Draco's mind whirled as he felt Hermione's arms tighten around his neck. Is she actually kissing me back? He wondered joyously. He continued to kiss her passionately, pouring his years of unrequited feeling into the connection, savoring the feel of her soft lips against his.
Finally gaining control over herself, Hermione broke away, feeling the disappointment washing over Draco. Sighing loudly, his body sagged until he was lying on top of Hermione. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," he whispered to her.
"Why did you do that Draco?" she inquired, "And tell me the truth."
"Are you sure that you want to know the truth?" he replied. She nodded her head, her eyes boring into his.
"Because even though I know you'll never feel the same about me as I do about you, sometimes I can't help myself from getting my hopes up." Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion.
"What do you mean the way you feel about me?"
Draco pulled himself into a sitting position and stared out the window blankly, composing his thoughts.
"Because regardless of how I was raised, and how I acted, and everything that I thought was true for so long, I've always been in love with you Hermione. Since our very first day at Hogwarts, when I saw you standing there looking so scared, yet so brave at the same time. Something in your eyes touched me and haunted me for years, and I've never been able to forget that."
"So…. you're claiming that for seven years, you tortured me and did everything you could to make my life miserable, you were secretly in love with me?"Hermione scoffed.
"I don't expect you to believe me, but you asked for the truth. I've done enough lying in my lifetime; I hardly think that adding to that pile of lies is going to do me any good here."
Hermione sat back in shock. Draco Malfoy, the proverbial thorn in her side, was in love with her? He was bloody mad!
"So you decided that you were just going to kiss me and that I would forget all of that? What did you expect would happen Malfoy? That I was going to smile at you and say, that everything was forgiven, and oh, drakie darling, I love you too! Welcome to the real world. In the real world, even if I hadn't hated your guts for seven years, I'm still in love with Ron! Not to mention what Ron and Harry would do to you if they found out your little secret."
"Yeah, well your 'love' for Weasel-bee didn't keep you from kissing me back now did it?" demanded Draco, his eyes flashing. He didn't know what to expect from her when he revealed his secret, but this wasn't it at all. Foolishly enough, he had rather fancied the idea that she would indeed sigh and proclaim her love for him as well.
Hermione looked away from him, tears welling up in her eyes.
"It was a mistake Malfoy," she whispered.
"You don't know that!" Draco retorted, "How can you know that you'll never be able to love me if you don't get to know the real me, and give me a shot?"
"I will repeat myself for you," she snapped back angrily, "I am TAKEN!"
"Look Hermione," Draco began calmly, trying desperately to keep his injured pride out of his voice, "All I am asking is that you get to know the real me before you reject me. I'm not asking you to elope with me, I'm not asking you to leave Weasel-Bee and run away to Paraguay with me, all I am asking is that you allow me the time that we're forced together to prove that even if you can't love me, you don't have to hate me."
Hermione exhaled slowly. Why did his request have to be so damn logical? She couldn't turn it down and still be able to tell herself that she believed people could change. If she didn't, she'd be a hypocrite for defending Snape for so many years.
"Fine," Hermione growled. "But so help me, if you push in anyway, if you so much as breathe a word of this to anybody, there isn't enough magic in the world to heal what I will do to you. If Ron ever found out-"
"Who says Weasley has to know?" Draco replied relieved to know that at least his actions hadn't totally screwed any chance he had here. "I think that I am going to go indulge myself in a cold shower. I will see you bright and early for Physical Therapy."
"Draco, wait," Hermione began as he looked at her. "Look, it isn't that I don't find you attractive, because I do. It's just…I'm finding it a little difficult at times to match up the old Draco with the new Draco. I'm horrible about holding grudges…I'll probably despise Professor Trelawney for the rest of my life, even if she did make accurate prophesies six times a day for the next fifty years. Ron and I have such history together, and it would break his heart. I barely know who you are now. Let's try to be friends okay? I feel like I have to get to know you all over again."
Draco nodded his head at her.
"Friends it is then," he replied, but in his heart, he knew he wasn't going to settle for only friends.