I Love(d) You (Once)

Chapter Three: Three Storeys Down

Hermione's had a philosophy, when in doubt, resort to clichés. There was a reason why they were clichés, and that was because they had worked many times before. Taking pointers from what one was often portrayed to do when caught in the file room (one in where you were not supposed to be in), she grabbed Draco by his tie—she had always wanted to mash lips with someone by grabbing his or her tie—and pressed her lips against his. She found Draco more than willing–Merlin was that his tongue?—Hermione clenched her eyes shut.

Kissing. She was kissing Draco Malfoy. Even though he wasn't in his body, she was still kissing him! Bad bad bad bad. All this was caused by the stress from undercover missions and imminent danger, she decided.

"Alex?"

Hermione broke off the kiss and looked behind her. Draco lifted his head up to see a woman standing with a file in her hand. Her face was white and her hands shook. She looked as though she was about to collapse.

"Oh my god. Oh my god," she said, leaning against one of the shelves for support. "You really were cheating on me!"

Hermione gave him a nudge on the shoulder. She glared at him and jerked her head at the woman, gesturing for him to do something.

"Baby…" he said awkwardly. "It was a mistake."

The woman's head shot up and she stared at him with hostile confusion. Draco gulped and he placed a hand on the small of Hermione's back, signaling for her to run and never look back.

"I'm so, so, sorry," said Draco, his voice wobbling. "I love you; don't leave me. Please?"

The woman approached the couple with fury in her eyes. She slapped Draco on the cheek and he winced at the sharp sting.

"Who the fuck are you?!" roared the woman. She grabbed Hermione by the arm and pulled her to the side. "Alex, what is going on, I—" She froze and took a few uncertain steps back. Then she whipped out her wand and pointed it at the two imposters. "You're not Alex, are you?"

Draco had placed his weight onto the balls of his feet and aligned his body towards the door. Hermione shifted sideways to block the woman's aim to the door. She held both hands up. "I'm sorry he cheated on you, but—"

Two things happened. Draco sprinted towards the door and yanked it open. The woman in front of Hermione shot a hex at her and she flew backwards into the row of shelves, taking boxes down with her. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and it felt as though someone had poured gasoline and set her chest on fire. She took sharp breaths and fought to keep her consciousness. The last thing she needed was to become deadweight.

"SECURITY!"

Hermione closed her eyes and stopped trying to hold her head up. She wouldn't be able to escape with that hex, for it hurt like hell. At the very least, Draco got out of this, she thought lazily. She heard a gasp in the background and someone was shaking her.

"Now's not the time to be taking a nap! We've got to run!" He dragged her onto her feet and they ran towards the nearest office. "It's not a good hiding place, but they'll assume we've ran downstairs," he said.

Hermione nodded and coughed as she came out of her daze. She pushed him under an office desk by his head and crawled in beside him, pulling a chair in front of them. This all served as an ineffective cover as the walls facing the corridors were glass. When she lifted her hand off Draco's head, she gasped in horror.

"What is it?" Draco asked. Tuffs of blond hair sprouted from a field of brown.

"You're changing back," whispered Hermione, panic colouring her voice. At the same time, she was morphing from a dirty blonde back to her normal brunette self.

"Apparate us out of here." Draco grabbed her arm and scrunched his eyes, preparing himself for a side-along.

Hermione shut her eyes and thought of the café next to the P&P building. "I can't," she said with mounting despair. "They have anti-Apparition wards. We have to leave this building to Apparate out of here."

Draco blinked a few times, trying to process this. "Should we hand ourselves over?"

Adrenaline rushed into her brain like a tsunami wave and she tried her best to fight the shakes. She couldn't fail here. "They'll have all perimeters sealed off until they catch us."

Draco laughed shakily. "How about surrendering?" If they surrendered now, they might let them off easily. He had a feeling as they waited longer their ideas would grow more desperate and dangerous. He didn't know if he had the guts or the insanity to execute them.

"This isn't the best plan, but it might work. I think. How about we jump out of the window and then I'll Apparate us while we're still in the air."

The expression on Draco's face was priceless. He looked like a petrified goldfish. "You are—" he spluttered, trying to comprehend the absurdity of the idea.

"It's the only way we can get out of here," she said, trying her best to convince him. "I can't think of any other way. You can do it. We can climb onto that cabinet under a disillusionment charm, and jump out of the building. The Anti-Apparation wards can't affect us once we're outside. It's crazy, but it'll work."

