Draco and Harry do America!

Chapter One: The Fight:

The day began like every other for Draco Malfoy at Hogwarts.  He got up, fixed himself up for another day at school, and went downstairs into the Great Hall to eat breakfast.  Little did he know that the events that would take place today would change his life forever.

Draco had silvery blonde hair and blue gray eyes.  Those eyes were usually filled with hatred and anger, especially when it came to Harry Potter.  He loathed Harry because he was famous and, well, just about every year preceding this one, Harry has saved at least one life.  He was also jealous of his talents on the Quidditch field.  Harry was the Gryffindor seeker, and even though Malfoy was good, Harry was still better!  But the one thing that made him loath Harry the most, even more than fame and talent, was his best friend, Hermione Granger.  

Hermione was in Gryffindor house, and she was very smart.  In previous years, she had bushy hair and buck teeth, but she grew up, in a sort.  Her hair was no longer bushy, but wavy and sleek.  And her teeth were straight and a bit smaller than they used to be.  He noticed this at the start of term feast.  When she walked into the hall that day, he was stunned by her beauty.  

There were two big objects in the way of them being together, one being the fact that he is a pure blood and she is muggle born, and two, that Harry has dibs on her first, and if anyone like Malfoy ever tried to hit on her, Harry would probably be at her defense in an instant.  If anybody ever found out his feelings for Hermione, especially Harry, he would be dead for sure.

He made his way to the Great Hall, where he saw Hermione, and they locked eyes.  Hermione looked at him with certain curiosity.  His normally pale face turned red.  He hoped no one saw.  

He sat with his two best friends.  Crabbe and Goyle were their names.  They were huge and they were more like really stupid bodyguards than friends.  

"Anything good today for breakfast?" said Goyle.

"How do I know you stupid idiot.  I just got down here.  And you've probably already eaten.  I'm not stupid, you know?"

Ron Weasley, a Gryffindor and Harry's best friend, heard him say this remark and fake coughed, stifling a laugh.  He pulled himself together enough to say,

"Are you sure about that Malfoy?"

Malfoy heard this, and at once, he snapped his fingers and Crabbe and Goyle both stood up and walked over to the Gryffindor table.  

"You calling me stupid Weasley?  If my family were in the state yours is in, I wouldn't be talking!!"

Ron went all red.  Everyone knew the Weasley's were very nice, but very poor.  Hermione couldn't stand it when Ron and Malfoy fought.  She didn't want anyone to get hurt, (not even Malfoy, who she smacked straight across the face in her third year!) Neither can Harry for that matter, but this is mainly because Harry likes doing some of the fighting.  

Harry stepped between them and said, "Malfoy, do you ever go anywhere without your two bodyguards, or can you fight for yourself."

"I don't fight for myself unless I have something to fight for." said Malfoy.  

Malfoy glanced at Hermione as he said this, and Harry noticed.  Hermione also saw this and began to think about what that glance could of meant.  But Harry, for once, caught on faster.  Maybe it was perhaps the way a 15 year old boy's mind works, or maybe Hermione wasn't up to her usual brainy standard.  It all came together.  Harry saw Malfoy in the library more often, and he doubted that he was studying.  Harry knew now that Malfoy liked Hermione.  

A chill went up Harry's spine.  To think what could happen to her. Harry was protective of Hermione, but never did he feel like this.  Harry loved Hermione, as a friend, but for the first time in his life, he realized that maybe, just maybe, it could be more than just friendship that she is seeking. Harry also glanced at Hermione. Rumors said that she has had her eye on him for the longest time, maybe they were true!  Hopefully, they are true!  he thought to himself.  He then thought that he wouldn't want to trade in the friendship that they have for a couple of months of going out.  But still, half of him couldn't help but think of her, as a girlfriend.

Then, he said to Malfoy in a hushed voice, "And what if I knew what was worth fighting for, for you?"

Malfoy smirked at Harry and said, "Like you'd know what I would fight for!"

