Last Chapter –
"How dare you…"
"Oh come on, tell me you didn't like that." He mocked, arrogance gleaming in his eyes.
That was the last straw for Hermione. There was only one thing that she told herself to do. SLAP.
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Chapter 2 – Draco's Found Heartbreak
The moment Hermione's hand was back at her side, she instantly regretted what she had done. She had slapped an arrogant, rich, important male who probably had a bad temper. She watched his hand automatically touch the exact spot she had just hit, and his eyes narrow. A flash of darkness and anger flickered in his eyes, before it was instantly put out. A gaze of slightly coolish conceit was now placed on his face.
From that moment, Hermione managed to gather that this person standing in front of her, did not hit women, and would probably never hit women. No matter what they did, nothing would be able to make him physically touch a woman in rage.
"I'm sorry. That was wrong for me to do." She managed to gasp out, indeed feeling it, but still silently fuming with anger. "I lost control…"
"No, it's fine. I shouldn't have done what I did." He said, "But you're right. It was wrong, and you shall pay. How, I don't know, but you will pay." And with that, he walked off, his robes swishing behind him. His own presence showed what a powerful figure he was in society, and because of that, Hermione loathed him already.
"Stupid arrogant males." She muttered under her breath. "Out of all the eligible bachelors in the country, my parents just had to pick him didn't they?" Sarcasm was heavy lidded in her words, and a maid heard her
"Miss, sorry to intrude, but you don't like Mr Malfoy?" The maid was called Madeline, and she was around Hermione's age, and was a servant around the house, mostly to do with laundry and keeping the beautiful mansion spotless.
"No, I don't. And its fine, you're not intruding at all." Hermione said kindly. If there was one thing that was different about her to other rich girls, she wasn't snobbish. She would often wrongly think she was correct when she wasn't, and thought her opinion was worth more, but apart from that, she never treated anyone else different. In her eyes, she was as equal as the servants. She just lived in a more luxurious home.
"May I ask why?"
"He's everything I don't want in a man." Hermione sighed. "When I was a little girl, I used to have dreams about meeting my soul mate, and here I am now, ready to be engaged to this … pig." That was the only word she could think of, that wouldn't make her sound improper.
"Maybe you should get to know him better." Madeline offered quietly. "You never know, he may well indeed be your soul mate."
"That I highly doubt." Hermione laughed, "But I will give him some time to show me he is a respectful gentleman."
"I shall get back to the washing." And after a polite curtsey, Madeline silently disappeared around the corridor leaving Hermione in her thoughts.
Should I give him a chance?
No! He's an arrogant man Hermione, you could do so much better.
But maybe there's more underneath. Maybe he's just hard to get to know.
That's a lot of maybes.
Why am I even having this conversation?
Because I'm your conscience, and what I say is important.
You're an arrogant conscience.
No I'm not! I just believe you shouldn't care about this person. You should ask you're parents to cancel.
I can't possibly do that. It'll make an uproar in the whole country. The Granger girl not marrying the Malfoy boy.
Who cares what the country thinks? It's what you think that's important.
That's a very good point.
Hermione decided that she should get the advice of her best friend, Amanda. She straight away went in search of her mother.
Walking along the corridor, she bumped into Lucius.
"Miss Granger." He greeted, nodding his head.
"Hello Mr Malfoy."
"No, please call me Lucius." He said kindly, "So, are you excited about your wedding?"
"Yes, very much so." She replied without a moment's thought, though disagreeing entirely. "Draco seems like a nice person."
"He is a very good person." Lucius agreed. "However nice is not a word to describe my son. You see Miss Granger, he is very hard to get to know. A long time ago, a young girl broke his heart, and from that day on he has never, ever trusted again. He flies from one girl to the next, never settling down, and never getting close. I do hope that you may be the one to crack his shell."
Hermione was instantly taken aback. Someone had hurt Malfoy? No way! He is the one that breaks everyone elses' heart.
