If it's change you're looking for...
A/N I do not own Harry Potter or any of JKR's charaters or world. Only the plot and OC's are mine. Thanks for reading!
Chapter Two
The next morning Hermione woke early and headed to the kitchen to make herself something to eat. She could hardly believe the day before had really happened. She was finally with Harry. It only took a couple years she thought to herself as she ate a bagel and cream cheese and made herself a cup of coffee. Her parents always told her she was too young for coffee but she wasn't a morning person and without coffee it took her hours to wake up enough to be civil. Besides they always left for work before she got up anyways so what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. That thought brought with it a lot of unwanted thoughts about the up coming war. Her parents didn't realize how much danger they would be in. Once he-who-must-not-be-named regained power it was only a matter of time and she would have to do something to ensure their safety. At that moment an owl with the news paper swooped through the window. Hermione gave it a piece of toast and it took off again. She scanned the paper but it was the same worthless nonsense that Rita Skeeter always wrote. Telling everyone how Dumbledore and Harry were just seeking attention. She threw the paper down and finished eating. After her second cup of coffee she went to the shower. After she was clean she headed to her room and got dressed.
"Today I think I want to wear something bright, maybe that new shirt I just bought the other day, what do you think Crookshanks?" She asked the fat cat curled up on her pillow. The cat let out a soft meow. Hermione pulled out a satin camisole that was robin's egg blue and paired it with a white mini skirt and ballet flats. She pulled her hair back in a butterfly comb so that it was out of her face but still down her back and applied a bit of the potion to make it stay wavy. After applying a light eyeshadow and some eyeliner she dubbed herself ready to leave the house.
"Bye Crookshanks I'm headed to the library. I'll be back after a while. Your food and water bowls are full and your litter box is clean. Be good." Hermione always treated her cat as if it were human. She figured it had feelings too so it should get the same treatment. That's what originally spurred the S.P.E.W. Movement. She couldn't stand to see creatures treated so badly.
In the library she went to her usual corner and sat a her usual computer. She had been researching places that would be good for sending her parents when it was time for them to go. So far the best place she had found was Australia. As far as she could tell the war hadn't reached that far east. And she wasn't sending them west, just in case some one figured out that she had sent her parents away. America was way to easy to infiltrate. She already had them fake identities and lives in the works, they wouldn't miss her, they wouldn't even know her. She had perfected the memory charm and created the fake memories for them. Now she was working on the technical aspect of it, and she didn't want to use her home computer just in case someone caught on. It would be too risky plus her parents might notice something if she suddenly took an interest in being on the computer for more than a couple minutes at a time. This was just easier. She looked up from her computer screen just in time to see Draco walk into the library. He was holding an armful of books and went to the front counter. After checking all the books back in he spotted Hermione at a desk at the back. He smiled and walked into the stacks. Hermione quickly closed down and shut off her computer and got up.
"Hey Hermione. Leaving so soon?" Malfoy called to her as he came out of the stacks. Hermione froze she was hoping he wasn't on his way to her when he went out of sight.
"Yeah, I got some stuff to do today. I was just checking my email before heading downtown." Hermione quickly decided she was going to go shopping on the strip in muggle London. Malfoy looked at her enquiringly and smiled.
"Downtown? Sounds interesting? I was just returning some books I borrowed. I was just wondering why you always spend so much time in the library. I mean I understand the draw to literature but you're always alone. Why aren't you're friends with you?" Malfoy asked politely. He reminded her that though she was surrounded by people she was very much alone. Hermione shuddered slightly.
"Have you ever seem them in a library? It's rather sad really. Neither of them read unless they have too. So I enjoy the library on my own rather often. It's better then being interrupted a hundred times being asked when we can go eat." Hermione smiled and tried not to look worried about the situation. She had to be in control, if she wasn't she could end up in a very bad situation. Malfoy looked her up and down then smiled.
"Well such a beautiful lady as yourself shouldn't be roaming around muggle London all alone. Haven't heard the stories of girls found in alleys and rivers and what not. Would you let me accompany you? Just to ensure your safety?" Malfoy asked in what appeared to be a sincere attempt to look out for her safety.
"Malfoy, we both know that you are not in the least worried with my safety. What are you playing at?" Hermione asked as sweetly as she could. She wasn't trying to make a scene in front of a bunch of people. Malfoy had been nothing but nice since he came in. No one here knew he was a supporter of he-who-must-not-be-named they didn't know he was a threat.
"My name is Draco. Just Draco. And I'm not playing at anything. I'm trying to look out for your safety here. These muggles can be savages, and they prey on beautiful, unsuspecting women like yourself. Please let me accompany you, I promise I'm not a danger to you or anyone else." Malfoy insisted looking around noticing that people were starting to stare at them. Hermione looked around discretely and turned to walk out the door. Once she was outside she looked back to see if he followed her, he was a step behind her.
