An Innocence Restored

Author's Note: Thanks to people who read the last chapter! Hope you all enjoy this chapter and please review!

THANK YOU:

Starlight000: Thank you very much for your review! It means a lot. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Lyrics: You're everything that I want, but you don't want me.

Chapter Five

When Hermione woke up that morning, she was adamant that she wouldn't talk to Ron. She felt as though she had never been this angry with him before. As she got dressed, she found herself arguing with him in her head. Words couldn't even describe how much he had irritated her.

Over the past few days, she had been getting on rather well with Draco and she could no longer understand why there was such a large rift between the two groups. Draco was no longer horrible to most other people anymore. Hermione even found herself thinking that Draco was becoming a better person than Ron and Harry. If they ever found out that she had thought that, their friendship would surely be over. She had no doubt that Draco would welcome her with open arms, though. Oh, why did everything have to be so difficult at Hogwarts? Hermione may be able to solve any problem in a textbook, but when it came to judging people, she wasn't quite as smart as she would have liked to be.

At breakfast, Hermione sat alone. It was still incredibly early in the morning, so most people were still in bed. That was Hermione's tactic. At the minute, she couldn't face Ron and Harry or she believed that her anger was simply going to bubble over and that would definitely not be a good thing for anyone.

Of course, Draco would be here, though. Lately he seems to be absolutely everywhere she is. It's like he was stalking her. In fact, there was no way that Hermione would put stalking past him. After all, there are much worse things that Draco has done.

For the first time, Hermione didn't feel a pang of annoyance at seeing him. All the times she had seen him in the library she had wished he would just go away and leave her to get on with her work. This time was completely different. Usually when she has a fight with Ron, it's swept under the rug and all is well once more rather rapidly. It was different this time. She simply couldn't find it in her to forgive him just yet. She couldn't comprehend talking to Harry about it because she knew he would only take Ron's side. Perhaps Draco would be the right person to talk to about this. She needed an ear to listen to her babble about how annoyed she was.

As though he had read her mind, Draco sauntered over to where she sat at the Gryffindor table. This was so wrong. If anyone saw him sitting with her at the Gryffindor table, there would be rumours galore. Draco was known for despising everything about Gryffindor. Usually he wouldn't be caught dead sitting anywhere near here.

"Good morning, Hermione" He smiled as he slipped into the seat opposite her and got to work with shovelling cereal into his mouth. The sheer sight of it sent Hermione into a fit of giggles. "What's so funny?"

"This is surreal" She sighed happily, her head resting on her arm. This was nice. Hell, she would go as far as to say she was comfortable here with him.

"What's surreal?" Draco asked confused.

"Everything" She answered with a smile. "You sitting here with me is surreal. It actually seems normal."

"It is normal, Hermione" Draco laughed. "There's no reason that we can't be friends."

"That's the most ridiculous thing you have ever said in your life" She snorted as she took a small bite of her toast. Was it weird that she was finding this breakfast more enjoyable than any of the ones she had had with Ron and Harry? Draco had a completely different sense of humour. It was one that Hermione found rather refreshing and amusing herself. Yes, if Ron and Harry ever found out that she was thinking this, they would have her guts for garters.

"And why is that?" Draco asked, a ghost of a smile on his face as he watched her eat. She took only tiny bites and that was when Draco realised that she possessed an elegance that no one ever seemed to notice. Was it true that she was actually graceful?

"There are plenty of reasons as to why we can't be friends" Hermione sighed, wishing that she was wrong and there was absolutely every reason to be friends. She liked Draco too much when he was like this to just sweep it away as though it meant nothing.

"Give me three" He challenged, taking on a posture very similar to hers as he rested his own head on his hand.

"You're in Slytherin and I'm in Gryffindor. Harry and Ron would be ever so annoyed if they found out that we were friends and you've called me a Mudblood more times than I can count" Hermione answered, her voice growing more sad as the list went on. All of these reasons were perfectly acceptable for reasons not to be friends, but she would give anything to abolish them.

"Okay, you have a very fair point there" Draco noted, moving his head from side to side as though he was looking for a way to make this seem not as bad as it was looking. "But you know that I've changed!"

"Oh Draco, please don't start this again" Hermione groaned. "Is it really so hard to just have a care free breakfast with you? Look, I don't know for sure if you've changed. It's going to take a lot longer than just a couple of days and a few breakfasts together for me to decide that."

