Author's note: Hey everyone! OK, I'm starting another Draco/Hermione
fanfic. Still not why since I totally think that Harry and Hermione should
get together, but still, D/Hr ships are fun to write. Anyway, I have a
tendency to start stories and not finish them. So, reviews and
encouragement would be totally awesome! Let me know what you think and
tell me if I should keep writing it. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters your recognize. If I used anyone elses plot I didn't mean to and haven't read anything with this particular plot. So don't sue me or anything.
Chapter 1
The Gryffindor common room was busy with students enjoying an evening of no homework. Oh, they had homework to do, of course, but it could wait. That is, everyone's homework but Hermione Granger's could wait. She did not believe in putting off homework. "If you do it right away then you do it better than if you rush it on Sunday night before class on Monday," she had been telling her friends Ron Weasley and Harry Potter for the past six and a half years. This year they had N.E.W.T.S. to study for, but this Friday night Hermione did not feel like confronting the boys until she absolutely had to. Tonight she thoroughly dreaded talking to them at all.
'How am I going to tell them?' She asked herself as she absentmindedly flipped the page of her well worn charms book. 'Draco told me I should tell them. He is right, of course. He usually is. But they will hate me!'
Draco Malfoy and the boys had hated each other since the train ride to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in their first year. Since that day they had not been able to stand each other. In their 6th year they had learned out to avoid each other for the most part. They still disagreed in Potions, and they still taunted each other in the corridors, but over all they attempted to ignore each other. Now the boys and Draco still avoided each other, but Hermione and Draco had become quite close friends. Since his father had been sent to Azkaban, the wizard's prison, Draco hadn't had so much pressure placed on him to hate every muggle born alive. Sure his mum still hated the idea of being friends with muggle borns, but Draco didn't really care what she thought. She had never liked him anyway. Since Draco and Hermione had been made Head Boy and Girl they had begun talking and became good friends. Just three weeks before our story takes place they had become slightly more than "just friends."
Hermione watched her two friends from her lonely seat by the window. They were playing a game of wizard chess. If she knew the boys, and she did, Ron was probably beating Harry very badly, and Harry was probably thoroughly confused as the live chess pieces shouted commands and comments at him. "Don't move him there!" "Are you paying any attention to his queen?" "What was that move supposed to be? A five year old could have made a better move than that!" "No! Don't move me there!" "His rook! Watch his rook!"
Harry had grown a lot in the past two years. He was still shorter than Ron, but then, most of the male population in their school was shorter than Ron. Harry's ebony hair was wild on his head. She didn't think that he even owned a brush. Not that a brush would help him all that much. She had attempted to tame his hair before, it was a lost cause. Behind his round glasses his pine colored eyes danced with both laughter and concentration.
She could just imagine his reaction when she told him about Draco. An image of Harry floated across her mind. "You what?!" He would stand up sharply and come close to knocking his chair over. "How could you, Hermione? I thought you had more sense than that!" He would stare at her in disbelief as he sit down again and then would not look at her at all.
Ron was quite different from Harry, though over the past six and a half years that he and Harry had been best friends they had grown a bit alike in mannerisms, but they still looked quite different. Ron's rusty hair was beginning to grow out like he wanted it to. It was mostly down his neck now. His mum had never allowed him to grow it out before, but last summer he turned 17, the year he felt she couldn't tell him what to do and what not to do, though she did try. Hermione smiled as she remembered a time the summer before when Mrs. Weasley had tried to trim his hair a bit. The result had been Ron racing around the house with his mother in hot pursuit. She did not catch him, and his hair had been growing since.
Hermione tried to imagine Ron's reaction about her and Draco's relationship. She could see him sitting thee, staring at her, a look of utter disbelief in his chocolate eyes. He would gape at her until he would finally start yelling. "How could you do this? Malfoy? Not him, Hermione! Anyone but him!" A burning tear formed in the corner of her eye as the thought of Harry and Ron not speaking to her anymore crossed her mind.
She watched as Ron finally beat Harry at their game. She watched as Harry laughed and put his arm around Ginny Weasley, his girlfriend and Ron's sister, and as he kissed the top of her head. She watched as Lavender Brown crept up behind Ron and blew on the back of his neck making him cringe before softly kissing his neck. Hermione watched them. That was what she was good at. She had a feeling she would be doing a lot more watching in the near future.
"Well, Ron," she heard Harry say as he stood up and stretched. "we should probably get our homework done."
