When Enemies Interact

Chapter 12: The Betrayal and the Dream.

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Hermione knew that the weeks following the news of her parents' split would be hard and emotional for her, but, for some reason, they were no where near as bad as the ones closest to Christmas.

She didn't know why, but she felt that nothing could cheer her up. Even the idea of Christmas being as close as it was, or the end of term or a trip into the village Hogsmeade couldn't do that. She didn't know why she was this upset, as she had had a fair idea that it would happen eventually.

Not many showed sympathy towards her about it, though some had approached her and shown some sign that they cared. The teachers didn't seem to care, either. Snape, being the evillest of them, wouldn't tolerate such emotions in his class and kicked Hermione out of the Potions dungeon and told her not to return until she'd straightened herself out.

Draco tried to cheer her up, but his attempts weren't very successful, much less were Ron's. The only thing that had really been all that successful, in fact, had been when she came back from Hogsmeade to find that Draco had decorated the common room for Christmas, with tree and all, which greatly surprised Hermione.

She was of course back to friendly terms with Draco, but her feelings for him were still steadily growing stronger. Almost every night, they sat in the common room together and talked about almost everything imaginable and they were getting to know each other a lot more.

His feelings for her were continuing to grow as well. In fact, it was hard to imagine that a mere second passed without him thinking about her in some way or another. He greatly wanted to be kissing her again, but he knew he shouldn't, as she would most likely freak again.

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Draco was woken early Christmas Day and forced out of his warm, comfortable bed by Hermione.

"Happy Christmas!" she said delightfully as he rubbed his eyes ad yawned.

"You've definitely cheered up," he said hastily, sitting down on the couch lazily.

Hermione gave a small smile and shrugged. "It's my Christmas spirit," she said, smiling and throwing him his present. Draco caught it and struggled, rather sleepily, off the couch to sit by the tree and handed Hermione her present.

Together, they unwrapped all their presents. Hermione received mostly clothes and books off her family and a huge box of surprise-centred chocolates from Draco. Draco, on the other hand, received a mixture of smaller, different things, while his parents had gotten him a Firebolt (broomstick). Hermione had bought him a luxury, and rather expensive, phoenix feather quill (Draco collected quills) and a bag of Fizzing Wizzbees (his favourite sweet).

They sat around in the common room for most of the morning after breakfast, watching Crookshanks pounce around playing with the wrapping paper, which they had left lying around the room. When lunchtime finally came, they walked down to the noisy, decorated Great Hall together, where they separated to sit at their separate house tables, each with about a dozen students sitting under the enchanted ceiling in which had bewitched snow falling from it. Hermione decided to take a seat beside Ron, ignoring Harry who was sitting with him, while Draco took the seat between Crabbe and Goyle.

Christmas lunch at Hogwarts was always found to be enjoyable. You could eat until you were bursting at the seams, laugh and talk with friends and share Christmas crackers with people. It was made for fun. Draco, however, couldn't help but feel glum as he noticed just how much Hermione looked out of place sitting with Harry and Ron. They were talking amongst themselves without her and she looked quite unhappy as she sat, eating and drinking silently, with absent thoughts.

Draco continued to throw her glances all through the magnificent Christmas feast, until she finally seemed to have finished. He watched her as she stood up, turned to Ron and said something, obviously encouraging Ron to stand up as well, saying something to Harry as he did so.

Draco kept his gaze on Harry as Hermione and Ron left the Hall together. Harry sat there silently for moment, before throwing Draco a curious glare and stood up. At first, Draco thought he was going to leave as well, but he didn't. Instead, he headed straight over to the Slytherin table, where Draco was sitting and stopped shortly in front of him, a fixed glare on his boyish face.

"I thought you didn't like her, Malfoy?" he said abruptly, his words full of icy coldness. Draco raised an eyebrow and gave Harry a look that said he didn't understand what he was on about. "Answer the question, Malfoy, because she definitely likes you and being the brightest witch I know, I don't think she would fall for someone like you as easily as she has, unless she had some ... some encouragement." Draco had a glare on his face now, matching the one on Harry's.

