Stupid Cupid

STUPID CUPID

(Prequel to "Not Just a Game")

<3 C H A P T E R 3 <3

"Hermione?"

"Huh - What?" she mumbled, rubbing her tired eyes. It was four in the morning. "Harry?"

He sat down beside her. "How are you feeling?"

She stretched out her body and yawned loudly. "Tired."

She gave him a goofy smile. Harry smiled back.

"Hermione..." said another voice from behind them. She almost jumped in her seat.

"Draco?! What are you doing in the Gryffindor common room?!"

The blonde boy looked down embarrassedly. He was only wearing a black collared shirt, with the top three buttons undone, and his ironed black slacks. "Harry, can I talk to her...?"

Harry nodded and excused himself. She looked up at them, confused. "What's going on?"

Draco took Harry's seat. After taking a deep breath, he asked, "Hermione, how do you feel about me?"

Caught unprepared, she laughed. He frowned. "I'm sorry, Draco...it's just...why are you suddenly asking me this?"

He leaned in and kissed her on the lips. She gasped.

"That's why," he whispered.

She leaned away from him. "That was different..."

"Good different...or..."

She stared at him with wide eyes.

"You broke the arrow."

Draco nodded slightly. "So how do you feel about me now?"

Hermione stood up and covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry, Draco. I can't do this right now."

"Hermione..." he pleaded desperately. "I need to know!"

"I'm sorry..." she whispered. She turned around and walked quickly up to her room.

Draco watched her back disappear behind the door.

He inhaled sharply and then collapsed, feeling sick.

<3*<3*<3

"Hey, are you okay?"

Draco stirred and lazily peeked into the world. A little freckled redhead girl was looking at him as if he were an art exhibit. He cleared his throat and tried to sit up. It wasn't until Ron came barging in that he remembered where he was.

"Ginny, what are you doing?" the little girl's brother demanded at once.

"Malfoy was just lying here! For a moment, I thought he was dead..."

Draco laughed scratchily. Two pairs of eyes turned on him. "Sorry," he muttered. He stood up and brushed off his clothes. "Ginny, can you tell Hermione I went back to my room?"

She nodded and then he left. Ron scowled at his sister and immediately pulled her away for a talk.

<3*<3*<3

Hermione heard Draco leave and emerged from her room. "Is he gone?" she whispered. Ron and Ginny nodded. She crept down the stairs, checking for herself, and then sighed.

"What's up?" Ron asked curiously.

"He broke the arrow," she said quietly.

"Why would he do that?!" he exclaimed. "And...uh...what arrow are we talking about?"

Ginny kicked her brother. "Where have you been?! They found out that Draco and Hermione's relationship was all a li--" she broke off, looking precariously over at Hermione.

"It's alright, you can say it. It was a lie."

Ginny looked down shamefully. "You really loved each other..."

Hermione scoffed. "Because of a love spell! Because of divine intervention! Not because we fell in love with each other on our own."

"But you love him, I know you do!" she exclaimed.

Hermione shook her head and bit back tears. "No...I don't."

"Hermione, Draco was able to get over the past; you of all people should be able to do that too."

"It's not just that, Ginny! This is more complicated than you think! - I'm still in love Harry!" she shouted.

Harry paused halfway down the stairs, after almost missing a step. Everyone looked up at him. He turned red.

Hermione sniffed and closed her eyes. "I love you, Harry."

No one said anything after that. Harry and Hermione simply gazed at each other as if for the first time.

Ron cleared his throat to break the silence.

"So...uh...what arrow was it again?" he asked feebly, scratching his head.

<3*<3*<3

"She doesn't love me anymore," Draco cursed softly. Blaise handed him a bottle of butterbeer.

"Get a grip, Malfoy. You've never been so sad without her!"

Draco scoffed and popped the cap, then took a long gulp. He burped loudly afterwards. "I just..." he began, but he lost his train of thought. "You just don't get it Zabini, I love her, and there's nothing I can do about it."

Blaise looked down at his hands and shrugged. "Sorry, mate. I wish there was something I could do..."

"Yeah, me too." He finished his bottle and walked out of the room.

<3*<3*<3

Students were all outside, enjoying the day, while Draco strolled through the deserted halls.

"Heartbroken?" asked someone.

He looked over his shoulder, but no one was there.

"It's okay baby, here's a tissue, you can stop crying now."

He turned back around and jumped. Peeves was right up in his face, waving a white cloth at him.

"Bugger off, Peeves," he muttered, walking around the phantom.

"Oh common! I was just trying to make your day a little brighter!"

"Well, mission crashed and burned, now go away."

"Fine, whatever you say!" The Poltergeist chewed loudly, then spit something on the ground and floated off cackling when Draco stepped on his gum.

<3*<3*<3

"Hermione, I think you should go talk to Draco," Harry reasoned as they walked towards Hagrid's cabin.

She didn't say anything at first.

"I really don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

Both of them knew why.

"I still have feelings for him, Harry," she admitted. She quickly looked away from him. He held her wrist and stopped their stroll.

"Hermione, that's why you have to talk to him. He's still in love with you."

"Oh God, I'm so stupid. How could I have fallen for Malfoy?!" she cried. He held her in his arms.

"It's alright. I think you did him some good..."

She cried even harder into his shoulder. "I wish I could stop this...these feelings. They hurt so bad."

Harry held her at arm's length. "Hermione, we don't have to jump into this. You deal with your relationship with Malfoy first, and then we'll talk about us, alright?"

She bit her bottom lip and nodded slowly. He smiled warmly and kissed her on the forehead.

<3*<3*<3

Hermione retired early while Harry remained with Hagrid to talk about Quidditch. Having passed the Great Lake, she found Draco waiting for her on the front steps of the castle. He walked up to her so that she couldn't avoid him.

