Chapter 4

Draco's point of view

After my bath, I grabbed one of the fluffy white towels and wrapped it tightly around my waist. I went to put some clothes on but the only clothes available were the ones that were stained with my breakfast and I didn't really want to put those back on, and the rest of my clothes were in the wardrobe downstairs so I opened the door and walked down the stairs being careful not to slip as my feet were wet. Hermione wasn't there so I closed the door and began to pull on clothes. I had managed to put some boxers on before someone, who was definitely not Hermione, burst into the room.

"Oh hello you hunk." I tried to cover myself with my towel. The girl who had burst in had long ginger hair and was very small. I slightly recognised her but I couldn't put a name to the face.

"Who are you?"

"How insulting. I'm Ginny Weasley, Hermione's friend." She reached out a hand and I shook it awkwardly whilst still trying to make sure that I was covered up.

"It's nice to meet you."

"Hermione was right you have changed," she then looked at me properly and saw that I was in the midst of getting dressed and her mouth made an O shape, "I just came up here to grab Hermione's jumper, we're going for a walk." She grabbed it off the chair and left quickly, her face as red as her flaming hair. I felt just as embarrassed as her, I had never talked to her before but she had almost walked in on me naked.

My stomach rumbled loudly and I was so hungry. The food in the Great Hall would be packed away by now- I suppose I could go down to the Kitchens and ask but I didn't want to interrupt the house elves- I'll just wait till lunch. The chairs beaconed so I answered their call and picked up the book I had started to read earlier and waited for Hermione to get back.

Hermione's point of view

Whilst Malfoy was in the bath Ginny turned up with a bar of chocolate in her hand.

"Lets talk." And we did, we talked about her and Harry and how she couldn't wait to be married to him, we talked about what she would wear- she had only brought two dresses with her neither of them anything special so I proposed going out to Hogsmeade to see if we could find some. She immediately jumped at the idea and then we went to leave.

"Oh my jumpers upstairs."

"I'll go get it whilst you get permission from McGonagall, we both know she likes you the best."

"Ha yeah." Ginny ran up the stairs and then I went to find McGonagall. She was very understanding and gave us permission to be out for a maximum of an hour. It seemed to take forever for Ginny to finally meet me in the Entrance Hall. When she did finally appear she looked flustered.

"Here's your jacket."

"Thanks, what's up?" Her face was so red and she had a mischievous smile displayed on her face and I was immediately unsure. Did I even want to know?

"I ran into a certain blonde who was getting changed. Hermione you never said how fit he is. I would be jealous but I love Harry too much."

"You love him?" That made me happy to know that she was happy.

"Yeah, but don't distract me. You mentioned that he seemed nicer but that was an understatement he's a different person." She grabbed my arm and shook me, her face was a picture of hope. "It might not be as bad as we originally thought."

"I know I just can't seem to forget what he did. I'll be talking to him and then it just hits me that he has done despicable things."

"Hermione give him a chance okay?" I did want to, he had gotten me breakfast- sort of.

"Okay."

"Now lets go get some dresses!" Ginny linked her arm through mine and pulled me out of Hogwarts. I was actually kind of excited to get a dress, not that I'd admit that to anyone. Especially not Ginny, Ginny was insufferable when she was proved right.

XXXX

There was only one dress shop in Hogsmeade, it was very small and the minute I saw it I wasn't very hopeful that we would actually find something nice.

"Have hope Hermione, we will find something that will knock the socks off our fiancé's." She grabbed my hand and dragged me into the shop. I was met with tulle, silk and so many colours, it almost made me want to run right back out of the shop.

Ginny immediately pulled out a few dresses and headed to the changing room leaving me alone to fend for myself. A kind old lady approached me and began to pull out dresses.

"Try these on, these will suit you. I promise."

"Okay," I was very hesitant but I would only get married once so I might as well look nice for it.

