"Remember, no name calling. Even if they're rude."
Draco chuckled, "Hermione, I know how to behave myself."
"Yes, I know, but I don't want anything to go wrong."
"It's just breakfast. People will be too busy eating to talk to me."
"Draco. People will stop eating to talk to you."
"Ok Hermione," he grabbed her by the shoulders, "Breathe. And shut up."
She pressed her lips together, slightly annoyed but took a deep breath. Her anxiety was definitely getting the best of her. But what was she supposed to do? Everyone knew about them now. And the questions were relentless. Everywhere they went people would stare and whisper. Stare and whisper, stare and whisper. It had become routine. She didn't know where to turn. She knew where she wanted to turn. But it had been days since she had spoken to Harry or Ron. And it was getting weird. They were her best friends. She had never gone so long without speaking to them. But she was still somewhat upset. They had no right to be spying on her like that. Her hands formed into small fists. Just thinking about it got her riled up. And it would do her no good thinking about it now; she had better things to worry about. Like Draco. Sitting at her table. For the entire breakfast period.
"You know," he said, as they stood in front of the doors together, "Something is bound to go wrong."
"Thank you for those encouraging words sweetheart."
"I'm just saying. If you go in there thinking something will go wrong, and nothing does, then you're in for a pleasant surprise wouldn't you say?"
She looked up at him. "Yes I suppose so."
"Thank you Draco, for that absolutely brilliant piece of advice." His voice was high pitched and he batted his eyelashes at her.
She laughed and pushed him playfully. "Stop! I don't sound like that at all."
"Sure, sure."
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Thank you, Draco."
When they entered the hall together, their hands locked, every head turned to look at them. Hermione sighed. They couldn't catch a break it seemed. And having him sit next to her would only draw more attentnion.
"I'll introduce you so you know everyone's name."
"I think I'll be fine Hermione."
"I'll introduce you anyway."
They made their way to the Gryffindor table, and Hermione took her usual seat next to Ginny. She cleared her throat. "Everyone, this is Draco. Draco," she said, pointing to each respective person, "Ginny, Harry, Ron, Luna and Seamus." Draco gave a single nod and said good morning. For a long moment no one said anything. Hermione hardly poked at her food, and her breathing was rather ragged. Then Neville approached the table.
He seemed somewhat surprised to see Draco at the Gryffindor table, but smiled as he sat down. "I think it's great what you two are doing," he said, looking at Hermione and Draco, "Breaking boundaries and the like. I think it's long overdue." Hermione smiled appreciatively at him. If only more people could see their relationship the way Neville did. "Thank you Neville." She said. Draco wiped his face with a napkin and nodded at Neville. Neville returned the nod. The table fell silent once again as everyone ate their food and stared at Draco. Nothing was heard but the distant whispering and forks clanking against their respective plates.
"How tall are you?" Luna said suddenly.
Draco looked up, somewhat surprised by her question. "Six foot one," he said, "Why?"
"Just a question." She said, looking in the opposite direction.
"Don't mind her." Hermione whispered, taking a bite of her eggs.
"Can we all agree this is a bit weird?"
"Ronald." Hermione and Ginny spoke at the same time.
"What?" He put his hands up, somewhat defensive. "Let's be honest here. There's a Slytherin at our table. And not just any Slytherin. Draco Malfoy. And he's dating one of our own. How is that not weird for anybody?"
Draco cleared his throat.
"Of course it's not normal-" Ginny began,
"But I think they're trying to make it as normal as possible." Neville finished.
Hermione smiled at Neville. At least someone seemed to understand. More than anything she wished she could give him a big thank-you-hug.
"I suppose it depends on your definition of normal, Ronald." Draco spoke up. Hermione's heart began to pound. Those two had never gotten along, and their tempers weren't tame by any means. If what Ron said set Draco off then this breakfast could turn into a bloody mess.
"What do you mean?"
"In a normal situation, as you call it, when two people fancy each other, a relationship naturally emerges. Differences are accepted, forgiven and/or appreciated. And that's just what's happened here."
Hermione beamed. Take that, Ron. Draco spoke so eloquently, and not once did he raise his voice. She was quite proud of him. Quite proud.
"I understand that, perfectly well. It's the why I get tripped up on."
"Come again?"
