Are You The One That I Want? (Dramione Love Story)

Chapter 8: Mind and Heart

Chapter 8: Mind and Heart

Hermione walks through the corridors out of the castle. She makes her way over to the Black Lake and when she arrives she sits down at her usual place on the bench. She sits back and looks out over the water, taking in the beautiful view of the sunset.  She had made it her little moment away from everything. Sitting there and watching the sun go down, clearing her head of all the problems and stress for a moment before stepping back into her busy school life again. She noticed, especially after everything that happened with Ron, that she needed this little moment for herself every day, just to calm down, step back and look at what she was actually doing at that moment with her life. She tried to clear her mind, take her moment to just breath and be on her own in these moments. She looks out over the water as the sun slowly disappears behind the surface. She smiles before she takes a deep breath in and out again. Sometimes you just need to be alone, get away from everyone else. She takes her book out of her bag and opens it before drawing her wand out.
‘Lumos.’ she says softly before the tip of her wand starts to light up.
She holds the wand nearby the pages and starts reading Les Misérables from the beginning. What she doesn’t notice is the fact that she has been sitting on the bench for the past two hours and she missed dinner. Hermione turns the next page when she hears footsteps nearing.
‘I knew I would find you here.’ Draco says sitting down next to her.
Hermione looks up at him with her eyebrows raised.
‘Excuse me?’
‘Weaselette said to Potter that she had no idea where you were and that she was worried.’ Draco shrugs.
‘So you offered to come and find me?’
Draco laughs.
‘No, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.’ Draco says.
Hermione gives him a small smile.
‘Well I’m perfectly fine.’ Hermione says, closing her book.
‘So you were eavesdropping on my best friends?’ Hermione asks looking over at him.
‘I passed them after dinner and happened to hear that.’
‘Dinner? I missed dinner?’
Draco nods.
‘Why did you want to make sure I was okay?’ Hermione asks.
‘Because I’ve noticed you were quite absent the past week.’ Draco says looking over at her.
‘And quite down.’ he adds.
Hermione sighs.
‘Understandable, of course.’ Draco says.
‘I just like to sit here at sunset and step away from all the problems and thoughts for a moment.’ Hermione says.
‘That sounds nice.’ Draco nods.
‘It is. It helps keep me sane.’ Hermione smiles.
‘How did you know I was here?’ Hermione asks.
Draco shrugs and looks out at the water. It was already dark at this point and it was getting quite chilly.
‘You happen to run away to this little place here whenever you want to be alone.’ Draco says.
‘Have you been stalking me Malfoy?’ Hermione says.
‘No! No of course not! I just noticed!’ Draco defends.
‘I was just kidding, calm down.’ she laughs.
Draco rolls his eyes.
‘Don’t forget we have to do our rounds tonight.’ Draco reminds her.
Hermione nods.
‘So tell me Malfoy, how’s things with Parkinson?’
Draco looks over at her with his eyebrows raised before he looks back at the water and shrugs.
‘You don’t know?’
‘Since when is my love life your business?’ Draco asks.
‘Just trying to make some small talk.’ Hermione huffs.
‘Is she even your girlfriend?’ Hermione asks.
‘Why the sudden interest?’ Draco asks smirking.
‘Again, just trying to make some small talk.’ Hermione says.
‘No she’s not my girlfriend.’ Draco says.
‘You want her to be?’ Hermione asks.
Draco turns to look at her and chuckles.
‘No, I don’t.’ he answers.
‘Why do you keep snogging her? I mean if you don’t want to be more than just friends?’ Hermione asks.
‘Why all the questions?’ Draco smirks.
‘I’m trying to figure out how your brain works.’ Hermione says.
‘For the record, she keeps crashing her lips on mine, not the other way around.’ Draco informs.
‘You don’t seem to mind.’
‘And second of all.’ he says raising his hand to make clear she needs to keep her mouth shut.
‘She’s not my friend.’
Hermione frowns.
‘Well, it looks like Parkinson thinks it’s different.’ Hermione says.
Draco shrugs.
‘You don’t mind?’
‘I don’t see anyone else standing in line.’ Draco says.
‘Is that why you keep letting her do her thing?’ Hermione asks.
Draco smirks looking over at her.
‘Not like that.’ Hermione sighs.
‘Yes, I think so.’ Draco answers her previous question.
Hermione frowns.
‘But why would you think that? I recall girls lining up for you.’ Hermione says.
‘Before everything, not anymore.’ Draco shrugs.
‘How do you feel about that?’ Hermione asks.
‘When I came here I didn’t ask for a therapist.’ Draco huffs.
Hermione shakes her head.
‘Of course you didn’t.’ she sighs.
‘But I figured you could use someone to talk to.’ Hermione shrugs getting up from the bench.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Somewhere else.’ she says.
‘Mind if I join you?’ Draco asks.
