Draco hadn't expected to see Granger up at six o'clock in the morning. He'd thought it was early enough that he wouldn't have to see any of the other delegates and since his plan was to avoid them as much as possible, he was frustrated at seeing the Gryffindor up so early. He'd have to try to wake up earlier the next day to avoid her. Draco was sure that would work; it wasn't like Granger was up at the crack of dawn each day. Her being up early was probably just a mistake; she was probably just excited to start school. He wouldn't put that past Granger.
He was out of the shower in five minutes; his showers never last long. He found it unnecessary to spend a lot of time in a shower; he could use that time for something else. He got dressed quickly in his Slytherin robes, feeling proud to wear them. He knew that everyone thought Slytherins were evil and that they were bad people and maybe he was both of those things, but he was also ambitious. He was proud of that fact; if the only good thing he could say about himself was that he was ambitious, Draco found that to be okay. He wandered down to the Great Hall in time to see Granger walking out, looking defeated about something. He refused to stop her and ask what was wrong; she'd probably spread it around the school that he'd tried to talk to her. He was a Death Eater; he couldn't talk to a war hero from the opposite side.
The Great Hall was slowly filling up and Draco took a seat at the Slytherin table close to the doors; he wanted an easy escape route in case someone brought up his part in the war. Most ignored him though, which Draco found to be oddly nice. He was pleased that he could eat in peace and not have to listen to the reasons why he should be in Azkaban or why he should be dead. He'd been stopped at Diagon Alley and had some explain that to him; he didn't want to hear it again.
His classes weren't too bad, he decided. He had all of the classes he'd had in first year except for History of Magic, and he had Arithmancy as well. Only a few of his classes were with the Gryffindors, who he thought would hate him more than anyone else. The Hufflepuffs would most likely ignore him, as would the Ravenclaws, as long as he could stay quiet. Staying quiet was the key to this year; he felt guilty enough about everything that had happened and he couldn't say anything to make himself feel worse.
Draco ate quickly and left the hall with half an hour before classes started. He wandered the corridors with no real destination; all he wanted was to get to his first class right before it started; he could slip in with the crowd and not be noticed. If he could do that today he could do that for the rest of the year and then he would be okay. He could survive his final year at Hogwarts if he could convince everyone to ignore him. He could survive if he became invisible to the world around him. And then, once Hogwarts was done, Draco would find a career where he could make up for every bad thing he'd done. He was thinking about becoming a healer, though he wasn't sure if he'd be qualified for that. Draco would try his hardest though; he'd focus on school and he was even beginning to consider asking Granger how she managed to stay so focused on her homework. Then again that would require a polite conversation with her and he wasn't sure if he could do that.
Her blood status was no longer a huge deal to him; he'd decided to stop listening to his father so much after the battle. His father had been the one to have a problem with everyone's blood. His father had been the one to make Draco believe that if a person wasn't a pureblood, they were beneath him. Draco realized now how stupid that was now, so much of his old prejudice had disappeared over the summer. His biggest problem with Granger now was her friends. He still wasn't a huge fan of Potter and he absolutely hated Weasley, but he knew how much Granger cared about him. If it wasn't for that and the fact that she was in Gryffindor, he might have tried to talk to her. She was a smart girl, he knew, who always seemed to have an answer to everything. Draco was envious of that sometimes, though he got himself through it by remembering that one day she would find a problem she couldn't solve; one day Granger wouldn't know what to do. For some reason he wanted to see that day; he wanted to see her become a bit more human.
He must have walked through the corridor long enough, because a glance at his watch told him that he only had five minutes to get to his first class, Arithmancy, which was with members of all four houses. He had no problem with that; only very intelligent people took Arithmancy and he was sure the very intelligent ones would leave him alone. They would be too busy with school to be mad at him, he thought. Draco walked through the door to the classroom, pausing when he got inside. Most of the seats were taken; there were four empty spots left. One next to Boot, who he would never sit by if he could help it, one next to a Hufflepuff girl he wasn't familiar with, one next to MacMillan, who he also wanted to avoid, and one next to Granger. The seats next to MacMillan and Boot were out of the question; he would never sit next to them. The Hufflepuff girl would have been an option, though a girl from Ravenclaw had just walked in behind him and ran over to it. Draco was left with one choice: the seat next to Granger. He glanced around to find everyone chatting with their desk partner; so far no one had really noticed him. He walked to the seat next to her, sitting down quickly and hoping that Granger wouldn't mind. He'd have to move if she asked him to; disobeying Hogwarts' favorite girl would get him in trouble.
"Malfoy," she greeted calmly, staring at the textbook on her desk. She flipped a page, seeming to ignore his presence for a few seconds. "How was your breakfast?"
"I thought I told you not to be polite to me," he muttered, pulling his own book out of his bag.
