Brief summary : Draco's conversing with Moaning Myrtle about Hermione, and he didn't expect Harry to listen in and to help him.

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Draco was just thinking about her, again like he usually did in his uncomfortable dormitory bed that was too small for him, when he was wide awake, not able to sleep at all, the her being Hermione Jean Granger, the Mud, no the Muggle-born he met in his first year and who he made an enemy out of just because she was their friend. Their meaning Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter, his two male arch-rivals and her two male bodyguards in school. He could never get close to her because of them, the closest he got to her, was in his 3rd year, when she punched him squarely on his face after he called her a "Mudblood" several times to taunt her. He then showed anger because she punched him, but if he were truthful to himself, he rather liked it.

It was then also, that he realized he was passionately and deeply in love with her. In his previous 2 years, he just thought he hated her because she was a Mud-Muggle-Born, and moreover was more intelligent than him, but there was something else to that. But the exact moment when he realized that, he couldn't act upon his feelings like everyone else, as he was a Malfoy and a Pure-Blood, he had obligations to his family and everything. And he knew it was a doomed and one-sided love affair from the very start. So after she punched him right on his face, he often thought this about her:

"Why are you a Mud—, no a Muggle-Born?"

Nights after nights and days after days, until it was a year, he was torturing himself thinking "What ifs" and etc and if she were a Pure-Blood too. And he couldn't find an answer to that question and it was irritating him. The only thing that made him forget about her was his homework and his lessons.

However, with the years, all these secrets and his secret love for Hermione Jean Granger, to him the most beautiful girl in the whole wizarding world ever, began to get heavier and heavier for him, much like a burden, so he desperately needed someone to talk to about this. "But who? That's the question." He didn't want to turn to his Uncle Sev for this, since Severus, he felt, wouldn't know what to do about it either. After some deep analyzing the situation, he thought about Moaning Myrtle, a Muggle-born who died in the girls' bathrooms on the first floor and who's still haunting them now. "Ghosts don't tell others' secrets." And he was right to trust her since his secrets remained safe with her throughout the year. She always listened to him talk, rather than to judge him as a Death-Eater's son, and didn't even mind him calling her a Mudblood when he got angry with himself, whereas she, Hermione Granger, got very upset every time he called her that. He thought it was very refreshing to talk to Myrtle.

Hermione also represented for him, as he told Myrtle the Ghost, something he could never have : happiness and the freedom to be with the one he wanted. Others of course, including his Slytherin peers thought he had the most perfect life and everything. Others couldn't think he pined for the only girl he could never have in this world : the Mud-Muggle-Born Hermione Jean Granger. In front of Myrtle, he tried very hard to not call her a Mudblood, but sometimes he just couldn't really help it, especially when he got mad at something : either her beating him in schoolwork, or Potter defeating him in Quidditch.

When Hogwarts hosted the Triwizard Tournamant, there was a Yule ball and he began dating Pansy Parkinson, on his father Lucius' orders, but luckily for him, his father got incarcerated the next year and his family fell from the Dark Lord's good graces, so hence why Pansy Parkinson herself called off her engagement to him. Pansy Parkinson, a girl he found to be so annoying and everything. "Just goes to show how shallow she really is. I'm sure Hermione won't do that to me, if she and I were together." He recurrently thought this about his dream girl.

"She thinks she's the most beautiful girl in the world and everything, Myrtle, but she is no match for my Hermione in terms of beauty, intelligence and everything else." He remarked to Myrtle once and she said :

"Well, because you're in love with the Muggle-Born, so of course for you, no other girl can compare to her. And I don't think Parkinson is as self-loving as you made her out to be, it's only your impression of her, she can be actually pretty nice, Draco."

"You've been talking to Pansy?"

"No, but I've seen her protecting a first year Ravenclaw from his harassers and everything."

"Really, that doesn't like something she'd do, I always thought of her to be so selfish, that's why I don't really like her."

"Well, just goes to show she also has a kinder side, Draco and she's grown up too." Because he didn't want to talk any longer about Pansy Parkinson, the girl who annoyed him terribly, he changed the topic to Hermione again with Myrtle. And only with Myrtle, he could call her by her given name.

"Hermione, I think it's a fitting name for her."

"Want to talk about her again, Draco?"

"Yeah, Myrtle and if she weren't a Muggle-Born, but a Pure-Blood, I could be with her now."

"But she's not, she's a Muggle-Born, Draco. And you can never be with her, even in secret, because if you were found out, she, you and your family would be in danger."

"Course I know this, Myrtle. So that's why I'm trying to get over my love for her, but it's nearly impossible. I thought I hated her at first, because she's friends with Weasley and Potter, though now I know I'm in love with her, and passionately so. And Myrtle, what should I do about this?"

"If I were you, nothing. Because if you begged the Dark Lord to spare her, it would be more dangerous for her than ever and you and your family."

