A Man Can Change - A Draco/Hermione Story

Blossoming Friendships

I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS: J.K.ROWLING OWNS THEM. This is just a fanfic by a huge HP fan.

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The next few weeks of October flew by with ease. Surprisingly, after the incident with Draco and the two Slytherin’s a few weeks ago, all had been quiet on their front. But silence was not always good and as they say, it’s the quiet ones you have to watch.

      Nothing particularly exciting happened during those weeks, he found them quite dull and all the homework he was receiving was enough to make him go mental. But the one thing that stopped him from going insane was Hermione.

      He loved talking to her at night time when they were trying to finish their homework. It distracted him most of the time but she just kept him smiling. And this was real smiling, the kind you do around friends, not the smile you give when you’ve just knocked over a first year, spilling their heavy books all over the ground. He knew what that smile felt like.

      And after they finished talking, they would help out one another with their homework. With Hermione as the smartest of the school, and Draco as second best, their difficult essays were passed with flying colours.

      They would sit together now in classes too, without the permission from her best friends. The one class where they would always sit together, was Potions. He was the top student in Potions, and he would sometimes see Hermione with a frustrated look of concentration on her face, so he would quickly show her what she was doing wrong, and they both got back on track. Not that this happened very often.

      Most of the other students around them, from all four House’s were completely shocked and surprised by this new friendship. Most of them couldn’t get over how much Draco had changed and some even came up and spoke to him now, if they needed help. He was the Head Boy after all.

      Draco had noticed a large difference in the way he was treated by Hermione’s close friends as well. Ginny had been fine with the two of them being friends from the beginning, and Hermione told him that she had apparently already worked out something had been going on. Potter was also fine with their friendship, and would talk to him sometimes. They wouldn’t chat as if they were old friends – as they obviously were the complete opposite – but they would often have a laugh together or talk about Quidditch.

      Weasley on the other hand, no matter how hard he tried, sometimes couldn’t get over the past and when Draco would talk to him quite calmly, and try to start up a conversation, an insult or two would come flying his way. He was getting better at not insulting him back, but he knew it would be hard for Weasley to give it up.

      Neville and Luna seemed to be okay. Neville was a little apprehensive at first, but when Draco stood up for him outside Herbology, when he had been confronted and insulted by some Slytherin guys, Draco told them to back off, waved his authority in the air and they didn’t go near Neville again. He knew that they were also backing off because of the mark on his arm. Slytherin’s were known to turn bad, and join the Dark Lord’s side, but they weren’t sure of what to do when confronted with someone who had been in his inner circle.

      Luna had been fine with him the whole time. She apparently didn’t have any problems with him before the war as it was, because Draco had never confronted or bullied her. He felt that she had been given a lucky escape.

      Luna sometimes confused him, she was an oddball for sure but there was something about her that he liked. ‘It must be how carefree she is.’ He thought to himself one day, as he watched her swatting something invisible away from her head down by the Quidditch Pitch.