Alright, chapter two. This is actually pretty bad now I look back at it, but I would enjoy seeing what people have to say. I've had to go back and change POVs and all that. So, hopefully you like it, and maybe review?
It might be a while before the next chapter is up, and who knows about spelling. I'm pretty bad with checking grammar and spelling, it sort of slips by. But I'm trying my best.
Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, Queen Rowling does.
'Running out on him, how could she?' She thinks, 'He'll just think I'm weak now.' She hears him shout after her, but she ignores it. 'I'm not going back.' She thinks and leans against the wall in the corridor just around the corner of the Headmistress office.
"Hermione. Please." She hear his footsteps coming after her. It takes a while, but for some stupid reason he seems to care about her. She tries to control her sobs. Everything is getting to her now. 'I haven't spilled that much about the war, and everything that has happened to anyone. Ever.' She scolds herself. His footsteps come closer.
"Hermione?"
"Why are you calling me Hermione!" She chokes out. He comes around the corner tears on his face as well. "You never did!"
"I thought it might be a start to changing." He walks closer, carefully.
"Shut up,Malfoy." She snaps at him. "I don't care. Leave me alone."
"Five minutes ago, you were fine with me. Now you're yelling at me. Whats wrong?" He asks her, being all concerned and its dreadful. 'He's most certainly faking it.' She thinks.
"Nothing. Just leave me alone." She pushes off the wall and start walking away. He grabs her and pulls her back.
"Hermione. Please." He looks her right in the eye, holding my arms at my side.
"Let me go."
"So we're back on last name relationship? Alright then, Granger."
"I just never really opened up to anyone about, well anything." She starts, not even aware of exactly what she's saying. "Everything about the war and how Ron ditched me, my crush on Fred, how much it hurt me when he died, how much Bellatrix hurt me. Not just physically. It hurt me so much. So much, Draco." the tears wont stop now.
"Granger." Hermione looks at him through the tears in her eyes. He lets go of her, and automatically she leans against him, hoping for a welcoming, warm body and wraps her arms around him. He tenses a bit, but his arms slowly encircle her waist, and he rests his head on top of hers, which barely comes to his chin. "You've been through as much as I have, if not more. I know she hurt you. I could see it. And you still went on. On and on until you could stop. You didn't stop til you saved us all." He whispers. She tries to stop her tears, but she cries for a few moments.
"Draco, I'm sorry." She backs up, lifting her face out of his chest. "I don't need to break down in front of you." His arms drop, fingers brushing her hips as they leave her waist. "I'm just the buck-toothed, bushy haired, mudblood. I don't need you seeing this. I-I need to lea-" He pushes her against the wall.
"Hermione. Never do that. You aren't anymore. You've grown up." He says, his arms pinning her to the wall. "You've grown up. Your what, 18? 19? You aren't that little girl anymore. And please never call yourself a mudblood. No one is. Except me. I am."
"You're being polite Draco. Why?" she asks.
"I think you deserve it after these years and years of me being a bastard about everything."
"Don't call yourself names. Its bad for you." She tells him. She looks him into the eye. They're not the steely gray its been for 're soft.
"I called you names all the time. You didn't deserve them. I do." He tells me.
"No, Draco, no one does."
"Your trembling."She feels somewhat affected with the closeness of them.
"No I'm not." Hermione denies. "Stop changing the topic." A smirk appears on his face. The signature Malfoy smirk. But with the softness in his eyes, its different, he looks different with it now. Not as mean.
"You are." He teases. She feel my face get hotter. "Granger, you seem in the blushing mood today."
"Be quiet Malfoy." She mutters him. He raises one eyebrow 'I guess if I admit, he does look kinda hot. In a way...' She thinks.
"What you say Granger? You think I'm-"
"I said that out loud?" She blushs even more.
"Well I am flattered." He says, shifting his body so that she can see the tears still on his cheeks, all the single tears running down his face, the few stuck in his eyelashes. His body is even slightly pressed against hers.
"Why are you crying?" She asks, tension building.
"Why are you?" He counters. She looks off to the side, glancing down the hallway, quickly making sure no one is there. When she turns back to him, she's greeted by his lips. He presses them to hers , catching her off guard. He doesn't continue, sensing her confusion, and he breaks away. "Sorry. I shouldn't have done that." He starts to walk away, and in the state she's in, confused and longing for something, she grabs his collar and pulls him toward her, kissing him. He kisses her back, pushing her against the wall again.
"Mr. Malfoy! Miss Granger!" They break apart looking around frantically for the voice. McGonagall is walking quickly toward them.
"This will not be good." Draco says out of the corner of his mouth.
"At least we weren't interupted by first years." She says back, blushing.
" What are you doing here?"
"Well, we were in your office, but we thought here would be a better place to snog. Out in the middle of the corridor." He says, cocky. Hermione looks confused over at him. McGonagall gapes at him too. "Just kidding. We were talking about... things and then we got mad.. and it kinda escalated I guess." He shrugs.
"Mr. Malfoy. If you would, please go down to the Great Hall and join the feast. And you too Miss Granger. I have some things to complete." She walks off muttering about hormonal teenagers. Hermione starts to giggling uncontrollably.
"What was that all about Draco?" She asks as they hurry to the Great Hall.
"I can still be a smart ass, can't I?" He smiles down at her. She rolls her eyes.
"You always were. Was it to get over what your father did?" She asks, hesitantly.
"Can we have this discussion later? We can actually talk about everything and not skip around due to stress and everything." He suggests.
"Alright." She tells him, as they reach the Great Hall. They walk in and grab seats at the ends of our respective tables. At the moment Hermione don't see any other Gryffindors who returned, but does notice a number of Ravenclaws, and a few Hufflepuffs. Draco's back from Slytherin, and a couple others. Her plate is already full and a first year next to me asks,
"Is that boy your boyfriend?" She blushes.
