One Slowdance

Disclaimer:

I don´t own Harry Potter. This fic is written purely for enjoyment and because "One Slowdance" by Rufio (which is also not mine) is such a wonderful song.

A/N

: I think a "wallflower" is an older term for someone who waits on the sidelines in a dance and who is dateless.

One Slowdance

By Sabrina Clarke and Edited by Fiona Chan

You're standing there alone

And so am I

She stood out like a rose among the common wallflowers, politely giving Eloise Midgen her chair while she waited- immaculate in dress robes fit for a princess and a face fit for an angel. It was a lie to say that she normally looked this way. It was a lie to say that she usually was this glamorous. It was a lie to call her a Mudblood. It was a lie to suggest anything unclean about her demure and innocent expression.

There were so many lies already. It was the last day- no regrets. Hermione was not unnoticed - although she was alone. Draco tried to catch her eye. No regrets. Pansy was on the arm of another. Not that he cared. He preferred loneliness to her company. And he preferred Hermione to loneliness.

But I want you here
By my side

So he was all alone. His favorite song came on. A special request of his, for this moment. He was not about to allow this perfect opportunity to pass.

Your smile at me
Is everything

Their eyes met.

The staring game

She returned his gaze with hostility and looked away. Draco was not swayed, he remained unmoving, but his shadow, cast by the drifting candles, cavorted on the walls behind him.

Hermione wanted Draco to look away. Even as she watched Harry spin Ginny around, the generous skirt of her dress rising with momentum and sinking and she returned to Harry`s arms, she knew he was still looking at her. It was then that she allowed herself an unforgivable moment of weakness. In a quick surreptitious glance she saw an approachable, vulnerable boy- stripped of his pride and arrogance, leaving only embarrassment and a pathetic half-smile that was uniquely his. She felt something that connected from deep within, and then he looked away, and the moment was gone, like candle doused in a gush of wind, and everything came fluttering back into place. Yet, her ideas were on shaky pedestals. Malfoy, the perfumed atmosphere, the floating candles, the gentle strums of music of that song- what is that song? all seemed to be culminating into a perfect moment of bliss, conspiring to allow another instant of weakness- of curiosity. Another quick glance. Curiosity betrayed her.

That song of love.

Her weakness was truly reproachable. He winked. The stupid Malfoy winked. In quick succession, like a domino chain reaction her pedestals came tumbling down.

I look you in the eyes

She looked again at him, without hesitation or embarrassment and held his gaze.

Draco smiled. Hermione, you´re mine now. You´re confused aren´t you? No regrets. So I´m forgetting about everything that happened, everything that I am, and just enjoying the moment. I might not have that many of those moments now that-

He´s a Death Eater. Well probably. He´s a Malfoy. I know that. I know I´ve hated him for so long. Stop staring at me!

She whispered to herself, "What´s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would still smell as sweet..." Malfoy - a name surrounded by infamy and opulence. A thorny name. The rose protected itself behind a sharp, but glittering name perhaps... No, it was too effeminate to relate Draco to a rose.

Maybe those years were a lie and maybe... she saw his eyes glitter in the dancing candlelight. Am I hoping for a change that just won´t happen?

I try to read your thoughts

No regrets. I´ve had too many lies, too many insults, too much of what you don´t need and not enough of what you do need. That´s why you´re all alone. And I´m alone, because you are. I want to be with you.

I ask you to go with me

For a moment that he had put been looking forward to the whole night, his voice sounded unimpressive. "Want to dance?" The phrase itself seemed so careless, so impetuous, some might even say indifferent - but the intensity with which his eyes blazed was unmistakable. He was hopeful. That flattered Hermione. Another moment of weakness.

He smiled. And she couldn´t resist a smile back. She saw that brief flicker of boyish anticipation and delicately held out her hand.

Trust her to rise to the occasion better then me, when this came unexpected for her and I´d been planning it. At least he was prepared to whisk her away.

To a far off place.

No regrets. "I´m sorry, Hermione."

She was determined to believe him. Silence.

"Do you realize that this is the first time I´ve ever apologized-"

"To a Mudblood?"

"To anyone."

Oh.

Hermione was less surprised than he expected. "I don´t care anymore."

"Still-" Draco felt slighted. Oh well.

"Forget it." Silence.

I look you in the eyes
I try to read your thoughts

She was impossible.

I ask you to go with me
To a far off place.

"Let´s get away from here."

She laughed.

You and me dancing the night away

"I´m serious."

"Why?"

"This dance sucks." Quickly, but with finesse, he spun her on gracefully pivoting heels.

She took a step closer to him, inhaling the faint scent of his cologne. "It´s not so bad."

You can feel my heart beating so hard.

"You know it sucks."

"Yeah, it does."

"Let´s just go walk by the Lake." Hermione looked distrustful. "Hey," he took half a step back, "I´m not going to try anything."

She looked thoughtful, "Suppose we do get to the Lake, what do we do?"

Draco raised his eyebrow suggestively, but he grinned good-naturedly, "I suppose the more important question is what we´re doing here."

"Hmm?"

"I don´t suppose you can tell that half the school is staring at us and the other half is pretending not to stare."

She smiled and laughed, "Nope." Hermione looked around the Great Hall- the prevailing feeling was almost tangible astonishment.

He bent conspiringly and whispered, "I suppose you´d prefer being in the limelight?"

