---------- FOUR SATURDAYS DETENTION ----------

DISCLAIMER: nothing is mine, only the dialogues!

NOTE: I do not have a beta, I am sorry. I really would like to have one, but I have none.

Chapter 10 - Third Saturday Relational harmony

"Malfoy, if I said something wrong, something that somehow insulted you, well, I didn't mean it."

Draco sneered "One day or another, you should explain me what keeps flickering in your head. Maybe behind cup of tea... But how is it you are so eager to avoid a friction? Maintenance of relational harmony at any cost? Of course only apparently: yours are just a bunch of words. A tad hypocritical Miss Know-It-All?"

"Maybe I am not obnoxious. Is this explanation too simple for you?"

"Oh, I see, your personal idea of obnoxious is the refusal to have a compromising style?"

Hermione didn't lose her patience as she had expected, she simply raised and eyebrow: "Of course I imagine you love uncompromising style. totally uncompromising style, maybe even a very violent style? What would you think of the strategy 'a blow on your face if you do not agree with me'? Or maybe you prefer magic. I am rather good with spells, wanna try?"

Draco burst out laughing "Ok, ok. I am not totally against polite manners! But Granger. would you mind to explain me just one little thing? Are you afraid I could wound you if you happen to tell me something I could dislike? You are under the impression I could hurt you right now? I mean something physical like breaking your arm, for instance?"

She looked at him with disdain "Frankly I don't think you could do such a thing."

Draco shook his head "You never cease surprising me. How can you be so blatantly sure I'll not harm you and, meanwhile, be so blatantly sure about my cruelly rapacious Death Eater future?"

"I cannot read your future, Malfoy."

"No, you cant; if the gossips I heard are true, you were a complete disaster with Divination, Longbottom was much better than you."

"I cannot tell you your future Malfoy, but this has nothing to do with a silly subject based on old tales and stupid tea leaves. Maybe your character and your behaviour. they give hints to everyone about your deepest inclinations. Your future is often a matter of fact."

"And from this deep analysis of my humble person, you deduce... what exactly?"

Hermione blushed, and then "Well, I trust you. Now, in this moment. And here. But somewhere else and in another moment, even tomorrow morning, well, I would not trust you at all. And I have this very vague feeling that, within a couple of years you could scare me to death."

"I am so relieved" irony in his voice. Of course. What else? Hermione looked away from his eyes, 'irony and sarcasm are his best companions'.

"So am I, relieved," she cut in, "We are alone here, in the Tower, and you are bigger and taller than me."

"Well, bigger and taller, that's granted, but. how is it that Miss Non violent GryffinGranger was the one who slapped me, once?"

Hermione went suddenly red "If I have to be utterly sincere, it was a beautiful moment of my life, one I'll remember forever. I harboured a feeling of completion for a while after slapping you. But I was wrong, I admit it, because there was no use about slapping you: you were such a slimy jackass whom nothing could ever make better. Happy now?"

"I don't know if I have to be happy, I was just wondering about you, you just defined yourself as 'not obnoxious'. just wondering about your personal vocabulary. It doesn't match mine, probably."

This time Hermione didn't blush, but if she had, it would have been out of spite: "So, what's your point exactly? No tortuous path, please. I am bored with your dialectic exercises without purpose. You said that a conversation with me had the taste of a conversation with someone deaf. well sometimes speaking with you is like trying to grab a wild animal, writhing and escaping."

"Well the point is that, seen what you think about me is not so kind and seen that you have no trouble about expressing your true feelings about my personal life so well, why the hell while we speak about a serious matter, at least, a serious matter for yourself, you suddenly become so useless shy? So eager not to hurt me and so on?" he took a breath, "Seen you are not afraid of a physical damage, what are you protecting? Our life long warm friendship?"

Hermione answered slowly "No, we do not share any warm old friendship. I know this for sure."

"Well, in this case, just tell me what you think. Exactly. Don't change the shape of your thoughts just to make them fit with mine. You are not that good, by the way, one moment 'oh Malfoy, maybe I hurt you? Oh I didn't mean it at all' like a wide-eyed innocent Victorian violet, and one second later 'slimy jackass'."

Hermione burst out giggling: "Ok, I got the point. Frankly now I understand why you say that the teacher you like the most is Snape. The first Saturday you were so surprised I found his personality loathsome. Now I understand your disbelief. how could you ever find him horrid? Impossible!"

Draco smiled "And I understand perfectly that the teacher you like the most is McGonagall, I can see a lot of her typical warmth and friendliness in your behaviour."

The girl looked away. And the boy sighed: "No symmetry allowed?"

After a while, Hermione answered hesitantly: "Maybe you are not completely wrong, but what's the use of trying to hurt me? You saw me crying once, I do not think I'll do it again for you. If you want to speak with me, it is better if you try to adopt a partially compromising style. Otherwise you are only looking for brawls. What's the next step? Calling me Mudblood?"

Draco looked at her "Maybe you are not completely wrong as well. I do not want to waste our time. unless you become suddenly interested into more passionate activities, I would like to know what's so special about Hogwarts, for you. Go on, Granger, I am completely yours!"

Hermione rolled her eyes "Ok, ok. Well, what's really special about Hogwarts is that everyone, and I mean really everyone of British wizard society comes here. You can come from whatever place, a Muggle little town, an ancient Manor. but at a certain point of your life you were here. And, later on, you can do whatever you like, you can drive the Knight Bus, you can become a Professor of DADA, a librarian, you can sell ice creams, or you can be the First Minister. whatever. But for a while your life belonged to this place. And I say "a while", but it lasts exactly seven years. Seven years is a lot of time, in my opinion, a child takes the Hogwarts express for the first time, a woman leaves this place maybe forever.

Your first spell, your first punishment, the first rules not from your parents, your first true friends, all these things happened here.

This is a microsociety, the first cells of a bigger entity. Not a bunch of individuals, but a pulsating society. The future of everything starts here.

And it would be right to seize the opportunity to know each other, to understand each other, to find sort of a common language. I think that this school has the duty to train us as wizards and witches, refining our magical skills. But, Malfoy, but that's much more: we could become better people. Everyone of us should bring his own experience, offering it like a gift. Cant you see the beauty of all this? The hidden power and generosity? The gift of a whole world. But maybe, for you, this is just trying to transform everyone into copies coming form the same mould."

The last sentence, unwillingly passed her lips with a bitter note.

She gave him a quick glance, expecting him to sneer, or laugh, or raise an eyebrow sceptically, but no sarcastic smirk on his face. He merely shrugged.