Draco Malfoy and His Quest to Sensibility
by cleury


The Last Chapter


Of course, a goodbye was in order. The rumors spread like wildfire and for once, being an insider to the story, Draco knew that Hermione's plan to move to America were accurate. It was a pity really, but Britain and its interlaced community was too small for Hermione; she thirsted to do bigger things for the greater good. America would treat the woman much better. Draco supposed he, too, better thank her for changing him—he could tell her that she had given him reason to change…

"Hi."

"Hi," said Draco as he looked up to see Hermione. Wearing a thick jumper and large coat, she was dressed for the weather. Draco wished he had done the same. Hermione sat beside him, and he handed her a cup of coffee. She accepted it with thanks, and took a sip. They sat for a few moments in wordlessness. Draco tensed as the length of silence was prolonged. He felt on edge. Unlike their usual silences, this seemed to be quite different. Instead of comfort, it felt like a spar; where each of them waited for the other to take the lead and be in charge of the conversation.

"I'm going to America."

"I heard." Draco took a sip from his drink. He didn't mean to sound curt, and he hoped Hermione didn't take it that way. He glanced over to see her reaction to his words. She seemed unaffected, as though she understood the intent behind his words. He relaxed, and gave out a sigh of relief. It appeared that Hermione knew him well enough to decipher his true intentions from his speech. She smiled at him, eyes crinkling at the ends, her expression bright.

"So, is that all you wanted to say?" asked Draco.

Hermione shook her head, some of her hair splayed across her shoulders, other parts tucked under her scarf. "I wanted to thank you," she said, gripping the edge of her paper coffee-cup tightly. "You were the only one who know what my problem was, and forced me address it."

Draco shrugged. He didn't feel as though he had done anything big for her. He was more amazed at the fact that her friends hadn't done much about it earlier. "It was elementary, my dear Watson. I did it because you helped me. You might not have known, but when I first came to the institute, I couldn't feel a single thing. For better or worse, when I saw you, I started feeling again. I felt hate."

Hermione covered her surprise with a snort. "Typical."

"As time progressed, I slowly got back all my feelings," said Draco. He stared intently at Hermione, hoping he could convey his sincerity. "Thank you for not putting up with my abuse, and for lecturing me so that I could get my act back together." He swallowed. "Because of that, I've been trying to change."

Hermione shot him a smile, and shook her head shyly.

"I realize I have been an arsehole for most of my life, and I still am one. Some days it's pure agony keeping my mouth shut."

"I'd say at the least, you've given it a very sincere effort."

"The secret is to concentrate on being less of an arsehole instead of not being one."

"I'm happy for you," said Hermione candidly. Their eyes met, and in a rush, they both looked away. Draco bit his lip. He felt the urge to scream and run away. Was that the wrong emotion to feel? Draco felt he still had a very weak grasp on which emotion was appropriate for which situation.

"Um," said Hermione suddenly. "Can we talk about the kiss we had just before you left the institute? I mean, we never had a chance to talk about it."

"Okay." He liked how direct Hermione was, and agreed that they should talk about the kiss like mature adults. Misconceptions, second-guessing, and miscommunications were for teenagers and people who thirsted for drama. And I think I've had my fair share of drama.

Hermione took a huge breath and let it out. She tried several times to speak, before she finally squeaked, "Why did you kiss me?"

Draco leaned back on the bench. "Why indeed. Give me a moment while I collect my thoughts."

Hermione nodded, and took a sip of her coffee.

"It was attraction. I didn't have feelings of love for you; it was too soon for me to feel that emotion for anyone, you see. It wasn't until Crookshanks... and his passing that I regained the capacity to love," said Draco, his voice wavering . He felt embarrassed that he was speaking so frankly about his feelings, especially his feelings towards a cat. But he felt safe—Hermione wouldn't laugh his feelings, she had seen him at his absolute worst before and hadn't made fun of him. That reassured him to a certain degree. He took a huge breath and finished the next sentence in a rush. "Anyway, you looked cute and I was curious, so I kissed you. Why did you kiss me?" He turned to face her.

Hermione turned crimson at his unintentional compliment. "Because you kissed me first."

"Is that it? So you'd kiss any bloke that'd kiss you?" Draco said, raising an eyebrow, not impressed with her lackluster explanation.

