His lips were warm and soft against hers. Every nerve in her body was acutely aware of the closeness between the two; they were the closest they had ever been before.
Her hands had never before been wrapped around the back of his neck, a thumb in front of each of his ears. She had never known the feeling of his warm hands slowly slipping around her waist across the smooth white shirt of her uniform, pulling her against him.
Her hands began to slip from his neck to bring him even closer to her by wrapping her arms around him. Only when she realized her lack of oxygen did she break the kiss, but not the contact. They were still intertwined with their foreheads tilted together as she thought back on all the things leading up to this moment.
All of the chaste glances during classes and while sitting in the Great Hall for meals, all the little leaps of her heart when her chocolate brown eyes met his slate grey ones. She remembers the day that she realized he had stopped calling her a Mudblood; when his stares were no longer full of venom but something she couldn't seem to identify.
The first day he had called her by her given name rather than her surname was most prevalent in her mind.
It was just a regular day, unlike any other. She was walking out of double Potions with the Slytherins on a Friday when she heard someone call her name down the hall.
"Hermione!"
At first she was confused: she had never heard that voice utter her name before unless to refer to her as "Granger", "Mudblood", or "Muggle-born". She stopped mid-stride, frozen for a moment, and then whipped around in a flourish of caramel-brown curls and her black school robes.
The person she saw striding fast towards her was tall and thin yet muscular. His angular features looked determined. In his pale hand he held a shabby book that appeared to either be seven thousand years old or had been looked through so many times that the binding was coming undone and parts of it seemed to be held together by a single string.
When he finally reached her, he held out the book. She looked at him incredulously with a slight bit of confusion in her eyes.
"You left your book in the classroom, just thought you would want it since you're nose seems to be glued between a book's pages every minute possible." Draco Malfoy said with a small smirk.
The look on his face was familiar yet the gleam in his eyes seemed so foreign to Hermione that she couldn't help but stare. Realizing that it had been a full minute since he had spoken, she tentatively reached a hand out to pluck the book from between his fingers, being careful not to touch him as she did so.
"Um… thanks?" It came out as a question more than a sincere statement.
"Uh, yeah, welcome." He said.
He looked as if he didn't want to leave, as if he wanted to say something more, but instead of doing so he ran a hand through his white-blond hair and moved to walk past her. She slowly turned to watch him walk away with bewilderment plastered across her freckled face. That was the day that, she thinks, had started leading to this moment.
His slightly raspy voiced yanked her back to the present and her eyes flew open, making contact with Draco's. "I've been waiting for that to happen." He said.
A small smile tickled the edges of her mouth as she moved away from him, only enough to get a full view of his face. His nose was pointy and his high cheek bones made him look regal. She let out a soft sigh then, after finally catching her breath said, "You have no idea."
His eyes lit up at her statement and he suddenly yanked her toward him again, this time not to kiss her but to embrace her. She was pulled up onto tippy-toes as he almost crushed her against him. Their hearts were both beating furiously and she was still attempting to suck in oxygen. Hermione laughed as her feet were lifted an inch off the ground. His arms slackened around her but did not let go as he breathed in the scent of her unruly hair.
"Did you ever imagine this happening in a million years?" He asked her, his voice muffled by her shoulder.
Actually, she had imagined it, many times. Ever since that day when he had returned her dropped book she had imagined it happening. For so long she had been hoping that Ron would notice her that she forgot there were other men out there who probably already had. Before that day she had never thought that Draco Malfoy, the boy who had been a prat probably since birth, would ever be that man. But after that day it seemed all she could ever think about.
Of course, her studies always came first and she kept her grades up as always but every once in a while she would be writing an essay and find her thoughts slowly trailing off to think of the blonde boy. At first all she thought about was how weird her first name had sounded coming from his mouth, and then she thought about how wonderful it sounded at the same time. It sent little shock waves through her heart every time she replayed the moment in her head.
She would discover herself smiling in the middle of class and realize that she hadn't been paying attention for several minutes. She had notes written on her parchment that she didn't remember writing while lost in her reverie. Hermione also noticed that Draco had just generally started being nicer to her. Not necessarily with compliments or other pleasantries but now and then he would give her a faint smile when they made eye contact or tell her a little tip during Potions class while Snape wasn't looking.
Those tiny things were what started to crack open her heart to someone she never thought she could feel anything but disdain for. Sometimes she would think about all the times he had spat "Filthy Mudblood!" at her in the halls and her heart would sink to below the floor.
It could never work, why would it ever work? She would think to herself when she caught him smiling at her.
Then she started to think about why he would've changed. Why he had stopped being so relentlessly rude to everyone around him. So one day, she asked.
She caught him sneaking a look at her between the shelves of books in the library and she mustered up all the courage she could to walk up to him and ask, "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why have you started being…" She tried to think of the word she wanted; it wasn't nice -because he hadn't really been nice- but he also hadn't been his usual jerky self the past few weeks. "… Decent?" She finally decided that was a good word.