"What if I said I knew something about you that would make your so called "pure blood" father very, very, mad.  Like, maybe a person that is special to you.  Would that be worth fighting for, Malfoy?"

Malfoy's smirk faded.  This touched a nerve, although Harry didn't know which one, the taunt about the pure blood or Hermione.  He knew, and he had a hunch that Harry cared for Hermione the same way that he did.  Of course Hermione was worth fighting for.  

Malfoy turned paler than he usually is and said to Harry, "Ok, you wanna fight.  Ok!  No wands.  No Crabbe, no Goyle.  no Ron, either.  Meet me near the picture of the fruit bowl on the third floor at midnight.  Tell no one.  Deal?"

"Deal.  At the fruit bowl at midnight."

Hermione was wondering why Harry and Malfoy weren't trying to hex each other yet and she came over to where they were.  She caught the last words saying where and when the fight was going to take place.  She was about to run over to Harry and say "Oh no, Harry.  You just can't go!" But not this time.  This time she was going to go to the fruit bowl on the third floor at midnight, and see what this fight was all about.  She wouldn't tell anyone.  She felt bad about not even telling her best friend, Ron, about this.  But if it even had to do the slightest bit about Malfoy, Ron would just laugh and make fun of him, rather than help her.

She needed to know!  Why did Malfoy look at her like that!  Why would he taunt Ron and Harry, but not her.  Last year was so different!  They hated each other.  He even called her a Mudblood!  (that is pretty much the worst thing you could call a Muggle born witch or wizard)  Why, all of a sudden, are his feelings changing from hate, to like?  It scared her, to think about it.  Her feelings towards Harry haven't changed.  The rumors that were spread around school were true.  She had dumped Viktor Krum because she felt that it just didn't feel right.  That was totally true, she was so nervous around him.  She loved Harry, with all of her heart, as a friend and more.  She had hoped that he got over Cho, and he did.  She was all moping around about Cedric, and she had great reason to.  He was dead.  After all, she did kiss him on the cheek before, right before they left for summer holidays only a few months ago.  But now Malfoy, getting in the middle, this couldn't be right....  I'll play along for a bit thought Hermione.

Draco was on his way to potions.  Before he went into the room, he checked himself and made sure he looked alright and walked into the dungeon and sweeped right past Hermione and sat right in front of her.  That wasn't his seat, but who cares, she thought, now he can just taunt Harry and Ron from closer than farther, no real difference.

When Snape stormed into the room, being his usual vindictive self, he took roll and stopped on Harry Potter, as he did almost every day to correct him or harass him, one or the other.  Harry had grown used to the fact that Snape hated him ever since their first year.  He just let Snape's taunts go in one ear and out the other.  Unless he brought Hermione into it.  Then he usually stood up for her and Malfoy would laugh and say "sticking up for your girlfriend, Potter?"  But that didn't happen this year.  

Not even once.

Harry thought at first that he had actually grown up a bit and found better things to do with his time than to harass them, but it was clear, now.  He liked her.  He really really liked her, and there was no stopping him.  The guy went down to the library for hours at a time, just to look at her.  That is pretty pathetic, in Harry's eyes.  But he couldn't say that himself, when he now has feelings for Hermione, and he doesn't even have the guts to tell her.  Snape began to harass Hermione, calling her a know-it-all for trying to help Neville Longbottom, a forgetful boy who is terrified of Snape, with a particularly tough question on his homework assignment, and took ten points from Gryffindor.   Harry was about to say something in Hermione's defense when all of a sudden, almost like it never happened before.....

Malfoy turned around in his seat and before he could say anything, Harry said in a barely audible whisper,

"Maybe we shouldn't forget what, or should i say who we are fighting for, eh, Malfoy?"

"I wasn't going to make fun of anyone, I was just going to say, uh,  that it was n-n-n-nice of her to do that for him," he stuttered in an equally low whisper.  

Harry raised his eyebrows in curiosity.  He had never heard him stutter, nor he had never heard him say anything nice about, well, anybody!  

