Revelations

Neville ran a distracted hand through his hair. "I'm really not sure how to tell you this, but it's about Hermione. I saw her with Malfoy tonight and … er … they were kissing."

It took Harry a couple of seconds to digest this information. His first urge to was to burst out laughing and tell his roommate to pull the other one. But the serious expression on Neville's round face was telling. He also wouldn't tease him about something like this.

He sat heavily down into a chair. "What?" he asked faintly.

"I saw Hermione with Malfoy. I think they might be seeing each other."

"No!" Harry whispered.

Harry put his chin in his hand and stared down at his feet. Something had been up with Hermione for months now. He'd wanted to dismiss it, but had known that her glib explanations weren't ringing true. Now he knew why. Hermione and Malfoy! It didn't seem possible. "How? When?" he asked Neville.

Neville looked sympathetically at him. "I don't know," he replied honestly. "I saw them tonight when I was returning from the library."

Harry closed his eyes. He really didn't want to voice the next sentence aloud but he felt compelled to do so. "Tell me exactly what they were doing."

To his credit, Neville didn't give him the pitying look he was sure he deserved. "It seemed at first as if they were arguing. Hermione looked as if she was pleading with him about something before she got angry and Malfoy turned away. But whatever it was they were fighting about, they seemed to resolve it. They hugged and then kissed," he outlined in a matter-of-fact way.

Harry wanted to vomit at the image Neville's words had burned into his mind. He could barely stomach the thought of Hermione being intimately involved with anyone – but Malfoy?! That was too much to bear. However, it really did explain some of the things that had happened over the last few months that had made him uneasy. Firstly, why had Malfoy been happy to hand that bag of alcohol over to Hermione when he had been all but ready to hex him and Ron over it? Also there was the teasing quality of Malfoy's voice as he called her 'Princess'. Then there was the whole incident in Potions last week. Ron had insisted that Malfoy had been harassing Hermione, but she had been quick to dismiss his concerns. Maybe it hadn't been so much harassment as a tryst that Ron had interrupted.

Neville broke through Harry's ruminations. "That's not all though, Harry."

"Wait, there's more?"

His roommate nodded. "Back at the beginning of March, I caught Malfoy coming out of Hermione's room. She swore that it was nothing, that she had found him wandering the corridors and brought him back to her room because he was drunk."

Harry thought back and groaned. He remembered a morning, back in March, when they'd gone to get Hermione and go to breakfast. There had been blankets on the sofa and Malfoy's hip flask had been on the coffee table.

"Was this before or after we'd left for breakfast?" he asked.

Neville frowned as he thought about it. "It's a long time ago, Harry, how am I meant to remember that?"

"Just try."

The other wizard took a good few minutes to think whilst Harry tried to remain patient.

"I think you'd already gone down. The common room was pretty deserted. I had woken up late, and our dorm room was empty."

Harry nodded grimly. It confirmed his suspicions: Malfoy had been there when they had. Hermione must have stuffed him in her bedroom. She had seemed a little skittish at the time, and now he knew why.

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

Neville looked guilty. "I spoke to Hermione about it. She assured me that she wouldn't get too involved."

He scoffed. "I can't believe you just let her reassure you. You should have come to me straight away."

"Give me a break, mate. She's an adult and I chose to believe that she wouldn't want to get that close to Malfoy. Besides, she might be compassionate but she's not a soft touch."

Harry made a frustrated sound. "Well, she obviously is a soft touch if she's let Malfoy sweet talk her into some kind of relationship."

Before Neville could reply, the portrait hole opened and Ginny stepped through. She was talking intently to Demelza Robbins but caught sight of Harry and Neville and waved goodbye to her fellow Gryffindor Chaser.

"Hey," she greeted cheerfully. She then seemed to take stock of Harry's facial expression. "What's wrong?"

Harry just continued to stare across the common room. He was struggling to take it all in and, although he heard Ginny's question, he didn't have the words or the motivation to answer it at the moment.

Neville stepped in before the brief silence got any longer and Ginny got angry for being ignored.

"I saw Hermione with Malfoy tonight," Neville said.