"I see from the look on you're face that you clearly weren't aware of that. But I must warn you, never bring it up, or he will shut down and never have a proper conversation with you again."
"Really? So he's sort of…sensitive?" Hermione asked, her lips pursed in thinking.
"No! Absolutely not. My son? Sensitive? No, he's far from that. He's just, different. I'm sure after you get married, you will fall in love, and bear me a lot of grandchildren." And with a rare twinkle in his eye, Lucius Malfoy walked off.
Once again, Hermione was speechless. First off, Draco's heartbroken. Now Mr Malfoy has a twinkle in his eye? Yes, he was a nice man, just never known to be happy like that. Maybe he just loved his family a lot.
Walking into the kitchen she saw her mother drinking a glass of brandy.
"Mother! It's not even noon yet." Hermione reproved, taking the glass from her mother and pouring it down the sink.
"I'm so honey, I'm just a little stressed." Victoria sighed, brushing a strand of stray hair out of her face.
"Aren't we all." Hermione muttered. Having a closer inspection in her mothers face, she instantly gave her a glare. "Have you not been sleeping again? You look quite pale."
"No I'm fine." Victoria said, disregarding the comment. "Now, did you come to ask me something darling?"
"Yes, I was wondering if I could ask Amanda to come over."
"Your betrothed is here, I don't think your father would approve." Victoria reproved, "Do you think it's necessary?"
"Yes, I need to talk to her about Ma – Draco." Hermione said, fixing up the slight error.
"Okay then, if it is entirely necessary." Her mother sighed, "She can also sleep over if she wishes."
"Thank you Mum!" Hermione squealed, forgetting her proper manners for a second.
"It's alright." Mrs Granger smiled, remembering her youth.
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Ding Dong
"It's Amanda," Hermione called from the top of the stairs, "I'll get it."
Too late. Draco had answered the door. From where Hermione was she saw her best friend eye him up and down, and then shoot a look at herself.
"Amanda!" she exclaimed, "It's so good to see you. I haven't seen you in weeks."
"I know!" her best friend exclaimed back. Amanda was the child of Adam and Marie Freyer. They weren't exactly the richest family, as important as Hermione's but they were still respected. Amanda had dark blonde hair, with dark blue eyes to match. When she was angry, they would turn a deep black, and the person on the receiving end would get quiet a shock. With Hermione, they often chatted about the latest fashion, boys and places to meet. The best of friends since primary school, they weren't normally far apart from each other.
Lately however, with the betrothal being organised, Hermione hadn't breathed a word or told her best friend anything. They'd been too busy organising wedding arrangements. At the thought of wedding arrangements, Hermione grimaced inside. Just the thought of walking down the isle to see this blonde man at the end made her shiver to her toes. No Hermione you mustn't think that! He's a good person, you just know him yet. She chastised herself.
Hermione went down to greet her friend, and Amanda gave her a sly glance as if to say 'who is that?' Hermione ushered her best friend back to her room, but not before giving her father a peck on the cheek, and Lucius and Draco Malfoy a polite curtsey.
Not a second or more after Amanda placed her bag on Hermione's bedroom floor, did she burst with questions.
"Who is that hottie in your lounge room?" she asked excitedly, "Is it just wishful thinking, or does he look very similar to Draco Malfoy?"
"It's Draco Malfoy." Hermione muttered, after giving her friend a hug.
Amanda squealed with thrill. "And he's in your house because…?"
"We're engaged," Hermione mumbled, "Can we please not talk about this?"
Amanda ignored her comment. "ENGAGED TO DRACO MALFOY!" she practically screamed, before quickly lowering her voice, "You are the most luckiest girl ever!"
"You've got to be kidding me?" Hermione gasped, "Me lucky to be engaged to him?"
"Yes! Have you seen his face?" Amanda exclaimed, "It's like the face of a god."
Hermione instantly erupted into peals of laughter. "A face of a god." She choked out. "Are you for real?"
"Yes I am." Amanda exclaimed, "Here, take a look at this, and tell me he's ugly."
