Draco stood in the owlery. A cold wind blew threw the open windows and he shivered gently. It was only the end of September but it was already getting really cold out.
He reread the letter quickly and grabbed one of the school owls. He'd been up writing that letter for hours the night before making sure it was just right. He tied the letter to the owls leg, gave it the name of the letters' recipient and headed down to breakfast. Hopefully he'd be able to see her face when she read it.
~x~
Hermione sat looking over her Arithmancy notes and too a bite of her eggs as fluttering wings overhead signaled the arrival of the morning mail.
A small brown owl landed gently on her notes and hooted gleefully. It readjusted its wings and held its leg out so she could take the letter.
She reached forward, confusion on her face. 'This is way too short to be from Viktor. Who could have sent it?' she thought to herself.
The owl hooted and flew off as Harry and Ron sat across from her and started filling their empty plates.
Harry looked at her and asked, "What's that? We saw the owl flying off as we sat down."
Hermione looked up startled as if she had just noticed them and blushed bright red. "Nothing." she told them hurriedly and fumbled to crumple the paper up, but it was quickly snatched from her hands as the twins sat down on either side of her.
"Seems Hermione here has a secret admirer." Fred said brightly, giving the paper a quick glance. He passed it to George, keeping it just out of Hermione's reach.
George chuckled as he read aloud, "I fell for you last year when I saw you at the Yule Ball and I haven't been able to keep you out of my mind ever since."
Hermione's face flushed even redder and George nodded at her. "I won't read the rest for that would be far too embarrassing."
Hermione snatched the paper back.
Ron spoke through a mouthful of food. "What are you gonna do?"
Hermione looked at the paper thoughtfully a moment. "I'm going to try and find out who it is."
"Are there any clues as to who it could be?" Harry asked her.
"Other than that they saw me at the Ball, meaning they're most likely our ago or older, no there's nothing." she shrugged her shoulders as she answered.
But she was determined now to find out who it was.
~x~
Draco had lucked out and she had already been sitting at the Gryffindor table, facing the Slytherin table when he'd entered the Great Hall.
He'd watched the whole exchange with a small smile on his face.
Pansy looked at him after a couple of minutes and asked curiously, "What's so funny?" She turned her head to try and see what had him so happy, Nothing was happening as far as she could tell, and she looked at him even more confused than before.
He looked at her, his smile gone, and told her in his usual snide tone, "Nothing's funny."
Pansy didn't say anything more and Draco was quite grateful when she stood and left. He continued to watch Hermione the rest of breakfast until she eventually gathered her own things and left the Great Hall. Draco smiled widely now and made his own way to his first class. She knew the truth now. Maybe not all of it, since as far as he was aware she didn't know who'd written the note, but she knew that someone had just confessed their feelings to her.
~x~
Hermione looked at the letter once more when they got to History of Magic that afternoon. It read as such:
Dear Hermione,
I know that you won't know who this is, as I won't be signing my name, but I want to you know that I'm confessing my love for you. I fell for you last year when I saw you at the Yule Ball and I haven't been able to keep you out of my mind ever since. Because of that single moment of attention I've realized that you're not only astonishingly beautiful, but you're exceedingly smart, brave, extremely caring towards others, witty and seem like an all around wonderful person.
I want more than anything to say that you're my girlfriend, but I know right now that would be asking too much since you don't know who I am. I hope, if you're willing, that we can write these letters back and forth so that this way you can get to know me and I can truly get to know you. Please reply by tomorrow's morning mail. If I don't get a letter from you, then I'll concede defeat and won't bother you again. Hoping to hear from you,
Sincerely,
Your Secret Admirer
Hermione felt a blush creep up her cheeks as she read the words to herself. Sure, she thought most of these things about herself, but it was nice to hear them from someone she wasn't related to. Scribbling a quick reply on a spare bit of parchment, she shoved both notes into her pocket so she could pay attention to the lesson.
~x~
Draco walked into the Great Hall the next morning and sat in his usual spot. A few minutes past and a tawny spotted owl dropped down in front of him. It held its leg out to deliver its letter and flew off one its parcel was delivered, without so much as a second glance. Draco unfurled the letter quickly so he could read what was written.
To my Secret Admirer,
You really seem to think too much of me, but I gladly accept the opportunity to learn more about you. Looking forward to your next letter tomorrow.
Sincerely,
HG
Draco looked up, but she wasn't at the Gryffindor table as far as he could tell. He shoved the scrap of paper covered in Hermione's elegant, neat writing into the inside pocket of his cloak and settled into his breakfast.
~x~
The days went back and forth, and fall turned to winter, and winter to spring. Letters continued between the two, Draco falling even more in love and Hermione not fully knowing who she was talking to.
Occasionally he'd give her hints to see if she'd ever guess, but none ever came forward. As far as he knew she knew about him, was that he was from a well-to-do all wizarding family, that his parents would be highly upset if they knew he loved a muggle-born, that his favorite color was blue and that he loved sunset. Just like he'd learned that she adored daisies and spent most of her free time reading.
