Complicating Differences

Chapter Six: The Kiss

Ron stared. And stared. And kept staring. He couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing. Draco Malfoy. Hermione Granger. They weren't supposed to be kissing. They weren't supposed to be talking. Hermione shouldn't even be kissing anyone. Not Draco, not him, only Harry. First he was confused. Then confusion turned to anger. He was seething.

All he could think was how could she do this to Harry? How could she be snogging Malfoy? Bloody Malfoy! After witnessing their tonguing and groping for ten seconds too long, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He tore open the door, watching them instantly break apart and back up to opposite sides of the room, and yelled at the top of his lungs.

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT?" he screamed.

Hermione's bottom lip started to quiver, he could tell this even in the semi-darkness of the room. He kept his eyes on her, not wanting to look at the scum she was with. Ron's immensely loud yelling caught the attention of Kate....and Harry, obviously. Harry...how is Harry going to take this? He won't. It'll kill him. He can't know. I just won't tell him. And there is obviously some reason behind all this. Malfoy must have come up with a bloody charm or something to attract girls. Why else would she be caught dead with him?

"What are you yelling about, Ron?" Harry asked, rushing to the door. He didn't ask any further questions when he says Hermione, looking quite upset. Then his eyes wandered across the room to Malfoy. His eyes seemed to take it all in, trying to figure out what to make of it.

"Ron..." he started, but didn't get a chance to finish.

Ron looked quickly at Hermione, then back at Harry. "Malfoy was harassing her, Harry. Why, I oughta-"and at that he reached into his robes and pulled out his wand.

"Ron, no. Don't start anything. I want to know what's going on. Hermione?" he questioned her.

"I...I'm fine. He wasn't harassing me...I mean, we weren't really - er - fighting, I guess," she said.

Ron grimaced. Yea, no kidding.

"Well, then, if you weren't fighting, what were you doing? And why did Ron have a fit?" Harry inquired.

Draco, surprisingly, spoke up. "I was trying to bribe her to do my Defense Against the Dark Arts paper for me...you know, the one due next Tuesday. Have a bloody cow, Potter. It's not like I was making the moves on your girlfriend," he said, a hint of mockery at his last word. "Who would honestly - well, besides you, that is - touch that...that thing," he continued, looking her up and down and smirking.

Hermione's insides turned as Draco looked at her like a piece of meat. They had just shared a passionate kiss, one that they shouldn't have, but all the same they did - and he was acting as if she were lower than him. How did I ever let this ever happen? But she knew exactly how...

She was walking to lunch, having gotten a headache in her room from thinking so much. She decided that she was just going to pretend like nothing was different...like Draco was Malfoy again, and that they had never talked as anything but arch enemies. On the way there, she saw a holdup in the corridor. Joining the group of laughing students, she saw the focus of their attention.

Pansy and Draco were in a fight. She was telling him off about snogging other girls...and Lavender...and...what?

"But Granger? This is just too much," she shouted, ending her accusations.

Me? He thought about me? Much to her surprise, she felt butterflies in her stomach at the mere thought of Draco thinking about her. Pansy was upset with him about something - about her - and she was getting a fluttery stomach. Had she gone completely mad?

When had she ever cared about Draco Malfoy the slightest bit?

Ever since she'd been having those dreams... Well of course they'd stopped now, but she had a feeling that the dreams were a connection between the two of them, and now that they were on speaking terms they would stop occurring so often. She didn't know how she knew that, but she did. This was an odd fact, considering that lately she felt that she hardly knew anything anymore. Anything - including her. But the dreams themselves were only a way for them to both sort of come together.

Well, if these dreams were some sort of mental link between the two of them, then why fight it?

After Pansy stormed away in a fluster, she watched Draco frown and turn to walk the other way. After the crowd died down a bit and got back to their own business, she followed him. "Draco!" she yelled through the dissipating crowd.

He turned to face her, but stayed where he was. She rushed to catch up with him. But what was she going to say?

"What is it?" he asked, annoyed. "Come to have a go at me, too? Want to side with Parkinson on this one?"

"No, actually. I just wanted to talk."

"Talk? What would you have to talk about with me?" he inquired.

"Well, actually, I'm not quite sure. Let's go somewhere where we can be alone. What I want to say shouldn't be overheard."

He dragged her into the nearest room, now unoccupied. She looked around for a window to let in some light, but even in early afternoon it was shadowy and dark. She could see the lines on his face from the window on the door letting in the light of the corridor.

