"'Mione what's going on with you?" Harry called after her as she rushed out of their Charms class
She stopped suddenly and whirled around to face the two boys who instantly looked rather frightened. "Do I not register as a sexual entity?" the irate Hermione demanded, her hair frizzing out wildly. The two boys were confused by the question and their faces showed it. "Has it escaped your attention that I am in fact female? A girl? Because you two treat me like I'm not. You treat me like you treat Seamus or Neville or Professor Flitwick!"
"'Mione, what are you talking about?" Ron sputtered in his usual ham-fisted floundering manner. "I mean I know you liked me-"
"Oh shut up Ron!" she rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Finish that sentence and I will hex you into oblivion. I'm not attracted to you. At all. Ever. This isn't about you dammit! I don't like either of you, but that doesn't mean I want to be treated like a guy, or I want to hear how cute you think other girls are, or I want to be asked if Lavender likes you, or any of that. I'm sick of it!" and with that she whipped down the corridor and out of site, leaving Ron and Harry, mouths agape, staring after her.
After her outburst, Hermione sought her solace in the Library. Books were safe. Books didn't ignore you unless they wanted something. Books were, and always had been, her escape.
She deftly and with familiarity wound her way through the shelves, far from where the average student wandered when searching for answers to their schoolwork. Hermione found herself in the Muggle Fiction section, and breathed a sigh of relief at being surrounded by the comforting titles of her first world. A world, she realized, was not so different that the one opened to her by an owl delivered letter. The divide created by her bookish and intellectual tendencies at Hogwarts between she and her friends was all too familiar from that of her past life. She still felt unnoticed and as though no one would ever love her as the characters in her books loved each other. She was all too knowledgeable as to how it felt for boys to only pay attention to her long enough to receive help on their homework, whether it was for Chemistry or Potions, Latin or Ancient Runes, History of Magic, or History of Europe. She was used to boys skimming over her bushy brown curls to flirt with the prettier girl beside her. She was used to all of it, but that didn't mean she like it.
It made her feel, in a word, alone.
She scanned the familiar titles, choosing carefully which imaginary world she would escape into, letting her fingertips brush the spines, breathing deeply the calming smell (almost that of vanilla) that lightly permeated the library and the aged books filling it. She picked out one of her favorites, Pride and Prejudice, and curled up in the windowsill nook. The sun warmed her as she allowed herself to be swallowed up in the romance of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. She let herself pretend that somewhere out there in the world, there was her very own Mr. Darcy, a man in love with her, that perhaps wasn't ready to come forward yet, but who would eventually appear. It wouldn't hurt if he were handsome and brooding either, Hermione mused lightly; a small smiled curling the corners of her lips.
"Granger, do you ever leave this place?" it was easy for Hermione to place the snide voice that interrupted her peaceful reading as that of Draco Malfoy. "Even muggles know that you need sunlight, or so I've been told."
"Malfoy, what are you doing in the Muggle Fiction section? I would have thought it was much too dirty for a Pureblood like you." She bristled, angry to have her quiet invaded by one of her least favorite people.
"Looking for you." He told her casually, perusing the books on the shelf behind him. "I witnessed you're little rant to Weaslebee and Potty after class today. It was quite illuminating."
To say Hermione was confused would be an understatement. "Why for Merlin's sake would you be looking for me Malfoy? I thought I was a 'dirty little mudblood'?" she spat out the last few words; words that had been engraved into her flesh. "Not to mention my little 'rant' was for Harry and Ron, it was none of your business!"
"Don't curse Granger, it doesn't suit you. And I haven't called you that in years." Draco said, his voice emotionless, still facing away from her.
"You aunt carved it in my arm, I think that's sufficient evidence to know you're family feels about me" She told him bitingly. She was perhaps being too harsh, Draco had been on the light side in the end, and they'd managed to be fairly civil to each other in the course of their Head boy and girl duties, and there were some quiet moments when they were working together that made her think of him in a better light. But then she remembered the years of torment he'd given her, and the thing's he'd said, and she knew that she couldn't ever want anything between them, all it did was confuse her. Hermione was angry, trying to hide from the world right now, and he was the last thing she felt like dealing with, she didn't want to be confused.