"You are truly jealous, aren't you, Potter?" Draco sneered. "I knew you would be. Maybe you should get down on your knees and beg for her forgiveness. You know very well that you picked the wrong girl, and yet you know Hermione won't take you back. You regret your actions, don't you, Potter?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Malfoy," Harry said angrily though gritted teeth.

"Oh I think you do, Potter," Draco said maliciously. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Answer my question, Potter: You really are jealous, aren't you?"

Harry stood there, quiet for moment, going over the question in his head, as anger surging through his veins. "Yes," he said finally. "Happy now, Malfoy, you got the answer you wanted. Now I'll repeat my question: do you like Hermione?"

"Why yes, Potter, I do," Draco said simply, his eyes flashing as a smirk came to his lips. "You told me that she definitely likes me, but might I ask who told you that to make you so sure, Potter, because I honestly don't believe that she would tell you of all people?" He was catching onto something here.

Harry didn't even hesitate before replying: "Ron told me." This was the exact answer Draco had been expecting and was suspicious of.

"Weasley told you, did he?" Draco said, feeling the anger erupt inside him. "Obviously Weasley can't keep personal and private things of Hermione's to himself. That is if she told him in the first place."

"Ron's been telling me everything that she's told him," Harry said. "All about her parents, the problems in her life at the moment, her feelings for you... She obviously thinks she can trust Ron to keep it all a secret, but I know everything."

Draco stood up abruptly, his anger getting the best of him. "Good one, Potter, you've just put your best friend Weasley on his death bed!" Draco stormed away before Harry could do or say anything to stop him. He exited the Hall in search for Ron and Hermione.

He couldn't help but get as angry as he was and he was going to make Ron pay and regret betraying Hermione like he had. Hermione had forgiven him and trusted him with things so personal to her and he had just gone and told it all to the one person she would probably least likely wish him to.

He exited the castle and walked out onto the snowy grounds. He could see Hermione and Ron in the distance by the lake. He headed towards them, noticing that they were having quite a lot of fun with a snowball fight. Their happiness somehow made Draco even angrier. How could Hermione just go and forgive him like she had? She should've known better. Here she is, the smartest student at Hogwarts and she just went and did a stupid thing and forgiven him for no real reason whatsoever. Ron didn't even seem to feel guilty.

Neither Ron nor Hermione had noticed Draco walking towards them until the last minute, when Draco headed straight up to Ron with a look of great hatred. He threw a confused Hermione a quick glance before raising his fist and giving Ron an extremely hard punch in the nose, causing a great amount of blood to spill from it and down Ron's hand-me-down robes. Ron had staggered backwards with the force of the punch and was looking both bewildered and in pain. Draco wasn't finished, however, as he gave another great punch, this time to Ron's stomach.

Ron doubled over with a gasp of pain. The blood from his nose was still streaming everywhere, but he made no move to nurse it. Instead, he straightened and before Draco knew what was happening, Ron's fist made painful contact with his upper cheek and eye. Draco thrust his hand into his robes angrily and brought out his wand, pointing it at Ron with a steady hand.

"Hermione trusted you, Weasley!" he snarled, his gaze full of hateful malice. "You must have some nerve to go and tell Potter everything she told you."

Hermione, who had been watching the fight with shock and had been yelling unnoticeably for them to stop, looked over at Ron's bloody face and felt her bottom lip tremble as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Is this - is this true, Ron?" she asked. Ron just turned to look at her with an expression of small guilt. "I don't believe you, Ron. I told you everything! I thought I could trust you, but no, you went and betrayed me by telling it all to Harry. You knew I didn't want him to know about any of it!" The tears that had been building up in her eyes let go and ran silently down her cheeks and she bit her lower lip as an attempt to stop it from trembling violently.

"I'm really sorry, Hermione," Ron said. Hermione just shook her head.

"Sorry isn't good enough, Ron," she said. "Not this time." She turned around and started towards the castle. Draco watched her leave for a moment before turning back to Ron, who was trying to clean away the blood from his face.

