Love Takes Courage: Dramione

Chapter 4: New Game

Draco's POV

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The tough guy, hater act was getting harder and harder to pull off. Not just for Hermione, although it was much, much harder with her. I felt more stressed, strained, pulled tight than I had ever felt in my life. I admit, it scared me a little. Partially because I had no idea how to deal with stress, and also because I know that sometime I would have to snap.

Turns out my friends triggered that first snap. Or should I refer to them as "friends"? Whatever, it doesn't matter. Maybe the snap was for of a fray in the rope. I was lounging on the couch in the common room, my usual place, and my friends were gathered around me. Pansy kept trying to stroke my hair, but every time she tried I gave her a death glare. Meanwhile my friends were gossiping.

"Did you see that Mudblood in Hufflepuff?" Crabbe sneered.

"Please!" Pansy shrieked, which hurt my ears, "She acts like she's the best, but not only is she in Hufflepuff and a Mudblood,but she's hideous! I swear I've never seen anyone so ugly!"

Soon all I heard were insults. "Mudblood." "Blood-traitor." And the insults blurred into a horrible buzzing of mounting anger.

Each moment I got more and more uncomfortable. But I could have stood it, I really could have, if Goyle hadn't said one thing that grated on my nerves worse than everything else combined.

"You know who could give that Hufflepuff a run for her money in the ugly contest?" Granted, it was a little belated, but it probably took him that long to think of a half-way witty remark. I nonchalantly pretended to ignore him. "Granger." I saw red.

As everyone else was laughing, I stood up and screamed, "SHUT UP!" Everyone turned and stared at me.

Shit.

I had to find a way to explain my outburst. So I regained a marginal amount of control, and yelled, "All of you just never shut up! Maybe if you spent a little less time dishing out dirt on people and a little more time studying, half of you wouldn't be on the verge of being expelled! Now if you'll excuse me, I don't think I could stand your prattling for one more second!"

Everyone remained speechless as I turned with a dramatic swirl of my robes and stomped out of the room. As I was almost out of earshot, I heard someone say, "What's wrong with him?"

I walked into my room and vented my frustrations by kicking my dresser. It didn't help much, it just made my foot sore. I flopped down onto my bed on my stomach. I felt a sudden urge to break out crying. But I suppressed it. The last thing I needed was for someone to follow me in and see me crying. Malfoys didn't cry. But then I realized something. It must seem pretty dense of me not to realize it before but that's life. I realized that, whether my friends knew it or not, I had broken all of the rules. This was a new game, and I had no idea how to play.

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A/N: hey everybody, i know it's been forever, and i'm so sorry! hopefully you didn't all give up on me and forget about this story :) so anyway, reviewing is good, and it might give me ideas for later! if you have any ideas, definitely tell me and i will consider them.

anyway, hope i can get another one up soon, sorry for the wait, and peace! :)