Go Home
Go To Fanfiction
Go To Harry Potter

I Can Always Look Forward To Tomorrow

By Alison

D/C: I don't own anything. JK Rowling, Scholastic, and people who are luckier than me own them.

~*~*~

"Hey, Hermione," said Ron. "Can I copy your notes from Transfiguration?"

"Why should I?" Hermione asked huffily. "You were fighting with Harry with those fake wands, it's your own fault you didn't pay attention."

"Yeah, Ron," said Harry. "And even I paid attention enough to take mental notes while McGonagall was talking."

"Fine," said Ron. "Don't mind me, I'll just be sitting here, in the corner of the library, wondering how I'm ever going to pass fifth year…" He made sad puppy eyes over at Hermione. There seemed to be an internal debate going on in Hermione's head.

"Fine," she said finally. "Here. Take them. Do what you want with them. I'm going back up to the common room, I told Ginny I'd help her with fourth year Care Of Magical Creatures." She handed the notes over to Ron, packed her books in her bag, and set off towards the Gryffindor common room. She walked around one of the corners and…

BOOM! She smacked right into someone hard, causing all her books to fall out of her bag. "Sorr…" she started to say, until she got a good look at him. "Malfoy!"

"Granger!" he said, equally surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, see Malfoy, I'm a witch so I go to school here," she said sarcastically. "What are you doing here?"

"I could say the same thing," he said, stooping down to pick up all the books he had dropped. "Except I'm a wizard, not a witch." He handed her one of her books. Hermione was a bit startled. Malfoy, doing something nice for someone else? she thought. I never thought I'd see the day!

As if he realized what he just did, he turned bright red. "Here," he muttered.

"Thanks," said Hermione, also turning a bit red.

"Watch where you're going next time, Granger," Draco said, his sneer back. And he sauntered off. Hermione sighed and went back on her way to the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey, Ginny!" she said to her friend.

"Hi, Hermione!" said Ginny. "I'm so glad you're here, I can't understand a word of this. The new professor goes really fast."

"Well, it's all easy after you get used to it," said Hermione. "And I'm glad to help, I need something to do to keep my mind off other things." Like Draco? said a little nasty voice in the back of her head. No, not like Draco. Like…the O.W.L.s! Yeah, that's what's bothering me. She turned back to Ginny. "So, what are you studying?"

"Augurey's," said Ginny, frowning over her textbook. "Hagrid wants us to write an essay on them, but there's almost nothing about them!"

"Here, there's a little bit of information on them," said Hermione, flipping through Ginny's copy of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. She finally found the right page. "Here we go. See where it says Augurey? That's it."

"Thanks, Hermione," said Ginny, beaming. "You can work here, if you want, I can move my stuff over…"

"No, it's all right," said Hermione. I think I'm just going to read my book until your brother gets up here." She pulled out her book entitled Muggles: How Did They Ever Survive? and began reading for her Muggle Studies class tomorrow.

"Why would you care when my brother comes up?" asked Ginny slyly.

"Ginny, get that idea out of your head right now. I don't like your brother in that way, so stop it or I'll start teasing you about Harry." That shut Ginny up. Hermione sighed and turned back to her book. "I just need my Transfiguration notes back after he finishes copying them."

She didn't have long to wait. About five minutes later, Harry and Ron came back through the portrait and sat down next to Hermione.

"Thanks, Hermione, you're a lifesaver," said Ron, handing back her notes.

"You're welcome," said Hermione. "Only don't make it a habit, pay attention in class next time!" He rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Mum," he said sarcastically. Hermione threw a pillow at him. "Hey, Harry, up for a game of chess?"

"Sure, I'm always up for another brutal beating from you, Weasley," he said, grinning. Hermione put down her book to watch. Ron was an extremely good chess player, he could beat everyone in the common room, probably.

About halfway through the game, Hermione noticed an owl hovering outside the window. She walked over and opened the window to let him in.

"Who's that?" Ron asked her, still concentrating on the game.

"It's Bill Clinton, who do you think it is, Ron?" she asked sarcastically. Ron looked up and gave her a blank look. She sighed. "Just a bit of Muggle humor," she said, sitting down. "It's my parents owl, they bought it to send me letters and stuff. This is the first time they've actually ever sent me anything though."

She took the letter out of the owl's talons, opened it up, and read what it said inside it.

Dear Hermione,

Hello! How is Hogwarts? We hope you're doing just fine over there.

Your father and I don't write this letter with happy news. You might remember all those fights we had last summer.

Hermione remembered these fights too well. She spent more time locked up in her room than she did anywhere else in the house.

We write this out of the best intentions for all of us. Your father and I are getting a divorce.

Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry we couldn't tell you this to your face, but it's going to be a long time before we see you again and we just want you to know. But keep in mind that we both still love you and that we are going to do everything in our power to make you OK with this.

Write to us if you ever want to talk!

Love you,

Mom

Hermione stared down at the letter, open-mouthed. I can't believe this! Hermione thought. I mean, sure, I knew they were having a few arguments, but all married couples have arguments. But as Hermione thought of last summer, it had been more than just a few arguments. It had been a considerate amount of arguments. I need to go somewhere. I need to be away from here. Hermione picked up her cloak, and, with letter in hand, walked out of the common room.

"Oi! Hermione!" Ron shouted. "Where are you going?" She didn't answer.

"She's probably just going to the library again," said Harry. "Your turn."

But Hermione wasn't headed for the library. She went all the way outside to the lake, her vision blurred from tears. If she wasn't crying, she might have noticed that someone else was sitting there.

"We meet again, Granger."

Hermione looked up, startled. "Malfoy? What are you doing out here?"

