Chapter Six

Hermione's POV:

Why was I thinking of children? I definitely wasn't ready for them, and there was no one who would want to have children with me. Anyway, I should leave that subject behind. I need to focus on us. What? Who's us. No, no, no, no, no! I mean me. Just me, only me. Me, myself and I. I wasn't concerned about anybody else. Perhaps Draco, and what he'd gone through in the past but nothing more than his past. Not the fact that-quit lying to yourself. I had been lying to myself for the past two weeks. I didn't find him attractive. I most definitely did not want to talk about children with him. I mean, what a weird thing to talk about. We'd only just became friends. I mean, already talking kid, not with him, but still, kids. Merlin! Just focus on something else! Like gardening. Yes, maybe I'll start a flower garden in the backyard. I would do just that. A flower garden would be nice, maybe I'd plant them next year. The temperature was still warm but there were only two months until fall officially began. That was nowhere near enough time to grow flowers and have them living steadily. This is a good distraction. But it wasn't good enough if I still thought of him occasionally. Not as much, but the thought of him popped into my head still. No duh! You live with him. Yeah, the problem was that I lived with him. Eventually, I'd have enough to get my own place, seeing as Ron stole the apartment I had paid for. Of course, now he'd struggle to pay the bills. This thought made me let out a small laugh. I shouldn't be laughing about something like that. I had to remind myself of this. Maybe living with Draco had had a bad influence on me. Or maybe I'm doing this on my own. Maybe Ron was holding me back. Maybe all I needed was to be free from his prison. I loved that life, but I had left that behind, I had a new life now. This was what I had been missing fr so many years. Draco was the missing piece of my puzzle. Draco is the missing piece of my puzzle. And I wasn't going to deny that now. I shouldn't deny the fact that he was a much better friend than Ron had been for ten years. Because he was. Draco comforted me in a way no one had before, he made me happy and I would accept that.

Draco's POV:

Hermione made me feel like I had a place to call home. Before I had this empty cottage that I would come home to each day. Now I had her. I got to sit at the table with someone, I got to laugh with someone, I had somebody to call my home. At first, I assumed that we would ignore each other, that she would continue to despise me. But, she was the one to start most of the conversations. She forgave me and that made me ecstatic. I never thought we'd come to this point. Where we're friends, and we laugh about everything. She was my best friend. She was really the only friend I had. But she was different than Pansy and Crabbe and Goyle had been when I was a child. She treated me kind and didn't stand behind me, defending my wrong statements by saying "What he said" or "Yeah, filthy mudblood". Hermione wasn't a mudblood. She was muggle-born and that made her no different from me. I fact, she was kinder and better at magic, and she could do things I couldn't. She had mastered the Patronus charm at the beginning of fifth year, while I hadn't mastered it until late in fifth year. She was perfect. NO! She isn't perfect. None of us are perfect. I still had to remind myself not to think of her every hour of every day. I had to tell myself that I couldn't shoot my shot and that she wasn't the one. But if she was, what would my parents think. They don't matter. They abandoned me. They abandoned me so I ran. I found my safe place. My safe place was sitting right in front of me. Her gorgeous, honey curls falling halfway down her back. Falling backward onto the sofa behind her. She was beautiful. I didn't have words that could come off my tongue to describe her beauty. She was angelic.

Hermione's POV:

So he stared at me as I laughed, falling into the sofa. I preferred his company over Ron's. With Ron, I felt ignored and useless, when I'm with Draco I feel wanted. I wanted to lay in his arms and for him to stroke my hair. NO YOU DON'T! I don't. I wanted to be his friend and that was all. I had no reason to want him. I didn't want him.

"Hermione?" He says my name. I lift myself from the back of the couch. My name felt right, coming off of his lips. "Are you okay?" He asks. I sit up straighter and place my hands on my knees.

"Yes. I'm perfectly fine." I smile at him. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Because a week ago you broke up with your fiance. You're no longer friends with somebody who used to be one of your best friends. You lost a part of your life. You've known him since you were 12." He replies carefully.

"I'm sure that I'm fine. I have you now. You fill the hole in my chest. You bring joy into my life." I reply, smiling brighter.

"I don't believe that." He whispers, lifting himself from the sofa only to begin pacing the sitting room. "Why are you lying to me?" He asks, stopping in front of where I was sitting. "Why do you lie?"

