A Turn For The Better (Completed)

Part 30

"Hermione, are you coming?" asked Harry. "Yes, coming!" It was twelve o'clock and Draco would be waiting in the Great Hall. I was excited about this, but I was scared too. This would determine whether or not Ron and Harry would accept Draco. We had decided to leave our things into the common room as after this meeting, we would be on lunch. We left the common room and made our way to the Great Hall. Draco was sitting at our table, waiting. "Hi Draco!" I said when we sat down. I sat next to him, Harry and Ron sat across from us. "Hi, Hermione, Harry, Ron." said Draco a little nervously. They both nodded back. "Right, so, Malfoy we decided to hear you out. But like I've told Hermione, if we don't believe you, then we won't be pressured any further. Deal?" said Harry. Draco nodded. "And if you do believe me?" "Well then I guess we'll cross that bridge then if we come to it." I nodded. Things seemed to be civilized so far.

"So, where do you want me to start?" Draco asked them. Harry looked to Ron. "Well I guess you could start by telling us why you bullied us all through school? Why you hated Ron's family? Called Hermione those horrible names? said Harry. I held my breath. He took a breath and said, "I disliked Ron's family because I was told to. My father and Ron's father didn't get along, so my father always told me and my mother stories, that he has since told me that were made up. He always said that the Weasley's were a disgrace to our world, and naturally, as he is my father, I believed him. I honestly wouldn't have had to think twice about anything my father said back then." They both remained silent, listening. "As for the names I called Hermione. I feel extremely guilty about it. I regret it so much. Again, my father had me believe all sorts of things. His family, for years before his time, always believed that magic should remain within our world. That witches and wizards should not mate. That muggle borns should not be allowed a magical education. He forced to believe it by his father, and I by him. So, I was taught to hate muggle borns, not to respect them. So I never stopped to think how it might affect her, calling her those names, trying to make her feel unwelcome." I knew it hurt him to speak about all this, but this was the only way we could make this work.

"And then, the reason I spent so much time picking on you, Harry, was because I was angry and scared. I knew that my father had served Voldemort for a long time, since before I was born. He was the one that got my mother involved. She never wanted to be a death eater, but she loved my father and would do anything for him. Because my father always believed what his family told him, he didn't think twice about becoming a death eater. The year I was born was the year Voldemort disappeared. My mother thought it was a good time to start afresh, but my father was too deep in by then. He never believed that he was gone. My father was always talking about how Voldemort would return to power, and that it was your fault, Harry, that he was gone. So he despised you and your family. Like I said, it was hard to go against my father, I was young, naive, and I believed that what my father said was the truth. I hadn't really known just how bad things were when Voldemort was at large the first time. So I hated you because I was taught to. My father was above most of the other death eaters, so he had influence on them. That is why their kids, in Slytherin, looked up to me. But I have learned since that they did not look up to me, they feared me. That is something I do not want."

Harry and Ron didn't speak a word when Draco was talking. When he finished that last part Harry had questions. "So, why do you not hate me, or any of us anymore?" Draco sighed, "Because I don't think I ever hated any of you. I was told to, I didn't have any grudges against any of you to make me hate you. My father invented grudges for me. You have no idea how much I loathe myself for doing all of that stuff to you. I never gave you a fair chance. I only ever knew what I was told." I knew there was anger building up in his voice, he seemed to get angry talking about it.

"Why did you decided you want to be a redeemed person? Why do you want to be a good person? asked Ron. "In fifth year, I started questioning my father and his choices. I started to grow up, and understand things. My father noticed that I was different, that I didn't particularly care about anything he did anymore. I didn't want to hurt any more people, to treat muggle borns as he wanted me to. I wanted to try and fix things with you Harry, I wanted to help you. But when my father figured out my intentions, he threatened me. When fifth year ended, I was locked in that house, for the whole summer! Death eaters, friends of my fathers forced me to train as one of them, or they would hurt me. And believe me I did fight back and got hurt plenty of times. I was forced to be one of them, branded with that ugly mark, and given orders, by Voldemort himself, to kill Dumbledore. I didn't want any of it, I'd have rather died, but my mother wouldn't allow me to die. That's when she stepped in and made Snape make the unbreakable vow. Of course, I wasn't allowed to know about that."

