A/N: And finally a chance to make some progress with the storyline. Hope you enjoy.
In the midst of the Gryffindor common room, the notorious trio sat, or perhaps more accurately, slouched on a large sofa in front of the fire, a spot which over the years they had labeled their own; and neither were they too bold to say so.
Hermione Granger, with much persuasion had momentarily abandoned her studies to spend a little time with her friends. "It's sad you know, as of next year we won't be able to do this any more" she sighed, "no more Hogwarts, no more common room, no more just hanging around in front of the fire".
Ron snorted, "Yeah, no more Snape, no more bloody Slytherin's, no more rules! It's going to be devastating!" he added sarcastically. Hermione threw a cushion at his head, which despite his proclaimed fast reflexes (something which he insisted upon ever since their last defeat against the Ravenclaws in their previous quidditch match) still managed to hit him squarely in the face. "Circumstance Hermione!" Ron shouted, flinging the pillow to the ground dramatically and lacking somewhat in maturity sticking his tongue out at the girl, "that's the only reason we're friends! After this year don't expect to ever see me again!"
"Sure I will," the Gryffindor girl quipped "on the front of 'Wizards most wanted' after you murder some poor woman you were in fact trying to put a love spell on or something similarly ridiculous"
Ron tried to look harassed but couldn't help but smile at his friends sharp wit and, through lack of a better response muttered, "oh shut up; isn't it time you went to detention anyway?" Hermione nodded and groaned at the effort of getting up, yet against all odds, and her own belief she managed it. As she left she picked up the velvet pillow which still lay on the floor and threw it at the now empty space between her two friends.
Almost as an afterthought she turned to the notorious green eyed boy and added, "If you see Crookshanks put him in my room for me. The bloody animal keeps wondering off and I haven't seen it in days!"
"And on behalf of myself and the Gryffindor's Hermione, I can assure you it has been a great loss" Harry joked; however added, "but yeah no problem" in order to cut off any form of lecture from the girl. Hermione smiled, apparently choosing to ignore her friends' new found sarcasm and find McGonagall.
Draco was already waiting outside her office… waiting for her. As she approached she acknowledged him with a smile and a quick nod of her head, "Malfoy," she muttered.
"Hermione" he replied, in such a way one would have thought this was what he had always called her.
The girl did not mind, in fact she preferred it, and met his challenge with a simple, "Draco".
As though she had been waiting for her queue the severe woman stepped out of her office, "excellent, I thought I had heard voices," she did not smile, "tonight you will be running more of a personal errand for me" she looked grim as she continued, "ever since Peeves caused Jason Whatkins to break his leg at the start of the year we have had a flow through of letters from parents who apparently have nothing better to do with their time" if Hermione hadn't known better, she could have sworn the woman was sulking. "The two of you will be opening letters and sorting them into piles of importance. The ones which need responding to and the once which are of no immediate importance. Professor Zarchov has kindly loaned us his classroom for the evening, where you will find the letters have already been placed for you. Go ahead; I will join you shortly after I have attended to a matter in the kitchens".
Without even waiting for a response from either of the students, the woman swept off in a hurry, muttering to herself about incompetent staff and other such business. Draco raised a silver brow at Hermione and muttered, "Women… I don't think I'll ever understand them!"
"Believe me," she replied, "the feeling is entirely mutual. I long ago accepted that it was easier to just indulge the male species as opposed to ever trying to understand them"
"What are you talking about?" Draco demanded as they began to walk towards the classroom, "men are simple".
"Really?" the girl demanded.
"Definitely," he replied curtly, "How hard can it be for you women to understand, we need three things in life," he began to list them off on his fingers, as though making it simpler for her, "sex, food and sex"
"And that," she replied, "is why you are single"
"You're right" he replied.
"I am?"
"Of course" he smiled, "I forgot the alcohol!"
"Oh shut up," the girl rolled her eyes, as they approached the classroom and twisted the door handle, entering first. There was a pause in which she stood with the door ajar, not saying anything; and then apparently unable to render herself silent as her first immediate response burst its way through her lips, "Fuck. Me" she sighed her eyes opening in a mixture of shock and dread.
