Chapter two

#By the time you recognise this moment,
This moment will be gone,
But I will bend the light pretending,
That it somehow lingered on#

As Draco left the feast, following out the newly appointed Head Girl, many heads turned to follow. This feast was partly in their honour for their new roles within the school, yet both of them had ran out within ten minutes of being appointed their roles of head students. When curious Slytherins (i.e. Pansy Parkinson) asked where their follow Slytherin was running of to, he just ignored them and concentrated only on following Hermione. He didn't know why but he had to find her. What he would say to her when he did catch her up he wasn't quite sure of, but he was sure he'd think of something.

He had escaped the stares of those seated in the Great Hall, including Potter and Weasley's venomous looks, and now he could hear the sound of Hermione's shoes running across the hard flagstone floor just ahead. He turned the corner into the Charms corridor to see Hermione about to turn down the next so he called out "Wait!" to her. She turned abruptly; obviously shocked to have found that anybody came after her, and even more shocked to find it was Draco Malfoy.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" She bitterly asked him once he had caught right up to her.

"I just wanted..." He started to say, then he came to a loss of words. What did he want? He wanted to apologise; to say he was sorry for everything he'd done to her, but that wasn't possible. He may not care what his father said or did anymore, but he did have a reputation to keep up. He just stood in front of Hermione... speechless.

"Well?" Hermione asked again impatiently, whilst wiping her face to check for any escaped tears.

Draco took a deep breath.

"I just wanted to make sure that-"

"What? That your words cut deep enough earlier? That you're the reason that I ran out? Well I hate to disappoint Malfoy, but sadly my world does not revolve around you and your petty words. I know that won't help your ego so much, but as your sad little cronies aren't around I don't suppose it'll bother you too much." She cut in to what Draco was saying and spoke in an astringent tone.

"No. I actually wanted to say, well it's just...ok, I just wanted to tell you that I actually didn't mean to hurt you with what I said." He gently told her, after searching for the words to tell her and avoiding her eyes.

Hermione had never heard him talk like this. He was always so cold and sarcastic, like earlier. Now he was, well, normal. At least by an average person's standards he was 'normal'. For Draco Malfoy, this certainly was not normal. Sorrow and guilt weren't exactly the traits he was known for.

They had both been silent for some moments, yet neither dared to speak and ruin this civil-ness that had set into the atmosphere. Draco gradually lifted his head to meet Hermione's gaze. Slowly, he turned to walk away. Obviously she didn't want to be near him right now. Why would she? He'd made her life hell for six years. Why should she believe he was sorry now? As he started to walk away, she watched, and then called him back.

"Draco, wait." He stopped in his tracks at the sound of his first name being called from her mouth.

Nobody ever dared call him that. He turned again to face Hermione.

"Why did you call me that?" He asked her bluntly. He was a little out of balance from the shock. She'd always called him Malfoy before, and he'd always called her Granger- that was the way it was; just one of the rules. But then he'd just broken one of the rules too, by speaking to her like a human being and not like a piece of muck on his expensive Armani clothes.

"Why did you come to check I was okay?" She asked straight back. 'Good point' thought Draco and moved on. Why was it okay for him to break the rules and yet not her?
"Truthfully though, why did you come after me?" Hermione asked him curiously. "Why today did you decide that it's wrong for you to call me that dirty name?"

She looked deep into Draco's eyes, searching for the answer. He was a mystery to her. His steely grey eyes told no secrets and gave no clues to the answer he gave.

"Because I realised some things over the summer holiday; I found things out that I never knew before...or never wanted to know before." He added quietly at the end of his mysterious reply.

"I don't understand, what happened? What could have made you realise what you had been doing was wrong?" She asked him, confused.

"Does it matter?" He asked.

"Well it does to me. I mean, you call me names for six years, six years , and then we have two months off and you come back a new man! But...wait. This morning; when we were announced as Head Boy and Girl- you called me a mudblood then. How, if you realised these things over the summer, did you call me one this morning just the same as always. What's changed in the last twenty minutes?"

"We've become the Head pupils. We're going to have to work closely for the next year. Do you really want that to happen whilst we're at each other's throats all day?"
Hermione could tell that wasn't the reason for Draco's drastic change in character; for one, it didn't fit with the explanation he gave her a minute ago about realising things over the summer. However, she didn't want to spoil the peace they'd found by digging it up any further, so she decided to let it lie (which was difficult for Hermione as she had a very curious nature). Draco also wanted to move on, so he changed the subject:

"So anyway," He said, "what's happened to you and lover boy? By the way you were laying into Weasley this evening at the feast, would I be right in assuming that you and he are no longer shagging each other?" Draco asked Hermione the question the rest of the school were dying to know the answer to. Be fore they'd broken up for the summer, Ron and Hermione had been inseparable; Draco felt too sick to eat at meal times when he had to se them two snogging at the table opposite.