Hermione raises her eyebrows but shrugs as she turns around. Draco catches up with her and looks down at the ground as he reaches her.
‘So how’s your love life going?’ Draco asks.
Hermione laughs.
‘And why would I discus that with you?’
‘I figured you could use someone to talk to.’ Draco says.
Hermione turns to look at him and chuckles, shaking her head.
‘You’re horrible you know that?’ Hermione says.
‘Seeing the amount of friends I have, yes I already figured that much.’ Draco says.
‘Oh no! Not like that-‘
‘I’m just teasing you.’
‘Oh.’ Hermione smiles.
‘Well?’ Draco asks.
‘What?’
‘Your love life.’
Hermione sighs.
‘Nothing much to tell you to be honest.’ she says.
‘No secret admirers?’
‘Always.’
‘Really?’
‘If you count the letters I get from fans all around the world.’ Hermione says.
‘You get letters?’
‘The Golden Trio remember, everyone knows us, everyone in the Wizarding World.’ Hermione says looking down at the ground.
‘Why the long face? It’s not like they know you because you were a notorious serial killer.’ Draco says.
Hermione gives him a small smile.
‘It’s just the fact that we don’t get any privacy and I won’t be able to get anywhere without camera’s flashing around me.’ Hermione sighs.
‘They know where you live?’ Draco asks.
Hermione nods.
‘They found out somewhere midsummer.’ Hermione says.
‘Waiting until I would walk out of the house before jumping out of the plants or from behind a tree before snapping pictures.’
‘It’s quite terrifying.’ Hermione admits.
Draco nods.
‘What about here? At Hogwarts?’ Draco asks.
‘I actually feel safe here.’ Hermione says giving him a small smile.
‘But here you’ve got to deal with that Hogwarts Insider.’ Draco says.
‘It’s just a school newspaper and James isn’t even constantly snapping pictures of us.’ Hermione shrugs.
‘James?’
‘The guy behind Hogwarts Insider.’
‘Gryffindor. It’s a nice guy, he even asked me to dance with him at the ball when R- when Ron was nowhere to be found.’ Hermione says.
Draco nods.
‘Oh him.’ he says.
‘Shall we do our rounds? After I’ve placed my book in our common room?’ Hermione asks.
‘Oh yes sure.’ Draco smiles as they walk up the last staircase to the seventh floor.
‘So James hu.’ Draco says.
‘What about him?’
‘Do you like him?’
Hermione laughs.
‘As a friend.’ she says.
‘Well, I’ve got a feeling he would want to be more.’ Draco says.
Hermione shakes her head.
‘I don’t think so. And otherwise it’s not going to happen.’ Hermione says.
Draco gives her a small smile.
‘I’ll be right back.’ she says before telling Snape the password and walking in.
‘What’s that? Chatting Miss Granger up there?’ Snape says with an amused smirk on his face.
‘No.’
‘No? Doesn’t look like it. I sense feelings for her around you.’ Snape says.
Draco rolls his eyes.
‘There are no feelings.’
‘No of course, how could I forget? Draco Malfoy feelings? That’s impossible. Only one night stands.’ Snape says bored.
‘Listen well-‘
‘You okay?’ Hermione asks making her way back out of the common room and into the corridor.
‘Yeah, fine.’ Draco lies.
‘Let’s go.’ Draco says walking away from Snape’s portrait.
Hermione gives Snape a glance before she quickly follows Draco.
‘What did he say now?’
‘Oh the usual.’ Draco lies.
Hermione nods and sighs.
‘He’s out of bounds though. He should learn to treat people with respect.’ Hermione says.
Draco nods.
‘Let’s just quickly do these rounds. I’m so tired, I literally NEED my bed.’ Hermione says.
‘You don’t have to walk with me. You can go to bed if you want.’ Draco offers.
‘Nope, I’m just going to annoy you with my company.’ Hermione chuckles.
‘You don’t annoy me.’ Draco says.
Hermione looks sideways at him and then quickly down at the ground as she feels her cheeks flush. Draco smiles and looks back up ahead.
‘You know actually-‘ Draco starts.
‘Wait sssh, do you hear that?’ Hermione asks.
Draco listens and hears voices nearby. He looks over at Hermione who nods with a smile on her face. They walk over to the classroom where the voices come from and they both lean their ear against the door.
‘There are people in there.’ Hermione whispers.
Draco nods before stepping back and placing his hand around the door handle.
‘What are you doing here?’ Draco says stepping into the classroom.
Hermione bites her lip, trying to keep herself from laughing, when she sees a Hufflepuff girl and Ravenclaw guy look shocked at Draco.
‘I think it’s better if you go back to your own common rooms.’ Hermione suggests.
The Hufflepuff girl nods before quickly passing Draco and Hermione and runs off.
‘Good job.’ Draco nods at the guy.
The guy awkwardly smiles as he buttons his blouse back up.
‘Now come on, to bed. We’ll just leave it there this time, okay?’ Hermione says.
The guy nods before also quickly making his way out of the classroom.
‘Did you see their faces?’ Draco laughs.
‘You scared the hell out of them.’ Hermione laughs.
‘Mission accomplished.’ Draco laughs.
Hermione shakes her head, not being able to stop laughing.
‘Come on, we’ve got to finish this round.’ Hermione chuckles dragging Draco with her.