A/N: Oh. My. Gosh.
You guys are officially the best people in the world.
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I can't believe that this story has over 1,000 reviews. You. Guys. Are. Beast.
So sorry for not updating earlier...I had to get caught up on my other fics. (Btw, if you haven't already, and you want to, you could check out my other story with Izze13 called You Belong With Me, Draco Malfoy). :)
And quickly, I'd like to say something to "Unknown"... I'm not quite sure what you were saying...I only got one part that said not to "Americanize" Harry Potter. Hate to say, I can't. I'm in the USA, so I don't know how it's like over there in the UK. I don't plan on researching it either, since this is just a fanfiction...
Maybe if I didn't only have one chapter left after this, I would, but since I only have the Epilogue left, sorry, I'm going to stick to the way I have it.
Anyway, ONTO THE STORY!
Hermione POV
I slept-over with Ginny that night. There was no way I could face him. And what about classes?
Hermione Jean Granger, you're being stupid, Hiding from him like that! You're a Gryffindor, for Merlin's sake! March up to him and demand that he explains!
Oh Merlin, I couldn't do that! I liked the kiss too much...
"Um, Hermione?" asked Ginny. She came into the room, breaking up my mental war against myself.
"Uh, yes?" I asked, trying to get back into focus.
"It's been 2 hours since you suddenly ran over here, jumped into that sleeping bag, and secluded yourself from the rest of the world. Can you please tell me what happened?" she asked, as she climbed into her four-poster bed. Everything she said was true. I had just recently managed to get my voice back, after my extreme moment of shock.
"Well, uh, what's there to tell you?" I asked. Red spots on my cheeks had already began to form.
"What happened back in your room?" she demanded.
"Well, um, ah, I went in there, and Ron and Draco were arguing, and then I sent Ron away and started yelling at Draco and then he k-kissed me." I stammered.
Ginny let out a low whistle. "All that in just five minutes." she murmured, amused.
"And I know it's not too big of a deal, but I mean, it's DRACO! And ME! Ugh, I'm just not sure what to do now! How in the world am I supposed to face him?" I worried.
"Well what happened after you kissed?" asked Ginny.
"He kinda ran out, and after a little bit, I came here." I explained.
"He ran out on you?" asked an incredulous Ginny. "Wow! How pathetic! I'm sure that helps Draco's reputation. 'The boy who ran out on the girl he kissed'." she joked.
"But what am I supposed to do?" I wailed. "And I have a bunch of classes with him tomorrow!"
"Um, just see what he does, I suppose..." frowned Ginny.
I sighed, and let the night close in on me. Now, tomorrow will be something interesting...
The next morning, I was awoken by a loud crash.
"Gah!" I shouted, sitting up.
I looked up to see Ginny laughing, holding two things I recognized as cymbals.
"What the hell, Ginny? And where'd you get the cymbals?" I asked, standing up and getting my robes on.
"Fred and George." she said, proudly. "It's good to see the few positive things about having brothers." she joked.
I smiled, and together, we headed down to the Great Hall.
I held my breath as we entered the hall. I snuck a little peek over at the Slytherin table. I was Draco sitting with a bunch of other Slytherins, laughing, and joking around. Suddenly, I saw one of them look up at me, point at me, and say something to Draco.
He turned to look at me, but I quickly looked away, my cheeks flaming.
I hurried over to a seat next to Ron.
"Hi Hermione!" called Parvati Patil. If I looked at her, I could see a glimpse of that certain blonde haired Slytherin, so I barely inclined my head towards her and said hello.
She must've thought she offended me or something, for me to act like that, so she frowned and asked, "Are you alright? Did you break up with Malfoy or something?"
I opened my mouth to reply, but Ginny beat me to it.
"No, worse. Draco Malfoy kissed Hermione Granger." she said. I looked to glare at her, but my angry expression turned to horror when I saw that she was holding her wand to her neck, causing everyone in the whole hall to hear what she said.
There was a chorus of "WHAT?"s throughout the hall, mainly from the Slytherin and Gryffindor table, as well as a bunch of whistles and "Well it was about time!"s.
The teachers looked mildly amused, except for Snape, who showed no change from his usual sour expression.
Harry, the Patil twins, and Lavender were part of the "WHAT?"s, but Ron, who had a mouth full of pumpkin juice, spurted it all over the floor behind him, and then joined the "WHAT?"s.
I buried my face in my arms. I didn't dare turn around to see Draco's reaction, so I just kicked Ginny, got up, and ran out of the hall.
