~ * ~ Draco Malfoy's Secret ~ * ~
None of the characters in this story are mine, excluding Daniel and Vinny.
Hermoine Granger and Harry Potter walked down the crowded hall silently. They watched the 1st years scramble around, trying to find the right classrooms, 2nd and 3rd years taunting them and telling them to go in the wrong direction, and everyone else chatting about something to their friends. A lonely 1st year climbed the stairs to find a 3rd year with his wand arm stuck at him.
"Hey Danny-boy! Where's all your bloody friends now?" The older one taunted. The younger boy avoided eye contact with his obvious enemy. His face was flushed and his eyes were dark. "Oh, that's right, Daniel doesn't have any friends! Now I remember! Silly me!" Daniel looked defiantly into his eyes.
"Yes I do, Vinny, and you know it! They just aren't here right now. So leave me alone! I never did anything to you!" The bully smirked.
"Oh yes you did," Vinny growled in a low voice. "You embarrassed me in front of Snape. Do you know what that's going to cost me? Well, do you?"
"No."
"A whole lot less than it's gonna cost you!" With that the 13-year-old boy lifted his wand. Before he could mutter the words to a spell, Harry saw what was happening.
"Daniel! Is that you?!? I have been looking all over for you!" Both boys peered up to the balcony to find the famous Harry Potter twirling his 11 inch wand between his fingers in the air.
"Huh?" Daniel managed to whisper. Then he caught on. "Alright, I'll be there in a tic." He smiled smugly at the cowering 3rd year. Then, without wasting a second, he bounded up to where his idol stood waiting for him.
"Hey Daniel, I'm Harry Potter. Just a small word of advice: be careful of people like that. I have been in your situation many times, when all I needed was a friend to stand up for me." The shaking 11 year old glanced up at the glittering green eyes of the famous 6th year student. "Now where are you going?"
"Umm, to Professor McGonagall's classroom. But I don't remember where it is…" Daniel cast his eyes down to his muddy sneakers and the hem of his black robe.
"Oh, we're going near there, we can help you. Do you know Hermoine?" Harry motioned to his friend who was staring anxiously down the now deserted hall.
"Hello there. I'm Hermoine Granger, it's nice to meet you." Her warm brown eyes twinkled at Daniel. Then she turned to Harry. "We are going to be late if we don't get going…and you especially know the wrath of Snape when we're late." The two 16 year old escorted Daniel to his class and then did an abrupt about-face and spun around in the other direction.
"Harry, that was nice of you to do, but we are now two minutes late, and Snape's dungeon is on the other side of the school!" Her normally smooth forehead was creased with worry lines. Harry's eyes sparkled and a wide grin spread across his face.
"Easy. First we go to the Griffindor tower, I've got to get something."
"Harry Potter, what do you have up your sleeve now? Well whatever it is, you go ahead and do it. I'm going to class."
"But no, I need you. Come on! Don't you remember in 3rd and 4th year you used that time-changer-thingy? You know, that thing that looked like an hourglass? Well, I know that you still have it, and now is when it comes in handy!" He beamed maliciously. He malignantly grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the tower.
"Yes! It worked!" Whispered Harry as they headed in at the last possible moment. Snape glared at them through his greasy black hair and stirred whatever he was brewing in his cauldron. They slipped into their seats and smiled at Ron.
The rest of their Potions class was rather calm as they listened to Snape lecture on the use of bicorn hair. As they walked out the door, Snape called them over.
"Harry, Hermoine, I understand that you two like to spend your time together," he cleared his throat, insinuating that something was going on between them. "But you need to get to class earlier." He eyed the mysterious look in Hermoine's brown eyes.
After class, Ron caught up to them and demanded to know what was going on. They just smiled, and Ron quickly went on to a different, more urgent subject.
"Hey Hermoine, do you think I could borrow your homework for Transfiguration? I was so busy last night, I forgot to do it!"
"RON! No, you may not. We all know very well that you could have canceled your trip to Hogsmeade with Lavender last night. It is not my responsibility to get you two boys out of everything!" With that she stuck her nose up and stalked away. Ron looked at Harry.
"What did you do to have her get you out of trouble?"
"Nothing. She's probably just using some past examples of something. And you know how many of those there are." They both grinned.
"Hey do you want to go see Lupin tonight? I heard him howling in the Shrieking Shack last night."
"Is he back? Good, yeah, tonight. You can copy my homework at lunch. As we always say 'lunch time is homework time!'"
