A/N: I hope you like this chapter. I have been receiving great encouragement from a person called hilda gatita. She has been PMing me and reviewing so much, it just encourages me to write further. Thank you, hilda gatita! I know you have been waiting for this chapter for a long time, so here you go!

Chapter 2

I got my wish. All of the other trials passed quickly. There were only three other people who got out of Azkaban. After the trial, we filed out of the room and went outside.

It was about seventy degrees. I was amazed. The sun was out, it wasn't raining and it was warm in the beginning of April. I took off my light over sweater and said goodbye to everybody. I was going to take a walk around London while the weather lasted. I started around the block of the Ministry, which was fixed of all the dark objects and any parts that may have been damaged during the war. It was peaceful now, and most things were back to normal. I had heard even Hogwarts was back to normal. They had rebuilt it, and it looked brand new. Or, at least, as it had looked before the war. Everybody had agreed to keeping is as it was before.

The one difference was that now, a few yards into the Forbidden Forest, behind the castle, there was a graveyard that held all good people who died at Hogwarts during the war, including Fred, Tonks, and Remus. We held a funeral there for everybody and there were lots of tears, hugs, and reassurance. That was the last time I was at Hogwarts. Honestly, the place still gave me the chills. I remember where Fred died. I remember where Lavender got attacked by Greyback. Every time I stepped into the Great Hall, the image of all of the wounded and dead laying there flashed into my head. I couldn't stand it.

I walked around the square, trying to shake the thoughts that clouded my mind. All of a sudden, I bumped into somebody and landed flat on my bum and accepted the hand that appeared, helping me up. "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry-" I trailed off as I met the victim's eye.

"You know Granger, you really should watch where you are going."

I rolled my eyes and huffed. "Bugger off, Malfoy. I was enjoying my walk until you showed up." I kept walking.

"You are the one who bumped into me. If you had watched where you were going, I wouldn't be here to annoy you."

I kept walking and ignored the big bother at my side. Even as I quickened my pace, Malfoy's long legs kept up with my shorter ones easily.

"Granger, by the way, thank you, for what, uh, you did back, um, in the Ministry. I really appreciate it, um, as does my, uh, mother."

He seemed really uncomfortable saying this, and he avoided my eyes as I halted my walk and turned on my heel to gape at him.

"Wow. I never would have reckoned Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, mind you, would have ever said please and thank you to someone in the same day. No less, a Mudblood." I heard a sharp intake of breath at the word 'Mudblood'. I raised my eyebrows at him. "What? That is what you called me for about six years. Why change now?"

"Listen, Granger, I am sorry for what I said in school. You aren't a Mudblood." He winced as he said the word. "Blood doesn't matter to me anymore. It never did. That was my father. He was an influence to me and I looked up to him as if he was perfect. I was wrong, I see that now. You're not a Mudblood." We had started to walk again, only for me to stop in an alley.

"I am a Mudblood, and don't you try to say I am not! Look. It's right here," I yanked up my sleeve, showing him the word his crazy aunt engraved on my arm. "I am a Mudblood, and proud of it! It is who I am, and why should I be ashamed of it? So damn you and your attempted reassurance!" I was out of breath by the end of my rant. I started walking again and I didn't hear him walk after me.

A hand grabbed my wrist and turned me to face the body the hand was attached to. "Granger, that was my aunt who did that, not a normal person. She was crazed and she wrote that word on your arm because of it. That is a dirty word, and it should be banished to the ends of the Earth. You may be proud of your blood status, and that is okay, but you are not a Mudblood. You are a Muggleborn. Nothing else."

"What is the difference, Malfoy? It's the same thing, just a different word. Okay? Now please, leave me alone. It seems as if you changed for the better, and that is great, but for once, just listen to me."

I walked away, feeling irritated. I wanted to have a nice, peaceful walk, and Malfoy gave me anything but. I shook my head and grumbled to myself about what a ferret Malfoy was.

I was almost to my house in Wizard London when I heard a scuffle from behind me. I whirled around, pulling out my wand in case it was something or someone who would try to hurt me. Instead, I was met with an amusing sight.

