Delusion Chapter 17

A/N: OMG!! I am so verysorry for keeping you guys soo long! I hope I still have some readers! I could be like yeah, it was school, it was this, it was that, but I figure you don't want to hear excuses, so on with the story. This is the very last chapter, aka Epilogue, so I hope you enjoy. It is relatively short, but that's just b/c there really isn't that much left to say.

Hermione walked shakily down the corridors, not really aware of what she was doing. So, she and Harry had settled their differences, and both were okay with the other dating a Slytherin… but was she really okay with it for herself?

She had to think about it. After all, this was Draco Pighead Malfoy. The same boy who had mercilessly tortured her for all previous years at Hogwarts. The same boy who hated her best friends' guts. The same boy who apparently had slept with seventy-five percent of the female population and was rumored to be a walking STD factory.

Uh-oh. Should Hermione ever have any carnal desires, she was so not going to act on them. She could live without gonorrhea, thank you very much!

Just as she was musing on how far Draco really had gone (she was pretty sure he 'scored' with every girl he pursued. Except her. she'd never let him have her), the idiot in question came up to her.

"You ran off earlier," he said.

"Excuse me? You're the one who seemed like you had a hippogriff after you."

He glared. "Whatever. Hey so listen…" he trailed off and blushed.

Hermione could've jumped for joy; the only thing she needed now was a camera. Who would have thought that Draco Mr. I'm-sooo-cool-just-check-out-my-ultra-ice-fest-fun Malfoy would actually have it in him to blush.

Did that mean he liked her too? She felt tingly at the very thought.

Draco's mind had drifted off to a conversation he had had with Pansy and the Followers just a few minutes earlier.

------

Pansy, Sally Anne, and Millicent had rounded up on Draco as soon as he'd entered the common room, looking rather flustered.

"Draco," screeched Sally Anne Perks, the craziest, weirdest, most fucked up girl at Hogwarts (and incredibly f-ing hot, too, Draco had to add).

"What?" he snapped. Not because he was angry, just because he was Draco and he was prone to mood swings and privy to random anger bursts. Hey. It's a Malfoy thing.

"You like this Hermione Granger girl," she stated. "I can't believe it. She's a bushy haired mudblood slitch!"

Draco was too taken aback by the word 'slitch' to even bother with Sally Anne's accusations. "Slitch?" he echoed.

"Duh Draco," Millicent interjected, "get with the bloody times. Slitch, duh, is slut plus bitch. For a while the cool thing to use was fugly, but that is soo like yesterday."

"Okay," Draco took a step back, feeling a bit weirded out. "You do that Millie."

"Oh, I will," she flashed him a superb set of pearly whites. Draco couldn't help but think that they were wasted on such a person. Not because of her looks (he wasn't as shallow as everyone thought) but more because of her scary personality. She was totally terrifying.

"Anyway," Pansy said loudly. "We digress. We're not through questioning you about Granger, Draco."

"Didn't you say," Draco remembered, "that you never wanted to talk to me again?"

"Draco shut up and listen!" Pansy demanded shrilly. "I want to tell you things. Now if you would be proper and stop interrupting then maybe I could say them!"

Draco sighed and sat down in one of the hard uncomfortable chairs so common in the Slytherin common room. "Then speak."

"That's better," Pansy snarled.

"Hey," Sally Anne spoke up, "let's tie him to the chair. I've always had this fantasy, where I tie a boy to a chair and then have my way with him. Oh Merlin. That sounds so hot…oh god, I'm feeling all tingly thinking about it…"

Words couldn't describe Draco's panicked expression. He bolted from the chair faster than you could say "kinky" and made a beeline for the opposite side of the common room. Unfortunately, with a simple swish of Pansy's wand, Draco was back into said chair… and what… there were ropes around him?

"Pansy," he groaned unhappily. "Please don't subject me to this."

Sally Anne was licking her lips. Millicent was laughing.

