Chapter 24

His familiar sneer back in place, he slowly turned to Ginny.

In his nastiest voice, he began. "Thank you, so much, for your permission to speak my mind. You and all your lowbred family and annoying little friends want me in Azkaban- end of story. If they feel for me anything close to what I feel for them, they would never want me near their preciously guarded Hermione. Potter would rather I end up in Azkaban then that I be…intimate with their little book-worm princess."

Ginny's eyes went wide at that, but she listened and fought to ignore his snide comments stuck into his explanation.

"Potter would also rather have her be as hurt and confused as she is, in order to punish her for choosing me over your dorky brother. Well, for now. I don't know how long she'll want me around if all her idiot friends abandon her. Who's the bad guy now?"

He was leaning over the table further and further as he spoke. Finishing, he sat back rather angrily into his chair, arms crossed.

Ginny continued to stare at him. "Are we finished ranting?"

Draco shot her a glare.

"Ok, here's my take on all this: Your personality is as horrible as ever, but Hermione must see something when other's aren't around. Either way, that's not up to me, or Harry, or even Ron, to decide. But, Hermione has been keeping this a secret, right? That's not right. When the hell did all this happen, anyways? How?!"

Draco sighed. "When I saved her life, in Canada."

"It was in Canada?"

"Nevermind. She came looking for a horcrux, apparently; nearly died, and I saved her ass. Like she said. But, being stuck together for several days we found out that we don't clash too horribly together. One thing led to another…"

"And you too…what? Kissed?"

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Yeah…sure…"

Ginny's mouth fell open. "And you two slept together?! Am I right?! In the middle of the war?" Ginny was blown away. Hermione? It just didn't sound like her.

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Do you think I'm lying? Whatever. The point is that Weasley was too dense, apparently, to figure out what went down, while Harry saw the not-so-subtle hints of our goodbye kiss and worked his tiny brain to figure it out."

"Well, he probably wouldn't be as pissed if Hermione hadn't lied…"

"Right." He laughed. "There's a conversation I would actually pay to see. 'Gee, Potter, seen as how were such good friends I just had to tell you that I'm banging…"

"Alright, fine." Ginny interrupted, "I see your point." She hesitated. "Harry didn't…walk in on something this morning, or anything, did he…?"

Draco laughed. "That would have been hilarious!" Ginny glared. "Well…ok, maybe it would have made things worse…but no, we haven't done anything inappropriate since we met last time, during the war. In fact, we can't have anyone find out anything is going on at all…we don't know when my trial is, but whenever it's held we can't have Hermione appear biased…"

"Even though she is horribly biased."

Draco paused, then asked, "Do you think she's wrong to defend me, too?"

Ginny sighed. This was too complicated. "No. We should have all learned by now that biased or not, love is never something to scoff at. She wouldn't be with you if she didn't love you. If she loves you, then all the more reason I'm on her side in making sure you don't go to Azkaban."

At the word "love," Draco's face turned pink.

"Are you…blushing?" She asked, completely thrown off. Maybe there was a side of Draco that he kept hidden from everyone else. Nah…

"No…It's just…your are not the person I'd want to discuss all this with, I just saw that Hermione wasn't able to, but wanted to. Can we just drop it, and agree that you'll talk to Potter for her?"

Ginny smiled a very "I have a scheme" smile, and said sweetly 'If Harry has to tolerate you, then you have to tolerate him."

"W…what?"

"You heard me. I'll talk to Harry, but you have to stop with your insults. I believe that your not just using Hermione, but I don't think he believes that. In any case, I'll keep this secret until after the trial. But in return you have to make an effort to get along with Harry. I want you to talk with him…"

"Oh, hell no!"

She ignored him. "…and explain that you're not out to hurt his friend. Call a truce. I'm not expecting you two to become 'best friends forever' or anything stupid, but I do expect you two to handle this like adults."

Draco sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand. Ginny continued, "If I see so much as a glimpse of your wand, it's over- I won't help with anything to do with you."

"Me? What makes you think I'll be the one to start-"

She interrupted, "And, if Harry pulls his wand or anything else stupid…" She smiled, thinking back on something. "Nevermind. He'll also be missing out on something."

