An Innocence Restored
Author's Note: Well, on one of my previous stories I had a thank you section which I'm going to introduce to this story because I feel that it shows my high appreciation for people who take the time to leave a review, so at the beginning of each chapter I'll have that section.
THANK YOU:
Guest: Thanks for giving me my first review and it was so lovely! Hope you enjoy this chapter!
suchafangirl8998: Thanks for making me want to continue this story! I hope you enjoy this update!
Lyrics: Say all you will say while we're still listening
Chapter Two
As Draco sauntered into the Great Hall, he plastered a smile onto his face, hoping that it would stop people from asking him how he was coping with what had happened over the holidays. It seemed to work…well, apart from the stares that followed him as he made it to his usual seat at the Slytherin table.
A few mouths opened as though they were going to ask him how he was feeling, but the glare that Draco shot them made them stop in their tracks and shut them right up once more.
"So, how was your summer?" Draco asked a few of the people that sat near him. The pleasantries from him were rather unexpected, so most people didn't answer him…they simply stared at him with their mouths open as though he had truly said something completely impossible. Well, it would have been nice for a response. Jesus, all he wanted to do was try and be nice this year.
"Guys, close your mouths" Blaise scolded as he shot them a look of disgust. It seemed that a certain Slytherin was still going to be being cruel this year. "We're not a pack of animals. God, who the fuck let you in Slytherin"
Draco could tell straight away that it was definitely going to be the same old Blaise…he just prayed that his final year at Hogwarts wouldn't be just like the years previous.
…
On the Gryffindor table, everything was entirely different. Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny were deep in conversation about Draco.
"I'm sure he can understand why we said hello to him" Hermione began to explain as she leaned in closer to the other three to prevent others from hearing the conversation. "But that doesn't explain why he said hello back. If anything, shouldn't he be even worse after what happened to him? I'm surprised he didn't have a witty insult to chuck back at me, to be honest"
"I don't know why you're all giving this so much thought" Ron grumbled, stuffing a chicken leg into his mouth as he rolled his eyes. It seemed that the others talking about Draco were going to start putting him off of his food. "This is Draco Malfoy we're talking about. He's always plotting something to get to us. Why do you think he's changed at all?"
"I never said that I thought he had changed" Hermione growled defensively. "Think about it, Ronald. His father has just died. Even if they didn't get on particularly well, that's still going to be hard on him. When he comes back to school for the first time, I'm sure that we're going to be the last thing on his mind."
"Have you paid any attention to anything that's happened for the past six years?" Ron asked as he raised his eyebrows at Hermione, finally turning his attention away from the chicken leg. "We've always been the only thing on Malfoy's mind…and we probably always will be. As long as we're miserable, he's happy. That's not going to change now. Do you really think he's had some sort of epiphany?"
"You're still not listening to a word I'm saying." Hermione snapped, fixing the Weasley with a hard glare. "It doesn't matter. You're just going to keep being insensitive"
"Whatever you say, Hermione" Ron grumbled, knowing when Hermione was more likely to win an argument. Mostly, he just wanted everyone's first day back at Hogwarts to go smoothly unlike how the rest of the year was probably going to go. "Now why don't we just enjoy the feast and catch up before we have to go to the dormitory?"
The foursome attempted to do just that, but it wasn't quite the same as it had been for the past six years. Everyone's minds were filled with thoughts of Malfoy as they tried to decipher what he meant. It was just a simple 'hello.' Why were they overthinking it so much!?
…
"Looks like Pothead's getting a little angsty over there" Malfoy heard Blaise laugh as he nodded his head over to the Gryffindor table. They were all huddled close and whispering about something that seemed to be angering everyone on the table.
Just as Draco started to bask in the glory of such discomfort that was haunting the Gryffindor's, he remembered his deal with Blaise and attempted to calm his slyness down.
"Hey, am I allowed to sometimes be mean about them to you?" Draco then asked Blaise once he started missing the insults he used to say about them. Well, he couldn't just quit cold turkey, could he?
"Oh, that's how you want to play it" Blaise laughed. Malfoy noticed the twinkle in Blaise's eyes which alerted him that Blaise had a trick up his sleeve. Whatever it was, Malfoy would bet one hundred galleons that it wasn't going to be good. "Because I'm such a nice man, I'm going to let you be as mean as you want about them when you're around me…but that's only if you get extra close to the Mudblood…if you catch my drift."
Malfoy's eyes went wide as he stared at the Gryffindor table. "You want me to try and date…Granger?"
