Disclaimer: Nope. No profit here. Sorry, guys.
(A/N): Hello again!! I'm pretty pleased with all the support I've gotten from chapter 1. All of you reviewers are amazing!! Special thanks to Aicalas, slytherinqueen23, miss quirky bookworm, and Writer of Mysteries. Your words of encouragement mean so much to me. Now, without further ado, on to chapter 2!!
Chapter 2
"Hermione! Draco! Where have you been?" A terrified Harry asked.
Lightning flashed ominously behind them, illuminating their silhouettes in the open doorway.
Hermione looked awkwardly down at her hands. She was never, ever late. Something so irresponsible was unthinkable for Hermione Granger. She hated it when Harry scolded her like this. Coming from anyone else she could have brushed it off as nothing, but Harry was a completely different matter.
"I'm sorry, Harry. We-" Hermione started.
"Look at you! You're absolutely soaking wet! What did you do, walk in the rain?"
"Well, actually-"
"Do you not understand that my wedding is in two weeks? Two weeks, Hermione. I need to know that I can depend on you."
"But, Harry-"
"Hermione, listen to me-"
"Potter, would you just shut up and let her talk?" Malfoy bellowed, loud enough for Dudley to choke on his eighth donut in surprise. Even after Harry had faced all sorts of terrors, hearing Malfoy speak in that tone always made him shiver a little in fright.
When no one spoke for a few moments, Draco smiled satisfactorily at his handiwork. "Thank you. Now, if you would be so kind as to invite us in."
"Oh, right." Harry stepped awkwardly out of their way as they entered, trailing mud inside like a pack of dirty hyenas.
Hermione and Draco made a slight squishing noise as they sat on the couch. Harry sat in an armchair across from them, gazing at them with all the intensity of an interrogator.
"Go ahead, Hermione." Draco looked at her with an evil smirk.
Hermione matched his smirk with an equally vicious expression of her own. He was enjoying this far too much, she could tell. His Slytherin-tainted personality drank in the conflict before him: Hermione Granger, fighting with the boy she'd loved for years, because she was late to make plans for his marriage to her ex best friend. Draco sat back on the couch, put his hands behind his head like a pillow, and enjoyed the show.
"Well, Malfoy and I were arguing, and then the car started to hydroplane. So we just… well…"
Thinking back on her and Draco's little jaunt in the rain, she knew it'd sound absolutely ridiculous if she tried to explain it. It was something that wasn't put into words, something that was simply understood by the both of them. She knew he wouldn't understand it like they did, but she had to try anyways.
"We… sort of… danced. In the rain. For a while. And then hitched a very awkward ride with a truck driver." Hermione wrung her hands nervously in her lap and avoided Harry's gaze.
Hermione was right about Harry's reaction. He stared at her, his mouth gaping open in a way that was very undignified for one who had not so long ago saved the world from Voldemort. His eyebrows shot up his forehead, disappearing beneath the messy mop of hair.
'You. And Malfoy. Danced. In the rain."
Hermione glanced at Draco for support, but he seemed completely immune to the growing tension. He looked as content as a muggle watching a movie. The only thing missing was the heart-attack-in-a-bowl movie theater popcorn.
"Yes." Hermione confessed. She saw the stress and disbelief evident in Harry's eyes, piled up over the last several days. She knew him well, and could tell that the dam holding his emotions back was about to shatter into a million pieces.
"Hermione, we don't have time to gallivant around in the rain! The catering order was supposed to be finished three hours ago, but now it's too late! What are we going to do if we can't get a caterer, huh? Did you think about that when you went on this little dancing adventure?" Harry's violent green eyes gleamed with intensity.
Hermione recoiled in shock like a puppy that had been kicked by its master for the first time. Never had Harry yelled at her so openly and vehemently. He'd snapped at her on several occasions, sure, but that was nothing compared to the fury that radiated from him now. She would withstand it, though. She bit her lip, and told herself over and over not to cry.
"Did you not even stop to think about us?" Harry stood up and started to pace, his steps as tense as a soldier's march to war. "Did you not realize that we were counting on you to be here? Do you even care?"
Hermione had had enough. He had gone too far, and he knew it.
Hermione stood up in her rage. "I do care about you, Harry Potter, certainly much more than Ginny ever will!"
