All Is Fair
"In love and War"
All characters belong to J.K. Rowling, I did not own those characters or the original story/plot.
Four days till Draco would have to put up with the rest of the school. That was four days till he had to face everyone. Four days to see whether or not his own Slytherin brethren would return. And it was only yesterday that he sat and chatted with a Gryffindor. He chuckled at the thought. Only Hermione could somehow make something like that happen. He realised that in his thoughts, he noted her as a friend almost, which was quite strange since he hardly spent time with her. He realised a correction needed to be made there. He spent a lot of time with her, they were just never friendly. He knew her habits, how she thought, what she'd say almost every time and what things about her annoyed him, yet they were never really friends. And now he was thinking about that dynamic. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, so he thought it best to leave the emotions for another day.
There was a knock at the door.
"Yes?" Draco called. He didn't move from his bed.
"Draco?" it was Pansy's voice.
"What do you want?" he knew he had to be direct, otherwise she'd be lurking about his room all day. It wasn't entirely what he wanted right now. Perhaps tonight, but not now, and perhaps lurking wasn't the term for what he wanted.
"I heard whispers."
"Whispers?"
"From the portraits. Hermione Granger was here."
Draco didn't say a word.
"They said you were there. Talking to her."
"And?"
"And?!" Pansy shrieked, the door was wide open as she stepped inside and she stared desperately at him, "And she's not one of us!"
"Are you going to start chanting 'one of us' now Pansy?"
Draco sighed rolling off of his bed and getting up.
"Pansy?" he smirked as she stared at his pale muscular body, instead of answering his questions.
"Well if you have nothing to say, then I suppose this conversation is over and you should better leave."
He walked her over to the door.
She spun around, "no. Why was she here Draco? Did you let her in?"
"She wandered in."
"What does this mean Draco?"
"It means what it means; nothing."
"Nothing! Yeah right, we've never had a non-Slytherin in here, let alone a mud-blood."
"Let it go, Pansy."
"You're screwing her aren't you."
"Yeah, because that's totally what's going on."
"Don't play sarcastic with me!" she looked up at his eyes but he wasn't even look at hers, "Draco, I know your thoughts have changed after the war, I know you want to be more tolerant of, others, but seriously, Draco?"
He walked away from the door and grabbed a grey shirt to pull on.
"Draco, you're going to get us all in trouble. This is ridiculous!"
"In trouble? With who exactly? I don't have the dark lord breathing down my neck watching my every move. My mother has nothing to protect my from anymore and my father, my father is sitting at home, a failure, and a snitch. How are we possibly going to get in trouble here? How is being compassionate for once in our damn lives going to get us in trouble, Pansy?"
"You know what this house stands for. What will we all be if those beliefs are torn apart?"
"Well, then we'll stand for something new, won't we, Pansy?" he chuckled a little, "you can't possibly think that all we have is a house 'team' at a school, do you?"
"It's the only place we belong right now, Draco."
He slipped on some shoes, grabbed his wand, and walked right passed Pansy. She stared at his back as he swaggered off. Even from behind that shirt showed how muscular he was, and his arse wasn't too bad to look at either. At least that's where Pansy's mind trailed off to as he walked away.
Draco knew that today would end up being another day spent with Hermione. He left the dungeons and wandered around the castle. He felt that they would inevitably end up in the same place, and inevitably have to talk and cooperate as friends So why not get a head of the curve, come prepared and find her first. Draco knew that Hermione was probably thinking the same thing anyway. He found himself outside the library, like muscle memory. He had stopped fighting it at this point. He leaned against the door frame. Hermione was leaning against a book cart, one hand holding an open book, the other trying to create a spell. She looked up for a moment, saw Draco, then slipped. The book cart moved, she stumbled and her wand flicked, causing something to shoot out of it, hitting Draco's shoulder, then disappearing. Draco's hand went to his shoulder where his shirt now had a hole in it.
"You're getting clumsy, Granger."
"Malfoy," she found her ground, "w-what are you doing here?"
"What do you mean?"
"I uh," she shook her head, "nothing."
"Pansy was getting annoying; decided to go for a walk."
"Oh."
"Any of your Gryffindor mates find their way back to the common room yet?"
"Ah, yeah. Most of them are back, Seamus, Dean, Ginny, they're all staying there permanently now. So that's good."
"Didn't hear the weasels name."
"He's not back yet," she turned around and put the book she had on the cart.
"Oh?"
"He's just busy, I'm sure he'll be back soon," she turned to give Draco a smile.
"You seem hurt, Granger."
"We don't talk about my friends. That's off the table, remember?"
"I thought that was just for our, 'almost' conversation that day, not for the entirety of whatever this, truce, is."
"It's just, off the table."
"Whatever you say, Granger."
"Sorry."
Draco walked into the library and pulled himself up on the librarian's desk, as Hermione wheeled around the book cart to put some books back on the shelves nearest the front.
"What ever happened to those books I burnt?"
"I sorted them out."
"Oh."
Their conversation felt the same as yesterday. Small words, and moments of chatter, then silence.
"If this is how all of our conversations are going to be, then I'm not entirely sure why I decided to barter a truce," Hermione said suddenly, looking at Draco.
"Well, since you bartered it, where is our topic of conversation going to go, Granger."
"Uh," she looked up trying to think of something, "why did you come back to Hogwarts early?"
Draco tried to remember why he had decided that chit chat with anyone was a pleasant idea.
"Just, couldn't be at home any longer."
