Disclaimer: what do you mean I do not own Harry Potter? I own the fan fiction though, that has to count for something!

A/N: sorry for taking so long to update guys, I have been busy studying for a bunch of huge tests. I will be taking them over the next two weeks, so I probably won't be updating for a while. So sorry, don't hate me! Anyway, thanks for reading and please review!

What Could Have BeenChapter 6

Draco POV

Wednesday night

The Hufflepuff's at least gave us a chance. They tried to set aside the past judgment, although it was obvious that it was hard. They would try to smile and act polite. The Ravenclaw's wouldn't even look at us without a look of pure hate or disgust. They only spoke to us in class, and even then it was only a few words filled with hate. The Gryffindors were a whole different story. After a while they started to warm up to us. They were trying to understand us. I bet it had something to do with what Pansy said to them before class.

I had watched in amazement at how easily she had gotten along with them. How does she do it? How can she make friends so easily? Her life has been just as hard as mine, if not more. So how can she allow them into her life so easily? She seemed to be the only one who could get along with all of the houses. True she had never called Granger a mudblood, but then again since third year she began doubting all the blood prejudice stuff. At first I thought she was crazy, but eventually she got me to agree with her. We still had to act like we hated them, in fear of our life's and our families.

But now Voldemort was gone. We were free to live our own lives. But it was so hard to change everything we had spent our whole lives pretending to be. It was so strange to be able to have a choice in our actions. It was amazing how quickly Pansy could adjust. How quickly she could be herself. But most shocking was how everyone seemed to accept her so quickly.

Maybe it was because how open she was. Maybe it was how she could immediately see the good in people, even if over the years she had to pretend only the bad existed. Maybe it was because how easily she could trust someone, as soon as she saw they were worth trusting. That was the problem with most of us Slytherins, it was not in our nature to trust. We lived lives based on fear, and only marrying and having kids to keep purebloods alive.

I often wondered how pansy had ended up in Slytherin. She should have ended up in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. She was a good person, and a great friend. Of corse she wasn't a real friend for me. Over the years I had learned not to let anyone become too close to you. They would find your weakness, and use it against you.

Pansy told me towards the end of fifth year she had asked the hat to place her in Slytherin. Sometimes she regretted it, seeing as how everyone expects us Slytherins to be just as bad as Voldemort. But she, like the rest of my house, made a decision based on fear. She knew that her family had been in Slytherin for decades. And she also knew that if she didn't live up to her parent's expectations, she would be punished.

I just thought that it was so amazing how quickly she could forget the past. It was amazing how quickly she was able to start over. And I knew it would be hard, but from now on, I will try my best to like her. I will try to let the others know the real me. I will try to allow someone into my life. I will try to make my first real friend. And I will make up for the past.

Hermione POV

Thursday

"Oh this will be so fun!"

"I can't wait!"

"What do you think I will be?"

"Is it related to our patronus?"

This and many more could be heard throughout the transfiguration room. Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lavender, Neville and I just sat in stunned silence. Did we just here her correctly? Animagi? Soon we too, where engaged in conversation about the new topic. McGonagall had just announced that this year in transfiguration we would be working on becoming animagi. The room buzzed with excitement.

She waited a moment before demanding, "Silence. Now this is very advanced magic. We will spend the first few classes going over the basic information you will need. Then we will work on small little spells which will help you prepare the transformation of your bodies. It will be a few weeks before we actually attempt changing into your animal form. And even then it will take months to change for the first time, and even longer to master it. Now, on with the lesson. The magic of becoming an animagus was discovered in the early 1400's by the wizard…"

The rest of class we continued to learn about the discovery of an animagus. We were assigned a one page essay on why the magic was created. Class let out and my friends and I headed to lunch chatting happily.

"I bet you will be a stag harry, you know because of your dad and all." Neville said. "And because of your patronus."

I was about to explain but Ginny beat me to it. "Your patronus has nothing to do with your animagus form. The patronus shows what you feel and what makes you feel safe, the animagus body you have no control over. It is what comes naturally, and it represents your personality." She looked at me unsurely, and I smiled proudly. Finally I wasn't the only one of my friends that had a brain. Ron looked disappointed. "Damn, then that means Malfoy probably won't be a ferret then." Even though I thought it was mean of him to say that, I had to laugh with the others at the memory from fourth year. We took our usual seats at the Gryffindor table and began to pile our plates with food. After a few minutes of silence, harry spoke up. "At least classes seem to be not a boring this year." "True, and divination seems like it might actually be useful, not a load of crap." Lavender said. I had to agree with her on that, this was another reason I had decided to like the girl. After you get to know her, she really isn't that bad. And she cared about her schoolwork, which came as a surprise to me. "Yeah… who would have thought I would actually be looking forward to history of magic and transfiguration." Ron said between mouthfuls of food. Ginny made a disgusted sound. "Honestly Ron, would it kill you to swallow your food first?" Ron smiled and let out a happy, "it could, you never know!" Purposefully spitting half of it on Ginny.

"Why you little…" Ginny raised her voice. I could tell she was only pretending to be angry, but the disgust at being covered in partially chewed food was real.

"Little? I believe that it is you that is the youngest." Ron waved his fork in her face. Ginny was about to respond, but stopped immediately as she tried to hide her giggles.

"Have it your way then," she smiled at her brother. Everyone around burst out laughing, we couldn't hold it in anymore. However it wasn't because of the two siblings fighting. While everyone else had been looking back and forth between the two, I had waved my wand under the table. Ron's hair was now rainbow neon stripes. The green and yellow were so bright I was positive they would glow in the dark. And just to top it off, I made sure it sparkled with enchanted glitter.

"Aw come on guys, we fight all the time. I thought you would be used to it by now." Ron looked at us confused.

