healed (dramione)

35 : Hermione

Song for the Chapter: I Love You - Acoustic ~ Woodkid

Hermione's POV

"Well?" I asked him. "What did you want to ask me?"

Draco swallowed. I hadn't seen him this on edge since I'd punched him in the nose. Except this time, it felt horrible rather than good.

"You know what?" He said hurriedly, getting to his feet so quickly he almost knocked the table over. "It can wait." Draco looked flustered and uncomfortable, and I stood up, frowning at him bemusedly.

"What?" I stammered. "But - Draco --"

"I'll see you later," he managed weakly, before turning on his heels and rushing out of the hall so fast I wondered what I'd done wrong, leaving me stood alone and feeling pretty hurt. What had I done? What was he going to tell me? I felt like the worst person in the world.

It was probably all my fault. At least Ron was finally going to leave me alone.

↟↟↟

It was raining.

Classes had just started again since the Christmas holidays, and Herbology had been an utter mess. Mud everywhere because of the rain, the battering thunder above the greenhouse too loud to hear what anybody was saying, and our uniforms totally ruined. Somehow, I'd still managed to please Professor Sprout, though.

"Bloody cold!" Remarked a voice from behind me. I smirked as widely as I could as Draco came stumbling up the slippery path behind me, his robes over his head as a makeshift umbrella and his face contorted with something between a smile and a wrinkling of the nose.

I smiled brightly, trying to make up for the events of the morning. "Listen, Draco, about this morning --" I began.

"Don't worry about it," he interrupted quickly. "Here, you must be freezing." He edged closer and hooked his robes over my shoulder, pulling me closer. The rain sounded louder under there, but it was warmer and cooler. I smiled up at him.

"Thank you," I mumbled. The sound of the rain pounding on his robes muffled everybody else's footsteps and voices, and soon we were the only ones left out there, completely and utterly alone. 

Draco broke into a run and I yelped in surprise, slipping as I struggled to keep up with him. My hands flew to his arm and I held his shirt sleeve tight, feeling my shoes become caked in thick mud. The rain poured relentlessly down on us and Draco's hand reached around to pull up his robes, his fingertips brushing against my cheek.

Eventually we stopped short by the courtyard wall, breathlessly panting and laughing ridiculously at what a stupid situation we found ourselves in - which could have been easily avoided, but wasn't.

There was a short, singular moment where we fell silent, and I looked up at the same time Draco looked down, and our eyes locked, our hair windswept and clinging to our skin, water dropping down our faces.

And then it happened.

His hand cupped my face before I knew what he was doing, he tilted his head to one side and then pressed his lips to mine. My eyes flew open and my heart leapt into my mouth, and it was lucky his lips were there to stifle my gasp of utter surprise.

He tasted of the cigarette smoke I'd breathed in for the first time with him, sitting side by side on the floor of the room where we'd first had dinner. He smelled like it, too, and all the expensive colognes he wore, dulled down by the overpowering odour of the rain, battering us both mercilessly.

I struggled for breath but I sighed and leaned into him, slipping my arms around his neck and drawing him closer. My heart was pounding too fast for my mind to catch up, I was starved of oxygen and I needed to breathe, but I didn't. I closed my eyes and blood roared in my brain, the sound of the rain falling further and further away with only one thing in my mind - him.

He broke away with a crooked, sincere smile, but I stayed close to him, breathing in the warmth and the smell and everything about him that I liked.

I looked up and blinked raindrops off my eyelashes. "Is that what you were trying to tell me earlier?" I asked breathlessly.

Draco smiled. "Something like that," he murmured.

Author's Note: AHHHH! This was so fun to write, and the song I chose goes so well with it! I can't believe we're already at 2.5K, thank you so much! Don't forget to vote and comment, and leave any song suggestions you might have for the future :)