"Yes! I mean no!" said Hermione quickly. "You made me feel special—no one looked at me like that in a very long time… and it felt nice to be admired."

Draco twisted his face in to a scowl and looked at Hermione. "This is what happens when you hang around half-brained idiots, they don't appreciate you for your worth."

Hermione snorted, outwardly expressing that she was offended by his insult to her friends, but she smiled inwardly at yet another one of his unintentional compliments.

"Just don't go kissing back every man who kisses you when you get to America," lectured Draco in a fatherly manner. "It's indecent for young ladies to do that."

Hermione laughed and shook her head. "That's one problem I'll be working on."

"Isn't life like that?" said Draco in a gravelly and old-but-not-senile wizard voice. "A work in progress. A continuing quest."

"Until our inevitable end." Hermione mimicked the voice Draco put on, and gesticulated grandly in the air. "Yet we beat on against the current."

"Ha, that's Great Gastby," said Draco clapping his hands excitedly. "I finally got your Muggle reference!"

"Aw, you're so cute. Getting all excited because you understood something," said Hermione cheekily.

"I told you," said Draco, pouting like a baby—he really wasn't helping his case. "I'm not cute, I'm winsome."

Hermione hummed, swaying her body to the strange tune coming from her mouth. "Yeah, sure." Her shoulder bumped against Draco's, and they made a face at each other. She looked up at Draco suddenly, through her lashes. "By the way… could you kiss me again? As good luck for the road."

Draco nodded. "Yeah, why not." He leaned over and pecked her on the cheek.

"No!" squeaked Hermione, slapping him away. Draco backed away instantly, startled.

"What?" he said, confused. Draco couldn't understand why Hermione looked so agitated. He watched Hermione rock back and forth in her seat with embarrassment, and for a moment it looked as though she was going to start banging her head against the seat. She turned completely red, even the tips of her ears had turned a glowing vermillion. Draco stared closely at the woman. Was that a twitch under her eye? Did he make her that emotionally distressed? What did he do?

"ARGH!" screeched Hermione, she downed the rest of her coffee and ripped Draco's cup from his hands. Draco observed this with a mild sense of detachment, as though he was going through some out-of-body-experience. Hermione was currently consuming everything in sight because of her anger. He rewarded himself a few points for noticing that she was angry, but he was still confused, and couldn't understand what the hell was going on. He didn't dare ask Hermione right now, she had finished drinking both cups of their coffee—Draco noted caffeine did nothing to soothe Hermione's temper. She slammed the coffee cups to the ground.

Draco wanted to object, and lecture her on the ethics of littering at a park, or dumping rubbish irresponsibly in general, but decided against it when he saw the look on her face.

Hermione crushed the paper cups with her booted heel, scowling as she repeatedly stomped on the cups. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

Draco stood up, slightly worried by Hermione's behavior. He placed both hands on her shoulders in attempt to calm her, and looked closely at her face. "You're not having a fit, are you?"

Hermione shot him a glare that could destroy a Horcrux. Then Draco understood exactly why Hermione suddenly started consuming all the coffee in the near vicinity, and insulted his intelligence. He grinned. Really, if she wanted to become lawyer, she should have worded her requests more specifically. Draco put on a serious, but concerned, expression in preparation for his next words. "Are you calling yourself stupid, or me?" he asked, trying to sound as thick as possible. Then he cocked his head. "Or could it be that you're... hungry?"

Hermione bit back a scream.

Draco tried his best to keep his laughter in, managing to keep a poker face. And he thought Hermione had looked angry before! Draco had run out words to describe Hermione's rage. He could not compare it to anything. Bad move. I shouldn't have teased her. Now I've made her very angry. Maybe I should stop talking. Hermione flung his hands off of her shoulders.

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" yelled Hermione again as she danced on the squished remains of the cups.

"Okay, calm down," said Draco, attempting to mollify Hermione. "I knew what you wanted; it was just cute to see you flustered."

Hermione's anger instantly dissolved into embarrassment, and she tried kicking the squished cups. Sadly, she missed, and booted the air instead.

"Come here," he said, grabbing her hands and drawing her near. He leaned forward and his lips claimed hers fully. Her lips held the sour aftertaste of coffee, and he grimaced slightly.