"Once again you have a fair point" Draco sighed. "How about we spend more time together. You know, we could do it away from Hogwarts if you didn't want anyone to know that I was a potential friend of yours."

The blush rose to her cheeks before she even knew what was happening. She didn't want to spend any extra time with Draco Malfoy, did she? Oh gosh! She never thought she would ever be in the position where this would be a very real possibility. Oh, this couldn't be happening to her. Well, she had to give him an answer. She couldn't just sit and stare at him as though he had rabies. He'd know something was up if she did that.

"Feel free to answer at any time" Draco chuckled. Oh, he did know what was going through her head. Well, all she had to do was be very delicate with her answer.

"Are you sure that's wise?" She asked. Well, that was possibly the most ridiculous thing she had ever said. Why couldn't she have just made an excuse? She could have just said she wouldn't be able to spare any time because she had so much work to do. Well, it's not like that would be hard for him to believe. After all, she's constantly in the library.

"Hermione, dear" Draco began. "You do realise that I can tell that you're not very comfortable with the idea of us spending time together."

"Oh no!" Hermione gasped. Oh brilliant, she had managed to hurt his feelings now. Why did she always screw things up!? "I didn't mean anything like that. I just I'm not entirely sure if I want to. I mean, shouldn't we wait a while just in case…"

"Hermione, you're making no sense" He laughed, shaking his head at her rambling. He didn't think it would be this hard and confusing as this. "I know you think that it's an incredibly bad idea because we're from different houses and everyone will talk about it if we do become friends, but can't you just break the rules for this? Well, we all know it's not the first time you've broken rules."

Draco spoke sense. Everything that came out of his mouth was exactly right and completely and utterly true. There was to be no arguing with his logic. It made a hell of a lot more sense than Hermione's did. She was beginning to think that this year would have been so much easier if Draco just stuck with hating her all the time. At least she would know how to react to him then.

"I know I'm not" She sighed in frustration. Why couldn't this just be as easy as a potions test for her? She'd be getting everything right if it was. "I'll think about it."

"Hey, I finally managed to get a proper answer out of her." Draco teased. "Now I never thought that would ever happen. I'll check up with you soon, okay? Maybe you could tell me what's got you so down. It's not hard to tell that you're upset. My money's on Weasley"

"Yeah whatever" Hermione grumbled as Draco sauntered out of the room with that cocky attitude that Hermione found herself growing to like. Was she really finding it charming? Oh god, she was so going to hell. Surely it couldn't be a good idea to slag off your best friend to someone who you used to be your enemy. Well, if it was such a bad thing, why was she so tempted to do it?

"Don't worry, I won't tell Ron about any of that" Harry sighed as he sat in the seat that Draco had previously taken up. How had she not even seen him come in? Perhaps Harry was a lot more understanding than she gave him credit for.

"Thank you very much, Harry" Hermione sighed in relief. "I really do think Draco's changing because of what happened to his father."

"Just promise me that you'll be careful" Harry muttered. Hmm, just because he wasn't running away to tell Ron about what he saw, it didn't mean that he approved of it any more.

"I promise" Hermione mumbled. Was this ever going to turn out well for her? And she never even got her listening ear over her issues with Ron. This day looked as though it was going to be a bad one for her.

…

As Draco left the Great Hall, he began to feel guilty over what he was doing to Hermione. It felt as though that conversation with her had been real and genuine. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be talking to her. Actually, he found it rather nice to talk to someone new. She didn't judge him quite as much as everyone else did. It was an enjoyable change for him.

Even so, he could never resist the chance to win a bet. It's not like he'd really be hurting her feelings. All he had to do is take her out on a date and then they'd both realise that they weren't compatible and it would be a mutual decision not to see each other again. Draco would get his money, Hermione would make up with Ron again and Blaise would be proven wrong. It's a win for everybody, right? Perhaps he should have just taken the advice of his mother and not came back to Hogwarts this year. It would have save d him a hell of a lot of trouble.

I guess this chapter was more of just a filler than anything else. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and please keep the feedback coming. It really means a lot to me. Oh, and I apologise for taking so long to get this update up. I'll try and get the next one up sooner than I did with this one, but I've got exams for the next month and a half. Good things about this is that after that I will be finished with high school, so updates will be so much quicker!