"So tell me you love me. Only for tonight. Only for one night," The Weeknd.

Chapter 7: The invitation

Hermione woke up once more in Draco's arms. She shifted her body to face him, waking him in the process. Draco propped his arm up to meet her gaze better, and Hermione mirrored the action. Their eyes wandered each others face, attempting to read the others feelings on what was to take place. It was bittersweet for Draco, and only bitter for Hermione.

Hermione glanced at his lips, once more wondering what it would feel like to taste them. This was her last chance. This would be the last chance to see it feels like to kiss Draco Malfoy. Maintaining eye contact, Hermione leaned in.

Noticing her intentions, Draco leaned back and shook his head. It wouldn't be fair of him to kiss her. It might make her want to stay, or worse, it could make her want to continue this behavior in her time. He couldn't risk her losing her mind over him. She had to live in her time, and let things fall into place naturally.

"It's not right," he whispered.

It hurt. She hadn't been entirely sure what he was going to do. It was a silly idea in the first place, really. She'd be leaving within the hour anyways. So, at least the rejection would be short lived.

Hermione flopped backwards on the bed and stared at the ceiling, much like her first day here.

"Hermione?" Her eyes shifted to the voice. He looked concerned, but seemed to want to talk about something other than their second almost-kiss. She waited patiently for him to continue.

"It's almost time, and I want you to promise me something."

Hermione sat up, and Draco followed suit. She thought about refusing, after all, he had just rejected her. Instead, she nodded. "Anything."

"Can you promise me that you won't go after me when you're back in your time?"

Anything but that. What was so wrong about trying to get someone to fall in love with you?

"You can't attempt this future Hermione- You'll drive yourself crazy," he worried. Had she said that out loud? "This future is impossible now. You-"

"It's not fair!" she shouted, slamming her hands on the comforter. "I didn't want to do this in the first place! I've never felt anything like this before. I've only begun to scratch the surface of... of whatever this is!" she said, moving her hand between them.

Hermione took a moment to regain her composure, but was unable. Thoughts of leaving and never seeing him again were playing in her mind. She could feel the loneliness setting in, and he was still in front of her. She couldn't stop her heart feeling heavy, knowing she couldn't have him. It was to much. The second the first tears started to drop, Draco moved to comfort her. It took all of ten minutes for her to calm down enough to hold a conversation.

"I won't attempt to talk to Draco on two conditions," Hermione said solemnly while wiping the remaining dampness off her cheeks and sitting up from his lap.

"Okay," he said, hesitantly.

Hermione left the room and came back with a piece of paper. She scribbled on the paper, and gave it to Draco. While waiting for his response she laid on the bed and propped herself on her hand. He looked apprehensive, but nodded and wrote on it as well. He handed it to her and while she studied his answers, he asked, "What's your second term?"

Hermione wasn't sure if she should ask this of him, but if he was going to deny her attempts to gain a life like this than she was had try one last time. "Kiss me," she whispered, hopeful.

To her surprise, Draco moved swiftly.

He pushed her flat on the bed, straddling her. With one hand holding her hands above her head he pushed his lips against hers while moving his unoccupied hand to hold her hip underneath her shirt in an iron grip. Hermione wasted no time in savoring the moment. Drowning in the sensation when he bit her lip, swimming in frenzied lust when his hands kept her from her own moments. His mouth drifted from hers and moved down her neck, sucking lightly on the tender skin.

And before it ended, she landed softly back on the stone floor of Hogwarts.

She hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye.

Hermione sat wide-eyed with her hands covering her mouth for what felt like an eternity before an unsuspecting Ron landed in front of her, grinning from ear to ear.

"That was brilliant! And to think that could have happened!"

"You had a good time, I assume?" she asked softly.

"It was like a dream world. I had just retired, and my wife and I were touring with the Chudley Cannons! And they were playing some of the best Quidditch I have ever seen! I think we had a chance at the Quidditch World Cup," he finished, wistfully. She was only half listening to what Ron was saying, caught in her own memories.

Hermione cut off his daydream and snapped, "Are you not the least bit upset that you can't have that future?"

He was shocked at her outburst. Something bad must have happened, he thought, but he decided to answer her first question. "No, I can always retire and tour with the Cannons... What happened Hermione?"

"I don't really want to talk about it right now. Maybe later?" she asked, hoping to get some alone time.

He shrugged off her tone and didn't push any further. Hermione assumed he noticed she was bad company at the moment. He said a quick goodbye and moved to give her a kiss, but she dodged it unapologetically.

Rolling his eyes he nodded, "I guess we'll talk about it later."

After he left, and Hermione grew cold and uncomfortable from sitting on the floor, she left for the library. She was greeted with the smell of old books and the sound of silence. It was mundane enough for her mood at the moment. She sat close to the bookshelves, spreading her books over the table, and pulling out a quill and parchment to inscribe two incantations: Ouvrir Grotte, Sous.

