Christmas dinner proved to be somewhat awkward. Draco, Karissa, and Hermione all sat apart, seperated by various students that none of them really knew. Hermione attempting conversation with her professors, preferring to bear even talking with Professor Trelawney than talking to Draco. Karissa did seem to know another Ravenclaw, and they shared gossip about housemates. Draco just ate his food and then excused himself to the dorms. Shortly after, Hermione asked to also be excused from the table. Professor Dumbledore winked at Professor McGonagall as they shared a knowing glance.
Hermione walked up to the portrait hole and saw Will and Lizzie sharing quite the snog. A piece of discarded mistletoe lay at the bottom corner of the frame. She stood tapping her foot for about a minute or so before finally tapping lightly on the portait frame. Will and Lizzie jumped apart and both turned very red as they opened the portrait hole without asking for the password. She wasn't tired at all, but she didn't know what else to do besides go to bed.
Something else came up as she entered the dorm area and saw Draco sitting on the couch, gazing longingly into the fire. Hermione decided to just sit on the couch opposite him, her options seriously lacking and her energy far from low. She looked into the fire, hoping to see what had captured Draco's attention, and by the time she looked up again Draco was staring at her with a far away look in his eyes. She decided to try and make conversation.
"How are things?"
"Good," he murmured, still captured by his own thoughts. His eyes turned from her face back to the fire.
"I haven't seen Karissa around lately, and I couldn't help but notice that you two didn't sit together at dinner."
"Mmmm," he replied.
"Anything going on with that?"
"Nothing is going on with that. For that matter, there is no 'that'. Karissa will no longer be seen around here with the exception of her tutoring sessions."
"Oh that's a shame."
"Not really," he said softly, turning his eyes back up at her. Their eyes met for the longest time until she awkwardly glanced away.
"Such a nice girl. I'm sorry things didn't work out."
"I'm not. There was nothing to work out."
"Come again?"
"Karissa and I were never dating, Hermione."
"Could've fooled me," she snorted. Draco sighed.
"How are things with you and Ron?"
"Great," she replied uneasily.
"Could've fooled me," he said as he raised an eyebrow.
"What do you care?"
"What do I care?" he asked astonished. "Hermione, when have I not cared about you and that fool?"
"Draco, let's be real about things for once. I thought we were moving past all this when you got with Karissa."
"I could never move past this," he said sadly. "Karissa was my sad attempt at burying my pain."
"'Burying' indeed," she snorted.
"I didn't do anything with her, Hermione."
"I saw the two of you on the couch together, Draco, I'm not stupid."
"What is with women and saying 'I'm not stupid?'," he muttered.
"What?" Hermione looked confused.
"Nothing. Listen Hermione, all Karissa and I did was make out. Actually all I did was sit there and let Karissa do the making out I suppose."
"Draco, your reputation is working against you here," Hermione replied critically.
"Yes, I guess so, but like I've told you before, I'm a virgin. Karissa is hardly worth something as special as that, and if you don't want to believe me, then that's your business."
They both sat there brooding silently, Draco once more gazing into the flames, Hermione staring at her folded hands.
"What did you mean, 'burying your pain'?" Hermione looked back at Draco as she whispered the question.
"Hermione...," he began, getting up from his couch and moving to hers.
"I saw you and Ron get back together. It killed me, drove a knife through my aching heart. All I've wanted in the past year or so is you, and I've never been able to have you, save a few moments." He caressed her cheek as they moved closer and closer together. "Hermione, I told you that I loved you. I wasn't lying. I'm very, very much in love with you."
She was instantly captured by his spell, a combination of both his candid words and the look on his face. Their faces moved so close together that their breath mingled and their foreheads touched.
"Draco," she whispered softly against his lips.
Finally, their lips met in a kiss that began slowly. They were both cautious and reserved with the kiss, scared of frightening the other off. After a few moments of slow moving of lip against lip, Draco bravely but carefully ran the tip of his tongue along Hermione's slightly parted lips, hoping that she would reply.
Hermione stopped for a second, the longest second either had ever known, before gently caressing Draco's tongue with her own. The initial movements were slow, calculated, soft pressure of lip against lip, tongue twisting with tongue. Then, the pressure that had built up began to leak out, the kiss becoming more desperate, more needing. Hermione's hands snaked up behind Draco's head, pulling his mouth closer to hers, quickening the pace of the kiss, putting more pressure into the kiss.
Draco replied by wrapping his arms around Hermione's waist, pulling her body closer into his, gently sucking on her lower lip in between kisses. The kiss was slowly becoming faster and more frantic, the moves based more on instinct than on thought. Hermione climbed onto Draco's lap, leaning over and kissing his sensitive neck, nibbling on his soft earlobe.
She leaned in, and began to kiss him again more fervently before. The two bodies began to fall back into the cushions of the couch, Hermione's small body pressed under Draco's muscular form. He too left her lips for only seconds at a time, giving equal attention to her ears and neck, nibbling softly here and there before returning to her parted lips. Her hands found their way up his shirt, sliding over the taught muscles of his abs and up the smooth skin on his back as the kiss intensified. Finally, she pulled the shirt off altogether, breaking the kiss and staring at his chest with hungry eyes before pulling him back in for a new kiss.
At the next break, while kissing her neck, Draco couldn't resist sliding his hands up Hermione's warm, smooth stomach and then pulling her own shirt off. At this point they both stopped, their hungry eyes met, both lips swollen from kissing, both cheeks flushed with heat. The gaze was the most intense yet, filled with both love and longing, passion and need.
Things got very serious from there, and before either of them knew it, they were down to their underwear. Draco and Hermione stared at each other, panting softly, their hearts racing, each knowing what was going to come next. Hermione slid her hands down Draco's sides, looking up into his eyes, and she grabbed the hem of his boxers and got ready to pull them off.
Draco leapt up from the couch, suddenly wild and horrified. He backed away, stumbling over the table for a moment before regaining his balance. He began to put his clothes back on. Hermione sat up on the couch, absolutely puzzled as to what was going on.
"Draco, what's wrong?"
"I'm not going to do this, Hermione."
"Why not?" She said, her eyes wide with confusion. "Don't you want to?"
"God yes Hermione, more than anything I've ever wanted. I would absolutely love to make love to you right now, but I won't."
She let out an exasperated sigh. "Why in Merlin's name not?"
"Because you don't belong to me, you belong to another man, and I'm not that kind of guy."
"I don't belong to anyone!" she shouted. She got up from the couch and moved towards Draco, grabbing his arm. "Can't you see that I'll never belong to Ron!"
"You're still with another man, Hermione. I can't do that, I can't!"
"Draco, I want to! Forget the bloody chivalry! I want you so badly right now!"
"I know, and that's another reason why I won't do this. Hermione you need to put more thought into this, you need to make a clearheaded decision whether or not I'm the one you want to be with when you make love for the first time."
"I have thought about this, and you're the one!"
"Well, then that's fine! We can do that when you are no longer dating Ron and when the time is right, ok?"
Hermione stood feeling very upset and suddenly embarrassed. She started snatching up her discarded garments from the ground.
"Whatever," she groaned. "If you didn't want me, all you had to do was say so."
"Didn't want you?" Draco asked amazed. "Hermione, what are you talking about?"
"This was clearly just some sort of scam, and I'm sick of these games we play, Draco."
"Hermione, you're not making any sense!"
"Bloody hell, where is my shirt?" Draco handed her the shirt, which she promptly took from his hands. She turned and stormed up to her room.
"Hermione!" he called after her, but she just kept going.
"What in the name of Merlin just happened here?"
Draco could only stand in the room, stunned.