Lost Along the Way (Dramione)

Chapter 3

HERMIONE'S P.O.V.
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Draco's eyes flew open and he turned his head around so fast, I thought it would keep turning around in a full circle. His facial expression, however, soon changed from surprised to confused.
"Granger?" he questioned, but his voice wasn't harsh.
"Sorry, I didn't know that you were here. I'll be going now," I said plainly, turning to leave.
"Why were you crying?" he asked.
I paused. He had actually noticed that I had just gotten done crying?
Turning back in his direction, I said, "It's not exactly any of your business," but it seemed to come out as more of a question than a matter of fact. Malfoy raised his eyebrows at me, and stood up.
"Well," he started, brushing off his pants, "please, do pardon me for trying to actually start a civilized conversation. I just thought that, maybe, since you were crying, and by yourself, you might've wanted someone to talk to. My bad."
I realized that my jaw had dropped a fraction and that I was staring. I shook my head to pull myself out of my surprise at what he had just said to me.
He put his hands in his pockets and smirked.
I wasn't sure what kind of trick he was trying to pull me into, but whatever it was, I wasn't falling for it.
"In case you've forgotten, which I don't think is possible since it's your favorite thing to insult me about, but I'll remind you anyways," I stated, "I'm a mudblood, you probably don't want to be seen talking with me."
"Do you honestly think that I still care about that?" he asked seriously. "For the past 14 years of my life, I was taught that I should stomp over someone like a rug if their parents aren't wizards...why does that even matter? I mean, look at you, Granger! You're the brainiest girl in our year, maybe the entire school, and you were muggle-born. Do you think that I still judge people based on what their parents are like? Because if everyone did that, a greater amount of people would hate me more than the amount that already do. Tell me, when was the last time I called you 'mudblood'?"
He had a point. I realized that I hadn't exactly really heard much from Draco lately. He hadn't taunted me for quite sometime, actually.
"What's your point?" I asked curiously.
"My point is, maybe I'm not as much as an arse as you think I am," he replied, taking a step closer.
"Okay. So, what if you aren't?" I said evenly.
"Then you can talk to me about why you were crying," he responded.
"Why me? Why do you want to talk to me?" I challenged.
"Do you have anyone else to talk to right now? And if you do, where are they right now? Why aren't they with you?" he fired back.
I opened my mouth, and then closed it again. Then I noticed how close together we were standing, and tried to take a quick step backwards. My ankle caught on my robes, and I almost fell over.
Draco reacted speedily, grabbing my elbow to keep me from falling. He stared at me in confusion for a moment, then he smirked. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
"Looks like those Seeker skills came in handy," I mumbled, pulling away from him.
His face lit up a fraction. "I thought that I didn't have any talent and that I bought my way onto the team," he said lightly.
"You actually remember that?" I laughed nervously.
"How could I forget? Right afterwards, Weasley made himself vomit slugs! That's one of the greatest things that I have witnessed in all my years at Hogwarts."
I couldn't help but giggle at that. But hearing Ron's name made me think about why I was here in the first place. My smile faded. I looked away from Malfoy, and he noticed.
"What is it?" he asked.
So I told him. I told him everything. I wasn't sure what had motivated me to tell him, but once I started talking, every word that came out of my mouth felt good. I talked to him about how, earlier that day, I had bumped into Lavender at breakfast that morning and had made her spill her drink all over her robes. We had gotten into a fight, and I finally pushed it too far by telling her that Ron was cheating on her and planned to break up with her. It had of course been a complete lie, and not something I would usually say to someone, but the words had tripped out of my mouth beyond my control.
When I got to the part about Ron hitting me, I choked up a bit, and looked away, across the tiny lake.
At some point during the story, we had sat down; Draco leaning against the righthand tree, facing me; me against the left one.
He didn't say anything for a long time, and when he spoke, his words weren't exactly comforting. "How can you even like that prat?" he asked.
I threw a glare at him. "I told you, I don't know why I liked him and I didn't want to, but I did and it was stupid, okay? I'll admit that, hands down."
"Hermione Granger, actually saying that something SHE thought was stupid; NOT something you're going to hear more than once in a lifetime," he joked. I gave him a small smile. I also realized that that had been the first time I had ever heard him say my first name. Ever. Then he went on. "You said that you didn't know why you liked him, correct?" he started. I nodded slowly. "Does that mean that you don't like him anymore?" he questioned, raising his eyebrows a fraction.
Sighing I replied, "I don't know...it's complicated, I guess."
Draco nodded slowly. Neither one of spoke for some time. Finally, I asked, "So what about you?"
He looked at me questionably. "What about me?"
"Why are YOU here?" I clarified.
He snorted. "Parkinson," he said.
I waited for him to go on, but he didn't add anything else, so I decided not to ask anything more.

•••

DRACO'S P.O.V.
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I'm not sure how long we sat there, talking to each other. I knew she was unhappy with most of the answers that I gave to her; I asked her a question and wouldn't leave the topic until she gave me a long, descriptive paragraph, and I would answer her questions with only a few words.
But I could tell that she'd rather just have someone to vent to at the moment. When she had told me about how she fancied Weasley, I was not one bit surprised. But I was completely taken aback by the fact that he would hit her.
After she told me that story, we switched to lighter topics; and it felt, I don't know...nice. Nice to have someone new to talk to, I suppose.
After at least an hour or two I finally stood up and offered her my hand.
"Well Granger," I said, "it's been a pleasure. We should talk more sometime."
She took my hand and stood up, holding it a second too long. Clearing her throat, she let go quickly.
"I think I'd like that," she responded quietly.
And I watched her walk back to the school doors, feeling better than I'd felt for a while