Chapter 11: Hermione Granger

A few mornings later, a massive story broke in the Daily Prophet about the 8 year old boy genius investigator, Draco Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy was not a friend to Sirius Black at all, and he was not a fan of Black getting relieased from Azkaban either, but when he heard that that sleuth that was responsible for the odd turn of events was his own son, he urged the Daily Prophet to talk about it in a favorable light to Draco, because that was the most beneficial to his families reputation, which Lucius coveted above all else.

This was arguably the biggest news of the year, that an eight-year old boy cracked a case that the Minstry got wrong and proved his uncle's innocense. Draco had slept in a bit since his plans for the day was just to hang out with Hermione, though they were not meeting until ten, so by the time he awoke, the news had already broke and he happened to check his relationship tracker as he awoke.

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Astoria Greengrass - SOULMATE

Holly Potter - Love (53%)

Gabrielle Delacour - Love (13%)

Ginny Weasley - Close 92%)

Daphne Greengrass - Close (91%)

Luna Lovegood - Close (86%)

Hermione Granger - Close (70%)

Susan Bones - Friend (73%)

Hannah Abbot: - Friend (71%)

Fleur Delacour - Friend (28%)

Parvati Patil - Friend (23%)

Cho Chang - Neutral

Padma Patil - Neutral

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Draco was stunned by a few thigs. Firstly, he'd never met Hannah Abbot, Fleur Delacour, and Parvati Patil, and yet their opinion of him had gone into the friend level realm, but that was nothing compared to Gabrielle Delacour, who was in the love realm, and he hadn't met her either, and she was between 3 to 15 months younger then Astoria by his estimation.. This made him think of Ginny's crush on Harry in the books.

He guessed without asking anyone that the story about Peter Pettigrew broke and that he was just popular right now, and these feelings would diminish over time since he didn't know them personally, except maybe for Hannah Abbot. Draco recalled that she was a friend of Susan Bones, so they were likely to meet her soon through Susan, now that Susan was a half step into the group, but for now he got up and readiied himself to go meet Hermione.

Draco dressed nicely and picked up a book that he thought Hermione would like and put it into his inventory before heading out of his bedroom "Good morning, Dobby." Draco greeted the house elf that waited in the hall.

"Sir. Master Lucius wishes to see you in his study before you go visit your friends." Dobby explained to Draco.

Draco nodded "Thank you Dobby" Draco said before heading to his fathers study.

Lucius was trying to remain composed when he saw Dracp enter "Draco, tell me what happened? Why did you get involved in this?" he held up the Daily Prophet that had him on the cover.

Draco had multiple reasons, but decided to go with the ones his father would find easiest to accept. "Well, while I can manage the Blacks properties a bit, I can't really touch the money or assets, can I?" Draco pointed out to his father "Sure, if Uncle Sirius died in prison, and if I had more then one son, I could give one of them the Black family name and the assets I controlled would hypothetically be passed to him, but that doesn't help the family now. You've been turning my birthdays into performances because you are worried about our reputation. With this our reputation rises a lot, right?"

Lucius nodded "But that's not why you did it, am I right?"

"You are, father. At least, it's not the only reason" Draco admitted "Another reason I did it is because I found out that Peter Pettigrew was living in the same house as one of my friends, disguised as a rat. A mass murderer. I couldn't sit back and allow him to remain there. Also, even if you and mom don't like him, Sirius is still my uncle. He's blood. Peter Petigrew is not."

"Is that all?" Lucius asked.

Draco shook his head "I have a bunch of other reasons, but I'd rather keep the others to myself."

Lucius couldn't help but think his son was maturing a bit too fast. Weren't children supposed to have simple-minded reasons for everything that they did? He'd really thought this through and gave several reasons, plus he apparently had several more he didn't want to share "What are you doing today, Draco?"

"Well, rather then meeting up with all my friends, I'm going to go hang out with just one of them. She'll be pretty busy in the near future again so I wont get to see her as much as my other friends, so I arranged to spend a day just with her. Don't worry, we wont go out anywhere that the Daily Prophet will see us." he reassured his father.

Lucius nodded 'my son is a little genius' he thought. He used to think that a lot, but hadn't really seen Draco displaying it as much much lately prior to this situation, since he was always off playing with his friends, bot all of whom he could agree with, but after being grounded for a year, his son had stubbornly won the right to keep those friends.

"Thank you father." Draco said before leaving the study.

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Draco arrived at a rather nice two-story white home in a muggle neighborhood. While he had met Hermione's parents multiple times, this was his first time actually coming to their home.

Since he was in the muggle world for the day, Draco was secure in the fact that he'd not run into any media-types of the wizarding variety. He walked up to the door and knocked, and a short time later Mrs Granger answered the door "Good morrning Mrs. Granger. Is Hermione up yet?"

Mrs. Granger smiled at Draco as she saw how well dressed he was "Yes, but she's in the shower right now. Can I get you anything while you wait?"

"Sure, I wouldn't mind a little something to drink." Draco agreed "Thank you., Mrs. Granger."

"So polite." Hermione's mom chuckled and gestured to have him come in and he did so, then she directed him to a sofa in the study while she go him a glass of half-tea/half-lemonaide that ended up not tasting bad at all. Pretty good inn fact!

