Chapter 6

Flashback

"Hermione! I… I can't take it anymore. I need to ask you something." He said his face unusually serious.

"What?"

End Flashback

"Well… you see… um… how do I put this?" Ron muttered looking at the floor.

"What? Come on. I am your best friend. Just tell me." Hermione said smiling

"Well, let's put it this way. I have a friend. Now, my friend really likes this girl. But he is too afraid to ask her out coz she might turn him down and they won't talk anymore. And to make matters worse, she helps him out at work and they became even closer…" He told her.

"So, what's the problem?"

"Well, he doesn't want to ruin their friendship! I don't want to scare her away! I mean, he doesn't want to scare her away." He said quietly.

"Well, I think he should trust his feelings. I mean, if she doesn't agree, then maybe they're not meant to be and he should just move on. I mean, if it's not meant, then its not. No use trying to fight it." She said wisely.

"Thanks Hermione! You're the best! I'll do just that! I mean, I'll tell my friend to do that." He quickly covered.

"Right…" Hermione said with a knowing smile.

Draco POV

He was in Marco's room. He was playing with him and Marco was being his usual happy self. Draco smiled at Marco. He was so saddened at the sight of the boy. He just didn't understand him. He wanted to help him with his illness but he knew he couldn't do anything about it.

"Mmmm!" Marco groaned as he tried to snap Draco put of his hypnotized state.

"Oh! Marco. Sorry. I guess I dozed off. Want do you want to do now?" he asked the little boy.

Marco pointed at the picture of them playing Quidditch.

"Do you want to play?" Draco asked.

Marco's eyes sparkled with joy as he darted around the room looking for his broomstick and Quidditch attire. Draco smiled.

He quickly flicked his wand and his clothes changed to his Quidditch uniform. He flicked it again and Marco's clothes changed as well.

They walked out of the room and found Pansy there walking by.

"Hey Draco. Taking Marco to play?" she asked.

"Yeah."

Suddenly, Marco tripped on his broom and pushed Draco. Draco got caught off guard and almost fell on top of Pansy. But thankfully, he just sort off, pushed her lightly. They were in a weird position. Draco's lips were on pansy's cheeks.

Draco easily regained his composure and said goodbye to pansy.

He led Marco to their Quidditch stadium.

Hermione POV

She had arrived at St. Mungos for her afternoon shift.

She entered Mrs. Piolyter to give her usual dosage of medicine.

"There you go Mrs. Piolyter. That should get you up and ready for tomorrow!" she smiled.

"Thank you Hermione dear. Do come again tomorrow. The new healer here doesn't know what she is doing! You must replace her!" Mrs. Piolyter exclaimed.

"Oh, Mrs. Piolyter. You know I am just here for part time. Besides, you must give her a chance." She said smiling at the old woman.

"Oh, alright. But I am doing this just for you."

"Thank you. Well, I have to go. A patient in the next floor just got his spleen reduced. Hurts a lot, they tell me. Anyway, I must give him the potion. Good bye Mrs. Piolyter!"

"Good bye dearie."

Hermione smiled and went on her way. As she passed the front desk, she saw a familiar face.

"Hey Marco!" she said smiling.

Marco looked up and saw Hermione. He smiled and ran up to her. She hugged him back and kneeled down.

"What are you doing here? Where's Draco?" she asked him.

He pointed at the emergency ward.

"What happened?" she asked him slightly alarmed.

He pointed at the chairs and she saw two lightningbolt brooms. One of them, was a little tattered.

She told Marco to sit down while she went into the emergency ward. As she entered, she immediately found Draco sitting on one of the stretchers. She approached him.

"Hey. What's wrong? What happened?" she asked him eying his left arm in a cast.

"Oh. Nothing. We were just playing Quidditch when I got hit by a bludger. I fell a couple hundred feet. Good thing that the lightningbolt has a built in safety system so it caught me in time but the bludgers bruised by arm. The healers say that it would be fine by a couple of days." He told her.

