FIC: Haters in Heat [Draco/Hermione]
Title: Haters in Heat
Author: mere_whispers
Prompt: # H22 by
Scarlett Knight
Pairing(s): Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger
Word Count: ~5,800
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): Strong Profanity, Muggle AU, American AU, OOC!Draco, A Sweat Inducing Heat Wave In South America
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: “A”, my ever trustworthy best friend, thanks for looking this over! <3
I've talked about the US’ political set-up, here, and because I'm not American, this is solely based upon research. Point them out, if you spot any mistakes. Happy reading!
Summary: They hate each other's guts. They are political rivals. They used to be in love. And… they're stuck with a crazy bunch of friends, on a crazy camping trip, in the middle of a bone melting heat wave. Something's got to give.
Haters in Heat
"Pansy, this is atrocious!" Draco exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "This whole trip is, really," he muttered, swiping his handkerchief over his forehead, "but your omission is worse. You remembered to mention this God-awful hilltop's location. You even mentioned the freaking train fare, when you very well knew that I wasn't gonna use train to commute. How could you miss out the sole, most essential fact?"
Pansy rolled her eyes-which aggravated his temper further. "Stop being a child about it, Draco. Can't you put your petty rivalry aside for one measly camping trip?"
"Petty rivalry?" Draco incredulously yelled. "I'm not petty rivals with Hermione Granger, Pans! We're competitors. Standing at the opposite ends of the political world; standing at the opposite ends of every damned clause that comes into the House for approval. We're not just rivals. We're enemies. And―and exes, too."
Pansy, quite honestly, looked bored more than anything at the end of his rant. He swore to himself. If this woman wasn't his best friends, God knew that he would have killed her already, multiple times over, up until this point in their lives.
"Guys! You came!" Blaise happily called out to them, his face positively sparkling with the megawatt smile he sported.
Ginny Weasley sidled closer into Blaise's side, and smiled as well. "Draco, Pansy," she amicably nodded at them-addressing them by their given names for the first time ever, Draco guessed-and pointed towards the small colony of closely put up tents, a few meters away from them. "Welcome."
As she leaned up to whisper something into Blaise's ear, Draco awkwardly looked away, and his eyes met Pansy's. "We're doing this for him," she mouthed to him, tilting her head towards Blaise, and Draco grunted in annoyance.
"So. Draco." Blaise turned back to him once Ginny Weasley had left. His eyes were gleaming with happiness. "Thanks for coming, man! I know this one must've told you about Granger," he added with a gesture towards Pansy.
Draco pursed his lips, immediately swiping his handkerchief over his mouth when something salty brushed against his tongue. It was probably the sweat that was oozing out from every single pore of his body. Yuck.
"I know it would've been difficult, but…" Blaise looked at him, earnestly, and Draco saw pride reflected in the eyes of his best friend of more than two decades. "Dude. Thanks for putting me above your political position."
Draco was surprised that he didn't mention Draco's personal situation with Hermione Granger. But then, Blaise had been his closest friend―along with Pansy―since childhood, and he'd been there to witness everything that Draco went through after his grand breakup.
And that everything was, er, better off forgotten. An involuntary smile slid onto Draco's lips. His friends were gemstones.
He reached ahead to embrace him when Blaise spread his arms. "Anything for you, buddy," he said, thumping Blaise's back once, before pulling back. "And congratulations on the engagement. You've landed yourself a feisty one." He eyed Ginny Weasley, who stood near the tents and seemed to be having a shouting match with someone over the phone.
Pansy snorted and Blaise laughed at the sight, before the two of them embraced. When they'd pulled away, Draco observed Blaise's face again. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen the guy this happy. It hadn't been during the graduation, for sure, because Blaise had been made to take satisfaction in being a salutatorian because of being one point behind Draco.
"Come on, Drake," Pansy called him out with a pat to his shoulder and an amused smile on her own face.
Draco rolled his eyes. She seemed to be enjoying this, all too much. Despite the super hot weather. He nodded towards the huddled up tents. "You guys go ahead, I need a minute."
He fished out his phone for effect, and his two best friends took off.
As soon as they'd stepped away, Draco released a slow breath. He didn't need a minute with his phone, no. He just needed to recollect his mind, and go over what all was happening, mentally.
He was on a camping trip, somewhere in the middle of the Andes range, and was sweating so much, he was almost melting. Like, his slight T-shirt and cotton shorts were doing no good in keeping the heat off, and this was the scenario when it was past eight of the evening. What would happen when the sun came up? God only knew.
That, and he had to share the tent with Hermione Granger, tonight-the woman standing against him in the coming Speaker's elections. Well… and she was also his ex-girlfriend from High School, but it wasn't as if that made it any better. Instead, he feared that it would take him back to that time, years ago, when he'd gone through the lowest point in his life so far.
This night was going to be pure death, for the lack of a better word. But then there was the fact that Draco hadn't witnessed Blaise radiating such positive, happy vibes, the way he was today, literally ever. So his best friend's happiness was gonna have to be worth it. At least he hoped, it would.
"Whose bloody idea was it to go camping in the middle of this heat wave? Oh, and of course I have to share a tent with someone that hates my guts. What joy," Hermione was muttering, swearing at everyone and everything in her way, as she entered the tent, with Ginny following her in. "Am I melting, yet?" she questioned, dabbing a tissue over her wet forehead as she sat down on top of a rolled up sleeping bag, and looked at Ginny.
Ginny bit down on her lower lip, apology shining through her eyes. "I know you're intolerant to heat-"
"Yes, Ginny!" she suddenly thundered. "And I'm also intolerant to Draco Malfoy, but I'm still sharing the tent with him, tonight, ain't I?"
Ginny looked even more apologetic, now, as she almost folded into herself. "I know… but, Blaise was too excited about this, and… Hermione, please try to not be so mad in front of Blaise, please?" she timidly said, then.
