AUTHOR'S NOTE
Just to warn you guys, this is my first ever story on here, I'm hoping you'll like it, please R + R if you can, I appreciate all the feedback - positive + negative. Currently nearing the end of exams so may not be speedy updating chapters, but will try my best. Also if anyone spots any grammar/spelling mistakes please let me know. Let me know what you think! Thanks.
1. Never say never
Staring out of the window across the grounds of Hogwarts from the Entrance Hall, Draco felt more alone than he usually did. His mother had fled the country after the shame his father had brought to the Malfoy family name with his involvement in Muggle and wizard murders. He was in locked up in Azkaban, the wizarding prison, and would probably be there until he withered away from contact with the dementors. Crabbe and Goyle, his former lackeys, were now either dead or fleeing from the Ministry's Aurors. Not that he cared for either of them; they had always only been pawns to him. He had made so many mistakes in the last few years; becoming a Death Eater, following every command his father and the Dark Lord had given him, and not standing up against what he knew was wrong. His home had been taken away from him, and now all he had left was Hogwarts. It had been his only true home since he had left Malfoy Manor at the beginning of his first year of school.
Getting back into the normal school routine had been difficult - if it could be called a normal routine. Dumbledore was gone, killed by Snape, who had then been killed by Voldemort's snake companion Nagini. Several other teachers wandered the corridors with wounds still healing and hexes that Madam Pomfrey was working on reversing. The number of students that normally attended the school had diminished slightly - some dead, some injured, some mourning. Others were just fleeing with their Death Eater families, ashamed at their actions and afraid to show their faces in the wizarding community. Malfoy was the only one to return with his head held high, and he intended to make up for the pain he had caused. And he knew where he was going to start - there was someone he'd treated worse than anyone else.
Sitting on her bed in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory, Hermione Granger was reading through the speech she was giving to the school that evening. The sun was shining through the windows, onto the other sleeping girls in the room, who had arrived the night before along with Hermione herself. None of them had seen the destruction caused by the war; they had been escorted out of Hogwarts before the fighting had begun by Aberforth Dumbledore, the late headmaster's estranged brother. They had not seen the bodies, knocked down by Death Eaters, lying in the hallways that now had been cleaned and restored to their original state. They had returned to Hogwarts with no horrifying memories, no personal grief for those lost. Hermione wished she had been one of them, one of the naive girls who were able to sleep well at night. She had not slept well for weeks.
Stepping out of her bed, she quietly crept to her wardrobe and dressed ready for the assembly Headmistress McGonagall had organized for the start of this year, her eighth and final year, at Hogwarts. Sneaking out of the dormitory, not normally something Hermione did, she made her way out of the Gryffindor common room, waking up the Fat Lady as she went.
"…Miss Granger…do you know that its only 6am? The Headmistress herself isn't even awake yet…Miss Granger…MISS GRANGER!" The Fat Lady bellowed at Hermione's back.
"Don't worry, I'm just having a wander of the grounds. It's been a while since I've been here, and I start my Head Girl duties tomorrow, so I just want to spend some time to myself."
In the late afternoon, after a day spent exploring the grounds and remembering all of the people that had been lost in the battle that had happened in the grounds only a matter of months ago, Hermione entered the Entrance Hall, which was, for once, deserted. Students would be unpacking their belongings and catching up with friends, having just arrived at Hogwarts the day before. She made herself comfortable on the bottom step of the grand staircase, her robe gathered around her to keep the warmth in. As she read through her speech, there was a slight rustling from the other side of the hall, and the Gryffindor flinched, starting up to see who else could possibly be awake this early.
"Don't worry, Granger, it's just me. I need to talk to you." The tall blond Slytherin emerged from the other side of the hall, walking slowly towards Hermione.
"What would make you think that I would ever speak to you again? I don't even know how you dare to show your face here, disgusting Death Eater."
Draco flinched at Hermione's words, and physically recoiled at the death glare she was giving him with her deep brown eyes.
"I know, I'm sorry…. I've come back here to make amends. Amends with the school, amends with all of my father's victims, and mostly amends with you, Potter and the Weasel."
"I think it's going to take more than that, Malfoy. You are your father's son through and through. What's to stop me hexing you right here? You deserve it after all."
"Well first of all the fact that I'm a better dueler than you, always have been, always will be. I've been trained by the best…the best of the worst; I'm ashamed to say. I wouldn't want to hurt you…Hermione."
Hearing him call her Hermione made her train of thought screech to a halt. Had he just called her Hermione? Where were the "Mudblood" taunts, the "Dirty-blood-Granger" chants?
"I've been working with the Auror Office, and Potter, all summer rounding up Death Eaters that fled after the Dark Lord was defeated…if you don't believe me, ask him! I'm working for the right side now, Granger. I know what's right and I want to show you that I'm different now."
He daren't say her name again; just letting it slip past his lips had been a mistake. He had so badly wanted to mutter her name that he had forgotten how she would react. She was glaring at him more than before, muttering to herself. Clearly she hated him, and it tore him up inside. He moved closer to her, as she backed away. Again he moved closer, and again she put distance between them, turning the awkward situation into some sort of strange dance. Finally her back hit the wall and she had nowhere to go, she was stuck. Not afraid of him - she knew how to take care of herself, she'd had to do it enough times, but she was stuck nonetheless. Clearly she was going to have to hear him out. She noticed the change in his eyes, and for a moment started to hope that what he was saying was true - as badly as he had behaved and treated so many people, Harry had told her of the work he'd done with Draco over the past few months.
"Look, Granger…" Draco was only a foot away from her, and he began to take in the small details of Hermione's body that he had never noticed before. Like the way her face glowed when she was angry, brightening her skin and making her look more alive than any woman he had ever seen before. And how elegant her frame was, despite the fact that every time Madam Hooch had made them practice flying their brooms, she acted as if she wasn't in control of her own body. "Look, Granger, I'm a different man now, and I want to prove it to you. I want to be…your friend."
Hermione went blank. Her mind had not been prepared for this…Draco wanting to be her friend? He had hated her for seven long years, taunted her, bullied her, and as he came into his Death Eater years, watched as his aunt had tortured her with a knife in his own house. He had clearly wanted to do something to help but hadn't dared defy the Dark Lord's commands. At least he had not sniggered and teased, as Bellatrix had done as she had cut Hermione to get the truth from her. Just thinking back to the incident in the Malfoy Manor made the scar on her neck (from the knife) burn. Her hand flew up to the mark, and Draco noticed and flushed bright red.
"My aunt deserved what she had coming to her. You didn't, and I'm sorry."
Hermione felt that something inside Draco had changed. The arrogance behind his eyes had disappeared, not totally - he still retained some of his boyish cockiness, but the weight of his actions of the past year seemed to have straightened him up. She had never been this close to him, and she saw how his eyes were not dull, as she had imagined they would be, but sharp and bright, an ocean-grey. His shoulders were broad and strong, clearly strengthened by his Seeker training. In fact, she would have described Draco as handsome, gorgeous even, if she didn't hate him.
Snapping out of her trance, Hermione pushed Draco backwards, away from her. The contact between them was shocking at first, to both of them, but Hermione let her hand fall and turned on her heels, walking swiftly away from him. She turned back just once back to him, to mutter:
"I'm never going to be your friend, Draco."
