Hermione stayed awake for as long as she could, waiting for Draco to come back. He hadn't arrived back even as the embers burnt low into the fireplace and it wasn't long before she had fallen asleep, spread across the emerald sofa wrapped in the duvet she had accio'd down.
She woke to the tap of rain on the common room window and checked her muggle watch for the time; it was only around nine in the morning, but later than she usually got up. With a heavy heart and what she knew were empty hopes she ran to Draco's room to find it – as she'd assumed – empty. The green and silver sheets were still neatly tucked into the beds edges and she thought he might have gone to the Great Hall for a late breakfast already.
Once she stepped into the Hall she knew he wasn't there, a quick glance to his table confirmed her thoughts, the enchanted sky above her seemed to reflect not only the actual weather but her own mood, dark disturbing clouds with dangerous flashes of white, and instead of staying to eat with her friends she turned on her heel, hair arcing behind her and hurried to search the castle. There was every possibility that Draco was in the Slytherin common room, but that was the only place she couldn't look, so she'd try everywhere that she had a hope of finding him. Firstly the potions room and adjoining classes, then she rushed into multiple empty classrooms disturbing a hoard of Cornish Pixies in one room and two sixth years making out in another, after taking ten points from each House and feeling wholly hypocritical in the process she made her way to the seventh floor, hoping that he may have taken to solitude in the Room of Requirement.
Whilst marching down the corridor to the tapestry a bright blinding flash erupted from the window next to her, causing her to skitter back in shock; once she'd realised it was merely a flash of lightning Hermione moved closer to look at the storm raging outside. It was dark against the window and she could see little of the grounds below, only a mix of black and grey smudges but another clap of lightning illuminated the scenery and Hermione swore she saw a dark smudge whizzing round the Quidditch pitch below. He wouldn't, would he?
Flustered, she once again spun around, striding purposefully the way she had come, praying that wasn't him flying around in a storm.
Casting multiple protective charms across her, Hermione pushed herself out of the doors and into the rain, the small protective bubble around her kept her relatively warm and completely dry as she battled to see and manoeuvre herself around the grounds. Finally sighting the colourful tents against the bleak sky Hermione rushed to the entrance and worked her way up the creaking wooden steps to stand on the Gryffindor benches, the whole structure felt unsafe as it swayed in the wind, but she knew magic was holding it upright and she was safe, if she managed to keep herself from blowing away. Getting on her hands and knees, hands scrabbling beneath the benches she was relieved to find a pair of omnioculars that Ron had stashed away for Quidditch matches after the World Cup four years ago, she quickly bought the brass instrument to her eyes and checked if this idiotic wizard was Draco. Although his robes were soaked through to a dark almost black, green she could still make out the zero-seven on his back, marking him as the seeker; and though Draco had decided not to pursue Quidditch in his final year he still owned his previous outfit, and it was definitely him, because the omnioculars could zoom in close to the mop of blonde wet hair atop his head. It was then Hermione realised he wasn't chasing the snitch like she'd assumed, grasped in his hand was a large wooden bat that he furiously swung about, whacking the two bludgers chasing him in any direction he could. He was certifiably insane.
What kind of guy would play with two bludgers in a storm? His broom was being knocked about by the gale force winds and in the murky darkness it was hard to see which way the bludgers were appearing from, let alone with constant rain falling on his goggles, but he must have charmed them how she'd charmed herself. Cracks of lightning continued to fall across the grounds, sometimes falling too close to the pitch for Hermione's comfort, he was going to get hurt.
She held back from calling out his name, scared that any distraction would cost a blow to the head from a bludger, but it was to no avail. Ten minutes after she arrived Draco was distracted by a lightning bolt that landed on the pitch, as his head turned to stare at the spot a bludgers sped into view crashing into his shoulder whilst the other swept his arm off the broom, losing balance and propelled off the broom by the heavy bat in his hand he fell to the floor, too fast for Hermione to stop the fall. She didn't waste time in launching herself down the slippery steps, pushing away a corner of the heavy material to stagger on to the pitch, moving her way through the sopping grass she fell next to Draco, pulling his head into her lap; luckily it seemed only his arm was broken and the way his eyes moved to watch her, with bared teeth and a curled lip she could tell he was definitely not unconscious. But he could possibly have a concussion after such a fall. This was the situation she had been expecting since learning how to heal, even if she had expected to perform this on Ginny, Harry or Ron. Though he tried to pull away from her touch Draco finally settled into the mud, his head in Hermione's lap as she healed his arm with a complicated piece of magic, setting the bones and using another to ease any pain. The bat lay beside his body where it had fallen out of his fingers and his mud spattered clothes were soaked through and clinging to his skin but Hermione looked at his face, his hair was slicked back with rain and the expression of anger on his face reminded her of the first two years at school, when he still wore his hair like that – it wasn't a pretty picture. And yet still, she stroked his hair and whispered into his ear drying his clothes bit by bit as she knelt in the filthy wet muck.
