Hermione sat on her couch and stared into the flickering flames of her fire, her heart was broken , a pain so deep in her chest she could hardly breathe, yet it just kept on beating. Her head echoed with what she had heard him saying when he thought she wasn't there. The immense betrayal was increased ten folds by the fact, in the last few years of their friendship; she had fallen madly in love with him. She let a small sob escape her, four years she thought miserably. Four years since he had approached her at the café in muggle London and asked if he could talk to her, four years of forgiveness and a slowly formed friendship that he never truly wanted, it was all for laughs. Draco Malfoy had made a fool of her once again, and for the first time, she had let him.

FLASHBACK

Hermione snuck around the back of the beautiful manor into the garden, she was going to surprise Draco with a day in muggle London. But first, she thought in silent laughter, a good scare would do him good. She slowly crept up to the patio and was about to climb up when she heard two voices coming through the door. Hermione quickly ducked under a bush confident it would conceal her if they glanced down, she wasn't sure how she would explain why she was sneaking around in the bushes if he saw her. Slowly she started to sneak away, but she couldn't resist eavesdropping when she heard someone begin to talk.

"Now what in the bloody hell is the matter, you look a mess!" Blaise Zambini asked confusion evident in his voice even from Hermione's hiding place.

"She's absolutely infuriating, I can't take it anymore! She is so blasted smart sometimes I don't even know how to talk to her, she drives me up the wall with her constant reading and studying! I can't take another night of her touching me, or another day where I have to hear her voice. Everything she does makes me regret all that I've worked for!" Draco yelled.

Hermione cocked her head curious about who it was, she had a bad feeling she knew who he was talking about. But he wouldn't mean her, he couldn't. They were friends, the best of friends, she was almost as close to him and she was Harry and Ron. She strained to listen for what Blaise had to say.

"And are we still talking about the same girl as earlier?" He asked, baffled at his friend's outburst.

"Of course, like I said earlier, Hermione is the one person in the world who can drive me crazy." Draco muttered before drifting off into silence, a silence that stabbed at Hermione's heart as she slowly snuck away, to hurt to care about any of the other things he had to say.

END FLASHBACK

Hermione let the tears fall as she stared into the flames, she quickly pondered whether the flames would eventually burn out her eyes, and then decided to stop her thought process from going down that road. She turned, summoned a bucket of ice cream, and turned to the TV, not caring what movie was on, she just wanted to drown out the pain that was echoing through her entire being.

An hour later she put the spoon in the empty bucket of ice cream and wiped her tears. Her stomach was hurting and she had a headache and was ready to sleep for a week, maybe she would wake up from this horrible nightmare and find Draco making pancakes in her kitchen as she sat in the window and read the new edition of Hogwarts A History, she curiously wondered what they had written about Harry and the war.

Nausea was hitting her hard, when a soft knock came to the door, she sighed before she stood up and walked towards the door, she chanced a glance at the mirror and immediately regretted it. Her eyes stood out red and puffy against her face blotchy, what little eye makeup she was wearing was now smeared all around her eyes and cheeks, and her hair looked like a small animal decided to make a nest in it and live there, she smirked slightly, whoever it was, they were in for a bit of a scare when she opened the door.

"What!" She snapped as she pulled the wooden door open.

Draco's hands immediately went into surrender, then as he took in her appearance, his eyes widened in bewilderment. "Whoa, what happened to you today, Ms. Chipper?" He asked with concern hidden beneath the joking tone.

Hermione's eyes immediately filled with tears when she saw he was about to give her a hug, quickly she moved a step away and threw her arms out in front of her to keep him away from her, then she felt it, the undeniable turn of her stomach, and just like that she threw up a half-gallon of ice cream right on the front of Draco Malfoy's designer robes.

She chanced a glance at his face after she finished heaving and burst into laughter, his face was priceless!

"Gross! Oh my merlin I'm going to throw up! Hermione I can't believe you just…. Ugh eek! YUCK!" he yelled before brandishing his wand and cleaning them both up with a quick swish.

Hermione stopped laughing and glared at him before turning around and slamming the door in his face.

"Hermione? Hermione open up!" he yelled pounding on the door, "What the hell? Why are you mad? You threw up on me! I'm supposed to be the one pitching a fit, I'm not though, everything's good, I actually need to talk to you, it's important!"

"GO AWAY!" She yelled. "I never want to see you again, you asshole! Get away from my apartment and out of my life!"