"Don't get us wrong, Hermione," Harry began, joining in on the conversation, "We're happy for you, truly. You two seem happy together, and that's great. That's the whole goal, if you will. What's…difficult to wrap our head around is, well…"
"Well go on, spit it out." Hermione snapped, rather annoyed.
"This is Draco Malfoy. The man who's called you a mudblood too many times to count. The one who tried to kill us. I mean really, have you forgotten that we were tortured in his manor? That he was a death eater?"
The entire hall fell silent to listen in. Harry's voice seemed to have raised unconsciously. Hermione looked over at Draco, he was sitting awkwardly, with a grimace locked on his face. Was he rubbing his arm?
"People change, Harry." Hermione's voice was cut and full of pauses, as though she had a stone stuck at the back of her throat. She could feel the blood rushing past her ears. This was not going to end well, she thought.
But then she felt a familiar touch. Draco wrapped his arm around Hermione's shoulder and smiled at the group. "Forgiveness is the best gift Hermione has given me." He said. Hermione looked up at him, her heart fluttering. Throughout all this, this horrible embarrassment he had remained calm, and kept his demeanor. He had certainly done a better job than she. Her face was about to burst, the awkwardness and confused anger bubbling out of her red cheeks.
"Forgiveness is the final form of love," Luna said in a voice like honey. "At least, that's what my father always says."
Draco smiled at her and took another bite from his plate. "I couldn't agree more, Luna."
Tensions seemed to even out at that point, and everyone continued merrily with their breakfast. Hermione's breathing slowly steadied as she continued to sip her pumpkin juice. Deep breath in, deep breath out. So maybe breakfast hadn't been so bad. It went relatively smoothly, she thought. It didn't stop her mind from buzzing with a million other thoughts though. How was it that her mind was always flying in multiple directions and Draco always managed to remain perfectly calm. Like a pool of water lying perfectly still.
As if on cue, Draco rested his hand on her thigh, almost as though he were silently telling her to relax. Hermione smiled and placed her hand on top of his. Yes, she thought, deep breaths. Time to relax and enjoy the moment.
Harry cleared his throat awkwardly, and opened his mouth, as though to speak. "It's clear Hermione thinks very highly of you Draco," he said carefully, "And any friend of Hermione is a friend of ours." The rest of the table joined him in an awkward round of head-nodding. "Seeing as there's no class today," he continued, "A few of us were going to hang around the lake this afternoon. You two should join us."
Draco looked to Hermione, waiting for her approval. She leaned in hesitantly, dropping her fork. "I'm not so sure, I was going to catch up on some reading later today-"
"Oh do come. It'll be great fun." Luna chirped.
"I'm not much of a swimmer-" Hermione's shoulders began to scrunch up.
"We'd love to." Draco chimed in.
"What?"
"Great." Harry beamed. Hermione knew he was trying his best to mend the issues between them, and she appreciated it greatly, truly; but this breakfast had already turned into more than she had bargained for. She wasn't sure if she could endure an entire afternoon out by the lake. Not to mention she really did have reading to catch up on. She didn't want to fall behind when they were so close to graduating. And then after an entire day of frolicking pointlessly around a lake, trying to keep tensions at bay, she would have to endure dinner with the Slytherin table. Lovely, she thought.
Draco nudged her. 'Smile' he mouthed.
How was it that he could always sense when her nerves were fried? He squeezed her knee lightly and she leaned in to him. A trip to the lake it was, then.
"Well that wasn't a complete disaster." Hermione groaned, rubbing her forehead.
"Chin up, it wasn't so bad." Draco insisted. She shot him a look of disbelief.
He rolled his eyes at her. "You haven't even had dinner yet with my table. And we have an entire afternoon to get through. Just try and enjoy it." Hermione sighed. "At least people are sort of beginning to understand."
"I don't care if no one ever understands. So long as it doesn't get in the way of us being us."
Hermione placed her hand on his cheek. "Never." She promised.
Suddenly her eyes got wide and her face got dark. "Your friends are going to hate me." Her voice resembled that of a chipmunk. Draco chuckled. "You worry too much."
"I can't help it." She argued. "How about you worry about things, one at a time. Like the lake, you can worry about that first to your hearts content."
She sighed. "You seem to be growing on them, it shouldn't be so bad."
Draco laughed, "I didn't mean that. You and cold water don't quite get along."
Hermione stuck her tongue out at him. "Don't you dare try anything funny. I won't have a rerun of the beach incident." Draco grinned sneakily. "Watch your back then, Granger."