Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter because if I did, I would have been hella rich *sobs in a corner*
Later that day…..
Hermione entered the class and her gaze fell upon Theo. He was talking to Blaise about something. Then he immediately turned around and saw Hermione staring at him. She quickly diverted her eyes and spotted her best friends, Harry and Ron, sitting in the front row. She gave a side glance and found that Theo was still watching her. She pretended to ignore him and walked towards her friends.
Professor Slughorn entered the classroom with his books and some vials of potions.
"Good morning, students. I hope you are ready for today's class"
Almost the whole class groaned in frustration except a few including Hermione. It wasn't that anyone was a fan of Potions in the first period. They were not interested in learning about some unknown potion which they are not going to use anytime in their goddamn life.
"Today we'll learn about Veritaserum" He said ignoring the disinterest in the students.
"Pathetic" Ron exclaimed rolling his eyes.
"Now, now who is going to tell me about the potion?" Slughorn said looking around the class.
A hand shot up in the air. It was Hermione's. Well, it wasn't a surprise but still many Slytherins scowled at her.
"Yes, Miss Granger?"
Hermione stood up smiling, quite proud of herself to know the answer, "Veritaserum is a powerful truth serum. The potion effectively forces the drinker to answer any questions put to them truthfully, though there are certain methods of resistance"
"Well done, Miss Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor" Slughorn said with an impressive look.
Hermione smiled and popped back in her seat.
Gryffindors were happy for the points earned by Hermione while Slytherins made snarky comments at her except two boys. It was not hard to guess who they were.
Draco looked at Hermione, who was smiling while talking to Ron and Harry. He looked at the girl carefully. She was not like any other girl he has seen. Her hairs were dark brown and looked in a better condition than it did in the first year. Her face brightened up when she smiled. She didn't wear any makeup but in spite of that she looked radiant. She was no doubt a natural beauty. And the fact that she fought against Voldemort despite the fact that she was a muggle tells how strong she is. Well, sorted into Gryffindor for a reason. She was so unique. Then, why did he hate her? Oh yes, her blood. He was a pureblood, she was a muggle born. But what if she would have been a pureblood? Would he have hated her then? Draco shook his head to remove all thoughts. He can't think of all this. It doesn't matter. He was just tolerating her for the dare. He can't be attached to her.
Meanwhile, Theo was looking back and forth between Draco and Hermione. He caught Draco looking at Hermione. Fortunately, Draco hadn't seen Theo watching him. Theo couldn't figure out what was going on between them. Whatever it was, he found it interesting. He smirked looking at the Gryffindor and the Slytherin. Then a memory hit him. His smirked immediately vanished. First, he had to solve the problem between her and Hermione. He really had hurt her that day. And now she wasn't talking to him and worse she was ignoring. He closed his eyes and cursed himself under his breath. He had royally fucked.
At the same time, there was another person who was watching Draco and Hermione. Pansy Parkinson. She watched Draco staring at Hermione. And it pain her to the core because Draco never stared at her in that way. She was literally on the verge of crying. Where did she go wrong? She always thought that Draco and she were meant to be together. She took a deep breath and told herself that it was just a part of the dare and nothing else. But her mind always had this thought of what if it's something else going on?
"You good, Pansy?" Blaise asked her shaking her shoulder gently.
"Yeah…yeah I'm alright" Pansy shook her head and said not looking at him directly.
Blaise was no fool to notice what was troubling her. She was his friend and he didn't feel good to see her like this. He just wished this whole drama to end up soon.
The rest of the class went with some stares, Professor Slughorn's lecture, Seamus exploding his cauldron and some argument between Gryffindor and Slytherin.
"Ok, we are done with today's potions class" Professor Slughorn informed the students. "You all may leave"
Hermione got up from her seat and packed her stuffs. She exited the room and was about to take the right turn, which lead to the library, when someone called her from the back.
"Granger, hold on"
'Granger? Only two people called me that and this sounded like-'
Theo came running towards her. She turned to see him standing right behind her trying to catch his breath. She immediately turned back and started to walk in the direction to the library.
"Oh, fuck" Theo exclaimed when he saw Hermione had walked away from him. He walked behind her to reach her.
Hermione increased her pace when she saw Theo following her.
"Will you just hold on for a bit?" She heard Theo shout from the back.
"This woman is going to be the death of me" Theo groaned and increased his pace as well.
Hermione was so preoccupied in running away from Theo that she hadn't noticed that she had taken the wrong path. 'Oh Godric'
Theo saw that she had lowered her pace and took it as an advantage and quickly walked towards her. She was about to take another turn when Theo came from the back and pinned her to the wall.
"Let go of me" Hermione struggled against him.
"Oh stop whining, Granger. I am not harassing you"
"This is harassment!"
