Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
—————————————————————
It wasn't as if Hermione Granger hadn't noticed Draco Malfoy's delicious scent before.
There had been many times her scowls had hidden her own astonishment as she gazed into his gray eyes while they hissed hateful words at each other, intent upon burying their true feelings under insults.
Still, as she passed Draco on her way to the Gryffindor's training section of the Quidditch stadium late one afternoon, she nearly broke her neck as she turned around to look at Draco.
"What are you staring at, Granger?" He huffed as he shot her a hateful sneer.
His brow furrowed in anger while his chest heaved from the exertion brought on by his practice session.
Hermione's eyes widened as the telltale richness of Draco's scent reached her.
From the sweat that soaked through his Quidditch robes, it became unignorable to Hermione that Draco had indeed presented as……
"You're an alpha!" She gasped before she could stop herself.
Draco balked as if she had struck him.
"Did you expect anything less?" He snapped.
A tense silence gathered as Hermione's amber stare flickered questioningly over his face.
She kept her eyes narrowed as Draco scowled and stalked towards her.
There was a sinister subtleness in the way he moved that made her want to cry out until he eventually backed her against the Quidditch stadium wall.
In that moment, she realized exactly how tall he had become.
Her back pressed against the hard wood as Draco laid a hand on the surface, somewhere nearby her head and gazed down at her like a white serpent eyeing a mouse.
"How dare you take me for a fool...Don't think I haven't noticed." He huffed.
Hermione's cheeks almost instantly flushed a dark shade of pink from her mortification.
Had their years of hateful flirting finally culminated in a confession?
"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" She asked.
"Haven't Potter and Weasley said anything at all?" Draco demanded as he narrowed his gray eyes to slits, "For goodness sakes, Granger! I can smell it when you walk down the hallway! I would think the lot of them had already come sniffing 'round you the instant they realized you were an omega. Easy target for them both, aren't you?"
"Harry and Ron are my friends!" Hermione retorted as she shot him a defiant glare, "...Nothing more!"
She let out a breath as Draco's cold gaze scanned over her.
"Their loss, Granger." He whispered as he leaned down.
"Malfoy….." Hermione gasped as an incredulous grin flashed across her face.
Draco blinked as he gave her a questioning frown.
"Anyone could happen by and see us here, like this. What on earth are you doing?" Hermione questioned with a nervous chuckle.
"The idea that I'd torment someone like you is believable." He wisely assessed.
The matter-of-fact way he spoke surprised Hermione.
Haughtiness and arrogance had all but left his voice as he carefully thought about how he could answer questions hurled at them should anyone find them there, in that compromised state.
"Is it true, then?" Hermione asked.
Draco narrowed his eyes, "Is what true?"
"The way I've seen you look at me for years…." Hermione began, "The way you scowled in Flourish and Blotts after Harry and Lockhart had their moment……and your father spoke to me. I've been right all along, haven't I, Malfoy? That wasn't really disgust I saw on your face."
"...You're more arrogant than you let on, aren't you, Granger?" Draco hissed.
Hermione didn't bother to answer his question as he leaned in even closer.
For a terrifying second, the two of them contemplated their sudden reality.
The smell of the afternoon's clean air and the freshness of the grass became forgotten as Hermione and Draco breathed in each other's scents for a shameless moment.
The prospect of someone finding them seemed to exhilarate them both as Hermione found herself moving towards Draco before she could think.
Draco's scowl relaxed as Hermione's lashes fluttered.
Would it happen that easily?
After years of silent pursuit, would their lips finally touch without walls to hide them away?
"MALFOY!"
No.
Draco audibly groaned as Hermione's heart dropped into the pit of her stomach while her promised moment of pure bliss was snatched from her grasp.
"GET AWAY FROM HER! What are you doing?!"
Draco reluctantly turned his head, removed himself from his leaning position, and scowled as he watched Ron rush towards them.
"PISS OFF, WEASLEY!" Draco shot back with a biting venom permeating his tone.
He shot Hermione one last look of abject disappointment before he stalked off, intent on leaving before a fight erupted and forced him to injure his darling's friend.
"Hermione!" Ron called as he finally caught up to her while she stood there with a resolute frown on her fair face, "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"
"No, Ron……Yes, I'm fine." She sighed with a hasty shake of her head.
Ron's eyes narrowed as he watched a scowl of blatant annoyance cloud her features.
"Sorry…….was I interrupting something?" He asked in mocking suspicion.
