(A/N) OMGOSH. 20 chapters! With 2.9k reads, and 200+ votes! I'm shook. Actually, at one time, I didn't like this story at all. I hit a writer's block, I had no idea where my story was going, and honestly, I was considering deleting it. I didn't, obviously, but I thought this story was a lost cause. But y'all gave me so fricking much encouragement and support, that I decided to push through anyway. And look where we are now! Wow. Just, wow. Thank you so much! My readers are my charger! (nono, don't interpret that the wrong way, plz) Don't be a ghost reader, let me know what you're thinking! I appreciate you all so much, words cannot describe how I feel. <3 Okay, enough with this sappy shit, let's get on with the story! (also, I found out a way to fix the enter problem. Shift+Enter makes it go one line down, but just Enter makes it double-lined.
yee~)
Loves,
~ Iresine

Hermione (because it would be weird in Draco's POV)

     "M-Malfoy?" I sputtered. "What in the world are you doing in here?"

     The said person slowly got out from under the seat. "Shh! If they find me, I'll owe them ten galleons!" he whisper-shouted.

     "Wha-"

     He put a hand over my mouth, glaring. All my words died on my lips. His eyes, they were they were so pretty, like the delicate silver string on a necklace, grey like the sky in the morning, grey like the...

     Merlin, no! Am I siriusly thinking about his eyes? Malfoy's eyes, specifically? Ugh. Ew, grey, what a boring colour. Why can't they be more, ya know, exciting? Like, purple, or something.

     Then Malfoy removed his hand from my mouth, and I felt the weirdest sensation ever. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before. It... I felt an urge to press his hand against my lips again, or, better his li-

     "Frick you Granger, you almost got me caught." Malfoy hissed.

     "We-I-Eyes-sbphk-" I momentarily lost the ability to form intelligible words, but swallowed and recovered. "Well, for your information, I don't even know why you want me to stay silent, so why am I supposed to just blindly follow your directions if I don't even know what it's for?!" I couldn't help it, but my voice had risen from a low tone to an almost yell. Then, I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye and whipped my head around to see, what was his name, staring through the glass with a knowing look in his eye. He smirked, then walked off.

     "Thank Merlin it was only Blaise. If he values his life, he better distract them from coming over here..." Malfoy said under his breath. Or I think he said that. It could have been, "That merman is an oyster with livers, and she doesn't have ears," or something along the lines of that.

     "What?" I asked, just to clarify, but I made sure my voice was low this time.

     "Let's just say it's... it's a very expensive game of hide-and-seek."

     "Ah. But why did you choose? To hide here, I mean?" I knew it sounded stupid as soon as it came out of my mouth, but I couldn't resist asking. Why has Malfoy been paying so much attention to me these days? Like in the bookshop in Diagon Alley...

     "I dunno. It was the closest one." He turned away quickly, looking out the window, so I couldn't see his face. I opened my mouth to say something, but he suddenly turned around, and I could tell from the expression on his face that talking would not be a very wise thing to do. So I kept my mouth shut, but my ears were wide open. Footsteps. And voices. Coming closer.

     "Are you sure we should look over here? I already checked." Zabini! Blaise Zabini. I finally remembered. It was that guy who was looking at us earlier. His voice was loud, almost like he was warning somebody. And then I realised. He was warning us.

     "Quick! Get under!" I hissed to Malfoy. He quickly dropped to the floor without a word and squeezed into the little space under the seat but over the floor, crouching with his knees to his chin. I turned to my bag and pulled out a spare robe so fast that a few books tumbled to the ground. I then threw the robe over the seat, with half of it dangling down like a curtain to hide the person beneath from view. Finally, I proceeded to take a few deep breaths to calm my breathing and started picking the books up from the floor. Just in time. The door of the train slid open.

     It was one of the nicer Slytherins, Theodore Nott. "Hi, have you seen Draco anywhere? Draco Malfoy?" Theodore asked, his eyes probing the room.

     "No, why?" I tried to keep my voice even and uninterested, and kept my face neutral. He squinted and looked at me, trying to tell if I was lying or not. I looked right back at him, but it was uncomfortable as heck. Was I blinking too much? Maybe. Now I'm blinking too little! Is that suspicious? Does he think I'm staring at him awkwardly? Can he tell what I'm thinking?? I couldn't take it anymore. But just as I was about to open my mouth, he shrugged.

     "Oh, just wondering." He mumbled, then, with a last look around the room, closed the door and went out. I waited until his footsteps faded into the distance, and a little longer after that, then took a deep breath to calm myself and pulled up the cloak curtain that was hiding Malfoy. "All clear."

     He blinked and squeezed his eyes shut a few times, then got out and stretched, running his hand through his messed up hair, which messed it up even more. Damn, he got tall. I found myself staring. He caught my eye, and we both turned away quickly. Why am I so obsessed? I jumped when he suddenly started talking.

     "Uh, thanks for covering for me." I never really noticed how deep his voice had gotten, wow. Guess I was too busy hating on his dad. Wait, was I supposed to answer him?

     "Thanks." That didn't make any sense. "I mean, you're welcome, I guess."

     "Do you.. want me to go now?" he asked, his hand moving upwards to the door handle.

     "I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to." I replied. Because who could really say, "Yes, I want you to leave." or, "No, stay here senpai." None of those are appropriate for this situation. He just shrugged in response.

