Hiyaaa... First I am not abandoning my twilight story 'Learn to Feel', this plot line just been hanging around and insist to be published since long time ago, so I couldn't very well ignored the wailing of abandoned plot line in my head, could I? Second this is not the usual Pureblood Hermione, Draco's childhood friend, fall in love with each other become a dark couple and conquer the wizarding world, nope, just stay with me and found out how my pairing turned out to be. Aaaannndd... This is obviously AU and I did try to stay as canon as possible but I will intentionally change little details so it will support my story better. Enjoy!

I almost forgot ... I obviously own Harry Potter...

at the night time when I was peacefully asleep. lol XD

Chapter 1

When you're five, they often ask you, 'what do you want to be'. Then you would answer a dragon, phoenix, seer, vampire, or like me, internationally famous quidditch player, a seeker if you really insist to know.

But then again, we would never be forever five. The time when you roll around in a puddle of mud and get nothing but a scowl and few minutes of parental… advice – or in my case couple hours of lecturing and days of punishment; the time when you could ask for extra play time and rest and get cupcake in the way. But all that freedom ceases when your body starts to get bigger, your legs lengthen, and finally you can reach for your favorite biscuits.

Enough about you, the story was never talking about you anyway. So 'we' and 'you' will retire from now on and be replaced by 'I' and a couple times of 'my'.

So to be honest I was never been asked such a thing, because really every single Malfoy's destiny is decided by their patriarch, instead I was asked what I wanted. Well to be much more honest than usual, I was never asked what I wanted, I told them, whether they asked or not. A normal 5 year old wizard would want and get chocolate frogs, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, toy broomstick and maybe a couple of ice cream's along the way, but since I've never been and would never be a normal 5 year old wizard, I wanted a wand, the first copy of Hogwarts history, the whole magical prank in zonko's (not that I could use it in manor, it would be the quickest way to suicide), and my most memorable was when I insist to have a real racing broomstick. I've even ordered as much as a friend; not the tall, gloomy, scary looking people that always come every Christmas and New Year's ball. Not the sickeningly sweet old ladies that always hover around telling me how handsome I am; I mean the whole world knows how good looking I am without them screeching it all the time.

I wanted a real bunch of friends, a bunch of boys like me to boast my new quidditch field and show my collections of dragon miniature.

The only response I got from mother was, "Do not ever let your father hear you say such a trivial thing." That is the moment I learned that 'there's no such thing as friend for a Malfoy' my very first lesson as the heir of Malfoy Empire. Still I wanted to pretend that I had a lot of lackeys, as my father called them, to play with.

Of course I still got what I wanted; my last name after all is Malfoy.

That day Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle came strutting through the manor asking if they could have another of Dobby's special cupcake, were the first time I laid my eyes on them. It was summer on my sixth birthday; the Malfoy Manor was having a big birthday party for me or rather a big gathering party for my father's company or whatever work he was dealing with. There were a lot of adults and much less children than I would like, but still I found them. It's hard for them to not be found really, with their gigantic body and heavy footfalls. They were standing next to each other looking awkward with a pile of food in their fat hands. They even didn't know that I was the birthday boy, oh my bad, they didn't even know what the party for was. I didn't blame them, with all the adults and heavy talk; they would never know that it was a birthday party, let alone my birthday party.

After another torturing hour of old ladies and suspicious looking men, I was permitted to go enjoy the day.

After that Crabbe and Goyle started to come regularly along with their father and sometimes alone. Before them, my day had simply been chasing Dobby around on my feet or sometimes on my toy broomstick. But then, my day was me chasing Dobby with my toy broomstick and them with their mouth full of food. Not much changed as you can see, but still the slightest change from my usual monotone life was welcomed.

After the two of them, came Parkinson. Pansy Parkinson. The very first girl that I welcomed into my game of chasing the house elf, not that she was really chasing, mostly she would settle down in some random point of the manor and wait for us to find her hiding place, with the house elf and at the end of the day she would pick the winner which as you would probably guessed already, was always me.

Before her, my day was simply me, Vincent and Gregory putting fire on the House Elf's clothes, a rag-like dress that reached their knee with a little Malfoy crest. After her, my day was me, Vincent and Gregory racing to her place with a begging House Elf hot on our tail with possibly fire on it clothes. Even though she was not my favorite choice of companion, she was good for my overly high vanity, so I kept her.

