So, this is a fic based off the amazing song "Sometime Around Midnight" by the Airborne Toxic Event. If you haven't heard it, check it out. This is a Draco/Hermione fic, so if you don't like them, don't read it. Simple as that. And yes, I do realize that they don't end up together. That's why they call it a fan fiction, so fans can write their own ideas of the story. [: kthnx bye.
So it starts sometime around midnight. He can't remember the last time he felt like this, it must have been five years or so. This pang in his stomach, the needing in his heart; only she could make him feel this way. He stood solemnly under the bar lights on the sidelines of the dance floor, forgetting about the ways he was supposed to be, his thoughts flying out the open doors along with the cheap music. He caught sight of her, unwillingly, dread flowing into his mind. The dull piano reminded Draco of her smile, the perfectly aligned white keys reminiscent of her teeth. But he thought she looked so beautiful tonight, the white dress she was wearing, he hadn't seen it in a while.
"Draco, it's simply wonderful," Hermione exclaimed, glancing in the three, long mirrors surrounding her. A smirk crossed his face, glad that he knew what she liked. Hermione spun around and quickly pecked him on his pale cheek, smoothing away invisible wrinkles on the untouched satin front of the dress.
"Happy birthday, love," Draco said suavely, placing his hands on her hips, wanting to touch the skin laying underneath the cool fabric. "So, for tonight, what does the birthday girl want to do?" He watched her closely as she wriggled out of his grasp and twirled around, her curly hair a step behind her. "Oh. Well, I already had plans with Ha-" she said nervously, getting cut off as Draco sighed. "Right. Harry and Ron. Got it," he ran a hand through his choppy white blond hair, leaning against the wall. Hermione frowned, lightly jumping off of the small podium she was on, and walked towards him. "You know that I have to date Ron, otherwise people will get suspicious. They'll wonder why I'm not with him, and I can't just say that I'm in love with the ex- Death Eater who almost killed Dumbledore," she said, placing an arm around his waist. Hermione stood on her toes and slowly kissed him, her free hand running up his arm. Draco smiled and pulled away, his stomach still upset with the butterflies that always seemed to be around when he looked at her. "I love you," he said earnestly, linking his fingers into hers. She beamed up at him as she pressed him further into the wall.
"I am so in love with you."
Draco knew that Hermione could see him. She made it quite obvious that she wanted him to look at her as well. She spun into other men's arms, laughed loudly and looked in his direction; she held onto her tonic like it's the only sanity she had left. Draco felt the longing that filled the air. It wasn't only illuminating from the drunk people on the dance floor grasping to their next conquest, but from the girl who tore through his mind and left nothing. The room started to spin. Draco saw the dark haired woman leave her fans and walk towards him, a look of the past in her eyes.
His hands were sweating, blood pulsing through every vein in his body. Hermione smiled sympathetically, her grasp on her drink so tight it could almost break the glass. The music and laughter died in the grand hall, the lights dimming, and all he could see was the mistake that he wish he never made in front of him.
"Hello Draco," she muttered quietly, hope fluttering through her heart from the look in his eyes. He felt like he was swallowing his tongue as he curved his soft hands into fists. "How are you, love?" Hermione said, as if nothing had ever happened to cause them to fall apart. Draco took in a calming breath, smelling her perfume.
"Lavender," he said under his breath, gazing at the floor. She closed her eyes, allowing her head to fall to her back. "You're wearing the perfume I gave you?" Draco asked, annoyance lining his words.
"What? I didn't think I'd ever see you again," Hermione said as she bit the inside of her cheek, "so I figured I should use it up." He scoffed while shifting his weight to his other foot, rubbing the back of his neck.
"For as smart as you claim you are, you can sure act thick."
"You know you didn't need to get this for me," Hermione said, rubbing her perfume-covered wrists together as the scent of lavender filled the room. Draco smiled slightly and placed her small hand into his.
"But I wanted to, so it's okay," he said smartly and Hermione rolled her eyes. She laid her head onto the silk pillow that was behind her, then untangled herself from the matching green sheets.
"You just love to pamper me, don't you?" she questioned, trying to get out of Draco's bed, but failed when he wrapped his arm around her midsection.
