Chapter 16: The True Meaning of Friends

Draco sat down, silent, not wanting to talk to any of the people who he actually considered to be his friends. Who would have thought all this time he thought of Harry and Ron being pathetic excuses for friends, when really, it was Draco's friends that were pathetic? Draco laughed in his head at this epiphany. Silence hushed over the table the second that Draco sat down at the table. The attention didn't bother Draco one bit, he simply grabbed food onto his plate and started to eat with the apatite that wasn't feed properly for a while.

"Draco," Pansy started to speak. Draco immediately swallowed his food and pointed his fork straight at her face, far away but still intimidating.

"I swear to Merlin, you try to harm Hermione EVER again, you won't even remember your last breath." Pansy eyed him, filled with confusion, anger, and frustration.

"YOU BETRAYED US DRACO." Blaise jumped in. Draco glared back at him.

"GIVE ME a break, YOU KNEW ALL ALONG I had a thing for Hermione." He spat out.

"I THOUGHT YOU JUST WANTED TO GET HER IN BED! I thought it was for your reputation, not someone to date and potentially fall in love with! She's a mud-"

"Finish it, and see what happens Blaise." He glared at him harshly, enraged, just wanting to eat and get the hell out of there.

"She isn't a pureblood Draco. You're father would not allow it."

"Oh, do not start talking to me about MY father. Merlin knows he's rotting away in Azkaban, therefore his opinion is nothing but scum on the bottom of my shoe, besides, my mum is all about true love, all while Lucius spat how much money and power rules over all, mum would bring me into another room sometime during the day explaining to me that one day I'd meet the girl perfect for me, and that when I do, I'd love her with all my heart, not allowing one thing to hold me back, and you know what Blaise? I intend to listen to my mum and not my pathetic excuse for my father. I mean look at him, I used to look up to the miserable man. He would scold me about how Malfoys are winners, and yet he grovels to the Dark Lord as if he were some dog." Draco said forcefully and clearly hinting to Blaise and any other listening Slytherin to back off before released all his suppressed Father Son problems into their world.

Blaise was tongue tied. He wanted to spit something just as meaningful back to him but he couldn't. He unfortunately and regretfully had a point. Pansy sat amazed at how defensive Draco is over Hermione, little miss know it all. They both looked back at Draco as he hurriedly ate his food before dismissing himself swiftly away from the table with his robes flying.

Hermione sat down at the table with her friends welcoming her with warm smiles on their faces. Gracefully she gathered things onto her plate, not interrupting her friend's usual conversations of Quidditch. Finally the conversation came to a close and they greeted Hermione respectively.

"HEY!" Ginny exclaimed. "How was last night? We didn't see you for long…"

"Well, would you like the short or long version of the night?" Hermione said, wanting to explain everything to her friends because without them, she seemed like she'd be no where in life not only that, she had to let them know before the battle between Slytherins and Gryffindors begun once more.

"Well, we have all day 'Mione." Ron said, intrigued.

Hermione tucked her hair back behind her ear ready to explain, but only after a few more bites of her delectable food from her plate. "Just when I get to the end, please don't curse me." When Hermione said this, all three Gryffindors looked up, eyes almost flying out of their heads, knowing that it was going to be something big because Hermione doesn't make mistakes to where she's worried that they'd be upset. "Draco told me that there was an announcement that was made telling everyone that no one was on the Antantrum Potion. Correct?"

"You mean, when you were cuddling happily with Draco at the lake, that wasn't influenced by the potion? That was one hundred percent Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger…" Ginny said in shock watching Hermione carefully revealing the truth to her friends.

"Yes." Ginny gasped. Ron choked on some of his food, before coughing it hoarsely back out. Harry watched Hermione try to explain carefully before reacting. Hermione knew that this might potentially be harder than she thought it would be. "Well, this is a bit hard." She laughed uneasily, as the 3 sets of eyes still watching her attentively. "Draco and I became, close. Turned out, he secretly had a crush on me for a long time and I was never going to admit to you 3 that I had an equal secret interest that never was that conscious." She paused wanting to feed the information to them slowly, knowing Ron, he was going to bubble over if he heard too much too fast. She cleared her throat to rid more uneasy feelings and continued on, "Saturday was amazing, I never seen such a side of Draco, it was soft, caring, sweet, and remarkable, it was adorable actually…" Hermione started to ramble on in positive clarification about the date; Ron was getting sick of it from the green jealous growing inside.

"OK, we get the point; you had a bloody blast, is that all? Where were you late night and all morning? We tried to reach you." He said in an almost sneer.

"I'm getting there Ron. We decided to allow people to believe that we were on Antantrum so that our lives here socially wouldn't be so screwed up since it's pretty close to graduation. However, the announcement was made and that kind of threw that plan away. During the Ball, I was coming back from the refreshment table, I heard Draco talking to his slimy friends, saying things only to convince them that he didn't have true feelings for me, I understand now he was protecting us but it just hurt, so I ran off. Pansy found out after the announcement of the truth that Draco really had feelings for me and she came after me. She knocked me out with a spell and when I woke up I was underneath the Whomping willow. I couldn't reach the knot and I was struggling, I didn't even bother to yell help." Her friends' eyes filled with guilt, knowing that they were off having fun at the ball and Hermione was tied to the Whomping willow, stuck to be miserable and in pain. Ron clinched his fist infuriated with Pansy. "Not long after I regained consciousness, I saw Draco running to help me. He seemed so rushed he didn't hear me remind him about the knot. I was so scared I couldn't think much either, so I just ran. Draco ended up running too, but he got knocked by the willow. I carried him to the hospital wing where he stayed unconscious for hours and I didn't leave his side and now, here I am telling you about what happened and that I should tell you, to realize Draco has changed and you're going to have to try to accept it, at least for my happiness because, we are together, no potion involved" she took a deep breath of air, relieved that her friends know everything, no more secrets. Her friends remained speechless.

"Wow." Harry finally said. "I don't think I can completely trust Malfoy, but he did save you from danger to some extent and I'm grateful for that, which in my book will earn him one chance to make amends with me. I don't need to hear him say sorry, I don't need him to talk to me, I don't need anything except for him to treat you right, and not betray you. However, it'd be great if he lightened up on his attitude towards us a bit." Hermione nodded in agreement and smiled knowing that Draco would happily oblige. Ginny smiled showing that she agreed as well, 2 for 3. Ron however, was still pale ever since she started, still upset, and still mad. His anger was expressed through his eyes but he nodded it off as if he was fine, when in reality, he was far from it.

Finally the truth was out, Hermione felt great. As if a huge amount of weight was lifted off her shoulders. She looked across the room to where the Slytherin table was, but saw no stunning Draco. She defiantly didn't trust his so called friends. Worry struck her instantly from what it seemed and she looked over to three friends, explaining "I know he was explaining to his friends and he isn't at his table…" Ginny knew Hermione was getting a bit worrisome.

"Go Check on him 'Mione." Harry nodded agreeing, Ron still sat with his arms crossed, sulking. Hermione looked at Ron, she knew that he liked her but she had no feelings back for him, she wished she did but it just didn't click for her. She stared at Ron worried.

"He'll be fine; I'll make sure of it. Go to Malfoy, talks to him, check to see if he's okay himself and maybe we'll see you tonight with him, and give it a shot." Harry said reassuring and supporting her. Ginny grabbed hold of Harry's hand, squeezing it in a thank you. Harry grinned in appreciation, as Hermione rose up from her feet and started to walk her way towards the Head Common Room.

A/N: Ok so I lied, one more chapter, I am a bit tired; I might fix this one though. Well see.