Thank you to;

CinziaTwut
Shivvv
MaronTodai
Daisy Seary
SaruDM
Dramione4evr
witchnimbus23

For their reviews!

.

.

.

CHAPTER 14.

.

.

.

"All this while you have the audacity to ignore my letters and now you come barging in and yell your reply out like a freaking banshee? Are you insane?" Draco hollered, getting up quickly on his feet.

"I didn't ignore your letters you ignorant fool. In case you forgot to notice I always sent one back with Paris." She countered back in an equally high decibel.

"Oh and how eloquent they were. Full of regaling tales. I was overwhelmed. "He replied caustically.

"I had nothing to write. Nothing to say. Is that so difficult for you to comprehend?" She fought back, not backing down in the least.

Both had kept taking a step ahead towards each other with each comeback.
They were only 2 steps away from each other now.

"I asked questions. So many of them. Since when did you back down from answering? You would almost dislocate your arm while raising it crazily in school when a question was asked. And mine weren't even that difficult." He snarled.

She closed the last step between them and they were so close by now, not even enough for another person to fit through.
"I ... " Draco cut her off abruptly, not even bothering to listen to her pitiful excuse.

He had engulfed her in a bone crushing bear hug and she felt the air leave her lungs in impact with the pressure.

She found it difficult to breathe but she didn't care. She attacked him and hugged him back with equal ferocity.

She was crushed against his solid pectorals and she could feel her salty tears create a wet spot on his hospital shirt.

Draco had loosened his grip by now and he was rubbing her back soothingly, alternating patting it.

She was sobbing wordlessly and neither said anything. After a few minutes, she drew in a long calming breath and looked up to face him.

He melted in the brown that her eyes held and fiercely kissed her forehead multiple times and refused to let her go.

"I can't believe it's really you. Is it really you?" He mumbled, contradicting himself.

"It's really me." She said.

Then she smacked him hard on his chest and he let out a confused cry of pain.

"You complete and utter overconfident idiot! How could you go and get yourself hurt by that stupid bludger? And you call yourself a seeker? Couldn't even catch one stupid snitch. What if something worse had happened to you?"

He grinned like an idiot. "If a crazed bludger hit is what it takes to meet you then I would do it all over again, Hermione."
"Arse! Overconfident fool! Prat of the first order." She seethed.

"And what if I hadn't been able to save you? What if I'd have lost you too?" Hermione asked enraged.

"Then your bi-weekly entertainment in the form of my letters would come to a stop. You probably would have to resort to buying that box with moving figures then." Draco retorted.

"Shut up or I'll leave." She warned.

"Like hell you will. I've finally found you. There's no way I'm letting you out of my sight. You should consider yourself lucky if I let you go to the bathroom alone." Draco said.

"Draco... Don't be dramatic. And the box is called a television." She said.

He smiled.

She was there. The Hermione he had left years ago was still there inside somewhere.

"You know I have so much more reason to be raving pissed at you than you at me right now?" He said.

"You're right." She sighed. "So are we cool?"

"Cool? What are you 15? This isn't bartering off our anger Hermione. You vanish off the face of the earth for almost a year and a half without a clue. How is that even remotely cool?"

"It's not. And I'm not going to even attempt an excuse. I don't think I can justify myself right now." She said.

"Look, no questions, nothing now. Just please promise me you won't pull something like that ever again. I've just found you. Don't push me away please. If you want your space I'll give it to you. I won't encroach on your independence either. But don't you ever disappear on me ever again." Draco grovelled.

Hermione stood shocked at his sincere request.

"Are you begging?" Was all she could ask.

"Grovelling more like it." He mumbled distastefully.

"I remember someone saying and I quote, 'Malfoy's don't beg or grovel Granger. We get what we want.' Ring a bell?"

"Yeah well, there's always a first time for everything." He defended himself.

"I don't know Draco. It's been just me for quite a while now. I don't know if having you around as a constant reminder would be good for me." Hermione said.

"Please. It will be better than being alone. I promise." He persuaded.

"I'll think about it."

"Okay. That's good enough for me." He said brightening up. "By the way, are you my healer?"

"Yes. You were transferred here during my call. I did everything I could to the bludger. But in vain. I had to resort to legilimency. I knew you would be mad but at that point I couldn't care less."

"So you saved me?" He asked cheekily.

"Oh please. Someone or the other would have figured it out eventually." She said modestly.

"But they didn't. You did. You saved me." He repeated.

"Fine." She relented. "I almost lost my power to think when Healer Frank said you were the patient. I'm so relieved you're fine."

"If you are my Healer, then who's Katherine?" He asked.

"Umm" she reddened. "She's an intern. I requested her to go instead of me. I didn't want to meet you before the game. You needed to focus on it."

"Why did you come clean? I would've left tomorrow and you could have hidden for half a day more and I would have never known. Why did you come to see me?" He asked softly.

Hermione stood silent for a bit, contemplating her answer.

"I thought of running away. But maybe I couldn't. Maybe I didn't want to?" She answered as if questioning herself.

"And I knew I was going to meet you again someday. Though I must say I never thought that the day would come so soon and in such circumstances. I couldn't live with myself if I had let you go without knowing that I was here."

Draco mulled over her answer, thanking all the powers above that she still was not completely lost. She wanted to see him. To meet him. She yearned for that familiarity.

Maybe he could bring her out of her funk faster if she accepted the help from him.

"Thank you Hermione. Thank you for doing that and not taking away that choice from me. You always were a fair person. You have no idea what you have given me by showing yourself today." He said.

He inched closer to her and enveloped her in a hug again. This time was much gentler.
"Your letter helped me too." She said softly.

"I knew writing to you was a bloody good idea. You know how much I hate it don't you?" He chuckled.

"I do. And I'm grateful. Your letters are what I need to get through. I never would've admitted that a few months ago. But it's true. Yours and harry and Ginny's."

"Do you write back ever?"

She shook her head and pressed it deeper in his chest so as to not to see the disappointment in his eyes.

Soon, Hermione. Soon. You will write to them. But baby steps for now. Draco thought, not wanting to push her today itself. Today was about him and her. And he wasn't going to let anything spoil that.

A moment later they heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." Hermione called out as she pulled herself from his embrace.

Katherine popped her head in, trying to check if it was alright for her to enter.

"Katherine come in." Hermione said.

She walked in feeling slightly conscious and Draco couldn't help but ask, "So what brings you here Healer Katherine?"

Katherine blushed and looked at Hermione.
Hermione was chuckling and she dismissed Draco's comment with a wave of her hand. "What happened?"

"I came to remind you that the last hour is up and we need to test Mr. Malfoy for the last time." Katherine said.

"Oh yeah! Draco! You're officially cured! No more sleeping beauty." Hermione exclaimed.

"Sleeping what? Granger are you insane?" He said, sounding appalled at being called a beauty.

"Never mind. Remind me to teach you about muggle fairy tales later." Hermione mumbled.

Draco rolled his eyes at her.

"So what do you guys do here for fun?" Draco asked excitedly.

Hermione and Katherine gave each other tentative looks.

It was going to be a long night.

.

.

.

.
Thank you all dear readers for all your comments and excitement over them finally meeting!

I hope you liked the dialogues between them!

The story is still going to retain it's themes of flashbacks, so don't worry! How Hermione and Draco's friendship progressed will also be revealed.

If there's anything else you would like to know or want me to incorporate anything in the story please do let me know!

Thanks for reading!

.

.

.

.