"Mmhmm," he murmured, nuzzling his head into her soft shoulder. Hermione sighed and set the opened package box onto the nightstand next to the bed. She grabbed Draco's arm and placed it on top of his torso.
"Love, I really have to get to work," Hermione said, picking her discarded jeans up off the floor and sliding them on. Draco flopped over from his side to his back and blew a piece of hair off of his face.
"Can we ever have a real date? You know, go out in public?" he asked. Hermione stopped in the middle of putting on her shirt and starred at him.
"Are you serious?" she questioned. He propped himself onto one elbow and looked at her.
"I am just so tried of being in secret. I mean, being with you is fantastic, and the … perks of being with you are also great. But I want something real!" Hermione sat down on the edge of the bed and pushed a piece of hair behind her ear. "I want to take you out to the greatest restaurants and lavish you with best gifts,. I want to tell all my friends that I'm dating the most wonderful woman in the world. I love you," Draco lightly set his hand onto her knee. She tensed, sighing greatly.
"Draco, your friends will kill you if they find out," she said turning her head to look into his eyes. He laughed loudly and squeezed her knee.
"I'm pretty sure I can take whatever they have to say and be -"
"No, you don't get it!" Hermione exclaimed, cutting Draco off. His eyes got wide.
"What?" he asked, moving to the closer to the side of the bed where she was sitting. Hermione jumped up, startling him.
"They will literally kill you if they find out you're in love with The Chosen One's best friend! I mean, Draco, think about it! They're all Death Eaters for God's sake! They're vial, cruel, low criminals-"
"Now wait just a minute!" Draco yelled over top of her voice, standing up as well.
"- who deserve to be locked up with the trash that are their parents!" Hermione exclaimed. Draco's jaw fell slightly and he stood at his tallest, becoming seven inches taller than her.
"So do I belong in Azkaban with my daddy dearest?" he sneered, causing Hermione to bite her lower lip.
"No! No, no, no. that's not what I meant, darling. I just meant that-"
"That anyone who is remotely affiliated with The Dark Lord deserves a life of imprisonment?" Draco accused. He paced back and forth across the room as Hermione tried to follow him.
"Well if that's the way you think I am, then maybe your paranoid mind is right!" she yelled, grabbing her bag off a chair that was in the corner, and exiting his room.
"Don't you dare think that you can just pick up and leave!" Draco exclaimed, quickly walking towards the door and running halfway down the winding staircase that Hermione had already reached the bottom of. She whipped her head around at the sound of his footsteps, tears staining through the caked on make-up.
"Or what?! Draco, I've loved you for years and had to deal with the fact that I could never have you just because you couldn't put aside your father's thoughts and be your own person. For once, I just want you to be a different person. A friend to everyone instead of an enemy to the ones I'm closest to." Hermione pushed a mound of her hair to the other side of her head letting drips of salty tears fall into her mouth. "Draco, we can't be together because you made it that way. You can't blame anyone but yourself for not being able to go out in public. I don't know if I can handle it anymore," she flung her purse onto her shoulder and sighed.
"So that's it?" Draco asked after moments of silence. "You just give up and take the easy way out?" he scoffed, walking down the rest of the stairs. Hermione glanced up and frowned.
"Giving up?" she smirked, a chuckle escaping her lips. "That means that I would have had to try whole-heartedly in the first place." Draco allowed the tears that had been bottled up for twenty years to line his eyes, watching as the one woman he truly ever loved laugh in his face.
Hermione walked out the marvelous doors to the Malfoy mansion and was greeted with rain that mixed with her tears. She stumbled into her car and watched Draco run out of the great doors after her, wearing only a pair of boxers that she gave him for Valentine's Day. Rain rolled down his bare chest, beads falling from the ends of his hair. He banged on her window, yelling at her to stay, but his voice was muffled. After a few moments, she rolled down her window wiping away a few stray tears; Draco smelled the lavender perfume he had just given to her.
"Good-bye Draco. And don't even try to contact me. Ron and I will be living the life you wish you could have had with me."
"I can't even begin to believe that a tiny vial of perfume would last you every day for about five years," Draco said. Hermione squirmed under his stare, blinking wildly as the bright lights hit her eyes.
"Well, I guess I just saved it for special occasions," she answered, not meeting his harsh gaze. He scoffed and crossed his arms over the pain rising in his chest.
