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Valentine's Day weekend was approaching quickly. It coincided with a Hogsmeade weekend; many students took the opportunity to make it a date. Cho and Harry were going to Hogsmeade together, so Ron got the idea to ask Hermione. She agreed, though Ron had to allow her time to talk to Harry, Rita Skeeter, and Luna Lovegood about an interview for The Quibbler.
They went to Honeydukes and Zonko's Joke Shop. Like any other normal, good boyfriend, Ron bought Hermione a small bag of chocolates for Valentine's Day. He was content just being in her presence, and told her so quite often. Hermione thought that some girls might enjoy this, but Ron-acting-like-a-lap-dog was just sickening.
At three o'clock, Hermione escaped for her meeting at the Three Broomsticks. She had been writing Rita Skeeter all week, hoping Rita would interview Harry for The Quibbler. Then Luna could convince her father to print the interview and the whole wizarding community would get Harry's account of Voldemort's return.
During Harry's interview, Hermione sneaked peeks outside. Ron paced in front of the Three Broomsticks.
"Hermione." Luna put a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "You look nervous. Don't worry, the interview is going well."
Hermione nodded. "Are you sure your father will run it?"
Luna pulled out his last letter. "Says here he will. He thinks his ratings will skyrocket past the Daily Prophet's."
Hermione drank the last of her butterbeer as Rita put away her quill and parchment.
Harry leaned over to whisper in Hermione's ear, "Little blackmail and I'm ready to get back to the real world. How about you?"
Hermione's nod in response was jerky. Harry gave her a quick hug and left with Luna.
Rosmerta came to pick up the butterbeer glasses from Hermione's table.
"Madam Rosmerta, is there a back way out of here?"
"Sure is. Down that hallway, last door on the right." She pointed in the direction that Hermione needed to go.
"Thank you so much!" Hermione leapt up from the table. She felt half guilty for abandoning Ron, but the other half wanted to turn and run in the other direction.
When Hermione got outside, she decided to go to the Shrieking Shack because Ron would never look for her there. She had never fancied the place, and turned down all offers to go previously.
She saw him searching everywhere for her. Harry was pretending to look with Ron, but he knew that Hermione did not want to be found.
"Hermione! I thought that you were supposed to be on a date with Weasel-boy."
Hermione blushed and turned to see that Draco was also on his way to the Shrieking Shack.
"If you don't like him, why don't you tell him?"
She shrugged. "Ron is one of my best friends. I would never want to hurt him."
"Hermione, sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. If you don't cut him loose soon, he's going to think that you intend to stay with him." He brushed back a strand of loose hair from her face. Hermione found herself wishing he would do it again.
"Draco, I…" She looked up and saw the concern in his large, gorgeous blue eyes.
He hugged her. "It's ok, Hermione, I promise. Everything will turn out fine."
He gently lifted her chin to kiss her. Hermione reached her arms around his neck. Her hands were curled in his soft hair. His hands moved down her back, taking their time exploring the curves of her body.
To Hermione, this kiss was perfect. It was everything that Lavender and Parvati talked about in their dormitory at night. Hermione could not understand it. Why was it Draco who made her feel this way, and not someone like Ron? Ron was sweet and caring. Draco was the bad guy.
"Draco! Draco!"
The kiss ended abruptly. They had time to separate before Crabbe and Goyle walked the rest of the way down the path.
"Draco, we knew we'd find you—why is the Mudblood here?"
"Oh, Granger…hell if I knew. I just came up the path and there she was."
Hermione did not understand what was going on. One minute, she and Draco were sharing the best kiss of her life, the next minute he was acting like he hardly knew her.
"Draco, what is—"
"Don't you ever call me by my name, Mudblood!" The look in his eyes was venom.
Hermione felt something snap and ran down the path, tears flooding her eyes. Her heart felt as if it had been ripped out.
Draco watched her leave wistfully. If she only knew that he felt the same way.
Harry saw Hermione running and knew something was wrong.
"Ron?"
"Yeah mate?"
"I think I saw Hermione in Zonko's. Maybe she was buying you a gift. You ought to look."
"Right, thanks." Ron ran to Zonko's while Hermione wrapped her arms around Harry.
Harry brushed away a tear still remaining on her cheek. "What happened?"
"He kissed me."
Harry smiled. "Ron can't be that bad of a kisser."
"No, no. Draco kissed me."
