Chapter 3
Written by: Linda Black

Draco was despondent because he knew how stubborn Harry Potter was. Harry had never had any reason to trust him and there was no way he would listen to a single word he said. The same thing was true of Ron Weasley. That boy had taken an instant dislike to him since the day they met and he wouldn’t believe anything he said to him, either. Draco was about to give up until a miracle happened. There was one person who was close to Harry Potter who he might be able to talk to and here she was, sitting right there in the Leaky Cauldron.

Draco smiled to himself. If this plan worked everything that he had ever done wrong would be forgiven, the Dark Lord would have no reason to punish him and he could go on with his life as if nothing had happened. He turned and walked toward the girl’s table, putting on as contrite an air as he possibly could. He held his head down in a very uncharacteristic way and worked with a slow, sad shuffle.

“Hi, Hermione,” he said, stopping in front of her. [i]She looks nice today[i], he thought to himself. She really was developing into quite a beautiful young woman. Her hair was nicely styled, not flying all over the place, and her big brown eyes were open and eager with anticipation. He saw a question in those eyes now.

“What’s wrong with you, Draco, what happened to your usual greeting of ‘filthy little mudblood’? You actually called me by my name,” Hermione exclaimed, half sarcastically and half shocked.

Draco knew he had to convince Hermione to go along with his plan or he would be in a world of trouble which he could never get out of. “Hermione, I was only playing with you when I called you those names. You know I always liked you, otherwise I wouldn’t have said anything to you to begin with.”

“Really?”, Hermione responded. She wasn’t yet ready to believe Draco, still thinking this was another trick on his part to humiliate her in some way. She had noticed that Draco seemed sad, somehow beaten, though, and she wanted to know what was wrong with him to make him act like that.

Hermione decided to come straight to the point and asked, “Something seems different about you today. What’s the matter, Draco?”

“Well, I don’t know whether you want to hear this or not,” Draco admitted, hesitantly.

Hermione was intrigued. “Go ahead. You’re here now and I might as well hear whatever it is you’ve got to say,” she answered, taking a sip of her butterbeer.

“This place has great butterbeer, doesn’t it?”, Draco said, pulling up a seat. “Hermione, I want to be honest with you. I don’t know if I should be telling you any of this stuff or not. You see, I’ve decided that I don’t want to be a Death Eater after all. I think it’s the wrong cause, and now my mother and my Aunt Bella are acting like they want to disown me or something. They’re even threatening to turn me in to the Dark Lord and let him deal with me. I’m really scared, he’s going to do something awful!”, Draco exclaimed in a very sincere, very dramatic way. It was one of his best performances ever and he knew it. “He might even kill me,” he finished sadly.

“Hold on, you’ve decided to change sides after all this time?”, Hermione asked Draco. “Why is that? What made you change your mind?”

“I’m so sick of all the awful things the Death Eaters have done, all the people they’ve hurt. All they do is murder and hurt people. I don’t want to do that, Hermione. I know I’ve been wrong and I hope you forgive me for all the things I’ve said about you, I didn’t mean any of them.” Draco was laying it on thick, but he saw from Hermione’s eyes that she believed him, finally.

“Oh, wow,” Hermione gasped. “I think you’re in a lot of trouble. It’s a good thing that you’ve changed sides, a very good thing, but I think you’re going to need help. Why don’t you meet me back here in a couple of days and we can figure out some way to help you. You’re probably going to have to talk to the Order at some point. They can do something to protect you. Are you willing to do that?”

This is going to be easier than I thought, Draco realized. He didn’t think that Hermione was this gullible, or was he just a really great actor? “I guess so, as long as I don’t get hurt,” he replied.

”Don’t worry about it,” Hermione said. “Don’t say anything more to your mother or anyone else about what you’ve told me, act like you’ve changed your mind again. Then come back here in two days and we can figure out what our next step is going to be.”

Hermione stopped for a second and reached for Draco’s hand. He didn’t stop her. “Draco,” she said, “don’t worry. I will always help someone who is willing to change.”

“Thanks, Hermione,” Draco said, smiling slightly in what he hoped was a sincere manner. “I’m really glad I ran into you today.”

That was putting it mildly, Draco thought.

”I am, too,” Hermione said. “See you in a couple days.”