On Borrowed Time

On Borrowed Time

Chapter 6 - Running to the Wrong Guy (Tuesday - October 1, 1996)

It has been almost a month ever since school started and Hermione spent most of that time staying away from Draco as much she can, just as Harry had asked her to do. However, doing so proved to be a challenge.

It had been hard for her to stay away from Draco. He seemed to have been following her everywhere and it was hard to shake him off. They did have most classes together and all the usual places she goes to are accessible to all houses. Ron and Harry did not help much with keeping her company since they were both busy with looking for new recruits and also busy with their Quidditch practices. Therefore, Hermione was on her own.

Though in the past, she was known to stay in the library to study and read books for leisure, she was forced to break the habit. Nowadays, she took accessible books back to her dormitory room or forced Harry or Ron to stay with her when she needed to read from the Restricted Section.

But Draco never gave up trying to get her attention. He would casually walk up to her whenever she was alone. Even when she was with Harry, he would wave awkward hi's and goodbye's whenever he saw her. This had her worried, both for her relationship with Harry and for Draco's personal health.

Thankfully, as weeks passed by, Draco seemed to have finally given up his little charade and started to hang out with some his old Slytherin friends. The usual stares became glances and his habit of waving his hand at her finally diminished. She finally felt free to do and go places without worrying about finding Draco. Finally, it seemed like everything was back to normal... or so Hermione thought.

One day, she went down to the Great Hall grudgingly when she realized that, probably out of hunger, Harry and Ron had forgotten to wait for her to get out of Muggle Studies. So, besides the flock of Ravenclaws in front of her, she pretty much walked the hallways alone, or so she thought.

"Hi there!"

"Draco! You gave me such a fright!"

"I did not mean to. I just wanted to say hi. I have not done that in a while. I thought I could talk to you, confide in you."

"No one said you can't."

"Then have I angered you in any way? Whenever I do try to approach you, you are either rushing away from me or trying to ignore my presence. If you wont even let me talk to you, then tell me how I can be your friend."

Hermione took him aside and took a deep breath.

"Harry and I are in a relationship, that you know. And he does not feel comfortable about the two of us being friends at all."

"That's his opinion."

"I just don't want to spoil our relationship."

"I know you'd have it your way. You told him, face-to-face that you can befriend anyone you please without his consent, did you not?"

"What I meant, Draco, is that I don't want to jeopardize the relationship I have with Harry."

"Don't let him be selfish. You can be friends with anyone you please. You and Ron are friends and Harry does not seem to care."

"That case is different. Ron and Harry had been friends---"

"It's because I am Slytherin, isn't it?"

"No. It's because you are Draco Malfoy. The two of you have the reputation of being each other's mortal enemy."

"I thought the Dark Lord was Harry's mortal enemy."

Hermione was starting to get really irritated.

"He just does not want me to talk to you, period."

"Don't you think he is being a little selfish here?"

"Just stay away, will you?"

"I can't. I can't help thinking of you."

"Then at least try!"

"I just can't forget about you. Not to mention that you saved my life! I owe you everything. And who could just forget that face? You're unforgettably beautiful, Hermione."

"Draco, stop it."

"Just let me be friends with you---"

"Malfoy!" she screeched. "I said, leave me alone! No more compliments, no more flattery, no more 'thank you for saving my life' and just... none of that. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Draco looked quite hurt. He looked down on the floor before looking away.

"Alright, I'll stay away," he mumbled. "I got the idea. I promise I'll stay out of your way from now on."

As he slowly walked away, Hermione resisted the urge to follow him. Instead, she shouted her apology.

"You have to understand why! I am with---"

"---Harry. I know," he answered back. "I understand completely."

*****

During lunch, Hermione played with her food as Harry and Ron formulated plans for their upcoming Quidditch match against the Hufflepuffs. Quidditch season was when Hermione felt the loneliest. Harry was obsessed with having a perfect season. Pro scouts pelted Harry with letters almost everyday. He even considered leaving school early to play professionally. During these times, Hermione wished Harry would hold her as much as he did his broomstick.

She lazily poked the pasta noodles as she pondered on how bad Draco must be feeling when she blew up on him earlier that day. She tried to glance towards Draco's direction, in hopes of meeting eye-to-eye with him. Eye contact between the two of them ceased to exist for he hid his greys hid behind his blonde fringes. Hermione, irritated by the whole situation, hid her frustration on the inside.

