Chapter 12

"You were quiet at breakfast," said a voice and Hermione felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned swiftly and her ponytail bounced in the person's face. "Oops," she said sheepishly. "Are you okay?"

"I wouldn't do that again if I were you, Miss Granger," Ginny said and grinned. "My hair's longer." Hermione gave a small smile. "Hey, you okay? Your attention seems to be anywhere but here this morning." Ginny said, her brows scrunched together. Hermione tried to look confused. "What? No, everything's fine."

Ginny raised her eyebrows. Hermione sighed wearily. She had always been bad at lying. It irked her sometimes, how much her friends knew her, to the point when she couldn't get away with anything. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Hermione couldn't tell if Ginny was annoyed or if she meant it genuinely. She knew Ginny wanted Hermione to tell her. She also knew she would probably tell her sooner or later. Better to tell her now and prevent foolish bickering. "Come on." She led her to a mostly quiet place in the common room, which was hard to come by. "Oh, I think I know where this is going," Ginny said, smirking. Hermione rolled her eyes in response. "Well..." How do you tell your best friend you had kissed someone that constantly mocked her family and caused people she loved pain? How do you tell her you enjoyed it? Hermione suddenly felt doubt fill her mind. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Maybe she was just being blinded by Draco's good looks and there wasn't really that something else she insisted she saw in him. And even if it was there, was it enough to make her forget all he'd done, all he'd said? She could remember the scorn in his face when he'd called her a Mudblood. She suddenly felt foolish. What was she thinking, kissing a former Death Eater? She could argue that people changed, but a summer had passed. Could someone change that much, completely switch sides and forget all they'd been taught, in a summer? Of course, Hermione knew Draco had never really believed in all his family stood for. But most people didn't. Hermione realized she had let her thoughts wander for too long and Ginny was looking at her with a confused, bordering on amused, expression. "I...er..."

"You what? Forgot to do your homework? Made out with Malfoy? Realized I was the one who took your red jumper when you thought you lost it?" Hermione rolled her eyes at her. "I knew that already. You wore it to your date with Harry and asked me if it made your hair look orange."

"Right. What is it, then? Forgot to do you homework or made out with Malfoy?" Hermione bit her lip and gave Ginny a guilty look. "You didn't! What!?" She practically shouted. "Shh, I don't need the whole Gryffindor House knowing," Hermione hissed. Ginny closed her eyes and breathed deeply, as if to calm herself down. "When did it happen?" she asked, her eyes still closed. "Yesterday night, at the Astronomy Tower." Ginny eyes flew wide open. "Yesterday night? As in, you snuck out of your dorm to make out with Malfoy?" Hermione cringed at her words. "Not exactly." She suddenly felt stupid, talking about this with Ginny. She hardly even knew what that kiss had meant, and she felt like some shallow, boy-obsessed Fourth-year girl squealing about it with Ginny like this. "What was it like, then? What were you doing there? Did you plan to meet?" Hermione felt attacked by all the questions. "I just... couldn't sleep, so I decided to get some fresh air, and he was there too."

"Did you talk? Or did you just pin him to the wall and snog him?"

Hermione suddenly felt annoyed with the questions and with Ginny. Why did girls feel like they had to know every detail? Couldn't someone have some privacy, some details to keep for themselves? She tried to answer calmly. "We talked, I guess." She saw Ginny's mouth open with another question. "A-About... stuff," she added lamely. Ginny must have understood that she didn't want to talk about that because she didn't press her. They were quiet for a moment. "I can't believe you actually kissed him," Ginny said, breaking the silence. Hermione raised her eyebrows. "I'm just saying, it didn't seem real until now."

Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes and shrugged. "What do you... I mean, do you really wanna be with him?" Hermione had anticipated this question, one she had asked herself many times on the way back from the Astronomy Tower and as she lay in bed, tired but not able to fall asleep. If she was honest with herself, she knew the answer. But really, no one was honest with themselves all the time. "I…don't know. It's complicated."

Ginny scoffed. "Yeah, tell me about it." She looked thoughtful. "But I mean, forget the complications for a moment. Do you want to be with him?" Hermione looked down at her fingers, lying in her lap. She twisted them, trying to make that bunny figure her mother taught her long ago. "I...yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't know. We're not like you and Harry. I don't know if we'll ever be like you, you know, in love and all that." While Harry blushed when Hermione mentioned his relationship with Ginny, Ginny's expression remained the same, eyes boring into hers. Not even a twitch of the mouth. It just went to show how confident she was. "You should talk to him. See if you both feel the same," she advised. Right, that's how it went. Index and middle finger over thumb and ring and pinkie pointed up. "Yeah," Hermione said, suddenly overwhelmed by the whole thing. "So, how was the kiss?" Ginny asked and grinned, poking Hermione in the ribs. Hermione's face heated up and she smiled bashfully. "Honestly, it was kinda awkward. We've been friends for so long, you know?" Ginny nodded understandably and looked solemn. Until: "But was it good?" and the grin was back. "...Yes," Hermione replied and stuck out her tongue.