Chapter 3

Windy Days, Lonely Nights

"Don't look at me,

Everyday is so wonderful,

Then suddenly, it's hard to breathe,

Now and then I get insecure,

From all the pain,

I'm so ashamed,

I am beautiful,

No matter what they say,

Words can't bring me down,

I am beautiful,

In every single way,

Yes, words can't bring me down,

So don't you bring me down, today,

To all your friends you're delirious,

So consumed in all your doom,

Trying hard to fill the emptiness,

The piece is gone,

Left the puzzle undone,

That's the way it is,

No matter what we do,

No matter what we say,

We're the souls inside the tune,

And everywhere we go,

The sun will always shine,

So don't you bring me down, today"

Christina Augulara "Beautiful"

After Draco had cleaned her up, Hermione just ran away. She didn't know how to handle the situation and she she didn't want to.

Draco looked disgustedly at Ron, who was still passed out on the floor. He kicked him and then walked away. Ron could stay there until morning, when he would wake up with a splitting headache and maybe a few bruised ribs. Merlin willing, maybe a sense of guilt as well.

Draco was sick. He had just witnessed one of his enemies taking advantage of a girl. That girl was supposed to also be his enemy, since she was a mudblood and a know-it-all, who had hated him ever since Potty and the Weasel had informed her who he was. And he had helped her.

Why? Well he had to admit he wasn't that evil. He wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy. In fact, he thought it was quite funny that everyone thought he was this cold heartless jerk who had never had a feeling in his life. I mean, he was rude and egotisical, but what had he ever really done that was so bad? Ha! Draco didn't understand why everything hinged on if you where good or evil.

It just didn't make sense. Besides, he took care of his mother didn't he? She was sort of an air-head amd she most often got her self into the messes, but Draco was her son and the only one that would help her.

'Oh well,' Draco thought to himself. He didn't give a damn about his reputation anyway. But this girl she could ruin any good thing he had going for him. The only reason his father didn't just lock him in the dungeon of his mansion was that he thought he was some muggle-hating prick that would follow orders.

Draco was almost regreting what he did. He shook himself. What was done was done, he would just have to await the results. What Draco didn't know is how drastically things can change.

Hermione was fast asleep on her bed. It was noon and all the other girls in her dorm where gathered around her. She looked sickly, her long brown hair a complete mess and her face paler than usual. Under her eyes were dark circles, as if she hadn't slept well and her skin had the clamy sheen of perspiration about it. Everyone had seen how Ron was with her at the ball. Some of them where, quite frankly, worried about her.

"Do you think she's alright", Parvarti Patil whispered to Lavender Brown who was slowly picking all the dirt from under her brightly painted nails.

"She'll be fine. She's Hermione Granger after all. As soon as she wakes up she'll dash off to the library and then that will be the end of it", Lavender said boredly.

"Are you sure", Parvarti pushed, glancing at Hermione worriedly.

"Positive", Lavender declared, holding her nails up to the light to inspect, and finding them spotless, she shoved off her bed and pulled Parvarti by the arm.

"Wait, I want to grab my new shoes, everyone will be so jealous", Lavender said forgetting Hermione entirely and turning around and diving under her own bed to rumage for her shoes. She found them, slipped them on and walked arm and arm with Parvarti down to the common room.

Hermione was left in peace, but for some reason the quiet woke her. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She was carefree for maybe five seconds, until the last nights horrible memories washed over her.

She felt misrable. She was going to owl her mother about the whole thing. She had always been able to tell her mother anything and although this time it was very painful she would tell her. She opened a drawer in her bedside table and pulled out a quill and a peice of parchment and began to scratch out a long letter detailing everything that had happened in the last week. She left nothing out. She even told about how Draco had helped her. Her mother was not going to believe that. Ever since Hermione had started at Hogwarts, she had come home every summer and told her mother about how annoying, rude, and just down right nasty Draco had been to her.

Her mother had just shrugged and said, " Most boys that go out of their way to pick on you, like you. Most of the time, they like you alot, but instead of affection they are mean to you. It's their twisted way of showing they care."

Hermione had been shocked. She kept trying to assure her mother that Draco didn't care for her at all and that he just got a kick out of seeing her upset or crying. Her mother had just said," I'm only saying".

Hermione glanced down at the parchment and had an idea. She should send a letter to Draco thanking him. After all she didn't know what she would have done if he had not walked down that corridor at the right time.

She opened her drawer again and pulled out another peice of parchment. She moved to sit at her little writing table, parchment laid out and ink bottle at a handy distance, she sucked on her quill, deep in thought for a long time. She just didn't know what to say. Finally, she wrote;

Dear Draco,

I know we haven't ever gotten along in the five years we have gone to school together, and I would like to put that past us. We are mature, we can act civil towards each other, I see no reason why we can't. Fighting really seems petty to me at the moment. I guess it is because I have more improtant things on my mind. I would greatly value it, if you would tell no one of what you saw last night. I do not expect you to keep your mouth shut, what better revenge on me then to tell the whole school? But I hope you don't. I have sent an owl to my mother and when I get her reply I will know what I am going to do. But, and I can not believe I am saying this to you of all people, thank you. If you had not come along when you did I would merely be a shell of myself and of no use to anyone, and then who would you compete with for grades? Well I must be off I have to send this and my mothers letter,

Hermione A. Granger

Hermione re-read the letter again. It sounded alright. She was wondering how Draco would react to such blunt remarks. Only time would tell she guessed. She folded both Draco's and her mother's letters and went up to owlery to find two school owls that would take them for her.

The next day Draco was at breakfast, nervously looking at the Gryffindor table every five seconds and wondering why Hermione wasn't there. Well, actaully, he knew why she wouldn't want to be there, but she had to eat didn't she?

Pansy was just about to say something to him when she was cut off by the screeching and wing beats of hundreds of owls rushing in to deliver the mail. Draco barely looked up. A spotted gray owl landed in his pumpkin juice. Draco looked at it disgusted. Now he had nothing to drink. Then suddenly his frown vanished, it was a school owl.

Now who could be writing to him. He had no real friends. His father had made sure of that.

As it turned out, it was Hermione's letter. Draco opened it with disbelief and looked down at the signature. She wrote to him, and it was a quite lengthy letter for someone who had maybe said all of five words to him at a time. He read it quickly. He didn't want anyone to know Hermione had been writing to him, it seemed too personal for his liking.He folded it up and stuck it in an inside pocket in his robe. He would reply to her later. Right now he had to figure out how to get rid of Pansy.