It has been a very long time since I have written a long fanfiction, and this story is why. This will go through all seven books, jumping between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger's POV. It will eventually be a love story, but just like the title suggests, I am not changing anything in JK Rowling's story except the Epilogue and the events of Cursed Child. Almost every extra information I place in the story will be backed by something JK has written, so this story is a HUGE disclaimer, the only thing I own is Draco and Hermione's side of the story, and even some of their interactions will be what JK wrote.

Enjoy

In Between The Lines: Chapter One

Draco's POV:

There were a lot of children my age wondering around Diagon Alley with their parents, looking and pointing at everything they could. Some of the parents just looked at the children with an amused expression, and other's were looking around with the same look of awe as their children, those were the adults Father steered us away from. Rightfully so too.

I had already been to Diagon Alley on several occasions with my mother so I didn't bother to look around at the stores like the rest of my future classmates, I only held my head up like Father and followed in his and mother's footsteps. Like Father said, there was nothing interesting in this part of the alley anyways.

"Now, Draco," my mother began, stopping on the side of the walk way and bending down to fix my cloaks and hair as Father stayed upright like a respectable man, he never bent down for anything. "You remember Madam Malkin? Just go into this shop and tell her who you are and she'll know what to do." I keep from rolling my eyes at my mother's protective antics, I already knew that people knew how to treat me once they know who I am, she doesn't need to remind me. "Your father will be next door getting your books while I go look at appropriate wands for you." She placed a hand on my cheek and kissed my forehead before walking away with my father.

I walked into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, looking around the empty and messy store for it's owner. Mother and Father didn't get their robes from here, and I don't see why I had to either, at least there wasn't anyone else in the store with me.

"Hogwarts student?" I turned at the voice and saw Madam Malkin, a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve, smiling down at me with a measuring tape draped over her shoulder.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," I told her, standing up straighter and meeting her eyes the way Father does. She raised an eyebrow at my stance but said nothing else, leading me into the back of the store and telling me to stand on a stool.

"Mrs. Kipling will take care of your measurements. Do you know if your mother wants more than just your Hogwarts measurements done?" Madam Malkin asked as another woman comes into the room and starts measuring me.

"How should I know?" Madam Malkin nodded and left, heading back to the front of the room.

The woman working did not say anything to me and did not look up to meet my stare as I made sure she did her work properly. Mother had brought professional designers to the Manor to take my measures last year, so I knew how it was suppose to be done. I had to make sure that this girl didn't mess up.

After a few minutes, the doorbell announced another customer and I heard Madam Malkin address the customer the same way she did me. I didn't hear the boy's reply, but she lead him to where I was so he must have a surname she recognized also.

He was a scrawny boy, smaller than me, with a thin face, black hair that was very messy, and bright green eyes. He wore round glasses that were held together by some clear, thin piece of paper. His clothes were odd and unfamiliar to me, but he seemed a little uncomfortable as Madam Malkin took his measurements, probably wanting his robes done professionally also, so I decide to talk to him. Father said to always become friends with the people with important surnames. As Mrs. Kipling began to pin up my long black robes, I turned to the small boy.

"Hello," I said. "Hogwarts, too?"

"Yes." He said, slightly dumbly. Perhaps he was related to the Crabbes.

"My father's next door buying my books and Mother's up the street looking at wands." I drawled, letting the boy feel comfortable as I let him know we were all going through this, he was not the only one that was told to do things on his own even though our parents had the capability to do it themselves. When the boy still doesn't say anything, I changed to the topic that always makes Mother's friend's children talk. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully Father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow." The boy looked even more uncomfortable now, and slightly angry. Perhaps his parents preached rules like Mother. Or he had his own broom and was thinking badly of me for not having my own. "Do you have your own broom?"

"No."

"Play Quidditch at all?" I tried again.

"No."

"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my House, and I must say, I agree." The boy remained quiet. I began to pity the poor bugger, his parents must tell him to be quiet when they aren't around, the Notts do that too. "Know what House you'll be in yet?"

"No." I refrained from asking if he can say anything else, Mother would reprimand me if I was so rude.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" I scoffed at the stories Father told of the Hufflepuffs. The boy mumbleed something I do not hear. I almost give up making conversation with this boy, thinking that even Goyle and Crabbe would have said something about Hufflepuff or the other Houses. I really hoped Hogwarts wasn't going to be filled with people with the same mental capabilities as Crabbe and Goyle. That would be awful.

