Chapter 4: Unexplained Spark
Draco woke up the next morning with a dull feeling on his face where his father had hit him. He took a very long, very cold shower. When he got out and looked in the mirror he saw a blue bruise just underneath his left eye. It wasn't a big bruise, but it was definitely noticeable. He was wondering how he was going to cover it up when there was a banging on the door.
"Come on Malfoy! You're not the only one that needs refreshment in the mornings!"
Hermione had heard the water running in the shower when she woke up. When the water stopped she waited 5 minutes before she started to complain. Banging on the door and screaming out loud Hermione hardly realised when Draco opened the door and she almost hit him in the face, but it looked as if someone had already done that for her.
"Oh my god Malfoy, what happened to you?"
Malfoy glared at her. "I'd rather not talk about it."
"Look at me!" she put her hand to his face and made him look at her so she could examine his bruise.
As soon as she touched him Draco winced. 'Knock it off Draco! Take the pain!' And this is what he did as she continued to poke and prod the bruise.
"Malfoy I know the healing spell for this. I can fix it in a second."
"Forget it. Leave me alone." Draco started to walk to his room.
"Wait!" Hermione reached out and grabbed his wrist to stop him walking away from her.
Draco suddenly stopped as soon as he felt her soft hand grab his wrist. She was quite strong for a girl.
For what seemed like minutes, but was only a moment, the two looked at each other, both in surprise. Both had felt a sudden feeling as they touched, but neither was quite sure what it meant.
Hermione was the first to break their gaze and let go of Draco, stepping back and not sure why she grabbed him in the first place.
Draco stared at her for a little longer, then started to move back to his room.
As soon as he reached the door Hermione blurted out, "Who did this to you?"
Draco hesitated. He wanted to tell her everything about everything. He wasn't sure why he wanted to tell her. Maybe it was because he wanted to tell someone and she just happened to be there.
Draco then went into his room closing the door behind him. He leant against the door and whispered, "My father," at the same time that Hermione, on the other side of the door whispered, "Your father," though neither one knew what the other had said.
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Over the next two weeks Hermione and Draco had a very VERY strained relationship. They talked to each other only when they had to and Hermione was actually going to all lengths to avoid him. This included borrowing Harry's invisibility cloak to sneak by him in the common room.
This confused Harry and Ron and they started to wonder what Draco had done to her. When they questioned her though she insisted that everything was ok and it was only the usual name calling stuff that she could handle. 'Then why are you hiding from him Hermione?' Harry thought.
One night Hermione was in her room pouring over a Potions assignment she had gotten the day before. Snape had given them the name of the potion and its properties, along with a list of ingredients. However, two of the ingredients were missing and they had to figure out what they were.
Although Hermione was usually good at Potions she was having a rather hard time with the assignment. Along with the fact that she was very uncomfortable and there was not nearly enough room on her desk to spread out all her notes. What she really wanted to do was go into the common room and work in there, but she knew that Draco was in there reading.
'Hermione don't let Draco intimidate you. You have as much right to be in there as he does.' Hermione knew her thoughts were right so she packed up her things and moved into the common room.
Draco watched her spread her things out on the table and sit down. He saw the look of concentration on her face as she struggled to find the answer and the look of joy when she yelled out.
"Yes! I got it!"
Draco leant over and looked at her work. "That's wrong Granger."
"As if I'm going to take your word for it."
"No I'm serious. You see, this potion is a clear colour and dog fur makes potions a muddy, brown colour."
Hermione double checked her notes and to her disappointment, he was right.
Draco continued. "So you need an ingredient that does all the things dog hair does, but will turn the potion clear."
"What's that?"
"Come on Granger, you're smarter than that! It's obvious. What's the opposite of a dog?"
A smile spread across her face. "Cat's fur!"
"Well done." A small note of sarcasm was in his voice.
Hermione looked at Draco as he turned back to reading his book. She couldn't believe that he has just helped her.
"Thanks," she said with a smile.
"I've already worked that one out. And I could see you were frustrated."
"Still..thanks."
Draco simply shrugged his shoulder, but Hermione could have sworn that she had almost got a genuine smile out of him.
"Hey Malfoy."
"Hmm?"
"Have you worked out the second one?"
"No, not yet."
"Well here's what I think.." And Draco and Hermione, for the first time in their lives, put their heads together and worked out the second ingredient without a single insult said.
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Over the next week Draco and Hermione almost developed a friendship. Sure there were a few insults here and there and they were not on first name terms, but they definitely could hold a civil conversation. But it wasn't until one Transfiguration lesson, that they showed these skills in public.
The two somehow came to sit together and while waiting for Professor McGonagall to arrive they started a conversation. All that were around them noticed this and were surprised.
Ron, who was sitting on the other side of Hermione and was furiously trying to finish his homework before the teacher showed up, tried to attract Hermione's attention.
"Hermione, I need help with this."
"Ron, I'm not going to help you. You should have done the homework when it was supposed to be done instead of playing chess." With this said she went back to talking to Draco.
Pansy, who was becoming increasingly jealous of the way Hermione had Draco's attention, put her hand on Draco's leg, hoping that he would turn her way. But he immediately removed her hand and gave her an annoyed glare. Pansy couldn't believe this; she was shocked. But she couldn't do anything about it because the Professor had walked in.
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On the Saturday night of that week Hermione came out of her room and headed to the door out of the common room.
Draco, who was sitting on the lounge, stopped her. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"To the Gryffindor common room. Playing chess with Ron and Harry, even thought they kick my ass all the time."
"Oh." Draco had a disappointed look on his face and, to his surprise, felt a little disappointed as well.
"Why?" Hermione questioned.
"Well, McGonagall asked me today what progress you and I had made with the Halloween Dance and I realised we hadn't. So I thought we'd throw around some ideas tonight. See what we could come up with."
"Oh my god! I totally forgot about that. Well I can't tonight. I'll talk to you tomorrow," and she left.
Draco fell back into the chair and questioned himself about the disappointment he felt. 'It's not that you want to spend time with her. You just want to get your job done that's all.' But even though Draco was convinced that he didn't like her, he couldn't help feeling alone.
