A/N: Oh wow this is really messed up... chapter 21 it says Dearest Hermione and chapter 22 it says DEAR Hermione. Sorry again..gaaah!!
Well, here's the next chapter you impatient kids! =P hehe..
Chapter 24: Sweet Nothing
Last chance, Hermione, Hermione told herself as she headed to Diagon Alley with Ginny to meet Harry and Ron.
"Hermione, are you sure- Malfoy wanted us to come?" Ginny asked her nervously.
Hermione nodded. "But- why?"
Hermione shrugged, "He wants change."
Ginny looked at Hermione as if she had gone mad. "Right..."
Diagon Alley looked wonderful. Giant trees and little Christmas elves were walking around the snowy ground. Stores were decorated with Christmas lights, bells and choir songs echoed in Hermione's ear.
- -
Draco sat in his welcome room and stared out his window, waiting...
He had already written six New Years resolution on many pieces of paper and one by one, he threw them on the bowl table.
Will Hermione come? Did she get his letter? He was getting anxious... what if she doesn't come? What if she'll never talk to him? What if she never got the letter?
A few hours had passed and visitors had arrived. Still no sign of Hermione.
"What's wrong Draconie?" Draco whirled around, startled, at the high pitched voice.
"I'm fine, Pansy. Go get something to eat or something-"
"Oh don't be silly. I've eaten quite enough. I've just been worried about you, baby-" She sat down beside Draco and gave him this smile – a spine breaker smile that gave Draco the urge to spit on her face.
"I said I'm fine."
"Then why are you here?" she asked suspiciously, "Not in the mood of entertaining your own guests, are you?" she eyed him...she suspects something.
Draco didn't speak...a wicked grin appeared on Pansy's face, "You're waiting for that muggle, Granger, aren't you?" she rolled her eyes at Draco's silence, "You just had to invite that Mudblood-"
Draco snapped his head to Pansy's direction, giving her his deathly glare. "Don't you dare-"
Pansy just smirked, "Oh please. All of a sudden you refuse calling her that word?"
Draco didn't speak. "What's wrong with you, Drake!"
--
The girls walked up to the Leaky Cauldron doors and found Ron and Harry leaning on the walls. When the boys caught them, they suddenly burst out laughing. Ginny and Hermione exchanged weird looks-
"What?" Hermione asked, as Ron pointed somewhere above Ginny. Hermione rolled her eyes and Ginny ran to hit her brother.
"Mistletoe rules, Hermione." Harry winked as Hermione slapped him playfully on the arm.
"Ready to go?" Harry asked once everyone was settled. Everyone nodded, except Ron who grunted. "This is rubbish, I tell you!" he muttered. "By the time-"
"Just shut up, Ron."
--
Draco had finally managed to drive Pansy away. He sighed and walked up to his room. What's the point of a Happy Christmas, without having the girl he wanted to be there at his own party?
As he walked in his room, he dropped on his bed, I'll check on the guests later... after all, he did have a house-elf to do the serving. He didn't have to worry...Hermione was coming...right?
Draco had his hopes down... she really wasn't coming now...
Malfoy stared at his large dresser. Something urged him to open the dresser and take it out...
Just do it... he thought to himself.
--
"Great, just great!" Hermione groaned, as they entered the crowded Leaky Cauldron.
"That's strange," Harry thought aloud, "Usually the Leaky Cauldron's empty during holidays."
"Not this year," Ron shrugged, "Well! Let's go home, then!" He turned, but right at that time Ginny had grabbed his hood, and dragged him back to the spot.
"Ron!" Ginny whinged, "Hermione's counting on you!"
Ron looked at his sister, then at Hermione (who was now faking a pouting face).
"Oh c'mon, stop with the face!"
"We may be a little late..." Harry shrugged and plopped himself down to the nearby chair. "It'll take us ages to get through the line up to the fire place."
--
Draco opened a large wooden box and smiled at his collection; the pile of parchments. He didn't have anything...he didn't have Hermione...apart from Hermione's gifts, her letters and pictures were one of the ways to help him think more of her, when they're not together.
He could hear the music and laughter downstairs... it was a matter of time...
He didn't know what to do know, should he keep waiting? What's the point? What if she'll never come? He can't spend the whole night, sitting around his room...or can he?
--
Hermione sighed as she stood on her tiptoes to check on the gigantic line up.
"Stupid..." she muttered.
"Honestly, you're actually eager to see that ferret?" Ron rested his hip on one of the tables, arms crossed.
Hermione looked at him exasperatedly.
--
A few minutes later, Draco heard a knock on the door.
Hermione!
He stuffed the letters back in the box and threw it back to his dresser. He rolled across his bed and jumped up to open the door.
"Oh, it's just you..." Draco dropped the doorknob and went back to his bed.
"Are you okay, baby?" she asked as she rubbed Draco's back. He gave her a strange look and walked to the window.
"I'm fine. What do you want?"
