A warm thank you to;
Mihika echizenochi Opposites ChelseyJ MaronTodai Daisy Seary CinziaTwut SaruDM
for reviewing the last chapter.
Also thanking all the readers who've subscribed/favourited this story!
I'm sure you'll are all excited that Hermione is resuming her previous attitude again all thanks to a pale blond Slytherin!
Here's some more for you'll! And a long chapter this time!
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CHAPTER 23.
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Dearest Ginny and Harry and little Ronald James,
I hope you're sitting while reading this.
I don't want you to faint.
Yes it's me. And I'm writing you'll.
I've missed you'll so much but I'm sure that is difficult to believe since I've been such a hermit and so selfish for the past few months.
I'm really sorry.
For ignoring you'll.
For worrying you'll.
I was blinded by my sorrows so much that I failed to you that you had lost a brother Ginny, Harry lost his best mate and the Weasley's lost a family member.
I can't reverse what I've done but I can be better about it now.
After a long time I've felt strong enough to write you'll and I hope you can find it in you to forgive me for being so insensitive. Your letters are what kept me going.
And the news of little Ronald James brought happy tears to my eyes.
I extend my heartiest congratulations to both of you'll.
If there's anyone who deserves the love of a child it's you, Ginny and Harry.
I am so so happy for you'll.
Of course I'll be Godmother.
I'd be pretty miffed if it was someone else.
And I'm not promising but I'm surely hoping that I can be present when the little joy comes into our world.
Things are getting better.
I'm finally coming to terms with everything.
It was difficult to write this letter initially but when I realised that any day can be our last, I wasted no time in penning this for you.
I just want to say I'm really sorry for the hell I put you and Harry through when I left.
I'm sure with every letter of mine that returned blank, I hurt you'll more.
I cannot even begin to apologize for that.
Thank you for being so patient and understanding.
And stubborn.
And never giving up on me.
I don't know what I'd do without you'll.
I miss you'll terribly too and soon I think I will be ready to meet you.
I love you'll.
Hermione.
PS: thanks for the postcard. It looks lovely. And you and Harry look wonderful together.
I'm so glad you had such a good time.
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Katherine knocked Hermione cabin door before entering and said, "Hermione, Mr. Malfoy is looking for you. Should I send him in?"
Hermione looked up from some paperwork, "what time is it?" She asked absentmindedly.
"It's half past three." Katherine answered after consulting her watch.
"Why is he here at this time?" I thought he was coming at 5 to the cinema next door." Hermione mused almost to herself.
"I asked him the same thing. He said needs to talk to you about something." Katherine answered.
"Oh all right. Send him in. And Katherine? Have you started Mr. Freubler on solid food yet?" Hermione inquired.
Katherine nodded.
"Good. If he doesn't vomit for 2 hours after give him the strengthening potion." Hermione said.
"Okay. I'm sending Mr. Malfoy in." Katherine said.
"No need Katherine dear. I'm already here. And what's this Mr. Malfoy business? I'm not your patient anymore. You can call me Draco you know." Draco said as he eased himself into Hermione's cabin.
Hermione rolled her eyes and continued writing her report.
"Umm. Okay Draco. It's a habit that will go slowly. It took me days to say Hermione. Although I'm sure if she wouldn't glare at me every time I said Healer Weasley, I'd still be finding it difficult to say her name." Katherine laughed.
"I'm sure. She's quite good with those glares is she not?" Draco conceded.
Katherine nodded in the affirmative and Hermione put her pen down indignantly and said, "she's still here you know!"
Draco and Katherine exchanged amused glances.
"Hey Katherine, you're coming at 5 for the movie with us aren't you?" Draco confirmed.
Katherine nodded. "I'm bringing a friend too, if you don't mind." She said trying hard not to blush.
"Hmm. Is this friend of yours someone I know?" Draco asked knowingly.
"Oh come on Draco. Stop being such a girl. I swear you slytherins gossip like there's no tomorrow." Hermione chastised him.
Katherine seemed relieved at the distraction but Draco was not the one to budge.
"So say Katherine, Is this friend of yours the second most fit quidditch player from one of the best teams in the world?" Draco prodded again.
Katherine blushed again. "Sort of. You may know him."
"Oh you'll find I more than 'know him' Katherine. Matt and I are good friends. He owled me yesterday about today's plan." Draco waggled his eyebrows.
"You knew!" Katherine shot a wide eyed accusatory glance at him.