"We were never "shagging", as you so politely put it, but yes you're right- we are no longer 'together'." She replied. She'd tried to go back to normal with Ron when she saw him this morning at platform nine and three quarters, but just thinking about what he'd done made her so angry. As each minute crept past, she slowly began to think about everything that he'd done and by the time she'd reached the table again after being announced as Head Girl, she couldn't take it and so had lost her temper with him for the pettiest reason. She had felt guilty at first, but then she thought 'Well he deserved it. After everything he's done he deserves everything he gets.'

Draco looked at Hermione questioningly. He obviously expected an explanation as to why the most loved up couple of Hogwarts last year were no longer 'together' as Hermione had put it, but Hermione never gave him an answer, and as she had not pressed him for the real explanation for his change in attitude, he decided it only fair he return the favour. To be honest, it wasn't that he didn't want her to know the real explanation; she was the one person who deserved it the most, but it was just that the explanation was so horrific in Draco's mind that he didn't think he could get through telling the whole story. 'Maybe one day', he thought.

Hermione was also glad she didn't have to elaborate her reply to his question, as she would have felt most strange explaining to Draco Malfoy why Ron and her had broken up. The heart-wrenching moment was still imprinted in her mind and she didn't care to repeat it aloud.

They'd both been silent for a long minute after both of them, being reminded of their summer ordeals, stood pondering over their memories from the last two months. Eventually the silence was broken.

"Well I guess I'd better be getting back" Draco said.

"Yeah, me too. I mean, the feast is partly in our honour after all. And Harry and Ron will be worried, I'm sure." Hermione replied, although she knew her 'friends' couldn't be too worried about her, else they'd have come after her...like Draco had.

"Of course." Draco said, with a reminder of how different them two were, and how separate their lives were. So maybe he and Hermione could hold a conversation now, but Potter would never accept that, or the new Draco. Not that Draco wanted to be 'mates' with a pansy like Potter, but he knew Hermione would back down from their truce if she knew Harry wasn't behind her at least part of the way.

They both turned and walked back down the corridor at a pace much slower than that of when they had come from the other direction. When they came to a junction in their path, Hermione stopped.

"What is it?" Draco enquired.

"I just thought, maybe we should go check the notice board outside the prefect's lounge: it should have the time for our first meeting as Head Boy and Girl. We should be prepared as we are in charge of them now. So, shall we go look quickly before going to the hall?" Hermione said, with her usual tone of voice back in place.

"Sure." Draco replied.

They turned right down the corridor and walked a few metres to the door leading into the prefects meeting point and lounge, and Head pupils headquarters. On the wall next to the door was a neat piece of parchment, which listed all the meeting dates and times for the month of September in Dumbledore's neat handwriting. They discovered their first meeting was on the following evening, but there was a notice instructing Hermione and Draco to visit Dumbledore some time before the meeting to discuss their new positions.

"When do you think we should we go to Dumbledore then?" Draco asked Hermione after they had both read the notice.

"Well we could either go this evening when the feast's over, or tomorrow morning. What do you think?" Hermione replied.

"I vote tomorrow. It's been a long day and I can't be doing with spending my first evening back with that blithering old fool." Draco answered, reverting to his old self when referring to professor Dumbledore. He noticed Hermione didn't look impressed with his comment about the head teacher so he muttered "sorry" quietly. "Right then, shall we go to the feast now?" Draco said, and the pair continued back to the Great Hall.

When they reached the large wooden doors that they had exited through so quickly earlier that evening, Hermione paused again as Draco went to open the door for her. He noticed she was biting her bottom lip worriedly.

"What is it?" He asked her.

"Nothing. Well, it's just; I don't think I can go back in there and face everyone tonight again after me running out so stupidly earlier. I might just go on up to the Gryffindor tower and get an early night's sleep." She told him, but in truth it was only Ron she couldn't stand to see.

"It's only nine o'clock." Draco told her. He'd never heard of anyone going to bed so early! Midnight was early for him.

"I know, but I was awake all of last night- I couldn't wait to be back at Hogwarts," she began. 'I know the feeling' Draco thought to himself. "and it has been a long day so I'm really tired and I want to have a clear head for the meeting tomorrow." She continued.

"Okay then." Draco replied.

Hermione turned around and started up the staircase that led to her common room. Draco followed behind, unsure why. Hermione heard Draco's footsteps behind hers and slowed so that she and Draco were walking alongside up the stairs.

"What're you doing?" She asked him.

"I could hardly be called a gentleman if I didn't walk a lady to her room on this dark night, could I?"

Draco had just called Hermione a lady. Now his behaviour was starting to worry her!

"I suppose not." She replied with a slight smile.

When they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady (who was currently sleeping), Hermione stopped and turned to face Draco.

"Thank you, Draco." Hermione said seriously.

"Well I couldn't let you wander the castle alone at night." He said with a smile.

"No, I meant thank you for... well for everything this evening." She told him as she looked into his eyes.

"No problem." He replied as her eyes searched into his; the joking smile of his gone, and replaced with and understanding face. "I meant it, you know: I'm sorry." He told her as their eyes continued to connect.

"I know." She whispered in reply as they leant towards each other; their mouths meeting with each other's, and their eyes closed.

TBC