"Gross. Fine. Whatever. I'll talk to Potter."

Ginny clapped her hands. "Ok, then I'll bring him by tomorrow. And I'll leave you to explain to Hermione that you told me everything. Lovely visit, but I can't stand another moment with you. Bye!"

And with that, she was gone.

***

Hermione looked at herself in the mirror. She had to tell Ginny all that was going on, or she would lose Harry. She couldn't stand the thought of never being able to talk with her friend again…of him not wanting to see her again…

She steeled her courage, and headed back to the kitchen.

She found Draco sitting entirely by himself at the table, Ginny's empty glass sitting in her place.

"What happened?!" Hermione exclaimed, looking around in the hopes that Ginny was just…hiding or something.

"She left." Draco said, grumpily.

Hermione stared at him.

He raised his hands. "It wasn't like that; I didn't scare her away or anything, promise."

Hermione looked relieved, and sat down next to him. "Then want to explain to me what happened?"

Draco explained, as quickly as possible, that he had risked telling Ginny about the two of them, and that it had gone over well enough. He also grudgingly explained that Harry would be over tomorrow.

"She…she was ok with it?"

"Yes. Oh, she hates me, but she's ok with it. You know, she's actually very adult in her judgments."

Hermione nodded. "Ginny is pretty mature. Which is why I thought she would at least yell at me for this..."

Draco frowned. "So, you think the rational expectation for our situation is that you should be punished?" His lips twitched at the last word, but he fought back making a dirty comment. "Hermione…do you think it's wrong, being with me?"

She didn't say anything.

"Do you think…the whole 'death eater' thing…do you think I'm making you somehow 'dirty' with all that? Because your with me?"

She looked up at him. He seemed worried, and deep in thought. Did he think of himself as tainted by the things he was forced to do? Was she making it worse by seeming ashamed of him? How horrible was she?!

The connection was not lost on Hermione. His whole view on life related to how 'clean' one's blood is. Now he'd begun to see that one's actions are even more important. By using the term 'dirty,' he was referring to his actions, not blood. Throughout his life, there were few things that could put you in lower esteem than being 'dirty.' What he thought of himself right now worried Hermione.

She couldn't let him hate himself, or think so low of himself. What would be left of him if he thought he really deserved Azkaban?

"No!" she said, forcefully. "Listen, Draco; a bit of guilt shows that you're a good human being. But you can't think of yourself as 'dirty.' No matter what anyone…" she looked away from him, "…called me, I never felt like I was a bad person because I knew I was a brilliant witch, whoever my parents were."

"Sorry…" he began, but she cut him off.

"I've been terrible, acting like I was ashamed of you! Because I really know that you are innocent, that you didn't want to hurt anyone! If I thought you were the kind of person capable of getting joy out of torture, I would never have even talked with you. You don't have evil in you, Draco! You have to know that, too."

She leaned over, leaving her chair slightly to kiss him. She slid out of her chair and leaned over with her arms around his neck. He kissed her back lightly, then harder as he pulled her into his lap.

She broke the kiss, and said softly, "I want to show you how much I'm not ashamed of you. I want to show you how much I love being close to you…" she kissed him again, softly, "How much I love touching you…"

"Hermione…honestly, your feeling guilty for making me feel bad about myself? I still haven't really apologized for how I treated you before…"

"Past. Forget it. All that matters to me is that you don't feel that way about me now."

"No, never again. I could never overlook what a great person you are, now that I know you."

Hermione thought for a moment, and commented, "You know how people say, "we'll look back on this and laugh…?"

Draco laughed lightly. "Right, we have sooo much to laugh about regarding our times together at Hogwarts." He rolled his eyes. "Although there is some strange irony to all of this, huh?"

"Like a rip off of "Pride and Prejudice," actually."

"What?"

"Muggle book. Nevermind. I'll make you read it eventually."

Draco looked skeptical on the notion of being made to read something, but Hermione closed the subject by nuzzling his neck. She breathed in deeply, loving the smell of him, and the warmth of him.