One Snowy Night (A Dramione Oneshot)

Midnight Excursion

There's something comforting about darkness, Hermione finds as she stumbles her way through the silent halls of Hogwarts and out into the frosty winter air. Though the sky is clear, there are no stars to be seen. She shivers as a cold breeze blows, numbing her nose and turning her cheeks a bright red. She pulls her scarf tighter around her neck and mouth as she trudges through what feels like snow, but it's no use. Her breath becomes cold as soon as it comes out of her, and every time she inhales she gets colder. Eventually she stops moving completely and just stands.

She knows without having to look at her watch that it's midnight. She also knows, despite being in almost complete darkness, that she just has to take one more step and she will plunge into the depths of the Black lake.

What did she come out here for again? It's just another ordinary night in the course of Hermione's life, just another day of answering all the questions in class, hanging out with Ron and Harry (not that she sees much of them nowadays, what with Harry spending every available moment with his new girlfriend Ginny and Ron losing his head over the group of fangirls that he seems to have gathered somehow after the final battle last year), and immersing herself with magical lessons that suddenly seem never ending......

Hermione only realises that she's crying when she feels warm wetness sliding down her face. She wipes it with her sleeve before the tears can solidify. And why is she crying anyway? There's nothing to be sad about. The war is over, Voldemort killed. Her parents remember her again. Her grades haven't slipped even though she took an entire year off to support the war efforts.

It can't be that she is jealous of Ron, because she and he have already agreed half a year ago that they would be better off as friends. Nor can it be that she's missing her parents, since she just Owled them this morning after receiving their reply to her previous letter the day before.

Maybe she's going mad.

She covers her face with her hands as the sobs worsen until her entire frame is quivering. She must be coming down with something to be so out of control in the middle of the school year. Perhaps, if she asks nicely enough, Madam Pomfrey will teach her how to perform a check for anyone suffering from mental illness......

"Who's there?" Hermione freezes when she hears a familiar, cultured voice cut through the cold air. Instead of the snide undertone Draco Malfoy's voice usually carries whenever he deigns to talk to her, she detects a faint note of uncertainty. She is just about to speak a reply when she stops herself.

If he knows that Hermione Granger is the one crying her eyes out at the lake tonight, doubtless tomorrow there will be several nasty rumours going on about a fight between the golden trio or her getting rejected by some dumb boy, or something equally ridiculous like that.

So she glares towards where the voice came from and starts the long roundabout route back to her room. The snow crunches underneath her boots, broadcasting her leaving. "Wait! Come back......please!" The desperate words catch her attention. Before she can stop them, the words tumble out of her mouth. "What do you want?" She curses herself in her head. Stupid.

Surprisingly, it appears that Malfoy doesn't recognize her voice, because he continues in a tone that she has never heard from him before, "I just...don't want to be alone right now."

The unexpected and uncharacteristic admission awakens a surge of curiosity in Hermione. What has gotten Malfoy so unsettled that he would ask (to him) a complete stranger to keep him company on a night such as this? She pictures his smug face as he calls her a mudblood and wonders why she is staying.

Before she knows it she is crouching down cautiously, making sure to make lots of noise to announce her continued presence. An almost inaudible sigh of relief is heard.