Disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter characters and the Harry Potter world. They all belong to JK Rowling.

Almost Perfect, Almost Yours

Chapter Two

"Daffodil"

He loves me, he loves me not

She loves me, she loves me not

Draco was so taken aback that he had suddenly let go of the fish he was currently holding, making it plunge into the water and scurry away as fast as possible.

"Were you trying to kill it?" the girl asked as she went nearer and looked over the fish, making sure that all of them were okay.

She was wearing a huge white chiffon dress and looked really pretty, he noted.

"Yes," he replied, just to see her reaction to that.

She looked mad at first, and then started looking at him quite pensively for a while. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "No, you weren't," she suddenly said in a matter-of-fact manor.

"How would you know?" Draco frowned.

"Because Nanny Demelza said that if a bad person did something wrong, he'll never admit it to anyone else. If a good person tries to be bad, he'll try to let other people see that he did something wrong even if he didn't in the first place. So I guess you're just a good person trying to be bad. Although I haven't really figured out why," she explained confidently to him while sitting on the pond's stony edge. "I'm Hermione Pucey by the way, and you are?"

"D-Draco Malfoy?" Draco answered, still frowning and looking confused to what she just said.

"Are you trying to hide from your parents too?" Hermione suddenly jumped off of the stone and scooted over to whisper at him, making him step back a little because of their sudden close proximity. He wasn't used to any of that and he could feel his cheeks getting a little warmer.

"Are you trying to be a seer?" He scowled at her.

"I'm right then!" she exclaimed excitedly, until she suddenly clasped a hand on her mouth, looking like she just made a big mistake by shouting. "Let's go," she urgently whispered while unabashedly taking his hand and pulling him with her.

Draco couldn't do anything but just walk with her and stare awkwardly at their joined hands. Their hands together were quite sweaty but it seemed that she didn't notice it at all as she continued to walk nearer into some garden shrubs adorned with little tubular scarlet flowers borne in cymes.

"Mother's garden has all the flowers in the world."

She smiled at him before picking a dense rounded cluster of the little red flowers from the ornamental shrub. Slowly and carefully, she then plucked one of the blossoms. She pulled the tiny little red stem with nectar inside and sipped on it gently. Little Draco stared at her, frowning in curiosity.

"Here, have some," Hermione invited as she plucked another little flower among the cluster. She selected one of its stem which was filled with drops of nectar and offered it to him.

Draco hesitated for a while, but then realized he was too curious and his interest was too piqued not to try what she did. And so he slowly bent his head down to meet the little stem of nectar she was offering at him to sip at it.

It tasted sugary and sweet.

He suddenly found himself smiling a little.

"You like it, don't you?" She beamed at him. Her tiny freckles shone with the sun. "It can make you immortal, you know," she whispered at him seriously. "It's a beverage of the gods, though I'm yet to discover how to get some of their ambrosia. Tantalus must be a really clever person to have stolen one from them. I don't want to be like him though. Nanny Demelza said stealing is a very serious offense. Tantalus was greatly punished for that crime. He'd been forever hungry and thirsty after that," she told him.

Draco realized she was talking about Tantalus from a Greek Mythology story. "You read too much," he replied while plucking another blossom and repeating the process she had just done a while ago. It was quite fun.

"I do!" She nodded and smiled. "Don't you?"

"I think it's boring." He shrugged and sat on one of the logged benches of the place.

"How can travelling to one place and another be boring?"

"You don't travel when you read. You sit and stare at some words and understand them. Mother makes me do it all the time and I always need to report everything that I've read after. It's boring," he expressed simply.

"Nanny Demelza makes me report too," Hermione mused. "But she does it differently. She makes me act and dance and sing about it," she uttered as she stood up to gracefully turn around along the dancing beams of the sun. Her dress flowed rhythmically with the breeze." She said that when you read, you travel a lot, except that you leave your body behind and fly with your soul. It's safer than actually travelling, you know."

Draco had to purse his lips and look down, annoyed by the fact that he seemed to be a little… shy all of a sudden.

"Are you staying here for a little longer?" she asked as she sat down next to him, making him move away a little. "It'll be nice if you do. I'll show you some of my hiding places when we play hide and seek with Adrian and Nanny Demelza, because I like you," she said, grinning toothily at him.

