Fall From Grace

Chapter Four - Our Very First Date

Most of the Gryffindor table were still half-asleep. If it wasn't for the fact that Harry insisted on watching every single game of the season Ron, Hermione and he would all still have been in bed. As it was the morning was looking nice. Not too windy and really bright. Proper wintry sun. Hermione loved this time of year when it was so fresh and cold. Everything seemed to ring and shine. It was the first time that week she had felt really happy.

Defense Against the Dark Arts involved her chatting to Sirius if she wanted to ask a question and generally pretending Remus...Professor Lupin wasn't there. But he was always there. Hermione was becoming exhausted trying to avoid his gaze but then every time he wasn't watching her she was watching him. She wistfully remembered last lesson and how close she had come to being found out. They had been working on a charm that sends your opponent away. The more advanced student could direct things to a box, or in a real-life case Azkaban. Neville had been mastering the basic charm so when Professor Lupin advised him to direct his pumice stone into the box on the front desk he jumped at the chance. Unfortunately Neville botched it slightly and instead of sending his stone away he summoned a woman, and from the screaming Hermione would guess she was a Muggle.

Professor Lupin had calmed her down and sent her home after a quick memory charm but then he leant against the desk. Hermione knew from her werewolf research, a subject she was now fascinated by, that at this time of the moth Remus would be exhausted and any large amount of Magical expenditure would give him a major headache and leave him drawn. He looked so worried, tired and even too sleepy to push the part of his hair that fell across his eyes away. Hermione had actually stood up to walk over and brush it back. It was only as Remus had turned to her she sat back down and concentrated on her pen hoping to God nobody noticed her flushed cheeks. In a somewhat desperate attempt to calm herself down Hermione began to mutter her now common place mantra under her breath, quiet enough that nobody around her would notice. However, Hermione didn't reckon on the large black dog in the corner of the room that looked asleep but had his ear pricked all the way up so he could hear every word she said, "You don't really love him, you don't really want him..."

***

As it turned out Ginny had very little to worry about. She was not really a Quidditch fan and only watched the Gryffindor games to see Harry. She had therefore only seen Draco fly against Harry, and be beaten. During the Gryffindor games he looked clumsy, he pulled out of dives earlier than Harry, he flew slower than Harry and was messier than Harry. In short Harry out flew him in every possible sense.

It was this reason why Ginny was so surprised to see the Slytherin seeker look so calm, so natural on his broom. Although Claude was a good seeker she was no match for Draco. He looked as if he had been playing Quidditch all his life, which in retrospect he probably had, and he looked good. No wonder Harry annoyed him, Ginny mused from the stands, if you are flying at a very high standard and somebody comes and beats you it's got to be annoying.

Hermione, Ron and Harry had been shocked when Ginny asked to go with them to the Quidditch and was even more shocked when she corrected Harry on the teams each house was putting out. Adrian Pucey, the latest Slytherin captain, had been pulled due to a hamstring injury and Draco was taking his place as Captain. This made Draco's plan a lot easier. It had become customary after a match for each captain to give an interview on the podium in front of everyone. This way once Draco had got Ginny onto his broom it was clear sailing, so to speak.

From his vantage point above the stands he was half watching the field and half watching the stand. It was his first day as captain. Not that he had a lot to do. Pucey's injury came up so suddenly that he had already planned that match for Draco. It was just a matter of catching the snitch. A movement in the crowd caught his eye. A feisty redhead was waving to him from the very bottom of Gryffindor stand. She must have excused herself just to give him that boost in confidence. Draco smiled and returned his full focus to the game. He was Captain, Ginny had faith in him and by tonight she would be his, if only for a little while.

Fifty minutes later the score was 20 to 130; Slytherin were thrashing them. Draco was practically doing spins on his broomstick and was finding it hard to concentrate on the snitch. Claude was looking downcast but kept her eyes peeled all the same, if she got the Snitch in time Ravenclaw could win. Claude had actually moved away from Malfoy, he was doing little circles above her head just to annoy her. Draco looked over to see Ginny, his mind couldn't stop wandering but as luck would have it a tiny glimmer of gold glinted above her head. Draco grinned and yelled "Bored!" to Claude who just rolled her eyes and turned away from him.

