After a few days, I had spent a lot of time thinking about what Draco said. While I hadn't shown any particularly evil actions at school, I had told Draco and Theo about the girl from my grade school. Even though I needed to continue acting like Gryffindor's Golden Girl, I also wanted to get closer to Theo, Snape, and Draco and really begin to accept my Slytherin side. I realized I needed to go see Draco and apologize.
I quickly sent an owl to Draco asking him to meet me in the potions room. My father said that I could use it whenever I wanted to and taught me the proper charms to ward it against Dumbledore. As I walked, I tried to think of a good way to phrase what I wanted to tell Draco. Lost in my thoughts, I didn't even realize I was about to run into Ron until I hit him and fell over.
"Hey, watch where you're walking!" Ron shouted, without even looking to see who he just knocked to the ground. He looked down and realized it was me.
"Hermione, I'm so sorry! I thought you were that awful Creevey character who always follows us around," the Weasel attempted to defend himself, looking at me with what he probably thought was a charming smile.
I ignored his hand and attempt to flirt when he tried to help me up. "Ronald, regardless of who you thought I was, there was no reason to be that rude. Even if I was Colin, that doesn't give you a right to just push me over and act like you have the emotional range of a teaspoon. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go check on one of my potions instead of continuing this useless conversation," I said, with a glare in his direction.
"She's so mental," Ron whispered as he walked away.
I silently seethed the whole rest of the way to the potions room. That bloody, self-righteous prat. Colin never even tried to take his picture, only mine and Potters. As I walked through the door, I realized that I needed to get Theo to help me get revenge on the Weasel. I was so caught up thinking about punishments for the boy that I didn't even see Draco sitting at Snape's desk.
"Hermione, as much fun as it is watching you pace and talk to yourself, I assume you called me here for something more valuable than that." Draco said, ending his taunt with that damn smirk.
"Ahh Draco! You scared me. I'm sorry, I was seething about the stupid prat who thinks that just a smile from him will make me melt. Stupid jerk," I cut myself off with an annoyed huff.
"Sorry, I called you here because I wanted to talk about our previous discussion. You are right, I do try to pretend that I am purer than everyone else. Before I thought it was just because I was part of the Golden Trio and I had to be nicer and smarter than everyone else. Now I realize that it is just because I had that persona pushed upon me. I always have wanted to be bad, but I felt pressure to be the goody two shoes everyone thought I was. I need your help to discover what my personality is without anyone else's opinion. I want to start going out with you every once and a while without my glamour on so that we both can get to know each other better. Simple things like trips to Hogsmead and maybe Diagon Alley or even just walks around the grounds. We could go on dates and such, maybe be seen in public. No one will know who I am because my glamour looks nothing like me and it will give us a chance to get to know each other better," I said, with a large exhale after I finished. I was oddly nervous after suggesting that because I had no idea what his reaction would be.
"Hmm, I think I like that idea. Whether we like it right now, we are stuck until death do us part. We should at least try to work until we can tolerate each other. I am interested in getting to know the real Hermione Alyssa Snape, not the buck-toothed Hermione Jean Granger. I am sorry for saying that I could always go to the Slytherin whores. I didn't mean that part, I was just so riled up that I wanted to hurt you. Would you mind terribly if I remove the glamour right now?" Draco asked with what almost seemed to be a shy tone in his voice.
I closed my eyes and concentrated for a second. I almost gave up until I felt that now too familiar feeling of the glamour coming off.
"Woah, how did you do that without a word or wand?" Draco asked incredulously.
"In the past few days that we haven't talked, Snape has been working on my wandless and nonverbal magic to try to catch up on the years of lessons that I have missed by living in a muggle household" I said with a bit of blush.
"Hermione, that is incredible! I've never seen anyone master that complicated of a spell that quickly!" Draco said with a look of admiration, until he caught himself. The mask was quickly back on his face.
"I also have caught up to where you and Theo are at with your Animagus transformations. That way when you both are ready, we can all continue them together. Father has also taught me some more Pureblood traditions and such," I said.
Draco nodded and thought for a second, "so all three of us have our first token and we have all of the ingredients gathered for the potion, right?"
"Well all of the ingredients except for one that we can only get from Diagon Alley. Father has already agreed that we could go out and get it when we were ready to. If you want, we can go on Saturday and make a day out of it? I need to get some nicer robes and such, to truly live up to my family's name," I said, hoping he would say yes.
"Perfect. I need to go talk to Theo about something, was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?" Draco asked.