Draco looked surprise to what she just said, but tried to hide it so she wouldn't see.

"Here," he finally muttered after a long silence. He got the ruffled daffodil he had placed inside his pocket earlier and shoved it toward her, not staring back and looking straight at the ground.

"For me?"

"Don't be stupid. Of course it's for you," he grumbled while thrusting the daffodil further into her chest.

"Thank you." She smiled softly as she accepted his little gift. The daffodil looked a little mashed and it fluttered and bent lowly in front of her.

"It got squashed inside my pocket," Draco explained. His once pale cheeks looked damp with crimson kisses now. He had never willingly given anything to anyone before. He didn't even know why he did it. He just felt like he should because… she was too pretty.

"Tag!" Hermione suddenly tapped him on the shoulder and laughed while running just meters away from him. "Come on! You're it!" she shouted playfully at him.

She shrieked when Draco suddenly jumped out from the logged bench to run and catch her. A tender waft was playfully hitting little Draco's cheeks as he sprinted over to catch his new playmate.

He had never felt as happy and as free as this.

He'd always been alone at home and whenever he would meet other children his age, he'd often just get into a fight due to his competitiveness. One time he had even pushed this kid, named Blaise Zabini, into the cake table during one of their gatherings at the manor. It had caused a huge fiasco in the place. His mother had been so furious at him that he ended up starving and cold inside the attic for the whole night.

"Aw!"

He suddenly ran as fast as he could to see Hermione lying with her front on the ground. She seemed to have tripped and hurt herself.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly while examining the newly formed scratches on her knees.

"P-Please don't tell Mother," she sniffed, trying her best not to cry. The corners of her mouth were trembling and some streaks of stubborn tears were starting to stream down her cheeks; however, Draco could tell just how much she was trying so hard to stop them.

"But you're hurt," he told her anxiously.

In some utterly strange way, he suddenly felt very protective of her.

"Just p-please don't tell her… Please don't—"

"Hermione!"

Both looked around to see their families, walking worriedly towards them. Lady Petrova looked too angry. It was as if her eyes were about to pop out as she went nearer to her daughter and saw what had just happened. Hermione sobbed when her mother uncaringly caught her arm and callously hauled her to stand up. Draco noticed that Adrian tried to stop their mother but she just gripped Hermione's arm even tighter, making her cry even more.

"It's an accident! It's not her fault! You don't have the right to get mad at her!" Draco suddenly found himself talking directly to Lady Petrova.

"Draco! Show some respect," Lady Narcissa reprimanded him, looking quite outraged by her son's behavior.

For a second, Lady Petrova turned to look at the little boy to study the scene before her. She then acknowledged the little rumpled daffodil on her crying daughter's closed and tensed hand. She looked contemplative for a while, until her rough actions suddenly subdued. She even unexpectedly kissed her daughter sympathetically on the cheek.

"Of course it's not her fault, dear," Lady Petrova told him sweetly. Draco hated her voice. "I'm just so worried for my little baby. Come, Hermione. Let's get you healed and it'll all be okay," she added while gently pulling her daughter into her embrace.

Hermione looked confused and was still sobbing, but she nodded anyway and let her mother pull her closer and walk her into the mansion.

Little Draco stood rooted on his spot and stared at Hermione's retreating form.

When she looked back and smiled shyly at him behind her mother's skirt, he found himself smiling back…

A/N: :) :) :)

When I was younger, I tasted sweet nectar from Santan (Flame of the Woods) flowers with my friends and then sometimes we'd also make little necklaces out of them. It was such a fond memory. Whenever I remember it, I always have this grin in my face. In my place, your childhood won't ever be complete without this experience so I wanted to share this little familiarity with everyone. There was also a time in which I believed that I can be immortal if I did drink some nectar. It was foolish, yes, but sometimes, the most foolish things could give you the fondest of memories. :)

I'm enjoying the little Draco and Hermione too much! Argh! There is more to come, however, and I'm so excited when they'd finally grow up. :)

Thank you for all your lovely reviews! Can I have some for this chapter too? :D

Many thanks to MissElizabeth12 and rachylynxx who are my beta readers for this chapter!

God bless and sweet kisses!

Sue