"We can't."
He looked deep into her eyes and saw the resolve that was there. He wanted to stare into those eyes now, stare and not say a word. He wished he could kiss away all the pain that resided there.
He couldn't.
"I know," he replied and slowly moved back to give her space.
"We could hurt so many people," she said, swallowing back her protests about how right this felt, how perfect she felt when with him, how he finally made her feel happy, even after all the pain.
"You're with Pansy," she whispered.
"And you're with Weasley." He smiled in an effort to dull the pain, but it did not work.
They were both cowards. They were both too weak to leave what they were used to, what they were comfortable with. Both of them wanted to be together, but neither wanted to be the cause of the heartbreak that was inevitable should they ever even kiss.
"I just want to…" he said, and his eyes trailed down to see her lips.
"I know," she smiled, wanting him to just as much. "But if we start," she told him, "we'd never stop."
He knew she was right. He knew they needed to walk away from this. He couldn't come to the library anymore. He couldn't see her every day and not have her. He just couldn't. But the thought of not seeing her every day –not seeing that smile, those eyes, that face – made him ache. The thought of not hearing her laugh, not discussing their daily events, not brushing his hand against hers or putting that stray strand of brown behind her ear as she studied, made life seem empty. Empty and completely worthless.
He'd never even kissed her…they hadn't even done anything.
"We can't," she said again. "It would just hurt everybody too much."
They'd only really begun to know each other properly over the last couple of weeks. But he felt like she knew him better than anybody in the world. He wasn't just a Malfoy to her anymore. He was Draco, and she liked the Draco that he was. And he saw her now, Hermione Granger, just as she was, in all her innocence and bossiness and temper, and he knew that she was special and thought that she was beautiful.
"We just can't," he repeated, more to himself than her and she nodded determinedly. And they wouldn't. But it still took them a long time to stand up and depart from the library, depart from each other, to return to their different Common Rooms and their completely separate lives.
It hurts to want everything & nothing at the same time
I want whats yours and I want whats mine
I want you but I'm not giving in this time
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to
The one thing that I tried to hold on to
Inspired by the song by Michelle Branch "Goodbye To You" and by real life events! Although ya know ya have to leave somebody go, it's easier said than done. Damn you, Ian!