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Old 08-05-2009, 03:43 PM   #41 (permalink)
Paintbrush
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Over the Rainbow.
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Hogwarts RPG Name:
Harvey Jarvis
Second Year

Ministry RPG Name:
Eleonora Bloom
International Cooperation
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Horses Forever! l l Writer for Life l Yearbook alumnus

Thanks to everyone who commented, as usual

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Chapter 8

Hermione had managed to rearrange her scrambled eggs on her plate multiple times already, her lack of hunger escaping her ravenous friends who were still trying to shake off the remnants of sleep. If she were aware of her own acting, she would have been grateful it was still too early for Ron and Harry to be as observant as they usually were. As it were, her own mind wandered and she kept shooting furtive and much too frequent glances at the Slytherin table.

More than once already silver eyes had met brown above the heads of the babbling students, and in between owls delivering mail.

Their last encounter had sunk deep into Hermione’s mind, and she kept thinking about how much Draco must have changed over the summer to think like he did now. She could not imagine the spoilt, arrogant and prejudiced boy from previous years to think about his mother, worry about her and her whereabouts, yet here he was, struggling to find the means to see her.

Finally deciding she was sick of sitting there when she wasn’t eating anyway, and noticing the blond Slytherin had vanished somewhere, Hermione got up, informed her friends she wanted to get a book out of the Library before class began, and left the Hall.

She wasn’t in the Library five minutes when she felt rather than heard him approach her.

“Granger,” he greeted, standing next to her, but not doing much else.

“Malfoy,” she returned, noticing the guarded expression on his face, and firmly ignoring the thought of how good he looked that morning, with his hair hanging naturally into his eyes rather than being gelled back, and with no sneer disfiguring his features.

“I… I wanted to thank you for not telling anyone,” he managed, suddenly looking past her and out the window behind her. “You haven’t, have you?”

She looked rather startled and almost hurt when he suddenly asked her that, his eyes finding hers once more for the umpteenth time that morning.

“No,” she shook her head. “I told you I wouldn’t. After all, how could I live with myself knowing the biggest ferret of them all died because of me?”

She said this with a smile, not meaning to insult him, and finding that she didn’t want him to leave, yet. She’d realized how different he was to the boy she once considered him to be, and she wanted to find out more about him. Despite his actions over the previous years, Hermione had a feeling that Draco was actually a much better person than anyone gave him credit for.

She recalled how she’d seen a first-year run into him the other day, on the corridor, and she’d drawn her wand, fully expecting the blond to abuse the kid. She was shocked to see him help the girl up before walking off, accepting her apology. He had no idea, of course, that she had witnessed this prime example of his kindness.

But that, combined with his apology, and the looks they’d been exchanging recently (not only that morning) and the fact he hadn’t insulted her, not seriously and cruelly as he used to, once this year all made her think he was he sort of person she would like to get to know better. The sort of person she would like to talk to, someone she could someday consider her friend.

“Feel free to admit you don’t want me gone because without me, you’d have no serious competition when it comes to schoolwork, and you’d be bored out of your mind,” he teased back, and her eyes widened when she saw him smile.

Not smirk, or sneer, but genuinely smile, straight at her.

He turned to leave, still smiling. “See you around… Hermione.”
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