Chapter Seven

Hermione's heart jumped up, causing her to catch her breath for a moment. The sound came out almost like a gasp. Draco's eyes were locked on her, and he was standing so close to her that she could feel every beat of his heart as though it were her own, could sense every breath that he took as though her own lungs were breathing them.
"You...you need me?" She just about managed to articulate the words, but even so they caught in her throat and left her lips sounding almost pained.
"I do. I can't deny it anymore, and I wish you wouldn't either. I want to call you mine for the whole world to hear, Granger."
"I want all that too," she said, but as she did so her eyes turned towards the ground and her head tilted so far downwards that his hand, which had rested underneath her chin, was forced to fall away.
"I sense a but here somewhere..." he said to break the silence she had made.
"It's just...it's just not as simple as you're pretending it is."

"I don't see what complications there could possibly be."
"Ron, Harry –"

"Irrelevant."

"Your father, your mother -"
"Irrelevant."
"Your parents hate muggle-borns, Draco."
"I. Don't. Care. I love you, no one else matters to me. Just you."

"Draco?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

When are you going to kiss me?"
With that, his head, his heart and his body seemed, at long last, to be in sync with each other. He wasted no time in re-enacting the scene he had pictured in his mind for so long now. He wrapped his arms around the narrow small of her back, gripping tight as he lifted her up and onto the desk against the back wall. She wrapped her legs around him then, her feet meeting each other behind his back.
Her hands frantically held on to him, grasping for his skin, for his hair, for his shirt, and held him to her. And yet, despite the frantic, sexual atmosphere they had created, the kiss that followed was as soft and as tender as it had been longed for. Her rose-pink lips, soft and smooth, pressed against him and for those few moments his body flooded with overwhelming warmth and he felt every spark of electricity that passed between them. When their lips parted again, it was only for the time it took for her to smile sheepishly at him, her beautiful face flushed a deep shade of pink, and then their lips were touching again. This time, the kiss was hurried, their lips pushed so hard together that Draco's lips were aching already; but it was the best kind of ache. He let his hands explore her, roaming over her hips, swooping down the valleys of her waist, running his shaking hands through her hair which felt as soft as silk. Her head tilted back sharply, and her tongue was flicking across his lips, causing them to part, letting her tongue swirl and stroke around his own. Her body was flat against his now; their bodies pressing so hard against each other it was as though they were trying to break through the very clothes they were wearing.

The heat of her breath, the urgency with which they were drinking in each other had made Draco's head spin, and his legs feel unsteady underneath him. Barely able to maintain a normal breathing pattern, he held her face tenderly between his hands. Then, she slowly pulled her mouth away from his, after what had seemed like hours of blissful kissing; her mouth was slowly overcome by a subtle smile, she leaned forward again, but this time left an irresistible trail of three kisses from the edge of his jaw, down his neck and landing on his collar bone.
She smiled again as she said, "I have to go now," and turned to walk out of the room, letting the door slam shut behind her.

It had happened. She had kissed Draco Malfoy, and now she felt as though she were floating, giddy with the joy that comes with having a new lover. His lips had tasted sweeter than she had ever imagined they could be, and warmer than she had thought, too. He had held her to him so passionately that she could still feel the area where his hand had been tingling with his presence.
She practically skipped into her next lesson, sat down in her usual place next to Harry, chirpily asking how he was.
"What's got into you then, Hermione?"
"Oh, nothing," she said, looking down at the table to prevent him from seeing the smirk which had unfolded on her lips.
"Alright... well me and Ron were thinking of going into Hogsmeade later if you wanna come? Ginny and Lavender might be going too if you were worried about being the only girl."
"Oh no, it's not that. It's just; I'm kind of busy tonight; seeing a friend." She knew she shouldn't have said that last bit the second it left her lips. She should have said she had work to do, should have said she was tired, or had lots of books she wanted to read. She should have said anything except that.
"Oh..." Harry started, with a look on his face that was somewhere between confusion and deflation, "which friend?"
"Is it so startling to you that I should actually have a friend that I didn't find through you, Harry?"
"Well no, I was only asking."
"Well I don't see how it's any of your business."
Immediately she felt bad; it was not his fault and she shouldn't take it out on him. Apart from the fact she was being a bad friend, acting so aggressively would make people suspicious, and she wasn't sure when, how or if she was ever going to tell anyone about her and Draco. Her and Draco, she repeated in her head, it all sounded like something in a dream; a really odd dream.

She left. She ran away. He couldn't believe what had just happened, for more than one reason. He couldn't believe he had kissed her, couldn't believe he had held her in his arms, couldn't believe he had touched her so intimately, and that she had let him. But more than anything else, he couldn't believe that having done all this, she had run out the door and left him there.
But his joy outweighed his annoyance by far, for now at least. For as long as he could taste the sweetness of her lips on his, feel her tongue dancing with his, he would be as happy as any man could be.
He picked up his bag after half an hour of sitting in the armchair to compose himself or at least to try to, and left the room behind, turning round only once to try and memorise the scene and burn it onto his brain; although he was sure he would never forget it anyway.

The corridor was cold and empty when he left, and when he looked at his watch he realised why; it was half past 5, so everybody would be in the middle of their last lessons of the day.
He walked back to the Slytherin common room with snatches of memories of the kiss replaying in his head on a loop, making his breathing heavier with every step. He missed her already and that was pathetic; but he didn't care.
When he made it to the common room, Pansy was sat on the sofa with Crabbe and Blaise laughing about some stupid thing probably; but still, he didn't care.
"What's so funny?" he demanded, putting on his usual angry voice so as not to raise suspicion.
"Oh, you should have been there Draco! It was so funny." Pansy stood up and moved over to where he was stood in the door way.
"Why, what's happened?"
"Well Crabbe and I were walking down the corridor and we bumped into Granger," she begun, but already Draco felt his jaw tense, and his teeth clench together, "and Crabbe used a charm to throw all the books she was carrying onto the floor; she went absolutely mental at that. But that wasn't the best bit, when she went to pick them up again, she slipped and a load of love letters she'd written fell out of her pocket, it's just a shame she hadn't addressed them to anyone. But seriously, she's normally pathetic but today's performance took the biscuit!"
Draco grabbed her by the arm, not softly either, and put his face very close to hers.
"You will leave her alone," he whispered, so fiercely that he sounded as though he was growling rather than speaking, "you will leave her alone or I won't be responsible for my actions, Pansy. Do you understand?"
She wriggled free, trying to look defiant but it was clear to see the hurt welling in her eyes, and he instantly felt sorry that he had had to do it to her so publicly.
He turned without another word and made his way back to his room. Before he could reach the door, Crabbe pulled him round by his arm, looked around conspiratorially to check that no one would overhear, before asking Draco if there was something going on between he and Hermione.
"Would it be any of your business if there were something going on?"