Chapter 18

Possibility

"I don't know how much longer, all right. It's taking longer than I thought it would," the blonde wizard snapped at his friend. He had asked his lackeys to field any questions people would ask about his absence. When the "relationship" with Hermione came out, Crabbe and Goyle were hit with a whole new round of questions. Draco had told the two that Hermione would be part of his cover to explain his absence, so they had to explain to their fellow Slytherins that Draco was just messing with the Gryffindors. But people were asking more and more questions. "It's none of your business what I'm doing, all you need to remember is who I am doing it for! Just keep saying what you've been saying. If anyone else presses, tell them to mind their own bloody business. What I do is no one's concern."

"Does Granger know what you're doing?" Crabbe asked, not looking any less upset than when the conversation started.

"Are you mad? Of course she doesn't know! Why would I tell that goody Gryffindor about any of this? That's the most preposterous thing to ever come out of your mouth!" Draco spat.

"Funny, when I have a girlfriend, I keep her informed on whatever I'm doing," said an unwelcome voice. The blonde wizard hadn't noticed the Chosen One's eavesdropping. Draco needed to be more inconspicuous around Scarhead.

"And when precisely was the last time you had a girlfriend, Potter?" he challenged. "Vane is a stalker, not a commitment."

The conversation came to a screeching halt when they were reprimanded by McGonagall.

Draco was satisfied that he had the last word.

Looking over, he saw Hermione had been watching them. He would let her know about her friend's paranoia later that day.

He watched her listen intently to the feeble looking instructor the Ministry sent and felt a mixture of adoration and annoyance. Potter needn't voice his concerns about something he knew nothing about. There was no way Potter would ever understand how he felt about the witch.

Though he had told himself to expect more visits, Severus Snape was surprised when Draco dropped by his office without Miss Granger. That had not happened since before the winter holiday. And when he did have a meeting with only Draco, it was never of the boy's own free will.

"How can I help you, Mister Malfoy? Trouble with the cabinet?"

Draco shook his head. "No… I actually… I wanted to ask about something else."

The professor arched his brow. "And what would that be, Mister Malfoy?"

The blonde sat silently for a while. "How long have you known? About my feelings for Hermione?"

"Since your second year here at Hogwarts. Your father inquired about her because you had spent so much time talking about her academic performance and… heritage. Though you were infuriated, there was something about the way Lucius talked about it that concerned me. I have been watching you closely ever since."

Draco nodded but stayed silent.

"Does that upset you, Mister Malfoy?"

"No. I just…" he heaved a sigh. "You loved Potter's mother. How did you deal with it? Knowing you couldn't be with her?"

"It was not until she fell in love with Potter that I knew I could not be with her. During our time at Hogwarts, we maintained a close friendship. The possibility of losing her did not arise until I let my ego get the best of me."

"So did you believe you would be with her eventually?"

"I had hoped with everything I had that we would be together. I lost sight of it and lost her."

Draco looked up at his professor with an anxious expression. "Do you think that she could have loved you?"

"Draco, I-"

"Do you think it was possible that she might have loved you? If the situation were different?"

Severus knew what this was about. The young wizard sitting in front of him was no longer asking solely about the relationship shared with Lily. The boy wanted to be told that Granger could love him.

The boy's questions brought back so many memories. Shared laughter. Holidays spent together. Study sessions so rudely interrupted by her fellow Gryffindors.

The older man sighed. "I make no claim that I for a moment knew what was going through Lily's mind or anything she felt. We had a deep and intimate friendship that we both cherished. She fought long and hard for it. When I gave up, she had enough… You have posed a difficult and dangerous question, Mister Malfoy. Thinking about things which could have been can drive a person mad…" He would know. He had plenty of time thinking about all the ways he hurt Lily, and how different their fates would have been if he had made better decisions.

The boy sat waiting expectantly.

"I cannot and never will know what she felt. I know that she truly loved Potter, and I do not want to diminish that fact. She did what was best for her and found her happiness. But to answer your question, yes. I do believe that she may have been able to love me." Though it pained him to say it, Draco needed to hear it. "Everything that went wrong was solely my fault. I made the wrong decisions. I placed greater value on other people and other things. Lily was always the right path, but I felt more welcome in the wrong path. I try not to think about it, because I know I have no one to blame but myself. I will repeat, she loved James Potter. She fell in love with a man who brought her happiness and made better choices. But Lily and I shared so many years together and knew each other so well. If I had placed value in that, there is a possibility that she may have loved me."

The young man sat there taking in his professor's words.

"Lily must have known that I loved her, but I did not behave in a manner that showed I loved her. Love is the most powerful force in the world, Mister Malfoy, but even it can be limited. Sometimes it is not enough just for it to exist, it must also be acted upon."

"I understand," Draco said after a while.

