A/N: Thanks for sticking with this story, thank you to all who've left a comment so far :) Just a wee warning for this chapter - there's a fair amount of Ginny bashing... not directly intentional, it was just the way it came out...
It had been over a week since Hermione had rescued Draco from the sodden grounds and brought him to the Room of Requirement, and although Draco had not approached her directly, she sensed that there was an ease about him now. He never spoke to her, especially not in front of people in classes, but once or twice she caught his eyes and saw almost a smile curling the corners of his mouth. A beam of understanding had been forged between the two of them; and for the time being, that made Hermione feel relieved. At least she was doing what she had been asked to; but more than that – it wasn't an obligation.
Draco did seem to have changed since before the War, maybe that should have been expected – but very few other people were getting to see that other side because of their prejudices. More and more, Hermione found herself picking up Ginny whenever she made a comment against Draco or the Slytherins; it was clear after the first time that she corrected Ginny that Ginny wasn't even aware of what she was doing. Hermione remembered back to when she started S.P.E.W. to promote elfish rights, and Ron had kept making snide little comments which did nothing but reinforce the stereotypes that elves were below wizards. It had taken him three years to even begin to comprehend that this view – the view that he had been brought up with – was wrong. It was downright depressing to think that it might take just as long, if not longer, to make that sort of difference in Hogwarts…
"Um, Hermione?" Draco's voice interrupted the conversation that Hermione had been having with Ginny as they left the potions classroom on Wednesday afternoon.
"Oh, hi Draco." Hermione replied, noticing that Ginny had fallen suspiciously silent and was glaring at Draco. "Go on Ginny, I'll meet you at dinner." Hermione told her, knowing instantly that Draco wouldn't be able to talk at any great depth without Ginny judging him; Ginny flicked her hair over her shoulder and proceeded up the stairs to the entrance hall on her own. "Are you okay?" She asked him, once Ginny was outside of their earshot.
"Yeah," Draco answered, his eyes following Ginny's course up the steps. "I'm not interrupting something important, am I?" He asked, sounding concerned.
"No, you're not." She placated.
"I was just… I thought that maybe we should have a meeting about what's going on with the prefects?" He suggested; Hermione could feel her face breaking out into a smile.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea!" She nodded, "There's quite a lot of planning for the first events."
"Great," Draco said. "When would you be free?"
"How about Saturday afternoon?" She asked, Draco nodded. "After lunch?"
"Yeah, that sounds good." He agreed. "Thank you." By the time they had agreed this meeting the two of them had reached the entrance hall; almost instantly, Hermione witnessed Draco's face glazing over as they came near to other students. "Right, well – I'll see you then." He was suddenly distant, and Hermione wanted to say something to reassure him, but he had turned away so quickly that she hadn't been able to.
Ginny was sat at the dining table next to Neville, she pointed looked away and scowled while Hermione sat down next to Luna. Neville greeted Hermione with a nod as his mouth was full of food; there was a silence as Hermione pulled a dish of chicken casserole towards her and began to load some onto her plate.
"I don't know why you bother with him!" Ginny broke the silence, speaking sharply; Hermione sighed, she had expected something of the sort but hadn't looked forwards to another argument over Draco.
"Because he's no different from us," Hermione spoke lowly, not wanting to draw the attention of the students around them. "And he's Head Boy, so I have to work with him."
"But he is different from us!" Ginny exclaimed, slamming her fork down onto the table.
"I'm not having this conversation here." Hermione muttered and turned her attention back to her plate of food; there was only a second's pause before Ginny stood up from the table and stalked away, leaving her unfinished plate. Hermione played with her food – it was annoying, she didn't feel like she should be guilty about talking to Draco… she didn't want to feel guilty! After all, she had realised, after their conversation the Saturday before, that she really didn't hold any grudge against him – and she felt bad about the way the other students were treating him.
"Don't worry about Ginny." Neville said quietly, Hermione looked up at him and he smiled weakly. "It might take a while, but she'll come round."
"I hope so…" Hermione whispered, "It's difficult…"
"I know." He nodded appreciatively. "But I don't think you should let her get to you… Hermione, I know you wouldn't do anything unless you knew it was the right thing to do."
The right thing to do… Those words of Neville's kept ringing in Hermione's head; she knew that it was the right thing to do, and no matter what Ginny thought she wasn't going to change her mind…
Being in Ginny Weasley's bad books was surprisingly similar to being in Ron's bad books. Over the next two days Ginny was remarkably frosty towards Hermione; she acted perfectly normally towards Neville and Luna, but she barely uttered a word to Hermione. Hermione was frustrated by this behaviour, but she became resigned very quickly to the silence; in fact it only strengthened the reasons that Neville had given to her – that she wouldn't be so adamant about this unless she knew it was the right thing to do. Eventually the tension between herself and Ginny was bound to come to a head, Hermione wasn't looking forwards to when that happened, but unless she actively sought to end it she didn't know when it would happen.
Unhelpfully, it was Friday night as Neville, Ginny and herself were sitting in the Gryffindor common room working on their homework that the topic of Malfoy came up again.
"I mean we've got like fifteen pieces of homework this weekend…" Neville was saying, the light of worry in his eyes at the strain of how much they had to do. "I knew N.E. were going to be hard, but don't they realise we're taking other classes too! How are we supposed to do it all?" He flicked haphazardly through the charms textbook that was lying on the table in front of him.
"It's all about planning." Hermione said soothingly to Neville, who had begun scratching out a sentence in the essay he was writing. "If we do the homework due in for Monday, maybe some of Tuesdays too, tomorrow and Sunday then we'll be able to spread the load out."
"There's that horrible transfiguration essay due for Tuesday, I don't even understand the question!" He murmured, sighing.
