Just Draco

Draco Malfoy stood frozen in his spot.

Paralyzed in surprise, he felt a wave of anxiety wash over him and was at a complete loss at what to do. He could help but stand there unable to decide what to do.

It wasn't like Draco had forgotten Harry Potter was coming, not even close. He had been trying to distract himself from the anxiety he felt when thinking of the inevitable situation for the better part of the day. Attempting to memorize the endless stars and constellations on the ceiling of his room at the Black residence, he occasionally tried to think of a solution.

All of his ideas where no where to be seen now.

Because there he stood, the very person that very easily could determine Draco's fate. Thinking back now, Draco should have expected Potter would be here by dinner time but stupidly he hadn't. So here he was, standing still there in an oversized shirt and a pair of muggle jeans with disheveled hair and dark circles under his eyes from many restless nights, looking anything but his previous self, in front of all these people.

Sirius' voice broke Draco free from his trance, it wasn't till then that he realized that this was the first time someone had spoken since Draco had walked in. Everyone else in the room had fallen silent and froze staring between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. Sworn enemies since the first day they'd officially met.

"Ah here he is, just the boy I needed to see," Sirius said cheerfully ignoring the stares and slinging an arm around the stunned blond. "Everyone, this is my cousin, Draco," Sirius said proudly, acting as if none of the people present have ever met nor heard of Draco Malfoy.

There was a brief pause.

Hermione Granger then walked straight up to him and stuck out her hand, "my name is Hermione," she said pleasantly. Everyone staring intently unsure of what Draco would do in response to the muggle-born he had tormented all these years.

Draco noticed that Sirius purposely didn't use Draco's last name, and it was apparent Hermione had too. Sirius had caught onto Draco shying away from using his surname, he wanted nothing to do with the Malfoy name. He wanted to be just Draco.

"It's nice to meet you, Hermione," Draco said a bit surprised at how smoothly he was able to say her first name and, after a moments hesitation, he took ahold of her hand and bent down to kiss it.

It was how he was raised to greet a lady and he's already decided that Hermione, besides, others of her particular heritage shall be treated by him like any other witch or wizard. When he straightened back up he saw her eyes were wide in surprise and a slight blush tinted her cheeks.

"Well it's nice to finally meet you too, Draco," Hermione said sincerely putting her hand down after he released it. The amount of sincerity in her voice caught Draco off guard, Hermione simply gave him a small smile and then she was gone.

Everyone else had chosen that moment to get up and introduce themselves to Sirius' cousin, following along. Draco couldn't hear all of the introductions as there was so much noise, though it didn't matter much as Draco knew who most these people were anyways. They were all trying to speak at the same time to introduce themselves and also what he assumed was talking to Sirius.

Then they all quieted down and watched as the boy-who-lived walked right up to his sworn enemy since they say they had officially met.

"Hello Draco, my name is Harry," Harry Potter said sticking his hand out.

There was a very tiny voice in Draco's mind that wanted to deny the handshake, as it would be payback for when the role was reversed, but that wasn't in anyone's best interest. Like Hermione, he pointedly didn't say his own last name. They understood wanting to be known for who you are rather than who everyone expects you to be. The "Chosen One" and the "Mudblood", Draco cringed just thinking about the word and he swore he'd never use it again.

So instead Draco took his hand firmly and shook it, "it's nice to finally meet you . . Harry," he said.

*

The rest of dinner was enjoyable. The food was especially delicious as Mrs. Weasley decided to cook so Kreature didn't have to. Draco saw Hermione was happy about this as well but that was happiness was probably more directed towards the whole House Elf thing she started in the beginning of the year. That seemed a lot farther away then it was, like another era almost. What was it called? SPEW? Something of that nature anyways..

That night though, when Draco was lying in bed, he couldn't help but wonder what tomorrow would bring. Would they go back to normal, as if the previous day hadn't happened? Would Potter decide that yesterday had been a mistake and ask Sirius to kick him out? Would Sirius allow Draco to be kicked out?

No, Draco couldn't believe that. Sirius was Draco's family and they'd gotten close enough for that to mean something, Draco's even gotten pretty close to Remus in his time here. Remus was the only one out of the three that was allowed to leave the old house and would sometimes bring Draco things like books or clothes and even, occasionally, sweets. Even if somehow Sirius would betray Draco like that, Remus would talk some sense into him.

