Disclaimer: I do not own this. Short and sweet?


Draco turned around. He no longer feared wands, so he quickly pulled out his own and pointed it at Harry. "You can't make me."

The three pupils were not aware of all the eyes that were on them. Well, you can't blame the pupils, a fight between the two most famous guys in school would definitely be more fun than Hogsmeade.

Hermione's eyes pleaded with Harry... to... not hurt Draco?!!!!!

Chapter 13: Friends Again

"Stupefy!" Harry yelled.

Draco countered Harry's spell with a 'Protegeo'. As Harry's spell hit Draco's mist-like shield, it dissolved itself into smoke and rise up into the open space.

Milliseconds later, Harry fired another spell (expelliarmus) at Draco, causing the latter's wand to fly away from his hand and land itself in a far corner of the hall.

It seemed like Harry had won, but he still stayed in his fighting position and muttered, "Accio wand." Draco's wand flew into his hand and he tossed it back to its owner. "Here, take it and leave."

Hermione glanced at Draco, then back at Harry. That was so gentlemenly of him.

"I'll not leave, I told you so. I need to speak to Granger." Draco spoke slowly but clearly.

"I can let you have back your wand but I cannot let you take her." Harry warned.

"Who are you to stop me from talking to her? You should be respecting her and let her decide on her own!" Draco ended his speech and turned to Hermione.

The whole hall was waiting for her answer. Saying a 'Yes' or 'No' could make a very big impact on all of the students' life (because the topic of gossips will be very different).

The tongue-tied Hermione opened her mouth but she could not speak. She could feel all the eyes that were on the three of them. She could even hear the deafening silence.

"Well, I think that's a no." Harry finally spoke up.

Just as Draco was about to retort, Hermione said, "Let's talk outside." And she left the hall with a sweep of her cloak.

The boys willingly left together, leaving the disappointed crowd ogling at them from their behind.

"Boys, I'm warning the both of you for this last time: DO NOT MAKE A SCENE OF YOURSELF infront of the whole school! Especially when your topic of discussion involves me. Understand?"

"Yes." The Boy Who Lived and The Malfoy Prince replied, heads down.

"But he was being..." Harry started to complain.

"Ten points from Slytherin and Gryffindor for fighting."

"TWENTY?!" The boys' eyeballs were in danger of dropping out of thier socket.

"But... but... It was him who started the fight! Don't drag Slytherin into it, ok?" Draco defended. Twenty was too much!

"Uh-huh," The Head Girl nodded. "But you started the whole event, so don't you agree that this is only fair?"

"Fine, fine, fine. Now, can I talk to you now?" Draco glared at Harry, "privately?"

Looking at Harry, Hermione answered, "Ok. Harry, I'm sorry. But it's just a chat, so why get so worked up? I'll talk to you after you come back from your Hogsmeade trip, ok? Please?" With one last kiss on his cheek, Hermione bade Harry goodbye and told him to get going (which he reluctantly did).

After making sure that Harry's out of earshot, Hermione turned to Draco and asked impatiently, "What?"

"It's about yesterday."

"I've nothing to talk to you about yesterday." Hermione shot in the same soft and hurt voice.

"I know, I know. You're still angry... I do not blame you for that. It's all my fault." Draco said guiltily.

"So? What's done's done, what more can you do? I'm telling you, friendship is better than love in our case. Why don't you heed my advice?"

"Granger, I'm sorry. But, why can't I be given a chance? A chance like what you gave Potter?" Draco pleaded. Since he had already confessed his love to a Mudblood, he must get her to be with him.

"Malfoy, have you seen a full-moon before?" He nodded, so she grinned and carried on, "Didn't it look exquisite? The pearl-white glow of it was like that of an unicorn, beautiful and pure. But when you look at it through a telescope, you'd notice it's uneven crust. It's not so perfect afterall."

"I don't understand. What's the relationship of this and our..."

"Let me finish, Malfoy." She stated sternly. "The same goes for our relationship. If we get closer to one another, we'll see the 'uneven crust' of each other. So I think it will do us good to keep a distance between us. At least we can still enjoy the beauty of the other."

Draco thought for a moment. Maybe she was right. Just maybe. "Granger, if we were to be friends, may I request that we could be close friends?"

Hermione did not say his answer, but by the smile she gave, the answer was most definitely a yes!

"So, Malfoy? When do you think we can continue with our quest to the library for informations on the book?" Hermione inquired as she thought of yesterday.

"Oh, yea. I'm sorry. How about today?" Draco suggested.

"Ok. When?"

"Now."

A/N: Ok, the end for the OOC Draco. The next chapter will have a Draco with a more 'in context' characteristic (I hope so). Um, really sorry for the very short, plain and boring chapter. Flame me if you want, it's my fault. As you all had noticed, there's a big change in the story, but I'm sure you'll get used to it.

That's about all.

Thanks to my Dearest Ever Reviewers:

zuvalupa: I really love you (in a friendly way) for all the kind remarks. I think that the part that got you confused is when Harry was thinking. But never mind that, I jus edited it, so it should be ok now. Yea, you did read the last chapter, I reposted it because I stupidly clicked on the remove chapter link and pressed 'Enter' all the way. Anyways, thanks lots for reviewing and reading.

valentines-hater: Sorry about the HPHG. Really. It's also not my favourite pairing. I think that there'll be more DMHG, soon. But I do hope that you'd continue reading this. Thanks for the review anyway!

MelWong: I told you...

RR,
fionger

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