A/N- SORRY! This took WAY to long but I had to host Easter! No excuses! Enjoy
Disclaimer: NOOOOOO! Yeah, that's about it.
Summary: Malfoy shows he trust Hermione, and Hermione… well…
Jackknifed
Draco had never really walked in the rain with anyone before. Yet, this year was all about firsts wasn't it?
Malfoy smirked; hands jammed into his slacks pockets. His fingers splayed outwards against the cloth.
Flexing.
Daft. This was utterly daft!
Draco sighed, leaning against the Entrance Hall doors, the oak jutting upwards to caress the door frame.
He didn't need to do it, but he wanted to.
He wanted to show her…
"This is bloody crazy."
"I couldn't agree more." A curt voice chipped from the darkness.
Malfoy looked up, eyes trailing up the dark corridor to see Hermione step out of the shadows.
"Hey." He breathed.
Hermione smiled at him and Draco could see the twinge of apprehension in her eyes.
"Why are we out here again? I had to practically charm the boys into ignoring my absence!"
"Again?" Malfoy folded his arms over his chest. Hermione let out a noise of frustration.
They laughed slightly, their voices mingling strangely, a light chiming noise.
Draco grinned.
Admittedly, she had become more comfortable with him, as he had her. They no longer chatted about meaningless classes and overzealous teachers, too much homework, the boring quiddich matches, the exciting ones.
They had begun to talk about the future.
Draco found that, when in Granges' presence, he had no problem belting out his hopes and dreams for the 'after Hogwarts'.
It seems she didn't either.
Did she know the pride that erupted in him when she had, almost abashedly, admitted her distain for the Ministry of Magic and how, if she were ever Minister, serious changed would occur?
He had asked if she was serious.
She had been.
"Draco?"
Her voice was a soft reverberation within his ears.
"Hmm?" He looked down at her standing a near pace away. His shoulders stood a bit straighter at her look, his white collared shirt itching the nape of his neck almost annoyingly.
"You never answered my question."
"Which one, you're always full of questions." He said nastily, squinting a little sneer at her. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"About why we're out here."
"Oh." He grinned, running a hand though his hair, the other still firmly shoved within his pocket. "Going for a walk." He said finally.
Her look was nearly incredulous.
Draco smiled hopefully.
"You were right, that is bloody crazy."
Malfoy sneered.
"Why!"
"It's raining, Malfoy!" Hermione laughed.
"Oh, come on."
Draco looked hopefully at her, taking a few steps backward to lay a hand on the door.
Hermione pursed her lips, hands on her hips.
"Come on, Granger! It always has to be safe, doesn't it?"
Hermione opened her mouth in protest but was cut short.
"Always have to stay with Potter and the Weasel, can't come out to play. It's only a little rain! I swear!"
Draco couldn't look at her any longer, couldn't watch that emotion of hurt flicker in her eyes.
He wrenched the doors open and slipped out, nearly throwing himself down the front steps and out into the whirling, sheeting rain.
She always had to do that, didn't she? Draco scoffed to no one.
Always had to make him mad.
Draco ran a hand through his wet hair, shaded a burnt gold from the dampness, his shirt plastered to his skin, paper thin.
His hands were shoved again into his pockets, standing stalk still in the middle of the soaked lawn, brooding.
"Draco!"
Malfoys' eyes shot up to the stone steps.
Hermione pushed her wet hair away from her eyes as she walked tentatively down to the grounds.
Draco, still brooding, followed her through heavily lidded eyes. Hermione blinked away the water from her lashes.
"Well?" She questioned, arms folded as she stood a little off to the side. "Are we going?"
Draco blinked at her, walking past her a little ways past towards Greenhouses, Hermione following at his arm, bumping into him every so often.
"I love the rain." Draco breathed as they rounded the lake, the large drops that were falling from the sky making great splashes against the water.
He peered round at the girl next to him who had stopped to lean against a rock near the edge of the lake.
"Very rarely do you love anything, Malfoy." She said, almost absently, watching her reflection waver and break every time a raindrop splattered onto the water.
Draco glared ruefully.
Quiddich, he thought.
I love quiddich.
Hermione yawned.
"Tired?" Malfoy questioned, shivering as he felt ice cold water run down his back, sliding like silk over his shoulder blades.
"A little."
"Come on then, I fixed something."
Hermione stood up, patting her knees, looking at the blonde with a questioning glance.
"Fixed what?"
Draco said nothing but continued round the lake, stopping at the outline of the forest, the trees bending down to the rain above.
