The Blaze

Hermione Granger

For some unexplainable reason, it hurt when Malfoy called me a mudblood. I didn't know why… he'd done it so many times before, but when he said it that day, I felt a sharp pang in my chest.

It was stupid. I shook it off. I shouldn't be bothered by anything that idiot says. He's an idiot.

We sat in silence on the rocks. It was weird… we could've sat off them, I'm sure, but we chose to sit on them where the sun was blinding.

"Hey, did you guys see that tree up there?" Ron pointed above our heads, and we noticed the tree branches that were above our heads.

"No, I didn't see that before," Ginny remarked.

"Do you think that's where The Blaze is?" Malfoy asked.
"Up there?" I asked, hardly thinking it was possible. The cliffs overhead were very high above us… maybe a few hundred feet.

"Yeah," Neville said. "I think maybe Malfoy's right."

"Well, if he is right, then how the hell do we get up there?" I asked.

"I don't know," Neville admitted. "But we'll just have to wait and see, I guess."

----

"Oy! Look who it is!" Neville pointed upward. Our eyes followed. I squinted in the darkness… only the moon gave a subtle glow overhead.

We saw two figures above us, quietly and slowly peering down at us. "Draco?"

It was Blaise and someone I didn't recognize. He was older, it looked like… older than my parents, I thought.

"How the hell do we get up there?" Malfoy asked.

"We'll come and get you, don't worry," the other man said and then the two of them disappeared.

"Where did they go?" Ron asked, craning his neck to see where they went.

"Over there!" Ginny pointed.

They were climbing down the side of a cliff. It looked dangerous and steep and difficult. I gulped. Was this really worth it?

After several, long minutes, they were down on solid ground with the rest of us. "Wow, let's see who we've got here…" Blaise looked around at all of us. "Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Draco Malfoy."

We all nodded after he said our names.

"Well," said the other man—who we still didn't know, "you've all had a long journey. But there's only a day left."

"This is Ben," Blaise offered finally. "Ben is one of the original founders of The Blaze."

I studied the man in front of me. He wasn't that old, I decided… maybe mid to late forties. He had dark hair that was going grey and large muscles. He had a friendly smile and a warm handshake. I could tell that he was like the father figure at The Blaze, only he was cool and he seemed like someone you could really talk to.

"We'll do the formal introductions and talk about the details of living at The Blaze later," Ben said. "Let's just get there first."

We followed Blaise and Ben to the part of the cliff they climbed down. Ginny went first, Neville followed. Then Ron, me, Malfoy, Ben, and Blaise.

I held onto the crevices in the rocks, following Neville's motions before me. I dug my right hand into the rock and stuck my foot into what I thought was a sturdy rock, but it gave way, making me slip. "Damn it, Granger," Malfoy said, catching me. I got chills down my spine when his hands brushed the small of my back, but I shook it off.

With Malfoy's help, I managed to find another foothold and continue my climb. After a while of climbing, I finally reached the top. Ron grabbed my hands and pulled me up, sending me tumbling onto him. "Sorry," I muttered awkwardly. The position reminded me of the one I had found myself in not too long before then. Except that time, it was Malfoy who was pulling me up a cliff.

"A little help would be nice," Malfoy muttered as I turned my back on him. I grabbed his hands and tried to pull him up, but he was too heavy for me. "You're so weak," he complained as he hoisted himself up on his own. I couldn't help but notice his muscles on his upper arms. I looked away quickly, hoping I wasn't blushing.

As we all got up and began to walk, I started realizing how much I thought about Draco Malfoy. It wasn't logical… it wasn't normal. It wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't supposed to look at him and think, "Gee, he's really quite attractive." I was supposed to hate him. I was Hermione Granger and he was Draco Malfoy. It wasn't right.

----

When we went over the final hill, the smoke from The Blaze was the first thing you saw.

The next thing you saw was all the buildings. There was one large building in the center, and several others in a half-circle behind it. They were made from wood; it appeared, with some stones on the larger building. They looked like they were sturdy and well-constructed… nothing like the crude, half-cave shelters that Neville predicted. The place was in the midst of a forest, with many of the trees near the buildings torn out.

"What do you think?" Ben asked.

"It's amazing," I breathed.

I looked at everyone else. Ginny smiled happily, Ron looked hungry, Neville looked indifferent, and Malfoy looked impressed. He actually showed signs of being impressed with all of this. I was expecting him to mock the whole thing and want to go home.

"I don't know who you're friendly with and all that, but four people can sleep in each cabin. There's only two full ones at the moment," Ben said. I counted the cabins. There were ten of them.

"Ginny and Hermione can share a cabin," Blaise suggested. I was surprised at his obvious friendliness toward us all. He didn't show Malfoy any special treatment, and he didn't mock us for being Gryffindors.

