Draco's Companion

Hey guys!! Thanks for the great reveiws! Seriously. I have some things to say and then we'll move on.

Byond_repair-Some weird direction? Like what? Honestly, I've never pictured Harry in Hufflepuff, ever. It doesn't even seem like an option in my head. Why did you almost tear up? I think I'm just gunna like move book three in place of book five, because Harry has to know he has Sirius, and then go on from there. I might have to double up and have two major things happen in one year so i can fit them all in lol. I don't know what i'm going to do with Deathly Hallows, because it isnt out yet:P

AlcyoneBlack- Your welcome:D I can't really answer any of your suspicions..lol...sorry. I have to say, I actually laughed out loud when i read "I hope Dumbledore dies" I dunno why, I just found it funny lol.

WeasleyWench-I was just thinking about if i was 11 and had issues with rage, and I realized that this man who was pretending to be so nice and understanding to me had actually inadvertently caused me so much pain that i would just lose my mind. 11 or not. lol. i really like that scene tho:P Thats all i can say. And thank you:D

L.S- Haha I'm also grinning like mad. Which is a first in a while, so it's a good thing. You guys are making me happy:D See...I really don't like Ron. He's stupid and annoying, but Hermione intrigues me. And I love the twins:D they're funny in Canon, i don't think i will be able to do that good of a job with them (from what we do see of them) Thanks:D

Soria- Lol i'm not physically trapped like you are. Sorry to hear about the surgery by the way. No i'm not permenantly disabled:P I just had a few problems recently and would rather sit here and write and not go outside and see all the bitches that i hate. (I'm very hostile towards my town and at least 90% of the people in it, at the moment) So yea. I'm bitter and brooding! lol. You guys are helping that tho, so thank you. And thank you for loving my story:D


Okay, Okay, I know all of you are prolly angry by now, but I need to respond, they are faithful reveiwers and have alot of good questions. Soooo on with it!!!

Chapter Fifteen: Hermione


Hermione continued to rub Harry's hair, she didn't say anything for a few moments, as if she was contemplating.

"Yes Harry, I think you can." She finally said.

He looked up into her face, and noticed how awkwardly beautiful she was. Sure her two front teeth protruded a little farther then the rest, and she had big bushy hair, and she was at the age where everyone was awkward, but it was her attitude.

Harry wasn't nice to her before, and yet here she is, sitting with his head in her lap in the snow. Waiting patiently for Harry to tell her what was wrong. For some reason he felt himself opening up.

"Dumbledore lied to me." He told Hermione, "And I'm sorry for hurting you before. My anger just seems to take over me, and I don't really realize what I'm doing. I barely remember making it to Dumbledore's office.."

Hermione sat there for a few moments again, thinking about it.

"It's okay Harry. What did he lie to you about?" Was all she asked, she would touch down on the anger thing after she read about it.

"Well I guess he didn't lie to me, he just never told me something. Something that is very important to me, and had a huge effect on my life." He said sollemnly.

"What is it? What happened Harry?"

Was that real concern in her voice?

It was! It made Harry feel good to have someone so concerned about him, to want to hear how HE felt, or what HE thought.

Harry closed his eyes, and rubbed his head against her now dormant hand. Hermione got the hint and continued rubbing him.

"After my parents were killed, Dumbledore took me to my Aunt and Uncle's house." Harry started, his eyes still closed. "They were really mean to me. They would make me basically be their servants, and I had to sleep in the Cupboard underneath the stairs. They didn't want to take me on vacation with them, but in the end they had no choice. Thats where I met Draco. They took me in, and they fed me, and treated me great.."

Hermione stopped rubbing his hair for a moment and continued when she said, "Okay. So how did he lie to you?"

Harry opened his eyes and looked at her for minute. Hadn't he just explained that?

"HE took me to the Dursleys. It's his fault I was beat. He should have known." Harry said, then added, "Muggles."
Hermione's mouth dropped.

"Harry, it's not because they're muggles...maybe they had a different reason to treat you like they did. Maybe they did those things because of something that someone had done to them. Maybe they are being like you are right now. Maybe a witch or a wizard did something to them, so they took it out on you."

Harry hadn't thought of that.

"Would you treat someone that horrible just because one person did something bad to you?" Harry asked, "I think it's just all muggles."

"But Harry. Your doing it in your own way. You hate ALL muggles, because of what your muggle family did to you." Hermione pointed out.

"It was more than just my family. There was always people around, like neighbors, who knew what was happening inside my house. There was no way they wouldn't be able to hear the yelling, the screaming or the crying. They didn't do anything about it either."

"Maybe they were scared."

"Maybe they are cowards." Harry shot back.

Hermione nodded.

"That could be it too. But cowardicy kind of goes hand in hand with fear. Maybe they wanted to go to the police, but they were so scared that they backed out."

"Maybe."

"Harry?"

"What?"

"Why do you blame Dumbledore? I know that he took you there, but do you have any other family he could have taken you to?"

"No. An orphanage would've been better. A MAGICAL orphanage at that. I didn't even know magic exsisted until I was seven."

"I didn't know until I got my Hogwarts letter." Hermione told him. "Imagine that shock"

Harry laughed.

He hadn't laughed in a while.

They sat in silence for a while, each contemplating things that they had never thought about before.

"Harry?" Hermione said queitly after a while.

"Yes?"

"Can we go inside? It's getting dark and I'm freezing."

Harry stood up and grabbed Hermione's hand, pulling her with him.

She noticed that as they were walking he didn't let go.

"Do you want to eat with us?" Hermione asked him. She wasn't sure what made her ask....

Harry looked at her. Really looked at her deeply in the eyes.

"Do you want me to?" He asked.

