A/N: So, this is actually one of my favourite chapters so far. It's a defining chapter for Draco. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Here is is, the first chapter is the double digits.

Chapter 10 - Amends

Whether Hermione realized it or not, Draco had taken her words to heart. He had no power over his past actions, but he had complete control over his future ones. He could not erase the mistakes he had made, but maybe, just maybe, he could right them.

It was for this reason he found himself lingering after his Care of Magical Creatures lesson. He had stayed under the pretence of helping Hagrid return the Streeler back to it's cage and help repair the damage to the vegetation it had caused. Hermione raised a questioning eyebrow at his behaviour, but said nothing as she headed back towards the castle. After helping Hagrid return the now bright orange giant poisonous snail to it's cage, he began charming the life back into the grass.

"Thanks for tha-" Hagrid had turned around to thank his helper, but had stopped dead when he stood facing none other than Draco Malfoy. Draco did not blame Hagrid for his shock, if the roles had been reversed, he would have been completely flabbergasted to see himself there as well.

"Professor Hagrid, I wanted to apologize for my horrendous behaviour towards you over the past years." He spluttered out. Before he lost his nerve, he continued. "You never showed any hostility towards me, and I tried to get you sacked, just because I didn't like you. I tormented you, I tried to make you as miserable as possible, and I hate myself knowing that some days, I probably succeeded in that goal. You are honestly one of the kindest souls I have ever met, you even see good in beasts that make most people simply cower in fear. I know I cannot take back my words or my actions, but I would like you to know nothing I ever said was true. I don't know if I could ever make up for what I have done, but I would be honoured if you let me try." He finally finished, he had been talking very fast, he had needed to say everything as quickly as possible in case Hagrid had interrupted him, but also so he could say everything he needed to say.

As he looked up at Hagrid, he did not see the sight he expected to see. He did not see anger in those black eyes, but tears. His eyes were crinkled in such a way that it looked like he was smiling, it was difficult to tell under his unruly beard.

"Ye wanna come inside for a cuppa tea?" Asked Hagrid, his voice breaking slightly.

"I'd love that." Draco smiled.

Inside Hagrid's hut was small, but cozy. It was the type of place that he would have scowled at in previous years, but now, he saw with new eyes. The furniture no longer looked old and torn, but well loved. Hagrid looked nervous as Draco's eyes scanned the room, seeing everything in a new light.

"I know it's not much" muttered Hagrid.

"You know, in the past I would have agreed with you." Draco said. "Now, I can't disagree with you more."

"What'd ya mean?" Asked Hagrid, turning to take the now-whistling kettle off the stove.

"I mean that I've found a new concept of wealth. Before, I believe possessions, popularity and standing meant everything. I believed that people like you and the Weasleys were the ones who were poor." As he admitted his old beliefs, he found he could not look at Hagrid, so instead he stared at some sort of bird that was hanging from a hook on the ceiling. "But now I've come to realize that I've had the world all wrong. What are possessions without happiness? What is popularity without true friends? What does standing mean if you're a horrible person? The Weasleys, who I once thought were poor, I've realized are truly the wealthiest people in the world. So I disagree when you say that your house is not much, because you may not believe me, but I would give three of my manors for a house such as yours."

While he had been talking, Hagrid had started pouring the tea. He seemed to have forgotten this though, because the mug he was filling was now spilling tea all over the floor and table. It was only when Fang barked that Hagrid was snapped out of his daze and started fumbling around with a cloth, trying to clean the mess.

"Let me" said Draco, taking out his wand and vanishing the mess. He then took the teapot and poured the tea into one mug, and what resembled a mug but was the size of a bucket.

"Thanks." Said Hagrid, who took the bucket-mug and started drinking his tea, seeming to be contemplating Draco's words as he did so. They sat in a comfortable, thoughtful silence for a while.

"D'ye mind if I ask ye something?" Hagrid inquired.

"Ask away." Draco consented.

"Wha' changed? Justa few months back ye were here, fighting fer You-Know-Who, convinced all muggle-borns an 'alf-breeds like me were scum. Wha' 'appened to make ye change yer mind?"

