What if... (Harry Potter One Shots)

Dramione - Roses

Standing in the glimmering diamond vase, the vermilion-tipped golden rose swayed gently as the breeze caressed its velvet petals. The evening light of the setting sun danced with every shadow as it bounced off the patterned glass, and the marigold lustre played with the revered rose in the centre.

An almond-hair girl paced behind it, her nails bitten to the quick. Glancing every so often at the essence of beauty perched on the coffee table, her quickened steps never slowed.

With a sigh, Hermione Granger stopped. She plopped onto her couch and stared at the rose with an almost fearful intensity.

"Why?" she groaned softly into her hands. "Why did it have to be you?"

Peeking through her fingers, she ground her teeth against her lip. Why couldn't he stay the arrogant pig he's always been? Why did he have to do something like this?

She tentatively stroked the silky petals. For months, his words had been cold and distant, but that day...that day they'd hurt.

Mudblood. Mudblood. Mudblood.

One word from a bygone age of prejudice and hatred. One word and the hardest slap she'd ever given anyone.

"Granger," his velvet voice ran thrills down her body as she glared at him.

"What do you want?" she snapped.

"To apologise," he offered his hand, a honey-hued rose delicate between his fingers. "My words were uncalled for and you have done nothing to deserve them. An eternity as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's slave would be too light of a punishment for the depravity of my sins and I know that I would deserve every moment of it. However, I don't want you to hate me anymore. I know that after everything I've done to you over the years, I deserve the hatred in your eyes and yet, to see that softness they hold for others, is the only thing I desire."

She took a step away before turning to leave the shaded undergrowth of the Forbidden Forest and his tender words behind. "Leave me alone, Malfoy."

He jumped in front of her, blocking her quick escape. "I can't. I've tried, Merlin knows I've tried but I can't. Every time I try, you call me back and I can't look away, I can't move."

He took a step closer, his eyes the colour of polished silver and billowing smoke as they smouldered into her own, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I won't. I deserve every drop of your hatred but I won't leave you alone. Not after everything that's happened. Not ever."

He brushed aside a loose strand of her hair, his hand leaving a trailing blaze across her cheek. "I will earn back your forgiveness, even if it takes me the rest of my life."

He curled her fingers around the thorn-less stem of the rose, before he gave her a grin that changed the burning embers into a raging inferno, and spun on his heel.

Hermione tore at her scarlet lip as anxiety and nerves bundled in her throat. With the whoosh of a heaving sigh, she closed her eyes and snatched up the letter before she had the chance to think about it. Without another breath, she handed it to the owl.