"What are you getting at Malfoy?" said Harry.

"Nothing, Potter, and if you knew what was good for you, MAYBE you would mind your own business for once and not go nosing into other people's lives like you usually do!"  shot back Malfoy.  It was amazing how his moods changed so quickly.  

The rest of potions wasn't as bad as it usually was.  Snape, for once, couldn't find anything wrong with Harry's potion to criticize him about and Malfoy wasn't insulting them, so all was pretty much well.  

They were on their way to Transfiguration when Hermione's bag, once again, tore down the middle and all of her book and ink came spilling out.  

"Well, that's just wonderful, isn't it?!" Hermione shouted, attracting the attention of just about everybody in the corridor.  

Just as she said this, Harry groaned and said "And here comes Malfoy..."  

He was walking up with Crabbe and Goyle and a Slytherin girl, Pansy Parkinson.  Malfoy saw Hermione, and she looked pretty ticked off, but he approached her anyway and said, "Here, let me help you with that."

Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, and Ron were staring in awe at the sight of Malfoy helping Hermione with her books.  Harry was looking at Malfoy with hatred mixed with some jealousy.   The thing he couldn't understand was the fact that Hermione was playing along so well with this whole thing.  

Harry walked over to Malfoy and said two words in the coldest voice he could think of.

"Don't forget."

After about five minutes of watching the sickening sight of Malfoy being nice, Hermione, Harry and Ron walked down the corridor, and when they were safely out of earshot of all Slytherins, Ron yelled, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!!  WE'RE TALKING ABOUT DRACO MALFOY!!  THIS IS LIKE, UH, FRATERNIZING WITH THE ENEMY!!"

Hermione said, "Hey, he was being nice, for once, so i decided to be a bit nicer to him. And I don't care what you think or say, I think he is changing."

"Hermione, we are your friends, and we know you pretty well.  And last year he was threatening you.  That you were going to be next!  That you were a Mudblood!  And all of a sudden, he is being nice!!  That kid is mental, I think!" said Ron

"Ron, if you're going to be like this about Draco, then I'm not listening!" Hermione said.  And with that, she walked over to Harry's other side and was quiet.  Ron was about to ask why she called Malfoy "Draco", but decided not to.  He knew that Hermione could hit hard if she was provoked.

They walked into Transfiguration about 15 minutes late.  Professor McGonagall looked like she would blow up at the slightest wrong word that they said about their explanation being late, so that meant that they had to choose their words very wisely.  

"Please explain why you are so late you three." she said.

"Well, professor, my bag spilt and all of my books fell out and, uh," said Hermione.  She was talking at a near whisper, only so Professor McGonagall could hear, "And Malfoy came over and..."

"What did that boy do now?" asked Professor McGonagall in a bored voice.

"Umm, professor, he helped me pick up my books and ink and my other stuff. He didn't do anything bad," said Hermione.

At her last words, about Malfoy being helpful and kind, Parvati Patil nearly fell out of her seat, Dean Thomas, who was talking to Seamus Finnegan stopped immediately, and Neville Longbottom dropped his pet toad.  The class was completely silent, eager to hear more, but there wasn't anything else to tell, and Hermione sat down next to Harry and Ron.

Almost at once, the whole class started to bombard Hermione with questions about Malfoy, but McGonagall put an end to it almost immediately.

"Settle down class. Class.  SETTLE DOWN!!" and red sparks shot out of her wand.  The class was silent.

The rest of their day passed like normal, except for the fact that Ron and Hermione weren't speaking to each other.  And soon enough, they were in the Gryffindor common room, sitting silently in the big armchairs by the fire.  At around ten, just about everyone cleared the common room, and they made their way up to the dormitories.  

Harry stopped Hermione on their way to her dormitory and said to her in a gentle voice, a voice she had been longing to hear from Harry (don't forget, she likes him a lot!),

"Hermione, I know this whole Malfoy thing is, well, weird.  But I just wanted you to tell you two things.  The first is to watch your back, I really don't know what he is capable of.  I expect his father taught him some Dark Arts stuff.  And the second is, that I am always here for you, and, and..."