She looked sincere.

"Yes."

"Then yes, thank you."

"Meet me there in twenty minutes, I'm just going to go get into dry clothes and warm up." Hermione said.

*************

Harry went down the dungeon stairs and followed the dimly lit corridors to their common room. Once inside he went up the boys' staircase and entered his dormitory. He went into the bathroom and started the shower so it was boiling hot. He left the bathroom and went to his trunk, grabbing some clothes, but leaving his tie behind.

He walked back into the bathroom, into the fog that had already began, and deposited his clothes on the floor. He stripped down and stepped into the shower, the heat felt great. Especially after laying in the freezing snow for so long. He let the water run over his muscles for ten minutes, before reluctantly getting out and dressing.

He was walking slowly back up to the Great Hall when he ran into Professor Snape.

"That was quite the show you put on earlier Mr. Potter" Snape said.

Harry shrugged. "I was angry." and began walking again.

"Where's your tie?" Snape asked smoothly.

Harry looked down, and looked back at Snape. "Must've forgot it." he said while walking away.

**************

Harry met Hermione at the Gryffindor table. He felt odd being there, but there was very few students left at the castle.

He sat beside her and the twins smiled at him.

"Hello, Harry." They said together.

Harry nodded at them.

"Are you feeling better now, Harry?" Hermione asked him softly.

Harry nodded again. He didn't know what was happening, but when he was with her he felt the same way he felt when he was with Draco.

Harry reached forward and grabbed some chicken. He began eating it slowly, and the youngest redhead piped up.

"So you're good enough to talk to us now?" He said rudely.
Hermione looked scandalized.

"Ronald, please don't ruin everyones mood. We've always been good enough for him. He just didn't know until now."
Harry began shaking his head.

"It's not that you're good enough." He started. "I mean...I'm a pureblood, the Weasley's are pure, but they love muggles...and you...I don't know about you Hermione. I like you, I will admit that, but It's against everything I've learned to be sitting here. I'm letting my family down but..." He trailed off at the look on everyone's faces.

"That was quite-"
"-rude of you, mate." Fred and George said.

"Was it?" Harry asked. He was starting to get confused again. Everyone knew that purebloods are all that count.

Hermione was nodding, and she looked like she was going to start crying.

"You don't think we're good enough for you? Do you really think I'm...I'm..a mudblood?" She whispered the last part.

Harry started to nod, but Ron let out a growl low in his throat. Harry looked at him, apalled.

"Look, I'm just saying what I've learned. I questioned it when I seen Hermione doing magic." He looked at
Hermione, who was now letting tears fall freely down her face.

Harry reached forward and hugged her. He did it out of impulse, and she felt good in his arms.

She started to sob harder, her body shaking with her sobs. Harry held her tightly and whispered, "I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings."

What was wrong with everybody?

He was just stating facts!

Harry glanced over Hermione's bushy hair to Dumbledore.

The old man was gazing at Harry with an odd look on his face.

Was it sympathy?

Confusion?

What was it?

Harry looked away and let Hermione go.

Hermione couldn't feel bad for him. He hadn't personally said anything rude to her the whole year except now. And dammit, she believed that he didn't know what he was talking about. He didn't realize that everything he was saying was coming directly from Lucius Malfoy's mouth.

************

That night Hermione left the Gryffindor common room in search of Slytherin. She was afraid of the dungeons, but she needed to see Harry again. After they had split at dinner she couldn't stop thinking about the boy. She was walking down a particularily long dungeon corridor when she heard voices coming from behind her. She slipped into a side room and waited for the voices to pass. She didn't recognize them, but she slipped out of the room and followed them. They stopped in front of a blank stretch of wall and said the password loudly, she heard it. She waited for them to enter and walked up to the wall. Just as she was about to say it (Fidelitas), Harry came from behind her.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

She jumped, and turned around quickly.

"Oh, it's you!" She said, and pulled him into a huge hug.

"I need to talk to you." She told him.

Harry took her by the hand and pulled her down a hallway, into and empty classroom.

"So talk." He said.

She looked at her hand for a moment and then looked up to him.

"The Weasley's are pretty torn up about what you said today," She started slowly, "I, of course, am defending you. I think there is something about you that no one is realizing. You don't know where you fit in. You fit in in Slytherin because that's where Draco is, and because you have been raised in a 'Slytherin-like' environment. You weren't wearing your tie at dinner tonight Harry."

"I know, I forgot it." He said, sounding stupid even in his own ears.

"I don't think you forgot it. I think you didn't wear it on purpose. Harry you need to be true to yourself before anyone else can understand you."

"Draco understands me." Harry said, suddenly sounding angry.

"Draco understands the Slytherin side of you. If he knew that you were talking to me today, he would be mad Harry, at both of us." she said knowingly.

"No, Draco understands all of me. You better not tell him that I've been talking to you. I would like to still be in your presence while he's gone, but when he gets back I won't be talking to you anymore."

"Oh, so I'm just a rent-a-friend, now?" She asked, shocked

"I said 'No' in the first place." Harry said.

"But you ended up coming!!!" Hermione yelled at him.

"Because I was bored, and had nothing better to do!!!!!!"

"Harry, I'm going to be your friend the rest of this break, and hopefully by the end of it, I can see all of you." Hermione said, suddenly calm, "Not weird flashes of you in different moods, you, who you really are on the inside. Hopefully, after that happens you will accept me for being muggle-born."

"I hate muggles."

"No! You hate your aunt and uncle. I'm willing to show you that by being your friend, because in your eyes, I'm a muggle too!" She said, tears starting to prick at her eyes.

She gave him one last look, said "See you tommorow." And fled from the room.