I saw a large, something, walk by the window. At first I thought it was a beast it was so big and hairy, but when it stepped into the light I saw a face plastered in between the hair. He was hideous!

"I say, look at that man!" I called out, nodding towards the front window. The oaf was holding two ice creams and seemed to be motioning at them and at the boy next to me.

"That's Hagrid," The boy finally spoke, sounding pleased to be associated with that man. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh, I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"

"He's the gamekeeper." The boy corrected me, becoming defensive of the large oaf. I was beginning to think Father would be very upset if he saw me talking to this boy now.

"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage- lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."

"I think he is brilliant." Great, I'll be the only truly brilliant wizard in all of Hogwarts, no wonder Father hates that school so much, I thought.

"Do you?" I sneered at the boy, no longer wanting to try with him. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?" I accused.

"They're dead." He stated shortly, sounding mad now but I don't care. If they were the sort to leave their child with a half beast half man that couldn't keep himself clean they obviously were not of proper status.

"Oh, sorry." I said, trying to appear at least a little sympathetic, I knew many kids with parents that were dead, our parents all fought in the Wizarding War anyway, this boy was no one special and he shouldn't use his dead parents to get things he wants. I wondered if his parents even fought in the war. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean." At least there was that.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them never even heard of Hogwarts until they get their letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyways?" I asked, needing to know so I can ask Father about this boys family and if I was right or wrong to speak to him.

"That's you done, my dear." Madam Malkin interrupted the boy from replying, and they left the store with just the boys measurements while I stayed behind to wait for my robes to be finished and to muse over that odd conversation. After a few more minutes, Father came into the store carrying my books with Mother next to him. Mother hurried up Mrs. Kipling and then the three of us were walking back into Diagon Alley.

"Did you get my wand, Mother?" I asked her.

"No, that's your job, I just needed to speak to Mr. Ollivander about my own wand, we'll go down to get yours after you look at the brooms."

"He doesn't need a new broom, Narcissa. Besides, the boy will only spend too much of our time looking at the things he isn't allowed to even bring to Hogwarts."

"I could sneak it in, Father!" I suggested, throwing back my shoulders and standing up tall to show I could accomplish that.

"No." Father snapped at me, turning away from Mother and I, striding towards Knockturn Alley. I was not allowed to go with him until I was older.

"Come on, Draco." Mother took my hand and lead me to Broomstix, looking over her shoulder to make sure my Father had not turned back to us. "Go on inside, browse all you like and come up with a list of things you want for next year. I'll be in Twilfitt and Tatting's when you are finished." She kissed the side of my head after I've made sure no one was looking, and then walked towards her favorite store.

I hurried inside of Broomstix, pushing aside a group of boys my age with their noses pressed up against the window. They looked at me in awe as I go into the store looking like my purpose was to buy the whole place. It was so enjoyable to make duller children amused by my superior status. Once inside I turned in a circle to look around the shop, it was one of the most expensive stores in all of Diagon Alley so there was not a lot of people to bother on any occasion, which made it quite embarrassing when I bumped into the only other person in the store besides the workers.

"I'm sorry," I said immediately, bending down to pick up potions and charms books that had fallen out of the strangers hands. I recognized them as the ones Father had bought for me. "Hogwarts too I assume?" I asked before looking up as the stranger hurried to grab the other books that had fallen. I felt the weight lift from my shoulders now that I knew I didn't bump into an important older wizard that would recognize me and tell my father I was in here.

When I looked up I don't see the child I was expecting to see. Instead of a boy, in nice robes and combed back hair like myself, I was looking up at a young girl, definitely my age, with wild brown hair, doe brown eyes, and a smile showing slightly bigger than usual front teeth but they only served to make her grin wider at me. She wasn't wearing wizarding robes, but most wizards that can't apparate to Diagon Alley were wearing muggle clothes so that fact doesn't waver me from standing up and extending my hand.

"I'm Draco." I told the girl, shaking her hand after she readjusted her books. She stood up tall and smiled, shaking my hand.

"I'm Hermione, thank you for helping with my books." I shrugged off her thanks and looked around the store again, then settled my eyes back on her. "Are you in here looking for Quidditch supplies?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No, I'm a first year so I can't bring a broom, though I am dying to get on one during flying lessons."

"The brooms at school aren't like the ones in here, they are old and hard to control." I informed her, pleased I found someone that can speak, and speak intelligently.

"That's horrible!" She exclaimed, "it would be much easier to teach the students that don't know how to fly with proper brooms like the Nimbus brooms and the new Comet brooms."