Half of Hermione's heart went out for her best friend, who seemed almost crushed between trying to please her fiancé while also taking care of Hermione's own ire. But the other half? It felt betrayed that all Ginny could think of, right now, was putting up a pretty front for Blaise, while Hermione went through such mental and physical torture.
"Hermione?"
And just like that, Hermione went off again. "Oh, no, Gin" she sarcastically spat out, "I'd be forever grateful to Blaise for putting me in this situation. I was even considering thanking him."
Ginny opened her mouth-probably to start with another explanation-but Hermione held up a hand to halt her.
"He made all these arrangements, didn't he? From deciding upon this camping trip, to setting up the system of who shared tents with whom?" she sharply asked the redhead, and groaned in agony when Ginny nodded. "That fucker!"
Donning a frail spaghetti top, cotton mini shorts and tying her hair up in a top-knot bun was the best Hermione thought she could do to survive through this heat wave. And yet she didn't feel any better. The only measure left after this, was to strip naked and soak in a tub full of ice. Not very ideal in this setting, yes.
"Ginny, you in there?"
Hermione's head snapped up, and she smiled at Ron's voice.
"Yep, here," Ginny mumbled, glumly, and Ron's confused face peered through the tent's doorway.
"Hey, there." Hermione waved at him.
He tossed a hurried smile at her in response, and immediately turned to scowl at Ginny. "I need your help. It seems like I've been paired up with Parkinson, tonight."
While Ginny dissolved into mutters of swear words, with a few less than ugly ones aimed at Blaise, Hermione laughed aloud. "You better pray no one murders your fiancé in his sleep, tonight, Gin," she jokingly warned a rushing off redhead. "He's lost his marbles."
"Loathe admitting it, but I actually agree with you on that one, Granger."
His comment preceded Draco Malfoy, and Hermione's smile vanished into thin air.
"Take the damned sleeping bag and go off to sleep somewhere else," she angrily gritted out, aware that she was asking for trouble by instigating a quarrel with him.
But she couldn't help it! Even though his statement hadn't been that provoking, Draco Malfoy's presence made up for it.
Every time she looked at him, she saw the guy she'd foolishly fallen for-the guy that had happily dumped her, after a year, in the name of taking a break so that he could find "focus" in his life. Ha! And look at how he'd landed up in the exact same office as hers! He was also the guy that had torn apart her dream of ending up a valedictorian, as well, however tiny might that fact seem now.
And if, by some miracle, she didn't see all that, then she saw the man that was competing against her in the Speaker's elections. She saw her official and legal rival. Not to forget, the man who had made a habit of opposing a clause for the sole reason that she supported it.
Draco Malfoy was bad news to her, in any form, on any day.
"Can we coexist like humans, for a change?" he quipped back, and Hermione decided against deigning that with an answer.
Because, the answer was no.
These were all consequences of what had happened between them, years ago, and Draco Malfoy should have thought about "coexisting like humans" while he still had time.
Now, he'd run out of it.
Draco sometimes wondered if this girl had ever let a smile adorn her face, again, since they broke up. He'd never seen one, and he didn't hesitate to admit that he actually missed it. Missed the way her smiles used to leave sweetness in their wake―the way they caused bursts of mellifluous goodness upon his tongue when they used to be reserved solely for him. She didn't look at him with anything but scorn, now, and he wondered if this was what she had become; what their separation had made her.
She hadn't even smiled at the graduation, but that had been well expected when news got out that Hermione Granger had slipped from her first rank to third, after she failed French class.
In retrospect, that had been kind of his fault, too. They broke up the night before their French exam, and only she suffered from that loss because of the lack of French in her blood, unlike his.
With an exaggerated sigh, Draco accepted that his somewhat cordial comment-in comparison to the usual exchanges that happened between them-wasn't going to receive an answer, and pulled at the latch of the sleeping bag lying next to Hermione.
"What," came a sharp, feminine hiss from his tent-mate, "do you think you're doing? I asked you to go off to somewhere else." She stood up on her knees, suddenly, and came face-to-face with his bent at the waist stance. "Let me rephrase it. I'm asking you to get out!" she yelled in his face, and Draco physically flinched away from the fire her eyes spat.
He rarely found her meeting his eyes when they weren't fighting, and even though they were technically still doing that instead of having a normal conversation, Draco couldn't help but miss the way she used to always maintain an eye contact with him when they used to converse, before this tornado of animosity had roiled up between them.
But now, accredited to the look she was giving him, he was suddenly very less interested in meeting her eyes again, tonight. Or ever, in fact, because the embers smoldering in her brown irises seemed lethal.
"I, uh," he stuttered, looking away from her. "I'm not going anywhere," he slowly spoke, still tugging at the belt that held the bag together. "You can leave, if this is inconvenient."
Her gasp echoed in the closed, small space around them, and then she was fisting the back of his almost fully soaked t-shirt to pull him back enough so that she was burning up his eyes, again. "How dare you-you… you utter shit!' she fumed, her breathing turned to pants. "You're asking me if this is inconvenient, Malfoy? This is a nightmare! One that your best friend has forced me into. Forced us both, in fact, because you're not supposed to be pleased with this either!"
Draco was about to protest at her "supposed to" assertion, when he stopped short. Her hand had fallen away from him, and she wasn't trying to stare him down, anymore. In fact, she was trying to not look in his direction… and the next moment, he knew why.
Her eyes weren't just shining because of emotion. There was something more material, something liquid pooling in them, as well.
"Oh, fuck."
Hermione couldn't believe this was happening. That she was letting this happen!
Like, seriously. She could count on the fingers of a single hand, the number of times she'd shed tears in her entire life. And she was about to take that count over to the other hand, because her asshole of an ex-boyfriend-and political rival-had done what she'd always expected of him: shown no regards for her well-being, the way he had maintained a habit of never showing any regard to anything even remotely related to her.
God, could she get any more cliché?
