Short Change Hero

Chapter 22: Friction

Chapter Twenty-Two

Friction

"Your heart is beating,
Cause you know that you gotta,
Get out of the middle,
And rise to the top now,

You can't fight the friction,
So ease it off,
Can't take the pressure,
So ease it off..."

Friction by Imagine Dragons

Saturday October 19th, 1996

Gryffindor Common rooms, in front of the fireplace- Just before lunch

'You can do this Hermione,' she thought to herself as she eyed her two friends across the room as they neared the end of their game. 'Apologizing for unintentionally getting partially involved in the affairs of a Slytherin is the least I could do. I need to, as muggles would say, mend fences.'

Pulling the sleeve of her shirt into the palm of her hand, she tried to quickly push away thoughts of what Malfoy said to her last night near the end of patrols. It wasn't that she so hurt she would break down if she thought about it, but it also had to do with the fact she was so angry that she was still unsure if she would hex the arse the next time she saw him.

Hermione was now under the impression that Draco Malfoy was the most foul, bigoted, narrow minded arse to walk amongst her year. Then to have a whole house dedicated to students like him made her feel almost sick. With a sharp intake of air, she cursed to herself for thinking about him yet again. What confused her even more was the fact that she had cried over his words- it was Malfoy for godric's sake, and he was a git, nothing more.

With a huff, she sauntered slowly towards the two causing Ron to look upwards while Harry stared at the chess board. Giving him a weak smile she awkwardly tucked some of the loose curls behind her ear. She then felt a slimmer of happiness as he gave her a terse singular wave.

"I still think wizards' chess is barbaric," she stated evenly, her voice puncturing the silence causing Harry to look up at her as she continued to her point. "Look, I wanted to apologize. The both of you have every right to be cross with me, and I understand why you are. I just wanted you guys to know that I've decided to talk to professor Slughorn on Monday about changing partners."

"Honestly," Ron spoke awkwardly as he then looked back to the game and moved his knight without a second thought knocking over another one of Harry's pieces, before shrugging, "I'm still not sure I understand why you put up with the ferret as long as you did."

"I thought that maybe if I could get Malfoy to see what muggleborn wizards and witches are actually like," Hermione paused looking away from the two for a second, "he would gain some sort of perspective, form an opinion of his own, something. I also admit I wanted to prove that Harry's theory about Draco being a death eater wrong."

She gave a short laugh, thinking of the idea and how preposterous it sounded, trying to change Malfoy's thoughts about her was rather farfetched. Then she looked at Harry, who nodded pushing his glasses upwards. Hermione could tell that he wasn't buy that as the whole truth, which it wasn't entirely, but she wasn't about to say that she was intrigued by Malfoy in more than a few ways.

"And did you," Harry asked as he moved a piece on the board and huffed, "Prove my theory wrong, that is."

The thought that he was a death eater had not crossed her mind in a while, she was almost sure that he wasn't. What would Voldemort have a sixteen year old doing for him anyways? Sighing she shook her head while Ron took a final move before he took Harry's last piece causing Harry to groan while Ron smirked.