"Honestly, I cannot place when exactly when I started to change my views. For the past two years, my life has been a living hell. Near the end of the war, and after it, I've had a lot of trouble sleeping. I don't know if you've ever experienced lying in bed for hours with nothing but your thoughts, but it allows a lot of time for self-reflection. I mean, Voldemort treated me horribly, and I was one of his followers. Dumbledore always treated me with love and care, even when I was sent to kill him. It really messed with my mind how my supposed enemy had treated me with more care and compassion than my so called leader. Voldemort tortured and threatened not only me but my family. Then, at the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry saved my life, he could have so easily killed me, or left me to die, but he saved me instead. When my enemies showed me mercy that my friends did not, I questioned everything. Everything I had ever been taught, everything I had ever believed, and after many, many sleepless nights, I finally figured out that I had been wrong all my life, and so had my parents, and their parents before them."

"Great man, Dumbledore." Sniffed Hagrid. Draco had not realized that Hagrid was crying. He got up and awkwardly patted him on his shoulder.

"Yes" he said softly. "A great man indeed."

After Hagrid had stopped crying, the conversation turned much lighter. He told Hagrid about his House Unity project and Hagrid shared some interesting facts about a variety of creatures. Draco felt bad about how shocked he was at Hagrid's vast knowledge of magical creatures, he had always assumed that Dumbledore had been showing favouritism when he had hired Hagrid for the job, but Hagrid knew his creatures.

When the sun began to sink lower in the sky, Draco bid Hagrid farewell to go to supper. He thanked him for the tea, and Hagrid gave him some homemade rock cakes for a snack later.

Draco got back to their dormitory from dinner earlier than Hermione. This was not an unusual occurrence, as she actually had people to talk to at dinner, or she would go to the library after dinner. He sat on the couch, in front of where he had quickly put the rock cakes from Hagrid on the table before going to dinner. He did not have any homework that night, so he just sat there, thinking for a bit, before getting up and going into his room to get parchment, quills, and ink.

He put all of these writing tools on the table and just stared at them for a few minutes, before dipping his quill in the ink and started to write. This was not going to be an easy letter to write. He struggled through it, stopping frequently and scratching things out often. Finally, when he was happy with it, he began to copy it onto another piece of parchment.

Dear Harry,

I'm sure you're wondering why you are hearing from me, don't worry, it isn't anything bad. No one's life is in danger, or been seriously hurt. That was probably your first assumption upon seeing this letter was from me. Sorry if I caused panic, I would just like you to please, read this letter. I don't really expect you to reply, but if you could finish this letter without ripping it, or throwing into the fire, I believe that would be progress.

I thought about also sending a letter to Ron, but I had a feeling that he would have thrown it into the fire without reading it. You, have always been slightly more calm than he has, so this letter, is really, for the both of you.

Ever since our first year, we have been enemies. I realize that this is almost completely my fault. I insulted your friends, and you stood up for them. That seems to have been the foundation of our relationship, me being hostile, and you protecting those I am being hostile to.

Words cannot really describe how ashamed I have come to feel of my actions over the past years. This whole time, I have been wrong. Wrong to consider muggle-borns lesser than me, wrong to mock the Weasleys, and other families that I considered inferior at the time. I used to think blood-traitors were some of the worst people, obviously the people who named them so thought so too, because it has the word 'traitor' in it. However, it is really those who are not blood-traitors that are really the ones that should be ashamed. To think yourself better than someone because of your family, it's so stupid it is almost laughable.

I also wanted to thank you for saving my life. I honestly haven't a clue why you did it, if the roles had been reversed I probably would have left my miserable arse to die, but it's probably for that reason that you were the hero, and I was the bad guy.

You were right, you did know the right sort of people. It was me who was hanging around with the wrong sort, all this time.

Thank you for hearing me out,

Draco

Midway through copying the letter over, Hermione came back from dinner. She was obviously in a good mood, humming a tune to a song he had never heard before, it was most likely muggle music. When she saw him, she stopped dead in her tracks. It was probably an odd sight for her. Draco, writing a letter, with some of Hagrid's rock cakes.

"You have some of Hagrid's rock cakes." She stated. He was sure she meant this as a question, but how, he did not know.

"I do, would you like one?" He asked her politely. Surprisingly, she started to laugh.

"You haven't eaten any yet, have you?" She asked between fits of giggles.

"Er, no. Why?"

"Because if you had, you most certainly would not be asking me if I wanted one." She explained. He arched his eyebrow at her in question. "Let's just say, they are more rock than cake."

"Ah" he realized, pushing the rock cakes a little further from him.

"So, now that I've saved your teeth, I think you owe me an explanation of why you have some of Hagrid's rock cakes."

"Well, after Care of Magical Creatures, I stuck around, as you know." He began. "Hagrid was bloody surprised to see me, luckily the shock was enough that I managed to tell him I came in peace, not to terrorize him before he could get worked up. He invited me for tea, and we talked."