She needed to copy down Draco's answer from memory. It was important that she remembered the information. Why was it important though? Why had that been one of her conditions? The question seemed so rational at the time, but now she was second guessing her reasoning for asking. Maybe it really was just her curiosity- or maybe she thought one day she would be able to make use of them. Not trying to dwell to much on why she had asked him, she charmed the paper blank, folded it neatly, and secured it in her pocket.

She turned to studying for her Charms exam that she'd been worrying over before she had left for the weekend. After a few hours of studying, a tall girl with black hair towered over her table. She looked athletic; her long legs were lean, much like the rest of her. She was beautiful with pale skin and wide blue eyes.

"I've been looking for you all weekend. Uh... I mean- never mind that. I'm Eileen, and me and a couple other people are looking for new members for our study group for Advanced Potions and we were wondering ifyouwouldliketobeincluded?" she rushed.

Hermione vaguely recognized her as a sixth year Ravenclaw. They weren't even in the same section of potions, which made Hermione doubt that she'd be learning anything new. "That's not a study group," she said bluntly. "You just want me to tutor you."

Ignoring Hermione's tone, the sporty Ravenclaw replied just as excited as before, "Actually, I'm more advanced than most in my class, and the rest of the study group is in your year, so you wouldn't have to worry about us dragging you down. The meetings are always fun. Most of the time is spent socializing, but everyone always learns something when they leave. Please? Just come to one, and if you don't like it you can leave."

There was nothing that could possibly make Hermione want to go to this. She wanted to go back to her dormitory, wallow in self pity, recover, and move on. A study group just was not on her agenda. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going," she finalized.

Eileen nodded her head, gave a small smile, and left. Hermione packed her books into her rucksack . She didn't want people to talk to. She needed to start her recovery process, so she left for the girls dormitory. No one was in her room when she got back. She curled shamelessly into a ball on top of her wool blanket. Staring emptily at the night stand next to her she allowed her tears to pass unrestrained, dampening the pillow. She didn't know how much time had passed, but Hermione was almost to the point where she was going to get under the blankets when Lavender entered the room complaining about the cold.

Hermione didn't even register that Lavender was speaking to her until she felt a wave of warmth. She moved her eyes, but remained in the same position.

Lavender seemed to understand she didn't want to talk, but also couldn't refrain from commenting. "Just because someone broke your heart doesn't mean that you shouldn't take care of yourself," she chastised, with a strange mixture of animosity and sympathy. "You should cast warming charms, or you're going to get sick."

Hermione blinked twice before closing her eyes, too tired to comment, but too miserable to go to sleep.


Hermione woke up feeling strangely empty. She sat up in bed trying to remember yesterday when a flood of memories consumed her thoughts. All the memories felt so distant, like a dream, only it wasn't a dream. The bed felt colder without Draco. It wasn't unbearable, just uncomfortable and a lot of loneliness.

She checked the time. It was too early for breakfast, but she didn't want to stay in bed all morning. So she walked down to the Gryffindor common room. She sat down in the corner of the room and began reading over her Potions book. The book reminded her about the Ravenclaw's offer. She was starting to feel bad about the way she had talked to Eileen. It hadn't been the girl's fault she was in a poor mood, but the offer really wasn't appealing.

The common room had students leaving in small clusters to go to breakfast. Hermione's stomach growled and she realized she had missed all her meals yesterday, but instead of leaving on her own, she waited for her friends before joining the masses to the great hall.

Ron and Harry came down the stairs a few minutes later, looking groggy, not at all ready for morning classes. Ron's found her sitting in the corner, after telling Harry he would be down soon, he walked alone towards Hermione, sat down at the table, and leaned forward to place his hands over Hermione's.

"You have to tell me what happened," he spoke, sincerely. "I need to make sure you're okay."

"I'm not." She shook her head, willing herself not to let her emotions take over. "When I got to the future I was engaged to Malfoy," she sighed.

Ron's eyes widened and his mouth dropped. "You can't be serious! How did you manage being stuck with that git for three days?" he laughed. It was clear Ron was joking, but Hermione wasn't in the mood.

"He was actually decent, wonderful even." Hermione spent the next ten minutes updating Ron on her three day stay. Somewhere in the conversation he had drawn his hand away from hers, knowing that things had obviously changed since her time there. "And then we kissed," she finished.

She knew that technically he could say she had cheated, but the goal of the spell was to immerse oneself in the future for better insight, so she hoped he wouldn't be to harsh on her. However, instead of commenting on the kiss, he asked, "So why are you so upset?"

She had just spilled her heart to him and he couldn't see why she was upset? Merlin, she was on her way to falling- no she wouldn't go there. She was on her way to having feelings for Malfoy, and she was forced back into this life, where she can't even have a conversation with Draco without him calling her a Mudblood. Did he really not understand why she was upset?

"I'm upset, Ronald, because all I want to do, even right now, is march to the dungeons and convince Draco that we would be a perfect match and could have a wonderful life together-"

"You can't be serious Hermione!" Ron interrupted, "The Malfoy now is no the same Malfoy you met. They're different people."

