Chapter 25:

"I love you."

Harry blinked once, twice. "I love you, too."

Ginny smiled and cuddled up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he replied, looking at her strangely. It wasn't like Ginny to be so hesitant, so the fact that she was hesitant, along with her previous out-of-the-blue declaration meant that whatever was on her mind was no laughing matter. Harry knew that much.

"I –and, don't read too much into this, okay? It's just a simple question." Ginny took in a deep breath and licked her lower lip as anxiety flooded through her. Was this right? Was she betraying Hermione's confidence by doing this? As the internal conflict waged on, Ginny closed her eyes and frowned slightly, missing the worried look that ghosted across Harry's face.

"What is it, Gin?" Harry asked gently, concern evident in his tones. He could feel the build-up of anxiety in his chest. This wasn't bound to be anything good.

"Something really stupid, actually. I was just...thinking about what Zabini told us yesterday."

Harry gazed at her seriously for a moment and then scoffed. He rolled his eyes heavenward and pulled away from Ginny, his body tense and his movements controlled. He rested his elbows on his knees and studied his hands, a frown forming on his face. Ginny watched him, not liking his reaction. Had she blown everything? Hermione would kill her. Hell, she felt like killing herself!

"Harry –"

"It's true, isn't it?" he cut her off abruptly, still not looking up from his hands.

Ginny fell silent. She –along with everyone else –knew about Harry's rather volatile temper. And although she could handle him better than most, she didn't fancy being on the receiving end of one of his...loud...tirades. And she didn't want to be the reason he never talked to his best friend again. As it was, the damage could be fixed, but only just. Answering his question would mean something irreparable. Something she didn't want to be responsible for.

"Tell me, Ginny. What Zabini said...it's true, isn't it. I know you know, so don't lie." His tone was as cold as ice, matching his green eyes. Ginny fought not to gulp in trepidation.

"I –I can't say, Harry. It's not my place."

He exhaled heavily and finally met her eyes. "I suppose I knew it was true the moment she walked up to us. Just the look on her face –" he broke off and stared into the fire. "She's been my best friend for so long –I can read her just like a book."

Ginny placed a tentative hand on his shoulder, not bothering to refute his claims. There was no use. Like he had said, he could see through any lies she tried to tell. "Are you angry?"

"Fuck, yes!" he replied vehemently, scowling. After a moment, his expression softened slightly. "But she is my best friend. I can't hate her for her decision. It's her life."

"So...you're okay with it?" Ginny asked hopefully, breathing an internal sigh of relief.

"No, I'm bloody well not okay with it! Malfoy...what does she see in him? He's an evil git! And everything he's ever said, or done to us in the past, every hurtful remark he's every made about her...how can she forgive him? How can she expect us to forgive him?"

Ginny wanted to nod in agreement, but held back. She had started this mess and there was no way she was going to leave it to Hermione to clear up. "I honestly don't know, Harry...if you had told me four months ago that Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy...I would have written to St. Mungo's about their future -mentally-imbalanced- patient, but it's happening and it feels right to her. Or maybe it doesn't, but it's happening anyway. She can't stop it –"

Harry sat up suddenly and interrupted her. "Yeah, that's right! Maybe he's forcing her into this –!"

"Harry! Maybe she doesn't want to stop it! You're severely undermining Hermione; you know that, don't you? You can't force her to do something she doesn't want to. It's possible that she's seen a side of Malfoy that we haven't. A better side."

Harry snorted. "Please, he has no better side. He's evil through and through. And I can't believe you're defending him! What's gotten into you?"

"I'm not defending him; I'm supporting Hermione's decision! Which is what you should be doing!"

"I can't support her decision, I hate Malfoy!"

"But you don't hate Hermione. And like you said, it's her life. If this is a mistake –"

"There's no if about it. This is a mistake." Harry grumbled.

"Right, whatever. But it's her mistake to make. Not yours, not mine, it's hers. Don't let her hate you for interfering in her life. Stand by her now, and if it all crumbles, we'll still be here for her. That's the least we can do for her as her friends."

"You know, it annoys me, the way you keep saying 'if this happens and if that happens'. For Merlin's sakes, we both know this won't end well!"

"No we don't. For all we know, they could be a match made in heaven!"

Harry gagged slightly and Ginny restrained herself from following suit. The thought was nauseating.

"Or not!" she reiterated. "But we still need to leave her alone about this."

