It was often that Hermione talked with Draco now. He began to meet with her more and more just to chat. The Dark Lord's battle plans still weren't being formulated, and Draco confessed that he might not have been careful enough. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was suspicious of a spy in his army of Death eaters.
The more they talked, the less they talked of the war. Hermione began to delve into her personal life and tried to make Draco open up about his life. She talked about Bill and Fleur's new baby girl, her relationship with Harry and Ron and the other Weasleys, her parents, the trips she had taken around the world, her life as a Muggle; she felt comfortable sharing all that with him, and he always seemed so interested, especially in her relationships with her friends. Hermione was sure he'd open up to her someday. And she was beginning to have conflicting emotions towards her former enemy. He was sweet to her when they were together, and he was considerate as well, something Hermione couldn't have even begun to fathom before.
It made her begin to question how strong her feelings were for Ron.
Almost four months had passed, and the two of them were sitting comfortably against the wall of the Shrieking Shack, staring at the ruins in the room. It was a brisk September afternoon, an afternoon she could have spent with her special someone, but had opted not to.
"Do you love Weasley?" Draco asked, rousing her out of her stupor.
The question made Hermione think.
"I…I think so," she finally answered, but she wasn't so sure.
Draco smirked mirthlessly. "So you're going to become Mrs. Weasley someday?"
"I don't know." It was the truth. She had imagined it so many times before, and with delight, till now. What was it about Malfoy that made her doubt herself so much?
"No?" he asked with an innocent tone. It irritated Hermione.
She turned to him and frowned. "I think you know why I don't know," she snapped. "You tell me you have feelings for me and with you pretty much courting me with all your kind words and consideration of my feelings, don't you think I'd be at least a little conflicted emotionally?" She felt dazed. She hadn't meant all that to come out of her mouth. She turned away from him.
A corner of Draco's mouth lifted in a smile. "Are you saying you may like me back?"
"I don't know!" she exclaimed, and stood. She took a hold of her frizzy brown hair for a small, frustrated tug. "All I know is that you're confusing me to bits and pieces!"
Draco stood as well, not taking his eyes off of her. His smirk had reached the other side of his mouth. "It's alright, Hermione. Take your time. I'll understand if you fancy Weasley. He is, after all, your best friend." He embraced her for the first time, and Hermione closed her eyes when her head met his shoulder. His hands stroked her back a bit tentatively. "But I won't give up on you. You're worth much more than any other witch in the world."
The words made Hermione's heart do a little flip, and she lifted her head to smile at him. Her brown eyes were sparkling. She hesitated in putting her arms around him, something that made him smirk. Well, he was still a Death eater, no matter how nice and charming he was now. It was so hard to keep that mindset.
"You confuse me, Draco Malfoy," she sighed.
Draco's smirk widened. "I tend to have that effect on women."
If he had said that three months ago, she would have been offended immediately and stalked off. But she knew him better, and she laughed it off. He was a cocky little twit, but he was sweet and she knew, deep down, that he cared.
"I have to go now," she said, and Draco nodded.
"I could imagine Weasley running around looking for you. He's a bit protective, as you've said before?" He raised a brow and smirked.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "He could be. Could be pretty annoying too, you know."
Draco smiled and pushed her away. "Wouldn't want to attract their attention to our little meetings though, would you?"
Hermione didn't have an answer for that either. She knew her friends; they'd question him to death the minute they got an ear that Malfoy was spying for them.
Her silence was enough for him, and he pecked a kiss to her forehead before stepping back completely. He swallowed and nodded at her. "See you soon."
Hermione smiled and returned the nod. "See you soon," she replied, and Disapparated.
As soon as she arrived at the Burrow, she was bombarded by Harry and the Weasley family.
"Where have you been?" Harry exclaimed.
"Are you alright?" Ginny screeched.
"You aren't hurt, are you?" Molly cried.
"What is going on?" Hermione asked, stunned.
"We were worried! You were gone for an hour!"
"You've been waiting for me?" Hermione asked, still somewhat shocked. "What happened?"
"Ron was almost killed again," George said. "We were worried they might've gone after you too!"
Hermione's brown eyes widened. "Where is he?" she asked, feeling almost hysterical.
Harry took her by the arm and dragged her off towards Ron's room. Inside, Ron was lying on the bed looking paler than usual with soot covering him from head to toe, and his head, arms, and left leg were bandaged. Hermione covered her mouth. He looked battered.
"What happened to him?" she whispered as the rest of the Weasley family came up behind her.
"Ron was out taking a walk like you, and as he was going down the path in Hogsmeade past Ollivander's wand shop, the shop exploded and three Death eaters came out of nowhere and starting hexing him. Thank goodness a lot of civilians helped by hexing those Death eaters and chasing them away, but still," Ginny said, shaking.
"This is the second time something like this has happened," George said, shaking his head.
"Thank goodness Ron's still alive and those Death eaters hadn't killed him straight off," Molly said, wiping her eyes.
"Isn't…Ollivander's boarded up?" Hermione asked, her hands trembling. She clasped them together.
"Yes, so it would've been very easy for Death eaters to be hiding in there," Arthur replied. "I suppose we'll have to inform the Ministry about having more Aurors in the towns."
"If Fudge would even believe you," Harry added bitterly.
Hermione stared at Ron, her heart wrenching. She felt terrible for lying to them. Couldn't she trust the Order enough to tell them about Draco? But after all these sudden Death eater occurrences, it was no question that they'd be extremely wary about trusting a Death eater themselves.
Instead, she went to her love and stroked his dirty red hair. "Ron, you awake?" she asked softly.
He nodded a little, and opened his pale blue eyes to blink blearily at her. "Just trying to rest," he said hoarsely.
"I'm so glad you're not—" Hermione cut herself off and wrapped her arms around him. She closed her eyes against his shoulder. Dear Merlin, please don't let him die. Not like this.
A.N. come on guys. I'm really getting discouraged. Please, review! Reviews get faster chapters! Also, give me ideas on where to go from here. I have a general idea, but I do have to get all this "becoming friends" stuff out of the way. Otherwise it would just be too fast. Ideas! And review, please! Thanks for reading so far!