Disclaimer: As with the previous chapters, none of these characters belong to me as they are all the property of J.K. Rowling and whatnot.
A/N: Thankfully I’m feeling a bit better now, albeit rather sleepy, but I’ve had the wording for this chapter in my brain all day so I feel it’s about time to put it down on paper…or rather, computer. Anyway, thank you for the reviews, and I hope you enjoy!
***
Draco was pleased with himself.
He had bribed a few fifth years to start some commotion outside the greenhouses during his Herbology lesson, giving him the chance to slip away while Professor Sprout got angry at the other students. In this time he had managed to get back up to the Head’s common room undetected, and prepare for his break and spare lesson with Hermione. There wasn’t much to set up, but he wanted it to be ready for when her Arithmacy lesson ended and she returned.
He had arranged with some house elves for white lilies (her favourite flower, as he had discovered the night before) to be put in vases around the room, gotten some Honeydukes assorted fudge (her favourite chocolate) delivered, and he had, just for laughs, enchanted the candles to dim slightly when she walked in the room. The only other preparation necessary was for him to be there and for her to turn up, and of those two things he was certain.
This was why, as soon as the bell signaling break went, Draco stopped fiddling with a vase of lilies and sat down on the loveseat, chocolates under one arm and a bunch of roses in his hand. He knew it was cliché, bordering on tacky, but he knew that she loved to be cheesy sometimes. Due to his knowledge of this, he was not surprised when she walked in and her jaw dropped. She shrugged off her bag and placed her books on the table beside the portrait entrance and slowly walked over to him.
“Chocolates and flowers for you, m’dear,” Draco said as she neared him, and by the dim lighting he could tell she flushed pink before taking the gifts, inhaling the delicious scent of the roses greedily. She placed them on the coffee table and looked up into Draco’s face as he took her hands.
“What is all this?” she asked quietly, but he merely smiled softly at her.
“Hermione, I’ve never told anyone half of the things I told you last night, and I feel like we’ve formed a bond. I was wondering, will you be my girlfriend?” Draco asked, his stomach clenching tightly in apprehension.
“Of course!” Hermione squealed, jumping into his arms. His stomach relaxed and he wrapped his arms around Hermione’s slender frame, holding her to him. “God, if this is how you ask me out I wonder what it’d be like if we got engaged,” Hermione laughed, indicating the measures he had gone to.
“Ah, but this way I was certain you’d say yes,” Draco grinned as they sat down on the couch. Hermione tucked her head into the crook of his neck.
“So what inspired you to ask me?” she queried as she got comfortable.
“As I said, after last night and everything you told me and everything I told you, I felt…attached to you in some way. Then this morning we were so open, so friendly and so close, and I wanted to make it official. I don’t care how Weasel takes it, he seems to have moved on already as it is, all I care about is how you feel,” Draco said, finishing by kissing the top of her head lightly. She looked up at him smiling, and he kissed the very tip of her nose as well, causing her to break out into fits of giggles. “What?” he asked, but he too was beginning to laugh.
Hermione’s giggles became louder, and because he loved the sound of her laugh and the look on her face when she was happy, he tickled her sides. She continued laughing and tried to slap his hands away but to no avail, and he only let up when she started gasping for air.
“That…was…not…fair!” she gasped, and Draco decided he should apologize to her so he scooped her up and placed her on his lap, seeing as she had nearly rolled off the seat.
“Oh, well then let me apologize,” Draco said, and Hermione pouted at him. He leant forward and kissed her forehead, then slowly placed tiny feather-like kisses down the sides of her face, avoiding her lips. He kissed the tip of her nose again, and then held her face in his large hands as he stared into the pools of chocolate which were her eyes.
“Kiss me,” she whispered, and he obliged all too willingly.
Once again the warmth from her kiss spread through his body as her hands moved up and wrapped their way around his hair. Fireworks were going off in his head, along with waves crashing, bells ringing and birds singing. He deepened the kiss and their bodies moved closer together. The warmth of her kiss had travelled to the tips of his toes and he never wanted it to leave, but just as he thought this and how warm her skin was, the bell for lunch went and they broke apart. He looked down at her and saw her smile, and he couldn’t help but return it.
“Shall we go to lunch?” she asked, and he nodded. She took his hand as they stood together, and the walk down to the Great Hall was all too similar to the one at breakfast, this time with a significant difference.
“Where do you want to sit?” Draco asked as they walked into the slowly filling hall and looked around. It was common for students who were in inter-house relationships to sit together at one of the tables, but neither was sure how their house would take their new relationship.
Hermione saw Ginny wave at her from the Gryffindor table, not noticing her contact with Draco. “Let’s go and sit with Harry and Ginny,” she said, and Draco nodded, following her as she pulled him towards her red-haired friend and Harry. Hermione saw Ginny’s eyes widen once she spotted her holding hands with Draco, but she quickly returned her face to a blank expression.
“Hi, Draco. Will you be joining us?” Ginny asked uncertainly. At the mention of Draco, Harry choked on his casserole and he turned around quickly to face Hermione and Draco who were standing there smiling and holding hands.
“Yes, he will be,” Hermione said, and her and Draco slid into the seats beside Ginny and Harry.
“So…are you two, you know…” Harry said, looking over Draco.
“Indeed we are,” Draco said as he helped himself to some potato salad.
