Beta love to LondonsLegend. Alpha love to LightofEvolution. Any flames will be ignored. Hope y'all love the chapter!
~A.

"If I were the rain. . . that binds together the Earth and the sky, whom in all eternity will never mingle. . . Would I be able to bind two hearts together?"
~Tite Kubo

Chapter 37: A Four Letter Word

Center Stage: Draco and Hermione
Setting: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

"Hermione."

"Not now, Draco."

"Hermione."

"I said not. Now." Hermione sat with her legs crossed on George's office floor, placing incantations on shoe after shoe to transfigure themselves to any size foot. Draco would pass her a new box when she finished, hanging sideways off George's sagging, leather chair in an 'I don't care' sort of way, even though he obviously did. Everything about his aura screamed tense, from the crease in his brow to the way his feet kept tapping the air.

"Fine," he muttered, accio'ing a new box and sliding it over her way as she levitated the old box onto a pile stacked clear to the ceiling. "So we're fighting now."

"I'm not fighting," Hermione said cooly, opening the new box of shoes. "I'm working. This would go a lot faster if you helped."

"Maybe I'd be more inclined to help if we talked." From the corner of her eye, she spotted him making a grimace as if he'd just stuck an entire lemon wedge in his mouth. "Merlin help me. I want to talk? About...feelings?" His face soured again. "Might as well put me out to pasture. I've lost all sense of familiarity."

"Stop being dramatic." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Dramatic?" Draco popped his head up, thinking it over. "A Malfoy is never dramatic."

"Oh, please. Your family could put on an entire production of Cats and no one would bat an eyelash. They'd just look and say, 'there goes the Malfoys, doing what the Malfoys do.'"

"I'm not even sure what you're talking about, but I'm sure I'm supposed to feel insulted, so I'm taking it that way."

"Good."

After a few moments of silence, Draco groaned audibly. "I shouldn't have said it! There! Are you happy?"

Hermione kept her head down in her work, refusing to meet his sure to be withering gaze. "Not in the slightest." It sparked a tiny glimmer of joy within her to see, out of the corner of her eye, him fidget in his chair so much that he nearly fell out of it. Eventually, he sat upright in it and strummed his fingers along the arm rests. - Okay, so Hermione was maybe taking this a little far. But that didn't mean he shouldn't squirm like the worm he was. What he said...about if he'd known how to dance in the first place...it struck a chord in her. And she wasn't the only one to have felt the chill. The entire room had fallen flat at his words.

A part of her (not the logical side, of course) wondered if he really did regret it all. She'd taken it for granted that they'd fallen into each other's laps - quite literally at times. But really, if they hadn't found each other again through the Tango, would they even have crossed paths at all? She'd built this idea in her head that, somehow, they were meant to find each other. But what if this all was a fluke?

Stealing a glance at Draco, who met her gaze with stern worry, she tucked her head down and hastily set back to work. She couldn't bear the thought of admitting she was the one being dramatic, but...well, it had hurt her.

There was a flash of light outside the office window, and then a resounding crack that had them both jumping to their feet, wands ready. When they realized it wasn't another explosion, but a thunderstorm rolling in, they laughed nervously, exchanging timid smiles.

"Just our luck," Hermione muttered, tiptoeing to the window. Small drops of rain already littered the pavement, growing stronger by the second.

"It'll let up before daybreak," Draco said calmly behind her, his voice closer than before.

"How can you be sure?"

"Call it a hunch - also, the Daily has a weather forecast." She felt his arms cautiously folding around her shoulders, pulling her back against him. Hermione let it happen; it was difficult to fight the want to be near him, even when she was cross.

Easing her back until they felt molded together, Draco released a sigh and rested his chin on her shoulder. "I get it. I can be a git."

"More than a git," Hermione replied as she watched the rain outside and tried to ignore the smell of his cologne. "Your chin is jabbing into my shoulder."

What was probably out of spite, Draco kept his chin rested there. "It's called a man's chin, Granger. It's attractive."

