A/N: Back again! This chapter is a little shorter than most of the others, I think, but I figured that no one will notice the difference too much. In this chapter, Draco and Hermione have some F-U-N. Enter the romance.
On a different note, who else can't wait for the 6th book? Next saturday! the tension is building, the antici- (say it! say it!) -pation makes us all quiver. My luck - I'm having my wisdom teeth out the day before. Don't count on another chapter for a few weeks at least. Forward, march!
The Negative Side
A Lovely Flame
Draco could have Apparated from London to Hogsmeade if he had really wanted to. He had achieved his license the previous summer (his birthday was in May), and if he was allowed to leave school to meet a lawyer, he would be allowed to Apparate as well. However, he was in no hurry to return to Hogwarts. These days he could barely stand being around Hermione.
It was that sodding pendant that had started it. He appreciated the gift and wore it every day. He had not anticipated that it would cause such a disturbance in the friendship he was slowly building with her, but ever since his return from the holiday, he felt awkward near her and could not think of a thing to say that did not somehow involve the words "please shag me". Awkward was not a feeling Draco Malfoy was used to, and he hoped he never grew accustomed to it.
There were quite a few shops in Diagon Alley that he had never entered; among them was a small jewelry shop. On that day, just after a quick lunch and two hours before his train back to Hogwarts was due to leave, he breathed deep and stolidly walked through the door. A small tinkling of bells sounded as the door closed behind him. It was a fairly pleasant sound, but for some reason Draco found it surpassingly annoying.
"Welcome, young sir. Are you here for a gift, or just to browse?" An average-height, attractive witch draped in a wispy shawl embossed with golden suns swept across the shop toward Draco.
"A gift," he said uncertainly. "For this girl."
"Ah, of course. Come with me, we'll find something wonderful for this lucky girl." The witch winked at him- something he was used to, but did not generally care for. It would have been just as awkward had Professor McGonagall winked at him.
He saw a heart-shaped ruby on a diamond chain, a pendant of two dolphins joined to find a heart, pearl earrings that just happened to look like hearts, and many other pieces in the same ilk before he told her to stop. The witch blinked vaguely and asked, "Well, is there something in particular you were looking for?"
"Er - something not in the shape of a heart," Draco said. Giving Hermione heart-shaped jewelry would probably not make her very happy. It would most likely make her angry and she would tell him she couldn't take it. The witch frowned slightly, but then gave him a knowing smile and told him to wait while she retrieved something from the back room.
He stood in the middle of the shop among display cases of sparkling jewels. Some of these were probably enchanted, but most were normal, boring things. Boring in a good way, of course, but still boring. Most of it, he noticed, was completely beyond Hermione's taste. Even within her new look, she preferred simplicity and elegance, rather than extravagant or flashy things.
Draco's vivid fantasy of Hermione lying on his bed wearing nothing but black satin sheets was interrupted when the witch who presumably owned the shop returned with a box in her hand. She gave him a bright smile as she opened the lid and lifted out a necklace that Hermione was sure to love.
Draco pulled out his money bag. "I'll take it."
Surely it was expensive, but if it would warm Hermione up then money was no object. If he could only get her to really fall for him, then he could get what he wanted. Presents, as far as he was concerned, were a good place to start. The necklace retreated to a pocket of his cloak and remained there through the entire train ride.
At last, Draco was back at Hogwarts, and reluctantly emerged from the Great Outdoors into the entrance hall. He had managed to arrive a few hours before dinner. Very few students were anywhere near the Great Hall. The ones who did walk by did not seem to pay him any attention.
Instead of heading directly to his dormitory, Draco opted for a stint in the Gryffindor common room. He could do with seeing a few friends. Blaise was likely to be there with the actual Gryffindors. Unless, of course, he was snogging Ginny Weasley in some closet…
Oh, gods. The idea of snogging in a closet made Draco think of Hermione, and then more fantasies happened in the space of a few seconds. In one of them, she had him tied to his bed and was standing over him in a tight and completely tasteless leather outfit that he was sure she would never wear.