"No. He isn't, hes Head Boy and we had to talk about our duties for the year." She looks kinda crestfallen.
"Oh. Your Hermione Granger, right?" Her mood picking right back up, digging into her food.
"Yeah, I am. Whats your name?" She asks her, taking a bite of bread.
"I'm Elizabeth. Elizabeth Michaels. Is Hogwarts really fun?" She asks Hermione.
"It's the best. You'll love it here. But it is hard work, don't forget to study. My friends Harry and Ron never studied, but they did pretty good, because I let them use my notes. A bit of advice to you, Elizabeth. Never get friends like them. Well actually do, you seem like a smart girl, and even if they were a bit lazy they are the best friends anyone could ask for." Hermione tells her, thinking back over the years of memories.
"Alright Hermione." The little girl says, stuffing her face with the wonderful food that Hogwarts has to offer.
Hours later, and many plates of food, the prefects start leading everyone from the hall down to their respective common room. Even though She is actually supposed to be helping, she let the prefects, still remembering when she was excited to be one.
"Tyto Alba." One of the prefects, a boy named Edward, says and the Fat Lady opens the portrait all clamber in with the first years looking excitedly around. Parvati comes up to me. She hadn't noticed her before.
"Where are we supposed to sleep?" She asks Hermione.
"How should I know?" McGonagall hadn't said anything.
"I guess we're crashing out here?" She asks, as Dean and Seamus join us, Neville too.
"Probably. Boys, you get that side, and me and Parvati get this side. Don't try anything." Neville blushes a bit.
"We won't." They head over to the other side of the common room. Everyone else younger than them straggle up to their dormitories. Hermione and Parvati settle down on a chair each.
"I'm not changing with them in here." Hermione laughs.
"Me neither." She says, curling up on her chair. She curls up too, pulling a blanket over herself, leaning her head against the arm of the chair. She closes my eyes, and drift off to sleep. But instead of good dreams, of happy things, all she dreams of is nightmares. Since all that happened, all she gets when she sleeps are nightmares. Tonight it's when Fred died. Nothing we could do about it.
"Hermione? Hermione?" She hears Parvati's voice come out of the battle. Hermione's eyes flutter open, a tear or two slipping out of her eyes. "You were screaming for Fred to pay attention." She brushes the tears away.
"I-Its fine, go back to sleep."
"Its also time to go have breakfast." She tells me, getting up.
"Alright." Hermione says, not trusting herself to say anymore unless she starts crying again. "You go ahead." She says quickly. She glances back at me and then walks out of the common room. She takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself. 'It's in the past. There is nothing you can do about it Hermione. Nothing. Calm down. You can't go into the Great Hall crying like a baby.' She evens out her breathing, a technique that she learned out with Ron and Harry hunting Hocruxes. Then she wipes away all the other tears and stand up, straightening my robes. 'Its going to look very weird,'she thinks 'but oh well. I don't even care anymore.'
Hermione makes her way out of the portrait hole, and as soon as she steps on the staircase, she notices Elizabeth running up the stairs to me with a note in her hand.
"Hermione! I have a note for you, its from Headmistress McGonagall." She looks proud to have been given this job.
"Thank you." Hermione says, reaching for it. She then opens it and sees that it is about her Head Girl duties. "Damn-don't say that- I have to miss breakfast."
"Oh, I was hoping you'd eat with me. I want to hear more about the w-"Hermione gives her a sharp look. "Sorry." She looks down, genuinely sorry.
"No, its okay. I guess I'll see you later." Hermione tells her, heading now toward the headmistresses office. "Lemon Drops." The gargoyles move out of the way and she stuffs the letter in my pocket heading up the stairs to the office.
Hermione enters the office , and sees that Draco already there, sitting in a chair by McGonagall's desk.
"Nice of you to join us, Miss Granger." McGonagall says, gesturing to the chair next to Draco. "Have a seat." She slowly walks over and sinks down into the chair.
"Why are we here?" Draco asks, after a minute or two of awkward silence.
"I have to ask the two of you to take on something. Well, you see we needed some new teaches, mainly beacause many of the people who would be able to teach are still recovering from... what has happened. We have Charlie Weasley teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. And I'm still teaching Transfiguration, even with my Headmistress duties. And even though you both are busy, you've both been proven to be extremely good at Potions, and we would be very appreciative if you two would take over that class, just for the year, and if we can find a teacher,you can drop it." She asks us.
"But Professor, what about our studies?" Hermione asks, immediatly.
"We thought about this, and your teachers can give you the assignments and you can complete then on your own time. We really need you to do this." She's desperate. Hermione hears it in her voice. She glances over at Draco, noticing faint, but still there,tear tracks on his cheeks.
"I will. What about you, Malfoy?" He looks over at Hermione, with that bit of a glint of anger in his eyes. He gives a slight double take as he notices the dried tears on her cheeks as well. McGonagall seems to distracted, or perhaps to polite, to have noticed either of ours.
"Yeah, sure." He agrees.
"Thank you. So much! First lesson is in an hour, with 2nd year students. Just try to follow what Proffessor Snape did." She tells us."Now go on." We stand up, and in the small area between the two chairs, he lets me go first. They walk out, down to the dungeon where Snape used to teach, in silence. When they reach it, Draco closes the door.
"Whats wrong, Draco?" Hermione asks, sitting down in her old seat. He sits down next to her.
"Nothing." He turns his face away from Hermione.
"Draco?" She asks quietly.
"It doesn't have a class to plan." He stands up and walks over to Snape's desk. I sigh and follow him over, thinking this might be a bad idea.