I Learned Your Pulse

"The Goblet is gone."

Hermione loved her life.

When news of her and Draco dating had reached the ears of all students, and it had been confirmed when they'd kissed when parting to go to classes, people had accepted it more than she could have ever hoped. Like at the end of the war, nobody was sitting according to houses anymore - they sat with friends and family and whoever they wanted to. Normal students sat ith the prefects and prefects sat with ormal students; Gryffindors struck up friendships with Slytherins, and all houses were united as one great school once more. Liccy, Tori, Theo and Blaise - she had managed to nickname him Laisy, to his great irritation - were ecstatic, and Harry and Ron were happy, even enthused. Ginny, Luna and Neville were the most supportive, oddly - Ginny, her best  female friend, and Luna, her other, and Luna's partner ffought off the few skeptics that cornered her or Draco or both when they were together. Shared kisses and stolen time alone on the grounds of Hogwarts were how she spended her time. Her life was whole; she didn't worry about her love life, she didn't worry about her friends, she didn't worry about the task - the world was right. All was right.

Hermione's hand curled around Draco's. The sky, an almost translucent blue, was specked with the floating cotton of clouds. The grass that waved around their faces tickled her head slightly, and her hair, fanned out behind her, let her cool down with the slight breeze that wafted over them. Draco's normally cold grasp had heated somewhat for a time like this. Hermione squeezed his hand gently, and felt him squeeze back as the star resting on her chest thudded once quite forcefully.

" 'Mione?" his voice was easy-flowing and sounded natrual with the chirps of the birds surrounding them and the ripples of the lake a few feet from them.

"Mm?"

"It's embarrassing, knowing you can feel my heartbeat when I can't feel yours."

Hermione smiled slightly, and raised their intertwined hands, and slowly untangled his fingers from hers, placing his palm over her heart. "There," she said. "Now you feel our heart."

"Our?"

Her smile widened. "It already belongs to you, Draco, it just happes to be inside my chest."

Draco's eyes looked at her, her sweet words reverberating through their steel color, and her stomach was sent tying itself into oddly comfortable knots. His hand slid from over her heart to her waist, and he pulled her closer to him, almost close eough to kiss. Her hand rested on his smooth cheek, looking carved almsot from the gods themselves - no, he was a god himself. His full lips smiled at her, and there was nothing in the world better than where they were now. She got the feeling she often got with Draco - that the entire world was perfectly modeled into the most beautiful place in the whole universe. There was a simple kind of fluttering that her heart succumbed to when he touched her, caressed her like he was doing.

"Miss Granger?"

McGonagall's voice broke her out of her perfect moment and totally popped her pleasant bubble. She sighed, turning away from Draco and sitting up. "Yes, Professor?"

Draco sat up next to her and held her hand once more. She felt the internal balance once more.

McGonagall was scurrying toward them, the look on her face anything but the peace Hermione had just been feeling. "Come quickly," she said. "The Goblet is gone."

"Kingsley, what's happened?" Hermione demanded. Honestly, she thought completely to herself, You'd think I might get over two months of absolutely nothing but a normal romance. But, no, of course not. "The Goblet's gone? How?"