Malfoy was laying on the ground with his foot tangled in a raised tree root. He was trying to pull it free, and his face was covered in dirt. He was not facing me nor was he turned away from me. He had a disgruntled look on his face and his cheeks were pink.

I started laughing. I couldn't help it. He turned his face to scowl at me, but I realized he had a pink tinge to his cheeks. I continued laughing while he gave up and laid on his back.

I walked over to him and lifted the root up, still chuckling under my breath. He seemed to understand and he pulled his foot out of the root. Malfoy stood up and dusted himself off. But he was still covered in dirt, considering we were walking on a dirt road.

I took pity upon him and grabbed his wrist. Within a second, we were in front of my house, only about another five minute walk from where Malfoy got hurt. I brought him inside and told him to sit on the couch.

I sat down in front of him and pulled out my wand. I looked up at Malfoy, just to find his face contorted in pain. I cast a quick numbing spell on his foot and summoned my supplies from the kitchen.

"Okay, I am going to take this numbing spell off of your foot. It will hurt but I will cast another numbing spell after I'm finished treating it."

He merely nodded. When I removed the spell, he gasped and narrowed his eyes in pain. I raised my eyebrows. This injury must have hurt more than I suspected. I looked at the cut and saw it wasn't too deep, so I grabbed an alcohol swab and gently wiped the cut. I then took the bandage and wrapped it around his foot. I put the numbing spell back on and sat back.

Now Malfoy was looking at his foot. "Does that feel better?"

"Yes. Thank you. Are you planning on becoming a healer?"

"I am not sure. I'm taking it into consideration. Would you like a drink?" I asked, walking towards the kitchen.

"Um, sure. Water."

I poked my head out of the kitchen and gave him a glare. "Please?" His voice was a squeak, forming it more as a question rather than a statement.

"Thank you." I got his water and some lemonade for myself and came back into the living room.

He nodded his thanks as he took the cup. "This is a nice house. And clean. Doesn't Weasle live here?"

As soon as Malfoy said his name, I had a flashback.

I was walking around the block of the store I was just at, getting ready to apparate home after a long day. I first went to Harry and Ginny's house to say hello and wish Harry good luck with the proposal. He was planning on proposing to Ginny soon, and the only people who knew were Mr and Mrs. Weasley, me and Ron. Then I went to have lunch at a small cafe near Harry and Ginny 's house. After that, I went shopping for a few dresses and skirts.

I was heading home when I ran into Neville and Luna on my way out of the store. I talked to them for a while, as I haven't seen them for a few months. I went outside to apparate home after about twenty minutes of talking to my dear old friends.

When I walked in the house, Ron was pacing back and forth across the living room floor. We just moved in with each other two months back. I was excited to move in.

Ron looked up and saw me. I smiled. "Hello, Ron. How was your day?"

"Hermione, we need to talk," he said, ignoring my question and pulling me down onto the couch. "I think... I think we should break up."

I could've sworn time stopped at that moment, along with my heart and breath. I stared at Ron, not yet fully dissolving the meaning of the words. I loved Ron. I really did. I thought we would get married, have kids, settle down. But all of my hopes of these shattered as soon as he said those words. "Wh-why d-do you wan-want to break up?" I asked, stuttering and voice breaking.

"I just don't love you. Well, I do, but as a sister. I don't think we belong together. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I understand." I tried to keep my voice even, but my voice broke on the last two words.

I was trying my hardest to be strong, to hold back the tears that threatened to fall at any moment. But no. I would save those for later, for tonight, when the moonlit night sky full of stars would find me in my bed, Ronald long gone, crying my eyes sore and puffed. I knew that it was a promise to keep that I would wonder where I went wrong, what I did. It was guaranteed that I would never be one of those people who tried to forget the person they so harshly had their heart broken by. No, I would remember every moment I had with Ron, good and bad, and do my best to savour the old feeling that has now disappeared.

