Chapter Twenty Six
That night Hermione was patrolling the corridors with Harry. They had been catching up, completely ignoring the topic of Hermione's secret 'unofficial' boyfriend even though it still hung in the air between them.
"Yeah and then, Ron decided that he didn't believe a word Ginny had said and decided to follow her to the lake. Guess who she was meeting up with!" Harry asked, his eyes filling up with mirth.
"Oh I have absolutely no idea…I don't know, maybe Colin Creevey?" Hermione suggested.
"Nope, but you're close." Harry hinted.
"Colin's brother!" Hermione guessed.
"NO! She was meeting up with Neville!" Harry chortled.
"Neville! Out of all people…wow…" Hermione trailed off.
"Quite unbelievable isn't it? You'd think Ginny would have better taste considering…well…" Harry wiggled his eyebrows.
"Considering she liked you, right? Haha, actually I think Neville's an improvement from you." Hermione teased, dodging a playful jab from Harry.
"Yeah so anyway, Hermione, do you feel like telling me who this mystery guy is?" Harry asked all of a sudden.
The conversation stopped as Hermione paused.
"Harry, we've discussed this already. I'm not ready to tell you guys yet." She said finally.
"Yes but honestly, the suspense is killing us. I mean we've been through all the possible candidates and they've denied anything to do with you." Harry admitted.
"WHAT! You've asked every boy in the grade whether or not they're seeing me!" Hermione exclaimed in shock.
"Yeah well desperate times call for desperate measures." Harry reasoned.
"That's no excuse! Oh my god, I am so embarrassed now…how could you guys do that to me!" Hermione moaned.
"Its not like it helped anyway, and I'm sure they didn't mind." Harry tried to console her.
She sighed.
"Look you'll find out in your own time. In fact, things aren't going very well between us at the moment. You see, I want to go public with the relationship but he doesn't so…" Hermione confessed.
"God, what type of guy doesn't want to show off that he's going out with the Head Girl?" Harry commented, shaking his head.
"My type of guy, apparently." Hermione said with a crooked smile.
Harry put his arm around her and comforted her.
"I'm sure everything will work out in the end, Mione. But let me say this, if he doesn't want to go public with you then he's not worth it. Okay?"
Hermione nodded, her eyes feeling slightly watery.
"Thanks Harry. It's been so long since we last talked…it feels good to be friends again."
"Yeah, its good to have you back, Mione." Harry agreed.
They finished their patrols and slowly walked back to the Head Common Room. It was quite late already so they said their goodnights and went to their respective rooms.
Hermione had just stepped into her room when a hand clapped itself over her mouth. She tried to yell and squirm away from the intruder but their grip on her was too strong. She was reminded of the time that Draco had done the same thing to her back when they were on their little adventure in 18th century France…
She could hear the intruder muttering locking spells on every possible exit in her room and she relaxed as she realised whose voice it was. He released his grip on her and spun her around to face him.
"Draco, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked wonderingly.
"I needed to talk to you." He replied simply.
"Did you have to attack me like that?" She asked slightly irritably.
"I didn't want you screaming in case Potter overheard." Draco answered.
Hermione rolled her eyes and sat down on her bed.
"So, are you here to talk about going public?" she asked calmly, though on the inside her emotions were all over the place.
Draco sat down next to her and looked at her seriously.
"Yes. Listen, I've been thinking about what you said to me today, Hermione."
"And…?"
"Well first let me explain the reason why I wanted to keep our relationship secret in the first place." Draco said.
"Go ahead." Hermione responded.
"Apart from the fact that everyone would be against us being together…I was worried about Blaise and what he might do if he found out." Draco admitted.
"Blaise? I know he's a Death Eater and all now, but I really don't think he'd do anything too bad considering we're still under the protection of Dumbledore as long as we're in Hogwarts." Hermione reasoned.
"Yeah but you don't know how screwed up he's been over this whole debacle with you. I think he actually really cared about you…I don't understand how since he's a heartless bastard but either way, you would be in danger if he found out about us. I think he has a fair idea already since he's not speaking to me anymore, only certain Slytherins knew that he had already become a Death Eater so he's probably figured out that I told you."
"Oh." Hermione gulped.
"And also, I wanted to be with you without having to worry about what other people thought. I wanted for us to enjoy simply being with each other, instead of having to deal with all the other shit that people are going to give us for getting together." Draco continued.
"Okay, Draco, I'm sorry for snapping at you today about all this. If I had known your reasons I would've understood why we cant go public. So its perfectly okay if you don't want to…I understand." Hermione said softly.
"No but that's the thing, Hermione. The reason I came to talk to you tonight was because I think we should go public." He responded with a small smile.
"…What?" she said after a pause.
"Like I said before, I've been thinking about what you said to me today. In fact I've spent the whole day going over and over everything and I realised that I cant let this relationship suffer over something like this." Draco stated.
"Draco…"
"Shh. Just listen to me." He admonished softly before continuing.
