Disclaimer: All characters go to JKR
May 28 2011 – I've rewritten this. No major changes, just some sentences and grammar. :)
A/N: Hermiones POV by the way~
I was so mushy back then, when I wrote this. I don't want to delete this or anything so I just made some grammar changes. (My old Author's Notes are still here, new A/N are in bold or has a date with it)
Warning: Fluff, kinda mushy, and kinda OOC too.
SMILES
"You seem down since you came back."
I look up from my book and found myself staring back onto stunning grey eyes.
"Why do you care, Malfoy?"
He gave shrug and took the seat in front of me - where I had some books placed which he just sat on top of. I gave him a glare.
"Who says I care? And you just are." He says unaffected by my glare.
I snort. "Nice answer. But I'm not." I go back to reading but I still feel his lingering gaze on me. "Leave me alone, Malfoy." I say without giving him a glance, eyes still on the page.
He didn't stop staring but unless he kept quiet.
It was the month of December, chilly and snowy was the weather in the grounds of Hogwarts. Harry finally defeated Voldemort almost a year ago and the Wizarding world was finally safe. I, Hermione Granger, was one of the few students who went back for their 7th year to take their NEWTs because I just love to study. But that's what everyone else thought.
The real reason I came back to Hogwarts was because of Ron. The bloody git. A few days after the war, Ron finally confessed his love for me. No one was exactly much surprised, just a few people shouting "FINALLY!". The first few weeks were going smoothly. We wrote letters from the Burrow to my parents' home—where I promised to stay with them for a few months or so. I visited him often in The Burrow with the other Weasleys. Harry lived in Grimmauld Place and is getting ready for his Auror training soon, as well is Ron. Ginny didn't want to finish her sixth year so she starts Quidditch training in summer with the Holyhead Harpies.
A few days prior to Hogwarts re-opening, I was asked in last minute for a dinner visit to the Burrow. I whole heartedly agreed of course.
The whole Weasley family (minus Charlie, being in Romania and Bill, who was in France with Fleur's family) and Harry, were preparing for dinner while chatting and laughing around. Molly told me to go up to Ron's room to call him that dinner's almost ready.
Instead of seeing him in bliss, I found something that broke me completely apart.
Apparently, since my visit was unaware of, Ron was having an intense snog session with Lavender Brown (*cough*the harlot*cough*) on his bed snogging like the world was going to end the next minute.
I felt like Godric Gryffindors sword went through me. It broke me, completely. I was near tears already. I loved him actually, since we were young and I knew that he had the mutual feelings but was too thick headed back then. Maybe the saying "You don't marry your first love" was completely true (BOTH of us talked about marriage one time actually). I slammed his bedroom door shut as hard as I can and ran downstairs. Everyone had their eyes on me and I knew that the tears were going to spill in. I mumbled 'I'm sorry but I have to go', ran out then apparated back to my home and cried for the rest of the night.
And that was it. The last time I saw Ron Weasley. And I swore that I will never cry for a man like him again.
I heard that Ron is now quite banned from the Burrow and he and Harry were not so much in speaking terms except for work when needed.
And that's what led me to go back to Hogwarts: To just clear my mind a bit; to find peace from invitations to Weasley events and the letters from Ginny and Harry as well.
Thinking about it just makes me cry. Before I knew it a tear fell down my cheek. Which sadly Malfoy noticed cause of his constant staring on me.
"Granger, are you crying?"
I wipe the tear off as natural as I could and replied, "No. I'm not."
"You know you're a horrible liar. And my eye sight is perfectly clear." he says with his annoying smirk.
I shrugged nonchalantly with a small frown on my face.
"Someone's not jolly for the ball."
Ball? What ball? I look up at him confused.
"I see that you forgot. Must be because of you moping, eh?" he says with an arrogant smirk. I wanted to slap it off his face.
I roll my eyes, "I don't mope around, Malfoy. And could you please leave. I'm reading."
"Reading? You haven't even turned a single page since I came."
"UGH. Malfoy just leave me alone! What do you want?" I ask a bit too loud which earned me a 'sshhh' from Madam Pince, I was in the Library after all.
He shrugged, unaffected by my irritated out burst, "I'm just...curious; to why you're not the old naggy, annoying, know-it-all Granger."
I raised an eyebrow at him, "So you want me to be the old naggy, know-it-all Granger?"
"Definitely not, like I said, curious. And you lost…a spark in you- If you know what I mean."
I did not know what he meant. "Well Malfoy, people change. Like as I remember, the 'last year' Malfoy would never have this quite, but not so, civil conversation with me without calling me a mudblood or insulting me."
"You got a point there, Granger. I did really change you know."
Yes, it is true. It was quite noticeable actually. The Malfoys switched sides before the Battle of Hogwarts (as what the media calls it), with the help of Dumbledore (which young Malfoy failed to kill). The family became quite a help to the Order and now to the current Ministry and charity events.
"Exactly," I affirm. "So now that this conversation is over, can you leave me to my peace and comfort?" I ask with a hopeful look.
"But your change is different and no this conversation just started actually."
I groaned. "I'm not planning to go back to the common room and apparently you aren't too. So what do you want to know?"
He gave me a look of disbelief at my willingness to talk to him. I gave him a look to urge him to go on.
"You just...don't look happy anymore."
"I am." I answered a bit too quickly.
"No, you don't smile much anymore."
"You know, just because I'm happy doesn't mean that I have to smile. And I do smile, a lot—just not with you." I added.
He ignored the last statement. "And you do know that just because you smile doesn't mean that you're happy either."
I was a bit taken a back from his response. In truth, my smiles were not that fully hearted. I was quiet more than the usual with my friends who came back for 7th year. I preferred just to watch, listen and nod. Sometimes when needed, I smile half heartedly and join a chat. Why do I think that THE Draco Malfoy, who never liked me or gave a damn, is right about something that Neville or my other close friends did not notice?
"Oh Merlin. Malfoy just sod off. Why do you, of all people, even care if I smile or not?"
He closed his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh and ran his hand through his ungelled hair-obviously quite annoyed by my stubbornness and change of topic. He stood up from his chair without making a noise and turned toward the door heading out to the library with his hands in his pockets, muttering some words which sounded like 'stupid, stubborn, Granger'. I glare at his back as hard as I can.
Good riddance that he's leaving, I thought.
He stopped, still in my hearing range but didn't turned back and said softly,
"Because you never know who's falling in love with your smile."
And then he left.
Before those words sunk into me.
A/N:I know, I know, grammar mistakes etc. Past tense or present tense. *sigh*
I just thought of this and wanted to share it. It's been a really LONG time since I wrote anything...
REVIEW! There's still another chapter which I'm STILL writing. Motivation anyone?
May 28 2011 – I edited A LOT of things in this chapter actually…hope it improved it. :)