The Girl Next Door (a DRAMIONE fan fiction)

Chapter 2

So what happened you ask? Why did the two young students embark on their first year of school alone? It all began with a conversation they had one evening in their secret clubhouse.

It was a dark night and Hermione hung a flashlight from the roof in order for them to see. They had been talking and the subject had changed, as it had been doing more and more recently, to Hogwarts.

"I wonder what the professors are like there." Hermione said "Do you think they'll be nice? What about the other kids? Do you think they'll already know each other? Will they be mean?" Hermione looked up at Draco. He was looking at his nails. "Draco? Are you listening?"

He wasn't. Draco had been thinking. There was something troubling him.

"Hermione? Do you think the other boys will make fun of me for being friends with a girl?" Some of the boys at their muggle school had teased him about this and it had been on his mind ever since. He wanted to start out fresh at Hogwarts and didn't want to make himself a target by always hanging out with Hermione but he didn't know how to tell her.

She looked at him with hurt in her eyes. "What do you mean? Of course they won't, and anyway, if they do, we'll always have each other's backs right?"

Draco looked down. He didn't want to hurt Hermione but he wanted to be able to be friends with other boys and by hanging out with her all the time, he worried that she would ward them off. Not to mention, she was a muggle born, something his father had hated about her for all their years of friendship. If she did get into Slytherin with him, she wouldn't be welcomed and he didn't want to associate himself with someone who would probably make him very unpopular right from the start.

Hermione looked hurt "I said 'right Draco', that's when you're supposed to say 'yes Hermione, I'll always have your back if you have mine'" her voice started to waver. She looked at Draco expectantly

He looked at his shoes again

"Damn it Draco, look at me!" Hermione said finally losing her patience.

Draco looked up, his eyes guilty

"Why are you acting all weird and shy?" Hermione demanded "this isn't like you at all. Now snap out of it and tell me what's on your mind"

"Ok mom!" Draco snapped immediately regretting it. Before Hermione could go off however, Draco quickly told her what he was worried about. When he was finished, he expected Hermione to be mad or to hit him but she just looked at him sadly and said

"Fine. If you don't want to be friends anymore, ok. Just know that in twenty years, when you look back on your miserable life, that it could've been better with me in it."

With that, she dropped out of the treehouse and left Draco in a stunned silence. He buried  his head on his hands. He had just lost his best friend in the world, he had to get her back.