Chapter Two

Hermione sat silent on the couch, after Draco left, tears falling from her eyes as she started pulling up the clothes left on the floor since last night. Suddenly, she realized what she had done and began sobbing so hard, thinking her friends would never understand. She had let down Ginny, who thought she wouldn't accept the bet in the first place. The rainy weather didn't do it so much good, and she freezed on the cold floor looking out the window thinking Ron would never love her now.

Ron would never be with someone who got drunk enough to sleep with Draco Malfoy and feel good about it. No, Ron was the main reason she cried her heart out for a one night stand. After she ran out of tears, put some sad music on and started sobbing even harder, thinking about her kiss with Ron, during the war. How he didn't want to do anything, he didn't want to die until she kissed her good-bye.

Ron would never do this to me, how could I do this to him ? How could I be so blind to think that a one night mistake wouldn't haunt me as much as it does ? This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't supposed to happen... she fell asleep still repeating those words, and she woke up the next morning, with red eyes and a redhead next to her.

"Ginny, what the hell are you doing here ?"asked Hermione trying to hide her eyes, and got up to go to the bathroom.

"Have you been crying ?" replyed the ginger skeptical.

"Yeah, I watched a sad movie last night and it was just too much for me, I am sorry, I hoped my eyes would regain their true color by this morning."

"Mione, can I stay here tonight ? Mom and dad are going to Romania to visit Charlie, and they're taking everybody, and I didn't want to go, because I went last summer, so I rent an appartment two blocks away, but the owner can't give me the key until tomorrow, and all my baggage is there, locked in, and I don't have any place to stay." Ginny was looking ashamed, but Hermione gave her a hug and said "I'd be more than happy if you stayed here, this way I don't have to be alone tonight. We could watch some movies together." Ginny nodded and went to the kitchen to make some pancakes, as Hermione was clearly not in the mood for cooking, and have her a kiss on the forehead.

Gosh, I need to tell Ginny, she always knows when something's wrong with me, and she clearly suspects what happened the other night. But it's gonna be hard, she doesn't even know I kissed Ron, she will stay mad at me for days, even weeks, but she'll do that even if I don't tell her, she will feel like I betrayed like, like I didn't trust her anymore. Argh, this is fucking hard ! If I could just have said no.

Ginny came into the room with a big smile on her face and two plates of pancakes. Okay, Granger. Just start with the beggining. She loves you, she'll understand. Or, you could tell her you only kissed Draco. Yeah, that's better. I mean, it's bad enough for you to be upset.

"Ginny, I have something to tell you, but I don't exactly know how. I mean, I have been thinking for a while about this, and you're my best friend, and I feel like I don't trust you if I don't tell you that. But you're gonna hate me. Promise me you won't hate me." said Hermione nervous.

"Let me tell you something. I have been in your place when I wanted to tell you I liked Harry for real. It's always better to unload on a friend, than to keep your sorrow inside, and finally go mad because of it. I promise I won't hate you, because every person has secrets that they're not proud of. I can't promise you I won't be mad, and that depends on the news you're about to give me, but I promise I won't hate you. I could never hate you." Ginny sounded so sincere when she said that, that Hermione just melt inside thinking how is she gonna react when she heard what she had to say.

"I have done some bad things, I have been a kind of wild lately, compared to how I usually am. When we were about to destroy the Horcrux in the Chamber of Secrets, after Ron hissed the right words, we did... we kind of... we kissed." the girl's heart was beating like crazy, but stopped for a second when she heard Ginny saying "I knew that. Well, at least i had a hunch. That's what you had to tell me or is it more ?"

"It is way more, Gin, you see, we didn't actually talked about it, me and Ron, we dropped the subject, even if the first two months was really awkward. I knew Ron liked me, and I liked him too, but if he wasn't going to make a move, I thought maybe his feelings changed. And then Viktor came back in England, and he seemed to be really into me, so I went with it, and I ended up liking him back. We stayed together until last week, when he left, you know, we talked about a distance relationship, but I just couldn't do it, if I was gonna have someone, it had to be here with me, so I can kiss him everyday and... things... "

"Things ?!" interrupted Ginny grinning.

