Draco Bloody Malfoy

Draco Bloody Malfoy 3

"I'm cold!" whined Draco for the thousandth time. Hermione had persuaded the boys to visit Hogsmeade with her earlier that morning, and after some sidelong glances and sullen muttering they had consented. At the moment, they trudge to The Three Broomsticks in the snow.

"We know you're cold," Ron muttered, "because you've been telling us every other second since we left the castle,"

Hermione glared at Ron. "Be nice," she ordered, Ron obliged.

"There it is!" Harry said, pointing through the swirling snow to the small Inn. Hurrying forward through the flurry again, the quartet entered The Three Broomsticks.

"That's better," Draco announced, "I was freezing my-"

"Okay!" Hermione said loudly.

"Don't drown me out," Draco said calmly.

"Don't speak with such exquisite detail then," snapped Hermione.

"Both of you shut-up, Malfoy get the drinks," ordered Harry.

"No," Draco pronounced, seating himself in a booth with a flourish. Hermione slipped in beside him and Ron sidled into the booth seat across from them. Harry was the only one left standing.

"Go on then," Hermione said, smiling.

Harry sighed and strolled toward the bar.

Ron suddenly turned bright red, and that, my friends, clashed horribly with his hair. He began to splutter and looked at the table as though embarrassed.

Draco sighed, and looked over the booth to where Ron had been staring. Several girls were beckoning him frantically with their French-manicured nails. Just to piss them off, Draco slipped his arm around Hermione's shoulder and settled down into his seat, glancing smugly at them. They had stopped beckoning, and were looking thoroughly peeved at Hermione.

"Get off," instructed Hermione, pointing at Draco's arm.

"Do you know how dangerous it is being me and single?" asked Draco.

Hermione sighed.

Draco sighed.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

Draco rolled his eyes.

"Shut up!" Hermione snapped.

"I didn't say anything," Draco informed her.

"Ha! You stopped!" Hermione said triumphantly.

"I did, didn't I?" asked Draco.

"Yup," said Ron.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione interjected.

Draco began to laugh. It really didn't suit him, but it was a relief to know he did anything besides smirk.

Hermione looked up.

Harry was standing over by the bar, surrounded by at least two dozen girls, all of whom were trying to, it appeared, grab and pull him off. It seemed they couldn't get enough of them, and before any of the three people watching could stand, two of the girls had already broken out in a catfight.

"Harry!" said Hermione, looking horrified.

Ron just laughed.

"Off! All of you, get off!" Hermione snapped at the surrounding girls. Harry had a ripped sleeve on his robe, and what looked like bright red lipstick on his left cheek (smeared). Draco was laughing so hard he was almost on his knees, he was holding a nearby table to support himself.

"What is so funny?" said Harry.

"Because - I - usually have that - happening - to me!" laughed Draco, wheezing between every few syllables.

"Oh yes, that's hilarious all right," said Hermione, rolling her eyes. Ron, however, was observing Draco in that position, with an odd look on his face indeed (not that odd you sickos!). Hermione noticed the murderous look on Ron's face and grabbed his hand before it could reach his wand. Draco, noticing the sudden movement, looked up, very pink in the face.

"What was that?" Draco asked, looking as though he was about to start laughing again.

"What?" asked Hermione, who had dropped Ron's hand as though it were on fire.

"Aaaw, were you howding hands?" asked Draco, pursing his lips.

Ron's ears went red.

"No!" Hermione shot back fiercely.

Draco raised his eyebrows, and they made their way back to a booth.

The snow swirled thickly around the windows like frost covering over a new day's wreath. Icicles hung daintily from the store roofs, dropping every so often in a gust of wind. The rest of the day passed pleasantly enough, tripping and jogging along the streets in a tight-knit pack, the quartet looked like one, huge body, moving swiftly over the snow. Until, by chance, one of them fell and the body lost a leg.

Hermione was fairly surprised, as they hurried from shop to shop, tripping along the way, how tolerant Draco seemed of Ron and Harry. Every time Hermione tripped, Ron rushed to help her up, and they both eventually fell in the snow, laughing together. After that, either Draco would help them up with a black leather glove, or Harry would lend a pale-skinned hand.

