Chapter 3 You don't Know
"It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend."
William Blake
I must've died and gone to heaven! I was walking down the corridor with Hermione Granger's arm in mine. Sure, it was just because I was being 'comical', but hey! It worked! She had told me all about her most recent fight with Ron, almost as if I were her friend. That happened with ten minutes, just think what could happen the rest of the year!
"Hermione! What the hell are you doing with that FILTH on your arm?" Ron questioned as we entered the prefect compartment.
"Well, he was gentleman enough to walk me to this meeting and YOU are more filth that he is!" I stared, dumbfounded at Hermione. That had come from her mouth, not mine.
"I WAS going to apologize, but I'm thinking NO!" he yelled back, sounding more stupid than ever.
"You mean AFTER Harry talked you into? Well I don't need or want you apology!" she replied calmly.
"You were telling the truth then? The old Hermione who was mine and Harry's friend is dead and a new one that allies Malfoy is here?" he said.
"Not quite Ron! I'm not mad at Harry, just you! And the only Hermione that's gone is the one who let everyone walk all of over her and is replaced by me being tougher and not taking any shit. AND being more open minded and giving people second chances. In other words, TRUSTING new people, LIKE DRACO!" Hermione replied.
"First name basis now huh?" Ron said cockily. "And where's my second chance?"
"You've had about 50 second chances Ron!"
"As much as I'd like to watch you two fight all day," I interrupted. A crowd of prefects had started to form and were now watching the show. I guess Ron and Hermione were well known for their arguments. "Hermione and I have a meeting to stat and if you don't stop I'll be forced to take points!" I added the last threateningly, knowing full well that Ron didn't want to give me that pleasure.
"Really Mal-ferret? You like getting all chummy with my friend eh?" he said back haughtily.
"Normally I would do this all day and swap insults, but I believe we have a meeting to hold and everyone is waiting. Of corse I'll be willing to continue this afterwards, Weasel," I said, adding the last word as a whisper.
"Yes well," Hermione said, clearing her throat. Everyone turned their attention to me and her and we began the meeting.
"As the 7th and 6th year prefects know, we are here to enforce school rules," Hermione started.
"And if a prefect is caught excessively committing wrong acts, they will receive a warning, suspension, and then expulsion from being a prefect. And that includes loosing all the good perps!" I said grinning evilly.
"What're the 'good perps' anyway?" asked a 5th year.
"Well they're certainly not working with Malfoy, that's for sure!" I herd Ron mutter to himself.
"Behavior like THAT isn't quite the requirements for such punishments," Hermione began, obviously I wasn't the only to here him. "But it does not stop you from loosing house points. Five points from Gryffindor for rude commentary, Ron. Just because you are a prefect doesn't mean you get special treatment," she said the last to the whole compartment.
"And abusing your powers will result in the same punishments. You may only take away points when appropriate," I picked up where she left off.
"Yea, taking away points for hating someone is appropriate," Ron mumbled sarcastically, bringing up the time in 5th year that I wasn't myself to remember.
"Another five points from Gryffindor Ron," Hermione said sternly. "And you must learn to be unbiased and even take away points form your own house. The teachers are trusting us!"
"You may only assign detentions for B and C class felons or repeated A felons, anything lower than that you must report to a professor. Check your prefect guide to find out exactly what that is," I continued. She and I were actually pretty good at this. We hadn't even practiced.
We went on explaining everything. The older prefects were nodding away seeing as they had heard all this before. The only interruption was the occasional question from a 5th year of rude comment by Ron.
"That's all everyone, Ron, stay behind please," Hermione ended the meeting. Everyone meandered their way out of the compartment to patrol or to go to their friends. Once they were gone, Hermione spoke again. "Apologize!" she ordered.
"Why should I! You said you didn't want to hear it and I told you-"
"Not to me, to Draco!" She interrupted him.
"Hermione, it's okay, I don't need his-"
"NO Draco, he's going to apologize!" she said. She barely knew me and she's sticking up for me. After all I've done to her.
"I'm not apologizing to that asinine excuse of a human being!" Ron yelled.
"RONALD WEASLEY! He hasn't done a thing to you for over a year!"
"Hermione, give it a rest! I don't want anything from Weasel over there, let's just go!" I said with defeat, putting my hand on her shoulder to try and calm her quickly rising temper. I quickly pulled back at realizing what I had done. As I began to walk to the door, I herd her whisper to him.
"Ron, there's something different about him. I don't understand it and I know I can't explain it, but there's just something about him that's making me be nice to him. Maybe you'll understand one day. Hell, maybe I'll understand one day. Just, give him a chance," she pleaded.
"Did you really mean that?" I asked when we got back to our compartment.
"Mean what?" she questioned, feigning innocence.
