Meet Me In The Broom Cupboard

Chapter Twenty Nine: Eighth Year, April May June

Draco turned to Hermione and tucked her hair behind her ear, leaning in to whisper to her.

'Meet me in the broom cupboard.' He said, his breath tickling her ear.

'Draco,' she whispered. 'We haven't been there all year, we have a warm and comfortable dormitory for snogging.'

'Come on, Granger. For old times sake. Give me two minutes and then come.' He smirked, standing up from the grass. She rolled her eyes but he knew she would be there.

'Where's Draco going?' Luna asked. She was leaning against Blaise, who was stretched out on the grass next to Ginny.

'I'm not sure.' Hermione mumbled, not being able to think of an excuse quick enough.

'Liar.' Pansy laughed. 'You're going to meet for a snog, aren't you?'

Hermione blushed and Ginny giggled.

'Disgraceful, Granger.' Blaise said, shooting her a wink.

'I'll see you in a bit.' Hermione said, standing up and making her way inside.

She followed the corridors up towards the library. They hadn't come back to this cupboard since the Battle, when they'd sat in mostly silence after the war was over, but maybe Draco was feeling nostalgic as it was their last day.

When she saw the door to the cupboard she hesitated, not sure if she should knock, but soon pushed that thought from her mind and stepped inside.

Draco was stood in the middle of the cupboard, surrounded by floating candles.

'Well, isn't this romantic.' Hermione whispered, stepping closer to Draco.

'I thought I'd do something special as we might never get to come back to the cupboard that started it all.' Draco replied as he pulled Hermione in for a kiss. It wasn't a kiss that was reminiscent of their meetings in there from years ago, it was slower. It was romantic. It was meaningful.

When Draco pulled away, Hermione caught his face in the candlelight and wondered if he felt as nervous as he looked.

'Draco...' she said, wanting to ask if he was okay but he cut off her thought.

'Hermione,' he said and took a deep breath. 'I wanted you to meet me in here so that I could tell you how much you mean to me.'

Hermione could feel a smile growing on her face. It wasn't often that she saw the overtly romantic and sentimental side of Draco.

'When you first burst in on me in here during Fifth Year I wasn't angry, or annoyed, or wanting to throw an insult in your face. All I wanted to do was kiss you like I had in Third Year. For months I wondered why I was so obsessed with meeting you in here, despite all of my naive beliefs about blood. It wasn't until our regular meetings stopped that I realised.'

Hermione could feel herself welling up at his words and, although she loved hearing them, she wanted to stop him before she started crying. But he continued.

'You mean the world to me, I can't imagine being with anyone else and I wish I'd have realised that and told you sooner. You once told me that you would choose me, choose to forgive me, choose to love me. I want you to know that I've always chosen you whether I was aware of it or not, and now I want to make that choice permanent.' Draco said, before bending down and getting on his knees.

He slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out a small, black, velvet box. 'I love you. With all of my heart, I love you. Sometimes I wonder if you've slipped me a love potion because of how much I'm impossibly in love with you.'

Hermione was really crying now, her whole body shaking.

'Hermione Granger, will you do me the greatest honour of becoming my wife?'

Hermione sank to her knees in front of him and sobbed what sounded like a "yes". Draco took her left hand and slipped the ring onto her shaking finger.

'Yes.' Hermione said again. 'Always yes.'

Draco kissed her, pulling her body into his, letting a single tear slip down his cheek.

Outside of the broom cupboard, four people were sat against the opposite wall, waiting.

'Do you think they're shagging?' Pansy asked, fifteen minutes into their wait.

'Probably.' Blaise and Ginny muttered at the same time.

'I'm sure they're just celebrating.' Luna said.

'Exactly.' Pansy, Blaise and Ginny said.

It was then that Draco and Hermione burst from the cupboard with huge smiles on their faces. The four in the floor stood up, waiting for the answer to the question they didn't need to ask. Hermione held her left hand up and all hell broke loose. There were hugs all round, Blaise even gave Draco a hug.

'So, when's the wedding?' Blaise asked as he embraced Draco. Draco laughed as he pulled away, remembering their conversation after the Battle where he'd asked the same thing.

When the excitement had died down slightly and they began walking down to the Great Hall for their last dinner together, Luna turned to Hermione with a small smile on her face.

'Hermione, did you know that you have a Slytherin tie on?' Luna asked. Hermione's eyes widened as she looked down at the tie around her neck and then at the red and gold tie that Draco was wearing, and then burst into laughter.

'I told you.' Pansy said, and everyone joined in the laughter.