Dragon's Flame- Chapter Nine
Confessions
By darthelwig
J.K. Rowling owns them. I do not. There. You made me say it. Are you happy now?
This one's PG-13 again!
Last chapter was pretty intense, but here's a little fluff to lighten things up….
He wanted to run away.
He'd been hanging with Potter and Weasley for days, and they had developed a rather tentative friendship. They still annoyed the hell out of him but he found he no longer wanted to curse them out of existence. They had been pretty decent to him, though he knew they still didn't trust him completely. He didn't blame them at all. He had more than earned their distrust.
But none of that compared to this moment.
Why did she have to look so pretty?
And what made her so pretty anyway? She was sitting at a table in the nearly deserted library, reading another thick, dusty volume of spells. Her bushy hair was falling all around her, blocking her face from his view. She looked like any other girl in the castle, except… she didn't. There was something about her, some nameless quality that was at once alluring and disarming. He had no name for it and it didn't really matter. It just was.
His thoughts began drifting towards the nightmare he'd had the other night. He didn't want to think about it, but images kept creeping up on him whenever he let his guard down. He remembered her face as she gazed up at him, not in pain but in forgiveness. He hoped that he would find that forgiveness here and now. He would need it.
Dismissing his more morbid thoughts, he took that first step and sat next to her.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" she asked, not bothering to look up at him.
"I want to talk, Granger," he said quietly.
"I hear you've been talking to Ron and Harry a lot," she said, a question in her voice.
"Um, yeah. We're getting to be, um… friends, I guess."
"I thought you'd never be friends with them. I thought you didn't want anything to do with us," she said softly, waiting for an explanation. She still had not raised her eyes from the pages she'd been reading.
"Well… times change, I guess. People change." He decided to take the plunge. What could it hurt? "That's what I wanted to talk to you about…Hermione." He had never said her name out loud before and it felt strange on his tongue; strange, but not unpleasant. She was surprised as well, and she raised her head to meet his eyes. Draco found himself suddenly drowning in those sweet depths, aching to reach out and touch her face. She turned away quickly, breaking the spell.
Draco reached out his hand, unwilling to let her turn away from him. His fingers found her hand as it rested on the book, and he slid his fingers around hers. Her hand was warm and smooth, the skin silky beneath his fingers. His thumb traced circles on the back of her hand, his eyes following the path it made.
"I wanted to say that…I'm sorry," he whispered. "I want to apologize for everything I've done to you. I know I've been a total ass, and I want to make it up to you somehow, if that's at all possible." He was leaning closer; unaware he was doing so until his cheek brushed against her hair. He inhaled her sweet scent, so familiar and yet so alien to him. His eyes never left their hands as they were clasped together.
"I'm so sorry, Hermione."
She was speechless for a long moment, until Draco feared she wouldn't say anything at all.
"Apology accepted," she said slowly. "Do you have to keep doing that?" she asked, indicating his thumb, which was still moving over her soft skin. Draco leaned in even closer, his breath tickling her ear. His voice was playful.
"Does it make you uncomfortable?" he asked.
"Y-yes," she said her voice shaky. "I can't quite, um, concentrate with you d-doing that."
Draco noticed that she wasn't pulling away, so he decided to keep up his advances. He was nothing if not confident, after all. He had to know if she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
"Maybe I don't want you to concentrate on anything but me," he murmured. His face was mere inches from her cheek. He could see her gaze resting on their hands, on his thumb. Draco screwed up his courage one last time and made his move.
Ever so slowly, he moved his head closer to her and let his lips brush gently over her cheek. She started, jumping away from him very suddenly and breaking their physical contact. His senses mourned the loss of her next to him and he looked up at her as she stood there, breathing raggedly. She glanced at him and he knew she had felt something in his kiss, something that had completely unnerved her. She was a bundle of nervous energy now and he could see how she wanted to leave him there, leave him and hide from whatever it was she was feeling.
He didn't want to let her. He stood up, careful not to crowd her, and brought a hand up to her cheek. Her eyes were huge now, like a frightened animal, but he just cupped her face in his palm.
"What are you afraid of, Hermione?" he asked quietly, almost tenderly. She was shaking, he could feel it, and he wanted to calm her fears. He wondered if she would tell him. Would she trust him with this knowledge?
"I- uh, well…. I'm a little afraid of you Draco," she whispered, moisture glistening in her eyes. The statement hit him like a brick right in his stomach, forcing the air out of him. She was afraid of him?
"I promise that I will never hurt you, Hermione. You have to believe me!" His voice was pained. He didn't know how to conquer her fear of him. He hadn't even realized she was afraid of anything. What was he going to do?
"It's not you, really," she said, bringing some hope back to him. "I just don't want things to turn out badly, do you understand? I don't want this to be some silly prank or trick. I couldn't bear it if I let you break my heart like that. I want to trust you, but…."
"You can trust me, Hermione. I swear it. This is no joke, not this time. I know I've done nothing to earn it, but please- trust me!"
"I want to," she said longingly. Draco moved closer to her, staring her straight in the eyes, his gaze penetrating and intense.
"Listen to me," he said quietly. "I will never let anything happen to you. I want you in my life. I don't care who or what your parents are. Not anymore, and especially not if it will keep me from you. My parents can rot. The world can rot. I want you, Hermione Granger. Please…give me a second chance."
He was staring at her so earnestly, and she felt her heart melt at his words. Draco could see the change come over her. He had never said please to anyone before, and he'd never spoken so plainly about his feelings to anyone, not ever. But she made him want to be truthful and be a better person. She was a smart girl. She could hear the truth in his words and see the change in his heart. He was depending on that.
She smiled a tiny smile, one that was just for him, and this time her eyes held the beginnings of happiness in their warm depths. Her small hand came up to touch his face, feeling the sharp angles of his jaw and Draco felt triumph blossom in his chest. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and pulled her to him, capturing her lips in a searing kiss, and his heart sang with the joy of having her in his arms.
When the kiss broke, she looked up at him shyly, a teasing smile on her lips. The fire that he loved so much was burning there in her eyes, only now it was smoldering for him.
"Things will never be the same," she said softly, but Draco found himself not caring about that at all.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," he said before kissing her once more.