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Chapter Eight – Really in Love
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He was one of the first to enter the Transfiguration classroom. There was a new tecaher this year. A woman named Nymphadora Tonks. He hadn't really known her, but, he had heard his father talking about her, and rather nastily, too.
He looked around the room. It was very colorful. A lot more colorful than it had been when McGonogall was teacher. He sat down in one of the first seats he reached, which of course meant he was in the back of the room, and sat down.
"Oh, no, Draco, dear, please sit in the front. You shall be sitting with the Head Girl, as you two will show an excellent example to the rest of the class!" A voice rang out across the room. It was a kind voice, and it sounded as though it came from a very young woman. He looked up, and he did see a very young woman. Not only was she young, but she had short bubble gum pink hair that stood up on her head.
"I'm your new Transfiguration teacher!" She said extending her hand.
Draco had a confused look on his face, but shook her hand, "Uh, hi." Was all he could say as he took his books to the front of the room.
"Draco Malfoy, Head Boy. Well, I knew your father –" She started.
"Please, I don't want to talk about him at the moment." Draco started, rubbing his eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry, well, he did have to die..."
"No, it's not that, I hated him anyway, it's just that everyone thinks that I'm exactly like him..."
"I never thought that! From the moment you came into this classroom, I knew you were intellegent, and nothing like your father! I wouldn't judge any one badly before I knew them! Though, of course, I could say that someone looked like the sweetest person in the world, but really they weren't..." Her voice trailed off. Draco smiled at her, adn she winked back.
The classroom started filling with more students. And then Hermione came in.
"Hermione!" The Transfiguration teacher cried. Draco didn't look behind him to look at Hermione, he just sat, facing front, and staring at the blackboard.
"Tonks! I can't believe -! When did you -? You weren't at the feast two nights ago!" Hermione gasped.
"Yes, I didn't quite make it, ah, well, I'm here now!" The two women hugged and the teacher pointed Hermione to her seat. Hermione hesitated, but took her seat and set her books down.
"Hello." Hermione whispered to Draco. The class had gone silent. Everyone was staring at the pair.
"Hello, Hermione." Draco said, and looked into her eyes.
Nymphador Tonks felt the akward silence in the room, and broke it by saying, "Hello, everyone!" Everyone replied a with a 'Hello.'and the teacher continued, "My name is Nymphadora Tonks, and I'll be your N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration teacher. You can just call me Tonks, without the proffessor part. It makes me feel old." Tonks giggled, and some of the class laughed. Draco wasn't really paying attention.
i So maybe she does love me... /i He thought to himself. Hermione folded her hands on her lap, and Draco reached under the table and grabbed her hand. He squeezed it and Hermione smiled, but took her hand back and motioned with her eyes that he should be paying attention.
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The class passed by quickly, and it seemed that it was over before it had even started. Maybe Draco was actually going to enjoy Transfiguration this year...
Draco and Hermione were seated together in every class, because their teachers said that Head Boy and Girl should sit togehter, but the pair didn't really talk. It was very akward that all that had happened was Draco felt a surge, kissed Hermione almost randomly, she kissed him back, and they hadn't even talked. Maybe after they were both alone in the common room, and could be alone to talk about what had happened, things would go along differently.
They didn't talk in the hallways, either, but they walked everywhere together, as though bound by an invisible rope. Every so often, they glanced at each other, and if their eyes met, they'd stop walking and stare deep into each others' eyes for a couple seconds before both broke away at the same time.
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Finally, classes ended, and Draco and Hermione walked to the Great Hall together. Even though no one actually saw them speak throughout the day, they remembered that morning, so the hall went silent, until the pair had sat down at their respectable tables.
"'No, it most definitely is not!'" Blaise said, as Draco sat down, mimicking Draco from that morning, "Yeah, okay, what the fuck was that about?"
"Uh, I think I'm in love." Draco stated.
"Right-o!" Blaise said, rubbing his hands together. His image reminded Draco very much of Ludo Bagman.
"What? Haven't you ever fallen in love?"
"Nope!" Blaise said proudly, "So how was your day, did anything interesting happen?"
"Uh, sorry, no. We barely talked." Draco paused, "No wait, we never talked." He chuckled to himself.
"So... you're in love with someone you don't talk to?"
"No! It's just that we haven't talked since this morning."
"But normaly you guys talk, right?"
"Well, yeah, but all we did was argue, now we don't talk at all."
"Uhuh, right. So you guys argued even when no one was looking?"