"Yes, Harry?" said Hermione.

"Uh, well, and umm," he stopped and looked into her eyes.  He never realized how beautiful she actually was until now.  Harry didn't know what made him do it, maybe it was just an impulse, but he grabbed her and kissed her.

Hermione was going crazy.  Harry kissed her.  But before she could return the favor, Harry looked at her and said, "Uh, I, umm gotta go to bed, so uhh, bye!"  He was walking backwards and he was so dazed that he tripped and fell on the one of the stairs leading up to his dormitory.  

Ron was waiting their, sitting cross-legged on his four poster bed.  He looked at Harry.  His hair was messed up (more than it usually was), his glasses were off on one side, and he looked like he just defeated Voldemort again, minus the blood.  

Ron grinned and said, "Hello, Harry, we were all just having a friendly bet on where you were."  

Dean, Seamus, and Neville got up from their beds and gathered around Harry.  

"And we think that you were with Hermione..."  said Neville.

"Yeah, thats true." said Harry cautiously.  He didn't exactly want people knowing he just kissed Hermione.

"I take it that she smacked you because of making fun of Malfoy or her liking Malfoy."  said Ron.

"No, Ron, she didn't hit me.  I'm going to bed now.  Have a nice day, er, i mean night." said Harry with a dazed expression.  

He hit the mattress and just totally remembered about Malfoy and the fruit bowl.  He sat bolt upright and checked his watch.  It was 11 o'clock.  He would leave at 11:30.  He waited for a half an hour until he could hear Neville snoring.  He got quietly out of bed and pulled on his Invisibility Cloak.  He headed down the third floor corridor and found the fruit bowl with ease.   

At around the same time, Hermione crept silently out of the girls' dormitory and followed Harry, closely, but far enough away so that he couldn't hear her.  She kept thinking about what would happen tonight.  Would Malfoy and Harry battle it out.  And if so, why?  What she wanted to find out the most, though, was why Harry kissed her.  Did he love her?  She hoped so.  His kiss made her feel different.  At the moment they kissed, her heart stopped and she felt like she was in another world.  She kissed Viktor, but nothing really happened, and once she kissed Ron, but it was a dare from all of the girls in her dormitory.  Ron, didn't speak to her for a while after that one.  Hermione then thought about Malfoy.  If she actually broke it down, he wasn't that bad looking.  If he was just a bit less rude, annoying, and snobbish, he would probably be a pretty good boyfriend.  Right after she thought this, she said to herself "But he's a Malfoy. EW!"

When she got to the picture of the fruit bowl on the third floor, Harry leaned against the wall and threw his cloak aside.  Hermione slid down quietly near a shadowy wall, unheard and unseen.  She heard footsteps, and apparently so did Harry, he ran over to get the Invisibility Cloak and threw it over himself. Hermione however had no protection of being seen, and she heard the footsteps getting closer and closer behind her.  But I'm leaning against a WALL!!  Nothing can come out of a WALL can it!??  The truth was, she was leaning against the door leading to the Slytherin dormitories.  Hermione slid across the floor to the other shadowy side.  It was a good thing she did, too, because at that moment, the door swung open and Draco Malfoy started inside.

Harry whipped off the cloak and stared at Malfoy.  Malfoy stared back.  Hermione couldn't tell which one had more cold hatred mixed with fury in his eyes.  Harry was the first to speak.

"No Crabbe and Goyle here to save your neck now, eh, Malfoy?" said Harry in the meanest voice she'd ever heard him speak in.  

"You've never seen me fight before have you!"  spat back Malfoy.

"Listen, Malfoy, I think I know who she would choose.  I wasn't the one who called her a Mudblood!" said Harry.

"God, Harry, let it go, its not like you even like her!  You are just friends."  Malfoy said.

