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Chapter Eight: Draco's Confession

"Ron!" Ginny screamed. She glanced at Hermione with knitted eyebrows. "What are you doing here?" she asked. Ron's face looked like a puffed up red balloon. He stared at Ginny, then at Hermione. "What did I just hear?" he hissed.

"Hear?" Hermione squeaked.

"Yes, hear." Ron said, sounding constipated, as though trying not to explode. "What is it with Malfoy?"

"It's none of your business, Ron!" Ginny said angrily, clutching the letter from Draco tightly. Ron stared at the letter in her hands. He made a lunge for it and grabbed it from Ginny. Ginny yelled, "Give that back!"

Ron's face seemed to blow up even more when he was reading the letter. "What the fuck is this!" he demanded. "How come you're writing to Malfoy? And you…" he turned to Hermione.

Hermione winced. She couldn't speak.

"What the hell is he writing-? He likes my sister!… I'll just go up to him and sock him in his…"

"Ron!"

The three of them turned to find Harry running towards them. Ginny looked relieved immediately. "Harry!"

Harry gave a quick smile at her and grabbed Ron by the arm. "Ron, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Let go of me," Ron said, struggling to ease Harry's grip on his arm. "Read this and you'll know!"

Hermione watched as Harry took a look at Draco's letter but he didn't take it. He just stared at Hermione, then at Ginny. "Well?" he said.

"Well what!" Ginny and Ron said at the same time. But Ron didn't give Harry a chance to speak too. "That damned bastard is taking advantage of my sister. I-,"

"Ron, shut up!" Ginny said. "He is not taking advantage of me – you just don't know what's happening."

"Yeah," Hermione said softly. She had never seen Ron that angry before – really – she was so worried about what he would do.

Ron gaped at Hermione. "Hermione, you knew about it and you didn't tell me? What kind of friend are you?"

"It isn't her fault, Ron, she didn't mean to keep it from you. And I've to thank her actually, she was helping me write to Malfoy…" Ginny trailed off. She smiled sheepishly at Hermione.

Ron was almost ready to explode now.

"Ron, hold on." Harry shook him. "Calm down."

------

"CALM DOWN? YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN WHEN MY BEST FRIEND IS WRITING TO THAT DAMNED MALFOY AS MY SISTER? AND MY SISTER LIKES THAT BASTARD AND HE'S TRYING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HER-,"

Draco stopped. What the hell was that about? He heard his name, he recognized that voice but he didn't know what Weasley was yelling about.

He followed the voice and neared the stairway to the Divination Tower. There were echoes of voices that belonged to… Potter, Ginny Weasley and Hermione.

"Ron, stop yelling." Potter said.

"Yeah, shut up, it's none of your business what she does." Ginny said. "Besides, Hermione has been showing weird signs about Draco Malfoy and Harry and I suspected that the both of them had something going on so I…"

"GINNY!" Potter yelled.

"HARRY!" Weasley growled.

"I… I didn't want to either just that… Ginny she… she wanted to find out. I-, Hermione? Uh… I'm sorry." Potter stuttered. Draco crept nearer to see that Hermione was staring at both Ginny and Harry, with Ron struggling under Potter's arms. In Potter's hands… was his letter.

I can't believe it. Draco thought. All this while, it was just a lie? That Ginny Weasley didn't like him but was just using him to see if Hermione and he had anything going on.

Of course not! I wouldn't want anything to do with Granger. Draco thought angrily.

-----

Hermione couldn't feel the ground. She couldn't feel her toes. It was just all a set up to see if Draco and she had anything on.

"Obviously not! I won't want to have anything to do with Malfoy!" Hermione burst out. "What do you think you were doing, Harry? And Ginny, I can't believe you two tricked me. I even wrote love letters to Draco Malfoy in your place!"

"Hermione, I'm sorry. But well, you did realize something, didn't you?" Ginny said, her eyes burning into Hermione. Hermione flushed. How come Ginny knew everything? She did realize that she was falling for Malfoy. But still! She couldn't admit that in front of Harry and especially Ron, whose nostrils were flaring.