When he'd regained some strength he pushed up with his uninjured arm and glared at her, the rain dripping down his nose while his hair clung to his face,
"Can you go now." The words were stiff and strained, but his face said he wasn't messing about. Hermione wasn't one to back down and she didn't care what she had to do to make him listen, she'd just healed him, he owed her some explanation.
"No, I can't," she replied frostily, "tell me what on earth I did wrong last night and I might leave, but I just healed you, so you show a little gratitude." She pulled the infamous eyebrow raise and flung it back at him waiting for a reply as his face pulled into a completely composed and blank exterior.
"You thought this stupid act of liking me was going so well, didn't you? You were nearly there and it fucked up and now you're acting like you don't know what you've done wrong," he didn't seem to care that he was shouting, that the perfectly formed blank expression had slipped or that the bludgers circled above them, waiting for him to get back up, and she honestly didn't know what he was talking about "I'd bet anything that was what Lovegood was doing in our common room, just another conquest for Granger. I can't believe I was surprised you were a part of this pathetic challenge going around, for some reason I thought you'd be above it, but I guess dumb Malfoy who fell right into your little game didn't see that one coming. I'm quite astonished you spent that long over me, trying to get me into bed when it took you all of a day to get near it with Loony Lovegood. I'll bet it had to be me just for the point of bedding someone you hate, was that the game all along Granger?" her name was spat out as he glared across at her, while she'd lost her concentration over his words the spell was distinguished, the rain had begun to bombard her own head, drenching the frizzy mess into a wet mop of brown, the rain on her face mixed with her tears and she felt the cliché of every muggle romance bloom before her.
"Draco…"
"Save it, Granger. It's kinda sick you spent this time trying to make me a better person too, just to knock me back to square one when you were done with me." She tried to move close to him but he only backed further away. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought about that dammned tattoo; since her feelings for him had developed the challenge had slowly been pushed to the back of her mind, with the prospect of not even completing it if she got to stay with him. Now it was the reason she was losing him and she knew there wasn't even one part of her glad that now she was free to complete the tattoo and claim Gryffindor's victory.
She sobbed harder and tried any way to get him to realise what he'd changed in her.
"I… it started out like that, I did just want sex to complete the challenge, but… but now I know you, so much about you is much more wonderful than I thought and the part of me driven by competition just… died out," sobs followed every couple of words and she moved slightly closer while he stared stonily at the muddy pitch. "I just want you now, I really wouldn't go through all this trouble over a competition, and I actually care about you, every day you make me want to spend more and more time with you, time I could be spending with my other friends, and I don't know why. You're like this book that grows on you with each passing chapter and suddenly after one page you're head over heels for it, nothings the same and it's changed your perspective on nearly everything; and when you look back you don't see how you didn't like it from the get-go. Spending time with you has been like that for me, and I don't want to ruin what we'd started. Please." She'd moved to stand right in front of him, the warmth she'd given his cloak was gone and it was once again soaked and froze but her arms grasped his shoulders and pulled his lips towards hers, kissing him in the most passionate way she could muster with shivering lips stained with tears, but he kissed ever so lightly back before pushing her away with a sigh.
"I don't… I don't really know if I believe you"
"But you have to!" she cried helplessly "It's the truth, I'm not letting you leave Malfoy until you believe me" he smirked at her,
"you couldn't stop me, but just, let me cool down, let me think straight, I just need some time away from you," sigh "please don't speak to me for a while, okay, Hermione?" all she could do was be grateful it wasn't 'Granger' and give him the space he needed.