"Fine but you try anything and I swear I'll hex you to pieces, underage magic restrictions be damned!" She stated in a voice low enough that only Malfoy could hear. Hermione walked off in the direction of downtown and kept a brisk pace. Malfoy was almost struggling to keep up.
"Hermione do you always walk so fast or are you just trying to leave me behind?" Malfoy panted as they stopped at a cross walk.
"What are you doing here Malfoy, why are you calling me by my name, why do you insist on following me around like a bodyguard?" Hermione snapped before the light changed and she could walk again. Before Malfoy could answer even one question the light changed and Hermione was off again.
"Hermione! Hermione! Granger will you slow down for one minute so I can answer your bloody questions?" Malfoy nearly shouted at her. She stopped and turned on her heel.
"Now you want me to slow down for you? You want to explain yourself fine. But it better be good." Hermione stated and stomped off into a park and sat on a bench. Malfoy followed and sat down next to her.
"I know I just came out of the blue. But I didn't have a choice. I know that you think the worst of me. You have every right too. But I really am here to make sure that you're not putting yourself in unnecessary danger. You see I went to Dumbledore this summer and I asked for help. I don't want to be my father. So he has been having me do some petty jobs for him. I mean like cleaning the head quarters and running errands in muggle London, and pretty much anything he can find to keep me from being bored. And this time he sent me to make sure you're not doing anything stupid like walking all over London alone and stuff. Someone told him that you're being reckless and he asked me to check on you. So I am kinda you're body guard." Malfoy looked sheepishly at Hermione as he waited for it to all sink in. Hermione looked around three or four times and finally looked at him.
"You can't be serious? I mean Dumbledore would have said something to me. He wouldn't just send you out here and expect me to accept you with open arms. He knows that you and I don't get along, we never have. I need to speak to Dumbledore." Hermione said and was in a flash up and heading back the other direction. She didn't see Malfoy get up to follow her but she felt him behind her. She didn't glance back at him as she took off down a side street that she rarely ever took to get home. Malfoy didn't know where Hermione was going, she never went down this street. He could barely keep up he almost ran into her when she suddenly stopped.
"Malfoy. I don't know what you're really doing here, or why you're chasing me but I assure you I can get home just fine by myself. Now why don't you just go on back to where ever you came from." Hermione said through gritted teeth. Malfoy was taken back by her tone until he noticed the group of girls walking towards them.
"Hermione I can't. Do you know these girls? They seem to know you." Malfoy said as one of the girls gave him an appraising look. Hermione barely spared him a backwards glance.
"Hermione, it's been forever since I last saw you. Where have you been." A girl a little taller the Hermione with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes asked in a fake cheerful voice. The group of five girls were all dressed in similar style they were wearing what appeared to be a school uniform and too much makeup. "Yeah you kind of disappeared after fifth grade. We all kind of hoped you died. But obviously since you're walking on our block you didn't, and you haven't learned." Said a the girl on the right side of the blonde. The other girls sneered.
"It's nice to see that you finally did something with your hair, it was rather horrid, not that its much better now. Its such a dull color and it looks like it hasn't ever been cut." The girl on the left taunted. Hermione was seething with anger, she didn't think of the London Tech girls when she decided to go this way.
"Yeah. It's nice to see you too Vic, Megan, Lexis, Tegan, Michelle. I wish I had time to stop and chat with you, but I'm actually in a hurry and would rather not be late. You know how these things go. I would rather spend eternity listening to American Hip-hop then have to sit here and listen to you talk through your industrial sized arse-holes. Oh and thankfully I don't have to ever set foot in London Tech again. So hopefully this will be our last unfortunate meeting." Hermione tried to walk around them but the blonde girl, Vic grabbed her arm.
"Oh no, I don't think so. You obviously have forgotten the way things work. You're going to be polite and introduce your friend here to some real women so that he doesn't have to waste anymore of his time chasing after a nobody like you. I mean really, who would want to be caught in your company? You're just a filthy little poor girl whose parents couldn't afford to send you to a proper school anymore so now you have to go to public school, and I bet you still don't have any friends, do you still sit in the library and bury yourself in books so no one can see you cry?" Vic said with contempt. Hermione looked at her like she had just slapped her. Malfoy watched the exchange and understood why Hermione was so sensitive to being called a mud blood. Hermione wrenched her arm free.
"I'll have you know that you're the one who is poor, you're parents don't work, you live off your grandmother, her money is the only thing that keeps you in school, its her mansion you live in. My parents work, they bought our house they pay for my schooling at a privet school in Scotland that is way more prestigious than London Tech. And don't go bringing my friends into this, just because your miserable bunch would leave you if your grandmother ever stopped letting you ride to school in her limo. The only reason you have friends is because they think you have money and they can share in the wealth. Wonder what would happen when everyone found out that when your grandmother dies her money goes to your cousin Devin in Surrey. And you will be out a place to live and won't have the luxuries that you flaunt anymore." Hermione smiled sweetly as Vic looked like she had been slapped.
