First year
Turned out a lot of the first years shared classes together so he had seen her around plenty of times. This particular day in transfiguration, she had arrived a bit late and the only seat left was next to him. He barely paid attention to her when she sat down; he was not yet tainted with the need to bully everyone.
Unfortunately, he was forced to interact with her when McGonagall insisted the class work together on an assignment together.
"I'm Hermione Granger," she said perkily, extending her small hand out to him.
Draco was about to shake her hand when he noticed the pin on her robes. "Gryffindor?" he asked with a scoff.
Startled, Hermione stared at the pin and then looked back to him. "And you are Slytherin," she said in a somewhat unsure voice. "Is there something wrong?"
"What? Your parents never told you about Hogwarts, and how Slytherins and Gryffindors hate each other?"
"My parents did not go here." She said sheepishly.
"Where did they go then?"
"They're not magical."
Immediately, Draco frowned. "So you're a muggle born?"
Hermione nodded, trying not to let his tone affect her. She learned early on at Hogwarts that a "muggle" was a non-magical person. A couple of people had told her it was not a big deal that she was muggle born, but clearly her partner thought something of it. She hoped it wouldn't be difficult working with him.
Draco sighed, cursing his luck that he had to work with a muggle born for the day. She probably did not know a thing about magic. "Watch how you wave that thing." He sneered at her as she practiced trying to transfigure a leaf into a piece of paper.
"I know what I'm doing."
"Sure you do," he scoffed, making sure to keep an eye on her wand.
Hermione brushed his comment off and continued to try the spell two more times, only to fail. "What am I doing wrong?" she wondered, and glanced back at their course book.
"Here, I'll show you how it's done." Draco said, pointing his wand at the leaf. However, it did not work for him either. He slumped in his chair unhappily and muttered something about how boring the class was.
"Oh, I know!" Hermione said suddenly. Smiling, she raised her wand and spun the leaf in a clockwise position before reciting the incantation. After a moment, the green leaf began to slowly change into a parchment inch by inch. Hermione's smile grew wider as Draco gasped.
"But you- you-"
"I told you I could do it!" Hermione said gleefully and left to go show McGonagall at the front of the classroom.
McGonagall smiled at the girl. "5 points to Gryffindor!" she announced to the class. Hermione hadn't made any friends yet, so it wasn't a surprise to her when only a few people clapped. "You can go practice the next spell, Ms. Granger." McGonagall said.
Draco sulked and consulted the book Hermione had been reading. Sure enough it said having an object in motion made it much easier to transfigure it. He stared at the annoying, bushy-haired girl as she made her way back to sit next to him again. He was sure muggleborns were useless. They had less magic in their family so they could not be as powerful as purebloods. So how come this one knew exactly what to look for and exactly what to do?
His father had told him strong magic was only for the most pure of blood. But he could clearly see that this muggleborn witch in front of him was as strong as any pureblood. She was born to be a witch and though he had only seen her perform one spell, he knew she could probably perform any spell he could.
"Why don't you try?" The bushy-hair girl asked, taking her seat next to Malfoy.
"I don't want to." Draco said stubbornly. He hated when he was beaten at a task. He was smart, he knew he was. But this girl made him feel like second best. He hated her.
"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you're giving up already."
Draco straightened at her taunt. "Malfoys don't give up."
"Well then try the spell, Malfoy. What are you waiting for?"
Draco dramatically sighed and rolled up his sleeves. He spun the leaf as well before reciting the incantation. As expected, it began to turn into a paper as well.
"Good," Hermione said, already looking in her book for another spell.
"You weren't even watching." He frowned.
Hermione met his eyes for a moment and smirked. "I didn't know you needed recognition from a Gryffindor."
Draco's mouth almost fell open. "I do not." He argued.
Hermione shrugged. "I knew you could do the spell. Now, come off your high horse Malfoi. How about you try this spell?"
This time, Draco's mouth did fall open. He couldn't remember the last time someone mispronounced his name. "It's Malfoy! With a 'y'!"
"Alright fine. Malfoy. Now try the spell."
Draco recited the words to himself slowly. It was a spell that changed the color of the ink in a book. "Seems easy enough." Draco said, pointing his wand.
"No! Not my book," Hermione suddenly exclaimed, snatching her book off of the table. "This was autographed by Marlene Beatrice herself!"
"So what?" Draco asked. "It's just a book."
Hermione glared at him. "Yeah and the way I pronounced your name means nothing either."
Eventually they tried the spell on another paper, and even tried it on the chalkboard at the front of the class. It worked every time and by the time class was over, Draco was finding it hard trying to hold back his smile or teasing Hermione. Even though she was a muggleborn, she was intelligent and humorous.
