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Chapter 2
"Hermione! What did you think you were doing?" Ron hissed as he caught up with Hermione after class ended.
"Huh?"
"You! You stood up for Malfoy just now!" Ron exclaimed.
"Yeah, I know." She replied, trying to play it cool. "Why? What about it?"
"Why? Why?" Ron shrieked. "Harry, check if she's under a spell. I don't know how to do it."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Ron, neither do I. I'm not much cleverer than you are."
"Great." Hermione threw her hands up. "So you think I'm under his spell. Just great, Ron. I mean, what's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that you stood up for the biggest enemy ever!"
"But, well, he didn't do anything wrong! He wouldn't have deserved detention! Someone would have to stand up for him." Hermione argued.
"So? The problem is, you should have let him suffer in detention! It's only one day, like it's going to do any good for revenge…" he muttered to himself. Then, realizing he was still in an argument, "I mean to say, he has done so many wicked things! All the taunts and teasing, have you forgotten them all?"
"No, I -"
"Then you should have let him and his sorry a in detention, whether he threw that dumb paper ball or not!"
"Ron! Firstly, he didn't okay? It was that… that guy in the corner who threw it. Secondly, you saw how Professor Flitwick didn't listen to me. So if the guy didn't own up, Malfoy would still have gotten detention, whether I tried defending him or not!" Hermione huffed. "Thirdly, we should always learn to forgive and forget!" She ignored Ron's snort and turned to Harry. "Are you with, or against, me on this one?"
Harry glanced at Ron, then at Hermione. They were both, after all, his friends. Slowly, he reached a decision, and said, "Sorry, Hermione. But I think Ron's right. Don't you remember what just happened at the doorway of the classroom an hour ago?"
"Argh!" Hermione threw her hands up in the air, again, in defeat. "Oh, all right. Fine. Be that way. I gotta go to the Ladies. See you at class." She slipped away from her friends.
As she took a short cut back to the classroom, she could overhear Ron exclaiming, "I don't know what's got into her!" before his voice was drowned by those of other students. She hurried to the classroom with a grim expression. How was she going to prove to her friends that she wasn't under a spell?
She rounded the corner, and there was Malfoy, pacing impatiently outside the classroom. She marched up to him, and placed her hands on her hips. "What is it that you want? This had better be good; I don't want to be late for class for nothing." She said.
"I… uh… Well… I…" Malfoy stammered nervously. Hermione was stunned. Malfoy? Nervous? Stammering? These words just do not associate! She had braced herself for a sarcastic and nasty comeback, so where was it?
"I… I, well, just wanted to…"
"To?" She pressed on. Time was running out.
"Um… to…"
"To what?"
"To thank you." He blurted. "For standing up for me just now. I mean, you didn't exactly help since Flitwick refused to listen to you, but, well, you did try and I, uh, appreciate that." He added, "A lot."
Hermione raised an eyebrow and cocked her head in amusement. "Err… Will the real Draco Malfoy please stand up?"
"I am Draco Malfoy." He answered irritably.
"Oh, all right. You're welcome. I just… well, I was just surprised to see you so polite, with manners and all." She said, staring at him intently, and curiously.
Then, after a few seconds of silence, Hermione spun on her heels. "Well, if there's nothing else… see you at class."
She only took a few steps when she heard a small voice behind her. "I can be nice; you just haven't seen it."
She halted, then turned around to face the person who had just said that. She scrunched up her face, as though trying really hard to read Malfoy's expression and see if he was joking. He doesn't seem so. His gaze was soft and gentle; there was no signs of smirking. "Well…" she replied with an equally soft smile, "I'd very much like to see it then."
Leaving a smiling Malfoy, she sped towards her next class.
TBC...
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