'Perfect,' Draco thought and slowly began weaving his way toward the Gryffindor stand. He was now twenty meters above the crowd and the snitch. All the Gryffindors were grinning and pulling stupid faces at him. Urging his broom on Draco pelted towards them and all the people directly below the snitch began to scatter, afraid. Only one person stood adamantly still and she was grinning at the tiny fleck of gold she could only just see. Before Claude could even realize Draco had begun to dive he had the snitch firmly in his hand and Madame Hooch had blown her whistle. The stand surrounding Ginny was empty where people had fled from what they thought to be Draco Malfoy, human thunder bolt. He pulled gracefully to a halt beside Ginny before offering a hand and helping her onto the broom. They only just managed to become airborne when Ron appeared out of nowhere desperately grabbing at Ginny's feet. Draco heard her giggle and pull slightly harder round his waist.

Claude, the Ravenclaw captain, was already in the commentary box by the time Draco got up there. She actually stopped halfway through her interview to watch him leave his broom hovering as he jumped off and helped Ginny down.

"Yeah...urm...I guess we'll urm...make the points back....erm...I...erm...hard work?" she finished and walked away from Dean, the new commentator, her eyes still transfixed on Draco.

"Malfoy? Any comment?" At least Dean had full motor function.

"Yeah. Well I just saw the snitch and it was a Godsend. Directly above an Angel. And it is this Angel that I want to be with so...Ginny Weasley will you be my girlfriend?" The stadium fell silent. Not one word could be heard from anybody. Even Ron could only mouth the curses he was thinking. Gingerly Dean pushed the microphone towards her.

"Of course!" Ginny beamed, "I am so proud of you. Captain and all!" She winked before throwing her arms round Draco's neck.

They were both so caught up in this hug that neither heard the noise suddenly build up into a crescendo as everyone tried to fathom what had just happened. Ginny breathed deeply taking in Draco scent. He smelt sweaty but it was fresh sweat and not a lot of it. There was something else, a distinctly Draco smell behind it. His thoughts were far from how Ginny smelt or felt in his arms (perfect on both counts anyway) but on what she had just said. She was proud of him. Nobody had ever, ever uttered those words to him before. He did good or bad but nobody congratulated him on how he did it just if it all went to plan.

"Let the games begin," he whispered in her ear before helping her back onto his broom and flying her up and away from the game of Quidditch to her bedroom window. Luckily Ginny had her wand to hand and 'alohomora'-ed the window open.

"They actually fell for it!" Ginny grinned. "I'll see you later, but can you believe they think you actually like me?"

"More the fools them," Draco said. He couldn't help be beam back at her. The smile and giggle that came so naturally her made her face light up.

"See you later...Lover boy!" Ginny laughed and Draco shook his head in mock despair.

She grinned again, as he flew away and she bounced over to her bed, head spinning. Lying with her curtains pulled around her bed Ginny couldn't stop herself from grinning, even if Draco Malfoy was the cause.

***

"She didn't. She did not. There is no way that she would. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Just wait until she gets through that portrait I will kill her. Oh...can't...breathe..." Ron was turning, if possible, more red and had to bend over with Hermione rubbing his back.

He was pacing up and down the common room glaring at the portrait entrance. He had been first back through, or so the Fat Lady told him, and there was no sign of Ginny. Harry was sitting staring at a game of chess he was supposed to play with Neville who was also just staring at his pieces. Ron was attracting more attention than anybody and most of the Gryffindors were in shock. Not one person had told him to sit down or shut up. Including Hermione. She had just been mumbling something to him under her breath trying to get him to calm down without encoring his wrath.

"Maybe it's just a phase," Hermione said quietly but in the silence of the common room it echoed.

"She...SCREWED...us over. She is...is...fraternizing with the enemy. Not just some little Bulgarian sportsman but fucking VOLDERMORT's right hand man." Ron shocked himself when he screamed the Dark Lord's name and spent the next minutes looking around feverishly.

