"Look, I ruined your shirt." Hermione said as she held the fabric of his shirt once they had pulled away. He looked down at his slightly wet shirt.
"It's nothing." He patted her hands and gave her one dashing and ever so affectionate of a smile. So affectionate, it was almost like, he intended to flirt with her. He was not aware that he had begun to initiate his means of getting her head around the fact about his unfeigned feeling towards her. Little did he know that there were butterflies inside her stomach.
"I didn't even realise you are soaked." He admitted truthfully. "Come on, let's get you changed before you catch a cold." Draco stood to his feet and pulled both of Hermione's forearms towards him. A single tear was sliding across her cheek, and Draco wiped it from her face with his thumb. "Now stop that sniveling. You don't need no one. You don't need him. That sorry excuse of a person." Draco urged softly then pulled the backside of her head and gave her a hug. "Come on." He tugged her hand and led to her room.
"I forgot to-"
"Bring your clothes?" He finished off her sentence and lifted his eyebrows questioningly. "I wouldn't even expect you to bring one, I mean, who would've remembered to bring their clothes with them when they were on a state of devastation, Hold a second, will you?" Before she even opened her mouth to answer, he shouted, "Walby!" Draco waited seconds to pass but nothing happened. He tried again, louder this time, "Walby! Where the hell are you?" He grew impatient.
With a sudden puff of wind, a rather small creature appeared with a wrinkly skin and a terrified look on his face. "Young Master Malfoy, please forgive Walby's carelessness. No don't! Walby deserves to be punished! Punish Walby, Young Master Malfoy!" After he had done with his ranting he shut his oversize eyes and faced down. Trembling with fear.
Hermione looked slightly troubled that she drew back the hand Draco had been holding, then looked away. Draco felt her hand was slipping off of him. He got a second to glance at her and felt remorseful at her expression. It turned out that he had forgotten for a moment that Hermione was the one who inaugurated S.P.E.W. He couldn't quite remember what it had stood for, but he did, retain that it was about house elf's right. He had liberated all the house elves under his roof straightaway after she had told him about it, although some of them had chose to stay and keep their loyalty to Malfoys.
"Walby, I'm not going to punish you, alright?" Draco said it slowly as he crouched down to the house elf's level and softened his expression and voice.
"Walby is just wasting Young Master Malfoy's time. Walby is useless! Walby just has to punish himself then." Walby walked to nearest wall at the room and banged his head continuously to it.
Draco looked up and noticed that Hermione was still looking away, not wanting to witness the house elf tortured himself. " Walby, stop it!" demanded Draco. Walby's head shot towards him and walked before them with his head still facing the ground. "It's me who should've apologised to you, Walby." Draco said and Walby's eyes looked up at him bewildered. "I shouldn't have yelled at you, I'm sorry."
Hermione was astonished by Draco's deed. She had never thought he would lower himself to a certain level, which was apologising to a house elf. That particular action was not a piece of cake for a pureblood let alone a Malfoy. She let a discreet smile played on her lips
"Hermione have just gotten here and she is going to live here from now on, but she had forgotten to fetch her clothes with her. Take care of it, alright?"
"Thank you! Thank you, Young Master Malfoy! Walby's glad that Ms. Hermione moves here. Ms. Hermione is kind, beautiful-" Draco cleared his throat as he tried to make a sign, indicating to Walby that he had said enough and should stop by then, unfortunately, Walby didn't seem to make sense of that, instead, he asked if Draco was alright.
"Is Young Master Malfoy alright? Should Walby get Young Master Malfoy a glass of water?"
"No." He replied with a flat expression.
"Is Young Master Malfoy sure?"
"Yes, I am. Now-"
"Well, then, Walby is going to continue Walby's talking. Walby's glad that-" He smiled at Draco and Hermione.
"You've said that."
"Oh. Ms. Hermione is ki-"
"And that too." Draco retorted.
Hermione chuckled softly at their silly exchange but loud enough for Draco to hear. "Amused, aren't you, Hermione?" He asked facing towards her. Hermione didn't answer, merely carried on with her chuckling.
"Ms. Hermione is-" Walby continued but cut off by Draco.
"Walby."
"- indeed a marvelous influence for-"
"Such big word, Walby. For a house-elf." He remarked sarcastically, but in reality, Walby really did accept it as a compliment.
"Young Master Malfoy. See, Thanks to Ms. Hermione, Young Master Malfoy is now way better of a person than he was." Walby was looking up at Hermione.
"You do realise, I'm still standing here, don't you?"
"Yes, and Walby is sure Young Master Malfoy is glad too that Ms. Hermione moves here. Walby noticed Young Master Malfoy's expression when Young Master Malfoy woke up to find Ms. Hermione would be gone." Draco turned slightly red.
"I think that's enough, Walby. You may go. Hermione's cold. Would you make her wait any longer?" Draco asked, rhetorically.
"No Walby is on his way, Young Master Malfoy." After he finished his sentence, he had gone in a second.
Draco got up with his face still sort of red. "Walby is tad… garrulous." He said, rubbing the backside of his neck nervously, not looking at Hermione.
Hermione had finally stopped chuckling and managed to throw her arms around Draco's neck for the second time that day. "Thank you so much! You don't know how much that means to me. I thought you've forgotten." Hermione closed her eyes.
Draco was taken aback. He had thought that his yelling at the house elf would upset Hermione slightly. He embraced her tighter, sighing with relieved. "I'm sorry."
"What for?" Hermione pulled away, and kept both of her hands on his shoulder to look at his eyes questioningly.
"For yelling at him the first time, I noticed your face were rather unsettled." His hand remained on her waist.
"You have nothing to be sorry about, Draco. You apologised, that's more than what I could've asked for. " She smiled at him reassuringly.
"I shouldn't have been yelling at him."
"True, but we all slip sometimes, don't we?"
Draco merely nodded and felt himself falling harder when she tiptoed and kiss him on the cheek, muttering thank you all over again.
"Do I get to do that to you too?" He asked with a smirk, trying real hard to conceal his exuberant feeling and acted calmly.
"Of course, Draco." She blushed for a mere second before her cheek turned back to its original, sunkissed complexion.
Author's Note : So that was the second chapter. Thanks for reading, and I hope you wouldn't mind with a little bit of fluff :) So, what do you think? more chapter or not? Please review! :D