If only Hermione had bothered to look in a mirror before making her way back to the Gryffindor common room, she could have done something about the purple bruise on the side of her neck before Ginny saw it.
"Hermione!" Ginny gasped, her eyes wide. "What is that?"
She furrowed her brow. "What are you talking about?"
Ginny looked around nervously; There were still a few people lounging around the common room, either playing a final round of wizards chess or sitting in front of the fire. She stepped closer to Hermione and dropped her voice.
"That mark on your neck," she whispered. "Is it what I think it is?"
Hermione felt her stomach drop uneasily and her hand went involuntarily to the side of her neck. It was tender beneath her fingertips.
"It is!" Ginny whispered excitedly. "Come with me!"
Ginny pulled a speechless Hermione toward the portrait hole, knowing that both their sleeping chambers were currently occupied. They hurried down the corridor toward the girls' lavatory, and no sooner had they stepped through the doorway, Ginny squealed.
"You liar!" she exclaimed. "You told me you hadn't been snogging anyone when it's obvious you have! You couldn't even tell your best friend?"
"It's slightly disturbing how excited you are about this," Hermione said, her hand still covering her neck.
"Are you going to look at it or not?" Ginny asked, gesturing to the mirror.
Hermione took a deep breath and slowly lowered her hand. There, perfectly visible on the side of her neck was a bright bruise the size of a sickle.
"Oh my God," Hermione whispered.
"Now are you going to tell me who it is you've been sneaking off with?" Ginny questioned.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Hermione sighed, continuing to look at the hickey in the mirror.
Ginny huffed. "Of course I'll believe you. At this point I'd believe you if you told me it was Professor Snape."
Hermione pretended to gag and they both burst into laughter.
"You have to swear you won't tell anyone!" Hermione said urgently.
"Okay, okay," Ginny said, unable to hide her smile.
"SWEAR IT!"
Ginny groaned impatiently. "Okay, I swear I won't tell anyone."
Hermione was unconvinced. "Not even Harry!"
"Not even Harry," she repeated.
Hermione looked around nervously, tempted to check all the stalls to make sure they were empty, but she knew they were. She bounced on the balls of her feet, trying to build up her courage but her nerves were making her nauseous; It was better to get it off her chest than to harbor it inside.
"I haven't just been snogging him," Hermione admitted uncomfortably. "We've done other things as well."
Ginny's eyes bulged. "You shagged him?"
Hermione's blush instantly gave her away and Ginny squealed excitedly again.
"Who is it?" she begged.
Hermione took a deep breath in through her nose and exhaled through her mouth. "It's Draco."
At first Ginny said nothing. Then, the corners of her mouth began to curl upward slowly and she giggled. And then she was laughing, her shoulders shaking so hard that she had to hold on to the sink to stable herself.
"Oh Godric, Hermione!" she wailed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "That's hilarious! No, seriously, you had me going there for a second; I almost believed you!"
After another few minutes, Ginny recovered from her laughing fit. "Okay, all joking aside, who is it?"
Keeping her voice as steady as possible, Hermione answered, "Gin, I was serious. It's Draco."
This time, Ginny did not laugh. She looked utterly confused. "You shagged Malfoy?"
"Twice," Hermione mumbled.
After a short moment Ginny's expression completely changed. Her eyes lit up and a smile replaced her grimace.
"How was he?" she asked curiously.
Hermione blushed again as images from earlier that night flashed briefly in her mind. "Amazing."
"I have to hear how this happened," Ginny said. "Did he just tell you he wanted to shag you?"
Hermione started from the beginning, explaining how Draco had first cornered her in the abandoned corridor and how she kissed him to get away. She admitted to snogging him outside of Hogsmeade and to dancing with him at the Halloween ball and to sneaking off to the Room of Requirement with him afterward.
"I can't believe it," Ginny whispered after Hermione had finished. "You and Malfoy are the most unlikely couple I can imagine... Honestly, I would have guessed Snape before him."
"I know," Hermione sighed. "But we aren't exactly a couple."
"What are you going to do?" Ginny asked. "Just keep snogging him in private and occasionally sneaking off for a nice shag?"
Hermione shook her head. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do. We could never be seen together; People wouldn't understand."
"Well I am certainly a person and I understand," Ginny said flatly.
Hermione forced a smile. "Thanks, Gin."