He wished he could get her to stop invading his fantasies. He was not in the habit of fantasizing about one person exclusively. It was against his nature as an incredibly attractive and sex-mad teenage male. Maybe she would wear it if I ask really nicely… NO! BAD!
"Oh, er, hello Draco," said Hermione. This was not another fantasy; no, Hermione actually was standing in front of him. They had reached the portrait hole at the same moment.
"Hi," he replied. He thought it sounded a bit stupid, but Hermione smiled. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
Hermione hesitated, averting her eyes from his. "Well, I…er… Draco, there's something I…"
"Yes?"
A long pause during which they both stood embarrassedly before the Fat Lady's portrait followed. Hermione shook her head suddenly with a half-smile, uttered the password, and disappeared. Draco came right after, but she was already heading to her room. Glancing around, Draco found Harry and Bianca sitting on a large, plush couch and hurried to join them as occupants of the common room glanced his way.
Just as he settled himself down, Hermione returnedfrom thedormitory carrying her cloak. She called to them, "I'm going for a walk, I'll be back in an hour or two."
"Do you want any company?" Harry asked.
"Oh, no, that's all right, Harry. You keep studying."
"I'm not studying."
"Well, keep doing whatever it is you're doing, and look after Bianca."
"That's part of what I was doing."
"Good." Hermione now had her cloak around her shoulders and was deftly fastening the clasp. She turned back for a moment at the portrait hole, looking at Draco, but in another second she had gone.
That glance was excruciating for him. He wished she would either stare adoringly or not look at him at all. "Stupid emotions," he muttered.
"What was that, Malfoy?" Harry said distractedly.
"Nothing. Just talking to myself." Bianca looked like she wanted to speak, so he stood. "You know, I think I'll go put my cloak away. It isn't really that cold inside the castle… what is that, Potter?"
"Plans for the team. You know. To beat your team." Harry grinned.
Draco chose not to respond. He figured he should let Harry think he was going to win. That way it would be more of a victory… He cared a lot less about winning than he had in the past. He knew that it was incredibly unlikely that he would finally beat Harry at Quidditch, and unless he did Slytherin would lose the cup again. They were used to it by then.
In the corridor, Crabbe and Goyle were cornering Neville Longbottom. They were just in the process of knocking his books out of his arms when Draco stepped in. "Now, boys, that was quite unnecessary, don't you think?"
The two great oafs watched dumbly as Draco helped Neville gather his things into a relatively neat pile. Neville smiled nervously at him, and Draco gave him a reassuring look. He then glared at Crabbe and Goyle. "Clear off," he ordered.
They seemed to gather their limited wits at that moment. They straightened their shoulders and put on their most threatening looks. Mostly, this meant sticking their jaws out as far as they could. "What makes you think we'll be any easier on you than we are on this idiot?" Goyle asked, halfway between grunting and growling.
Draco put on his most threatening look, the look that said I-can-easily-hurt-you-far-worse-than-you've-ever-been-hurt-in-your-life. The look was completely honest and his two former cronies knew it. They shrunk a bit before his cold stare, and Draco made his retort. "I think it's a bit snobbish of you to call anyone an idiot when you barely got enough O.W.L.s to keep from being chucked out."
With grimaces uglier than words can describe, they lumbered off toward the Great Hall, most likely to await dinner. Draco turned to Neville and clapped him lightly on the shoulder. "All right, Longbottom?"
"Er - sure, Malfoy. Thanks."
Draco nodded. He had started to move toward the Slytherin dorms when Neville called him back. "Listen, Malfoy… I don't really know how to say what I'm thinking. Er, well, it's just that you never were like this before. You were… well, you already know how you were. Now, you seem to be close friends with Harry. What changed?"
"I just decided to be myself, is all," Draco replied. "I probably should have done a long time ago, but," he shrugged, "everyone makes mistakes."
"Yeah, especially me," agreed Neville. He laughed. "I seem to have a natural talent for it."
