..:: Goodbye Isn't Forever

..:: Author: Lil' Bode

..:: Chapter IX: The Horrible L Word

..::Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN THE HARRY POTTER FRANCHISE, THAT IS PROPERTY OF J.K. ROWLING, AND, OR WARNER BROTHERS

I sleep till 10:30 when I woke up, still tired, but I got out of bed and changed out of my robe into some pajamas. I slipped back into bed and crashed for another 5 hours. I awoke again that night to someone shaking me.

"Come on get up Hermione," I soon recognized the voice.

"GET OUT OF MY ROOM MALFOY!" I yelled at him, finally opening my eyes.

"Sorry but I can't, Dumbledore has asked to see us, so grab some shoes and let's go," he said.

"What does he want?" I asked getting out of bed, grabbing my school cloak of its hook, and a pair of flip flops from beside my bed.

"I don't know, he just sent an owl saying her wanted to see us right now," he said looking at me.

"Okay let's go then."

Malfoy led the way out of my room, and then out of the common room. He was wearing nothing but a pair of plaid boxers and an outdoor cloak, I couldn't see why he hadn't taken the time to put on a shirt, but it must have been urgent, if Dumbledore wanted us at this time of night.

I tried hard to keep up with Malfoy who was taking almost abnormally long strides. We got to the 7th floor and then I realized we were headed in the wrong direction.

"Malfoy, I believe his office is that way," I said pointing behind us.

"How would you know where is office his Miss I-never-get-in-trouble?" he asked smirking.

"Trust me I've been up there," I said, "But it was because I was in trouble," there I went defending my reputation again.

"Okay just as long as you make sure to tell me that it wasn't because you were in trouble," he said, his annoying pratty smirk plastered across his face.

We kept going, and then came to a ladder, of which Malfoy started to climb.

"Now I really know this isn't the way to Dumbledore's Office," I said crossing my arms and standing stubbornly at the bottom of the ladder.

"Shortcut, remember?" he said continuing to climb.

"But . . ."

"Come on just follow, okay?"

"Fine," I said, then muttered to myself, how big of a bloody idiot he was, the whole way up the ladder.

I followed Malfoy through the trap door of which he climbed through. I pulled myself up and looked around. We were outside on a tower. "This isn't a shortcut idiot!"

"Well . . ." he began but before I could finish I started ranting.

"Well are outside on a BLOODY TOWER. May I ask, where the hell did you think we WERE GOING?"

"Well this is where I wanted to head. See . . ." and then I cut him off again.

"You wanted to head HERE, to a bloody TOWER, when Dumbledore needs us!" I bellowed into his face.

"Well actually that part was just ploy to get you up here, and show you something."

"You kidded around about something as serious as Dumbledore needing us in the middle of night! You know that if he calls us in the middle of the night it is ALWAYS VERY SERIOUS! I for one have experienced the seriousness of such a calling. You don't toy with something that could be so serious!"

"Sorry! I just thought you might want to see how amazing it is up here," he said turning away from me and looking at the sky.

I started to speak, "Couldn't you have figured out some other . . ." but then looked up, it was breath taking. There wasn't a cloud in site, there were no objects in the way of any of the stars; the moon shown down on us just enough for us to see each other.

"Yeah the problem with that was, that you would have NEVER come with me, so I had to think of something good," he said turning to me.

"Oh," I said still slightly flabbergasted with the whole idea. There was silence for a long time, then I spoke. "But why would you want to show this? Why would you go to so much effort as to think of a whole scheming plot to get me up here?"

"Well do you remember this morning?" he began, as vivid images ran through my head, "I wanted to show you I really like you, and it is dark, which means I can't see your outer beauty, meaning I like you for you"

I stood there thinking of what he had just said, "Wait let me get this straight, you did this just to show me you loved me, loved me for my inner-beauty?"

"Yep" He started to walk towards me. "You want to lie down and look at them?"

"Sure," I said still a little uncomfortable with the whole Malfoy liking ME thing.

He took out his wand and I watched as he conjured up a large mat with two pillows.

"That's better," he said placing his wand back in his pocket.