"Oh. That's good. Marco was outside alone. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah." He said. He got off the stretcher and walked towards the waiting room with Hermione.

"Um… I have to go. I have to give Mr. Krillert his potion. Um… are you sure you're alright?" she asked him.

"Yeah. Go ahead. I'll owl you soon. Um… so I have to go get Marco. See you."

"Yeah. See you."

"Bye."

Hermione smiled at him as his silhouette disappeared behind double doors. She sighed and decided to get back to work.

At the end of the day, Hermione told her colleagues that she was going to retire for the day and apparated out.

She appeared at the Ministry of Magic and went her way to the usual place. She arrived at the Auror office and she soon spotted Harry scribbling on a piece of parchment.

She quietly made her way behind him and when she noticed him get suspicious she said,

"Boo."

Harry jumped up and placed his hand over his chest.

"Hermione! You almost scared me to death!" he told her.

"Well, I came to help you guys. I just finished at St. Mungos and I thought I'd drop by." She smiled.

"Okay. Anyway, nothing much to do here. We just caught Crabbe and Goyle trying to break in to Gringotts a couple of hours ago. They didn't even past the first set of doors! It was pathetic really." Harry laughed.

"Oh. Well, if you don't need me, I'll be on my way."

"Wait!" Harry stopped her. "I need to ask you something."

"Shoot."

"Ron's been acting weird lately. Do you know why? Did he tell you?" Harry asked.

"Um… it might have been about the thing we spoke about earlier but im not sure."

"Can you tell me what it's about?"

Hermione told Harry all about the conversation between Ron and herself.

"Oh. I think I get it now." Harry said.

"Really? Care to share?" she smiled.

"Well, did you know that a certain someone always visits Ron and myself."

"Well, I do."

"Yeah… are you connecting this?" he asked as he kept making little motions at her.

"Um… yeah… No."

"Well… I'll tell you when im sure. Okay?"

Hermione bid Harry goodbye and left.

Draco POV

Draco lay on his bed reading his book about 'Quality Quidditch Supplies' when a knock was heard outside his door.

"Come in." he answered thinking it was Marco.

Pansy came in with his breakfast.

"What are you doing? The house elves could have handled that." He asked her.

"Well, I decided on doing it myself. One of the house elves is sick and the others are trying to cure her. So I decided to help out a bit." She told him laying down his breakfast on a table.

"That's pretty nice of you."

"I know. Anyway, I have to go. My mother requested me to head out to my old home. Could you take care of Marco? Or do you want me to bring him? I'm sure mother would be delighted."

"No. It's okay. I can take care of him. Have a safe journey. You know that there are still dangers in the world."

"I know. Now rest. You have to fix that arm of yours." Pansy smiled.

'You know, she is not so bad now. Well, a really big improvement to how she was at Hogwarts.' Draco thought. 'Maybe having two kids affected her.'

Hermione POV

She woke up at the crack of dawn and took a shower. She headed over to her desk and checked her schedule.

'Nothing planned for the day.' She thought.

She sat back on her chair and sighed. Suddenly, something caught her eye. A sketchpad and a pencil.

She decided, as fun, she would draw gowns.

At first it was just doodling. Then it started to get serious.

After a couple of hours and the sun was fully up, Hermione suspected it to be lunch time by then, She was done.

She stared at her drawing and sighed. It was beautiful but she couldn't help but feel jealous towards Ginny. She wanted a special someone too! Someone to hold her at night. Someone to keep her safe when she's all alone. Someone that she could love and be loved in return. Someone like D-…

Suddenly, a peck on her window and a hoot by an owl told her she had mail and it interrupted her train of thoughts.

She got up and let the owl in. It dropped the letter and left as suddenly as it came.

She opened the letter and read it through. Only one word came to mind.

'Malfoy.'

Authors Note:

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