"Wait, hold on! What the hell is wrong with you? Open this damn door now or I'll blast it open!" He yelled back.

Hermione ignored him and decided to go to her room and sleep off the migraine that had formed over the past hour and a half. She got about 4 steps before Draco blasted her door right off its hinges. She quickly whipped around as splinters of wood flew all around her, and a smoky haze was the only thing separating them.

"Care to explain." He asked in a deadly calm manner. "Why you would want to throw away four years of hard work and friendship? Over what? Can I at least know why?"

She felt tears well up in her eyes once again but fought them down with a few deep breaths. "Why does it matter, why? You're getting what you want; you never have to deal with me again! I won't ever drive you crazy or infuriate you again. You can walk away and never have to deal with my crazy antics ever again!" She spat wishing she had her wand so she could curse him.

Draco looked confused, "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

She glared at him, "I heard you, today talking to Blaise, you said," She paused and held up a hand to tick off the list of things he hated about her, " I'm infuriating, you don't even know how to talk to me, my study and reading habits drive you up the wall, you can't stand to touch or talk to me, and you regret all the work you put into this friendship because it wasn't worth it."

Comprehension dawned on his face and he started to chuckle. "And let me guess, you didn't stay and wait for the conversation to end, you just stalked off in the middle of the conversation, thinking you knew all you needed to know, but what upsets me is that you think I could hate you! After we've been friends for so long? Do you really have such little faith in me? Do you still see me as that arrogant child I was in school? You're hurt because you think you know what I meant, but I'm hurt you could even think I meant it in that way in the first place."

She blinked at him, confused. "Wh… what?"

He pulled her into a hug, she was too confused to fight him and annoyed at her heart for hoping, hoping was a bad thing, and hope got you hurt.

"If you had stayed, listened, and hadn't gone storming off to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream and ate him out of house and home, you would have heard how you took that completely out of context. Hermione..." He whispered as he tightened his hold afraid she would struggle against him. "My Mione, do you know how absolutely stunning you are?" She snorted her thoughts drifting to her current appearance, "yes even when you first opened the door you took my breath away, although not as strongly as you usually do, but it was just the fact it was you I was looking at that blew me away."

His heart was pounding strongly in her ear, and she subconsciously began to relax against him as she listened to the rumbling of his voice. "The day you forgave me, that day in the café where you agreed you would give me a chance that was the best day of my life. Don't ever doubt for a moment you don't matter to me, you're the only thing that will always matter to me."

She pulled away, her nose red, her eyes watery, and her heart pounding with hope, hope that maybe he loved her too. She fought the urge to throw her arms around him and decided to ask the dreaded question. "Then what did you mean, when you said those things today?"

He gave her a pained look, sighed and pulled her over to the couch, "I was going to wait to tell you this somewhere beautiful, in a way that you deserve, but you leave me no choice." He took her hand and looked at her with such tenderness her heart stopped for a moment. "Hermione, I love you, I'm so completely head over heels for you I can't handle being just you're friend any longer, you're infuriating in the fact, that you seem immune to every slight advance I have tried to gain your attention, I can't talk to you because I can only say about half of what I truly want to say, you drive me crazy with you reading habits because I selfishly want you to pay more attention to me, you're touch makes my heart fly, and you're voice makes it skip a beat, and I regret everything I've done at this point because it's led me to being stuck in the friend zone and dreading the day you introduce me to the guy that should have been me. I just can't handle another day being just friends with you; you're too amazing for me to just let you go."

Hermione blinked, and then just to make sure she wasn't dreaming pinched herself and flinched when it hurt. She kept her voice from betraying her feelings, "You…. You love me? Are you joking?" He shook his head and she glanced down and saw his hands were shaking, he was nervous, Draco was never nervous!

Her heart soared as she flung her arms around him, "Oh Draco, I love you too, I don't know when it happened but I truly do, you are everything I've ever wanted, I was so scared today, so heartbroken when I thought you never wanted me."

He smiled down at her but instead of answering he pressed his mouth to hers, and immediately she felt the sparks and shivers she had only ever read about in her beloved books. He pulled away smiling and kissed her on the nose, "Now let's get you cleaned up, and take you on that date I came here to take you on."

She smiled, "Lets skip dinner, for now anyway, I'm still full from my ice cream, let's give my stomach time to empty a little more."

"As long as it's not on me again!" he exclaimed causing both of them to laugh as he pulled her in for another spine tingling kiss.