I was thinking all of this as Ron walked out of the door without a glance back in my direction. I stood at the door and watched him go, forever leave the bushy haired bookworm on the doorstep in the pouring rain, a rain that had started only moments ago as a drizzle, but picked up almost as soon as Ron stepped outside.

For a good two weeks after that, I shut myself out. Harry and Ginny did their best to comfort me. But what good of comfort could a successfully proposed, engaged couple do for me, despite the fact they were my closest friends. They sure tried, as hard as they could. And I was thankful for that. But it didn't change the fact I cried myself to sleep every night of those fourteen, long, tiring nights. It didn't change the fact that I didn't leave the house unless it was to go to work or go grocery shopping. It didn't change the fact that the person I thought was my partner in exchanging love left me.

Malfoy looked at me carefully. "Granger? What are you staring at?"

I snapped back to the present, refocusing my eyes on his. "Nothing important. Sorry. I was just... thinking."

"You were thinking for a long time. Not that I am surprised. But anyway, please answer my question."

"Um, Ronald doesn't live here anymore. He and I- we aren't together anymore. We broke up a few months back."

"Well then why are you so broken up about it? He broke up with you, right? That means he lost you. An annoying, red-headed pig is all alone now. Because he made a stupid decision and now, he doesn't have the pretty, smart, but undoubtedly know-it-all bookworm in his life anymore, and he will just have to deal with it. You shouldn't be sad, or mad, or whatever feeling you have about him leaving you, over him."

I met his eyes with mine topped with raised eyebrows. "Thank you? Because I am seriously considering that as a willingly given compliment from Pureblood Draco Malfoy to Mudblood Hermione Granger."

"Don't say that word," he hissed.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Did you forget all I said on the walk here? How I am proud of my blood status, no matter what anybody says or thinks about, no matter if it is the lowest you can get to dirt."

"We are not having this conversation again, Granger."

"You can't tell me what to do in my own house, Malfoy. I can do whatever the bloody hell I want! And I am not letting this ago until you say that I am right, that blood status doesn't matte-"

"Ok, it doesn't matter! I told you that! But I don't like that bloody use of the -"

"Of the word, Malfoy. It is just a word. Sure, a dirty word, but we use the word Hell, don't we? We use the words damn, an- and dammit, a- and crap, don't we? Those are all dirty words, yet we still use them! This is just another word, a pointless, absurb word that helps high up Purebloods describe us, the dirt, the Muggle made, the Mudbloods." I finished my rant, glaring strait into the blue-gray eyes, having the conversation that I least expected to have it with. And if I ever did have this conversation with him, we would be taking opposite sides.

He just shook his head and looked down at the floor. He refused to look at me, even after we stood in complete and utter silence for nearly five whole minutes.

Finally, Malfoy stood up. I did the same and at him with narrowed eyes. "Malfoy, please just accept the fact that I am who I am, and I am proud of my blood status. That is just who I am. People think that you guys insult me when Purebloods call me a Mudblood. But you don't. Ever since we escaped the Manor, from your aunt, I realized that I don't really care what you guys call me. Because if you call me a Mudblood, great. If you call me a Muggleborn, great. I really don't care. Because they are the same thing, just different words."

"Ok. I get it now. You were right, and I was wrong."

"Ah, I love it when you say that. I don't think I would ever tire from hearing it," I said as I smiled.

He rolled his eyes. "Well, don't get used to it, Granger. Because that is probably the only time I am ever going to say it." He was walking toward the door as he said it, a small smile on his face. "Oh, and Granger? Thanks. For everything." And then he disappeared.

I smiles even wider and laughed. Oh, what am I going to do? I was smiling after being with Malfoy. I seriously need help.

A/N: Hello, peoples! Well, I hope you liked this chapter, and I am sorry it took me so long to update. I was more focused on my other story, Zabinis, because it is a lot more popular than this one so... Anyway, don't kill me if I don't update soon. I will be working on Zabinis, most of the time. And no, hilda-gatita, this is not as long as the other one. This one is only about 2,750 words long. Sorry! I just ran out of things to put in this chapter. But please, stick around to find out what happens next!