AN: Hi, everyone! This is my first attempt in a while at publishing fanfiction :] so.. please be gentle! I'd love to see some reviews if you have time. Otherwise, enjoy!

Synthesis Reveal

The buzz.

She sense rather than sees him.

"You've been following me again, Malfoy?"

She looks at him out the sharp corners of her eyes. He stands erect, hands in the pockets of his dark school cloak, Slytherin tie hanging unknotted around his slender, pale neck. Her heart freezes in her throat as she drinks in the image of the rain turning his hair a silvery silk, covering his sharp cheekbones in a glittery dew, joining his pale lashes into fans protecting his eyes. Water drips from his hair and over his eyes. Gods, those magical, piercing eyes.

They look at her just as intensely. She'd left her cloak inside the castle where freedom was not to be had and now he could see her shirt sinking into the soft curves of her torso, he hair drenching and curling enticingly, wildly, her own scarlet-and-gold tie still lying neatly between her breasts.

He lifts his eyes deliberately back to hers. She's forced to turn, facing him straight on.

"You've been avoiding me again, Granger," he gives back in his usual aristocratic drawl.

"Of course not; I've just been busy, that's all. Besides, I thought you said you wanted to end it. Shouldn't you be inside, Draco, rather than out here where anyone might see you with me?" she asks him bitterly.

"I told you last time, it was a mistake," he says earnestly, reaching out to clasp her small, warm hand between his bonier ones. "Hermione, I still love you. Please don't push me away like this." His voice is hoarse. His eyes behold her own as hers began to redden and water.

"Then why did you turn me away?" she asks in a very small voice. "Why did you say we couldn't do this anymore? Was I getting dull for you, Draco? Is that it?"

"No, Hermione, gods no." He draws her in close, pulling her head into the smooth, lean expanse of his chest. She feels his heart beat and her own pulses in her ears as his voice rumbles around and throughout her. "I was afraid then that the school wouldn't understand. I'd serve only to sully your good name, darling, as my father does my own. I didn't want you to suffer because of me. Think of what your friends would say to you—they don't exactly cherish my presence."

She pulls back, away from the now-rain-dampened warmth of his chest, away from the comfort of his steady heartbeat and woodsy scent. "But Draco—what if I don't care? What if I want everyone to know about us? What if…. What if we suffer with each other? What if I told you I'd suffer more without you than because of you?" She looks up at him through hopeful eyes shining through the haze shrouding the couple from everyone's invasive presence. "What if all that matters is that I love you and you love me and we're happy together? Then would you do as I want and just be with me?"

He sighs, bending his head down to touch his forehead to hers. The air's fresh, clean smell dances with her unique Hermione scent to instill his nose with an intoxicating aroma.

"Well," he begins cautiously, "it's certainly not going to be easy for us…. But if you're certain that that's what you want—"

She cuts him off with her lips. She's known since he sighed that he would give in to her, and now she can barely manage her joy. The normally calm, controlled girl slides her lips down to catch his bottom one in her teeth. They stay there under the tree, savoring the delicious feeling of the melding of their mouths. She releases his lip as they pull back to take a breath.

"You're sure that this if what you want, then?" he asks her, mesmerized by the pale pinkness of her mouth.

"Yes, Draco, yes. I love you more than everything in this or any world and I want everyone to know you're mine and I'm yours," she whispers. She leans in closer to him, and he takes her face into his hands.

"Then I'll do as you wish, love. Let's show everyone that we're together I'm yours and you're mine, Hermione. You're my life."

And with that, he touches his mouth gently to the corners of her own, first one, then the other, breathing words of his adoration all the while. She presses her lips fully into his and they share the sweetest kiss he's ever had, her lips soft and pliant against his. His arms come around her waist. He holds her caressingly as they fill their senses with each other, both knowing that tomorrow would bring strife at the news of their joining.

But all that matters is right now, and their embrace.