When they entered Honeydukes, Ron surprised Hermione with a bracelet he had bought for her over the holidays. The inscription read "Herm", the nickname Ron had dubbed her when they had last met. Hermione was glad to have a nickname, it was cute and short...much better than "Herm-own-ninny", what she had been called countless times over the summer at Viktor's house in Bulgaria. She hadn't heard from him in months.

Ron latched the bracelet and smiled at Hermione. Hermione smiled back, but declined when Ron hugged her waist with his arm. He looked at her as though to say "What?" but Hermione nodded to Draco, who had both eyebrows raised to their highest extent, and seemed to be waiting for them to start snogging on the spot.

"Waiting for something? Draco?" Hermione asked sweetly, letting 'Draco' fall off her tongue as though wanting him to faint. Draco, however, didn't move. He just shrugged those elegant shoulders, threw a silver and green scarf round his neck, and pulled on his leather gloves. Hermione followed him out of the shop while Harry and Ron paid for some sweets.

"Stalking me, are you?" asked Draco, his back to Hermione as he stopped outside the store.

"No," replied Hermione. "You've been quiet today..."

Draco turned around. "So?" he asked.

"So...you're usually...not loud...but - "

"Sophisticatedly talkative?" suggested Draco. "And stunningly gorgeous, of course," he added as a second thought.

"The first one, yes," Hermione said rolling her eyes.

"And?"

"And nothing,"

"And?"

"Be quiet!"

"And?"

"And - And annoying!"

"Good enough," grinned Draco.

"Yup," Hermione grinned back. Draco turned and started walking in the snow, he stooped for a moment, and Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"What's wrong?" she called.

"Nothing," Draco called back, just before he turned around and threw a large snowball at Hermione. It hit her square on the chest, and she fell backward a little. It seemed she recovered in half a moment, and quickly stooped to throw one back. When Harry and Ron exited Honeydukes they found Draco and Hermione, both lying side by side in the snow, laughing.

"What were you doing?" asked Harry.

"Having a snowball fight, what does it look like?" asked Draco from the ground. After a moment he stood up, brushed off his long jacket (you guessed it, black), and helped Hermione up off the ground.

"That was uncharacteristically nice," Ron mentioned.

"Be nice," Hermione ordered again, while Ron shot a death glance at Draco.

"Should we get back to the castle soon?" asked Harry. "It's almost dinner,"

"Yeah, and I need to get some-" Hermione began.

"-work done," finished the boys.

"Haha," said Hermione sarcastically. "You really should get everything done, you know, ahead of time,"

"Herm, it's Friday," moaned Ron pointedly. Harry grinned his agreement, but Draco looked thoughtful.

"You know what?" he asked after a moment. "You're absolutely right,"

The trio stared.

"No seriously, she is right, if you get your work done on Friday night, you have time to party Saturday and have a hangover on Sunday,"

The boys laughed, Hermione just smiled to herself.

At dinner that night, Ian went to sit at the Slytherin table. This caused some sulky glances on the Slytherin side, but the Gryffindors remained fairly calm. Only Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione silenced him with a glance. Hermione, Harry and Ron had a great dinner of steak and lamb pudding, then set off toward the Common Room. Hermione, to do her homework, the boys, to sit around reading and talking.

To everyone's great surprise, Draco planned to spend the evening in the Gryffindor Common Room. On the way back to the Common Room, Hermione asked him,

"Why are you coming back with us?"

"Because," Draco answered quietly. "You're the only sanity I can find in both Common Rooms, m'dear,"

Hermione blushed scarlet and muttered her thanks.

"What do you have, f- for homework, I mean," asked Hermione, upon entering the Common Room.

"Tons," replied Draco. "Probably not half as much as you though, from what I've heard you've conned the teachers into letting you take almost everything except Divination, and I can't blame you for that,"

"Yes. She's a fraud, that Trelawney," replied Hermione cooly.

