A/n: This is Maggie again. I'm sorry for not updating but FanFiction.net was down for so long and Caroline's computer crashed, erasing the chapter. So I gotta rewrite it. Enjoy!

Chapter 7

She didn't expect what was coming. Slowly, Draco Malfoy leaned forwards and kissed her.

Hermione pulled away, fluttering her eyelashes nervously. Her mouth opened and then closed before she could speak: " I… I…"

He didn't speak anymore. His ears were a bright scarlet red and he couldn't have been able to speak even if he tried. Draco turned his head so he was facing the couch cushions and then ran his fingers up and down the faded old fabric in silence. Hermione's eyes shifted towards the doorway and she bit her lip expectantly. Dumbledore and Hagrid would arrive shortly.

" Thank you." Draco whispered.

" You're welcome." Hermione's smile couldn't have been brighter.

~*~

It's just one more day
No one said
There would be rain again
Won't blame it on myself
I'll blame it on the weatherman
Get away for a while
Here I amount on my own again
Won't blame it on myself
I'll blame it on the weatherman
~*~

Some time later, Hagrid and Dumbledore arrived at the little cottage. Hermione and Draco exchanged knowing glances as Dumbledore told them of their plan. Draco would spend the winter holidays at Hogwarts to keep himself away from his family's practices. Over the winter, Hermione knew she'd be seeing much more of Draco then usual. She decided to stay at school as well. Maybe she'd finally help Harry catch up with his Potions essay.

Dumbledore embraced Hermione's suggestion about how Draco should spend the summer at her house. He even began to write an elaborate letter of excuse to the Grangers, calling it a 'summer away' project from school, so that Draco's secret was well-kept. The so-called project from school required two people to be pitted together and then forced to spend the summer at either one or the other's house.

Hermione knew her parents, strict dentists, would not be too happy. Her mother might question the morality of having a boy and a girl as partners, while her father would have some say about Draco's slouch and chilly attitude. And, of course, her mother would have to put her two cents in as far as how Draco's cool beauty seemed very distant from the earthly, warm beauty that Hermione owned – olive complexion, brown hair, milk chocolate eyes.

Walking towards Hogwarts, side by side, but at least a meter in between them, a couple yet not really, a pessimist and an optimist, the Gryffindor and Slytherin. Hermione couldn't help but smile to herself, thinking of winter break and the snowball fights that awaited them, or maybe a secret ambush on Ron in his usual snow fort near Hagrid's home. Draco, meanwhile, worried about what his father would think, what the other Slytherins would think, and worst of all, what the heck am I thinking? seemed to cross his mind often.

The rain had faded away to form a dreary, muddled sky through which only a very thin patch of light escaped. The ground was wet, the grass left thin whip-like marks on their robes, and yet, something about the weather was foreboding, but in a good way. The next day, it would be sunny. Hermione just knew it.

It better be, Draco thought grimly.

~*~

Alone I can hear
Hear our song
Playing for me again
Won't blame it on myself
Just blame it on the weatherman

~*~

It truly was sunny the next morning. The day dried every tearful drop of rain outside, leaving behind weather-beaten, brown grass. Yet, over the winter, the grass would be coated with a white snow that would break it down and feed it to the earth. After a melancholy winter, spring would produce fresh green buds – a new life.

Draco's eyes weren't glossy with tears when he woke up, nor were they bloodshot for he hadn't slept all night. There wasn't a hole burnt through his pillow because of an unexpected fever (most likely a stress and migraine symptom). He checked his pulse to see if he hadn't died and gone to Heaven. He truly did feel good today.

Kicking back the covers and then looking out the window, his hands on the sun-warmed parapet, he knew that he, too, looked forwards to the breaking down of Draco Malfoy and the beginning of a new life. Though it would be one of just small saplings and beginner's growth, he'd have all summer to let himself grow inside.

He stretched, his hands reaching upwards to the heavenly blue sky that was probably far above him. It didn't seem so out of reach now. The old blade he had hidden in his memory box under the bed wasn't nearly as important, his dried red streams of life still visible on the sharp edges. He hoped to forget it.

Turning back, his eyes seeing stars from looking so directly at the sun, he had one thing on his mind. I wonder what Hermione's doing this evening…

A/N- Thank you for all your reviews!

A/N 2 - ^_~ This is the end, hopefully. I'll see what Caroline says, but I think this is acceptable enough.