Harry's lips quirked up in a small smile and he looked at Ginny warmly, amused at her heated lecture. "Is that what you want me to do?"

Ginny nodded.

"Anything for the girl I love," he said, laughing and pulling her close again.

Somewhere along the way Hermione had lost her t-shirt. She didn't know when, or how he had done it without actually breaking apart from her, but it was gone. And she didn't really care. The effect of his hands on her bare skin was heady. He pulled her down until she lay on the carpet and positioned himself on top of her, careful to balance his weight so he didn't crush her.

Hermione didn't think she'd ever get tired of kissing him. She didn't think she'd ever tired of him, period. That thought definitely got her adrenaline pumping. It was miraculous that her heart hadn't burst out of her chest already. She slipped her own hands between their bodies and started to undo the buttons on his white Oxford as quickly as she could, without actually ripping it off. She felt him smile against her lips. Her hands stopped in their task and she broke their kiss, breathing heavily and frowning slightly.

"What exactly are you smirking about now, Malfoy?"

"Nothing," he replied, leaning his head down to capture her lips again. He frowned as she pushed him away slightly. Undeterred, he kissed his way along her jaw-line, down her neck, making his way towards her breasts.

Ignoring the overpowering sensations his actions were creating was the hardest thing Hermione had ever attempted in her whole life. She struggled to control her breathing as she felt him unclasp her bra.

I can do this. I can do this. I can do this, Hermione chanted to herself. What better person to do this with other than the man she lo- uh- liked, right? Right.
But the question that bothered her most was did he return her feelings? Everything he had said or done so far would indicate a positive answer to the question, but what if she was just an obsession to him, a passing fancy? And what if...sex was all he wanted from her? The thought was sobering. Hermione couldn't claim to be a great romantic, but there were certain things she preferred to do...a certain way. This just happened to be one of those things.

She bit back a gasp as her bra was removed completely. She felt him freeze atop her and a blush spread through her as she became overly conscious of his intense stare. She didn't look at him; she didn't want to see the expression on his face, or in his eyes. Instead, cheeks flushing, she turned her head to the side, so as to remove his face from her line of sight altogether.

"Granger," he whispered huskily a few moments later. She ignored him, closing her eyes. A cool finger on her chin turned her head to face him. "Look at me."

Slowly, she complied, her brown eyes opening to meet his grey ones. She had to suppress another gasp at the look in his eyes. He looked ready to devour her. Which was rather thrilling, and an ego boost to boot. He obviously wasn't displeased by what he saw. But, he kept her eyes trained on her face, searching for any indication to stop –or continue.

He brought his lips close to her ear and whispered again, "Granger, are you scared?"

Hermione bristled at the insinuation. "No," she replied as firmly as she could.

He lazily ran a hand over her abdomen, up her ribs and cupped her breast gently. "Are you sure?" he asked, his face inches away from her own. "Because if you are scared, we can stop right now..."

"I'm...I'm sure," Hermione ground out, her heart rate increasing tenfold at his ministrations. There was no use in lying to him, because after all, she really was sure about this now. But to her immense frustration, he didn't do anything. He simply looked at her, waiting for her to show him just how unafraid she was. Hermione could have cried at the injustice of it all. Of all the times Draco Malfoy could have chosen to act like a decent person, he just had to choose this moment!

Fine, she thought, he wants forwardness, I'll give him forwardness.

With super-human strength she didn't know she possessed (most likely fuelled by her current state of frustration and arousal), she rolled them over, so that she straddled Draco's hips. Smirking at the surprised expression on his face, she stood up and undid the button on her jeans. As she pulled down the zipper, she wondered where this newfound courage stemmed from. Because she definitely hadn't been feeling this courageous five minutes ago. Deciding to analyse the curious phenomenon later, she carefully peeled off the jeans and dropped them aside, her eyes taking in every emotion that played across Draco's face. Left in only her underwear, she straddled him again, fighting down a blush at the very prominent evidence of his arousal. Smiling slightly, she leaned down so that she was pressed flush against him, her face now hovering inches above his own. She heard his breath hitch and gave herself a mental pat on the back. Mission accomplished.

"What's wrong, Malfoy?" she breathed. "Are you...scared?"

She didn't have time to react as he pulled her head down with one hand to give her a searing kiss, all the while divesting himself of his clothing with the other.

The last lucid thought that ran through her mind was, I'm going to shag Draco Malfoy...on the Common Room floor?

