Cover credits to @callagraphics
Two broken souls, two lives laced with nightmares and fears of the non-existent. Both fighting their own demons.
Draco Malfoy, former death eater and the prince of Slytherin is not the cocky, arrogant, and prejudiced...
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22nd September, 1998.
Hermione sat alone at lunch, lazily playing with her food.
Her birthday celebration three days ago had left her abuzz with happiness. That was until the nightmare from a few hours ago had snatched that peace away.
She wondered where Ginny, Luna, and Neville were. They should be here.
Her stomach grumbled in protest and she stared at the sausage on her plate defiantly, as if wanting to melt it away with her gaze.
She shouldn't have taken that nap. The nightmare had left her nauseous now, unable to bear even the smell of food surrounding her.
Her head turned towards the double doors of the Great Hall and Hermione almost groaned at the sight of his platinum blonde hair.
Blaise Zabini to his right was talking animatedly to him and Pansy Parkinson but Malfoy's face was blank.
She wondered how Blaise's ebullient energy tolerated Malfoy's gloom.
But her eyes followed their little procession nevertheless.
It had been four days yet Hermione could not shake the interaction from her head. The way he had kneeled in front of the little girl, how he had defended her.
The softness in his voice seemed to echo around Hermione's head right now.
It was ironic. How the bully had now become the defender.
He sat down on his house table with his back to her yet Hermione kept looking. As if she might somehow penetrate his mind and see the thoughts and emotions that he hid so well. The ones she tried so hard to decipher whenever she saw him.
But all she saw was a mask of indifference. Sometimes they would make eye contact from across the room and that mask would be down for the barest of seconds and Hermione would catch a glimpse of hatred. As if even looking at her had somehow tainted him.
No news there, she thought bitterly.
It did nothing to quell her curiosity.
Lost in her head, she didn't notice her friends approaching until Ginny was right behind her.
"You're staring," she whispered in her left ear as she crossed behind Hermione and settled on her right.
Hermione jumped at the voice. She glared at Ginny, trying to calm her heart.
She was so engrossed in her speculations of Draco Malfoy that she had somehow forgotten all about her nightmare.
Miraculously, she was hungry now.
"Where were you?" she asked Ginny as she finally took a bite of the now cold sausage.
She smelled of dirt and rain.
"Outside," Ginny shrugged vaguely and Hermione raised her eyebrow in question.
"So, who were you staring at?" Ginny asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
An attempt to change the topic.
Hermione allowed her to get away with whatever she was trying to cover.
