Opposite Attractions: A standard by BananaCarrot-five

September 1995

It wasn't supposed to be this way. He was supposed to hate her, he was raised to hate her and her kind. His beliefs dictated that she was inferior to anybody. However, late one night, he saw her stretching in the library, a stack of books next to her, and my god was she beautiful.

He turned away, but it was too late. That image of her was burnt in his mind. He wanted to talk to her, to be friends with her, he wanted to be able to think of her with happy thoughts in his mind, however the ever so real walls of reality crashed down upon his vision quicker than he could blink. He sulked off to his Common Room to avoid staring at her again.

Little did he know she caught him staring.

One week later

It was late at night, and Draco was walking through the halls of Hogwarts, again. He had fought with himself all week, whenever he saw her, and he had fought the urge to walk back inside the library again.

However, he stopped short. He heard the sounds of a scratching quill and the tired sigh of her. He couldn't resist and walked into the library. The lights were out, and the only light was the moonlight filtering in from the windows and the candle on her desk. He slotted himself back into the same spot from last week and stood there. She looked tired. He jumped out his skin when suddenly, she spoke.

"Come out of there, Draco. There are better hiding spots in here."

She had spoken, and she didn't call him "Malfoy" or "Ferretface." She called him by name. He slowly emerged from his spot, and the two had locked eyes.

"Hermione."

Hermione motioned her head for him to sit down. Draco did this, and once again the two were staring at each other. After several minutes, Hermione coughed and shook herself, going back to work.

The silence between them remained for a while. Draco kept looking between her paper and her face, and occasionally glanced at her hands. After about ten minutes, Hermione tossed down her quill and looked up at Draco.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked, exhausted.

Draco thought quickly but couldn't come up with anything. "I don't know."

Hermione processed this and then asked, "If you don't know then why are you here?"

Hermione could see that he was trying to say something and waited. After about a minute of Draco fighting with himself, he spoke. "I like you. I'm not supposed to, but I do."

Hermione was shocked. After the shock wore off, the suspicion arose. "How do I know your father hasn't put you up to this? To woo the heart of mine to then simply use me for your gain?"

Draco shook his head violently. "No, no! My dad would kill me if he even knew I was talking to you without insulting you! He's forbidden me to talk to you any other way, but... I can't."

Hermione thought for a minute before speaking. "If you are genuine, I will take your word for it. However, don't play me for a fool. If you do something to me, I won't be afraid to tell Harry about it, and then it becomes your problem."

Draco remained silent as Hermione packed up her bags and books. She stood up and started walking away. Before she exited, she turned around.

"Three days, same time?" Draco turned to look at her and nodded. Hermione nodded herself. "Goodnight, Draco."

November 1995

"You're here," Draco remarked.

"That I am," Hermione responded.

Draco took a deep breath. "How is Potter?"

"He has a name, dammit," Hermione snapped.

"Fine, Harry. How is he?"

"I don't know. Umbridge is a real toad. How do you stand her?"

Draco sighed. "My father told me to join. He is bribing the Minister of Magic to keep her here. I don't know why."

"It's because Harry saw You-Know-Who last year, and Fudge didn't believe him. What do you think all the newspapers have been on about this summer?" Hermione glared at Draco as he shrugged.

"I don't know, I don't bother reading them. It's a waste of time." Draco looked around before looking back at Hermione. "Do you want to sit?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. I don't know how much longer I can do this for, Draco. Harry and Ron are beginning to suspect something whenever I leave the Common Room now. We'll have to meet after hours or less frequently."

Draco took a step towards her. "So, they don't know about us?"

Hermione glanced up at him; he was about a foot away from her now. "No, they don't. And I want it to stay that way. They hate your father. They will hate me if they learn I'm spending time with you. I-" she cut herself off.

"You what?" Draco asked.

"I... might...like you too."

Draco had to process this. Between the secret meetings, everything with Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad, even when her best friends hated his father, Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor Princess liked him back.

Draco broke out into a genuine smile and pulled Hermione towards him, wrapping his arms around her tightly. Her sudden yelp turned into a calm humming noise as she reciprocated.

"What the hell!?"

Both Hermione and Draco jumped apart and turned to the voice, their faces full of shock and horror.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed in a high pitch voice.

"You're kidding me, right? Out of all people to sneak off to see, its Draco bloody Malfoy?" Harry exclaimed.

"Hey! You haven't spent time with him! I have, and he happens to be a great person!" Hermione exclaimed, grabbing Draco's hand and glaring at Harry.

"Be it as that may be, you do understand that I still hate him with every fiber of my being, right? For Merlin's sake, Hermione, his father tried to kill me last year? Or have you forgotten that I told you about the graveyard, like everybody else in this world?"

"I'll leave you two be then," Draco stated, before releasing Hermione's hand.

"Stop," Harry commanded. He turned to Hermione. "We have to talk in the Common Room. Tonight. I want to talk to Draco, alone."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "Give me your wand then. You'll get it back in the Common Room."

Harry took a breath before silently handing his wand to Hermione. She exited the library, giving Draco a "See you later" look.

It was eerily quiet between Harry and Draco. Harry rubbed his eyes and looked at Draco. "I have one thing to say to you. If you do anything to her, so much as touch her shoulder when she doesn't want you to do it, so help me Merlin, I will end you faster than you can say 'My father will hear about this." Hermione is my best friend. Do not give me an opportunity to hate you even more than I already do. Consider this a truce between us. Goodnight, Draco."

Harry turned away and walked out of the library without another word, leaving Draco with his thoughts.

Draco had one thought running through his head: Don't mess anything up with Hermione. He had no intention of ruining the best thing that had ever happened to him, and if that meant receiving threats and ultimatums from Potter, so be it. Hermione was worth it.

THC 10 Round 7

House: Ravenclaw

Class: Ancient Runes

Category: Standard

Word Count:1,243

Prompts: [Character] Draco Malfoy, [Location] Hogwarts Library

Warnings/Disclaimers: None