"Oh, that 'why'." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck, a look of innocence on his face. "Well… I read this… book." He slowly spoke.
"A book?" She questioned.
"Yes, a book. I do read, you know. But this book just… I don't know, made so much sense when I read it that I started… rethinking some stuff."
"What's this book called?" Hermione asked.
"Well, I guess it's not really a book, more like a journal." He paused looking at the floor like he was confessing to a crime or something.
"A journal? Who's journal?" She was not genuinely curious.
"I don't know. There were no names, only poems and entries about someone falling in love. It sounds stupid when I say it aloud." He said sheepishly. Hermione was taken aback; she had never seen him look less than utterly pompous and confident.
Her breath hitched in her throat as the cogs in her brain began to turn. "F-falling in love?" She finally stammered out.
"Yes." Draco said matter-of-factly.
"So, a love story made you magically change your ways and be less of a prat?" She asked, with a bit of sarcasm in her voice. "I find that hard to believe." In reality she found the fact that she was even having a civil conversation with Malfoy hard to believe.
"Well it just opened my eyes to a lot of things that I never thought before. Things that seem to go against everything my father has told me."
"Oh…" Her voice sounded small.
"It made me realize that not everything is about blood-status. Even witches and wizards are human." He paused for a long moment. "Even… You."
That statement caught Hermione completely off guard. She opened her mouth to say something but no words came out because, at that moment, Draco was looking at her with all the sincerity in the world. She felt like she was melting, staring into his grey eyes. As she struggled to find words to say he dropped her gaze and began to walk away, slowly at first as if he wanted to stay in that moment then faster as if he had just barely realized what he had spoken moments ago.
As that memory melted away she found that Draco was once again kissing her at the present. Her heart was beating so fast inside her chest yet she felt it was melting at the exact same moment. She sucked in a sharp breath through her nose as his hands grazed her cheeks then tangled their way into her nest of brown curls. Her hands traveled up his back and gripped his shoulders. It wasn't a passionate kiss; it wasn't filled with lust or need. It was filled with want and longing; it was gentle and caring.
She had been kissed a few times in her life but never like this. Never had she felt the sparks run through her as they did now. She felt all of the emotion that went into this kiss… she felt all of the love.
Wait, love? She thought. Do I… love him? Does… he love… me?
This time he was the one to break to kiss: His grey eyes meeting hers once more. Then she saw it, she saw that look that no one else had ever given her before. In his eyes she saw that he actually saw her. Not as in he was looking at her and she was on object that existed in the world but he was looking into her, seeing all of her faults and her weird quirks but still liking what he saw.
Another memory flashed in her head of the first time he had ever looked at her like that. She saw it fleetingly that day he told her she was human and tiny glimpses of it ever since then.
But there was a day when he had first really looked at her like that. It was maybe a week after the "Even… you" had happened and she had caught herself looking at Draco more often in classes and around the school. She was trying to figure him out, trying to see if a single love story from a journal could really change someone so drastically.
She was walking by the lake thinking about the many things that had happened there. The time Harry had fended off all the Dementors from him and Sirius though he didn't know it was him who had done it. When they had the Triwizard Tournament and she had been selected to go into the lake for Victor Krum. Even one time when she had been walking just like she was today but was lost in thoughts about the Yule Ball - hoping for Ron to ask her which he never did- and almost fell in, righting herself at the last moment.
As she walked, she began to tire so she chose a tree to sit down under, shading her from the warm sun and allowing her legs a rest. She closed her eyes and hadn't noticed as a slender figure noiselessly slipped under the tree beside her. Only when she felt a slight bump against her shoulder did she open her eyes and acknowledge Draco.
"Hi." He said tentatively.
"Hello." She replied.
"Is this seat taken?"
"Um, no, I guess not." Her heart skipped a beat.
"Good." Was all he said, then there was a few minutes long silence.
"So, what was it about the love story that made you realize I- Everyone is human?" She stammered out, breaking the ice.
"Hm?" He grunted. "Oh, um. That." He said, and ran a hand through his hair. "Well in the story…" He paused for a long time. "Well… two people fall in love."
"Naturally, as it is referred to as a love story." Hermione teased, emphasizing the word.
He didn't look at her but a small smile threatened his thin lips. "Well one of them was a wizard and the other was a…" Another long pause, it seemed he had a hard time saying the words. "… a Muggle-born."
Hermione tried not to react and hoped Draco hadn't noticed, as he wasn't looking at her, when her eyes went a little wide. "That's it?" She finally said.
"Well, yeah, that's it."
"So a wizard fell in love with a Muggle-born?"
"That's what I just said isn't it?" Draco said with a slight bit of annoyance then he took a deep breath, continuing to stare anywhere but at Hermione.
"Yes, I just don't see how that could… change you so much." She said the last part hesitantly. "That happens all the time."
"Yes, I know that but I've never really… considered it a possibility to happen to a pureblood, I guess."
