Chapter 8

After spending the morning in detention, Draco was famished and looking forward to a quiet afternoon at The Three Broomsticks. But upon entering the pub, he realized he had too high of hopes for the afternoon; the place was absolutely bursting at the seams.

He grabbed a Butterbeer from the bar and searched for a seat in the crowded establishment. He smiled to himself when he spotted Granger at a booth, but his smile faltered for a moment when he noticed she was seated with Potter and Weasley. This should be interesting.

He hadn't seen much of her after earning detention from Professor Vector. He had spent the last two evenings and that morning cleaning the desks by hand in her classroom. While Professor Vector was usually a somewhat patient teacher, she could be ruthless in her punishments and had even made him scrub the same tables three times the first night of his detention. He was just glad now to be done with it.

Draco made his way through the crowd of students to where Granger was chatting affectionately with her friends. He slid onto the bench beside her, threw an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek noisily.

"There you are, darling. I've been looking everywhere for you."

Granger replied with a vicious glare and hissed through her teeth, "What are you doing?"

Draco took a sip of butterbeer and nodded in Potter and Weasley's direction. "Boys." The two of them stared, mouths agape and faces contorted in confusion.

Potter was the first to speak up. "Um, Malfoy. What are you doing here?"

"Just here to enjoy the afternoon with my little buttercup," he cheerfully replied, turning slightly to grin at Granger.

Weasley choked on his drink and started coughing Butterbeer all over the table.

"Your… what? Go… away… you… ferret," he sputtered out, gasping for air.

Potter paid no attention to his friend suffocating beside him. He looked frantically back and forth between Draco and Granger.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"Excuse us for a moment," Granger growled as she shoved Draco out of the booth. She grabbed his arm and dragged him outside.

"Granger, if you wanted to get me alone all you had to do was ask. There's no need for the melodramatic scene."

Granger pushed him further into an alley and smacked his arm.

"You complete arse! What do you think you're doing? You've just completely ruined my afternoon!" she yelled out as she continued smacking him.

"Ow! Calm down, Granger." He grabbed her arms and held them to her side. She wiggled in his grip, trying to escape. He smirked at her attempts, but held her arms tight. Once she finally calmed down and stopped struggling did he loosen his grip. "Now can I let you go without you attacking me?"

Granger glared back at him, but didn't reply.

Draco slowly released her arms and took a step outside of her reach just in case.

She continued to glare, her eyes flaring with anger. She huffed for a few moments and then, "Malfoy, why in the world did you do that?"

"I thought it would be fun to mess with them. So they could really see us together," he replied with a shrug as he leaned against the building behind them.

"That has to be your worst idea yet."

He took a second to watch her. He had gotten pretty good at reading her emotions by now and he could tell that she wasn't merely upset that he crashed their lunch, but was furious for acknowledging her at all.

"Granger, you did tell them didn't you?" he asked slowly.

"No I didn't! They were only here for lunch and I didn't want to ruin the afternoon," she retorted.

"Granger," he groaned running his fingers through his hair. "How is anyone supposed to believe this ruse if Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumbass don't even know?"

"I know I know, but it's not like anyone at Hogwarts regularly talks to them. I just thought we could have a catch up at lunch and they wouldn't find out."

"What would be so terrible about them knowing? What's the worst that could happen?"

Her eyes quickly shot up to his face. "'What's the worst that could happen?'" she laughed darkly. "I'm sure they would immediately start planning your death."

Draco shrugged again in response. "It's nothing I haven't seen before. They've hated me for a long time." He took a step closer to her.

"Yeah, but this is different," she quietly said. He took another step, towering over her in the small space.

"Why? Because they think they have some sort of claim over you?" He scoffed and then used his finger to lift her chin so he could look in her eyes. "Granger, you're your own person. And a bloody good one at that. Don't let what they, or anyone else thinks run your life. You're much too smart to care what other people think."

