A Turn For The Better (Completed)

Part 22

The weekend following that wonderful day had its good times and its bad times. The good consisting of time spent with Draco, and the bad with Harry and Ron. We still hadn't spoken, though I was tempted to many times, but I couldn't give in. They needed to know that they hurt me with their words. It was Wednesday morning when we finally spoke.

I was at the table in the great hall. "Hermione?" I looked up and saw Harry and Ron standing there. "Yes?" I replied as I busied myself spreading butter on my toast. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate that you would ever put me or Ron in danger." "It sounded like that to me." I shot back. "Yes but I didn't mean it. I was shocked, still am, that you trust Malfoy. He has never done anything that didn't benefit himself. Why would he now?" "Harry, I'm not doing this again. If you want answers, ask him. He's already said he would like an opportunity to speak with you both." This wasn't exactly true, he hadn't actually asked to speak with them, but I wasn't going to run back and forth telling one what the other had said. I had told Draco that it would take effort from him too. Now was the time he had to do something. "Speak with us? Since when does Malfoy do civil conversation?" Ron laughed. "Well its up to you. If you don't want to speak then fine, but don't start getting angry because I'm helping him!" I retorted. "Well, what would we be talking about? Its not like we actually have anything to talk about." said Harry. "You're wrong there Harry. This is an opportunity to find out why he did what he did. You need to know his story." Harry looked uncomfortable. "Let us think about it at least. But if we do this, and we can't see what you see, you can't be mad at us." "I won't be, but you can't be mad at me just because I am trying to help a tortured soul. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get my things for class!" I left my toast there, not hungry anymore, and headed back for the common room.

I hoped they would decide to talk to Draco, I knew he would talk to them. As I headed for the grand staircase, I heard Neville call me. "Hermione, wait up!" When he caught up with me I asked, "Whats wrong Neville?" "Oh nothings wrong, I just wanted to ask you something." "Oh, okay, go ahead." "Well, you are a girl_" "Quite clever Neville!" I laughed "Oh shut up!" he laughed. "Right, I like Luna, but I don't know how she feels about me. How can I find out." "Well, you could just ask her? And if you don't want to do that, then I suppose I could try find out for you." "Thanks Hermione, that would be brilliant!" he beamed "Anytime Neville!" I would do anything for Neville. He had proved to be a brave man, and made all of us proud during the war. He ran back down the grand staircase and I headed up to the common room.

Today in transfiguration, McGonagall had us all turn our chairs into bean bags, which I managed to do. I took a peak at Draco, he saw me looking and lost his concentration. "Mr Malfoy I believe I asked for a bean bag, this is not nap time!" said McGonagall when she saw that he had somehow managed to turn it into a blanket. I couldn't suppress the giggle that escaped. Harry looked at me questioningly and so I tried to regain my composure and turn another chair into a bean bag.

I needed to talk to Draco, but I wouldn't really have the chance today. Unless it was quick, after class perhaps? At the end of class I hung back for a few minutes. "Aren't you coming Hermione?" asked Ron. "I'll be along in a minute, I have to ask McGonagall something." "Alright." And off he went. Once the guys were gone, I caught eye contact with Draco, trying to tell him that I'd be just outside. I went out into the corridor and waited. As I waited I heard McGonagall tell Draco he'd better hurry to his next class as she left the classroom. When she was gone, he came out and pulled me in.

"I've missed you, you know?" he said as he kissed me. "I've missed you too."I smiled, kissing him back. "So, whats up?" he asked. "Well, Harry and Ron have started talking to me again. I told them that you wanted to talk with them. We need to sort this out. Its a lot different to what I was thinking. We ended up in a relationship rather than me helping you. And if they find out then we are done for." He smiled. "But you are helping me. If I didn't have you, I don't know how I would have managed these past two weeks, I will talk if they want to ." I sighed in relief, I had thought that it might be hard to get him to talk to them, as it was so awkward last time. "Okay, well thank you, we'd better get to class now though." He nodded. I kissed him goodbye, and ran on to class.