I was momentarily speechless, very momentarily. All of the girls Mother brought for me to meet hated talking about brooms, and here I've met a respectable girl who was in the best broom store in Diagon Alley and was keeping up an intelligent broom related conversation. It was like I had found the perfect best mate.

"I can't wait till I'm a second year so I can bring my broom to school," I told her to impress her into liking me and hanging out with me once we get to Hogwarts.

"You're a first year too?" She asked happily, seeming to loose the rest of her shyness. She turned away and began to browse the shelves. "I was afraid you were in a year older than me, then I wouldn't have known anyone at school and I couldn't bare that." She admitted, and I saw her neck grow red as she discoverd she didn't want to say that. I chuckled and looked away from her to let her get over her embarrassment as she had with me when I bumped into her.

"I was feeling the same way," I admitted after making sure the store clerk was busy and not eavesdropping. "I know a few other first years, but their parents are just friends with mine so I'm forced to hangout with them." I glanced back over to Hermione when I hear her make a sound in the back of her throat. Her face was scrunched up and she was shaking her head.

"My parents do the same with all of my cousins, I hate it. It's so annoying to be with all of them because they have just the most dimwitted things to say and think I'm odd for going against what they always do, but I don't care that much." She blushed again and I don't hold in my laugh this time. "Don't laugh at me!" She exclaimed, holding her books tighter to her chest and fixing me with a glare.

After I've calmed down I looked at her glaring at me, still completely amused. Hermione spoke about the things I thought of when I was alone and after I had been reprimanded, and though I should be apprehensive about her instead of amused, I wasn't. Her embarrassment put me at ease and if she didn't care too much to admit the things that we both have thought of before, aloud, then I wanted to stick to her.

"Don't worry, Hermione. We'll stick together when we get to Hogwarts."

"And you won't make fun of me anymore?" She narrowed her eyes at me and continued to glare at me. It could be an intimidating glare if I still wasn't ecstatic that I found a pureblood that doubted their parents ideals as I did and was willing to admit it even though I still never would. She could glare at me all she wanted, right now I couldn't care less.

"I promise."

She dropped the glare, lowered her books back to her hip, and smiled at me when she hears me say it. "Good," she nodded at me and I nod back, both of us acknowledging our new friendship and promising to take care of it.

In the books Mother read to me when Father was away, the children always became friends really quickly and stayed together through their adventures. I never understood how they could make such a strong friendship so quickly, and had asked Mother if I would ever have a friend like that. She always kissed my head and said of course I would, I just had to trust people and work to keep the relationship going. I still doubted her words, knowing her and Father didn't have friends like that and I never saw others with friends like the ones I read about. The bond Hermione and I just agreed to silently, with just a promise and nod, I wanted to make it into a real friendship. I wanted a friendship with Hermione that last through all of Hogwarts and into adulthood like the ones I read about.

"So I heard that if you raced a Comet 180 and a Cleansweep Six on a clear day and in a straight line, the Comet beats the Cleansweep easily, but when there are twists and turns, and it's bad weather the Cleansweep always wins," Hermione began rambling, walking around the store with me. We compared brooms we know of, she is patient with me when I don't know a fact about an older broom that she does and I am patient with her when she doesn't know a fact about the newer brooms. It was the most fun I had had with anyone that I didn't realize how late it had become until Mother came into the store to fetch me so we could go to Ollivander's before Father came back.

"I'll see you on the train, Hermione," I told her as Mother waited patiently at the door, looking amused.

"Okay, I better go find my parents also, they wanted to have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron but I could not resist the chance to look at the stores without a parent looming over my shoulder." She looked out the store window, both of us taking in just how long we must have spent in the store. "I hope they aren't too upset."

"Don't worry, dear," Mother said from the doorway, smiling at Hermione who steps closer to me. Mother and Father tend to intimidate all of my friends, and I was glad they still could to Hermione even if she was my favorite friend I had- there had to be a superior in every friendship after all. "I'm sure your parents had a fine time together for lunch, parents don't like school shopping that much anyways."

Hermione smiled shyly at my mom and nodded, glancing at me and back to Mother, "Thank you, Mrs..." Hermione bit her lip and blushed again, both of us realizing with a start I never told her my surname. That never happens.

"Malfoy, dear." Hermione nodded again and flushed further. I chuckled at her embarrassment and she pushed me and gave me a dirty look for making fun of her again. "Come on, Draco." Mother headed out the door and I waved to Hermione.

"See you on the first!" She shouted after me.