Chapter 3- You Made Me Feel Special


The next day was Saturday and Hermione made sure that she wouldn't see Draco at all during the day. She didn't know what to say to him and she feared awkward conversation if she talked to him. Plus, she was a little worried that he would realize his mistake and tell her that he was wrong, that she wasn't pretty in the least. Hermione wanted to savor the thought that someone thought that she was beautiful.

So she stayed in the Gryffindor common room the whole day, studying the objects Draco had given her and practicing her Spanish. On her face she wore a huge smile that brightened every time she got to the picture of Draco with the words, "Yo soy guapo" written on that back.

Harry and Ron tried to get Hermione to spend time with them. After many failed attempts they left the Gryffindor tower to go play Quidditch. Hermione wasn't upset about it though. She was in no mood to spend time with anyone, not even Harry and Ron. They were great to hang out with if she wanted to be "one of the guys," but today she wanted it to be recognized that she was a girl, one who someone even thought was beautiful. And if she would admit it to herself, she wanted to be a damsel in distress. She wanted to be taken care of. But Hermione knew that she should stop wishing, because it would never happen.

By lunchtime Draco was starting to wonder where Hermione was. She hadn't shown up for breakfast or lunch. He was worried that he was the reason of her absence. `I knew what I did last night was stupid. Now she won't even come to the Great Hall for meals. Great, just-"

"Did you hear me Draco?" Pansy's whiney voice interrupted his thoughts. Draco would have loved to tell her to shut up, but whenever someone treated Pansy badly she went right to her father. And no one wanted to mess with her father, Draco knew this firsthand. So instead of being rude, Draco was polite.

"No, I'm sorry. Can you please repeat it?"

"Well, I heard from Crabbe, who was in the common room at the time, that the Mudblood ran from your dorm *crying* last night." Draco gaped at her. Pansy smiled, knowing that she had his attention. She loved being the first to deliver news. Pansy continued, "So, like I was saying, crongrats! You must have done something really horrible to make her cry, because she's grown immune to most of your insults. You can rarely make her cry anymore. So what I want to know is, what did you do? Maybe I can try it."

Draco ignored the question. `I made her cry? How in the world did I do that? I have to go see her,' Draco swallowed his pride, `and possible apologize for whatever I did. She won't let me continue to tutor her if she's upset with me.' Draco bolted out of the Great Hall leaving Pansy very confused.

It didn't occur to Draco until he was standing in front of the fat Lady that he didn't know the password. So now he had to wait for someone to come along and trick them into letting him in. Knowing it could take a long time he sat down with his back to the wall opposite the portrait. Why anyone would want that ugly woman to guard their common room was beyond Draco, but Gryffindors didn't make to much sense to him anyway.

As it turned out, Draco was in luck. A second year Gryffindor came to the portrait a mere ten minutes after Draco had sat down. Draco figured he would have better luck getting in if he was nice so in a voice as nice as he could muster Draco said to the second year, "Excuse me, but would it be too much to ask to be able to follow you into your common room? There's someone there that I want to talk to."

Being a Gryffindor for good reason the rather small student took one look at the Slytherin patch on Draco's robes and laughed. "There's no way I'm letting you in here. My older sister said that Slytherins were evil, and you look about as evil as they come." Draco sighed, he should have known that the only way to get anything was to be threatening.

"Listen here, you stupid git, I'm Draco Malfoy and I swear by my father's name that if you don't help me that I will curse you and your whole family. Do you really want to try your luck?" Draco smiled as the boy got a nervous look on his face and franticly looked for another student to save him.

"No one's here to save you," Draco whispered to the boy. He wouldn't have been surprised if the second year had wet himself, he looked scared enough to. He tried to stand up tall and hold his stance, but when he saw Draco reach for his pocket he whispered, "S.P.E.W." to the Fat Lady, trying to keep Draco from hearing. His attempt was pointless though, because Draco heard him clear as day.

The boy rushed in through the portrait hole and Draco followed him. He stopped at the entrance to the common room and scanned the room for Hermione. He saw her in a chair closest to the fire. He strode over to her and cleared his throat. She looked up at him, surprised.

"How did you get in here?" she asked bluntly.

"I have connections," he replied smoothly.

"What I really want to know is *why* you are here."

"Perhaps we can go somewhere more private?" Hermione said nothing but lead him up the stairway to the girl's dorms. She walked down the hallway at the landing to her Prefect dorm. She walked into her dorm, motioning for him to follow.

"Why are you here?" Hermione asked again, taking a seat on her bed. Draco took a seat on the chair to her desk.

"I have been notified that you were crying when you left my dorm. I want to know why."

"You make it sound like I did something wrong."

"Will you answer the question? Why were you crying?"

"No one's ever said I was beautiful," she mumbled, knowing Draco couldn't hear what she had said.

"I didn't quite catch that," Draco said, not letting up.

"No one has ever told me that I was beautiful. Okay?" Hermione said harshly, trying to portray the thought that she didn't care if no one had ever told her it. It was evident that she did in fact care.

"What?" Draco was in disbelief. Surely someone had said it to her. He didn't understand why they wouldn't. "But why did you cry?"

"I was happy, you made me feel special last night. Victor Krum is the only person who made me feel like that before...but I'd rather not talk about that," she grimaced at the bad memory. One she was not about to share with Draco, no matter how much he wanted to know. He wanted to know a lot, judging by the look of his face. "I was so happy that I had to get away. Have you ever had the feeling that something was going so good that you just had to get away? The feeling where you have to get away before the moment can be ruined?" Draco shook his head no, he had never had the feeling, but he could understand what she meant.

Draco got up from the chair and sat down on the bed next to Hermione. He looked into her eyes, searching. Maybe... just maybe. A spark of hope entered Draco's mind. He leaned in, about to kiss her, but then quickly pulled away. He pushed away the hope in his mind. 'I have to gain her friendship first, or I'll have no shoot with her. Kissing her right now isn't going to help anything.' Draco stood up and mumbled, "Keep studying, we have a quiz Monday," before leaving Hermione sitting on her bed, confused with resent events.

'Draco almost kissed me,' she thought in shock. A week ago the thought would have been an unwelcome one, but at the moment, Hermione cherished it. 'Am I starting to like him? He's a Malfoy, I can't! But maybe...'

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A/N- Thanks to Irish Lass, Mandy, EiDa, Jen Drake, S-Star, blithely-imagine and kara for reviewing! This chapter is dedicated to all of them. I'm sorry it took so long, but I promise that I'll start getting the chapters up quicker from now on. I tried to make this chapter longer, because it took longer. It's not a lot longer, but it's a start. An almost kiss! We're getting closer. Next chapter- they go flying! Oh, just so everyone who reviews knows, when you leave your email or ff.net name I email you when there's an update. If you don't want me to, just tell me. Please review! ~Kori