Where Your Eyes Linger

Chapter 1

"Please could you be tender and I will sit close to you"

—

"You haven't seen a toad have you?" Hermione asked tiredly. She'd asked the question more times than she could count, to no avail.

"No," said the pale boy in the compartment, just as Hermione predicted. She'd just turned to go ask someone else when he stopped her. "Well aren't you going to tell me why you asked? It seems a bit rude not to."

Hermione turned back to him with the beginnings of a glare. However, the boy was smirking, and she suddenly wasn't sure if he'd meant his comment to be rude.

"Well, this boy named Neville lost his. I've been helping him look for ages," Hermione explained with a sigh.

"Do you want to sit down?" the boy offered, holding out his white hand. "My friends went to go look, but I already know what this place is like from my father. So for now, this compartment is empty."

Hermione hesitated at these last words, but she was exhausted. She took the seat across from the boy.

"I'm Malfoy, by the way, Draco Malfoy," he said, extending a hand.

"Hermione Granger," she said, taking his hand. It was a bit cold to the touch, but she didn't think anything of it.

"Granger? I've never—" Suddenly, Draco's eyes widened. "You're not a Mudblood are you?"

"A what?" Hermione asked, tilting her head. She had the feeling that the word he used wasn't exactly a very positive one.

"You are! Oh no, but—"

"Are you going to tell me what you're talking about?" Hermione interrupted. She didn't like the look he had when he'd mentioned the foreign word. She was pleased to see his expression change a bit when she interrupted him. Was it admiration she saw now?

"A Mudblood is another name for a Muggle-born wizard." Draco paused, and added. "You do know what a Muggle is?"

"Of course I do," Hermione said dismissively. "I just don't see why it's so surprising that I'm a-a Mudblood, was it?"

"My parents, they, well, they told me it would be obvious," Draco explained, though he wasn't giving a very good explanation in Hermione's opinion.

"What would be obvious?" she asked impatiently. Draco's expression—yes, it definitely was admiration—returned.

"They believe that Mudbloods are below the old wizarding families," Draco clarified. "In status, that is. They told me that I would be able to spot one at first glance, but you—you seemed to know what you were doing."

Hermione wondered what it was exactly that made her seem like she knew what she was doing, as she had only told him her name and asked about Neville's toad. She did know what she was doing, of course—hours of reading all"

"the school-books had assured her of that—and she made sure that this boy didn't doubt anything any longer.

"Well, of course I would know what I'm doing," Hermione said lifting her head. "I worked hard to make sure I knew everything I could. I do that with everything. Back at my old school, I was the top of my class."

Draco snorted. "Good luck doing that here. There are a lot of wizards who have lived in the wizarding world for their whole lives, like me. We know much more than a Mudblood can know from books."

"Oh, really?" said Hermione incredulously. "Then I assume you know the levitation spell we're doing this year?"

"Like I said, out of a book," Draco said dismissively.