:: Chapter Twenty-Three: An Audience ::

Harry,

I'm back at Hogwarts by now and I just wanted to wish you a belated Happy Christmas. I hope you're doing well.

Love,

Hermione

Hermione finished her letter and gave it to her owl.

"Why do you insist on doing that?" Draco asked lying on his stomach on her bed.

"Doing what?" She questioned turning around in her desk chair.

"Writing to him, you're pushing yourself to feel worse and worse about lying to him about what's really going on."

"Why do you want him to know so bad?"

"It's not that I want him to know, it's that I'm tired of hiding."

"You just want to be above him don't you?" Hermione smirked.

"It's a plus." He smiled. "Well I best be getting to bed, we have classes the day after tomorrow and I'm still a little behind on lesson plans and grading papers."

"Goodnight." She said getting up from her chair to walk him to the door. She kissed him quickly before he left. He turned to leave but she called him back. "Oh, and Draco… Next time you want to kiss me in the snow, make sure we don't have an audience." A light pink graced his cheeks.

"Sorry, it was too irresistible."

"Goodnight." Hermione said as he left the room. She shut the door behind him and rested her back on the wooden door. She sighed heavily for it had finally dawned on her; she was in love with him.

Sunday came with a bright array of light beaming through heavy green curtains. He rolled over away from the windows to stop the light from reaching his face, but he was unsuccessful. The sun had achieved its goal, he couldn't go back to sleep. He glanced over at his desk to see the mountain of paperwork he had yet to fill out and let out a soft groan. He sat up from the comforts of his feather-soft bed and took a step towards the desk preparing him to be drown under the paperwork. His stomach grumbled and he quickly changed his pace to head down for breakfast. He dressed himself in robes and took a moment to stare at his reflection. He'd changed a lot since his days at the Manor, the reflection of a Death Eater no longer stared back at him, nor the reflection of the Dark Lord, the reflection of a grown man finally stared back at him. The simple black robes no longer seemed to suit him and he didn't feel like the same Draco Malfoy that provoked terror on everyone below him, which he thought was everyone, in these very same halls. And for some reason he felt like he needed to thank Hermione for that. He left the comforts of his room and entered the Head of House common room; he was heading towards the portrait hole when a voice called him back.

"You love her don't you?" Padma Patil asked, stopping him dead in his tracks. She sat on the neutral black couch in the centre of the room. She seemed to be the only other person in the room.

"Excuse me?" He nearly snapped at her.

"Hermione, Malfoy please. Don't think we didn't see you two yesterday in the snow. It was the gossip of the school."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play stupid, I know you're more intelligent than that. Do you or do you not love her?"

"I do not have to dignify that with an answer." He turned from her and continued on his way towards the portrait hole.

"Typical." She groaned, loud enough for him to hear. He stopped and sighed.

"Typical of what?"

"You. It's typical of you. To hide behind this rough Slytherin front that you created all those years ago. Whether you like it or not Malfoy, you're not the same person you used to be and you can't pull the same tricks. You think you have us all blinded about what's going on but let me tell you something. Hermione is my friend and I know a lot of things about her other people don't have the slightest idea about. I know she's dating Harry and I know that when she was kidnapped two years ago, something happened that kept Lucius Malfoy from killing her. And I know it was you." She paused before starting again. "Now answer me this… Do you love her or is she just wasting her time waiting for you to realize what a great girl you have in front of you?"

"Good morning." Hermione greeted cheerfully. She handed Draco a plate of food. "You missed breakfast so I brought you something." Padma smirked.

"Thanks." He mumbled. Hermione went back to her room to finish grading some papers last minute.

"I think that answered my question." Padma smiled to herself and wrapped herself in her book.

"Shut up." He locked himself in his room, determined to finish all his paperwork.

A painful pulsing pounded in his hand, but at last he was finished. He set down his quill and pushed all the paperwork away from him. He got up from the desk chair and walked through the bathroom to get to Hermione's room.

"Finished?" She asked as he appeared in the doorway.

"Yup, but I have to tell you, yesterday when we kissed in the snow it wasn't just the students who saw us. Padma Patil saw and now she's holding it above my head like she's finally got something to blackmail me with."

"Well she does." She pointed out.

"Only because you asked me to keep it quiet so your beloved boyfriend wouldn't find out." At his words her voice visibly paled. "What?"

"What if someone told him? Draco, what if he knows?" She panicked.

"He doesn't." He sat down on the arm of the chair she was sitting at.

"How can you be so sure? He was called away on a wild goose chase after something that's not even there. Maybe they sent him home. Oh my gods, he knows Draco. He just has to. What are we going to do?"

"Hermione calm down." He took one of her hands in his and forced her to look at him. Her eyes strayed to the door and then fluttered back to look at him. "He doesn't know. News doesn't travel that fast and maybe they just sent him on another mission type thing. Trust me, it's alright."

"I do trust you, I really do. But he knows." She shook her head.

"How can you be so certain?" He tried to reason.

"Draco, look behind you." And there stood the reason for all of her panicking. Harry Potter stood at the door; his lips pursed into a straight line and a menacing look haunted his features.