If either Harry or Neville had been paying any attention, they would have seen the brief flicker of guilt that flashed over Ginny's face, followed by an anxious look. She smothered them before anyone looked at her. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Neville looked uncertain whether to continue but Harry waved him on. There was no hiding this from Ginny and he would probably need her insight anyway. It was going to be difficult to tell Ron, though. The thought of that stressed him out. Ron was a react-first-think-later type of person, and he had never mastered the art of not reacting to Hermione's love life. Ugh, there it was again - the nausea in the pit of his stomach, as he thought of Hermione, Malfoy and love life all in the same sentence.

"Er … I saw Hermione kissing Malfoy tonight."

Ginny gasped. "What? When? How?" she spluttered.

"It was the on Third Floor. I was returning from the library and I spotted them down a corridor."

"Did you catch anything of what they were saying?" she asked.

Neville flushed. "I'm not a snoop! Besides, I'm sure they would have heard me if I had tried to move any closer."

Harry hadn't really been paying much attention to this exchange. He was getting over the shock of Neville's revelation and was now becoming angry. He never thought that he'd be filled with so much rage towards Hermione, but he was. He was upset that she had hidden this from him and annoyed that she had put herself in this position - with Malfoy of all people. What was she thinking? He was a pure-blooded bigot! A nasty piece of work who had made their lives a misery. How many times had he taunted her cruelly about her looks and her blood? And yet, here she was, kissing the bloke. This wasn't even taking into consideration that Malfoy was a Death Eater just released from Azkaban.

He suddenly jumped up, startling both Neville and Ginny. "I'm going to confront her," he stated.

Neville nodded stoically, as if it was something he had already expected. Ginny, however, stood in front of Harry. "Do you think that's really the best idea right now?"

"I need to know what the hell she's thinking."

"Harry, it's getting really late and I don't think barging into her bedroom right now is going to garner many answers."

"I don't care. I have to know what's going on," he said stubbornly.

He went to walk around Ginny, but she grabbed his arm. "I don't think it's a good idea. You're upset, you're angry and you're going to end up shouting at her, which is just going to put your friendship in peril."

"Ginny, take your hand off me and let me go."

"No," his fiancée replied. "You're not going over there now. Wait to speak to her in the morning."

"I DON'T WANT TO WAIT UNTIL THE MORNING!" he yelled, losing his temper in frustration at being told what to do.

Ginny gave him a look straight from the Molly Weasley Handbook of Annoyed Glares. She cast a Muffliato around them. "You don't need to wake the whole of Gryffindor Tower up, Harry. And you've proved my point exactly," she stated.

He raked his hand through his hair in annoyance. "What do you mean?"

"You're going to go in there shouting and screaming at her. What do you think that is going to achieve?"

"It'll make me feel a lot better about this whole fucking situation," he growled.

"Precisely. You'll get brief satisfaction at chewing her out, but you'll get no answers and drive a wedge between the pair of you. Is that what you want?"

He paced up and down. "No! I want to shake some sense into her."

Ginny smiled at him. "In order to do that, you'll have to be a lot closer to her than you will be if you march over there now."

"Ginny's right, Harry," Neville butted in. "Hermione is as stubborn as you. If someone came to you ranting and raving in the middle of the night, what would your reaction be?"

Harry huffed and flopped down onto a sofa. He put his head in his hands. "Okay, I get it. Let my anger cool down and then confront her before I make it all worse."

He felt the sofa dip and he looked up as Ginny rested her head on his shoulder. "As much as you hate having to wait, love, it would be the smartest thing to do."

"Besides, you don't want to run the risk of Hermione hexing you," Neville piped up. "I still haven't forgotten the Body-Bind Curse she cast on me in our first year."

Harry couldn't help but smile at the reminder of simpler times. Well, simpler in the sense that you ran no risk of Hermione wanting to snog Malfoy. The good guys were good and the bad guys were bad. And Hermione detested Malfoy's guts.

The frustration remained, though. He was never the most patient of people and preferred action to sitting and thinking things through. Hermione had always been the research-and-plan-person. He was the run-off-and-wing-it person. Sitting here waiting for his temper to cool and for daylight to break wasn't his cup of tea.

Neville seemed to realise that Harry was settled for the night on the sofa. "Goodnight," he whispered to Harry and Ginny.

Harry just nodded back, still annoyed with Neville for not coming to him months ago. He could have snuffed out all involvement Hermione had with Malfoy there and then - before her emotions had become engaged.