"Oooohh." She let the word draw out slightly in realization. "You never thought that someone who was so pure could stoop so low as to have feeling for someone that was as pure as they?" She said testily.
"At the time, no, I did not think that would ever happen." Draco's tone was calm.
Hermione's face was starting to contort into a grimace then she heard two tiny whispered words.
"Until, you."
And he finally looked at her for the first time with that look as if he was more than just seeing her.
To Hermione it seemed that minutes had passed in the present due to her reveries but in reality it was only a matter of seconds until she was in the moment again. Draco's breathing seemed slightly heavy and she could still feel his heart beating with his chest against hers. His eyes were still looking into hers with that look that she had grown to…
Love?
She felt almost faint thinking about loving Draco. Not at the mere though that it was Draco or that she was a seventeen-year-old girl who probably didn't even know what love was. Just at the thought of love. Did she know what it was? Were all of the adults in her life who had found love right? All of the ones who told her that she's too young to know what love is?
Then she thought to what had happened only minutes ago to put her in this situation: in Draco's arms in a corner of the library that no one seemed to go to.
She had been perusing the shelves looking for a book to complete her Transfiguration essay when she felt someone staring. She knew who it was; he was the only other person who seemed to ever show up to this part of the library at this late hour, right before curfew.
It had been a few weeks since their talk under the tree by the lake and since then they had seemed to talk a little more. Not around Harry or Ron or any of Draco's Slytherins, not in the corridors or in the Great Hall during meals; but in the library, in that very corner they stood in now.
Their conversations usually started out with simple pleasantries and little smiles, then one of them would find a book they needed and sit down at a table to begin reading, whether for an assignment or just because. At first it was just that, pleasantries then reading in silence or the other one finding the book they needed and leaving, sometimes without a good-bye.
Then, they started to have conversations about real things. One day Draco had brought the journal to the library and dropped it on the desk for Hermione to read then promptly left, looking slightly embarrassed.
She had finished the journal yesterday and had come to the library hoping to find Draco to return it. She had found him sitting at a desk in what she thought of as "their corner" and plopped to journal down on the table as she plopped herself down into a chair. He only momentarily glanced up with a hint of a smile.
"So, did you like it?" He asked, still looking at his book.
"Eh, it was okay." She said teasingly then stood up from the chair to leave.
"Hermione?"
"Yeah?" She said, turning around to face him.
His mouth was slightly open but he had a tentative look on his face as though he wasn't sure what he wanted to say.
"I, uh… Nevermind."
"Oh, okay." She said then, after gathering her thoughts proceeded to leave the library, back to her room.
The next day she had returned to the library hoping to find Draco again, maybe get him to say what he wouldn't the previous day but when she arrived in the corner he wasn't there. She decided instead of going back to her room she would pluck a book off of the shelf to read. She read for a few minutes then, remembering her Transfiguration assignment, stood to find another.
As she stared at the spines of the books she felt the stare; then heard a voice.
"Hermione." It was such a small whisper she wasn't sure she had actually heard it so she kept perusing.
Draco cleared his throat. "Hermione." He said, louder this time.
"Hm?" She breathed without looking away from the books.
She could hear soft footsteps moving toward her but dared not move; her heart started beating fast. He placed his hand gently on her shoulder and slowly spun her around to face him, that seeing look in his eyes. His hand dropped once she was fully facing him and he seemed to want to do something but was having an internal battle as whether or not to do it.
Then, without realizing, Hermione had placed her hand on his cheek, still looking into his beautiful eyes. He was a good five or six inches taller than her so she stood on her tippy-toes as she brought his head down to hers, hesitating right before their lips made contact: mere millimeters apart.
She could smell his cologne and feel his breath on her face, and then she closed her eyes and closed the miniscule distance between them. A little burst of happy made its way into her heart and she brought her other hand up to the other side of his face and his hand slipped slowly around her waist.
Again she was pulled back to the present by a thumb stroking her cheek. Her eyes were brimming with tears and Draco looked concerned.
"What is it? What's wrong?" He asked hastily.
A smile spread across her entire face as she said three little words.
"I love you."
Draco's eyes momentarily went wide then he slammed his lips against hers once more, still being gentle but this time with more zeal. She gripped him tight as their lips moved against each other. This time the kiss was deep and Draco couldn't seem to be able to pull Hermione close enough to him so he spun her around and took a few steps then lifted her up so she was not sitting on top the of the desk; he no longer had to lean down to meet her lips.
He crushed her against him for a moment more before pulling away reluctantly and looking into her eyes. They were both, once again, breathless and Hermione placed her hands on his chest then her head on her hands. Draco's hands stayed at her waist and he pressed his nose into her hair.
They stayed like that for a few moments, breathing hard. Then Draco's right hand left Hermione's waist and lifted her chin to look at him. For a moment all he did was look, he just stared at her, taking in every last little bit of her features. He leaned forward slightly and placed a tiny kiss on the tip of her nose then to her forehead.
"I love you, too."