promises // dramione

chapter four

Hermione held onto Draco's hand tightly as they stepped out of the shadows and into the street. She put a confident face on, smiling at the boy beside her, but deep down she was as afraid as he was.

While she wasn't going to let anyone come between her and Draco, she was still slightly nervous that seeing them like this would cause rumors to spread like wildfire. The former Death Eater and a member of the Golden Trio? It didn't seem possible. In addition to that, whatever she had with Draco had just started, and she really didn't want to ruin it if somehow something got to Harry or Ron, or any of the other Gryffindors. She wanted to show them herself how great Draco was.

Her nerves seemed to calm down a bit as no one had seemed to notice yet. She looked over at Draco, and he met her gaze, and gave her a small smile. His face looked calm, yet she could still see some uneasiness in his eyes.

The uneasiness increased when Hermione noticed two Ravenclaws coming towards them, but she never loosened her grip on Draco's hand. In a way, it was his hand in her's that was the only thing calming her down.

One of the girls looked up from the seemingly deep conversation as they walked. Hermione let out a sigh of relief as she realized that it was just Luna.

"Hello, Hermione! Hello, Draco!" She greeted as they got closer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione hadn't seemed to notice the slight glances people gave them, while Draco couldn't stop seeing them everywhere. Luckily, they hadn't seen anyone from Hogwarts yet, and no one had outright said anything, so he began to calm down.

"Hello Hermione! Hello Draco!" He heard a voice in front of them call out. Draco snapped out of his thoughts and realized that it was Luna, walking towards them with Cho Chang beside her.

"Hey, Luna." Hermione replied as the girls came closer.

"How did the surprise go?" Luna asked, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Cho was looking at Hermione and him with an incredulous look. He was just grateful it wasn't a look of disgust.

Draco grinned. "Perfectly."

Hermione blushed, and Luna clapped her hands in excitement. "That's wonderful news! I can tell both of you seem to be very happy with each other; both of your auras look very well cleansed."

He bit back a smile as Hermione laughed softly. "Thank you, Luna."

Cho still hadn't said a word; she was just alternating between staring at them and staring at their intertwined hands in confusion.

"Well, we should get going. Cho and I need to get to Honeydukes to restock our pumpkin pastie supply." Luna laughed, and hooked her arm into the other girl's, leading her away.

"Bye!" Hermione replied as her and Draco began to walk again, hands still together.

Behind him, Draco could hear Cho ask Luna, "Wait, is Hermione dating Draco Malfoy?"

And before he was completely out of earshot, he could hear Luna reply. "I don't know, but I sure hope she is. Did you see how adorable they were?"

Draco chuckled under his breath at her answer, while butterflies erupted in his stomach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They continued to walk through Hogsmeade and then up past the Shrieking Shack on their way back to the castle, talking about all sorts of things. It was beginning to get dark, and Hermione shivered slightly as a gust of air blew past them. Suddenly, she heard a branch break behind them.