This is my first story and it is actually based off of my own life. It is set in America with no magic and basically follows the past ten years of my life but from the point of view of Hermione and Draco. I do not own the characters or the setting. I only own the plot and any characters not from Harry Potter. I hope you enjoy (:

I remember that he held my attention from the moment I saw him. We were fifteen and I had just transferred back to Hogwarts as a fourth year after spending the past three years being home schooled. I walked in and immediately claimed my seat in Literature next to the one girl I knew from elementary school before I had left. The teacher then began her obligatory introductions and asked each of us to make place cards to help her learn our names. That's when he threw the door open and entered my life. It was literally the first class of the year and he was twenty minutes late, walking in as if he owned the place with a smirk.

"Draco!" a chorus of voices greeted this boy as a few people that already knew him clamored for him to sit in the empty seats next to them. My eyes lingered on him for some reason. You could immediately tell he was charismatic and comfortable wherever he was as he sank into the chair next to the door and dropped his expensive, leather bag by his chair. The teacher approached him, asking why he was late for class on the first day of school. He smoothly made an excuse, making her laugh in the process and completely forgive him.

"Hermione!" came an urgent voice next to me. I turned to the petite, blonde girl next to me.

"Hm?" I responded, still deep in thought.

"You haven't finished your place card," she waved a piece of folded paper with the words Luna Lovegood before my face. It was decorated with her birth date and various little pictures that described her, such as a picture of a dog and some art supplies. I turned back to my empty piece of white printer paper and shook my head to clear it before writing down my name and drawing a couple of books, a cat and a dog.

"Your last name is Granger though," Luna said, looking over my shoulder.

"Well it's not fitting," I explained as I barely squeezed a G onto the paper before running out of room. I had written my first name a little too large.

"Okay class," the heavily pregnant Mrs. Burbage interrupted our conversation. "Now introduce yourself to the person next to you using your place cards!" Luna and I just turned to each other and laughed. We had known each other for about four years and had lived next to each other up until about a month ago in an apartment complex across the street from Hogwarts. Almost everyday after school when we were younger had been spent playing tag and talking to each other, so there was obviously no need for introductions. When you tell a bunch of teenagers to talk to the person next to them though, inevitably we all end up talking to everyone and anyone near us.

While Luna met some of the girls around us, I felt my gaze drifting back towards the boy, who was now energetically chatting and introducing himself to the people around him. Some of them knew him, but it was evident that whether they did or not, he was in command of the situation. They were all listening to his every word and laughing at every joke he made. I took that time to get a closer look at him. Anyone would say he was handsome. Even as a fifteen year old, there was no denying it. He was tall, fair and had light blonde, almost platinum, hair. It was evident that he would only become more attractive as he grew older. However, that wasn't what captivated me about him. I watched him laugh with his friends and I was simply astonished by how easy-going he was. He didn't look like he even cared what people thought about him. He was just, unapologetically, himself.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't even notice him raise his eyes a little higher until they connected with mine. His eyes were so bright and lively that I couldn't look away and for what felt like an unreasonably awkward amount of time, but in reality was probably only a couple of seconds, we just looked at each other. Suddenly, I snapped to my senses and spun back around in my chair, my heart beating just a little faster for some inexplicable reason.

I spent the last three years of my life under house arrest with basically just my family and a slightly overweight dachshund to keep me company. He's just the first attractive guy I've seen in a long time. Satisfied with my explanation for my reaction to him, I nodded aggresively to myself and turned back to Luna, who gave me a look as if I had absolutely lost my mind. I just smiled at her and feigned ignorance, which probably did not reassure her about my sanity, before we went back to socializing. For the rest of that day, I focused on making friends, a few of which would remain important people in my life throughout my time at Hogwarts. However, I was certain that Draco Malfoy would not be one of those people. I really could not have been more wrong.

