Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine but I like to play with them ;)

Later that day…

It was almost time for the patrol and Theo didn't want to be late on the very first day itself. He was actually looking forward to this since the morning. He didn't understand but he liked the idea of patrolling with Hermione. After he gained consciousness from his revere, he looked at the timing and put on his robes before heading out of his dormitory.

He was pretty sure that he wasn't going to be late since he had started walking towards the Great Hall five minutes prior the allotted time.

As soon as he walked around the corner, he spotted Hermione standing in front of the Great Hall, her eyebrows furrowed on the floor. He ran a hand through his hair thinking if by any unfortunate luck he was late. He let out a frustrated groan at that thought.

"I am not late, am I?" Theo asked as soon as he approached her.

Hermione became startled by the sudden voice. She looked up from the ground to find Theo standing beside her.

"Oh, no. You aren't. In fact, you are two minutes early" Hermione replied to his question.

"Oh, thank Salazar" Theo sighed in relief. "I just saw you and thought maybe I was late"

Hermione let out a slight chuckle, "Actually I have the tendency to be ten minutes early than the allotted time"

Theo scoffed, "I'm sorry, sometimes I forget you are Hermione Granger"

Hermione ignored his comment and said, "So, we both are here. Then let's start the patrol"

Theo nodded and asked, "Where do we have to do it?"

Hermione looked at the parchment and began, "Well, I thought about it a lot and then I came to the conclusion that we should patrol the north and south wing today. Are you ok with it?"

'North and South? Interesting' he thought. "Yeah, I'm totally fine with it"

"Perfect" Hermione exclaimed and folded the parchment and kept it in her pocket.

"So, I'll go for the North and you go for the South" Hermione said and turned to walk away.

'Hold on. This wasn't supposed to happen' he tried to understand what she just said. "Wait, what? Aren't we supposed to patrol together?"

Hermione halted at his question. She tuned back to face him.

"Yes we are but if we do it this way, then we'll be able to finish this fast, don't you think?"

'Well, she had a point there. But no wait, screw her point' he thought. "Wouldn't that mean that you are going to break rules? Granger, you? Breaking rules? I can't get the picture of that in my head"

"Oh shush" Hermione moved a hand in front of him. "Like I haven't done it before"

Theo narrowed his eyes at her response.

"What?" Hermione asked. "You don't think I'm friend of Harry's and Ron's without breaking any rules, do you?"

'Oh for fuck's sake, why is she so stubborn?' he thought to himself.

"Come on Granger, aren't you afraid of the circumstances?" Theo tried again. "What if some monster comes out of the bush and attacks you?"

Hermione gave him a weird look, "How can I be afraid of the monster if I'm standing with one"

"Ouch" Theo put a hand on his heart. "You hurt my feelings Granger"

Hermione grinned.

"But no, you didn't win. I don't care what you do but I am not going to break a single rule because of you. You see, I have never broken any rule and I have no intension to do it anytime" Well that was a big fat lie but anyways.

Hermione looked at him not believing anything he said but she realized that it was useless to argue with him.

"Fine. You win, I lose. Happy?" Hermione said with a huff.

"Better" Theo smirked.

"Come on, move your ass you nosy git" Hermione said and started walking towards the South wing.

Theo grinned at her language but made no comments. He actually liked her like this. She sounded like a Slytherin.

"Nott, you need to walk" Hermione shouted from the front.

Theo cursed himself and started walking after realizing that he was too busy in his fantasy world.

They started walking down the stairs. There was lights on the stairs although none can be seen downstairs. The Slytherin dormitory was at the bottom.

As soon as they reached the bottom, they started moving in the directions of the Slytherin dorm. They had walked in silence since their quarrel about patrolling and Theo didn't like silence. At all.

Theo came up with a little plan to annoy the girl in front of him.

He gently came directly behind her and leaned further so that his mouth was near her ears.

"Boo"

Hermione jumped at the sudden noise. She took out her wand and turned back while pointing at the person behind him.

"Easy, woman" Theo held his hand up in surrender. "It's just me"

Hermione groaned in frustration and gently beat him on his arm.

"Oww" Theo said rubbing his arm.

"Nott, I sear to Godric, you stop those childish acts right now" Hermione warned him with a firm glare.

"Ok chill. I –" His words were interrupted by a sound.

It sounded like a giggle. A girl's giggle. Both of them looked at the direction where they thought the sound was most likely coming from.

"I guess we found our first target" Theo said still looking in that direction.

