Hope

A/N: I wrote this as a request from homiedawggirl. It's based on the lyrics 'Where are you Going?' by the Dave Matthews Band.

DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and all related characters belong to JK Rowling.

She lay there, in the sand, the ocean waves crashing on the shore, thinking. The stars were very bright and beautiful tonight. Millions of them twinkled in the vast dark sky, reminding her of the diamond she was now wearing on her ring finger. Taking her hand out from under her head, she examined it in the moonlight.

It really was a stunning, a bit large for her taste, but stunning none the less. It wasn't the beauty of the gem that made her love it though, it was the promise that was made when it was slipped on her finger.

How did it come to be that she, Hermione Granger, was tomorrow to become Hermione Malfoy? It all started with a question...

"Why are you running, Granger?" Draco asked, leaning on the wall. He laughed and slapped his thigh. "He has no idea that you're hiding from him does he?" Draco pushed off the wall and walked towards her. He expected her to scream at him to go away, to pull out her wand and threaten to shrink his manhood down to nothing, but she did no such thing. Instead, she started to cry.

He stopped in his tracks and looked around for assistance, but the hallway was empty. "Figures!" he said to himself. Crying disgusted him, it was for weak people who had no control over their emotions. "Stop your damn blubbering, Granger and be a man...er woman!"

Hermione, her face splotchy with tears, looked at him like he was Beelezbub himself. "Typical thing a man would say!" she said, sniffling. "Well we all know that you cry, don't we, crybaby Malfoy who cries in the bathroom, pouring out his soul to a dead girl!"

Draco lunged, Hermione cringed and fell up against the wall. "You just better shut your damn mouth, Granger!" He smirked at the fear in her eyes. He felt very powerful, towering above her. "Tell me, dear Granger, why are you running from the Weasel?"

Much to Hermione shock, Draco backed off and attempted to carry on a civil conversation with her. Really, it was none of his business why she was trying to avoid Ron but she found herself telling him anyway. "Well you see, we have been going out for a few months."

Draco made retching noises. "Totally disgusting! I don't blame you for running, having to put up with his hands all over you, trying to kiss you and... just disgusting! Anyhow, please continue..." He retched once more and waved her on.

Hermione, her eyebrow raised in annoyance, frowned and plunged on. " I feel as though I'm stuck in this relationship. Everyone thinks we're happy and they all expect us to get married, have little Weasleys and live happily ever after!" It felt so nice to get this off of her chest, to tell someone. "I guess the short of it all is that I don't love him anymore. The very thought of him touching me makes me want die."

Draco laughed again. "Why, Granger? Have you fallen in love with someone else? Potter perhaps?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No."

"Then what is it? A person does not just wake up one day and decide not to love someone any more. Something had to have happened."

Hermione knew she was going to regret this for the rest of her life, but what the hell, she needed to tell someone. "Ron is not, is not...a good lover. There I've said it!" Her face felt like it was on fire and she knew at once that she never should have told Malfoy.

Draco laughed so hard that he choked on his spit. “Oh man! Please, Granger, elaborate…”

Hermione frowned, her face as red as it could get. "He just doesn't know what he's doing!" She stomped her foot and turned to leave as Draco broke out in a renewed fit of hysterics.

"No way, you're not leaving until we discuss this more thoroughly." He grabbed her arm and quickly let go, a strange look drifting over his features. "Now tell me, have you tried telling him what you like?"

Hermione was so uncomfortable, she just wanted to flee and never look back but again she found herself telling him things she never would have told even Ginny. "I... once I did try to tell him.“ The humiliation was so great that she wanted to scream.

"So you ,“ he said, trying to hold back his laughter, “wrote it all out for him, told him what it is that you like and the moron still didn't get it right?"

Hermione only nodded.

"What else?” Draco asked, loving the way she was blushing and squirming, looking around for a way to escape.

"I think I've told you enough. I answered your questions. Now you know why I was running and trying to avoid him."

"I think I might have a solution to your problem."

Hermione looked up at him, he was dead serious. "What is it?"

Draco leaned up against the wall once more, crossing his arms over his chest. "You need a proper lover, someone who knows exactly what you need."

Hermione smiled at him. He couldn't be serious! Did he really think she would fall for this? Malfoy and her? The thought was absurd! "I hope you're not actually toying with the idea of being my lover!"

"Is it so crazy, Granger?" He absently ran a hand through his pale blond hair. "You have needs and I have abilities." He cocked his eyebrow at her and winked. "Tell me you have never thought about it, I certainly have!"

Hermione knew she had more than once thought about what it would be like to run her hands over his smooth bare chest…

"Granger?"

Startled, she looked up. "Huh?"

Draco chuckled. "I take that as yes." He saw she was getting angry. "Please, don't get upset, you're not the only girl to fantasize about me." He watched her shift from foot to foot, not knowing what to say. "I think they are the most powerful thing on the face of the earth, don't you?"

"What?" she asked.

"Fantasies, of course. Think about it. I can fantasize about doing anything I want to you and there is nothing you can do about it. Now that's power!"

Hermione had to admit that he had a point. "I've never considered that."

"So now we both have admitted that we've thought about it, why not actually try it?" He came towards her. "Who knows, you might even like it."

"I don't want to discuss this any more with you, I'm leaving!"

They stood there, staring at each other.

"I thought you said you were leaving?" He leaned in close, slowly closing his eyes. He thought she would turn her head, but she didn't. He pressed his lips lightly to hers in a soft sensual kiss. He pulled away, and looked at her, gently caressing her cheek. "I'm not a hero, Granger, but I'm willing to save you. Why be with him when we could be together, like this... forever."

Hermione's heart was pounding, her palms were sweaty and her head was spinning. This man, this man who had been the bane of her very existence for years, was offering her a way out. He seemed genuine. Maybe he did have a thing for her and even though she didn't want to admit it, she had always had a thing for him.

"What do you say, Hermione?" He trailed feathery kisses down her neck. "Give me a chance. Give us a chance and you'll see that I am capable of loving someone other than myself."

Her knees felt weak as his lips once again found hers and she found herself saying yes.

So now here she was, three years later, on the eve of her wedding day, lying in the coarse sand, staring at the stars and asking herself the very question that had started it all: 'Why are you running Granger?'.

They were all probably looking for her right now, frantically searching the rooms of the hotel. She didn't care, let them worry. She needed to be alone to think. She put her knees up and dug her toes into the cold wet sand. He had promised her that he would be he would always be there for her, never leave her and always love her.

She knew it wasn't his fault that he was dying, that he only had another year at the most. It just wasn't fair! He was her love, her life and he was going to leave her and there was nothing she could do about it!

'What are you running from, Granger?' She was running from death, that bastard on a white horse that struck indiscriminately and tore families apart. She sometimes fantasized that he had never gotten sick, that they would be together until they were old and grey.

There was one consolation, a secret that she was keeping. She was going to have his baby and that alone was a comfort. She wished for it to be a girl because she already had a name picked out: Hope. She loved that name, it made her smile. Draco had been wrong, fantasy was not the most powerful thing in the world, hope was.

She looked at ring once more and wiped the tears from her eyes She made the same wish upon a star that she made every night and slowly made her way back to her room, where he waited for her, her brave hero.

the end...