'So,' Draco started as he made his way into the common room at the end of yet another week at Hogwarts. Hermione looked up from her homework. 'what are you going to do today?' Draco finished.
'I'm going to my classes.' Hermione answered, raising her eyebrows at him.
'And what are your plans for the weekend?' he asked.
'I don't know? I guess I'll be making my homework.' she shrugged, looking back down at the book in front of her.
'Would you- perhaps, want to go- with me- uh- to Hogsmeade?' Draco asked.
Hermione looked back up at him and noticed Draco's cheeks had turned a slight pink shade.
'Oh, yes sure.' Hermione nodded, offering him a small smile. 'Who else will be joining us?'
Draco stared at her for a moment, not sure what to say. He had literally asked her out on a date and she thought he meant it in a friendly way?
'Oh- I don't know.' Draco answered after a moment of silence.
'Oh well, we'll see I guess and otherwise we'll just go together.' Hermione shrugged again with a small smile before turning back to her DADA homework. Draco trudged over to the armchair in front of the fire before letting himself fall back on it. His eyes were trained at the fire as thoughts started to rush through his head. Had he been wrong? Had his assumptions that she might've started to like him as well been wrong? Draco felt so stupid at this point. Hermione only wanted to be friends and he had been aiming for more than that, he had been hoping for more than that.
'Draco, shall we go down to get dinner?' Hermione asked all of a sudden, snapping Draco back to reality.
'Yes, sure.' Draco nodded, getting up from his seat. The two of them walked out of the common room and down the stairs. 'Do you have a lot of homework?' Draco asked, dreading the outstretching silence between the two of them.
'Not really, no. You?'
'No, just a few last things that I have to do and then I'm done.'
'Wouldn't you rather spend your precious time on homework, instead of going to Hogsmeade with me?' she asked.
'No, absolutely not. I could use doing something fun.' Draco said, offering her a small smile.
'Alright, I could help you if you want, with your homework.' Hermione offered.
'We'll see.'
They entered the Great Hall and walked in on an almost empty room. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows as she looked around. 'What time is it?'
'We missed dinner.' Draco sighed.
'Of course we did.' Hermione chuckled. 'I guess we'll have to get ourselves some food then.'
Draco nodded and followed Hermione down to the kitchen. When they entered the big room all the house elves looked up from their work to see who entered. 'Good evening Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy can Honey make something for you?' Honey asked.
'That would be lovely.' Hermione said kindly to the elf.
Hermione and Draco sat down opposite from one another at the table. Honey came back with food and placed it in front of them.
'Thank you.' Hermione said smiling.
'That is no problem Miss Granger.' Honey nodded.
'I like those elves, they're great creatures. I particularly liked Dobby a lot-' Hermione started, before stopping mid-sentence and looking down at her plate.
Draco looked up at her and noticed her expression had changed to a deep frown. Even though Hermione hadn't known Dobby the way Harry had, she had still liked the elf. He had been such a great and nice creature and if it weren't for him, they might not even have been able to leave the Malfoy Manor where they had been held hostage. The horrible time in the Malfoy Manor came rushing back to her and she felt like she was choking in some kind of way.
'Are you okay?' Draco asked, concern waving through his voice as he placed his hand over Hermione's that was lying motionless next to her plate.
'Yes, I'm fine.' she nodded, looking up at him.
Draco stared at her for a moment, searching her face, before slowly shaking his head. 'No, you're not.' he said, getting up from his seat and walking over to her side of the table. He sat himself down next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pressing her closer to him. Hermione leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed. 'It's just- everything that has happened the past year- it was just horrible and so many lives have been lost because of it.' she said silently.
'I know.' Draco whispered.
'Does Miss Granger want a tissue from Honey?' Honey asked, appearing next to Hermione.
Draco looked down at Hermione's face and saw a silent tear roll down her cheek. 'Yes, thank you Honey.' Draco said, offering the elf a small smile. Honey nodded and disappeared before reappearing, holding a tissue in her hand. Draco took it and thanked her before handing it to Hermione. Hermione gave him a small smile and dried her cheek with it.
After they both had finished their dinner andthanked Honey for the meal they made their way out of the kitchen. 'Are you upfor a walk?' Hermione asked.
'Sure.' Draco nodded. The two of them walked out of the castle into the cold,winter air that blew into their faces. They stepped through the snow, down thepath, towards the Black Lake. 'What do your parents do in the muggleworld?' Dracoasked.
'They're dentists.' Hermione answered, looking down at the snow-covered ground.
'Dentists?'
'Yes, they check people's teeth.'
'What?'
'It's important to have good teeth, that's why people check them every 6months. Well, that's what they say you should do.' Hermione shrugged.
Draco nodded and asked a few other questions about the muggleworld, listeningintently to Hermione as she answered every single one of his questions. At onepoint Hermione shivered, making Draco look down at her. 'Are you cold?'
'Just a little bit.' Hermione said, trying to wave it away.
Draco took his cloak of and wrapped it around Hermione's shoulders. 'Thank you,but what about you?'
'Don't worry about me. I'll be fine.' Draco reassured her.
'I'm sorry about what happened in the kitchen. I don't know what came over me.'
'Why would you apologize?' Draco asked.
'Well- I don't know.' she shrugged.
'You don't have to apologize, it's okay to cry, it's only human.' Draco said,offering her a small smile. Hermione looked up at him and nodded.
'You know, Draco. You're a great friend.' she told him.
'Oh, right, thanks.' Draco said, feeling his stomach twist at the word "friend",because that's just the thing he didn't want to hear coming from her mouth.
