Conversation on the Quidditch Pitch

Hermione walked across the Quidditch Pitch and ducked between the drapes that covered the stands.

Draco was waiting for her, he had stretched his cloak out on the ground and was sitting with a book open on his lap. He didn't look up immediately, but finished scratching out a sentence on a piece of parchment first.

Hermione sat down next to him and looked at what he had written. "You're wrong," she said. "Those are not the right ingredients for a Veritaserum potion."

Draco shrugged. "Snape will pass me whether I have it right or not."

Hermione frowned; took the quill out of his hand and scribbled corrections on his parchment. "You'll have to rewrite it later, but this is at least the right answer."

Draco grinned at Hermione. "I think I shall just hand it in this way and see if Snape recognizes your handwriting, Granger."

Hermione hit his arm lightly. "That would be a rather dangerous game, I believe."

Draco chuckled and then leaned over to kiss Hermione. "This entire relationship is a dangerous game."

"True," Hermione said, snuggling next to Draco. "It's more than a game though, isn't it?"

Draco didn't answer, but instead unwrapped her Gryffindor scarf and began nuzzling her neck, alternately kissing and gently nipping the exposed flesh.

Hermione moaned softly in response to his ministrations and moved her hand to his leg, caressing his lean thigh. Draco lifted his face to hers and kissed her, his tongue sliding smoothly into her mouth. He moaned through the kiss as her hand moved higher up his leg. His hand moved under her cloak, caressing her form over her thick school clothes and soon slid down to go under her jumper, but her hand caught his and held it back.

Draco broke off the kiss, but remained close enough to Hermione's face that she could feel his warm breath against her cheek. "What?" he asked in a husky whisper.

Hermione's cheeks reddened. "I, um, think that's a good place to stop," she looked into his grey eyes and saw an amused, slightly disappointed acceptance. "For now," she added, kissing him lightly on the cheek as she squeezed his hand.

"As you wish," he answered, kissing her again, deeply, soundly and passionately.

Hermione felt her body heating madly and she pressed it into Draco's body, desiring only to be closer to him. After several minutes, when she felt surely she was going to explode she pulled back.

Breathing heavily, she said, "You're not making this easy for me."

"You're making it rather hard for me as well," Draco smirked.

Hermione's already flushed cheeks darkened further, but she rolled her eyes at him and playfully hit his chest.

Draco wrapped his arms around her and hugged her to him. Kissing the top of her head he said, "This is where it all began for us."

Hermione smiled wistfully at the memory. "Yes, it was. After the Quidditch match. I was so surprised to see you on the field when I returned looking for my Arithmancy book."

"Well, we lost the match. It wasn't as if I was missing a party."

"You looked so alone in the middle of the pitch. You were just standing there, looking skyward, your eyes roaming the playing field as if you were replaying the entire game in your head."

Draco chuckled. "I was replaying the entire game in my head. I was trying to figure out when Pothead spotted the snitch."

"Potter," Hermione corrected automatically. "It was a close game," she added sympathetically.

"Close only matters in Divination. In Quidditch, there is only win or lose."

"Is that why your father left immediately after the game?" Hermione asked quietly.

Draco snorted. "He didn't leave immediately. He told me how disappointed he was first."

"I'm sorry, Draco," Hermione said, tilting her head so she could see his face.

"I'm not sorry," Draco said, gazing out in the distance. "My family may not be warm and fuzzy, but at least they're rich. I have you for..." his voice trailed off.

Hermione waited expectantly, but Draco didn't finish his thought. She lifted her head and kissed his cheek and then his lips. "Yes, you have me, Draco Malfoy."

Draco returned her kiss lightly, but then pulled back. "That day on the Quidditch pitch... did you just approach me because you felt sorry for me?"

"No," Hermione answered truthfully. "You were bleeding. Remember?"

"Ah, yes, my eye."

"I feared you had a concussion because it wasn't like you not to run to the hospital wing when you're injured."

Draco made a face at Hermione. "Yes, I did consider seeing if I could get Pansy to make a big fuss over me," he looked askance at Hermione. "She so enjoys pampering me, you know."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Draco.

"But, after my father's tender loving words, which were nothing I had not heard countless times before, something changed inside of me. I suddenly didn't care about gaining his approval. I realized nothing would ever be enough. I would never be smart enough, fast enough, and successful enough - so I closed that door. I decided I would do the best I could, but not for him, for myself."

Hermione smiled at him, her warm eyes shining with approval. "I could tell something was different. I knew when I walked over and spoke to you. Your eyes...they were different. You didn't look at me as if I were beneath your contempt."

Draco laughed. "When you called my name and I turned toward you...it was like I was seeing you for the first time. I mean, I still noticed the bushy hair and the bad fashion sense, but I saw something else too. I saw that you were more concerned for me, a girl that I've taunted and teased the entire time I've known her, than my own parents were. More concerned than my teammates, more concerned than my House. You had no reason to care if I fell over dead on the field, but for some reason you did care. I was amazed by you suddenly."

"Yet you said to me, 'Granger, lose your pets?'"

Draco shrugged. "Well, I was afraid if I fell down to my knees and immediately begged you to go out with me; you'd have me committed to St. Mungo's."