“Listen,” Harry said in an undertone as Hermione and Ginny gushed over the boys, “I don’t want to sound like the overprotective best friend, but that’s what I am, and I think you should know that if you touch her or hurt her in any way and I hear about, you will never be able to walk straight again.”
“I’ll take that into consideration, and I have absolutely no intention of ever hurting Hermione again. I know I’ve done her wrong in the past, but I never want to make her feel the way I used to. I’ve changed, and she knows it, and she knows how hard I’m trying to remain change,” Draco said and took a bite of his lunch.
“Well then, if that’s the case and Hermione believes you, then I do too,” Harry smiled, and Draco returned it. The two chatted about Quidditch for a while, comparing their favourite teams and such. They were getting along well when Ron came up, unaware that Draco was sitting there.
“Hey, Har-“ he started, breaking off when he saw the blonde hair of Draco. “What do you think you’re doing here, ferret?”
Hermione took Draco’s hand underneath the table to stop him from reaching towards his wand.
“I’m eating my lunch and talking to Harry,” Draco responded coolly, squeezing Hermione’s hand gently.
“Oh, well why don’t you go and eat your lunch with the rest of your Slytherin gang and stay away from us?” Ron said, pulling his wand out and pointing it at Draco. This was all hidden from the teachers, so there was no hope of any of them intervening.
“What are you going to do? Curse me for talking to your friend and sitting at the Gryffindor table?” sneered Draco, and Ron flushed.
“Back off, ferret,” Ron said, placing his wand tip against Draco’s chest.
“Draco, let’s go,” Hermione pleaded, and Draco stood up, their hands still clasped together.
“You’re going out with him? You moved on quickly,” Ron looked daggers at Hermione.
“Apparently not as quickly as you did, Ronald, or is Lavender under the mistaken impression that you two are back together again? Of course, after seeing you two eating each other’s faces outside Charms yesterday, I doubt that the latter is true,” Hermione remarked and her and Draco left the hall, leaving a fuming Ron behind as he sat down next to Harry.
Harry, not exactly in the mood to deal with Ron’s anger, pulled Ginny away from the table, leaving Ron with Seamus and Dean.
***
“You handled that very well,” Hermione said to Draco.
They were sitting below the shade of a tree beside the lake, basking in the warmth of the autumn sun. Draco was leaning up against the trunk of the tree with Hermione sitting with her back against his chest. He was absently playing with her hair, twisting it around his fingers.
“Mm, I didn’t think you’d appreciate me causing a scene in the Great Hall. It could have been worse. I mean, he could have actually cursed me,” Draco said as he ran his fingers through her brown curls.
“I’m glad he didn’t. I wouldn’t fancy spending Herbology waiting beside your bed in the hospital wing,” Hermione said, looking up at Draco who smiled warmly.
“I’m glad he didn’t, too. I wouldn’t fancy knowing that you’d be unhappy because you missed Herbology,” Draco teased, and Hermione laughed.
They sat in silence again, Hermione watching the tentacles of the giant squid breaking the surface of the water and Draco playing with her hair once more. The bell rang and they both sighed as it broke the peace of their tranquil moment. They stood up and parted with a quick kiss, Hermione heading towards to greenhouses and Draco to the castle.
Hermione couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face as she stood outside the greenhouses, waiting for Professor Sprout to come down and start the lesson.
“I can’t believe you’re going with Malfoy,” someone sneered, and Hermione turned around to see Ron behind her.
“I can’t believe you’re taking this so personally,” Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
“You told me that when we broke up it wasn’t because of him,” Ron said angrily.
“It wasn’t because of him, okay? It was because of me, just like I said. Besides, just because we went out doesn’t mean you can dictate to me who you think I should and should not go out with,” Hermione snapped.
“Obviously, but Malfoy?”
“He’s changed, Ronald, unlike you,” Hermione said, and she moved over to work with a group of Hufflepuffs. She waved at Harry when he came in, but other than that did not look at Ron’s table for the whole lesson.
***
Hermione hummed quietly to herself as she sliced some potato for the dinner she was making. She had found that cooking relaxed her, and to work in a quiet room made it all the nicer. She placed the layers of potato into the baking dish and added the cream mixture before placing it in the oven to begin to cook the sausages. She worked quickly and efficiently, and by the time Draco walked in after being in the Slytherin common room with Blaise Zabini, the plates were on the table, each with a glass of wine beside them.
“I could get used to this,” Draco grinned after they had eaten and their plates and glasses had disappeared. He rubbed his stomach in a satisfied sort of way.
“I’ve really got to get a move on with my homework. Care to join?” Hermione pushed her chair from the table and summoned her books and parchment with a lazy flick of her wand.
Draco nodded in agreement, and the two of them spread their books over the main work table in the room. They worked quietly, occasionally asking each other a question about their work, and by the time midnight rolled around they had both completed rather copious amounts off homework.
“Mm, I’m so tired. I think I’m going to go to bed,” Hermione said after she had finished checking over a Charms essay.
“Alright, goodnight, beautiful,” Draco said, kissing her goodnight and enjoying the warmth which spread through his body at her touch. They broke apart after a while, and he smiled to himself. He could definitely get used to that.
***
A/N: I’m very happy with this chapter, and I hope you all will be as well! It’s longer than the last one and there’s a fair bit of content within it, so I hope you’ll enjoy it. As usual, please R&R.
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