"Did we do something wrong?" he asked Ginny finally. They had been sitting there in silence for at least forty minutes.

"Hmm?" she responded sleepily.

"Did we do something that drove Hermione into Malfoy's arms?" he repeated.

This caused Ginny to sit up. "No!" she exclaimed. "I don't think this is about Hermione feeling isolated and unloved."

"Are you sure? I mean, we've spent a lot of time playing Quidditch this year, which is something Hermione can't become involved in."

Ginny thought back to the night that Ron had proposed to Hannah, and what she had stumbled upon the next morning. Her first response was that they hadn't been neglecting their friend, but then she remembered that night. Hermione hadn't even been aware what Ron was going to do. "I guess we have a little. I mean, she didn't even know Ron was proposing to Hannah."

Harry sighed. "I didn't even think to tell her. It didn't cross my mind that she didn't know."

"But I spoke to her about it afterwards. I think she was a little hurt, but didn't hold it against us."

"But maybe that's why she's been keeping secrets."

Ginny was pretty sure Hermione was keeping secrets because she knew how unpopular her decision to help Malfoy in any way, shape or form would be with her two best friends. After all, Ginny's own reaction hadn't exactly been measured.

It was why she had done her utmost to stop Harry from rushing over there. Nothing she had said in the heat of the moment could compare to how hurt Hermione would be at what Harry could possibly throw at her. If a rift developed between the two friends, they would both be devastated. They had a bond forged over years of standing side-by-side and fighting.

Ginny couldn't say any of this to Harry, though. Not without revealing that she already knew of Hermione's relationship with Malfoy. She didn't think that was something he needed to be made aware of tonight. It would just make him angrier and more likely to rush off to confront the Head Girl.

"You can't help who you like," Ginny replied simply.

"But it's Malfoy. Why would Hermione even like him?"

"I don't know, Harry. You're going to have to ask her."

"I think she may have lost her mind."

"I wouldn't suggest you say that to her. It'll just make her angry."

"I'm not Ron! I do have some tact!" he exclaimed.

Oh Merlin! Ron! "Where is Ron?"

"He's staying with Hannah."

"Where?" Ginny asked, momentarily confused.

"The Room of Requirement of course."

She shook her head; the stress of keeping Harry from storming in on Hermione – and probably Malfoy – was making her slow! Despite the Room of Hidden Things being destroyed by Crabbe's Fiendfyre, the Room of Requirement had remained intact, continuing to give lovers a place to rendezvous, especially those divided by house. Ron and Hannah had taken to using it over the weekends.

"Thank goodness for that," she breathed.

"Yeah, I guess we're lucky he's not here. You might be able to talk me down from storming into Hermione's room, but I doubt Ron would listen," he said, tugging on a strand of her hair.

Ginny sighed in relief at Harry's small attempt at teasing. It meant he was calming down. She didn't think for a moment he was coming to terms with Hermione's relationship with Malfoy, but it might mean that he wouldn't start shouting at her as soon as saw her.

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

Hermione was pulled out of sleep by the yell and opened her eyes to the enraged face of Harry. Having got to sleep so late, it took a while for her brain to function, but reality came crashing in on her as she felt the warm body snuggled up behind her. Oh Merlin, her secret was out and in the worst possible way.

Hermione arm was gripped tightly and she was dragged away from Draco. She squeaked and held on to the duvet with a firm grasp. She really didn't want to be flashing one of her best friends. Unfortunately, that meant it was whipped off Draco and left him sprawled on the bed in just his underwear. The cold air and loss of Hermione woke him up and he sat up sharply.

He took in the situation remarkably quickly. "Fuck off, Potter," he snarled.

Harry just gawped at the half-naked blond on the bed. Hermione didn't know where to look. She didn't want to meet Harry's gaze, as she was hugely embarrassed to be caught in such a fashion.

The door flew open, distracting her, and Ginny bounded in. The redhead shrieked as she caught sight of Draco and clapped her hands over her eyes.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Sorry, Hermione, I tried to stop him."

Harry rounded on his fiancée. "You knew about this?"

"If you mean that Hermione has generally lost her mind and is dating Malfoy, then yes."

"How could you not tell me? We sat in the common room all night talking about this and you didn't think to tell me?"

