A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I cannot believe how far we have come in this story, but wow, there are only five chapters left after this one! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-five and be on the lookout from chapter twenty-six soon!

2000

Draco couldn't stop staring at Hermione across the table from him, listening to her excitedly recount how she had done on her final exams, which she had passed with flying colors (obviously). She was now the proud owner of an Arithmancy mastery, and he was insanely proud of her.

He was even more excited that he had been the first person she had told, not even bothering to share the news with her muggle parents or the wizard who had been overseeing her studies. No, it was him, Draco Malfoy, who she had rushed to with pink cheeks and a breathless smile to share the happy news.

And he'd whisked her away to a quiet but posh wine bar the celebrate. He'd ordered a sparkling wine for them - not the most expensive one on the menu, because he knew Hermione would protest if she knew how many galleons he was throwing at her - but one still fancy enough to mark the occasion.

Raising his glass towards her, he proposed a little toast. "To Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age," he said with a smirk. "And to the youngest and by far most beautiful arithmancy master that the wizarding world has ever seen!"

She blushed prettily at his compliments, but didn't make an effort to downplay them, taking a moment to savor her success. And, she really deserved it, he thought, knowing how much hard work she put into it. "Oh, I don't know if I am the prettiest arithmancy master," she said finally. "But there aren't that many to begin with, so it's not as if I have much competition."

"You know you are a gorgeous witch," Draco said with a frown, thinking it was madness that Hermione might not know how she looked to him. He had more dreams than he could count about tangling his fingers in that wild, brown sugar hair and pulling her down for a kiss on those perfect lips.

"I suppose maybe wizards are starting to take notice of me now," Hermione said with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I've...I've actually been meaning to talk to you about that."

Draco could feel his heart hammering away in his chest, wondering if Hermione had finally understood all of his hints and gestures and realized that he wanted to be with her, forever, really. "Telling me about what?" he asked, surprised that he was able to talk to her at all.

Hermione looked down, smiling into her glass of prosecco, toying with the ends of her curls. "Well, I am sure you already know, but, Theo broke up with Daphne in the winter, and well...he and I have been seeing each other a lot at the library lately," she explained quickly. "And the other day, he asked me out to dinner, but I told him I would need to think about it. I just don't know..."

"What?" Draco asked, feeling as if her words had poured into one ear and out of the other. Vaguely, he registered that Theo had asked Hermione out on a date and that she was actually considering it.

"Well, I am just worried that the break up with Daphne isn't going to be permanent. I mean, they were so close at school," Hermione explained at breakneck speed, nibbling away at her lower lip. "I would hate to get attached to Theo, only to be shoved aside for someone like Daphne."

"You can't go out with Theo," Draco blurted out suddenly, feeling as if his heart might burst. Theo was his friend and Theo was bookish and Theo was nice and...Hermione might really be happy with Theo. But he wasn't Theo, and he couldn't stand the idea of Hermione going out with anyone else other than him, not without telling her how he really felt.

"Why not?" Hermione asked, bristling from his tone.

Draco hoped that she didn't think that he thought she wasn't good enough for Theo in some way. He needed to assuage her fears, needed to explain his sudden outburst, but he just couldn't find the words. His Uncle Regulus's advice about grand romantic gestures popped into his head, and before he realized it, he really was reaching across the table, fingers delving into her hair, and pulling her in for a kiss.

Her lips were slightly chapped, but they fit against his mouth perfectly. She gasped in surprise and he took the opening to deepen the kiss, tentatively pressing his tongue into her mouth, feeling fireworks going off in his brain when she returned the passionate encounter for a brief moment.

But then...

But then, she was pulling away, brown eyes open wide in shock. Her fingers were against her lips, and she was staring at him, looking for some kind of an explanation.

"Please, Hermione," he said solemnly. "You can't go out with Theo, not when...I love you, Hermione. I have for a long time...a lot longer than I realized. You are my best friend, but I would like to give us a chance as a proper relationship." The words were pouring out on the table, leaving his heart there for her to do what she wanted with it.

The longer that she didn't answer - eyes wide and confused - the more Draco's hopes sunk. The crushing reality that Hermione might not feel the same about him as he did about her sunk in, and his heart hurt more than he could have imagined, breaking into tiny little pieces. "I'm sorry, Draco," she finally squeaked out, looking ashamed and guilty for some reason, but he knew the truth.

She stood up from the table abruptly, grabbing her purse from the back of the chair and running out of the restaurant in a hurry that had several other patrons looking at her. He didn't even have the heart to chase after her and ask for some kind of explanation. No, having his hopes crushed once in a night was more than enough.