"Hey, where's Hermione?" Ron asked, scanning the Great Hall. "It's not like her to miss dinner."

Harry and Ginny exchanged a look. Draco was nowhere in sight either, so they had a pretty good idea of where she was. The one thing they had agreed upon was that the news should be broken to Ron by Hermione herself. Neither of the two was willing to face Ron's wrath.

"And, besides, it is Hermione's place to tell people, not ours," Ginny had concluded. Harry had agreed quite enthusiastically.

Clearing her throat, Ginny answered, "Uh, Ron? Hermione misses dinner all the time. She's probably in the library or something."

"Nope," Ron managed to sputter out through a mouthful of food. He swallowed quickly. "I checked the library before, when I was looking for her."

"You were looking for her?" Harry asked, eyebrow raised.

" Yeah," he answered sheepishly, "I need some help with my –uh –Charms essay. It's not coming along as smoothly as I would have liked."

Harry snorted in amusement. In other words, Ron hadn't started on his essay at all.

"Well, good luck on that, mate."

Ron nodded and scanned the Great Hall again. "Hey," he frowned, "ferret-face isn't here either!"

Ginny's eyes widened fractionally as she ran possible excuses through her mind.

"Uh, yeah...so?" Harry asked, a bit too quickly.

Ron looked at Harry incredulously. "Harry...what if he's with Hermione?"

"What if he is, Ron?"

"What if he's...I don't know...annoying her, or hurting her...or something?"

Harry expelled the breath he had been holding in. "I really doubt that, Ron. Too risky for him right now."

Ginny nodded in agreement. "And plus, you both seem to keep forgetting that Hermione is a capable witch who can take care of herself!"

Ron's eyebrows drew closer together as he contemplated that. "Well," he said finally, "I guess I'll go by the Head dorms later."

Ginny nodded slowly and resumed eating as Ron wolfed down the rest of his food.

Someone somewhere was tapping at something, but Hermione shut out the sound. She was having the best sleep of her life and she would be damned if some idiot's incessant tapping woke her up! Giving out a small 'hmph' she turned around and lazily threw an arm around the body next to her, stealing some of his body warmth.

Draco.

Hermione smiled.

"What are you smiling like a loon about, Granger?" came an arrogant drawl.

The smile vanished. "Shut up, Malfoy. I like you better that way," she mumbled, without opening her eyes. The tapping seemed to become louder.

"I'm sure you do, but Granger, I thought I should let you know that Weasel is trying to break down the portrait right now."

It took Hermione's brain ten seconds to process that. "What?" she gasped, eyes snapping open.

A/N: Wow...it's been...a while, eh? Blame my mock exams (which -just- finished today). Final exams in a month! -hyperventilates-
Right, anyway, this chapter is definitely NOT the best thing I've written, in fact, I'm not too happy with it myself. Once again, blame it on my mock exams, which have pretty much drained my brain and left it quite...empty. My muse packed up and left for a less stressful environment sometime around the second week of my mock exams (I'm been having them for the past month now...16 papers :S) so my writing really, really sucks. Maybe I'll rewrite this chapter...after my final exams.

I posted this rather pathetic chapter for three reasons:

1. Because it was a now or never situation.

2. It's my birthday on Saturday and I figured I should post something for that :D

3. I won't be posting for quite a while after this.

I seem to be lacking a beta reader, and right now I could really use one, more specifically for -this- chapter. So, if anyone out there is willing, PM me, and I will send you this chapter for editing. But, uh, it will only be for this chapter, because after that, as I mentioned, this story will be on temporary hiatus until December, and I wouldn't want to keep a beta reader hanging like that.

Okay, super-long A/N, I know, but lastly a HUGE thank you to all my readers and reviewers...hope you guys can put up with my crappy update timings for a little longer...it will get better, I promise :D And I know, I haven't answered anyone's reviews, but I have read and greatly appreciated every one of them...they were a real encouragement. And if you've enjoyed my writing (this chapter excluded, yuck), then you might want to check out a fic I posted a few months (or was it weeks?) ago, called A Rush Of Blood to the Head (yes, I know I'm pimping my fics and shamelessly so). It's only got four chapters or so till now, but I find that story easier to write than this one, so I may update it more frequently.

And finally, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter (to a certain extent, anyway). Feedback is always welcome and highly appreciated (but you guys know that already). Until I update again...

Rae