Saving Each Other - Dramione

Friends

I sit down opposite Ginny and Harry at the Gryffindor table. Soon, Ron walks into the great hall and starts walking towards us but I just give him a deadly look and keeps walking. I watch him take a seat next to Dean and Seamus before turning back to Ginny and Harry.

'Um... care to explain?' Ginny asks me.

'I'll tell you about it later. I'm just really pissed off right now because Ron has ruined everything.'

'Well right now,' Ginny says, taking Harry's wrist to look at his watch, 'you probably want to eat really fast if you want to be on time for class but promise you'll tell us all about what my idiot brother has done at lunch.'

'Yeah I will,' I say, grabbing some toast and buttering it a little more savagely than normal.

***

I tell Harry and Ginny everything as we walk by the side of the lake, holding the food we took from the great hall. I even tell them all about my friendship with Draco and his apology to me. They are both a bit shocked but they seem to accept it.

'Well it sounds like he's being nice enough,' Harry says. 'But seriously Hermione, if he ever does anything to hurt you, even in the smallest way possible, I swear, nothing will be able to stop me from getting to him.'

'And I wouldn't hesitate to remind him what a bat bogey hex is like. Ron probably deserves one too. Let me know if either of them does anything 'Mione, I'll sort them out for you,' Ginny says with a look that tells me Ron should be scared.

'Thanks guys. I really appreciate that you've accepted this. I really do believe that he's changed. You guys should talk to him sometime. Though I haven't seen him since this morning when he ran off after what Ron said. I really hope he's okay. Somehow I think Ron made him believe that he shouldn't talk to me.'

'He'll come round I bet,' Harry says comfortingly.

***

But I don't get to talk to Draco all day. He doesn't sit next to me in Arithmancy and when I call after him in the hallway he just keeps walking. Well he can't avoid me forever, we share a common room and we still have to do our rounds together. All the same, it kind of hurts to know that he doesn't want to talk to me.

All day I can't stop thinking about him. Unusually for me, I can't pay attention in class because I keep getting distracted. I start to plan out exactly what I will say to him and even what he will say back but when the day is finally over and I walk into the common room where Malfoy is sitting, I forget everything.

He doesn't even look up when I walk in, so I walk over and sit down on the sofa, putting my books on the coffee table. 'Hey,' I say when he still doesn't look up.

'Oh, hey,' he replies, still not looking at me.

'Ron's an idiot. He's still got a lot of pent-up anger after the war which, I know isn't any excuse for the way he acted but I'm just saying that it's going to take him a while for him to get used to the idea that you're not the bad guy anymore.'

'But that's the problem. I am the bad guy, and Weasley had every right to try to protect you from me.'

'But people can change Draco. You can change.'

'Some things never change. Everywhere I go people will always hate me. They'll give me that look and no one will ever trust me. You shouldn't have to experience any of that because you're the hero and I'm the villain. I can't let myself get close to anyone because I know that they will get hurt. They always get hurt. I'm giving you a chance to save yourself, please take it.'

Is he seriously trying to protect me?

'You think I care about all the attention, I get that already because of who I am, I don't think it could get any worse. You think I don't know what I'm getting myself into, I spent all of last year on the run with the most wanted person in the whole wizarding world. Granted I do seem to have made a habit of choosing friends who get themselves into a lot of trouble but the thing is, I don't care. I don't care if talking to you is going to mean that I have to deal with some stuff that I wouldn't have had to deal with otherwise. I just care that I can talk to you and that when I do I can feel happy.'

'But I will end up hurting you.'

'Stop trying to be noble. I accept the risk.'

'You shouldn't.'

'Draco I just want us to be friends. I know that society will judge me and that it could affect my social status, but I don't care.'

He lets out a long low breath before saying, 'are you sure about this?'

'Of course I'm sure.'

'Thanks.'

'For what?'

'For believing in me. And for actually wanting to talk to me.' After a short pause, he opens his mouth again. 'Does this mean we're friends?'

'If you want to be,' I say suddenly feeling shy.

'I haven't actually had a friend before. What are friends meant to do?'

'Well, they just kind of talk to each other and hang out together. They stand up for each other and look after each other. You celebrate things together and you try to cheer each other up when you're feeling sad.'

'Sounds like I've got a lot to learn.'

'I'm sure you'll do fine. Anyway, we've got to go and do our rounds.

***

I lay in bed for a while trying to get to sleep. I can't stop thinking about Draco. About how miserable his life would have been with his horrible father and without having any friends. Then I think about how nice he's been to me, about how he's changed so much. I just hope that now, just maybe, he can be happy.