Interhouse Relationships

Chapter 1~ What You Can't Have
Draco Malfoy hated Harry Potter for many reasons. It wasn't just that Potter was a better seeker than him or that he was famous, those were rather trivial things that could change with age and attitude, but the main reasons he hated Harry was because he had friends, something that Draco lacked terribly and wished he had and Draco wasn't very happy that he offered to be Harry's friend but he was turned down for a mudblood and a Weasley.

But it was the Mudblood Hermione Granger who he hated most of all. Ever since the first time he saw her, he had felt an unfamiliar pang in his chest, that had gotten more and more familiar as the years went by. Now this pang left him totally confused and unable to rein his emotions and control was something that Malfoy had always prided himself for having. Now if that wasn't a good reason for him to hate Granger, he could always remind himself that she was a Mudblood, a witch with Muggle parents and that he was Pureblood from an old family with no mixed genes in his blood. For him to associate himself with anyone less than pureblooded witches and wizards disgusted him and his family or so it had been beaten into him when he was a child. So, he many good reasons to hate her and not enough reasons to let his feelings out.

For these reasons he was angry that it was the first day of the sixth year and he was having a terrible time pulling his eyes off Gryffindor table where Hermione was sitting with Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley... her friends.

And what was Draco stuck with? A couple of dolts whose main language consisted of grunts and groans, and then there was Pansy Parkinson. She would not shut the hell up!

She sat there blabbering about god knows what and she always insisted on holding hands when they walked down the hall, ever since he took her to the Yule Ball back in Fourth Year.

So yes that was why Draco Malfoy had his eyes fixed on his worse enemy, forbidden love.

Hermione must of sensed that someone was staring at her since she turned around and scanned her eyes around the room to see how was watching her. Draco quickly focused all his attention on the food in front of him but he felt her gaze stop on him at the head of Slytherin table. Abruptly she turned her head back to her friends and continued their conversation, stroking her boyfriend, Ron Weasley's hand.

Draco picked at his food, stabbing it with a fork. Pansy had started talking about "their" future after Hogwarts, making him lose his appetite and wish he could be up in his but he was prefect, so he had to show the first years to the Slytherin Common Room. So Draco was forced to sit there and listen to Pansy's endless ramble about the future she would never get.

Finally he and the other Slytherin Prefect, Blaise Zabini stood up and started ushering the First Years to come with them so they could settle in Slytherin House.

Over at the Gryffindor table Hermione Granger was standing up to led their First Years out.

Draco wasn't surprised that Hermione was a Prefect. She had the highest marks in their class which bothered his father, Lucius Malfoy to no ends.

Lucius was so mad that his pureblooded son had come in second to a mudblood that he had beaten Draco thoroughly at the end of his First Year and the beatings had gotten worse every year since.

The other Gryffindor Prefect was Neville Longbottom. His magical skill had gotten better each year, although he still did poorly in Potions.

Draco returned his attentions to the new Slytherin as he and Blaise led them to the dungeons.

One boy wandered away, so Blaise had to go after him. Although Blaise was pureblood, her family wasn't as rich or powerful as the Malfoys, so it would of been ridiculous for Draco to go after him.

Blaise quickly retrieved the boy and Draco turned on his heel leading the rest of the kids down the hall. He didn't ask where the boy had went, he just memorized his face and stalked angrily down the corridor.

Later once Draco had got to the privacy of his dorm after two long hours of Pansy's continuous yapping, he could finally lay in bed and think of Hermione Granger and the first time they had meet.

****

Hermione was exhausted from herding the new Gryffindor First Years up to Gryffindor Tower.

Neville hadn't been much help either since they didn't want to listen to him, so it took over half the usual time to get there, although they didn't lose anyone.

Hermione settled down next to Ron, holding his hand as they talked with Harry and Ginny who had started going out in June while Harry was staying at the Weasley's.

"So Gin," Ron asked, "Has Harry been treating you good? Cause if he hasn't, I'll be kicking his ass, best friend or not."

"Don't be silly Ron!" Ginny cried. "He treats me like a queen."

"The question is Ron," Harry interrupted, "How are you treating Hermione?"

Ron pulled Hermione close to him and kissed her on the forehead. "Quite well I must say," Ron answered.

Hermione laughed and kissed Ron on the lips. "I'll see everyone in the morning. I forgot to finish my Potions essay." She cringed. "I'll have to get up early."

"Bye Herm," Ron said and everyone wished her a goodnight.

Hermione changed into her pajamas and pulled herself into bed. Now that she was alone she could finally think about what had been plaguing her since the feast.

In the middle of the feast, she had felt eyes watching her. When she turned around to see who had been staring at her for the last ten minutes she saw Draco Malfoy quickly divert his head down to his plate.

Hermione watched him for a few minutes but he wasn't looking back so she decided it was just her imagination that he had been staring at her and turned back to Ron who had been talking all that time.

Malfoy had always made her curious. Ever since she had meet him in the first year, she felt she knew him from somewhere else, but she could never figure out where.

To make matters worse whenever she saw Malfoy, she felt a strange pang and sometime back in fifth year she realized that she had strong feelings for the sod. To her surprise, she realized that her feelings for Draco Malfoy were stronger than her feelings for anyone else, even Ron.

The fact that he was fucking hot was a bonus. His hair shown with silver streaks and he was strongly muscled. The only thing that was undesirable were his eyes. Although they were a beautiful shade of grey they were cold and she had never seen warmth in them, not even when he smiled.

Hermione was scared what she felt for Malfoy and she wished she had never figured out the strength of her feelings, specially since he would never share them with her.

Although Hermione tried to block him out by thinking of Ron, Draco was usually foremost in her mind when it came to boys.

But that night she dreamed an old dream that she had been having for years.

Hermione was playing at a park when a boy approached her. She couldn't make out his face, although everytime she tried to without success. He told her that the sandcastle she was building looked like a sandhovel and sneering at her, attempted to step on but she had stood up and pushed him over, his foot grazing her castle, it had collapsed. She felt a strange sadness around the boy, like he was all alone in need of friends. Then he asked... no demanded his name.

"Hermione Granger. What's yours?" she had asked. But before he could answer, a faceless man grabbed him and both the boy and the man would disappear and Hermione would wake up.