"I know, I took Arithmacy, had you the time to notice you may have known," said Draco, grinning. He grinned. Hermione noticed this very, very vaguely. Okay, so she noticed it full blast...the staggeringly gorgeous, straight white teeth, the beautiful blond hair, the stunning grey eyes. What was the point in pretending? Was she falling in love with him?

No. She could answer that; it wasn't love, just a crush. You hardly know the man, she reminded herself. But she didn't have long to think on that, as she and Draco were already sitting together at a table close to the fire.

"So, what're you starting with?" he asked, looking up from his book bag, where he was pulling out some rather heavy looking texts.

"Transfiguration, I suppose," Hermione sighed.

"I guess I'll start with that as well, then," Draco replied, shaking his hair out. This caused the gel (which had already melted) to completely fall apart; meaning his hair was sodden and wet, hanging about his head like some sort of shag-style. Hermione giggled.

"What?" asked Draco, his grey eyes looking up.

"Nothing," replied Hermione, rummaging among the papers for a quill.

"Nothing my ass," Draco said. Hermione could feel him watching her and she looked up,

"Your hair," she said quietly.

"My what?" he asked incredulously.

"Your hair!" called Hermione, causing half of the people in the Common Room to turn.

"My hair?!" asked Draco loudly. A group of girls, who had been observing the two when they entered (with murderous looks at Hermione) smiled benignly, though their eyes were narrowed when they passed over Hermione. Poor girl, she didn't know how many enemies she was making right now.

"Your hair. Now can we get started?" asked Hermione.

"Wh- oh, right yeah," Draco said, smiling to himself.

"Oh no," Draco said after a few moments, looking perfectly horrified.

"What?" asked Hermione, looking up from her Astronomy chart work.

"You're on Astronomy?" asked Draco staggeringly. "God Granger, no wonder you whipped me in the end of term marks!"

"Yeah well, I work hard, now what is it?"

"I'm getting tutored by a Gryffindor...wouldn't daddy be proud..."

Hermione's eyes snapped up. Draco seemed unaware he had said anything odd and was now muttering to himself.

"Oh God Draco! Are you going to let me help you or not?" asked Hermione, exasperatedly after a moment.

"Yeah yeah, it's just these - these cross species marking trades," Draco said, waving his quill at the parchment in front of him.

"Yes, I had quite a bit of trouble with them as well," Hermione said, taking the parchment and jotting down a formula.

"Yes, I know the formula for it, but I don't get how the species markings can be switched, I mean, is it all in the transfusion, or is it-"

"In the spell itself? No, you see, it happens like this..."

An hour later, Hermione was teaching Draco a full-fledged year of Transfiguration, and the weird thing, it seemed, was that he was listening attentively all the while. A few people in the Common Room were looking over at the pair oddly, for every once in a while they would burst out laughing. Draco couldn't believe he was actually learning.

"Hi cuz!" said an excitable voice halfway through Hermione's lesson.

"Hello Ian," Draco replied casually.

"What're you doing?"

"Getting some work done," said Hermione and Draco in unison.

"Oh. O-okay..." said Ian, looking slightly put-out.

"Why?" said Draco.

"Well, uh, I wanted a picture, to, you know, show my mom and dad back home what you look like, and, yeah," said Ian, suddenly looking uncomfortable.

"Ooh, a picture, sounds great, we like pictures? Right? Right Hermione?"

"What!" asked Hermione incredulously.

"Come on, please? Just take the bloody picture, I need something Gryffindor around me to make sure they know I'm not about to commit cold-blooded murderer to their brave and noble son,"

"Fine, fine," replied Hermione, rolling her eyes. She sat down cautiously beside Draco and he swung his arm over her shoulder.

"Smile," he muttered, before the flash went off, and a click told them both the picture had been taken.

"Great," said Ian, fanning the picture in mid air (it was one of those cameras where the picture automatically comes out after you take it). "I can get my friend, Sean, to put a spell on this to make it move, I'll get a double if you want one, Hermione?"

"Yeah okay," Hermoine replied, thinking of how the girls in her dorm would totally kill her if they ever saw that picture.

