Madam Pomfrey released Draco from the Hospital Wing two days after Hermione’s visit. As he headed towards the Slytherin common room, all he could think about was how her lips had felt on his.
‘She loves me? She was going to say it…I interrupted her…but why…’
His thoughts were scattered. Every time he thought about Hermione, his breath would catch in his chest, and he would shake with the same feeling he had felt when she had kissed him two nights before.
Draco entered the Slytherin common room, and finding it empty; it was after all a Saturday, he decided to sit down in front of the fire to think.
‘This is bad,’ Draco thought, putting his face in his hands. ‘Bad, bad, bad…this has to stop, but…’
Draco sighed, and leaned back in the armchair with his eyes closed.
“Aw, what do we have here? Worried for your mudblood girlfriend?”
Draco nearly jumped out of his skin, and turned around to see Pansy standing by the entrance to the common room. Draco groaned.
‘Oh Merlin, not this again.’
“What do you want, Parkinson? I’m not in the mood for your games,” he said, in a tone that clearly emphasized his hatred.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t be.”
Draco narrowed his eyes at her. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, you don’t know?” Pansy asked mockingly. “That’s strange, because according to the story, you were there.”
‘What is she on about?’
“For Merlin’s sake, get to the blasted point will you!”
Pansy laughed, “Have you seen your filthy little girlfriend since you’ve been back?”
“No,” Draco answered. “And she’s not my girlfriend.”
“Oh, that’s not what the rest of the school thinks,” she said, sitting on the couch across from him.
Draco was getting a little tired of this, and was about to share this sentiment, when Pansy looked up directly into his eyes.
“People usually don’t go around kissing a girl they’re not going out with.”
*~*~*~*~
“How did this happen?” Hermione whined, tears threatening to fall from behind the curtain of her eyelashes. “How is it that everyone knows I kissed Draco in the Hospital Wing?”
She looked from Harry to Ron, both of whom had sympathetic and apologetic looks on their faces.
“Well,” Harry said. “You did run back into the common room in absolute tears, and when we asked you what was wrong, you sorta told the entire common room what happened.”
“Oh,” Hermione groaned, and she put her head in her hands.
‘What…what was I thinking?’
“Oh, and I don’t care what you say, Hermione,” Harry continued. “I am going to hex that little ferret bastard when I see him next. This is taking things too far.”
Hermione looked up. “Oh, no, Harry, don’t. Really, he doesn’t -”
“He does!” Harry exclaimed. “He loves you, and he’s being a complete prat, and I am not going to let him get away with treating you the way he has.”
Hermione stared into Harry’s green eyes.
“Harry,” she said in a small voice. “How…how do you know that he loves me?”
“Well, because I bloody asked him didn’t I? I had to make sure that he did, it’s my job.”
“Your job?”
“Yeah, my job. I’m the only brother you have, I had to make sure.”
Hermione looked down at her hands, and wiped the tear that had crossed the barrier and landed on her thumb, onto her robes.
‘He…he loves me?…but why…’
“Harry,” she said, looking up at him. “I love you, you really are like the brother I never had…I just…just please, do this for me…just leave Draco alone.”
“But-”
“No, please, Harry,” Hermione said, the hurt in her eyes pleading with him to fulfill her request.
Harry sighed, “Alright, if that’s what you want, I’ll leave him alone.” He pointed his index finger roughly at her. “But I promise you, Hermione, if he gets one more strike in my book, I am going to have to kick his snotty little ferret arse.”
“Here, here,” Ron said, giving his agreement and vow to join in.
Hermione put her head against the back on the armchair she was sitting in, closed her eyes and sighed.
‘Why did I kiss him?’
*~*~*~*~
Monday afternoon found Hermione standing outside the Potions classroom, shaking slightly.
“I can’t go in there,” Hermione said, turning around as if she was going to walk back up the staircase that led to the dungeons.
“Oh, yes you can,” Harry and Ron said together, grabbing her arm and turning her back around to face the door to the Potions classroom.
Hermione was shaking all over.
‘Oh God, oh God, oh God…why do things like this happen to me?’
