A Reason To Be

Hermione Granger ran like the devil was on her tail. It was the first day of classes and she was late for Potions. In all the first night excitement, she had completely forgotten to set her alarm clock. She ran down the stone steps and through the corridors to the dungeons. While she ran she tried to button her robe and put her bag over her shoulder.

‘I am such an idiot; I forget to set my alarm. That’s first year shit, Granger!’ Hermione berated herself as she ran. She turned the corner and just as she reached the door to Snape’s classroom, she looked down in her bag to see if she remembered her quills and ink. While she ran without looking, she ran right into a wall and fell on her ass.

From her seat on the cold, dungeon floor she looked up and saw the wall she had run into was one of flesh and blonde hair. An unsuspecting Draco had been running a little late as well and was jogging to class when from around the corner came a blur of brown hair and black robes and collided into him. He did not fall down but staggered back a few steps from the impact. Needless to say, it had surprised him. When he staggered back, he then checked his robes. He half expected someone running at that speed to have either stolen something off him or to have knifed him. When his little inspection proved that he was indeed intact, he looked to his school supplies that were now scattered on the stone floor.

“What the hell?” Draco muttered as he bent down and picked up his books that had fallen. He looked over at the person who had run into to him and found it was none other than Hermione Granger; sitting on the floor with her papers and books strewn about around her. Draco let out an annoyed sigh, picked up all the books and stood up.

“Get up, Granger.” Draco muttered impatiently. He reached over, grasped her arm firmly and pulled her up on her feet in one swift motion. Hermione said nothing, though she did look at him like he had three heads.

‘Draco Malfoy is helping me up?!?! Does have a knife or something?’ Hermione thought as she gathered her books. She looked at Draco and then at his armful of books and sighed.

“You have one of my books.” Hermione said as she held out her hand for it. The tone in her voice was not snotty or demanding. It just sounded like she was in no mood for an argument and that she just wanted her book back.

Draco looked down and a look of realization came on. He did indeed have one of Hermione’s books. He sighed and tucked his own pile of books under his arm, reached out and with one finger he hooked the edge of her bag, pulled it open and dropped her book inside. She watched as he did this and then he spun on his heel and opened the door without a word. He disappeared into their Potions class and left her out in the hallway. She didn’t know quite what to make of it.

‘No snide comment, no mudblood remark. Hmmmm…Must be sick or something.’ Hermione thought as she followed suite and opened the door and walked in. Snape had just finished berating Draco for his tardiness when she walked in and it was her turn.

It was the normal course of events. Snape humiliated several students because of their lack of knowledge, assigned massive amounts of homework, and generally made it a miserable couple of hours. As always Professor Snape seemed out to get all the Gryffindors, but especially Harry Potter. And as always, to Snape’s annoyance, Hermione knew all the answers to his questions. It was all going along as planned when Draco, who sat in the very back of the class, let out a surprised and disgusted cry.

“Oh, son of a bitch!” Draco shouted. He pushed his chair back violently and looked around. Bright green slime had seeping under the door and into the classroom. Draco had looked down and found it had covered his shoes. Just then a loud, rapid banging on the door made everyone jump. Draco shot up out of his chair and looked at Professor Snape.

“Peeves.” Professor Snape growled. Draco started to scrape his feet on the stone floor in attempts to get the muck off his shoes. Snape breezed down the rows of desks, walked around the large pool of slime and opened the door. The he swiveled on his heel and addressed the class.

“I will return shortly, you will all be silent and I expect the first chapter in your book to be read when I come back.” He said coldly and then swept out of the door, off to find the troublesome ghost. A few moments after Snape had left, all the students are chatting away, forgetting about the chapter they were commanded to read or the threat for them to stay silent. Draco left his desk and went to an empty one, one that was not consumed in green nastiness. The empty desk happened be behind Hermione, Harry and Ron talking quietly amongst themselves.

“Why were you late, Hermione?” Harry asked chewing on the end of his quill.

“I woke up late; I had to run like hell to get here when I did.” Hermione replied. She was actually trying to read the chapter that Snape had assigned but it looked like Ron and Hermione weren’t going to let her.

“Malfoy was late too; he walked in just before you.” Ron added.

“I know. I ran into him in the hallway. Literally.” Hermione stated, closing her book.

“I’m sure he ripped into you for that. You alright?” Harry asked. Hermione nodded and then paused a moment. She leaned in closer to her two friends and spoke softly.

“Actually, He didn’t say anything. I fell down and he helped me up and gave me back my book. It was really odd.” Hermione looked at Ron and Harry’s expressions as she spoke. Both of them looked stunned and then confused.

“Did you hit your head when you fell?” Harry ventured to ask. Hermione pushed him playfully and laughed.

“I might have.” Hermione said laughing.

From across the aisle, Pansy Parkinson got an evil smile on her face. She picked up a piece of parchment, crumbled it into a ball and threw it at Hermione. When it hit Hermione turned around, wondering where it had come from. It was then pansy spoke loud enough for the whole class to hear.

“Hey mudblood! Like my new earrings?” Pansy asked as she haughtily brushed her hair away from her ears. She had a brand new pair of diamond earrings. When Draco looked over and realized that it was Pansy speaking, he rolled his eyes and lay his head down on the desk.

“I would say you should get a pair but I doubt the likes of you could afford them. Wait! Do mudbloods even have ears to wear earrings? I can’t tell with that big rat’s nest you call hair!” Pansy and the other Slytherin students laughed at the scowl on Hermione’s face. Pansy opened her mouth to say something else but never got the chance.

“Enough, Pansy.” Draco had raised his head just enough to be heard. His voice sounded tired and very much annoyed. The laughing stopped and everyone looked at him. Pansy looked at him with complete surprise.

‘What was that? That’s what we do!! We make fun of the mudblood. What a fucking asshole!’ Pansy thought to herself, and then her surprise and confusion turned into anger. She was embarrassed that he had told her to stop, he told her what to do in front of everyone. What angered her the most was that he had done it to defend Hermione Granger of all people.

“Why should I stop?” Pansy dared to ask in her snottiest voice. He didn’t say anything but she got enough of answer. He looked at her and gave her the infamous ‘you don’t want to fuck with me’ look. She left it at that. Pansy and the other Slytherin students were silent the rest of the class.

When class was over, Hermione, Harry and Ron watched Malfoy leave the room. He said nothing to no one, he just left. They also noticed that he had entered and left with Crabbe and Goyle. The three wondered why Malfoy was going about without his two cronies following him around like dogs. They just didn’t get it, no one did. They pushed it out of their minds and dismissed it as a freak occurrence as they headed to the Gryffindor common room.