Disclaimer: As I have said, I don't own anything in this fic. Except for the plot.
Hey guys!! Here's the next chapter!! Hope you'll like it! Read on!
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-Chapter 16: What?!-
Draco
Meet me tonight by the lake. Same spot.
Hermione
Hermione folded the parchment and dropped the note on Draco's desk as she left the classroom for her next class.
She had done a lot of thinking lately, about Parvati and Lavender, Ginny, Harry and Ron, and most of all about Draco. She doesn't know what has gotten into her but she felt sorry for him. Sure, Draco did do a lot of mean things to her and Harry and Ron but now, it doesn't seem that he was the one who did all of things. He was controlled by his father and that was that, he had no way to go, no choice on what to do but follow his father's orders, to despise Harry, the Weasleys and muggleborns, specifically me. She had no reason to have revenge on him for something, which isn't even his fault, so she decided to just ignore and let go everything she planned to do to Draco...she was falling for him, and she didn't have the heart to hurt him, he has already gone through enough pain.
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"Hermione?" Draco whispered through his invisibility cloak as he reached their spot by the lake.
"Draco! Where are you?" Hermione whispered back who was sitting down on the grass under Harry's invisibility cloak.
"What do mean where am I? Where are you?"
"I'm here!"
"Where?"
"Here!"
"Where's here?"
"Right here!" Hermione said as she pulled the invisibility cloak a bit to reveal half of her face.
"Oh, there" Draco said as he imitated what she did and walked towards her, and sat down beside her "So, why did want me to come?"
"Look, I'm sorry"
"For what?"
"I don't know"
"Huh?"
"Well, I just feel that I need to apologize" she said as she rested her head back on his shoulder like before.
"Okay, me too. I'm sorry"
"For what?"
"Well, unlike you, I have a reason, I'm sorry for everything I did to you and your friends"
"Okay"
"Hermione?"
"Yes?"
By this time, the invisibility cloaks now lay on the floor. Now, they were exposed by whoever would go out of the castle at that time, but they didn't mind nor cared nor bother to hide themselves.
"About what I was about to tell you before"
"Yeah?"
"I...well...it's really hard to tell you this"
"Tell me what?"
"Well, I like you"
"I know"
"You know?" he asked disbelievingly, was he that obvious?
"Uh-huh...we're friends, you're supposed to like me"
"No" he shook his head, causing Hermione to lift her head from his shoulder and look at him straight in the eye.
"What do mean no? You hate me?"
"No, I mean I like you, really like you"
"Huh?"
"I don't know" Draco confessed.
He was telling the truth, he never felt this way before, eh doesn't even know what it was...he wasn't raised to ever feel this way before, his father never even told him what this feeling was.
"You don't know?"
"Yeah, I don't know what I'm feeling right now, my father never told me anything like this before"
"Do you mean l-" she stopped, she was meaning to say love but she wasn't even sure that was it, I mean, everyone know what love is, so it mustn't be love "Wait, what's the feeling like?"
"I don't know, it's like I can't think of anything else, I feel cold and freeze inside me mixed with joy and excitement, like my body's not working right"
"Oh" Hermione whispered.
'That's love for you' she thought 'but why the hell doesn't he know what the feeling is? Everyone can tell when they're in love'
"Umm...Draco, by any chance can you tell me the girls you have been with before?"
"Been with?"
"Err...slept with to be exact"
"Oh" Draco bowed down his head and placed his hand on his chin calculating something in his head. "Err...17?"
"17?!" Hermione almost shouted.
"No wait...that's not right" Draco said suddenly, Hermione sighed in relief.
"It was...22!"
"22?!" her jaw dropped.
"Yeah, if you count that time with those Slytherins from 4th year, they had a sleepover, they invited me and all we did was..."
"Stop!" Hermione interrupted, not wanting him to go further "If you must know, girls your with don't want to listen to your stories about what you do with girls you slept with before"
"Sorry" he muttered.
