When All You Know Is Wrong

Hermione sat in their shared common room, a blank, faraway expression on her face. She would have to tell Ron that she couldn't go with him to the Halloween masquerade ball. And she knew that he would NOT handle it well at all. If she were truthful with herself, she didn't want to tell him at all but of course that was just completely ridiculous because there is no way that she could possibly keep it from him when she would have to enter on Malfoy's arm.

"Tell him here, in our room," Draco said. "That way you can have protection if anything starts to go wrong."

She still couldn't believe that the man sitting across from her was the same boy that had made the last six years of school a living hell for her. He seemed so different. And she was actually starting to feel safe around him. At this thought, Hermione had to bite back the laughter bubbling up so Draco didn't think that she had finally cracked.

'Safe' she thought. 'What sense does it make that I feel safe around someone who up until very recently threatened my very existence and yet I no longer feel safe around the people I thought loved me?'

Draco was steadily staring at her, waiting for some sort of response to his comment.

"Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why are you trying to help me? I would have figured that you would be paying for front row seats to see the Mudblood put in her place." Not once while she was speaking did she look up at his face to see his reaction.

Draco took a deep breath, not entirely sure what he should say. For reasons he couldn't even begin to explain, his views on Hermione as a person had changed, and not just because of her situation. That was merely the opening to discovering who she was.

She was intelligent (obviously), having the top marks in all her classes except Potions and that was merely because of Snape. She was brave and strong, compassionate, humble. Everything that he had admired in other people, he had overlooked in her because he was taught that she was beneath him in every way, that she wasn't good enough to breathe his air because her parents had no magic and his did. An accident of birth, nothing more.

"Many things have changed since the war, Hermione. Maybe one day when we have more time, I'll tell you everything. For now, please just accept the explanation that I can't stand seeing such an extreme injustice done to someone who has never in her life done anything to deserve it."

With that, he stood up and walked out the portrait hole, leaving Hermione to her thoughts and taking off with his as well.
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For what seemed an eternity, Hermione just stared at the place where Draco had just been, trying to absorb what little he had said and everything behind it that he hadn't. She wished she could talk to someone, preferably another female but that was out of the question. Her mother....well, she just couldn't talk to her. Nor could she go to Molly or Ginny, after all, it was Ron that was her problem and she couldn't blame either of the women for taking Ron's side as she had no doubt they would, he was their family after all. Aside from that, she didn't really associate much with females.

'God, my head hurts.'

Not knowing what else to do, and her brain on overload from the emotional stimuli, Hermione lay down and just stared at the crackling fire until she drifted off to sleep.
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It was getting late. The sun was already set over the lake and the shadows around him were cast in deep contrast by the flickering torches around the castle when Draco finally decided to head back to his room. He had gone to Blaise, of course, to try and get some much needed advice and wasn't entirely sure if he was happy with what his all too perceptive friend has told him.

After all, he couldn't be IN LOVE with Hermione. It was simply not possible. But that wasn't the least of it. Blaise seemed to think that not only was he in love with the girl, but that he had been for a while. 'After all,' he had said, 'it makes perfect sense. All these years of believing that you hated her and obsessing over beating her, it's not that far of a jump to love.'

He hated the feeling in the pit of his stomach that said that Blaise was right. That the reason he didn't want anyone to hurt Hermione was because he cared about her.

The entire time Draco had been thinking, his legs had been moving downt he corridors to his portrait when all of a sudden a certain obnoxious red head came into his view. He didn't know what came over him, just seeing that miserable excuse for a human being moving towards his shared quaters had him seeing red. One minute he was lost in deep thought, the next Ron Weasley was on the ground with his hand around Ron's neck.


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Hey everyone, soooooo sorry it's taken me so long to get back to this story, just a lot was going on but it's back up now, hope you all like it :)

~donovanwitch