A/N : Aah! All of those wonderful reviews inspired me to write faster! Thank you so much! Here's the next chapter:
Hermione went down to breakfast on Saturday to find Ginny talking with some sixth years. (Harry and Ron were practising at the Quidditch pitch).
She sat down next to Ginny, who turned her attention to Hermione.
"Hey Hermione, what's up?"
"I need to talk to you," She replied. "Did you eat?"
"Yea," Ginny said, standing up. "Why?"
"Lets go to my room, follow me." Noting the seriousness in Hermione's voice, Ginny followed her to the Head's dorms.
"You know, come to think of it," Ginny noted as they reached the portrait of the warlock and goblin who were now snoozing, "I've never actually been to you dorm before."
Hermione looked mildly surprised as she realised she hadn't show Ginny her dorm. She woke up the warlock, who gave Hermione a dirty look. She said the password, and he grumbled something about "weekends" and "sleeping in", but opened the portrait hole.
"Oooh! You get all this? No wonder you never want to let anyone in here, its lovely!" Ginny said in awe, looking at the common room.
Hermione motioned for Ginny to follow her, and they walked up the steps into her dorm.
"Hermione, can I move in with you?" She asked, as she entered Hermione's room looking at her bed and bathroom almost teary-eyed.
"Stop being silly. Its nice and all but - ugh - never mind! We have to talk!" She sat down on her bed and Ginny followed suit.
"What is it?"
Hermione began to tell Ginny about Malfoy, and how close they had been getting over the last few months. She then told her what had happened last night during patrol, but she left out the part where Malfoy had called her by her first name. It felt too personal to tell Ginny.
"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Ginny squealed, positively bouncing with excitement. "Where is he now?" She lowered her voice, "Is he still sleeping?"
"I think so," Hermione said. She looked down at the mattress. "You know, last night, after - you know," She continued, "He looked at his watch, and just left. He didn't say anything about what had happened."
Ginny hugged her shoulders.
"Its OK, he'll come around. I think now that you two have shown your liking toward one another, he's just too shy to face you. Give him some time."
"You think so?" Hermione looked up, looking slightly more cheerful.
"I'm positive. Now, lets go wait in the common room. Malfoy may come down wearing something revealing." She grinned cheekily as Hermione playfully smacked her with a pillow.
The following weeks were proving Ginny wrong. Malfoy was not talking to Hermione as he used to. Their conversations, once lengthy and fun, were now short, and strictly related to school. What seemed to bother Hermione the most was when he called her by her first name. It seemed so personal, just because it was Malfoy who had said it. She tried not to think about it so much, but found that quite difficult. Many of her thoughts, may it be her assignments, teachers, clothes, all somehow lead to Malfoy. She even made the patrol schedules so that she never patrolled with him any more, but it didn't help very much.
Hermione had also been losing a lot of things. First a hair clip, then a quill, even a pair of her underwear! She had no idea how she lost them, but the strange thing was, whenever she retraced her steps to find whatever she had lost, the items where nowhere to be found. She supposed that the hair clip was just misplaced, and her quill was taken by somebody else – accidentally. For the underwear, she only hoped one of the house elves had lost it in the laundry.
The first match of the season, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, was coming up. There were a lot more injuries and 'accidents' within the Gryffindor and Slytherin houses. People kept getting sent to the hospital wing with tentacles sprouting from their face, or extremely long toe nails protruding from their shoes. Hermione had been bust the entire week, assigning detentions or deducting house points from students cursing each other. Malfoy had been practising for Quidditch (he was the team Captain), so Hermione had to do all the Head's duties alone.
Hermione woke early on the first day of the match. She walked over to her window to see the Quidditch pitch. She could see tiny figures on brooms passing around what looked like the Quaffle. She yawned, and proceeded to get dressed in Gryffindor colours.
Harry and Ron were already in the Great Hall, eating. Harry looked relaxed, and cheery, while Ron looked as though he was suffering from a hangover.
"Alright you guys?" Hermione asked as she sat across from them. She grabbed a piece of toast and began munching on it.
"Yea, we've been practising so hard these past few weeks." Harry said as he took a gulp of coffee. "And Ron's improved tons."
Hermione looked at Ron and gave him a sympathetic smile.
"You'll do fine Ron." She patted his hand kindly.
"Easy for you to say," he muttered.
Hermione ignored his comment, and looked over at Harry's watch.
"Oh, look! Its almost time! You'd better go change into your robes." She squeezed both of their hands. "Good luck!"
Harry and Ron hurriedly went to the Quidditch pitch. After a few minutes Hermione made her way to the pitch with Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. They were gossiping about a new Slytherin player whom they had a great interest in.
She found Ginny already at the pitch, and they got seats in the middle of the stadium.
"So who are you going to cheer for?" She asked, grinning.
Malfoy.
"Gryffindor of course!" She said, sounding offended. Luna Lovegood was at the commentator's podium, and she was introducing the teams.
After a few minutes into the game, Gryffindor was in the lead, sixty to fifty. Luna was talking about how the Quidditch player's uniforms were made of pygmy puff skins.
"Have you noticed how soft they look? That's because Madame Malkin's shop is slaying innocent pygmy puffs to make team uniforms."