"Katherine. You should know that there's virtually nothing that Draco does not know about anyone. He's a regular subscriber of all gossip magazines all over the world." Hermione interjected.
"Hey!" Draco yelled. "I do not read all of them."
"You wish." Hermione said.
"Anyway" Draco said turning to Katherine again, "you better finish off everything by 5. I have tickets and I don't want to be late for the show. Don't let Hermione here overwork you."
Katherine laughed and left.
"Okay why are you here? Every minute you waste of mine is a minute lost from that movie you're dying to watch." Hermione said, not even looking up from her chart.
"I just popped by for a minute. I wanted to ask you something and I'll be gone. I'm meeting Matt for coffee before you'll join us." Draco explained.
"Oh." Hermione said, finally folding her papers in a file and looking up at Draco. "What is it that you wanted to ask me?"
"It's Thursday. I was going to owl this." He said indicating to the letter she had written Ginny. "I just wanted to ask you one last time before I sent it, if you were still sure about this."
Hermione pinched her nose and rubbed her eyes.
"I had to sooner or later." She answered. "Might as well sooner."
Draco nodded. "Okay. I'll be off now." He said before she changed her mind. "Don't be late." He smiled widely and left.
Hermione couldn't help smiling back.
Draco had one of the most dashing smiles she had ever seen on anyone.
And he smiled a lot. Like he was making up for all the school years that he would only smirk and sneer.
It was like he had discovered the pleasures of smiling late in life and he didn't want to fall behind.
Hermione decided that she liked smiling Draco much much more.
It was ironic that years ago she had taught him to smile and now years later, he was bringing smiles back into her life.
"Really Malfoy. This is getting old now. Why are you following me? And you never talk." Hermione said exasperatedly after enduring more than 2 hours of silence in the presence of her Slytherin classmate.
"This is a library Granger. Not your Gryffindor common room. I have as much right to sit here and study as do you." Draco replied.
"Yes I know. But I want to know why are you sitting right across me? And so silently too? Not one insult or sneer. I can hardly concentrate on my work." She said.
"I think you should have learned by now that I'm not going to insult you. I just merely want your company. You can study freely. I'm not going to hex you or anything." Draco replied.
"You want my company?" Hermione repeated incredously. "Since when did purebloods like you born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouth seek out the company of filthy mudbloods?"
Draco cringed inwardly at the use of the words that he used to say to her once upon a time. But his face betrayed nothing. He stayed composed as ever.
"I don't blame you for thinking that way. But I just want to say that I don't believe you are inferior to me anymore. For what it's worth, I have no prejudices against you." Draco said with difficulty.
Admitting to her that he was indeed a changed person was difficult for him. Especially when she looked at him with such distrust.
"What do you want Malfoy? You can't be nice unless there is something you want from someone." Hermione stated.
Draco sighed. He knew it was going to be tough convincing her. But he didn't want to convince her.
He just wanted to co-exist peacefully with her.
He knew that his persistence looked like borderline stalking from a third person's point of view. But that's all he could expect from her.
He knew that she wouldn't ever be interested in befriending someone like him. And frankly why should she?
He had only verbally tormented her and her friends for 3 years. There was no reason she should trust him.
"Look Granger. I don't want anything. Forget I said anything. But when I say I'm not going to trouble or insult you anymore, I mean it." Draco said and got back to his essay.
Hermione gaped at him. She didn't know what to make out of this new Malfoy.
Sure enough he had stopped troubling her. No snide remarks, no pranks, no hidden hexes. He had almost stopped insulting Harry and Ron too. Had he really changed?
Was it even possible? Anyway she thought she shouldn't bother about him now. He claimed he had changed and he didn't want anything. So she thought it best to leave it there.
And if he indeed had changed then it was good for her. It saved her the trouble of thinking retorts to get back at him.
She gave him one last look and got back to her charms homework.
She could still see him from the corner of her eyes and however much she tried to ignore him, she kept stealing sidelong glances at him.
He on the other hand was busy reading and writing his essay.
Another half hour passed and Hermione glanced at him twice more in that timeframe.
He seemed pretty into his essay. His parchment was almost two feet long and he was still going on with it.
Hermione finished her charms homework and started with transfiguration.
A thousand words into her essay, she noticed that Malfoy had stopped writing and he was sitting still for some time.
Not that she cared. But her curiosity got the better of her and she sneaked a look at him.
His usually impassive face was lined with confusion. Like there were some questions going on in his head. He had stopped writing too and was now shuffling through some books probably trying to find something.
