**Hermione Granger**
I gazed contemplatively at my reflection in the mirror. My bridal gown hung simply and elegantly. Julia, the girl I had served as a governess for the past 3 years, handed me the veil that I would be wearing to my wedding.
"Miss Mione?" she asked me.
"Yes, 'Lia?"
"Tell me again...how you two met."
"You've heard it so many times before, though. Why would you want to hear it again?"
"I like it so much. Start at your 7th year, when it all began."
"Very well."
~*~*~*~
**Draco Malfoy**
"Draco? Can I ask something?" my younger sister, Estelle, who was only sixteen, asked. I told her to get out of my room, though she wouldn't stop. Ah, she's only sixteen - I shouldn't be so hard on her.
"Yes, Estelle?" Hmmm. What did she want this time?
"Can you..." she seemed shy to say what she wanted to. "Come on," I urged. "Tell me. It's okay."
"Well, can you tell me again?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know -- how you came to know each other."
"I knew her since first year at Hogwarts. Well, haven't I told you that already?"
"Yes, but this time I want to hear everything, all the details and the like. I mean -- please, dear brother?" she asked me with puppy dog eyes which were adorable, in my opinion.
"Of course. It's been so many years now, yet I still remember..." I sighed.
"...It was a simple bet! A bet...A bet just for the fun of humiliating her in the Graduation Ball. That's where it all started. Where the unexpected happened. Where...I fell in love with her."
"She was so different from the other girls I met. She was surprisingly very smart for her age, very strong in character...and a muggle. "Muggles are scum in the wizarding world, Draco, in order to be a great wizard you must stay away from them," my father Lucius used to say. "You are a Malfoy -- and you must never be involved with muggles - or rather, mudbloods - no matter what the cost." I now knew that it really is true that words cut rather deeply...for at that moment I just so wanted to curse Father with my wand. I wanted to curse myself too for feeling this way; for falling for...Hermione Granger. It sounded funny, Draco and Hermione, but I loved her so much I didn't care what people would think."
Estelle listened intently. I looked at her. "You really want to know the whole story, Estelle?" I asked her.
"Of course, Draco. That's what I came here for!"
"I defied Father's instructions and risked my life just to love her -- I always had this unspoken attraction to her burning inside of me. And little did I know she was attracted to me in her own little way too. At first we wouldn't even dare admit it to ourselves, but once that chance came -- once I took that bet -- things took a strange turn. I started to long for her more than I knew I would. I eventually admitted my feelings for her, and she did the same. For the first time in my whole life, I had a serious girlfriend."
"That was so adorable, how you came to like her. I wish that happens to a silly young sixteener like me," Estelle said, smiling. "That isn't even half the problem, Estella," I told her.
"Well, no secrets aren't revealed, right? So time came when she found out about the bet -- and as a result I was scarred deeply. She was hurt, but I was hurt even more -- it all happened so fast, in one vicious cycle. Time passed and the scars healed. We were stronger than ever, but soon we had to go our own separate ways -- she had to go away with her family, and I, naturally, had to go away with mine."
"Awww, Draco. Smile!" she urged her brother, who looked sad from all the reminiscing.
"It's been years now since we graduated from Hogwarts and from "each other", as she herself called it. She had her own life, and I had mine. It wasn't all a happy ending, but what she told me kept me from blinding myself with the pain: "Draco, don't cry because it's over -- smile, for at least it happened. I love you. Remember that."
"I had put those words into my heart forever for I knew we'd meet again. She said it'd be impossible -- I would so much beg to disagree. In my heart I just knew we'd see each other again. How? I just knew." Estelle smiled, knowing instantly what I, her brother was thinking.