Chapter 7
Draco's POV
I was shocked. Surely Ginny Weasley hadn't just invited us to hang out. I glanced at Blaise who looked just as surprised. Ginny was still smiling amusedly at us, clearly having expected our reaction. Harry and Hermione, who were standing behind her, also looked surprised and a bit confused. Unless I was imagining it, Hermione also looked a little relieved, though I had no idea why. Then I remembered Ginny was still waiting for an answer. I wasn't about to turn down an invitation to hang out with Hermione.
"Uh, okay," I sounded uncertain and looked questioningly at Blaise. He wanted to start new with these guys too and surely he wouldn't ditch me. He nodded to Ginny, now looking confused.
"Great," She was still smiling. "We've gotta go dump our stuff at Gryffindor tower but we'll see you in the courtyard in five minutes?" We nodded again. "Great! Come on you two!"
Still looking confused Harry and Hermione followed her out of the dungeons. I turned to Blaise, "Do you have any idea what that was about?"
"Nope. You?"
"No idea," I thought for a moment, "Hermione probably told them about our conversations, though."
"Not to mention you went out of your way to say hello to her in front of all of them," Blaise smirked at the memory.
"I didn't go out of my way! She was right next to me!"
"Sure sure," Blaise laughed, "Come on let's get rid of our stuff and go meet them."
Five minutes later Blaise walked outside to the courtyard. We looked around for a minute then saw Ginny wave at us from where she and her friends were sitting near a tree in the middle of the grounds. Harry and Hermione were with her and so was Parvati Patil. I was again surprised at how much she was hanging out with them. I'd thought Hermione found her annoying. They were all sitting down but, when Blaise and I reached them, we hesitated.
"You can sit down," Hermione said kindly, smiling at us. We sat down but still didn't say anything. This was much more awkward than when it was just me and Hermione. Hermione apparently couldn't think of anything else to say and neither could any of her friends. There was something I needed to say and, even if it was difficult, surely it would be better than the awkward silence and would probably impress Hermione a little.
"Look, I'm uh… sorry… for how I treated you guys," This was harder than I thought and they were all looking at me now. But when Hermione smiled I was able to go on, "And thank you," I looked at Harry, "For saving my life."
Harry smiled slightly then said, quietly, "Thanks for not giving us away when we got caught."
"I'm sorry too," Blaise mumbled.
After that the mood lightened considerably. We were nowhere near best friends but we definitely like each other a bit more. We made small talk for a while and then the group broke up. The Gyriffindors returned to their common room and Blaise and I were about to return to ours until I noticed Hermione was lagging behind. I gave Blaise a meaningful look and he walked off, smirking. I approached Hermione slowly, not sure what to say.
She smiled at me and, encouraged, I said, "D'you wanna walk with me?"
Her smile widened, "Sure."
We set off in the direction of the lake. Partly to make conversation and partly because I was really curious I said, "I didn't know you and Parvati were friends."
"We weren't. But Lavender was her best friend and she, uh… didn't survive the war." I hadn't known that. "And so Parvati's a bit more… serious now and she's really nice when she's not giggling all the time."
"Yeah, I noticed."
"I guess, I just felt sorry for her, so I asked her if she wanted to hang out. And we're pretty good friends, considering it's only been a day." We walked in silence for a minute and then she asked me, "I didn't know Blaise was your best friend. I thought…" She stopped talking and I guessed she'd been about to mention Crabbe and Goyle. She'd been there when Crabbe died, but obviously hadn't remembered at that moment.
"Yeah, he is. No-one else came back anyway, but Blaise is… interesting," I laughed. "He's the only one you can have a decent conversation with."
"What about Pansy?" She asked, "She came back."
"Pansy's just… so annoying. And she's pretty boring to hang around."
Hermione smiled. I guessed she agreed with me. "I thought it was something to do with her being your ex-girlfriend."
"Pansy was never really my girlfriend," I said. "We just… had fun sometimes." I instantly regretted saying that, not wanting Hermione to think I was that kind of guy. Then I remembered I had been that kind of guy. But she was still smiling. "I think Pansy still wants to… have whatever we had, though. So that's just another reason to avoid her."
We walked in silence for another few minutes, occasionally talking, before Hermione stopped and turned to me. "I really admired you for apologising to everyone earlier, it must've been hard."
I was stunned, "Th-thanks."
"And I also wanted to thank you for not giving us away when the snatchers caught us. If you had we'd probably be dead now." She looked down for moment. "Can I ask… why didn't you? Voldemort would've rewarded you; it would've made things easier for you."
I hesitated; I'd been waiting for someone to ask me this. "Well… even if he did it wouldn't have lasted. I didn't like the way things were, I wanted him to die, I wanted my life back. But I couldn't stand up to him or turn traitor or anything because they'd kill me and my parents. I knew you three were the only hope to destroy him, so I couldn't let you die." I paused. "And I didn't want you to die anyway." Hermione looked a little bit surprised but her smile grew. We stared into each other's eyes for a little while and I wanted so desperately to touch her, to hold her, maybe even to kiss her. I was certain she'd be able to see it in my eyes, but I couldn't look away. Suddenly she quickly looked down and I wondered if she had seen it in my eyes.
She hesitated then said quickly, "Well thank you again. I've, uh… gotta go get ready for dinner… I'll see you later." And she quickly ran off. Now I was positive she'd noticed. If Blaise had she would, she was so smart. Man, I'd blown it now. She wouldn't even want to be friends with me now she knew I liked her. God, I screwed things up.