"No, it isn't! You just need to keep quiet for a moment and hear what I say"
"I don't want to listen anything, Nott. I have had enough of your shit, I can't take anymore. I thought you had changed but no. Once a Slytherin, always a Slytherin" Hermione said directly looking him in the eye.
"Oh Salazar, do you ever stop speaking?" Theo said still holding her tight.
It was very fortunate of them that the place was empty. And it remains empty the whole day because of a reason. They were near the Prefect's Bathroom and nobody usually came there because of Moaning Myrtle.
"Granger, just hear me out and then you can go back to ignoring me, alright?" He said in a bit softer tone.
"You need to release me, first" Hermione said spending a few seconds thinking if she should take his words into consideration or not.
"Alright" Theo released her with a small smile.
"Well?"
"Yeah…. so firstly I am sorry for that day. I shouldn't have called you that. And I feel guilty about it"
"Do you still think me as a mudblood?" Hermione asked him with a frown.
"No, no, I absolutely don't. It just slipped out. Old habits die hard"
Hermione recalled Draco saying the same thing.
"I swear to Salazar Granger, I won't say that again and I mean it" Theo said looking dead serious.
"I will hex your balls if you do" Hermione said with a smile. "Apology accepted"
Theo smiled at that to which she smiled back. He felt like a load had been lifted from him and now he was feeling light. She was one of few people with whom he felt like sharing everything.
"Granger, one more thing"
"Yes?"
"Remember you were mad at me that day because I didn't say anything to my housemates?"
"Uh huh?"
"That was because I had no other option but that. You see, we Slytherins aren't anyone's favorite and we have only got us lots with whom we can talk. And if they abandon me, I will be left with nothing. I have already lost so much in the war. Literally everything. My parents died in the war and many of my friends too. I didn't take part in the war because I was too coward. But I didn't know even after not taking part in the war, I will have to suffer the consequences" Theo said looking at the ground and his voice was shaky.
Hermione looked at him with pity and rubbed her had behind his back.
"When I got the news that my parents were dead. I was broke. And I was literally on the verge of going crazy but then there was this girl who kept me sane" He smiled at her thought.
"You remember Daphne?" He asked looking at Hermione.
"Astoria's sister?" Hermione enquired.
"Yeah, that's her. She used to come at my place everyday and talk to me and console me. She would listen me shout, cry and laugh. She was amazing. Eventually, I realized that I had fallen in love with her but again I was too coward to tell her thinking about what if she didn't love me back. Then one day, she didn't come. I thought maybe she was busy so I waited for the other day. Again nothing from her. So, I enquired about her and found out that she was missing. Just disappeared. Her mother told that she went to fight in the war one day and didn't come back. They didn't even found her body. I was dead from inside after listening that. So, I decided to kill myself because there was nothing left for me to live for." Theo's voice completely broke at the end and he began to cry.
On the other hand, Hermione eyes were filled with tears and it looked like she would burst in cry any moment. She immediately hugged Theo who hugged her back.
"She was everything, Hermione" Theo said in between her eyes.
"Shush shush, I know, I know." Hermione said rubbing his back. "It will be ok"
"No it won't." Theo said in his shaky voice. "She's gone. She's gone. Before I even confessed that I loved her"
"Shush, shush" Hermione told him to be quiet.
After a few minutes of ranting, Theo pulled away from the hug and wiped his tears. He gave her a weak smile and mouthed 'thank you' to which she replied with a smile.
"Let's go to our classes or we will be late" Theo said pretending to look fine.
"Yeah" Hermione nodded.
They walked in silence for a few moments until Hermione broke it by saying, "You said they didn't found her body?"
"Yes, not yet" Theo replied not looking at her directly.
"Then there are chances of her being alive you know" Hermione said with a small smile.
"I know but it has already been months, Granger" Theo said shaking his head. "I still have hope you see. I always hope that someday she'll walk through the door towards me and I will be fully alive again"
Hermione said nothing but felt her heart breaking into pieces for the boy beside her.
"Do you know who prevented me from doing suicide?" Theo asked Hermione with a smile.
"Who?"
"Draco"
"Malfoy? He did?"
"Yes. He was horrified to see what I was going to do and tried to put some sense in me. He's not that bad as people assume him to be" Theo said looking at Hermione.
"Hmm" Hermione said thinking of Draco. He hadn't been rude to her either till now.
"Speaking of Draco. What's going on between you two?" This time he asked with a smirk.
Hermione was taken aback by the question. "What do you mean?"
"Oh you know very well what I mean, Granger. Don't act innocent"
"No, seriously. I don't have any idea what you are talking about"
"Of course, you don't" Theo scoffed. "I saw you two coming to class together and not to forget the moment when Draco was doing goo-goo eyes to you"
"Doing what?" Hermione stopped in her tracks.