She promoted feminism, called herself a feminist inside the House of Representatives. She encouraged people to hold together a strong personality, and remain true on the outside to what they believed on the inside. And here she was - at the verge of weeping, because her mortal enemy had asked her to leave the tiny living space that neither of them even wanted to share, in the first place.
With an angry snarl, Hermione shouldered past a dumbstruck Draco, and… Wait.
Was he speaking something? she wondered after she'd already crossed him. More like muttering, but she could care less, either way.
Hermione stepped out into the humid, suffocating, chokingly hot atmosphere of this place-whatever it was called-somewhere in the south-west of Bolivia, and looked around.
At a distance, she could spot Ron, Ginny, Blaise, Pansy and Luna Lovegood, all huddled up and talking.
She looked around the other three tents, and briefly wondered if she should take refuge in Luna's tent. If Pansy and Ron were sharing one―and, obviously, Ginny and Blaise another―then that left Luna alone with the tent, because the sixth guest that Ginny had invited, hadn't shown up. Harry had decided to not turn up at the trip his ex-girlfriend had planned with her new fiancé. Logical decision, that one.
Hermione ended up deciding against getting into the tent, after deliberation of a few seconds, and instead made her way down to where her three friends and one somewhat friend sat with the villain of her day, Blaise Zabini. She wasn't going to create a scene, though, because Ginny had somewhat pleaded with her to not do that.
They were all sat in darkness, and Pansy was flapping a Japanese foldable fan next to her sweaty face.
"Hey," Hermione glumly greeted the group, and plopped down between Ron and Pansy, who hadn't taken any pains to close the circle the other three made.
"Hey. Couldn't sleep?" Ron asked her, the slight grimace on his face showing that he knew exactly why she couldn't have.
Hermione chuckled, humorlessly. "I'm just barely keeping myself from liquefying. So… not that bothered about the sleeplessness," she retorted with a leer.
Blaise cleared his throat. "Harry hasn't come," he began, and Hermione was surprised to hear him use Harry's first name. "So there's one empty spot in Luna's tent. Maybe we can reshuffle?"
Luna hummed in response, and straightened in her place between Blaise and Pansy. "Would you like to take that place, Ron?" she questioned in her carefree, sweet lilting tone.
Ron broke out into startled coughs, and Pansy rolled her eyes. "I'm sure Blaise wasn't suggesting him," she laughed. "Maybe try asking Granger."
Hermione shook her head as soon as the five pair of eyes focused on her. "There's no way I am entering another tent, guys," she incredulously said, pointing at the sweat dripping down her temples. "I'm not sure if you've forgotten, but, Blaise? The heat wave is being a real killer, here, too."
Blaise shrugged, almost apologetically, and then was pulled towards Ginny who started talking in whispers with him. Probably plotting some new, ridiculous plan.
Hermione looked away with a frustrated grunt.
"He really overdid it," Pansy commented, fanning herself more rigorously, and Hermione subconsciously leaned towards the gust of breeze that surrounded the black-haired girl. "Blaise. Playing matchmaker in the most awful way possible."
Ron snorted from Hermione's other side. "No kidding. It could have seemed a bit more sensible if he'd have kept you with Malfoy and me with Hermione," he suggested, at which Hermione raised her eyebrows. He rushed to explain, almost flustered, "or―or either of us with Luna. I meant to point out pairs that wouldn't have wanted to rip the other's throats out."
Hermione was squinting to make out the outline of Ron's body. Even though the full moon was shining pretty brightly, it was still quite dark.
"At least Harry didn't have to bear this," she muttered.
"Oh, he was never gonna come." Ron tore off a blade of grass. "He would've had to deal with Luna's less than subtle flirtation, as well. Which is―"
"Untrue," Pansy cut in, rolling her eyes when Hermione looked at her. "Seriously, guys? She's been in a serious relationship with a zoologist for more than a year. Do you live under a rock?"
Hermione ducked her head. "More like inside the House of Representatives," she joked.
Pansy hummed in acknowledgement. "I totally haven't heard Draco say that phrase. Nu-huh, nope."
Hermione swallowed. They were still alike in more ways than one.
She released a frustrated breath and turned to observe Pansy. Pansy was wearing an off sleeves, mesh chemise over a bright pink sports bra, with denim cut-off shorts that only covered her butt. Her jet black hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, and despite all the strands sticking to her sweaty forehead, Pansy still didn't look half as awful as Hermione probably did.
What was up with Draco and his friends looking picturesque, effortlessly, at all times?
"I was considering a bonfire," Blaise said when Luna activated the flashlight of her phone to locate something in the grass beneath them. "But I don't think anyone's up for it, now."
Hermione could feel droplets of sweat trickling down her back at the mere mention of "fire". "Um, with the current weather, Blaise… I think you should be planning a round of skinny dipping, instead," she commented, extracting her own phone.
Blaise, along with the Weasley siblings, dramatically gasped in response, while Pansy hummed with interest. Luna was, apparently, still busy looking for whatever she'd lost.
"Come on, Blaise," Pansy cajoled, bumping a fist against his shoulder from above a bent Luna's back. "Don't look so horrified. Skinny dipping sounds way more pleasant than sitting before fire, at this point. Not that I can spot any water body, near here," she added with a disappointed sigh.
Sharing a sympathetic look with the girl, Hermione stood up and brushed her hands together. "I'm going for a walk. I can't stay still and let the heat turn my brain to molten goo. And, Blaise? I'm sorry, but I'm catching a flight back to Washington, first thing tomorrow morning."
Blaise gave her a sad smile. "I'm grateful you came, Granger. It's fine."
"Me as well," Ron hurriedly declared. "The county may not miss me, but Sheriff Shacklebolt would."
Hermione sucked her lips in to hold back her laughter. "Aye, aye, Deputy! And what about Harry?" she teased.
Ron grimaced. "He's been texting me the whole time, too, so… yeah," he admitted with a grumble. "He's kinda missing me too, I guess."