"MALFOY, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.  I LIKE HER JUST AS MUCH AS YOU DO, MAYBE MORE!!  AND SHE KNOWS--"

"Whoa, hold on there.  You like Hermione.  WONDERFUL!   This fight is going to be better than i thought!  Too bad she isn't here to see me beat the famous Harry Potter.  Without wands."

"You know, if you weren't such a stupid prat, she'd probably show a little bit of interest in you, but you are, and we can do anything about that."

At this point, Hermione watched with her mouth hanging open.  They were fighting over HER!  Harry was going to fight for her.  Draco was going to fight for her, without wands.  

At that very moment, Malfoy leapt on Harry and knocked him to the ground.  There was no fighting it, Malfoy did fight good, but Harry was better.  Harry threw him off, pinned him to the ground and started punching him as hard as he could.  Hermione could see Draco's outline.  His head was getting bashed into the ground by Harry.  Harry was acting like a crazy lunatic, and Hermione didn't think he knew what he was doing because Draco was near death, or at least getting concussed.  She could catch one line that Draco said, "Please, Harry, I'd never hurt her, please, stop!!" She knew he was being sincere.  At that second, she leapt out of the shadows and said "HARRY, PLEASE STOP!"

Harry froze and jumped back from Malfoy.  Hermione rushed over to Malfoy and knelt by his side.  There was a nasty cut on the back of his head, oozing blood all over the place.  
Hermione helped him sit up.  She held him in her arms tight.

"Draco, are you alright?  Come on, Draco, its me, Hermione."  

Draco came to, looked up into her eyes and said, "Am I in heaven? Cause if I'm as, you are the most beautiful angel I've ever seen!"  He was a bit dazed.  But then he came into better focus.  "Hermione!!  Oh my gosh, what are you doing here!!  Oh my god, what am I doing here!?!?"

Draco put his arms around her.  Harry looked at them, together.  Draco looked different.  He looked as the cold grey eyes turned from cold to warm as he looked at her and held her.  

Hermione just broke down and cried.  She didn't know that Harry, Harry Potter, her Harry, the one that kissed her just hours before almost killed another person.  Draco sat up and let her cry on his shoulder.  He just wanted to make her feel better.  Somehow, there had to be a way, to make her feel okay.  

He kept saying in a calm and caring voice she'd never heard him use before "Its alright, Hermione.  Everything is going to be alright.  Don't worry."

Hermione looked up and stared into his eyes.  He wiped the tears off of her face and said,"Hermione, I know i've said some pretty rotten things since we've met.  But you make me want to change.  You have to understand, even if some people won't"

Harry turned and was about to say something, but stopped and turned back away.  He looked jealous and disappointed.  Hermione spyed on them.  It wasn't right.

Hermione once again looked into Draco's eyes and he looked into hers.  For a split second, they sat there just taking it all in, the entire moment was to be remembered forever.  Draco leaned forward and kissed her.  Harry turned around at that exact moment and stared in horror at the sight of Hermione getting kissed by Draco Malfoy, who once was the enemy.  He half expected her to pull away or slap him or something, but she just moved even closer.  

They came apart and Draco said "That, was the single best moment of my entire life."

Hermione said, "Me too."

They kissed again, but this time, they kept kissing, and kissing, and kissing and more kissing.  Harry couldn't stand it.  He intended to say "Hermione, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"  but what came out was "Get a room!  Hermione, I guess Ron and I and the rest of the Gryffindor's won't be expecting you back tonight.  Oh yes, Draco, I just can't wait til the Slytherins hear about you making out with Hermione Granger in the middle of the night.  I loved you Hermione, but I guess you love him, so i'll leave you two alone.  You better hope Filch doesn't come and expel you.  I just would kill to see the look on McGonagall and Snape's faces!!"

A different voice came from behind.  "If it could go beyond expulsion,. you three, that would be YOUR punishment!"  It was Mr. Filch, with Mrs. Norris at his side.