The next couple of days passed far too quickly for Hermione's liking. She spent the entire Sunday by Ron's side, and on Monday all of her free time hand in hand with him. The entire school knew about them, it was pretty hard not to, Hermione thought, because Ron was always grabbing her and kissing her in the middle of corridors or in the Great Hall. They'd already had a warning from Professor McGonagall to give it a rest. Even Harry seemed to be keeping his distance. Despite how much she loved Ron she couldn't help feel like he was just kissing her in public to make a show of himself. But despite this she couldn't remember ever feeling happier. On Monday morning though, she woke up and warned herself not to let Ron distract her from her schoolwork, and with a very small effort, glad to be getting some peace from him, she got ready for the day. When she arrived in the common room full of sleepy students meeting their friends before breakfast, she spotted Harry and Ginny sat together by the table. She made her way over with a grin and dropped her bag onto the table when she got there.
"Morning, Hermione," Ginny said, putting her hand over her mouth to suppress a yawn.
"You okay?" Harry asked as she sat down.
"Fine thanks, you two?"
"Fine," they replied together.
"Ron should be down in a minute," Harry explained, and at his words Hermione couldn't help but feel awkward and a little offended, as if Harry thought Ron was her one and only priority.
"Harry, just so you know, my life doesn't revolve around Ron. And don't worry, I'm not going to let it. You know me better than that." She smirked. She didn't want this to turn into an argument.
"I know that. I just, I don't know, I'm not used to seeing you with anyone and I suppose I'm getting protective over you, you're like my little sister." Harry replied affectionately. This made Hermione smile, she thought of Harry like a brother too.
"Yeah, except for the fact that I'm older than you." She laughed. Harry returned a short laugh and a nod and then Ron was next to her, stretching, his clothes obviously just thrown on. "Honestly," she said, shaking her head and straightening Ron's jumper, "anyone would think you'd slept in these clothes." She stood up to straighten his tie as he looked down at her admiringly.
"Sorry, mum." He teased, grinning and leaning down to plant a quick kiss on her lips.
"Are we going down to breakfast then?" She said with a sigh, turning to Harry and Ginny, and they all made their way down to the Great Hall to begin the day.
As Malfoy made his way down the stairs to Charms, he made a point of avoiding anyone he would usually speak to. He had spent all of Sunday in his bed, drawing, without going down to the Great Hall for any food. He hadn't eaten since Saturday night but he really wasn't hungry, the thought of food made his stomach turn. He had mostly drawn Granger, her different features, her magical eyes, or drawn horrible things happening to Weasel. He still had a lump the size of a boulder in his throat but he hadn't cried at all since the Room of Requirement. He was all cried out. He hated himself for being so pathetic, he hadn't expected to ever have this reaction to anything, much less a girl, and even less Granger. He felt so stupid and he wasn't upset any more, he was angry. Angry at Granger for leading him on, even if it was without realising, angry at Weasley for kissing her in the middle of the Great Hall as if to rub it in his face, Angry at his father and his family for making him believe it's wrong to love a Mudblood, but mostly he was furious with himself, for letting his guard down and allowing himself to fall, knowing exactly where he was heading, and for allowing himself to think that a girl like that would ever want a boy like him. Who is he, to compare to the Chosen One Potter and the Sidekick Hero Weasley. He is nothing but a boy so afraid of disappointing his parents that he would push his own beliefs away. He felt absolutely worthless and hopeless, but didn't want anyone to see him seem weak, so he was avoiding everyone.
In Charms, he luckily arrived before Granger and took his seat, where he usually only had to glance forward and he would see Grangers bushy head, two rows ahead of him to the right. He heard them coming in then, Weasley and Potter rabbiting on about something he didn't give a shit about, and Granger walking between them, looking from one to the other. Malfoy knew she was only pretending to listen, because her eyes were unfocused and she kept glancing towards her seat, as if desperate to get away from them. This would have made him smile, but they'd already walked past him with her not even noticing he was there, which, even though he didn't want to talk to her, stung a little, because he really did expect her to say hello or something. No, she didn't give a toss about him, and this would help him move on and forget about her. He turned his head to his book as Flitwick started talking, and only after he'd finished did Malfoy look up to see Granger smiling at him. His heart did a kind of somersault in his chest, but then he remembered the events of Saturday and turned his head away without smiling. Shit, he thought, shouldn't have done that. She'll want answers. He hoped that she would brush it off because she thought Malfoy didn't want to be seen co-operating with her, but he knew she was much smarter than that. So all he had to do now was wait for the blow. But surprisingly, it didn't come.
