“I can’t believe McGonagall thinks Malfoy has a great soul somewhere! I can’t believe she’d want you to try and tutor him! Do you think she knows the real Malfoy? Or has she finally lost it?” Harry fumed, rather loudly.
“Shhh! Madam Pince will yell!” Hermione said in a whisper. She was waiting in the library for her first tutoring session with Malfoy when she had told Harry what McGonagall asked of her. “I know it sounds crazy, but I think I should try. McGonagall wouldn’t ask me unless she was really desperate.”
“But…” Harry said but Hermione shushed him. “Fine. But I’m staying here. I swear if he calls you any names, I’ll kill him!”
“I’m not a child, Harry. I’m perfectly capable of fighting my own battles, thank you very much! All I ask of you is to keep Ron away from here. I haven’t told him yet, and I don’t really want to. I’m afraid he might….” Hermione trailed off.
“Be himself? Don’t worry, he never comes into the library anyway. I hope you plan on telling him though,” Harry said with a worried look on his face.
“I will. Just not “ now. Now go, I can see Malfoy.”
Malfoy weaved his way through the tables, and, seeing Hermione, came to her table. He dropped his books on the desk and slouched in his seat, looking the other way. He reminded Hermione horribly of the bad boys in all the movies she had seen. The ones with the attractive bad boys who are tutored by the beautiful geniuses.
Too bad I’m not beautiful she thought to herself.
“Are you going to teach me, or stare at me?” Malfoy said after a few seconds of silence.
“Right, let’s get to work.” Some one’s a bit conceited, she thought to herself.
They went through a few Transfiguration lessons. Malfoy answered every question that Hermione shot at him correctly. Now she was confused. McGonagall was right Malfoy was bright.
“If you’re so smart,” she said, getting annoyed, “why does Professor McGonagall think you need tutoring?” Malfoy was silent.
Hermione took on a gentler tone. “Why don’t you ever get good grades? You’re capable of it.”
“I don’t feel like trying,” Malfoy mumbled, his face turned away from her. “Why do you care anyway?” His tone was fierce.
“I’d rather not waste my time trying to teach a Slytherin things he already knows but is too lazy to show!” she said in a huff. And with that, Malfoy walked away, his face unreadable.
“And don’t come back,” Hermione whispered, more to herself, as she put her books back into her bag.
*************
The next week, in the evening, Hermione was sitting in the library. She was not waiting for Malfoy to come for his lesson. She was doing her homework. This is what she told herself. But she couldn’t help it, whenever the door to the library opened. She always glanced upwards to see who came in.
Half an hour after their lesson was supposed to start, Hermione ha decided that he wasn’t coming. Just as she focused on the Transfiguration homework, a shadow came over her.
“Aren’t you supposed to teach me something?” a low voice said, the annoyance clear and defined. She looked up. There was Draco Malfoy, looking just as he had the week before.
“I didn’t think you were brave enough to come back,” she said, trying hard to keep no emotion in her voice.
“I didn’t think you were either. But I supposed… you are a Gryffindor.” His tone was so filled with deep sarcasm; it was all Hermione could do to not show angry in her passive face.
“Professor McGonagall told me to teach you, no matter how undeserving you are.”
“I’m undeserving? Granger, I didn’t know you could be so cruel!” He attempted to fake a sob and turn away, but his smirk over took his face.
“You’re smart, but you won’t show it. Why in the world should I waste my time teaching you?”
“The time you could waste saving worthless house elves, I suppose.”
Hermione anger was definitely showing in her face. More to stop her from saying something she would regret, she said, “Why don’t you try?”
“Why in the world would I waste my time trying?” he said cruelly, his eyes glinting, his smirk getting wider ever second.
Finding nothing to say to this last remark, Hermione flipped through her book. In her anger, she almost ripped a few of the pages. She assigned him some work, which he promptly finished.
“So you’ll try for the work I assign you, but you can’t try for the teachers whose job it is to make you try? Is that how this works out?”
“Fine,” he said, putting his hands up. “You caught me! Merlin, Granger, can’t you let me go for five seconds!”
Hermione couldn’t suppress her smile. He was funny.
“Look who made you smile!” Malfoy said, also smiling. Hermione’s grin instantly disappeared. “You don’t want to smile because it’s me that’s making you laugh. Draco Malfoy is making you laugh.” His tone was serious again, his voice lower so no one who hear.
“It’s not that….” Hermione broke off. “We’re supposed to studying now, anyways.” She looked back down at her book.
Malfoy shook his head in disbelief. But he continued the work Hermione assigned him. As he worked, Hermione stared at him, his blonde hair falling over his face, his grey eyes shining. He really was beautiful. Too bad he was an enemy. Too bad.