Thank you so much for all your kind reviews! Please enjoy chapter three and expect more soon :-)
"You're barking if you're telling me you had a lovely time with the dungeon bat," Ron said with a playful shove, despite Hermione asking him a hundred times not to do that.
"Ronald Weasley, if you push me again I will hex you into next week! And for your information, it was perfectly fine and his name is Professor Snape, not dungeon bat. Honestly, he's not that bad." Hermione grumbled, straightening her uniform.
Harry rolled his eyes, tramping alongside his best friends. "Come off it, Ron. She's happier than I've seen her in weeks. Even if it is from hanging out with a snakey piece of shit like Snape."
Hermione groaned, pushing past the two boys to stride her way into the great hall. The smell of breakfast sent waves of nausea rolling through her, a phenomenon developed over the summer, much to Mrs. Weasley's dismay. She kept her head down as she walked towards her usual spot at the well-worn Gryffindor table. She didn't notice the potion master's obsidian gaze, tracking her every move, from her hands tangled in her hair or her trembling fork.
"Granger."
Hermione whipped around, brandishing her fork with an expert hand to face her attacker. A bemused Draco Malfoy stood before her, pushing aside her fork with a lazy hand.
"What the hell do you want?" She spat.
"Professor Snape has asked me to escort you to your next class," Draco said wearily, ignoring the iron hot stare of the boy who lived, who was currently stabbing a sausage with his fork.
"Escort me? I can get there myself just fine, thank you."
"I'm sure you can, Granger. Unfortunately for the both us, he's rather convinced that you can't" Draco replied.
"Why?" Hermione insisted, glaring Malfoy down, her chestnut eyes ablaze.
"I don't know Granger. I am merely following instructions. Don't go off thinking I'm pleased." Draco said with a smirk.
Ron stood up, placing a heavy hand on Hermione's shoulder, who grimaced at the weight of his sweaty palm. "Listen mate, she's not going anywhere with you. Tell Snape we'll be the ones escorting her," He said, giving Draco his best menacing look, sneer unfamiliar and awkward beneath his mask of freckles.
"I don't need anyone to escort me!" Hermione shrieked, grabbing her bag and shoving Ron off of her.
"Where are you going, 'Mione? You didn't eat anything!" Ron called after her, heart sinking as he watched her disappear from the Great Hall, curls bouncing with each stomp of her foot.
Draco rolled his eyes and took off after her, doing his best not to break into a run. She was fast for a girl. "Granger! Wait a minute!"
Hermione refused to stop, speeding towards the courtyard. Tears streamed down her round cheeks, stinging and too hot. At the sound of Draco's thin voice, visions of the ministry swam in her head, flashes of light, shards of glass spilt on the rough stone floor, Harry screaming, Bellatrix's laughter so sharp in her ears it was almost as she loomed over her shoulder.
Draco finally caught up to her, resting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. "You're bloody quick, you know that? Might want to join quidditch with legs like that."
Hermione didn't respond, collapsing onto a stone bench and hiding her face in her thick curtain of hair. The air was still, save for Malfoy's gasping breath and the quiet sniffles emitting from Hermione.
"You alright Granger?" Draco stepped as close as he dared. watching her balled fists out of the corner of his eye. He'd rather not have another repeat of third year if he could avoid it.
"Shove off Malfoy. You're the last person in the world I want to see right now," Hermione muttered, breathing in the salt and vanilla smell of her hair, trying to find an ounce of comfort to hold onto.
Draco sat down gingerly, taking care to keep at least a foot between them. "Are you crying?" He asked quietly, keeping his eyes trained on the dance of the hedges in the early morning breeze.
"Obviously," Hermione said, peeking out at him.
Draco rummaged around in his robes before pulling out a perfectly pressed handkerchief, his initials gleaming emerald on the corner. He pressed it into her palm, letting his thin fingers rest atop hers for a moment. "I'm not here to bully you, Granger."
Hermione laughed, meekly patting her cheeks with his handkerchief. "Why not? That's the only thing you ever do."
Draco sighed, pinching the delicate skin between his eyebrows before replying,"I know. I, well-I know apologizing will do anything but I'd like to try." He watched Hermione carefully, trying to gauge her expression. No luck there. "I had no right to hurt you. I was cruel to you. I'm sorry."
"That's it? You call me mudblood for the last six years, terrorize my friends, threaten us and that's all you have to say?" Hermione spat, turning to face him with shaking fists.
"It's not enough, I know. I don't really know where to start. My idiotic godfather wants me to be kinder to you and I want to do that." Draco wrung his hands in his lap, refusing to look at her.
"Your godfather?" Hermione asked.
"Snape. That's why he wanted me to walk you to class."
Hermione frowned. Snape was Draco's godfather? Interesting. "Let me get this straight. So you want to be friends all the sudden because Snape asked you, when just two weeks ago you broke Harry's nose? If you're trying to tell me you've changed, you're doing a godawful job of it."
"Potter was spying on me. I had to teach him a lesson," Draco said carefully.
Hermione snorted, straightening her skirt. "Listen, Malfoy. If you really want to be better, be kinder to me or whatever it is Snape has convinced you to do, you will never call anyone mudblood again, you will apologize to Ron and Harry, and stop being such an arsehole all the time."
Draco grimaced at the thought of apologizing to his archnemesis but thought better of it. It wasn't like he had any friends left anyway. Not that they'd really be friends. Can't exactly imagine opening up to the Gryffindor Princess about his feeble plan to murder their headmaster and then having tea after. "Right. I'll do that."
Hermione raised her eyebrows. "I'll believe it when I see it. Now I've got to get to Arithmancy. Are you coming?"
Draco nodded, outstretching his arm to pull her to her feet. Hermione stared at it, like the moment she touched him he would turn into a writhing pile of snakes. The way her nightmares were lately, she wouldn't be surprised. Eventually she took it, swaying a little as she got back on her feet. Up close, Draco didn't look like the usual portrait of blood aristocracy. Instead, his skin was almost grey, the skin beneath his cool grey eyes an alarming shade of lavender. Maybe Snape could clue her in on all this weird behavior, if she didn't kill him first.
They walked in silence, the halls roaring with whispers as Gryffindors and Slytherins alike took in the sight of the unlikely pair. Draco glared at them while Hermione took pains to appear oblivious, desperate to avoid any more attention. Half the time she was making plans to disappear or live in the forbidden forest just to escape the looks of concerns and occasional malice. Draco didn't seem bothered, puffing out his chest and nodding to a bewildered Professor McGonagall as they passed.
She looks as exhausted as I do, Draco thought to himself, taking in the blotchy cheeks and disheveled uniform of his former foe. What had happened to Hermione Granger? The perfectly put together, overachiever, fireball that had annoyed him for five years was gone, replaced with an equally hot-tempered girl, but she carried an immense sadness with her, evident in the stoop of her shoulders and swollen eyes. Whatever it was, he'd figure it out. Snape would kill him if he didn't. He hardly expected to live past the end of the year anyway.