I dare You

7. I want to feel you

"Hermione! Wake up! Hermione!"

There was commotion around her. Did that matter? No. Not really. She wanted to go back to the wonderful warm memories where she was lying next to Draco on his hospital bed. She had inhaled his scent as she had fallen asleep. She smiled to herself. He smelled nice...

"Hermione! For Merlin's sake! Wake up!"

Somebody was shaking her. She opened her eyes just enough to see Ginny's face right in front of her. Ginny? She opened her eyes fully and suddenly remembered that she had come back from the hospital wing in the early hours of the morning and that she had spent most of the night with... She blushed.

"Are you okay?" Ginny let go of her shoulders.

She nodded.

"I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake the other girls up."

"Well, it's time you woke up. Breakfast is in twenty minutes."

Ginny tried all day to find out why her friend had really been camping out on the sofa, but to no avail. Hermione was not giving anything away.

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The Hogsmeade weekend loomed and Hermione knew that she would be going with Ron. He had sort of asked her. She didn't really mind. She knew that she would not be able to go with the one she really wanted to go with. Ron was okay. He cared about her, and she cared about him.

They wandered through the narrow alleys of Hogsmeade together. Just talking, laughing as they had done in the past. Somewhere in the back of her mind though was the knowledge about Draco being around somewhere. She hadn't seen him at breakfast before they set off, but she knew he was here somewhere.

When they were sitting in the Three Broomsticks and enjoyed a butterbeer she thought for a moment she had seen his white blond hair in the crowd, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared.

"Ron, keep my seat, will you?"

"Where are you going?"

"The girls' room."

"Oh. Sure."

She got up and walked to the back of the room. She really had intended to go to the girls’ room, but before she got there a pair of strong hands gripped her and she felt herself being dragged through a small door into the alley behind the pub.

His face smiled at her as she looked around to see who had hauled her outside.

"You..."

"Me..."

He gently wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. His eyes were smiling. She slowly laid her arms around his neck.

"I have missed you." he whispered in her ear.

"Draco..."

"Yes?" There was a worried note in his voice.

She didn't know how to express her doubts, worries and fears.

"You haven't changed your mind, have you?"

He asked very quietly.

"No!"

He caressed her cheek with his soft lips.

"I'm not going to be able to make it, if you are changing your mind, Hermione. You are the only reason I have left to live through this."

She kissed his ear.

"I know, Draco, I know."

She pulled back a bit to look at him.