Question of Forever

Disclaimer: Not mine

"I've been waiting for you, Hermione. Where were you?"

"I'm sorry, I got a little caught up. Everything's okay now, though."

Draco looked at her and decided to accept her reason without question. He was just grateful she was there. It seemed that the moments they had together became fewer and farther between as this war came closer. She was busy planning and meeting with the warriors; organizing, educating, helping Potter with the training. He was busy trying to figure out the best way to play this game to achieve his ends; keep Hermione safe and him alive. In all this nightmare, people preparing themselves to fight and die for ideals and good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, and whatever else ; he was simple, he didn't care what happened to the world, he only cared about her and himself. That was all that mattered. Until last year, Draco had only cared about himself, and he was still adapting to the idea of having someone else factor into his plans. He reached out and laid a hand on Hermione's shoulder to draw her closer, but released her when he felt her tense under his touch.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Just a little sore." She moved her shoulder slowly and winced. "I was helping teach an impromptu healing lesson, and it's a bit tricky and very rarely gotten right on the first try."

"Healing?" he asked. "I thought the plan for today was the defensive magic, followed by some combative transfiguration?"

"Well, funny thing about healing is you can never really predict when an opportunity for hands-on learning will occur. I had been planning on asking for volunteers to be jinxed and hexed tomorrow for practice, but Harry was teaching some new defensive spells…and, well, there were some unexpected injuries."

"Injuries to the casters or the targets?" Draco asked sardonically.

She grinned up at him. "A little bit of both, actually. It's quite the powerful spell."

"You couldn't possibly let me know just what spell it was?" he asked, his voice teasing with a hint of wheedling.

"Now, Draco, you know what they say about fraternizing with the enemy: the passing of information is a strict no-no," she teased, grabbing his hand playfully.

"The enemy?" he asked her, his tone turning serious as he dropped her hand and stared into her eyes. "Is that all I am to you?"

"No, love, that is one of many things that you are to me. You've said it yourself; you don't know what part you're going to play in all this. So, until I can be sure, I need to act as though you will be fighting against us when this all starts."

He pulled away from her entirely and strode across the room, stopping at the window and keeping his back to her.

"I thought you knew," he said quietly. "I was so sure that you knew, and that's why you haven't given up on me."

"Thought I knew what?" she asked, puzzled.

"I thought you knew how this would play out, I thought, maybe…never mind."

Hermione crossed to him and laid a hand on his back, keeping her distance, but maintaining the contact even as he shifted to throw her off.

"No, Draco, don't do that, don't shut me out. I thought we were passed this. Talk to me."

"I…" he stopped and sighed, then steeled himself and continued. "I thought you knew what I didn't. I thought you knew what would happen in the end, which side I would fight on. I thought you knew, or you saw, or you sensed something that I didn't. Otherwise, how could you stay with me? How could you trust me, if you knew there was a chance that I could one day fight against you?"

His back shuddered as he drew a deep breath and turned to her.

"How?" he asked with a broken voice. She slowly raised a hand and laid it against his cheek, he smiled slightly and closed his eyes.

"Because I know you and I love you. No, I don't know what you're going to do, I don't know who you're going to become. It's about choices, Draco, that's all there is. Right now, you're in the middle, not on either side, not really, and you could go either way here. You could fight with us or against us, it's a choice you will eventually have to make. I can't make it for you, and even I don't know what choice you're going to make."

Draco kissed her softly and pulled her into him, wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, laying his cheek against her hair.

"I wish I knew what was going to happen, Hermione, I wish I could make promises, but I can't."

"I'm not asking you to, Draco, you know that."

"Why not?" he asked suddenly. "I thought that's all girls wanted: promises of always and forever, rainbows and whatever else."

"Not me," she said smiling. "I just want you. I don't know that I have any forever, let alone the need for promises. The closer this War gets, the more uncertain my future is. The only thing I can be sure about is right now, this moment. And in this moment, I know you love me, and that's enough."

"I still don't understand you, Hermione. I'm starting to think I never will."

"And that is precisely why you love me," she said contentedly.

"It is," he agreed. "Because you are a million different things and it would take me an entire lifetime to figure you out. And even if I had that, I think you would still be as much a mystery to me when I'm 99 as you are when I'm 17."

"That's because when you're 99 your mental capacity will be severely limited, and you'll have forgotten everything you ever learned about me, and every day you would be starting from the beginning."

"You know, that doesn't sound so bad," he told her.

"No, it doesn't."

He chuckled softly in her ear at some thought she was not privy to. She stepped back and looked at him questioningly. He shook his head and chuckled again.

"Well, if you're not going to tell me what's so funny, I may just have to head back to Gryffindor Tower, I do have ever so much homework to do," she said as she started to pull away.

Torn between wanting to call her bluff, and fear that she wasn't bluffing at all, he reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back into his embrace.

"That's better," she said smugly, waiting.

"I never said I was going to tell you anything," he replied with a grin.

"Oh, Draco Malfoy, you are the most irritating person," she said, her tone colored by frustration and affection rather than malice.

Draco leant down and kissed her gently.

"What I was thinking," he said, as he pulled away. "Was that talking about being 99 together, sounds an awful lot like those promises of forever you say that you don't want."

Hermione thought about that for a moment, and then she had to laugh.

"All right," she admitted, smiling. "Maybe I do want forever."

AN: So, I'm thinking of trying a psychological experiement here. Does the author asking for reviews correlate with the amount of reviews received? So, this is sample "A", wherein I ask for your thought, opinions, comments, ideas about the story you have just read. Please and thank you.