Disclaimer: Not mine.


Perfect Mistake

Thirteen

Never Over


Draco hoisted his daughter up so she could look in the shop window. "Which one?" he asked.

Bee pressed her face against the glass, brow furrowed. "That one," she said with a note of finality, jabbing her thumb violently against the glass.

He laughed. "You think she'll like it?" he asked nervously.

Bee pressed her hands on both sides of his face. "She will like anything you give her," she said solemnly, then split her face with a wide smile. "Come on, let's go in and you can pay. In the meantime, you can buy me something too."

He rolled his eyes skywards. "Fine," he huffed.

"Hello, little lady," the salesgirl said to Bee, and then turned to flash Draco an amiable smile. "What are you looking for, sir?"

"I'm looking for a gift for… someone special," he explained. "I was thinking about that ring displayed in the window- that one," he pointed.

The salesgirl waved her wand and the ring landed gently in front of her. "Lovely choice, there are only 100 pieces of this made," she informed Draco.

"Okay, I'll just pay," Draco fished around for his wallet. "Bee," he barked in horror. "Stay still, God forbid if you fall," he muttered. Bee stopped her bouncing on the spinning stool.

"You're lucky to have such a good Daddy," the salesgirl smiled at Bee.

Draco was about to sign his name and stopped.

Bee glanced at Draco, and smiled in a way that made a dozen warning bells go off in his head- she sounded like him when he was ready to blackmail someone into doing his bidding- not good. "Daddy," she said sweetly and Draco's heart swelled. "I want my ears pierced," she announced, grinning.

--

"Oh Merlin, what happened?" Hermione covered her mouth, staring at the blossoming bruise on Draco's forehead.

"He fainted," Bee proclaimed proudly.

"Shut up," Draco said mortified, slapping his daughter's head gently. "I told you not to tell!"

Hermione started to laugh. "Bee, tell me what happened, you have to."

"I got my eyes pierced and he fainted," Bee explained. "He whacked his head on the floor when he fell and he lay there until the sales lady said a spell."

Draco sighed in exasperation. "It's not funny."

"These are amazing," Hermione told Bee, touching the diamond studs that pierced her daughter's earlobes lovingly.

"Bee," Draco whispered, nudging her with his foot.

Bee's eyes lit up knowingly. "I'm going to potty," she announced, running off.

Draco blew a long breath and his fingers closed around the box that was tucked in his pocket.

"What?" Hermione demanded suspiciously.

Draco moved to stand in front of her. "Remember that time when I got Bee to pass you a note," he asked lightly.

She nodded. "You let me go," she smiled.

"Just now, on the way home, I realized that what I was doing at that moment, wasn't letting you go, Hermione," he said.

She cocked her head. "Then what were you doing?"

"I was trusting you to come back," he said, the words falling onto her lips, which parted instinctively before he even leaned down to kiss her.

"Hermione," he broke the kiss, breathing heavily. "Wait," he said.

Her mouth went dry when he produced an unmistakable jewellery box from his pocket.

"Draco," she said breathlessly.

"Please," he managed to say, the words that he had rehearsed disappearing from his brain completely.

The box opened with a soft pop and inside laid the most beautiful ring Hermione had ever laid eyes on.

"Aren't you suppose to say something?" she asked, trying to come down from her initial shock, bliss blooming in her heart and exploding.

He made a spluttering sound with the effort to string the right words together. "Hermione," he tried.

"It's okay," she said smiling. "Take your time."

He took a deep breath, shaking. All the possibilities, he thought, would she say yes? What if she didn't? Would he die right then and there?

"Be mine," he said simply.

Her heart skipped. "Not marry me?" she asked gently.

"I could marry you, Hermione, but you may not be mine," he said. "I want you to be mine, marriage is just a… I don't know, a confirmation?"

"But Draco, I'm already yours," she said, gently laying a hand on his arm. "Now, the only thing missing," she said, slipping the ring on. "Is the wedding ring," she finished, holding her hand up so that the jewel caught the light and filled the room with a burst of blinding light.

--

Ron sighed heavily, slumped on the chairs, waiting for his turn to visit the psychologist.

Ginny and her fantastic idea- she thought that a shrink could fix him. He wanted to laugh. Nothing could fix this mess. Ron rubbed his hands over his face.

"Hey."

He looked up. A dark haired woman walked out of the office, clutching her bag to her chest tightly. There were dark circles under her dark eyes and her hair looked like it had been hastily scraped into a ponytail, she looked as disoriented as he felt. "It's your turn," she said. "Dr. Frank will see you now."

He stood up and was about to walk in when he paused. "Wait," he called after her. "Why are you here?" he asked simply, as though it was the most natural thing to ask her.

Her gaze softened. "I died," she said quietly.

He met her gaze. "You?" she asked back.

"I died too," he confessed.

She smiled and turned around, continuing her walk down the hall, her ponytail swinging behind hair.

--

Seventh Year

Hermione's boots skimmed the stone floor, making rhythmic clicks. Night patrol, it was her duty as Head Girl. Not that she didn't enjoy it- Hogwarts was a different place at night, she thought.