"Now let's go get you some Bruise Removal paste before anyone else sees that."
...x...x...x...
It appeared that Ginny had been true to her word because two weeks had passed and neither Harry nor Ron had confronted her about her 'thing' with Draco. She hated to call it a relationship, because it was much less than that; It wasn't even really a friendship, even though Draco had stopped making rude comments to her in class. In fact, it had been since their last venture in the Room of Requirement that he had talked to her at all.
Hermione took her seat in Potions and stared blankly ahead. She was extremely aware of a pair of stormy gray eyes gazing at her across the aisle, but she would not give him the satisfaction of meeting them. If he couldn't buck up the courage to speak to her in a public setting, she wouldn't be bothered to look at him. At least, that is what she tried to make herself believe.
"Granger!" Draco hissed, almost inaudibly. "Granger!"
Hermione cut her eyes at him and saw him gesture downward. Skeptically, Hermione glanced down and saw a neatly folded note lying just beside her textbook. She blushed and quickly hid the folded parchment beneath her book, pretending that she had not seen it.
"Granger!" he hissed again.
With a huff, Hermione chanced a glance across the aisle in time to see Draco mouth, 'Read it!'
She looked nervously to her right where Harry and Ron were playing an incredibly immature game to see who could flick the other the hardest; They both had red marks across the backs of their hands and seemed to be quite entertained. She slid her hand beneath her textbook nervously and withdrew the note, unfolding it in her lap.
"Ooooo!" she heard Pansy Parkinson squeal beside her and snatch the parchment out of her hands. "Granger's got a note!"
"Give that back!" Hermione barked, leaping from her seat. Her face was flushed and her heart pounding fast; She glanced nervously at Draco, hoping that he would come to her aid, but he simply watched with a smirk on his face.
"Is it a love note?" Pansy squealed as she took off up the aisle. "I bet it's from Scarhead."
Hermione stormed after her, making wide swipes to retrieve the page from Pansy's grasp.
"It's nothing," Hermione said. "Just some Potions notes."
"Then you won't have a problem if I read them to the class?" Pansy cackled. "They could use some of your notes."
The entire class had turned to watch the two girls fight over the note, and they all seemed to be holding their breath. The Gryffindors were silently hoping that Hermione would hex Pansy into the next week, but several others were interested in what the note might say. Hermione made a final swipe at the parchment, which Pansy held clear out of her reach, before huffing and narrowing her eyes.
"Go ahead, read it. Just don't hurt yourself with the big words."
Pansy smiled triumphantly, unfolding the parchment and clearing her throat; She was preparing to announce to the impatient class what she had discovered, but as she opened her mouth to speak, she faltered. Her eyes scanned the page curiously and Hermione could only pray that there was nothing too revealing in there.
Finally, after a long moment, Pansy asked, "Nine hundred thirty? What's so special about 930?"
"Besides the fact that you probably never learned to count that high, it's a restricted section in the library where I've been doing research," Hermione improvised and jerked the page away from her.
Hermione hurried back to her seat as Professor Slughorn entered the classroom and glanced down at the now crumpled parchment in her hand. 930? she thought with a furrowed brow. But after a split second she understood: It wasn't 930, but 9:30. Draco wanted to meet in the Room of Requirement tonight.
She looked over the aisle as Professor Slughorn was giving instructions and saw Draco smile. She shook her head at him, slammed the note inside her textbook, and faced forward again.
"We will be working in pairs today and as an extra treat, I'm going to let you choose your own partners," said Professor Slughorn with a smile, as though he had done the class a huge favor. "You'll find everything you need in the supply closet at the back of the class."
Hermione leaped to her feet before anyone else and hurried to the back of the room. She had not even given thought to who her partner would be since Ron and Harry would obviously work together, when Draco cornered her in the back of the room.
"Good news, Granger," he smirked. "Looks like you can be my partner today."
Hermione almost dropped the vials in her hand. "Wh-what? Be your partner?"
"That's what I said."
"And what makes you think I want to be your partner?" she asked snappily.
Draco leaned closer to her, pretending to grab something over her shoulder, and whispered in her ear. "I know you do." His warm breath rolled over the skin of her exposed neck and sent chills down her spine.
"Besides," he said, straightening again. "You're the best in the class besides Potter, and I'd as soon boil my head in a cauldron as be his partner. What do you say?"
