Chapter 2:
Disclaimer: I do not own anything here except the plot!
Hermione waited outside Blaise's room. When was he going to come out?
Suddenly she heard his voice yell "Coming!" and she straightened up to say hello.
He walked out of the room with Malfoy following him. She saw Malfoy's eyes widen slightly. She regarded him coldly.
"Come on, Blaise! Lets hit the pool!" she said happily, while still managing to give Draco the cold shoulder.
"Wait a second, I have to introduce you two as friends—not enemies: Hermione, this is Draco, Draco, this is Hermione."
"Not bloody likely," Hermione snorted
"Hermione." He nodded. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Nice to meet you friend-Draco. Have you seen enemy-Draco? I'd like to give him a slap across the face," she asked sweetly
"Nope." Draco replied, taken aback
"Hermione be nice." Blaise chided
She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Good, so everyone will get along." Said Blaise happily
They both looked at him oddly.
"Hermione…" he warned
"Fine I'll be good."
"Excellent, lets head out!"
And he trotted away happily
Hermione and Draco looked at each other, shook their heads, and followed.
"Cannonball!" yelled Draco, as he jumped into the pool, effectively wetting the other two.
They glared at him menacingly.
"Oh, you are so gonna get it!" said Hermione, as she and Blaise leapt into the pool and started an all out splash war between the three, which ended being a one on one fight between Blaise and Draco, with Hermione being used as a shield between the two.
"That's it, I'm not going to stand here and get wet." Said Hermione
She twisted her body to face Draco, put her hands on his head, and dunked him underwater.
He surfaced, spluttering.
"Granger! How dare you, you little Mudblood!"
Everyone stopped moving. Silence filled the air as Hermione's eyes filled with tears. She ran out of the pool and locked herself into her room.
There she cried. Cried because for 17 years, her life was fake. Cried because she was scared that her friends would hate her for being who she really was. Cried for everything she didn't cry for because she wanted to stay strong. And most of all, cried for how she let herself be treated by Malfoy and how she let herself become vulnerable one again.
Downstairs in the living room, Blaise was furious at Draco.
"Look what you did!" he yelled, "You made her cry!"
"She was never this sensitive when I called her a Mudblood before," replied Draco, coldly
"How would you know that she wasn't?"
"Well, I….er,"
"Exactly! You didn't! And if she wasn't that sensitive before, of course she would be more sensitive now! How would you feel if you were in her place? For 17 years her life was a fake! She is afraid that her friends are going to hate her for being a Zabini, and siblings with me. And now you gave her a reason to cry! I think she nearly trusted you, even if it was a small amount of trust, for a small amount of time, you still broke it!"
"Oh…I had no idea. I'm sorry." He muttered, feeling extremely guilty
"Why are you telling me! Go tell her that!" Blaise yelled, still angry at him.
"Alright, I'm going up."
Blaise threw his hands up and didn't reply.
Draco padded upstairs, his head hung slightly in shame.
Hermione heard knocking on the door.
"Can I come in?" asked a muffled voice
"No." She replied throatily
"Please? I really need to speak to you,"
"Make it quick," she sniffled, thinking it was Blaise.
To her surprise, it was Malfoy.
"I'm sorry I called you a Mudblood. And I'm sorry for giving you a reason to cry."
"I never thought I'd see the day when Draco Malfoy apologized." She laughed bitterly
"I really am sorry Granger. I didn't mean to make you cry. I didn't even know Grangers could cry,"
She glared at him haughtily. "If you think you're going to get forgiven by saying things like that then you've got another thing coming,"
He sighed. "Can we please start over? A clean slate, like we never knew each other?" he asked hopefully
Hermione stopped. This could actually work. She was tired of feeling angry. She just wanted to stop. Maybe starting over would help her grow into this new society she had been born to. "I'd like that," she smiled, surprising him, "A clean slate."
"Erm, I'm Draco Malfoy. Nice to meet you,"he said, smoothly
She laughed. "I'm Hermione Granger."
"Well Hermione, I'm going downstairs to dinner. Would you like to accompany me?"
"Actually, you know what, I think I'm going to call it a day. I'm pretty tired from all this," she gestured around vaguely. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight Hermione. Oh, and Hermione?"
"Hmm?"
"If your friends abandon you, then they are not real friends. And don't worry-you'll always have Blaise and I." He smiled
"What? How did you know- oh never mind, I can't be bothered. Stupid Blaise. Thanks Draco," she yawned and lay down, "I'll see you soon."
"See you." He said, and gave her a kiss on her forehead and left.
As he left, Hermione wondered what the kiss meant. It was strange and awkward. Did all new friends kiss each other like that. Stupid Draco doing stupid things, she grumbled to herself. It wasn't possible that he liked her, they had "just met". And, a couple of minutes before that, he had called her a mudl=blood. Perhaps it was just an apology. Yes, that was possible. Before she could figure out any actual answers, she fell asleep.
A/N: Thank you to the people who reviewed this story, it really means a lot. Special thanks to claire96 who gave me some suggestions on this chapter. :) Please review everyone!