Hermione had to laugh as Ron answered.
"Are you sure we can't play one more game?" He did not enjoy doing homework and would put it off as long and everyone would let him.
"What would Hermione say?" Harry responded. Ron sighed and cleared his throat.
"'The sooner you get your homework done the sooner you can enjoy yourselves,'" Ron quoted her. Harry laughed as he took out his Transfiguration book, some parchment, and a quill.
Hermione smiled as she watched Ron, Harry, Lavender, and Ginny discuss the various methods of transforming one piece of furniture into another piece of furniture. They boys had really improved their grades in the past year; Harry especially. He had gone from being an average student to being top of his class along with Hermione. Not only was he excelling in the normal things that they were learning, but he was also becoming quite skilled in wandless magic. He had been taking private lessons with a professor whom Dumbledore had hired for him for a year to become skilled with wandless magic; legilimency, reading minds; and occlumency, blocking people from reading your mind. He was also taking advanced Transfiguration, Potions, and Defense against the Dark Arts; those were the classes required to become an Auror.
Ron was getting better grades for the simple reason that if his best friend was studying and he wasn't, he found that the wall had a more interesting time than he did. He solved this problem by studying more as well. He wasn't taking advanced classes as Harry was which meant that Harry could help him with his homework a bit better. Ron was simply trying to get through school.
"Hermione?" Mary, a timid first year, broke through her thoughts.
"Hm?" Was Hermione's only answer.
"Draco Malfoy is outside the portrait," Mary told her. "He says he wants to talk to you."
"Thank you, Mary," Hermione smiled as she stood up and walked toward the portrait hole.
"Oy! Hermione!" Harry called after her. She stopped and turned to look at him. "Where are you going? Yu have been quiet and studying along all evening. Everything alright?"
"Um... yes," she lied, avoiding his piercing green eyes. "Everything is fine."
"You aren't telling me something," He said confidently.
'Drat! Why doe he have to know me so well?' she asked herself as she searched for a new way to get him to let her go without following her. "I... I have to go to the library," she finally said.
Harry raised his eyebrow. Hermione looked up at him, directly into his searching eyes. He knew she was lying. She could see that in his eyes as plainly as she could see that she was in the Gryffindor common room. She quickly looked down again finding a piece of lint on the floor to be very interesting.
"Alright," Harry sighed after what seemed like an eternity to Hermione. "Come back soon though, Ron and I would like you to check our charms homework when it is finished."
"I will," Hermione answered before turning and walking out to portrait hole.
Just as Mary had said, Draco was out the door waiting for her. His blond hair was swept back out of his face, although it had a way of falling back into his face and getting in his way. His face brightened when he saw her come out. His smoky eyes showed her that he was extremely happy to see that she came out to him.
"Hermione," he called. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to come at all."
Hermione slowly walked over to him. He put his arms around her, pulling him close to himself. She rested her head on his chest as he softly stroked her coffee colored hair.
"Are you ok, darling?" He asked her.
"How am I going to tell Ron and Harry?" She asked, not looking at him. Her chestnut eyes were overflowing with tears. Draco held her away from him and softy tilted her head up so she would look at him.
"You haven't told them yet?" he sighed as she shook her head. "Darling, the sooner you tell them the better."
"But they don't like you," she answered. "They will hate me. They will probably never speak to me again."
Draco pulled her into a tight embrace as she began to sob.
'How can she like those two?' he asked himself. 'If she has to worry about them hating hr if she doesn't feel or think the same as they do, then they can't be that great if friends.'
He softly kissed the top of her bushy head of hair. Just then the portrait slammed shut.
"Hermione?" Harry's voice sounded.
Hermione jumped and turned around. Draco kept his strong arms around her as if to protect her. Ron's mouth was hanging open slightly resembling a dark cave. Harry was looking at the couple in front of him with a look of disbelief and confusion in his jade eyes. It seemed like years passed before anyone said anything. Finally, Ron broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Get your arms off of her, Malfoy!" Ron cried as he pulled his wand out of his robes. Harry didn't even bother with a wand. He was holding a ball of red/orange light, a spell, in his right hand. He longed to fling it at Draco, but in fear of hitting Hermione instead, he just held it tightly.
"Harry! Ron! Don't do anything!" Hermione cried, tears pouring down her cheeks. "He isn't hurting me. I've been trying to tell you for weeks."
