2nd part! Still more to come. Draco's part written by a friend, Hermione's by me. =]

For a moment, Draco turned to see if Hermione had followed him. He felt like such a little shit letting himself feel such emotions, things that his father would tell him represented weakness more than anything else but there was another part, a bigger part that could have cared less. For a moment, she hadn't followed him. In the next, she was there.

Hermione had no idea what she was doing. She approached the boy, the boy she had known from her very first day at Hogwarts. She had never liked him, had always heard the horrible things that had been said about him, and by him. She couldn't fathom speaking to him, yet there she was, approaching him.

"Hello Hermione.", he said to her in a tone that only she could hear. There was nothing about his voice that was antagonizing, nothing that would have denoted that he was speaking to her with anything less than the respect that she deserved, something that had been solely lacking.

She was surprised at his voice, never hearing such a sweet sound come from his mouth. In the back of her brain, her mind was screaming at her that this was a trick, and somehow he would upset her, yet the only thing to escape her lips was, "Hello Draco."

He looked around for a moment, hoping that Harry and Ron wouldn't come over the hill, but also hoping that his own stooges wouldn't make their appearance. This was a moment between the two of them, and he wanted it to stay that way. "I...", he paused for a moment, unsure of himself. "...I'm sorry."

Her eyebrows furrowed together, everything in her entire being telling her to walk away, leave him alone. Yet she found herself glued to her spot, her eyes locked in his. He had apologized, for what she didn't know. He had done countless horrors, not just to her, but to others. Her best friends hated him, she knew they would disapprove. But, she couldn't leave. "For what?"

Do you know what the fucked up thing was? For all that Draco had done, for all the people that he had hurt, he had been so delusional for so long that a part of him thought that a simple apology would suffice. That all changed when she asked him what he was apologizing for. The moment he had to think about the extent of what he did, to those he hurt...it was as though he had been struck in the chest. "For everything.", he looked to her with eyes that he had never shown to anyone before, eyes he never would have thought possible. There was sorrow and so, so much regret.

Hermione knew a thing or two, everyone professed she was the most clever witch at Hogwarts. Yet, that all meant nothing right now. At this moment, she didn't have a clue what to do. She could tell, and it was obvious, that he was being genuine. But, it was Draco Malfoy. The guy who picked on innocent little Neville Longbottom in our first year. The guy who called me a mudblood. The guy my friends and many others detested. And yet, here he is, saying he's sorry for everything.