Not long after that, she came. That day was an unusual day, I could tell that. Because it was almost noon and none of my friends were showing up. It was almost the time for lunch, and usually Gregory would instantly stop whatever he was doing and paraded along with Vincent to my room to eat lunch and Pansy would be bubbling about how boring boy's game were and hope that I would someday play with her and her doll. But not that day, that day I was lazily zooming around with my toy broomstick (mother insisted that I was not allowed to have the real one until I was 10) when the House Elf approached me anxiously telling me that I was needed by my mother in my room.

She dressed me personally and I could see the tension on her jaw as she combed my hair and told me, "There will be special guests coming for lunch". After that she sighed, I was taken back, Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy never sighed. My mother was all about perfect composure and calm.

"Who is it, mother?"

My mother's cold fingers caress my cheek down to my chin, "One of your father's very old friends and their family."

"From work?" My mother nodded and left me without any other explanation. I was used to this by now, my parents would never tell me anything more than the absolute essentials which left me very little. I waited in my room about fifteen minutes before I was called to the parlor.

I could hear their voices before I saw them. A booming male laugh, come next a chirping voicing all muttering 'thank yous' to my parents much like the old ladies at my party, and a shockingly smooth, shooting voice of giggles. I had never known that giggles could be counted as smooth and shooting. I leaned my head on the door trying to hear more of the conversations.

"Milk, please, Mrs. Malfoy." Said the shooting voice. It had a cold edge, much like my fathers. Whose voice was it? I had never been able to sound like my father yet this stranger successfully imitate his cold drawl. I knocked three times before I opened the door that led me to her and her parent.

Like all the other rooms in the manor, the parlor was richly decorated with wooden planks, blue tapestries and silver lining on the ceiling, mother was against green, "it's sickeningly Slytherin don't you think, darling? I want to have my guests feel at home not at Hogwarts."

My gaze landed on the girl, she was smiling at whatever my mother said but my fathers' subtle enough cough snapped me out of staring land and back to Malfoy Manor. He nodded a little for me to go sit and greet the 'special guests'.

"And this is my son, Draco."

I nodded to a aristocratic looking man with deep brown curly hair who nodded back and smiled, an inhumanly beautiful woman with straight long blonde hair that turn golden under the sun's rays, and a girl my age with similar golden brown hair and chocolate-like eyes.

"This is Mr. and Mrs. Granger and of course Hermione Granger." There was no doubt my father favored the Hermione girl from the mere way his tone lightened as he mentioned her name, and the fact he smiled at her, not the usual Malfoy's smirk he was used to throw at me.

"How do you do?" I said a little bit squeaky. That earned me a glare from my father obviously and a we'll-talk-about-this-later look from my mother.

"He's so adorable, Cissy. Not so surprising with you as the mother and our infamous Lucius." Mrs. Granger dramatically sighed and looked at her daughter like if she could give her daughter away in exchange for me. All the icy tension that had presented itself when I stepped through the door melted away when everyone was drawn into easy conversations.

"The house looks fabulous Cissy. Is this a chinese antique vase I see here?"

"Yes, Lucius was on a business trip when he found this."

"See, you should travel more Mr. Granger and bring me some goods."

"And you, Mrs. Granger needs to stay at home more and take care of goods." He mocked back.

I picked my cup of tea and savored the sweetness of it. Father always limited my sweets but not today I guessed. There were jars of candy that I believe came that morning from Honeydukes. I greedily drank the sight of them because obviously as long as I was in the present of Father I would never touch them.

"The sweets are … sweet." Said the shooting and smooth voice. It's hers. I never knew a 7 year old girl could sound like that. Duh! Of course it was sweet there's a reason why they were named sweet. I looked at her and surprised that the so-stupid statement was not directed at me but rather at my father on my left side.

"Yes, Draco here unfortunately has a knack for sweets." My father mockingly smirked without looking at me. She smile and gracefully stood up.

She walked toward the window that showed Mother's rose's garden and a small but elegant looking fountain. The sun hit her hair that turned into gold much like the color of our lake when sun was setting; the vision of her standing casually looking out from the window was weird. I mean I had never seen anything like it, or maybe it was my lack of vocabulary, I really had to pay attention to my lessons.