"Really? I thought you'd might want to stay, with your family, especially your mother. Harry told me all about how she lied to the dark lord just so she would know that you were still alive."
Draco clenched his jaw and looked down at his hands.
"Ah, maybe another subject then?" she said quickly, "didn't think it was going to rain yesterday."
"Mother doesn't exactly know what to do next. She's devoted her entire life to my father, her husband, and now he has no purpose. Voldemort is gone, and she feels free, she feels like she doesn't have to protect us, to protect me anymore. Every time my father did something wrong, I had to step up to the plate. My father was my hero, I looked up to him, I wanted to be him. My father made it look like he could solve anything, do anything, and he was highly regarded in the wizarding world. Now he's seen as a failure and a terrible follower, a coward," he paused, realising he had told Hermione much more than he had entirely admitted to himself, "it just didn't feel right there."
Hermione put the book she was holding back on the cart.
"What about you, Granger? Why aren't you with your parents?"
She chocked her a second. Her words didn't want to come out. She didn't entirely want to admit to anyone else that right now, she didn't exactly have a family.
"I obliviated them," she swallowed.
Draco looked at her.
"They aren't wizards. Y-you know that. If I had died in the war, what were they going to think? They'd just think that heir child had gone missing, it was just, better this way. They wouldn't have to go to any trouble, it was practical."
She looked up so that her eyes wouldn't water. She didn't exactly want to talk about it.
"I didn't realise," he said.
"No, it's fine," she smiled quickly.
"Well, this was a great conversation starter, Hermione."
He had said her name. Hermione barely noticed as she was thinking about her parents, but he had said her name. Almost as if it solidified an almost friendship between them.
"That rain definitely did come out of nowhere yesterday," he half smiled at her.
"Yeah, who would've thought," she smiled back, properly this time.
Ginny ran her hands through her hair as she headed down stairs into the common room. She noticed Hermione sitting on the floor by the fire, just watching the flames flicker. Hermione's hair was almost as wild as the fire itself, as she sat there with her robes holding her tightly. Ginny walked around the couch and sat down next to her. Ginny smiled at Hermione and Hermione smiled back.
"I know that I'm Ron's sister, and I probably shouldn't bad mouth him, but hey, I'm his sister so I kind of get that right, so I just wanted to say that this is pretty shitty."
"Thanks, Ginny," Hermione looked back at the fire.
Ginny and Hermione were definitely close friends. They'd been through a lot together, and Hermione helped Ginny wherever possibly, since Ron was her brother and Harry was what she was interested in, so there wasn't really anyone else more suiting to her situations than Hermione. However when it came to what Hermione needed advice with, Ginny wasn't always the best to go to, especially since Ron was her brother. It would just be weird if they were chatting about how Hermione was interested in Ron. Was. Hermione frowned. She'd used the term was instead of is. She was already thinking that it was over.
"You okay, Hermione?"
"I'm fine, Ginny. You know me."
"I should've gotten him to say something, even just send an owl, I don't know. It just kind of sucks. I'm really sorry."
"Ginny, it's fine. You don't need to apologise about anything, I'm not wallowing."
There was a brief silence.
"Hermione?"
"Yes, Ginny.
"I saw you talking to, Malfoy, in the library today."
Hermione didn't reply.
"And Dean said he saw you and, Malfoy, at The Three Broomsticks."
Hermione continued to stare at the fire.
"I just, wanted to know if everything was alright, that's all."
"I told you, Ginny, everything's fine. We just wanted to solidify a kind of truce. None of us want Slytherins and Gryffindors to be fighting in the hallway, now do we?"
"I guess not."
"We've all been through a lot. We just wanted to find a way to make it easier."
"It's just, it seemed like, more than just that."
"More?"
"I mean, no one heard your conversations, so I don't exactly know what you guys were talking about, it's just, the way you guys looked at each other in the library it-"
"We were just talking about the after effects of the war. What's come of different families. It's just an emotional subject is all."
"Oh," Ginny laughed a little, "that makes sense."
Hermione wondered why she'd all of a sudden become defensive when Ginny brought up that there was anything else between her and Draco. She knew there wasn't. That would be silly.
"Well, Ron will be back in four days. I don't think he'd be too happy to know that you've made friends with, Malfoy. We might not be at war anymore but I don't think Ron will care all too much."
"Well he'll just have to deal with it won't he."
"Yeah, that's going to be hilarious to see."
"Ginny?"
"Yeah?"
Hermione paused, "Do you think that Harry and you are, it? Do you think it'll be you guys, no one else?"
"Are you asking if I think that perhaps will get married and have kids one day?"
"Yeah."
"I'd hope so. I've had a crush on him since, well, forever. You know that. I'm not letting this one go."
Hermione smiled.
"I'd probably have to let him name our kids though."
They chuckled a little.
Hermione liked that Ginny was so certain. She knew exactly what she wanted, and she was always determined. Hermione thought she wanted Ron. When Ron went out with Lavender, Harry had to comfort her, because that's all she wanted when it came to romances, she never thought about anyone else. But now it had gotten to a point where she barely even thought about wanting Ron, she just occasionally thought about him. It felt like it was already over, and barely anything had begun. It was trivial, and perhaps he didn't feel the same but, Hermione didn't like all this waiting. She had been patient for so long. Four more days, she told her self. It was four more days until he came back to Hogwarts, when classes will begin again. She should be able to wait it out for four days and see what has become of them, but then again, she didn't know if she could wait four more days instead of just completely letting go.