Chapter Three: Lessons
Hermione's POV
I had been plagued with dreams of Draco Malfoy all night long. But on impartical stayed in the front of my mind. In the dream, we had been sitting before a fireplace. He was sitting in the armchair and I on his lap. His arms were wrapped tightly around me. A smiled painted both of our faces. We were in a moment of complete and udder bliss. He whispered to me, "I love you," the words I could only dream to hear from him. I woken saddened, the dream had seemed so real and I hoped like everything that I could go back to that place.
Grudgingly, I climbed out of my bed. I looked over at my desk and noticed a letter sitting on it. I smiled. I stole a quick glance at my calender and noticed that it was Hogsmede weekend. I smiled, knowing already what his letter could be about. I picked the letter up and opened it.
Dearest Hermione,
Just writing to remind of our meeting at the Quddicth Pitch. Meet me in an hour, you roomates should be on their way to Hogsmede by then. See you soon.
Your friend,
D.
I smiled and quickly stashed his letter and went to the bathroom to watch my face and brush my teeth, when that ordeal was finished, I went to my trunk to get my clothes. I choose a green sweater and black jeans. I pulled my hair into a ponytail. Then I returned back to the bathroom to apply a little bit of makeup. I applied some mascra and black eyeshadow. I put on some chapstick and started on my walk toward the Quddicth Pitch.
The sight that greeted me was Draco Malfoy, his hair was ungelled and fell in his face, he looked rather dashing in a grey sweater and black jeans. As soon as he saw me a smile, not a smirk, greeted me. I smiled in return. He rushed to me and picked up in a huge hug. I smiled and returned his hug. He finally put me down.
"Have I kept you waiting long?" I asked him. He shook his head.
"I had to wait for my housemates to leave then come down here. Green suits you." He said. I smiled and blushed.
"Thank you, Draco. Grey suits you as well. I must say I like your hair this way, it's more natural." I said, refraining form calling it sexy, even though it was the direct denfition of what it looked like. He smiled at me. "So are we safe to start this lesson?" I asked him.
"Well, not everyone has left yet. Should we wait until they leave?" He asked me.
"Yeah, it would be wise. If we were to get caught, well, lets just say I don't think the results of our antics will be drastic." I said. He quickly agreed with me.
"So shall we sit?" He asked me nodding toward a seat, I nodded. He sat down on the grass and motioned for me to join him, which I did. "Which note did Lavender read exactly?" He asked me, turning himself toward me to where he could look at me.
"The one where you said that I make an impression and brought up the Yule Ball." I said almost in a whisper. He chuckled.
"I'm sure she almost had a heart attack at reading it, huh?" He joked with me. I smiled at him. "I mean does Weasley ever say anything like that to her?" He asked me. I recalled the night.
"Well, I did recall yelling that night between the two of them. I caught what Ron said very well. He told her that wasn't knowing he loved her enough to flatter her, did she really need extra words to prove it? She replied that she is flattered that he loves her but some sweet words here and there would be nice. She also brought of the fact that someone I didn't even know," I stressed that hard,"was complimenting me in a way that Ron had never complimented her." Draco laughed.
"So my note to you put Lavender and Weasley in a fight did it?" He asked me. I laughed.
"Your letter just encouraged another arguement." I said. "They argue enough though without the encouragement. But it was rather sweet to say that to me. Even though I'm sure Pansy was thrilled that you paid no attention to her." I joked in the end. He laughed and smiled. He glanced at his watch.
"Well, I'm sure that everyone that is going has left." He said to me. "And you're very welcome for the comment, it was entirely true." He said. I blushed. He pulled a broom from the closet. Fear shot through me as I thought of being up in the air on that broom.
"Um..can't we just sit down here for a while?" I said to Draco, still eying the broom. When I finally looked at Draco, I noticed that he looked at me confused. "I'm just not really good with hieghts." I said, looking at the ground. I half expected him to laugh, I knew that the old Draco would have.
"Hermione," He said, his hand slipped underneath my chin and pushed my face up and I was met by his eyes. "I will not on any circumstance let you fall." He said. I was touched by his words and I saw that, in his eyes, he truly meant it. Without thinking, I threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly. I felt his arms wrapped around me. "Are you ready now?" He asked me in my ear. Tingles shot down my back and butterflies erupted in my stomach. I pulled away, rather reluctantly, and nodded. He mounted the broom and patted the place in front of him. I was confused at first then I realized that he wanted me to climb on the broom in front of him. I did. The closeness of us surprised me at first, but then I got used to it. He placed my hands where I supposed they should have been and kept his hands over mine. Tingles erupted from my hand and spread through the rest of my body. I looked down and noticed that his arms were around my waist just barely touching.
