Dramione and the Half Blood Prince.

7. Rivals

The Grate Hall was brimming with excited bodies laughing and joking, the elation of the imminent Quidditch match was so utterly immense because this was the match that everyone wanted to see, the most thrilling, blood pumping match the school always waited for... Gryffindor verses Slytherin – the two largest rivals in the school. It always happened around November time every year, the huge kafuffle of reds and golds swamping the greens and silvers. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff always punted for Gryffindor to win, mainly because they had friends in Gryffindor and the majority of the Slytherins they knew would keep within their house friends or take the mick if they weren't.

Hermione was surrounded by her two best friends, Harry and Ron, with Luna (donned in her usual overly large lion hat) and Katie sandwiched either side.

"I can't do it!" Ron burst out the words for the seventh time that breakfast as Hermione rolled her eyes, radiating an extremely unamused ora. The morning had been a course of verbal Tourette's from Ronald, you could see the next outburst building on his body for at least 10 minutes before it escaped him.

"Course you can" harry pointed out, he had said it as bluntly as possible. He didn't even look up from his porridge. Anyone walking past might have thought that Hermione and Harry were the worst possible friends but everyone on the same table felt exactly the same way as the two.

Draco really had no interest in his friend's lively convocation, they were discussing how there were 'at least three muggleborns on the Gryffindor team so the game should be easy to win'. He felt the urge to argue with his 'friends' but he bit his tongue reluctantly with a large sneer growing on his face. Just as he thought the convocation had changed topic it referred straight back to its original stance; so he held his chin in his palm before finding Hermione over the other side of the room, his gaze softened slightly at the sight of her.

Hermione was sick of Ronald's low self-esteem, she placed her chin on her fist so it propped up her head and let her eyes wander to the Slytherin table – scanning for the blond wizard. When their eyes finally met she smiled warmly, he made her feel so much calmer... she had absolutely no idea why considering the hell she was put through by him in the past, but none of that seemed to matter to her now – because she knew the new him. He raised his eyebrows and knocked his head towards the head masters table... 'what?' she mouthed.

Hermione watched as he got up and walked down the side of the tables before he walked into the trophy room and closed the door behind him.

"I'm giving up after this game, McLaggen can have my spot!" Ron burst out.

"You do that" Hermione tapped him on the back before getting up and walking down the hall and into the trophy room.

*

"Hey" Draco smiled – he actually smiled!

"Hey" Hermione practically glowed at the sight of him, she had no idea what he did to her but whatever it was - she liked it.

"We've got to keep meeting like this" Draco raised and dropped his eyebrows in a kind of wink.

"Thought the saying went the other way?" Hermione mused with a smile lurking on the left side of her mouth, she loved how high her confidence rose when she was with him.

"Well... they don't have this" Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial filled with a floating liquid with a blueish tinge to it.

"What's that?" Hermione asked with knitted brows, she took a step closer and without thinking held her hand up to touch it.

"It's a memory" Draco seemed very proud of himself "To be more specific... a memory of you" he looked across to her as her face flushed. She looked at the floor and started tugging at her sleeve, trying to conceal a smile.