"Why are you making friends with a Gryffindor?" His friend Blaise asked, walking next to Draco.
"We were not friends." Draco said immediately. "Who wants to be friends with a pompous, self-righteous, Gryffindor?"
"Looks like you two were getting along closely."
"We were working that's all. I'm humiliated as it is having to work with a muggle's child. You don't have to rub it in my face."
"She's a mudblood?" Blaise asked, eyeing Hermione. "No wonder. She was probably confused and asking for help with everything, right?"
First, he wanted to defend her. Hermione was a very bright young lady who had mastered a transfiguration spell before him. But he knew that if said that to Blaise, he would never live it down. Was that worth defending a mudblood?
In the end, Draco nodded and laughed with Blaise. She was clearly going to be a good witch one day. But that didn't mean Blaise had to know that.
Present
It was some time in the afternoon when there was a light knock at his door and Draco reluctantly got up to open the door. It was almost lunch time and he did not want to start a new project at the moment. He was about to open the door and tell his coworker to come back in another hour when he saw Hermione – who was definitely not a coworker. "Granger," he said, surprise clearly etched on his face. "Didn't expect you back so soon,"
"Sorry about the other day." She said, following him inside. "I know I over-reacted a bit." Draco smirked but did not comment. He could tell she had something to get off of her chest and agreeing with her would not help. "This is going to take some getting used to," Hermione said, trying not to let the room suffocate her like it had yesterday. Maybe she could get Malfoy to discuss this elsewhere. "You've done this with a lot of people right?"
Draco nodded. "Along with a whole team of others,"
"Okay, well I – there's been some unsteadiness with my magic," Hermione said, remembering what happened with Elena. "It does not seem to respond well to emotional stress and I'm wondering whether it's an emotional response or something else."
"When anything goes wrong, it's always the female overly emotional side to blame, Granger." He said, this time not being able to hold back a comment.
"Ha ha," she said drily, rolling her eyes. "Is my unsteadiness in magic a bad thing? Have I not used it for too long and messed something up?"
Draco shook his head. "No, it's usually not that serious. I'm sure you remember back when we were just children at Hogwarts – we were all unstable with our magic. Did you try any specific spells?"
"No, I didn't try any spells at all." Hermione said and wondered what to say about what happened.
Draco waited for her to say more but it seemed like she would need some coaxing to open up. He wondered how long it had been since she'd properly talked to someone about her problems. "So what makes you think your magic is unstable?"
"I was talking with someone yesterday and I don't know – it was like a flood of magic surged through me and I could feel my palms getting hotter. And I couldn't control it," she said, her gaze shifting around the room.
"And then?"
"Then I got hit by a car," Hermione said flatly.
"What?" he asked, sitting up a bit straighter. His first response was to ask her if she was okay and something in Draco's blood boiled that someone had hit her. But judging by her appearance, he assumed it was not serious.
"It's nothing," Hermione casually brushed off. "I've been through worse."
Draco opened his mouth to argue, but decided against it and instead brought out her file. They weren't friends anymore. There was no reason he should be more worried about her accident than her. "If you say so, Granger. Now back to your magic, when witches and wizards first get their magic it's normal for an uncontrolled reaction to stress. But it would be ideal for you to rehabilitate your magic through our program here."
He knew that she was still wary about the idea of this program, and he did not want to force her. However, he also wanted her to be integrated as soon as possible so that she could get her magic under control so that it would not be a danger to anyone.
"I still don't know if I really want to keep my magic." She said quietly.
Draco laughed. "You're a witch, Granger. I know your blood is singing with the joy of being able to practice again. Why would you possibly not want it?"
"I have my reasons," she said icily, looking like she was ready to bolt his office again.
"Granger, hundreds of people like you gave up their magic after the war. I know you had your own reasons and the hundreds of people had their own, but the thing is you all came back to accept it again. Why would you come back if you had no intention of keeping it?"
"I have my reasons," Hermione said again.
"Why don't you try a spell?" Draco asked, not knowing how else to convince such a peculiarly stubborn witch.
"No thank you," Hermione said, balling her hands into fists.
"Why not?" Draco challenged. "You were born to be a witch. Why aren't you embracing it?"
"Malfoy I do not want to talk about this."
"Try a spell," Draco said, standing in front of her. He searched her eyes, knowing the determined, creative witch he had grown up with was still in there somewhere. "Try one on me."
"No."
"You don't miss it?" he asked.
"Miss what?" Hermione asked, wishing he would stop looking at her like that – like he knew her.
"Magic." He said simply. "You don't miss the feeling of it and the thrill of it?"