Hermione pulled out of Draco's reach and sat down in her chair again. Rummaging through the papers, she decided to start on that essay for Snape about aconite and the history of it. She didn't notice Draco was watching her ever so closely. Okay, maybe she did.

"What?" she asked, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"You're the first girl I've ever known to pull away from me so quickly," Draco said mockingly.

"You're just too terribly scary, Draco," countered Hermione, sticking out her tongue at Draco, who grimaced and replied, "Really now? Did you always think I was scary, or is that just an excuse?"

"An excuse for what?" inquired Hermione, not looking up from her essay.

"An excuse for being afraid of me knowing you think I'm gawgeous," said Draco, grinning widely.

"Oh shut up," Hermione retorted.

Not long after the argument ended, Hermione found herself staring at Draco. His blond hair surrounded his head, dripping occasionally from either snow or gel. (A/N: eeeew...dripping gel?). Every strand was like a vine in a forest, slightly curly at the ends, and longer than when he had it back. He would rub his eyes every so often, Hermione couldn't blame him, her writing was tiny, and hard to read a lot of it (haha, that's why her essays were so long, making the teachers blind). Grey eyes pierced the paper like a hawk, occasionally closing for longer than usual. He must be tired. The fire reflected his pale skin every so often. Hermione could feel eyes on their table, looking at Draco 'and his new girlfriend', that's what they must be thinking. But they were just - could she call them - friends.

“I know I'm gorgeous but do you have to stare? It makes me feel uncomfortable," said Draco, looking up from the parchment.

"Malfoys ever feel uncomfortable?" Hermione asked, blushing at being caught.

"No," admitted Draco with a grin. "But we are fiendishly good looking, agree?"

"You're never going to get around me, Draco," said Hermione with a smile.

"That's not an answer,"

"Yes it is."

"I'll take it as a yes then," said Draco.

"Take it however you want to," said Hermione, not looking up from her book.

"Hah!" cried Draco triumphantly. "I knew it!"

Hermione smiled to herself and muttered,

"Bugger."

About half an hour later Ron and Harry came downstairs from the boy's dormitory. They were both holding Quidditch tactic books, and seated themselves at the same table as Hermione and Draco. No one said anything, it seemed as though the coming and goings at the table were acknowledged just enough to not be worried. Harry started reading, but Ron was peering, with his eyes narrowed, between Hermione's red face, and Draco's grin.

"What have you two been doing?" asked Ron, breaking the silence.

"Work," replied Hermione calmly, her blush going down.

"Work huh?" asked Harry, grinning at the look on Ron's face.

"You foul-minded house elves!" cried Draco, looking up very suddenly from his book. "How dare you accuse us with such an unjust - indictment!"

Harry looked at Draco for a moment, and laughed. Then Hermione joined in, and Draco began to chuckle, but Ron's ears turned red and he went back to his book. After another hour or so of sitting and basically doing nada, Draco stretched and stood up.

"I'd better get back, they'll think I kidnapped one of you,"

The trio (well, Hermione and Harry) smiled.

"Night Draco," said Hermione.

"Bye, Malfoy,"

"Sod off, Malfoy,"

"Well," said Draco, looking at Ron, who had made the last remark. "It's good to know I'm loved here," and then, just to piss Ron off he went and hugged Hermione. Ron turned bright red, but didn't say anything.

"Night, Hermione,"

"Bye Potter,"

"Go dig a hole and bury yourself alive, Weasley."

Hermione smiled and went back to her dorm, where five girls greeted her, all looking completely furious with her.

"He hugged you!"

"Why were you two sitting - "

" - alone?"

"What was up with Ron?"

"Why did he hug you?"

"Is he coming back?"

Hermione stood in the doorway, staring at the girls around her, who had turned from furious to sugary-sweet in the blink of an eye.

"All I'm telling you," began Hermione, looking at every eager face, "is that, one, he's coming back, two, we're friends, and three, he hugged me to piss Ron off."

There was a long silence.

"Night," Hermione sang cheerfully, hopping into bed, fully clothed, and falling into a deep sleep.

