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When Tuesday finally arrived, Draco felt as if it had been a year since he had seen or heard from Hermione. He missed her terribly and was grateful that he'd be seeing her that evening. Draco knew that he needed to finally buck up the courage and tell her how he felt about her. The only issue was that it was much easier said than done. In all honesty, he was a bit bothered that she hadn't contacted him all week, but he looked past that and focused on Quidditch practice.
As soon as practice ended, Draco jumped into the shower before getting dressed and ready for the meeting at the Bistro. He pulled on a pair of dark grey slacks and a light green shirt before leaving for Diagon Alley.
He arrived at Mates' Bistro about half an hour before they were due to close for the night. He was quickly spotted by Dean and led to a nice table by a magically altered scenic wall. The wall gave a beautiful view of Paris, helping with the atmosphere of the restaurant. Dean procured Draco a glass of Firewhiskey while he waited for Hermione to arrive.
The brunette witch entered the Bistro about fifteen minutes later and caught sight of Draco. She swallowed and made her way over to him.
Draco stood up, smiling at her, "Hey, Granger!" He said.
Hermione smiled briefly before replying, "Hi Draco."
He furrowed his brow, feeling immediately concerned, "Is everything okay?"
She licked her lips and sighed, "Yes. Everything is fine."
He shook his head but didn't have time to speak as Dean and Seamus came over to the table.
"You two ready?" Seamus asked.
"For…" Hermione said.
"For a marvelous sampling of our dishes for the Fundraiser, of course." Dean replied with a grin, "We weren't quite sure what you'd want to serve, so we thought this up."
Seamus cleared his throat and Dean rolled his eyes.
"Okay, Seamus thought this up."
Draco would have laughed at the banter, but his mind was solely focused on Hermione's odd behavior.
The two blokes went back to the kitchen to check on the first samples.
Once they were alone, Draco leaned closer to Hermione and asked her what was wrong as gently as he could.
Hermione sighed, "Draco, I'm fine."
"No, you're not." He said. "And this is for the orphans, so we need to work through whatever is going on with you."
She spun her head to look at him with anger he hadn't expected.
"You think I don't know that? I've been working on this for a month and…"
"No, Granger!" He said, cutting her off, "We've been working on this. Together. And it's been going rather splendidly if I do say so myself but now, you're acting as if you bloody hate me."
"Hate you?" She hissed, "Hate you! Draco, if I could hate you, this would be a hell of a lot easier."
He furrowed his brow, confused.
"Okay, you two!" Dean beamed as he hovered two plates over to their table. "This is my personal favorite dish. Enjoy." He said before leaving.
There were notecards on each plate that stated what the dish was.
Honey-Mint Lamb Skewers
Hermione huffed and shook her head before taking a bite off the skewer.
Draco did the same and was shocked by how good it was. He saved the notecard and set it on the table before looking back at Hermione.
"Granger…" He said, turning to her again.
She turned to look at him, and he could see how vulnerable she was just by the look in her gorgeous toffee eyes.
"Please explain. I feel about as daft as Theo right now but please, just explain." He pleaded.
She sighed and met his eyes, "Draco, I love you." She said quietly as Dean and Seamus came out, hovering dozens of plates.
The employees rushed over and magically widened their table before their bosses lowered the plates onto the it.
"We figured it would take hours if we did it that way, so we just brought everything out." Seamus said.
Hermione nodded, clearing her throat as she smiled, "It all looks lovely." She said before she slowly began tasting things.
Draco, stunned beyond belief, turned to look at the table before looking back at Hermione. She glanced at him before turning her attention back at the Dean, who was talking about one of the dishes.
Draco swallowed and began to try the samples. He kept the notecards of the dishes he thought would be best for the Charity Match while leaving the others on the dishes.
When he and Hermione finally finished trying every last, never-ending sample, Dean took their notecards to use as reference.
"Let me get you two some dessert." Dean said to them as he and Seamus cleared the table and went back towards the kitchen.
"Yeah." Seamus added. "Our tiramisu is spectacular!"
When they disappeared into the kitchen, Draco turned to Hermione. She was staring at her slightly fumbling hands, which were on her lap.
He reached over and took both of her smaller hands in his larger one. She was caught off guard by his actions and her head shot up to look at him.
"I love you too, Granger." He said quietly "I'm so sorry if I hurt you at all. That's the last thing I'd ever want to do."
Hermione blinked and blinked again as if attempting to see if you real or a dream.
He chuckled, knowingly, and let out a heavy breath, "It's real, Granger. This is really happening."
She blushed and smiled as Dean and Seamus came back out with several plates of different desserts hovering in the air in front of them.
They lowered the plates onto the table.
"We didn't even think about desserts for the Fundraiser. Will you two want desserts for it?" Dean asked as he handed Hermione and Draco spoons.
Hermione nodded, "Yes. We will."
After talking about it for a moment, Dean left them to eat their desserts.
Once they were alone again, Draco set his spoon on the table and turned more towards the brunette to his left. Before he could say anything however, she spoke,
"Draco…" She said, but he shook his head.
"Granger, listen to me please. I've been a coward and should have told you ages ago of my true feelings for you, but I didn't, and I hate myself for it."
"No, Draco. Please don't hate yourself." She said worriedly.
He shook his head, "I should have told you. But, now that I have, I want…"
There was a knock on the door of the Bistro and Hermione's eyes went nervously wide.
Draco furrowed his brow, confused.
"Draco." She said quickly, "Listen. I have a date tonight with Viktor. He sent me a letter a couple days ago and I wasn't in the best place…emotionally. Nothing seemed to be happening with us, so I agreed to go on a date with him tonight after our meeting with Dean and Seamus ended." She said, hating herself so terribly much.
Draco swallowed, in shock once again. He exhaled, letting go of her hands as he slowly pulled his hand back and nodded, "Erm…yeah. I understand. You erm…you ought to get going. I'll let the blokes now which desserts to use for the Charity Match." He said in a stone voice while not meeting her eyes.
Se swallowed and nodded, knowing that if she cancelled her date, Krum might back out of helping out with the Charity Match, putting the entire Fundraiser in jeopardy.
After a moment of no movement, there was another, heavier knock on the door and Draco nearly stood up to go throttle Krum.
The blond wizard cleared his throat and muttered, "He's waiting." He said, though the words left a bitter taste in his mouth.
She cleared her throat and nodded again before standing up. She glanced back at Draco and saw that his back was a stiff as a board and his jaw was clenched.
She nearly cried but knew she couldn't.
When Draco heard the door open and Hermione greet Krum, he felt as if he was going to be sick. He couldn't believe that after everything that had just happened, he was still left alone, with a broken heart.