Chapter Six: The black-haired menace
Hermione was on her way to dinner when she heard her name being called. Thinking it to be either Harry or Ron finally catching up to her, she turned to look down the crowded hallway.
"Hermione!" came the shout again, only this time it was accompanied by a tall form shoving people rudely out of the way to get to her.
By the time Draco had caught up to her, she had left a long trail of people rubbing various limbs and muttering under their breath. Hermione grabbed Draco and hauled her into a nearby classroom, knowing the other girl's penchant for getting cursed in the corridors.
"What do you want?" Hermione said coldly.
Draco looked vaguely uncomfortable, "I want you to…to…um…"
"You couldn't possibly be asking me to start walking with you again, could you? Because I distinctly remember you saying that I "couldn't protect a fly from a spider's web." Wasn't that you?" at Draco's hesitant nod, she sniffed and started for the door, "Then I don't believe we have any more to say to one another."
The other girl grabbed her arm, "No! Please! You don't understand! They make fun of me! They laugh behind my back! And nothing I do stops them! They even…" small tears started to spill over her lashes, "they called me 'Draca'…"she dropped Hermione's arm and sank to the floor, sobbing silently, "I can't stand it. How dare they? How…dare…they…"
Hermione bit her lip, torn between wanting to exact revenge on the boy who had made so many people's lives hell, and wanting to comfort the distraught girl at her feet. In the end, she compromised.
"Get up," Draco's tear-stained face shot up, "I said get up. Do you think there aren't a lot of other people who have been through worse? And most at your instigation! But you sit there, crying like a baby! You're always on about the Malfoy pride. Ha! What would they say if they could see you now!"
Draco went from sitting to standing in the time it took Hermione to blink, "Don't you dare insult me like that! I am made of more than glass! I'm a Malfoy!" she sniffed once before throwing the door open with such force that it bounced off the wall and strutting through it.
Hermione simply smiled as she quietly shut that same door behind her and started off for the Great Hall.
Hermione opened the gigantic doors to the Great Hall and had to stop short. Draco, who had gone in a few steps in front of her, had come to an abrupt halt and was looking around confusedly. Hermione grabbed the other girl's arm and led her out of the doorway and to the right. Draco's lip curled up as she recognized where they were going.
She wrenched her arm away and hissed, "Are you crazy? Are you seriously trying to make me sit beside the Wonder Boy?"
Hermione whipped around, "That Wonder Boy just might be the only reason I'm helping you. He was still in the infirmary scrubbing bedpans this morning when they brought you in. Came to us directly after he got off and told us the whole story. If it weren't for him feeling just a little bad for your sorry ass, I wouldn't be here! I'd have let you rot, but no, he had the idea that I tutor you to adjust to your new situation. Practically had to beg me to do it. So just sit down" they had reached the table by this time and she shoved the slightly fuming Draco rather forcefully onto the bench, "and play nice for a few minutes."
As soon as Hermione's hands left her shoulders, Draco tried to stand again, "No, I don't believe you understand the situation. I can't sit there."
Harry Potter, that black-haired menace, turned at the sound of her voice. He smiled evilly at the sight of the transformed girl, "Oi! So I wasn't hallucinating! I thought the smell of the disinfectant might have gotten to me, but you really are a girl!"
He had spoken quite loudly, and so three quarters of the Great Hall inclined their heads in the direction of the disturbance. Draco's ears went quite pink, the largest sign of discomfort she had ever shown, and she sank slowly down to the bench beside her still grinning nemesis.
Disclaimer: You know the drill, anything you recognize belongs to the rabid squirrels-oops, I mean to Ms. Rowling…
A/N: I'm really sorry for the long wait in between updates. I'm just stupid enough to try to take five English classes at the same time…and I wouldn't give up a one of them. But the course load, well…The point is, I'm starting to get near the place where I don't have anything written and I don't want to get there until the end. So bear with me, I will update, just not as often as I would like!