"Nothing..." she walked along behind him and walked her fingers along his back. "Just want to...spend some time with you, is that so wrong?"
Draco raised a brow, "Yes." He said as-a-matter-of-factly. "And you know it's wrong, Pansy. You know I'm with someone else."
Pansy did nothing but grin, "Yeah sure but if she's your girlfriend...why isn't she here?"
She had a point. But Hermione had a reason not to come...he had hurt her... she has the right not to come if she didn't want to.
Draco was silenced... Pansy gave out a short laugh. "I mean. You're not going to get her away with it, are you?" Pansy bit her lip, "She's nothing but a Mudblood, remember?"
Draco tried to ignore her now. He didn't want to hear anything from her... nothing...
Draco glared at Pansy, "You have no business!"
Pansy laughed hysterically, "Of course, I have the business. No Malfoy's ever been with a filthy Mudblood, you're obviously the first- it's big news to the pureblood families Draco."
Malfoy shook his head with disagreement... she had a point too. He was probably the first Malfoy to ever have hooked-up with a Muggle. So fucking what?
Pansy put her finger on her lips, mocking a worried expression, "Oh, what will your father say if he'll find out?"
--
Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny rang the mansion's doorbell. Ginny, Harry and Ron were the most anxious ones- they took ages to decide whether or not they should come along.
Ron was the most over-protective one. If anything goes wrong- death to the man who touches his best friend!
A serious (but funny-looking) house-elf greeted them at the doorway, and offered to hang their jackets.
"Malfoy's house-elf is nicer than he is!" Ron whispered to Hermione, but she nudged him on the ribs.
They stayed at the welcome room for a while, and plopped themselves down the couches. Hermione found pieces of paper floating about in the bowl table and was curious enough, she walked over to it and noticed Draco's handwriting.
New Year's Resolution: it said.
Hermione raised a brow and looked around to find her three friends busy looking around the moving portraits. Hermione scanned around the pieces of paper...the same thing was written on all of them...
Change...for Granger...
She smiled, but this time- she didn't cry. She felt welcome, she felt nice. Draco wouldn't hurt her anymore, she realised this... after many apologetic letters... it's official, she's finally forgiven him.
--
That's it, Draco couldn't take it... he was disgusted by the way Pansy was talking to him.
She was standing there, with that nasty grin on her face... "Face it, sweetheart..." she placed her hands on his paled face. Malfoy moved back, but she was too quick...
--
"Where's Draco?" Hermione asked the serious-wanna-be, funny looking house-elf, who was still trying to hang their coats.
"Master is upstairs, young miss..." she said softly, "You have to recieve his affirmation, miss, before attending Master's party, young ma'am..."
"Darla," Hermione walked over to the struggling house-elf who had just charmed the coats to hang themselves, "Please tell me where Draco is. I need to see him. Remember me? Hermione Granger."
The house-elf called Darla's eyes lit up with excitement, "Oh! Miss Hermione Granger, miss! Darla did not notice you at all! Master is upstairs, Miss Hermione! All apologies from Darla..."
"That's quite alright, Darla." Hermione turned to see Harry and Ron's shocked faces. Of course, Hermione's been in Draco's mansion many times before. Hermione could remember Draco telling Darla to treat Hermione like she's the damsel in the mansion, whenever she was over. "Do you think maybe, I could go see him?"
Darla nodded briskly. Hermione patted the house-elf on the head, grabbed something green in her bag and headed on upstairs, with Draco's New Years resolution paper clutched on her hands.
She was seeing him again...
--
Pansy had placed her hands behind his neck and leaned over, "-Granger'll never come," she breathed. She leaned over, giving Malfoy no time to move away- it was all too quick...
Pansy had kissed Draco Malfoy.
--
Hermione knew where Draco's room was. What could he be doing in there? Shouldn't he be downstairs with his guests?
She clutched the two objects tightly near her and was too excited. Draco's door was open...before she could walk in-
--
It seemed as though everything was happening again. The same feeling...it was that same anguish feeling... she stood dead on the spot, seeing everything...everything...
The Draco Malfoy.... kissing Pansy Parkinson near his window. For a few worthless seconds, the two purebloods broke apart. A grin on Pansy Parkinson's cheerful face, and Draco catching Hermione on the window.
"Hermione!" he yelled, pushing Parkinson aside, as though just realised what he had just done. Draco's eyes widened with horror as he saw Hermione's horrified expression...and at the same time... heartbroken.
"You..." she breathed, "you ugly..fuck...you son of a-"
How could he do this? Again? Twice? He said he'd never hurt her...he had twice betrayed her...twice...
Hermione was still on the spot, breathing very hard and hot on the face. Fresh new tears trickled on her face and before Malfoy could run up to her, she had dropped her things and ran downstairs.
Malfoy caught a glimpse of two familiar things Hermione had dropped: a simple piece of paper, and the thing he had given her during Zabini's attack on her in Diagon Alley...the thing she kept all this time. Lying there ,was his green hooded sweater...