Disclaimer: Same drill here as always. I don't own anything from the original HP series. I only own the plot and the character of Elle Carter.

A/N: In this chapter, Elle and Draco become friends for the first time. It will blossom into something else in a later chapter, but for now they become friends. The storyline is starting to pick up and so things should start to become more interesting. I apologize if I seem to be rushing things a bit - but I really can't wait until I get to writing the last few chapters of this story. It should be a good read! *At least I hope it will be!* ^_^ Please don't forget to R&R!!

Chapter 7: Dragon Heart

Over the next couple of weeks or so, Elle had learned to settle in at her new school and was finding the learning process slowly getting easier and easier every day. This was largely due to the fact that she had a load of help from the professors during class time. But she also had Hermione and Draco to thank. Hermione had spent countless hours with her at night in the Gryffindor common room helping her with various subjects. Draco had helped her as well, but with much less enthusiasm.

As hard as she tried, Elle just couldn't seem to get Draco to talk to her about anything. She would politely say hello to him if she ever passed him in the corridors, but he never seemed to reply. She didn't understand how he could never want to be around anyone else other than Crabbe and Goyle all the time. Those two seemed to be really mindless and stubbornly stupid. Surely he wasn't able to have an intelligent conversation with them? But then she figured that perhaps Draco always hung around them because they never gave him any grief. They never talked back to him with nothing other than a grunt.

Elle was now in the Potions classroom mixing and cutting ingredients for the potion that Draco was teaching her how to brew. He stood behind her, watching her actions over her shoulder as to make sure that she didn't screw up for the third time in a row. They had now been down there for at least three hours to concoct a potion that Draco said he could do within a half hour at least. Both of them were somewhat frustrated now, Draco especially.

Elle was concentrating very hard on putting the ingredients together. So hard, in fact, that her brow was scrunched up in concentration, and the tip of her tongue was sticking out of her mouth. (A/N: I know this may sound strange, but I've been told that I do this whenever I'm concentrating really hard on something). Draco looked down at her scrunched features and a voice in his head commented on how cute she looked like that. He unconsciously let a small smile creep onto his face, as he couldn't help but agree with the voice. But once he realized what he was thinking, he mentally slapped himself and turned to focus on what she was doing.

"No! Are you that daft?! You're putting too much of the layweed in! The potion is-!" Draco had tried to stop her from spilling the rest of the layweed in her cauldron, but his harsh tone had made her jump and the whole vile of layweed dumped into the pot and the potion started to spurt up onto them, covering them both in the purple muck.

"Ruined," Draco finished his sentence. "Great, just great. You really are impossible, you know that don't you?" His tone had not one ounce of sympathy in it.

Elle turned around to face him and let out a frustrated sigh, "I'm sorry!" She tried to shake the purple stuff from her hands, but ended up getting more on Draco in the process.

Draco roughly took hold of her arms and planted them down onto the desk. "Don't move! You're only making things messier!" he threatened her.

Elle slumped onto a stool and held back the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes. She had become so frustrated - partly because of Draco's own harsh words to her whenever she screwed up, but also partly because she knew that she was a screw up in general. She could never seem to do anything right. Not for anybody.

Draco glanced over at her with a sneer, "What's your problem? I have more of the disgusting mess on me than you do." His voice was filled with conviction.

Elle looked at him, only this time with tears clouding her vision. "I just can't do right by you, can I? No matter how hard I try, or how nice I try to be to you, you ignore it all and belittle me in any way that you can."

Draco had stopped trying to clean up the mess and was looking at her carefully, unsure of what to say for once. He knew that she was frustrated, and he had been too. "I didn't ask for your friendship, you know. Nor did I ask to be your tutor." He had sounded more harsh than he had intended to.

"Yeah, well I didn't ask to be here either." Elle looked down at her hands as they were fiddling with a loose thread on her robes. "I don't even know why I'm here or how I got here." She took in a deep breath as a tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away, hoping that Draco hadn't seen it.

Draco looked at Elle and felt immediate sympathy for her when he saw that single teardrop run down her cheek.. It reminded him of when his mother would cry when he was a little boy. He would always go to her and try to tell her that everything would be alright and that he would protect her. He knew now that it was very naive of him to think that way, for his father was a very powerful man and would often hurt his mother and him when he would get angry. And although he fought the urge he was feeling right now to run over to Elle and to embrace her and tell her that he was sorry, he couldn't. And before he knew what he had done, he was at her side helping her to clean the muck off of herself.