"I always come out here at night," he replied. "Helps take my mind off things. What are you doing out here?"

"Well, I did come down here to be alone, but that's obviously not going to work," she said, still standing.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. "Your eyes are all red." Hermione self-consciously rubbed her eyes.

"Gee, thanks, Malfoy," she said. "And, not that it's any of your business, yes, something is wrong."

"I only asked you a question," Malfoy said. "I didn't insult you, you don't need to be sarcastic all the time." He paused. "Sit down."

She hesitated, then sat down next to him. "Why should I tell you?"

"Because I don't think anyone else out here is going to listen to you," said Draco, waving his hands around. "Come on, tell me, what's wrong?"

Hermione sighed. "It's kind of personal." He gave her a look that said, "So? Tell me anyway." She sighed again. "Fine. Have it your way. It all started last summer…"

~*~FLASHBACK~*~

Hermione is sitting in a chair, reading the Daily Prophet. Her mom is sitting in a chair across the room from her, knitting, and her father is in the next room doing bills. All is peaceful for a moment, before Mr. Granger shouts out, "Claire!"

Mrs. Granger looked up from her knitting, frowning. "Yes, Paul?"

"Could you come in here for a second?" Hermione had never heard her father talk in that tone of voice. It had no affection, no kindness in it. Mrs. Granger set down her knitting and walked over to the next room, closing the door behind her. Hermione set down her book, wondering what was wrong.

"What is this, Claire?" Mr. Granger shouted. "The bills are nearly doubled this month! Why do you have to go on your little shopping sprees?"

"Well, Paul," Mrs. Granger said icily, "Maybe if my husband hadn't been going into a hissy fit every time I said something or did something wrong, I wouldn't go on my little 'shopping sprees' as you call them."

"This is outrageous!" Hermione had now walked cautiously towards the door. "Look at this, you spent more on a blouse from Georgia's Department Store than I do on my whole wardrobe!"

"It's not my fault that you're cheap!"

"I'm not cheap, you're expensive!" Mr. Granger was shouting now. "You've got to stop spending all this money, you're robbing us blind…"

"Robbing us blind? I earned that money, every penny of it! I work my ass off at the supermarket every day to pay for this stuff! It's not your money, not everything's yours, Paul!"

"Well, obviously not everything's mine, you bought out most of the world's goods! And do you work your ass off to spend this much at Lila's Beauty Salon? I don't think so!"

Hermione backed away from the door, frightened. She had never heard her parents yell at each other before. As far as she knew, they were still very much in love. She ran up to her room, but the voices still floated up to meet her ears.

~*~PRESENT DAY~*~

"So that's where it all began," said Hermione, a tear running down her cheek. "That's when they started fighting really ugly fights. Then, today, just about a half hour ago, they sent me this." She handed the piece of parchment from her mother to Malfoy. He read it with interest, then handed it back to her, his face full of concern. "And I can't talk about this with Harry, he's got no parents, and I can't talk about it with Ron, because he'll probably just say, 'Well, at least you've still got money.' And then he'll just go on and on about how much it stinks being poor and all." She paused. "Why am I telling you this, anyway? I mean, you've got parents who love you and each other."

Malfoy snorted. "Yeah, right. You think they love me? That's where you're wrong." Hermione looked up at him, questioningly. "Tell me, what kind of father hits his son? Not one that loves his son, that's for sure."

Hermione gasped. "Your father…hits you?"

"Yeah," said Malfoy, suddenly saddened. "He does it whenever I do something that's not 100% up to his expectations."

"But…but, that's terrible!"

"Tell me about it."

Hermione sighed. "Why am I saying this to you, anyway?" she said suddenly. "I mean, if I can't tell Harry or Ron, then why should I tell you? It's not as if you care or anything…"

"I do care," he said, cutting her off. She looked at him. He had an expression on his face that was unrecognizable. He started to move his face closer to hers.

"Draco?" Hermione whispered, calling him by his first name for the first time in over four years. "What are you doing?"

In response, he leaned over and kissed her on the lips. Hermione's mind spun with a thousand thoughts and emotions, all spinning out of control. After he pulled away, Hermione kept her eyes closed for a couple seconds, then opened them to see Draco with a dazed expression on his face. She finally fully registered what had just happened and widened her eyes. She did the only thing she could think of doing right then.

"Bye!" she squeaked, and quickly ran away from him. She heard a faint shout of, "Hermione, wait!" and footsteps following her. She made it all the way to the Entrance Hall before his long legs caught up with her.

"Hermione!" he said, grabbing her arm and forcing her to stop. "Hermione, what the hell was that all about? Usually after a guy kisses you, you don't run away from him."

"I don't know!" Hermione said. "I don't know…I just…what are people going to think?"

"Who cares what they think?" Draco said, letting go of his grasp on her arm. "Who cares what they think, just as long as we're together…" He started to stroke her cheek. She touched his hand. "I just want to be with you, that's all." He cupped his hand under her chin and forced her to look up at him. He brought her face closer and closer to his, and they kissed again, this time with a passion neither of them had ever experienced. They finally broke away and stared at each other.

"Um…" said Hermione, at a loss for words. "Um…It's getting pretty late, we should be going up to our common rooms, don't you think?"

"Yeah, yeah, we should," Draco said, looking away. "But I'll see you tomorrow?" he said, looking at her with a shy smile.

Hermione grinned. "Same time, same place?"

"You're on," he said, smiling at her.

As Hermione flopped down on her bed, the sadness that had overtaken her about her parents divorce took over her again. But, hey, she thought. I can always look forward to tomorrow.

FIN

Go Home
Go To Fanfiction
Go To Harry Potter