Grey/ A Dramione Fic

Grey/ Ch. 6

Draco P.O.V.

After my encounter with Granger, I wanted nothing more than to bury my head in the bloody ground.

I sounded like a lunatic. Honestly,  so out of the blue.  Why am I so awkward?

I shook it off before entering the Slytherin common room. If anyone was in there, I didn't want them to see my unmasked embarrassment. Luckily, not a soul was in the room. I headed straight to my dormitory and quickly changed into sleep clothes. I was dead tired. The unexpected conversation, or more so argument, I had with Granger took a lot out of me,  quite unused to apologizing authentically. Man, I sound like a total git. Which I was, before deciding somewhere along the way that my behavior was going to get me nowhere in life. Some habits, though, were still hard to get past: impulses after being trained so long to accept the title of Malfoy, "better-than-you", to jump on my high horse when being challenged.

I will change.

With that, I drifted into a dream of curly hair and extreme wit.

•Next Day•

I awoke to the muted sounds of the Black Lake lapping against the window. I relished the warmth of my bed before getting up to prepare for the school day. I headed towards my shower. I was lucky to have a room to myself this year; it was quiet, comfortable, away from the obligations of roommate courtesies.

My hair wasn't in the best sorts today. I decided to leave it and let my waves display themselves. I swiftly dressed, realizing I had taken more time than normal to get ready.

The breakfast today was quite tasty, an American spread, with cinnamon rolls, bacon, eggs, toast, etc. I felt refreshed going to charms, my energy revived by the pleasant provisions. I strolled into charms, prepared to achieve the day's task. My eyes wandered to a familiar head of curly hair. My chest felt a sensation of embarrassment remembering the events of last night. I flicked the feeling away: it was pointless to worry about it now.

I looked to her again, now with red hair and a hand-me-down robe beside her. I was annoyed just being in his presence. I sighed and opened my book to the page written on the board. We were reviewing our 6th year charms; non-verbals, water making spells, others of the like. This would be easy.

The professor called on a student with blonde hair and tan skin. I didn't see him yesterday?

"Mr. Lebrocq," Flitwick inquired, "Will you please demonstrate the nom-verbal spell "Alohomora" on this lock?"

The student in question looked nonchalant as he strode to the front of the classroom. He half smirked and glanced toward Hermione. She seemed off-put and snubbed his gaze. He chuckled under his breath. When have they exchanged conversation? This interaction gave me an uneasy feeling in my gut. I didn't trust this new student.

Without restriction he unlocked the cage easily. Everyone awed at the minimal effort. I scoffed at his arrogance. I could do that just as well. He went back to his seat with triumphant stride. My head ached with irritation. I was happy to leave when the class was dismissed. I was relieved to see someone who didn't irk my senses. I ran up to her cautiously, making sure to keep respectable boundary.

"Well, Granger, looks like you may have some competition with that show off huh?"

She looked back at me with annoyance. "Him? He's of no competition, and even if he was, no one can match my study skills." She began to show anger in her gait. I caught up with her.

"A little confident, are we? Well, it is too early to determine his intelligence. He was fortunate today that an opportunity didn't arise for me to push him off his high horse!" I smirked down to her, a smirk also on her lips.

"Or an opportunity for me to show him my wits!" She said with a laugh.

We lightly chuckled as we came into Madam Pomfrey's class. We sat down in our seats and viewed the lessons for today. It felt strange, I hadn't expected to get along with Hermione well enough to talk with her to a class, let alone to laugh with her. It felt like I almost had a friend. Almost.

We were learning today the basics of first aid response. We were all given materials to practice aid with our partners. We were instructed to wrap gauze securely around a "wound" in the shoulder. Easy enough. I took Hermione's arm and pulled it toward me. She uncertainly looked at my hand. "Is there a problem, Granger?"

"I'm just unsure if you'll achieve the task," she muttered.

"Granger, all I have to do is wrap this around your shoulder to stanch the "wound", how hard can it be?

Needless to say, I actually screwed up the bloody thing. Apparently, I tied the knot wrong, as acknowledged by Madam Pomfrey. I became frustrated, embarrassing myself, failing an easy task. Hermione was laughing, of course. She promptly demonstrated the proper knot. I finally corrected my failure, gazing at my work with pride. "See, Granger, nothing to it but a little elbow grease!"

She gave me a shocked stare: "Excuse me, I showed you how to tie it, Malfoy! The only proper thing you did was wrap in around the shoulder!"

My face became hot. I quickly defended myself, "Well I wouldn't have needed your help anyway, I could have figured it out with enough time, Granger!"

"Oh that's rich. You know you needed me," she refuted. I tried suppressing my rising irritation, but it was bubbling to the surface.

"Bloody hell, just shut it and give it up!"

"Make me, Malfoy."

I was inches from her nose. I could see every detail: the crease in between her brows, the specks of straw-color in her irises, her smooth skin. I smelled her vanilla-cinnamon perfume. I composed myself after a few seconds. I then realized our distance, the unfamiliar feeling in my chest, and the girl in front of me blushing.

I scooted back immediately, diverting my attention to the parchment with our responses. Noticing the heat in my cheeks, I breathed deeply. What is this strange feeling? I briefly glanced over to Hermione. She appeared somewhat jostled, off in her own thoughts. Bloody hell, you idiot. She's going to hate you now.

We were dismissed. With the intent of apologizing, I turned to her. I opened my mouth to speak, but she was already gone.

~Author's Note~
Hello, everyone!! Wow it's been over a year... awk. I picked this up again today because I saw that some people have added this to their reading list, and how could I be cruel not to continue? Honestly I'll probably give up again for a while because of school and everything with my music. But I had a burst of inspo today! Anyway, thanks for reading, all *counts on fingers* like, four of you?