'I'm serious, Draco.'
'It's a pity I wasn't one in the past years at Hogwarts.' Draco said, staringdown at the ground.
'You shouldn't think of what happened in the past, you've finished that chapterof your life and you can't change it. The best thing you can do now is to justturn the page and start a new chapter.'
'Granger, that were some inspiring words.' Draco mocked.
'Thank you, Malfoy.' Hermione chuckled.
'Want to walk back?' Draco asked.
'Sure.' Hermione nodded, turning around.
'It's nice to have someone to really talk to.' Draco said.
'It is.'
They headed back to the castle, wanting to escape the cold and greeting thewarmth again. They made their way up the stairs towards the seventh floorbefore telling Snape the password and walking into the common room. The both ofthem sat down on the couch and Hermione grabbed the pillow at the end of thecouch and placed it on her stomach, trying to push the stomach-ache, that hadappeared out of nowhere, away with it.
'Can I get you something?' he asked, looking over at Hermione.
'No thank you.'
'Are you sure? You're looking rather pale.'
'I'm fine, honestly.' she reassured him. 'Have you found someone who wants totag along to Hogsmeade with us?'
'Oh uh- I might've forgotten to ask someone.'
'Yes, me too.' Hermione said. 'I guess it'll just be the two of us then. Didyou have something in mind for tomorrow?'
'We can go to The Three Broomsticks?' Draco suggested.
'Sounds good to me.'
Draco felt rather relieved to hear Hermione had forgotten to ask someone to tagalong with them. Draco hadn't completely forgotten about asking someone, hejust kept postponing it, wanting to actually go alone with her.
'I'm quite tired.' Hermione yawned.
'Me too.'
'What time is it?'
'Half past eleven.' Draco said, looking up at the clock.
'For Merlin's sake! We have to make our rounds!' Hermione said, getting up fromthe couch. Draco followed her out of the common room and into the corridor.
'What are your parents like?' he asked.
'Oh, they're great.' she smiled. 'Would you like to visit the muggleworldsometime?'
'I've been there.' Draco told her.
'I know you have, but you haven't really done muggle kind of things, have you?'
'Like what?'
'Go to the movies or a theme park?'
Draco shook his head and listened to Hermione as she started to tell him abouta few muggle things that he should definitely do sometime as they made theirrounds through the castle.
'So what do you think?' Hermione asked eventually.
'It sounds fun.'
'Really?' she asked surprised.
'Yes, really.'
Excitement appeared on her features and she gave Draco a broad smile. 'I had neverexpected to hear you say that.'
'Me neither.' Draco chuckled. 'But the things you've described sound fun.'
'They are.'
'Time turner.' Draco said to Snape when they had arrived back at the portrait.They walked back into the common room and sat down on the armchairs in front ofthe fire, trying to warm up again after having walked through the coldcorridors. 'Why is the password Time Turner?' Draco wondered out loud.
Hermione looked over at him. 'Alright, I'm going to tell you something thatonly a few people know.' she said.
'Okay.' Draco said slowly, turning to look at her.
'First you have to promise me not to tell anyone, because I shouldn't actuallybe telling you this.'
'Alright, I promise.'
'Okay.' Hermione nodded before pulling on the chain necklace around her neck.
'What's that?' Draco asked, staring at the golden necklace she was holding up inthe air.
'This is a Time Turner.' Hermione informed him. 'It'll bring you back in time.'
'And you have one?' Draco asked.
'Great observation.'
'But why?'
'Because of this thing I can still follow all the classes I want to follow,even when two classes overlap.' Hermione told him.
'That's bloody awesome.' Draco stated. 'So if you want to do a day over orchange something, you can just go backin time and do so?'
'Well, yes, theoretically speaking, but it's dangerous. You can't be seen byyourself, because you'll think you're mad. It's not normal to see yourselfcrossing the corridor heading in the other direction. And when you changesomething in the past, you'll change the future.'
'But you can change something for the better, right?'
'Yes, you could, but it would have big consequences.'
'So you can prevent people from a horrible death? Don't you understandHermione? You can prevent the Wizarding War before it has even started!'
'Draco, I would love to do that, but it's too dangerous.' Hermione explained.
'I can do it for you.' Draco offered.
'No Draco.'
'Why not?'
'Like I said, it's too dangerous.'
'But I wasn't where you were during that time.'
'That doesn't matter. If you'd change something small in the past, it couldchange something massive in the future. You can't do that.'
'I don't care-'
'If you change something in the past, we won't be sitting here in the newfuture.'
'Oh-' Draco trailed off, that's something he didn't want to happen. He hadfinally found someone he could really talk to. Someone he really liked spendingtime with. Sure he had Blaise and Goyle, but it was different with them.
'Please promise me you won't touch this thing.' Hermione said.
'I promise.'
'Good, I wouldn't want you to change the time we're living in right now.'
Draco raised his eyebrows, surprised by this statement. 'Why?'
'I don't know, I guess I just feel happy around-' Hermione said, stopping mid-sentence.
'Around?' Draco pushed for her to go further.
'My friends.' Hermione finished after a moment of silence. She had been meaningto say "around you", but something had made her stop before she had spoken thelast word. Did she really feel happy around Draco? She hadn't given this factmuch thought. Draco slightly nodded and started the fire in the fireplace.
'I'm off to bed.' Hermione said.
'Good night.'
'Good night.' Hermione smiled, the word she had almost spoken out loud still rushingthrough her head.