"You did," she nodded, still not looking at him. "But that doesn't mean I have to listen to you. So, Malfoy, how was your breakfast?"
He stared at her for a moment, watching as she began to frown and look over at him. "It was fine," he said eventually. "And-And yours?"
"Lonely," she answered, returning her attention to her textbook. "Harry and Ron came down late; I was alone for most of it. The food was quite nice though,"
He nodded and looked down at the desk, wishing she wouldn't try to make friendly conversation. After everything he'd done to her, he didn't deserve it. Draco glanced at her once more, prepared to ask her why she would even bother with him, when the door to the classroom opened. "Good morning, class," Professor Vector said, making him unable to ask Granger anything. "Do you all have your books out? Good, let's begin,"
Arithmancy had never been his best subject, though he'd heard Professor Vector's lesson the last year when Hogwarts had been under Voldemort's control. He'd barely been able to follow the lesson then but he was able to partially follow it the second time. Halfway through the lesson he glanced at Granger, who looked almost as confused as she had the previous night. Granger being confused definitely did not give Draco any confidence in his ability to grasp the concepts as well as she. She'd always been smarter than him and she always would be, so if she was confused then he was sure he was doing something wrong. Draco knew that he wouldn't be able to understand something that Granger couldn't; that was impossible.
The class finished soon enough and Draco glanced at his schedule once more, seeing that he had a free period. He didn't know what to do with his free time, so he returned to the delegate's common room to begin the essay that Professor Vector had assigned. He should have expected homework from her, as she always assigned a great amount of homework and the only time she didn't was the first day of fourth year. After a few minutes of nothing but reading his textbook and the sound of his quill scratching on his parchment, the door to the common room opened. It wasn't Granger, thankfully; it was Abbott. She didn't seem to notice him sitting on the sofa as she hurried into her room, tears in her eyes. Draco didn't know why she was in tears, but he didn't care enough to ask. He didn't think he ever would. He continued to work on his essay for a few seconds before Granger came running into the room. She ignored him as well and went straight to Abbott's door, knocking loudly. "Hannah!" she called loudly. "Hannah please; I know that Bulstrode didn't actually mean to say that-"
"Yes she did!" Abbott said shrilly, her voice quite obviously shaky. "She obviously meant to say it, otherwise she wouldn't have!"
"Well even if she did mean it, she's wrong," Granger said firmly. "Just because you had a little freak out it fifth year doesn't mean you're too stupid to attend Hogwarts,"
Draco clearly remembered Abbott having a panic attack and having to go to the Hospital Wing in their fifth year; she'd been incredibly worried about her exams to the point where she had a breakdown. Everyone had been worried during fifth year though; just because Abbott had let it get to her didn't mean that she was stupid. Granger was right about that. It didn't surprise him, actually; she was right about everything in his opinion. "Hermione-"
"Hannah, please just let me in; let's talk about this," Granger pleaded, knocking on the door once more. "I know how you're feeling; please,"
Abbott's door opened a fraction of an inch and Granger pushed it open further, slipping in and shutting it firmly behind her. He stared at the door for a few seconds, wondering what on earth Granger was saying to make Abbott stop crying, but he knew he would never find out. It was just like Granger to go try and comfort someone though; he'd seen her do it multiple times during their fifth year when younger students had gotten out of detention with Umbridge. For that matter he'd seen the Weasley twins do that as well, though he never noticed them as much as he noticed Granger.
He was halfway done with the essay when his free period ended and Granger walked Abbott out of her room. Abbott was no long crying, which Draco realized was good; he'd never thought much of crying. He hated doing it himself, though every now and then he couldn't prevent it. Granger was better than him in that aspect too; she was able to comfort people in a way he'd never be able to.
Granger walked Abbott to the door before turning around and walking back to sit on the opposite end of the sofa. Draco had been in the middle of packing up his things but he'd frozen the second she sat down. Granger was sighing and running a hand through her wild hair, something Draco hadn't seen her do often. He tried not to make it too obvious that he was looking at her and he was sure that she hadn't noticed. She looked tired; he couldn't understand why that was. Sure they'd both been up early that morning, Granger earlier than him, but she still would have gotten a full night's sleep. Wouldn't she have?
"Uh, Granger?" he asked awkwardly, trying to make his muscles relax. He wasn't used to being relaxed around her, because she was usually with Potter and Weasley and he would never be able to relax around them. Granger's friends hated him more than anything else in the world; they would probably be furious if they saw him talking to her now.
"Yes?" she asked, glancing at him curiously.
He wanted to ask her multiple things: why she looked so tired, what she'd said to Abbott to make her calm down, if she actually understood what they'd learned in Arithmancy... Questions danced around his head, but he shook them away. "Never mind," he muttered, picking up his things and shoving them into his book bag. Granger sighed once more but Draco refused to look at her; he didn't want to.