"It's the third storey!" he exclaimed. She clamped her hand over his mouth and put a finger to his lips; he nodded and spoke in a lower tone. "I think we should hand ourselves in."

"No way. We'll get arrested if we get caught. That's identity theft, trespassing, forgery, assault and vandalism," she said. "Forget about being fired, we'll be thrown in prison. Look, if you have a better idea let's hear it. If you don't, go with my one."

He shook his head. "This is insane," he said. He'd rather face a whole platoon of security guards than jump out from the third storey.

"But it's do-able. I've done it before." She looked behind them and saw a troop of security guards run past the office and into the storeroom. Then she turned to face him, her eyes pleading. "They'll be here once they've finished inspecting the storeroom!"

"You sure we shouldn't surrender?" he asked one last time, giving her a shaky grin. "You could be my date to my family reunion in prison." She nodded and he took a deep breath before he muttered a disillusionment charm over them.

When she was sure no one was watching, she pushed the chair away and crawled out from under the table. "We can do this," Hermione whispered. She wished he wasn't so afraid of taking risks. Ron would've followed her plan without question.

Draco only grunted in reply. Each time someone passed by, they froze, fearing any movement would betray their location. After a few minutes, they were sweating from climbing up the book shelf and they perched on the window ledge. He let out a small groan of pain. There wasn't a lot of space on top of the cabinet so Hermione pressed against his back and the added weight made the ledge cut into his thighs like a knife.

"Here we go," she said, sounding faint and not so sure of herself. "Three… two… one…"

Draco and Hermione slid out of the window and plummeted to kiss the ground. She felt a ticklish feeling rise up her stomach and her toes began to tingle as they free-fell out of the building. She heard Draco's muffled scream and she held onto him for dear life.

Deliberation— and she soon realized though she might've been able to do it with one, there was no way she could Apparate two people in this state…

The impact hurt less than she imagined. With a stroke of luck, they landed into a bush. She tested her ankles and let out a sigh of relief. The fall hadn't broken anything of hers so she was still in commission. People were staring down the window and yelling, having heard the crash. Their disillusionment charm had somehow survived the fall so as long as no one touched them, their identities were safe. She turned to Draco to grab him and run.

Draco had experienced ground-shock when leapt off his broom in second year. But this sort of pain was a different feeling all together. He supposed he was lucky he could still feel, but pain licked the balls of his feet to his ankle to his knees. He hissed as the agony finally screamed up his thighs and settled in his gut. It burned like mad and there was an explosion of white light in his eyes; he knew he was losing his consciousness...

"...I just need to put in these specific scenes. Don't worry it'll be fine."

"His... they can piece together all..."

"Take care of..."

Starting from the voices inside of his head, Draco turned to see Hermione's horrified face. She was screaming…

Blood trickled down Draco's nose and Hermione bit back a sob. She hadn't made it out of the jump because of luck. Hermione had landed on top of Draco and made him a cushion. A pin-cushion. A branch jutted out of his flesh; a sharp stake pierced his skin. She swished her wand and snapped the branch from the bush. He gave a shout. There were voices and she heard footsteps behind them.

Deliberation, determination destination.

"Who's there?" she heard someone say around the corner, but before they could reach her, the two of them disappeared.

Nurses rushed towards Draco and levitated him onto a bed. Hermione grabbed onto his arm and refused to let go. Someone pulled her away and pushed her into a chair.

She could hear distant voices asking whether she was all right, and what happened. Hermione tried her best to answer the questions about Draco's condition but conveyed little else. One nurse suggested Hermione was in shock, and he was right. She was shocked. Shocked she relished her accelerated heart-rate, the adrenaline causing blood roar in her ears, how her brain worked twice as fast, and everyone around slowed to a saunter her eyes. Her life hadn't been so exciting–no–hadn't been in so much danger since the fateful and final battle in Hogwarts. She hated how she relished the feeling of being in control, at home, and dare she say it, settled in the presence of danger, when she felt so little of those qualities in her day-to-day life.

Someone wrapped a blanket around her and started to clean her leg with antiseptic. She winced as the alcohol bit her fresh wounds. "The Healers are tending to him now," said the Healer. "It'll be a while until we know the full extent of injuries. He lost a lot of blood and he stopped breathing for a minute but we managed to resuscitate him…"

She could only nod as the nurse spoke and she felt even guiltier for how great she felt. "Can I see him? I need to go. I have to see him." The nurse held her down as she tried to stand.

"Miss Granger, you must stay calm—"

"It's my fault, if anything happens to him..."