The next month of school remained generally uneventful. My eyes continued to wander towards Draco and I learned a little bit more about him through our two classes together: Literature and History. He was taking Advanced Arithmetic as a fourth year. Advanced Arithmetic was only available to students starting their sixth year and very few students were accepted into the subject to begin with. From that, as well as his contributions and grades in class, it was evident that he was very intelligent. On the other hand, from his constant interruptions during class, which I had yet to see any teacher call him out on, it was obvious that he could not shut up. Draco made pretty much every teacher melt with his humor and practically everyone loved him, despite the fact that he was incapable of being quiet. I lost count of the amount of times he would make a smart ass remark and I would have to stifle my laugh so that I didn't interrupt class, resulting in a kind of strangled hiccup noise that sounded like I had choked on my own tongue. I knew if I laughed that I would be the one in trouble, not him, so I made sure to try and stay quiet. But he always noticed and would shoot me a grin whenever he heard me stifling my laugh. Besides that, we never interacted during that month.

At home however, it was a different story. I was slowly, but surely, becoming more introverted around my family. My older sister had just started her sixth year at Hogwarts, and with this milestone came all the angst and screaming matches that I had heard came with being a teenager, but I never personally expected to experience through my parents and sister. My mother also moved further away at that point so that she could get more money working as a physician for me and my sister. As a result, I found myself hiding in my room to escape from the screaming matches between my sister and father, until my mom would come home during the weekend. Then the arguments would start again with the addition of my mother's voice. The only goal had been to get through each day causing as little trouble for my family as possible. So, I went to school, received good grades and tried to be the perfect child at home. Not that anyone noticed or, if they did, cared. And for awhile I continued to live my life like that without really feeling that anyone saw me as significant enough for any kind of attention.

After one of the more intense fights in my household that lasted well into the night and revolved around my sister screaming that our parents never listened to her, I entered Mrs. Burbage's class and immediately put my face down on my desk and let out a low groan. The lack of sleep that resulted from being kept awake because of the constant fighting in my house was catching up to me.

"You good?" I gave a noncommittal grunt and raised my head to meet the concerned eyes of Padma Patil, probably the single most competent human being on the planet and another one of my close friends.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said, going for a reassuring smile that most likely looked more like a grimace. Padma was arguably the smartest student at Hogwarts and she would often correct various teachers' assignments. So it wasn't surprising when she looked at me as if she knew every word out of my mouth was bullshit. "I just didn't get much sleep last night."

"Okay, if you're sure that's it." She took her seat next to me and a moment later Luna came into the classroom and sat in an empty seat by us. Those two girls were providing me with so much more support than they even knew. When I came to school to get away from my house, it always felt like I was spending time with good people with good intentions, providing me with a brief distraction from my life.

"Good morning class!" Mrs. Burbage, who looked like she was about to pop at any moment, strolled in and shut the door. "Today's my last day before my maternity leave, so you will meet your substitute teacher next class, which will be on Monday! I don't know you all very well, but I will miss each and every one of you and can't wait to see you all when I come back." That was definitely an exaggeration. The only thing this woman knew about me was my birthday because she had the same one as me. I was pretty confident that she still had not figured out my name and had doubts that she ever would. So much for those place cards.

Right then, on cue, Draco sauntered in late. Mrs. Burbage did nothing but smile fondly at the smirking boy before continuing her spiel. "For today's assignment, I am going to number all of you off and put you in groups to discuss last night's short story about The Little Mermaid."

As we waited to be numbered off, Luna, Padma and I talked about what our new teacher could be like, wondered whether we would have to change seats on Monday and gave Padma ten dollars for winning our bet on whether Mrs. Burbage would go into labor during class. We really only discussed the most important things.

"Alright! You all should have sticky notes numbered one through six on them," Mrs. Burbage announced. "Find the other four people with your number and discuss the questions I wrote on the white board."

I picked up the bright pink sticky note on the corner of my desk to find a small two written in blue ink on it. I quickly scanned the room and found three kids in the corner of the room. They were all sitting and discussing their plans for the weekend while one boy held up two fingers to signify that they were group two. I made my way over and entered their conversation. Since I had known the three of them moderately well for approximately a month at this point, I considered all of them acquaintances and had no problem discussing "The Little Mermaid," which was a poem by Judith Viorst. However, we had to wait for our fifth person before we could begin.

"Hey guys, sorry I had to talk to Mrs. Burbage really quick about going out of town on Monday." I looked up with the words "it's fine" on the tip of my tongue, but that's when my eyes locked for the second time with the pair of strangely warm, silver ones that I had seen on my first day of school. My mouth went dry and I fell silent as Draco grinned at me and slid into the desk across from me, facing me and maintaining eye contact that practically took my breath away.

