AN1: Hm, it's been quite a while since I last updated. Well, not really, but it's been longer than I've normally been going between chapters. Or maybe not. Maybe I'm just crazy. It seems like it has been a long time. Whatever, I'm going to stop rambling now!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Now if you are finished asking stupid questions, you can start reading the chapter.
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It's amazing how that when times change and when situations change, some people will change right along with them. And what's also amazing is how drastically said people will change. It's as if they had a complete personality transplant, or as if they had been attacked by the body-snatchers.
Take Draco Malfoy for example. He used to be the brattiest, selfish, coldest and cruelest little boy that Hermione had ever known. And he stayed that way from first year all the way up until sixth year. But then come year six at Hogwarts, he changed. His father had been killed and his mother died of sorrow soon afterwards. He was the sole heir of the Malfoy estates. It was at that time that Voldemort gave him his assignment to kill Dumbledore. It was shortly after that that Malfoy decided he didn't want to. He didn't want to spend his life as his father had spent his: being a follower to an evil dictator. He didn't want to fill his life with war and with killing as his father had. Malfoy had never really understood the fuss about muggleborns being inferior anyway. As far as he was concerned, they were still people.
So he had turned to Dumbledore and to the Order for protection. To say that he was welcomed with open arms would have been to lie. Only Dumbledore was willing to see the good in him at first. Malfoy had proved his dedication to the Light during the final battle. Only then did an enemy become a friend and Malfoy was from then on out, referred to as Draco.
Another amazing thing is that when someone changes—and especially if the change was as drastic as Draco's—it's hard to maintain ill feelings about that person.
It was this fact that had Hermione looking particularly sour as she walked to Potions. How was she to know that Draco Malfoy was not truly that bratty little boy he used to be, who had had followers, not friends, was a naturally friendly and charismatic person? She couldn't help but to like him. And that bothered her. To be completely honest with herself, she had preferred loathing Draco Malfoy, or at least not really caring to acknowledge his existence. Instead, of that loathing (which at one point had been mutual) he made efforts to be near her, to be her friend. And what bothered her the most was the fact that she couldn't help but get slightly flushed when he was near. She couldn't help that her heart began to beat erratically when he was within a foot of her. But more of all, she couldn't help the fact that she was undeniably falling for him; slowly but surely.
If only her sensible head could control her wildly-out-of-control hormones, or whatever the sodding hell it was that was causing her to feel strangely attracted to someone she knew wouldn't settle for her. He had much of the female population of Hogwarts always around him and he seemed so friendly with all of them. It was impossible for her to tell if he specifically liked anyone or not. He treated everyone the same. He acted with her as he acted with the other females who were around him. He teased her playfully, joked around with her and even hugged her! That was the most mind-blowing thing! They were just talking in a corridor and then he said that he had to go. So he goes and hugs her. Hermione regained her senses just in time to squeeze him back. Then they pulled apart and went their separate ways.
After that incident, Hermione had never been happier that Draco sat on the opposite side of the classroom in every class they had together. That way, she wouldn't have to worry about embarrassing herself by having a permanent blush on her face every time he just happened to be near her. Potions was the class where she definitely never had to worry about being near him. Or so she thought. Every day he sat between Pansy and Daphne and they always seemed to have a grand old time laughing while Snape was talking. Of course, they never got in trouble for it. Today however, was different. Ron wasn't in class today—he was feigning sick—and Pansy asked to take his seat by Hermione.
Since the house prejudices had been eradicated after Voldemort was defeated, it would be absurd for Hermione to say no. She didn't really mind Pansy, but she was more of a friend of Ginny's than a friend of Hermione's. Hastily, she obliged and then Pansy pulled up another chair next to her so Daphne could sit by her. This left the table that Draco, Pansy and Daphne normally occupied, empty for Draco hadn't shown up yet. Briefly she wondered if they had gotten into a fight but soon pushed it out of her mind. She shouldn't care. In fact, she didn't care in the least. But she knew that it was bad when she couldn't even successfully lie to herself.