"Don't worry about it. Some people don't handle stress that well. You should see Malcolm Baddock before a big exam. Sometimes it takes him hours to realize he's studying for the wrong subject."
They both chuckled. "Well, I should get going," Neville said. "Have to put this stuff away before dinner starts, you know."
Draco was feeling more and more like a Gryffindor every day. That was something he had never expected.
Hermione hoped, as she trod through the forest's blanketing of roots and leaves, that Erik would not be able to read her as well as he usually did. That, of course, was a misguided thought. As soon as he had taken some of the blood she brought, she felt him studying her intently. She willed him not to see her feelings.
"Something troubles you, Hermione."
"No. Not anything you should concern yourself about, anyway."
"Hermione." She faced him. He was smiling, which annoyed her a little. "Whether you want to admit it or not, you wanted me to bring this up. You want to talk about it, but you are, for some reason, afraid. You knew I would see that something was not right. You do not have to tell me what it is, but I know that your true desire is to do so."
Sometimes she reallydisliked vampires. "You are too perceptive, Erik. I'm certain it has gotten you into trouble before." Hermione sighed. "Very well, I'll tell you. The truth is, I… I suppose I'm in love."
"Ah, I thought you were. And this is a bad thing?"
"Well, I'm not sure how to tell him. How could I know he feels the same?" It was a pointless question. Draco had as good as told her that he wanted to be with her. And he wore her necklace every day. Bianca had told her that. "I don't want to be hurt again."
"You cannot spend your entire life hiding from love. It caused more pain than it prevents."
"Did you ever have a lover, Erik?" Hermione asked, trying to not change, but alter the subject a bit.
"I did. Hundreds of years ago. She was a wonderful, generous woman, practical and levelheaded as well. However, after a few years the townspeople found out that I was a vampire. She was the one to warn me, to give me enough time to get away."
"Why did you leave if you loved her so much?" muttered Hermione.
"It is the way I must live. I have two choices in these situations. I can either leave town, or I can kill everyone who approaches in order to defend my life. People are superstitious, and more so then than they are now. They would have done everything possible to drive me out. I have always been unwilling to take life unless it is completely necessary."
Hermione thought he should have asked her to go with him. Erik seemed to read her mind.
"I wanted to tell her to come, but I could not ask that of her. She was a mediwitch, the only one in the town. They needed her, and more so than I. I could survive without her. They could not. I went back ten years later, but she had died by then." For a moment, he was silent. "She would have come if I had asked. Then no one would have been there to cure illness or injuries."
"What was her name?"
Erik smiled reminiscently. "Cecily. Her name was Cecily Dryden."
Immediately Hermione thought of John Dryden, but figured that they probably were not related. Instead, she said, "It wasn't hard to leave her?"
"It was the most excruciating experience of my life, Hermione. I had to do it, no matter how much it hurt. The memory of our love ceased to haunt me long ago. A human does not have as much time to treat the pain and turn it into something else. I can think of her and be warmed by it instead of burned."
"That was very subtle, Erik, thank you."
"I was not aiming for subtlety. I want you to think about what you are doing to yourself if you let this opportunity pass."
Hermione walked quickly on her way back to the castle, trying to push away Erik's words. She was unsuccessful, and ended up pondering the situation deeply. She had two valid options. She could let her feelings remain unsaid, and live in torment until she met another man she could love. She could tell Draco how she felt, and that could go two ways. He could refuse to let their desire turn into a relationship, or he could grab her and kiss her. Either way she would know exactly how he felt.
"That's it," she said to herself. "If I have to keep wondering, it will be worse even than knowing that he doesn't love me." Should I change before I talk to him? No, there would be no point. I look nice enough, and that would just take more time. I'll go as I am and hope he hasn't changed his mind about me.
It would be near time for dinner, by her guess. Students would be trickling into the Great Hall in a little while. She would rather not confront him with too many witnesses around. Luckily, Draco was headed unaccompanied out of his dorm at that moment, and no one else happened to be in the entrance hall. Hermione took it as a sign of Fate.
"Draco," she called, striding purposefully toward him. "I'd like a word."
