Brooke was nearly late to Charms that morning, rushing in right before Professor Flitwick began the lesson. Hermione raised her eyebrow.
She pursed her lips, but the movement made her remember his brushing against them. Quickly looked away, feeling the blush rising to her cheeks. Hermione was definitely going to ask about it as soon as she got the chance.
They had the next two classes with Ron and Harry, so the two didn't get the chance to talk until their lunch period. Hermione had made the excuse that she wanted to try on the new shoes she had sent in for the ball.
"Who are you going with again?" Ron asked.
"Nice try," Hermione smirked. She whisked Brooke away and out of the Great Hall.
"He's really pushing it, isn't he?" Brooke asked about Ron. He'd been jumping at every chance to figure out who had asked Hermione to the ball. And if she didn't know any better, Brooke thought Hermione was enjoying it.
"He'll never figure it out," she shrugged.
They went up to the second floor and into one of the empty classrooms.
"Hermione, before I tell you," Brooke began. "Promise me you'll tell me what you think and not what you want me to hear. And you can't mention this to anyone."
"Of course."
"I went down to the lake to meet Malfoy, obviously," Brooke said, sitting down on a desk. "And we started fighting and yelling. It got pretty bad… of course, up until the point where we started kissing."
Brooke pictured Hermione going into a shock.
She did.
"What?" Hermione gaped in repulsion.
Brooke nodded slowly.
"Willingly?"
She had to think for a second. "Not initially, no…"
"So he kissed you first?"
Brooke nodded again.
"And you kissed him back?" Hermione asked slowly and clearly.
Brooke was staring at the etchings on the desk. Her silence registered as a yes.
"You know what this means, don't you?"
"I haven't really lingered on the topic, no," Brooke replied, starting to feel nauseous.
"He fancies you," she said simply. Much too straight forward for Brooke's liking. "And I'm guessing you're starting to fancy him too?"
Hermione asked her hesitantly, looking for a denial or agreement.
"Nothing makes sense anymore, Hermione," she groaned.
"Did anything else happen?"
Brooke shook her head. "Not at all. We didn't say much after that. I think he said something about not telling anyone- oh, well."
The advice Hermione gave her was exactly what Brooke feared. She had to talk to him and they had to straighten out what it meant. Brooke wanted to forget about it and hopefully things would go back to normal. But it never works out that way.
She saw him at dinner, but Malfoy was closely followed by his gang of Slytherins. It wasn't until the next night where Brooke found the opportunity to confront him alone.
A crazy idea popped into her mind and she decided to go along with it. Grabbing his arm, she pulled him back around the corner.
"What are you-"
Malfoy didn't finish his sentence as Brooke kissed him full on the mouth, unintentionally pushing him into the wall.
With her lips locked onto his, she tried to be more aware of what it felt like. But her brain seemed to shut down a little. Everything was on edge. Her original plan was to kiss him and figure out her feelings from there. Now, she couldn't think straight. The only thing she was aware of was Malfoy deepening the kiss and sliding his tongue across her lips. It was hard to repress the moan that rumbled across her mouth and Brooke wasn't sure if she was successful or not. But his had had moved up and gently captured her jaw.
Brooke broke away first.
"Hello to you to," Malfoy said breathlessly.
He moved in to kiss her again, but she pressed a finger to his mouth. "Shh, I'm trying to think."
"Mmkay," he cocked an eyebrow and she put her finger down. "I'll just wait here. Silently. Waiting for you to think."
Nothing seemed to be processing in her mind except her irritation at his constant talking. Brooke didn't really need to think. She was trying to find out any other explanation than the obvious.
"Just standing here," Malfoy droned. "After being snogged. Out of nowhere. I'll just wait and cater to your every-"
Brooke kissed him again.
"Is this going to be the only way I can get you to shut up?"
He smirked. "That's not why you kissed me."
"Well, why did you kiss me yesterday?"
Malfoy shrugged, managing to swing Brooke back to being annoyed. "I wanted to." This time, he moved in quickly and stole a kiss. And another.
"Wait," she mumbled against his lips.
He kissed her again.
"Why are we- we shouldn't-" Brooke tried to say in between his kisses and found it harder to form words.
"You're thinking too much," was all he had to say to stop her from holding back. His tongue swept across hers. Brooke couldn't think of anything she wanted more than to stay like this.
So she cursed herself as soon as she pulled away. "What are we doing?"
The spinning feeling was fading away and Brooke tried to keep herself from plunging herself back into his arms.
As if reading her thoughts, Malfoy grabbed her shoulders and was the most serious she'd ever seen him.
"Do you want to kiss me?" he asked.
Just the thought of telling him the truth brought her cheeks to a pale crimson color. Brooke clenched her jaw and nodded.