Finally, one warm day Draco read the letter he'd been waiting for the most.
SA,
I think, with spring finally finding its way to us, we should meet each other in person. Over these last couple of months I seem to have fallen head over heels for you and I don't want to spend any more time apart from you. What do you say?
HG
Of course Draco was nervous, but he'd been working on what he would do for a long time. He scrawled a quick reply of yes to her and went to send it out immediately, but reconsidered. Instead he wrote out another letter, saying:
HG,
Of course I'd be absolutely pleased for you to finally meet me face to face. Meet me out by the large tree next to the Black Lake Friday afternoon, around 6 PM if that would be alright with you. To show that it's me I'll bring you some daisies. All I can do is hope that you don't leave as soon as you see me.
SA
That was his worst fear. Was that he'd show himself and she'd run, or worse be upset. The last thing in the world he'd want to do is make her cry.
~x~
The week passed by slowly but eventually Friday got there. Hermione left the common room shortly before 5:30 and arrived at the spot under the tree overlooking the Lake that they'd agreed on, within 15 minutes.
Ok, so she was early, so what? She'd be able to see everyone coming over towards the spot. She knew he already knew what she looked like so obviously he wouldn't be scared away. Hopefully, anyway.
She sat under the tree enjoying what was left of the warm day. She knew that Harry and Ron would have followed her to keep an eye out for trouble, just in case. They'd have most likely taken the Invisibility Cloak so that they could get close without being seen. Hopefully they weren't too close; she did want this to be a private moment.
Hermione checked her watch and saw that it was 6 exactly. She stared out over the Lake at the sunset. She'd never really appreciated how beautiful they were until her secret admirer had described how he saw them. That evening she'd watched through the window in the Gryffindor common room and knew why he loved them so much.
Someone cleared their throat behind her and she froze for a moment, apprehension keeping her from turning around. Then the voice spoke and she froze for a whole other reason.
"Hello." Draco's voice sounded as icy as ever.
She turned, a scowl on her face, and glared at her. He visibly cringed. "What do you want?"
He cleared his throat again but didn't speak. 'Does he seem nervous?' Hermione asked herself.
"I..." he started but stopped when she continued to glare at him.
He took a deep breath and pulling out his wand he muttered, "Primula multis appareant"*
At the sight of his wand, Hermione had yanked hers out and knew that if Ron and Harry were watching that they'd done the same but as soon as the group of daisies appeared in front of them her eyes widened and her jaw dropped open in shock.
~x~
"You're my secret admirer!" Her face flushed in humiliation.
Draco nodded gently and handed the flowers over to her.
She took them and tossed them onto the ground. "You are a louse and this is probably the cruelest trick you've ever played." Tears welled in her eyes and Draco could hear them in her voice.
She stormed past Draco, but he grabbed her arm and yanked her back.
He stared into her eyes, silently pleading with her and she continued to glare at him in disgust and hatred.
"Hermione," he said softly and she paused. He'd never used her name before. At least not to her.
"It's not a trick." He let go of her arm but she didn't move. He continued, "Every word I've written to you is true. I love you."
He felt exhilarated. This was the first time he'd ever said them aloud to anyone and it was the best feeling in the world.
Before he could register it, he'd leaned forward and was kissing her, soaking up the taste of her lips. She tasted like mint and he loved every bit of it. He pulled away reluctantly, waiting for the slap to come, expecting her to hit him at any moment.
Nothing came.
Instead he felt her lips push against his again and this time she kissed him just as fervently as he'd kissed her. He ran his hands through her thick hair, along the nape of her neck, tilting her head back to meet his a little easier. He felt her lean up onto her toes so she was a little closer to him and felt as her hands ran up his back.
An eternity seemed to pass. Eventually they broke apart and stared into each others eyes.
"Since I know they're going to ask, yes you can tell them I'm your secret admirer." he told her softly, whispering it into her ear.
"I don't know how they're going to take it." she whispered back into his.
"Frankly I don't care. I'll let the whole world know myself if I have to." He held her close to him as a stiff wind blew past. He looked up and noticed how dark it'd gotten.
She pulled back a little and looked him in the face. "What about your parents? What will you do about them?"
"Let them know that I love a filthy little muggle-born. I don't need their approval. Not when I have you." The sincerity in his words brought tears to her eyes again and smiled.
"We should probably head back. Let's meet out here again tomorrow if you want, and you can even bring the other two."
They started back towards the castle hand in hand, not even bothering to notice the people that were staring at them.
A/N: Happy birthday Olivia! Hope you enjoyed this. -hearts- Anyway to all the wonderful readers, this is my first time writing Dramione, so I hope you all enjoyed it too, and be sure to review to let me know what you thought about it!
*Primula multis appareant - translates to 'many daisy appear' and unless you wanted it to actually say 'daisies' in it, then I was sticking with the grammatically incorrect English. Deal with it.