"No," Hermione said quietly even though her palms itched with the memory of using magic.
"You can't seriously sit here and tell me you don't miss magic." He said incredulously. Hermione crossed her arms in defiance but didn't answer, and Draco could hear through her silence what she wouldn't admit. "You're telling me you don't miss the thing you were born to do? You don't miss the power that came with knowing that you could create something out of nothing? That you can do what hundreds of thousands of muggles only dream about?"
"No," she insisted, but Draco had a feeling she did not mean it. He knew something in her was itching to be used to its full potential. And he'd be dammed if he had the opportunity to help a powerful and fully capable witch but did not do everything he could. He knew she wanted to use magic; he just had to make her realize what she really wanted.
"You're telling me you don't remember being an excited little muggle-born and completing your first spell?"
"No."
"You don't remember, or you don't want to remember?" At this question, Hermione crossed her arms stubbornly. "Granger."
"Malfoy." By now she had stood up too and they were both glaring at each other, only an arm's length away. There was a thick tension in the air and Draco was sure that if he touched her hands, he would see red sparks shooting out of them.
"Why don't you follow me?" Draco said, suddenly getting an idea. Though she was thoroughly confused at his behavior, Hermione was pleased at the idea of getting out his office and accepted his offer as he held the door open for her.
"Where are we going?" Hermione asked when they got off of the elevator.
"You'll see," he said, lightly resting his hand on her back to guide her through the crowd of people on the Ministry's first floor. Hermione wanted to push away from him because the sparks shooting up her back from where he was touching her surprised her. Malfoy's touch should've been just that – a simple touch. But she couldn't shake off the feeling that it wasn't.
Draco led her into an office building and flashed his ID at the secretary who waved them down the hall. Some of the halls disappeared into thin air when Draco passed by them and Hermione's gut clenched. Draco was right – she was a witch and this was in her blood. But that didn't mean this was the right decision. Who knew she wouldn't regret this one day in the future?
When they arrived in a white hallway, they stopped at the first door at their right and Draco pulled a key out of thin air to open the door.
"Was that a cloaking spell?" Hermione asked, referring to the key. "And where are we?"
"No, it was more of a spell that broke this key into nothingness – just free floating atoms. A bit like when we apparate. But there's a counter incantation that can be used to undo it, and bring back the key in its full form by only those with permission to."
Hermione was clearly surprised and Draco smirked, knowing exactly how she would react to new magic. He led her into a room which was actually a lobby to another building. Hermione knew magic could create extra space, but this building was connected to an entirely different one. "How-?" she asked, but Draco simply smirked.
"You've missed out on a lot, Granger." He said, and finally they arrived at another room. He opened the door for her and Hermione faced a room that had shelves lined with books. There were several people with their heads tucked in books and the room was decorated with ancient ruins all over the walls. Most people were sitting down or looking around and not using magic. Draco could see Hermione visibly relax.
"Where are we?" Hermione asked, stepping up to a shelf and examining it. Each shelf was about 10 feet tall and 3 times as longer across, with seven rows from the floor to the ceiling. Each row contained about 10 books and Draco could practically see the need in Hermione's eyes to examine every bit of information available to her.
"This the Ministry's new Malfoy research library." At Hermione's alarmed look, Draco laughed. "Joking about the Malfoy part, don't worry. All around you are documents of experimental potions and spells; complete and incomplete. The Ministry realized how important every piece of magic is to us and spent a large amount of time documenting wizarding history and everything that we can do."
"Everything?" Hermione asked, a little bit breathless.
"Well, almost everything." He said with a shrug. "Dark Arts stuff isn't kept here, and experimental documents are only signed off on when a trial is complete. There are experiments that have not been recorded yet simply because they are not done." He followed behind her as she walked to another shelf and read the titles of each folder aloud. "But this is quite a lot in itself." He said, watching a smile beginning to form on Hermione's face. "Don't tell me you do not want to be a part of this, Granger."
Hermione gulped, eyes pouring over the book in her hands. She could be a part of this. She could do this. Magic was not as volatile as she had imagined it to be. Maybe she could work in medicine again, this time with magic. The possibilities were endless if she just opened up to the idea.
"What do you say?" Draco asked, his hand tracing over the spine of the book in Hermione's hands and inevitably running his fingers down her hand.
Hermione's eyes shot up to his and he stared at her back – his icy eyes challenging her to withdraw. "Okay," she said, snapping the book shut and pulling her hand away. "I'll enroll in this rehabilitation program."
A/N: I appreciate everyone's interest in this story. The new semester starts soon so I think I can only do about two updates a month. Also don't you guys love the idea of baby Draco and Hermione?