"It's stabbing me." She shrugged his jaw off of her, and he chuckled, kissing her cheek and holding her tightly.

"Diagon is nearly tolerable like this," he mused.

"Empty?"

"Quiet."

She smiled. "It's nearly too quiet."

"Too quiet? There's no such thing."

"Actually, that's not quite right. Have you ever heard of an anechoic chamber? It's designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves."

"Sounds like my kind of fortress," Draco quipped. And then…"Granger?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you go somewhere with me?"

Hermione turned her head just enough to catch his gaze. "Where?" Suddenly, she was spun around and grabbed by the hand. "Draco?"

He simply smirked over his shoulder, pulling her out of the office and past the snoring Ron in the hallway. On the selling floor, George was rearranging the shelves when he caught sight of the pair. "Where are you going?" he called out.

"Haven't a clue!" Hermione replied, nearly laughing at the absurdity of it all. Her eyes grew wide as Draco pushed open the front door. The rain was coming down in sheets now. "We're going outside?"

"I thought you Gryffindors were supposed to be daring," he laughed, yanking her out with him. Immediately, Hermione was drenched in thousands of tiny raindrops. They splattered across her skin, her face, soaking into her clothing. Draco's normally styled hair fell flat instantly, and he ran his fingers back through it with one hand, never letting go of her with the other. "Come on! Keep up!" He continued to usher her down the road, past the shops. He didn't stop until they were at the brick wall separating them from the muggle streets. The tip of his wand lit up, and he tapped the bricks until they moved, revealing the vacant fountain just a ways off.

"What are you-" Hermione began, but she cut herself off the moment he released her hand and jogged over, still soaked to the bone from the pouring rain, to the fountain.

"Here!" he shouted across the way at her. "This is it!"

"Is what?" she shouted back.

Draco didn't answer her. He simply stowed his wand away in the holster on his hip and extended a hand in her direction. Coyly, and feeling a tad childish, she approached him until she slipped her hand in his. He did the rest, pulling her to him so closely she could see the droplets of rain dripping off of his nose. Their only source of light was the street lamp on the other side of the fountain, which made the fountain water shimmer.

Hermione felt his arm wrap around her waist, and his other hand slipped into hers, setting them into a Tango stance.

His warmth radiated against her, adding much needed comfort against the harshness of the rain. His eyes, nearly glowing against the water's reflection, glistened endearingly back at her.

"This is where I knew."

"Knew what?"

She gasped as he took the lead, swaying them in time with the tempo of the rain. Hermione quickly fell in step, keeping up with him and laughing at the silliness of it all. Draco simply offered a cheesy grin and let his feet do the talking. Together, they moved like currents, pushing and pulling, swaying with each other before parting only to be drawn to one another again. Her clothes were soaked, her hair was a mop, and yet Hermione Granger was the happiest she'd ever been, dancing here with Draco in the rain.

After a quick turn, Draco brought her to him, chest to chest, for the umpteenth time that night. It was beginning to be a habit. Softly, he broke their form to swipe a wet curl away from her cheek. "This," he said, "is when I knew you meant something more to me."

"This is where you used Legilimency on me," she offered back.

"Before that," he said, rolling his eyes. "You're focusing on the wrong parts of that evening."

"I think that played a larger part of our evening - downplaying it would-"

"Hermione, I'm attempting to be romantic. Must you spoil it?"

Hermione giggled. "Only a little."

"Wonderful. We have a comedian, ladies and gents." He spun her and caught her mid turn. Now it was her back against his chest. "What I'm trying to say…" She could feel his heart slamming against his ribcage as his breath ghosted her cheek and his hands tightened around hers. "...is that I could never repay you for waking me up that night. The real me. The person I'd forgotten I was."

Now instead of a smile, Hermione wore a blush and a stunned expression. Draco couldn't see it, of course, but there was no doubt he'd known what sort of mood he'd set. Just how did one reply to something so entirely intimately passionate?

By stuttering, of course.

