Hermione Granger was pissed.
Extremely pissed.
She stomped around the Room of Requirements, almost knocking into the coffee table surrounded by a cozy red couch, her scowl illuminated by the two dozen softly flickering candles levitated next to the walls.
Why? she kept on asking herself. Why? She had been waiting for an hour, no, she thought as she glanced down at her watch- an hour and two minutes- for that bastard to walk in through the door.
Hermione sat down on the couch, her head in her hands. Where is he?
She knew she would've worried a lot more had this been before Harry's defeat of Voldemort, but now, a whole semester after that triumphant day, it didn't seem logical to worry so much about his safety. And he had had no errands to run today, not that she knew of. It was Christmas break, and even as seventh years (though technically graduates who had been forced to remain in Hogwarts and re-do their last year of education after the war), none of the students had that much work to do on Christmas Eve! No, she decided, he couldn't have been held up. His decision to be late for their three month anniversary, is definitely his decision.
"UGH!" Hermione suddenly rose from the couch and marched for the door. If he doesn't think our three month anniversary is significant enough to turn up for, well, then why am I waiting here? Two feet away from the door, her hand already outstretched for the doorknob, it suddenly bust open, letting in a gust of cold air.
As her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, the form of Draco Malfoy, her boyfriend of three months-- no, soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, if you will, appeared, and Hermione hadn't even had three seconds to analyze this new turn of events before the disgusting smell of alcohol reached her scrunched-up nose.
"Wha-?" Hermione hadn't even opened her mouth up all the way before Draco's 6' 1'' frame collapsed on to her petite 5'6'', though he still managed to hold on to his almost empty bottle of Ogden's Firewhisky.
"Draco!?! Stop that!" Hermione stern voice decreed, as her said boyfriend began to make a trail of soft kisses down her neck. "No! Stop! I am so bloody pissed with you, you- " Just as Hermione Granger was about to utter a string of colorful curses (yes, Hermione Granger curses), Draco Malfoy pressed his soft lips to hers, silencing her for a second. As he pulled away, Hermione became more confused than ever. She stepped herself away from her Draco and saw that he was only wearing his Slytherin uniform, his tie loose, his shirt untucked (not that he'd ever been keen on tucking in his shirt in the first place), his Prefect badge was hanging on by a single thread to his shirt pocket, and the whole effect was topped by spilled alcohol on the front of his button-down.
"What in the world happened to you?" Hermione Granger gazed up at Draco Malfoy with a look of disbelief, along with a little disgust.
Never had she seen him like this since the semester began. He had always been perfectly groomed, something that he prided in, being the arrogant ass that he was. But nevertheless, he had improved this year, after the war. Harry had testified for the Malfoy family during the many trials following Voldemort's defeat. Lucius Malfoy had been held on house arrest, after he confessed to the raid in the ministry of magic and several other Death Eater plots, to seek redemption. Indeed, the entire Malfoy family began to seek redemption, and Draco was no different, though the arrogant air he had still remained at times. However, little by little after the new school year began to progress, Hermione began to tolerate his attitude, even finding it refreshing at times. Back then, the story of Voldemort's defeat and her part in it had still be fresh in the papers. Everyone had begun to treat her, Harry, and Ron differently. She still remembered boarding the train at Platform 9 ¾, when she had met up with Ron and Harry, and a crowd of first years, parents, and survivors of the war had formed a crowd around them, giving them praises, wishing them good luck, shaking their hands. Ron had basked in the attention the way a golden retriever basks in the bright sun, but she and Harry had tried to turn away from the spotlight as much as possible. In the beginning of the school year, she found herself often sitting by a secluded tree in the lake, trying to hide from the praises and smiling faces she felt she never wholly deserved- so many others had died for the same cause, and she just wanted to be alone, to grieve for a while. Even when she finally got over the fact that the lives lost during the war would never be revived and the best she could do was live life to its fullest, she was still not used to the spotlight. She was used to being alone with her books, and just wanted her life to be back to normal- just her, and Harry and Ron, best friends in the school that had become their home.
And in the crowd of smiles and compliments and outstretched hands that would not leave her alone, Draco Malfoy stood out. He was the only one who still treated her the same way. She still remembered their first kiss, on the campus ground at night. She had been walking alone, feeling extremely lonely because Harry and Ginny, had begun dating again, leaving her with no one. The kiss had been so unexpected…
Just as Hermione was about to take a walk down memory lane, her boyfriend of three months suddenly enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. He let go as she was about to push him off. Before she could say anything, Draco gripped her arms, looked into her confused eyes, and began to speak in a slurred voice.
"Hermione, I-I wen out to the the Leaky Cauldron and I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to with you on our anniversary night" Hearing Draco's confession, Hermione wanted desperately to escape his grasp, slap him, then run out of the room. Everything was going so well, she thought I actually believed, for a second, that we'd be able to stay together, that after a while, we would step out into the open as a couple, with no more secrets from our best friends. I was a fool. I actually thought…that we were falling. Falling in love. She wanted to run away, to keep on running, forever and ever, only focusing on the rhythm of her legs pounding beneath her so she wouldn't have to think about her shattered heart. But something in Draco's eyes rooted her to the spot. Something…almost, tender.
Seeing the tears threatening to fall from Hermione's eyes, Draco knew that this was his chance. "Listen, I'm not done talking. I was drunk" he licked his lips, tasting the remnants of the firewhisky that would give him courage for tonight "I was drunk because I couldn't face it. I- I feel something for you. I care. And that's why, tonight, I ran away. I wanted to run, because-" he paused. "I was the only one in the bar. And the bartender, he told me, to man up. He told me he could see why I was running."
Draco's grey eyes, the color of a cloud on a rainy day, stared into Hermione's honey brown ones and for this moment, Draco Malfoy stopped running and took a chance, knowing his heart may very well be crushed in the next.
"I was running, because I'm falling in love with you."
Hermione Granger then looked up into Draco Malfoy's eyes and opened her lips to confess a truth with three little words.
But this was a truth Draco already knew, and she never got the chance, for Draco then fervently covered her open lips with his own.