"You know what, yeah I do lie. It's not like you haven't lied to everybody before!" I shout. "You've lied. We all lie. We all make mistakes and then we forgive. But I need time! I have to help you because it helps me. And you weren't raised right, I have to teach you." I cry, holding my hair back behind my face. His expression is hurt but understanding at the same time. I didn't know what to do. Should I hug him, should I walk away. Instead of me doing anything he hugs me tightly. It felt nice. His strong arms protecting me. So I lift myself from the couch to stand and I rest my head against his chest. "Why do you comfort me?"

"Because you need to be comforted." He replies, making his answer short and simple. He sounded sad so I lifted my head from his chest to see his cheeks were tear-stained and pink. I hugged him tighter. His arms encased me tightly. His chin was rested on my head. Why? I ask myself. Why? This isn't how it's supposed to be. Slytherins and Gryffindors were enemies that go much further back than a few years. Ever since Hogwarts was created, Slytherins and Gryffindors despised each other. Now here we were, practically best friends. Expressing how we feel to each other. It was like he was what I had needed all these years. I fit into his life perfectly and he fit into mine. Was he my missing piece? Why do I feel this way? I let go of the topic, then began to figure out when I'd be able to go to Neville's. He now lived in a house just outside of Hogsmeade. The wizarding village that Professor McGonagall took us to in third year. It wasn't necessarily large, but it also wasn't super small either. I guess you'd call it average, but it really wasn't. Enchanted candles decorated trees during winter. And there were all kinds of shops that sold brooms, Quidditch gear, anything wizard related. I'm not sure what it looks like now. I knew that it had probably changed. The battle of Hogwarts most definitely affected it. I assumed now it was still more or less the same. "Neville, he lives in Hogsmeade. At the end of the path, there's a small house. He said Sunday would be good." I say, hoping to alter the subject. He nods his head, which I hoped meant he'd forgotten about the cry-worthy subject we were talking about just minutes ago.

"Sunday. Is that a good day for us? Or..." He asks.

"That's a good day. Maybe we'll go for dinner if they're okay with that." I reply, pulling the phone from my pocket and quickly message him. I was surprised that we'd actually been able to reconnect after so many years. "Okay. Dinner's fine with them." I reply after a few minutes of waiting.

"Good." He replies in a stiff tone.

"Are you alright?" I ask, stepping backward slightly. "Yo need to relax. Being so tense won't do you any good." I shake my head, then grab his hand. "Come with me." I smile, then tug him through the door into the back garden. "Meteolojinx," I mutter, then a flurry of snow appears overhead. I hold out my arms and watch as the snow begins to grow stronger. Since this was magic, the July heat wouldn't cause it to melt. "See," I hold out my arms, twirling around beneath the never-ending flurries of snow. "Better?" I ask.

He nods his head and looks towards the cloud of snow that would remain over his house unless I did otherwise. He seemed happier now. Like all tension in the air had been released. His being happy filled me with everlasting joy. I don't know why though. I never felt this way around Ron. I never did much with him. I went to work, then came home to him drunk on fire whiskey. This was what I came home to each day after work. Despite the fact the I begged him to stop his drinking habits. He never did. And when he was drunk it wasn't good. He was horny drunk. Most of the time, I'd used the full body-bind curse on him to prevent him from 'hurting' me. I'd then dragged him to our room and slept on the couch. Each day I told myself that he would change. The bad part was that I believed it. And I believed it until the day I saw him with another woman. That was when I left and realized the truth about our relationship. His only answer was that 'he didn't want to hurt me.' But what he did hurt me more than explainable. So I went to Draco and we became best friends. With him, I was safe, I was home. I don't know how this happened, but I was happy it did. I was almost glad that I caught Ron with the woman who I'd found out was actually pure-blood, model Lillith Morgyn. This was a surprise, seeing as she was supposedly very known to witches and wizards all over the world. I'd never heard of her, but now she and Ron TOGETHER was all over the Daily Prophet. I mean, just today I'd gotten one that said Celebrity Lillith Morgyn claims to currently be dating Ronald Weasley after his breakup with muggle-born Hermione Granger. Of course, Rita Skeeter would do that. I didn't understand why it was so important to let everybody know I was muggle-born. My blood status didn't affect my level of wizarding ability. All sorts of purebloods had been terrible at the majority of their classes. Meanwhile, plenty of muggle-borns were doing amazing in their classes. For example, I had all O's and E's during my years at Hogwarts. It didn't matter what your wizarding blood status was. She wasn't magical at all, Rita Skeeter was a squib. And that didn't affect how I thought of her. Though the fact she was always keeping her nose in other people's business was quite frankly she was very annoying.