"Before you say anything, I wanted to talk to you. I've been meaning to ask you all day about it. I found something today, on the wall in the corridor on the way to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I wanted to know if you knew what it was. It was odd, there was writing on the -"he stopped mid-sentence, remembering a line from the riddle. Find this hidden message, and lucky you have been, pass this message on, and sadness will descend.

Did he really want to risk it? If this riddle was true, and not a joke, would he be hexed or jinxed? He decided not to take a chance. "Never mind, it was stupid. Not important. What is it that you want, then?" he asked rather coolly, remembering that she was Hermione Granger, and he shouldn't be having a conversation with her in an empty classroom.

"I just wanted to talk to you about my dream. I wasn't completely honest with you. The dream I had was about you. You were in it. And so was your father. They were kind of chanting, in a circle around you. You were bleeding... Is this true? Is my dream true?" she asked.

Draco looked at his feet. "It might be. It sounds vaguely familiar. So, is that all you came to tell me? Something that I already know?"

"Something that you already know? So it IS true!" Hermione exclaimed, her face penetrating a look that screamed 'I told you so'. Then she processed what she just heard. It is true. That must mean that Draco's own father and the other Death Eaters practiced some sort of ritual on him! Poor Draco...

"Draco, I know I'm the last person you'd want to talk to about this, but if you want to... Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can help. And I'm here to help whenever -"

"Yea, yea... whenever I decide I need to ramble on and on about some childhood trauma while you listen on and tell me that my father's a git who doesn't love and respect me. I don't need therapy, Granger," he said, feeling irritated and exposed. "Besides, you're the last person I would confide in...bloody Granger asking me if I need help, what has the world come to?"

Hermione winced. She was used to the harsh words by now, but it still stung whenever he degraded her like that. "Draco, why is it that you always push people away when they try and help you? You act like you don't need any help whatsoever, when it's obvious that you do! I can't stand you most of the time, Draco, and when you are being somewhat bearable your still being a pain in the -"Hermione was cut off mid-sentence. Draco had slowly approached her throughout her ramble and moved in for a kiss. A kiss. Something unexpected and unthinkable...although she had thought about it so many times before it actually happened.

Without thinking about the outside world - Harry, the Slytherins, Draco's father - she kissed him back, with everything she had. Every hair on her body was standing on end, and her head was spinning. Her lips were warm against his, and her tongue was eager. She felt his hand move behind her neck and into her hair. She then realized her hands were slowly moving up his waist, and to his neck, his face. She had never kissed Harry this deeply before, this passionate -

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT!"

...and that was that. The kiss was an accident, a slip up, raging hormones. Whatever you wanted to call it. Wasn't it?

"That thing is my girlfriend, Malfoy, and you best watch your mouth. Hermione, Ron, let's go," Harry said, breaking Hermione's thoughts and grasping her hand to pull her somewhat violently from the room.

"Hermione, why where you in a room alone with him? Why would you think that was ok, that he wouldn't try something? Is it true, was he only bribing you?" Harry said so fast Hermione could hardly keep up with him.

"Y-yes. He wanted me to do the assignment. He never touched me, never hurt me, or anything like that," she stuttered in a half whisper.

Ron shot a nasty look at Hermione. He mouthed the words 'Never touched you?' when Harry wasn't looking. Hermione made a pleading face back at him. Ron looked away and stared straight ahead.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. She sat half-dazed in her afternoon classes, and met up with Ron and Harry at their last class. As they entered the common room, Ron kept going and walked right up the stairs to the boys dorms. Harry sat on an armchair by the fire. He was tense and quiet. After several awkward silent moments, he got straight to the point. "I came back and was so excited to see you. I was so happy that we could spend more time together this year, especially with hit being our last here at Hogwarts. You haven't seemed even the slightest bit happy ever since I've come back. You've hardly touched me, and find excuses not to talk to me. Why?" he said in a monotone voice, like he was thinking things through in his head.

Hermione stood behind the chair, not knowing what to say. Her guilt was now so deep that she found she couldn't say anything to him. She had never felt this badly about anything before. When she tried to speak she realized she would only be lying, and making matters worse, so she just stood there.

"If you don't feel the same way about us as you used to, now that we're older and more grown up, I need to know," he said.

"Harry...what does that mean?" she whispered, tears already leaking down her face as she felt the familiar choking burn in the back of her throat.

"I don't know, Hermione. It feels different. You hardly kept in contact with me when I was gone. And now this..."