All the noise squealed to a violent and abrupt halt, leaving them in silence. Hermione blushed a little bit, the true meaning of her own words hitting her full force. She covered her open mouth with her hand and took a step back from a very shocked Harry, suddenly feeling the need to be far, far away from him.
"What… was that?" Harry asked in a slightly concerned tone, as if he thought she was losing her mind.
"I… I'm sorry." Hermione fled out of the room and back outside, into the downpour again.
"Wh-what do you think she meant, Malfoy?" Harry asked Draco, who had perception powers concerning the female mind of which Harry could only dream of having.
"Well, Hermione told you that she cares for you more than Ginny, and Ginny is the woman who loves you enough to marry you. What do you think, Boy Wonder?"
Harry put his head in his hands, Hermione's confession hitting him with all the force of a freight train. "Oh, no…"
"She loves you, Potter. Why, I can't say. But that doesn't change the fact that you just tore her apart because she didn't rush to plan a wedding that makes her cry herself to sleep every night."
Harry looked at him, slightly confused. "How do you know that she cries herself to sleep?"
Draco smirked, "I'm a Malfoy, remember? I have powers of which you know nothing."
Harry shook his head and got dangerously close to laughing. But then he thought of Hermione, broken hearted and out in the rain alone, and then all the laughter immediately died in his throat. He was in one of the most precarious situations of his life, and he had no idea how to get out of it. He only knew that he had to talk to Ginny.
"I need to call Ginny." Harry said resolutely.
"You're not going after Hermione?" Draco asked in wonder.
"There are more important things to be dealt with right now." Harry stalked off.
It wasn't until later that Draco would understand the true intentions behind those words, but to him, it sounded like Harry had just turned his back on his best friend.
Draco shook his head. "Fine, then." He stalked out the door that Hermione had left wide open, almost like she was inviting him to follow. He didn't have to look far for her, a lump with bushy hair sat at the end of the Dursley's driveway. The mass of hair bounced up and down, tossed by her own relentless crying.
He walked towards her, and got soaked all over again. He reached her, and realized that she wasn't even trying to shield herself from the rain. It was like she wanted to be drenched completely, wanted to be cleansed from this awful meeting. She loved that she could hide her sorrow behind the veil of water, her tears mixing with the droplets until they vanished.
"I'm not going back inside." Hermione said adamantly.
She expected him to protest, expected him to tell her forcefully that she would have to face Harry sooner or later. Part of her almost expected him to mock her like he had so long ago. She was surprised when she heard footsteps retreating to the house, and then finally the door closed.
She was a little put-out that he had just left her without a word. Did he care? Did he care that she was sitting out in the rain, pieces of her heart scattered among the wreckage of her life?
Or was he just the same old Malfoy?
Her tears took on a new ferocity, but then she didn't feel the rain hitting her anymore. She could hear it and she could smell it, but she was no longer being pelted by droplets. She looked up out of curiosity.
Malfoy stood next to her, and he was holding an umbrella over both of them.
"Draco?" Hermione asked in surprise.
"It's okay. I'm not going anywhere."
Hermione scooted closer to him and leaned against his legs, a content smile spreading across her face. It truly was a marvel that Draco Malfoy, of all people, could make her feel better in a situation like this.
"What are you doing out here?" Hermione asked.
"Holding an umbrella over you, of course." Draco answered simply.
Hermione smiled again, the tension within her beginning to lessen. She felt his arm slip around her shoulder, pulling her slightly closer to him. She felt so comfortable with him, so warm and so cared for. She would stay outside in the rain with him forever, if only they could stay together.
"Thank you." She whispered.
"You're welcome, Hermione. If the storm ever gets too strong for you to handle on your own, come and stay under my umbrella."
Without even thinking about what she was doing, Hermione reached up and laced her fingers through his. They were both soaking wet and made a slightly awkward squishing noise, but the moment was beautiful nonetheless.
"Hermione! Hermione!"
Harry's voice.
The beautiful moment crumbled around them.
"I canceled the wedding!"
Hermione's head whipped around in shock and confusion.
"Don't you understand? We can be together now."
Draco felt an awful clench in his stomach.
"I love you, Hermione! I've loved you all this time!"
Draco's umbrella crashed to the ground, and was swallowed by the rain.