He surprised me back kicking off and starting through the air. I closed my eyes tightly. Not bothering to watch where we were going. I was to scared to open my eyes. I heard Draco humming behind me, it was a soft melody. I felt his hands begin to move over my own in a soothing manner, I opened my eyes and looked back at him. He smiled and I smiled in return. Tentatively, he began to pick up speed. I realized rather quickly why he did so, he didn't want to frighten me by going to fast. Sometimes after his speed up, he began to slowly dip us down. Fear once more shot through me and my body tensed. And once more Draco began to hum and move his hands over my own, every once and a while he would squeeze my hands. Eventually, I began to calm down. We touched the ground and he dismounted and helped me off. I smiled at him.
"Now was that so bad?" He asked me.
"No. What was that you were humming?" I asked him. He looked shocked for a moment but recollected himself rather well.
"It was a lullaby my mom would hum when I would be afraid or sad. She's the only one that I'm saddened to leave behind. My dad would always be sickened by my fear and say that I was weak." Draco had looked down while he was talking, every now and then I saw his shoulders shake. I noticed that the reason he was shaking was because he was crying. I hugged him in the gentliest way that I could manage. His arms wrapped around me rather loosily and he cried into my shirt as he cried his arms wrapped around me a little tighter. I began to cry with him.
After a while, we both stopped crying. He looked up at me and gave me a sad smile. I looked at him as he straightened himself up and made it look as though he hadn't been crying.
"Thanks." He said in a low voice, "Thanks alot."
"You're welcome." I said. He glanced at his watch, I supposed to see what time it was.
"We have a while before they get back. What do you want to do?" He asked me. "Don't even say go to the library because I want to spend time with you, not with books." He said with a smile.
I laughed. "How about we go talk in the kitchens?" I said. "That way, you know, no student would see us." I said.
"Sure. I am kind of hungry." He said. I smiled and walked along with him to the kicthens. The looks on the elve's faces when we walked in was hilarous. They looked shocked and exicted at the same time. We laughed and told them that we wanted something to eat. They smiled and asked us if we wanted anything specific. "Um, I'd like a sandwich." Draco said. I agreed with him and said that I wanted the same. We walked over to a table and sat down.
"So," I started, "How is Pansy and you?" I asked. It was a known fact that Pansy and Draco had something going on. I tried to keep the sadness and jealousy out of my voice while asking. He looked surprised by my question.
"We aren't even together. It's a common misconception. She likes to act as though we are dating. It's actually very annoying. So, how is Weasel and you?" He asked, he didn't even bother to keep any emotion out of his voice.
"Like your situation with Pansy. We aren't together. I think of him as my friend even though he has made it known that he feels more for me than just friendship." I said. He smiled.
"So, you see, we aren't that different after all." He said. I nodded. The elves brought us our food and we thanked them and began to eat. We laughed until the clock chimed three, meaning that the other students would be on their way back to the school and that we needed to hurry and remove ourselves from one another's company.
We looked at one another and he quickly pulled me into a hug. He hugged me tightly.
"I can't wait until we don't have to sneak around with our friendship, Hermione. This is getting really tiring." He whispered in my ear. I nodded in agreement. He kissed my forehead and he left. I waiting a bit before walking out behind him. I was walking down the corridor when I saw Pansy hug Draco. I smiled at the sight and walked on.
Draco's POV
My day with Hermione was great, I wish that it didn't have to end. But when the clock chimed three, I knew that it had too. I really didn't want to leave her. I came to a realization as soon as I left the kitchens, the more and more time I was spending around her, the more and more I was falling for her.
As soon as Pansy saw me, she hugged me. Hermione had just walked by, I could see her out of the corner of my eye. I pried Pansy's arms from my neck. When she looked at me rather funny, my defense was simple.
"You were choking me." I said. I heard Hermione's laughter from down the hall.
"Oh." Pansy said. "Sorry." More voices began to get closer as I began to follow Hermione.
Ron and Harry were running up to her. I watched with extreme jealousy as Ron picked Hermione up and swung her around before setting her on her feet again. Hermione's laughter in this act made it simple for me to see where people got their relationship idea from. I heard Pansy snort beside me.