"Can it wait until after dinner?" he asked. "I'm quite hungry. It's not that important, is it?"
"It is that important, actually," said Hermione. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to the nearest empty classroom. She closed the door behind them.
"Now, what is it that you-"
Draco got no further before he was shoved against the wall, and Hermione pulled his head down to hers. They kissed ravenously until Draco regained enough presence of mind to pull himself away. Hermione wanted to slap him for doing it.
"Hermione," he shook his head, clearly not knowing what to say. "What are you doing?"
"I was snogging, but the other party had some ideas of his own," Hermione returned scathingly. "Draco, I love you. I really do. It took me a long time to figure out why I felt so strangely around you. I finally figured it out: I'm in love with Draco Malfoy." She laughed. "Who would have expected that?"
She knew she was talking too fast, and he probably didn't care about anything she said (so a mean little voice in her head was telling her), but she was so nervous that she could feel her heart pounding in every inch of her body. It was exhilarating and terrifying to tell him.
Draco was silent. His eyes were closed, his hair fallen to hide part of his face. Hermione could swear that her heart stopped when he didn't answer. At last, he took a shuddering breath in and she realized why he was not talking. "Draco… are you crying?"
He raised his head, looking at her, and let her see the tears glistening in his eyes. She reached up to his face, and they spilled over, creating streams of wetness down each cheek. He covered her hand with his, the other encircling her waist and drawing her closer. They kissed again, this time much slower and more tentative than they ever had, and Hermione could taste his tears.
At last they stopped. Draco spoke. "I was wondering when you'd come around," he said, his voice slightly hoarse. "I was starting to develop a plan to soften you up, so I could get you to want me again… I guess that's gone to the dogs, though. It doesn't seem to have a point now, if you're already in love with me."
"What was the plan?" she asked with a smile.
"Well, all I had so far was buying you presents. I actually have one thing for you. I should have known to buy you something for Christmas."
Hermione thought that was silly, since she had barely realized she had bought a present for him until she was wrapping it. "Draco, you don't have to buy me anything. I don't want you to think of me that way. Money and presents have very little to do with love."
"Well, take this," he said, handing her a box. "I've already paid for it, and I want you to have it."
Inside was a beautiful, sparkling shape on a simple gold chain. Rubies and diamonds formed a lovely flame. She probably would not have worn it last year, but now, her mind went to work putting together outfits that would look perfect with the necklace. She placed it carefully in the box and looked up to find Draco wiping the tears from his face.
"I can't believe I just cried. Isn't it normal in these situations for the girl to cry?" She hit his arm. He laughed, then suddenly sobered. "Listen, Hermione. I'm just starting to learn what love is. I can't be certain what it is, but I know I care deeply for you. This is very overt behavior for a Malfoy, so take what you can get. I've spent my whole life wondering about love, what it means, and what it feels like. And I think I love you, because whenever we're apart I miss you, and whenever we touch I feel almost like I want to die. Well, except for this time. This time was amazing…"
Draco's eyes glazed over, and he seemed to be getting lost in a fantasy. Hermione rolled her eyes. "That's nice, Draco. Do I want to know what you're thinking?"
"That depends. Would you describe yourself as kinky?"
Hermione could barely restrain herself from another eye roll. Instead, she surprised herself by saying, "I'm not sure, I haven't ever done anything more than snogging with you."
"So you haven't been with anyone else? I knew it. You tried to lie, but you're just too pure to do it. You'd make a horrible Slytherin, you know," he told her with a shake of his head.
"Excuse me, but that is completely untrue. I would do just as well in Slytherin as any other House. Better than some, even. I would have started the mixing of Houses years ago, instead of waiting until it was in my best interest." Draco's eyes darkened, and she felt bad that she had said that. "I'm sorry. I know, you've already explained why… oh, Draco, you're not seriously mad at me. You can't be."
He shrugged in resignation. "You're right. I'm not."
They tongue-wrestled for a bit, until another important point occurred to Hermione. "What do you think we should tell people, Draco?"
