Hermione Granger sat down in the library, silently crying.
Why did no one like her? She did what her mom said to do, she tried to help them, but they were all annoyed at her, especially that Ronald Weasley.
The young girl started reading from her textbook, tears slowly started to fall on the paper, causing her to wipe her face again.
"Are you alright?" Someone asked.
Hermione raised her head to see Draco Malfoy standing above her with a worried look on her face. She scowled, why did he care, he had stood by while Ron had told her off, so why would he care now.
"Why would you care?"
He actually looked surprised.
"Because you're crying and, I'm a nice person?" He tilted his head to the left a bit.
"Nice? You stood there while that awful Ronald Weasley told me off in front of everyone!" More tears made its way down her face.
"Yes, I am sorry about that, but I figured it would be better to talk to you when half the school wasn't laughing at you, wouldn't look good for either of us if we were found talking with each other."
At that, he looked around again.
"So you don't want to be seen with me?" More tears.
"No, I'm sorry, but please try to understand, you do know my father, right?"
"No! Why would I know who your father is?" He seemed both shocked and horrified at the idea of her not knowing who her father was.
"Well, imagine a rich man, who's friends with the President, and the President is a bumbling man who can't think for himself and is easily manipulated by this man, that's who my father is."
He cringed at her reaction.
"But why would the people choose someone like that to be their President."
He sighed and sat down at her side.
"There's a lot of corruption here, Hermione, and discrimination, some people here don't accept the idea of girls like you being here, girls who don't have magical parents, you're going to face a lot of bullying here if you don't make friends, and I'm willing to be your friend, even if my father might disown me for it."
"But why would you do that?"
"I hate my father, I don't agree with him, and you look like you could use a friend."
"Fine, you and I might get along, Malfoy, I'm Hermione Granger."
She put out her hand.
***********
They walked to all their classes together now, she realized how wrong she had been about him, everyone had told her that he was a snob and that he would be horrible towards her especially and her 'kind' but they never explained what that meant, but Draco did, he answered all her questions on the wizarding world and even taught her more.
Hermione absolutely loved learning about magic, others didn't understand, they thought she was a know-it-all, that she thought she was better than them, but she didn't.
When she did something that was wrong or she pushed into others conversations, Draco gently told her that what she was doing was rude, he taught her how to analyze other people, and she was happy. He was kinder than other people, but she still saw the way people looked at him, like they were expecting him to say something completely out of turn.
He had explained it to her, how he too, faced prejudice based on his family. But it was different with him, people didn't pity him as they pitied her, they looked at him with hatred, how could you hate an 11-year-old boy?
Some looked at him with fear, and that was even more stupid, they were both 11 for Pete's sake, how were they going to do anything towards them, just because his father was a prat it didn't mean he was as well. But Hermione had to admit that sometimes Draco could be cruel, but that was only towards the people who were mean towards her, like the Slytherins.
He used his wit to answer people, he was good at manipulating people, sure, that could be a bad trait, but he didn't abuse it, and that was what mattered, intent, not opportunity.
For some reason, Draco had been hanging out with Harry Potter, even Ronald Weasley, although most of those conversations ended with the redhead yelling bloody murder. They were with the two of them right now, she had been paired with Ronald for a Transfiguration project, and Draco had been paired with Potter.
"You know, I don't get it, why do you hang out with, Malfoy?" There it was, she was waiting for him to make a comment.
"Why wouldn't I? He's nice and treats me well, unlike some people." She didn't make eye contact with him.
"Hah! Malfoy? Like he would treat someone like you well." That made her whip around.
"You know what? I'm sick of this, you all judge him because of his family, just like his family judge's yours! You're a hypocrite, Ronald Weasley!" His jaw dropped open, and so did hers.
Did she scream that? Looking around, she definitely did, Draco was looking at her with a smile on his face. Even McGonagall was stumped, this was her chance.
"You all treat him horribly, he doesn't pay attention, and he treats me fine, he isn't racist!"
"Ms Granger! This is completely unacceptable! You will report to me for detention today at 8:00 pm."
She never thought she'd say this, but the detention was worth it just to see the look on Weasley's face.
************
"You crossed the line, Ron." Harry narrowed his eyes.
"But Harry, it's Malfoy!" Harry rolled his eyes, he was tired of hearing that excuse.
