The Other Granger

Chapter 4

~Lillie's POV~

It's the middle of the night and I can't sleep at all, what happened today is plaguing me and nothing I can do will ever help; I've tried counting sheep, having a hot bath, putting lavender in my pillow, listening to music...but nothing works. So I decided to walk around the castle, hopefully then I will be able to sleep. I go up to the owlery and visit Hedwig, she listens to me when I tell her about my problems, she's the only one I have told about the thing between Hermione and me and I think it will stay that way for a long time.

I stand and stare into the distance for a while, thinking about what could have happened and what the present would be like if things had happened differently. I get so deep into my thoughts that I almost don't hear the footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Hey" a voice from behind shocked me, making me jump slightly. I turned around to and rolled me eyes. Of course.

"Well hello. What do you want?" I spoke quite bitterly. Draco came and stood beside me while I watched his movements, confused.

"Did I say you could stand next to me?" I asked with one eyebrow raised. He smirked and rolled his eyes.

"No, but I don't recall having to ask permission to stand somewhere" he replied jokingly, a grin appearing on his face. Is he-?

"Are you okay?" he asked. He's being nice to me? I looked back out of the window and shrugged.

"Couldn't sleep, so came out here. You?"

He stared out of the window as he spoke, "Me neither. But at least I have someone to talk to now." He smiled genuinely at me and returned his gaze to the view before us.

He's never nice to me. So why is he being kind now? He hates me.

"Why are you being nice?" I asked. His head turned so his gaze met mine and his eyebrows scrunched together. Not long after his expression relaxed and he turned to the window once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Draco's POV~

"Why are you being nice?"

Lillie's question caught me off guard, even though I should have expected her to ask at some point. I looked out of the window before dropping my gaze to the floor. I sat down and Lillie copied my actions, sitting beside me.

"Because I hate being a jerk," I answered truthfully, "everyone sees me as the mean bully of Hogwarts, they expect nothing but mean words and actions from me and I hate it."

Lillie waited a few seconds before replying, "Then why make the expectation even bigger?" she asked.

"Because I have to" I whispered.

"Why?"

I sighed and put my head in my hands, rubbed my face and then lifted my head so my eyes met hers.

"My father."

Silence engulfed us for a few minutes, neither of us saying anything.

"I live up to the expectations because my father believes that people won't listen to you unless they feel threatened or scared. He wants me to be him when I'm older, so to speak. He wants me to do the things he does, to be what he is and he thinks that, in order to do that, I have to 'show who's boss'. Which is why I have to bully, mock and be mean to people, no matter how much I hate it, so that nobody tries to 'take my place',"

Lillie sat there silently, a frown upon her face.

"So why are you being nice to me when you're mean to everyone else?"