She smiled at him then stared at the lake.
It was a perfect night. Hundreds of stars crowded over the dark sky along with the bright full moon. It was very peaceful, the water in the lake reflected the moonlight and the night breeze blowing their hair and sending a bit of a chill to the atmosphere and to their bodies.
Hermione shivered, and Draco noticed. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. She smiled at him and snuggled into his chest welcoming the heat he was emitting.
"Draco, have you ever loved someone?"
"Love?"
"Yeah love"
"Err..."
"Have you?"
"I-I don't know"
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Well, I don't know. What is love?"
Hermione stiffened in shock.
"Y-You don't know what love is?"
"No, do I have to?"
"Of course you should! Everyone's supposed to know what love is! You're probably the only person I know who doesn't know what it is! Haven't you ever felt that you love a girl?" Draco shrugged "Any girl?" he looked at her questioningly.
"Not that I know of" Hermione sighed "What is love anyway?"
"It's hard to explain" she paused "In an easier explanation, it's when you really care for a person, and feel that he or she's really special, you usually feel all tingly and weird inside once you feel it, and you also feel like your incomplete and empty once you don't have the person you love, all in all it's the cause why people even consider marrying each other"
'There! That's a clue for you to know how you feel about me!' Hermione shouted to him in her thoughts.
"But my father and mother never loved each other"
"What?!" she said disbelievingly, also trying to hide the disappointment she felt inside that he didn't get what she said.
'Oh c'mon!' she thought 'You can't be this daft!'
"If they did, I should have at least learned what the meaning of love is...besides, all purebloods' marriage are all only amongst purebloods, so we don't have much choice on who we can marry since there aren't much purebloods left"
"So, you mean...you marry your cousins?"
"Not necessarily, if we marry purebloods in the same country then the possibilities are that it could be our own blood, if we were to marry other purebloods of other countries, then we aren't actually cousins"
"Then, you don't have the choice on who you want to marry?"
Draco shook his head with a saddened expression on his face.
"Pureblood marriages are all arranged and planned out the day we were born"
"You have a fiancé?"
Draco nodded.
"Sort of" the expression on his face was half sad and half irritated.
"And, may I ask, who the lucky girl is?"
"Pansy" he muttered.
"Pansy Parkinson?" she asked incredulously, then tried to stifle her laughter.
"Don't laugh"
"I-I'm not l-l-laughing-ng...I-I-I...HAHAHAHAH!!!" Hermione fell on the ground tears in her eyes and wiped it with the sleeve of her cloak.
Draco remained silent, as he waited for Hermione to get back to her original state and stared into the lake. Then, Hermione abruptly stopped. Draco turned to look at her, her face looked serious and sad.
"Are you telling the truth?"
"About what?"
"You getting married to Pansy"
"Well, that's what my father told me before"
"Can't you have the choice to deny?"
"I do, but I already stated my decision when I was eleven, we are supposed to announce our decision if we are to agree on it or not...but Pansy was a sweet girl then, before we came to Hogwarts, so unfortunately I said yes"
"Well, your father isn't here anymore"
"I know, but I can't do anything, I already announced my decision in front of my other relatives, and the code said I can't take back the decision I made"
Hermione nodded, tears forming in her eyes, not because she was about to laugh, but because of her sadness. She knew it would be too good to be true, she could never have Draco for herself.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing"
"Eyes like the stars" he started.
"Huh?" Hermione asked in wonder as he faced him, eyes locked.
"Glittering" he started again, his hand now caressing her cheek, "amongst all the darkness surrounding it. The only light from the dark the only savior, only hope that could take me away from the sadness, loneliness of the world which surrounds me..."
"Draco" Hermione interrupted.