"Yeah, we did some stuff, and he was actually my first in everything. First boy who kissed me, in fourth year, and the first I... did it with, now." Hermione blushed. "So, as I was saying, he left and I ended up pretty broken-hearted, but I figured out I still needed to talk to Ron, even if nothing was about to happen. And then you made that bet with me, that I couldn't make Draco Malfoy to go out with me..."

"You like Malfoy ?" asked the Red punching her arm.

"Gosh, Ginny, you're making this really hard for me" Hermione looked like she was about to start crying. "I hooked up with him.", and with that words, she started crying so hard, that even her friend froze there quiet, not knowing if she wanted to be left alone or hugged. Finally, she gave her a small kiss on the forehead, along with a hug, and said "I would never be mad at you for doing that. Actually, I bet you that you couldn't go out with him, hoping this will happen." Hermione looked puzzeled. "What do ya mean ?" she asked between sighs.

"Well, as I told you, I had a hunch you kissed or something, because neither of you wanted to be left alone with the other, and when you didn't look, he was staring at you, and vice-versa. I can't imagine how could you think no one was seeing you. So, Ron did some bad stuff too, I don't know if you heard this or not, cause I tried really hard to keep the rumors away from you, he had been sleeping around ever since. And I just didn't know how to make you relax a little bit. If you were crying just because you thought I hated you, stop, and if you thought Ron would never like you, think again. Just because you slept with someone doesn't mean you can't like anyone else. Now tell me, it was really that bad ?"

Hermione had stopped crying, and started smiling when she heard the words coming out of her friend's mouth. "Well, if you must know, I had so much fun. It was a hell of a night, indeed. And the he was just... he was amazing, I didn't know Malfoy had manners; last night totally changed my opinion about him."

After telling her every little detail she could remember, they realized it was past midnight, and went to sleep, and Hermione slept good for the first time after a long, long while.

She woke up just to smell the heavenly pancakes her best-friend had made for her, and after they ate, she walked her down to her flat.

"Hermione" started Ginny, just before she got into the building "you don't need to have a relationship with Draco just so you can have some fun. There is something called 'friends with benefits', and I reckon you know what I am talking about. I am totally supportive; go have fun, girl." ended she, and got into the elevator. She was gonna have some workers to help her move the furniture the way she wanted.

Hermione thought about what Ginny said, and hoping it wasn't a bad idea, she called Draco and invited him over. Twenty minutes later, he was standing at her door, and she opened up, dressed in a pink short summer dress and some comfy sandals.

"Wanna go out for a drink ?"asked the girl quickly. "If you don't want to, it's okay, I can go by myself.". The boy looked at her and muttered "What's the catch ?"

"There is no catch, but I really need to talk to you. I was hoping we could do that out, I cried my heart out in here for two days, I could use some fresh air."

After he ordered a scotch, and she ordered a cocktail, she opened her mouth to say something, but Draco was faster, amost shouting "I'm sorry for what I did. It was stupid, it's never gonna happen." Hermione remained silent. "Do you WANT TO do it again ?"

"No." answered the boy and took a sip of his scotch. "Unless, you want to. I mean, I can't say it sucked. You were actually pretty good, I mean, it was actually pretty good, the whole night."

Then Hermione told him about the famous deal, also named 'friends with benefits', and remained amost shocked when he agreed to do it.

"Look, Granger, I actually have no friend, and the drunken one night stands I do every once in a while are giving me the creeps in the morning when I wake up, and they have already moved their toothbrush in my bathroom. And this comes with more benefits than sex, I can ask you to come over and pretend you're my girlfriend, so they would leave, that shouldn't be much trouble, right ? After all, we do live in the same building."

"We don't live in the same... "

"So you never wondered why my car is always parked outside and how could I be over at your house so quickly when you called me ?"

