She wept on the floor and he watched, not knowing what to say. He was never good with words.
"You're right, Malfoy, I'm a Mudblood!" She screamed.
He looked at the girl with wild eyes, what was she doing?
"A filthy, Mudblood!" She cries out loud. She rolls up her sleeve to look at the marking on her arm.
He says nothing as she cries. What could he say?
"After all this time! I'm still a Mudblood. Now more than ever!" She exclaims furiously.
Draco finally snapped back into reality from his trance.
"Granger..." He says quietly. They had been feuding for the past few months since the school opened up but when he found her sobbing in the Owlery with nobody else around, he couldn't help but feel sympathy.
"It wasn't you fault." He manages to say.
Hermione moves from her fatal position, "Not my fault?!" She yells in disbelief.
"Harry and Ron left me! They screamed at me and said I was worthless!" She cries with tears in her eyes. "You were right! Pure-bloods are always going to be better than stupid little Mudbloods." She whispers.
He couldn't help but feel horrible for ever calling her that, for the scar on her arm. She cries for a few more moments.
"Granger, them leaving was not your fault. It couldn't have been. Why did the-" She cuts him off.
"They left because... This is what Harry said before the yelling match." She began to recite what had happened.
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Flashback
"Hermione, don't you see we don't need you anymore? You served your purpose. Stop being so full of yourself. 'Brightest witch of her age', you're so naive!" Harry said loudly.
Ron smirked, "Thats right! We used you, you were innocent and naive because you only wanted friends!" He sneered.
"That night with the troll, it was the perfect chance to get you to trust us!" Harry says.
"Of course you came in handy until that day at the Manor, you nearly gave us away. Hate when we decided when to drop you off. That we didn't need you anymore. Once the battles were over we'd leave you, like everybody does." Ron growls.
Her eyes had been attempting to keep in the tears but they began falling. She had believed that these two were her best friends for seven years!
"You're pathetic! Crying... Why would you bother? Everyone leaves you, why would you think we were any different?" Harry snaps.
She finally gather the nerve to speak back, "You're wrong! Not everyone leaves me, it's not me th-that's pa-pathetic... I-it's y-you..." She whimpers toward the end. They were right and she was wrong.
"You know we're right, if you don't now, you will when we are successful Aurors and you're on the unemployment list!" Sneers Ron.
The tears fell freely from her face and they turned away.
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Hermione was crying harder now, she hadn't known that she was so naive and vulnerable.
She hadn't known that her best friends for seven years would stab her in the back like that.
"I hate this! I hate being a witch! Things were so much simpler before! My parents don't know I exist! I have no friends! I'm failing my classes!" She screams and cries some more.
"Malfoy, you were right! I'm a pathetic Mudblood! It was foreshadowing..." She mutters.
He finally seems to think of a way to comfort her. "Gra- Hermione, I'm so sorry that I ever called you a Mudblood. I can't believe I ever thought you were weak... That you were less than equal. I was wrong." He says in attempt to comfort her.
"What are you talking about? I'm the one who was foolish enough to believe people liked her. I'm the one who got her so called friends and her caught while they were running from Voldemort. I..." She stops and sits down crying.
"No, them leaving was not your fault. It was them who were idiotic enough to think leaving you was a good idea. They were the ones who were careless enough to get caught. If it weren't for the spell you used on Harry that day, everyone would've recognized him immediately. All three of you would've been dead. You would be dead, and I'm so glad you aren't." He says before he can stop himself.
He was feeling sympathy for Hermione and hatred for Pothead and Weasel.
He clenched his fist, imagining what he would do when he saw them again.
"Don't give me your pity, It's all the same..." She mutters angrily.
"It's not pity." He says.
He looks into her brown eyes and suddenly realizes what he's been missing all these years. How could he have not seen it sooner?
He loved everything about her, the way she wasn't afraid of getting hurt for others. She was courageous and kind. She had always been kind, even when she disliked it herself.
He loved everything about her, her looks, her attitude and her brain. She was sitting right in front of him the whole time and he had never realized it before.
Now with her sitting in front of him, the strong girl, broken, he realized what he had never noticed before.
He loved her.
He loved Hermione Granger.
Draco Malfoy, Pure-blood, loved Hermione Granger the brilliant Muggleborn.
He looked at the weeping Hermione, he didn't know what to say. He was only just now realizing his feelings. He was realizing that the girl he spent years trying to make miserable, is the girl he is in love with.
The one who punched him on the nose in their year, who he called a Mudblood, the one that is broken and lying on the floor in front of him.
He felt pain in his chest as he looked at the girl he had caused so much trouble to. She was broken because of him, that's what he thought.
"Hermione." He says firmly and pulls her up. He holds onto her face with both hands on the side of her face.
His breathing was shaky, he was nervous being so close to her.
"None of this was your fault. None of it. Listen to me... You are not a Mudblood. I'm so sorry for all those years I called you one. I've made too many mistakes to count. I'm so sorry Hermione." He says staring into her eyes.
She seemed to be in a trance. She was not the same girl who had helped Nevile fine his toad. She was not the same girl who helped Harry defeat Voldemort.
She was much stronger, she knew what evil the world held and she was living through it.
He loved her for it.
"Please listen to me." He pleads. "Please."
"I'm sorry..." She finally mumbles after many tears shed.
"Please don't apologize. I can't listen to it. It hurts too much Hermione. I... I need to t-tell you something." He says.
He wanted to tell he the loved her but he was so afraid of scaring her away. He had an internal battle with himself.
He could tell her he loved her and risk her leaving or keep it to himself and risk her finding love with somebody else.
Her eyes pierce into his as they stare at each other.
"What is it?" She asks with a sniffle. Her face was red and puffy from crying so much and her voice was strained from yelling.
"I..." He considers playing it safe and not saying anything, "I think I love you." He says barely above a whisper. He immediately averted his eyes. He knew she was going to reject him and run away.
She acted without thinking, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. Their faces were right in front of each other's, "You won't leave me, will you?" She asks with a strain in her voice.
"Never."
She smiles a little and Draco moves without thinking. He pulls her in for a kiss. Their lips collide and they both feel a spark.
They kiss each other, putting all their emotions into it. Hermione wraps her hands around Draco's neck and pulls him closer. Draco's arms wrap around her waist and be smiles against the kiss.
She hadn't turned him down, she kissed back. He was ecstatic. Hermione had felt a small crush on Draco at one point this year, when they got along better.
She was feeling so excited that he felt the same way, they pull apart gasping for air.
"Thank you." She whispers.
"For what?" Draco asks, a smile still on his face from the kiss.
"Talking to me, helping me, kissing me, having feelings for me. I needed it." She whispers.
Hermione lay with her head against Draco's chest. She had a red face from crying still.
"You saved me too, Granger." He says wrapping an arm around her.
"We saved each other, just... Don't let me go." Hermione said turning to Draco.
"Never, in a million years will I leave you. I'm not letting you go. I just got you." He says with a smile.
Hermione's frown disappears and is replaced by a large grin.
"I love you too, Draco." She says tucking her head farther into his side.
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This was my first oneshot, I hoped you liked it! I had a great time writing it!
Please comment your opinions and if I should write more oneshots!