She blinked up at him, opening and closing her mouth a few times as she tried to find a response.

"Wow, Malfoy. That was almost nice." He pulled his hand back quickly from her chin, his finger tingling from where it touched her.

Draco shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Yeah well, don't expect it to be a recurring thing."

"Of course not," She smiled up at him before heaving out a heavy sigh. "Maybe you're right." Then she held a hand out to him. "Well, ready to get this over with?"

He intertwined their fingers and gestured in front of him. "After you, my darling."

As they made their way back to the table, they noticed a new head of red hair sitting between Potter and Weasley. The two boys ignored the witch, however, and spoke in fast whispers behind her back.

Ginny glanced up as Draco and Granger took their seats and quickly went back to eating her chips.

"Hey guys. Took forever out there. I got us some more Butterbeer."

"Thanks, Ginny," Granger smiled back at the girl.

Potter and Weasley stopped their chatter to stare appalled at the Ginny.

"Ginny," Weasley spoke slowly, "did you know about this?"

"What these two?" Ginny waved a hand between Granger and Draco. "Yeah I have. Everyone does."

"Well apparently not everyone!" Weasley shouted. "And I appreciate you taking the time to tell us in all of your frequent letters!"

"Oh calm down, you incredibly large baby," Ginny said rolling her eyes. "Hermione said she wanted to tell you two herself. So," she gestured to them with both hands, "here you are."

Potter and Weasley quickly aimed their attention to Granger.

Draco had a pang of sympathy for Granger— here she was in a 'relationship' with the one guy her friends absolutely could not stand. He wished things had been different for her and that her friends could be somewhat understanding, but he had a feeling that's not the way this was going to end.

To his delight Granger lifted her chin and spoke in a voice that was not to be challenged. "Draco and I have been dating for about a month and we are incredibly happy." —she held up a hand when Weasley opened his mouth to object— "You cannot change my mind and I would appreciate it if you did not openly oppose this. We can finish our lunch peacefully or," she emphasized when Weasley opened his mouth again, "you can leave. Your choice."

Draco rolled his lip between his teeth in an attempt to hold back his smirk. He didn't think he could be any more proud of Granger, but she had proved him wrong. After all these years, she deserved to put those two dingbats in their place and earn even an ounce of respect from them.

Ginny leaned back in her seat and grinned a toothy smile at Granger.

"Good for you," she mouthed in her direction.

Weasley huffed in exasperation and left the table without another word.

Potter leaned back and assessed the two of them, his eyes moving back and forth, occasionally flickering to their still intwined hands on the table. He sat forward and surprisingly, nodded in Draco's direction. "Well Hermione must see some good in you. And, Hermione, I trust your judgement. Ron will come around," he said, jerking his head toward the door Weasley had just exited through.

Ginny snorted, digging into her food again, "Doubtful, but we'll see."

….

Hours later, Draco and Granger were alone in his room studying for an upcoming Potions quiz.

Lunch actually wasn't as painful as he thought it would be. Potter was somewhat tolerable without Weasley there and Ginny, as Draco already knew, was quite funny and skilled in Quidditch knowledge. There were occasional lulls in conversation, which Granger tried to fill desperately by asking Potter how his Auror training was going.

No one spoke of Weasley once he left and lunch was better for it.

Once Potter and Ginny left the pub to walk around Hogsmeade, Granger had thrown her arms around his waist and let out a somewhat girly squeal. Stunned by her actions, he couldn't do much more than stare down at her baffled, his arms hanging limply by his sides.

"Thank you, Malfoy," she had breathed into his chest.

"What for?"

"You were friendly to Harry and didn't try to hex him or Ron."

He let a smirk slip that she would never see. He lifted his right arm and awkwardly patted her head as he replied, "Sure. He's not so bad without Weasel there."

"Still. Thank you." She leaned back to smile up at him and he felt a strange stirring in his stomach. He tightened his abs in an attempt to stop the squirming in his stomach. Leaning further back from her, he tried to distance himself from the sudden onslaught of feelings invading his body.