"Because it's not my place to tell you. It's Hermione's business."

"You think this," he yelled, gesturing to the semi-naked Malfoy, "isn't something that should concern me?"

"How was I to know you'd walk in on them in bed?! And if I had told you, you would definitely have come storming over, which wouldn't help," Ginny defended.

"I can't believe you hid this from me!"

Ginny flushed angrily. "Why are you yelling at me? Shouldn't you be yelling at Hermione?"

Hermione looked up from where she was contemplating the floor. "Thanks, Ginny," she said dryly.

"Sorry, Hermione. I may have kept this a secret for you, but it doesn't mean I'm prepared to get shouted at."

Harry looked at both girls in disappointment. "You're my fiancée and you're my best friend… I can't believe either of you would keep him a secret!"

Hermione cringed as Draco decided that now would be a good moment to speak.

"I hate to break up the domestic thing you have going on, Potter, but I'd appreciate if you would get the fuck out, and take your Weasley with you. Some of us don't think it's a privilege to see your face when they first wake up," he sneered.

He was propped up against the headboard, his arms crossed over his chest, looking completely at ease, despite the fact that he was just wearing underwear.

Harry glared at the Slytherin before he regained some composure. "You might want to get dressed, Hermione. I'll be waiting in the common room for you."

He didn't spare another glance at Draco before he stalked out.

Hermione sank onto the bed with her hand in her hands. "Oh, what am I going to do?"

"You might want to take Saint Potter's advice and put some clothes on."

"I can't believe he found out about us like that."

"Is it usual for him to go around bursting into girls' bedrooms?"

She wasn't in the mood to be distracted. "Please Draco, now is not the time for this."

Hermione was distraught and she was pleased when he realised this and pulled her into a fierce embrace. "Hermione, as much as I detest Potter and the Weasel, I don't want to come between you and your friends."

She sniffled slightly and slapped his shoulder. "After last night, you're meant to fight for me."

"I would face a thousand Potters for you, but I don't want you to be torn apart," he said melodramatically before his words dawned on him. "Fuck! I'm turning into a sappy Hufflepuff. Are you sure you didn't Imperio me?"

This had the desired effect; it broke some of Hermione's tension and she burst into giggles. "I never thought I'd see the day when Draco Malfoy would say he'd fight for me."

He smiled down at her. "Don't get used to it. This is a purely 'Granger's crazy friends have found out', once-in-a-lifetime declaration."

Hermione's smile turned back into a frown. "What am I going to do?"

"Do you want me to come down there with you?"

"I asked for advice on what to do, not on how to make matters a hundred times worse."

Draco rolled his eyes at her. "Just remember that I was all supportive and shit and offered to hold your hand."

"Yeah, great. Thanks for that," she sniped.

"Don't get bitchy with me, Granger. Save it for Perfect Potter."

She groaned. "Why me? And why now?"

"I did try to warn you that Potter was prick, but you insisted on befriending him."

Hermione looked confused. "Huh? When?"

"I've made my feelings clear on The-Boy-Who-Lived since we started this school. It's not my fault no one bothered to listen to me."

She glared at him. "You're not helping," she scolded.

She got up and moved around the room, gathering her clothes up. She probably should feel self-conscious parading around naked in front of Draco, but right now her mind was preoccupied with real concerns, such as how to reconcile her best friends with her boyfriend.

She groaned as she looked into the mirror. "Great! My hair is a complete mess."

She caught Draco's eye in the mirror. "What are you looking so amused at?"

"It's your hair, Princess. It always looks like it has a nest of Doxy's living in it."

She threw her hairbrush at him. "You are the worst boyfriend ever! You're meant to be reminding me right now why I want to go and fight with my friends over you."

He languidly got out of bed and padded towards her. He slowly stroked his hands up her arms until she shivered and leant down to kiss her. Hermione reached up on tiptoes to deepen the kiss further, pressing herself up against him. This was probably the best remainder he could give her.

She allowed a couple more minutes of the passionate kiss before she reluctantly pulled away. "I don't think a repeat of last night is what is needed right now."

He smirked. "We could give Potter and Weasley some lessons."

She rolled her eyes at him, but that kiss had stiffened her resolve. Draco might not be a bed of roses, but he was what she wanted. Her friends were going to have deal with that.