"Hermione, though I may not now what love really is...I-I think I love you"
Hermione turned to look at him just as he was slowly leaning closer to her. She waited for his lips to touch hers, and just as it did, something snapped. The kiss was nothing like the first one they had when they were in their dorm during the welcoming party, sure it was really intense but it was only full of lust and less of love. This time, she really felt that she was in love with Draco and him with her. Other than her feelings, she literally heard something snap from behind her mixed emotions.
She slowly pulled away and smiled at him, savoring for one last moment the taste and feeling of her lips on his.
"That was..."
"...great!" a voice finished from behind them.
The couple turned their heads around together to find a grinning blonde with a camera on his hand.
"Colin?" Hermione asked unsure because of the darkness.
"Hey Hermione!"
'Definitely Colin' Hermione shook her head.
"What, may I ask, are you doing here?" she asked suspiciously at the still grinning boy.
"Oh nothing" he paused as he was clicking something on his camera, then looked up at them and grinned at Draco's direction "Malfoy, I think you won the bet"
The expression on Draco's face stiffened as he slowly turned to face Hermione who looked confused.
Hermione had no idea what the boys were talking about until, her conversation with Noby came back into her mind.
"Blonde boy? You mean Draco?"
...
"They be having a truce..."
"Truce?"
"...and a bet"
"A bet? A WHAT?!! What do you mean a bet? About what? On who?"
"Yee, me lady, yee"
...
"Just keep look out miss, they bet you a kiss, so Noby had heard"
The expression on Hermione's face hardened as he looked at Draco, but her eyes weren't covered, it was full of sadness...betrayal. Draco felt guilty.
"What is this about the bet? Does this have anything to do with Parvati and Lavender?" she said in a hoarse voice, trying her best not to break down and cry.
Draco was still silent, she stood up.
"Answer me Draco, did you have a bet with Parvati and Lavender on me?"
He merely nodded.
"And does the bet concern the kiss we just shared?"
Again, he just nodded.
"What was the bet all about?" she asked not able to hold it anymore, letting a single tear fall freely from her eyes.
He fell silent.
"Colin?" she looked over at Colin "tell me"
"Errr..." he started unsurely, but seeing how serious the situation was, he continued "they betted that Draco could never kiss you before the month of December ended"
Hermione looked from him then at Draco.
"So that's it isn't it? All those love crap you were telling me and those stuff you said before about you being changed because now your father's gone was all part of your scheme to win the bloody bet?" her tears fell freely now.
"Hermione," Draco started as he stood up and tried to take her hand in his.
"No! Don't say my name, in fact don't say anything to me at all! Ever! Just stay away from me," she said, her voice filled with anger and sadness as she bent down and grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak and ran towards the castle.
"Was it wrong for me to tell her?" Colin asked Draco who now covered his face with his hands.
"No Creevy, it was the right thing to tell her but I hate you for being the one to tell her" he glared at Colin before grabbing his own cloak and jogging after Hermione into the castle.
-End of Chapter-
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Thanks for the reviews you guys! Glad to have more than I did with the last chapter, but I had to comment on this review though...
the counter: Well, you reviewed for the first chapter of my fic., obviously you haven't read the whole thing yet, and to be truthful, I feel sorry for you. You give bad comments to my fic. but you haven't even read 'till the last chapter yet, and you yourself don't even have a fic. yet. I'm 15, so it's normal that my fic. isn't perfect, this is my first fic. after all and people liked it, your the 4th person who commented something bad of all the 112 reviews I got, so I'm not at all affected by your pointless comment.
To future reviewers, if you would like to tell me my fic. isn't at all that good, you could at least say it to me nicely that you hated it rather than saying it to me rudely. Not only to me but that goes to the other writers you give reviews to, if you don't like a fic., then suggest something to make it better rather than telling us it's full of crap, it helps a lot you know!
Hoped you like this rather short chapter, my story is kinda changing all the time...don't you think? Well, my mind's changing ideas for the fic. so I hope you still like my fic...anyways, I hope you continue to R & R!
-DragonPrincessRhean-