Seeds
"Hermione…?"
Draco was surprised to find that the Room of Requirements would answer the request for a place where he could be his true self, by allowing him into a room which already housed another student. More surprising was that according to this magical all-encompassing room, his deepest desire for freedom from the well cultivated but completely false persona which he has had to display over the last three years was the very person he felt the most ashamed at having hurt in the process. The young wizard stood transfixed as he gazed upon the witch sitting on what appeared to be a field of flowers and grass, the charmed ceiling a magnificent blue sky found on the most perfect of warm spring days. There even felt as if a small breeze was blowing tossing about stray waves of silken brown hair and making them dance along her back. She hadn't noticed him yet and he took the opportunity to memorize everything about her thinking about how her outward appearance only reflected a more beautiful heart and soul.
Hermione had gained some peace after her breakdown once she had entered the /room of Requirements. "Perhaps I just needed to let it all out" she had thought to herself as she had risen to her feet. When the warm salty tears had subsided and eyes were clear enough to see, she had taken a chance to look around and gasped at the beautiful scene of wildflowers and grass laid out before her. With weary and grief laden limbs Hermione had journeyed slowly through the sweetly scented blooms in search of a suitable place to sit and rest. It was while she was sat gazing out into seeming nothingness with her mind a million miles away did she begin to feel as if she were being watched. Startled out of her thoughts Hermione turned to look in the direction she felt the presence of another and was caught wildly off guard. Her eyes widened for the briefest of moments before they narrowed and anger began to make the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
"Malfoy…" she hissed grabbing her wand and bringing herself to stand to her full height completely facing the main cause of all her grief. "You need to get out of here right now." she shouted, small sparks of magic beginning to spring into the air from the tips of her hair. Hermione felt some solace in the firm grip she held on her wand, "I would think even someone as small minded as you would get tired of saying the same insults and slurs time and time again. I have neither the want or the need to hear them now". The sanctuary provided within the room that seems to be separate from the rest of the world, existing in its own space and time while placing its occupants back at the proper place at the right time, was shattered. A single betraying tear rolled down Hermione's cheek leaving a warm salty trail from eye to chin. Tension so thick it felt like a heavy wool blanket settled around the two as they stared at each other. Malfoy blanched at her words and flinched as if physically struck as he watched that tear fall. He knew he was to blame for breaking her comfort and was at a loss of what to about. Even the typical arrogance he was always able to portray at the drop of a hat in public evaded him now.
"I … I didn't come her to taunt you" his voice came out hoarse "I didn't even know you were here. I came with a strong desire to be alone." Draco still had not moved from his spot just with in the doorway half from shock and half from fear that the very capable witch in front of him would hex him to pieces if he did. Hermione scoffed rolling her eyes in the process. "Do you really think I believe anything you have to say? You seem to go out of your way to find me and mock me for being such a 'low born girl who is not deserving of magic'" she made little quotation marks with her fingers, never loosening the grip on her wand. "I don't throw insults at anyone in this school and yet I am mocked for everything. I am too swotty for the Gryffindors, too dirty for the Slytherins, not bookish enough for the Ravenclaws and not friendly enough for the Hufflepuffs." She began to pace trying to give her body something to focus on. Her movements creating a small path in the knee-high flowers, releasing the delicate soothing sent into the air.
"There is nothing wrong with enjoying reading or wanting to know as much about everything as one can. Knowledge is power, it leads to great discoveries and leads civilization to the betterment of all and furthermore what does blood have to do with anything? I cannot believe that a society that is so open to individuals of all colored skin and from all areas of the earth can be so discriminatory towards someone for the blood in their veins when it is the same color for everyone. It's just not right." She stopped her pacing breathing heavily, winded from her rant. Draco made as if he was going to move but she was quick to raise her wand and point it right at him. Feeling defenseless he fell back on one of his usual coping mechanisms. He adopted his trademark smirk but still prevented any malice from showing his eyes. Holding his hands up both to show that he was unarmed and to hopefully placate the emotional witch he spoke more clearly this time saying something he never admitted to anyone other than his godfather, "I agree with you". Those four words seemed to be like a spell, once spoken they reverberated through the room and carried a far greater weight than he thought they would.
