A/n: Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Finals Round 2 using the prompts 5 (advent) and 13 (summer).

Draco Malfoy was not one for feelings, emotions, being close with anyone, and certainly not heated, loving moments. He was all about being stoic, snarky, and crude.

But that woman- blast it, she was driving him to drink. Never before had his emotions gone on such a pinwheel adventure, changing every few minutes when she did something new that caught his attention. Sometimes he knew she was doing it to spite him, with the way one eyebrow would draw up and she'd wink at him, smirk, or do something equally eye catching.

Yes, they had something that summer. An accidental, stupid drunken experience that somehow pulled them back to one another more than once. She was his poison, killing his very essence every time they snuck around together, talking secretly in their shared Head Dorm at night. It was cliché, stupid, and he was pretty sure this was the storyline for every bad-boy-good-girl story in existence. Draco Malfoy was nothing but original, but damn it all, he couldn't help falling down this cliché road.

She caught his attention, and there was no going back on that now.

"Hmm… what are you thinking about?"

He quirked an eyebrow, glancing at the woman to his right. She had certainly become a woman the past summer after the war, and at first glance he hardly recognized her. Upon further inspection he knew for certain that she was Hermione Granger, but her lux locks and filled out body caught him off guard. It's amazing the difference one summer can make.

"You always want to know what I'm thinking about," he mused, watching her get up from the sofa. Hermione was a funny one, always questioning him and then backing away from him for roughly two days. It was like they played a constant game of cat and mouse, and she was the mouse in his book; daring when she wanted to be, and completely hidden the rest of the time.

"You aren't exactly an open book," she grumbled, grabbing at her discarded bag. They had classes earlier that day, but his last class was a free period, and he had spent the time upstairs hiding from the rest of the student body. It was much better than squeezing into the crowded library. After the loss of last year everyone was adamant about passing classes and not getting behind. Many students were behind where they were originally predicted to be anyway, and with school being few people's favorite subject it made sense that no one wanted to be stuck there longer than they had to be.

He was distracted, lost in his own thoughts about the over populated student body when she spoke next, barely catching a bit of what she said.

"You bloody prat."

"Pardon?"

She chuckled, "Nothing. You weren't listening to begin with."

He glanced over the back of the sofa, watching her stalk off towards her room. A flick of his hand shut the door in her face, and she turned to glare over her shoulder at him.

"That's cheating. Why are you so interested in what I said now?"

Draco shrugged, enjoying the look of annoyance on her face. She hated when he used magic to mess with her, but he just couldn't help himself. "You chuckled. I want to know why."

"Oh, am I not allowed to chuckle then?"

He stood, smirking as she gingerly placed her hands behind her back and stood not-so-innocently beside the door, her back dropped and forgotten. He moved in, hands placed on her waist as he pulled her close.

"I was just being nosy," Draco breathed, licking her ear. He always lost his cool with this woman, no matter what he did. Self-control didn't come so easy for him around her, even if she did think he was a closed book. Her sweet gestures and sharp-tongued replies may keep him on his toes, but he enjoyed her company nonetheless.

Hermione shook her head briefly, fingers dancing softly across his jaw. "I'm going to tell Harry and Ron about us today. Once they know, Ginny will know in a matter of minutes. And then everyone can know. Since your friends rudely walked in the other day-"

"Because someone left the door cracked."

She frowned. "Draco, the point is your friends know, and I want mine to know as well. Once everything is out in the open we can be ourselves outside of the dorm, and actually act like a couple. Everyone is always pushing for house unity these days, so why the two Head students can't take a step forward and be a couple? If that isn't house unity I don't know what is."

"It's a relationship," he said with a frown. "It's not some bullshit campaign for house unity."

"No it's not," she agreed. "But it'll be a type of advent no matter what, good or bad. I'm tired of hiding Draco. After everything that's happened over the past eight years hiding a relationship seems silly. People can think whatever they please, but I'm not going to hide in the shadows just because I decided to get with you. We didn't totally reject each other, so why should people reject us?"

"Because this goes against the very nature of our characters?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. "It's completely out of the ordinary for us to even like one another, much less anything else."

Hermione shook her head, kissing him gently on the lips. "I love you Draco, and I'm going to share my feelings with my friends. A whirlwind will come out of this you know, so we best be prepared."

She pulled away to head out the door, dark story eyes watching her go. He bit his lip, leaning back as he processed her words.

I love you.

Those words- he rejected their very essence. He should hate them, for love was something so foreign and strange to him that he didn't know how to handle it. He should be running from her right now simply for showing him affection.

But he said it first, just last week while they talked in bed together. She didn't say it back immediately; actually this was the first time that she said it at all.

Hermione Granger actually loved him, and she said it with a smile on her face.

Who would have thought that could ever happen? He grinned, turning back to the sofa. Perhaps people finding out about them wouldn't be so bad after all.