More Than Neighbors - |Dramione/Blinny|

IV

Hermione's P.O.V.:

"Malfoy."

"Granger."

Our quiet acknowledgments filled the air between us, the only noise coming from a muted conversation between Ginny and Blaise.

"I didn't know that you were a doctor?" I said to him. 

"Well I'm a part-time doctor and am also the head of a billion-gallon company, so this is what I do on the side," he replied with a proud look on his face.

Quite impressive.

There's no way I was telling him that, though.

"Wait a minute. If you're running a billion-gallon company then why did you become a doctor? You have enough money to sustain the Ministry," I asked him, mildly curious. 

"It's kind of a long story," he said, scratching the back of his head as if he's debating whether he wants to tell me or not. "Well, I'm not going anywhere so if you want to tell me I'm all ears."

I shifted around slightly, trying to get somewhat comfortable in the hospital bed. He sat down in the chair by my bed and looked at me, hesitating before starting his story.

"After the war, Blaise became a doctor. One day I came to visit him here at St. Mungo's and they just had lots of people come in injured, so they were running behind. Next thing I know Blaise is sprinting down the hallway with towels in hand and just tosses them and me saying 'here make yourself useful' and directs me to an older fellow. Immediately I start putting pressure on this older man's leg wound, trying to get it stopped the muggle way since I didn't know any healing spells at the time. A couple of minutes of talking to the man and he was already thanking me, even though he wasn't even healed yet. 

"He said, 'Thank you so much. You didn't have to help a poor old man like me, but you did. Even if you weren't a doctor you still cared enough to help' I stared at him surprised. 'But sir,' I replied 'I used to be a Death Eater, you shouldn't be saying thank you to me. You should be disgusted by me.' He smiled and looked at me replying, 'A true Death Eater wouldn't be even talking to me, a muggleborn, much less helping me. Are you not human? We all make mistakes, but let me tell you something,' he leaned towards me and said, 'The difference between the good and bad people is whether they feel guilt or remorse over the mistakes that they made. The ones who feel those things are the good people, regardless of their label in others' eyes. Do you feel those things?' I nodded my head slowly. 'Then you really are a good person deep down, not very many people have seen that yet. Don't let your mistakes from the past take away your future. And if you ever doubt yourself again, look back on the poor old muggleborn that you put before yourself.' After that Blaise came up and took over, but I never forgot those words. After that, I felt a pull towards helping others. To me, it feels kind of like redemption over the horrors that occurred at the hands of Voldemort..." He trailed off.

"Look, Granger, I'm so sorry for all that crap I gave you and your friends over the years. I was a stupid teenager. I get it if you never find it in your heart to forgive me and if you want to request a new doctor I can get Blaise to-." 

"No," I said to him. 

He looked at me surprised and leaned forward in the chair, "what?"

What I said next surprised us both. "I don't forgive you completely yet, but I can see that you have changed and that you are really passionate about helping people. I saw the look in your eyes when you were telling me that story, which was enough to convince me that you are different than the brutish, spoiled, stupid, slimy, arrogant git-"

"Okay, I get it," he chuckled, "I was a horrible child. Does my confession mean we're good?" he asked with a playful yet hopeful look in his eyes.

"Not yet, but I guess we could say we're almost friends. No, that's not the right word."

"Acquaintances?" he asked questionably. 

"Yes, that's the word." 

 A loud peck echoed across the room. We all looked towards the window where an owl sad on the ledge, staring. 

"Who orders the Daily Prophet?" Blaise questioned, rising up to get the paper. 

"Me," Ginny replied. He grabbed the paper and handed it to her. I saw her face go white with shock and then red with anger as she looked at the paper. 

"Would you two mind giving Hermione and I time alone together. Just a couple of minutes, I promise. Then you both can go back to doctoring us or whatever it is you do," she said through her teeth, all the while not looking up from the paper. I looked at Ginny confused, while the guys looked at each other with a raised eyebrow. Seeing as Ginny was about to explode from something, I asked them to just please do what she said. Eventually, they exited through the door.  

As soon as the door closed Ginny took off ranting. Flailing the paper in the air.

*Hey guys! I hope you're liking the story so far.*