Harry didn't believe her. He didn't want to believe her. How could she turn her back on her friends for someone like Malfoy? He couldn't understand. He didn't really want to. He felt as though one of his best friends had betrayed him. He simply stared at her. The ball of light in his hand dimmed until it vanished. A look of hurt now filled his eyes. He was looking straight into Hermione's chestnut eyes. He saw fear. Could she possibly be afraid of him?
"Let me explain, please," she begged, her voice shaking.
Ron slowly lowered his wand, his eyes not leaving Malfoy, as if he would hex the boy if he so much as blinked. Harry lowered his eyes a bit before closing them and shaking his head. Hermione was looking frantically from Ron to Harry and back again. She could tell that Ron was angry, and Harry was hurt.
"When I became Head Girl, and Draco became Head Boy we began talking. It turned out we had a lot in common. As we got to know each other we became friends. He got over me being muggle born and I forgave him for taunting me about it constantly for the past 6 years. Surely you noticed that we weren't bothering each other like we had been? Anyway, after a few months of talking every night, and becoming better and closer friends, we moved to being more. I have been trying to figure out how to tell you for the past 3 weeks at least," She finished quickly.
Harry was looking up again, but he wasn't looking at Hermione, he was looking at Draco. Hatred filled his eyes. Hate seemed to radiate off of him. His hatred for Draco was not changing, if anything it was getting deeper.
"You stole her from us!" He shouted. Draco opened his mouth only to close it again. Harry's hate for Draco was reflected in Draco's eyes.
"I did not 'steel' her from you!" Draco finally shouted back, his teeth were clenched and his eyes glinting with anger.
"You had to have done something to her!" Ron screamed. "There was no way in hell she would so much as care for you before, now suddenly you two are going out?"
"I do believe that she explained that to you, Weasley," Draco said. "Before we began talking you would have been right, for once in your life. She wouldn't go out with me to save her life, and I wouldn't so much as speak to her without calling her a 'mudblood' or something along those lines. We got over it. Though with you two it seems to be a different story."
"I'll say," Harry spat. "I will never be friends with you."
"I never expected you too," Draco replied angrily.
"Come on, Harry," Ron said turning toward the portrait. The Fat Lady, who had been watching all of this, had a sad look on her face. "If she wants the likes of him, she can have him. She isn't worth the time it would take to get her back."
Harry gave Hermione a final gaze, his eyes hurt and sad, before turning and following Ron into the common room. And just like that they were gone, leaving Hermione sobbing into Draco's robes as he held her close to him.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters your recognize. If I used anyone elses plot I didn't mean to and haven't read anything with this particular plot. So don't sue me or anything.
Chapter 1
The Gryffindor common room was busy with students enjoying an evening of no homework. Oh, they had homework to do, of course, but it could wait. That is, everyone's homework but Hermione Granger's could wait. She did not believe in putting off homework. "If you do it right away then you do it better than if you rush it on Sunday night before class on Monday," she had been telling her friends Ron Weasley and Harry Potter for the past six and a half years. This year they had N.E.W.T.S. to study for, but this Friday night Hermione did not feel like confronting the boys until she absolutely had to. Tonight she thoroughly dreaded talking to them at all.
'How am I going to tell them?' She asked herself as she absentmindedly flipped the page of her well worn charms book. 'Draco told me I should tell them. He is right, of course. He usually is. But they will hate me!'
Draco Malfoy and the boys had hated each other since the train ride to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in their first year. Since that day they had not been able to stand each other. In their 6th year they had learned out to avoid each other for the most part. They still disagreed in Potions, and they still taunted each other in the corridors, but over all they attempted to ignore each other. Now the boys and Draco still avoided each other, but Hermione and Draco had become quite close friends. Since his father had been sent to Azkaban, the wizard's prison, Draco hadn't had so much pressure placed on him to hate every muggle born alive. Sure his mum still hated the idea of being friends with muggle borns, but Draco didn't really care what she thought. She had never liked him anyway. Since Draco and Hermione had been made Head Boy and Girl they had begun talking and became good friends. Just three weeks before our story takes place they had become slightly more than "just friends."
Hermione watched her two friends from her lonely seat by the window. They were playing a game of wizard chess. If she knew the boys, and she did, Ron was probably beating Harry very badly, and Harry was probably thoroughly confused as the live chess pieces shouted commands and comments at him. "Don't move him there!" "Are you paying any attention to his queen?" "What was that move supposed to be? A five year old could have made a better move than that!" "No! Don't move me there!" "His rook! Watch his rook!"