"Never mind," I mumbled, flopping onto the cushioned seat, starring out the window thinking. I felt something leap onto my lap. I looked down and noticed Hermione's cat. I glanced over at her and saw that she was engrossed in one of her large tomes.
"Hello my feline friend," I whispered to the cat as I began to per it. I continued to pet the subconsciously while gazing out the window.
Hermione is fighting with her best friend for me! How can this be possible? I must be some alternate universe or something. She hardly knows me and the me she does know has ridiculed her and her friends for years. If the roles were switched, I wouldn't even consider fighting for her! I thought.
"Hermione?" I asked, wishing to voice my thoughts.
"Hmm?" she responded, not looking up from the book.
"What did you mean? What you said to Weasely, before we left?" I questioned.
"Nothing much," she said offhandedly, still absorbed in her reading.
"Would you put that damn book down?" I said, getting irate, "I want to actually have a REAL conversation with you!"
"Sorry, I was really into the story," she explained morosely.
"It's ok," I said trying to lighten her mood, "Anyway, what did you mean?" I repeated.
She took a deep breath and then explained.
"I don't really know," she answered honestly. "I mean, you've been different ever since last year. The way you talk, they way you walk, the people you hang with, the way you act period! I don't' know HOW Ron didn't notice! Harry noticed. I think he even sympathizes you, you know… for being an orphan. He's even told Ron to knock it off once in a while. Grant it, it was behind the public eye and not that big of a gesture, but you get the picture." She paused, looking at her lap in concentration. She nodded her head and took a steadying breath. "He… he also knows how it is to live with… with hor… horrible people," she said slowly.
She then looked at me, waiting for a response. I sighed.
"He doesn't know horrible," I said quietly, gazing out my window, not wanting to look her in the eye and see all of the questions I knew would be there. I heard her get up and I shuffled closer to the window, trying to distance myself from her.
"Tell me about it Draco," she said, as she put a hand on my shoulder. I just sat there rigidly, staring out the window.
"I can't talk about it," I said distantly, not wanting to talk anymore.
"Come on Draco, it can't be to bad," she said surely. But that was it.
"You don't get it do you Hermione?" I snapped roughly, pushing her hand off my shoulder. "No one knows what I've been through! No one's even been through what I have. No one would even care to listen! Why? Because I'm Draco Malfoy! Because I AM a Malfoy! When the word Malfoy is even spoken it's associated with the word evil and said with distaste. Everyone had stereotyped me just because I was sorted into Slytherin. But do they know why? NO! They don't care to listen to the words of a demon! No one cares to hear the sad story of the son of Voldemort's right hand man! They think, 'What's to it? He's evil! There's no story there!' But there is a story and it can't be told until someone takes the time and gets to know me! ACTUALLY know ME! And not one second before that!" I stormed out of the compartment, not wanting to look her in the eye anymore after that performance. I kept walking to find an empty compartment, leaving behind a dumbfounded Hermione.
I knew as I was walking out that I had made a big mistake. But I didn't really care at that moment. I didn't care that I may have just pushed away the only person WILLING to get to know me and then LISTEN to my story. I t then dawned on me. I stopped storming through the hall and slipped down the wall.
"Damn it Draco! You friggin' idiot!" I scolded myself, banging my head against the wall behind me. "You just sounded like the person that bastard wanted you to be! Damn you Lucius!"
I sat there, sulking for a while before I decided I had to apologize. I pushed myself up off the floor and began walking to the front of the train. Before I could even get halfway to our compartment another one opened and out strutted Pansy Parkinson. She stepped right in front of me and blocked my path. I tried to move around her, but she side-stepped and blocked it again.
"Get the hell out of my way Parkinson!" I said threateningly.
"Oh, but Dracie," she simpered. I winced at the awful nickname. "I was hoping we could have some fun!" she continued, emphasizing and hinting with the word fun. I knew exactly what she meant and wanted no part in it.
"I don't want to have your kind of fun," I replied sarcastically, still trying to get by.
"But you used to ALWAYS want it before!' she whined.
I grimaced as I remembered all the things I had done with her under the influence of the imperious. Lucius had apparently wanted Pansy and I to get together after school. It seems that Pansy had thought along the same line.
"What happened to you Draco?" she questioned, the sweetness in her voice gone. Good, I thought, she reminds me of that terrible Umbridge bitch.
"I've wised up Parkinson! I've set my standards a little higher than toads like you! I don't want to have fun with you, not now, not EVER!" I said, beginning to loose my temper.
"So what are your standards, Draco?" she asked.
"Someone who doesn't just want me for sex, like you do! Someone who sees me for who I am and doesn't give a shit about my money! And," I said, beginning to get quieter, so that Parkinson couldn't here, "I think I may have found her."
"But Draco, I loveyou!" She said, almost begging with puppy dog eyes that made her look even more like a pug.
"No you don't, Pansy. You don't' know what love is," I said a little bit more kinder than before, "and neither do I."