I stood there a little dumb struck.

"Go on lay down," Malfoy urged.

I laid down on the purple mat, resting my head on one of the pillows. I stared up into the heavens my mind buzzing with different thoughts. I kept staring straight up but I felt Malfoy lay down beside me. I looked over at him giving him a questioning look, noticing he bare chest. I had seen him walk around the common room like this sometimes, but I still couldn't believe he was out in the middle of the night, roaming around the school with no shirt. I convinced myself it was to try to lure me into believing that what Dumbledore wanted us for was urgent.

Malfoy didn't see my questioning look; he was starring straight up his eyes moving around covering all the stars.

"Do you see those over there, the three inn a row, that's Orion, and there's the little dipper," pointing over in another direction.

He kept telling me all the different constellations, and I kept wondering why I was laying there.

Finally I asked, "How do you know these so good, I mean I know we took Astrology and all, but even I don't know the stars this good."

He turned his head towards me, "I come up here a lot. Remember that night you were sitting on the couch late at night finishing homework and I came laughing. You thought I had gone and got myself pissed, but really I had just come back from being up here. I was laughing because I had just remembered seeing a constellation that one time in Astrology Crabbe galled the big dipper, "Big Johnny"," he started laughing at the very thought, "Sorry about that," he apologized seeing I didn't find it the least bit humorous.

I felt strange laying there next the boy I had worked so hard to make his life hell. It felt weird for him to apologize to me, to be the slightest bit caring; the slightest bit sweet. I almost couldn't stand it, but something inside of me urged me to stay, so I stayed.

I stared at the sky looking around now noticing constellations I would have never taken the time to notice. That's when he turned his head to me and asked, "So you like it?"

"Of course who wouldn't?" I answered not looking at him, for I felt that it would feel strange.

"A lot of people wouldn't appreciate it. And even if they appreciate it, I doubt it would be like you," his voice sounding caring for once in his life.

I couldn't be stubborn and cold-hearted to him like I had been in the past; something in my body was just not allowing it. I turned to him, "It is beautiful!" I whispered, but seconds later wondered why I hadn't said it in a normal tone.

He looked me in the eyes, "Can I kiss you?"

It felt weird, someone asking if they could kiss me, but I answered, "Yes."

He leaned in and kissed me gently on the lips. I wondered what was happening; it was as if I wasn't controlling my own body. I didn't have a say in what I was about to do. I was scared and started panic, what if this was a curse, what if he had me under the Imperius Curse. I pulled away to see if he would make me come back, but I did it all by myself. I smiled at him. He looked at me in a curious way, but then I rolled over and looked at the sky.

Maybe it was just me, maybe I was just, I hated to say it that "L" word . . . in love!

A/N: hey sry for the wait, school started and I got really busy, I wanted to update on my birthday (aug. 22), but i had major writers block so here it finally is, a week later. please let me know what you thought of it. this is the part where it gets challenging to write so it is believable!

Thanks to:

eryn-carruthers: (2 awesome reviews) thanks you so much for your reviews they were really inspiring. yea i always kinda wondered how everyone like how draco was written, glad someone likes it. yay, I'm glad draco is back at the end of the chapters too! thanks for the reviews!

iluvQUOTES2004i think i may update my name, just need a little more time to think. glad you thought it was a great chapter! thanks for the review!

Draco: so what exactly did you get for your birthday?

Lil' Bode: well lots of clothes, a camera bag for my digital camera, and a skateboard!

Draco: Oo ooooh skateboard!

Lil' Bode: yea ::raises eyebrows:: it is quite exciting i've fell 3 times so far in the past week!

Draco: ::laughs:: haha you SUCK!

Lil' Bode: you wanna try?

Draco: Oo sure!

Lil' Bode: ::hands draco the skateboard::

Draco: ::starts to go down the sidewalk, falls, starts crying:: OWE that hurt ::cries::

Lil' Bode: should i kiss your knee and make it feel better?

Draco: Oo ::through tears:: yes

Lil' Bode: ::kisses his knee::

Draco: hey and everyone else who review can kiss it TOO!

LB