The Last Dance
By: Iris Ixchel
Summary: "How do you tell someone goodbye?...and not want to call them back when they walk away? Or more importantly, why does it have to be so hard?" Hermione and Draco share a stolen last dance, because tomorrow they will never be anything more.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the Harry Potter brand.
How do you tell someone goodbye? How do you say the words 'goodbye' to someone who was so influential in how you are the person today, and not want to call them back when they walk away? Or more importantly, why does it have to be so hard? Here I am in the most beautiful dress I could ever imagine next to my wedding dress, and I'm scared to go out the door. I'll see Ron, the person who I am going with, the person who everyone expects me to go to this Seventh Year final dance with. He's in love with me, he has been since at least third year, anyone can tell that. He's so perfect for me. Sweet, kind, and would do anything to make me happy...
But he's not the one I want.
The one I want was the one person I hated up until this year. The one person who I was convinced hated me with all his being, but was harboring feelings for me that I never could've guessed. He's the enemy of Harry and Ron and he's the one person who I was not suppose to fall in love with. Yet I had to break a rule once, just once. I am a curious person by nature, I have to have an explanation for everything. The feeling of his eyes burning into my back and the masked concern I could see in his eyes when I frowned in sadness, I had to know whether I was going mad or if possibly he felt something for me. I confronted him in the library one winter day, and he scoffed off my question. Telling me I was the one who was feeling things for him and my mind was so far gone that it was making up whatever I was apparently seeing. I shrugged it off, that is until I was going to go out on a date with a boy from Ravenclaw named Jake. Jake and I were suppose to go out by the lake, nothing big. Yet I turn around and there he is, out of nowhere almost, asking me where I was going. I in turn, asked him if he was jealous. I saw his eyes betray his voice for sure this time. He looked away, ashamed that he had let his guard down even for a moment and I kissed him on the cheek.
I ended up not showing up for that date.
Instead I made a choice, a choice to go against all I was told and give a chance to something I wasn't entirely sure of. For once, I didn't think about tomorrow or what people would think, I just knew for whatever reason, this felt right. He had fallen for me and I was fascinated by who he was. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, that I might actually have a chance to get an answer to. And it started from that night on.
We caught secret glances, lying to our friends so we could steal moments together. We did the whole undercover act, we acted like we hated each other in public, we were the perfect actors. But all that fell away the moment I was in his arms. We talked for hours about anything, anything at all and it never got boring. I thought I had found the one person who could match my intelligence, which unlike other girls in my year was what I looked for first in a boy. He kept me on my toes and I found myself falling deeper than I ever thought possible in love.
Now here we were, months later. The day I was dreading the most. Tomorrow everyone would go home and being seventh years, we wouldn't be coming back next year. It was a likely possibility we would never see some of our classmates ever again. There were threats of the final battle coming almost daily and he and I both knew that we had to go our separate ways. I to the light side and he to Voldemort. If we stayed together, we would most likely be killed. I was terrified of saying goodbye and even more so of whether I would ever see him again.
As I walked down the steps with Ron on my arm, I felt like everyone was watching us. Some nodded in approval, as if to congratulate us on finally getting together. I felt my stomach drop, if only they knew the real truth. I made it through a good portion of the dance without catching his eye, which helped with my emotional state. That was until I couldn't take being in the same room with him, so close, and not being able to talk to him. So I told Harry and Ron I would be back soon and quickly made my way out of the Great Hall and made my way to an alcove. I couldn't do this...I couldn't let something that felt so real go...
"Hey." he said softly to me. I snapped back to my senses with a little jump and turned to face him.
"Hello." I said just as softly with a small sad smile.
"What are you doing out here? It's freezing." he asked, taking off his suit jacket and putting it around my shoulder.
"Thanks." I replied. "Thinking actually."
"What about?" he asked, but we both knew the answer.
"I can't say goodbye Draco, I know that it's best for us to part ways after this, but I can't." I confessed, tears threatening to fall. "I can't let you go, I don't want Ron or Harry, I want you. Forever." Draco pulled me against his chest and stroked my hair.
"I don't want this either, but you and I both know that us being together could end up killing us." he explained gently and I couldn't form words, so I only nodded.
"Why can't you just join the light side? I mean I can deal with Harry and Ron, and you'd be alive and safe. Dumbledore can protect you, I'll protect you." I pleaded in vain.
"It's been planned out for me since I was born for me to become a Death Eater. I can't back out, I can't run away. They would find me before I could get to any safe house." I wondered why the world was shaking and who was sobbing when I realized that I had sunk to the floor, crying. Me, the self proclaimed tough girl who would never make a boy effect her too much, was in pieces because of a Malfoy. He dropped to my level and took my hands.
"Hermione look at me." I shook my head in refusal. "Hermione." he said more demanding this time but still soft. I hiccupped, and took a deep breath then I looked up into his perfect stormy eyes. I could see he was wrestling with emotions he probably understand as well, he wanted to cry but he wouldn't because he was a Malfoy. He told me many times Malfoys don't cry and I waited for him to speak. "You have to be strong. Be strong for me."
"I will." I found myself saying. "I love you."
"I love you too." he answered me, "I will always love you, don't you ever doubt that."
"Tell me you'll wait for me, that after all this is said and done if we're both alive-"
"When we're alive, Hermione." he corrected me.
"You'll wait for me."
"I swear." he promised me, I reached out and threw my arms around him. He moved until we were both standing and he put his arms around my waist. With the faint strings of the last song of the dance playing, we slow danced. We didn't saw a word, we just held each other as close as we could, knowing it would be a long time before we would be like this again. Periodically we would just look in each other eyes, wondering how we got to this point, how we fell so deep into this. I don't know how long we were in each others arms but we eventually stopped hearing music and he twirled me around, just like he did right before he first kissed me those months ago. He didn't disappoint as he leaned and kissed me and I kissed him back with everything I had, not holding back. We seemed addicted to each other as we seemed unable to break our connection, but we could hear the other students filter out. We sighed as we rested our foreheads against each other.
"Is this goodbye?" I asked.
"No, we're not saying goodbye. We'll simply be seeing each other soon." he said with a resolve, I had no choice but to believe him and with that he kissed my forehead and then bent down to kiss my lips once more.
He had held my hand.
He had told me I was beautiful.
He had kissed my forehead.
He had given me a rose every Friday.
He was the only boy I had ever loved
And he had loved me in return.
And now I was going to watch him walk away, possibly for forever.
I felt my vocal chords strangling for me to call him back. To scream at him, to do something, anything...
"Hermione!" I heard Harry shouting, and then I heard "It's okay Ron I found her!" I quickly wiped my face of my fallen tears. Trying to put on a bright smile, I turned to face him.
"Hey Harry." Ron quickly made his way over to us and asked,
"Where did you go? You were gone for ages." I shrugged.
"I needed some air out here, that's all. I must've lost track of time." I lied easily, I always seemed to when it came to him. Ron believed my word without question but Harry gave me a questioning look. I tried to ignore it as I linked arms with the two of them and we began to make our way back to Gryffindor Tower. As we stood in front of the portrait, waiting for it to swing open, I felt a pair of eyes on me. As Harry and Ron made their way inside, I quickly looked but I knew who it was. We held each other's eyes for a precious second, a second where all of our emotions were expressed without any words. Everything had finally been said. I kissed my hand and then turned it toward him and he did the same back to me. I nodded at him at then I made my way inside the Common Room.
"What are you looking at?" Ron asked me, and I realized I was looking at the now closed off entrance to the Common Room. I shook my head, hoping to clear my head.
"Nothing." I whispered. "Absolutely nothing at all."