"What?" Hermione scoffed, "No! Of course not! That's ridiculous!"
Ron raised an eyebrow as if he could see straight through her lie.
"Do you honesty think I'd ever be interested in Malfoy? He's nothing more than a bully and a brat!" Hermione snapped.
"I honestly think I've never seen you let another bloke pin you up against a wall like that before." Ron said with disappointment ringing in his voice, "I came to help because we're friends, Hermione, that's all. You could have easily sent him away if you had wanted."
"Did you stop to ask yourself if he threatened me?!" Hermione hissed, "Or you?...Or Harry?! Harry's right, Ron." She frowned, "Malfoy may be more dangerous than we thought."
Ron blinked as Hermione stormed away.
Left holding his broom as he stood alone outside the entrance to the Quidditch Field, Ron frowned to himself.
Between what he had witnessed and what he had done to intervene, he struggled to make sense of exactly what had happened and how exactly he had managed to incur Hermione's wrath.
—————————————————————
The other Gryffindor girls gladly chatted and gigggled about which alphas they thought would make the most suitable mates, later that night in the privacy of their dormitory.
Hermione kept her nose firmly planted in a book during those conversations, knowing she had no hopes of being able to honestly take part.
Mouths would drop and eyes would widen if she mentioned that she had caught herself more than once staring into Draco's pale face to marvel at his gray eyes and-
"Granger!" Someone called.
Hermione blinked as she glanced up from her book, "...I beg your pardon?"
"Who is it then, for you?" The girl grinned while the others giggled.
"Sorry, who is what for me?" Hermione frowned.
"Don't be silly!" The girl chided, "Who is it that you fancy? We've all spilled our secrets, come on, come on! It's your turn!"
"Oh…….." Hermione sighed as she found herself faded with an unwanted confrontation, "I…….I don't think this sort of thing is for me."
"What?" Another girl gasped as her eyes widened, "Oh, please! I saw you in the Hospital Wing last month! You've had a cycle too! Don't tell me every boy in the castle has somehow escaped Hermione Granger's notice!"
"...I've got my mind on other things." Hermione shrugged as she tried to discreetly weasel out of her roommate's interrogations.
"If you don't sit aside your books every once in a while, you're going to end up alone and wishing one day." The first girl frowned, "Is that what you want?"
"We're only children." Hermione frowned, "I just want to focus on school."
The other girls found her statement wildly hilarious.
As they turned towards each other and began to whisper statements in response to Hermione's austere views, she sighed to herself while she listened to their torrent of disbelieving, curious giggles.
Was that all she would become if she continued to deny her heart?
She grit her teeth as she silently admitted the truth to herself.
Even if she survived the inevitable war and worked hard to become the very best version of herself, a part of her would always feel cheated.
Even if Hermione Granger held office as the Minister for Magic one day, her lacquered walls at the Ministry would maintain a sense of unfulfilled melancholy of Draco Malfoy was not beside her.
—————————————————————
Draco was spared from the teasing Hermione endured.
As he indulged in an evening of quiet brooding that night, Crabbe and Goyle exchanged worried frowns as they watched him gaze out at the glass that showed the Black Lake's waters while the trio lounged in Slytherin's Common Room.
Goyle eventually found the bravery to speak "...Is everything o-"
"-Shut it!" Draco snapped as he turned to look at his accomplice with fiery anger burning in his pale features.
Goyle closed his mouth and abandoned his pursuit of helping Draco as he and Crabbe shrank back.
Draco settled himself on the sofa with a sigh as he blinked his eyes and tried to find his place once again in the daydream he had been so cruelly pulled from.
Where had he been?
Oh yes!
Hermione's lips and eyes, somewhere bright in a year that no longer cowered under Voldemort's ongoing threat, where birds sang and their children played…..
—————————————————————
Hermione tossed and turned in her bed that night.
Her mind refused to let her rest as she sighed in hopeless pursuits of sleep.
Each time she closed her eyes, a different memory appeared.
The afternoon Draco had scowled at her in Flourish and Blotts.
The day Draco had called her a Mudblood, as if he wanted to incite her anger.
The countless times she and him had exchanged frowns designed to push each other away.
A smirk curled her lips as she thought of the scream that had torn from his throat when she had dared to punch him.
While her roommates peacefully snoozed, Hermione cracked her amber eyes open to gaze out the window at the night sky.
She couldn't quite over exactly how many feelings Draco had elicited in her earlier that day.