"Can we talk?" he grabbed her hand before she had a time to walk away with the rest of the group.

"No!" she yelled with a scowl and jerked her hand away like it was burned, while couple of Slytherins pulled out their wands.

"Are you deaf? Leave me alone, you…" she paused here for a split of a second. Then she frowned and spat out:

"You filthy Mudblood!" she spun on her heels and walked of in opposite direction.

Chapter 10: The Warning Part 1

It was a week or so since bossy little pureblood princess disappeared from his life without a word of explanation and Draco was … miserable.

To his mood did not added that today was the last weekend before all the students left their shared dormitories to go have a merry Christmas with their families, AND that meant the big Hogsmeade trip. He had no idea how, but his Gryffindor housemates persuaded him into going. The original plan included meeting by the carriages, heading straight to the Three Broomsticks, having a Butterbeer and going back to castle. But that would be too much of luck. His new "friends" dragged him through every single store in that damned village. And to make it even more annoying they were a mixed group of girls and guys, so everyone had to go everywhere.

This strongly displeasing event took hours, but they finally settled around the table at said pub and ordered their drinks.

"…and he was like 'no', so I…" continued his story one of the Weasleys. Draco wasn't quite sure which one…come to think of it he wasn't even sure of how many of them are actually there.

He wasn't paying much attention to the conversation before, when a black haired girl explained their plans to get some firewhisky for the CDP, aka Christmas Dorm Party. Instead he scanned the room, until his eyes fell onto the blond witch, who just came in. She hurried to the bar and while waiting for the barman to take her order, she looked around. As soon as their eyes met, Draco lowered his head in attempt to hide, but it was too late. She has already spotted him, but made no move to express any acknowledgement. Draco frowned as he watched the drops of condensation running down from the mug onto the table. Anything, as long as he did not have to look at her.

"Go talk to her." said familiar voice to his left. It was Potter, who turned away from the group and had now his full attention on Draco.

"What?" asked Draco more out of a habit than anything else.

Harry half-smiled at his attempt to fake misunderstanding, but repeated anyway, this time more loudly: "I think, you should go talk to her."

"Talk to whom?" tried Draco again and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Hermione" he stated matter-of-factly and continued: "We all know you care about her and you shouldn't let old Malfoy get to you like that"

Draco tried really hard to stop himself from staring like an idiot. Harry Potter was trying to help him, Draco Malfoy. True, Harry had no idea that Draco was actually Malfoy, but it still felt strange to get a well-meant advice from your enemy. Draco quietly returned to staring at his mug, but then asked something what was on his mind for a while now.

"Why are you helping me?"

Harry did not expect that and was stunned for a second, but then shook it off and smiled instead: "We're friends and we have known each other for years, right?"

"But she isn't" pointed Draco at Hermione's direction.

Harry sighed and ran his hand through his already messy hair: "Well…no, but I think she could be. She was raised with certain…beliefs and I can't hold it against her. Everybody deserves a chance." Harry gave Draco one more uplifting smile and turned back to the rest of the table.

Draco felt slight pain in his chest. If that is what they thought of Hermione, did they think the same of him, when he was Malfoy? Since the year one of Hogwards he trained himself to hate all of them, because they were neither pureblooded, nor rich and because they were Gryffindor and yet, they still considered him worthy of chance?

Draco looked up to the bar and wasn't really that surprise to find Blaise Zabini reaching Hermione. The tall Italian wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist and whispered something to her ear. Draco frowned as the wave of jealousy washed over him. He did not need to see this, he thought growlingly, got up from the table and without any word of apology he walked to the door.

He was so angry that he did not even notice that source of his pain is also trying to get out and they bumped into each other at the door.

"Sorry" blurred out Draco before even checking who it was. He wasn't in a mood for any chat with anybody.

"Draco…" faintly whispered Hermione; finally, forcing him to look up. He froze, when he saw tears streaming down her face. He had to fight the urge to hug her and wipe off her tears, but before he had time to at least ask what's wrong, she was gone. Why was she crying? Draco did not wait for long and started to search the crowds outside for her. It was surprisingly difficult. There suddenly seemed to be twice as many people, all chatting or carrying big loads of presents. Even the Christmas carols seemed to double in volume. He couldn't see her anywhere.

"Hermione?" he said very loudly, trying to overpower the noise of other people around him, but received no answer.

"Hermione!" he yelled this time, but still no answer. So he tried one more time: "Hermi-"

A hand grabbed collar of his jacket before he could finish and in one swing he was pulled in a small dark place between the buildings.

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Sorry, for the delay but you know how goes it :) Hope you enjoy and please do leave comments, whether ist fame or shame :)