Harry looked at him and shrugged, then continued working on his potion.
‘She won’t even look at me! I guess Potter meant it when he said he wasn’t going to force her to listen,’ Draco thought.
Draco couldn’t understand why it hurt so much, or where for that matter the pain was coming from. He had never been friends with Hermione and he knew she had hated him on previous occasions, so why was this time different?
‘Ha! Tonight is going to be wonderful,’ he thought sarcastically.
Tonight was Hermione’s night to patrol the corridors but because of Dumbledore’s little announcement, Draco would be joining her.
With a sigh, Draco stopped looking at her; which he had been doing all class trying to mentally will her to look at him, and half heartedly continued working on his potion.
*~*~*~*~
It was taking all her resolve not to turn, look him directly in the eye, and curse him into a million pieces.
‘I hate him!’ she thought as she threw the next ingredient into her potion causing it to splash a bit on the floor.‘AH! Nothing will go right will it!?’ she thought angrily as she cleaned up the spilled potion with a wave of her wand.
She knew that tonight she would have to walk the corridors with Draco, and she was planning on making it absolute hell for him.
‘After all, he deserves it, doesn’t he?’ She cursed herself for letting her hopefulness get in the way of her anger. It didn’t hurt so much when she was angry.
‘Harry has been acting strange. He hasn’t said one foul thing about Draco since that day. And Draco has been equally strange! He hasn’t called me a Mudblood all week.’
The bell rang to signal the end of classes, and Hermione packed up her things and left with Harry and Ron. Now that Hermione had taken to calling Draco every foul name she could think of Ron took it as an apology and started talking to them again.
“So you have to patrol with the ferret tonight,” Ron said with a gleam of hatred in his eye. “You want me to come so I can hex him?”
As much as she wanted to hex Draco herself, she had decided without telling anyone, not even Harry, that she was going to try to at least confirm for sure that what Draco had said was true.
“No thanks Ron. It’s ok. Plus you already had a patrol night this week,” Hermione answered.
“Yeah, that’s true.”
They entered the great hall and sat down to lunch.
*~*~*~*~
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come, Hermione?” Ron was trying desperately to get her to let him come.
“Yes, Ronald, I am sure.” She was getting a bit annoyed that he kept asking her.
“Ok, geez,” he said, and sat back down in his arm chair.
Hermione looked at her watch and noticed that it was five minutes till nine. He would be waiting in the corridor for her by now; Hermione had allowed herself to speak to Draco for a total of thirty seconds in order to tell him that he was to meet her outside of the Gryffindor common room.
“Ok, well I’m off,” she said to Harry and Ron.
“We’ll wait up for you Hermione,” Ron said.
“Yeah,” Harry agreed.
She left and was almost at the portrait hole, when someone grabbed her arm and stopped her. It was Harry.
“What is it?” she asked, a bit confused at the way he was looking at her.
“Hear him out,” Harry said. Only able to bring himself to say that much before he turned and went to sit by the fire with Ron.
She looked at him for a few seconds then exited the common room to find Draco standing in the corridor waiting.
*~*~*~*~
They stood looking at each other for a few moments.
‘I wish I knew what she was thinking,’ Draco mused.
“Are you going to stare at me all night or are we going to patrol?” Hermione snapped making Draco flinch slightly at her tone.
“No…I mean, yes, lets patrol.” Draco needed to tell her. He had to; he at least wanted the hope that she would forgive him.
They walked through the castle, in silence, scanning around for anyone who was out of bed when they weren’t supposed to be. Hermione was deliberately making the silence as uncomfortable as possible.
‘He hurt me, so why not hurt him back,’ she thought. ‘But if he meant what he said then it wouldn’t bother him would it? But did he mean it?’ She continued fighting with herself until Draco spoke, distracting her from her thoughts.
“Hermione,” he said hesitantly and stopped causing her to turn and look at him.
“What?”
‘I will just tell her, and if she continues to want to hate me then I will live with it. Will I be able to live with it?’
“What?” she asked again impatiently.
“I…”
‘Just tell her damn it!’
“I was lying when I said that stuff to Pansy.”
“Ha! Yeah, I’m sure you were.” Her heart was doing flips that it might be true, but she was not going to make it so easy for him to hurt her again.
Draco flinched again at the hatred and disbelief she put into her statement.
“No, I really didn’t mean it. I just…” He didn’t know how to continue. He had to tell her in a way that didn’t reveal him as a Death Eater.
Hermione just stood there watching him struggle to explain himself. She was not going to offer him any help.
‘If he wants to apologize then he has to do it on his own.’
“I was just trying to keep Pansy from figuring out that I do want to talk to you. I enjoyed that night when you asked to patrol with me, but if Pansy knew that then she would write my mother telling her that I am a traitor.” Draco looked away from her eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to look directly into them.
“Oh,” Hermione said. “So you just said it to keep yourself from getting in trouble? Only looking out for you? Ok, so let’s finish patrolling.”
“No!” Draco was going to make her understand.
“No what? And do not shout at me Malfoy!”
“I wasn’t just looking out for myself. I was thinking of you. I know that what I said hurt you, but I had to say it. Nothing good will come of people knowing that I want to be your friend.” Draco was on the verge of tears, but he was not about to let any of them fall.
‘Does he honestly have tears in his eyes!?’
“Nothing good will come of it? Well, I don’t see how it’s worth it if I can’t say ‘hi’ to you in the halls just because people might talk!” She was beginning to shout now; she was done with settling for less.
“So you do want to be friends with me?” Draco was struggling to control his happiness at this prospect.
‘Oh he is such a guy! Of course he picks out the one thing that isn’t even the point!’ she thought.
“Yes I do,” she said and noticed that Draco looked surprised and happy. “But I don’t want to have to hide it just because there are people who wouldn’t think it was right!”
Silence grew between them as they both looked at each other.
“So it’s very simple Draco,” she said in a more gentle tone. “You either are my friend or you aren’t. You can choose.”
‘Why does she want to risk so much just for the sake of calling me her friend? I’m not worth that.’
“Hermione, I’m not worth you risking so much just so you can count me as a friend.”
“That is for me to decide Draco, and I want to be your friend if you will let me.”
Draco stood there staring at her; her eyes held something in them, but he wasn’t quite sure what it was. It was like trying to figure out what a shape was from far away. But the longer he looked into them the more he felt like what he was doing would be ok.
“Yes, Hermione, I want to be your friend.”