"Myrtle, you're always right about everything."

"Yes, that's because we Ghosts have experienced much more than any living person, so we know more than you do." She said smugly.

"Yeah, Myrtle, that must be it. Well, good night."

With the Dark Lord's returning to power and strong hold over his family, he grew more and more worried about things, because he feared for Hermione's, his and his family's lives, now more than ever, so once cracked under pressure, in Myrtle's bathrooms. For him, Myrtle was the best confidente in the world, because she could always comfort him, either about his secret and one-sided love for the Gryffindor Muggle-Born or the Dark Lords' orders.

"Ghosts actually sleep?" He asked bluntly.

"Yes ghosts do sleep, Draco Malfoy. So what did you want to talk about tonight, not Hermione Granger again?"

"Yes her again. Say Myrtle, why does she have to be a Muggle-born? And why isn't she a Pure-Blood like me?"

"Draco, if you truly loved her, you wouldn't care about petty things like these. You've been raised into thinking Muggle-Borns have dirty blood and everything, I know that. But try to think out of it, Muggle-Borns' blood is red too."

"I know, but I just can't. Father says Mudbloods, I meant Muggle-Borns like her are beneath us and have tried in the past to hunt us Wizard and Witches down."

"Oh Draco, that was a long, long time ago, when your great-great-great…. relatives were alive. It's been a few hundred years ago in an era that the Muggles call 'the Dark Ages'. Maybe it's time to move on or something?"

"No Myrtle, I can't. When I look at her, despite her being having beautiful brown curls and warm chocolate eyes and everything, I still see her as a 'Mudblood'."

"It's because of your father, isn't it and your mother? But you yourself don't think this way, but you are afraid, yes very afraid to say your real opinions about her."

"You're very right about me, Myrtle. Only you can understand me."

"I'd do anything for you, Draco, honest, you're one of my only friend in Slytherin, that's something refreshing because my house was Ravenclaw. And can I ask you why do you like her so much anyway?"

"Because she's just so beautiful and so perfect in every way for me, even though she tends to be a little know-it-all and a bookworm, I still find her to be beautiful. And she's the only one ever for me."

"So you'd do anything for her, right?"

"Yes, really anything, Myrtle."

Then he heard a sudden movement from somewhere in the bathrooms. "Oh dear Salazar, who could be in the girls' bathrooms at this time, except me and Myrtle? And did he or she hear everything I said to Myrtle? What if that person used it against me?" He was thinking interiorly.

"Show yourself, ghost, student or whoever else or I'll force you to show yourself with a curse! Under Myrtle's threats, the person revealed himself and he saw it clearly who it was : Harry Potter, his arch-nemesis.

"Potter, what are you doing down there and in the girls' bathroom at night?"

"The same thing as you, I came here to talk to Moaning Myrtle."

"So you two are friends?"

"Yes, Harry is my friend, Draco." Myrtle answered for Potter. Although quite angry that he wasn't Myrtle's only friend, like she was to him, he was trying to be as emotionless as he could.

"So Potter, aren't you afraid to get detentions for being in the girls' bathroom and so late at night?"

"Malfoy, aren't you afraid of the same things?"

"In case you forgot, I'm a Prefect and you're not. And out with it, Potter, did you hear the whole thing?"

"Yes, Malfoy." Moaning Myrtle was just watching them and hoping they'd become friends. But such a long enmity wasn't to be melted away so easily. Distrustful, Draco still said :

"Potter, I guess you'd be telling the whole school about it? About how I'm in love with that Mudblood?"

"Don't call Hermione that and I know you don't want to call her that yourself, you've just been doing it because you had to."

"Such arrogance, Potter, typical coming from you, to assume you know everything about me."

Myrtle interrupted his altercation with Potter by saying :

"Draco, you'd better think about what to do, now that Harry knows who your secret love is and you not wanting to help the Dark side."

"So Potter, planning to tell everyone in the school how much of a loser I am, for falling for her?"

"No, I'm not, Malfoy. I think it shows you have human side and you can love someone. Besides, I'm going to keep it secret for you, I promise to never tell anyone else about it and thank you for spying for the Order."

"So how long have you known about my betrayal?"

"Some years ago. I noticed how often you went to the first floor, so I followed you, hoping to get some information for the Light side."

"You're at least honest Potter, you promise you'd never tell anyone about this?"

"I swear on Gryffindor's honour and my life, Malfoy."

"How can I trust you?" He still of course, had some qualms his long-time enemy's trustworthiness.

"You can trust me on that, because I'd never tell anyone about this, not even Hermione, and because we work for the same side. So welcome to the Light, Malfoy."

"But you're to be mean to me still in school, all right?"

"Naturally. I'm not dumb or anything like that."

"Boys, as happy as I am that you're able to trust each other now, you should go back to your respective dormitories, so the teachers won't notice you out of bed, especially you, Draco, since you're Prefect now, you should lead by example."

