Enchanted ~ A Hermione x Draco fanfic

Girls and boys

'I swear I'm going to kill Pansy Parkinson.' Hermione hissed to herself more than anyone as she sat with Ron and Harry in the common room.

'Well what did you expect?' Harry said plainly. He was obviously still mad at Hermione. She gave him an angry glare.

'He's got a point, though.' Ron said. 'She's probably just jealous. Girls do that kind of stuff.'

That earned him a disgusted look from Hermione. 'That's entirely atrocious, Ronald.'

'They do!' Ron defended himself. 'Remember when Lavender went mental after Roger Davies went to the Yule ball with Fleur?'

'No.' Hermione said firmly.

'Yeah, well, Roger couldn't play quidditch for two weeks.'

Hermione wasn't sure whether this was a lie or not, as she vaguely remembered that Cho Chang became the quidditch captain for a week or two. 'Not every girl is like Lavender!'

'Are you defending Pansy?' Ron raised his eyebrows, infuriating Hermione further.

'Of course not, were you even listening to me?'

Harry began to hum boredly.

'Fine!' Hermione snapped. 'I'll ask Ginny!' She stormed out of the portrait hole.

As soon as she had left, Ron said, 'What was she asking in the first place?'

'No idea, mate.' Harry sighed.

****

'I just don't know what to do! If we keep going out, he'll be the one suffering, with Umbridge practically torturing him!' Hermione wailed.

Ginny didn't know about 'I must not tell lies' or 'I will keep my lips to myself' and presumed Hermione was exaggerating. 'You won't even get to see each other outside of lessons, he'll be in detention.' Ginny added, not knowing what to say.

'Exactly!' Hermione almost sobbed. 'I don't want him to s-suffer.'

'Well, you couldn't possibly pretend.' Ginny stated.

'It would never work. Sneaking around, keeping Pansy happy... And Harry would never-' Hermione almost let slip about the mysterious magic map of Hogwarts, but covered it with 'Harry would never keep quiet...'

'You underestimate him.' Ginny said tonelessly.

'You don't know how angry he is.'

'Well. I guess that leaves only one option.'

For a smart girl, Hermione was naive when this statement came to life. 'What option?'

'Hermione...' Ginny said slowly.

Hermione caught on. 'What? No, there has to be another-'

'There isn't. If you really love him,' Ginny felt strange talking about Draco like this, 'you'll let him go.' She paused. 'That sounds so cliché.'

****

The next morning, as soon as Slytherin common room was practically empty, Draco rounded on Pansy, who was plaiting her hair.

'How could you?!' Draco yelled at her.

'I had to.' She looked pained.

'Pansy, I have detentions with Umbridge every week until I break up with Hermione! And I'm grounded!'

'And what if Hermione breaks up with you?' She smirked.

'Oh shut it, Pansy. It was wrong for me to ever have liked you.' Draco blurted out. Pansy looked hurt.

'You liked me? Liked me-liked me?' Pansy tried to sound neutral.

'I wouldn't have taken you to the Yule ball otherwise.'

'Oh.' Was all she said.

Draco started to ascend the dungeon stairs, and Pansy soon followed for whatever reason.

'It doesn't change anything between us. Me and Hermione, I mean.' Draco snapped. 'If you were hoping we'd break up-'

'Draco!' Said a girl's voice. It wasn't Pansy; on the top of the stairs stood Hermione.

'Hermione!' Draco smiled sadly.

'I need to talk to you,' she said softly to Draco, then saw Pansy and added, 'in private.'

'Bye.' Pansy said smirking to Draco, as if she knew what was coming.

'Hermione, I know that after all that's happened, I should really want to break up. But I don't, Hermione, I want to stay with you more than ever. If we snook around, we could pretend... Umbridge would stop my detentions, we could make it work. After all that's happened, I think that as long as we both want to, we can be together.' Draco said shakily, and smiled.

Hermione didn't return the smile. 'Draco, I want to break up.'

'What?' Draco blubbered. 'No- it doesn't matter about the detentions, or me being grounded-'

Hermione sealed uneasily, trying to remember how Ginny had said it when they rehearsed. 'It's not because of that.'

'What?' Draco asked.

'I-I don't want to be together.' Hermione tried to keep her voice emotionless. 'I felt sorry for you, that's all.'

'Hermione-'

'I felt sorry for you, that's why I agreed to go out with you,' Hermione swallowed painfully, 'I don't love you, Draco. I never did.'

Draco stood solitary and utterly alone, even in front of Hermione.

'I feel guilty about you getting punished now. I apologise. Goodbye, Draco.' Hermione said slowly, then turned, biting her lip to hold back the tears.

'Hermione, wait-' Draco pleaded

'No! I said goodbye, Draco!' Hermione yelled.

Beside the wooden door at the very top of the stairs, Pansy Parkinson grinned triumphantly, an empty bottle of Polyjuice potion in one hand, a few spare ginger hairs of Ginny Weasley in the other.

****