The Astronomy Tower < #wattys2016 >

Something Different about Hermione Granger

Tuesday-Saturday, December 12th-16th, 1995

There was something different about Hermione Granger. Something that set her apart from Pansy, Lavender, and all of the other girls at Hogwarts. Draco contemplated it over breakfast. He was trying to watch her without getting caught. She was yet again pretending to read, and doing a not so fantastic job of ignoring the other Gryffindor members at the other end of the table. 

She was rather ordinary looking, nothing special. Perhaps it was her insides. She was a Mudblood, without a doubt. But Draco could tell that wasn't it... It was something to do with they way that she behaved. Draco had never really had a lot of experience with the other girls his age besides Pansy. Sure, him and a few other Slytherin girls had snogged and what not, and there was that one time with a Ravenclaw girl... but other than that he didn't have much experience with ladies attitudes.

Hermione wasn't like them in the sense of what her priorities were. A lot of the other girls at Hogwarts could be seen gossiping in the hallways, or sniggering next to a statue. But Hermione always seemed to have her nose in a book, completely oblivious to the gossip. Hermione didn't seem to care that a lot of those girls were sniggering about her, while she had her nose in a book.

Don't get Draco wrong, there were plenty of other girls at Hogwarts who enjoyed a good book, he saw them often enough, so maybe that wasn't it either.

Draco recalled third year when she had swung a punch at his nose, completely confident, and unafraid of what he would have done back to her. He had deserved it, he had to admit, but that was besides the point. He couldn't think of another person who would dare to do that to Draco Malfoy. or to a Malfoy in General.

He wondered what would happen if she were to meet his father, and remembered that they had in fact ran into each other in Diagon Alley a week before term started in Draco's second year at Hogwarts. Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself. She had said darkly to his father. She was brave, Draco had to give her that. Not many people would have had the courage to say that to his father.

Draco also remembered last year when he had ratted them out to Umbridge, and she had come up with a clever lie on the spot, to spare Potter from the Cruciatus curse, when Umbridge had threatened him with it. Not caring about the consequences that she would face, Hermione had saved her friend. 

Something about her seemed mature, and grown up. Draco had never met someone who cared so much about their school, and their grades.  Hermione was without a doubt the smartest in their year. And that's when Draco decided that Hermione Granger was way smarter than Pansy, or Lavender. But still... 

His thoughts were momentarily interrupted when Pansy flopped down into the seat next to him. He snapped back to reality. She silently filled her plate with breakfast, and Draco braced himself for what he had missed, or just didn't care about. The moment that Pansy started to speak Draco was yet again lulled into his thoughts of Hermione.

He openly watched her as she ate her breakfast, nose in another one of her books, all alone at the far side of the Gryffindor table, looking so lonely. He scolded himself. What did he care? She wasn't his problem. They could still hardly even stand each other. Every conversation they had shared over the past week had been bickering, or close to.

He found his mind on her often throughout the next four days. He often would catch himself looking for her in crowds, watching her raise her hand every five seconds in class with curiosity, wondering what intelligent thing she would say next. In fact he thought about her so much, that he had forgotten about his task for a few days. But on Saturday his mind wandered back to the ugly topic, and he found himself climbing the steps to the astronomy tower.