Amidst the laughter that followed, Hermione took off.
Her phone's battery was at thirty percent, so she wasn't sure about how long she could rely on the flashlight. But because she could almost not see her own hands without it… she was gonna have to do with however long it took.
With a deep exhale, she began her march towards the crowd of scantily spread trees at a distance, well aware that a place between a group of trees wasn't going to do any better job at keeping her cooler than a clearing. But wandering about seemed the only measure she could resort to, to curb her restlessness.
Also, she was exquisitely pissed at Ginny's role in all this. For as long as she'd known the redhead, Hermione had considered her to be a person with a backbone and strong opinions. And now, watching her bend in accordance to her fiancé's whims, was starting to give Hermione a migraine from stress. She wondered if that was a thing…
Did migraines gave categories?
Hermione shook her head. Biology and medicine had never been her forte. Whatever little she knew―granted, it wasn't actually very little―had come from Theodore Nott. Theo, her neighbor that she'd dated when she got into business college. He was studying medicine, and… he probably was a doctor, now.
She let out another breath, and marched ahead.
They'd broken off within a few months because, one, Hermione had realized that she had just started to look for Draco in Theo's person. And two, because Theo had turned out to be actual family friends with one Draco Malfoy.
"It's a small world, indeed," Hermione mumbled to herself, shaking her head.
Why was she even thinking about all this?
"Reflections, Granger?"
Hermione jumped a foot in the air, her mobile phone dropping to the ground and her hand coming up to clutch at her racing heart. Then she growled, loudly.
"What the holy fuck, Malfoy?" she screamed, leaping to pick up her phone, and pointed the flashlight at his perched form upon a low branch of the tree she stood beneath. "I thought I left you at the tent?"
Draco scoffed―actually, physically gave a scoff in response. The audacity! "Who are you, my mom?"
Hermione made a frustrated sound at the back of her throat, and walked past the tree. She didn't have time for his insanity. Not now, not ever.
"What?" he called after her. "Come on, Granger, you're standing for the Speaker's elections! The least you can do is speak!"
Hermione pressed her lips together, tightly, and exhaled through her nose. Don't stop, don't listen. Ignore him. He's insignificant, she chanted in her head, and kept walking.
"Running away? Very mature," Draco said again, now sounding much nearer. Great, now he was following her. "It's been eleven ballets, already, Granger. We've made history for having the most repeated votes, after 1923. So, if you give this up now, we won't need another. We can cut this short―"
"God, stop. Stop!" Her restraint broke, and Hermione turned to look at his smug face. "Are you even listening to yourself? You don't even make any sense, Malfoy!"
An unreadable look crossed his face, and Hermione faltered. She'd expected a ridiculing laugh in response, or, better yet, another taunting remark at her incompetence. But this look he had in his eyes? She wasn't prepared for it.
She took a step back, the dampness on her forehead increasing exponentially.
"It doesn't, does it?" Draco's voice was so low, so grating, that she had to almost stop breathing to listen to it. "Oh, my bad. I thought it made just as much sense as you going out with Theo Nott, not three months after you'd accused me of having used you, did."
Hermione's breath left her in a resounding whoosh. She stood before a red faced Draco, gaping at him, as the flashlight of her phone highlighted the anger engraved into every line on his forehead.
She had been in a very bad place when she went into that relationship, and she'd come out of it because she hadn't gotten over this gigantic idiot standing before her. But, said idiot didn't know about her internal struggles, did he? All he would have known would have been what Theo told him… and Hermione hadn't exactly been honest with her heart's predicament with Theo, either.
Oh, God…
For the first time, ever since the night before her High School's French exam, she saw real pain on Draco's face. And for the first time ever since that night, she finally saw an action of hers―a mistake―that could've hurt him.
For the first time ever in her life, she tried to put herself in his place and look at what he would've seen.
Draco shut his eyes, cursing his treacherous heart to hell, when Hermione's expressions turned from shocked to remorseful.
He was aware that she knew him just as inside out as he knew her. That was, after all, the reason why they got on each other's nerves as awfully as they did.
Right now, with one remark about her and Theo, he'd told her about every little thing he'd gone through; about every little thing he hadn't ever meant to tell her.
He hadn't meant to―hadn't ever wanted to―let her know about how depressed he'd really been after their breakup, beneath all the smug smiles he maintained on the outside. He'd never wanted her to know about the sleepless nights he'd spent after Theo had revealed the details about this new neighbor of his that he'd begun seeing.
He hadn't wanted her to know how he almost lost all motive in his life when he realized how quickly she'd moved on. He stopped talking to his parents, almost lost faith in relationships, because he'd always considered her, his "forever".
It had been a terribly low time in his life, one that he never wanted to recall. Ever.
He had built a shell around himself, after the chaos in his mind settled a bit, and had sworn to not let anyone come close, ever again.
And now, by one measly sentence, he'd just opened his heart up for the one person who'd trampled it, years ago.
God knew what came over him. Just merely looking at her face, finding her standing so close to himself had made those all too revealing, jealousy laden words roll off his tongue, without any control.
"Draco, I―"
"Save it," he spat, brushing past her to get back to the tents.
He didn't have to wait for tomorrow if he wanted to leave. His jet was at the ready, for him and Pansy to board it again at whatever time they pleased. And so, he was gonna leave this place, right now, and withdraw from the nominations first thing tomorrow morning.
He was going to turn out a shitty leader if his personal life remained in such fucked up turmoils.
"I said fucking wait!" Hermione's snappy tone reached his ears just as her dainty fingers wrapped around his wrist in a firm grip, and gave it a strong tug.
Draco stumbled to a stop, and looked at the curly haired brunette with clenched jaw. "Let go, Granger."
Her soft gaze were running over his entire face, obviously searching for something. Well, he wasn't gonna let her have it, whatever it was.