"You're fine," someone else in our small group said and the other three members of our group began to take turns discussing the poem. I did my best to focus on what the others were saying but I could feel Draco's eyes on me and nothing else. Why is he looking at me? Why won't he stop looking at me? Is there something on my face? Why the FUCK is this boy STILL staring at me?! My thoughts were just variations of this question despite my best efforts to focus on the poem.

"Hermione, what do you think about it?" I finally snapped out of it when everyone, and not just Draco's, eyes were on me.

"Uh well," panicked, my eyes connected with Draco's again and instead of seeing patience and encouragement, which was on everyone else's face, I saw a smirk and an unspoken challenge. And that's when it hit me. He knew he unnerved me, and he was expecting me to be flustered and make a fool out of myself. With this realization, I felt my irritation and pride take over so that I could show him how little I cared about his proximity to me. He apparently also noticed the change in my resolve because I saw surprise momentarily flash in his eyes before I turned towards the rest of the group.

"Well, in my opinion at least, I think that the poem obviously has the theme of how it's important to be yourself like you guys mentioned but it also talks a lot about disappointment and unrequited love, which I think is interesting. Normally, when you think of 'The Little Mermaid' you think of her living happily ever after and this poem is showing a more realistic ending where she sacrificed everything for someone she loved and trusted to love her back. Instead of loving her back though, the prince just left her behind, as a result she learns that she should be more careful with who she loves and trusts and finds out the importance of not changing herself for someone else. So, there's multiple themes in the poem, not just one - Is there a problem?" I broke off my analysis and turned on Draco when I realized that everyone else was nodding in agreement while he was just sitting there staring at me with narrowed eyes.

"Nope," he said, obnoxiously popping the p sound. "I just disagree with something you said."

"And please, do tell what it is you disagree with? I'm dying to know." Admittedly, I may have sounded more snappish than I meant to, which, judging by the confused and surprised looks on the faces of our other group members, came off as slightly hostile. But that stupid smirk on Draco's face was quickly becoming something that made me want to smack him.

"Well, in my opinion at least," he began mockingly as I struggled to prevent myself from throwing my pencil at his head, "this story isn't more realistic at all. It could have just as easily been a happy ending. It just didn't work out that way. And we have no way of knowing that she would have been happy if she didn't sacrifice everything for the prince. He could have still married someone else and she would have still been curious about not being a mermaid, which could have led to her alienating herself from her family and led to her still being all alone."

"So, what? You're saying her life is depressing either way?" I asked, confused about his point.

"I'm just saying that just because it's sad, doesn't make it more realistic. I think this poem just shows that sometimes risks don't work out, but I, personally, still think it's worth it to take them. Because you never know what ending you're going to get." Draco's eyes never left mine and I could tell he was confused about something as he looked at me. For some reason, I looked away first. In that moment I had felt way too vulnerable, as if he knew more about me than he should after that brief conversation.

"That's optimistic," I muttered after the group acknowledged both of our statements and moved on to answering the other questions about the poem.

"I'm a glass half-full kind of person," he said, shrugging. "I assume you think it's half-empty?"

"Sometimes."

He nodded, as if he had seen that coming. "I'm Draco by the way."

"Hermione."

"I know, we've been in two classes with each other for like a month."

"Then why did you even ask?"

"I didn't," he said, smirking. Seriously, who smirks that much. "You just assumed that I did when I introduced myself."

"Well, why did you bother introducing yourself then?"

"Because it's polite?"

"Then maybe I just introduced myself to be polite?"

"Maybe, but I have a feeling you're not interested in being polite to me."

"So, I'm rude then?" I asked, feeling indignant at the idea of this boy, who knew absolutely nothing about me, was deciding who I was so quickly.

"No. You're just different. More interesting."

And with that he leaned back in his chair and went back to watching me, grinning for no apparent reason. I just stared back at him for a moment with no idea what to say, before I turned back to our other group members with a small smile on my face.

He continued to attempt to initiate conversations with me over the next few weeks and, despite my efforts to remain civil, I very quickly came to the conclusion that he did not want that. He purposefully disagreed with me in class, even when he knew I was right, he would step on the heels of my shoes in the hallway to try and get me to trip, and he would just stare at me until it was obvious that I wasn't focusing on anything besides how much I hated when he stared at me. I knew his only goal was to make me angry, however, so I resolved to not give him the satisfaction, which of course made him only more determined.

