He turned to face her, his trademark smirk on his pale face.
“What d’you want?”
Just as I thought Hermione thought bitterly, He hates me.
“Well, are you going to answer my question?” Malfoy asked, his silver-blue eyes glinting.
“Which one?” Hermione asked innocently.
“Both of them.”
“Fine, not that it is any of your business. Yes, I am going to answer your question and I was taking a walk.”
“Oh.” Malfoy seemed lost for words.
“What about you?”
“Thinking. I come out her most mornings.”
Why does she have to be so beautiful? Malfoy wondered to himself. But it’s not like it matters, because she hates me.
“Well, I guess I’ll be going now.” Hermione turned to walk away.
“No!” Malfoy blurted out. “I want to talk to you.”
Hermione’s heart lurched. She turned around and walked closer to the boulder. “So? What do you want?” Hermione tried her best to keep her cool.
“Like I said before, I come out here to think. And, well, lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’ve been treating you for all these years. I mean for 6 years I’ve been mean and hateful. So, I just wanted to say sorry and can we be friends?”
“Oh, of course we can be friends!” Hermione decided she sounded a little too enthusiastic but didn’t care.
“Cool, I was hoping you’d say that. One more thing, please call me Draco. I’m not proud to be a Malfoy and I hate being called that.”
“Ok, as long as you call me Hermione.”
Draco scooted over on the rock to make room for Hermione, who say cross-legged next to him, carefully placing her skirt so nothing showed.
The new friends were silent for a while. Draco broke the silence. “I’ve always wondered what you are really like, you know.”
“What d’you mean?” Hermione asked, confused.
“Well, what kind of music you like, what kind of books you read, I mean not counting text books and Hogwarts, A History.”
At that comment they both started laughing uncontrollably.
When she was finally able to regain her composure, Hermione replied, “Well, I do like the Weird Sisters, but at home I listen to Muggle groups and stuff.”
“Oh, I guess I wouldn’t recognize any of them.”
“What about you?”
“I, personally, can’t stand the Weird Sisters. I like The Neglected. They are one of the less known bands, but are really cool.”
“No, you’re right, I don’t recognize them.”
Their conversation went on like this for a while until Draco looked at his watch.
“It’s getting late, I’ve got to go. I guess we’ll talk later?”
“Yeah, bye.”
Hermione watched as Draco walked back to the castle. She was disappointed that he had to leave, but couldn’t help smiling. Well that’s one stop further!
Just as she turned away and looked out into the lake, Draco turned back to face her, from afar. Oh, how her loved the way she corrected Potty and the Weasel and the way she knew the answer to every question asked. I’m now one step closer to getting what I want. Hermione.
The Great Hall was all hustle and bustle as usual. Hermione had finally come into the castle after sitting on “Draco’s Rock” (yes, she had taken the liberty to name it) for over and hour.
She slid into a seat between Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table and looked around her. Not only were there Gryffindors seated at the table, but Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and even a couple Slytherins. On weekends, they were aloud to sit at any of the house tables. This was because of a new idea Dumbledor came up with (which he called Mingle and Mix, but would be more appropriately described if it was called Hex and Hit) to help “improve house unity.” What he didn’t realize though was that although it did give students a chance to talk to friends in other houses, but most of the time was spent insulting and trying to hurt people they didn’t like. Needless to say, this was one of Dumbledor’s less brilliant ideas.
A few weeks ago, Harry had finally gotten up the nerve to ask Ginny out. She accepted the offer immediately. They seemed to be off in their own little world at the moment so Hermione decided not to bother them.
“Hermione?” Ron was finally finished stuffing his face. “Have you seen Luna?”
“Oh, is Ickle Ronnikins sad because his girlfriend isn’t here?” Hermione teased.
“Shut up, Hermione!” Ron’s ears turned red. He was still embarrassed about having asked Luna out.
“Hey, Ron, sorry I’m late!” Luna slid into the seat on Ron’s other side.
“Morning, Lune.” Ron said after giving her a quick good morning kiss.
“Ah,” Luna sighed looking over at Harry and Ginny, who were currently deep in what seemed like, a romantic conversation (yes, at the breakfast table) “True love is completely wonderful, is it not? Just overwhelming!”
“Yeah, whatever, I gotta go.” With that Hermione got up from the table and left the Great Hall.
*That Night*
Hermione’s diary
April 4
Dear Diary,
I think I love him! I go to talk to him today, as a friend not Granger the Mudblood. And he asked me if we could be friends. I said yes, of course.
I would say more, but it’s late and I should go to bed. I won’t want to have big bags under my eyes tomorrow!
“Oh, no!” Harry groaned the next morning. “It’s double Potions with the Slytherins.”
“Snape and Malfoy for two hours!” Ron added with just as much (if not more) disgust than Harry.
“Oh, lighten up, it won’t be that bad.” Hermione said.
“Did you hear me? I said ‘SNAPE AND MALFOY FOR TWO HOURS’” Ron put more emphasis on his complaint.
“Yes I heard you.”
Harry and Ron just stared at her, mouths hanging open, in shock.
“Do we need to take you to the psychiatric ward at St. Mungo’s?” Ron finally offered.
“No, I just thought we should be more…mature about this. I mean we are going to graduate next year.” Hermione was quick to cover up her mistake.
“Ok…whatever.” Harry was still unsure how to react.
“Let’s go, wouldn’t want to upset Snape!” Hermione said all too cheerfully.
The trio went through the maze of dungeons before arriving at Snape’s classroom, right on time.
“Sit down!” he said coldly when they walked into the room. “Today,” he addressed the class, “We will be making a Pure Potion. Few of you will succeed, but you must try, yes even you Longbottom. Directions are on the board and ingredients in the supply closet. Begin.”
Draco didn’t start right away.
Hermione hurried to the supply closet to begin her potion. Across the room, someone was watching.
“Mr. Malfoy, kindly begin your potion.” Snape said.
“Yes, sir.” He mumbled and headed to the supply closet.
A/N Please review. Oh, and watch out for the next chapter. I'm submitting it right now.