A scream reverberated through the halls first a few meters away, then directly in front of her. A clean hand grabbed her own bloodied ones. "Draco's dead?!" A woman wrenched the nurse's shoulder backwards and within three seconds, Hermione was choking on a silk scarf; breathing holes covered by the steady pressure of the woman's hand smothering her face. Hermione thrashed and bucked the woman to the floor before there was any harm done. The nurse kept her down as she glared at Hermione.

"Parkinson. Pansy Parkinson! I'm down as Draco Malfoy's next of kin. Now get your hands off me or I will see you in court!" she screeched. At her words, the grip loosened on her. No longer pinned to the ground, she collected herself and glared at the nurse who mumbled an apology. "My wand started glowing—that would only happen when he's really hurt, right?"

"We set the wands to glow when the patient is brought into hospital unconscious," the nurse answered.

"So he is dead!" she wailed.

"Draco Malfoy is not dead. He's unconsciousandhaving surgery right now."

Upon hearing the news, Pansy sagged as though she were a puppet with her strings cut. "If he's not dead, then why did I get all worked up for?" The woman turned to face Hermione, her bob swishing with her. She looked like a mess with her eyeliner smudged and dress askew.

Hermione looked at Pansy with eyes wide and felt as though she would never be able to close her mouth again. "You're Pansy Parkinson? B-But you look…"

"Beautiful?" she supplied.

"Yes," agreed Hermione, but she meant say 'different'. She no longer looked like the pug-faced girl she went to school with. Instead, she looked more like a doll… puberty sure did wonderful things. Wow, why didn't puberty hit her like a bus, too?

Savoring Hermione's wonder and attention on her, Pansy leaned in and whispered into Hermione's ear. "It's with the help of modern technology."

Hermione gave her a puzzled look; she didn't understand. Then Pansy pointed to her nose, cheekbones and jaw.

"Fixed them."

"Huh."

Pansy nodded and dug through her purse. She pulled out a mirror and gasped at the sight of herself. "Do you have any wet tissues?"

"No, sorry."

Pansy sighed and pulled out her handkerchief, trying to clean up as much as possible. She observed herself with a pocket mirror and snapped it shut, satisfied with her handiwork. "I'll need to redo my make up later," she said.

The curly-haired girl could only nod, still astonished how much the introduction of technology and science changed the wizarding community's views on Muggles. Wizards regarded them as equals instead of treating them like sub-humans scratching in dirt. She turned to study Pansy, who had procured a comb from her bag and was straightening her bob. She had ruffled it when she was strangling Hermione.

"What? Can't take your eyes off me? Sorry, I don't swing that way," she said when she caught Hermione's stare.

"I'm just surprised."

"That I'm talking to you?" Pansy shrugged. "Getting plastic surgery changed more than my face. Let's just say I'm grateful for what the Muggle doctors did for me… I can't hate the kind of people who made my life better." She flicked her hair behind her shoulders and smiled at Hermione. "I was miserable bitch because I was ugly. And now? I'm a happy bitch."

"Okay," said Hermione and nothing else, for she was unsure how to respond to that.

"Not much of a talker, are you?" asked Pansy, playing with the creases on her scarf. "Wouldn't have guessed, the way Draco goes on about you."

"Malfoy talks about me?" said Hermione with interest to which Pansy gave a smirk and a knowing smile. "What?"

"Just wondering if you're pretending to be dense or not. But that doesn't seem right; you are famous for being smart. What? Was he drunk? How could he have agreed to something like that? He's the king of rationality. Wouldn't change his socks without a valid reason."

"The situation was desperate," said Hermione, feeling defensive.

Pansy shook her head. "He hates pain. That's why he runs away from fights, can't stand to get hit."

Hermione had been so desperate, she hadn't seen the severity of what she had suggested to do. Sure, not getting caught was important and their jobs had been on the line but she had been reckless. She risked their lives because she wanted to succeed and Draco followed along. Why did he do as I said?

"It was the bloody shrub's fault."

"You'd have broken both of your legs or you'd be dead if it weren't for the 'bloody shrub'—" Hermione trailed off and she saw Draco in a hospital gown. He looked as pale as death but he gave her a shaky smirk.

"Are you all right?" Pansy cried, standing up and giving him her seat. He held her shoulder for support and sat down. "Are you supposed to here?"

Draco waved her question away. "Had to make sure things were all right," he said, staring down at the stitches on Hermione's leg. He whistled. "That's going to scar."

