A Kiss

Draco stepped back calmly, never taking his eyes of mine - still full of yearning, as Ron ran towards him.
Before I had the chance to breathe Ron had slammed his fist into Draco's jaw and his head whipped up to the side in response to the sheer force; however his feet stayed planted to the ground. He looked back at me again sadly and stepped away, still ridiculously calm as blood came to the surface of his face where the impact had cut him and his jaw began to swell.

I finally found words and screamed "Stop!" Before Ron hit him again. "Don't take this out on him! I'm the one in the wrong!"

Ron looked at me, his eyes full of hatred and anger – his face turning red. Tears sprang to my eyes as I looked at the pain and hurt and fury in the face of the boy who had been one of my best friends for the past 5 years.

"I'm sorry, but don't take this out on him. You and I have been screwed up for months but neither of us could face up to the facts – we don't cut it as a couple Ron." As I said it a tear rolled down my cheek and Draco turned back to me, a look of sadness crossed his face and he reached out to catch the tear before it fell of my chin. I bit my lip sadly.

Almost spontaneously Ron suddenly exploded. A roar of rage came from him and he launched himself on Draco, knocking him onto the floor. He then pinned him down with one hand, balling the material of his collar in his fist, then raised his other hand to punch square in the face again.
I fumbled around trying to grasp my wand as tears flooded down my face silently. Draco was still calm, and just as Ron was about to hit him, he whipped his face out of the way and Ron hit the floor with a deadly crunching sound.

He let go of Draco to instinctively nurse his knuckles which were surely broken, but he make little to no reaction from the pain.
As he let go of him, Draco threw Ron off of him and sent him sliding along the floor until he hit the wall. He then stood up lithely and dusted his elbows off before whipping his wand out and flicking it in Ron's direction.

I flinched and closed my eyes then slid down the wall into sitting position with my knees pulled into my chest. I buried my face into them and let tears fall, not wanting to see them fighting. Not wanting to be here at all. But then I heard nothing – no noises of pain or anger, no clashes or bangs or yelps. Just silence.
I looked up cautiously and saw Draco still pointing his wand and Ron with his eyes closed, muttering under his breath, and Ron was floating in a standing position all his limbs floppy and his eyes rolling back.

"What are you doing?!" I tried to shout at Draco but my voice was so weak it was nothing more than an angry whisper.

He lowered Ron to the floor and he looked as though he was sleeping. Draco then put his wand away and sat next to me against the wall. "Calming him down – making his brain processes slower to give him time to think about the consequences of what he wants to do. Hopefully when he wakes up in the morning he'll have come to the decision that the means would not justify the end, and he should hopefully just deal with it in a better way. If not – well." Draco looked at his hands thinking and then heaved a sigh. "I shouldn't have come back to school. Everyone hates the ground I walk on, no one trusts me, pretty much everyone wants to punch me in the face – and good old Weasley managed to get first whack." He shook his head and smiled un-humorously.

I turned and looked at him sadly and stroked his cut jaw softly. "I don't want to punch you. And I definitely don't hate you."

He looked at me, his grey eyes soft and searching as he reached his hand up to wipe the tear tracks from my cheeks. "Lucky me then." He held my hand and brought it over to his face to kiss my knuckles and my heart sped up. When Draco caught my eye again he looked amused as if he heard the change in my heart rate – the thought of it made me blush and he grinned.

He quickly turned sad again "Sorry. I'll back off if you want. It's wasn't fair of me to be so flirtatious while you were trying to sort out your head about Weasley over there. I'll leave you be – if that's what you want."

He refused to look me in the eye and my heart sunk. "No!" I said too quickly. "I mean," I sighed "I don't want that – besides, we have a project to work on and 2 subjects together – that means we have to spend at least 12hours a week with each other."

He smiled at me, a genuine smile, and then stood up pulling me up with him then proceeded to pull me around a corner and hugged me tightly. "You're really great you know."

I laughed "No, I'm really not." I hugged him back, burying my head in his neck.

We stood like this for a long moment before he pulled back and spoke softly "I have to go; I need to get started on an assignment for muggle studies. Will you be ok?"

I nodded sadly, and lied. "Yes, I'll be fine."

He gave my cheek a soft stroke with the back of his hand "Sorry for making your life harder." then walked away.

I sighed softly and leaned back against the wall, closing my eyes.

I didn't her him approach, but apparently he did because I felt his breath against my skin as he said "One more thing." Then I felt his soft warm lips press against mine hard, with a sense of urgency and all my breath suddenly fled me. He wound his arm around my waist and pulled me into him tightly, so I could feel all of him crush against me. My heart was racing against his as I kissed him back.
My head spun as he continued to kiss me, only now the kiss was softer and had more feelings in it than before. I put my hand on his chest softly and we parted lips only to press our heads together, our eyes closed.

I finally breathed again before I fainted and fluttered my eyes open to look into Draco's beautiful face before I pulled back from him.

As his eyes searched mine for some clue of how I felt I pressed my nose against his and rubbed it slightly, the way Eskimos would to show their affection and he smiled in response. "Good night Miss Granger." He whispered, his voice sounding so seductive.

"Good bye." I said, barely a whisper as I got lost in his eyes.
He started walking backwards slowly, still holding onto me until it was only our fingers still touching. Then he was gone, around the corner, heading down to join reality again.

I walked up to my dormitory as though on another planet, my head still light and my legs shaking slightly.

I spent extra time that evening washing myself as the warm water was very calming for me. I lay in the water for about half an hour before washing my hair and shaving my legs, then reluctantly crawling out. I put on my fluffy dressing gown when I was dry and, crawled straight into bed where I lay with my eyes closed. I start to remember the feeling of Draco holding me against him, kissing me, touching me, his skin on mine. However my thoughts were interrupted by a light tapping sound on the window next to my bed. I rolled out and opened the curtains to find a familiar eagle sat there holding a letter. This was the eagle I had seen on occasion in the great hall in previous years bringing news and letters to Draco across the room.

I opened the window excitedly and untied the letter from the eagle's foot before giving him one of the bird treats and he flew straight back out of the window so I shut it.

The envelope said 'Hermione' on it in neat handwriting and I smiled as I opened it. The letter read:

Nee, I have to leave school for a few days but I'll be back in lessons by Friday, I'll explain why when I next see you.
Meet me on Thursday at 5:30 at the entrance to the great hall; we can have something to eat and then go work on our Polyjuice Potion.
Sorry about all the trouble I've caused, I'll make up for it.
Yours, Draco.