1Hanging By a Moment

Chapter Four – The Walls Will Tumble

"Those transfer students have started a revolution!"

At least, that's what was said in whispered voices about Hermione and Draco, those new Gryffindors who insisted on being friends with everyone despite of houses.

It was blasphemy, it was scandalous, it was….well, it just wasn't right. Everyone in Hogwarts knows that Gryffindors only got along with Hufflepuff and simply did not mix with Slytherins at any level, much less debate and study with them like Hermione was doing with Severus. It just was unheard of. And that Draco character, he was unlike any Malfoy anyone in the school had heard of. The older students knew of Lucius Malfoy, and they all agreed that they simply were not related.

It turned out that back in this time, house rivalry was actually worse than in Draco and Hermione's time. Not only did Gryffindor and Slytherin not get along, but Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff fought, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw bickered, and no one got along with Slytherin. The war in future years must have brought the other three houses together, but Hermione and Draco had their work cut out for them now.

Draco found it amusing that Hermione had taken it upon herself to befriend every single Slytherin, regardless of age.

She often scouted out the library, looking for students who looked a little dazed and confused in her second home. It turns out that if you come bearing good grades, the average student will take a liking to you better than if you just come with a friendly face. Hermione giggled to herself from time to time, thinking about how a kind word and a book often gets more out of someone than a kind word and a wand.

Of course not everyone was willing to accept the smart Gryffindor without a fight, but the problem with Hermione was that she fit in everywhere. It drove each and every house absolutely crazy. House rivalries were so high it was hard to make a friend in another house, and most students took a slight comfort in that, it was comfortable and familiar, but Hermione granger came along and decided to throw their whole world out of proportion.

Soon students throughout the castle were figuring out what Severus Snape had already learned…You couldn't help but like that Hermione girl.

She eased her way into the hearts of the Hufflepuffs with a bright smile and a positive attitude. Her attitude was contagious and motivated the hard working house to strive more, she talked to all of them and listened more and for once let the pushover house push her a little, but she always had the control. Deep down they knew she still had it, but they were grateful that she acted like she didn't want it, or didn't mind sharing it. It was all slightly confusing.

The Slytherin house really had an unfair reputation. Slytherins were fair in the ways that they were taught. You had to earn the right to everything you have and constantly keep proving to your peers that you still deserved everything you worked for in the first place. Hermione made her way into their tight circles by out maneuvering the other seventh year Slytherins and proving that she could be just as cunning as them, and even more so. The thing about Slytherins is that once they accept you as their own, they stay and protect their own through whatever comes at them. Loyalty until the end.

Ravenclaw was actually the hardest house to win over. Their natural brilliance and cleverness keeps them from trusting anyone, much like the Slytherins, but you not only have to be clever, you have to get better grades. After a lot of trial and error, Hermione finally flung her progress report in their faces. It was that easy.

Hermione had just finished helping a first year Slytherin with some basic potion-making techniques. The small boy's name was Doug Elliot, a future deatheater who helps to kill Hannah Abbot's grandparents and aunt. The boy didn't look much like a killer though; he had dirty blonde hair and big blue eyes. He actually reminded her of Neville- a little clumsy but meaning to do well. Before they were done Hermione made sure to introduce him to a shy Hufflepuff that she had recently met. Her name was Lizzy Abbot.

"Age isn't important," she had told him when Draco brought it up. "They are all older than us anyway, even the first years."

Not everyone supported these friendships that they were pursuing, however, and the people most vehemently opposed my surprise you.

"I don't see what you're getting at," James Potter said somewhat angrily. "Snivelius is a greasy haired git, and should be treated as such as all times. If you let him forget that he is anything but, he might start getting ideas."

Hermione looked and James and narrowed her eyes. "The only git I see now is you James, how can you ever expect to live a happy life when you carry grudges that are way beyond expired? I don't mean to preach, but honestly, enough is enough, these house rivalries are ridiculous."

James just stared at Hermione, mouth agape, and Lily came up behind him.

"I have to agree with her, James." She said gently. "I've been telling you for years, you need to stop being a bully and let the things in the past die, there's a reason the sun rises everyday, it means new beginnings."

"But all the things he's called you!" James said fiercely. "I can't forgive him for that."
"That's all he knows." Hermione said sadly. "Look at Draco, he used to treat me terribly, insults and name calling, he tormented me until very recently, and you like him, don't you? People change, you just have to accept that."

"How could you ask me to forget years of hatred for one another just because you told me to?" James demanded.

"There's a reason we have things called past and future." Hermione said with a bit of a twinkle in her eyes. "You really need to sort out which one goes where, and where to leave certain grudges. One day you might be very glad you made an unconventional friend. Think about it James, don't look towards the past unless you intend on heading in that direction"

Of course only Draco could appreciate the irony of Hermione's words, but it still made her feel good to be back to giving advice, being the know-it-all.

"Think about it," Hermione said. "There's no way we could ask you to become best friends with the bloke, but stop tormenting him would be a great way to start."

"Maybe if I knew why he was such a git I could forgive him…" James thought out loud. "I mean, if he had a good reason. But no one knows anything about Snape, he has just always been the greasy dark kid that didn't like anyone, and no one liked him. Life stays simple that way."