"Yes Myrtle." He and Potter raced to their dormitories as fast as they could, so no Head-Boy or Head-Girl or Filch the caretaker could catch them.

As Draco Malfoy was a doubtful person by nature, he still didn't fully nor whole-heartedly trust his arch-nemesis to keep his word about his hidden love for Hermione. However, after two years and still no one else but Potter and Myrtle knew about his real feelings about Muggle-Borns or Hermione at all, he finally saw Potter as someone he could also trust. Although he still felt Moaning Myrtle was the only 'person' who truly understood him as he said to her when Potter overheard his confession to her. Perhaps ghosts understood people better than anyone else, but it was just his feelings about this.

So there he was again, in Myrtle's bathroom, crying all over the floor. He usually never was this emotional about something, but this time he couldn't help it anymore, so he cracked under threats and orders from the Dark Lord.

"You know Myrtle, if I don't do what he says, my whole family and myself's going to end up dead."

"What did he tell you to do?" asked Myrtle compassionately.

"Kill Dumbledore or die myself and he'd kill my whole family." At that time, however, he wasn't aware his Mother made his Godfather swear with an Unbreakable Vow he'd carry on his task if he, Draco Malfoy were unable to complete it.

"That's harsh. Does the Dark Lord know anything about your feelings for Hermione?"

"No, I've buried them deep underneath me, using the highest level of Occlumency, so she could be safe from him. But sometimes I feel the need to talk to someone and everything even though I'm using a pensive to empty my thoughts about her in it and everything, I still can't stand it anymore, Myrtle. Why does she have to be a Muggle-Born and why her?"

"Not that question again, Draco. You know I have no answers for that. And you're the only one who knows your heart the best." It was perhaps cheesy, but he was comforted by this.

"What should I do about it?" He really wasn't someone who knew how to deal with things like love feelings, especially not toward a Muggle-born like Granger. He beat himself out of calling her "Mudblood", because he didn't like that term himself. Hermione Granger was to him, not a Mudblood, but a very proud and stunning Muggle-born, stunning in every sense of the word : both physically and personality-wise.

"Nothing, you've done everything you can. Let Dumbledore help you."

"No one can help me, Myrtle and I don't have any choices, but to torture Muggle-Borns and to kill Muggles against my will. I have my hands tied by him, Myrtle."

"Whatever, just mind you don't let anyone else than Harry or I know about it." That was her final advice on his secret feelings for her: Hermione Granger.

And only two people in the world knew about his real feelings about Hermion Granger, a Muggle-born : one being Harry Potter, an enemy he could trust and the other was Moaning Myrtle, his real ghost confidente. "But I can never have her now that she's with Ronald Weasley, my other school rival." Potter must have heard him say this in the bathrooms again, because one day near Christmas when he and him both were in Moaning's bathroom, he gave him something as a gift, maybe out of pity for his one-sided feelings for his closest female friend, maybe not : it was Hermione's moving and talking photo. Potter told him :

"There, Malfoy, her photo, you can have it."

"And what I am supposed to do with it, Potter?"

"Talk to her, tell her all your bottled up feelings for her all these years, it's going to do you lots of good."

"Really Potter? You're not kidding me, are you?"

"Trust me, try it, Malfoy. You'll feel much better after telling her everything."

"But it's just her photo?"

"Think of it as if it were her, Malfoy, that's the trick."

Still in disbelief after Potter gave him her photo, he tried talking to it several times and surprisingly, thought it to be definitely a relief when he spoke to it, and it was like confessing his real feelings to her in person, only he didn't need to face her scornful rejection; he could just picture it with such vivid details, and had nightmares about it over and over again.

With time, he found it was even better than talking to Moaning Myrtle, but he still went to see his ghost friend from time to time, because she was his only real friend at Hogwarts and with Potter, he needed to act as though he were his enemy, although in reality, he wasn't.

Even after the 2nd war ended with the Battle of Hogwarts and the Dark Lord's ultimate death, he still talked to her photo as if he were talking to her in person and said :

"You know Hermione, Dumbledore was right about me, I may be mean and a bully and conceited or an ex-Death-Eater, but I am not a murderer. But why in Salazar's name did the girl I like have to be you? And why in Merlin did you have to be a Muggle-Born, couldn't you have been a Pure-Blood like me?" He was wondering about this still, years after the 2nd wizarding war was over with the Battle of Hogwarts and the Dark Lord's death. This was a never answered question for him ever in his life.

Some years after the Dark Lord's death, he's read all about her becoming Mrs. Granger Weasley in the Prophet, so one night before going to sleep, he said to her photo :

"Good night, Hermione, I'll always love you, no matter wherever you are now in life. But at least you're safe now from the supreme evil Dark Lord. And even though you're married to my enemy now, I still wish you, your husband and your daughter Rose a fulfilled and long life together."

Finite Incantatem

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