A Blinding Darkness

    It was a nice, warm Friday afternoon during Herbology, where they once again had to extract the pus from those disgusting bubotubers. The Slytherins had this lesson with the Gryffindors. Crabbe, being as stupid as he is, knocked over a jar of the pus that Draco had just finished filling. "You stupid git!" he shouted at him. He bent down to clean it all up, then something very unexpexted had happened; Hermione Granger knelt down to help him. He looked at her puzzled for a moment, when she looked up and gave a polite kind of smile. He just blinked, and then continued to clean.

    Once the pus was completely off of the ground, Draco and Hermione went over to was their hands, even though they were wearing gloves. Hermione stared at Draco, and when he stared back and said "What?" her eyes fell and she turned back to Harry and Ron to continue with the pus extraction.

    Later on during lunch, Draco saw her again from the Slytherin table. Her long brown hair, now straight and sleek; her bright smile; her choclate brown eyes, always full of happiness and caring. She was perfect. She was smart, funny, nice, beautiful. She was everything he ever wanted, but could never have. He couldn't stop staring at her, and when he caught her eye, he immediately glared at her, then broke the eye contact.

    Deep down he didn't want to admit it, but he thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He didn't want to admit that he wanted to touch her soft skin, that he wanted to kiss her irresitstably full lips. He knew what he had to do. That night, he would pull her aside, and tell him exactly how he felt, and if she didn't feel the same way, he could go back to loathing her.

    After planning everything he was going to say to her, he headed down to the Great Hall. "Draco, there has been a slight change of plans for Quidditch practice tomorrow," said Blaise Zabini, his fellow teammate. "We will start at six o' clock in the morning, and we will practice until noon."

    "Six hours of practice? Alright," said Draco, uninthusiastically.

    "Yes, so you had better finish dinner soon and head to bed so you can get a good night's sleep. We wouldn't want you to fall off of your broom and break something, would we?"

    Draco nodded his head, and started eating the rest of his dinner. Once he had finished, he walked out into the Entrace Hall to wait for Hermione. When she emerged from the Great Hall, he approched her cautiously.

    "Granger," he muttered to her.

    "What do you want, Malfoy?" she sneered.

    Well, this is it he thought. I'm going to tell her... c'mon Draco, don't be a chicken shit now. You never have been. Take a deep breath and just tell her.

    "I just wanted to tell you..." he began.

    "Yes?"

    "I just wanted to say...." for some reason, he had forgotten everything he was going to tell her. So he did the very first thing that came to mind. He pushed her against the wall, and placed his lips upon hers. They tasted like honey, just like he imagined

    She pushed him away and slapped him extremely hard. "What the Hell are you playing at, Malfoy?"

    Draco, who had his hand on his face where she had slapped him, took a deep breath and said,"I wanted you to know that I love you. I always have loved you, and I always will. You're the perfect girl for me, Hermione. Will you be my girlfriend?"

    She stared at him, shocked that the boy who had been her sworn enemy for six years, the boy who had always called her a filthy Mudblood, would ask her to be his girlfriend. She thought it was all a joke. Why would he of all people say he loved her? She just knew that he wanted her to say yes, so he could laugh in her face and have all of his Slytherin friends be even more horrible than ever. She would not say yes.

    "Malfoy, I would never want to be your girlfriend! Why would I ever think of being with the most arrogant ass hole at Hogwarts? I will never love you! And don't you dare kiss me again!" She screamed at him and ran up the stairs and to Gryffindor Tower.

    Draco Malfoy had officially been broken.