Hermione broke the kiss, and giggled softly. "Not the best taste."

Draco snorted and pressed his lips back onto hers. He tried his best to be soft. He glanced at Hermione through his heavily lidded eyes. Her face was still even more flushed than before from her prior embarrassment and anger. A few extra sections of her hair had come out from her scarf, and a few strands rested on his shoulders. She pressed her hands on the sides of his arms, angling her head to gain better access, the warm tip of her tongue trailing across the parting of his lips in search for its entrance. Draco's breath hitched as they deepened the kiss, his tongue gliding against hers in a meandrous fashion, which elicited emotions he had never experienced before.

He didn't foresee or ready himself for the burst of sensation, and the state of heightened awareness. Draco heard Hermione gasp. He had snogged a grand total of one woman in his life, but he thought he had plenty of experience in the particular department, but this was outside of what he imagined even in his dreams. He pressed a hand against the edge of the bench to stop himself from falling on her. She made him weak at his knees. Wasn't that funny. He had thought that was the girl's role. Thrilled and frightened by the emotions, Draco pressed closer, deepening the kiss. He felt Hermione relax against him, feeling her sigh and shudder slightly, as though she was letting go of something that had bound her tightly.

In the back of his head, he noted that they were at a park—an extremely public place, and it was better for them not to deepen the kiss any further. He sighed inwardly, not wanting to stop. He retracted his head slightly so he was no longer pressing so close to her, and lightened his kisses gradually until he was only grazing his lips against hers. Draco lifted his head, and felt Hermione's ragged breaths against his lips. He dared to open his eyes, to see an incredibly flushed Hermione—he hadn't seen someone turn such a brilliant shade of red before—and he pulled further away from her, hoping he hadn't made a mistake.

Hermione stared at him, shaking. Draco was horrified; she looked as though she was about to cry. He opened his lips to ask or apologize, but his words never managed to leave his throat. Hermione lunged and pressed her lips against his again.

Saying that one had butterflies in their stomach was stupid, he realized. The feeling that he was currently experiencing in his stomach didn't involve butterflies, or any light flapping at all—Hermione's tongue darted into his mouth—nope, there were a whole nest of hornets wreaking havoc. Draco was intoxicated as he closed the distance between them again. She responded to their proximity by tangling her fingers in his hair. He felt his rationality slip from the new surge of emotions. Everything he was disappointed about, that he found lacking in their first kiss was redeemed twice over. Draco had considered his extremities cold before, but now they burned with fire, especially his fingertips. The sensations made him feel giddy and light-headed. The emotions he felt could have had been taken from a sappy romance novel. He briefly wondered, as his senses sent his brain into over-drive and drowned him in a whirlwind of sensations, whether Hermione felt the same connection. Then his thoughts derailed, leaving him only with the palpation of his heart resounding in his entire body, dulling everything else around him and Hermione.

Their kiss went from a Disney-rating, to PG… nope. They had to stop. Draco's face flushed, and Hermione could sense Draco's discomfort. She lifted her head and their lips parted with a hiss of air.

Draco's forehead touched Hermione's as he tried to catch his breath. Hermione didn't say a word after that. She too, seemed to be at loss as to what to say. He looked at her and smiled. She smiled back.

"That was a good kiss," she said, her eyes slightly blurry.

"Yeah," Draco managed to choke out. "It was a good kiss." He could only smile pathetically at her. He was getting all the fireworks and the slow-motion effects he wanted, and Draco swore he had heard cellos swelling in the background.

Hermione rubbed her lips with the back of her hand, blushing at their display of affection in the public, and spoke like malfunctioning robot. "Did that kiss... endow you with g-g-greater sensibility?"

Draco bit his slightly swollen lower lip, leaned forward again, adopting the same style of speech as her. "Most vividly."


It's over. -phew- What did you guys think of the ending/story as a whole? At the very least, I hope you got a few laughs from it. Shameless plugging time, but then this might be the last time you will ever read words I've written. I've written a brand new shiny Dramione fanfic, which I will publish in a few days' time. Unfortunately Crookie does not feature in the story at all, but I promise you I will make up for it another way. Please author alert me!