Pansy grinned. "Stupid boy. Like I'd let Sally Anne touch you. Her idea of tying you down, however, was brill because now I can actually talk to you without you being a heinous roach."

Sally Anne disappeared in just a moment. "I must find Blaise," she grinned, "because I'm horny."

"Ew, gross," Millicent looked disgusted. "No one wants to know that, Sally Anne."

"Seriously," Pansy agreed. "Whatever. Now where was I?"

She let one perfectly manicured finger trail across Draco's collarbone. He shivered. He didn't know if it was because he was so damn scared he could pee his pants or if it was because the lack of heat in the common room was finally getting to him.

"Oh yes," she snapped. "Right. I was so pissed off at you for ruining my fucking life, Draco. I like Harry. He's a cool kid, okay? And you don't need to screw shit up between us because it's none of your business."

"Couldn't you have said that without me being bound?" Draco scowled.

"Yeah but it's just a lot more fun when you are," Millicent grinned.

"So, I've decided that we need to have a chat," Pansy smiled, sending Draco on alert again.

"A chat," he echoed.

"A chat." Pansy repeated firmly. "A chat about you and Granger and me and Harry. And how if you let me get with Harry I'll let you get with Granger."

"No," Draco breathed. "I hate Potter. I just can't let you get with him."

"Millicent," Pansy's grin did not fade one notch, "Please call Sally Anne for me."

"NO!" Draco howled. "NO!"

"Then I get Potter, and if you want you're welcome to Granger."

Draco shook his head furiously. "It's not possible, Pans. I won't have Hermione and you can't have Potter because they're stupid Gryffies. Plus Hermione's a mudblood."

"So?" Pansy shrugged. "Potter's a wimptard."

"Wimptard?"

"Wimp plus retard, you loser," Pansy snubbed. "So, what say you? You're up for it?"

"No," Draco finally answered, sounding unsure, which he totally was.

Pansy shrugged. "Have it your way, then, I suppose," she sighed. "SALLY ANNE!!!"

"No," Draco squealed. "no!"

Sally Anne bounded into the room. "What, I'm busy with Blaise," she scowled.

"Who cares? Tied-up-Draco is all yours," Millicent smiled.

"Let your fantasies run wild," Pansy added for effect. "Bye bye Draco."

"Come back! Come back!" Draco howled. "You can have Potter! I swear!"

"Done! That didn't take too long, did it, girls?" Pansy asked happily. In an instant the ropes were off, Draco was free, Sally Anne was disappointed but ran back to Blaise, and all was well.

"Now why don't you go catch yourself a Granger pie," Pansy shoved Draco out of the common room. "And don't come back till you get a large piece."

Before Draco could even say anything, they slammed the door shut in his face.

-----

And so that's how he was right here, wondering whether to go for Hermione or not. He really liked her. She was different. She wasn't just the oh-she's-hot-let-me-bed-her crush. She was something else and… he just liked talking to her.

Wow. He was so weird.

Finally he decided that maybe going for Hermione was not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all; not when he had a freakish Sally Anne waiting for him.

"Hermione," he finally said, and then couldn't think of the right words.

Hermione apparently had lots to say. "Well Draco I've been doing some thinking, and I think that well maybe you and me… what I mean to say is that maybe you aren't…well, I mean that you and I could perhaps get…well…" she was obviously flustered, and she wouldn't stop talking, so Draco did the only thing he could think of.

He kissed her.

He felt her stiffen, and relax, and suddenly he realized that he was kissing, and liking it, Hermione Granger, a pretty, Gryffindor girl that he really did like, and really did want to be with…

"I guess that shut me up," Hermione whispered as they pulled apart.

"Let's do it again," Draco suggested. And so they did.

------

Meanwhile, Pansy had problems of her own to work out. Now that she'd gotten that Draco and Granger thing taken care off she could turn her attention to Harry Potter. Ew. He was such a total wimptard, she couldn't even begin to describe it.