That path lead exactly to the Slytherin Dormitory. 'Crap'

Hermione started walking slowly in that particular direction while Theo followed.

The sound was getting louder as they were approaching the source. Suddenly two figures came into sight and by the look it seemed like they were too busy in some 'extra circular activity'.

"It seems like they are-" Hermione began.

"Making out" Theo completed her sentence.

The two figures jumped apart at the voices coming from their back. They turned to see the Heads standing there. Theo narrowed his eyebrows to have a better look at them and realized that they were in house mates. 'Wow…Now what can be better than this?'

It was Astoria Greengrass and Tracey Davis.

Astoria saw Hermione and made a disgusted face and then she turned to look at Theo, "Sod off, Nott. We're busy right now"

"Yeah I can see that" Theo smirked at her.

Hermione gave Theo a deadly glare. 'Was he having a conversation at this time?'

She then turned to the other two Slytherins, "You are not supposed to be outside at this hour"

Astoria spoke up, "Come on Granger, we are not here to listen to your lecture"

Hermione gave her a peculiar look. 'The audacity of this girl? First she breaks the rule and then she dares to argue with her?'

She looked at Theo to give him a sign to speak something but he was too busy looking at the floor. 'Brilliant'

"Fifty points will be deducted for each of you from your house", Hermione said.

"What?" Tracey's jaw dropped. Hundreds points was too much, "You can't do this?"

"Oh? Watch me" Hermione said with a fake-smile.

"Piss off" Astoria spat grabbing Tracey's hand and walked away.

Hermione turned around and started walking without even looking at Theo.

He was supposed to be yelling at them instead of standing numb. He was supposed to be standing by her side instead of theirs.

"Granger, wait" Theo shouted from the back.

Theo cursed under his breath when she didn't stop. He practically ran to catch up with her pace.

"Granger-" Theo began.

"No, don't Granger me" Hermione said turning to face him.

"I-" He started again but…..

"No, you just shut up. You were supposed to be doing something instead of looking at the floor. What the hell were you thinking? What's the point of this if you don't do your duties" She said pointing to his Head badge.

"Just-" Theo tried again but in vain.

"Just because they are your housemates, doesn't mean you can favor them. I bet that if they were any other house, you would have taken the points happily but-" This time Hermione was interrupted by him.

"Will you just listen to me for once?" His voice came out too loud than he intended to.

Hermione was startled at the sudden rise in his voice but didn't flinch.

"Now I will speak and you will listen" Theo began. "Yes, I didn't say anything because they were my housemates but that didn't mean I was favoring them. You don't know Granger, what it feels to be one of them? If I would have said anything to them, then my whole house would have marked me as a blood traitor and I would have been left alone. And I don't want that. I don't want to be left alone again. We Slytherins deal with hundreds of shit everyday. Even the ones who didn't take part in that fucking war. We get death threats everyday. Fucking death threats! Our life has become a living hell. Yes, some of us did something or the other to deserve it but not all of us. But that doesn't matter because we all are evil as per all of you"

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but Theo interrupted her.

"If I would have done anything to them, they would have abandoned me and I can't handle it. I have already lost very much in the war, Granger and I can't afford to lose my friends too. I lost my parents, relatives, classmates and…nevermind. My friends are the only thing keeping me sane because I have no intension to go fucking insane"

Hermione felt pity for Theo. She didn't mean to offend him, "I'm sorry, I didn't know-"

"Of course you didn't, Granger. Because I'm a Slytherin, you are a Gryffindor. I was on the dark side, you were with the light. I'm a fucking pureblood and you are a mudblood!" He regretted the words as soon as they came out.

Hermione flinched at the 'm' word. She didn't want to hear it. Never. She already had a scar on his hand which reminded her daily who she was.

Theo closed his eyes. He didn't want yo use the 'mudblood' word but it just slipped out.

"Granger I-" He tried to reach her but she backed away.

"Don't. Just don't" Hermione said moving away from him. "Don't you dare come near me!"

Theo started to talk to her again, "Just-"

"Stop" Hermione said putting a hand in front of her. "I don't want to hear anything. I really am sorry for you because of the things you have went through but…I thought you changed but no, I was wrong this whole time. Haven't I proven myself enough to not be called that?"

Hermione wiped away the single tear coming out of her eyes. She shook her head in disbelief and started walking away from him.

"Granger"

No response.

"Granger, wait"

No response, again.