"If your father cared so much for Voldemort, why does he want to change himself now? And your mother?" asked Harry. "Well, my mother had always been against it. She even began to hate my father for not letting us leave when we had the chance. She only stayed in the end for my sake, she would not leave me alone with him and if she tried to take me, he would have killed her. She was never a true follower of Voldemort's, just like I wasn't. She was scared for her safety, my father's and mine. So when he was killed at last, she was so overjoyed, she wanted us to move away, but I wanted to return here, to make things right with everybody. My father agreed. He has told me that he regrets his time wasted with Voldemort, and we spent the summer in therapy, trying to come to terms with accepting muggle borns. Truthfully, I'm not sure I believe him, that his intentions are true. Not anymore. We haven't gotten on in years." The look of hurt on his face at that point was overwhelming.

"I want to be a different person. I don't want to be associated with the death eaters anymore. I don't want to be hated by the whole wizarding community. I want to be normal, have a normal life. I know it's hard to believe that, but I tell the truth. I've already told Hermione that I would be willing to take Veritaserum. I want to be a good person."

It took a lot of energy from him, to talk about his past and his family like that. Finally, after minutes of silence, Harry spoke. "I think I do believe you Malfoy. But you have to understand, that I can't just decide to be best friends with you. There is a lot of emotional scarring. I never had a proper childhood, and your father was partly to blame for that. So you must know that I will never ever forgive him." Draco nodded. "Of course, I understand. I just wanted you to know just how sorry I am about everything." "I'm there with Harry." said Ron, with a small smile. Draco smiled a little.

I couldn't believe my ears. It had only taken a short while to have Harry believing.

"Well, I guess, I should apologize for anything I have done. And for not taking a step back and realizing that maybe you didn't want to be like that. But I must warn you, I am not up for giving second chances. If I let things go, and you hurt any of us, then that's it." "Yeah, and not just us, but our friends. And families. I would hate to think that we could be exposing ourselves to someone with bad intentions." added Ron.

"Thank you, both of you. You have no idea how bad I've been feeling. I admire you both, or all three of you for taking the time to listen to me. I don't expect you'll want to hang out and become friends, but knowing that you have forgiven me helps me a great deal. And I give you my word, that I should be struck down this very minute, that I have nothing but good intentions. I won't ever hurt anyone again." said Draco with a genuine smile. "Blimey, I don't think I have ever seen you smile, so , genuinely!" said Ron. Draco laughed. "I've never really had anything to smile about!" "All right, don't go all cheesy on us, not sure I'm ready to see that Malfoy yet!" said Ron, his nose turned up in fake disgust.

I had never felt so happy. They believed him, I wanted to let them know that we were together, but I decided it was best not to push it any further. For now. But I knew I wanted to do it very soon, hopefully by Christmas. Students had started coming in for lunch anyway. "Well, I'd best get to the Slytherin table for lunch then. I'll see you guys later!" And he got up and walked away smiling.

"Thank you both, that means so much. I know that this means the world to him." I said to them both. "You're welcome Hermione, just please don't expect too much of this? I mean, I want to try and get to know him. He has always been an interesting person, I think I might enjoy finding out about how he works, but that's not making any promises." replied Harry. "I won't, I promise I am not going to force you to be friends." Ron seemed to agree with Harry.
"I'm glad I done this, now I'm feeling guilty about my actions last week." said Ron. "Don't be Ronald. He's over it. I know he will be ecstatic now that you have forgiven him."

We ate lunch and spoke no more about Draco, but that didn't mean that I wasn't thinking. Now that we had succeeded in getting them on Draco's side, we had another mission to accomplish. Getting them to see that Draco and I were right for each other. That was going to be difficult, I didn't want them to revert back to hating him straightaway, so I decided that this should be given time, not too much time of course, I still wanted it to happen soon.