Draco's POV:

I don't know why I thought of Hermione as more than a friend. Sure she was my best friend, but I thought of her as even more than that. She'll never like an evil pureblood like you, Draco. I remind myself. But I couldn't force myself to suffer through these thoughts in silence. I couldn't hide them for eternity. I couldn't and didn't want to. I wanted to tell Hermione. I wanted to make her mine, but she'd only just left Ron. It was much too soon. It'd be two weeks tomorrow. I had to make it a rule that I had to hide what I felt until the six-month mark. And those months would go by very slowly. This past week felt like it'd been years. I couldn't hold back my feelings for six months. For me, it would be physically impossible. I couldn't and wouldn't stand to the side while she found other men. I needed to tell her before I lost my chance. How was I supposed to admit that I was hopelessly in love with her? The girl I bullied and shamed for her blood status. Did I really expect for her to turn around and say the same thing? No. I couldn't expect her to say that after all the pain I'd put her through. I didn't expect her to forgive me either, but here we are now.

Hermione's POV:

No, I wasn't thinking right. I needed to take my mind off of him. JUST FOCUS! But I couldn't. Not with him laughing and smiling beside me. He made me happy, he was the reason I wasn't in my room crying. I was surprised, yes. But that didn't mean I didn't love how happy he was all the time. It was like he'd quite literally swallowed a rainbow. Which was impossible but he acted as though that's what had happened. I didn't mind much. At times his happiness was overwhelming, but that wasn't very often. His smile was nice. I'd never really seen it in school. He always served me with scowls and snarls. Now he was so much kinder. He gave me smiles and hugged me when I was sad. I loved him. NO I DON'T! I don't love him. He had hardly changed. I lied. I lied to myself so much, more than I should. I CAN'T! I couldn't fall for him. How did I even know what he thought of me? What if he's just making himself look good so that later on he can throw me out. Like I was used goods. He would throw me out then find another girl to fall head over heels for him. But I didn't feel more than friendly feelings for him so everything I had just told myself was irrelevant. And maybe I'd be able to change Ronald and make him a better person. But I doubted I'd be able to even stare him in the face without bursting into tears. Sure, I wasn't perfect, but he could've just broken up with me or rejected me from the beginning. At least then I'd still have my friend of ten years. I lost him. He left me. Technically speaking it was the other way around but I really ha no part in him and Lillith Morgyn. Couldn't he just tell the truth? I don't even know why he proposed if he didn't love me the way I loved him. I hated him. But I wouldn't be able to forever, I would always love him, just not in the way I had before. I would still be his friend if he hadn't done any of this.

Draco's POV:

Why can't I just forget about this subject? If only I could focus solely on the storm of snow surrounding us. The small storm of what it used to be transformed into a small blizzard, coating us in a thin layer of snow. But she was right next to me arms spread wide with her face tilted towards the sky. I'd never acknowledged this much before, but Hermione was a goddess. Before last week I only thought of her as the girl whom I'd let be attacked by my psychotic aunt. It was my fault her arm now had the engraving on it. I don't know why, but I couldn't let that go. I let her feel pain. I let her scream in pain repeatedly until her arm ran clean of blood, but left the permanent scar that would always be noticeable. Why won't you just let it go? She has forgiven. Hermione forgave me for years of bullying. The problem was that I would never be able to forgive myself. How could I? I was literally falling in LOVE with someone I'd only regained contact with a week ago and get this, I bullied her half our life. Great! Just perfect! Focus on the snow. The snow that very much so magically appeared in the middle of July. Something very hard to focus on when it wasn't a very realistic thing to happen. I hated this. I could've gone against my family's traditions. I could have done the right thing. But I didn't. I bullied my peers and this stress was more punishment for me. I deserved it. I 100 percent deserved everything that had and was currently happening to me.

Third Person POV:

Draco has finally, fully learned to believe the truth. He's hopelessly in love with Hermione Granger. Hermione, on the other hand, refuses to believe that she has feelings for Draco. She feels the connection between her and Malfoy but ignores it. Though this is quite obvious, she can't believe it. He bullied me, she told herself. He doesn't love me. I don't love him. She reminded herself on a daily basis. She couldn't believe the truth, she'd left her friend, Ronald Weasley less than two weeks ago. How would everybody react to Hermione and Draco's 'friendly' relationship? Would everything fall to bits once Ron figured out who she'd been staying with? Would Harry accept the fact that the boy they'd hated half their lives loved his best friend? He couldn't let Hermione get hurt again. He must protect her. But this was Hermione's life, she needed to make her own decisions and figure out what the future by herself.