Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its associated characters/places/entities/franchises/etc.
Enduring
A brief, canon-divergent story.
Harry had rubbed off on her.
Biting back a sigh, Hermione took a discrete glance at the man in the backseat of her car, and asked herself just what she thought she was doing.
Apparently, he was wondering about the same question.
"What sort of game do you think this is, Ms. Granger?"
Her name was spat out, as though it was something filthy on his tongue.
Back when she was a child at Hogwarts she would have meekly resigned herself to snubs worse than this one, but over the years she had grown into a hard-earned self-respect.
"Mr. Malfoy, with all due respect," she began evenly, keeping her eyes fixed on the stretch of road before her, "I would like to think we've moved past the stage of proud abhorrence in our relationship and toward something resembling tolerance, wouldn't you?"
His attitude said enough. He remained silent and cooperative for the remainder of the trip, but his gray eyes were hard with anger.
Hermione tried to be understanding. Losing everything one had ever known, one's family, home, and people, was not something she would wish on anyone, regardless of how resilient he was.
She had lost a lot, too (there was that familiar sting in her eyes whenever she glanced at the forlorn band on her ring finger) but at least she'd had a place to fall back to.
When she saw the chance to help a fellow stripped wizard, she jumped at it. It was just her luck that the one she was trying to help hated her for what she was, what she had.
She held on to the belief that in this new, magic-less world of theirs, it would be for the better. Even her new companionship with the broken Lucius Malfoy.