"Malfoy! You had a twig go through your stomach!" exclaimed Hermione. He shouldn't be walking here, making sure everything was okay. Making she was okay.

"Yeah, I know," said Draco, sniggering. "I was there too. By the way, I reckon Alex's the girl."

"What?"

"Our plan. The woman figured out she wasn't talking to 'Alex' because I responded when she was talking to Alex. That's how she knew we were imposters."

"Does it hurt?" cooed Pansy, interrupting. She placed her palms on Draco's cheeks and examined his face. "You didn't scar your precious face, did you?"

"I thought you were in critical condition..." Hermione said, wondering how she came to this idea.

"By that? Pah."

"I can't believe you jumped out of a building for her. The most romantic thing you've ever done for me was buy flowers you picked yourself!"

Draco sent Pansy a death glare and she winked back at him mouthing a what. Hermione pursed her lips, bemused at the exchange and shifted backwards when Pansy lunged towards her and pressed up close to her face for the second time that day. "I don't think I like you."

"Here's something for when you're bored." Hermione threw him a Rubik-cube and he caught it with his hands. They were alone now. Pansy had left to open up her bar and Blaise popped in for a visit an hour earlier. He had made a sick joke about Draco having a stick up his ass before the medical staff sent him home for being a nuisance.

"What's this?"

"A puzzle, you have to twist and turn it until all the colours face one side each. It took me a while—" Her stomach growled and she looked away.

Draco examined his new toy and started twisting each side as he said: "Why don't you head home? Staying here won't do either of us any good. Director Mar has probably put two and two together, but I doubt she'd be able to prove forgery. My guy is… good. Landing myself in the hospital was unfortunate, but we'll say it was an unhappy coincidence for two tragic events to take place on the same time, same day. No one saw our faces, right?"

Hermione shook her head. "They didn't. I'll stay for a little while longer," she said, still feeling guilty about how rejuvenated she had felt after the incident and the extent of his injuries because of her recklessness.

"Guarding prized company property?" he asked, leaning back into his pillow.

"No, I'm not here to protect company property."

"You're not?" he asked, frowning.

"I'm here because I'm worried about you," she admitted and a pink hue tinged her cheeks. He gravitated towards her, and cheered when she shifted and pressed so closely to the bed-frame that her knees turned white. It was just like Hermione to admit something like that casually. Those honest words, freely given away, warmed him like a satisfying meal. Yet at the same time it made him feel small.

A team of security guards were looking for them right now. Director Mar was undoubtedly yanking out her hair over the forged contract, and Draco wondered how years and years of secrecy and denial faded like a spectre with each thundering beat of his heart. He stared out of the window; people on the streets hustled like ants, their paths and day unhindered by the frightful retreat of apprehension towards The Unspeakable. The time was right. He should say it! "For the longest time I've felt—" Hermione cell phone rang, interrupting his sentence.

Jarred either by her realizing how Draco would've ended the sentence or the shrill tune, Hermione sprung backwards as she fumbled for her phone. She gave a smile which looked more like a wince and apologized for the intrusion. Draco just shook his head.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver, her hand cupped over her mouth and back turned towards the door. "Um, yeah. A little bit."

Her reaction and each persistent ring had slashed and chased back all the misgivings and reasons as to why The Unspeakable remained unspoken.

"I know. Um... yup. I'll remember to buy it on the way home."

At the end of the day, there was a person already there for her. Nothing would change that.

"I love you too. See you soon." Hermione hung up and turned back towards Draco, a polite smile on her face. "It's Ron. He was wondering when I'd be coming home..."

Draco waved her off, plastering a disinterested look on his face. "Run along, it's not like I'll heal faster with you next to me."

Hermione gave him a pat on the shoulder and left the room. As he heard her footsteps fade he let out a loud thank you to the sweet heavens for whatever potion the Healers had made him drink. All plugged up, he could blame his temporary lapse of sanity on the narcotics. His thoughts rattled around as he imagined how horrible the situation could have been if he had been a few seconds quicker in stating his piece. The agony would be incomparable even to what he would feel when the potion wore off, when his stomach and legs dragged him through the fiery pits of hell and back. His injuries were worth it though. The case – in his concern at least, was taken care of, crisis averted, done and dusted – never to be spoken of again. He would gladly treat the aftermath in the same way too. Draco wanted nothing in return, except maybe a moment of privacy to have an old-fashion bawl, which he did. Just the thought of an enormous secret shared between himself and Hermione sufficed, and it swelled his munificent, little heart.