"Nothing. They're bound to figure it out on their own. You know this school. I mean, everyone always figures out what happens to Harry at the end of every year. This is far less world-news-worthy than an encounter with Voldie, but it is gossip. And never forget your two roommates, the Twins of the Loose Tongues. Hey, I just had another thought, hold on… haha, loose tongues."
"Draco! If I hear any of that kind of talk, no sex! You hear me?"
"Yes, I - wait. Does that mean you plan to have sex? I thought you were trying to remain a virgin your whole life." She looked witheringly at him. "Well, come on. You had plenty of opportunities to take advantage of me last May, and all through the summer, but you never jumped. I just figured you for one of those 'celibate' types."
"Guess again." She nibbled a little on his neck, and was rewarded with a sharp intake of breath from Draco. "So you don't think we should try to hide it?"
"Why would we? That's effort wasted. Besides, a romance between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin can only make our story more convincing. It will show everyone that we really do want peace between the houses. Or something like that. It may only tell people that you've finally gotten a sex life, but… what! You said you wanted sex!" She had pulled away, which caused his reaction.
Hermione laughed. "Well, I think it's time we went in to dinner. Before we do anything together, I would very much like to talk to Harry on my own. I can do it quickly, during dinner. Then we can disappear together or what have you."
"You really think the Great Hall is the best place to have a private discussion?" pointed out Draco.
"We do it all the time, when we're trying to figure out the bad guys latest evil plan. No one pays attention during meals, you know."
"Well, do you mind if I stare at you while fantasizing?"
"Yes."
"Really?"
She didn't answer. "Come on, Draco. Even if you can survive on air, I happen to be very hungry. And you did say you were hungry before we started making out."
Draco grinned wickedly. "You curbed my appetite, darling."
They left the room chuckling, and Hermione found herself still smiling as she sat down next to Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Hello, Hermione. Where have you been?" he asked as she began to fill her plate.
"Oh, just having a private talk with one of our friends," she answered. "Speaking of private talks, I need to tell you something."
Harry looked around them. Across the table, Blaise and Ginny were occupying each other. Everyone surrounding them seemed to be absorbed in conversation or food. "Talk. No one's paying attention."
Hermione plunged right in without taking a breath. "Well, I just told Draco I love him so we're going to be… a couple, I suppose. He loves me too, I can tell, and I just wanted to tell you personally before it becomes a rumor."
Harry's fork fell into his lap. He moved quickly to pick up the piece of chicken that had been skewered on the end. He looked pensive as he chewed. "Well," he said at last, "I suppose it doesn't matter what I think, because it's your decision to make."
"I know that, but I want to know you're okay with it. Please, Harry." Hermione knew she sounded ridiculous. It's not like Harry had ever had a claim on her.
"You know how I feel about Draco," he shrugged.
"What, you mean that he's a self-assured, sneaky git?" she supplied.
"Yes, but I meant that I trust him. And you know that I trust you, so…"
Hermione smiled widely. She turned to catch Draco's eye, and he returned her grin with a charming one of his own. She heard a cheer behind her, Ginny's voice saying "Way to go, Hermione! I knew you had it in you."
Hermione turned slowly to face Ginny and Blaise, who were grinning at her across the table. She leaned forward. "You two want to be hexed, don't you?"
"Easy, Hermione. No need to start turning on our friends," Harry said with an equally wide grin.
"I have a theory," Blaise began, "that the person we see before us is not Hermione, but her sexy, bold evil twin."
"That's ridiculous, Hermione's not evil," Ginny countered.
"No, but she's definitely not quite as nice as she used to be."
"Tell that to Draco."
Hermione watched their exchange, then burst out laughing. The others quickly followed suit, until their entire section of the table was shaking with mirth. Suddenly, Hermione felt him behind her, and swiveled in her seat. Draco looked quizzically down at her. "What's the joke?"
They all laughed louder. Hermione pulled him down to kiss him happily. The collective gasp from the rest of the students caused their small group to laugh even harder.
…TBC…