Hermione continued to work on her own essay without giving it another thought.
A few minutes later she heard an exasperated sigh. Undoubtedly from the new study partner she had seemed to acquire.
She looked up to see him get up from his chair and head towards the shelves where reference books were stacked.
What was he looking for? Hermione got curious again and she too got up. Anyway she wanted to stretch her legs a bit. And she felt like taking a break. So she thought that probably reading a few pages of advanced arithmancy for fun would relax her.
She headed towards the shelves where Draco was presumably looking for something.
She didn't want to be the one to start a conversation with him but the silence was killing her.
Silence while being alone was another thing but when someone was 2 feet in front of you, keeping quiet was very difficult for Hermione.
And especially when Draco seemed to be having some problems with his homework. Hermione couldn't control herself from asking him.
And he was being civil. It couldn't hurt to return the courtesy could it?
She retrieved the copy of Advanced Arithmancy and turned hesitantly towards Malfoy who was still looking for something.
She swallowed her misgivings and asked, "Looking for something? Maybe I could help?" She asked questioningly.
He turned to her, looking as surprised as she was feeling.
"Umm. I'm looking for a book. But I can't seem to find it." He answered finally.
"Which one? I know the order of the books kept in this section." Hermione said.
"Oh. Wow. That is something." Draco said sounding impressed. "But I'm not surprised." The corners of his mouth twitched ever so slightly giving him the appearance that he wanted to smile but was controlling it.
Hermione thought she was seeing things.
"What? I happen to go through these books from time to time. It only makes sense to know which book is where." She defended herself.
"You could always use a summoning charm you know." He said, his voice laced with amusement but his face still not showing anything.
"I know." Hermione rolled her eyes. "But then again sometimes I don't know what I want to read. So I just go through the titles till I decide what I want."
"Oh." Draco said. "That makes sense too."
"So which one are you looking for?" Hermione asked again.
"Umm. Actually I don't know what I'm looking for." Draco said with a sigh.
"I don't understand." Hermione said furrowing her brow.
"Actually you remember the essay that professor Snape asked us to write?" Draco asked.
Hermione nodded. "The one on the fresh and expired Dragon blood?"
Draco nodded. "Yes the same one. So I've found all the matter. And I've looked everywhere but I just cannot find the amount of time that determines when the blood has expired."
"And I'm sure professor Snape would not appreciate me leaving out that detail." He continued.
"That is correct. But you won't find that information here in the potions section,Malfoy." Hermione said.
"What? You've found it already?" Draco asked amazed. "But that essay isn't even due for another fortnight. Why are you already done with it?"
Hermione almost smiled. "I do my homework the day I get it. But why are you doing it now? You still have time."
"As cool as I may seem, I pretty much like to finish my homework weekly. Not as much on schedule like you though." He said almost smiling? Smirking? A midway act between the two?
He jokes. He actually jokes. But doesn't even smile. She thought ruefully.
Why does it matter to you if he smiles or smirks? A loud voice in her head asked her. Well, never mind.
"Oh. That's wise. So do you want to know when the blood expires? I'm done with my essay, you could read it if you wish to." She said guardedly, not knowing how Malfoy would react to this offer of hers.
Draco's eyes brightened at the offer but his face remained the same shade of indifferent. "That's nice of you. But I don't want to seem like I've copied. After all you did take the trouble to do the research."
Hermione was slightly impressed and more bewildered by this comment.
A Slytherin refusing help? It would have been more believable if he had tricked her into telling him the answer. Slytherins were manipulative that way.
"Oh. That's also right I suppose. But can I at least give you a hint?" She asked, desperate to impart some help. And frankly the sight of him searching the wrong section of the library when she could be sending him in the right direction was driving her nuts.
"Are you trying to help me?" Draco asked looking surprised. He had never expected to hold a conversation with Hermione Granger let alone have her offering him help.
She really was kind. All he had done was behave in a normal, civil manner and she had instantly let go the years of insults and torture he had inflicted on her.
"Yes?" She answered tentatively.
"But why?" He asked looking confused.
It was her turn to look confused now. "Why not? You seem like you need It."
"Yes but I've been nothing but horrible to you ever since we've met. Why would you want to be nice?"
Hermione looked baffled for a moment and then suddenly without warning she burst out into tiny chuckles.
Draco looked confused.
"You mean you'd expect someone to do something nice for somebody only if they have an agenda?" Hermione asked.
"Well," Draco started. "What's the point of being nice to someone if you don't get anything in return?"