My father approached her and together they stood casually at window side, they were like something out of old painting. There a stern looking man yet so relaxed with sleek white blonde hair chatting nonchalantly with an approximately 7 year old sweet looking girl with golden wavy hair and white sundress and sandals. Sometimes I could hear her giggle of whatever it was my father had said and my father would smile adoringly, a smile that was supposed to be mine.

Before all the bad thoughts of what I could do to this Hermione overpowered me, a frightened looking house elf appeared. "Lunch is ready misters and missus."

Both the Malfoys and the Grangers headed to the dining room. Although the house was always beautiful, today I Mother must have ordered the House Elf to polish everything from the paintings to the chandeliers, they were all… shiny. These Grangers were special enough that mother's favorite dining set was out and placed in order on the dining table.

I listened to the conversation between the two mothers and strained my ear, if one could do that, to pay attention to Mr. Granger and my father's. Father said knowledge is power and it was times like these when someone could easily slip out a seemingly unimportant detail of very important information, so I had to pay attention, subtly of course.

I never realized that the youngest Granger was looking intensely at me until she purposely cleared her throat and dibbed her mouth with napkin.

"So Draco have any favorite past time?" she asked half whispering. I chewed and quickly push the meat down my throat that felt suddenly dry.

"I love quidditch." I said.

She smirked and drawled lazily, just like my father, "Aren't we all in love with it."

I sipped my pumpkin juice and tried to quash my sudden thirst. "Do you?" She didn't answer immediately, "I mean do you play?"

"I'd like to." She said casually while busy cutting her steak. "Just when no one's at home, which luckily happens very often. Isn't that the best time to corrupt the house?" Her body leaned towards me slightly and there was mischievous glint in her eyes that drew me in.

"Hermione!" Mrs. Granger's shriek destroyed the imaginative bubble around us and the former glimmer in her eyes dimmed considerably replaced by the cold yet innocent looking girl I saw in the parlor.

"Yes mother." She drawled like I would never be able to. "Careful dear. We sure do not want your impoliteness ruin our appetite."

She smiled and sipped her tea calmly while her mother was getting red by her aloof act. "Of course mother. I didn't know you were eavesdropping our little tattling." Then she looked at her mother, no glared at her mother and shifted her gazed to my father, "Sorry can't help it."

I was surprised to hear my father sultry laugh at Hermione. Her mother seems at sudden ease as my father asked Hermione whether she had a quidditch field or not and my hunger vanished as the urge to leave became unbearable. I only wanted to lock myself up in my room and read the rest of the potion's book.

"I'm sorry father, may I be excused? I am done eating." I encourage myself to look directly at my father.

"Are you done sweetie? You didn't eat much? Not hungry?" My mother intercept the glaring match between my father and I. "No mother, I had a big brunch."

"Yes, I would love to look around Aunt Cissy's garden." Hermione gracefully folded her napkin and put it above her plates, like she didn't care if she was allowed or not. "You may be excused, Draco. And show little Hermione the garden instead, son."

I nodded and waited until Hermione stepped out of the dining room to hastily walk out. We enjoyed the beautiful sunset at the garden, without even talking I knew she was saving me back there. I was supposed to wait until my father had done eating then silently excuse myself.

"Thank you." Her left eyebrow rose. "For saving me back there. I know you've seen this garden before."

"I think I'll do more of that from now on don't you think, Dre?" She smiled teasingly. Yeah, I think so. But all be damned If I ever said that out loud.

Her relaxed pose, the beautiful sunset and the scent of fresh grass really washed away my worry. She looked at me with those familiar glimmers in her deep brown eyes and suddenly I knew what I want. She stood up and twirled around and made her shoulder length hair bounce, "Don't worry I'll figure something out for the payback." With that she's twirled away giggling like the little girl she was.

When I was seven, if there had been someone to ask me what I wanted to be, I would've sheepishly smiled and said, "I want to be like my father." But while I recalled the garden, the fresh grass and her giggling I would've silently answered, "I want to be her."

Thanks to greyfanhp that beta-ed this piece of work. So tell me what do you think?

-Abby