The way his shoulders slumped at her sharp retort surprised her. "You know I didn't want to be part of that Granger." His voice was eerily quiet. After a moment he straightened and turned back to face herm his normally haughty expression returned it his face. Hermione was more confused than ever as to what was going on. "I should just go, it's obvious that you're opinion of me is not better than it used to be."
She was going to let him go, she was going to let him leave so she could hide once more in the safe realms of fiction, but her curiosity got the better of her. "Malfoy, wait. Why were you looking for me?"
It took her by the greatest surprise imaginable when he looked, dare she think it, embarrassed, nervous even. He mumbled something unintelligible, and she frowned at him, "Why were you looking for me?" she repeated.
"I register you as female." He said, almost like a confession, and as soon as he said it, it was like a dam burst. His voice became stronger as he continued on. "When you were yelling at your idiot friends, you said that they didn't register you as a girl, well I do. In fact it's something I can't escape that you're female, and it drives me crazy. You're brilliant, an un-paralleled witch, and I don't think those idiot friends of yours would have survived without you. You are beautiful, and if you don't believe then perhaps you're not the brightest witch of our age, because you have to be beautiful to get me, a Malfoy to admit a muggleborn is anything special. I know you hate me, and I deserve all of it, but I can't help myself, seriously I've tried to not care about you, I've tried to not think about you, but I just can't stop. To quote that book you're reading, because I know it's your favorite and I read it too just because of that 'I cannot fix the hour, or the look, or the words which laid the foundation. It was too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew I had begun.' It's not a bad read, really girly, but I unfortunately identify with that Darcy guy, a lot." He sighed, running a hand through his platinum hair. "Well Granger, now that I have made myself the biggest fool in the world, I'll leave and you can go back to hating me. Just remember, you do register to someone, even if that someone is me." And with that Draco Malfoy turned and walked away, disappearing in the towering shelves.
Hermione was stunned by the speech Malfoy had just delivered, and it paralyzed her for a moment before she fully realized what had just happened. "Draco, wait." She called, abandoning her book and following after him. He had stopped at her voice, and as she turned a corner Hermione ran straight into his chest. "Umph, oh sorry, I didn't mean to do that!" she said, blushing, and stepping back quickly. "I just, I wanted to ask, did you finish reading it? Pride and Prejudice I mean."
"I just quoted out of one of the last chapters to you Granger, yes I've finished reading your book. Several times in fact. Why? Are you planning to use that against me?" He said sounding a bit disheartened.
"So you know that Lizzie and Darcy get together again, yes?" she continued cautiously.
"Yes, I do." He answered, his face showing a bit of hope sneaking through his usually carefully arranged façade.
"So you know it takes her a bit of time, before she's ready to accept that she and Darcy would be good together? Because, well…" she looked up at him flustered, and it took all he had to not just kiss her senseless right there.
"Yes?" Draco prompted.
"… well I think I might like you too, but, I'm, I'm not sure, because I've been spending so long hating you, and then you just told me that, and it didn't feel wrong, it didn't feel like something that would be bad, in fact the prospect sounds… well it sounds nice… and, well, I , umm…."
He stopped her ramblings with a gentle finger on her lips. "Granger, you're rambling. But I understand what you're saying. Perhaps you'd like to accompany me to Hogsmead this weekend to get a butterbeer and get to know each other a little better?"
"Yes." She said, relieved he understood what she was saying. "Yes, that would be lovely."
"I'll meet you at the front doors?" he asked, politely, though his excitement was obvious.
"Yes, I'll see you then." She smiled, and then before she could stop herself, reached up on her tip toes and lightly pressed a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for registering me." She said quietly, before hurrying, feeling shy and overwhelmed all of the sudden.
"Always." He murmured quietly, watching her retreating form, and feeling for the first time in a long time, that perhaps those muggle books got things right sometimes.