"Well, if we plan it and research it tomorrow morning in the library, you can get it out of the way." Hermione offered, "I'm meeting Draco in the afternoon, but if it's planned out then you should be able to write it yourself." At these words Ginny, who had been sitting next to them reading a thick volume for potions and petting Arnold the Pygmy Puff absent mindedly with her free hand, snorted loudly.
Hermione sighed softly and looked across at the red-head: "What?"
"Meeting best buddy Malfoy for a cosy little chat." Ginny sneered, with an expression worthy of pre-War Draco. Hermione placed her quill down on the table in front of her and glanced across at Neville whose eyebrows were raised despite his attempts to look fully absorbed in his charms homework.
"Come on then…" Hermione muttered quietly.
"What?" Ginny spat harshly.
"Get it out – you don't like Malfoy, you don't trust him, you don't understand why I give him the time of day…"
"Well I don't!" Ginny interrupted loudly, "He's a Malfoy! And a Death Eater!"
"Was a death eater." Hermione said calmly.
"And you think he's changed! After everything he has said and done, he's a revolting piece of slime that should have been sent to Azkaban with his scumbag parents!" Ginny's voice had grown shriller, attracting the attention of some of the other students sitting around them.
"Stop it Ginny." Hermione replied, "You're acting the way that Draco did before the War, there's no point replacing old prejudices with new ones. That's what we were fighting against, that's what so many people died for… We've all made mistakes, but it's how we go forward that really shows who we are." For a second Ginny looked infuriated, her face flushed with anger.
"So I'm like Malfoy?!" She was practically shrieking now and half of the common room were staring at Ginny and Hermione. "If you think like that well why don't you go and smarm off with bloody Draco Malfoy, but don't come crawling back when he turns on you! Clearly you must think he's 'worth saving', but he's a snake and that won't change!" Ginny was gathering up the books that had been in front of her into her arms, she gave Hermione one last blazing look of mingled disgust and fury before flinging her hair over her shoulder and marching away; leaving Hermione sitting in the middle of the common room with nearly everyone watching her.
Hermione was so annoyed with Ginny that she avoided going to breakfast and went straight to the library with Neville to plan their transfiguration essay. While Neville had offered some placating words to Hermione the night before, he had refrained from mentioning the argument that had happened. Hermione guessed that he didn't want to burn any bridges, but his presence was enough to reassure her that her judgement wasn't incredibly off. She was conscious that many of the Gryffindors were discussing the argument between Hermione and Ginny – and, although it might just be paranoia, she felt that most of the students agreed with Ginny…
She hung around outside the doors to the Great Hall after lunch, waiting for Draco to appear for their meeting, and feeling immensely disgruntled at the entire situation.
"Hermione?" She jumped as Draco's voice came from behind her.
"Oh hi," Hermione said, feeling like she had been caught unawares.
"Are you alright?" Draco asked, his eyebrows knitting together as he looked at her. For a fleeting moment Hermione thought it might have been concern showing across his face, then she reminded herself how silly that thought was.
"Yeah," She answered, "Shall we find an empty classroom?"
"Okay," Draco fell into step beside her as they wandered along one of the first floor corridors in search of an empty room. The second classroom that they found was deserted and Hermione closed the door behind her after they entered. Hermione was, again, conscious of Draco watching her as she unpacked her planning notebook and quill onto the table and opened it to the page that she had been at; she made a point not to look up at him.
"So the three committees have managed to plan most of the formulating details…" Hermione started, flicking between the pages concerning the ball committee and the concert committee. "The dates for all three events have been decided and approved by Professor McGonagall." She continued, staring resolutely at the pages. "The ball is going to be on the 19th of December; the concert on the 3rd of April; and the play on the 23rd June." Hermione could feel Draco's eyes watching her, and she felt she had been staring at her notebook long enough. She tentatively looked up, and was startled by the expression deep set in Draco's grey eyes – this time she couldn't be mistaken, there was definite concern in them now.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Draco repeated, as though he hadn't really been listening to the plans Hermione had been relaying to him.
"I-" Hermione spluttered, still surprised by the sincerity of his question. "Yeah, I just…" The argument that she had had with Ginny last night reverberating in her head. "Had an argument with someone and it's been preoccupying me."
"Oh… It didn't happen to be with Ginny Weasley did it?" He questioned after a moment's pause, it was Hermione's turn to stare.
"How did you know that?" She exclaimed quickly, he looked guilty.
"I overheard some people talking about it in the Great Hall…" He muttered, and Hermione wondered whether he knew the subject of the arguments too, and his next statement cleared that up. "I'm sorry…" She watched him for a few seconds as he looked down at the desk and fiddled with the sleeve of his shirt.
"No." She stated firmly and he looked up. "Don't be sorry! I argued with Ginny because she is reinforcing old stereotypes!"
"But I don't want to ruin your friendship!" Draco's voice rose. "If that's the sort of thing that's going to happen if you talk to me, then…"
"It's not your problem." Hermione insisted, "And I don't want to stop talking to you." The last bit had come out before Hermione had realised, and she felt her cheeks going red as Draco looked at her.
"Thanks…" He murmured, looking slightly embarrassed himself.
"Right… Well…" She carried on, flicking through the pages of her notebook again in an attempt to not look embarrassed.
"Plans, yeah…" He agreed, but he wasn't focussing on her notebook full of what had already been planned; he was noticing how her cheeks dappled pink with embarrassment rather than flushing scarlet, and that despite her concentration on the plans, there was a small smile playing across her lips… And for some reason, that made his spirits rise.
A/N: Thanks so much for reading so far - and, as always, I'd be super grateful if you wanted to let me know what you think about this chapter/story so far! :)