Kavinyar44: Sometimes it's hard to believe people like what I write. Thank you so much!

Chapter Twenty-five

False rumours

Draco averted his gaze from professor Slughorn, focusing on the brown hair of the girl he hadn't spoken to in weeks.

It annoyed him that she didn't even speak to him during their hours together in Arithmancy class. Hermione wouldn't even look at him, she would just pass him a piece of parchment at the end of the lesson where all the part of her work for that week was. He would fill in what was missing and hand it in to the professor at the end of the month, as they had done all year.

Hermione's brown eyes hadn't fixed on him again, and though he thought it would be easy to deal with that, he was wrong.

The worst part was seeing her in Potions classes, chatting animatedly with that silly Potter and her ex-boyfriend Weasley. Despite knowing that the red-haired boy was still dating his Slytherin mate, it made his blood burn to see him so close to Hermione.

Sometimes Draco detected Potter's green eyes watching him, as if gauging his reaction. He still wanted to punch the prat since his little prank, and it was harder for him to control his fury when he was watching him from a distance, but Draco just muttered insults under his breath and went about his business, trying to ignore that annoying boy.

He had also caught Hermione's blonde friend staring at him almost a dozen times while they were in the Great Hall.

Surely everyone already knew the way things had ended between the two of them... maybe they were plotting some kind of revenge and that's why they were monitoring his movements so closely. Or they were simply watching him so that he wouldn't think of approaching her again.

Whatever it was, Draco didn't give a fuck. He was itching for a good reason to get into a fight, and if any of Hermione's friends offered it to him, he would take the chance.

A growl escaped his lips when he saw that Weasley was holding Hermione by the shoulders and Draco snorted, looking away from them. It shouldn't matter to him, if she wanted to be touched by that idiot it wasn't his problem. Even if she wanted to sleep with him again, it was none of his business... Though it would be poor Marissa's, she was completely in love with the redhead even though no one in her house could understand it.

It was kind of pathetic that Marissa felt something so strong for the Weasel, but Draco wasn't the one to judge her and he wasn't about to interfere.

Draco glanced sideways at the table where Hermione was as he walked back to his desk with the missing ingredients. He grunted, he needed to focus on the potion he was brewing with Pansy for the rest of the lesson.

In the nearly three weeks that had passed, Draco hadn't been able to stop staring at Hermione every time he was near her. And though he'd never admit it, he hadn't been able to get her out of her mind either.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Hermione stood up to walk towards the shelves at the back of the classroom, but suddenly her footsteps stopped. She started to move towards him and Draco looked up, watching Hermione walk until she was in front of Pansy.

The two girls looked at each other and Draco saw that Hermione was staring at the necklace his friend was wearing.

"Who... who gave it to you?" she asked quietly, not looking at Draco.

Pansy grimaced, sighing.

"You know that, Granger. Him" she replied, tilting her head in Draco's direction.

"I understand" Hermione grunted, backing away from them and clenching her fists.

"Wait" Draco said, grabbing her long Gryffindor robe.

Hermione turned around with dark eyes.

"I'm not talking to you. Let go of me" she said with an angry voice.

Draco released her and she hurried over to the shelves, returning to the desk she shared with Seamus right away.

"Are you happy? You just hurt her more" Pansy whispered.

Draco gave her a hateful look and she didn't speak to him again for the rest of the hour.

"Malfoy's going to wear you out from staring at you" Harry commented in a low voice as they entered the Great Hall after potions class.

"It's true, even I've noticed it and I'm pretty clueless" Ron confirmed, nodding.

"As long as he's not talking to me, he can do whatever he wants" Hermione replied in a deep voice.

"I have a plan to try to make him jealous. I'd love to see his head exploding with rage" Harry muttered, grinning.

"I'm not interested in his jealousy, Harry. I'm not interested in anything that has to do with him" Hermione said.

"Well, I am, and so is Ginny. I want to see what he does, maybe then he'll react for once" he answered.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, looking at him as she poured her lunch onto her plate. They were already seated at the large Gryffindor table.

"Have you really planned something with Ginny?" she asked, feeling puzzled.

Hermione glanced at her redheaded friend, who was sitting right across from them.

"He planned it, and I told him to do what he wants. But it seems quite radical to me, Malfoy is going to be furious" Ginny said with a tinge of amusement in her voice.

"And what is it?" Hermione insisted.

"I'm not going to tell you, I want your reaction to be real. But I'm warning you that I won't mean anything I'll say or do. I love you, but not in that way" Harry commented with a chuckle.

She frowned and that made him laugh even harder.

"Will you come with me for a walk around the garden after lunch?" Harry asked with an innocent look on his face.

Hermione nodded, still scowling. She didn't trust one bit the crazy ideas of her best friend.