     I sat down on the seat, and he did the same. I made sure to not touch him though, never removing my eyes from the scenery outside. I usually liked the quiet, but there was something with Malfoy that made it awkward. But I didn't want to talk first. But, from the looks of it, he didn't want to either. Finally, he broke the silence, thank Merlin.

     "So, why isn't Potter and the Weasel with you today?" he asked. Okay, the small talk got big fast. I looked at him, but his eyes were glued to the window. I was so not answering this. So, I just kept quiet. But it got even more awkward than it was before, (ughh,) now that there was a question hanging in the air. I couldn't take it.

     "Because they're not." I blurted out suddenly as a pretty meadow gave way to a line of trees outside, so the window was a blur of green and brown, with occasional hints of blue sky whizzing by.

     Malfoy looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "I thought the brightest witch of her age could do better than that." he smirked.

     I rolled my eyes. Okay, I could just tell him a little bit. No deep details though. Nothing too sappy or personal, either. Just to keep the conversation going.

     "Well," I began slowly, "I'm not sure they're on this train at all."

     "Care to explain?"

     "My guess is that they got trampled by a river of people while trying to head to the train. Or elephants. It doesn't really make a difference."

     "Really."

     "Mhm."

     "I'm having a hard time believing that. It sounds like they just abandoned you."

     Sigh. This is exactly the direction that I did NOT want this conversation to go in.

     "No, they didn't." I said curtly, looking back at the window.

     "It sure sounds like they did," Malfoy said.

     "Well, even if they did, you wouldn't care anyway," I muttered, staring at the green and brown (and occasionally blue) blur outside.

     "Okay, I may be... rude, sometimes," he said, with a hint of sheepishness in his voice. Wait, is this an apology? "and I'm sorry about that." Oh. Em. Merlin, IT IS. I turned to stare at him.

     "Did you just... apologise?" I couldn't hide the incredulousness in my voice, although it probably sounded sarcastic and made me look rude. But this was new. "I- I- woah." 

     He rolled his eyes. "Let me continue. But I'm not heartless, alright?"

     I continued to stare at him. His words didn't really register in my brain. After a while, I finally found my voice. "Who are you, and what have you done with Draco Malfoy?"

     Draco chuckled. "It's me, Droca Malfoy, his secret twin brother."

     We both shared a little laugh. Man, was it good to laugh after being in such a deep funk. A funk caused by...

     "You might be right though." I said softly, but it was so soft it could barely be classified as 'said,' more like 'whispered.'

     "Right about what?" his voice dropped all signs of amusement. I was actually impressed he could hear me that time.

     "About... them... abandoning me." My voice was even softer this time, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if bats started going crazy, but somehow, he heard it.

     "Hey, I take it back. They were really good friends with you last year, why wouldn't they be this year? I mean, people don't really change." he said, looking at his feet. But was that jealousy in his voice that I heard, or was it something else?

     "No, no. I mean, I guess so, but they've obviously changed this year. People sometimes do change." I said, swallowing a lump in my throat. No, I was NOT going to cry. Not right now. Gosh, eyes, why is your timing so inconvenient? 

     I took a deep breath. "But I'll find new friends, it'll be okay." But no matter how many breathing exercises I did, my voice still cracked on "new friends," and my eyes filled with a fresh batch of tears. I swiped them away with my palm.

     Then, I felt something on my shoulder. I blinked, then looked at Draco. It was his hand that was on my shoulder, although it was a bit stiff, like he wasn't used to comforting people. 

     Hold on. Was he... comforting me? Dam. This boy was full of surprises.

     Okay, I know, I know, I said no sappy or personal stuff, or even details, but I ended up telling him everything. I get it, hypocrite me, okay, but everything I had bottled up inside just burst out, like I was a bottle of carbonated secrets and someone just gave me a shake. Harry and Ron, my great-grandma that I was really close to just passed away, the dentistry isn't doing so great right now, everything. Even my insecurities that my own parents didn't even know, like my hair and my front teeth, and how I used to be bullied at muggle school about it. It all just came tumbling out of me, uncontrollable and wild. Once I started, I couldn't stop, until all my secrets emptied out of me and I was left with tears streaming down my face and nothing to hide. Draco even gave me a kerchief, which I gladly used. I tried giving it back to him, but he wouldn't accept the snotty, wet ball of silver cloth. Understandable. At last...

     "...and, that's it." I sniffed. Wow, that was satisfying, getting it all out of your system. Draco was actually a pretty good listener. Or at least he made the right faces and "mhm"s at the right places. The said Draco smiled sadly and removed his hand that hadn't left my shoulder the whole time.

     "Thanks for telling me your life story, Granger," he said, standing up.

     "Wait, where are you going?" I asked, starting to stand up. Hopefully, that didn't sound like I wanted him here, but it was nice to have some company. Besides, he knew all my secrets now, so who knows who he'd blab to? My excuses are totally reasonable.

     He put his hand on my shoulder (again) and pushed me back down gently. "Woah there Nelly, I'm just gonna go change. We're almost to Hogwarts. See you there."

     I almost said, "Can I come with you?" but caught myself in time. Merlin, that would've been so awkward. I kept my mouth shut and nodded instead. Draco opened the door, and shot a half-smile at me before closing the door and walking away, leaving me alone with my books and my thoughts. Why am I being like this? All awkward and flustery. Sigh. I'm probably just feeling clingy because of, you know. I'll find new friends though. It'll be okay. There are a lot of people to choose from.

     But I couldn't help but want to be friends with a certain blonde-haired, silver-eyed boy.



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I squeezed out 2130 words for y'all, but sorry it took so long. :)