The next day, Hermione made her way towards her seat next to Malfoy in Transfiguration, smiling brightly and hugging her books to her chest.
"Good morning." She said, but he didn't even look at her. I'm not starting this again. "Look, Malfoy, try all you want, but I am not going to play along with your games. We got on really well over the weekend, so don't spoil it by being childish. And don't think I didn't notice you brushing me off in Charms yesterday. Please, if you don't want to be friendly with me anymore for whatever reason you may have come up with in the space of a day, that's fine, but at least try to be civil until we've finished this assignment." Wow, she didn't mean all of that to come out at once. Malfoy just stared back at her accusingly, as if she should know why he was acting like this. But she had no idea.
"Whatever, Granger." He replied. It took all of her strength for Hermione not to slam her books down and storm out, but instead she bit her lip and sat down next to him, determined to ignore every snide comment. The lesson went reasonably well, Malfoy only said a few words, granted, they were usually snapped or hissed, but a few hissed words were better than a full on argument. They continued with the assignment in silence after Hermione suggested what to do next and Malfoy uttered a sharp "fine." But because she was determined not to let him off that easy, she just smiled and made jokes, even if he didn't reply, she would just laugh and turn back to her work, not allowing herself to snap because she knew this is what would annoy him the most. Therefore when the bell rang and Malfoy scrambled to collect his things and shoot out, she called after him.
"Thanks for the help, Malfoy, much appreciated." She called sweetly. This way, when asked by Harry and Ron what was going on, she would tell them that she was struggling and Malfoy helped her. Giving them a reason to be nice to him, another thing that would piss Malfoy off. Why shouldn't she? He pissed her off so it was only fair. Unfortunately though, this plan failed miserably.
"Just watch him, Hermione, I don't trust him." Ron warned, to which Hermione rolled her eyes at him for the millionth time this week. It was going to take a lot to get Ron to even be civil with Malfoy.
The next few days flew past in a blur. Malfoy stayed in his mood throughout all their lessons together, and Ron was at Hermione's side at every second possible. It was kind of like having a cat and a dog, The cat only wants to know when it's good enough for him, but the dog follows you around everywhere, even more than your own shadow. She loved that Ron was her boyfriend now, but each day she couldn't help but notice how he seemed to think he could control her now. She would get up and say she was going to the library, and he would reply with "No, stay here with me," or "I'll come with you," or even "can you pick me up a book." She was beginning to feel like she had to run everything by him before she did it, and it was driving her insane. So when Friday night arrived, these thoughts racing through her mind, she stood up from the table made up of her, Ron, Harry, and Ginny, shutting her books.
"I'm going for a walk." She announced, and swept out of the Gryffindor common room before Ron had a chance to protest.
In her subconscious, she must have known where she was going, but in the front of her mind her thoughts about her relationship with Ron were flashing so quickly that she wasn't registering her surroundings. However when she woke from her daze from a crisp brown leaf brushing against her nose in the wind, she found herself walking towards Malfoy, sat by his tree and drawing as usual.
She wasn't going to try to annoy him, she just wanted to relax for a bit and felt like she could do that with him if he wasn't still in a bad mood. So she dropped down beside him, smiling gently.
"Hello," she said cautiously. Malfoy almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of her.
"Fuck, Granger you've GOT to stop doing that!" he snapped, stuffing what she supposed was a spare, empty school book down beside him as if he didn't want her to see what he was drawing. "What the fuck do you want?" She frowned at his use of profanities and took a deep breath to collect her patience. She thought he wouldn't have been in a mood with just the two of them there.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you again," she smiled. "I just feel really stressed and I thought if I was with you I could relax." This embarrassed her, as she hadn't really thought about it until now and now she did think about it she realised just how much she liked spending time with Malfoy.