Then I remembered that Blaise had always been different from other Slytherins. I always wondered why he was even sorted into that house… he never called me a mudblood or anything like that. He never insulted any of us. He seemed to be above that… too good to be heartless. He was more mature than Malfoy was, I always thought.

"And how about Neville and Ron can room with Draco and me?"

"I have to share a room with them?" Malfoy whined. "I thought I'd come here and never have to say another word to them!"

Blaise shook his head slowly. "Draco, things work differently here. We all work together. We all take part in building things, cooking meals, mending clothes. We all get along."

"But they're Gryffindors and we're Slytherins! It isn't right!" Malfoy insisted.

"Draco," Ben said patiently. "None of that matters here. Whoever used to be your enemy can now be your best friend." At this, Malfoy threw a look of disgust in my direction. "Whoever you fought with can be a roommate. Whatever prejudices you had… whatever beliefs you had…. none of that matters here. You have a chance to start completely over. To fix mistakes you made that you thought were too late to undo. You have a new chance… and you'd be smart if you took it."

Malfoy didn't show any emotion at all. He just shrugged and stared at the ground.

----

Out of the few people already at The Blaze, I recognized very few. They were mostly younger students… ones who were afraid to fight.

I still couldn't get over the fact that this was my new home. The cabin Ginny and I shared had four beds in it, but only two of them were filled. We would get new roommates within the week, Ben estimated. More and more people would probably come.

"I'm going for a walk," I told Ginny as she rearranged the furniture. She was into all that Chinese-mystical-furniture-rearranging crap. By this point, I could care less which direction my bed faced… as long as I had a bed.

"Okay," she muttered, pushing all her weight against a spare bed.

I walked out the wooden door, letting it slam. This place reminded me of a summer camp I went to once. It was nicer at The Blaze, though… and it was more peaceful and quiet.

I followed one of the paths that went toward a lake. Ben told us that was where everyone bathed and swam and hung out occasionally. I thought I'd check it out. The path was made from clearing the weeds and smoothing the dirt. A few wildflowers grew along the path, making it seem almost pleasant and intentional.

The path soon gave way to a clearing, where I saw the lake ahead of me. But I also saw Malfoy sitting on a rock, facing the water. I sighed and walked up to him. He was fiddling with something in his hands. Something small… something round…. it was a ring, I decided finally.

"What's that?" I asked, leaning over his shoulder. He jumped.

"A ring my father gave me," he said. "It's the Malfoy family ring… it's been with the Malfoys for centuries. It's priceless… it's worth a ton of money."

He handed it to me, and I inspected it. It was made of white gold and had words in an ancient language inscribed in the band. "What's that say?" I asked, squinting at it.

"It says, 'Never forget where you came from.'"

"That's cool," I offered.

He shook his head. "I want to forget. I want to take that chance Ben was talking about. This place is a new start. I'm not going to end up like I did last time."

I blinked at him in shock.

"I'm not saying I'm going to become your best friend," he said quickly. "I'm just saying that I'm going to be civil."

"I can't picture that," I admitted.

"Yeah, well."

There was an awkward silence, in which he took the ring back from me and slid it onto his finger.

Then he took it off, looked at it, and threw it into the lake.

----

At nightfall, we discovered that everyone helped with dinner. Some of the younger girls—second year Hufflepuffs—chopped some vegetables from the garden. The older boys started a fire. Ginny and I got water to fill the pots with. Malfoy, Blaise, Neville, and Ron helped Ben cut up the deer we were going to eat.

The thought of eating a deer made me a little squeamish. But Ben informed me that we also ate chicken—there was a makeshift coop by the garden—and eggs and fish and salad. We were having a deer because it was a special occasion. The occasion was that the five of us arrived in one piece.

After a few hours, everything was ready and we started to eat. Surprisingly, the deer was actually really good. Everyone was really friendly… even Malfoy was talking and laughing with people he hardly knew. For once, he wasn't off by himself, being antisocial.

I watched him from across the table. He was talking to a younger Ravenclaw girl who I happened to know was muggle-born. He was smiling and laughing and happy. I was happy for him. I was surprised, yes, but I was happy he was making friends.

Little by little, I could see changes in him. He could deny it all he wanted, but he was changing. Ever since he threw that ring into the lake, it was like he threw away some of his old beliefs.

And I guess it went both ways. I no longer spat insults at him all the time. In fact, he gave me no reason to. He still called me Granger, but I could handle that better than Mudblood.

Author's Note: Thanks for all the kind reviews! Sorry it took a while to put this up… I wanted to make sure it was right. I didn't want to rush it. If you didn't already pick up on it, Hermione's starting to like Draco and, NEXT CHAPTER SPOILER: he's starting to like her, too.