Hermione thought for a long moment as she stared up at Draco. "Alright, fine. But I'm not doing all the work."
They carried the needed supplies back to their desk and received several curiously looks from their classmates. Ron's mouth fell open unattractively as he saw Hermione take a seat next to Draco.
"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" he whispered across the aisle.
"Everyone else had a partner," Hermione lied before turning to her work; She didn't think she could face Harry or Ron at the moment, but she could deal with them later: They would surely have some choice words about the arrangement.
Draco was not looking at her, and she couldn't blame him. Everyone was still staring.
"What do we do first?" he asked as he leaned back in his chair.
"We read the directions," Hermione answered impatiently as she scoured over the pages in her book.
"Cool, let me know when you've done that."
Hermione glowered at him. "Are you seriously not going to do any of the work?"
"Of course I am," he answered, looking offended. "Looking as good as I do takes a lot of effort, but I'll stir or something if you want me to."
She rolled her eyes irritably and continued to read through the instructions, but Draco was making it very hard to concentrate.
"So I take it the answer is yes?"
She began to chop up a rubbery, green plant and added it to their boiling cauldron before answering. The water in the cauldron changed to a light green as a puff of smoke was expelled.
"The answer to what?"
"The note, of course."
"I'd rather not talk about that now," she whispered as she moved on to the second step.
"Why not? No one is listening," he assured her.
"Because I'd rather talk somewhere more private."
"Let's go to the loo," he suggested. "We'll be back in time to finish the potion."
"Together? Draco, people aren't stupid."
He huffed. "Just say you'll show up."
"No."
"Why not?" he gaped.
"Because I don't want to."
"Yes, you do."
"Well, yes I do but..."
"..but what?"
Hermione shook her head. "Can't this wait until after class? Cut up that boomslang skin."
Draco begrudgingly picked up his knife and started to cut. "It could, but I want to know now."
She huffed. "Because I'm tired of just being some secret shag, Draco."
He was so shocked by her reply that he accidentally cut himself. He cursed under his breath and brought his injured finger to his mouth, sucking on it tenderly.
"What are you saying?"
Hermione added another ingredient to the potion before inching her way closer to Draco's side and whispering, "I meant what I said. I'm tired of being some secret shag. If you want any more of my attention, you're going to have to do something for me."
"You're giving me an ultimatum? Do this or I won't shag you... is that it?"
"Yes."
Draco was silent for a long moment. "What exactly do I have to do?"
She blushed; Draco must have really wanted to get in her knickers if he was willing to consider her offer. "Well, would it hurt for us to hang out together outside the Room of Requirement?"
"We're hanging out together now."
"You know what I mean. We could study together or go to Hogsmeade together or..."
Draco looked as though she had just slapped him. His mouth was open slightly, his eyes wide. "You mean alone? Like friends?
"Something along those lines, yes."
"Granger, you know I can't do that," he shook his head. "I can't be seen with a mu- with you."
Hermione's heart fell but she tried to keep her expression blank. She added yet another ingredient to the potion and began to stir the mixture two dozen times.
"Then I can't meet you in the Room of Requirement anymore."
They finished their potion in silence. Hermione was on the verge of tears, but she blamed it on the thick purple fumes that their concoction was emitting. It seemed to appease Ron, who was ready to run across the aisle and pummel Draco. At the end of the lesson, Professor Slughorn made his usual rounds to check everyone's work.
"I think you added one too many newt eyes, Ms. Brown."
"Excellent as usual Mr. Potter," he sang happily. "I hope you paid attention, Mr. Weasley." "Wonderful work Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy. You seem to be natural partners."
After cleaning up and emptying out their cauldron, Hermione gathered her things and was about to head back to her seat beside Harry when Draco grabbed hold of her sleeve. She turned and met his gaze, though he did not slacken his grip on her robes immediately.
"Meet me in the library before dinner," he said softly. "I have some homework to catch up on."
Hermione beamed at him and tried to fight the smile that was making its way across her face. Draco was willing to be seen with her, albeit in the library, and she would take it. It was a start, and if they were seen together in the library enough times perhaps she could convince him to meet up in Hogsmeade.
"Deal," she said and she rushed to Harry and Ron's side as the bell rang.
I'm not a fan of author's notes, but I wanted to apologize for my prolonged absence. I hope this update makes up for the wait.