Elle was so surprised when Draco had come over to her. At first she didn't know what to think. She was ready to move away from him when his hand came up to the side of her face and started to gently wipe away the purple muck. She looked into his normally cold eyes and saw something that she didn't think existed in him - kindness. "You don't have to do this," she said uncertainly.

For a brief moment, Draco's eyes met with hers and he couldn't help but feel guilt for the way he had treated her these last few weeks. For the very first time, he could see how scared she really was and that this world really was a different place for her to be in.

Draco stood up to his full height, which he saw made Elle wince a little, and offered her his hand, "Here," he said with a gentleness to his voice.

Elle looked at his hand, not really sure what to do. But then she looked up into his eyes and didn't feel the fear that she once felt. She slowly reached up and took his hand.

Draco couldn't help but notice how soft her hand was as he pulled her to her feet. He took out his wand and aimed it at her. He mumbled a short spell as he still held onto her hand. He noticed that her eyes went slightly wider as he aimed his wand at her but then noticed that they went back to their normal size as she noticed that it was just a cleaning spell to get rid of all the muck that covered her robes.

"Thanks," Elle quietly said as she released from his grip.

Draco offered her a genuine smile as he nodded in reply.

Elle looked at him as he repeated the spell to clean off the desk. She felt very confused as to what brought about his sudden change in attitude. And as she gathered up her stuff she decided to ask. "Draco?" she asked softly.

Draco turned from what he was doing to look at her.

"What made you change back there? I mean, you were actually nice to me. And I don't think I've ever seen you smile before." Elle looked down at her hands before adding, "You have a nice smile."

It was Draco's turn to blush a little as she complemented him. He gestured for her to exit the room first as he thought about how to answer her. He felt like he could really talk to her. He felt as though he could be completely honest with her - and he liked that feeling. "Well," he started slowly, "when I saw you cry back there, you reminded me somewhat of my mother. When I was younger, she used to cry a lot. It was mostly due to my father. He didn't treat her very well." Draco sighed as if a painful memory was coming back to him. "I remember waking up one night and I heard someone crying. I snuck out of my bed and went down the hallway to see if I could find out who it was. It wasn't long before I was outside my parent's room trying to listen through the door. I knew then that it was my mother who had been crying and so I went into the room. And there she was, sitting on the floor beside the bed with her head in her hands. There was a broken vase at her feet and so I knew that there had been a fight. When she looked up at me, there was a large red spot on the side of her face where my father had hit her. She took me into her arms and stroked my hair like she so often did. I promised her that I wouldn't let him hurt her again, but I wasn't able to keep my promise to her. He was much too powerful for an eight year old boy to take on by himself." Draco's breath caught in his throat as if he was going to cry but didn't show any signs of tears. After a short pause, he continued, "She died just before I entered my sixth year in school. Lucius said that she had taken her own life, but I doubt that was the case. It was then that I promised myself that I would never be like my father." Draco then looked down at Elle, "But when I saw you cry, I realized that I had done that to you and that by doing that, I was becoming just like him."

Elle was speechless at what Draco had just told her. After some words had formed in her mind, she managed to bring them out, "I am so sorry about your mother, Draco. She must have been a good woman."

Draco let a small smile grace his otherwise solemn features, "She was."

Elle offered him a smile before looking down at her feet as they walked along.

"What about you?" Draco asked, hoping to get more of a happier tone going.

"What about me?" asked Elle slyly.

"Well, you said that you didn't ask to be here. So…how did you come about finding your way to Hogwarts?"

"Let's just say that it all started with a really bad day." Elle let out a small laugh as he looked more confused than she had ever seen him.

"Oh, do tell," he mocked with hint of laughter in his eyes.

Elle noticed this and said, "Alright, if that's what you really want. But I gotta warn ya. My story has it all - action, drama, and a little bit of comedy…"

A/N: Well, how was that? I figure that I don't need to tell Elle's story, since you all know what happened. If not, then you'd better go read the first couple chapters again! ^_^ Well that's all for now! I'll try and update soon!