Between Us - Dramione/Blinny

Ch. 8

Ginny was surprised to find that she was actually enjoying her time with the Slytherins. She was even starting to warm up to Blaise, but she was still very apprehensive about him. She was just happy that Hermione was having a good time too.

The group had just walked out of the Three Broomsticks when Hermione caught sight of Draco just on the outskirts of the village. She paused and looked at him, realizing that he was slowly walking into town with his head down. Maybe now was the time to apologize...

He looked up at her then and her stomach immediately flipped. No, she couldn't apologize, at least not right then. He looked as if he was scowling at her, and she assumed he was still upset with her about the other night.

"'Mione?"

She turned to look back at Ginny and the others who had noticed she fell behind. She quickly regained her composure and swallowed the lump in her throat as she said, "Sorry, the butterbeer is kind of messing with my stomach. Can we go back to the castle, Gin?"

Ginny gave her a confused look but nodded. Hermione said goodbye to the three Slytherins and immediately pulled Ginny away, quickly walking against the buildings that were on the opposite side of the street where Draco was. Hermione stared down at the ground, avoiding the glance he gave her as they passed by quickly.

He was somewhat thankful that she was avoiding him now, since it gave him more reason to push down the reemerging feelings he had for her. He didn't think they would come back after just two days of them talking to each other, but he had let his guard down and was now paying the price for it. She didn't need him or his family in her life; he knew that being associated with him would probably just make things more difficult for her.

Scowling at those thoughts, he pushed them aside when he finally got to Blaise, Pansy, and Theo. They were all giving him an odd look, a mixture of frustration and anger.

"What?" He asked, looking between the three of them.

Pansy shook her head and took Theo's hand as she said, "Nothing, we'll talk later."

The three of them turned away, leaving a very confused Draco trailing behind them.

"What was that about?!" Ginny demanded as they arrived at the carriages.

Hermione stepped up into one and sat down, putting her head in her hands. "I don't know. I saw him coming into the town and I thought about apologizing and then just....sort of panicked."

Ginny sighed and quietly sat down across from her friend, leaning forward slightly. "Hermione, you can't let that get to you. Yeah, you may have made a stupid mistake by asking him that question, but if he's been avoiding you for this long instead of talking about it like a mature adult, then that's on him."

Sitting up, Hermione thought about it for a few moments. Ginny was right, of course; while she did make a mistake, Draco wasn't talking to her about it. But at the same time, she had pretty much just bailed on the chance to apologize to him.

She then scowled and chastised herself for even caring. He had just completely cut off communication and they weren't even friends.

"Why is this bothering me so much?" She groaned finally, sitting back and looking up at the sky. "I'm with Ron, I shouldn't be worrying about why Draco is avoiding me."

"I don't know what to tell you," Ginny shrugged, crossing one leg over the other. "I mean, why are you wanting to be friends with Draco in the first place?"

"It's not that I want to be friends so much as I'd just like to stop hating each other," Hermione said. "I can't put my energy into hating him this year; I need to focus on my studies and frankly, having him not insulting me every chance he has really had been helping with that."