"I would've," Hermione said. "I was shocked enough when you asked me after I finished mending your eye."

"Honestly, I was rather surprised myself. Especially when you said yes to me."

"I was intrigued. I feared it was a prank of some kind, but I was inexplicably drawn to you anyway."

"That's the Malfoy charm. We're irresistible to women."

Hermione arched a brow. "Only if you're using a forbidden love potion."

"Watch it, bushy head," Draco said, pulling Hermione's hair.

Grinning, Hermione let Draco pull his face to hers for another kiss. When Draco's lips had parted from hers, she said, "I need to get back to the Library."

Draco laughed.

"What's funny about that?" Hermione asked.

Draco shook his head. "I've been thinking, Granger."

"Uh oh. Is your head aching?"

"Spare me the lame Gryffindor attempts at wit. I've been thinking about you, Granger. About us."

"Hmm..." Hermione swallowed, a nervous, fluttery feeling in her stomach suddenly, but excitement coursed through her as well, as if she were about to sit for exams. "What have you been thinking, Malfoy?"

"I've been thinking about how the Library is your favorite place at Hogwarts, how you chew your quill while you read, how you twist your hair nervously during exams...," Draco paused for a moment and twirled Hermione's hair around his finger before continuing. "How when Snape insults one of your fellow Gryffindors your eyes flash and your hands curl into fists, how books are your security blanket, how your eyes sparkle with a secret happiness when I catch your eye, no matter where we are, no matter who is next to you. I've thought of all these things, how you study far too much...and..."

Hermione waited with baited breath for Draco to continue, but he only stared at her. "And?" She asked, trying, but failing to keep the urgency out of her voice.

Draco's lips curled into a lazy grin. Hermione considered slapping him, but he spoke before she had the chance. "And, Hermione Granger, I love all these things about you."

He reached up to her face and traced his index finger across her cheek and around her mouth. "I love you, Granger."

Hermione felt tears welling up in the corner of her eyes and she had to stifle back a slight joyful sob to ask, "Really?"

"No, not really. I thought if I threw you off, I might be able to get higher marks than you for once."

Hermione stared at him, frozen for a long second.

"Yes, really! I love you!" Draco exclaimed finally. "Even though you're a bit thick for a clever witch sometimes."

Hermione stuck out her tongue at him and gave him a push. Draco fell backwards in an exaggerated motion. Hermione slid on top of him to hold him down. "Malfoy, you're such a prat!"

"And?"

"And I love you, too," she said, smiling down at him.

Hermione lowered her face to his and kissed him ardently. Their hands explored each other's bodies through the layers of clothes as they rolled around the ground. Draco ended up on top and he lifted his head from Hermione's neck to say, "I have something for you."

"Malfoy, just because I said I loved you, doesn't mean -"

"No, not that." Malfoy said as he rolled off Hermione and reached for his bag. "Although, I would not turn that down..."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him as she sat up, adjusting her clothing as Draco rummaged in his bag. He pulled out a small silver box and handed it to Hermione.

"I want you to have this," he said, almost shyly. "It's a Malfoy family heirloom."

Hermione's eyes widened and she opened the box carefully, as if she half-expected something to jump out and bite her fingers off. Resting inside the dark green velvet-lined box was a heart-shaped emerald-encrusted silver locket. "Oh...my....Draco, it's beautiful," she said, gently removing it from the box and holding it up. "It's not cursed is it?"

"Not that I know of."

Hermione opened the locket, inside was a moving picture of the two of them together. Hermione smiled at wonder at Draco. "How did you do that?"

"I enchanted two separate pictures of us."

Beaming, Hermione hugged Draco tightly. "Thank you," she said. "Shall I wear it? What if I'm asked where it came from?"

Draco took the necklace from Hermione's head and unclasped it. "Of course you're going to wear it. Lift your frizzy hair and I'll put it on for you."

Hermione mock frowned at him, but lifted her hair so he could easily clasp the necklace around her neck. When it was on, she looked down at it. "It is beautiful, but the emeralds are in the shape of a dragon, don't you think people might start to connect us?"

Draco shrugged. "I am rather surprised that no one in Slytherin has figured it out. Your fellow Gryffindorks on the other hand..."

Hermione cleared her throat at him and gave him a reproachful look.

He sighed in mock protest, but then his eyes turned serious and his eyes darted to the locket resting on Hermione's school jumper. He fingered it thoughtfully and then tucked it under her blouse. "Keep it secret."

She nodded at him and they kissed tenderly. "I will."

They both stood and finished straightening their clothes and gathered up their bags. Their lips met again for a good-bye kiss.

After their lips had parted, Draco put his hand on top of Hermione's cloak where the necklace lay buried under layers of clothing, touching her bare skin. "Keep it secret. For now," he said before turning quickly and sweeping out of the hidden area underneath the stands.

"I will," Hermione repeated to the empty air where Malfoy had been. The necklace felt warm and reassuring against her skin. "But I am going to check, Cursed Objects of Prominent Wizarding Families, just to make sure," she said to herself as she picked up her heavy book bag and exited from the stands. "Love is grand, but knowledge is bloody handy as well."