"I asked myself how much I wanted to be with you, as opposed to how much I cared about what other people thought about us. My answer was that I don't give a shit what other people think as long as you're willing to be with me. We've been through so much, Hermione to get to where we are now and I don't want to just let all that hard work go." Draco grinned,
"So what do you say?"
"…I'm well, lost for words." Hermione stammered.
"A simple 'you're the best, Draco' would suffice." he smirked.
"Okay fine, you're the best, Draco." she deadpanned.
"Anything else you want to say, Hermione?" Draco prompted.
Then she smiled at him coyly and put her arms around him, whispering into his ear,
"Thank you."
When they drew apart, Draco leaned back in for a kiss to which Hermione responded just as passionately. He gently pushed her down onto her bed and started trailing kisses down her neck while his hands did some exploring, they slipped under the bottom of her blouse and began to make their way slowly up…
Hermione put one of her hands on his to stop him and broke the kiss.
"Draco, I don't think I can do this right now." she said softly.
He didn't answer for a moment and instead exhaled.
"It's okay. I'm sorry for pushing you. I don't want to you to feel uncomfortable about this…I can wait."
"Thank you." she whispered in his ear again.
He smiled lightly at her and then rolled over to lie beside her.
"Yeah anyway I should probably get going, it's getting late." Draco remarked, looking at his watch.
"Hey, actually…you can stay here tonight if you want." Hermione replied quietly, looking at him shyly.
"But I thought you didn't want -"
"Well you're welcome to as long as you don't try anything. It is getting late and I don't want you to get caught breaking curfew." She clarified, giving him a small smile.
"Okay, if you insist." he smirked again, and put his arms around her, drawing her closer to him, "Relax, I'm still going to be a gentleman tonight."
She smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek before closing her eyes.
Then they both drifted off to sleep, Hermione feeling safe in his arms and relieved that he wasn't afraid to be seen with her and Draco feeling glad that he was with her at all, but slightly apprehensive about what his decision would bring…
A/N: Hehe another sort of cliffhanger! Sorry about the relative shortness of this chapter and as promised it was filled with more action than the previous one. Thanks again for all your reviews guys! It was a great response considering I hadn't updated for awhile so thanks for continuing to support me!
Here are some replies to my reviewers:
Chocolatlvr16: Yes Blaise is supposedly dangerous to Hermione, as was discussed in this chapter but he actually likes her so that's a different story. Thanks for your review!
xX'.M-G-A.'XxThanks so much reviewing! I agree that in most stories Draco drinks and something happens and so it wasn't exactly the most original idea to put into the story but at the same time I needed something to push Draco to express his true feelings because honestly, if he wasn't under the influence of alcohol, would he really do it? By the way, I spelt all my 'okays' correctly this time! Thanks for the tip.
I3aI3ygurlHi! I'm sorry the last chapter was a bit short but the ending was a good place to end so yeah and it was the same with this chapter so I'm sorry again! Yeah I'm thinking of ending the story at Chapter 30 so really there's only four chapters left to go…hopefully you'll all stick around for that. Thanks heaps for your review!
xOxOkIsSmYaSsXoXo: Hey thanks for your review, yeah I agree that Harry and Ron will be absolutely shocked at finding out that its Draco Malfoy and I cant wait to write that chapter! Hehe.
Weaselbee: Thank you for your review, especially for your compliment about not making Draco Head Boy - I decided that I would make Harry Head Boy for this story because I was so sick of reading stories where Hermione is Head Girl and Draco is Head Boy and they get together.
Bananaz the Sugar MonkeyHey thanks for your review, sorry for making the bitch of story have the same name as you! Hope you're enjoying the story anyway!
foxeranThanks for your review, it was full of constructive criticism (I think that's the phrase) and I'm sorry if that's how Hermione comes off as to you but I've tried my best to keep the characters in character for this story. And about the story feeling drawn out, I kind of agree because I originally intended it to be a 20 chapter story about their time travelling experience but I don't know how it morphed into a school drama, but I'm going to end it in a few chapters time so I hope you'll still stick around for the end.
perfectlyfakerealityThanks for reviewing, read on and you'll find out when and how they will all find out about them!
xx KyaniWow what a lovely review to read! Thanks so much for it, it really motivated me to update soon and add some romance in. Hope you liked this chapter!
HgBookwormHey! Thanks for your continued support - I can always count on a decent review from you every chapter and that really cheers me up.
Babiblue754Haha hopefully this chapter satisfied you a bit more than the last, and yes I agree that Ginny was so annoying last chapter but would you be suspicious (not to mention jealous) if your friend was seeing Draco Malfoy? Hehe, thanks for the review.
FlavagurlHaha wow what a reaction! Yeah I feel sorry for Hermione, as in all stories where she gets together with Draco because most of the time her friends don't support her…hmm…I wonder how its going to be for this story? Haha ok no more shameless promotion for the story, thanks so much for your review!