Harry had grown a lot in the past two years. He was still shorter than Ron, but then, most of the male population in their school was shorter than Ron. Harry's ebony hair was wild on his head. She didn't think that he even owned a brush. Not that a brush would help him all that much. She had attempted to tame his hair before, it was a lost cause. Behind his round glasses his pine colored eyes danced with both laughter and concentration.
She could just imagine his reaction when she told him about Draco. An image of Harry floated across her mind. "You what?!" He would stand up sharply and come close to knocking his chair over. "How could you, Hermione? I thought you had more sense than that!" He would stare at her in disbelief as he sit down again and then would not look at her at all.
Ron was quite different from Harry, though over the past six and a half years that he and Harry had been best friends they had grown a bit alike in mannerisms, but they still looked quite different. Ron's rusty hair was beginning to grow out like he wanted it to. It was mostly down his neck now. His mum had never allowed him to grow it out before, but last summer he turned 17, the year he felt she couldn't tell him what to do and what not to do, though she did try. Hermione smiled as she remembered a time the summer before when Mrs. Weasley had tried to trim his hair a bit. The result had been Ron racing around the house with his mother in hot pursuit. She did not catch him, and his hair had been growing since.
Hermione tried to imagine Ron's reaction about her and Draco's relationship. She could see him sitting thee, staring at her, a look of utter disbelief in his chocolate eyes. He would gape at her until he would finally start yelling. "How could you do this? Malfoy? Not him, Hermione! Anyone but him!" A burning tear formed in the corner of her eye as the thought of Harry and Ron not speaking to her anymore crossed her mind.
She watched as Ron finally beat Harry at their game. She watched as Harry laughed and put his arm around Ginny Weasley, his girlfriend and Ron's sister, and as he kissed the top of her head. She watched as Lavender Brown crept up behind Ron and blew on the back of his neck making him cringe before softly kissing his neck. Hermione watched them. That was what she was good at. She had a feeling she would be doing a lot more watching in the near future.
"Well, Ron," she heard Harry say as he stood up and stretched. "we should probably get our homework done."
Hermione had to laugh as Ron answered.
"Are you sure we can't play one more game?" He did not enjoy doing homework and would put it off as long and everyone would let him.
"What would Hermione say?" Harry responded. Ron sighed and cleared his throat.
"'The sooner you get your homework done the sooner you can enjoy yourselves,'" Ron quoted her. Harry laughed as he took out his Transfiguration book, some parchment, and a quill.
Hermione smiled as she watched Ron, Harry, Lavender, and Ginny discuss the various methods of transforming one piece of furniture into another piece of furniture. They boys had really improved their grades in the past year; Harry especially. He had gone from being an average student to being top of his class along with Hermione. Not only was he excelling in the normal things that they were learning, but he was also becoming quite skilled in wandless magic. He had been taking private lessons with a professor whom Dumbledore had hired for him for a year to become skilled with wandless magic; legilimency, reading minds; and occlumency, blocking people from reading your mind. He was also taking advanced Transfiguration, Potions, and Defense against the Dark Arts; those were the classes required to become an Auror.
Ron was getting better grades for the simple reason that if his best friend was studying and he wasn't, he found that the wall had a more interesting time than he did. He solved this problem by studying more as well. He wasn't taking advanced classes as Harry was which meant that Harry could help him with his homework a bit better. Ron was simply trying to get through school.
"Hermione?" Mary, a timid first year, broke through her thoughts.
"Hm?" Was Hermione's only answer.
"Draco Malfoy is outside the portrait," Mary told her. "He says he wants to talk to you."
"Thank you, Mary," Hermione smiled as she stood up and walked toward the portrait hole.
"Oy! Hermione!" Harry called after her. She stopped and turned to look at him. "Where are you going? Yu have been quiet and studying along all evening. Everything alright?"
"Um... yes," she lied, avoiding his piercing green eyes. "Everything is fine."
"You aren't telling me something," He said confidently.
'Drat! Why doe he have to know me so well?' she asked herself as she searched for a new way to get him to let her go without following her. "I... I have to go to the library," she finally said.
Harry raised his eyebrow. Hermione looked up at him, directly into his searching eyes. He knew she was lying. She could see that in his eyes as plainly as she could see that she was in the Gryffindor common room. She quickly looked down again finding a piece of lint on the floor to be very interesting.
"Alright," Harry sighed after what seemed like an eternity to Hermione. "Come back soon though, Ron and I would like you to check our charms homework when it is finished."