"You took twenty minutes."

"I got ready in those twenty minutes. Believe me, Granger, I was just as boomed as you when I found out, but this is great, right ?"

"I believe I could do that, it's a small price, and after all, we are friends." ended Hermione the subject, after which they started talking about everything that was going on in their lives, and Hermione was pretty amused by the fact that she surprized herself telling him how much she liked Ron, and even feeling good after.

They spent another amazing night out, and got back to her flat, ending up in bed again, only this time they felt more relaxed, knowing that they were gonna stay hidden, nobody besides Ginny would know. Nobody had to know.

The summer ended quickly, and they had a whale of time laughing at all the girls leaving his apartment hungover, barely remembering what they have done. And the best part of this, Hermione could have fun, without worrying that he could break her heart, or otherwise. Getting back to school again was weird, giving that even Ginny started to like the new Draco, the funny one that didn't have anything to say about wealth of blood status. They appeared all three of them in the King's Cross, being stared at and pointed by the other students in their year.

First week ended very soon, even though Hermione couldn't be as close to Draco as she used to during the summertime, but still found time to shag in between some classes.

But the next week something odd happened. Ron had started to look at her with another eyes, to take more care about what he said in front of her, and dress more nicely when they were together after classes, and soon enough, came the moment that made Hermione realize that it was never easy for the 'friends with benefits'. Ron had admitted his love for her.

It was a rainy day, and the couples were standing outside under the big roofs that were put outside to shelter some rocks that served as benches from rain. Hermione and Ron were sitting on one of this rocks, chatting about their holiday. Ron had been to Romania, and met a lot of nice people and Hermione... well, she just stayed at home, and went to the beach, occasionally with Ginny and Draco.

"By the way, Mione, when have you become such good friends with Malfoy ? I thought you hated that bloody idiot."

"Well, it just happened to live in the same building as me, and not very far away from Ginny. And he's really changed, he's not that much of an idiot."

"Hermione, I wanted to tell you something long time ago, I just didn't have to courage. That night, when we kissed in the Chamber of Secrets, that meant a lot to me" it meant a lot my arse, you've been sleeping with all of the girls in our school, idiot.

"Scream it." said the girl blushing.

"What ?" asked Ron looking at her disoriented.

"I said scream it. Scream, I kissed Hermione Granger and I like her."

"I can't scream that. What would other people think ? The thing is, Hermione, I think I'm in love with you."

That moment, Hermione froze for two reasons. One, her best friend whom she had been in love with told her he loved her, and two, the boy she really liked and had been sleeping with all summer was waving smiling at her. She waved him back, and felt like that moment had spoken for her. She had chosen to wave at Draco, instead of paying attention to Ron, who was revealing his true feelings. That moment, she knew that it was just a matter of time until she wrealized she had fallen for Draco Malfoy. Suddenly, the moment that was going to clear everything to her came when she heard someone screaming, and it wasn't Ron.

"I am in love with Hermione Granger." People were looking at him, pointing and laughing, but he didn't care, he stood there in the pouring rain, and waited for his friend and lover to look at him. Hermione looked at Ron, who was red with anger and said slowly "I am sorry. You were just... too late.", and kissed him on the cheek, and the ran to Draco, pulling him under a roof, and kissed him in front of everybody, "I love you too, Malfoy.".

She then saw Ginny and Harry holding hands, smiling, and she smiled back at them, looking as happy as she could.

"I didn't know you could read people's minds, Malfoy." she said grinning.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Granger." he replyed and kissed her again.

The end.

A/N: I hope you liked my story, I didn't want to make it a long one because I'm taking a break, I'm leaving on vacantion tomorrow and I don't know how much I am gonna miss. Therefore, I made it a two-shots, I figured one shot was just too short.

Thanks so much for reading it, and please review, feel free to notice my mistakes, and let me know about them, it would really mean a lot to me, this way I am becoming a better writer. Thanks again for reading. xox