"You're lucky I didn't curse you to death, Weasley," Draco sneered, still pointing his wand at Ron, "but if you do anything else like this and hurt Hermione, I swear I will." He turned on his heel and followed Hermione's path back up to the castle, leaving Ron standing there, nursing his blood nose.

*

"I can't believe I actually trusted him," Hermione said for about the tenth time that evening, as she sat in the common room with Draco after Christmas tea. "I was stupid to have forgiven him as easily as I did. I should've gone to Hagrid or someone, not him. I mean, how could he?"

Draco stayed silent, not knowing exactly what to do or say. Hermione just sighed before continuing, her face passive with an upset emotion.

"How much did - how much did Harry tell you?" she asked quietly.

"Well," Draco started, not knowing exactly how to say it. "He approached me and asked about my feelings for you, because he knew you had, er, definite feelings for me." Hermione looked away, her cheeks going slightly pink. "He then told me that Weasley had told him 'everything' you told him."

Hermione looked down at her hands and took a deep breath. "I'm feeling a bit tired," she said. "I think I might go to bed a little earlier tonight." She stood up as Draco looked at his watch.

"It's not even half past eight, yet," he said, raising an eyebrow as he looked up at her.

"I know," Hermione said. "I'm going to have a bath first, but I really should get to bed. It's been a really long day and I did get up quite early, so..."

Draco shrugged and Hermione headed into her room to get her things to take a bath. Once she was in the bathroom with the door closed, Draco gave a great stretch and sighed, a smile coming to his lips as a fact resurfaced in his mind.

She had definite feelings for him...

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Hermione walked across the grounds to the edge of the forest, where Draco stood waiting for her.

"You wanted to talk to me about something?" Hermione said softly as she reached him.

Draco smiled down at her. "You know I care about you, Hermione," he said, "but I'm sick of this stupid game you're playing. Every time I take one step forward, you always take two steps back, if you know what I mean. I just want to be able to kiss you and not have you run away. I want to be able to share my feelings with you and not have you freak out. I'm beginning to think that's too much to ask of you, though. Tell me, Hermione, is it?" He looked at her almost desperately.

"No, Draco," Hermione replied with a shake of her head. "It's not too much to ask; I'm just scared. I've never felt this way about anyone in my life and I'm scared that if I do commit to such a relationship with you, you'll break my heart, like Harry did."

"You should know me better than that by now, Hermione," Draco said. "You can trust me, I swear and if I do such a thing, feel free to curse me into a hundred pieces and throw me into the lake." Hermione gave a short laugh and smiled.

"It's definitely not too much to ask, then," she said, reaching up to stroke his smooth cheek softly. Draco smiled back and bent down to kiss her.

He kissed her ever so deeply and Hermione felt as though she was melting against his lips...

Slowly, Hermione woke up, a smile on her lips and she opened her eyes. It had only been a dream, but to Hermione, it had felt so real and so wonderful.

She absently licked her lips, before reaching over to her bedside table to grab her wand. "Lumos," she whispered as she held it firmly in her hand. The end of the wand lit up and she shone it in the direction of her alarm clock to see the time. It was only just passed midnight.

Hermione sighed. She didn't feel remotely tired and didn't feel like going back to sleep, so she climbed out of bed and quietly crept out into the common room. She taped the Christmas tree with her wand as she passed it to turn the lights on and sat down on the couch, staring at the lit tree, as it's lights flashed on and off.

A small smile was still playing on her lips and as her thoughts trailed back to the dream, her gaze shifted to the closed door of Draco's room. She slowly stood up and made her way over to it and placed a hand on the doorknob. She hesitated before turning it and quietly entering the room. She walked over to the side of Draco's bed and looked down at him, sleeping. There was a small amount of moonlight flooding in from his window and she noticed how sweet and innocent he looked while sleeping.