"Yeah... hate to break it to you, Blaise, but we hated each other for the past six years."
"But I thought you were in love?"
"I am. Now, at least..."
"So you weren't in love before. Like before what you did this morning."
"Nope."
"Wow, that's..." Blaise paused, and searched his mind, "intersting..."
"Uh, yeah. It was weird. I see her walking, right? And then she looks at me, and I feel this rush of who knows what, and I really felt like I needed to kiss her. So I did. She didn't seem angry or anything, I htink she liked it."
"Yeah, who wouldn't like a kiss from Draco Malfoy..." Blaise sneered.
"Shut up! That's not the point!"
"What is the point? I actually forgot what we were arguing about..." Blaise said, shuffling his feet.
Draco shot him a quizzical look, "No wonder you're not in any of my classes... Uh, we were talking about the fact that I wasn't in love with Hermione –"
"So she's Hermione now?"
"So you remembered what we were talking about?"
"I asked you first!" Blaise said, acting like a five-year old.
"Well, I think if I said Hermione, I meant it."
"What if you messed up? What if it just slipped out of your mouth?"
"Blaise! What is it with and these retarded questions?" Draco gasped, "Okay, look, I didn't think I loved Hermione before this morning, but she did look pretty nice, and I stared at her a lot more. But then this morning, when I got mad at you for saying that we're actually going out, but hiding it, I dunno, I felt this really strange emotion going through me, and I felt like a I needed her in my life. So I kissed her. The end."
"That was the most beautiful thing I ever heard." Blaise said, pretending to wipe his eyes.
"Shut up. You wanted to know!"
"And you told me."
"Becuase you wanted to know."
"Wow, I'm really confused..." Blaise said, narrowing his eyes.
"Blaise, you're my friend an everything, but, seriously," Draco shuddered, "You're..."
"Yeah, what am I?"
"I don't know. There's not a word to describe you..."
"Oh, that's too bad. There are plenty to describe you! Let's see..." Blaise started, but Draco continued.
"I don't want to hear any of them."
"Right-o! Well, anyway, this morning, how was I supposed to know that you weren't lying?" Blaise asked.
"Because I never lie." Draco said, rather proudly.
"Yeah, right, let's see. Did you have a good time with a Gryffindor girl that you found in the library last night?"
"No! I most definitely did not go and find a girl to shag! I'm past that!" Draco said, turning a pink color.
"And you just told me that you never lie... Tut, tut..." Blaise said, shaking his head, and clicking his tongue.
"How would you know, anyway?" Draco said, angrily.
"You know, Draco, this might come as a bit of a shock, but... see, I have these things, and they're called eyes..." Blaise said, wisely.
"You were spying on me!"
"Not exactly!" Blaise said, waving his hands, "I just noticed."
"Liar. You lie just as much as I do."
"Whatever. I think you should tell me how your day went." Blaise said.
"Uh, it was quiet."
"No snogging? Fucking? Anything?"
"Nope. There wasn't even talking," Draco thought, "Oh, wait, this morning, during Transfiguration, I held her hand."
"Wow, Draco, I really think you are in love."
"Good job. You're brilliant." Draco said, sarcastically.
"I'm serious. You didn't do i anything /i ?"
"Nothing."
"Yeah, I hate to break it to you, but you really are in love."
"You just told me that. And I think it's a good thing, Blaise."
"Yeah, but you said you'd never fall in love!"
"I changed my mind," Draco replied simply, "And if you don't mind, I'm finished eating, so I shall go up and do my homework." Draco said, getting up from the table.
"Yeah, right. You'll probably be shagging instead."
"But I thought you said I was in love?" Draco shouted, as he got further from Blaise.
"Oh, yeah, then nevermind!" Blaise shouted back. Draco laughed to himself, and walked out of the Great Hall. He looked behind him to see where Hermione was. She was talking with Potty and Weasel. No wait, now they would have to be known as Potter and Weasley. It sounded a bit nicer.
Draco smiled to himself as he walked out of the hall, happier than he had been for a very long while.
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Author's Note: by the way, if you ever see an "i" before a word or phrase then "/i" after it, then that just means it was supposed to be italicized. I don't think that uses html tags, but I never ran through my story to get rid of the tags. It gets rid of the and > after the i's so it looks kind of weird in the story. Sorry! If you want to read it with all the italics right with no random i's, my penname on is halfbloodphantom. :) I hope you are all enjoying the story so far!