"It's just funny is all." Neville, being the only one who could form complete words, managed to get the sentence out. No one wanted Ron to find out about his makeover, so we all stayed silent about the truth.

I managed to catch Luna's eye from the Ravenclaw table. She smiled at me and gave me thumbs up. Dean Thomas looked over at us from a few seats down, to see what all the noise was. He almost ruined it to. "Ron mate you…"he was cut off from his words and laughter by the glares sent to him from five different people. "Um… looks like you have a letter?" he said a little uncertainly.

Dean was right. The mail had begun to arrive. I could see Ron's owl making his way towards us. A letter was dropped in front of him and another in front of Ginny. I got the Daily Profit, and gave the owl in front of me a piece of bacon. The last letter to come was for Lavender. Ron and Ginny just had letters from their parents, checking up on them. The Daily Profit didn't have anything that caught my eye so we all turned to Lavender who had not moved since receiving her letter. We glanced at her curiously. Her name was clearly printed in neat script on the envelope. I didn't understand until she turned it over. It was sealed with the Slytherin crest. Slowly she opened it.

Lavender,

I know this will come as a shock for me to be writing you, and I am sorry for that. I just wanted to let you and all of your friends know how wonderful it was for me to spend time with you all yesterday. You were very kind to me, and I am grateful for that. I would just like to say one more thing. Please tell Harry that I truly am sorry for the final battle. Let him know that if there is anything I can do to help you or any of your friends at any time, just let me know. I would love to help. I want to make it up to you and prove that I am not your enemy. If you need to get payback with a prank or something, I'm sure Draco would want to help as well. So I am sorry, and just let me know if you need anything, see you on Wednesday, bye!

-Pansy Parkinson

The letter was passed around so everyone could read it. When it was my turn I was so shocked. She really was going out of her way to make us see that she doesn't want to be enemies. When the letter was read by all of us we turned and faced the Slytherin table. It only took us a few seconds to find pansy. She looked like she had been watching us from the time we got the letter. She had a small, hopeful smile on her face. We smiled back, a little uncertainly, but it was enough for her as she visibly relaxed and lowered her gaze to her food as she began eating.

Malfoy, who was sitting next to her, looked confused at her strange behavior. Then he lifted his eyes to where Pansy was looking seconds before. He seemed to get even more confused as to why six Gryffindors were staring at him. He probably noticed Ron's hair then, because his storm grey eyes lit up with amusement. He whispered something to Pansy, then stood up and left the great hall.

On his way out he stopped by us. "You look beautiful, you know that?" he said in a teasing way, looking at Ron. "Did you do something different? It looks very nice. Rainbow and glitter. We all knew you would come out of the closet one day. You might actually have a chance of being in a relationship this year. Of corse he will be way better than you." By now my friends where laughing too hard to notice the wink he sent at me before leaving.

The whole great hall had heard what Malfoy had said, as it had become silent when they saw him approaching him. Ron looked horrified. "Did you just hear that! Malfoy is gay and in love with me!" he looked about ready to pass out. At the last statement the whole student body burst out laughing. Partially because some of them had just noticed his hair, and partially because of how stupid Ron was being. The professors were laughing as well, even McGonagall tried to hide her smile.

Over all it had been a fun day. We continued the rest of our classes. Amazingly the teachers as well as the students didn't say anything else about Ron's hair. It seemed to be some sort of unspoken agreement. It wasn't until after dinner that Ron himself noticed.

"Shit! Look what the Slytherin bloody Malfoy did to me! It must have been during lunch! That bastard, he will pay!" he yelled as soon as he got out of the bathroom and looked in a mirror. "Hermione, the smartest, most beautiful, kindest, wonderful, trustworthy person I have ever met. Tell me you can fix this!" after a few minutes of him saying every good word he could think of, and begging at my feet, literally, I gave in and began speaking.

"Oh Ron, if only I could help you, but I don't think I can. You see, the spell must be removed by the person who cast it, no one else. It will where off in three days though." I replied in mock concern. Ron, not being the smartest there could be, thought I was dead serious.

"Three days? I am doomed!" with that he ran upstairs.

"You realize that you cast it, not Malfoy?" Harry said from his spot on the couch. He raised an eyebrow at me.

I smiled mischievously. "Yes I know, but he doesn't." Harry smiled back, and I joined him on the couch. We began our transfiguration essays before retiring for the night.

Draco POV

"You told them what?" I screamed in her face. We had just finished dinner and were now in the common room. Pansy had just finished telling me about her letter.

"It's not that big a deal, I just said you might want to help." She tried to plead with me.

"Why not Theo, or Blaise? Why me?"

"Because I know you more." She collapsed in one of the comfy chairs.

"So that gives you the right to tell them I would do something without even asking me?" I knew I had hurt her, the look of guilt on her face looked like it would never leave.

"I'm sorry Draco, it's just that I know how much you want to change. This could be a good opportunity for you." Her voice was barely audible.

I felt horrible. I was making such a big deal about something so stupid. I knew she was right. I ran my hand through my hair and sank to my knees in front of her so our heads where at the same level. I lowered my voice to what I thought was a soothing tone. "I know you where just trying to help. I'm sorry for exploding on you. Just ask next time ok? I'll be ok with it, I just need to know before you start making promises about me.

She raised her head and looked me in the eye. She gave me a small smile and I knew we were going to be ok. After all, she was the closest thing I had to a friend, I could not afford to lose her.

But as I lay in bead that night a bunch of memories came flooding back about a certain brown haired girl. Not all of them were pleasant. As a matter of fact, hardly any of them were. And I couldn't help but think; maybe I want her as a friend.

A/N: I know, it's slow going, but it will get there. This is a dramione fiction. Thanks for reading, and PLEASE REVIEW!