Amanda pulled out a normal mirror from her bag, and tapping her wand to it with a simple spell, Hermione and her could see everything that was happening downstairs.
Lucius and Richard were talking, about business no doubt, and Draco was in the room, walking around, inspecting every little thing. From all the photos of Hermione, through her ages, to the paintings, and small ornaments around the room.
The mirror zoomed in on Draco's face. You could see his pale blonde hair, and pale eyes to match. His blonde hair hung in his face, irritating him as he kept pushing it behind his ears away from his eyes. His nose was slightly long, and his mouth was full with pinkish tinges adding to his face to insert a bit of colour.
His face did show handsome features. The way he looked, to the way he walked, to the way he carried himself brought over a feeling of importance, and to girls, lust. His eyes glimmered as he looked at a particular photo of Hermione, when she graduated, and from that little glimmer, life was shown through his eyes.
"Can't you see how gorgeous he is!" Amanda said, giving Hermione a look. "Wouldn't you say so?"
"No," Hermione said, not believing the word she just uttered. It was true, Draco Malfoy was indeed very good looking, but Hermione had never noticed it before. His features had never clicked in her eyes, she was too busy paying attention to his arrogance, but seeing his face now, brought a slight twinge to her heart. He was very good looking! "He looks like a pig." She added, not very confidently.
"Hey!" tutted Amanda, "That's not a very nice statement to say about your groom to be!"
Hermione groaned and covered her ears. "Do not say that around me if you are referring to the obnoxious male downstairs."
"Obnoxious? Really?" Amanda asked, putting the mirror away. "Hmm, I like an arrogant man."
Hermione gave her a shocked look. "You are seriously weird Freyer."
"No I'm not. It's just that if a man is arrogant, and you prove him wrong, it only makes the triumph all the more better."
"That's a good point." Hermione said thoughtfully, "But I'd rather not marry him."
Draco entered the door at that moment. His face was a little pale, but he managed to say the words.
"It's time for dinner."
Hermione instantly froze. Oh god, she thought, did he hear me say I didn't want to marry him?
"I'll be done there in a second." Amanda said automatically, excusing herself, but making sure to give Hermione a reassuring look.
Draco and Hermione stood there in an uncomfortable silence.
"We should -"
"I'm really -" They started at the same time before stopping and the silence resumed again.
"I didn't really mean what I said," Hermione said softly, "It just came out."
"What came out?" Draco asked ignorantly, deciding to not want to talk about the subject.
Hermione picked up on that and muttered a quiet nothing.
"I know you don't want to marry me." Draco said suddenly, "But I'm afraid I can't do anything about that. I hope in time you'll get to know me better and will want to."
Hermione chose to remain silent.
Draco changed his tone from calm and kind to detached and angry. "I don't understand why you wouldn't want to marry me. There are so many girls out there who would physically kill to be in your position, and here you are pouring your heart out to your friend on how you'd despise marrying me."
"If you really want to know why I don't want to marry you, then you need to take a good look at yourself in the mirror." Hermione bit back angrily. "You think you're so eligible, you think you're so rich, you think you're so good! Well look again mister, I don't think so. Money doesn't mean anything."
And with that, Hermione stormed off, slamming the door behind her, and heard her father make an alarmed cry of "What was that?"
Draco stood still in her bedroom. Money didn't mean anything? He repeated to himself. What kind of idiot of a girl would say that? At least if they didn't have love, they'd have anything else they could buy. He knew she didn't want to go into the marriage, heck he didn't even want to. But it wasn't for love, it was for money, power and allegiance.
"Love," he spat, "Who would have thought such a stupid thing existed." His eyes burning with pain, fury and remembrance, he too slammed the door shut on his way out, going downstairs for dinner.
Wow! Thanks SO much to all my reviewers. I'm actually surprised I got a few reviews for my first chapter. Hope you liked this second chapter, I think it's pretty poor, but make sure you review and tell me what you think!