Though all of that was assuming they weren't going to follow along with yesterday, the greater question is, what if they were going to follow along? Draco had no idea what to expect.

Later that night though, when Draco had thought everyone was in their beds probably asleep, there was a light knock on his bedroom door. It had startled him but he rushed a quick "come in" as he sat up.

The old door creaked open, despite it being opened slowly in an attempt at avoiding it, to show none other than Hermione Granger. He was especially confused now.

"Oh I'm sorry, did I wake you?" She asked nervously seeing that he was lying in bed.

"Oh, no you didn't I was still awake," he answered.

"Ok good, I'm sorry to bother you but do you have a minute?" She asked and he raised his eyebrows.

"No I've very busy as you can tell," he joked lightly.

"Well if you don't want to know what I was going to ask you then that's fine by me," Hermione said following along, inching towards the door.

"No no, please ask away," he insisted gesturing to come closer away from the door. She walked over and sat on the edge of his bed without another word and Draco waited.

"I was just wanting to ask why you did it, I mean it seemed like you had everything. Money, fame, a family-" she paused when Draco made an odd face when she mentioned his family, "I just don't understand why you left it so soon."

He nodded, he knew these questions would be coming eventually. "Last summer at the Quidditch World Cup-" Hermione winced at the memory "-the attack was very...frightening. I had heard Fa-Lucius tell stories of previous attacks they'd done when the Dark Lord came into power last but to see it," Draco shook his head, "to see my own Father doing horrible things to wizards and witches who hadn't even don't anything wrong but been born. I knew I was safe of course but I found myself fearing for the muggle-born, for you too." She looked quite surprised by this information.

"But you-" she began to say before Draco interrupted.

"I know but I really was trying to warn you..in my own way I guess. That was the night I began to see that this was all very wrong," he explained. "I noticed even more as time went on, how awful and inhumane all of it was. It wasn't until Lucius told me that He was coming to live with us," Draco went on, "until he told me I was going to get the Dark Mark myself soon enough, that I knew I had to get out."

Hermione looked very surprised, "The Dark Mark? At 14 years old?"

"I'm fifteen actually," he corrected.

"Still fifteen? That's much too young for something like that!" She said horrified but kept quiet, "and to have him planning on living in your own home!"

Draco gave her a sad smile, and she instinctively put a hand over his in comfort. "I'm so sorry," she said, her eyes burning with sincerity.

"Thank you," he said then slowly pulling his hand away trying not to be rude. She understood though and put her hand in her lap.

"How did you find this place? You can't see it from the outside, it has an Unplottable Charm," Hermione asked.

"I didn't find it, Remus took me here actually," he said, "I ran into..some people Lucius knew before after I left home and well it was apparently not a secret to them of my leaving and they weren't happy to see me. Remus came just in time to save and though I wasn't conscious at the time, he brought me here."

"Huh," she said thinking about what he had said.

"Can I ask you something now?" Draco asked before she could ask anymore questions.

"Oh uh sure," she said more surprised then wary.

"Why did you introduce yourself first?" He asked

"Well firstly, it was like I finally got to meet the real you, the real Draco, instead of Malfoy which already knew well enough and I think that was the point Sirius was trying to make," Hermione explained, "and because I've been keeping an eye on you since I found out you were trying to change, to see if you really were or if it was a pretense so you could spy on us or something. I haven't seen anything but sincerity so I believe you deserve a fresh start."

"Why would you do that for me? After everything I've done to you, how terrible I've been, why?" Draco asked astonished at how easily she was convinced.

"Because you are going to spend the rest of your days proving me right, hopefully. Every time you use your potential to be good, to help others, you will be proving me right," Hermione told him. "And I know that's one thing you hate most," she added with a teasing tone.

"Wow, just like that?" He asked.

"Yup, just like that. I'll still keep an eye on you, for all I know you can just be the best lier I've ever met but someone needs to give you a little trust," she informed him.

"Thank you," Draco said.

"My pleasure," Hermione replied then looked at the clock on his wall, "well I'll let you sleep now, goodnight Draco."

"Goodnight, Hermione."