"Face it, Hermione! You knew I was going to be here, didn't you?" Draco questioned her. A small tear escaped her eye, rolling slowly down her cheek. The only reason she left it there was for dramatic effect.
"Could you be any more self-absorbed?" Hermione asked, nervously biting her inner cheek. She wanted him. She wanted him so badly that no other man could ever be as right for her as he was.
"You know what? I don't even know why I'm talking to you. All you did was rip my heart out." And at that, Draco left a crying Hermione standing on the sidelines with the fake tears tumbling down her face; all he could do was try to not go back and show her how much he actually did miss her.
Draco walked to the refreshment table, noticing how easily that one perfect woman could change his emotions in a brief encounter. He grabbed a glass of wine, the finest that the Ministry could buy. It was, after all, a ball to celebrate the anniversary of Voldermort's death. Draco drank glass after galss, watching his love dance around the ballroom, her eyes void of emotion. She smiled, but it wasn't real. She laughed and he could hear her pain, but he didn't care. he just wanted to forget.
Before he knew it, Hermione was being led off the dance floor on the arm of a man Draco didn't recognize. She caught his eye and smiled, a smile he knew well. Grasping her date's arm tighter, she cocked her head to the side as if to tell Draco that she won, when all it did was hurt the both of them. Draco's fists curled into delicate fists, a smirk of anger crossing his face; his gaze on Hermione grew fiercer as she held tighter onto her date. He felt a tap on his shoulder, but he didn't have to turn around to see who it was.
"Please, just go away Pansy," he said, his eyes shut to try and erase the vision he just saw. Pansy sighed, running a cool hand across the back of Draco's neck.
"Are you sure? You look so dreadful," she cooed into his ear, causing him to roll his eyes.
"Yes, Pansy. I'm quite sure."
"Well, alright. but don't expect me to console you later on. You know I'm happy now without you." This was only about the one hundredth time he had heard her say this, and about the first time it sounded as if she actually meant it.
"Good-bye, Pansy."
"Goodnight, Draco."
He took one last swig of wine and headed for the doors, gazing around the grand ballroom; this would be the last time he ever set foot inside the Ministry of Magic. The night air was cold and wet, consoling Draco's hot face and burning headache. The wind lapped at his face as he stumbled over his own feet, caught in the memories of him and Hermione. He would run into people that were walking next to him on the sidewalk, earning him glares of anger, but he didn't notice. The only thing he could see was the dead look in Hermione's eyes as she danced on the dance floor without him.
Draco shuffled through the crowded London streets, only thinking about how badly he needed her and needed to see her again. It was all he could function at the time. He made his way through the hustle and bustle, only stopping when he came across her street. Draco thought for only a split second, then walked to the house he had once called his home away from home. There was one light on in the far upstairs room; he could make out the yellow walls he had painted especially for her. He then saw a figure enter the room, a large bundle in it's arms. Draco could make out Hermione's form, and after a moment of thinking, figured out what the bundle was.
"Hey Aribella. Daddy's sorry he can't come in and say hello," he said under his breath, regret filling his stomach at the sight of his four year old daughter. The light turned off and Draco froze as light peered around the corner of the front door and a head followed suit. She was still wearing the dress.
"She was asking about you, Aribella was. She said, 'Why hasn't Daddy come to see me?' And you know, the only thing I could do was tell her that Daddy wasn't in a right state of mind." Hermione said, walking down the driveway towards him. Tears filled Draco's eyes as he walked towards her, already peeling off his jacket to give to the shivering woman in front of him. "I so wish that you could see her everyday," Hermione said, her face shining in the moonlight. Draco smirked.
"I wouldn't mind," he said, wrapping his jacket around her. She smiled sadly.
"Do you really think we could work something out?"
"I think, no, I know that we still love each other. It just depends if we're willing to put aside our petty differences and be able to be there for her." Draco said scratching the back of his neck, a small smile on his lips. Hermione slowly wrapped her arms around him, allowing Draco to so the same.
"I'm in if you're in," she laughed with her heart, as did he. The night air was soon filled with their laughter and the memories of the two.
"I think, Ms. Granger, that we can do anything."
WELL?! Did you like it? Leave me some loooove.