"So, er, why exactly did you go?" Hermione asked him, looking quite confused. "For the past years you've tried your best to get Hagrid sacked, and suddenly you two are having tea?"

"Well, I'm not the same person I have been for the past few years, and I recon it's about time people, other than your lovely self, started to know."

"So you apologized."

"I did."

"And?" she probed

"And what?"

"Well what did he say?" She asked exasperated at his lack of understanding.

"I thought the rock cakes would have told you that much Hermione. Honestly, for the brightest witch of your age, your deductive skills really are not up to par." She laughed and smacked him playfully on the shoulder.

"Okay, so he gave you rock cakes, you don't hate each other anymore. That still doesn't tell me what he said."

At this point, Draco realized she would settle for nothing less than the whole conversation, so he put down his quill, and told her the whole story. From Hagrid's shocked face at seeing him, to his questions, and finally to their friendly discussion at the end. Hermione sat quietly through it all, nodding sometimes.

"Who's the letter to?" She asked him. After he had finished the story, he had begun to copy his letter to Harry yet again.

"Harry" he replied, not bothering to ask how she knew it was a letter.

"Harry? As in, Harry Potter?" She asked, dumbfouded.

"Do you know another one?"

"But, but, but you hate him!" She exclaimed.

"Hated him, Hermione, past tense." He sighed. "The same way I hated you, and I hated Hagrid."

"Oh, right. I'm sorry, it must be getting on your nerves how I assume you still hate all the people you used to after you've been to nice to me."

"Don't worry, I get it." He laughed.

"You aren't writing a letter to Ron as well?" She asked tentatively.

"I thought about it." He sighed. "But if our last meaning was any indicator, he would probably just throw it in the fire at seeing who it was from, probably rip it up too. So I've made a note to Harry in here that the letter is really for the both of them. I thought about writing to Mr Weasley as well, to apologize for all the things my family has ever done to his. I don't know him that well though, so I haven't the foggiest whether or not he would read it."

"Oh Draco, that's a marvellous idea!" She exclaimed with such happiness and excitement, he would have thought he had just suggested they go to the library.

"Really? Alright, well if I write to Harry and Mr Weasley, that should cover the whole Weasley clan." He started muttering to himself, then stopped. "Should I write to Mr or Mrs Weasley?" He asked her.

"Probably best to address it to the both of them, or maybe just address it to all the Weasleys." She said with a laugh.

"Alright." He said, and, after finishing copying his letter to Harry, he began his letter to the Weasleys.

Dear Mr Weasley, Mrs Weasley, and their children,

I am writing to you in the hopes of making amends for the past. To apologize for all of my family's actions to your family.

I wish that I could say that this letter was from my family to your family, but I cannot. It is solely from me, my parents are far too stuck in their ways to see reason, something I have recently been blessed with.

In the past, my father has tormented you, Mr Weasley, and possibly even contributed to you being kept down in the Ministry. He has mocked your family for your beliefs, even endangered your daughter. How you stayed strong through all that, I cannot fathom. If I had to go through half of what you went through because of my family, I most likely would have broken.

I figure it's because you knew you were right all along. While we thought you a blood-traitor, you had realized something much, much before most of the other pureblood families had. When we mocked you for being a blood-traitor, you did not hear the word blood-traitor, but good person. You must have had a bit of a laugh at us, mocking you for being good people.

I also would like to apologize for my actions towards your family, I taunted them at school, much as my father taunted you at work. I was foolish enough to believe in the ideals that my parents taught me, to believe myself superior to so many people.

Last of all, I would like to thank you. If if were not for people like you and your family, the wrong side would have won the war, and a time of great darkness would be upon us.

There is so much I would like to say to all of you, to apologize for every single one of my families wrong doings, but I will not waste your time.

Thank you for hearing out the humble apology of a lowly pureblood,

Draco

By the time he had finished, Hermione had gone to bed. Upon looking at the clock, he realized it was past curfew, so he would have to go down to the Owlery tomorrow to send his letters. He put them in envelopes and put them on his bedside table.

He noticed with happiness that Hermione did not have any nightmares that night, and he slept quite well himself.

He woke up slightly earlier than usual so he could send his letters before breakfast that morning. He wondered how they would react, and even if they did not forgive him, he had at least taken the first step and apologized.

A/N: Well, there you have it folks, Draco has started to make amends for the past, distinguish himself from the rest of his family.

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Thanks for reading!

Always,

Shan :)