Hermione had wanted to say sorry to him when they were still at the hallways, but her search for the proper words to explain why she chose not to be friends with him seemed much more of a challenge than getting a perfect grade on an exam. People's feelings are much complicated and harder to deal with than exams.

She thought that maybe after class, she could make herself feel better by asking for forgiveness. But even if she found the right words to say, she most definitely would not want Harry around when she confronted Draco. Of course, this proved impossible alongside the fact that Slytherins and Gryffindors only shared two classes together. So, Hermione was left with two choices: puncture her new and yet seemingly pointless friendship with Draco or jeopardize her newly formed love life with Harry.

She thought of using the Time-Turner as a possibility since no one would know if she used it anyway. If only she had it still, she could go back in time to prevent herself from yelling at Draco and prevent him from even seeing her at all. But then, they were bound to come across each other anyway and she would have to continue travel back in time just to stop him. She decided the whole idea was pointless anyway so she just came to a conclusion not to apologize to Draco at all. She thought that she would lose the least with this decision. She would rather lose Draco than Harry, and probably Ron. Harry and Ron had been with her from the very start. Draco treated her like scum for years. Befriending Draco would risk the strong bond between her, Harry and Ron and that was the last thing in the world she wanted to do.

If she only knew that her decision would dissolve as fast as sugar cubes crumbled in water, she would not have had wasted her lunch period pondering about it all.

As much as she loved her Charms Class with Professor Flitwick, she dreaded going into the room in due anxiety that she would run into Draco. Much to Harry and Ron's surprise, she decided to pull them to sit in the back row corner. There, she sat close to Harry, hiding her eyes from Draco who sat across the front of the room.

Hermione thought that she could last the whole class without having to deal with Draco. She was downright mistaken.

Hermione felt Harry start to nod off on her shoulder. She nudged him as to wake him before freeing herself from him. Harry sat up, but started to lean closer to the desk, the weight of his head was directly on his hand. His elbow was pretty much at the edge of the table. She noticed this and decided to poke him lightly on the shoulder. That was certainly a bad idea to do so.

"Harry," she whispered, "Harry! HARRY!"

But Harry's reflexes were a bit out of whack for, instead of waking up, he just fell right off his seat and caused such a commotion by also toppling some of his notebooks with him.

"Mr. Potter, are you alright?" asked Flitwick. "What are you all doing back there?"

"I am sorry Professor. I just... I jus thought I saw a really huge bug."

"Well then, Mr. Potter, if that is all, please come down to the front of the room and demonstrate to your classmates how Garrulitas is done."

"Uh, the what?"

"The Babbling Curse I just taught you. Come on down, please. And is it okay if I use you as a test subject Mr. Malfoy."

"Er---" answered Draco. "Only if you promise to stop as soon as Potter had proven he can do the spell, Professor."

"I'll make sure of that, Mr. Malfoy. Mr. Potter! No more lollygagging!"

Harry's face had turned beet-red on his way down to the front of class, his head hanging low and his eyes were pointed down. He lifted his head, gave her a smile, and then pulled out his wand from his cloak pocket.

"You better do it correctly, Potter," said Draco smugly. "Otherwise---"

"Gravitas!"

"Whoa!"

Right after Harry spoke the incantation, Draco flew up about ten feet, almost hitting the classroom ceiling, before dropping right on top of Harry. He pushed Draco off of him while pulled himself away from the other boy.

While the other students remain by their seats, standing, Hermione ran towards them in a panic frenzy, screaming and almost toppling poor Professor Flitwick over.

"Draco!" When she reached him, she lifted his head and asked, "Draco, are you alright?"

"Yeah," he answered as he started to sit up. "I think."

"Are you sure? Are you hurt? Did you hit your head? Did you---"

Before she realized what she was doing, Hermione looked up and saw Ron and Flitwick assisting Harry up. She bit her lip when she realized that running to Draco instead of to her boyfriend seemed like the biggest mistake she ever did her whole life. She nervously helped Draco up, and flitted her eyes at about a dozen pairs other pairs that were glaring at her.

Hermione scanned the room and readily saw Harry's face contorted so grotesquely that she felt a sudden chill run down her spine. His green eyes were clouded by tears and his lips were quivering. It was obvious that he was furious.

Quicker than anyone anticipated, he rushed towards Draco and it took one sweeping motion for Harry to grab Draco by his collars. Punches would have been thrown if the students were a bit slower with their response time. Luckily, both boys were held back by their housemates in time, while Hermione, stuck in the middle of the commotion, cried like a newborn babe and Flitwick screaming "Class dismissed!" at the top of his lungs.