Chapter Twenty-seven

Reality check

Johanna slipped her hands inside Draco's shirt and began to caress his chest.

Draco frowned. There was something strange about her touch, but he thought nothing of it. He stopped nibbling her neck and concentrated on unbuttoning her white shirt, revealing the red bra she was wearing.

She took the opportunity to lower her head to Draco's shoulder, and slowly moved down, leaving a trail of kisses down his pecs. He grunted through his teeth and pulled away, that weird feeling had gotten worse and he was getting uncomfortable.

"What's the matter? Don't you like it?" Johanna asked, looking into his eyes as she continued to caress him with her hands.

"I... I don't know" Draco muttered, quite confused.

What was happening to him? Why was it so unpleasant to be touched by that girl?

"You need to relax a little, Draco. Let me help you" she whispered, smiling.

Her hands went down to Draco's belt and began to unbuckle it. His brow furrowed when he heard her say his name with such confidence, and he frowned even more as he felt her hands trying to remove his trousers.

"No" he growled, pulling away from her roughly.

Johanna lifted her eyebrows in surprise.

"What's wrong with you? You wanted to be like this with me... or that's what you told me when we were alone together before, right?"

"I know. It was my idea, but I changed my mind. I don't want to do this anymore" Draco answered, buttoning up his shirt.

"Why?"

Draco gritted his teeth, feeling furious with himself. He had to accept it, after all, his best friend was right... He didn't like Johanna touching him because he only wanted to feel the hands of one person on his skin.

"Because there's another person on my mind and that's not fair to you."

"Were you thinking about someone else?" Johanna asked, very surprised and a bit offended.

"Yes. I'm sorry, I won't bother you again" Draco added, putting his robe back on.

She grumbled something under her breath and put her jumper back on quickly, grabbing her Hufflepuff robe with one hand.

"Next time, don't ask a girl to sleep with you if you don't really want to. You're an idiot, Draco."

She was insulting him? Fuck off.

"Don't call me by my name again, I don't like it. I'm Malfoy to you" he grunted, crossing his arms over his chest.

Johanna blinked several times, staring at him in disbelief.

"This is unbelievable... I'll see to it that the whole castle knows how stupid you are tomorrow" she snorted, storming out of the bathroom.

Draco finished tying his robes and leaned against one of the walls, sighing. Myrtle's transparent head appeared beside him.

"That was unexpected, you surprised me" she said with a smile, pushing her full-length body through the wall and floating in front of him.

Draco folded his arms and closed his eyes, sighing again.

"I'm fucked, Myrtle. I just realised that Hermione is the only girl I want to have anything with."

One corner of the ghost's mouth curved into a small smile.

"I know, I've heard you... What's so special about that girl that you like her so much? I don't get it" she murmured, trying to play dumb.

She knew the answer perfectly well, but she wanted him to say it.

"I'm not sure... I love the smell of her hair, her skin, the way she touches me... it's not like when another girl does it. I always want to kiss her for hours, something I've never wanted to do with anybody else. Her eyes have that sparkle in them, you can see how smart she is. I can talk to her about anything, because she knows more about history and spells than anyone. Besides, as hard as it is for me to admit, she's probably the most powerful witch I've ever met" Draco replied quietly, his gaze wandering.

"I'd love to hear someone talking about me like that" the ghost said, sighing.

"Really?" he asked, looking up.

"Of course. You're saying things as if you love her, I didn't get to experience that while I was alive" Myrtle answered.

Draco frowned, banging his head against the wall.

"Fuck... it's true, I do love her. And I've felt this way for a long time whenever I think about her."

"That's what the living define as being in love, Draco" Myrtle murmured, smiling and raising her eyebrows.

He snorted, closing his eyes again and laughing bitterly.

"Well, I'm a lover with no options. She doesn't even want to see me. And she knows what I was going to do with Johanna, so now she must hate me even more."

"What counts is that you didn't do anything in the end. You have to talk to her."

"I don't think I can do that" Draco said, grimacing.

