A/N: Short little one-shot here....it's been mooching around in my head for a while so I wrote it....HOPE YOU ENJOY!
Hearing the news of his death shouldn't have bothered her at all. Dumbledore announced the tragic incident (involving a dementor that had ventured into the grounds) during breakfast the next day. As his sombre voice echoed softly through the hall, she couldn't make sense of how she felt, what was running through her mind. After wishing death upon him for so long, when it finally happened she felt it was all her fault....and she felt alone. But why? He had never been her friend, she never had anything to do with him of her own accord and she never thought of him as more than an inconvenient problem that kept coming back.
She felt something warm and wet trickle down her cheek as Dumbledore continued with his solemn speech. She dabbed it away and held it in front of her face. A drop of moisture dribbled down her finger. A tear. A tear over him. What was going on? What could possibly make her cry over that good-for-nothing-except-insult-you-your-family-and-friends man? She quickly wiped the rest from her face and looked around self-consciously to check no one had seen. Apart from a few sobbing into shoulders, everyone had their eyes fixed on the front. The Hogwarts banners hung limply from the ceiling, emanating an air of sadness and loss. She immediately took back anything and everything she had done to him and forgave him for what he had done himself. It was just too late to show him. She felt a deep, permanent hole being chiselled in her heart. She felt sick to her stomach and could feel a lump growing in her throat. Here she was, getting choked up about someone she had always hated. How she hated herself for only realising her love for him when he was gone. She swept away a fresh stream of tears. How could she possibly survive now? This wasn't a problem that could be solved by burying herself in a hoard of books. Her world was crashing down....and there was nothing she could do about it. Her insides writhed in agony as his name resounded on the four walls. She looked down, letting the teardrops fall on her robes. She noticed that her fingernails had gouged deep cuts in the bench. The splinters made her fingers bleed, but she didn't care, she couldn't even feel it. In fact, she couldn't feel anything except the hard cold in her heart and the sorrow threatening to drown her.
Never would she know what brought her to love that man....but from then on, she knew she would always love Draco Malfoy. Against all odds.
A/N: Ok so I don't actually want Draco to die but it let me show Hermione's confuzzled feelings over him and I thought it was a sweet idea. Please review!