"Well Granger I never had you down as such a kinky…." He boy trailed off as his eyes made contact with the piles of letters all around the large chamber. There were hundreds of them, stacked in neat piles all around the room, all unopened, waiting for them.
The boy leaned against the door frame, taking it in, wondering if it would now be too late to fake illness and crawl off to bed. Perhaps if he angered Granger enough she would hex him, and leave him unable to follow through with detention. Hermione glanced over at him and grunted "whatever you're thinking you might as well forget it. If I have to do it, so do you". He couldn't help but grin at that.
"Come on then," he retorted, "if we start now we may have finished in time for Christmas, of next year".
"You're obviously on optimist" Hermione moaned half-heartedly, "I would have said next spring" the girl ripped open a letter from the nearest pile, scanned the first line and threw it in the rubbish pile. "Who would have thought parents could be so opinionated. I supposed that's what happens after half a dozen kids walk out of you and you quit your job to look after the last of the collection of loud, screaming infuriating children".
"Someone's lacking their maternal instinct" Draco smiled, pulling another handful of letters from the pile.
"No it's definitely there," she responded jokingly, "it's just being overridden by my vast amounts of logic".
The blond boy shook his head disbelievingly, "I'm going to have two boys and a girl"
"They don't go on order you know" she sighed
"I just have a feeling" he grinned.
"Well you're a man, what do you know" she laughed, surprising herself in realizing that talking to him was refreshing.
"Well you're a mud…" he looked up sharply, and in his eyes you could tell he wished that he could reach out and grab the word, put it back in his mouth and swallow it "I'm sorry". The previous frivolity had erased and was now replaced with a harsh emptiness. For every step they had gone forward, they had taken another back. The girl shrugged, saying nothing, but the hurt in her eyes was evident. She felt like a fool because just for a moment she had forgotten the rules. Forgotten their worlds. Forgotten that his whole bringing up evolved around hating impurity; and she nothing short of just that.
He wanted to explain to her that he had meant nothing by it. It was just years of habit forcing through; but what was the point. What would either of them gain out of it? After all these years, the chance for friendship has dissolved. It was too late. Her name aside, he new nothing about her. That was how it would no doubt stay. Though he told himself this, he glanced up at the girl, wondering if he had hurt her… wondering why he was such a fool as to ruin the fragile semi-friendship they had created.
"Hermione…?"
"It's fine Malfoy," she sighed.
"So we're back to that are we?" he muttered angrily.
"Yes we're back to that," she replied, her voice cold, the barriers of self defense erect as ever, "we'll always be back to that because you will always see me as a mudblood" she shrugged, determined to show him that she didn't care. "I suppose that's just how things are".
Draco ignored the feeling at the back of his throat which seemed to resemble something a lot like guilt and instead threw a handful of letters into one of the piles. He sighed inwardly, and of course having got over being angry at himself, directed it instead at the girl. She was judging him for who he was. He had been brought up this way, it wasn't his fault. The undeniable fact of the matter was that he was a wizard through and through; generations of ancestors told him so; and she, she was just a muggle.
A muggle who can easily compete with you on any wizarding matter, added a voice at the back of his mind, which over the years he had been altogether successful in ignoring, and yet tonight, he felt unable to suppress. It hadn't mattered which line of family she had come from when you were talking to her, joking with her, teasing her.
That was different.
It was different, because he had forgotten to think about his past. About his father. About all that up till now he had been sure where given facts; but was now beginning to think otherwise. He looked up at her. She was not just a mudblood. She was an amazing witch. One who had over the years more than proven herself; now what did that say about all that his father had told him? That it was bullshit. Absolute bullshit.
"You're wrong" he whispered; breaking the silence. The girl looked up at him as he continued to talk, "that's not how things are. Its how I have made things; because I am a fool".
"Yes, you are" Hermione muttered, remaining unmoving for a second; and then decidedly putting down the letters which rested on her lap, she stood up and walked over to the blond haired boy, and somewhat hesitantly stuck out a hand, "perhaps we should start over?" she muttered, "my name is Hermione Granger" he looked at her knowing that she was meeting him half way and trying to not look surprised by it he took her offered hand and shook it.
"Draco" he whispered, "just Draco".