I Love You

One-Shot

His love for her had grown so strongly over the past four years of their unspoken friendship – he need now only tell her. No one knew of the two's secret friendship, on either side. They knew that if anyone knew besides themselves: Hermione's friends would force her to stay away from him: and if Draco's friends knew, they would probably hex her to the point of death, to keep Draco from fraternizing with anyone without magical blood.

They had started off hating each other, as so easily done once you got to know Draco, or Hermione, for that matter. With her insistent need for knowledge and bone-deep need to always be right and become instantly offended if someone knew something she did not. Draco was simply a difficult personality to mix well with, Hermione, simply annoying.

The two had been assigned a project together for their Potions class, in their Third Year: study, research, and create the perfect healing serum. Each Gryffindor was assigned a Slytherin, and vise-versa. The two had began with absolute silence, and few glances. But, no assignment can be met with any accuracy or greatness without conversation, so they soon realized their vow of silence against each other must stop. From there, arguing. Arguing, arguing, disagreeing, and even a few slaps from Hermione to Draco's pale face. "I hate you's" were shared, "You're pathetic's" were announced, and, "I can't believe they would put me with you!" were spoken simultaneously, more than once.

Though quick hate was obvious to the two, it didn't take long for the two to discover quite a few shared interests and hobbies, outside – and inside - school, and sooner than either of them thought, and more unexpected than either of them could have ever imagined, they became friends.

Third Year passed by with a mutual acquaintance agreement. Nodding towards each other in the halls, passing softly spoken words when no one else was around.

Fourth Year became more friendly, smiling whenever their eyes would meet, purposeful shoulder bumping in the halls just to be able to touch each other – and say the few words of, "Sorry" and "Didn't see you there", or the more rare, but more publicly expected and excepted, "Watch it!" Draco had completely disregarded the term "Mudblood" when it came to Hermione, and silently, she thanked him, and was indeed quite grateful.

Fifth Year became all the more friendly yet, meeting secretly in the Library just to talk, share what books they had read or discovered over the summer – read to each other short little stories they had imagined and written down over the Summer Holiday. Smiling more and more with each passing.

Sixth Year they had become closer than ever, hugging for the first time when they spotted each other at the train station when school started back up at the end of Summer (when no one was around, of course). It had been a struggle, though an unspoken one, for both of them to force apart. They laughed more when they snuck off to the Library in the late nights, and even ended up late for class on more than a few occasions for having such a good time in the Library, and falling asleep, falling onto each other, and waking up in a tangle; arms wrapped around one another, and both blushing as they dashed off to their respective classes.

And then there was Seventh Year: their last and final year, and they had yet to see each other at all. The train was still chugging its way towards the school, the tops of its towers just becoming visible through the thick clouds of mist that hid it in patches.

Hermione was just coming out of the girls' bathroom, her head craned downwards as she closed the last button on her grey Hogwarts sweater. She ran her hands over her skirt, making sure there were no folds or wrinkles where there oughtn't be, then back up again to make sure her sweater was smooth. As she lifted her head and pulled closed the girls' bathroom, she bumped right into him with her right side, ricocheting off of him and onto the wall of the train. Before even really seeing who it was, she began apologizing. When she looked up, he was smiling down at her, and reaching his hand out to fix a bit of hair that had gone astray, behind her ear.

"Oh, my," she sighed, smiling and speaking softly. "Haven't you gotten tall?"

Without responding, he placed his right index finger over his lips, then pointed to his ear. She nodded her understanding, pulling at her sweater, suddenly feeling self-conscious – and shouldn't she have? With the way he was looking at her?

He lifted his right hand, beckoning her towards him as be back towards an empty broom closet. He gently guided her by her elbow, and she willingly followed as he led her inside. Once she was safely inside a good amount, he pulled the door closed behind them, and spelled it locked. He raised his wand, muttered the simple incantation to illuminate the tip to lighten up the dark room, and set it atop a dusty pile of wooden boxes.

"What are you doing down in Gryffindor car?" She asked him, still keeping her voice cautious.

"What?" he asked and raised his hand, running the back of it down the length of the side of her face. "I can't come greet my best friend?" With his other hand he laced his fingers with hers.

At the touch she felt her heart skip a beat, and closed her fingers around his. "No," she said, her eyes barley open. "Yes," she quickly corrected, opening her eyes. "Yes, of course you can."

"While I've merely grown in height," he sighed, stepping closer towards her. "You've had all the luck in becoming a superior beauty.

"All these years," he ran his hand over her cheek once more. "I've wanted to tell you," he slicked his tongue across his lips. "Now that I am looking at you again, I just can't seem to find…"

"Yes?" her question was barley a whisper; her heartbeat thundering a mile a minute. He stepped closer towards her still, gently sliding his fingers from hers, and placing his hands upon her hips.

"I just… wanted to…" his voice was so quiet, she could barley hear it, yet it was all she could hear. "Hermione," he whispered, only slightly quieter than his pervious words. He leaned in towards her, bending down to come closer to her own height. She looked up at him as his eyes played between her lips and eyes, and slowly, steadily, he leaned his lips towards hers, and kissed her, closing the distance between them.

Hermione leaned into him, running her hands up his back and into the base of his hair, tugging on it gently.

As they parted, they clasped each others hands between them as a single unit, smiling.

"Oh," Draco announced quietly, looking away from her and behind her, out the singular little square window, "we're nearly there. I can see the castle now, only a few minutes away."

"Is it?" Hermione asked, scared the magic was gone. He nodded, pointing out the small window. Feeling her hopes fall, she turned around slowly, to look.

A breath left her lungs as he stepped up to her, wrapping her up in his arms from behind. "Yes," he whispered, taking a hand and pulling her hair to the side so he could bend down and place tender kisses along her neck.

"So beautiful at night," she breathed, tilting her head to welcome more of his kisses.

"Quite," he agreed, lacing his fingers through all of hers, hugging her protectively against him.

"Draco?" she asked him. "Before you… You said there was something you wanted…?"

He smiled through his lips, kissing her neck one last time. "Yes," he said, squeezing her gently. "I wanted to tell you… That I love you."

She twisted her neck to look up at him, and smiled lovingly. Slowly taking one of her hands from his, she slid it over his shoulder, and placed it on the back of his head. She reached up to her tip toes as he bent his head down, and their lips met once more. "I love you," she told him, both of their eyes closed, and they kissed again.

And the magic she so feared was gone, never left.

It stayed with them for the rest of their lives.

THE END