He treated her like she was a fucking goddess. He was beautiful. He was too sweet, way too sweet for his own good. Too nice. Too wimpy. Such a total sensitive dork.

She loved him for it. Just thinking about him gave Pansy butterflies. He was too tame for her, she knew it. But maybe it would be nice to have a sensitive boyfriend when you were as tough as she was. She had to have him; she couldn't stop thinking about him and getting him seemed to be the only cure.

She didn't really know where to find him. Draco and Granger were notorious for roaming the halls in search for each other and she was pretty sure they were in each other's arms right now. It was cute, in a weird, sick, and twisted way.

Or maybe the weird, sick, and twisted thing was Pansy finding something cute.

Whatever.

She sighed. Pansy was in no mood to peruse the Gryffindor common room for her lover-boy. Just because one (or two, if you counted Granger) Gryffindors turned out to be kind of normal, didn't mean that the rest of them were.

Finally she gave up. She'd see him at dinner, she supposed, or something. It could wait, couldn't it? It wasn't as if Harry was just about to disappear out of her life, right?

Damn. She really couldn't wait. She needed him right now, she wanted to see him; his wimpy, skinny little self and… oh she could just squeeze him she liked him so very much!

Maybe Merlin loved her after all because at that very instant Harry Potter himself strolled round the corner, walking with Weasley. He stopped when he saw her and held up a hand as if to say "wait" and turned to Weasley.

Weasley frowned but went off in the other direction and Harry made his way over to where Pansy was. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Pansy replied nonchalantly. It was best not to let Harry know how she felt; she had to play him hot or cold or something; it was totally weird just to let him know she was practically in love with him.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, really."

"Yeah."

There was an awkward pause and Pansy wondered if maybe he didn't really like her after all.

"Listen—" Harry began at the same time Pansy said, "Look".

"What?" they asked each other simultaneously.

"I like you," Harry finally said, rather simply, rather blandly. "There. I've said it. I really do. And I want to be with you, even after this whole mess."

Awww, Pansy's heart could've melted. Fuck playing hard-to-get. Harry was all hers! "I like you too," she grinned, and pulled him closer.

-----

Draco and Hermione were walking amicably through the empty halls of Hogwarts. Really, they were a good place to meet and talk and do… other things, but they could get to that later. So engrossed were they in their conversation that they didn't notice Pansy and Harry, rather busy, until they practically stumbled on them.

"Harry!" cried Hermione.

"Pansy!" cried Draco.

The two addressed drew apart quickly and sent their housemates evil glares. "What?" Harry scowled.

"can't you see we're busy?" Pansy snapped.

Draco and Hermione turned to each other and shrugged. Draco grabbed hold of Hermione's wrist and whispered into her ear, "Want to do what they're doing?"

But before Hermione could scream and protest on the evils of PDA, who should walk into the two couples but Ronald Weasley himself.

Who stopped and stared. And stared some more. "What is going on?" he finally demanded, unsure whether to glare at Harry and Pansy, who were still kissing (kissing!) or Malfoy and Hermione, who were holding hands.

Harry and Hermione sent each other looks, and the two Slytherins grinned nastily. "Er…well, it's a bit of a long story," Hermione began, laughing.

"We'll tell it to you someday," Harry added. "But for now, you just need to know that not all Slytherin are scum."

"And not all Gryffindors," Draco sent Ron a pointed look, "are wimptards."

"Hey!" Pansy sighed. "Harry is a wimptard. And that is why I love him."

Draco could've sworn he heard Ron mutter "slitch" under his breath.

Good. That's the way things should be.

A/N: Well, there you go. The epilogue to Delusion. So it's entirely happy and rather fluffy but I figured after all those twists and turns its nice just to be mellow. Well tell me what you thought of the story; I really want to know! Please review, it is the last chapter after all! Thanks for being such amazing readers.