"I think that I'm going to be sick." She said, rather loudly. "Right, Drakey?" She said, I could tell that she was hoping for some back up from me. Hermione, Weasel, and Potter turned. Hermione glared at Pansy. Pansy, seeing that I wasn't going to reply, pouted. "Drakey, why aren't you talking? Are you mad at me?" She pouted. Hermione laughed. Pansy glared at her, this only caused her to laughed even harder. Weasley and Potter began to look at her as though she'd lost her mind. Still I said nothing. Only listened to the sound of Hermione's laughter. They sound that made my day.
"Please, stop calling me that." I said, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. 'No need in hurting Pansy's feelings even more.' I thought.
"Why is that name only saved for the bedroom?" Ron asked. Pansy blushed brightly. I supressed laughter when Hermione slapped him on the arm. Ron winced and mouthed ow. I chuckled at the action and Ron glared at me.
"Actually no. We don't do anything in the bedroom or ever thank you very much. I prefer burnettes." I said. Hermione looked at me in shock, Harry and Ron copied her expression. I walked past them, leaving Pansy behind.
"Wait." I heard Hermione say. I walked on but was shocked when she grabbed me and pulled me into an empty classroom.
"What did you mean by that?" She said. When I looked at her confused, she answered me rather quickly,"What you said back there? About prefering burnettes?" I smiled.
"Exactly what I meant, Hermione. I prefer burnettes." I said.
"Does that mean you like me?" She asked me looking at the floor. I tilted her head up to face me. Her eyes met mine and I found myself at a loss for words. I leaned in and closed the distance between us with a gentle kiss. I rested my forehead against hers. Waiting for some kind of reaction that said I had just ruined our friendship, instead I saw none. What I did see was her smiling.
"Does that answer your question?" I asked her.
"Yes." She answered before pulled me back down to kiss her again, which I gladly did. When we pulled apat again, she said, "You need to get back to your friends and I need to get back to mine. I told Harry and Ron to go on to the common room without me, I left a rather interesting book on the quddicith pitch." She said, smiling at me.
"And they believed you?" I asked shocked. She nodded. I kissed her once more.
She broke the kiss and asked me, "Does this mean we are together now?" I kissed her again as my response. Delighted to know that she wanted to go with me.
"Yes." I said once we pulled apart. She smiled brightly and nodded for me to leave the room first. I did and was met by Blaise. He had a smile on his face. I looked at him rather funny.
"Come, friend. Walk with me, talk with me." He said eyeing me. I heard the door close but I didn't see Hermione. I knew what she had done, she had placed the invisiblity spell on herself. I smiled at her cunning and did what Blaise said. "Oh dear friend of mine, do you want to explain to me why I heard a girl in the classroom with you that wasn't Pansy?" He asked me.
"As I've said many times before Blaise, I don't like Pansy the way people think I do. Hell, I don't even like her that much. But this girl, this girl, she's something else. She challenges me in ways that I never knew possible and she's finally agreed to date me. I feel like the luckiest man on earth." I said, knowing full well that he had no clue who I was talking about. He shrugged and decided that he wanted to hear no more of my lovesick ranting, so he walked away. I laughed at him. I turned and saw a lock of Hermione's hair from behind the collum. "It's rude to easedrop you know." I said walking toward her. When I reached her, she jumped on me and kissed me. When we pulled apart, I said rather shocked, "By that I'm guessing, you heard everything I told him." She nodded and kissed me again.
"Okay, so now I really need to get back to my friends before they sent out a search party." She said, jokingly. I laughed and gently kissed her again and stayed there and watched her walk away. I shook my head and walked on. It would seem like something Harry and Ron would do.
Hermione's POV
Hermione was almost bouncing when she walked into the common room. Lavender, Harry, Ginny, and Ron sat by the fire. When she entered, they're heads all turned toward her. She smiled and bounced on up to the dormitry. 'I'm so happy,' she thought, 'that I feel like singing or dancing either one.' She smiled as she climbed into bed. Memories of the day came back to her. Draco had been so sweet all day. The person that she thought he was at one time, we just an act. The real Draco underneath it all, is so much more. 'I wonder what would ever happen if Harry and Ron found out?' She thought. She qiuckly banished that thought from her mind. After all, they weren't going to find out.