She didn`t answer that. "Don´t you think Filch is out patrolling the hallways to make sure people don´t sneak out?"

"It´s your last night at Hogwarts. No regrets." They shared a glance. And he knew she was his.

We look eye to eye

She gave an unreturned wink to Ron and Harry and looked at Draco before saying, "Let´s go."
He grinned, grabbed her hand, and pulled her out of the Great Hall amid the stares and whispers of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Well, we gave them something to talk about," laughed Hermione, "Which was your intention."

"Partly."

"And the other part?" She was fishing for a compliment.

"The dance sucked."

Hermione seemed disappointed. "Oh."

"Plus, I couldn´t imagine a better way to end my stay at Hogwarts-" he paused. No regrets. "Than spending it with you." He pulled out a blossom of forget-me-nots and tucked it loosely into her elegant bun.

She began, with a chiding voice, "This from someone who-" He kissed her.

And I'm swept away.

A kiss that revealed everything unspeakable, everything that the Malfoy pride, and Draco's fear, held back. She was floating. The brief sensation that left the faint chords of the melody and muffled rustling of disconnected speech inaudible. What is that song? When he stepped back she felt a sudden chill. She opened her eyes and she was somewhere else.

This whole night was so full of whimsy, so incandescent with magic it did feel surreal. How was he able to wreak such havoc with her emotions, but leave her feeling minty fresh and immaculate? Slightly breathless, and a little sarcastically, she asked, "Am I on cloud nine?"

Well, I´m in Heaven. "I think somewhere a bit closer to earth. Closer to Hogwarts, too, in fact." He nodded to the blinking lights of the castle, with a ironic grin, "Our fellow schoolmates stares were a bit stifling."

"Only because you noticed them."

It was then that she realized that she was still dancing, rocking gently with him to a melody that was inaudible, waltzing to an unsung song. But why ruin the moment? She continued rocking contentedly, not allowing her eyes to stray from his face- from his eyes with arrested her in their steely depths.

"Thank God, for the moonlight."

She laughed at herself, she didn´t even notice the moonlight- all she could think about was her enemy in her arms.

"Thank God, that you came with me."

"Did I have a choice?"

"No." She had asked rhetorically, but he responded seriously, "The forget-me-nots are enchanted. They`re a Portkey."

Hermione wasn´t listening. She had noticed the lake, with the moonlight illuminating the faint ripples so that they glowed as though they were aflame.

On a moonlit walk on the beach

Draco unclasped her hands from his neck and slowly began strolling with her along the shore. Ever receding, ever advancing. Each wave was like the beat of his heart. Each flash of reflected moonlight was like every step he took. He chanced a glance at the castle. Was the song over?

Hermione caught another gentle strum, carried by the obliging wind to her sleepy ears. The faint melody awakened her, she had nearly allowed the restfulness of that night to seduce her. Another distant note - what was that song?

His voice, his arms, his eyes, that song - what was that song? - steadied her, delivering her from dreamland and back to the world of the wake. "When´s the dance over?"

"We´re teenagers, Hermione, we don´t function on deadlines. Plus, whatever restrictions there were are probably being broken. Ten to one, people will still be dancing at six A.M." This, all this beautifully secretive bliss, would have to end. Life would move on and we´d spin a web of hatred towards the others cause. But for the first time in her life, Hermione was content with living in the present. It was thrilling- it tasted like butterbeer, and smelled like Malfoy´s cologne.
The grayness that symbolized the encroaching dawn, slowly illumed the indistinct shapeless-ness of night. "The sun will be rising soon."

"Yeah."

Watching the sunrise for the first time

A shaft of lemon-gold brilliance, that was so effervescent, so enlivening as it spread its languorous tendrils over the Hogwarts grounds. The gentle caressing fingers of morning that brought with them the faint blush of peach as the sun peeked its head above the mountain silhouettes that reached into its embarrassed countenance.

The undisclosed emotion in his eyes, burned more intensely than the bashful sun. How had she though they were cold? "I never really understood all the fuss about sunsets. I never watched them at all." she sighed, "Before now."

"You now what? Neither did I, but from now on I´m waking up early to see this."

"Even Mother Nature..." Hermione whispered to herself.

"Sorry, what?"

"Even Mother Nature was part of this conspiracy..."

I made a truce

"What?"

"What are the odds that this would happen?"

"You read way too much into this."

"Thank God- for you."

He laughed, "I wasn´t expecting that."

"You made my last memory of Hogwarts so-" Wonderful. Unforgettable. Divine. Per-

"Perfect? I was counting on that."

For that one slowdance.

No regrets.

****

The Yule Ball came and went. Small talk smattered with triumphant looks from her `fellow´ schoolmates. She could hear their unhushed whispers. Viktor Krum, Quidditch player extraordinaire came queuing up to be her partner. So when the next ball came and she rejected some of her fellow Gryffindor´s, people expected an equally dramatic entrance. Too bad for them. Hermione felt no regret. So it was only to assume that the sideways glances were those of pity from her friends and amusement from her enemies. It was the same as before.

To Hermione, it was a tedious affair, but for one moment- a moment where the minutes were like hours, and the hours seemed endless...and she leaned back and remembered a night filled with laughing secrecy- a hidden tryst, secrets whispered in the dark, and kisses disguised. And she would smile wistfully.