"Still acting innocent, huh?" Theo said with a smirk still plastered on his face stopping as well.
"Yes, we did walk together to the class but I don't have any idea about the 'goo-goo' eyes"
"Oh? So, you people agreed to some sort of truce?" Theo asked leaning on the wall.
Hermione laughed, "Hardly. We just bumped into each other in the morning and thought to come together"
"You bumped into each other?" Theo asked narrowing his eyes.
"Yeah, I was finding my Head badge near the Slytherin Dormitory when he came storming out"
"What was your head badge doing there?" Theo's head was going to explode due to confusion for real.
"Uhh…well. Long story" Hermione said biting her lips thinking how to explain.
"Well, we have got enough time until we reach our class" He said gesturing her to start walking again.
"Umm…that day, after our argument, I walked away from you. Remember that?"
"Yeah I do and you left me there alone. A guy's heart can be broken in so many ways"
"Oh quit being dramatic" Hermione waved a hand to shush him. "So, I went in the wrong direction and I ended up walking near the Slytherin Dormitory and that's when Malfoy found me"
"Oh. But how do you always end up going in the wrong direction?" Theo asked grinning.
"Oh Godric, can you stop being sarcastic for once?" Hermione asked in annoyance.
"Can't help. It's in my nature you see and you can't deny it's quite charming" Theo asked winking at her.
"As if" Hermione rolled her eyes. "So, we had a small chat that night and today I wasn't able to find my badge so I thought maybe it could have fallen there"
"So, did you find it?" Theo asked hoping she did because he didn't want any other prefect in place of her.
"Yes, I did and I am so relieved" Hermione said.
"So what? You and Malfoy are best friends now?"
"Oh please, that is not possible in this life. But we are learning how to tolerate each other"
"I see" Theo looked at Hermione. He was having this feeling that something interesting is going to happen real soon.
They continued walking while talking about nothing in particular until they reached their respective classes.
Draco popped down on the couch and kept his books aside. He loosened his tie and leaned back, closing his eyes. It was an exhausting day. First, he had to attend five classes continuously none of which he liked and then there was the Quidditch tryouts. Well, the positive thing was he became the captain of the Slytherin team.
Suddenly, he felt the couch sink a little. It seemed like someone had joined him. He opened his eyes to look at the person.
"'Sup?" Theo smirked loosening his own tie and joining Draco in his leaning position.
"Nothing" Draco replied watching Theo mimic him.
"What's troubling you?" Theo asked turning towards Draco.
"Nothing, Theo" Draco replied closing his eyes again.
"Or shall I say, who's the girl troubling you?" Theo asked widening his smirk.
Draco immediately threw his eyes open and looked at Theo, "Are you high?"
"Oh shut up" Theo hushed his disgusting accusation.
Draco touched Theo's forehead and then touched his own forehead, "You don't seem to have fever either"
"Oh come on, Draco" Theo said removing his friend's hand from his forehead. "I'm your best friend. I should be the first to know"
"Have you lost your mind? What the fuck are you talking about?" Draco asked coming back to his straight position.
"Why are you both so stubborn?" Theo groaned in frustration.
"Wait, what do you mean by 'both'?" Draco asked looking at his friend carefully.
"Granger and you!"
Draco looked taken aback. 'He doesn't know about the dare, does he?' No, he can't.
"Are you insane?" Draco asked acting oblivious to whatever he was mentioning.
"So you are telling me you are not attracted to her?"
"Oh Salazar, where did you get that impression from?"
"Let me think", Theo said acting to think, "Firstly, you two were walking together to the class today and secondly you were staring at her in the Potions class like you wanted to eat her up"
"How-"
"I have great eyes. It catches everything. You think I can be an Auror in future?"
"Cut the crap, Theo. Uhh…yes we are trying to be civil towards each other but that's just it" Draco replied. Well he didn't lie but it wasn't the whole truth either.
"Just civil? Nothing more?" Theo asked grinning.
"No! And stop grinning for fuck's sake"
"Oh come on I look sexy while grinning even you know that? And I know that you even question your sexuality because of my hotness" Theo said winking at him.
"Oh Salazar" Draco said making a disgusted face. "I am done with you" Draco said getting up and walking towards his room.
"You will see, Draco. There is definitely something going on between you two" Theo shouted from behind.
"As if" Draco shook his head.
"I'll wait for the day to tell you 'I told you so'" Theo shouted back and leaned back on the couch again.
Author's notes: So, did you guys like it? Tell me in review section and check out my Instagram malfoyaue and grangersglee. I'm still in search of a beta reader, so tell me if you are up for the job or you know someone who is :)