A few minutes later, Draco stumbled into the classroom, looking disheveled. His eyes darted to the table where he normally sat and when he saw it was empty, he laughed.
"What is this?" He exclaimed mock-angrily as he saw the way over-crowded potions table. Neville moved to the head of the table and made a space for Draco between him and Hermione.
"Hey, Draco, there's a space right here!" Neville said.
In her head, Hermione was plotting ways to kill Neville. This was not good. Surely someone would notice that her cheeks were already starting to turn red. Try as hard as she might to squish the little feeling of happiness that bubbled inside of her, she couldn't. As much as she didn't want to be slightly attracted to Draco she couldn't help it; just as she couldn't help being happy that he was going to sit by her.
He moved the chair between Hermione and Neville and sat down. Unfortunately, the table was only supposed to have four people and with Neville, Draco, Hermione, Pansy, Daphne and Harry there, it sat six; meaning that Draco was sitting at a very close proximity to Hermione and also meaning she could smell him. He smelled intoxicatingly good. That only increased the blush in Hermione's face.
Luckily, or unluckily, depending on what mood Hermione was in, Potions went by pretty quickly and not one person seemed to notice how flushed Hermione was. If someone had, then they didn't say anything about it to her face.
The next class that Hermione had was Ancient Runes. That would provide a great distraction. It was a complex class that required Hermione's full attention. If she was the least bit distracted, it would be hard to catch up later. And the desks in that class were arranged in twos and there was a seating chart unlike in Potions. There wasn't any way that Draco could possibly find a way to distract her. So she thought.
Hermione took her seat and Pansy sat beside her. They made friendly chatter while they waited for the professor to give them the assignment. Once the assignment was given, they worked independently of each other and the talking stopped. As Hermione was scribbling furiously on her paper, she sensed someone behind her. She ignored it and continued to work.
"Mr. Malfoy," the professor looked up from his desk, "are you finished already?"
"Yes, professor."
"Very well."
Fearing the worst, Hermione looked behind her and saw that Draco was there. Why does this happen to me? She thought in anguish. Now she knew she'd never be able to work on her assignment. He squeezed himself in the space between her chair and Pansy's. He crouched down and instinctively, Hermione moved over in her chair so she was half way off of it. Draco smiled at her and sat down in the little space that she offered.
Hermione was mortified. What had she been thinking? All thoughts of working flew out of her brain and she just tried to focus on anything not involving Draco. Not his proximity—which was hard seeing as how their sides were an inch away from touching—not his smell which was currently infiltrating her nose and not how good he looked in his robes; nothing about him at all. She just stared blankly at her paper and tried to appear as if she was thinking about her project. Needless to say, Ancient Runes seemed to last hours.
He had brought with him to Hermione and Pansy's desk a copy of the latest Quidditch Weekly and was flipping though it. Occasionally he would point something out in it to Hermione and she would respond appropriately and not give away how much she wanted him to kiss her at that moment. It must have worked for he didn't give her a strange get-away-from-me look nor did he kiss her.
When Ancient Runes was over, Hermione all but bolted out of the classroom and headed hell-bent for the Great Hall. Surely he wouldn't dare sit at the Gryffindor table. Even though the houses all got along well enough, there were some lines that just weren't crossed. Although, Hermione thought that based on her luck today, he probably would sit by her at the Gryffindor table. It would be fitting.
After lunch, during which no Slytherins sat with any Gryffindors, much to Hermione's relief, most of the school trooped outside to watch the Inter-House Quidditch Tournament. This was unlike any tournament that had ever been played at Hogwarts. Instead of the teams being divided by houses, they were just randomly numbered off. All of the houses were on teams with all of the other houses. It would definitely be an interesting set of games. There were five different teams and all of them would play. The tournament was planned to last at least six hours, so the rest of classes were cancelled in honor of this historic event. Instead of sitting up in the stands, the students milled about the lawns and sat with their friends on blankets.
For the first hour, Hermione spent her time in the common room finishing the Ancient Runes project that had not been finished in class. For the life of her, she had no idea how Draco had finished it so quickly. Pushing that thought out of her mind—because she really didn't care about anything to do with him—Hermione put away her stuff and went down to the lawn where everyone was watching the games.
