Dramione Story: Ignite the Night - Book I and II

Past Part 4

Past continued

"Granger," he dipped his head in acknowledgement. Malfoy found her in the line picking up some desserts, "Your sleeves are about to hit the frosting," he said point at the cupcake.

"What? Oh, thank you." she said aimlessly. He stood trailing right behind her, Hermione got paranoid, "Is there something you want Malfoy, stop following me around, its not like we haven't  received enough attention from the press already."

"I'm doing exactly what you are. Getting my food. Trust me, I'm not happy about the new either. Rich bad boy? Really the only words to describe me? Pathetic," he mumbled, waiting for her to get moving to the next stand.

"You care about the adjectives that were used," she said, eyes narrowing at the plates of pigs in a blanket. Grabbing a piece, she said. "What others words are there? Pathetic, Loser, Death Eater. It might as well be Heir of a Death Eater family," Hermione scoffed, keeping her eyes trained on the food. Had she looked at him, she  would have noticed his smile vanishing into thin air.

"My mom was not a death eater, and neither was I, at least not by heart. Do you know the difference between sarcastic humor and straight slander. Do not act like you know me by my actions from school. At least I still have one good parent." With that he stepped out of the line, his humor gone. She said the few things that pushed him over the edge. The one thing that has been bothering his conscience for the past years and will be a part of him forever. He didn't feel like being social anymore, and secluded himself to the garden, to a corner lacking of people.

Hermione, who was still registering everything, was terribly guilty of picking on his family. She followed him out only to find him tossing an untouched plate of food.

"Malfoy," she said hesitantly. "I'm sorry to bring up your family and also for not saying thank you sooner for being there the night of the wedding," she said, keep her voice low as possible and she meant it from her heart.

"Forgiven," he said, just the one word and no more as he walked over to the bench yards away.

"That's it?" she asked. She had balled up all her guilt and compromised her ego in saying sorry to the ferret.

"No, I should apologize as well," he said.

"For the newspaper?" she asked.

"No, for the years of torture in school and for calling you names, I shouldn't have. You apologized to me for talking about my family, and yet I never did while I insulted your birth. I should have been the first to apologize. That night at the wedding, I was going to apologize to you, and help you feel better after..." his voice trailed off. "Granger, can you stop staring at me with your mouth wide open? It is very unladylike and unbecoming of you."

Hermione couldn't help but smile, "Thank you. But it will take me years to forgive you," she said. "Why the sudden change?" Hermione's rational brain wouldn't accept this nice version of Malfoy, maybe he was scheming still. He would be nice to her, get her to stop thinking he's up to something.

"At first I was a brat and spoiled into believing whatever my father told me. Don't we all look up to our parents?" he explained to her, wanting to say much more, but held his tongue. He was always able to hold his emotions aside, but off late, it was becoming a difficult task, for he was seeing a shrink in secret. He helped him remove the shadow left by his father, who was rotting away in prison. Money was a little tight, but nothing they couldn't survive without. He was an Auror beside Harry and couple others, he had achieved something in life given his past.  

"I guess we do," Hermione heard some giggling in the background. It was Lavender Brown-Weasley.

"Well there goes my night." she mumbled to herself, not thinking Malfoy would hear.

"Why is that Granger?" he asked, "at least Weasel isn't here," he whispered as Lavender made her way towards them.

"Hem Hem, So happy to see you. Haven't seen you since the wedding. Nice to see you back in the dating field, about time too. Hello Draco Darling!" she laced her words with thick syrupy sweetness and stepped around Hem-Hem to kiss Draco on the cheek.

"Hello. We were about to get going, we'll see you after saying our wishes to the host," Draco curtly told Lavender, understanding what Hermione had meant. She was completely annoying and Malfoy didn't even know her enough to get a kiss. It was oddly uncomfortable, and the word Hem-Hem was chanting in Malfoy's head.

"What an absurd nickname. Hem-Hem, sounds like a tailor!" Malfoy said, as soon as they escaped her.

"That's not even the worst nickname she's given yet. Throughout the wedding planning, I was Hem-Hem, Ginny was Gin-Gin, talk about a drink. Harry was Re-re..." Hermione was rethinking all the teasing Ginny and her had taken part in. They made fun of that poor girl so many time, it was like she had no brains to understand how blatantly open they all had been to her. Hermione continued on and on about all these dumb nicknames she had given people, laughing to herself, oblivious to Malfoy's expression. 

He was just staring at her, smiling a bit on the outside but, completely grinning on the inside. She had no idea how pretty she was when she started rambling on about something. He didn't like what he was thinking, but he couldn't help it. She had always been smart, and might have even been Snape's favorite if she wasn't so enthusiastic about participating in class. She had also worn her uniform for most of the time at school, and her hair was a mess usually. Of course as the years went by, she took control of her hair and she was beautiful at Yule Ball. He was thinking all this and much more while she talked about Lavender. In the past two years, he'd seen her at work and other times at random events. Every time he saw her, he felt that he had to do something and he had to do it now. His heart felt light after such a long time, and the wedding, where she was the bridesmaid, he noticed one tiny of detail that made sense now. She still liked the Weasley boy. Here she was talking about Lavender and Ron, her enthusiasm had decreased and at the alter she had looked out at Krum, to make herself feel better. She was feeling lonely, just like he had been feeling since his break up with Pansy. Pansy, was definitely a Lavender type of girl but with a little bit more fire.  His choices were either to cut her loose now, or let her believe the will end up marrying each other. He couldn't lead her on, and he broke it off with her a year ago. That Weasley boy had made a mistake, he thought, within a year of breaking up with Hermione, he announced his engagement to Lavender.

Ron and Hermione were supposed to be friends again, but the awkward silences still continued. Hermione was now staring back at Malfoy, not sure how they were going to play the rest of the night. They had escaped Lavender, by telling her that they would be leaving soon. But in reality, Hermione was going to stay back till they cut the baby shower cake. Now it was either staying here for Hannah and dealing with Lavender or leaving the party for home sweet home. Regardless of how nice their conversation had been, Hermione still hadn't accepted that he could have changed.

As planned they greeted their host and started making their way out, only to be photographed by the press. The Wizarding World, clearly lacked issues to cover to such an extent that they had resorted to killing people's private lives. Rita Skeeter was still around! That old hag with her magical notepad writing down every word it heard.

"So it is true! You are leaving together every night!" Rita exclaimed at them as the covered the cameras. "Hey honey," she nudged Hermione in her hip, "Under the table question, how good is he?" Rita said in a whisper, her face grinning like a cat. Hermione feel queasy to her stomach, how she wished to wipe of that smirk.

"We are not together. If we were a couple, I would be holding her hand right now don't you think? By the way, I heard you're a homewrecker, you have your claws into a Mr. Gerrison. Does Mrs. Gerrison know?" Malfoy bullied Rita, making some in camera crew howl with laughter. She was stunned into silence.

They both made their way out of the crowd, "Thanks Malfoy." Hermione said before apprating.

On arriving home she had three owls waiting for her. One from Harry and Ginny, one from Krum and the last one from Ron.

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