She glared at Ron. "If you had let me finish, as much as I want to do that, I made a promise that I wouldn't. So don't worry. I may be unhappy, but I'll refrain from speaking to him."

"So, uh- what happens with us?" he asked, his eyebrows drawn together, concerned. Hermione was surprised he hadn't been upset with her. He was just concerned about their relationship.

Hermione felt a tug on her heart. He was such a good friend, and such an understanding person. He didn't deserve only half her heart. She jumped out of her seat and hugged him. Mumbling her apology into his shirt. "I can't do this. I'm sorry." She straightened after a moment to see his response, his brittle smile told her that he didn't want it to be this way but that he understood.

Jumping topics, Ron stood up and declared, "I'm hungry. What about you?" She assumed he asked in order to get away from the now-awkward moment. Although, he could very well just be hungry. Hermione nodded, and they walked together in silence to the dinning hall where Ron sat across from her.

She knew that she should have sat on the other side of the table with Ron, but just because she couldn't talk to Draco didn't mean she couldn't check up on him, right? Besides, this was her normal seat, so she wasn't going out of her way.

Facing the Slytherin table, her eyes scanned for the one person that she shouldn't be looking for. When she found him her heart jumped. His cool grey eyes were already watching her. He wasn't looking at her with animosity like he had in previous years. There was no sneer or look of disgust she would have expected. He looked so much younger now. She realized that she had never paid much attention to the boy that was in front of her. There was no stubble, his hair was cut short, and he looked thinner, less toned, than she remembered. He might look different than her Draco, but he was still beautiful.

He raised his eyebrow at her and looked away. Hermione followed his eyes to the seat next to him, where he said something unreadable to the dark skinned boy on his left. Blaise looked up quickly, smirked at Hermione, and gave her a wink.

What the-? Did he just wink at me? Hermione was slightly disturbed to say the least.

She quickly looked at the food in front of her that she had yet to touch. With her heart racing and hands shaking, she grabbed a muffin from the center of the table. Her mind was buzzing while she practically inhaled her breakfast. No one had said a word to her all breakfast, so she scrambled from the table without a goodbye. Leaving in a hurry, she spotted Eileen turning the corner.

"Eileen!" she yelled, earning her bemused looks from various students in the hall while she sprinted to follow the dark-haired girl. Rounding the corner, Hermione ran into a warm body, that she was sure was made of steel, and fell on her bum, hard.

She looked up to see the Ravenclaw looking down at her as if she were crazy. Maybe she was crazy. Merlin, she felt crazy. She was almost one hundred percent sure her eyes were playing tricks on her. Her imagination had run wild at breakfast- Draco would never stare at her, and Blaise would never smirk at her- let alone wink. If one look at Draco could cause her mind to formulate that pathetic of a hallucination, she needed to find a hobby- and fast.

Staring up at Eileen from her spot on the floor, her breathing labored from her short sprint, she asked, "Can I still join the study group?" At this, Eileen smiled broadly and helped Hermione off of the floor. "Tuesdays and Thursdays, seven PM, Room of Requirement."

This is what I need. New friends, studying, a task- something to keep my mind busy.

Before walking away Eilleen remembered to ask, "You know how to get in right?"

Hermione laughed, knowing the girl was only a third year when people would meet in the Room of Requirement for Dumbledore's Army.

"Yes. I've been there once or twice."


A/N: Oh, how I'll miss the Draco that's in love with her. Anyways, what do you guys think she asked Draco? Or rather, what are the spells for?

And, I've not been good about answering reviews. This is only because I really don't want to PM people; I'd like everyone to see my responses. So I'll be answering (some of the) reviews here.

Billy Green: Well, after this chapter you know now that she's not stuck. And that's exactly what I thought when my mom was like "you should invent a spell to keep her there." All I could think of was how sad that would be for Draco. And yes, Pansy was Harry's girl friend. And unfortunately, she's made a promise that she will not try to be friends with Draco. So, the answer is no-ish to her trying to get to know the younger Draco.

ASJS: This chapter squashed those thoughts, I think. I don't think she'll be able to do that, not only because of the promise, but because she knows that the older Draco had a soft spot for her... which is something developed over time. If Hermione actively tried to be friends with Draco it would probably ruin her chances with him. I don't see Draco as someone who would accept friendship easily. Which is why the older Draco ignored older Hermione when she invited him to the formal event.

Thank you for all words of encouragement, and to all my guest reviewers. Especially the one who spoke about how if they kissed it would make things difficult for Hermione. That's definitely true, and originally I was going to let her first kiss (with him) to be with the younger Draco, but I thought, realistically, if Hermione was going to make a promise not to go after the younger one, she wouldn't leave without one kiss.

I hope all those reviews make sense. It's kinda hard to talk about 2 different people in 2 different time periods.

THIS IS SO LONG AND I AM SORRY.