Comfort
23 November 1996
Hermione and Harry were waiting outside the common room for Ron when Neville, Ginny, and Dean came out. "Ron is not coming, he said he has homework to complete," Ginny said.
"Since when has he started completing homework?" Harry asked, with his hands in his pockets.
"Since the detention with Trelawney, I guess," Hermione said and they laughed at the memory of Ron coming back from Trelawney's detention with a strong smell of tea, red ears and nose, puffy eyes, and being so nauseated that he had to run to the washroom to throw up.
"See you in Hogsmead, guys," Ginny said as he tucked Dean's arm and began walking down the corridor. Hermione saw as Harry was looking at their backs with a weird expression.
"You alright?" She asked.
"Yeah, I am fine." He said, straightening his glasses.
"Then let's go," Neville said cheerily.
They walked down the stairs and halls. before the entrance hall, they saw Luna in a corridor further away.
She was cornered by a few Slytherins, her books and wand were on the floor and she was covering her face with her hands and most probably crying.
They instinctively started walking towards her. They were halfway there when an interesting thing happened.
They saw Draco walking up behind the boys. He grabbed the collar of one of the larger boys from behind and then thrashed him down to the floor. The other boys saw this too as they began dissipating away.
Draco raised his arm towards Luna with his palm facing towards the ground, as all the books, parchment, and wand flew into his hand and he handed them back to Luna, with a rare smile on his face, which was not a smirk.
Luna took them and muttered something like 'Thank you' and ran down the corridor.
Draco started towards their side of the corridor and walked past them as if they were not there. His expressions were emotionless again.
Neville and Harry were looking at him shocked, even after he had left the corridor. Weren't they supposed to be the nice ones?
"Should we go?" Hermione asked.
They nodded groggily and started walking out of the entrance hall.
In Hogsmead, they went to Honeydukes, where they bought several sweets. Hermione led them to Scrolls and Tomes, where Neville and Harry just waited as she bought seven books for her 'light' reading.
After they had done their shopping, they headed to Three broomsticks for their butterbears. Today was especially crowded, loud sounds of clinking, laughing, plates, and inviting smells of cakes, drinks, and food were intoxicating.
They ushered themselves inside for finding a seat. They walked further inside and found familiar faces of Tonks and Sirius looking at them smiling and waving at them to join. They happily joined Neville with a little hesitation.
"Wotcher, Harry, Hermione, and Neville, is it?" Tonks said,
"Yes," Neville said meekly.
"Great, Did you buy chocolate frogs?" Sirius asked Harry, fairly interested.
"Yes, and Honeydews too," Harry said, handing them out.
"So, what are you two doing here?" Hermione asked.
"We were stationed here and since this is our break, my uncle decided to give me a treat." Tonks said, grinning at Sirius.
"You make me feel too old, Nymph," Sirius said and they laughed.
"Now, would three of you like a treat?" Sirus said, looking at them.
"Yes!" Hermione and Harry said at the same time.
"Rosmerta, three more butterbeers!" Sirius yelled over to the counter.
"Coming, Sirius," Rosmerta answered and three butterbeers came flying towards them.
As they talked, Hermione's mind wandered off. She thought about Draco, Sirius was his uncle too, right? he also deserved these treats. He had told Hermione about his mother once, Narcissa has been in deep shock since Voldemort had made an appearance at their house. Her strain was so deep, that she had not talked to anyone for three years, including Draco. He didn't really mind it though, his mother had ignored him since he was a child. He had been under the care of house-elves since he was a baby. Neither did she mind his father abusing him. He deserved care too, didn't he? He had been pushing himself so hard over the years, proving his best in academics and quidditch. He could even perform smaller portions of wandless magic, which was huge at this age.
She subconsciously looked around and saw Draco sitting at a table at the far end, with Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, and Pansy Parkinson. They were laughing at something, while Draco was uninterestedly swirling his butterbeer. Blaise punched him playfully and he smiled dryly at them for once and went back to his drink. Nott said something like 'you-are-no-fun'.
Hermione felt something hard on her shin and looked up at Tonks who was looking at her in interest and eyebrows almost in her hairline. She gestured her eyes towards Draco and questioned her silently. Hermione just blushed and shook her head dismissively. Tonks just smiled knowingly at her and went back to talking with Hagrid, who had joined them a short while ago.