I did my best to remain impassive until Parent-Teacher night. My mother had come home early that week and had decided she wanted to go. Surprisingly. I had assumed that we wouldn't go because I couldn't remember the last time my parents had attended one of those for me. As a matter of fact, I was having trouble remembering the last time my parents even cared about my schoolwork beyond checking to make sure I didn't drop below a 95 in any class. Regardless, there I was on a Thursday night at school listening to my teacher lecture. It was a Parent-Teacher night so I had no idea why my parents insisted I, a student, needed to be there. They claimed that if they had to go then I did too. The only issue with that logic was that they did not, in fact, have to go. Glancing around the room, I confirmed my suspicions. There was only a handful of kids there, none of which I recognized but all looking as disgruntled as I felt. Every other parent had acknowledged the implicit rule of Parent-Teacher night: "Don't bring your kids to school when they don't have to be there."

Leaning back in my desk, I closed my eyes and accepted that the next two hours of my life were just going to be that boring. I got approximately two minutes to myself before I felt someone flick the back of my head. I spun around fully planning to glare at whoever was sitting behind me and cause a huge scene. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone's antics. What I wasn't expecting, however, was for Draco to be sitting behind me with a broad grin. He was there with a slender, blonde woman, who I assumed was his mother, and looked absolutely pleased with our current situation.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed, keeping my voice down so that my mother didn't notice and ask me all kinds of questions about who he was.

"Parent-Teacher night," he replied. "Duh."

Grabbing my mom's arm, I got up out of my desk. "Let's go to my next class, there's a lot of people left for you to meet."

"Okay, is something wrong?" she managed to get out before I dragged her out of the room.

We continued going from classroom to classroom and it didn't take me long to realize that Draco was purposefully following me. Especially after I noticed him walk into my Arithmetic class, which, as I previously mentioned, he did not take. I groaned and walked towards him. Grabbing his hand, I pulled him to a corner of the room and immediately dropped his hand when I noticed his smug smile.

"Get out."

"Excuse me?"

"I was here first."

"I'm not denying that. But a classroom is able to fit more than one person, even if your hair does take up an alarmingly large amount of space."

"My mother is here."

"What a coincidence, so is mine. Maybe we should introduce them," he moved to get his mom's attention, leading to me grabbing his hand and bringing his attention back to me.

I looked around and noticed that my own mother was looking for me. "I'd rather neither of my parents knew specific details about my life at school. Meet me in the hallway in a few minutes."

My mom had spotted me at that point, so I walked back over to her and let her know that I was going to go get a drink of water from the fountain in the hall. As soon as I left the classroom, I spun around and was face to face with Draco.

"What do you want from me?" I shouted angrily. "You constantly nitpick at the things that I do during class, you make fun of my hair and my glasses all the time, and you've been following me around for the past hour! What's the fucking point of it?"

He just grinned at me. "There we go."

"What?"

"You always act like you're so quiet and friendly towards everyone."

"Maybe I'm just a nice person."

"But I annoy you and this is how you want to react to me."

"So what?"

"Why do you let me get away with it? Why don't you ever say anything? If I'm being a dick to you, then you should be one back. You're the only person I know who's intelligent enough not to bore me, but instead of being yourself, you just prefer not to cause problems and deal with what life does to you. I wouldn't think about it at all though if it wasn't for the fact that I know that's not you."

For once, I didn't see a smirk or a grin on his face. He was just looking at me like it genuinely bothered him that I wasn't being myself.

"First of all, how would you know anything about me? Second, assuming that anything you said was right," it was spot on actually, "why do you even care?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, I just want to know you. You're different."

There it was again. When he called me different it didn't feel like an insult, but it made me nervous. It bothered me that he always seemed to be listening and paying attention to me when I didn't think he was. I had grown used to not being noticed and feeling like I came second to everyone else, so it was unsettling when he singled me out like this.

"I have to go," I said quietly. I turned to walk away, leaving him standing in the hallway. Before I reached the door, something made me stop and look back at him. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Definitely."

Let me know what you think! I could use a Beta so if anyone is interested please message me!