Under one of the tall trees lay a green and silver blanket, nestled up by the trunk. Hermione, on Draco's heels, stopped short and looked from the blanket to the blonde.
"You're kidding."
Draco shook his head, smiling, hands again in his pockets.
"I put a warming charm on it, so it's dry."
Hermione laughed and walked past Malfoy, turning on the spot, her hands clasped together.
Draco smiled, one of those rare smiles, a quicksilver twitch of his lips.
Hermione sat down upon the blanketed ground, leaning her back against the tree. Draco came around to sit next to her, looking up through the trees at they grey sky above.
They sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the rain hit the leaves up in the canopy above.
"See, Granger?" Malfoy said finally, head back against the bark. Hermione looked at him.
He didn't need to say anything more, it was just a statement left in the air that Hermione could fill in for herself.
See Granger? I trust you.
See Granger? I told you to take a chance.
See Granger? I love the rain.
See Granger?
See?
Faintly, as the sky grew darker, the rain bellowing against the trees, did Draco notice a weight against his arm.
Faintly his head nodded to his left.
Hermione was breathing deeply, barely asleep against him. Draco reached up tentatively to push a wet lock of hair away from her brow.
Silly girl…
.o.o.o.o.
Hermione had woken a few hours into darkness, mind clamped down with sleep.
She could barely see her hand in front of her face, not like the grey hours when she and Malfoy had been walking round the lake.
It must have been very well near midnight.
Turning her head around, she found herself in the crook of someone's arm.
Looking up, she saw Malfoy's head hanging back against his own shoulder.
Oh, God, even in the dark did his hair shine like silver.
Hermione smiled heavily, weighted by fatigue.
How long had it been since she loved him? Loved him like she did Ron and Harry. Like Ginny.
How long?
She didn't trust him, although she wanted to, terribly.
It simply pained her to know that he trusted her when that emotion could not yet be reciprocated.
The impulse to suddenly touch him fizzled through her, running from the tips of her fingers down to a warm knot in her breast.
But…
Hermione now thought.
Was that the feeling the same that she had for Harry? For Ron?
Was that electricity the slight side effects of a brotherly love?
Or something else?
Was it something else?
Hermione yawned, her breath too tired to be packed with such burning questions and slowly did she again rest her head against Malfoy's arm.
Slowly, as if she had never woken, she fell again into sleep.
.o.o.o.o.
"Oh my God!"
The voice jarred Draco from his sleep.
Why did he feel so stiff in the back?
"Draco!"
That damned voice again!
Malfoy rubbed his eyes blearily and peered around. Hermione was standing over him, a look of panic on her delicate face.
Twisting, Malfoy caught a handful of dirt and he absently wondered why he was sitting on the ground, with Granger.
Oh.
That's why.
"What?" Malfoy asked, suddenly breathless, a jolt of something sizzling through him.
"What time is it!?" Her voice held a shrill note and not waiting for an answer she continued: "It's morning!" She turned away from him and ran out to the lake, the grass still wet from the rain the night before.
Malfoy cursed, loudly, standing and flicking his wand, the Slytherin blanket and the charm disappearing.
"Come on!" He whispered hurriedly, rushing out of the cropping of trees, cupping Hermione's elbow in his hand, tugging her along to the front steps.
"I hope no one noticed." She murmured, a lopsided smile askew on her lips.
Draco grinned and pulled her up the steps.
The front doors were still parted from their hasty exit the night before and they burst through them, Malfoy roughly pulling them closed behind them.
Their wet shoes made squelching sounds on the stone floor.
They ran, unceremoniously, up the many flights of stairs, light winking from behind the clouds as sunrise crested onto the castle.
"Don't you have to go to the dungeons?" Hermione asked as they took two steps at a time to the Fat Lady's portrait.
Draco shook his head, droplets of water flecking off. He gave a giddy little smirk of a grin.
"What kind of gentleman would I be to let a lady find her own way?" His voice was laced in a thick drawl, per usual.
Hermione smiled.
"Thank you." He murmured.
Hermione laughed under her breath and reached out, patting his arm affectionately.
"Go…" She couldn't think of anything. "…home, Draco. Go home." Laughing, she whispered the password to the Fat Lady and darted inside to the Gryffindor common room.
A/n- Dude, what is UP with fanfiction dt net?! I can't upload ANYTHING!! I had to export a chapter of a different fic and paste this in! HORRIBLE!
AGH!
...ehhe...
Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Next one is already 3 pages long!
Review!!