"What has Malfoy ever done to us?"
"He insulted me right when I met him!"
"Yeah, and he apologized for that, I accepted his apology for Madame Malkins, you need to get over it."
"Get over it?"
"Yes! He's friends with a muggle-born, what do you say to that, you said he was just like his father, would his father do that?"
Ron calmed down a bit at that.
"No." He mumbled.
"So he's not like his father."
Ron didn't speak for a while.
"It's just, Dad's always told me about how bad the Malfoy's are, and when I met him, Dad seemed so right, he was a spoiled brat, but, he changed so much, Harry, I don't get it, it has to be some sort of trick."
"I don't get it either, but maybe we could ask him, instead of insulting his friend."
"Yeah, you're right."
"I always am."
**********
Draco was touched, really, he was. Granger had gotten detention defending him. Originally he had become friends with her because it would bring him closer to the golden trio, but the more he got to know her, the more she actually grew on him, she wasn't a know-it-all like everyone thought her to be, she was a really sweet and bright girl.
He cringed when he thought about how he had treated her before, the old him really was a prat.
But it was working, he had already apologized to Potter and Weasley, Potter had taken it well, Weasley, not so much.
He had overheard the conversation between Weasley and Potter, Potter had managed to get through Weasley's thick skull, he was impressed. They would ask him soon, the perfect moment to form a friendship. The Halloween feast was coming up soon anyway, the sooner he got rid of Quirell, the better, he had to preserve Potter's innocence, at least until 4th year.
They were coming this way. He got a book from his bag and started walking while seemingly reading it.
When he turned the corner he almost bumped into Potter and Weasley.
"Sorry!" He bowed slightly, maybe a little to curious.
"Oh, no it's fine." Potter smiled, which Draco returned.
He walked back to his own dorm, he was slowly building a friendship with Potter, and even if that didn't work out, he had Granger as a backup plan, she was better than Weasley anyway. Speaking of Weasley, didn't something happen with the youngest one and the chamber? Oh well, he would pay attention to that when it was important.
Forming a friendship with at least one of the Weasley's was absolutely necessary, to break Potter out of his bedroom in second year, if Ronald didn't work out, then he would try the twins, he could tell he was already growing on them.
Right now, he needed to focus on figuring out how to defeat Quirrel, something in Potter defeated him, somehow, he still didn't have all the details about that. All he knew was that Potter had killed Quirell, expelling the spirit out of his body. How he would recreate the power of something that great, he didn't know. He would have to rely on the stars to guide him from here, it had been quite some time since he had his last vision, his body must be adapting to this new magical core.
The Eagle on the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room came to life as the young Malfoy approached it. The boy waited for it to speak its riddle, they were hardly challenging for someone of his mental capacity. It appeared as if the Eagle also know this, as his questions were always more challenging than the other first years.
"You see a boat filled with people. You look again, but this time you don't see a single person on the boat. Why?"
He rolled his eyes, did the Eagle really expect to beat him with such a simple riddle.
"The boat has not sunk, all the people on it are married."
If it was possible, the Eagle would have scoffed, but since it wasn't, it let him through.
Making his way through the common room, he noticed the dirty looks he got from some of his older classmates, he didn't care, it would take a while and a lot of action before their views of him started to change.
"How come your riddles are always harder than our's, Draco?" A first-year asked him, only first years would use his first name so casually.
"Because I've answered all the other ones I think, they are fun though." He tried to remain as childish as possible.
He knew why the Eagle was changing its riddles, and it wasn't because he had answered the first year's riddles. Maybe the others knew it as well, but it wasn't likely, they weren't exactly above average, the most above-average Ravenclaw he had seen was Patil, and she wasn't a match for Hermione, he always did wonder why she didn't make it into Ravenclaw, perhaps because she was as loyal as a Gryffindor, or maybe because of her bravery.
"Oh, here's the book you wanted me to get, Clearwater."
The older girl look shocked. She had mocked him about how long he spent in the library, she had dared him to bring her a book that hadn't been in the library for quite some time, he had found it in a chamber in the school, it was quite close to the library, how it got there was beyond him.
"Where did you find this?" She narrowed her eyes.
"In Hogwarts of course, where else would it be." He started making his way back to his dorm.
That was one favour done for a Ravenclaw, only a few more to go, little by little, he would make his housemates like him.