Hermione stopped laughing and looked at him like he was the most absurd thing on earth. She would have actually said something biting to him in return but the look of absolute sincerity on his face stopped her. He seemed really genuine with his question and he wasn't joking.
Merlin. This boy was even more messed up than she had ever imagined.
What values had he been brought up with if at the age of 14 he actually had to ask the question he just had asked?
"You mean you've never done something for someone just because it feels good or it's the right thing to do?" She asked.
He shook his head. "Father always said that everything is about profit and loss and power. If someone needs something for you, they must have something to offer in return. Else they will take us for granted and our power will suffer."
Hermione gaped.
What a load of crap! She said in her mind.
"Okayyy. So what about love? When your parents love you what do they expect in return?" Hermione asked, trying to find a way to make him see how wrong he was.
Draco looked like he was thinking hard for a minute.
"What do you mean by love me? They've never told me that. But they do buy me the best of things and I always have expensive presents. They take me to good places for holidays. I suppose that counts. And I guess they expect me to behave the way they want me to. Follow their ideologies and footsteps." Draco said.
Hermione could not believe her ears.
Everything he had just said sounded so... So... Wrong!
He must have read her expression of utter disapproval. He immediately stood up and started packing his bag.
"I don't know why I said that. I've been talking too much today. I'm sorry to have taken up your time." He said quickly, not meeting her eyes.
Why did he have to speak so much? And that too with Granger. Now she had gone all weird on him.
If truth be told he hadn't thought before talking. He was just so hungry to have a conversation with her, he forgot all about being guarded in front of her. It was easy to be himself and get caught up in talking with her.
But then the look on her face had made him realise that even though he had pushed everything behind him and started seeing her in a different light, she had not.
He was still Malfoy to her. The Slytherin who always had an ulterior motive.
"Malfoy! Wait. It's ok. Don't go. I was just amazed because you shared something like this with me. I wouldn't have ever expected us to have a personal conversation." Hermione gushed, trying to stop him before he left.
Why did she want to stop him though?
Shoving aside the thought she got up from her chair to face him.
He stopped short surprised that she was thinking the same thing he had been.
"So why?" Hermione asked.
"Why what?" Draco questioned back.
"Why are you being civil to me? Why have you stopped being the old Malfoy ? What are you getting in return?" Hermione asked.
He stood there wondering about her question.
Why indeed?
There was nothing he wanted in return.
And that was the first time ever Draco Malfoy had done something without expecting anything in return.
Of course he had never imagined Hermione to actually talk with him or associate with him. He was content with only being in her presence.
So really, he wanted nothing from her.
But she had begun to talk to him as if she had put the past behind and for some reason; although it was unexpected it was extremely pleasant.
"Umm. Actually I didn't think of it that way. I'm just tired of treating you like I have. Of late I've been thinking how unnecessary that was. I don't really want anything in return." Draco said honestly. "But I suppose it would be difficult to believe me, wouldn't it?"
Draco looked torn, almost hopeful. As if urging her to believe him but at the same time resigned to thinking that she had no reason to believe him.
"It is rather odd." Hermione said finally. "But I believe you."
His eyes shot up towards her, an unmistakable expression of surprise and happiness in them.
"You do?" He repeated.
"Yes Malfoy. I do." She replied. "But since you're being nice to me I think I'll return the favour."
She sat down and smirked, "the book you're looking for is called 'old blood' in the magical creatures section under dragons."
Draco gaped at her. She had just effortlessly pulled a Slytherin. Done something for someone who had done something for her.
He was more than awed by her. He knew that she would have helped him regardless of anything, but what she had just done was downright clever.
He almost felt that he had earned her help and was not indebted to her. She may not have known but may have guessed that Malfoys hated to be in anyone's debt. Not that he cared much for stuff like that these days.
He didn't know what to say to her. So he settled for a small smile. A slight tug of his lips that almost constituted a smile.
A small one but a genuine one.
It was the first time Hermione had seen him smile.
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Okayyyy long flashbacks!
Hope you liked!
I thought this story lacked old Draco since MY Draco (yes I said mine ;) ) is too OOC.
But I like him nonetheless!
I've taken so long to get this chapter written. I kept writing it in pieces. And the worst thing was that I had the entire chapter outlined in my head but I kept getting interrupted and this chapter took almost 3 days to write even though I cud finish it in 3 hours!
So here it is finally!
And readers please review! I really appreciate the feedback!
I feel like updating speedily when I know there are people waiting to read more!
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