Hermione stood up. "Don't be lulled into a false sense of security. Life can seem simple at one time, but just wait; life never stays the same way for long. I'm going to go have a talk with him; he's fun to argue with."

Hermione left the Gryffindor common room to James just shaking his head. "She'll never get it." He said.

Draco grinned at him. "You'd be surprised at what exactly Hermione is capable of grasping."

Hermione had always thought of herself as a terrific listener. Whenever Ron and Harry had a problem their immediate response was to go to Hermione. When book smarts didn't cut it her instincts solved just about anything. People just naturally opened up to her, and Hermione had come to expect that.

So when Severus Snape didn't immediately start telling her his life story, she got a bit frustrated.

They were sitting in the library and had begun their discussion with a debate over the ethics of love potions. It turned out to be something that they both agreed on, and so they simply just argued other sides of the topic just for arguments sake.

Hermione had always been curious as to what had made her potions professor so dark and seemingly bitter at the world. She had always figured it was something about the first war with Voldemort that made something inside of Severus grow cold, but looking at him today Hermione could tell that it was something that started long before the young man joined the wrong side, and she wanted to find out what exactly it was.

"So where do you live when you're not at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked casually after ending the one-sided argument.

Severus looked up at her and shrugged. "In the family manor in Kent," he said. "Nothing spectacular."

"What about your family? Parents or whoever you live with?" Hermione asked, knowing she was starting to reach dangerous grounds.

"Not around much," Severus said. "Father has a lot of…business to deal with, and mother is usually either traveling or entertaining. I'm an only child, I spent most of my childhood reading. I preferred it that way, my father has a temper. Life around my home is usually of better quality when he is away."

Hermione was quiet for a moment. "He hit you?" she asked.

Severus's eyes snapped up to meet her gaze, hard at first before softening. "Sometimes he did."

Hermione finally felt as if all the torment Snape had given her in the past (future?) was justified. Not that she really thought it was right to take out anger on innocent people, or students, but it made her feel like she could finally see a part of this man that had alluded her for years.

Hermione didn't say anything after that, she didn't need to. When Severus broke his gaze with her she took his cold hand unto her warm one and held it. Sometimes words just can't justify an emotion.

"The walls are tumbling," Hermione said to Draco as they sat next to one another on their couch, it had become custom for them to stay up much later than the rest of the Gryffindors. Often they talked long into the night under a huge lion-embroidered blanket. Sometimes they sipped hot chocolate, sometimes coffee, and sometimes they drank nothing at all, simply gazing into the fire and lost in their own minds.

"What?" Draco asked. "What walls?"

"It's an expression." Hermione said with a smile. "I'm getting through to people. People are actually listening to me; purebloods are actually listening to me."

Draco smiled and looked at her. "Of course people are listening to you; you don't shut up until you have their full attention and support."

"Oh shut up," Hermione said with a laugh. "You reach people by scaring the wits out of them, at least I'm civil."

"Hey, whatever gets the job done," Draco said defensively. "There's nothing wrong with striking fear into the hearts of some future deatheaters while they're still young and impressionable."

"This is such a strange conversation," Hermione said. "This whole reality is strange."

"Well what did you expect?" Draco said with a bit of a smirk.

"I really didn't think it through," Hermione admitted. "I was locked up so long…you have all the time in the world to think when you're locked up and alone, I was alone so long I really didn't care what happened to me, I just wanted to do something, anything."

Draco lapsed into a guilty quiet. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Hermione nodded her head and edged closer to him. "You've already apologized to me a million times over…actions speak louder than words, remember?"

"I can never make up for everything I did, Hermione," Draco said in a tired voice. "You were lucky, actually, being locked up and kept away from everything…you didn't have to see everything I did, everything I saw and did myself. I would give anything to erase those memories from my mind, the sight of people dying and crying and in pain; there was so much pain, Hermione."

Hermione grabbed Draco's hand, "We'll get through this, and we'll change the world, we'll make it better. Maybe after that you can forget about the past, you'll be able to give the memories up."

Draco jerked a little with the sudden contact of skin on skin, and only relaxed slightly. He felt as though the air shifted somehow, making him feel slightly dizzy and reckless, almost like there were veela around. But there were no veela, only Hermione.

Hermione.

She was looking at him oddly now, as if just now catching a good look at him. She noticed the scar right above his eyebrow. His eyes were a grey-blue, almost unnatural actually. She shivered, whether from a draft or from something completely different it was hard to say.

And then they were kissing.

It was as quick and as sudden as she grabbed his hand and that moment flashed through both of their minds like lightning. Every contact they ever made seared through them. Robes on robes brushing in the hallways of Hogwarts, a sharp slap across the face at Buckbeak's beheading, him pushing Hermione into her cell and locking her up for a year, crying after said year was done, both hearts breaking and trying to mend back together. Perhaps they used bits of each others hearts, it was hard to say.

But there they were, kissing, and it fit, their broken hearts fit together like the final missing pieces to something much bigger than the two of them. The answer to the biggest tragedy in wizard history also happened to be the biggest cliché in any history…

They could kill the war before it started with love.

(A/N) Coooorrrnnnyyyyy  haha. I'm back from the honeymoon! We went to Mexico and words cannot describe how amazing it was. I have a little angst lined up for some upcoming chapters, I hope I can do them justice when I'm in such a great mood! Thanks for reading, and as always, I do adore feedback!