Hermoine was angry, and she had a right to be. 'That Lavender Brown…' she muttered to herself in the middle of the almost empty hall. As she thought of how Ron used to neglect to do his homework to take her to Honeydukes and The Three Broomsticks, tears started streaming down her face. She was so emotional lately, especially since Ron had dumped her for Lavender. She started running towards the Griffindor tower. It was lunch time, so no one except Harry and Ron would miss her. If Ron even missed her at all…
Her shoes made a fast tattoo on the hard floor. The hem of her robes swished around her legs. As she came to the hall where the common room entrance was, she stopped. She had to compose herself in case someone was in there. The hall was dark as she bent to straighten her robes. She peered in the mirror that had not been there yesterday and saw that her soft eyes were red-rimmed. She quickly finger-combed her hair around her face so unless she looked straight at someone, no one could tell she'd been crying. She smiled at herself, and found that no matter how hard she tried, her face would not brighten up. So she resumed her frown and tried not to pout. Then she remembered Ron once telling her that she was cute when she pouted, and the tears welled up once more.
A voice came from behind her. It was gentle, soothing, odd, and even sounded like that person was melancholy.
"Hey, what's wrong?" She had never heard this voice before. She quickly turned around, forgetting her red eyes.
The voice belonged to the one and only Draco Malfoy. 'But it couldn't!' she thought. 'Malfoy is an inconsiderate asshole. That nice melodic voice couldn't be his. His is rough and harsh.'
"Hermoine? Are you okay?" His normally cold gray eyes turned warm, friendly, and concerned. She cleared her throat.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She squeaked, sounding like she was trying to make herself believe it too. And she was.
"Why aren't you at lunch?"
"What's it to you? And why aren't you?" she sputtered defensively. Malfoy frowned.
"I was just trying to help. Meow!" He spit this out and immediately regretted it. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. Okay, I'll stay out of it." Draco smiled hopefully.
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bite your head off. You don't have to go or anything. I'm just having a bad day."
"Yeah, me too. I guess everyone has those sometimes." He looked positive. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, not really. Do you?"
"Sure, why not?" Malfoy sat down in the middle of the abandoned hall and motioned for the girl to do the same. He picked up his wand and muttered "Lumos". A small light turned on, illuminating the two opposites. "Darkness is depressing, I think."
"Yeah, me too." Hermoine
"So you want to hear about my day. Well, my father is lurking somewhere in the school looking for me because I told him that I don't give a bloody damn about his opinion about mudbloods…" Hermoine blushed at this remark. "Sorry, that's just his opinion. I can't really change it. But I don't have to adopt it, and that's what I was trying to tell him. So he, of course got really upset, and told me that when I got home for the next vacation, I would get the worst beating I've ever gotten." He sighed.
"Oh Draco-" she blushed again. This was the first time she'd ever called him anything but Malfoy, aside from names when she was irritated with him. "I, I-"
"No, no, it's okay. I'm used to it. He's really abusive though. Before the sorting in first year, he told me that if I wasn't picked for Slytherin, he would disown me. If that happened today, I would jump at the chance. But some little 11 year old, no. So that's why I was bitter and so mean to you and Ron and Harry. Well, Harry mostly because I was jealous of his success. And Ron has always had the family I've wanted. I mean, I'm sure he's a great guy, but back then, I thought that he surely wasn't good enough for that treatment." He paused to take a breath.
"Don't be so sure that he is…" Hermoine muttered, still angry with her friend. 'No! Don't think about him!' she told herself strictly.
"Huh?" Malfoy looked bewildered at her. "I thought you guys were going to hook up or something!"
"Well, we did, for a while. But then Lavender…" her voice drifted off and she shook her head, not wanting to talk about it. "Go on."
"Well, I sat there for what seems like an hour that day, under that old ragged hat, thinking bad things about mudbloods and…sorry…and it finally put me in Slytherin. I was so happy to make my father proud. But that wasn't good enough for him. When Harry got on the Quidditch team that year and I didn't, he was raving mad. He said that if Harry could do it, then I could. And that's how it's been since then. I mean, especially with you." She looked curiously at him. "You always got better grades then me, and he was beating me one night, I think it was when the 2nd year final results came in, he was saying over and over 'if a fucking mudblood can do it, so can my son!'" He paused, biting his lip to stop him from remembering the sting.
Hermoine sat there, looking terrified that she had been the cause of this. She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it, and repeated this several times. What could she say? For once, she didn't know the correct answer and she was speechless. It seemed to her that an apology wasn't good enough.
Around the corner, Lucius Malfoy crouched in horror as his only son recollected all the terrible things his father had done to him to a filthy dirty mudblood.
Author's Note: To be continued…..