"I said―"
"You meant it, didn't you?" she suddenly questioned, her voice broken and as desperate as her eyes were. "When you said you needed a break. When you said - when you said you needed to find focus in your life? You really, truly meant it, didn't you? You were going to come back to me, Draco. Weren't you?"
Her voice was teary now, and throat visibly convulsing. Draco swallowed past the lump in his own throat and looked away from the woman that was always going to conquer his heart.
Again, and again.
"Yes," he whispered, still looking away. "Not that it meant a thing, in the long run. We were too different," he lied. "It would never have worked out, anyway."
Hermione's sharp snort was like a slap to his lying face. "Different? Draco, we're exactly the same, what the hell are you talking about?" she snarled, pushing him away. "Do you know why it didn't work out between me and Theo? Do you?"
"No!" he shouted, roughly, his head snapping back to glower at her. "And I don't want to, either, so―"
"But you'll have to!" Hermione grabbed his hand and stepped closer to him.
And suddenly, he was transported back in time. He shut his eyes and inhaled, and the burst of fruity fragrances at the back of his throat was almost the way it used to be when he used to sneak off to steal kisses with this girl between breaks, in High School, and when they used to snuggle under blankets on the living room couch at her place in the name of revising biology that she could never really understand, and when―
"Because he wasn't you, Draco," Hermione breathed out, her breath fanning his face, and Draco opened his eyes. "No one can measure up, ever, because you're only you. The one guy who'll always have my heart."
Draco brokenly exhaled, snaking his arms around her waist and pulling her flush against himself. "Oh, Hermione," he mumbled into her fruit scented hair, and took in another lungful of his most favorite scent in the world.
Hermione didn't know how long she stood there, in the middle of a somewhat-forest, somewhere in Bolivia, with Draco's arms tight around her. She was subconsciously aware that he hadn't yet vocalized anything other than utter jealousy and hurt at her being with Theo, confirming her worst fears about him waiting for her while she hadn't shown any faith in him, and a laughable attempt at lying to her about not believing in their togetherness.
But when it came to Draco Malfoy, his mere eyes had always been enough for her to take a peek at what was going on in his heart.
She let out a small breath, readjusting her face into the nook between his shoulder and neck.
And then she took the leap. "I love you. I still love you, Draco. So much."
For a terrifying heartbeat, Hermione imagined him throwing her away and laughing in her face - mocking at what an utter fool she had been to trust him again.
But the next moment, his grip on her became tighter.
"I never stopped either, Hermione. I love you, too," he whispered, and she could breathe again.
She pulled back, then, and smiled up at him. Gosh, it had been so long since she'd last smiled at him. When he smiled back, she realized just how much she'd missed this glint of affection that was always reflected in his gaze when he looked at her.
Speaking of things she'd missed, her gaze fell down to his lips. But before she could have even begun to hesitate, he made the decision for her by snooping down to plant his lips over hers.
Kissing Draco―or being kissed by him―was just as ethereal as she remembered. Her body reacted in exactly the same manner, leaning into him on the outside, while it exploded into fireworks on the inside.
Hermione smiled against his lips, gripping his biceps when Draco tilted his head to gain better access to her mouth.
The next moment, though, Hermione pulled back. Everything was way too hot, already, without adding the heated sparks of arousal to it.
"We're never taking a break again," Draco said to her, honesty, and just a little bit of humor in his eyes. "It leads to wasted time, heartbreaks and stupid, stupid decisions on both of our ends."
Hermione laughed. "Can't argue with that."
He smiled again, and just, simply kept looking at her. She didn't mind, though, because she could understand. Sure, she'd looked at the mighty Draco Malfoy's visage plenty of times through all these years that they'd been apart, but when she looked at him, right now, it was completely different.
Right now, she looked at the man she loved, and more importantly, the man that loved her. She saw emotions on his face, in his eyes, that she'd only been able to look at when they'd been together.
And, quite honestly, Hermione believed that she could look at them forever and never get tired.
"I… just had a thought," Draco suddenly spoke, and Hermione blinked, intrigued. "We can't be together and stand up against each other in the elections. It's bad enough that we belong to different political parties."
Hermione, surprising herself, made the decision very easily and shrugged her shoulders. "Guess what I'm gonna let go of?" she playfully asked him, swiping a thumb over his sweaty brows. "Hint… it's not the guy I just got back after a decade of heartbreak."
Draco laughed, first, and placed a soft kiss on her lips. And then he shook his head. "No, Hermione, I'm the one that's gonna withdraw from the nominations. I was already planning on it, minutes ago."
Hermione frowned. Why did it feel like they were going to have a serious debate over this?
"Draco―"
"Hey, guys!"
Hermione looked over her shoulder, startled, and then frowned when she saw Pansy waving at them from a distance. "Pansy?" she yelled back, sharing a look with an equally confused Draco.
"We've found a stream, a mile down the hillside. You still wanna go, Granger?" Pansy shouted back, excitement flowing through her words.
Hermione chuckled. "Hell, yeah!"
With a loud bark of laughter, Pansy gestured to a side. "It's over there, you can see the sparkling water in moonlight. Come on!"
And then she ran off. It was sort of weird how Pansy seemed totally not surprised at seeing her and Draco standing so close, wasn't it? Or, maybe… their friends had more brains, and had figured out the endgame to their equation before she and Draco could have touched it. She shook her head at the thought, smiling.
Draco cleared his throat. "Uh, where do you still want to go?" he hesitantly questioned her, and Hermione bit her lip.
"This is gonna be so much fun," she mysteriously told him, before quickly pressing her lips against his, again, and tugging at his hand to follow the path Pansy had pointed at.
And just like that, she was a woman in love―not bothered by the heat wave, or her compromising political situation. It was almost unbelievable what all love could achieve.