After what seemed hours, they took their leave and started towards the castle. They were in their common room when she saw something that disgusted her. Ron was frantically kissing Lavender.
She felt tears coming in her eyes as she saw them. She had been crushing over Ron for years now and had been trying to get his attention desperately.
Then something else happened, Ron looked up and found her. His eyes went wide, as he dropped Lavender on the couch.
"It's not what you think, Hermione!" He tried to explain,
"What?!" She blurted out.
"Listen," He placed his hands on either of her arms "I was ju-"
"Get away from me!" She slapped his hands away and when he reaches again, she yelled, "Avis!" and conjured birds at him that started pecking him, causing him to run into the boy's dormitory.
"Hermione," Harry tried to comfort her,
"Leave me alone," She said and started walking away.
She walked on and found an empty classroom. She slumped on a bench. Unaware that her small yellow canaries had followed her into the classroom and now were flying around the ceiling while she cried.
Draco was walking towards dungeons from the room of requirement after checking that the closet worked fine for the hundredth time. He had fixed it two months ago. But anxiety was eating him from inside. He still had to kill Albus fucking Dumbledore.
He was halfway there when he heard someone crying. He padded towards the classroom. He cautiously peeked inside. A girl with frenzied yet elegant brown locks was slumped upon a dusty bench. Her head was in her hands, and she was sobbing lightly. Hermione.
Draco cautiously stated to pad inside. There was a faint sweet chirping sound and he looked at the ceiling. Several small yellow birds were flying around the ceiling lit by moonlight and some of them were sitting around Hermione and chirping softly as if trying to comfort her. One of them had seemingly seen him walking toward Hermione, as she was now perched on Hermione's shoulder and was softly tugging and pulling on Hermione's locks. She was still sobbing and didn't mind.
Draco softly reached the bench and sat down next to Hermione. The bird that was sitting on Hermione's shoulder flew over to Draco's hand and started chirping as if complaining about Hermione not paying attention to them.
"You should someday teach me how you conjured these." Draco's voice broke her from her reveries as she looked up and saw him sitting next to her. She looked around and saw that he was referring to the birds that she had conjured up on Ron. She looked back at Draco and saw that one of her birds was sitting on his outstretched palm. And Draco was affectionately rubbing her small head with the finger of his other hand. He had an amused and awed look on his face.
"I am not going to ask you if you are alright, because you definitely are not alright." He said sternly looking at her with concern etched on his aristocratic features.
"What is it?" He asked more softly,
"Am I that ugly?" She asked, looking straight ahead,
"What?" He asked incredulously,
"Am I that ugly, That even after literally throwing myself over him, Ron still ignores me?" She asked, still looking ahead.
"No Hermione, you are beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful witch I have ever seen, look how I-McLaggen looks at you," He corrected himself "You shouldn't really be concerned about what Weasley said, you know that he is an idiot."
She stopped and looked at him for a moment, "Did you just call me beautiful?" she asked.
"Well yes I wanted to comfort you and that was the most appropriate adjective to express in relation to you in order to make you feel good about yourself and to..."
He went on and Hermione just looked at him amused, did Draco Malfoy, the Greek god of Slytherin, just call her beautiful? Her, of all the girls at Hogwarts? This was a serious blow to her self esteem. Another thought came into her mind, he had corrected himself for McLaggen, did he, by any chance, harbor the same feelings about her, as she did for him? She knew that even if he did, they could never be together, she would join the Order next year, while he would still be a Death Eater.
That thought made her heart clench. She looked at Draco, who was still justifying his use of the word 'Beautiful' and without a second thought, she threw herself at him, hugging him tightly.
Draco was caught off-guard, he looked down at Hermione and patted her head awkwardly. This made her giggle and they broke apart.
"Thank you." She said, getting up, smiling brightly as she had just got an idea to make Ron feel same way as she did.
"Err, You are welcome?" Draco said, confused at the 'comfort' he had provided her.
"We should move now, Filch might catch us." She said.
"Yeah," He said.
When they were outside the classroom, Hermione kissed his cheek and said, "Good Night!"
She said and started back towards the common room.
"Good night to you too," He muttered to himself, walking down toward the dungeons.