Everything Changes (A Dramione fanfic)

Chapter Twelve

The sight of her friends snapped Hermione out of her laughter. She remembered her place, and felt ridiculous suddenly. She and Harry had agreed that they wouldn't be putting all of their trust into Draco quite yet, and there she had been, practically telling him everything was all right and laughing over a stupid memory, as though they were best friends! She sat on the floor, beside Ron and Harry, with her food on a napkin on the table in front of her. There was plenty of room next to Draco, on the other side, or even on the ends of the tables, but Hermione squeezed herself between them anyway. She needed to make it clear, especially after her moment of insanity, that she was still not completely trusting of Draco.

...

Draco took a bite of apple, sneaking glances at the trio in front of him as they all ate. He was feeling great, laughing with Hermione just moments ago, but the second Ron and Harry walked in, it was like she didn't want to be near him again. He had thought perhaps he had finally earned her trust, maybe even almost earned her friendship, but of course not. Time would be the only thing that could heal his wounds. If he was having trouble getting used to having normal conversations with them, then he could imagine how it must be for the trio. Talking to Hermione had been the easiest so far. "So, I suppose the first thing we have to do is tell Dumbledore." said Harry, suddenly. "Honestly, we should have done that right away, I mean there's no one else who could help us here, weather he's the target or not." he added, and Draco nodded in agreement. "Do you think we should do it today? After everyone leaves the great hall for dinner? I mean we really shouldn't waste time with this, my aunt has been writing to me everyday...she wants updates on any progress I've made with the Vanishing Cabinets. She keeps sending me cursed items, like bottles of poisoned champagne. I've had to keep it all hidden in my trunk, because they're not easy to destroy. I often hear thumping from inside of it. I think the cursed items can actually travel to their intended, she said something about that in one of her letters, but I never really read them all anymore. I just burn them. Anyway, I'm afraid one of the cursed items will find there way to Dumbledore one of these days, so we should warn him of that too." said Draco. "Dumbledore is a smart man, surely he would notice something strange about them, and not fall for any tricks. We have to depend on that, because I wouldn't even know where to begin with trying to get rid of cursed items." replied Harry. "Isn't DADA your best subject?" asked Ron. "Well yeah, but when have you ever been in one of our DADA classes where they taught us about destroying cursed objects?" replied Harry. "Has it ever occurred to any of you that you could find these answers in a book?" asked Hermione, raising her eyebrows at both of them. Draco felt a smirk tugging at his lips, Hermione Granger, always referring back to her books ."Oh don't tell me you have a bloody book about it. Anything like that is bound to be in the Restricted Section." said Ron. "Yeah but this is Hermione we're talking about, all she has to do is say hello to the librarian and they'd probably let her do whatever she wants. Hermione practically rules the library." teased Harry. Draco wanted a friendship like this, with silly arguments, and friends that no each other so well. Perhaps if he hadn't been so cruel, he could have had a friendship like this a long time ago. "That isn't true, Harry, and Ronald, as a matter of fact I do have a book checked out with plenty of information on cursed objects at the moment." she said pulling one out of her book bag and handing it to Ron. "What are you giving it to me for? I don't want to read any more than I have to. This bloody book is huge." he said, handing it back to her. "Why did you check out that book?" asked Harry. "For a bit of light reading," she said simply, and Ron rolled his eyes as though he had heard this a thousand times before. "I just told Professor Snape that I wanted to get ahead on DADA, and I had already read most of the books about curses and defense strategies.  I told him I would like to begin reading from the Restricted Section, seeing as how it was the only section of the library I had left that was mostly untouched. I think he only gave me the slip so that I would stop talking." she added, and at that point Draco couldn't hold in a smile. "Anyway," she said, turning to Draco, her tone changing then, "I can help destroy those cursed items." Draco felt the atmosphere growing to be more serious when she spoke to him, so his smile faded. "Thanks." Hermione simply nodded, and quickly averted her eyes from his gaze. "We still need to tell Dumbledore, so I say the day after tomorrow." she said. "Why not today?" Draco asked, and Hermione pointed at the window, which displayed stars and a shining moon. "Oh, then why not tomorrow?" he asked. "Slughorn will be expecting to see us." Harry replied. "A party." Hermione added. "For Slughorn's favorite students." Ron grumbled. "Oh, I see." he replied, nodding. "Until then," Hermione said, "I can help you destroy those objects, can you take me to your trunk?" "I can bring it here, unless you want to go through all the sneaking around to get you to the Slyhtherin common room." Draco said. "Right, well bring it tomorrow when we are meant to be having lunch. Eat quickly, then come, I usually stop by the library during our lunch  hour anyway." she said. Draco nodded, "Okay."

...

Hermione walked with Harry and Ron in the shadows, Harry was watching the Marauder's Map to prevent getting caught out of bed. "So," said Ron. "Shh!" Hermione hissed immediately. "Oh relax, there's nobody even close enough to hear us." said Ron, pointing to the map. Hermione relaxed a bit, until Ron said, "So, what was so funny that had you and Malfoy laughing so hard when we came in? I think Harry and I are really dying to know." Harry glanced up from the map, and looked up at Hermione for a response. "Oh, um...we were just, it was-" Hermione sighed, she didn't understand why she was feeling the weight of this subject as though it were a big deal. "He was feeling bad," Hermione began, "About his past, about how he treated us...I sort of made a joke." she explained, and at the end the two boys stopped walking to stop and look at her, puzzled. She stopped and stared back, "I just reminded him of the time I punched him in first year, I suppose it was just quite funny at the moment."  she concluded, shaking her head. Harry looked amused, and sent a smirk to Ron. "What?" she asked. "Nothing....it's just, that was quite a bit of laughing for something so simple." replied Harry. "I told you it just seemed funny at the moment." she said, feeling embarrassed, however she wasn't sure why. "What?!" she demanded from Ron, who looked amused as well. "At least one of us is warming up to Malfoy." was all he could say.

Hello! Wow it's been a long time. Over a week, maybe two for this particular fanfic. I went to North Carolina, and there was NO WIFI. Every fangirls worst nightmare. Anyway, I did take something to write with and was working on each of my fanfics in hopes that there would be chapters ready by the time I got back, so if you read any of my other fanfics I did work on those as well, you should be seeing an update soon. Thanks to everyone who is still reading, every new read makes me extremely happy. I came back to quite a few new reads and votes, and it was such a great feeling. I can't believe there is now over 500 reads! Leave a comment letting me know what you think so far, and let me know if you like it! Thanks! -jazzyjstar*