince had truly gone. She looked at the Daily Prophet every day, scouring the pages for new of the Malfoy family. On days when she was able to get away from her friends with their questions and prying she would go to the Owlery and select an owl to send away letters. They all said the same thing,

"I hope you are alive."

After weeks of never getting any responses she had almost given up on getting anything in return when one week before the end of term; that same eagle owl that had flown into her window before was there once again; hovering outside the common room window. Hermione was almost afraid to look at what was written on the small, folded piece of parchment.
When she did she only saw three distinct words.

"Thank you Hermione."

August

"Thank you Hermione."

The words addressed to her immediately gave her the impression that everything was changing. Over the course of a year, everything had changed immensely. The term was over and she was back at home with her parents. She constantly felt safe in the compound of her own home, but in the back of her mind she was always wondering; was Draco safe? Where was he? There was obviously no return address on the letter but she would keep trying. Use multiple owls to go on long journeys to find and deliver her letters to Draco; wherever he was. Keep trying to save him.

As selfish as it sounded, she wanted more than just a thank you. She wanted something more tangible. Throughout her weeks on holiday, she would randomly get responses from Draco; always very brief. Usually telling her that everything was all right and that he was safe for the most part. Nothing more than that. Hermione just wished she knew where she could find him.

It had been at least a week since the last time Hermione had sent him a letter and she was starting to feel a bit worried. Even more worried than she had been before. She would spend a lot of her free time sitting in front of her bedroom window, watching the sky. Trying to catch the faintest flutter of wings. At the first sign of movement her heart would turn in her chest. She tried to deny the quick movement of her heart, but who was she kidding? There was no way this would ever amount to anything more than their letter, could it even be considered friendship?

"Hermione?" She turned to see her mother, with curly chestnut falling around her thin face, looking at her.

"There is someone here who wants to see you." Mrs. Granger said, eyeing her daughter nervously; she had been worried about her daughter recently. The reclusive behavior was very out of character for her. Hermione looked confused but got up out of curiosity alone. She went downstairs but when she got to the front door, there was no one there. She just looked blankly at the abandoned park across the road from her house. A lingering voice inside her head told her to go into the park, so she walked across the street. It was quite warm outside, being in the midst of summer. So Hermione felt just fine in the light cardigan and tank top she was wearing. She looked around her but the only thing she could see was sunlight trickling through the thick trees.

She heard the faintest sound of footsteps walking through dead leaves but she didn't dare to look, in case it was her mind playing tricks on her. After a moment the footsteps grew nearer and she could hear the sound of breathing.

"I never would have thought that you would step foot in a place like this." Hermione said; a sly smile on her lips as she turned to face her visitor. He looked just the same as the last time she saw him, except his hair and grown a bit longer.

"It's a bit out of my element but I really needed to talk to you." His voice was serious, a foreboding feeling slithered it's way into Hermione's chest.

"Draco, what is it?" Hermione asked as he was now trying to avoid eye contact with her.

"You can't send me letters anymore…" He said after taking a few deep breathes. Hermione was about to counter but Draco continued first. His voice sounding slightly frantic.

"It's just that next year things are going to get really bad…and if they knew that we were…close…they would come after you especially." He sounded distressed, his voice slightly shaky as he finally looked up into her eyes. Instantly she knew why he was avoiding making eye contact with her. His eyes showed everything.

"Draco…I don't understand." Hermione said just under a whisper; barely audible. Draco just shook his head and stepped a bit closer. She could see that he was really struggling with himself, saying all these things that hurt his heart to do.

"Next year, I won't be at school. Don't tell anyone you saw me." Draco said. Hermione was heartbroken; she didn't want this to be end.

"Draco…" She whimpered as she stepped forward to throw her arms around his neck and pull him into a frantic hug. At first Draco just stood there like a statue then she felt his hands across her back; squeezing in return. His head burrowing in the crook of her neck.

"You'll always be my friend." She whispered into his ear. She could feel him nod against her shoulder. She wanted to cry but a part of her still didn't want to show any weakness to him. Though it wouldn't matter much anymore, they weren't the same people they were last year.

That was the last time that Hermione had ever seen of Draco until they were nearly forty years old. Watching their children get on the Hogwarts Express. Draco immediately found himself looking back at Hermione, Harry, Ron and Ginny in the crowd. Hermione spotted him immediately and she found herself gazing back into his gray eyes and a part of her just knew that somehow he had made it through. All of these years and he turned out all right in the end. A part of her heart lamented for things that could have been; but as long as he turned out okay then she couldn't complain.

Their gaze broke as Draco's son Scorpius tugged on his jacket. He glanced back at her one last time and then it was over.

The End