"Then what's the problem?"
"It's not that simple," she shook her head.
"What's not simple about it?" he dropped his arms to his sides.
"We hate each other."
"Brooke," Malfoy said gently, reeling her in close.
"Draco." Her breath quickened the closer she got.
"Just go with it," he smiled on her lips.
When she stood in the common room a little while later, Ginny was sitting on the arm chair and she and Harry were watching Ron and Hermione going at it again about the dance.
"Please tell me she's lying about having someone to go with?" Ron addressed her, but immediately forgot his question and asked another one, "Why are you so happy?"
Brooke hadn't noticed she was beaming and realized her cheeks were hurting and was still a little flushed from what she claimed was from the wind outside.
"What were you doing outside? It's freezing?" Harry looked up.
"Oh, I was just with me and Hermione's imaginary dates," she joked, shifting the subject away from herself.
"Well, I can expect you to be asked, but Hermione?" said Ron, throwing his arm to gesture at Hermione.
That comment blew Hermione over the top, even Harry's eyebrows shot up into his hair. "Is it so hard for you to believe that I got asked?! Because believe it or not, someone wanted ask me. You're just bitter because Fleur turned you down and now you can't get a date!" she whipped her hair and walked up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
Everyone simply looked at Ron.
"What?" said Ron, trying look as if nothing happened. "She's the one being so sensitive about it."
"You should've just asked her to the dance," Brooke told him, shaking her head.
Ron looked baffled, "I did! Right before you came in. Harry and Ginny saw me, didn't you?"
"It looked more like you insulted her," Ginny scoffed.
Hermione's back was turned from the door, sitting next to the window.
"Are you alright?"
Her bushy hair nodded up and down, but Brooke could hear a small sniffle trying to be concealed. Brooke went to sit across from her and waited for her to say something first.
"I'm just so frustrated with him," said Hermione, putting her chin in her hand, "Thank goodness Krum asked me before that insensitive cow of a boy."
"What do you expect? It's Ron. He's not exactly the most eligible bachelor in London. But for some reason, I think he waited so long to ask you because he didn't want to seem so eager," she couldn't help herself to say.
"I doubt it," Hermione laughed, "Anyway, it's his problem not mine," she got up and opened her Potions book.
Still mad at Ron, Hermione and Brooke went down for dinner at the Great Hall without waiting up for them. Easily, Draco caught her eye, but only for a couple seconds as Hermione gasped and grabbed her arm.
"Did you talk to him?" asked Hermione.
"Talk to who?" Brooke said innocently, failing to mentally tell her cheeks to stop turning red.
"What do you mean 'who'?"
Brooke felt her stomach tie itself into knots at the thought of what happened in the hallway. It was the strangest feeling, being so preoccupied with Draco Malfoy, in a good way.
"It was good," she said with an unreadable expression. "Not much talking really went on."
Hermione tilted her head. "You mean…?"
"I'm in big trouble, Hermione," she groaned.
"So you two…" Hermione said in disbelief.
"This time, it was my fault."
Hermione laughed. "What does that make the two of you now?"
"Together," she said, unable to help the smile unfolding on her face.
"Why didn't you go over and say hi?" she stood up, ready to walk over to the Slytherin table.
"No," Brooke grabbed her arm quickly. "We're not…well, we've decided not to tell people about it."
Hermione sunk back in her seat. "Why?"
Brooke shrugged. "It only makes sense to, doesn't it? Everyone would just be asking questions and I just don't want to deal with it. Neither does he, I'm sure."
"But you just told me," she pointed out.
"Well, you're you. Of course I'd tell you."
"And Harry and Ron?"
"I plan to tell them sometime," Brooke took a bite out of her dinner roll. "But, I think they'll go berserk once I do."
"No, they'll understand," Hermione began to say and then stopped. They looked at each other and then started laughing.
"You're right. I think they'd throw a fit and then go after Malfoy themselves," she joked. "Was it his idea? Not telling anyone?"
"Both of ours," she replied. Then she thought about it for a second. "Actually, it was his idea, but I completely agreed."
Hermione nodded. Wheels seemed to start turning in her head, but Hermione asked before Brooke did.
"You think maybe he's up to something?"
"I thought he might be," Brooke admitted. "But no. For some reason, it just doesn't feel that way.
Not knowing why she decided to turn around to the Slytherin table, she saw Draco half listening to Goyle's story. His eyes looked up to her for a small second and stared back down at his soup with a hint of a smile. Without looking away, Brooke said to Hermione, "You'll tell me, right? You'll tell me if this is the stupidest thing I've ever done?"
Hermione smiled reassuringly.
She could still see the slight twinge of doubt in her face and Brooke realized that this was why it was a good idea to never tell anyone about Draco.