"SEVENTY – FIFTY TO GRYFFINDOR!" Professor McGonagall barked in the background. Many of the people in the crowd cheered and laughed. Luna continued her discussion on pygmy puffs.
"Oh, look," Luna said after a while, unconcerned, "The seekers are chasing the snitch. That blonde boy in the green is a bit ahead. I think it's Regis – or is it Roy..?"
"His name is Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall yelled impatiently. The Slytherin crowd cheered Malfoy on, while the Gryffindors cheered for Harry.
Hermione looked in her binoculars to see the speeding figures of Harry and Malfoy race for the snitch.
Malfoy looked as though he had a few inches advantage, but Harry was flying a bit faster. Hermione stood up, watching, shaking her hands in anticipation.
"C'mon Malfoy... you can do it..." She whispered under her breath.
"Oh, look, that fat beater from the Slytherin team in picking his nose." Luna pointed at the hulking figure of Crabbe. "That's a really disgusting habit you know-" She was interrupted by the tremendous screams and cheers from the Slytherin end of the pitch. "Oh, it seems Regis has caught the snitch. I suppose Slytherin won then. I was actually hoping Gryffindor would win..."
"SLYTHERIN WINS - TWO HUNDRED TO SEVENTY!" Professor McGonagall yanked the microphone away from Luna, and proceeded to exit the pitch.
Hermione shuffled out with the rest of the Gryffindors who were muttering gloomily to each other. Although she was sad that Gryffindor lost, Malfoy's victory may give her an excuse to talk to him. She hurried up to her dorm room, and changed into something more comfortable, and less warm.
After a while, Malfoy came into the common room, his hair wet from his shower. Hermione was reading a book at one of the tables, and pretended to pay no attention to him.
"What? Not even a 'congratulations'?" He asked after a moment. Hermione smiled behind her book and put it down.
"It was a good game," She admitted, shrugging. Malfoy snorted sarcastically, and went to his room to change.
He came back out, holding another letter. He sat down on the couch.
"Er – Granger," he said sounding worried, "I think you'd better see this."
"What is it?" When he didn't answer, she got up and sat next to him on the couch. He gave her an envelope that was addressed to him. Hermione slowly opened the envelope, and pulled out a bunch of photos. They were Muggle photos – they weren't moving. Each one of the photos was of Hermione. The first few were of her in her pyjamas, looking thoroughly tired. Other ones were of her walking down the corridors, or climbing up the stairs.
In each of the pictures, some cleavage or an extra bit of thigh was shown. Her hands now shaking, she slowly looked at the last picture. It was Hermione in Malfoy's arms, and they looked as though they were about to kiss.
She dropped the pictures. She took slow deep breaths of air, and forced herself to calm down.
"When did – where did you get these?" She asked quietly.
"Somebody sent them to me during the game. They were in my room."
"Is this all you have?"
"Er – no. I got more stuff." He got up and went to his room. He returned shortly, carrying a box. He gave the box to Hermione. Inside were her lip balm, her quill, her hair clip, a pair of underwear, and a small envelope. She grabbed the envelope, and opened it. Inside was a note, and what looked like her hair. The note said:
In case you never get to
touch it, this is what it
feels like.
She put the note and hair back in the box, and grabbed the underwear. It was the pair she had lost.
Slowly, she put the box on the floor.
"I first got the quill and lip balm. I thought it was a stupid joke, and I ignored it. I then got the underwear. It was a bit disconcerting, but it could've been anyone's. When I got the hair, I was a bit worried, but then -" Malfoy was suddenly cut off. Hermione had burst into tears, and had her face in her hands.
She was sobbing uncontrollably, hunched over on the couch. Malfoy looked clueless for a while, not knowing how to comfort the sobbing Hermione. After a few painful moments, he put his arms around her, and held her close to his chest. Hermione's sobs were ceasing, and she looked up at him.
His eyes didn't look piercing and cold, but they looked warm once again. She was going to ask what he was doing when his lips met hers. The kiss was gentle, and it sent butterflies through Hermione's stomach. After a few moments, she pulled back, and looked at him questioningly. He knew what she was asking, but replied by kissing her again. Hermione melted in his arms, feeling protected. After a while, they pulled away, and said nothing. She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed.
"I just thought it was going to be over, you know, they whole thing with Colin."
"You think Colin did this?"
"I know he did it. Whenever I would walk around the castle, I felt as though somebody was watching me, and I guess I was right. I was also losing a lot of my stuff, and I had no idea where they went."
"Why didn't you tell me this?" He asked.
"Well, after that night when we patrolled, we kind of stopped talking. I didn't think you cared."
"I wasn't talking to you because I had made a mistake."
"What was that?"
"I had called you Hermione."
She lifted her head and looked at him. "You can call me Hermione now," she said quietly.
"OK then, Hermione. You can call me Draco."
A/N: OK, I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but I like it this way. And for the whole kissing scene, this is my first fic, and I don't really know how to describe scenes like that.
But hopefully, I will update really soon, although there will probably be only two more chapters left. (If you have any ideas, tell me!)
Thank you so much for all of those who reviewed, and thanks to all those who read the story (but don't review).