"Make sure he knows" Harry muttered, glancing at his girlfriend.

Ginny winked at them and finished her food, standing up and dragging Luna with her.

"What are you up to?" Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Just don't punch me, please" Harry said.

"And why would I want to punch you?"

"You'll see."

Draco was eating as he talked to Theo about the upcoming Quidditch match. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione's two friends walking behind his table, and he stopped paying attention to his friend's voice.

"Has Harry really broken up with you?" he heard Luna say.

"Yes, I couldn't be more devastated. He says he has realised that he's actually in love with Hermione, and he's going to tell her how he feels about her today" Ginny replied, her voice cracking and her eyes watering.

Draco froze in his seat, trying to understand what he had just heard. He looked up and saw Hermione walking out of the Great Hall, with that stupid Potter besides her.

"No way!" he growled, standing up abruptly.

Theo and Pansy glared at him, and didn't have time to ask what was going on because the blond boy had already sped away. Behind them, Ginny and Luna were trying to hold back their laughter as they made their way back to their table.

Draco managed to catch up with them before they left the castle and followed them at a safe distance, trying not to be spotted. He frowned as he watched them descend one of the hills, heading towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest. What the fuck was going to happen that they had to hide?

Harry suspected that his arch nemesis had taken the bait and was spying on them, so he couldn't help but grin.

When he reached the first trees, he checked that no one was around before he started. He didn't want rumours to spread about him being a real bastard with his girlfriend later.

Harry took her friend's hands in his and looked into her eyes.

"You're scaring me" she murmured, a little nervous.

"Just play along" Harry whispered.

He cleared his throat, deciding that he would have given Draco time to be close enough to hear them.

"Hermione... I broke up with Ginny this morning" he said aloud.

Her eyes widened and she frowned. Hermione knew perfectly well that was a lie.

"What? Why?"

"Because I've realised that I really do love someone else" Harry replied with bright eyes.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, understanding what her friend was about to do.

"Really? who?"

"You."

She pursed her lips and released his hands.

"You're crazy, Harry."

"I mean it. It's always been you, Hermione... but I knew you were in love with Ron, so I didn't say anything. Now that you're both over it, I think my chance has come."

Harry took two steps toward her and Hermione tensed up, beginning to understand his request of not hitting him.

"Do you want to try?" Harry asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Even though she knew he was joking, she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

"I... I don't know" she muttered under her breath, closing her fists.

"Let me convince you" Harry said, leaning closer to her.

Their lips brushed, and Hermione had to restrain herself from pushing him away with all her might. Her friend was definitely willing to do anything to annoy Draco Malfoy.

The kiss didn't last long, she hadn't even reached the count of three when something pulled Harry away from her. Hermione opened her eyes and saw her friend lying on the floor, while a furious Draco stood between the two of them, sleeves rolled up and fists raised.

"No way, Potter!" he shouted angrily.

"Have you followed us? This is none of your business, Malfoy!" Harry growled, pretending to be offended.

"You're a creep, you just broke up with your girlfriend and you dare to kiss her. You won't get away this time" Draco replied, grinning wickedly.

He lunged at him and they both started hitting each other, but Hermione pulled out her wand.

"Petrificus totalus!"

They both fell to the ground, completely stiff and paralysed. Hermione walked over and could see that Harry's lip was bleeding, while Draco had a bruise forming on one of his cheeks.

"Do you think the solution to problems is to fight like little children? You're both idiots" she snorted, holding back a grin as she saw that the two boys had their eyes locked on her, the only part of their bodies they could move.

"I'll release you, but you can't keep fighting."

She waited a few seconds and sighed, doing the counterspell. As soon as they could move, Harry jumped up and grabbed Hermione by the shoulders.

"I don't understand what you're doing here, Malfoy. Get out" he said in a deep voice.

"You get out of here before I finish you" Draco growled, clenching his fists in anger.

"Harry's right, you have nothing to do here. What I do is none of your business."

Draco's grey eyes widened in surprise.

"He was forcing you to kiss him!" he shouted.

"No, it wasn't by force. And I'll tell you again, it's none of your business" Hermione replied sternly.

"You can't be with him!" Draco growled angrily.

"And why not?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his palms. Draco gave the green-eyed boy a venomous look and walked away in the direction of the castle.

Harry began to laugh as soon as his figure was out of sight.

"This is too funny" he murmured under his breath.

Hermione nudged him.

"You're capable of anything to piss him off" she replied, half-smirking.

He ran his hand over his lip, touching the cut Draco had given him when he hit him.

"Actually, I'm doing it for you, so that he accepts that he loves you" Harry said.

"Yeah, right... and you're barely enjoying it."

They both laughed and returned to the castle, where Ginny and Luna were waiting for them to tell them everything that had happened.