"I am sure you also understand part of the reason I am so concerned. You and Miss Granger share several parallels with Lily and I. I have made a commitment to ensure that the fate you two share is nothing like ours, but I can only do so much for you. Based on what I have seen, I think it is possible that Granger may return your feelings. That is a risk you must decide to take on your own. If you do decide to act on your feelings, you must be committed. We are in dire times, Mister Malfoy, and there is no time to play silly games. You have to do what I did not – keep her your priority and act like you love her. Always."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, Professor."

"Would you stop it, Harry?" Hermione just about begged as she tried to leave the Common Room.

"I'm telling you, Hermione, he's keeping things from you!"

Hermione whirled around. "Like what?"

"Like… I don't know, okay! But this is Malfoy. He has a history of lying and… what else… oh right, being a terrible person!" Harry had explained what he heard at the apparition lesson days earlier, and that is all Hermione had been hearing about all week. Almost a full week, considering their lesson had been on Saturday and it was Friday.

"Well, I don't tell him everything about myself, so I guess that makes me a liar and terrible person as well, doesn't it? I have plenty of things from our past that I've yet to divulge," Hermione shot back.

"Would you please just listen to him for a moment?" came the voice Hermione wanted to hear least in the world.

"Go away, Ronald. I've already told you your opinion in not welcome. Don't you have a girlfriend to with whom you can preoccupy yourself?"

"Lavender isn't someone who I use to 'preoccupy' myself, I actually care about her!" Ron defended.

"I never said you were using her or that you didn't care about her. It must be your own subconscious reading too much into what I actually said."

The ginger's face was starting to match his hair. From the corner of her eye, the witch could see Harry looking distressed. She knew he hadn't intended on this to happen, and she knew that Harry knew better than to intervene when both she and Ron were so worked up.

Taking advantage of the moment of silence, Hermione slipped out of the room, but the footsteps behind her told her that this argument was far from over. She hurried her pace and ignored her name being called by both of her friends. She could faintly hear Harry begging Ron to stop, to come back, to let it die. When it was clear that he wasn't going to give up, Hermione decided that she would finish this fight at the bottom of the stairs. If she stopped before that, she might end up knocking Ron down a flight or two.

"What, Ronald? What could you possibly want from me?"

"An apology!"

Hermione barked a laugh, "For what? For pointing out the guilt that you might have been feeling? Fine, I apologize for being the logical person that I am. I'm sure you'll be in love with Lavender forever and will marry her and have a beautiful son names Mauve or Crimson or something of the sort!"

"Hermione-" Harry tried to interject but was interrupted by Ron.

"Maybe I will! I'm happy with Lav! Maybe everything you said was exactly how you feel about Malfoy. You went mental and turned away the only friends you had, so you needed to find someone willing to spend time with you. You decided that spending time with the worst person at Hogwarts was better than being alone. Maybe you're the one using him to mark time. Maybe this is just your way of getting back at me and you're just faking this who stupid relationship to punish me and Harry!"

Hermione flared up and was almost certain that the small crowd that had gathered could feel the anger radiating off of her. "That is absolutely ridiculous! I swear to Merlin, Ronald Weasley, you have to be the most pompous, egotistical—"

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

A hand grabbing her own interrupted the witch's tirade.

"Draco," she breathed, looking up at her friend. He held her hand tighter as he brought a single red rose up to her face. "What is—?"

"Happy Valentine's Day," he said as he handed her the rose. "You didn't think I'd forget, did you? I appreciate you and wanted to make sure you knew that. Today especially."

A snort came the still perturbed redhead.

"Right, so what was I interrupting?" The Slytherin asked as he wrapped an arm around the girl's waist.

"I was being accused of using you to get back at them," Hermione explained with malice in her voice.

"Right. Tell me, Weasley, why in the world I would allow myself to be manipulated by your friend?"

"Because you hate us and are just using her to irritate all of her friends!" the ginger snapped.

"If you actually cared about her, you wouldn't be hiding things from her, Malfoy," Harry added with a glare.

"Right, well those are some brilliant logical arguments you both have. I suppose the fact that we just want to drive you mad is a distinct possibility."

Hermione waited for Draco to continue, but instead felt her chin being grabbed and a light pressure on her lips. She heard a collection of gasps from a crowd of people and it took her a moment to register what was happening and melted into the kiss.

Draco pulled away and turned his attention back to her two friends. "So that could have been one of two things – I really wanted to infuriate you two, or I really wanted to snog Granger the way I have for the past few weeks. And there is the distinct possibility that I wanted to and enjoyed doing both. I guess you'll never know."

Hermione registered the baffled looks on her friends' faces, the murmurs of the crowd, and Draco grabbing her hand once more and leading her toward the Great Hall. However, she was still having a difficult time wrapping her mind around what had just happened.

She looked up at Draco, but he wasn't meeting her gaze. She suddenly wished all of their classed would be cancelled so they could discuss this in private.

She wanted classes to be cancelled... Hermione wondered if it were possible that she was going mad.

A/N: So something happened finally! The next chapter we'll see how Hermione reacts to what Draco did.

Thank you for reading, my lovelies!