The Fine Line Between Love and Hate | Dramione AU by Short-circuit-Soulmate

Chapter 10

...in which progress is made.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was not a large school, nor was it a school with a student body who knew to disregard rumours and gossip, despite the lack of truth in them. This is what had Hermione Granger hiding in the girls' bathroom at Monday lunchtime, reading a book and listening to the sound of Moaning Myrtle gurgling in the adjacent toilet stall.

Hermione had thought, or at least hoped, that perhaps her little Hogsmeade rendezvous with Hopkins would go under the radar. Unfortunately for her, she was wrong. There were rumours flying around the castle that she'd not only snogged Hopkins, but that they'd snuck into the Shrieking Shack for a little 'private time'. Though that was not the term many gossiping people were using to describe it.

Hermione sighed, leaning back against the wall of the cubicle. When she'd returned from Hogsmeade the previous day, she'd been completely flustered and moody after her...run in with Malfoy.

When Ginny had found her to discuss the aspects of her date, Hermione had not been in the mood to discuss Hopkins at all. She had been far too busy planning the different ways in which she would hex Draco Malfoy into oblivion, that she hadn't even heard Ginny enter her dorm.

"So did you kiss him?" The red head had asked, sitting at the end of Hermione's bed.

Hermione's thoughts had automatically gone to Malfoy. "What? Who? No. Why would you think that?" She'd said a little too fast, her voice had been filled with panic. Looking back now Hermione was surprised Ginny hadn't caught on straight away.

The younger girl had just given her an odd look, before shaking her head in disbelief. "Hopkins, of course!" She had exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air.

Hermione had relaxed slightly, though the topic of Hopkins was one she'd wanted to discuss just as much as Malfoy. In other words, not at all.

"No," she'd lied, trying to sound as convincing as possible, "we didn't kiss."

Technically it wasn't a complete lie. Hermione had always been very specific about things, and to her the 'kiss' Hopkins gave her, shouldn't even be included in the definition of 'kiss'. What Hermione considered a kiss wasn't just two lips connecting, but actually participating and enjoying it. If she considered what her and Hopkins did as 'kissing' then she would also say she'd kissed Blaise Zabini that one night he'd attacked her face while he was intoxicated. No; those were not kisses.

Hermione had not enjoyed Hopkins' 'kiss'. At all. He'd merely smooshed his face against hers while she was unprepared, and if she had been prepared she would have made some excuse to escape before he had a chance. Unfortunately for her, that chance had never come; and she hated to think that it was only with the help of Malfoy that she'd managed to get away.

Malfoy. Now that was what she considered a kiss, though she would never admit it to him, or anyone else, or even herself for that matter. She'd told him Hopkins was her first real kiss, not him, but that was a blatant lie. For what she considered kissing, which definitely wasn't Hopkins or Blaise Zabini, Draco was the first and, unfortunately, the best kiss of her life.

It was unfortunate because at intervals when her mind should be occupied by homework, or reading, she found herself drifting off into the memory of that kiss. Every time she caught herself, she wanted to bang her head against her desk, or the wall, or really just the closest solid object she could find. She despised the fact that she was thinking those sorts of thoughts about Malfoy, especially when she was determined to hate him.

She thought back to what she had said to him after their kiss. Despite the fact that she didn't count Hopkins kiss as her first, or even a kiss at all, she refused to let Draco Malfoy think he had that title. It was just ludicrous to think that the boy, who had bullied and heckled her for years, would be her first kiss. It wasn't supposed to happen that way, and Hermione refused to let him take that title along with the confidence, self esteem, and self worth he took from her over the years.