The first dress was a knee length baby pink dress with a sweetheart neckline. It was very simple but I didn't like the simplicity as it made the dress boring, the colour did suit me well so I tried on a lacier dress that was the exact same shade. Unfortunately it was way too short, I felt that If I bent over I would show everyone my ass and I really didn't want to do that. There were two dresses left- one white and one green. I tried the white one on first, it was figure hugging but showed way to much ski and even though I was getting married it felt weird wearing white. I put on the green dress and turned around in the mirror and was shocked to see what I saw- this was the one.

It was perfect. It landed just above my knee is an elegant swoop of fabric. The top half was covered in lace and the lace was a lighter green to the actual bodice of the dress creating a perfect contrast between the lace and the darker silk underneath. It had an ivory ribbon around the waist that acted as a belt and was tied into a moderately sized bow at the back.

I could wear this dress with some silver pumps that I had bought a few years ago for a Christmas party and then I had my silver locket which would go perfectly with it. I loved it so much, I didn't want to take it off.

Ginny's dress was an off-white colour and it was floor length. It had embroidery on the bodice and skirts that added some detail to the dress. She would look so beautiful. To her, her marriage felt like a wedding. To me, my marriage felt the exact opposite but I would try to make it work.

XXXX

Back at school I said goodbye to Ginny and walked up to the portrait. Dominique was alone and looked visibly upset.

"Is everything alright?" I asked, maybe she and Gabriel had an argument.

"No, I'm worried about your man. He turned up earlier all covered up in food and her hasn't left since. And about 10 minutes ago some thugs tried to break in to get him. Gabriel has gone to inform Professor McGonagall but I'm still terribly worried." My heart started to beat loudly in my chest. People really wanted to cause real harm to Draco, they wanted to do more than humiliate him.

"Did you recognise anyone?"

"No. No I didn't. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I'll go check up on him now you don't need to worry."

"Thank you Miss Hermione." I was worried for Draco's safety. Tomorrow we would go back to lessons and if Draco had already been targeted today, I hated to imagine how bad it would be tomorrow.

Draco's point of view

She walked in a bag in her hand and she looked like she had something on her mind. I watched her see me and then walk right upstairs.

"Can we talk?" I jumped when I heard her voice, turning around I see she had paused on the steps and was biting her lip nervously.

"Of course." Hesitantly she put her bags down and sat on the opposite sofa.

"What happened earlier with the food? Did you see who did it? They will get punished if you can remember." She cringed as if expecting an angry reply but I wasn't angry about it anymore. I'd had some time to think about it and really I should have told Hermione right away, she was an understanding person and by saying what she said she understood that I wouldn't be accepted back here with open arms. But she had gotten one thing wrong.

"Firstly, I don't know who did it and secondly if they were to be punished they would be more angry and be more sneaky, which is arguably more dangerous. Thank you for your concern... it's nice, but I don't want you getting mixed up in all of this."

"Draco we are getting married in a couple of hours, we are getting married," frustrated she ran her hands through her hair and got up and came to sit by me, she looked deep into my eyes, "whether you like it or not we will be together which means that we need to move past the past and look to the future. You need to trust me and I need to trust you if we are to be friends okay? And that trust means that we need to work together and not withhold anything from one another."

"Okay."

"Really?" Her face lit up like a Christmas tree, she clearly expected more of a fight. She just didn't understand that I would go to the ends of the Earth to make her happy.

"Yes."

"Good. Good." She smiled slightly at me, not a full smile. Not yet anyway. I could see she was beginning to trust me more. But I felt he burning need to apologise, I hadn't really done that yet and I felt it was necessary for us to move forward together.

"Now I'm going to go and get ready in the bathroom. Please wear something nice to the ceremony."

"One more thing... I... I'm sorry Hermione for, for being so horrible to you. I should never have picked on you the way I did. You're not a Mudblood you're the smartest witch I know and you never deserved anything I did to you. I'm so sorry." Tears glistened in her eyes.

"Thank you."

Hermione's point of view

I didn't realise how much I had needed that apology. I had needed it so much, to hear that he felt terrible about terrorising me and making me believe that I was worthless and to also hear that he thought I was the smartest witch he had ever met and that he never really meant what he said. Well that made me happy and it gave me hope.

A/N: Please review.