THE END
Author: mere_whispers
Prompt: # H22 by
Scarlett Knight
Pairing(s): Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger
Word Count: ~5,800
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): Strong Profanity, Muggle AU, American AU, OOC!Draco, A Sweat Inducing Heat Wave In South America
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: “A”, my ever trustworthy best friend, thanks for looking this over! <3
I've talked about the US’ political set-up, here, and because I'm not American, this is solely based upon research. Point them out, if you spot any mistakes. Happy reading!
Summary: They hate each other's guts. They are political rivals. They used to be in love. And… they're stuck with a crazy bunch of friends, on a crazy camping trip, in the middle of a bone melting heat wave. Something's got to give.
Haters in Heat
"Pansy, this is atrocious!" Draco exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "This whole trip is, really," he muttered, swiping his handkerchief over his forehead, "but your omission is worse. You remembered to mention this God-awful hilltop's location. You even mentioned the freaking train fare, when you very well knew that I wasn't gonna use train to commute. How could you miss out the sole, most essential fact?"
Pansy rolled her eyes-which aggravated his temper further. "Stop being a child about it, Draco. Can't you put your petty rivalry aside for one measly camping trip?"
"Petty rivalry?" Draco incredulously yelled. "I'm not petty rivals with Hermione Granger, Pans! We're competitors. Standing at the opposite ends of the political world; standing at the opposite ends of every damned clause that comes into the House for approval. We're not just rivals. We're enemies. And―and exes, too."
Pansy, quite honestly, looked bored more than anything at the end of his rant. He swore to himself. If this woman wasn't his best friends, God knew that he would have killed her already, multiple times over, up until this point in their lives.
"Guys! You came!" Blaise happily called out to them, his face positively sparkling with the megawatt smile he sported.
Ginny Weasley sidled closer into Blaise's side, and smiled as well. "Draco, Pansy," she amicably nodded at them-addressing them by their given names for the first time ever, Draco guessed-and pointed towards the small colony of closely put up tents, a few meters away from them. "Welcome."
As she leaned up to whisper something into Blaise's ear, Draco awkwardly looked away, and his eyes met Pansy's. "We're doing this for him," she mouthed to him, tilting her head towards Blaise, and Draco grunted in annoyance.
"So. Draco." Blaise turned back to him once Ginny Weasley had left. His eyes were gleaming with happiness. "Thanks for coming, man! I know this one must've told you about Granger," he added with a gesture towards Pansy.
Draco pursed his lips, immediately swiping his handkerchief over his mouth when something salty brushed against his tongue. It was probably the sweat that was oozing out from every single pore of his body. Yuck.
"I know it would've been difficult, but…" Blaise looked at him, earnestly, and Draco saw pride reflected in the eyes of his best friend of more than two decades. "Dude. Thanks for putting me above your political position."
Draco was surprised that he didn't mention Draco's personal situation with Hermione Granger. But then, Blaise had been his closest friend―along with Pansy―since childhood, and he'd been there to witness everything that Draco went through after his grand breakup.
And that everything was, er, better off forgotten. An involuntary smile slid onto Draco's lips. His friends were gemstones.
He reached ahead to embrace him when Blaise spread his arms. "Anything for you, buddy," he said, thumping Blaise's back once, before pulling back. "And congratulations on the engagement. You've landed yourself a feisty one." He eyed Ginny Weasley, who stood near the tents and seemed to be having a shouting match with someone over the phone.
Pansy snorted and Blaise laughed at the sight, before the two of them embraced. When they'd pulled away, Draco observed Blaise's face again. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen the guy this happy. It hadn't been during the graduation, for sure, because Blaise had been made to take satisfaction in being a salutatorian because of being one point behind Draco.
"Come on, Drake," Pansy called him out with a pat to his shoulder and an amused smile on her own face.
Draco rolled his eyes. She seemed to be enjoying this, all too much. Despite the super hot weather. He nodded towards the huddled up tents. "You guys go ahead, I need a minute."
He fished out his phone for effect, and his two best friends took off.
As soon as they'd stepped away, Draco released a slow breath. He didn't need a minute with his phone, no. He just needed to recollect his mind, and go over what all was happening, mentally.
He was on a camping trip, somewhere in the middle of the Andes range, and was sweating so much, he was almost melting. Like, his slight T-shirt and cotton shorts were doing no good in keeping the heat off, and this was the scenario when it was past eight of the evening. What would happen when the sun came up? God only knew.
That, and he had to share the tent with Hermione Granger, tonight-the woman standing against him in the coming Speaker's elections. Well… and she was also his ex-girlfriend from High School, but it wasn't as if that made it any better. Instead, he feared that it would take him back to that time, years ago, when he'd gone through the lowest point in his life so far.
This night was going to be pure death, for the lack of a better word. But then there was the fact that Draco hadn't witnessed Blaise radiating such positive, happy vibes, the way he was today, literally ever. So his best friend's happiness was gonna have to be worth it. At least he hoped, it would.
"Whose bloody idea was it to go camping in the middle of this heat wave? Oh, and of course I have to share a tent with someone that hates my guts. What joy," Hermione was muttering, swearing at everyone and everything in her way, as she entered the tent, with Ginny following her in. "Am I melting, yet?" she questioned, dabbing a tissue over her wet forehead as she sat down on top of a rolled up sleeping bag, and looked at Ginny.
Ginny bit down on her lower lip, apology shining through her eyes. "I know you're intolerant to heat-"
"Yes, Ginny!" she suddenly thundered. "And I'm also intolerant to Draco Malfoy, but I'm still sharing the tent with him, tonight, ain't I?"
Ginny looked even more apologetic, now, as she almost folded into herself. "I know… but, Blaise was too excited about this, and… Hermione, please try to not be so mad in front of Blaise, please?" she timidly said, then.
Half of Hermione's heart went out for her best friend, who seemed almost crushed between trying to please her fiancé while also taking care of Hermione's own ire. But the other half? It felt betrayed that all Ginny could think of, right now, was putting up a pretty front for Blaise, while Hermione went through such mental and physical torture.
"Hermione?"