"Just try, don't give up now that you finally know how you feel."

He looked at his ghost friend and smiled.

"I'll try. Thanks for cheering me up, Myrtle."

"You can always count on me, I've told you that many times before."

Draco nodded and, after waving at her, he left the bathroom.

He went down the stairs to the dungeons, walking towards the wall where the entrance to his common room was hidden. He had to think hard about what he was going to do... and he needed to know what was going on between that stupid Potter and Hermione.

Just the thought of him made Draco completely enraged. If he had dared to kiss Hermione again, he would pay for it.

The next day at breakfast, Hermione felt Draco's gaze on her every few minutes.

"He's looking at you again" whispered Harry, who was sitting next to her.

"I know" she replied, sipping pumpkin juice.

"And now he's giving me a dirty look because I'm talking to you."

"Stop it, Harry. I want to forget about him, and if you bring him up every day I can't do it" Hermione grunted in annoyance.

"All right, I'm sorry" her friend apologised, not speaking again.

Luna, who had eaten breakfast at the Ravenclaw table that day, walked over to them and sat down next to Harry.

"Have you heard what a Hufflepuff girl is saying?" she asked with an amused smile.

Hermione's whole body suddenly tensed.

"I don't wanna know" she said, getting up with her Arithmancy book under her arm and hurrying out of the Great Hall.

"Is it about Malfoy?" Ginny asked quietly, looking sadly at Hermione as she ran away.

Luna nodded slowly.

"I don't know if it's true, it sounds to me like she's trying to get revenge for something by saying that. She's telling everyone that last night, when she was about to have sex with him... Malfoy's little friend didn't wake up."

Ginny covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her laughter, but Harry and Ron didn't bother to hide it and burst out laughing.

"I hope it's true, it's the least the bastard deserves" Harry said with a chuckle.

Luna shrugged.

"I don't know, but I'd bet it's a lie."

"It doesn't matter. Whether it's true or not, he's going to be really pissed off because students are saying something like that about him. Fuck Malfoy" Ron growled through his teeth.

Ginny and Harry nodded, but Luna twisted her lips into a pout, looking across the table to where Draco was talking to his friend Theo.

She tried, but Hermione couldn't help overhearing the gossip on her way to the Arithmancy classroom.

She held back her tears until she reached her desk, plopping down on it. A groan escaped her lips as she remembered that she shared it with Draco, so in a few minutes she would have him by her side. The tears began to stream down her cheeks.

Even as Hermione watched how his eyes searched for the girl, and saw her going after him, she had hoped that it was all her imagination, and that Draco hadn't actually gone to some lost corner of the castle to sleep with her. But if everyone around her was talking about it... something had happened between the two of them.

Shit, Hermione didn't think it would affect her so much. She knew he'd end up with someone else eventually, but she couldn't imagine it hurting her like that.

She sighed, wiping the tears with the back of her hand and shaking her head. She couldn't cry for him again, it wasn't worth it. Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself and opened her book, determined to ignore Draco when he was next to her, as she had been doing for three weeks.

It didn't take long until she caught the scent of his cologne, but Hermione didn't move an inch as he took his seat. She heard a small sigh and then Draco cleared his throat.

"Hello, Hermione."

"I'm Granger, and I'm not talking to you" she mumbled, not taking her eyes off the book.

Draco rolled his eyes and pulled out his book as well, looking for the page they were on.

He looked sideways at her again and gritted his teeth. Draco had to tell her everything, even though Hermione probably wasn't going to believe him after what people were saying around the castle that morning. He had barely slept, thinking about the best way to approach her... but he had no idea what he could do.

"Can we talk?"

"No" she replied.

The professor came in and Draco snorted. He couldn't try to make her listen to him anymore. A few minutes into the lesson, he tore off a piece of parchment and handed it to Hermione.

Seriously, I need to talk to you

She snorted and, after making a ball out of the scrap of paper, threw it on the floor slyly.

Draco clenched his fists in frustration. It wasn't going to be easy to get Hermione to talk to him... but he would try again after class.