Author's Note: Hey guys! This is my first attempt at a FanFic, I've had it sitting around for ages and finally decided to publish. It starts in Goblet of Fire and finally picks up around the time Lily is starting Hogwarts. Not sure how long it'll be, it'll definitely have some lemons for those who enjoy that, little bit of Ron bashing but most Dramiones have that anyway...
Disclaimer: I own nothing, everything belongs to JK Rowling
"Well, at least the skrewts are small," said Ron as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch an hour later.
"They are now," said Hermione in an exasperated voice, "but once Hagrid's found out what they eat, I expect they'll be six feet long."
"Well that won't matter if they turn out to cure seasickness or something, will it?" said Ron, grinning slyly at her.
"You know perfectly well I only said that to shut Malfoy up," said Hermione. "As a matter of fact I think he's right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us as well."
Draco nearly tripped over his robes. It couldn't be. Hermione Granger, Miss Priss and chief of the I Hate Draco Malfoy Club couldn't have possibly said that she thought he was right about anything.
To have her approve of anything he did made him feel strange, unsettled, and oddly warm inside.
He watched her skip up to Potter and the Weasel and felt his blood pressure rise. Look how happy she was with them! He knew it wasn't logical to feel jealous, but that didn't stop him from wanting to put a damper on their interaction with her.
"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned.
"What?" said Ron shortly.
"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Malfoy, showing them his copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!"
He proceeded to read them the article about "Arnold" Weasley and the utter embarrassment at Mad-Eye's place.
"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Malfoy, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house - if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight couldn't she?"
It was a bit far, even he knew that. But seeing Hermione looking at that Weasel with such concern made his blood boil. He knew it shouldn't, it nearly disgusted him, but he couldn't help it.
The Weasel was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.
"Get stuffed, Malfoy," said Harry. "C'mon, Ron. . . ."
That look of gratitude she shot Potter, it just made him angrier.
"Oh yea, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Malfoy. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"
"You know your mother, Malfoy," said Harry - both he and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him from launching himself at Malfoy - "that expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"
Malfoy's pale face went slightly pink. He'd asked for that, but he couldn't let Potter get away with that comment. Potter had no idea what his mother had been through.
"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."
"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," said Harry, turning away.
Overwhelmed with indignation for his mother, Malfoy went to attack.
BANG!
Suddenly Malfoy was much closer to the ground and feeling peculiarly unhuman. What happened next was about as embarrassing as an encounter in front of a girl could be: to be turned into a ridiculous bouncing ferret? She'd never want him now.
Want him? What was getting into him? He didn't want the little muggle born to like him. She had bushy hair and was a total know it all and read too much and got a cute little wrinkle in her brow when she studied... Damn. What was happening to him?
"Don't talk to me," Ron said quietly to Harry and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.
"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.
"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret. . ."
Harry and Hermione both laughed, and Hermione began doling beef casserole onto each of their plates.
"He could have really hurt Malfoy, though," she said. "It was good, really, that Professor McGonagall stopped it -"
"Hermione!" said Ron furiously, his eyes snapping open again, "You're ruining the best moment of my life!"
Hermione made an impatient noise and began to eat at top speed again.
The best moment of his life was watching another student in pain and humiliated in front of the whole school? Considering what they'd all accomplished in the last three years, that seemed a bit of an overstatement.
Why had she run to Malfoy's defense? For the second time in a day, no less. Ridiculous. He was a prat, a snot about blood purity, and he didn't need defending.
The following weeks had Malfoy visiting the library more and more often. She was researching like mad. Something to do with elves, if he had to guess from her books. Krum was always in there too, staring in the same direction as Malfoy.
Over the rest of term, he watched her from a distance. He wasn't sure why, he just always seemed to be aware of her. He even felt awful when the Bucktooth Curse he intended for Potter had hit her instead. She was like an infection that wouldn't go away. He nearly popped a blood vessel when he saw the articles proclaiming Potter and Granger's relationship. Purely because he was tired of Potter getting headlines. Naturally.
As the years went on, Malfoy's fascination with the bushy haired muggle born grew. Crabbe and Goyle still followed him like puppies, but it was Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson who were his confidants. He told them nothing at first, but they were observant.
"Oh look, the little Mudblood knows the answer. Shocking." Zabini drawled.
"Don't call her that." Malfoy said, without thinking.
Zabini glanced over, raising an eyebrow.
"Is that so?" he said with a smirk.
Malfoy didn't respond and that was answer enough for Zabini.
The responses Zabini got from the occasional comments he made concerning Granger were enough to convince him that Malfoy had actually developed feelings for the muggle born, even if he wasn't willing to admit it yet.
The air was warm on Platform 9 and the excitement was palpable. Hermione stood with Harry and Ginny, watching her god children get on the Hogwarts Express.
"Mummy, what if I get into Slytherin like Albus?"
A very worried Lily was staring wide-eyed up at her mother.
"Well, as your father told Al, Slytherin will have a wonderful student. Who knows, maybe you'll end up in Ravenclaw like Professor Patil did."
Smiling, Lily skipped off to meet up with her siblings and cousins.
"Oh, look, the ickle Malfoy is here with his dreadful daddy." Ron sneered.
Hermione hadn't heard him come up behind her and she jumped. She glanced across the platform and saw, indeed, Draco Malfoy with young Scorpius. No Astoria in sight, however.
"I heard his wife finally got smart and left him. But she didn't get custody of Snivelus."
Hermione and Harry both stared at Ron. Using James and Sirius' nickname for Snape wasn't exactly appropriate and made Ron sound like a teenager instead of an adult in his mid-thirties.
Which, of course, was part of why they'd broken up. Hermione had gotten tired of maturing and Ron, well, not maturing.
"Is it true his family's company landed a contracting job with the Ministry?" Ginny asked.
"Ah, yes, they have," Hermione said. "They're providing installation and technical support for the integration of Muggle technology into the Ministry."
"Malfoy providing Muggle technology to the Ministry. Incredible, really. Totally different bloke since his dad passed..." Ginny said, disbelieving.
"He's still a prat." Said Ron, nastily.
"Glad you're willing to be the bigger man and leave the past behind you." Hermione said curtly. "I look forward to actually being able to use my computer and phone in the office now. Besides, email is so much faster and more efficient than those little paper airplanes we're using now."
Ron scoffed. Hermione and Harry both worked at the Ministry and were looking forward to bringing the Wizarding World into the modern era. Ron, however, was living off his fame, speaking at graduations, signing autographs, writing an autobiography, etc. He had a different floozy on his arm every week, which Hermione didn't mind. What she did mind were the headlines accompanied by unflattering photos screaming "The Brightest Witch of Our Age Not So Bright as Love of Her Life Moves On" and "Will Hermione Granger Ever Love Again?"
Honestly. She worked eighty hours a week, ran an entire department, and was working on a complete Ministry overhaul. She was the director of the Department of Muggle Technology Integration. They were in charge of keeping the wizarding world up to date on Muggle technology and figuring out how to make the Muggle things work with magic.
The Golden Trio waved to the children as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station. As Hermione turned to leave, she caught Draco Malfoy staring, it seemed, directly at her. A jolt of awareness shot through her, but she shook it off and broke the eye contact. When she looked back, he was gone.