And just like that, Hermione went off again. "Oh, no, Gin" she sarcastically spat out, "I'd be forever grateful to Blaise for putting me in this situation. I was even considering thanking him."
Ginny opened her mouth-probably to start with another explanation-but Hermione held up a hand to halt her.
"He made all these arrangements, didn't he? From deciding upon this camping trip, to setting up the system of who shared tents with whom?" she sharply asked the redhead, and groaned in agony when Ginny nodded. "That fucker!"
Donning a frail spaghetti top, cotton mini shorts and tying her hair up in a top-knot bun was the best Hermione thought she could do to survive through this heat wave. And yet she didn't feel any better. The only measure left after this, was to strip naked and soak in a tub full of ice. Not very ideal in this setting, yes.
"Ginny, you in there?"
Hermione's head snapped up, and she smiled at Ron's voice.
"Yep, here," Ginny mumbled, glumly, and Ron's confused face peered through the tent's doorway.
"Hey, there." Hermione waved at him.
He tossed a hurried smile at her in response, and immediately turned to scowl at Ginny. "I need your help. It seems like I've been paired up with Parkinson, tonight."
While Ginny dissolved into mutters of swear words, with a few less than ugly ones aimed at Blaise, Hermione laughed aloud. "You better pray no one murders your fiancé in his sleep, tonight, Gin," she jokingly warned a rushing off redhead. "He's lost his marbles."
"Loathe admitting it, but I actually agree with you on that one, Granger."
His comment preceded Draco Malfoy, and Hermione's smile vanished into thin air.
"Take the damned sleeping bag and go off to sleep somewhere else," she angrily gritted out, aware that she was asking for trouble by instigating a quarrel with him.
But she couldn't help it! Even though his statement hadn't been that provoking, Draco Malfoy's presence made up for it.
Every time she looked at him, she saw the guy she'd foolishly fallen for-the guy that had happily dumped her, after a year, in the name of taking a break so that he could find "focus" in his life. Ha! And look at how he'd landed up in the exact same office as hers! He was also the guy that had torn apart her dream of ending up a valedictorian, as well, however tiny might that fact seem now.
And if, by some miracle, she didn't see all that, then she saw the man that was competing against her in the Speaker's elections. She saw her official and legal rival. Not to forget, the man who had made a habit of opposing a clause for the sole reason that she supported it.
Draco Malfoy was bad news to her, in any form, on any day.
"Can we coexist like humans, for a change?" he quipped back, and Hermione decided against deigning that with an answer.
Because, the answer was no.
These were all consequences of what had happened between them, years ago, and Draco Malfoy should have thought about "coexisting like humans" while he still had time.
Now, he'd run out of it.
Draco sometimes wondered if this girl had ever let a smile adorn her face, again, since they broke up. He'd never seen one, and he didn't hesitate to admit that he actually missed it. Missed the way her smiles used to leave sweetness in their wake―the way they caused bursts of mellifluous goodness upon his tongue when they used to be reserved solely for him. She didn't look at him with anything but scorn, now, and he wondered if this was what she had become; what their separation had made her.
She hadn't even smiled at the graduation, but that had been well expected when news got out that Hermione Granger had slipped from her first rank to third, after she failed French class.
In retrospect, that had been kind of his fault, too. They broke up the night before their French exam, and only she suffered from that loss because of the lack of French in her blood, unlike his.
With an exaggerated sigh, Draco accepted that his somewhat cordial comment-in comparison to the usual exchanges that happened between them-wasn't going to receive an answer, and pulled at the latch of the sleeping bag lying next to Hermione.
"What," came a sharp, feminine hiss from his tent-mate, "do you think you're doing? I asked you to go off to somewhere else." She stood up on her knees, suddenly, and came face-to-face with his bent at the waist stance. "Let me rephrase it. I'm asking you to get out!" she yelled in his face, and Draco physically flinched away from the fire her eyes spat.
He rarely found her meeting his eyes when they weren't fighting, and even though they were technically still doing that instead of having a normal conversation, Draco couldn't help but miss the way she used to always maintain an eye contact with him when they used to converse, before this tornado of animosity had roiled up between them.
But now, accredited to the look she was giving him, he was suddenly very less interested in meeting her eyes again, tonight. Or ever, in fact, because the embers smoldering in her brown irises seemed lethal.
"I, uh," he stuttered, looking away from her. "I'm not going anywhere," he slowly spoke, still tugging at the belt that held the bag together. "You can leave, if this is inconvenient."
Her gasp echoed in the closed, small space around them, and then she was fisting the back of his almost fully soaked t-shirt to pull him back enough so that she was burning up his eyes, again. "How dare you-you… you utter shit!' she fumed, her breathing turned to pants. "You're asking me if this is inconvenient, Malfoy? This is a nightmare! One that your best friend has forced me into. Forced us both, in fact, because you're not supposed to be pleased with this either!"
Draco was about to protest at her "supposed to" assertion, when he stopped short. Her hand had fallen away from him, and she wasn't trying to stare him down, anymore. In fact, she was trying to not look in his direction… and the next moment, he knew why.
Her eyes weren't just shining because of emotion. There was something more material, something liquid pooling in them, as well.
"Oh, fuck."
Hermione couldn't believe this was happening. That she was letting this happen!
Like, seriously. She could count on the fingers of a single hand, the number of times she'd shed tears in her entire life. And she was about to take that count over to the other hand, because her asshole of an ex-boyfriend-and political rival-had done what she'd always expected of him: shown no regards for her well-being, the way he had maintained a habit of never showing any regard to anything even remotely related to her.
God, could she get any more cliché?
She promoted feminism, called herself a feminist inside the House of Representatives. She encouraged people to hold together a strong personality, and remain true on the outside to what they believed on the inside. And here she was - at the verge of weeping, because her mortal enemy had asked her to leave the tiny living space that neither of them even wanted to share, in the first place.
With an angry snarl, Hermione shouldered past a dumbstruck Draco, and… Wait.