"You can't possibly know that, you're bluffing. You just don't like that I told how much a loser you are in front of him. And you're being incredibly rude, you haven't introduced us. Hi my name is Victoria Le'marq, and these are my friends. Megan de la' Rue, Lexis Applegate, Tegan Montreal, and Michelle Nite. shame to see such a good looking young man with such a dweeb. If you'd like you could come with us to the mall." Vic smiled sweetly and extended her hand to him for him to kiss it. Draco smirked and looked at her hand like he might catch something from touching it.
"Victoria did you say? Well its a pleasure I'm sure, not mine, but perhaps yours. My name is Draco. And Hermione here is definitely not in as poor of taste as you are. Obviously the school you go to doesn't teach poise nor compassion. If Hermione were as destitute as you'd like to claim, then wouldn't be proper manners to not mention it and to only comment on how well she looks and how nice it is to see her in good health? Which you're obviously not capable of. Any way as Hermione put it we are going to be late, and I would rather not keep our reservations waiting. Hermione love lets go." Malfoy reached for her hand and she grabbed hold of it almost in relief. Vic looked dumbfounded. The rest had their mouths open in shock. Hermione smiled and waved as they walked around the girls and down the road. Once out of ear shot Hermione looked at Draco.
"Thanks. I really can not stand those girls, I generally avoid this route because of them but it's the fastest and I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry that you had to witness that. They can't pass up an opportunity to tell me how much better then me they are. Even though the only reason any of them go to that school is because their families donate lots of money to the school board. I was there upon request of the Dean himself. And my parents never once had trouble paying my tuition. They never did like me because I got more awards and recognition then they did. But I do appreciate what you said back there, I kinda lost my poise but I just had to shove it in her face for a second. Her grandmother is one of my dad's patients and since I help out at the office sometimes I see her a lot. She told me she finally decided she was giving it all to Devin because he never asks her for anything. Everyone else gets all they can out of her and it makes her sick, she really is a nice old lady." Hermione tried to explain away as much of it as possible so she wouldn't have to answer any questions. Draco looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time.
"Hermione you mean to tell me that you didn't break any of their noses for calling you filth, but you broke mine for it? How is that even fair, I think we should go back right now and you should break Victoria's nose." He said in mock astonishment. Hermione looked at him for a minute and then laughed so hard that she had tears in her eyes.
"No I never broke their noses. I tripped Michelle down the stairs in third grade, but she deserved it, she dumped her milk over my head at lunch and completely ruined my favorite book. I couldn't let her destroy my book without getting her back some how. She didn't break anything but she never messed with my books again." Hermione said in a matter-of-factly tone. Draco laughed as he pictured a milk drenched Hermione tripping the other girl down the stairs it really would have been fun to watch. Just then Hermione noticed they were still holding hands. No electric shock this time but it felt strangely right.
"Um, can I have my hand back now?" Hermione asked as she started to pull away. Draco looked at their interlocked hands and smiled.
"Are you sure there could be more horribly rude girls around dying to try an humiliate you. Holding my hand could do wonders for setting those trollops in their place, being on the arm of one such as myself generally does that for a woman." Draco smirked and looked Hermione in the eyes. She seemed to be warring with herself. He gave in and let go so she wouldn't have to make the decision since it obviously wasn't easy for her. Hermione sighed and resumed walking with vigor. Draco reached out and grabbed her hand again.
"Maybe I should hold on to you, you move way to fast without an anchor." He laughed as she looked at his hand and back to his eyes.
"I have a boyfriend. I really shouldn't be walking around holding your hand Malfoy, plus I still need to talk to Dumbledore. I'll try to slow down some but you shouldn't really have a problem keeping up, you have longer legs than I do." Hermione stated and pulled her hand away and tried to walk at a more normal pace. Draco was quiet for a few minutes before he cleared his throat.
"So who is the lucky guy? Please tell me its not Weasley." Draco said in a light tone. Hermione looked at him and he seemed put out which wasn't like him at all.
"Why would you care? I'm below your station remember." She said with as much contempt as she could muster. Draco shook his head.
"No Hermione, your not. Like I said, I'm not my father. Those twits back there, they were below my station. You aren't by any means. And I would just like to know who my competition is." They finally made it to Hermione's house and luckily her parents weren't home yet.
"I'm with Harry. Any ways I've made it home without incident thanks, so you can be on your way now." Hermione said as she climbed her stairs and went inside. Draco stared after her for a few moments before he said to himself.
"She's with Potter. Hmm. Well I didn't expect that. But I guess the golden boy is entitled to some form of happiness. For now anyways." He muttered he made it into the alley around back of Hermione's house. Dumbledore would expect him soon and he wasn't going to miss the explosion Granger was going to have when she found out he wasn't lying.
A/N Hope you enjoyed reading. I won't beg for reviews but if you have any constructive critism please feel free to let me know. :) Thanks!