“Hermione,” Harry said, grabbing hold of her shoulders and making her look at him. “Everyone knows what happened in the Hospital Wing-”
Hermione whimpered.
“And,” Harry continued. “I know that the only people in that class are a bunch of Slytherins, a few people from the other houses, and specifically Draco, but you will go in there and it will be fine.”
“Yeah, Hermione, come on. Pluck up that Gryffindor courage,” Ron added in encouragement.
Hermione looked back and forth between the two of them. She felt as if she was going to be sick, and wished that Harry wasn’t holding her there so she could run back to the safety of the common room.
‘Ok…ok…I can do this,’ she thought, breathing deeply. ‘It’s not that big a deal. I kissed him…oh God why did I kiss him?’
“Harry, I dunno-”
Harry shook his head. “Nope, no more excuses, in ya go.”
Next thing Hermione knew, she was shoved through the classroom door, and as luck would have it, the first person she made eye contact with was…
‘Draco Malfoy…of all people I could fall for…’
“Whoa, whoa, there she is, and making eyes at Malfoy. What’s the matter Granger, got a taste of a Slytherin and now you’re looking as if you want to change houses,” Blaise Zambini taunted her when he entered the class room.
Hermione blushed and looked down at the floor, concentrating on finding her way to her usual table.
“You shut it, you stupid git,” Ron said to Blaise.
Hermione didn’t see the threatening look Draco shot Blaise from across their table.
Luckily Professor Slughorn came into the classroom, which effectively kept anyone from getting into a row.
“Alright, settle down, settle down,” Slughorn said. “Now, again today, we will be working on our projects. Most of you should be almost finished, so let’s get going.”
Hermione busied herself with finishing the Felix Felicis she was brewing.
‘Just concentrate…concentrate…,’ she kept repeating to herself in her head. She needed to finish the potion by the end of the week.
*~*
Draco took out his ingredients and his potion book. The week he’d spent in the Hospital Wing had set him back a great deal with the potion he was making for Hermione.
He raised his hand, and Professor Slughorn walked over to him.
“Ah, Mr. Malfoy, yes, Dumbledore told me about your…er…circumstances. If you would like, you may come by the class room in the evenings and try and make up for lost brewing time.”
“Thank you, sir,” Draco answered.
“But, if you don’t mind me asking my boy,” Slughorn continued. “What is it you are brewing? You’ve been very secretive with your potion.”
“Well, sir, it’s for a friend of mine, who’s in this class, and I don’t want her “ I mean, I don’t want them finding out,” Draco said, hoping the potions master would decide to drop the subject.
Slughorn chuckled, “Oh, come now, I can keep a secret. You will after all, have to tell me eventually, seeing as how I will be grading your potion making skills.”
Draco hesitated for a moment.
“Ok, but please do not say it loud enough for anyone to hear,” he asked, and he opened his potions book to the right page and pointed at the potion he was making.
Slughorn’s eyes widened. “Your Eyes,” he whispered. “That is a very complicated and very complex potion. It involves both potion brewing and infusing the potion with charms at very specific intervals.”
Draco nodded. “Yes, sir, it’s proved to be the most difficult potion I’ve ever tried to make.”
“Well,” Slughorn beamed. “If you pull it off, you’ll earn top marks. It usually takes someone at the level of Master Potion Maker to have the skill and experience to brew it. Giving someone the chance to see something the way you envision it, very complicated. Not many people get the chance to see something from someone else’s perspective. I hope whoever you give it to, appreciates it.”
With that, Slughorn moved on to check on everyone else’s progress.
Draco looked over at Hermione, who was concentrating on the Felix Felicis in front of her.
“I hope she does too,” Draco whispered, and he turned back around to continue working on the potion.
*~*
“Psst, Harry,” Ron whispered out of the corner of his mouth, so that Hermione couldn’t hear.
Harry glanced at Hermione before answering, “Yeah?”
“Do we tell her now?”
Harry shook his head slightly. “No,” he said. “Not yet, we have to wait.”
“How much longer? We have to do it soon.”
“When the Felix Felicis is finished, then we tell her. We can’t have her getting distracted, we need that potion.”
Ron nodded slightly, and both boys went back to working on their potions.