Chapter 3
Draco Malfoy was sitting, solitary, in the library, when he heard the door swing open and someone stumble in traipsing through the book shelves with little to no care of the noise they made. He listened in intrigue as the footsteps turned round the corner when he looked up when he was face to face with Hermione Granger, who had clearly been crying. Her eyes were still glazed and her uniform was in a state of disarray that was very unusual for her, as normally she was very neat. He was struck by a curiosity as to what happened to her, it was clearly recent. Their eyes locked on each other’s and he replaced his neutral expression to one of distaste, Hermione sighed in defeat; she moved to turn around. This shocked Draco as usually people tried to stay out of his was but he knew Hermione was the only one that would always put up a fight; before she could walk away, he tapped her on the shoulder:
“What have you been crying about Granger?”
Her face fell, looking as if she were about to resume crying before it hardened as she gloured at him.
“None of your business, Malfoy you don’t even have a right to ask.”
He stepped forward entering her personal space.
Hermione’s POV
When Draco stepped forward encroaching on her. She felt like the air was being sucked out of her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. Nor/ break his gaze. She blinked when he spoke again snapping her back to reality
“You don’t deserve a place at this school, you’re practically a muggle!”
She couldn’t do it anymore -not today- she was drained after what had happened in the common room and she knew this would get her tearing up again. She couldn’t play his game ;she was just too tired for a fight
“Not now, not today Malfoy leave me alone..”
She tried to turn a blind eye, leave. Find somewhere else to sit.
“Why are you so pathetic today? God! at least normally you can stand on your own 2 feet!”
She huffed and stood straight, not longer shying from meeting his gaze or trying to find a way out.
“Fine you want a fight I’ll give you one!”
She stepped forward so they were only inches apart.
“If I don’t deserve place at this school how come I’m top of every class I’m in?!”
She pushed a finger into his chest raising her voice.
“If I don’t deserve a place at this school then how come my test scores beat everyone’s including yours!”
She stepped again forcing him back.
“If I don’t deserve to be here then why has no one taken me out of here why am I, still standing here, in the library with you!”
She was shouting now but she didn’t care. She couldn’t put up with it any longer. She knew she was the most intelligent student in the castle, and she didn’t care if people had a problem with that; she didn’t care that Malfoy had taken issue with the fact he could never out smart her. She knew his tricks and she knew he wished to be where she was, the academic high achiever, the one people turned to for help with any homework. She took another step forward
“You’re jealous that’s what it is Malfoy I can read you like a book; I’ve bruised your ego. The muggleborn coming in and beating you the pure blood the supposed better of magical kind, it unseats your entire ideology and you know it, so do me a favour from now on and go cry about it in your own time instead of forcing your whining on me”
The anger on Malfoy’s face was evident he looked like he was about to self-combust.
“Happy now, is that what you wanted?”
She turned on her heel walking away leaving Malfoy on his own stunned and hot headed.
As Hermione stormed from the library she reflected that, all in all shouting at Malfoy was a good thing, not only did he need to be taken down a peg but it helped her release some of her anger at Ron as she walked down the corridor she realised that she had no were to go she did not want to return to the library for obvious reason so she decided that she would have to brave the common room to get to her bed. As she came close to the fat lady, she heard the party still roaring, and dread flooded her but she reminded herself that she needed to keep it together. She hoped that Ron and Lavender had gotten a room and she would not be subjected to any more outrageous PDA.
She opened the portrait hall and scanned the crowd to look for a shock of ginger hair when her eyes finally found Ron, she moved into the crowd doing her best to avoid him and Harry. She was bumping into everyone and shoving past people, she was the recipient of many displeased looks but her priority was getting to the stairs leading to the dorms. When she finally reached them, she ran up flinging open her door and shutting it behind her she was relieved to see that no other girls had returned from the party yet and she was alone. She walked over to her bed and laid down, knocked back the bottle of dreamless sleep on her bedside table and drifted into a deep slumber on top of her duvet with her school clothes still on as all she wished to do now was escape how she felt while being awake. she drifted off she and felt a twinge of dread at the thought of the morning but it was soon left behind for her to deal with later as she lay still and emotionless without a thought passing her mind. If it wasn’t for her steady breathing she could be mistaken for dead
When Hermione opened her eyes the next morning, she felt nausea as the memories from the previous day came back to her, her heavy eyelids lifted and she turned to look at the clock it was 5:30 Lavender and Parvati were asleep she got up and went to the bathroom. She peeled her uniform off as if it was shedding a layer of skin. She let it all drop at her ankles discarding it, she felt like she was stripping away yesterday's memories and feelings she stepped in the shower and let the warm water run over her skin but when she looked at the temperature it was set at, she realised it was 5 degrees -cold water always feels hot when you're freezing. A distant part of her registered how uncomfortable it was but she was happy to sink into the discomfort as if it could distract from the far more uncomfortable truth that she was coming to grips with, soon she felt tears prick her eyes and then the warm salty water flooded her view and ran down her body mixing with water leaving the shower head.