"Ron. We have detention, with Professor Sprout. I almost forgot! Look what you're bad mood is doing to me!" Hermione looked horrified at almost forgetting her first ever detention but it seemed to make Ron calm down a little and a small smile slipped onto his lips.

"Oh. I can't go Hermione. I have to see that little slut when she gets in!" Ron glared at the doorway again.

"Ron, there is no point you getting a million points taken from Gryffindor just so you can yell at Ginny. I'll stay and watch the door, you go and do your detention," Harry reasoned calmly.

"You can't let her go to bed, Harry. Keep her up all night if you must!" Ron was pointing a finger into his best friend's face and was luckily too angry to notice Harry turn slightly pink with thoughts of how he could keep Ginny awake all night.

"Ron, you can stay and be a prat if you wish but I'm going," Hermione said gently, taking his hand from behind. "Will you come with me?"

"Umm...um...yeah." Ron nodded and allowed Hermione to gently pull him towards the door. He already had one foot out of the portrait hole before he turned back and yelled, "Harry! You promised remember!"

"Ron, come on we are going to be late!" Hermione began to jog down the corridor pulling Ron by his hand and he soon kept up with her speed yet didn't let go of her hand.

Hermione was too fully focused on getting to her detention on time to notice that she still had a hold of Ron's hand. Ron, however, did. The little voice in his head was on full tease and had chosen his favourite subject, Hermione. Ron's mind was filled with images of Hermione and him running hand-in-hand through fields of hay in the summer. Hermione was wearing a little blue summer dress and Ron was in Muggle jeans with a white shirt. The whole scene was perfect and accented by the warmth Hermione's hand was giving him. This fantasy was the reason why Ron went smack into Professor Lupin and Hermione did not. Although the world was inverted there was something wrong and Ron could feel it all through his body, Hermione had dropped his hand before his spectacular nose-dive. Pondering this Ron got shakily to his feet.

"Sorry Professor, I wasn't looking where I was going," Ron admitted shaking the dust off his robes.

"No problem. May I ask where you two were going in such a hurry?" Remus smiled but Sirius began to laugh.

"Yeah, the Astronomy Tower is that way!" Sirius winked at Hermione and she turned bright pink.

"Oh no, no, no, no. Ron and I...no. We had...detention," Hermione stuttered looking mortified that she had to let more than one person know she had detention.

"Yeah," said Sirius sceptically, "because you get sooooo *roll of eyes* many detentions! At least think of a good excuse."

"Siri! They do have detention. With me actually," Remus said, shaking his head at Sirius' mistake and smiling gently.

"What? I thought we were going to H-O-G-S-M-E-A-D-E," Sirius spelt out, looking pointedly at Remus.

"Professor Black, we can spell," Hermione said gently and Remus began to shake with laughter.

"Oh, yeah. Idiot. I'm off to the...urm...Moony?" Sirius was laughing fakely and looking confused.

"Hermione, Ron. Sirius is going to Hogsmeade because he is supposedly an adult and is allowed to do that sort of thing." Remus grinned at Sirius and gestured from him to be on his way. With a smile and a confused look on his face Sirius began to wander off muttering something that sounded like 'bad influence'.

"Sorry. Sometimes he forgets we're not sixteen anymore." Remus began to walk towards the greenhouses and Ron and Hermione jogged to catch up with him. On the way he explained how Sprout had fallen ill after the Rancorous Drivalate had spat some of its seeds into her mouth and she was currently growing beautiful pink flowers on her tongue.

The 5^th greenhouse had been charmed to keep constantly warm and even on the chilly night it was sweltering inside.

"I really hate it in here," Remus said. "Do you mind if I take off my robes, it's informal but I don't think I'd last long in here."

"Not a problem," Ron said and he already had his own robes in a pile on the floor. His jeans and T-shirt provided much needed ventilation. Slowly Remus took off his robes to reveal his own clothes. Hermione nearly gasped out loud. He had on baggy, ripped jeans and a creamed colored top with England '66 splashed in red across the front.