"So I'm just your shoulder to cry on am I?" he replied, picking his drawing book back up.
"No!" Hermione cried, offended that he believed this "Malfoy, I'm here because I enjoy your company, and I see you as a friend." She told him honestly. He seemed to consider this and then frowned again.
"Why don't you go cry to your other friends, you've been snogging Weasel's face off all week, why can't you go spill all your troubles to your own boyfriend." Malfoy said sharply.
"Well, actually," she replied quietly, "it's him that's stressing me out." At her words, Malfoy looked up at her for the first time since she'd arrived, as if suddenly interested in what she had to say.
"And why is that? You seemed pretty happy when he first tried to suck your face off." He said. Hermione cleared her throat.
"Ignoring that comment." She said, and she told Malfoy how she was feeling. She knew he was probably the last person she should be talking to about her relationship with Ron but she felt so comfortable around him and he listened so well. Of course, he was making plenty of unnecessary comments but she just ignored them and carried on talking. By the time she'd finished, Malfoy was frowning so harshly she thought he had a headache. But then he spoke.
"Granger," he said quietly, "why the hell are you still with him if he's pissing you off so much?"
"Because, I…I love him, Malfoy I really do." Hermione said, as if reassuring herself rather than him.
"No, no you don't." Malfoy said. His voice rising, he got to his feet. "I see the way you look each time he tries to kiss you. You look absolutely repulsed by him! Like you would rather be kissing a fucking troll!" Hermione followed him to her feet.
"What? No! That's not true at all! I love kissing him it just…gets a bit too much," she said shyly, as if only realising herself how she felt.
"For fucks sake Granger wake up! You're so obviously unhappy with him and anyone with any sense can see that!" Hermione sat back down by the tree.
"Malfoy, you don't understand, when I kiss Ron, it feels good, but, each time I just expect something to happen inside like the first time we kissed, but now I just get disappointed." She picked up the drawing pad, lost in thought, not registering what was on the papers she was flicking through, not realising that Malfoy had frozen with panic. "I just…"
But then the pictures registered. She saw herself drawn in the book, multiple times, each making her look more beautiful than she'd ever felt, and always so much detail. Had Malfoy drawn these? Each one looked at her in shock that she'd found the drawings, and then looked towards where Malfoy was standing. The real Hermione followed their gaze, looking up at Malfoy who was stood like a statue with his hand over his mouth.
"Malfoy," she asked softly, "what are these? Are they supposed to be me?" He didn't reply, he just closed his eyes. "Why would you draw pictures of me? I mean, I'm flattered, but…why?" Malfoy had regained control of his body and moved forward to snatch the drawing pad from Hermione's grasp.
"None of your business!" he snapped. What? Drawings of me aren't my business? Hermione thought.
"Of course they're my business! They're of me!" She shouted, getting to her feet again and walking towards him.
"They're nothing Granger!" He shouted back, moving closer to her. "I'm just…trying to practice drawing people and the only girls I've spent enough time to be able to draw well enough are you and Parkinson, and I'm not drawing her because she's so fuck ugly!" His face suddenly fell at the sound of these words and swept away, disappearing from sight, leaving Hermione stood next to the tree, utterly confused.
Later that evening, when Ron had disappeared for 5 minutes, Hermione told Harry what had happened. He was really angry with her for going to Malfoy for comfort, and became so furious when she told him about the drawings that she completely regretted talking to him.
"Hermione, what the hell!" he hissed, trying not to allow other people to hear.
"I know! Well, no actually I don't know but please promise me Harry that you won't tell Ron, he'll be 10 times as angry as you are." She pleaded.
"What are you doing? You are asking me to keep secrets about you and Draco Malfoy from your boyfriend! From Ron! Why do you trust Malfoy and not Ron?" He asked.