"Sure thing. Let's head to Scrivenshafts's, I need some new quills," He said quickly practically pulling her off of him.

They spent the rest of the afternoon walking from shop to shop and eventually made it back to his room to study. It was the most time he had spent with someone other than Blaise and even Theo as of late and he hadn't even realized how quickly the time had passed.

"Okay, what do you add to a Wiggenwelf Potion to increase its potency?" Granger asked pulling a sheet of parchment from their pile.

"Boom berries," he replied quickly. "Hey Granger, about the other day in class…"

She pointed a finger at him to indicate he had gotten the answer correct and responded as she drew another sheet from the pile. "When you got detention you mean?"

Draco chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah I suppose so. I was just thinking about what we discussed."

"Oh the whole sex thing?" She waved the implication away with a motion of her hand.

He blinked at her flippancy. "Uh.. yeah. You know that I was just pushing your buttons right? I didn't mean to put you on the spot or anything."

Granger stopped reading the parchment in her hand and glanced up at him. "You thought that I was serious?" She laughed when Draco nodded his head.

"Hermione Granger. Making a joke. This is quite a show," He smirked, impressed. His smile widened as she doubled over, clutching her side.

"Oh come off it. I make jokes all the time," she chuckled pushing his shoulder.

"Well sometimes, but most of the time you think I don't understand it and you immediately explain the joke. It completely ruins it!"

Granger's cackling died down enough that she shrugged and went back to her notes. "Well I guess I'm just used to having to do that all the time with Harry and Ron. Not many people understand my sense of humor."

"Well I do, Granger, so you can officially now stop explaining it."

She chuckled lightly again. "Will do. You know it's not like I haven't really thought about it."

Draco glanced back at his notes and grabbed a quill to make a few changes. "What's that, not explaining jokes to those two dummies?"

"No. Sex," she supplied quietly, her voice still light however.

Draco abandoned his notes to gape at her from across the bed.

"In general or…"

"Well yeah in general, but also with you."

Draco was dumbfounded. He had never heard Granger be this forthcoming before. He expected her to laugh and say 'gotcha!', but that never came. She had put down her notes and was staring directly into his eyes.

"I mean, we do spend a lot of time together and it's just come through my head a couple of times," she continued. "And you don't have to say anything or pretend like you've thought of it too. I think your talk earlier in that alley just made me a little too bold."

Draco blinked a few times while his brain tried to catch up on what she had just said. Why would Gryffindor Princess wanted to be intimate with ex-Death Eater, pureblood extraordinaire Draco Malfoy?

"Granger, I-"

"You know what," she said holding up her hand essentially shutting him up. "Forget I said anything. I'm pretty tired so I'm going to head back to my room."

She stood up and started to quickly gather her study materials.

Draco was still too stunned to move or speak and watched in silence as she packed up her bag. His ears pounded, the stillness between them deafening. This was all a ruse, some wildly crafted incentive to get back at the snotty girls she overheard and in turn a way for him to get back in everyone's good graces after the war. They had gotten closer over the past month, but that was just two like minds learning together and feeding off the feeling of conversing with someone of common intellect. That's all.

That's how it had been presented. Then he thought about the way her lips curved up when she smiled at him— like he earned or even deserved her happiness. The way she wrinkled her nose when she was goading him. The way she challenged him and questioned his work. The way she pushed him to do better, to be better. Maybe it is more than that. Maybe the two of them could be more than that. Maybe.

"Well goodnight then," she waved in his general direction as she headed for the door.

Whatever spell Draco was under came undone at her words and he leapt up from the bed, blocking her path to the door.

"Granger, I've thought about it too," he spewed out quickly, before his brain could stop his mouth from speaking. "On a fundamentally academic level of course," he added.

"Of course," she replied in a whisper.

