The Similarities of Love and Hate

By Jinxd n Cursed

Disclaimer: If I owned it, would I be writing fanfiction?

Chapter Fifteen

Crossing the Line

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Draco Malfoy hesitated as he stood outside the headmaster's office. The gargoyle gave him a strange look.

"If you don't have the password, I can ask up if he wants me to let you in," the statue said.

"I don't have the password but please ask," he said, hesitatingly. Confronting Dumbledore, the all-knowing pseudo-God of Hogwarts was not something to be undertaken lightly. It was with a clenched stomach and a heavy heart that Draco stood outside his office, waiting to be let in.

Approximately fifteen seconds later, the gargoyle leaped out of the way, revealing the spiraling staircase. After looking at it uncertainly for a moment, he stepped onto it and allowed himself to be carried upward, to the office of Dumbledore. He knocked on the inner door.

"Come in, my child," Dumbledore said.

Draco at once felt like he was eleven years old again and was being punished for placing a frog in Parvati Patil's school bag. Being in the presence of Dumbledore, who was well over a hundred years old, had that effect on almost everyone, especially him. He opened the door and stepped into the office.

"Have a seat, my boy. Would you like a lemon drop?" Dumbledore questioned.

Draco shook his head and sat down in the seat across from the professor.

"What can I do for you? I presume that this is not a visit simply to say hello to a tired old man," he said.

"You know, of course," Draco said. There was no point in beating around the bush.

The old man nodded gravely. "Indeed, I do know. Rest assured, while I cannot condone your choice, you will still be allowed to remain in the school." He sighed.

"That's not it, sir," he replied. "Headmaster Dumbledore, I would like to become a spy for you among the ranks of the Deatheaters."

The elderly man looked up sharply. "Are you sure?"

He nodded firmly.

"Very well. Some arrangements will have to be made and I will have to question you under veritiserum. I'm sure you understand the reasoning," Dumbledore said.

"Whatever it takes sir. May we get started?" he asked determinedly.

"Yes, we shall."

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Draco returned to the head boy and girl's common room after dinner. He had been submitted to exhaustive tests to be absolutely sure of his loyalty. He'd passed with flying colors and with the promise of occulmency lessons from either Professor Snape or the headmaster, he would soon be allowed some of the secrets of the order. He was exhausted since the veritiserum was quite mentally taxing when administered in the dosage he had been given. Not really looking, he collapsed on the couch.

"Mmph!"

He looked over to see that the muffled grunt had come from Hermione Granger, who had apparently been let out of the Hospital Wing that day. Her eyes held a strange glazed over look, rimmed with red, and surrounded by her thick eyelashes stuck together in ugly, salt-laden clumps. Obviously, she had just been crying.

"Can't you watch where you're sitting Draco?" she grumbled. "You forget that this is my common room too."

"I didn't realize you'd be back from the Hospital Wing so soon," he told her.

"Well, if you ever bothered to visit your poor, sick friend, you would have known several days ago that I was to leave the Hospital Wing this afternoon, immediately preceding supper," she said.

"It's not like I could've visited like Potty and Weasel. Then everyone would have known that we're friends," he said.

"Is that such a horrible thing?" she asked. "That Draco Malfoy is sullying himself by speaking with his mudblood roommate? Besides, you know perfectly well that you could have visited in the middle of the night and no one would have known."

He felt guilt wash over him.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's okay," she whispered, not looking at him.

He sighed. "Why are you bloody crying?"

"I lost my child. Why do you think I'm crying?" she inquired in disbelief.

"It's not like you wanted it anyway. All it was going to do was mess up your life. I still can't believe you were going to keep it," he said.

She looked astonished. "I can't believe you. After everything I've tried to explain to you, the point still cannot penetrate that thick skull of yours. I love my child, Draco. I don't care how he came to exist. All I know is that after carrying him around inside me for five months, he's gone."

"But it would have ruined your life!" he exclaimed

"Stop calling him it!" she shouted. "He had a name! Alexander Harry Granger! And he wouldn't have ruined my life."

"How could he not have? You would never be able to take an apprenticeship or find a respectable husband," he pointed out.

"That doesn't matter," she said. "I would have had a son and we could've figured things out. I loved him. It doesn't matter how he came to be, just that he's gone."

"You realize that I'll never understand your reasoning, of course," Draco told her.

"I know," she replied. "I wouldn't expect you to understand."

She held her hand out to him and he took it uncertainly. Despite his cruel words, his lack of understanding about what she was suffering through, and all the pain he had caused her in the past, she reached out to him. It was unbelievable that after everything she'd been through—everything he had personally put her through—she could still reach her hand out to him and ask him to comfort her.

Tentatively, he placed his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him, her eyes dry but shining. Neither of them spoke a word, instead intent on their own reflections. Draco thought back to something she had once said.

"There is a fine line between love and hate. Love and Hate are the two most passionate human emotions and they always seem to blend into one another…"

As he looked down at her, he realized with a gulp that he had crossed the line from hating her to loving her.

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Weird, I know but blame the painkillers. I just had my wisdom teeth removed. Just so you all know, the outline to this story has been fully completed, pending minor revisions and "The Similarities of Love and Hate" will have a grand total of drum roll forty-seven chapters. Next chapter will be up when I finish writing it. I hope you all liked the chapter. And I shall recap my ever wonderful poem…

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I worked really hard
So please do review!