"I-I...that's...um...I…"

She could practically feel his eyes roll behind her. The sound of the rain drowned out the pounding heartbeat in her eardrums.

"What I'm trying to say, Hermione…" That's when she became aware of the way his arms trembled around her - the way his breath hitched ever so slightly. "...is that I'm an idiot for ever insinuating I could have gone on living without...without you there to kickstart this thing in my chest again...I mean...I love-"

The world slowed down to a halt the moment she clicked the pieces together. Was he really...he couldn't possibly…was she ready for such a large step?

She panicked. And she did what every panicked person in her situation would do - she stalled.

"-The rain?" she interrupted, turning in his arms to face him and forcing her most 'comfortable' smile. "Yes, it is pretty, isn't it?"

Even in the dim light of the street lamp, she could spot the redness on his cheeks. He looked pretty taken aback, but then he smoothed over his features with a facade, morphing into the cool and collected Malfoy she knew him to be. He brushed his thumb down her lower lip, parting it from the top one.

"It's beautiful," Draco said quietly. "The rain."

Hermione cleared her throat, stepping back and away from his grip. "We should get back to the shop."

She didn't make it two steps before Draco wrapped his fingers around her wrist, stilling her. "Really, Granger?"

"What?"

"Don't what me. You know perfectly well 'what'."

"I've never said it, alright?" she snapped, jerking her wrist out of his hand. "There. Are you happy?"

"You've...never said what? That you loved someone?" Draco stared blankly at her. "How is that even possible? You and Weasley were together, right? He asked you to marry him, for Merlin's sake!"

"Yes! I'm perfectly aware!" Hermione shot back, embarrassed. A long silence followed, and then eventually, she said, "Ron said it. Frequently. And I would always thank him-"

"-Thank him? Fucking Hell, I'm beginning to feel sorry for Weasley. Me. Of all people!"

"I'm not exactly proud of myself! I just...I...that kind of love...it's intimate. It isn't exactly logical-"

"Must everything be with you? Logical?"

"I'm not sure! Perhaps!" She threw her hands up in the air just as a crack of thunder rolled overhead. "I'm afraid!"

"Of what? That you might love someone? That they might love you back? That two humans could be happy together?"

"All of it!" Hermione bit her lower lip as a tear slipped down her cheek. Not that he could see - it blended with the rain dripping down her face. "My parents said I love you. They said it, and they meant it. And now they're divorced! One lives in Australia, and the other in Wales! I can't seem to find the logic in that either!"

Crack went the lightning above their heads.

"Divorced?" Draco's brow creased. "You've never mentioned that before."

"Yes, well, it's never come up," she said, crossing her arms and hugging them around herself. "It happened back when Ron and I...right before he...and I just couldn't...not after seeing what love can do."

"I've been risking everything," Draco said, approaching her slowly, "everything because my feelings for you have grown exponentially. Because, for lack of better words, I stopped seeing a future with Astoria and found a future with you. And now you're telling me you don't want to build a future with someone?"

"Of course I do!" Hermione fumed. "But saying it - out loud - it will jinx it, you know?"

"Tell me, Hermione. Where is the logic in that?" His eyes bored down on her, cutting like diamonds in the night. He turned away from her, heading for the Leaky Cauldron.

"Where are you going?" she shouted, jogging after him.

"To finish what I started. Unlike some people, I don't have commitment issues."

"Oh!" Hermione narrowed her eyes, withdrawing her wand. "You take that back!"

Draco smirked, turning and walking backwards as he spoke. "Make me."

With swiftness, Hermione swished her wand, and Draco's legs buckled out from under him, sending him backwards on his arse. "Ah!" His eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "That's the way you want to play it, is it?" He scuffled to his feet and in a flourish of movements sent an entire puddle's worth of water careening in her direction. It splashed over her like a tidal wave.

"Oh!"

"Is that all you can say? Oh?"

"That's it!" She sent and hit her target with a stinging hex, making him wince and clutch his shoulder in pain.

