Harry and Hermione were mid way on their path to the Gryffindor tower when a trio of boys coming in their direction caught Harry's eye.
Draco Malfoy surrounded by two of his lackeys, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
Draco Malfoy after running away before the battle of Hogwarts lead an isolated life for some time. During his isolation, he married Astoria Greengrass either out of lust or for political benefits.
But it was all just a smoke screen. He had never changed and neither felt any remorse. He continued and tried to propagate the same propaganda of blood purity and hatred towards muggle born.
Unfortunately, his brain was small and even smaller was his magical power.
The only influence he had was his wealth, and it was not enough. He was not very successful in 'initiatives' he took.
As was Draco Malfoy's usual habit, he swaggered to arrive in front of Harry and Hermione, "Oh! Potter, I heard you were almost killed by Sirius Black and then by the dementors."
He gave a disgusting grin towards Hermione, "Did this mudblood girlfriend of yours saved your life?"
Harry had no such memory of encountering Malfoy on the last day of third year during his previous life. Maybe his act of leaving Ron alone and coming out early from Hospital has started to alter the timeline.
But he did not give a damm about the timeline. He was here to change things.
Harry of his previous life would have either got extremely irritated or would have gotten angry on Malfoy's words. But now he only felt amused. This idiot was not even in Harry's considerations of changing things.
"Draco Malfoy," beamed Harry to the utter confusion of the idiotic trio. "It seems you have forgotten the punch you have received not long ago from Hermione."
"Here let me help you remind it," said Harry; amusement still flickering in his eyes.
Before Draco could understand what Harry meant, Harry with the same amusing expression raised his right hand and punched Draco squarely on his nose.
Draco's nose let out a shattering sound on the impact with blood flowing from his broken nose. He let out a painful scream and stammered back few steps knocking Crabbe and Goyle to the ground along with himself.
This commotion attracted quite an attention from other students but Harry paid no heed. He held Hermione's hand and walked away.
At the very last moment, he heard Draco's scream, "I will see you for this. When my father hears of this..."
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"Harry, what was that," questioned Hermione after they had gotten some distance away.
"What was what?" Asked Harry in return.
Before Hermione could speak further, Harry placed his hands on her waist and pulled her into a side by embrace and continued walking.
"You worry too much, Hermione," muttered Harry slowly close to her ears. "I am here. Do not worry."
Hermione shivered her face turning red, "Harry... what are doing?"
Harry let out a surprised grunt, "Huh?"
"You don't like it?" He exclaimed in surprise.
Hermione stammered and quickly denied, "No... this is not what I meant."
Harry cut her across, "It means you like it."
With this Harry pulled her closer and his hand which was holding her waist had now moved upwards on to her stomach very close to her boobs.
Hermione did not object this time and continued walking in silence. She was blushing very hard and her breathing was out of control. Her emotions were in total mess and how badly she wanted to turn around and wrap Harry all around him.
Harry also did not do anything further and he found himself lost in thoughts about Hermione and what happened to her in the previous life.
In his previous life, what an idiot he had been?
After the battle of Hogwarts, Hermione had married Ron. And even a fool could have told that in no circumstances was this a good match.
Hermione was the epitome of intelligence and hard work while Ron was the epitome of foolishness and idiocy.
Hermione's marriage with Ron had been an utter failure.
While all the other Weasley brothers had their shortcomings, they had been able to build an independent life away from their imposing parents but Ron was a complete failure.
In Harry's name and the glory of fighting against Voldemort, Ron was able to work for some time as an auror. But his habits became intolerable.
He failed his responsibilities, never bothered to be time and was many a times drunk on duty. The DMLE tolerated him for a long time until a certain incident blew up and he was removed from his position as an auror.
The Weasley had again wanted to push Harry in helping him to get a job at ministry. But Harry understood the difficulties in managing Ron and did not want to place a burden on the ministry. He simply asked Ron to correct his habits.
This caused the Weasley to severe relationship with Harry and its implication too caused Harry's distance with Hermione.
Harry also busy in unravelling mysteries of his life did not pay attention to his friend and the distance grew very wide.
Hermione on the other hand was an extremely capable person. She as worker in the general administration of ministry worked wonders and quickly rose up in the ranks.
She might have been one of those muggle born who had forced the pure blood to respect her to a certain extent by her sheer talent.
She could have easily supported an independent life for herself and Ron but the idiot was too prideful to take that.
Jealousy was something engraved in Ron to his core. And he was jealous... jealous of his own wife.
Their relationship started to get fractured and soon turned abusive for Hermione. Molly Weasley wanted to turn Hermione into a proper housewife and she was the who fuelled Ron's jealousy. With the inferiority complex and ego, the size of a planet it was not a difficult task.
That fat woman wanted Hermione to produce babies like she had done. And with Ron being her only son staying in her house, she forced all her whims on Hermione.
Hermione one day died of unknown reasons and Harry, sadly remained unaware of all this happening to his friend.
By the time he learned all this, it was too late. Years later, he had found himself in a possession of a diary, Hermione's diary.
It contained all her feelings and all her secrets. Everything she had been through at the Burrow to every abuse she had faced.
Harry had utterly failed to bring justice to her deceased friend.
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