I thought about it for a second. "Yes! The first time I see the Weasel out of my glamour, we are doing something to him for being such a prat for so long."
"Sounds like a plan, Hermione, see you later" Draco said as he unwarded the door and walked out. I watched him leave. I knew that this was going to be a hard relationship to build, but maybe it wouldn't be as bad as I thought it would be. I put my glamour back on and left the room.
Draco's POV:
I stalked down the hallway to the Slytherin common room. I couldn't quite decide how I felt towards this whole situation. It's incredible that the real Hermione is truly quite gorgeous and that her true personality is much less annoying than how I saw her, but I don't know if I believe that she can truly change that much. I had a lot of thinking to do regarding Hermione.
As I entered the dungeon, I saw the attack of Pansy Parkinson coming right away. I thought about trying to avoid her, but figured that I needed some familiarity right now.
"Draco! I missed you. Where have you been? I feel like we've barely seen each other this whole time" Pansy said in her whiny voice.
"Hi Pansy, I was just tending to a potion. I am sorry that we have not seen each other all year, I've been very busy doing my father's bidding. How was your summer?" I asked, charming her with my every word. I had missed having someone swoon every time I talked to them. Hermione seemed to be immune to all of my charms thus far. I listened to Pansy babble on about her summer for a while and informed her about mine. It was nice to talk about superficial things instead of heavy things like my life changing engagement and the Dark Lord.
"Okay Pansy, I have to go talk to Theo for a while, I'll see you at dinner, yes?" I asked, even though I knew she wouldn't miss a chance to sit next to me.
"Bye Draco," Pansy said with a wink. She swayed her hips as she walked back to her friends. That girl was annoying, but she did have an incredible body. I shook my head and headed up to my room.
As I walked in I saw just the person I was looking for, "Hello Theo, how are you?" I asked politely.
"I'm well Draco, what's up?" Theo asked, looking puzzled.
"Your sister told me she wanted to start going on dates and such today and I just wanted to make sure that you were okay with us getting to know each other," I said, feeling nervous confronting Hermione's brother.
"Yes, of course. While I'm not particularly thrilled that you are the one that's betrothed to my sister, I know she can take care of herself. But just know Draco, if you hurt her, I will not hesitate to kill you." Theo said, looking scarier than I had ever seen him.
I gulped and nodded, "don't worry Theo, I'll do my best to ensure I never hurt her," I said as I looked him in the eye. Hopefully he could see how sincere I was attempting to look.
Theo studied me, "Okay Draco, well come, it's time for dinner."
We both headed to the Great Hall together with Pansy and her friends. As we walked through the doors, I looked at the Grffindor table and saw the Weasel with his arm around my Hermione with her laughing. I seethed the whole way to my seat and ensured that Pansy was sitting next to me. All of dinner, I watched Hermione laugh with the two boys she supposedly hated. I waited until she looked at me, then turned and deeply kissed Pansy. When I looked back at Hermione, I just barely saw a tear fall down her face as she ran out of the Great Hall. It was at that moment that I realized I made a mistake. I quickly got up and chased after her.
When I finally caught her, grabbed her and pulled her into the empty classroom next to us.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Hermione asked with a look in her eyes that scared me. It wasn't anger or hate; it was indifference.
"Hermione, I didn't mean to make you this upset. I just saw you with the Weasel and Potter and the Weasel had his arm around you. I snapped and didn't think" I attempted to defend myself.
"No, Malfoy, you didn't think. You intentionally tried to hurt me. I'm not upset beause I like you or anything. I'm upset because I refuse to be the type of wife that continuously gets cheated on while everyone looks at her with pity," Hermione practically spat the words at me.
"Yes, you're right, Hermine. I'm so sorry. I promise nothing like that will ever happen again. I just got jealous that he was touching what's mine." I said without realizing that I just called Hermione mine.
"I know, Draco. I don't understand these feelings I'm having toward you, but I do know I want to get to know you better and try to understand them a little more. I'll forgive you this once, but just know that it better not happen again," Hermione said, finally giving up her anger.
"Thank you, Hermione," I said as I did the last thing I ever thought I would. I kissed Hermione Granger on the cheek. She looked absolutely shocked and I ran out of the room, highly embarrassed.
Hermione POV:
I watched Draco sprint out of the room, with my cheek tingling where his lips had just been. Never once had a kiss felt like that.
A/N: Well after not updating for years, I decided to try to finish this story up. Sorry that it literally took me years
