"What was that for?!" Draco screamed at me holding the arm I'd just hit

"Come here" I growled and pulled him away from his group in the dungeon. We were back in Hogwarts and I had just come back from having a little talk with Hermione. In between catching up and talking about Christmas she told me something that really bothered me. "Someone just told me that Buckbeak is having a trial!"

"Oh that" he said rubbing his arm, looking at it instead of me

"Yes that!" I screamed again, irritated with his apathy. "You know what could happen –"

"Before you go on nagging I didn't do it, Father did" he told me still not looking at me

"Well tell your father to fix it" I told him through gritted teeth

"Are you insane?!" His eyes snapped to mine incredulous. I knew he had always had trouble standing up to his parents. In all the years that I had known him I had never, not once, seen him talk back to either of his parents

"I will not have an innocent creature dying because of your little lie!" I yelled using my hands for emphasis

"A lie that you taught me" he yelled making me hit him again. "Ow!"

"I did that to get my way not to kill!"

"There's nothing I can do alright so let it go." There was something he could do but it was something that I doubted he ever would, even for me

"You better hope that Buckbeak is okay or we will have a big problem" I warned. His eyes narrowed

"Do you really care that much about some stupid bird thing? Or is it because of that Gryffindor" he spat knowing it was Hermione who I had gone to see

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. I don't know why you've been acting especially obnoxious lately but stop it. It's up to you whether you talk to your father or not but you better hope that he turns out okay" I growled and left him. I heard him as he grunted and stomped off back to his little group

Nothing, nobody, deserved to die over something so trivial. Death wasn't a stranger to my life but it shouldn't be taken as lightly as Draco was. Whether he cared about the hippogriff or not was irrelevant; he should care that there is a life hanging on a line because of him. I was sure his father knew he had been faking the severity of the injury which only made the situation all the more infuriating. I grumbled to myself, annoyed with his attitude, and left the common room

Some time passes as we went back to our regular classes. In Care of Magical Creatures the lessons were a bit more entertaining but I could see Hagrid looked crestfallen. Draco still didn't look like he cared and instead seemed annoyed that I was even upset about it. I wasn't mad at him just upset with his behavior. He kept grumbling to himself and we had both settled on not talking about Buckbeak to save time in any argument we may have. I told him what I wanted to do and if he wanted to he could do something. I highly doubted he would talk to his father but part of me hoped I was wrong. I tried not to focus on the fact that even if he did Mr. Malfoy would most likely not care; he had his own plans

The rest of the classes had their ups and downs. I had my best classes, Charms and Potions, accomplished with almost no effort. Transfigurations and History of Magic took some work but I managed. Astronomy and Herbology on the other hand were not much to speak of; not hard but not easy either. The ones that took most work were my other two electives. Study of Ancient Runes was nice and straight forward but it was very time consuming. The only class that did take a lot of work was Arithmancy.

In Arithmancy we were shown a glimpse into our own future using the older method of the Ancient Greeks, Isopsephy. It was a complicated method, taking a phrase from your past converting it into numbers then forming your future from them. If one didn't know what they were doing it was really hard not to get a migraine. Each person has their own number and their whole is based around it. It's almost too much to take in. I was genuinely surprised Crabbe and Goyle hadn't had a meltdown yet, though I suspected one wasn't far away. The rest of the classes were nowhere near as bad.

I agreed to meet Hermione after Defense Against the Dark Arts and left Draco with a quick goodbye. She was having a fight with Harry and Ron again and looked like she wanted to talk about it.

"You were only looking out for their safety" I said after a while into the conversation, knowing it's what she wanted to hear

"I know! But do you think they care? No! It's all about that stupid broom" she exclaimed making Madam Pince shush us. Not wanting to be kept being interrupted I took Hermione outside. We left the library to find another place to talk. We walked out to one of the courtyards and sat in a bench nearby

"Then there's Ron and that rat! I can't believe he's this mad when all he ever did was complain about it!"

"Crookshanks is a good cat" I said and that, I meant. I liked her cat, he was cute. I loved my puppy and would much rather have him but still Crookshanks was a good cat

"Yes, he is! He didn't do anything wrong!"

"Just give them time" I reassured her. This wasn't the first time they'd had a fight and I could tell their friendship was stronger than to be broken up by something like this

"And Harry!" she continued. "Harry! He wants to go after Black! He –"

"Why would he want to do something like that?!" I interrupted without meaning to. Draco better not have…

"Black… he was the one… his parents –"

"How did he find out about that?" I ask and watch as Hermione's eyes grow wider

"You knew!" she realized and scooted a little ways away from me. "Malfoy told you, didn't he?"

"No, Hermione –"

"Why didn't you tell me?" she basically yelled getting the attention of two Hufflepuffs walking by. I turned back to her and closed the space she put between us so I wouldn't have to raise my voice.

"Because of this," I said motioning to her face. "I didn't want to have to put you through the burden of what to do with that information. You would've torn yourself apart from trying to decide whether to tell Harry or not. It's not exactly something someone takes lightly. And if you did tell him I didn't want Harry doing something stupid."

"Then why didn't you stop Malfoy from saying anything in Potions?" she said reminding me of Draco's little comments

"I did! When he said that remark to Harry in class and I saw he didn't know I told Draco not to bring it up again. He didn't, did he?" I asked making sure he had kept his promise. I was sure that if he hadn't I would be pushed too far and start another fight with him and I didn't want that

"No, we heard it somewhere else…" she said quietly and I sighed a little. "I just don't know how you can stand to be around him"

"I could say the same about Ron" I smiled and she slowly did too

"Well if you ask me I think you'd be better off with George"

"What do you mean?"

"Just… Never mind." She shook her head and gave me a more sincere smile. I frowned a little getting really tired of people doing that to me. Nobody wanted to tell me anything anymore. But I sighed and kept the conversation going

"I know Draco isn't your idea of… anything good really… but he's not that bad"

"Yes he is" she insisted. She was acting stubborn and I had to talk this through. I didn't want her to keep bringing him up and insulting him. As much as I cared for her, and as upset as I was with Draco at the moment, he was still my best friend and if I had to choose I would pick him over her any day. But I didn't want to choose...

"Hermione…" I began with a sighed. She gave me a look but stayed quiet waiting for me to continue. "He and I have been through a lot together. We're more similar than you would think. Yes he's hardheaded, rude, and annoying but he's always been there for him when I've needed him. We fight sometimes but who doesn't? Draco is my best friend, like Ron and Harry are yours. I put up with them and I'm not asking you to give him a chance but could you just not bring him up again? Unless you want to say something nice about him, which we both know is not going to happen."

"He's a sociopath!" she explained and I had to laugh

"Yes but he's my sociopath… Please?" She sighed and nodded. She gave me a weak smile before standing up

"You're too good for him" she mumbled as I stood up too

"Maybe" I shrugged. Hermione and I walked back to the stairs where we parted ways. She headed up to her common room and I went down to mine. I didn't believe I was too good for Draco but it was the easiest answer I could give her. She wouldn't have accepted it if I told her what I was really like. A part of her knew but she didn't want to believe it. There were many kinds of people and Hermione was one who relied on proof and as I hadn't given her much her deduction was I was as good as any other Gryffindor. I decided then not to tell her, let her come to it on her own terms. For now I was just glad she'd leave Draco be, in front of me at least