Hiya Readers! Sorry again for the late update!
And I also want you guys to know that I have really important exams coming up, so I won't be able to update until after the month of March… Wish me good luck for my examinations! [The first one is probably Arithmancy…. :P]
Read, Enjoy and Review! I love you guys!
"It'll be fine Draco." Blaise said, placing his arm around Draco's shoulders. Draco nodded.
"I hope so." he said.
They all made their way to the dorm to check on Hermione. She was in her room, sobbing loudly. They stood in the common room contemplating what to do.
"Draco," Pansy said firmly. "Go and apologize." She ordered.
"Are you mad woman!?" Draco said, shocked at her suggestion. "Did you see what happened when I went and apologized before? No. I'm not doing it."
Pansy looked aghast. "Well, none of us are going to do it for you." she said. "Now go." She said, giving him a shove. "Help me, will you?" she asked the rest of them, who were watching the show.
"My pleasure." Said Blaise and joined Harry in levitating Draco upstairs. The others followed. They landed him in front of Hermione's room.
"Go!" Ginny whispered.
"Oh, alright!" Draco said, giving up. "But promise me you'll hold a proper funeral for me." He said.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Now go!" Ron said in a fierce whisper.
"Fine, fine.." Draco relented and reluctantly made his way into Hermione's room.
Once Draco had gone inside, Harry shut the door and said to the others, "Now, not a sound anybody!". And they all sharpened their ears.
Draco mentally and physically braced himself and spoke.
"Er… Hermione?" he called.
She didn't reply. "Are you alright?" he asked without thinking.
The inevitable blow came. "How do you expect me to be alright?" she asked back, forcing her tears to stay inside.
"No…" Draco was at a loss for words. "I-"
"Let me talk." She said, and silence fell.
"The real reason…. Why I got mad at you…. is… I – um…. I wasn't ready." She said.
"Huh?" Draco asked.
"I- I wasn't ready….. for that." She said, hoping he'd understand.
He did. "Look," he began. "I'm sorry Hermione, but….. I honestly don't know what came over me. I just knew that I had to kiss you right then and there. And you didn't resist me did you? I took that as consent and… well…." He trailed off.
"That's the same reason I didn't pull away from you." Hermione said. "There was this…. Some weird feeling in my head that I mustn't resist, and I just…." She trailed off as well.
"Draco, I'm sorry." She said after a few minutes of thinking. "None of this was your fault!" She said, her face considerably brighter.
Draco was puzzled, though he felt slightly better, now that her face was gaining part of her usual glow. "Well, I'm sorry too - "
"No no!" she interrupted.
"It's the stupid prophecy!" she said, smacking herself on the head. "Why didn't I see it before!?"
"What?" Draco asked.
"The prophecy!" she repeated and started pacing around the room.
"What about the damn prophecy?" he asked, losing his patience.
"You remember what Dumbledore told us the day we saw the memory?" she asked.
"I- I do…." Draco said, lost in thought. Finally, everything came back to him. "Right!" he said. "It was this! We were kissing in a broom cupboard! And that dream came true! It's all because of the prophecy!" he said, remembering.
"Exactly!" Hermione said, snapping her fingers. "And those feelings we both had, like you wanted to kiss me and I didn't want to resist, it was all because of that!" she cried, agitated at herself for forgetting such an important detail of the matter.
"So…." Draco said. "All those sort of feelings we've had….. they- they were just due to the prophecy?" he asked.
"Yeah…" Hermione said, her face draining colour. "I guess."
"So, none of them were really real?" Draco went on.
"Hmm." Hermione said and they both fell silent.
Somehow, they didn't want all those feelings to be a simple effect of the prophecy. They wanted them to be real, true. But none was up to admitting all this. Each was as stubborn as the other.
"So…" Draco said. "You forgive me or what?"
Despite the situation and their current predicament, Hermione laughed lightly.
"There's nothing to forgive, Draco." She said. "Like I said, none of it was your fault. It's you who has to forgive me. I'm sorry Draco, for acting without thinking. Please forgive me."
Draco was left speechless. "Oh! I… well… okay fine.." he stammered.
"So, you forgive me?" she asked.
"Yeah.. well." He said.
"Thank you."
Silence presided over them again.
Those outside the door were finding this conversation greatly interesting.
"What going to happen now?" Ron asked the others curiously.
"Dunno mate." Blaise said. "Let's wait and watch."
Back in the room….
Hermione broke the silence.
"So Draco.." she said, hesitating to speak more.
"Go on." Draco encouraged.
"Then…. um… what's there between us now? Or is there an 'us' at all? How would you define us now?" she asked.
"What would you say if I asked you the same question?" he asked back.
"I- I don't know." She answered. "I don't know how I feel about you. I don't know how I should feel about you. With this stupid prophecy controlling my feelings, I can't decide a thing!" she confessed. "And what about you?" she asked him.
"Same here." was Draco's response.
"We have to come to a conclusion." Hermione said.
"You're right Hermione." Draco agreed.
"What do you propose to do?" she asked.
"Let me think. I say we remain friends. I still feel guilty about kissing you without your consent. Let's stay as friends and see how it plays out. Ok?" he suggested.
Hermione sighed. "That's what I thought. That's all we can do for the time being. But I would also suggest that we go to Dumbledore and ask him what he thinks." She said.
"You're right." Draco agreed with her. "He knows pretty well about this bloody prophecy than us, so we might as well ask him what the heck we're supposed to do."
"When shall we go?"
"I think now, would be an appropriate time. Putting this away would only result in a more problematic situation for us."
"Right Draco." She said. "But the others will be downstairs. What do we tell them?"
"I say we take them along with us. They're our friends and they've helped us a lot along the way. Let's tell them what we discussed and bring them along to Dumbledore." He said.
"Done." Hermione nodded.
"Let's go." Draco smiled and led the way to the door.
The listeners outside ran down the stairs after casting a quick Muffliato on their feet and sat down on couches in the common room, pretending to be busy.
Draco appeared, followed by Hermione.
"Guys," he started. "We talked, and we've decided tha –"
"Say no more, mate." Blaise said, standing.
"We know everything." Theo said, a slight smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Come on, let's go." Ginny said and walked towards the portrait hole.
Draco sighed, realizing what they had been doing but Hermione, forgetting their regular practice, asked, "How did you….?"
Harry smirked like a true Slytherin. "We either have the Inner Eye or very sharp ears." He winked and followed Ginny outside.
"Oh Gods!" Draco and Hermione said together, and laughed at it as well.
"I think we're being good friends enough." Draco said. "What do you think?"
"Very true. " Hermione said, smiling to her fullest extent.
So this was today's chapter, readers…. And trust me, you may get tremendous updates after March. Once I finish my exams, I'll be free for, let's say, a month maybe. I'll make up for all the late updates then!
Now for my lovely reviewers:
glazedwater – I always love to hear what you have to say, and it really makes me so happy to read your review on my every chapter. Thank you soooo much!
EmmieCG – Thanks a lot Emmie you made me really happy!
Hellisrising – Thanks! But I'm really sorry you had to wait so long. But I'll pick up all the slack after March! Thanks again!
I love you, my reviewers, hearing from you about my story tells me how much you guys like my story and that makes me feel immensely joyful. So I would like to make this little request: Whoever reads this story, please don't leave before you review!
So long!
Sasha.