A/N: Thanks to the reviewers! The song was called "Right in front of you" by Celine Dion.
Chapter 16: The talk and Reminscence
...As they gazed, Hermione's heart started to race once again as Malfoy, the Draco Malfoy, slowly lured his face down to meet hers, looking carefully at her lips...
Just as their lips were about to collide, they heard explosives, yells and laughter around them and Malfoy reluctantly looked up to see what was going on. Hermione's heart sank, though she didn't know why, when Draco's move was clearly interrupted.
He had a disappointed look on his face, she could surely tell but she looked up in the sky where the noises were coming from and smiled at the beautiful firework jets bursting above them.
Hermione heard Draco sigh, and followed with a, "Do you like fireworks?"
"I love them!" Hermione smiled, looking up in the sky, and noticed she still had her arms around his neck
and both his arms on either side of her hips, "I think they're fascinating..."
"Yeah..." Draco looked at her soft smiling face, as though he was being entranced, "they sure are..."
They finally let go of each other and sat down in the nearby grassy are and watched the fireworks go.
"Some party, huh?" Draco said accompanied with a small laugh.
"Yeah," Hermione shrugged, "I guess the Flints are just that important—"
"Have you talked to him?"
"Him? Marcus? No!" Hermione paused, "I mean...no, not yet...I'm not sure if I-"
"Yeah he could be a big jackass sometimes."
"Well he is a Slytherin." Hermione cast him a sideway look. Draco smirked.
Hermione gave a small shudder since it was getting a little cold.
"Let me just get my jacket-" Hermione stood up and walked towards their table where everything they
brought were put. She came back with nothing.
"I must've forgotten it," she gave a nervous laugh and shrugged it off, sitting back down on the grass.
Draco looked at her for a second, then at her cold dress. He took off his thick jacket and placed it gently
around her shoulders.
Warmness filled Hermione's body. This jacket was so comfortable she felt like she wouldn't be able to tell
the difference between a cold night and winter.
"Thanks..."
"So why did you come?" Draco changed the subject, looking high up in the sky. Green and Silver sparks
were now flying all over the place.
Hermione looked down at her feet, then up at the sky-
"Well, I didn't really want to-" she started, "but then after the Diagon Alley treat...I figured, well, I dunno, to
show appreciation."
"Appreciation?" Malfoy snorted.
"Yeah," She carefully looked back in case anyone was listening, "Blaise Zabini—and all—"
"Oh that was nothing," Draco still kept looking at the sky, "I mean, yeah, it was something...but it's just-
yeah, you don't want to know. It's complicated."
"I don't want to know what?"
"Nothing. Forget it..."
There was another silence and the fireworks ended. Music was loud again and they stayed seated.
"So," he lied down on the grass with his arms behind his head. "So is scarhead still alive? How's
Weasel?" he grinned at his own lame joke.
Hermione frowned, "You're not funny."
"No really, I bet they still hate me, don't they? Are you still hanging around them?"
"Of course, I'm not the kind who'd just abandon my best friends," she cast him a stern look.
"If you're thinking about Goyle and Crabbe, those two morons ditched me, Granger, thank you very
much."
"Right." Hermione raised a brow. "And yes, Harry and Ron still hates you."
"Do they...up till now?"
"Don't tell me you've somehow just jumped into one hundred percent good boy Malfoy and have
absolutely stopped loathing them, after all these years?"
"Well, maybe not 'absolutley' but I do miss torturing their short lives-"
"Excuse me, but I'm still here!" Hermione now had her hands on her hips, "In case you've forgotten
you've made my 'little short life' a living hell too!"
Draco squinted as he looked at the sky, "You know, you were an exception."
"Oh, well I suppose I was exception because I was a Mudblo—"
"Shh. It's true. Well, sure you're still a Muggle...but I had to find a way to fit you in anyway-"
"Yeah and I'm so sure that erases every taunts in my mind." Hermione rolled her eyes.
Draco smiled and watched her grit her teeth, which made him laugh. After recieving an odd glance from
her he simply said, "Those teeth."
"Yes the ones you enlarged, even if I had paramnesia I'd still be able to remember that, I'm sure." She
frowned.
"Fat chance. Paramnesia would probably be stop- tired in the middle of running after your memory 'cause
it's too long-" Draco sniggered, "Besides, Potface there started it first."