"And now what, Harry? Now nothing! I've been pre-occupied with school, and I'm just so worried about you. You came back because of a threat about Voldemort. That could be serious! I'm just stressed, and busy, and confused," she said, searching her mind for some excuse for why she did what she did and was acting how she was acting towards him.

"I know you're worried. And I know you're busy. But it's more than all that. You just seem off, a bit dodgy. I think... well since you're so pre-occupied, maybe I should just leave you alone for awhile," he said, still staring straight ahead into the fire.

"Leave me alone? No, Harry, you don't need to leave me alone. I'm fine. I'm not too occupied. I missed you, I really did! We need to catch up."

"Yea, Hermione, we do. But not now. I can tell you need to think for awhile. I've known you for seven years now, Hermione. I know you better than anyone. Take your time, let me know when you want to talk," he replied, and with that he got up from his chair and left her there staring after him.

Hermione sat down in the same armchair Harry had been in a moment before and relaxed, knowing that she would be there most of the night thinking about everything Harry had just said, and trying to convince herself that he was wrong. She just felt so alone...and misunderstood. She wasn't sure why she kissed Draco, she wasn't sure why Ron and she weren't getting along, and she wasn't sure how she felt about Harry anymore, but she knew she had to figure all this out.

Some time later, Ginny popped through the portrait hole, bouncing up and down with every step. Her mood was so obviously contrasting with Hermione's that she hardly even wanted to ask what she was so happy about. "Hello Hermione!" she exclaimed.

"Hi, Ginny. Why are you so perky tonight? And what are you doing back so late?" she asked, glancing at the clock and realizing that she had been sitting there thinking for almost five hours now. She knew she had dozed off several times, only to dream about Harry, or Draco, and how disappointed the look on Ron's face was. It was now ten o' clock.

"Well...um...I know you'll only be mad at me but...," she started," I have been thinking a lot about Draco Malfoy lately. I know you think I'm being ridiculous, following Draco around and daydreaming about him and all, but I honestly think there's a chance that he might, I dunno, like me. That time that you found us together, we were going to talk. He wanted to talk to me! And today, in the corridor, he looked at me! I think there might have been eye contact, Hermione, for at least five seconds, and-"

"Ginny! What did I tell you? Malfoy's no good for you, or for anyone else!" she yelled, annoyed at how naïve Ginny was being, but there was something else. She felt something else...after Ginny mentioned the eye contact, and the meeting with Draco...

Was it...jealousy? No...it couldn't be jealousy. Why would I be jealous over Draco? But that was definitely what she was feeling.

"Hermione, it's just not fair! I don't think that Draco Malfoy is that bad! I mean, sure, his father is a Death Eater, but maybe he's not. Maybe he's different! Not everyone turns out how they're supposed to! Look at you, your parents were Muggles and you're a great witch!"

"Ginny, I'm not going to tell Ron about this...but I am going to be watching you. I don't trust Malfoy!" she said. And with that she headed up to the girl's dormitories.

...And I don't trust myself.

Ron had flopped down onto his bed immediately after they had all three walked into the common room. He didn't know why, but the thought of Hermione and Draco kissing was even more annoying than Kate flirting with Harry. He knew he wasn't jealous, just disappointed. And extremely confused. Why on earth would Hermione want to talk to, let alone suck face with that git?

If I was any kind of good friend, I would tell Harry about the kiss. I should tell Harry about the kiss...But I won't. Hopefully it's a one time thing, anyhow. If Hermione gets involved with that prat then I'll just let Harry find out for himself.

Feeling somewhat better about his dilemma, Ron turned over in bed and shut his eyes to try to get some sleep.

Simultaneously, Draco turned over in his own four poster. He had gone to bed quite early, not wanting to hang around in the common room with Pansy glaring his way and other Slytherins discussing with him the big fight.

He, unlike Hermione, wasn't trying to figure out for himself why they had kissed. He had the reputation already of getting whatever he wanted from whatever girl he wanted. Even if she was a bloody Mudblood...

What he was trying to figure out is why he actually considered confiding in her about his father. He had so much weight on his shoulders, so many things he had to do right for him. His stress level was at an all time high, and even though he knew it was highly confidential and he wasn't supposed to tell anyone about it, he wanted to tell her. She seemed to honestly care about him and how he was feeling, and he knew that was a highly unusual occurrence.

But he knew he couldn't tell her. Not only would it ruin everything, it would prove that he was weak and not strong enough to handle this task. Whether he wanted to do it or not, it had to be done. And there would be no talking about it.