wildflowers // dramione

Chapter 36

As McGonagall left, Draco returned his attention to Hermione. Draco wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her chest into his.

"I'm so happy you are here," she said. Hermione put her arms around his neck. "What'd you do while we were...apart?"

"Sat in my room and moped around." Draco tried to make his answer sound like a joke but it wasn't. He left out the part about him getting so desperate to see her he got sick to his stomach almost every night.

"I'm sorry about what happened the day I left. It shouldn't have happened like that."

"How else should it have happened? Besides, you needed to be back with your friends."

"Of course I did, but that doesn't mean I wanted to leave you."

"I didn't want you to leave either. It was for the best, though."

"Sure, Draco." Hermione leaned closer to him. She thought nothing of his cryptic statements. "We're together now. That's all that matters."

She closed the distance between their faces. It didn't matter that many people in the Great Hall watched them in confusion.

"But wait-" she said when their kiss finished. "What were you doing here in the first place? How did you get Voldemort to give you another chance?"

"Didn't you hear him? I told him you were...dead." Draco felt bad saying it to her face, especially surrounded by the corpses of people they knew.

Hermione understood why Draco lied. She wasn't mad he had gone back to Voldemort's side. It was only to survive. "What were you doing with that student earlier?"

Draco recalled his short duel with a younger Gryffindor student. "They attacked me. I never hit them with anything, though. I only disarmed the brat."

Hermione hit the back of Draco's head. He smirked.

"What about Blaise, Goyle, and...Crabbe? Why'd you send them after us?" she asked.

"You-Know-W-," He paused. There was no reason to be afraid of the name anymore so Draco corrected himself. "Voldemort had people searching for Potter. I figured you, him, and Weasley could handle those three."

"They almost killed us. Well, Crabbe actually, but his own spell backfired on him." Hermione took a deep breath and Draco raised an eyebrow. "He's dead. I'm sorry, Draco. None of us did it, though. He fell."

Draco didn't want to feel as hurt by Crabbe's death as he had. He had known the boy since they were toddlers. It made him understand the loss everyone else in the Great Hall was experiencing a lot better.

"I'm so sorry. I should have told you sooner." Hermione put her hand on Draco's cheek.

"Don't apologize. I'll be ok." Draco leaned into her palm. "I'm just glad he didn't take you down with him."

"Goyle's in a hallway somewhere, stuck because of a Full-Body-Bind Curse. Do you want to go find him?" Hermione rubbed her thumb across his jaw.

"No, no. You should stay here. Someone will get him and take him to Azkaban at some point." Draco sighed.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "What about Blaise? He ran out of here hours ago."

"He did the same with us."

"He knows, by the way. About us," Draco remembered.

"I think everyone knows," Hermione shrugged. "Does it bother you? I'm sorry for revealing it, but I couldn't help it. I could never let him kill you."

Draco pecked her lips. "It was inevitable. I was naive to think it wasn't." Draco kissed her softly again. "I would've done the same," he said.

"I'm sorry about your father."

"He's a prick. Let's not talk about him."

She nodded. "I really have missed you." Hermione kissed him again. "It's nice isn't it? I think we're all going to be ok."

Draco's gut twisted. He wasn't going to be ok. He didn't want to leave her, but it was necessary. He was naive to think it wasn't.