"What? Harry! I do trust Ron! Of course I do! Anyway you can't talk, you wouldn't tell him about you and Ginny!" Hermione snapped back.
"That was different!" he said.
"Look, Harry, I'm not discussing this now. Just please promise me you won't tell him."
"Fine, but just promise me that you'll be careful about Malfoy, what he's doing is really not right."
"Yes, okay Harry, but you of all people should know that there are much worse things than drawing someone." She said, and got up from her seat. "Goodnight, Harry."
"Night, Hermione." He replied. Hermione smiled and made her way up to the girls dormitories, her mind racing.
The next day Malfoy made a point to stay away from his tree, afraid that Granger might show up demanding an explanation, because there was no way she believed what he'd told her. Instead he found himself sat in a deserted corridor on the fourth floor, drawing Hermione at the Yule Ball, looking more beautiful than all of the girls at Hogwarts put together. The night before he had torn all of his drawings out of the book and stuffed them into his suitcase, afraid that Hermione would find them again. He still couldn't stop himself from drawing her though. He felt so peaceful doing it, so peaceful in fact, that he didn't see Potter walking towards him until their feet were almost meeting at the toes.
"Malfoy." Potter said, with a warning tone in his voice. Malfoy stood immediately, closing the drawing book and holding it in his right hand.
"What the fuck do you want, Potter?" He snapped.
"Can I see that?" Potter asked, ignoring Malfoy's words.
"As if." He hissed back. "Now fuck off before I hex your head off."
"You're not going to scare me away that easily. Accio!" Potter yelled, and the book came zooming towards him, landing in his left hand. Then before Malfoy had a chance to react, Harry shouted "Protego!" And Malfoy was pushed back behind the invisible barrier between the two of them. He then opened the drawing pad, and Malfoy saw his face drop in shock. Shit! He thought. Granger must have told him.
"Malfoy, why are you drawing pictures of Hermione?" Potter asked, surprisingly calmly.
"None of your business!" Malfoy shouted back. He hadn't even thought to use his own wand, he was concentrating too much on getting the book back.
"Stay away from her, do you hear me? Stay away from her!" Potter was shouting now, too.
"She's the one who keeps running to me!" he replied.
"I don't care. If I find out you've touched her I'll kill you." Potter threatened, "I'm serious, Malfoy."
"Whatever, Potter, just fuck off will you? And give me my book back before I kill you, because trust me, I won't hesitate." Malfoy snarled.
"Stay away." Potter warned. He then threw the book to Malfoy's feet and walked away.
Why the fuck didn't I get my wand out? Malfoy thought as he picked up the book. He couldn't ahe was? But, Potter doing this kind of made him want to deliberately go after Granger, just because he really did not want to do anything Potter told him to.
That night, Malfoy sat in the Slytherin common room, reading, (he wouldn't dare draw in front of these lot) whilst Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle sat around him, talking pathetically about girls.
"Pansy's gorgeous isn't she?" Crabbe said in awe. No, she's fucking ugly, thought Malfoy.
"Yeah, but I don't like it when they try to be smart arses, they're harder to manipulate." Goyle sniggered." I love smart girls.
"As if you could manipulate a girl anyway," said Blaise, "your face is enough to send them running for the Shrieking Shack!" Malfoy had to agree there. Out of all his so called friends, Malfoy only trusted Blaise, and actually did consider him a friend. "The only one of us who probably could get a girl is Malfoy." He said, turning to look at Draco.
"Yeah, right," Malfoy scoffed, "I may be the good-looking one, but my family history is enough to scare away any decent, smart girl." He said, which, he truly believed.
"Oh, please." A new voice had joined the conversation. The boys looked up to see Pansy Parkinson walking towards Malfoy's chair, her hands running along its top while she lowered herself over it to Malfoy's level. "You're Draco Malfoy, you could have any girl you ever wanted." She purred. Malfoy wasn't sure if she was offering or if she was expecting a compliment back, but she wasn't getting either. Malfoy just cringed at the sight of her, because she was always all over him like a leech. But he had to admit she had a point. He'd seen multiple girls in school and out looking at him and giggling childishly with their friends, pointing him out, and he'd had many offers, but he hadn't taken any up because for one, they were either ugly or stupid, and two, he didn't want a girlfriend. He didn't want any more stress than he already had, and having a foolish girl follow him around all day trying to suck at his face constantly would drive him insane. But Pansy had made Malfoy curious now, and there was one girl he could think of who wouldn't be his shadow, who was intelligent, and beautiful, and who would never be manipulated, but then, he was Draco Malfoy, and he loved a challenge.
