Love and Hate: A Dramione

Chapter 14

It would be nice to say that things changed between Draco and Hermione after the day he told her about Sophie. However, real life was rarely that simple. Malfoy was just as mean to her as ever and Hermione simply dealt with it as she usually did. Hermione still remembered the first time they saw each other after she left the room...

Hermione was walking to class with Harry when she bumped into someone and fell to the ground.

"Watch it Mudblood!" Draco sneered at her from above.

Hermione was so surprised at his hostile tone, she just stared at him for a few moments. While Draco kept the sneer painted on, his eyes begged Hermione to not let anything slip.

"You watch it Ferret!" Hermione exclaimed once she regained her composure.

"Are you alright Hermione?" Harry asked helping Hermione up.

"Yeah," Hermione assured him. "Clearly, this hallway isn't big enough to let Malferret and his big head to walk by without hitting something."

At that the Gryffindors in the hall sniggered.

"Well maybe, if you just stop trying to pull that stick out of your ass for a moment you might actually be able to watch where you're going," Draco countered.

It was the Slytherins' turn to laugh.

Luckily, the bell rang to signal the start of class, preventing the situation from escalating.

Hermione sighed. Who was she kidding? She didn't honestly expect anything to change did she? And Malfoy had his reasons. After all, he still had to protect Sophie.

Sophie. Hermione sighed. She had tried to delay visiting the little girl because of her brother. She didn't know what to expect if she came into the room and found Malfoy there. The end of their conversation was awkward enough and Hermione did not want to relive the experience. Nonetheless, she did promise Sophie she'd come back and she supposed now was as good a time as any. She only hoped that Malfoy wasn't there.

When Hermione walked into the suite, the place was quiet. She breathed a sigh of relief thinking Draco wasn't there. Her relief was short lived when she heard Sophie scream. Alarmed, Hermione ran to the open door of her bedroom. The sight in front of her stopped her in her tracks.

"Oh no, the dragon is getting closer!" Malfoy, the Draco Malfoy was currently chasing a little girl around a pink bedroom while imitating a fire-breathing dragon, claws and all.

"Ahh!" Sophie squealed with delight. She climbed onto her bed where Draco finally caught her.

"Got you!" He declared with a smile. "Where is the prince that will save the fair princess from the evil dragon?" He asked as he tickled Sophie who was giggling and laughing.

Hermione wouldn't have been able to move even if a Hungarian Horntail was right behind her. She had never seen Draco Malfoy smile. She had seen him smirk, sneer, snigger – everything but truly smile. His smile lit up his whole face and transformed the hard angles so that Hermione saw a 16 year old boy and not the devil incarnate. Not that she was suddenly falling in love or anything. That would just be stupid. But Hermione knew she was seeing something different. She was seeing Draco Malfoy with his guard down – shirt untucked, hair in disarray, no pretenses, and no walls. It felt so private, Hermione felt like she was intruding.

The sudden silence made Hermione realized that Draco had looked up and seen her staring. Their eyes locked for an infinitesimal moment before Sophie thankfully broke the silence.

"Hermione!" She called as she realized the reason her brother stopped.

"Hey Sophie," Hermione smiled. "It looks like you and your brother are quite busy so I'll come back another time," she said, hoping to get out of the situation.