"No, no, no, no, no" Blaise shook his head. "I just want you to seduce her…make her believe that you're really interested. You know what I mean. You need to make her want you. After that, you can break her heart and you get the money"
"But she's a Mudblood" Malfoy growled. "How the fuck do you expect me to seduce when I'll be wanting to gag every time I lay my eyes on her? Come on, that wasn't the deal"
"Nah, this is the new deal" Blaise laughed, enjoying seeing Malfoy write in discomfort. It doesn't exactly happen very often, after all. "You can either accept the challenge or the deal is off. What do you say?"
"Why are you even changing it to that?" Malfoy asked. "What could can possibly come of it?"
"Exactly!" Blaise cheered. "Hogwarts is growing rather boring now. I'm sure a Slytherin seducing a Mudblood Gryffindor would really spice things up a bit…so are you going to take the challenge?"
"You know that I really hate you for this, right?" Draco questioned, his eyes falling on the Gryffindor table once more as he observed Granger. They no longer looked angry with each other, but Draco could tell straight away that there was an awkward air around them. If Draco did take the bet, it would be a good idea to win her heart when she was feeling this resentful towards her friends. Perhaps if he chose to accept this bet, it wouldn't be as hard as he believed it would be. After all, he could be sweet when he wanted to be and he did have the charm and the good looks to get a girl. The only problem was, he had been downright horrible to Granger ever since he had first met her. No matter how good looking someone is…well, it's hard to forget hatred like that.
On the other hand, it had been a long time since he had a challenge with a girl and he missed it. Everyone knew that the chase was what people enjoyed about relationships. I mean, you always wanted the one that you couldn't have, right? Not that Draco wanted her…not at all!
"Oh yeah, I know you hate me" Blaise laughed, completely unaware of the war that was going through Draco's head. "Even if your dad did die in the holidays, I'm not going easy on you" A pang of sadness went through Draco at the way Blaise just mentioned his father's dead so casually. It seemed that was just the sense of humour that Slytherin had.
"Fine, I'll do it" Draco sighed, tearing his gaze away from the Gryffindor table. "You so owe me for this. Just so you know, this proves that I'm ten times better than you" Blaise simply shrugged and turned back to his plate of food, loading even more onto the already full china.
"Whatever gets you through the day, Malfoy" He joked before shoving a roast potato in his mouth. "We all know that I'm the hottest Slytherin here"
"Of course you are, Blaise" Draco said sarcastically, casting one last look towards Granger. Why did it have to be her that he had to seduce? Anyone else would have been better…even a Hufflepuff.
…
Once the feast was over, Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny made their way up to the dormitory with full stomachs. The sickness of eating too much was hanging between them, making the stairs seem like nothing but ominous obstacles.
"Did you notice the way Malfoy kept looking over at our table?" Ginny asked, being the first one to break the no talking about Malfoy rule. Hermione hated to admit it, but she had noticed it as well and had wanted to bring it up with the others.
"Yeah, I noticed that" Harry sighed as they hauled themselves up the stairs.
"He's probably planning his next move to sabotage us" Ron huffed, reach the fat lady and clearing his throat to say the password. "Caput Draconis"
"Oh, Ron" Hermione grumbled. "Could you ever give it a rest for once in your life? You're all being rather paranoid"
"Are you in cahoots with him or something?" Ron questioned turning on her as soon as they got into the common room. "You seem to be acting like his number one fan all of a sudden"
"No, Ron" She defended, fixing him with yet another hard glare. "I'm not his number one fan. I just thought that after everything that had happened last year, we could just forget all of our past differences and just get alone for once. People died last year, Ron. I'm sure we can forget a silly feud with the Malfoy's. I'm tired of all of these judgemental issues that we all have with each other."
"Well, that makes sense when you put it like that" Ron finally agreed, looking down at the floor instead of Hermione's eyes. He absolutely hated it whenever he realised that she was right.
"Thank you" She sighed. "It looks you're finally starting to see sense for once. Please stop with all of this nonsense about how he's trying to destroy us. I'm going to bed. Goodnight, boys" As she started to clamber up the staircase that led to the girls' dormitory, she heard a voice call up after her.
"Well, I'm still not going to fully trust him" Ron shouted. With a smirk, she opened the door to the dormitory and lay in her four poster bed. Ah, how she had missed Hogwarts.
…
Back in the Slytherin common room, things were a little different. Blaise was busy telling a few of the guys about his bet with Draco and they simply couldn't get enough of it. It seemed as though no one could wait for the next day to get back to proper lessons…to see Draco and Hermione in a lesson together. To everyone else, this bet seemed like good fun and an excellent form of entertainment.
Oh, Draco didn't want to do this…
Again, I want to say thank you to the people that reviewed on the first chapter. I hope you have all enjoyed this chapter and please keep the feedback coming! XD