Harry put his arm around her shoulder and started walking for Zonko's.
"When you ran away from Ron at the Three Broomsticks?"
Hermione nodded. Harry took out a handkerchief and presented it to her.
"Neither of us have any luck today, do we? First Cho and now this. At least you still have a date." Cho had run away from him earlier because she believed he liked 'that Hermione Granger girl' as more than a friend.
"And you know what really gets me?" Hermione wiped away her tears.
"What?"
"I liked it. I've never felt so good in my life," she admitted aloud to herself. She was as surprised as Harry was.
"Then what did he do wrong?"
"Crabbe and Goyle came and he pretended like nothing happened at all. He even called me Granger. You know that he has taken to calling me Hermione."
"I know." Harry could see Ron step out of Zonko's. He took the bag around his wrist and handed it to Hermione. "This is a new item from Zonko's. Pretend you got it for Ron. I know that he wanted one; I saw him eyeing it earlier when we walked by."
"But it's yours…"
"I can get a new one. You need something to distract Ron."
Hermione nodded and took the bag. Ron picked her up off her feet.
"I've missed you, Hermione."
"I missed you too, Ron," she lied. "Here, I have something for you. I went to buy it after I left the Three Broomsticks." She gave him the bag.
"So that's where you were. We must have missed each other by seconds."
Hermione put on a fake smile as she watched Ron open the bag. He closed the bag and gave her another hug.
"Your gift is perfect, Hermione."
"I try." She mouthed thanks to Harry as she and Ron started back for the school.
"You can't run away from him forever, you know. You're going to have to see him. Would you rather it be during class?" Harry asked.
"No, of course not."
Harry pushed Hermione out of the common room. "Then you need to get down there and straighten all of this out. Tell him to back off, that you are with Ron now. Tell him that he shouldn't hurt you anymore."
Hermione was going to tell Draco that she was with Ron, but she would never admit to Draco that he hurt her. She had her dignity after all.
Hermione entered the library late. Draco was in his same seat, concentrating on Arithmancy. When he looked up at her from his book, Hermione felt her heart melt. Focus Hermione. Be strong.
She set her bag down and got out parchment. She began homework without speaking to Draco.
After five minutes Draco could not stand the silence any longer. "Look, Hermione, I meant—"
"It doesn't matter what happened at the Shrieking Shack," Hermione interrupted. "I am with Ron, and that's that. Now let's study and get this over with. I have other things to do."
Hermione saw the look of sadness on Draco's face cross with anger. Her tears were hard to choke back. There was no use in trying to focus on schoolwork as the tension escalated. They did not say anything to each other for the rest of the night.
Draco stared at the ceiling. He could not go to sleep no matter what he tried. He even took four times the normal dose of sleeping draught, but it had no effect.
He looked at the clock. It was four in the morning. Most students would not be up for another few hours. He got in the shower, trying to wash away Hermione's scent. Afterwards, he walked to the common room.
Pansy was the only other student awake. She handed him a cup of coffee before filling up her own.
"What's keeping you up all hours? Draco, you're a mess. I've never seen you anything less than perfectly groomed."
"A bit of girl trouble," Draco admitted.
"What's on your mind?" Pansy patted the seat beside her on the couch. Draco sat as he sipped his coffee. He tried to put his problems into words, but he did not know what was going on.
"I kissed someone."
"Oh, is that all. If you had this much problem over every girl you kissed, I doubt you'd ever look at women again." She smirked.
"This is not like any of the others. This girl is different."
"How so?" Pansy did not look interested, but knew that it would help Draco in the long run to let his feelings out. It was not often that he confided in her.
"I think about her all of the time, the way she laughs, the way she smiles…I think about every little thing she does, but I don't know why. She's not even my type. Oh, and Pansy I've tried to get her out of my mind. I have tried every damned thing I could think of to get this spirit to go away."
Pansy pulled him closer. He leaned his head on her shoulder.
"Have you told her how you feel?"
"I tried." He laughed, but it was broken, bitter. "Then Crabbe and Goyle messed it up."
"Why don't you let her know that it was a mistake? You could try—"
"She hates me," he muttered.
Pansy sat up straighter as the idea wormed through her brain. "Then I can make her go away, Draco."
"Make her go away, Pansy. Make her—"
He gasped loudly. Pansy worked her way up to his open mouth. He wrapped his arms around her in need. She knew that there was plenty of time before other students would interrupt her make-out session.