"OWWW. That hurt!"

"Good!"

He shot a bat bogey hex at her, but she blocked it quickly. "Is that the best you've got, Malfoy?"

"I'm just getting warmed up, Granger."

Spell after spell, hex after hex - they flung them at one another, both deflecting and maneuvering with skill and precision.

"Bombarda!"

"Repello!" The spell bounced off of Draco's shield and exploded a nearby trash can. "Salazar's tits, are you trying to kill me?"

More spells. More hexes. Hermione dodged a nasty puffy-face hex and sent a frizzy hair charm in his direction. The spark of the spell zapped Draco's hair follicles and sent them ridged right before the rain washed it back down his scalp again.

"Oh, you're asking for it now, witch. Nobody messes with my hair!"

He began to bombard her with spell after spell. Hermione sent up a shield, but the sheer force of each spell that hit made her scoot across the road. Not even the friction of her shoes could stop it from happening. Before she knew it, she'd been pressed against the edge of the fountain. Her knees buckled slightly as the concrete hit the back of her legs, but she stood her ground.

"You're going to knock me into the fountain!" she shouted.

"What difference does it make? You're already wet!" He sent an expelliarmus her way. It was just enough oompfh to cause her legs to bend completely. She gasped, her shield dissolving. The fall felt like slow motion - or maybe it was that way because as she fell, she suddenly felt a cushion of warmth envelop her head and arms. No, it wasn't slow motion, she realized. It was a cushioning charm holding her mid-fall.

Draco strolled up to her, his shoulder swollen.

"Why...why didn't you just let me fall?" she asked.

"Because, you stupid Gryffindor - whether or not you love me, I love you, and I wouldn't let any real harm come to you." He offered out his hand for her to take. "That's what love is. It's putting someone else above your own selfish happiness because their happiness makes you happy - and believe me, it would bring me immense joy to let you fall right now. It's wanting to take care of someone, even if they make you furious beyond all reason." He waited, and Hermione pondered over his words. What he said - it resounded within her. "Well? Are you going to take my hand or-"

"I love you, too," she whispered as rain slapped against her face. She hoped it wouldn't drown out her words - the look on Draco's face was hard to tell…

"Really?" He quirked an eyebrow.

"I…" Timidly, she nodded. She took his hand, and he pulled her to her feet. She let herself lean against his chest, and then her arms wrapped around him and trapped him in a vice-like hug that he couldn't escape from. "I love you, Draco."

A soft chuckle was his reply, followed by, "If I had known duelling you would get you to say it, I would have started with that."

"Don't start."

He shrugged against her. "What made you...you're not just saying it to appease me, are you?"

"Like I would want to inflate that ego of yours," she quipped, untucking her face from his chest to look up at him. "I don't know. I just...what you said. About love. It's how I feel about you. And if that's what love is...I don't want to miss out on it." She glanced at his shoulder. "Sorry about that."

"As you should be. I'll need medical attention. Perhaps an attractive healer in short robes…"

She swatted him in the stung shoulder, making him wince.

"Don't push it, Draco."

"Pushing your buttons has always been a hobby of mine - I don't plan on stopping anytime soon." He leaned closer and whispered in her ear, "I'm sorry about your parents. But they aren't us. And we've gone through too much to throw this away. You're stuck with me, whether you like it or not."

"Promise?" she half laughed, half cried.

"I'm willing to bet a dance studio on it." He winked.

"Are you willing to bet a cold on it!?" said a voice from behind them. They both turned to see George Weasley standing near the entrance to Diagon, his wand used as an umbrella with a simple spell. "Because that's what the two of you will be getting if you don't get inside where it's warm!"

"You're starting to sound like Molly!" Hermione called back to him.

George shrugged, grinning. "My mum's a wise woman - even I'd be daft to ignore that. Now come along! We've work to do!"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Do you see what she did to my shoulder?"

"Nobody cares, Malfoy. Nobody cares."

Would love to hear your thoughts!
~A.