Slowly, she sat down on the edge of the bed and, hesitantly, moved her hand to his pale cheek and softly, very softly stroked it with her fingers. He moved a bit, mumbling something she couldn't distinguish, but he slept on peacefully. She just watched him for a few moments, before taking a deep breath and bending down towards him. She stopped for a moment; unsure if what she wanted to do was right, before ever so softly kissing him on the lips. She took another deep breath before she moved away and stood up to head back to bed.

She slowly and quietly began to close the door, but as she was inches from closing it fully, Draco's voice sounded from his bed.

"Hermione?" he said, sitting up. Hermione slowly re-opened the door and looked over at him as he climbed out of bed and made his way to the door. "Hermione, aren't you supposed to be sleeping, not kissing me?" Even in the dark she could tell he was smirking. Hermione felt a blush creep up onto her cheeks and she looked away.

"I, er..." She was in the middle of finding a sensible answer to his question, when his lips were suddenly on hers, kissing her with both force and passion. Hermione responded, kissing him back, while running her hands up his bare chest and up around his shoulders.

The kiss was just as intense, just as wonderful as the one they'd shared in the library. It was deep, forceful, passionate, exciting, sweet, and fiery, not to mention a whole lot of other things put together. All that seemed to matter in the world to them at this moment was this wanted, needed kiss, as if it was the only thing keeping them truly sane. The only thing occupying their minds was this longed kiss. It seemed that this had been the only thing they had wanted since their last kiss, their first kiss, quite some time ago.

Draco's arms were around Hermione's waist, keeping her close, while Hermione's were around his neck, her fingers tangled in his hair. Both their hearts were beating at an irregular pace and the ecstasy between them was becoming more obvious for both of them, but neither wanted it to stop.

A moan of pleasure escaped Hermione's throat and Draco suddenly felt he should stop, before it became out of hand, but he didn't want to. He brought his thoughts together and broke the kiss, not letting go of her. He took a deep breath and smiled to himself, before burying his face in her hair, taking in the sweet scent of her.

"Don't run away," he whispered in her ear. Hermione breathed in deeply, unsure of her thoughts and feelings at that moment.

"I'm not going to, Draco," she said. "I don't think this should happen again, though." This sentence escaped her lips without her wanting it to and she immediately wanted to take it back as Draco let go of her. It had been the wrong thing to say and she knew it.

"Why, because it's so wrong?" Draco said, his tone caustic. He looked at her with a look of misunderstanding and questioning. Hermione looked down at her feet and slowly nodded. "I honestly don't think I understand the way your mind works, Hermione," Draco said, moving away and sitting at the end of his bed. "This game you seem to be playing. Is it really that wrong, Hermione, or are trying to convince yourself to think that? Enemies once or not, I'm falling in love with you and I've never felt this way about anyone in my whole life and you keep saying it's wrong, but I'm actually beginning to think it's not. Consider one thing, Hermione: how can it be wrong when it feels so right?"

Hermione looked at him, biting her lower lip, with many different thoughts occupying her mind. "I think I'm falling in love with you too, Draco," she admitted after a moment, "but I think I need time to think about it and get my thoughts straight."

"Time?" Draco repeated. "Didn't you get enough time to think last time?" His voice was slightly harsh and it made Hermione a bit upset.

"Why can't you just understand, Draco?" she asked. "I'm going through a rather rough time at the moment and this doesn't really make it all that much better. I want time, Draco. I need time to think everything over and I want you to provide that time for me. So please, give me that." She was looking at him with a gaze full of desperation.

Draco gazed up at her as she stood in the doorway, looking at him with that rather hopeless expression. He sighed. "Fine," he said finally, not looking at her. "Take as much bloody time as you need."

Hermione looked at him with a look hinting slight pain, but didn't say anything more. Instead, she turned and headed back to bed, closing the door behind her. His reply hadn't been all that encouraging to her. All she wanted was for him to understand the fact she needed a bit of time to get her exact thoughts and feelings straight.

She climbed back into bed and sighed heavily. Why did she even say that it "shouldn't happen again"? Everything would be much easier if she hadn't.