"Cause nothin's goin' right
And everything's a mess
And no one likes to be alone"
-Avril Lavigne, I'm With You
A door slammed in the distance, causing Hermione to jump. She was studying in a secluded corridor away from everyone else's jeers and snide comments about her hair and clothes and study habits. Usually she would be in her favorite armchair in the library, but it had been occupied by the most rude of them all—Draco Malfoy. In the four years she'd previously known him, this year was by far his worst. He taunted her all the time, calling her Mudblood and dirty-blooded.
She didn't let it show, though. She hid it all behind a mask of feigned happiness. Umbridge really grated on her nerves and Hermione began daydreaming of ways to make Umbridge disappear. A door slammed again, snapping her out of her reverie. Holding her book close to her chest, she cautiously peeked around the corner and jerked back when she saw it was Malfoy. She held her breath as he passed by, the scent of his cologne catching her temporarily off-guard. Hurriedly, she packed her books and went in the opposite direction back to the Gryffindor common room. When she arrived back at the common room to find Harry had had another nightmare, she got worried about him again. Ron's mentality wasn't helping at all either. Finally, she told him that they needed to teach the students how to defend themselves properly, unlike Umbridge seemed inclined to.
Even with Harry and Ron's compliments on the idea, she still felt sad and lonely on the inside. They were her two best friends, yet they didn't see how she was really feeling. Ron was completely oblivious to the way she felt about him; Harry knew yet he hadn't told him. This upset Hermione more than it should have, but she kept her disappointment inside, along with everything else.
As she got ready for bed that night, she went over the plan for tomorrow's meeting in The Hog's Head for the prospective group Harry would be teaching. Satisfied she hadn't forgotten to tell them anything, she fell asleep almost instantly, only waking once in the middle of the night after a bad nightmare.
~*~*~*~Saturday, 9:26 a.m.~*~*~*~
Draco was reveling in the way Umbridge was running Hogwarts now. Now, the Slytherins were the favorite students instead of the ones being shunned. They were the ones getting all of the rewards for good behavior or catching other students breaking one of the educational decrees. Even with all of that, he still wasn't completely happy.
Now that the Dark Lord had risen again, it was very likely that he would want to use their Manor as his base for Death Eater proceedings. The fact that he was even alive scared Draco so much that he had thoughts of running away and living in the wild to escape his grasp. He knew he was safe for a while yet though, as he was only fifteen, and the Dark Lord only accepted those sixteen years and older. But he turned sixteen June fifth. That was only a few months away and it constantly gnawed at his conscience.
Suddenly, his eagle owl swooped down and dropped a letter on his plate before flying off to the Owlery. Draco opened the folded parchment; he froze when he finished reading it. Only six words were on the page, written in his mother's neat handwriting.
He is here.
It is time.
He crumped the letter in his hand and abruptly stood up from the table. Stalking out of the Great Hall, he hid his emotions in an expression of passive importance. Draco walked all the way to the Room of Requirement before allowing his face to break and the fear to show. He tried going inside but someone was inside already; probably the gang Potter had gathered together, plotting to overthrow Umbridge. Rather than try and wait for them to leave, he vanished behind a nearby tapestry into the hidden alcove he'd discovered his third year while wandering the corridors.
It was there he found something that gave him hope. Not just something, either. Someone.
Hermione was wandering the halls earlier that morning after breakfast, Ron and Harry having gone to the Quidditch pitch to get some practice in, even though it wasn't strictly allowed under Umbridge's regime. Not wanting to get detention for simply being there, she chose to explore the castle instead.
Before she knew it she had reached the seventh floor corridor containing the Room of Requirement. The sound of several sets of footsteps came from the other end of the hall; Hermione scurried behind the tapestry on the opposing wall to the entrance of the hidden room. Their loud jeers and laughs suggested they were a group of male Slytherins enjoying their freedom under Umbridge's role as Headmistress.
"Where are you, you little mudblood? We know you're here; we followed you all the way. Come out and play, Granger!" one of the boys taunted.
"Yeah, we've got a little game for ya, nice and logical! How much could you take before you begged for mercy, eh? I bet you could take loads, you little mudblood slut!" another one shouted.
A third boy jeered, "Get your arse out here now or we will come and get you! No Pothead and Weasel to help you now! You have ten seconds to reveal yourself or you get it ten times worse!"
Hermione had her hand over her mouth to quiet her breathing. Not even daring to move, she sat on the floor in silence, tears of fear streaming down her cheeks. Everything the awful boys were hinting at played through her mind and kept her frozen. Finally, they left after another five minutes of calling out to her, determining she'd somehow slipped right past them.
She let her breath out only to suck it right back in as the person she least wanted to see pushed right through the tapestry and into the alcove.
Meeting Hermione's teary-eyed stare with his own tear-streaked face, Draco was shocked to find, not contempt, but empathy.
Cautiously, he lowered himself to the floor next to her, leaving a few inches of space between them. He rested his hands on his bent knees, not saying anything.
Hermione hesitated a few times before placing her head on his shoulder. On impulse, Draco stiffened but almost immediately relaxed.
In no way were their lives going how they wanted them to, but they had each other in that moment, and that was enough for them.
~*~*~Sundown, later that night~*~*~
Hermione woke up suddenly to find herself wrapped in a warm blanket, lying on a sofa, alone. She didn't remember how she had gotten here, or even where she was for that matter.
Taking the blanket off, she rubbed her eyes and took in her surroundings. Her sofa and a pair of armchairs circled around a beautiful stone fireplace. Behind her stood a large wardrobe and mahogany desk with matching chair. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to her, until she turned back to face front and froze.
"You fell asleep on my shoulder in the alcove across the corridor. I didn't want to wake you, so I brought you in here. I heard what those other boys from my House were saying to you, and it disgusted me. I know we aren't even friends really, but I just want to let you know that I would never dream of doing things like that to you, never. No one deserves to have that to happen—no one. I've been watching over you for the past few hours, making sure no one tries to come in here. You'll be safe with me, if you trust me," the blonde boy said quietly, raising his steely eyes to meet her chocolate brown ones.
Slowly, Hermione pulled the blanket off her completely and set it down on the floor, not breaking eye contact with her protector. "Why would you do such a thing for someone you consider so filthy and below you?"
"Maybe it's because I'm about to be thrown into a similar situation very soon. Maybe I just don't see the point in hating you anymore. Maybe," he paused and chuckled a little before continuing, "it's because I never really hated you at all."
At this point Hermione's passive expression had turned to one of awe at his words.
"Do you not remember why we were together in the first place? I found you in tears in the hidden alcove, your fear all across your face. You saw me and how pained I was, and we just sat for a while, not saying anything. You put your head on my shoulder, and fell asleep a little while after that. And now we're here," Draco recounted, clasping his hands together loosely.
Hermione sat up straighter and patted the empty seat next to her on the couch. Draco got up stiffly before sitting back down next to her, relaxing very slightly. She noticed his hands were trembling and took them in her own, holding them against her knee.
Scooting closer so their legs now touched, Hermione looked him right in the eye and said, "Well then, don't you ever think you're alone in this world, Draco Malfoy, because you definitely are not alone."
Draco released a breath and gave her a crooked smile before turning to face the fire, still holding her hand. Hermione looked back and forth between his profile and the fire before deciding it was her time to go.
She leaned in ever so slowly to try and give him a quick kiss on the cheek, but he turned his head and—fireworks. That was all she could think about. She became acutely aware Draco's hands were no longer in her grasp but were holding her around the waist and she didn't mind them there.
It was the kiss that would seal their fate.