Gravity.
Disc : Harry Potter is not mine.
Sixteen
Hermione knew that Draco was doing something. She knew that he was up to something in the castle. They all knew that he was going to bring trouble to the school, but Hermione couldn't stop running into him in the furthest east corridor under the Astronomy Tower between the hours of 2 and 4 am.
The first time it had happened, Hermione had been on her way back to her common room after a particularly long night of studying in the library. She was trying to avoid Ron. In all honesty, she had hoped that Draco would be out and about at that hour.
She turned the corner into the corridor and ran right into his chest. He wore his school robes while she wore jeans and a sweater. They both instinctively reached for their wands, but stopped when their eyes adjusted to the light. "Granger." His expression was softer than before, his eyes were kinder, and Hermione could see how tired he was.
"Mr. Malfoy, what are you doing out this late?" It wasn't an interrogational question. She asked him in a light whisper, barely audible.
"Hermione." His eyes were starting to fill with moisture. His voice had grown rough. Without warning, Draco crumpled onto Hermione's shoulder and she wrapped her arms around him. She sat him down on a step and took her spot beside him.
"What's wrong?" She didn't want to know what Draco was doing; she didn't want to know because he might have said something that she didn't want to hear.
"It's my family. We're falling apart." The only words he uttered were family related. Hermione was glad that he hadn't confessed to whatever he was doing. She looked him in the eyes, warm brown against cool gray. She could see so much in his eyes that she'd never seen before, there was love and pain and most of all there was fear.
"It will all be okay in the end, Draco." Hermione kept her arms wrapped around his shoulders loosely. She felt one of his hands on top of one of hers; the warmth was comforting to them both.
"It can't be. Hermione …" His words died as he looked at Hermione again, and his eyes began to lose focus again. "Hermione, I don't know what to do anymore. I'm … I'm scared."
"You don't have to be scared." Hermione moved closer to him, she could see his humanity. "You're with me now, you don't have to be scared." They were both contemplating the space between their bodies, the empty space that could be the difference between being alone and being a part of something.
Before she could make her decision, Draco leaned in and kissed her. It wasn't a passionate kiss or a kiss that shook her to her core. It was a simple collision of their lips. Hermione sat dumbfounded; nothing could have prepared her for that. Then Draco leaned in again and this time it was hungry and passionate. His hands found their way into her hair and hers rested on his chest. She wanted to stop the contact and go back to her warm dorm bed, but there was something unexplainable about the kiss.
For the first time, Hermione felt reckless and dangerous. For the first time, Hermione knew that she had connected with someone truly over something she didn't fully understand herself.