She didn’t know what to do with herself. She knew in her heart that Harry would choose Ron over her which in itself was breaking her further. She was on the floor now she felt just as she did years ago, when she was 11 years old... Ron had told Harry that there was no wonder she had no friends because she was a nightmare to deal with. She had just been uprooted from her family, friends and entire life to find out there was a magical world and she was a part of it; when she got there all she wanted was to do well to be accepted like everyone else so she studied everything she could to help catch her up with other people with wizard parents. When she got to school, she realised that people thought of her as a know it all. Ron hated her for knowing more than him despite his upbringing and others hated her solely because of her heritage, her image of an idealist place, where magic could help people, was shattered. She never really had a place at Hogwarts where she felt safe. She was 11 alone in a strange world she knew so little about.
She felt transported back to that position the only time she’d ever felt as if she belonged here was with Harry and Ron, she knew no one else really liked her that much but she’d gotten over it because she had them. But now, what did she have, a shattered glass she once believed was incapable of a crack. And the one who’d taken a hammer to it was the one that had helped her make it. The shards cut her hands and she was bleeding from them but she still held onto a sharp fragment like it was a lifeline. Though her tight grip meant that it too was piercing her skin she could hear the dripping of the thick red hot fluid on the floor
But she couldn’t let go.
She was back to floating aimlessly in a place she’d never fit in there was no place for her in this world.
She scrubbed her skin raw relishing the pain it caused her. She tried to scrub away her magic from her very skin, as if it could take her back to when she was 11 and still didn’t know about any of this.
She wished she wasn’t a witch.
She wished she could have been brought up like a normal child.
Hogwarts was now her prison, she couldn’t leave. By law she needed to get a magical education; she didn’t have the luxury of ignorance to this all, like most. She was kept here, away from her parents, who she could barely tell anything, who weren’t allowed to visit her, she barely saw them anymore.
She told herself this was the last time she could cry about this she needed to move on. She stepped out of the shower closing the door behind her encasing the steam. She dried off and put on a new uniform; she decided she would not go down to breakfast today as she didn’t think she could cope with the waited silence between her Ron and Harry or worse, if she saw Ron and Lavender together.
Draco's Pov
He sat next to Blaise at the loud Slytherin breakfast table, his mind dipping in and out the conversation at hand, until Blaise jabbed his elbow into his ribs, and asked if had heard that Ron was making out with Lavender yesterday; he shrugged in response looking uninterested but his mind was whirring connecting the dots:” that that must have been why Hermione was crying last night,” He looked over at the Gryffindor table and saw Ron accompanied by Lavender and Harry but Hermione was no were to be seen. He could imagine her crying in her dorm over losing her boyfriend, it all made sense to him the mudblood and the blood traitor and they’re twisted sick love story. It disgusted him. They were both disgusting. She was an idiot for crying over him, he’s incapable and not magically gifted at all. He didn’t want to sit here anymore contemplating the sordid relations of fools he shouldn’t be giving a second thought to so he got up and went to the library to get some studying in before his first lesson.
But when he went to sit in his usual seat, he was greeted with Hermione, standing by a bookshelf while her parchment was spread across the table. Remembering his argument with her yesterday he thought he’d get back at her so silently he walked around the table and stood close behind her before he spoke quite softly:
“I know why you were crying yesterday Granger...”
She jumped slightly and then turned quickly to face him her back against the shelf.
“Leave me alone for once, will you?”
He smiled at her, knowing this time, he had the upper hand.
“It’s because Weasley kissed another girl..”
He saw her face pale and loose its cool contempt for him switching to fear.
“Lavender was it, were you dating or something did he cheat on you and break your heart?”
“You don’t know what your taking about! We weren’t.. we never really dated.”
He smirked at her.
“Were you just in love with him then, was it unrequited?”
She looked up at him, meeting his eyes, he saw the flush that had been growing on her cheeks and felt himself realise their close proximity, but he didn’t back away he pursued further lowering his head.
“No! That’s not at all the truth, just get off me!”
She said, her voice shaking slightly.
Her breathing began to grow heavier as he lent down further, she shoved him off her, and went to grab her books and work. Draco stood there smiling knowing that this time he had won.
“Ok Granger whatever you say, but I truly don’t understand what you saw in him he’s not even good-looking.”
She shot him a withering look before rushing out the library. He took her chair and began to work on their potions assignment that was due later today. His was more or less complete but he wanted to double check it just in case he had made any mistakes.
His first lesson was double potions with the Gryffindors so he made his way over to the dungeons, as they went in they had to hand in their homework, and for the first hour they were doing comprehensive tasks until Snape stood up and said they would have a partner project that would span over the next few months, the partners would be decided by the grades they got on their last project as they would be paired with the person worth the most similar mark for example the people with the 2 lowest marks would go together Draco felt confident he’d a have an intelligent partner, as potions was his best subject and he knew he’d done well on the last assignment. So, he waited for Snape to call his name with someone less excitedly, but all excitement vanished when he heard he and Hermione had received the highest grades and would be partnered together!