On Saturday morning, Hermione went straight down to the library. She still wasn't in the right state of mind to deal with Ron, and she was too occupied to eat. She didn't even have any homework to do, but the library was her sanctuary, a place where she could be left in peace for hours. Once there, she decided to find a book she hadn't read yet, and spotted one on a shelf she couldn't quite reach. As she moved onto her tiptoes though, a hand grabbed the book and pulled it down in front of her. "Thank you," she said, not moving as she knew who was behind her.
"You're welcome," he whispered into her ear, making her shudder. She turned slowly to find Draco Malfoy's face inches away from her own, and the sight of his stunning grey eyes caught her off guard and she gasped.
"Surprised to see me?" Malfoy hummed, and his hands rested on either side the shelves behind her, trapping her between him and the books. Her heart began hammering against her chest as she felt his warm, apple scented breath hit her top lip.
"What do you want?" Hermione muttered, a little intimated. But at the same time, she felt amazing. She felt hot and could feel herself begin to sweat and tremble at the sight of him so close. His hair falling over his forehead, eyes staring her down. What on earth is going on? She thought. But she knew. She knew this feeling at its minimum, but had never thought it could feel like this and she certainly didn't think it could with him. She wanted him closer, but they were already so close their bodies were against each other and all she could hear and feel was their breathing, mingled together. She was attracted to Malfoy, there was no denying it.
The adrenaline running through her body was sending her mad and she just wanted to lunge at him but she knew she couldn't. The only other person in the library was Madame Pince and she was nowhere to be seen because they were so deep in. She had to push him away. She put her hands flat on his chest to do so but at the feeling of his slender body underneath his thin shirt made her breath catch in her throat and the adrenaline pulse to a part of her body she'd never allowed herself to think about. She froze, and looked up at him, their eyes locking together. The feeling was so amazing that she had to close her eyes to stop him seeing them roll back slightly, and she began feeling a little dizzy.
"What do you want Malfoy?" she tried to his, but it just came out in such a low growl that she made herself jump.
"Well," he replied. The feeling his purring voice gave her made her knees buckle a little, but his hand flew to her hip, his thumb rubbing circles against her robes.
She felt so ashamedly aroused that she couldn't move to stop him. "I want you." He said, and before she could fully fall to the ground his lips had collided with hers, crashing against each other. Hermione threw her arms over his shoulder and he picked her up to sit her on the shelves.
Their kiss was so intense that her lips were soaked, but she couldn't let go, she could never let go. Malfoy let out a feral groan against her lips, and the vibration and the sound almost sent her over the edge and her hands dug into Malfoy back, causing him to hiss with arousal, as he began kissing her even harder than she thought possible.
It was the most amazing feeling in the world, his hands all over her, her heart hammering madly against her chest, her legs moist with sweat, she just wanted to cry to relieve some of the tension, but she would not break be the one to part their lips, she wanted to stay like this forever.
Authors Note: Hey guys, I know it's been like forever since I updated but I've just been so busy I really haven't had the time, which is also why this chapter is so shit but I just really wanted to get it up.
I know it probably seems a little early for them to get together but I wanted to concentrate on what they go through together, rather than what happens before.
I hope you enjoy this chapter though I doubt you will, and I promise I will try and get the next one up a bit earlier, but I'm working 3 jobs now so be patient! :D
If you have any questions at all please take them to my tumblr, .com
And please, please please please, REVIEW! Seriously guys you're comments mean so much and I completely welcome constructive criticism I honor you opinions.
THANK YOU FOR BEING PATIENT.
Loves xxxx