The rest of the weekend passed highly uneventfully. It was on Monday that Hermione became distracted from her studies again. What else could it be? Draco.

He was smiling at her when they passed in the halls, standing with her during lessons they had together, getting closer seats to her, it seemed he really wanted to be friends. Ron seemed more tolerant of Draco lately. He still wasn't speaking to him, but he wasn't getting those deadly looks anymore when his eyes passed over Draco. Harry and Draco were becoming friends, with the odd argument about why Gryffindor won the Quidditch game.

It was Thursday when Hermione got a real surprise; at Dinner that night Dumbledore stood up and announced that a Halloween dance would be held. This surprised Hermione because nothing of the sort had been held at Hogwarts the past years. Dumbledore also said that the snow in October, though unusual, was a good sign, snow was a good omen. Voldemort was slowly falling.

"Do you ever think about it?" asked Draco that night in the Common Room.

"Think about what?" muttered Hermione.

"What would happen if he returned?" said Draco.

Hermione looked up. "What?"

"I mean, there are going to be disappearances, Hermione, here at Hogwarts." Said Draco very seriously.

"Yes," said Hermione thoughtfully. "But we have to do something in the mean time, don't we?"

"What are we doing, Hermione?" asked Draco, staring straight into her eyes.

"I don't know, Draco. I really don't know," replied Hermione, staring back at him. Draco's eyes flickered over to Ron before replying again,

"What about your friends? What will you do if they're captured?"

"I'll have you, won't I?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, Hermione, you'll have me," said Draco, grinning. And for the second time in her life, Hermione though she just might love him. She suddenly felt a great urge to hug him, so she did. Draco hugged her back, and when they broke apart, Ron was already on his way over,

"What-" he said, pointing a finger accusingly at Draco, "was - that?"

"We just hugged Ron, Draco's upset about something," Hermione replied cooly.

"It looked like more than a friendly hug!" Ron said, turning red, his voice rising. At that moment, Draco stood up, and there was such a great air of elegance and power about him that Ron stopped speaking for a moment,

"You have NO right whatsoever, to tell her what to do. Get it through your head, Weasley, she's only your friend. And I hate to break it to you, but she's my friend too, and if you have such a huge problem with that, then get your over-inflated head away from us and cool down!"

"You - You - " Ron managed to sputter, before turning on his heel and leaving.

When he had gone, Hermione stared at Draco for a moment, and grinned, "Very protective of our friends, aren't we Draco?"

Draco sighed. "Yes, I am, just in case you hadn't noticed,"

Hermione glanced at Ron. "He didn't tell me to do anything," she commented, going back to her work.

"Oh yes, that's right, critique me now that I've blurted out a terrifically brilliant speech I spent a whole ten minutes working up!" cried Draco.

"A whole ten minutes? Don't I feel loved," said Hermione, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh you are, you are," nodded Draco seriously.

Half a moment later they both bust out laughing. Their laughter was interrupted by Ian, who had made his way over considerably fast, waving two photographs in the air.

"Look! Look!" Ian cried, flinging the pictures on the table.

Hermione leant closer, Draco as well, and watched the moving pictures. As she watched, Hermione noticed Draco glancing at her continually.

"And look!" said Ian, an evil smile spreading along his face.

He tapped the picture with his wand. Hermione put a hand to her mouth, and leant back in her chair, laughing so hard it hurt. When Ian tapped the picture Draco had began to kiss Hermione, and she had slapped him afterward. Hermione took her copy of the picture and tapped it with her wand, she burst out laughing again and showed Draco his amazing dance moves. Draco poked the picture with his wand and grinned widely, it showed what looked like a drunk Hermione and himself, laughing drunkenly. Hermione then staggered inward and kissed Draco full on the lips. Hermione poked the wand and they sat again, looking friendly and quite sober.

"Thanks Ian," smiled Hermione.

"Hey look," said Draco, pointing at the picture. Hermione opened her mouth in surprise for a moment, took a moment to tap it with her wand, and hid her head in her hands.

"Draco. Bloody. Malfoy," she said, mock-swatting him.