"Yeah, I didn't know I could write such good love letters." Hermione muttered. I'm such a fool. She thought, letting Ginny and Harry fool me.

"Hermione," Harry started.

"Don't you Hermione her," Ron growled. "You two lied to us!"

"Oh Ron, please, you're so immature." Ginny rolled her eyes. Ron spat out, "What!"

"Look, we're sorry, okay, Ron?" Harry said. "And we're sorry, Hermione."

"Right." Hermione said a little too sarcastically. She turned to leave. She couldn't forgive them right now… she was angry at them. That was one fact she couldn't deny.

She headed down the stairs when she spotted silver-blond hair at the staircase landing. She immediately knew who it was.

He glanced up and stared at her with cold, icy eyes. She didn't dare to stare back. Plucking up all her courage, she said, "What are you doing here, Malfoy?"

He didn't answer. He just stared at her with those gray eyes – and he turned to leave.

"Hey, Malfoy, wait!" Hermione ran after him. "How much did you hear?" she stood in front of him, blocking his way.

"Move it, Granger, I've got patrol duties."

"No, not until you tell me."

"Tell you what? I don't want to tell you anything. So get lost." He hissed at her.

"Then why were you standing there in the first place?"

"Can't I even stand there? Are you restricting my movements?" Draco snapped at her.

"No, Draco – listen."

"No, I don't think I should. You and Weasley… both of them and Potter, treated me like an idiot. Isn't that just great? And I practically poured out my heart to whom I thought was supposed to be Ginny Weasley and it ended up being you."

"I… I didn't mean it! Ginny made me and I just had to. Besides, I didn't know about it."

"Whatever, Granger. I don't want to talk to you. Because if I do, you might just go round announcing to the whole school what a wimp I am."

"No, Draco, I won't."

"No, I don't think I should trust you anymore, Granger. All this while I thought I was falling for Ginny Weasley! But actually I was falling for the letter-writer? Wow, what an idiot I am." Draco said through clenched teeth. "What an idiot I am." He whispered, staring down at his feet as though thinking about something. Then he looked up and stared at Hermione. "No, it can't be." He said.

His last sentence made Hermione angry. He was falling for the letter-writer – HER! Why won't he just admit it instead of saying it 'can't be'!

"What can't be?" She demanded.

Draco looked taken aback by her sudden shouting. He grabbed her arm and hissed, "Do not shout at me, Granger. You have no right to."

"Oh yeah?" Hermione shouted.

"Yeah!" Draco yelled back. It soon turned into a shouting match, which Harry, Ron and Ginny secretly watched (although Harry's and Ron's fists were clenched).

"I'm tired of doing this with you, Granger." Draco said after a few more shouts, "I'm leaving." He walked off, leaving Hermione standing there, stunned.

-----

Draco brushed Hermione aside and walked off quickly to avoid anymore of her gazes and stares. How was he supposed to know that he was actually falling for her? Hermione Granger? The letter-writer, whom he thought was so beautiful, was actually Hermione Granger?

This wasn't true.

"Draco!" He heard Hermione shout behind him. "Wait."

He let his heart control his feet.

Hermione ran up and stood in front of him. "I need you to answer my question."

He avoided her eyes.

"Draco."

"Stop calling me Draco!" He shouted, dropping his book bag onto the ground. "And why don't you give up already? Do you really want to know? Fine, I'll say. It can't be that I'm actually falling for you, all right?"

Hermione stared up at him. He felt his heart break. He knew he had hurt her. But it was for the best, they just couldn't be together.

"Why you, bastard!" He heard Ron Weasley yell from behind. Draco ignored it. "I've to go." He said softly to Hermione. "I… I'm sorry." He blurted out as he picked up his book bag. Then he felt her grab his arm.

Draco glanced back. "Let go of me, please, Granger. I don't want to hurt you." He said coldly.

"You know it yourself." She said. "No matter how much you try to deceive yourself, you know you can't."

"Fine, but I don't need you to lecture me." He said, his eyes lingering on hers for a minute. Then he left. And Hermione didn't call him back.

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