'So, Ginny how was your day?' Harry asked. His hands were sweating, and he was laboring his breathing. Ginny was reading a book, and had been laughing every now and then for the last half hour. When Harry asked, she looked up and smiled at him.
'It was good, how about yours?' she dog eared the page, closed it and set it down. She was curled into one of the chairs by the fire, the common room was loud, it was the last week before Christmas break, everyone was so excited to leave. Ginny was wearing a black V-neck shirt, and low rider jeans. Ginny had begged her mother to get them for her. She looked very mature for a forth year, but her sky blue cat socks gave her away.
'It was good. Hermione, Ron and I had a snow fight after classes. If…If you want to come next time, if there is a next time, which there probably will be, you want to come with us?' Harry immediately shut up, 'God, Harry, you're not a little twelve year old, you're fifteen, get a grip!'
'Sure, that'd be great.' Ginny turned slightly pink, but she'd been meaning to talk to Harry alone. Everyone knew she had had a crush on him for years now, and she felt she could no longer keep her feelings to herself. 'Say, Harry, do you want to come up to the Astronomy tower, and talk with me?'
Harry smiled, he felt calmer than he had in ages. 'Yeah, I'd like that.' And together they walked out of the common room together. No one seemed to notice.
Ron was upstairs sitting on his bed, a freshly written letter on his lap, drying. Ron didn't understand why, he was just crazy about this new girl, and he didn't even know her name. He thought it started with an A, but he wasn't positive on that. He had re-read the whole letter seven times, but he picked it back up and read it for the eighth:
Dear my Sweet Princess,
I have gazed upon your beauty from afar, but your radiance has still blinded me. I had to still my tumbling heart, and catch my stolen breath. Your eyes like deep emeralds, and soft silky hair, I will dream of running my fingers through it. I will dream of you for eternity until I can hold you in my arms.
Sincerely,
Your Secret Admirer
Nodding in approval, he waked down to find Hermione missing from the common room. He was going to have her charm the letter so that no magic would reveal his identity, but shrugging it off, he decided he'd do the complex charm himself. After the charm, Ron called over Pig (his owl) and sent the owl off to find his beauty.
He changed into his Pajamas, and lay silently on his bed. He soon fell into a soft sleep, dreaming of his beloved Princess.
Getting the wind back into her lungs was a blessing. Draco lay beneath her, and apparently he hadn't gotten his air back. Hermione's chocolate brown eyes met his steel silver eyes. They lay like that for a few seconds before Draco pushed her harshly off of him.
'What the hell is wrong with you, Granger?' He pushed himself up and dusted off his attire.
'Well if you'd watch where you were going, Malfoy!' she picked up her books and dusted off the covers, causing the watching Draco, cringe.
'Why would you dust off your books and not yourself?' Draco asked after a few awkward seconds. Hermione looked quizzical and then a sign of distrust swam over her face.
'Whatever, I don't care.' He started to walk off –
'Books are the most important thing. Books are powerful. They hold truth, and lies. It can even hold peoples lives and loves, on it's papers.' She finished.
'But they also tell people what is right and wrong. They tell people what to do.'
'That is where you're wrong. It only tells you what to do if you read it. You can also hold the power, the power to close it and leave it closed forever.' Hermione had forgotten that he was a Slytherin, he was just some normal boy, and she was just some normal girl.
Draco on the other hand, hadn't forgotten at all. He'd asked simply because his mother had felt the same about books. She lived for books. They were always clean and she could always be found in the library back at the Manor. 'Sure, you could always put it down, but what about those who have power and decide to enforce the book, then that person is giving power to that book. So again, the book becomes powerful.'
'Well not really, then the person has the power, the book is…the influence, though I do see where you're going with that.' Draco only stood there, looking contemplative. 'Err…What're you doing here at this time of night, anyway?' She took a nervous step forward.
'Its none of your business, but I am just walking around.' His eyes got misty before he blinked away the sudden emotion.
'Draco, what is on your mind, I can tell something is wrong.' Hermione Stepped forward again.
'Like you care, Granger.' He turned around and started off.
'But I do!'
'Why?' He stopped, but didn't turn around.
'Well, I know we're not friends, but I still care about people.' She mustered.
'Oh well, that brings a tear to my eye.' He started to move further away from her, and with each step, it hurt Hermione. She couldn't explain it, to see Draco weak and vulnerable, it made him a different person completely. He wasn't just a Jerk like everyone else thought, but he had a heart, he felt things.
'And I want my cold-hearted, mean enemy back, not this stupid emotion-bound pansy!' She finished in a hurry. This stopped Draco, and he turned around.
'Nice insult, for a muggle-born…my mother killed herself last night.' He looked right at her and said this.
'Oh my god, Draco.' She covered her mouth with one hand, and with the other she reached for him, her eyes starting to water.
'No, don't! Don't touch me!' his sudden outburst had Hermione taking a big cautious step back. 'Don't you cry, you didn't know her!' By now he was shrieking, and Hermione tried to stop her eyes from brimming over, but one tear escaped and slipped down her cheek.
Draco could not believe it, out of all the people, one of his biggest enemies, crying for his pain. When Hermione reached up to swipe away the lone tear, Draco stopped her. He lifted his own hand and wiped it with his thumb. With the warm tear on his thumb, he raised it to place it over his heart, and at that moment raised it to mix it with one of his tears.
'We share the same pain.' His mother used to do the same. When Lucious made Draco cry, Narcissa would mix her tears and his together, she cried for her son's pain and Draco cried for his own.
Sensing something had changed, she walked to him and wrapped her arms around his neck and Draco let his head fall onto her shoulder. He finally wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist, and she felt him shudder.
'Oh Draco, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.' She held him tighter and wished for his pain to just go away.
