Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction, so no flames, please!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
A thick fog blanketed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for which Draco Malfoy was grateful. He needed to get away. He was under too much pressure with him having been a Death Eater and trying to bring back the family name. At least with the fog no one would be able to see him bring down all walls he put around himself. He knew exactly where he wanted to go and knew exactly how to get there even with the fog. As he reached his favorite place under a tree by the Black Lake, he heard sobs. He wanted to know who was disturbing his peace when he saw gentle chocolate curls.
"Hermione?" he asked liking the way her name sounded in his mouth. She turned to see who was disturbing her misery.
"What do you want, Malfoy, I'm not in the mood to argue with you."
"I just wanted some peace," he said simply deciding to be honest for once.
"Well, sorry if I'm disturbing it," she spat as she got up to walk away trying and failing to hide her tears. Draco caught her slender wrist and turned her toward him and saw that her honey-brown eyes red from crying.
"What's wrong?" he asked with a softness she didn't know he possessed.
She looked into those ice blue eyes and couldn't hold it in any longer, "I loved him," she cried grabbing his shirt and sobbing into it forgetting whom it was, "I loved him, I gave him everything. What does she have that I don't? What does he see in her?" Draco just stood there not knowing what to do. Not knowing what else to do he patted her head awkwardly and let her cry. He wasn't going to push her. Finally he wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. Ron must have done something he concluded. "I'm sorry," she whispered once her sobs had subdued a little, "I had given him everything and then I caught him kissing Brown." Tears were starting to fall again, waking up a part of him that had never been touched before; he felt compassion for her. He reached out a hand and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"If that's how little he thought of you then he doesn't deserve you, you're a lot better than Brown," as he said this he pulled her back into him and held her tight. He like the way she felt in his arms. Instead of pulling away from him she melted into him, her tears once again soaking his shirt. He buried his face into her soft brown hair letting her smell take him away, the sweet smell of strawberries and chocolate filling his nose. Then he remembered why he had come, to be alone, but then he thought again and realized, he wanted to be alone with her. He didn't know what he felt but he thought it might have been what some people call love.
"Thank you," she whispered as she pulled away to look into his eyes, his arms still around her waist. He just smiled and unconsciously started leaning into her. Without realizing it she was leaning into him. He kissed her softly, not forcing anything but trying to let her know that someone loved her. She started kissing him back, lost in the moment until she remembered exactly whom it was she was kissing. She pulled away rapidly and ran off toward the castle her lips still tingling from the kiss. It had been better than any she had shared with Ron. He had been so uncharacteristically kind to her, she felt like she belonged in his arms and that he would never let her go, like nothing could possibly hurt her. When she had looked into his eyes he saw something she had never seen before, hurt, pity, love, pain vulnerability. She had never seen him look so vulnerable. She liked the Draco under the mask he gave himself.
Draco stood there lost in thought. His lips were still tingling from the kiss and his arms felt empty without her in them. He loved her, he confessed, he wanted her to be happy, and he would only be happy when she was. He sat on the ground and tried to figure out what had happened to him. He had dated so many girls he couldn't remember, he had held so many girls but it wasn't like her, he had kissed so many girls, but it never felt so right, so pure and innocent. She had seemed so vulnerable to him, letting out her feelings, she seemed so lost, so hurt, she had gambled everything, leaving everything in Ron's hands, and he had cheated on her. He knew that he shouldn't get his hopes up, she couldn't possibly love him back, but he needed her more that he thought. Her love could heal the wounds that the war had opened and reopened. If only she would be willing to give herself to him like he was willing to give himself to her.
That night they both went to bed thinking that they wanted to be with the other, the other was their missing piece.