NOTE TO REVIEWERS: Thank you so much for your reviews!
Kikyo'sExterminator: Thank you so much for that lovely compliment. While I am very proud of this story, I probably wouldn't call it genious, however. ;-)
JadedAnna: I'm glad you enjoyed that kiss. I rather enjoyed writing it. ;-)
Chapter Nine
Draco was fuming again. He knew he hated Harry Potter before, but this—this really pissed Draco off. Not only has Potter gotten all the praise and glory for the past six years and Draco's rightful place within the Death Eaters, but he has taken the one thing that loves Draco back. The one person he loved, not just respected. Potter took Hermione from him.
But Draco's Hermione could not have really fallen for Potter's façade. She knew it was fake; he had told her Potter's plan, and she had told him she couldn't fall for it. Draco had told Hermione how he felt about it all, and yet, she leaves him anyway.
Plus, if she hadn't fallen for Potter, how could she smile and laugh with him? Why was she always touching him? She was always smiling. Why was she always smiling? Why was Potter making her smile and not him?
He had to put an end to this. He had to talk to her. The Slytherin could not take this feeling anymore. He could no longer hide from her. He had to find her and talk to her.
Malfoy stormed out his dormitory, through the common room, and began walking up the corridors, intending to head straight to Gryffindor Tower and pounding on the portrait of that stupid fat lady until Granger came out. Conveniently, however, a little more than halfway there, Draco saw her coming in his direction. He looked around and noticed an empty classroom with the door wide open. He ran up to Hermione.
"Draco," she started with a smile.
He grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her into the open classroom and slammed the door shut.
"Draco, what are you doing!" Hermione exclaimed as she pulled herself from his grip.
"I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't stand watching you be with him. He doesn't really love you. He's a fake. Besides, if he really did love you, he would know how much danger you would be in if you were to stay together and if the Dark Lord found out. So, if he really did love you, he would end the relationship. I don't like you being with him. Besides, what about the plan? If you're with him, the plan won't work."
"What do you mean the plan won't work? It is part of the plan! I don't really like him, and he thinks I'm only with him so he'll stop hurting me: He doesn't think I still love him."
"Wait a minute…It's part of the plan?"
"Yes. It will be easier for us to get him alone if one of us is on the inside, and I am the easiest one to get in there. It is all an act, Draco. I don't really love him, and you know that."
"But why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me about this plan?"
"I didn't want anyone to know about it. I wanted everyone to react truthfully, and it obviously worked." Hermione looked up at Draco with a slight smirk and humor in her eyes.
Draco rolled his eyes with a sigh. "But…You act as if you love him!" he burst out: He still couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Hermione sighed in exasperation. "Exactly! I am acting like I love him! But you know just as I do that you're the only person I love!" She clamped her mouth shut with an intake of breath as she realized what she had just said. Tears came to her eyes. "I—I—I'm sorry," the witch stuttered. "I didn't—I—I didn't mean to say it. I know that by saying it, I have just made it harder for us, harder for us to go on, and harder for us to stop. And I—I'm sorry."
Draco couldn't take his eyes off her at that moment. At this moment, Hermione Granger looked more beautiful than she ever had and probably ever will: She loved him. She was still apologizing profusely and crying, obviously scared of what she had done. "Stop," he said quietly. He spoke more loudly after she didn't. "Stop. Stop saying you're sorry. Stop crying. Don't be sorry."
She sniffled as she looked at him in amazement. "But…But I've hurt the relationship; I've damaged it. I've doomed it. I've made it harder—"
"No. You didn't. You've made it easier. No more hiding from each other. We can now be completely open." Draco smiled and walked to her. "I love you, Hermione."
Hermione blinked in awe. "You do? Well, I knew you did, but—"
"It's good to hear it, isn't it?" he completed in excitement.
Despite her tears, she smiled and chuckled. "Yeah," she answered with a nod.
"I love you, Hermione."
"I love you, Draco."
Draco pulled Hermione into a tight hug. "No matter what, I love you."
After Hermione had finally run out of tears, they pulled apart.
"So, this plan."
"Yeah. Um…Dumbledore and the aurors are going to be in the room behind the Great Hall in about," she glanced out a window, "oh my god, now. I have to go get Potter. Go to the room, and tell Dumbledore that we're on our way." With that, the woman Draco loved left him again.
"You smell like Malfoy," Potter hissed to Hermione as they walked up the hall from the dungeons.
Startled, Hermione searched her brain. "Um, yeah. He stopped me on my way here to try to convince me to go ahead and turn you in."
"So, he hasn't learned his lesson after all. I'm not surprised, though." He turned his now dark green eyes on her. "And you said what to him?"
"I told him no, of course. I told him I loved you, and that I always had, and I told him I didn't even know why I agreed to help him in the first place. I've always known deep down that I could never stop loving you."
Apparently, her story had worked, for Potter smirked to himself and pulled her closer to him.
"So, where is the Head Girl taking me tonight?" he asked proudly. To keep him happy, she had been sneaking him into restricted areas of the school under his invisibility cloak, which covered them now as they walked.
"I managed to convince Professor McGonagall that I needed the faculty room behind the Great Hall for studying."
Potter looked at her in amazement. "I haven't been in that room since the tournament. How did you do it?"
The witch shrugged. "McGonagall knows she can trust me, plus she had let slip that there were helpful texts in the room, so she had to give me the charms to get into the room to keep my mouth shut to Madam Pince." It wasn't the best bluff, but after three hours, it was the best thing Hermione could come up with.
"You are amazing, 'Mione."
"It was nothing," she said with a smile while she shuddered inside: She still hated how he called her that.
They walked the rest of the way in silence. The two students were outside the room when Potter stopped Hermione's hand before she reached the door handle. She looked at him in surprise.
"I know Christmas isn't for a couple more weeks, but—" he reached inside his robes and pulled out a small black box and handed it to her. "Happy Christmas, 'Mione."
Hermione tentatively took the box, and with shaking hands, she managed to open it. On a piece of black velvet, a silver necklace rested. The charm was two snakes wrapped around each other with a single crown on their heads. Their emerald eyes sparkled and seemed to glare at her. She was breathless and repulsed.
"You and I can take Voldemort and be king and queen of his followers. I still want to rule with you, Hermione." He gently lifted the jewelry from the box and hooked it around her neck. It was cold and heavy like her heart at that moment. "It looks beautiful on you." He then leaned in for a kiss, and Hermione was too scared to stop him.
"Come on, let's get somewhere more private," she heard herself say, opening the door to the room where she had found out the boy next to her had truly changed: He had changed his decision about whom he would become, where he belonged.
As soon as they had walked into the room, Hermione pulled the cloak off him, stepped back and watched in a daze as the aurors bound Harry Potter and he fell struggling to the floor before the door had even finished closing.
