Draco was still in shock as he ate his sandwich. He wasn't quite sure what to think about Hermione and what she had done. He had heard and felt her lean in and smell the back of his head as he read over the potions instructions. He hadn't wanted her to know he knew what she did. It was strange enough for her to have done that without him having to say anything.
Now she had smoothed down the hair behind his head. It seemed to Draco as though Hermione had done it without thinking about it, as if it was something she was used to. Again, things were strange enough without him having to say anything.
Draco simply decided to let those events go and get back to their task at hand, which, for the time being, was eating. He hadn't known just how hungry he was until he had taken his first bite. Four sandwiches later, Draco still hadn't quite gotten full yet.
The two of them continued to eat in silence, neither of them looking at each other. Both still felt a little too awkward to make any sort of eye contact. Draco imagined Hermione felt even weirder than he did about their current situation, as it was she who had done those things. Hermione broke the silence between the two.
"Okay, this is silly. I'm sorry for what I did. I don't know what has come over me today."
"It's fine," Draco said, a little too quickly to be fully honest. "Let's just move forward, yeah?"
"Yeah, okay," Hermione replied, sighing.
Finished with his dinner, Draco chugged the rest of his pumpkin juice and moved his chair back to the first table. He stirred the cauldrons, thinking about whether they should start the Revive potion or call it a night and leave the Memory potion to brew. At that moment, Hermione finished her food as well, and joined Draco back at the first table.
"While I was eating, I was thinking… Maybe we should go ahead and start on the Revive potion now. I mean, we're here, we might as well keep going, right?"
"Sure."
Draco began to clear and clean the table, moving the first three cauldrons to the second table, the trays of sandwiches and goblets of pumpkin juice gone. As he shifted everything around, Hermione had grabbed the other cauldrons and gathered the ingredients they would need for this batch of Revive potion. Draco had finished moving the three cauldrons of Memory potion, and stood by the second table, admiring Hermione as she moved.
He hadn't wanted to admit it to Hermione, but he had secretly enjoyed the awkwardness of what had happened earlier. He liked the fact that she seemed to have been curious about his scent, leaning in close to smell him. He had also really liked when she had essentially done what any normal girlfriend would do and brushed his hair off for him. He knew one reason why he hadn't wanted to admit it: Weasley. After all, he was her boyfriend. Seeing them in the Great Hall together, hand in hand, Hermione smiling more than he had ever seen her do before, Draco knew he had lost.
He had finally come to terms with how his feelings toward his curly haired companion had changed since their train ride at the start of the year. Draco had accepted that he had begun to develop feelings for Hermione, something that he simply couldn't fight any longer. He had also begun to think that maybe, just maybe she could develop feelings for him, too. But then he saw her with Weasley that morning, and that hope had diminished to nothing.
Lowering his head, Draco tried to remember how happy she had seemed with him during breakfast, knowing he could never be the source of her happiness like that. Admitting defeat, he closed his eyes and cleared his mind of everything, only focusing on the task at hand. He couldn't let himself get distracted by her so easily.
Hermione, finished with setting up the table for their new potion, had sat back down in her original spot at the first table. Draco moved slowly towards his chair, still refocusing his mind on the potion they had to do. His mind focused, he sat back down and began to read off the ingredients list to find which ones they would need first.
As usual, the two of them worked seamlessly and silently. Draco's mind had begun to race around Hermione and how she had acted towards him once more. There were so many questions he had wanted to ask, so many answers he wanted to find. However, he knew he couldn't ask them. She had seemed so shocked and so upset at what she had done earlier that he figured asking his questions would further upset her.
Without paying attention to what Hermione was doing, Draco stood up slightly from his chair and leaned in close to the middle cauldron. He was checking its color and consistency closely, making sure they had been doing everything correctly. In the back of his mind, he knew they had done everything so far perfectly, but he still wanted to check and make sure.
At the exact same moment, Hermione had done the exact same thing. She had slightly stood up from her chair and leaned in closely to the second cauldron, too, to check the same things Draco was checking. As he was leaning in above the cauldron, he felt Hermione's hair brush against the side of his face. Hermione reached up and moved it behind her ear, her fingers slightly running across Draco's cheek as she did so.
Without leaning back, the two of them turned and faced each other, their faces merely inches away. Neither of them moved, both in awe at how close they were. Draco could see Hermione's shiny, chocolate colored eyes more clearly than he ever could before. He watched them shift between his eyes and his lips before he mimicked her movements. The hair that she had tucked behind her ear had come loose again, and before he knew what he was doing, Draco lifted a hand and replaced it to its original place. His fingers lingered along her jaw line, his thoughts on one thing, and one thing only.
The forgotten about fire on the other side of the room crackled, bringing both Draco and Hermione back down to reality. They both stood back up and looked away from each other, blushes appearing on both their cheeks.
"Hermione, I-" "Draco, I-"
They both had begun to speak at the same time and stopped at the same time. They stood again in silence, searching each other's eyes. Again, Draco began to speak, Hermione remaining silent, her hand covering her mouth.
"I-I'm sorry," He said, lowering his head to look at the floor. "I don't know what…" Draco stopped, not sure how to continue.
"I'm sorry, too. I don't know… either…" Hermione replied, understanding what hadn't been said and agreeing to it.
At that moment, Draco was extremely confused. Was she beginning to feel the same way he was? Was she thinking what he was? Had Hermione been considering the same thing he had been? Was what happened just a fluke, something that wouldn't happen again? Draco's mind was spinning, questions flying in from every direction. Like before, Draco knew he couldn't ask these questions, couldn't get the answers he had desperately wanted.
Author's note: Ugh, I am terrible. Absolutely terrible. I'm so sorry everyone. Life has been, well, let's just say excruciatingly painful. So many things have happened in such a short period of time that I'm actually starting to find grey hairs. Grey hairs, and I'm only 22! I'll try my best to be better about posting, I promise. Thank you all for your patience and for sticking with me through these awfully long breaks between chapters.