"Hey," he said nonchalantly.

She gave him a half-hearted upward nod.

"Have you thought about it?" he asked, now quickly losing his confidence.

"Draco..." she began, saying more with her eyes than with her words.

He nodded in disappointment.

"I understand."

He looked away from her and forced himself to stay strong. She walked up to him.

"Draco, I don't...I'm not sure how I feel."

She laid a hand on his chest; his heart skipped a beat. He looked at her.

"Is there hope?" he whispered as clearly as he could. She cupped his face.

"I'll always have feelings for you..."

He held her bent elbows. "But you love Harry."

She laid a soft kiss on his lips.

"Good-bye, Draco."

She was almost out of his reach when he caught her hand. "Hermione, wait."

She turned around, and he saw her wetted cheeks. He pulled her close to him and held her tightly. "Don't cry," he whispered. "Please don't cry."

He petted her hair and she clung onto him like a life raft. "I don't know what to do," she sobbed. "I love Harry, Draco. But every time I see you..."

He laid his cheek on her head. "It's alright. I don't want to put you through this, I really don't. If you love Harry, it's alright."

She fell to his knees and cried. "Please forgive me, Draco. I'm so sorry..."

His breathing staggered and he looked down at the girl he loved, down on her knees in front of him. "It's okay..." he managed to whisper. "I love you."

<3*<3*<3

Now, many people thought this was the end for Draco and Hermione. She loved Harry, not Draco...or did she?

<3*<3*<3

Draco buttoned up his shirt and looked over at her. "No regrets?"

She kissed him again on the lips. "No regrets."

He watched as she dressed herself. "So, what are you going to do about Harry?"

She looked over her shoulders at him. "I don't know."

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

He sighed and played with his hands a little. "Are you going to leave me?"

She didn't reply.

"Hermione, I need to know if you just slept with me as a sort of good-bye gesture..."

She stood up and walked over to him. "Draco, I wouldn't do that to you."

"Yes you would." He looked away from her. "I can feel you, now. Before, things just happened between us, and I saw it, but I never grasped it. But now...I can feel it, I can feel you. Your thoughts, how you feel, it's all so clear to me. And I know that you're only doing this because you don't want to hurt me. But Hermione, it hurts more to have you when I don't, than it does to not have you at all."

A layer of silence fell over them.

Draco took her hand, but she pulled it away.

"I guess...I guess this is good-bye then?" he sighed. She closed her eyes.

"Good-bye, Hermione."

He walked away from her, and she raised her head high enough to see the heels of his shoes disappear.

<3*<3*<3

And so life went on for our tragic heroes. They believed they could live without each other. But they couldn't. Harry knew that too. Every time Draco was around, or when someone would mention his name, Hermione would forget everything she was doing and focus on him.

This went on for well over a year, when finally, Draco and Harry had the talk that they'd both been so desperately avoiding.

<3*<3*<3

"So tell me the truth, Malfoy. Are you still sleeping with her?"

"No."

Harry punched him. "Tell me the truth!"

"I'm seriously not, and if you lay your fucking hand on my face again, I'll fucking break it into five pieces."

Harry growled. "I see the way you two look at each other. Even if it's in the halls...if you're not sleeping with her, why would she still feel anything for you?"

Draco shrugged. "The same reason why I still feel for her. It's love, Harry. It changes you forever."

"Love is overrated. All it does is add sorrow and grief to this world."

"Yeah, but it also gives us the one thing everyone searches for - happiness."

They looked at each other.

"We have to end this, you know," Harry said.

Draco nodded. "But how?"

"We'll let her decide."

Draco laughed bitterly. "Let her decide? If she could make that decision, we wouldn't be having this lovely chat right now."

"Then one of us has to walk away."

"I already did, dumbass."

Harry gritted his teeth. "Then it's quite obvious that she wants to be with you and not me, isn't it?"

"No, she just wants to be with the one she's not with."

"How are we going to solve this then?"

Draco smirked. "A competition. Quidditch finals are coming up, if you're up to it?"

Harry shook his head. "You never win, Malfoy, and you know it."

"It doesn't matter. One month, Potter. Be there or be square."

He left without saying another word.

<3*<3*<3

"Did I do the right thing?" Draco asked Blaise later that night.

"For her, but what about you?" his best friend sighed.

Draco shook his head. "She won't be happy with me, Blaise. I might as well give her to Harry. He'll know how to treat her right, make her smile."

"You talk about her like you're not good enough for her."

Draco didn't reply.

Blaise laughed. He received a glare. "What? It's ironic! You used to hate her because she was below you. She is a Mudblood, and you couldn't stand her. But now, you're head over heels for her!"

"Thank-you, really, thanks a lot Zabini for making me feel all right and cheery again," Draco replied sarcastically.

His Keeper sighed. "Well, I'll play my best to make up for your idiocy, but I can't guarantee you a victory."

"I don't want to win...don't you understand? I know I'll never beat Potter at Quidditch, that's why I chose it to be our way of ending this thing. Plus, I couldn't bear what my father would say if I were to admit to him that I'm still in love with her. So I might as well just end it."

"I didn't say that you wanted to win...I'm saying that I'll try to help you win because you need to win."

His best friend gave him a meaningful look and patted him on the back. "I'll catch you later, mate."

Draco nodded and Blaise left.

<3*<3*<3

Now, I know you're disappointed at how I'm making this the end, but you already know what happens since you've already read Not Just a Game. And if you haven't, then you should probably go read it, because it is only there that you find out who Hermione ends up with. And maybe if Cupid gets an itchy arrow finger again, I'll tell you another tale, of how it really ends.