"You got me on a good day, old family wizards tend not to wear things under their robes!" Remus joked with a sly wink at Ron who snickered as Hermione blushed more but undid her own robes to reveal a pair of tight hipster jeans and a strappy black top that showed off her ample cleavage. Ron nearly choked.

"Well," Remus said. "Now we're ready for work you need to replant all the Ratita Fornica that are over thirty centimeters high. I'll help but only because my head's still spinning from discovering Hermione had a detention. Ron do you want to start on the ones further down and we'll meet in the middle?"

"Sure!" Ron grinned and marched down to the other end of the greenhouse.

"It's not funny. I'm in here because of you," Hermione hissed under her breath.

"I beg your pardon?" Remus looked over the plants at her.

"I got detention because you don't have a bloody alarm clock and I woke up late." Hermione focused on her plant. "You could have woken me up."

"Hermione. I slept in the Shrieking Shack, I didn't realize you were...I'm sorry," Remus said quietly, casting glances down the Greenhouse to where Ron was busy getting covered in dirt.

"It's OK. I guess it's my fault for intruding and sleeping in your bed," Hermione said.

"No, I know what it's like in that house. Everybody constantly around you. If you need to get out, time to your self and that, you can sleep with me..." Hermione dropped her pot at Remus' words. "...I mean...in my bed. If you wanted...space. We better pick that up." Remus dropped under the table in a desperate attempt to hide his slip.

"Do you mean it?" Hermione asked putting one of her hands on his, "you don't mind me in your bed?"

"Oh Hermione, of course I don't," said Remus softly. Their fingers were still entwined and slowly both of them moved closer under the table. Hermione darted her tongue out to wet her lips and closed her eyes slightly.

"Herm!" Ron yelled from the other end of the Greenhouse and on reflex Hermione moved her head to the side and Remus' lips landed gently on her cheek. Turning her head back to face him Hermione could see the panic and fear in his eyes. Very quickly he stood up and cracked his head on the heavy workbench.

"Oh My God!" Hermione's stomach fell through as she heard the sickening sound of bone on wood, "are you alright?"

"I'm feeling a little..." Remus said swaying slightly from side to side, "...off. Perhaps I should see the nurse. Continue planting you pots."

"Potting our plants." Hermione gently corrected and walked him to the door.

"Yeah planting your plants with the pots and...yeah." Remus was still muttering to himself as he stumbled towards school and Ron came running over to where Hermione was standing.

"Brilliant! Can we go?" Ron asked innocently.

"Ronald Weasley!" Hermione chided, "if a job is worth doing it is worth doing well now come on. We will finish our punishment."

"Hermione," Ron said smiling and gently shaking his head. "You have yet to amaze me."

"Thanks. I figured if we work on a rotation system we can get this done in half as much time. You pull out the plants and I'll re-pot."

"Sure." Ron happily got about his work and in under an hour and a half the plants had all been re-potted and Hermione and Ron were covered in soil.

"You're all dirty," Hermione laughed and ran a mucky finger down Ron's cheek leaving a huge streak.

"Oh, you die Granger," Ron said laughing and diving at her, soil in hand. He pinned her to the bench and ran two steaks of dirt under both of her eyes. Hermione looked like a warrior and Ron was leaning on her laughing. Slowly his eyes met hers and they both stopped giggling, the only sound that filled the greenhouse was the heavy panting that was from both of them. Gently Ron put his lips on hers and she froze. Hermione made no move to kiss him so Ron began to brush his lips along hers and sighing he pulled back.

"Ron, I..."

"It's ok Hermione. You don't like me like that. I understand. Forgive me?" Ron was finishing off the plants that were left and was trying to avoid Hermione's gaze.

"No, I do but...there's...somebody else. Oh Ron...I'm just really confused and...I'm sorry." A single tear fell from Hermione's eyes and left a clear track though the mud on her face. Quickly she turned to leave, picked up her cloak and ran out of the greenhouse leaving Ron staring after her.