I ran instinctively to the library. The entire library was deserted, since it was breakfast, and all, so I found a book, sat down in my favorite spot, and decided to not think about it, until first hour came. Sadly, it wasn't too long.
People started filing into the library, telling me that I had only minutes to get to Potions. I put my book back, and with my head down, ran straight to Snape's classroom.
My blood froze as I saw Draco was already there, sitting in his usual seat (which was right next to mine, might I add).
I ignored his piercing gray eyes, and found a seat at the back of the room next to Neville, who greeted me, smiling.
I tried to greet him back with as much enthusiasm as he did to me, but I failed. As I sat down, I thought I saw a small smile on Draco's face.
The rest of the day, I avoided him as best as I could, but then, came my last class before my free period-Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Sit down, everyone!" called Professor Lupin. We all found our seats (mine next to Ginny), and gave Lupin our attention.
"Today, we will be working again, on dueling. Hm... How about Mr. Smith and Miss Granger?"
Zacharias, an extremely obnoxious Hufflepuff, and I walked to the front of the room.
We got ready to duel, and he shot the first spell. "Expelliarmus!"
Finite Incantatem, I thought, as loudly as I could, hoping that my nonverbal spell could work.
It did, and his spell faded away before it could hit me.
Stupefy, I thought, as hard as I could. Thankfully, the nonverbal spell was very successful, and Zacharias was knocked off of his feet and he flew into the boxes behind him.
In fury, he shouted, "Incendio!"
With the amount of rage he put in, I'm pretty sure that if it had hit me, I would've been badly burned. I tried using "Protego" non-verbally, but my focus wasn't on it, and the spell failed.
I put my arms in front of me to shield my face, but suddenly, I heard someone call "Protego!" from the back of the room.
The fire extinguished as soon as it hit the shield around me, much to my relief.
I turned with a lot of gratitude to the class, but my heart froze when I saw Draco standing up, holding his wand out from the back of the room.
"Thank you Mr. Malfoy! That would've been rather bad if Miss Granger hadn't been protected. 10 points to Slytherin. Class dismissed!" called Professor Lupin.
I hurriedly gathered all my books and ran out of the classroom to the library.
To my displeasure, that certain Slytherin followed me all the way there.
"What, no thanks for saving you?" asked Draco, jokingly.
"What do you want, Draco?" I asked, with more coldness than I had meant.
"Oohoohoo. What's with the coldness towards me, 'Mione?" Goosebumps prickled my arms as he called me that. I liked it.
"I'm so confused!" I shouted at him. I had been holding my angst inside me for the whole day, and I couldn't any longer. "You make me so confused! First you kiss Pansy, and suddenly, you're kissing me! What am I supposed to think? I don't know what's going on! And you're so secretive, like you can't tell anyone about this kind of stuff, but I think that it'd do me a whole lot of good if you just told me what's going on! I'm going crazy! And it's all your fault! You lit-" I was cut-off, once again, by his soft lips on mine.
All the anger inside of me flew out, and my mind was blank.
He pulled away after a little bit, and hugged me.
"You've never let me tell you my side of the story, sweet." he said.
"I won't deny that Pansy and I kissed. But it was against my own will, for sure. She sickens me, that little slut." he spat. "But when she saw you coming, she did kissed me, hoping to throw off our relationship. And it worked. Look, I sound way to corny and pathetic for even myself to believe, but I love you. I don't have any damned clue as to how it happened, but I did, and I don't regret it. I never imagined that I'd fall for you, or that the stupid little bet we made months ago would lead to something like this. But, I'm glad it did, because I freaking love you. And I know I sound so superbly retarded, saying stuff like this to you, but-" this time, it was my turn to cut him off with a kiss. My heart relaxed immediately as I heard him say those three simple words: I love you.
"Wait." I said, pulling away for a second. "So who wins the bet now?"
"Screw the bet." mumbled Draco, pressing his lips against mine again.
The next period started, and people started coming into the library. There were a lot of whispers, pointed at Draco and I, but I didn't care.
I was with Draco in heaven.
A/N: And they are together! :)
I'm sorry it wasn't as drama packed as some of you probably expected, but I only have this chapter and the epilogue left, so yeah. I'm ending on a happier note :)
I really don't have much to say, except that you all are extremely awesome, please review, and so I can clarify:
THIS IS NOT THE END! I HAVE ONE LAST CHAPTER COMING YOUR WAY!
Haha, so I will see you all relatively soon!
Luv, luv, luv, luv,
Cherri