"Fuck" Theo banged his hand on the nearby wall in rage.

Hermione had no idea where she was going because she was not in the right state of mind. She had started thinking that Theo was a better person. But she was wrong.

She looked at her arm where 'mudbloood' was carved in bold letters. Tears started flowing through her eyes. She hated being a muggle-born. She hated the fact that she had to prove everyone that she was worthy of magic.

Draco just came out of his dormitory after arguing with Pansy. Pansy was not his girlfriend but she thought she was. Girlfriends weren't really Draco's thing. He said-

His thoughts were interrupted when someone bumped into him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't-"

Draco looked at the person who happened to be a girl and no other than Hermione Granger.

"Granger?"

"Malfoy?"

"What are you doing here?" Draco asked her while she steadied herself.

"I…I was just patrolling"

"Oh" Draco said and then he looked at her more observantly. "Were you crying?"

Hermione didn't want him of all people to know.

"Granger, answer me." Draco asked again. "Were you crying?"

"Why do you even care?"

Actually, he didn't. He was just curious.

"Will you just answer my question?"

Instead of answering, she questioned him, "Tell me Malfoy, do you still think my kind as inferior? Muggle borns inferior that pureblooods? Teel me, do you still recall me as mudblood?"

Draco was taken back by her response. He didn't see that coming.

Draco looked at her for a few seconds before answering, "I don't know what you are up to but yes Granger, I still think your kind is inferior to ours"

Hermione scoffed. Well, it wasn't a surprise. What did she expect?

"But I most certainly am trying to think otherwise. Although it will take time. Old habits die hard"

Hermione was stunned at his words. She looked at him like he just transformed into a giant.

"What? Is it that surprising?" Draco raised his eyebrows at her reactions. "And to answer your second question….no, I don't recall you as a mudblood anymore. You have proven just enough to make me think otherwise"

This time it looked like Hermione was going to drop her jaw to the ground.

Draco looked at her and said, "Don't flatter Granger, you are still a know-it-all, bossy and nosy bookworm to me"

Hermione chuckled at his statement. He didn't expect anything this close from Draco.

Draco figured out what could have happened with her, "Did someone call you that name?"

Hermione stopped smiling and looked at the ground.

"I'll take that as a yes then" Draco said. "You know you shouldn't bother about what other people think"

"I know…I just thought that the person who told me had become better and then today…"

Draco figured out Hermione's unspoken words.

"Screw everyone, Granger. You don't have to waste your time on anyone"

Hermione said nothing but shifted her glance from the ground to her hand where the word was carved. Draco followed her gaze and understood.

"I'm sorry about the scar" Hermione looked up to look at him.

"And I'm sorry I didn't do anything that day"

Hermione knew which day he was referring.

"I don't blame you" Hermione said. "I understand, Voldemort would have killed you"

Draco was surprised by her response. She thought she would at least yell at him or curse him but no she didn't.

"But I really wanted to" Draco confessed. "I still get nightmares of that day"

"You get nightmares too?"

"I think we all do, Granger"

Hermione and Draco stared at one another. Who would have thought that the mortal enemies were having a decent conversation without killing anyone? But here they were facing each other.

"You have changed" Hermione broke the silence. "For better"

Draco looked at the girl standing in front of him, "I like this Draco Malfoy much more than the older one"

"Me too" Hermione blurted.

Draco stared at her. Why did she have to be so good? He can't do the fucking dare if she behaved like this.

Hermione cleared her throat, "I think I should get going now"

Draco nodded at her words.

She turned back and too a few steps before stopping and turning around, "Malfoy, thank you. For today."

And with that she walked away.

Draco stared at her back until she disappeared in the dark. He couldn't understand what the fuck did just happen? Did they talk? And that too without throwing a single hex? 'Awesome'

And the worst part was that none of it was planned. None of it was any acting for that ridiculous dare. 'Fucking brilliant'

He was not supposed to talk to his enemy. He was supposed to come up with a plan to make her fall in love with him instead of consoling her.

He banged his head slightly on the wall. Holy fuck, this month was going to be a disaster.

Author's notes: Fucking brilliant. This was the latest update I've ever done but believe me I was too preoccupied with other things. Anyways, hope you liked the chapter and this was the first official Draco and Hermione meet. Comment down your reviews. Do not forget to look up me on Instagram under the name dramione_for_eternity and mxltilaughs. And a reminder, I need a beta reader very badly. So inform me if you are up for the job either by e-mail or dm me on Instagram.