The Right Thing To Do

Chapter 14

"Hermione Jean Granger, WAKE UP!"

Hermione snapped her eyes open and sprang up in bed, reaching for her wand, to find Ginny Weasley standing on her bed.

"What? What's happened?" Her heart was racing and she felt like ice had been thrown on her.

"What the bloody hell is this?" Ginny stood above her, one foot on either side of her legs and held up a newspaper. Her eyes were wide and bright, surprisingly awake.

"What... I mean, well, what is it?" Hermione's eyes were adjusting. She waved her wand and lit all the bulbs in the room.

Ginny knelt over her and thrust the paper into her face, reading the headline out loud as Hermione's brain registered it on the page.

"The Star-Crossed Romance of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy."

Hermione gasped and grabbed the pages from the feral-looking ginger. She unfolded the top pages to find a picture of two young people outside of Cornerstone. Her eyes squinted, and she realized the young people were her and Draco. She could barely recognize them. Did Skeeter doctor the photo?

"When did this happen?" Ginny screeched and Hermione winced as her eyes ran over the article, catching the phrases "visited her at work," "lust-filled eyes," "lunch with his mother."

"I—I – Yesterday!" Hermione's pitch was slowly matching Ginny's without her permission. "We had lunch with Narcissa yesterday and –"

"Oh, I know!" Ginny bounced. "It continues on page seven!"

"What?!" Hermione ripped through the pages to find page seven featuring several more highlights of the afternoon, including a picture of the three of them at Fortescue's and a picture of the two of them crossing the street, his hand coming up to guide her.

"Why didn't you tell me about this!"

"It wasn't planned! He asked me to join them for lunch –"

"He asked you?" Ginny grabbed her shoulders.

"I – yes, but it was clear that Narcissa had sent him. And then we walked to Fortescue's—" Hermione pointed to the picture of them walking, Draco swinging his Cornerstone bag from his fingertips of one hand, and using the other to touch her back. "—And then we had lunch with Narcissa—" She pointed to the picture of the three of them sitting on the patio, Narcissa looking positively regal in her robes and hat. "—And then I went back to work! That's all!"

"That doesn't explain this!"

Ginny crumpled the pages around until the photo on the front page showed again.

"She must have altered it. She –"

Hermione stopped and looked. There was Draco's smirk, and the way his eyes flash at her. She turned from him, stepping up to the door of Cornerstone, and turned back grinning. It was just like a boy walking a girl home from a date, just as she remembered.

She had given her condolences to all the half-bloods and Muggle-borns who would not be marrying him, and he had smirked back at her, telling her not to trust the papers.

"Oh, Merlin, this is terrible." Hermione covered her face with her hands.

"Terrible? This is the most brilliant thing to happen in months!" Ginny squealed.

"How can you say that?" Hermione grabbed her arm. "Look how desperate I look. Look how easy it is to believe everything Skeeter is saying!"

"Hermione," Ginny giggled and grabbed her face. "It's easy to believe because it's so mutual." She jabbed her finger at Draco's face. Hermione felt her face flush, watching him smirk at her in the photo. "If you're desperate," Ginny said, turning the pages over to the picture of the three of them on the patio, "then he's starving."