There was none of the usual hustle and bustle, none of the hectic; just quiet. Not complete deafening quiet, but the comforting kind, with the occasional rustle of the leaves and the whisper of the wind.

Her fellow head boy Blaise Zabini from Slytherin who was civil to her, but nothing more, hated night patrol. Most of the time, she would offer to take his rounds and he would return the favour by drawing up weekly timetables.

There was a loud noise, much like someone swearing and cursing.

She gasped, drawing her wand quickly and chastised herself for over reacting. It was probably some out of bed student; she shook her head in exasperation.

She rounded the corner, wand out, ready to give her usual 'why are you out of bed after curfew' lecture.

Her jaw slid open. "Malfoy?" she whispered incredulously.

He was leaning against the wall, looking disheveled. He hiccupped and the grey eyes that settled on her face were glassy and unfocused.

"Are you drunk?" she accused, smelling the alcohol on his breath.

"I'm perfectly fine," he said indignantly, scowling at her.

"Right," she said sarcastically. "Why are you out of bed after curfew?"

"None of your business," he snapped.

"What?" she said, narrowing her eyes at him. "Excuse me, Malfoy, I am Head Girl and I have a responsibility!"

"Get out of the way, Granger," he spat, giving her a clumsy push.

She crossed her arms and glared at him. "Malfoy," she warned. "I'm giving one more chance. The most I'll do is take 10 points of Slytherin and send you off to bed but if you still continue with this drunken charade of yours, I'll have to inform Prof. Snape."

"Oh you really scare me, Granger," he faked a shudder and sneered at her.

"10 points from Slytherin for being found after curfew," Hermione said tightly. "Now, are you going back to bed or are you going to stand her and argue with me?"

"I'm not doing as you say, Granger," he spat. "Don't you know who I am?" he laughed loudly, jabbing her shoulder with a finger.

She rolled her eyes. He was really drunk.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," he announced.

"Yeah, I know," she said, enunciating each word like he was a four year old. "I kind of figured that out seven years ago, Malfoy."

He glowered at her.

She fought a laugh. He really wasn't threatening when he was drunk. His usually perfectly groomed hair was tousled and pointing in strange angles all over his head. His cheeks were flushed from the alcohol and his gestures were clumsy and sluggish.

His voice slurred when he spoke. "Granger, get out of my way, I'm warning you, or I'll," he stopped to glare at her dramatically.

"Or you'll what?" Hermione asked in exasperation. "Hiccup at me?"

"Or I'll," he continued and then he stumbled, falling onto her.

She shrieked as his entire weight collapsed onto her. "Get off me!" she hissed. She grabbed him by the top of his robes and threw him off her.

"I feel sick," he mumbled, looking slightly green.

"Uh oh," she winced. "Er, not on me, Malfoy," she started to panic when he bent over and dry heaved.

"I'm won't be sick on you," he told her. "Don't get your knickers in a twist." He tried to straighten himself but fell to his knees instead, leaning against her legs.

"Get off your ass, Malfoy, you are a mess," she spat at him.

He got onto his feet, unbalanced and unsteady. "I am not a mess," he whispered, meeting her eyes.

For a moment, his usual alertness returned to his eyes.

His fingers closed around her wrists and in a second, he had her pinned against the wall, her wand falling uselessly to the ground.

"Malfoy, let me go," she commanded.

"No," he said.

"I mean it," she struggled. "Let me go, right now."

"No," he repeated firmly.

Then he did the last thing she thought he would. He bent his head sideways and kissed her full on the mouth.

She could taste the alcohol in his mouth and nearly gagged. "Get off," she whimpered.

"Don't," he said and she froze, hearing a pleading note in his voice. He took the chance to deepen the kiss.

The moment his tongue pushed past her lips, her eyes rolled back in her head, her heart beating so hard she swore the entire castle would hear.

She could feel her pulse in the most secret of places- between her legs, behind her ears, the insides of her thighs and behind her navel.

Finally, she mustered enough energy to wrench free. "What do you think you're doing?" she snarled.

He leaned against the wall, panting. "Don't," he said again.

"On the account that you're drunk and that you don't have a clear head, I'm not going to report what you did, go to bed right now," she instructed, trying to regain her composure.

"It's not over, Granger," he said quietly.

Her eyes snapped to his face. Was he sober?

His face was still flushed red and his eyes somewhat unfocused. "We'll never be over, Draco," she whispered as he walked unsteadily towards the Slytherin dungeons.
"Hasn't it always been that way?

She watched him walk away and when he nearly crashed into a suit of armor, she found herself with his name on the tip of her tongue. Draco.

She spent the rest of the night trying to convince herself it was because of her duty as Head Girl to make sure all students got to bed safely that she followed Draco Malfoy the rest of the way back to his common room before going to bed.


A/N: How was it?

I'm sorry that I haven't updated for such a long time but I've been really really busy.

Anyway this is the second last chapter and there's only one more left. I have it almost done now and I'm working on it. It should be up today too (:

Please review! The story is almost over!

-lissie

I'm working on something new and it look quite promising. It centres on Draco and Hermione, of course, but I'm going to include Lucius and Narcissa, and maybe some other characters to form a subplot. What do you guys think?