Hermione gaped at him, her mouth working in a perfect imitation of a small fish. Her hand faltered slightly and she nearly lost her wand as the grip slackened in her distraction. Gone were the sparks releasing themselves into the air from the ends of her mane. She could not believe what she just heard, even Ron and Harry never once said they agreed with her. Oh sure they would listen halfheartedly to her when she would go on similar rants a glaze on their eyes as if they would rather be doing anything else but were too polite to say so. Their friendship always seemed so fragile even after the troll incident in first year and Hermione often wondered if not for that would they have even become friends. Still she was no fool to think that the very person who was the ring leader of her tormentors would actually agree with what she had to say. "Why would I even believe you?" she asked her chestnut colored eyes searching his slate gray ones across the distance between them.
"You have no reason to do so. I have caused you nothing but heartache since we started but know that all I have said was not done of my a free will." he said. Hermione could not believe what she was hearing. "Oh bully for you" she said "don't give me some lame excuse about you being forced to act the way you do. You are your own person and you alone can decide what it is you do and say". She crossed her arms in front of her, and stood there, cocking her hip out to the side in a stance that clearly dared him to disagree with her. He knew that stance all too well for he had witnessed her stand that way when lecturing her friends about the importance of studying or how dreadful Quiddich was. Draco didn't know why he was laying it all out before her, he knew that she could take anything he said and use it against him. He also knew that this was a risk he was willing to take because he could not bear this burden alone any longer. He held his breath as he stepped more further into the room and edged his way into the boundary of flowers. He paused once inside and reached down to run his hands along the flowers below him. Still gazing at the blooms before him he spoke again some of the anger and bitterness he felt leaked out into his words as his face tensed "You do not know what it is like, you are able to do as you please and say what you want. At the end of the year you get to leave this world and go back to your outside world bearing no consequence to yourself or your family for your words and actions. Everything I do and everything I say lays a pebble down for the future of not only myself but of my family." He scoffed and continued "To go against the way things are is akin to annexing myself from everything I have ever known. Can't you see Hermione? It would put myself and my family in harm's way with no way to ensure their safety. It a right horrible reason but a reason all the same. There are certain ways things are done in our society. Rules of engagement with others of various station. This is a burden that every heir learns from the time they can understand words."
Hermione was caught off guard by how open Draco was being with her. She was also angered by his statements of his world versus her world. Did everyone think she was just hear for fun? That she was going to graduate Hogwarts and be on her merry way back in the Muggle world with a little extra something she can use to her advantage? She uncrossed her arms and placed her wand into the pocket of her robes. "Does everyone think I am here just for sport? That I am oh so enamored with the quaintness of wizards and witches and their magical ways? Well let me clear you of that notion because I am not just here on a holiday. The wizarding world is my home. It is where my heart truly wishes to belong fully and it is my age that keeps be returning to the muggle world at the end of every year. My words and actions may not have consequences for my parents but the prejudices I endure have consequences on me every day. You claim I know nothing of how things are done but no one has ever shown me. I was thrust into this world at eleven and have had to fend for myself since then."
Draco had stood back up while listening to Hermione speak. He looked at her as if a veil had been lifted from his world. He always just assumed that she cared little for the world that was his everything. His parents always spoke of how the muggle world was not allowed to know of the wizarding world because they would not understand and would try and destroy what they did not know. They stated how muggleborns did not deserve magic because they did not respect it the way full blooded wizards and witches did, but here stood a muggleborn witch claiming she wanted only the wizarding world to be her home. Maybe she could be the voice of reason to the rest of the world he thought.
With a deep breath and a glint in his eye he spoke, "Well than let's teach you the ways of wizarding society".
Ahh! Thank you so much to those who have followed and reviewed this story!
To Caoimhe Rose Thank you for your kind words and congratulations on having the first review, haha!
I look forward to hearing more from everyone and if there are any suggestions I am open to those also!