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On to the chapter!
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"What are you doing here, Draco?" Hermione sputtered, shock preceding her manners.
Draco Malfoy smirked. "I thought, since I hadn't heard back from you, that I would spare you the bother of owling your letter. I got impatient, you could say." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione cover the parchment in front of her in a not-so-subtle movement. He teasingly leaned over to inspect the letter. "Ah, I see you're not even finished writing it, in any case."
A pink tint rushed to Hermione's cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Draco – I just… had a lot to think about."
Draco pulled out a chair from under the table and sat down, putting his hands behind his head. "It's okay." He pretended to yawn. "Go on, finish it, I'll wait here."
Laughing slightly, Hermione replied, "Sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?"
"I suppose. But you're worth it."
There was an awkward silence, in which Hermione tried to hide her blushing by shuffling her parchment. She sighed. "Draco," she finally said, "what did you really come for?"
"Well…" He sat up. Something radiated within his grey eyes, but quickly, as if nervously, disappeared. He clasped his hands and exhaled, "Okay, I'm just going to say it."
Hermione gave him an encouraging nod.
Draco sighed again. He seemed to brace himself internally before starting, "I'm, well… you know when people can't stop… and they don't want anything.. you know. What I'm trying to say, is…"
"What is it?"
"I love you, Hermione."
"What?" The color drained from her face.
"I mean it," Draco pressed, feeling much more relieved that he had gotten the brunt of his message over with. "It's been growing steadily, all this time, but I just kept denying it. First, I convinced myself that I was simply concerned about your life, then I convinced myself that you were a good friend, or that I simply liked your stimulating conversation. Now, finally – finally, I've realized that I love you, Hermione. And I think that you love me too."
Hermione was shocked. She tried replying, but, for some strange reason, all that kept flashing through her mind was Hogwarts memories in which Draco had tormented her, Ron, and Harry. Snippets of random moments flashed through her mind like lightning. Ron spitting slugs. Draco with Rita Skeeter clutched in his hand. Draco handing out Potter Stinks pins. Hermione's head reeled, and she had to slam her hands down onto the table to keep steady. "And what if you're wrong?" she finally managed to whisper. "What if I don't love you?" The question was purely a test; Hermione herself knew she didn't mean it.
Draco knew it as well. He smirked. "Then I just ran away from home and risked my life for nothing."
"What?"
Suddenly, Draco put his head in his hands and rubbed his temples wearily. "You have no idea what I just did. For you."
Hermione tensed immediately. "What did you do?" Images of hexed students, bruised and bleeding, lying in the halls floated through her head.
To her surprise, Draco simply looked up and chuckled slightly. "I know that tone. It's nothing like that."
Hermione, slightly dismayed that Draco had gotten to know her so well that he could pinpoint a "tone" of hers, replied absentmindedly, "So, are you going to tell me or not?"
He ran a hand through his white-blond strands of hair. "And that's what I came here to do."
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Hermione was in a daze. Draco's mouth was moving, his hands were moving, but all that made its way into Hermione's ears was a low buzz. Her heart was pounding in her throat. She couldn't believe it. He did all that. For me.
"So I left," Draco was saying, when Hermione's ears decided to regain usage. "I just left home. I don't care if I never go back. There was nothing worth staying for, anyway. So I came here and had a little talk with McGonagall. Let me tell you, she wasn't too pleased to see me. I ended talking to her for three hours. I think she finally, at last, believed that I was under the Imperius Curse when I was told to kill Dumbledore."
Hermione sat up a bit straighter in her chair. "Were you really?"
He shot her a disappointed look. "I know you don't believe me, but it's the truth. I wouldn't lie to you, Hermione. Especially not now."
She nodded. "You don't have to explain. I know."
They both took in the silence as an unspoken agreement. The only sound, for that second, was the scraping of chairs and quiet chatter coming from beyond their little niche.
Draco continued, "After McGonagall realized I was telling the truth, she agreed to let me hide out here, with you. I told her about you too, of course. I could've sworn she smiled…anyway, I hope you don't mind me staying with you. I really can't go back now; I'll be lucky if I just get disowned."
Hermione nodded quickly. "Of course I don't mind."
He continued, "And McGonagall agreed to find a way to inform my parents that I had died. Naturally, I asked her if my death could be caused by a wayward firework near Hogsmeade."
Hermione giggled.
"Once my parents learn that my death left no remains, they'll hold an elaborate funeral, of course. They'll be heartbroken, but, honestly, they forced me to live a life that I had no say in. My mum…I've always liked her to an extent, but I think she's tough. She'll know I appreciated her. My father…well, the most of his worries is that he'll have no heir to carry on the pureblood lineage. Like I give a rat's ass what he thinks. Honestly, I feel like I'm much better off here, with you."
"But," started Hermione, "How can you live here safely? Won't some of the kids recognize you and tell their parents that you're not dead after all?"
"Ah," Draco smirked, "not a problem. On the off chance that anyone here is going to recognize me anyway, I'm going to turn my hair and eyes brown. I've already looked up a spell for that. I'm also going to add freckles and make myself a bit taller." At Hermione's uneasy look, he responded, "What? Might as well have a little fun with this. I mean, didn't you once illegally get your teeth fixed by Madam Pomfrey, Miss Prefect?"
Hermione scoffed, smiling good-naturedly.
"McGonagall even offered me a job as flying coach, so I don't get bored out of my mind here."
"Wow, so we'll both be teachers here, Malfoy! That's amazing."
"I hope the students aren't too difficult to work with. I hate kids." He grimaced.
Tenderly, almost instinctively, Hermione put a hand on Draco's back. She waited for him to tense, as always, but he didn't. Taking that as a good sign, she moved it around his neck and embraced him. "I'm so happy you're here," she said, into his warm neck.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. With one swift movement, he took her face in his hands and stared at her through narrowed eyes. She stared back, unblinkingly. Without thinking, Draco leaned in and gave Hermione a kiss that spoke volumes. Hermione closed her eyes, hoping that the moment was real. If it's not, just let me stay here anyway. She reveled in the moment, memorizing the back of his white-blond head with her fingers. Even long after they had broken apart, Hermione still felt warmth on her previously cold lips. She opened her eyes slowly, heart pounding, knowing everything would be different from this point on. The war, Voldemort, Hogwarts, nothing else mattered at that moment except for the two teenagers.
"I am, too," Draco finally replied. "I am, too."
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(A/N) How was it? I hope you liked it! Please feel free to leave a review/comment/what you had for lunch! Thanks so much for reading, and I'll update soon! (: