The Promise
Like most people who are very bookish, and grew up rather unsure of their appearance, Hermione Granger did not like to dance. As a rule. In fact, the few times when she had really cut a rug she had been incredibly pissed. But tonight Hermione was not drunk, she hadn't touched a drop. She was just happy. Incredibly happy and relieved.
The Death Eater the Aurors and herself had been searching for the past three years had been captured. While Mason was not the most wanted Death Eater, nor was he the last of them, he had been the one to cause them the most trouble. He was notorious for popping into public places and eluding Aurors before they could reach him, making them feel stupid and frustrated. To have him captured so simply and effortlessly made the arrest even sweeter. As a result, Hermione felt obligated to let completely loose.
As she was whirled around the dance floor at O'Tooles, a popular wizarding pub in Diagon Alley, she acknowledged to herself that she had quite a bit to celebrate. Her job was getting better, Ginny was laying off the hints for her to straddle Malfoy and force him to come clean about his feelings, and Malfoy himself had not been a problem for nearly a month. In fact, since their awkward talk over tea, their relationship had been better than she could have imagined. He certainly hadn't turned into Harry; just the other day during a meeting in her division, he had practically chortled in a very undignified way, when she fell on her arse after she had leaned back out of her chair to grab a piece of parchment that had fallen to the floor. But instead of filling her with an ire of wounded pride, she had simply shrugged the incident off (not without a bit of the Evil Eye, of course) as "something Draco Malfoy does". But there had been a significant decrease in the number of mean and snide comments and attacks, and it seemed to Hermione that their tentative friendship had made him more assured that her attention would almost always be on him, or right back to him if she was distracted. He had certainly created less of a fuss about getting her attention, and as a result did have it more often. Perhaps it wasn't intentional, she reflected, but on inspection it did seem the case.
So while she and Draco were not spending their days in the raptures of true love, they had settled into a comfortable companionship. They went to dinner often, and spoke even more. It was a wonderful as it was hard for Hermione. With this new friendship, she was learning more about he man from his own words and actions, up close and unguarded, and in the month that passed she had finally come to grips with her own feelings. She was in love with him. How it had happened over the years while they had not been friends was still a mystery to her, but getting to know him on his own terms had solidified every confusing thought and feeling. She wanted him, loved him, and was now just as confused as she was before, not with herself, but with how he felt.
The man in question was now looking across the room, and caught her eye. He sent her a half smile she caught before found herself in a deep dip. Hermione widened her eyes in alarm and clutched tighter at the man who was dancing with her. When he brought her back up she smiled shakily and informed her drunken partner that she needed a break. Winding her way through the crowd, she soon found herself next to Draco.
"Cor, that was scary," she laughed. "I was afraid Abelson was going to drop me on my head."
Malfoy raised an eyebrow in response and cast a critical gaze over the crowded floor once again. "You would have been trampled, Granger, it's a good thing you weren't dropped."
"I didn't realize you had such concern for my safety, Malfoy," she grinned in response.
"It's not that, I just don't particularly want to spend my prime years locked up in Azkaban for using an Unforgivable against Abelson were you injured," he answered casually.
She flushed, not knowing how to respond. She had answered him jokingly, and his return had made her awkward.
She glanced down at her watching, sighing in annoyance when she realized that it wasn't a Muggle watch, but rather the magical one Ron had given her 3 years before. She rarely wore it, but it had a similar wristband as her normal one, and must have grabbed it in her haste. The watch face was now proudly alerting her to the fact that she ought to have been in bed, since she had work in the morning. She guessed that it must have been around midnight. The arrest had been made around seven that evening, and though it felt like years since she arrived at the pub, it really had been only something close to three hours.
She sighed and lightly rubbed her temples. Apparently, a rest from dancing was a bad idea. The length of the day and the excitement of the evening was now catching up with her suddenly, and she was almost overwhelmed by her weariness.
"Tired?" Draco asked, and she saw him inspecting her closely. She closed her eyes and nodded.
"Mmm, I'd like to go home I think. I'm a real wet rag," she complained. She didn't really want to leave, but the idea of curling up in her bed in the quiet peacefulness of her flat was incredibly appealing to her right then.
Draco straightened up, and faced her. "Wait here," he ordered. "I'll go get your things and we can go back to your flat." With that he walked off towards the front of her building.
"Yes, sir" she mumbled under her breath as watched him walk away. That was rather odd, but if he was willing to go with her, she was fine with it. She might like to have some tea before she went off to bed, and conversation with Draco would be an added bonus.
He came back to her quickly and they apparated back to her apartment. Hermione moved over to him and swiftly removed Crookshanks from Draco's leg. She laughed up at Malfoy from her position on the floor, tilting her face up to speak.
"Sorry, I told you he's like this whenever someone apparates, but he seems to be particularly violent towards you," she shrugged. Crookshanks wiggled wildly in her arms and with a yowl he escaped her clutches. She shook her head and peered back up at Draco with an embarrassed smile on her face.
"You're lovely!" he blurted out.
Hermione blinked. It took her a minute to register what he had said, and when she looked back at his face, she saw his face expressed the shock she was feeling.
"What?" she asked quietly, as she rose up from the floor. She registered how close she was to him and took a step away. Draco had schooled his features back into his normal aloof expression, and he gazed at her steadily before answering.
"What do you mean, what?"
"I mean what did you just say?" Hermione answered, her eyes narrowing.
"Oh. I'm not sure," he replied, and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Well, you just said it not five seconds ago. You said I was lovely."
"Er, yes. Was that it?" Draco's expression had slipped again and he looked so confused that Hermione's frustration softened a little. "It was just your face, and the light with you hair… I don't know!"
The stood very still for a moment, each regarding the other, testing their reactions to the situation. Neither said anything before Draco suddenly piped up.
"I need to say something. I need to- I have to say." He cut off and sighed. Hermione was quite taken aback. He was behaving so decidedly unlike himself that she wasn't positive for a moment that she hadn't ended up with a Ron on Polyjuice. His bumbling words, the goofy smile on his face before he told her she was lovely. They were Ron-like, not at all something Malfoy would employ. He was most generally calm, and suave, and smooth. She didn't know what his "something" that he had to say was going to be, but she found herself hoping, oh how she was hoping that he was going to return her feelings."I have to say something," he repeated, and, without warning, he suddenly grabbed Hermione by the waist, and pulled her into a kiss that was six years coming.
Hermione stood in shocking, barely registering that Malfoy was kissing her. He started to pull away when she didn't respond, but she realized this before he could step away, and pulled him back in. It wasn't a rough kiss, but it was passionate, and full of years of longing and pent up frustration. Hermione's world shrank down to only the kiss. There was teeth, and lips, and his tongue ("His tongue!" her mind cried out), and his warm hands were splayed against her stomach as his thumb fingered the lowest button of her Oxford.
When they finally broke apart, Hermione gave a little sigh and rested her head on his shoulder. "Well, that was certainly saying something," she whispered.
She felt the vibration of his laughter against her cheek. He pulled back, however, and held her by the shoulders. His face was serious, and she felt a tingle of trepidation. As long as he wasn't going to say that it was a mistake, she would be fine, she told herself. But his eyes were soft so she wasn't too alarmed.
"I still have things to say, though." He reached up and brushed his knuckles lightly against her jaw. "I wanted to tell you last month, but I wasn't even sure if you would accept my friendship. It was too delicate, I didn't want to ruin it."
Hermione nodded in understanding and leaned further into his touch. He saw this and smiled slightly.
"It's been years, Granger. We danced around it that night, but I can't wait any longer." He grimaced and coked an eyebrow. "As much as I hate to say this, Ginny was right about what she said. Every little piece of it. I- I felt it then, what I feel know, but it's hard… Hard to know what to do, how to show…And you certainly didn't make it any easier for me," he complained.
Here was the Draco she knew, and this in itself made Hermione grin. The conversation may have placed his heart out in the open but the vulnerability of the situation did not do much to diminish his sardonic manner, once he had control of himself.
"I'm in love with you," she answered him, "I have been for a long time as well, before I even knew it myself. That Boggart just showed me something I wasn't ready to handle, and for years I kept it repressed, making myself not think about it. But after that stupid bet I realized, was made to realize how much you mean to me in my life. How I never want you out of it."
She felt, to her own embarrassment, tears welling up in her eyes. Draco made quick work of that, moving his fingers up to meet the drops that escaped. He reached out and pulled her against him once more, and she sighed happily as she felt the kissed he was raining down into her hair, before pulling her into another kiss that threatened to turn her mind into mush.
When she awoke the next morning, she laid still for a few minutes, relishing the feel of Draco's body stretched out against hers. He had said he loved her late into the night, and she was startled by the ferocity of the feeling behind it. She hadn't even expected him to say it, it wasn't the way he was raised, and for him to even come clean about the attachment he had formed towards her was a miracle enough. Granted, he had thought she was asleep when he finally admitted it, she realized. But it hadn't taken away from the truth behind it. She knew that Draco Malfoy loved her as much as she did him, and she happy beyond words.
He stirred slightly in his sleep, and she moved her head to kissed his arm. It had taken a stupid bet to get her where she was at that moment, not to mention nearly seven years of denying her feelings, seven years of jealousy and arguments, one ruined dress, and enough heartfelt sighs of unrequited love to make a Jane Austen heroine blush. But she was happy now, and she knew that with him next to her she would be happy forever.
A/N: Thank God it's over! No, I loved writing this, but it went from a one-shot to this thing, and you wouldn't believe how long I agonized over the epilogue. I didn't want it to be very long, it's long enough now without too much of a set-up, but I didn't want it really rushed, or out of character, and so on and so forth. So hopefully you'll enjoy it.
Thanks again to all the reviewers, you've made it such a pleasure!
….Special thanks Mrs. Witter, for the lengthy and in-depth review. You made me blush!