"I will," Hermione answered before turning and walking out to portrait hole.
Just as Mary had said, Draco was out the door waiting for her. His blond hair was swept back out of his face, although it had a way of falling back into his face and getting in his way. His face brightened when he saw her come out. His smoky eyes showed her that he was extremely happy to see that she came out to him.
"Hermione," he called. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to come at all."
Hermione slowly walked over to him. He put his arms around her, pulling him close to himself. She rested her head on his chest as he softly stroked her coffee colored hair.
"Are you ok, darling?" He asked her.
"How am I going to tell Ron and Harry?" She asked, not looking at him. Her chestnut eyes were overflowing with tears. Draco held her away from him and softy tilted her head up so she would look at him.
"You haven't told them yet?" he sighed as she shook her head. "Darling, the sooner you tell them the better."
"But they don't like you," she answered. "They will hate me. They will probably never speak to me again."
Draco pulled her into a tight embrace as she began to sob.
'How can she like those two?' he asked himself. 'If she has to worry about them hating hr if she doesn't feel or think the same as they do, then they can't be that great if friends.'
He softly kissed the top of her bushy head of hair. Just then the portrait slammed shut.
"Hermione?" Harry's voice sounded.
Hermione jumped and turned around. Draco kept his strong arms around her as if to protect her. Ron's mouth was hanging open slightly resembling a dark cave. Harry was looking at the couple in front of him with a look of disbelief and confusion in his jade eyes. It seemed like years passed before anyone said anything. Finally, Ron broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Get your arms off of her, Malfoy!" Ron cried as he pulled his wand out of his robes. Harry didn't even bother with a wand. He was holding a ball of red/orange light, a spell, in his right hand. He longed to fling it at Draco, but in fear of hitting Hermione instead, he just held it tightly.
"Harry! Ron! Don't do anything!" Hermione cried, tears pouring down her cheeks. "He isn't hurting me. I've been trying to tell you for weeks."
Harry didn't believe her. He didn't want to believe her. How could she turn her back on her friends for someone like Malfoy? He couldn't understand. He didn't really want to. He felt as though one of his best friends had betrayed him. He simply stared at her. The ball of light in his hand dimmed until it vanished. A look of hurt now filled his eyes. He was looking straight into Hermione's chestnut eyes. He saw fear. Could she possibly be afraid of him?
"Let me explain, please," she begged, her voice shaking.
Ron slowly lowered his wand, his eyes not leaving Malfoy, as if he would hex the boy if he so much as blinked. Harry lowered his eyes a bit before closing them and shaking his head. Hermione was looking frantically from Ron to Harry and back again. She could tell that Ron was angry, and Harry was hurt.
"When I became Head Girl, and Draco became Head Boy we began talking. It turned out we had a lot in common. As we got to know each other we became friends. He got over me being muggle born and I forgave him for taunting me about it constantly for the past 6 years. Surely you noticed that we weren't bothering each other like we had been? Anyway, after a few months of talking every night, and becoming better and closer friends, we moved to being more. I have been trying to figure out how to tell you for the past 3 weeks at least," She finished quickly.
Harry was looking up again, but he wasn't looking at Hermione, he was looking at Draco. Hatred filled his eyes. Hate seemed to radiate off of him. His hatred for Draco was not changing, if anything it was getting deeper.
"You stole her from us!" He shouted. Draco opened his mouth only to close it again. Harry's hate for Draco was reflected in Draco's eyes.
"I did not 'steel' her from you!" Draco finally shouted back, his teeth were clenched and his eyes glinting with anger.
"You had to have done something to her!" Ron screamed. "There was no way in hell she would so much as care for you before, now suddenly you two are going out?"
"I do believe that she explained that to you, Weasley," Draco said. "Before we began talking you would have been right, for once in your life. She wouldn't go out with me to save her life, and I wouldn't so much as speak to her without calling her a 'mudblood' or something along those lines. We got over it. Though with you two it seems to be a different story."
"I'll say," Harry spat. "I will never be friends with you."
"I never expected you too," Draco replied angrily.
"Come on, Harry," Ron said turning toward the portrait. The Fat Lady, who had been watching all of this, had a sad look on her face. "If she wants the likes of him, she can have him. She isn't worth the time it would take to get her back."
Harry gave Hermione a final gaze, his eyes hurt and sad, before turning and following Ron into the common room. And just like that they were gone, leaving Hermione sobbing into Draco's robes as he held her close to him.