"I don't see why you're so jelous of him anyway-"
"Jelous?" Draco had look at her as though he's just been mocked. "Me, Granger? Ha! Never."
Hermione snorted, "Yeah, as if—" she deepened her voice, "'You don't want to make friends with the
wrong sort- I can help you there, Oh please Harry Potter shake my infested hands' He declined you,
obviously."
"Potter told you that?"
"Yeah, of course. He tells Ron and I, everything." Hermione triumphantly looked back at him.
"Then why do they hate me so much?"
"Are you serious, now? Because you were always a fag to everybody, strutting with the two smartest
body-guards. Sneering at everyone like you're the king of the school."
"You didn't think I was like that, did you?"
"Of course I did! I thought you were just one disturbed child in the beginning, but you PMS'd on me and
called me a Mudblood and everything, and ever since...."
Draco took all of this in for a while before he spoke.
"Well..."
"Harry always gave you the finger every time your back was turned." She grinned.
"The finger?"
"Yeah, the finger. I guess you're too pureblood to know what that is."
"Is it like a Muggle wand?"
Hermione burst out laughing, "It's another way of swearing without using words."
Draco still had a confused expression. "Hand language? Have you heard of hand gestures, Malfoy?"
He just looked at her. "'Draco-you-son-of-a-bitch!' ?"
Draco opened his mouth as if to say "Ohhh!!" but closed it once again and casted her a side way glance.
"But I've always thought you were a hippocrit."
"Really? Why is that?"
"You always made fun of their families...but when we talk about your dad and mum-"
Draco was silenced. There was something about what she said that made him sit up and grab a handful
of grasses and pulling them off the ground.
"You're not going to go all mad on me, now are you?" she looked at him cautiously in case he breaks out.
Draco turned his head as though he just realised she was there. He slowly shook his head...
"My mother left father..."
Hermione sat there awestruck. "I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
He shook his head again, "No. No, it's not that at all..."
"I- well, what...what happened?"
Draco didn't reply. Hermione then understood.
"Alright, maybe- well, maybe we should go back to our table-"
"Father had a row with her after the war." Draco looked directly at her brown eyes, his eyes sparkling in
the dark. "My father's been so into after the Dark Lord's rise..."
Then it hit, Hermione. Memories ran to her mind...her confrontation with Lucius Malfoy himself and the
Death Eaters...she shuddered.
"He hasn't had the time with anything but himself. Mother left him. But I hated her for doing that. I hated
not only for the fact she left, but for the fact she left me with him."
Malfoy had feelings?
"Maybe...she thought it was for the best..." Hermione wasn't sure if this was helping. She soon found out
she shouldn't have said it.
"No, no...never for the best. My father is a selfish being and he always made me follow his footsteps, be a
Death Eater- support the Dark Arts." He swallowed, "It was he, who never wanted me to attend Hogwarts
in the first place. And until now, he's trying to turning me into him. Thats why I'm glad I was able to move
out. I owl my mother sometimes when she needs me. But as stupid as it sounds, I never saw her again
after their row...she forbids me to visit her, too. Says it was for the best...this necklace was the last thing
she's given me." he grabbed the familiar silver necklace from under his shirt and left it hanging on his
neck. "It's the only thing that reminds me of her, now that I don't see her anymore. That's why it's very
important..."
"I never knew...that's horrible..."
Why was Malfoy, the Draco Malfoy, telling her all this? As though they were old best friends getting together? Is he telling the truth?
"Of course you never knew. I never told you until now," he said coolly, "Anyways, it doesn't matter. It was down to two choices, follow him or-" he turned back to the grass he was pulling, "I- I don't even know why I'm telling you this, Granger."
"You're not like him, Draco," she breathed, "You know...when I met you- re-met you, I mean. I didn't think I'd ever lay eyes on you because I thought you'd end up like your father. But I guess I was wrong. I'm
glad you changed.... because, you're nothing like Lucius Malfoy, Draco...and you stay that way" she
shook her head and Draco Malfoy smiled.
"There's always the sappy one in every dream team," he gave out a small laugh, "Man, Potter and that
Weasley must be lucky to have been friends with you, huh?"
Hermione flushed. "Well, I-"
"You know what?" he grinned and looked at her again, "I'm beginning to think I am too."