One Day in
'Oh my god, why was I so rude' was all Hermione was thinking about all night 'I must have been embarrassed or nervous…he is pretty hot'. Between that and her usual nightmare, she didn't get much sleep. At one point she was sure she saw a shadow at her door but when she checked, there was no one there.
'Great, now I'm seeing things,' she sighed out loud, before heading back to bed.
She did not see Malfoy in the morning and was slightly dismayed. She wanted to apologise for the way she had acted towards him, after all, she couldn't let him be the bigger person. But she couldn't find him so she bathed, dressed and left her dorm for breakfast. She decided to sit with Dean and Neville for breakfast as Ginny had basically dumped her and was chatting to Seamus Finnigan. 'Harry's skin would crawl if he knew this was going on.' She thought. She joined in with Dean and Neville's recurring argument of Football vs Quidditch for a while until Neville repeatedly saying 'I don't get it,' annoyed her. Lessons would not start until tomorrow so Hermione went to one of her favourite places in Hogwarts, the library to do some studying. But as much as she tried, she couldn't get Draco off her mind.
Draco trawled around the potions classroom, where he had once sat with his mates, made fun of Harry Potter and his weasel mate, and Hermione as well. Where he had sat with Severus Snape, his old friend and mentor. It brought back good memories for Draco, but he only had his mind on one thing… Hermione. He couldn't get the muggle-born off his mind, what was wrong with him, he almost knocked on her door last night and would've if he hadn't heard her coming towards the door. He had heard her waiting for him in the morning but was too embarrassed to speak to her. She had made him realise how awful he had been in previous years, and he hated himself for it. I should apologise he thought but how can I apologise for all that hurt. He left the dungeons, grabbed his wand and whispered 'colloportus ,' and satisfyingly heard the door lock. He slipped his wand back in his pocket next to Slughorn's bottle of Firewhisky.
Hermione left the library and went back to her dorm. She muttered the password to the veela and sat down on the sofa, trying to think of how to apologise to Malfoy, when it occurred to her, why should she apologise? She was absolutely to stand up to him. She started thinking of the insults he had attacked her with and the way he had left them during the battle of Hogwarts. 'He's more of a coward than that damnable goblin Griphook' she thought.
It was late when Malfoy returned to the dorm, he walked in loudly expecting Hermione to be in bed.
'Firstly, not that I care but where have you been all day? Secondly, how dare you…' Hermione shouted from the sofa.
'Hermione wait,' Draco said gently and extremely quietly 'I know, I know I was horrible in the past and I know that simple words won't ever fix that. The battle of Hogwarts, when you saved me, I… I never thanked you, and I wish that I had.'
'Have you been drinking Malfoy?' She spat at him.
'Maybe, maybe I just want to talk…to youuu..' He waved his finger about an it rested on her, 'im going for a walk.'
He walked out of the dorm again and wandered to the astronomy tower. He noticed a presence behind him.
'Why did you follow me?' he whispered.
'I wanted to check you weren't going to throw yourself off ok,' Hermione said
'Over you? Don't flatter yourself Granger,' he replied 'this is the last place I saw Dumbledore you know, when I..I. I nearly killed him Hermione, the greatest headmaster of our time and I thought…'
'You thought what?' Hermione said angrily. She had missed Dumbledore massively.
'Never mind,' Draco said, seeing she was getting upset 'if you just came to check I'm not going to jump then you can go back to the dorm because I need some time alone, to reflect.'
'Fine, just come back soon Malfoy, wouldn't want you to get hurt or worse, expelled!'
As Hermione reached the common room she was sure she was having hallucinations, or did Draco Malfoy just apologise to her and then nearly open up to her? I wonder what Harry would make of all this… And with that she lay down in front of the fire and fell asleep.
It was nearly 2:00 am when Draco came back into the dorm and saw Hermione sleeping there. He lay a hand on her cheek and it was stone cold. By carefully placing a hand at her lower back he rolled her over, picked her up and carried her to her bedroom, lifted her covers and tucked her into bed. As h e walked out of her room, he was sure he heard a faint 'Thank you,' as he left. A small smile appeared on his face as he went to his own room and lay down… What a day he thought.