Draco had nearly finished the drink when Hermione entered the room wearing a simple red dress. "You look beautiful." Draco complimented Hermione.

"It's kind of you to lie." Hermione came and sat with him.

"If you are so bothered by your teeth, why not just fix them with magic?" Draco suggested to her "I personally think you look just fine as you are, but you should be more happy with yourself. If you feel they need to be changed, then lets change them."

Hermione covered her mouth and blushed a bit "You see through me that much? Then...are you not as dense as you let on sometimes?"

"What do you mean?" Draco asked with confusion.

Hermione sighed and put her hand on Draco's hand "What do you know about love, Draco?"

Draco realized the situation now. He thought she was trying to logic her way though the relationship amongst their group. Though he knew she truly cared about him, she was a muggle-born who was accustomed to the concept of monogamy.

"It's where I want to protect everyone that matters to me. You, Daphne, Astoria, Holly, Luna, Ginny, and maybe Susan. She seems alright so far, but I've only met her once, so I can't say for sure. I definitely want to protect and be there for the rest of you, though." Draco boldly declared and then hugged Hermione and kissed her cheek.

"Okay, why don't you have more guy friends?" Hermione asked him "I know about Theo, but what about others?"

"Well, Ginny's brothers and I get along fine." Draco pointed out "And as for the other guys I've met around my age, there is Blaise, Gregory and Vincent, who are all friends with Theo. It just so happens that after being alianated from my one original guy friend, and only having female friends left, that I keep meeting other girls through them. Its always more pleasant to be around girls, though, so I don't mind not having as many guy friends."

Hermione had a very thoughtful expression on her face, comsidering her words. It was true that Draco did hang out with the Weasley's for flying practice, though she still did not think he was as close to them as he was to the other girls in their group.

"In all seriousness, though, I do not believe love is something finite that can only be shared with one person. I believe if ones will is strong enough, and they are willing to put in a lot of effort, then they can love many people like I love all of you." Draco pulled the book he'd brought with him out of his library, and showed it to her.

After initially pondering Draco's philosophy for a few seconds, Hermione became distacted by the new book that was held out to her, Hermione accepted it and looked at the title "Metalsmithing the Goblin Way - Basic Edition" she was surprised as she read the tile "I thought that the goblins didn't share information like this."

"I have my ways, but it is a secret though." Draco chuckled and seemed amused, finding her reaction to the book adorable "I also have the intermediate, advanced and master editions, but you should read them in order, if you want to learn it."

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Hermione Granger's Closeness has risen by 30%

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Draco was expecting an increase from Hermione when he provided her with this book that he'd gotten from his system, but he was not expecting quite that much. Draco now decided to go through the books his system provided further and to see what he could find that might give him more big gains in regard to increasing her affection towards him "Hey Hermione?" Draco asked.

Hermione turned towards him "Yes Draco, what is it?" she asked

Draco gave her a peck on the lips with his own "I like you just how you are. You don't have to change a thing about yourself, including your teeth, unless it is something you feel you have to do for yourself. Don't worry about what others think."

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Hermione Granger's Love has risen by 1%

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Hermione looked a bit like a tomato, red from embarassment "You know, we are a bit too young for that, r-right?"

'Okay, I wont do it again if that's what you want. I just wanted you to kow you are perfect as you are." Draco reassured her.

"Th-thanks." Hermione told him while sill trying to compose herself.

Draco hadn't planned to kiss her like that, but really wanted that last 1% of growth, because according to the system, once one broke through to the next level it was harder to leave that bracket due to just time.

If he had left things as they were, then some or all of the thirty closeness that he received from her for sharing the book may have trickled away over time. Even if it was just 1% love, as long as he didn't due anything to deliberately piss her off, it shuldn't drop lower for no reason..

Draco hung out with Hermione the rest of the day, going through the book together with her, then he had to head back home, so he walked to the Greengrass families manor and used their floo network access to return to the Malfoy manor and had dinner with his parents before retiring to his room for the night and checkled his relationship tracker again.

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Astoria Greengrass - SOULMATE

Holly Potter - Love (53%)

Gabrielle Delacour - Love (13%)

Hermione Granger - Love (1%)

Ginny Weasley - Close 92%)

Daphne Greengrass - Close (91%)

Luna Lovegood - Close (86%)

Susan Bones - Friend (73%)

Hannah Abbot: - Friend (71%)

Fleur Delacour - Friend (28%)

Parvati Patil - Friend (23%)

Cho Chang - Neutral

Padma Patil - Neutral

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A grin came to his face as he had a devious idea. Just because he hadn't met the Delacour sisters did not mean that he couldn't contact them in a very flashy way.

Draco quickly wrote out two letters and then put the names Fleur Delacout on one and Gabrielle Delacour on the other "Olympia."

The pheonix soon emerged from the mark on Draco's hand and Draco smiled "Can you deliver these letters to Fleur Delacour and Gabrielle Delacour in France using your golden form?"

Olympia bobbed her head as her feathers started glowing and gradually changed color until they were golden, then she picked up the letters in her talon and took off, disappearing in a burst of light instead of flames.