Seeing the small look of fervor in her eyes gave him more courage to continue. He closed his eyes for a moment, breathed in slowly, trying to absorb some of her Gryffindor courage from simply inhaling. He opened his eyes to see hers tilted up to his, saying every word her lack Gryffindor bravery prevented her from doing. He made the decision for the both of them. He lifted his hand and placed it on the side of her cheek, fingers not quite touching her skin.

"Sometimes I just can't get the image of you out of my head." He took a step forward and rubbed his thumb across her cheekbone.

Granger took a shuttering breath, but was as still as a statue, eyes still glued to his.

"Sometimes I can't get the feel of your lips out of my head." He moved his hand into her hair to grip the back of her neck, his fingers tangling in her curls. He tightened his fingers, anchoring her to him.

He leaned his head down, forehead just a hair from her own. "Or the taste of your breath," he breathed against her lips, almost touching with every word formed on his lips.

He took the rest of the minuscule amount of space and placed a ghost of a kiss on her lips, she shivered in his arms at the almost contact. Before he was able to explore that further, the door slammed open and they jumped apart.

"Draco," huffed Blaise as if he were out of breath from running. "The Headmistress wants to see you. It's your mother."

Draco turned to face Granger with a terrified yet apologetic look on his face.

"Draco, go. I'll see you later," she replied.

"Okay. Yeah. I'll see you." He took off at a dead sprint through the castle before reaching the Headmistress's office.

"Cleansweep," he panted to the Gargoyle guarding the Headmistress's door. The Gargoyle nodded and it leaped out of his way.

Draco pushed open the door without knocking. An emergency like this required no manners.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy," Professor McGonagall said from the perch behind her desk. "Your aunt has requested a Floo call to speak with you about your mother. I'll just leave you to it." She got up from her desk, patted his shoulder and left the room.

He couldn't recall if he had even thanked her or had just rushed to the fireplace without a word.

Within seconds his aunt's head appeared in the flames.

"Oh, Draco, I'm glad I was able to reach you. Your mother has been taken to St. Mungo's."

Draco's heart fell to his stomach and all the air left his lungs in a single strangled breath. He was struggling to catch his breath and he could barely get out a single word. He must have though, because his aunt was replying to the question inside his head and he was sure that she wasn't gifted in Legilimency, especially through Floo.

"She had a terrible episode today and had run off for a few hours. We found her in the gardens passed out. We think she will be fine, but we took her as a precaution. The healers are hoping to have her back home by tomorrow morning."

"But, she's going to be fine?" he asked quietly, lungs still aching for air.

"We think so. I spoke with Minerva though, and she said if you'd like to, you can come stay with her," she supplied soothingly. His aunt truly was a saint of a woman.

He was nodding before she had even finished her sentence.

"Okay, you go pack up and I will be through in about a half hour to bring you to her."

Draco was already on his feet and heading for the door before he remembered Andromeda was still in the fire.

"Thank you," he got out.

"Of course, Draco," she smiled warmly and then she was gone.

Draco wasted no time heading back down to the dungeons to pack a bag.

He was surprised to find Granger still in his room and sitting on his bed reading.

"Oh, you're back." She placed the book on the bed as she stood up.

"My… my mother is in St. Mungo's," he muttered.

Grangers hand flew to her mouth. "Oh no. What happened?"

"They think she'll be okay. I'm just going to stay with her for a few days."

"As you should," Granger replied placing her hands on his shoulders and rubbing them up and down trying to sooth him.

He sighed and leaned forward placing his forehead against hers. "I just feel like she's not going to get better."

Granger moved her hands down his arms, and grasped his in response.

"All you can do is hope that it will all work out."

They stood like this for a few minutes before Granger grabbed his head in her hands and placed a light kiss on his forehead.

"Come on," she said, "I'll help you pack."

a/n: I'm so sorry this is so late! I've been busy decorating for Christmas and getting my head in a better place. This chapter is a little shorter, but the next one won't be, I promise!