To her surprise, and slight chagrin, Harry was sitting by Draco and they were animatedly discussing what she assumed was the game. Hermione steadily approached them and they both turned when they heard her coming. Harry got up and hugged her and Draco followed suit. Hermione was baffled, but said nothing. She just smiled and hugged them both back.
"So how did you guys do?"
Harry grinned and went into a lengthy explanation of how the team he was on thoroughly thrashed the other team. After having had enough of that, Hermione turned to Draco.
"How did you do?" Draco just shook his head and dropped his broom to the ground.
"Not so well?" Hermione questioned.
"Let's just say that the team I was on was the team that Harry played against." Hermione laughed and Draco looked slightly put out.
Ginny ran full speed towards where Harry, Draco and Hermione were, with Pansy and Daphne in tow. "We WON!!" Ginny screamed. "We creamed the guys' team we played against, 240-60!"
Hermione cheered loudly for her friend and beckoned for the three to sit down with them. No sooner had they sat down did they jump back up again.
"Leaving so soon?" Hermione asked.
"Yep."
"There's a spot with a better view over there." Daphne pointed across the expanse of grass.
"So you're ditching us?"
"Yes. Bye!" Ginny giggled as she and the two others ran off.
"I feel hurt. My friends just ditched me to watch Quidditch." Hermione joked as she scooted closer to Draco, barely able to conceal her red face.
"Well, you can watch the game with me," he said. Hermione wasn't sure if he was joking or serious. But apparently he was serious. He put one around her waist and pulled her to lie down beside him. "See?" He laughed. "Perfect view."
Hermione's eyes flashed to Harry's and he just smiled wryly as if to say, "I won't say anything. Be glad that Ron isn't here."
All too soon in Hermione's opinion, Draco pulled his arm away from her and sat back up. She sat up beside him.
"Hey, Draco, Hermione," Their heads whipped around to see the Ginny, Pansy and Daphne behind them. "You guys have leaves on your backs." Ginny pointed out.
"Oh yeah, we we're just laying down and watching the game." Draco said nonchalantly.
"Ooh, laying down together?"
Hermione blushed at the knowing look that Ginny gave her and ignored the question. Ginny hit her on the back and Hermione glared at her. "What?"
"Scoot back."
"Why?" Even before the question was answered, Hermione scooted back to sit with Ginny and the two Slytherins anyway. "What's going on?"
"We dare you to take his broom and run."
"That's ridiculous. Why on earth would I do that?"
"Why not?" Pansy retorted.
Hermione had no answer to that and they all knew it. So with a small sigh of exasperation, she took the broom that was placed next to Draco. At first he didn't notice, but when he did and looked behind him, Hermione was already two meters away. He got up and chased after her.
Hermione, not expecting him to chase after her, was frozen in her tracks. In a few long strides, Draco had caught up to her and taken the broom from her hands. Hermione walked back towards Ginny, Daphne and Pansy in defeat. Playfully, Draco took the wide end of the broom and hit her bottom. She jumped in surprise and color flooded to her cheeks. Hermione turned to look at him and he was laughing he met her eyes and winked at her. The color and heat continued to rush to her face as she turned away and headed back to Ginny and the others. The smile on her face seemed to be plastered there. Ginny raised an eyebrow at Hermione and motioned for her to go back to the castle with her.
They waved to the group of people they were leaving on the grass—Draco hugged Hermione and whispered something to her—and Ginny waited until they were at least eight meters away before demanding details.
It was with mixed feelings of giddiness, bliss, and content that Hermione walked back to the castle accompanied by Ginny.
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AN2: So please, review! It would make me very, very happy. Even happier than I am now...which is pretty darn happy! And I might possibly update in less than four days! Whoo!
NOTE: I'm sorry if the chapter seemed like bizarre rambling to you. But I had to write it. It may not have turned out too great in the HP-universe, but...yeah. Anyway, I'm sorry if you had issues with this chapter. Please don't be harsh with me if you did.
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Lovelove, Amanda