Was he speaking something? she wondered after she'd already crossed him. More like muttering, but she could care less, either way.
Hermione stepped out into the humid, suffocating, chokingly hot atmosphere of this place-whatever it was called-somewhere in the south-west of Bolivia, and looked around.
At a distance, she could spot Ron, Ginny, Blaise, Pansy and Luna Lovegood, all huddled up and talking.
She looked around the other three tents, and briefly wondered if she should take refuge in Luna's tent. If Pansy and Ron were sharing one―and, obviously, Ginny and Blaise another―then that left Luna alone with the tent, because the sixth guest that Ginny had invited, hadn't shown up. Harry had decided to not turn up at the trip his ex-girlfriend had planned with her new fiancé. Logical decision, that one.
Hermione ended up deciding against getting into the tent, after deliberation of a few seconds, and instead made her way down to where her three friends and one somewhat friend sat with the villain of her day, Blaise Zabini. She wasn't going to create a scene, though, because Ginny had somewhat pleaded with her to not do that.
They were all sat in darkness, and Pansy was flapping a Japanese foldable fan next to her sweaty face.
"Hey," Hermione glumly greeted the group, and plopped down between Ron and Pansy, who hadn't taken any pains to close the circle the other three made.
"Hey. Couldn't sleep?" Ron asked her, the slight grimace on his face showing that he knew exactly why she couldn't have.
Hermione chuckled, humorlessly. "I'm just barely keeping myself from liquefying. So… not that bothered about the sleeplessness," she retorted with a leer.
Blaise cleared his throat. "Harry hasn't come," he began, and Hermione was surprised to hear him use Harry's first name. "So there's one empty spot in Luna's tent. Maybe we can reshuffle?"
Luna hummed in response, and straightened in her place between Blaise and Pansy. "Would you like to take that place, Ron?" she questioned in her carefree, sweet lilting tone.
Ron broke out into startled coughs, and Pansy rolled her eyes. "I'm sure Blaise wasn't suggesting him," she laughed. "Maybe try asking Granger."
Hermione shook her head as soon as the five pair of eyes focused on her. "There's no way I am entering another tent, guys," she incredulously said, pointing at the sweat dripping down her temples. "I'm not sure if you've forgotten, but, Blaise? The heat wave is being a real killer, here, too."
Blaise shrugged, almost apologetically, and then was pulled towards Ginny who started talking in whispers with him. Probably plotting some new, ridiculous plan.
Hermione looked away with a frustrated grunt.
"He really overdid it," Pansy commented, fanning herself more rigorously, and Hermione subconsciously leaned towards the gust of breeze that surrounded the black-haired girl. "Blaise. Playing matchmaker in the most awful way possible."
Ron snorted from Hermione's other side. "No kidding. It could have seemed a bit more sensible if he'd have kept you with Malfoy and me with Hermione," he suggested, at which Hermione raised her eyebrows. He rushed to explain, almost flustered, "or―or either of us with Luna. I meant to point out pairs that wouldn't have wanted to rip the other's throats out."
Hermione was squinting to make out the outline of Ron's body. Even though the full moon was shining pretty brightly, it was still quite dark.
"At least Harry didn't have to bear this," she muttered.
"Oh, he was never gonna come." Ron tore off a blade of grass. "He would've had to deal with Luna's less than subtle flirtation, as well. Which is―"
"Untrue," Pansy cut in, rolling her eyes when Hermione looked at her. "Seriously, guys? She's been in a serious relationship with a zoologist for more than a year. Do you live under a rock?"
Hermione ducked her head. "More like inside the House of Representatives," she joked.
Pansy hummed in acknowledgement. "I totally haven't heard Draco say that phrase. Nu-huh, nope."
Hermione swallowed. They were still alike in more ways than one.
She released a frustrated breath and turned to observe Pansy. Pansy was wearing an off sleeves, mesh chemise over a bright pink sports bra, with denim cut-off shorts that only covered her butt. Her jet black hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, and despite all the strands sticking to her sweaty forehead, Pansy still didn't look half as awful as Hermione probably did.
What was up with Draco and his friends looking picturesque, effortlessly, at all times?
"I was considering a bonfire," Blaise said when Luna activated the flashlight of her phone to locate something in the grass beneath them. "But I don't think anyone's up for it, now."
Hermione could feel droplets of sweat trickling down her back at the mere mention of "fire". "Um, with the current weather, Blaise… I think you should be planning a round of skinny dipping, instead," she commented, extracting her own phone.
Blaise, along with the Weasley siblings, dramatically gasped in response, while Pansy hummed with interest. Luna was, apparently, still busy looking for whatever she'd lost.
"Come on, Blaise," Pansy cajoled, bumping a fist against his shoulder from above a bent Luna's back. "Don't look so horrified. Skinny dipping sounds way more pleasant than sitting before fire, at this point. Not that I can spot any water body, near here," she added with a disappointed sigh.
Sharing a sympathetic look with the girl, Hermione stood up and brushed her hands together. "I'm going for a walk. I can't stay still and let the heat turn my brain to molten goo. And, Blaise? I'm sorry, but I'm catching a flight back to Washington, first thing tomorrow morning."
Blaise gave her a sad smile. "I'm grateful you came, Granger. It's fine."
"Me as well," Ron hurriedly declared. "The county may not miss me, but Sheriff Shacklebolt would."
Hermione sucked her lips in to hold back her laughter. "Aye, aye, Deputy! And what about Harry?" she teased.
Ron grimaced. "He's been texting me the whole time, too, so… yeah," he admitted with a grumble. "He's kinda missing me too, I guess."
Amidst the laughter that followed, Hermione took off.
Her phone's battery was at thirty percent, so she wasn't sure about how long she could rely on the flashlight. But because she could almost not see her own hands without it… she was gonna have to do with however long it took.
With a deep exhale, she began her march towards the crowd of scantily spread trees at a distance, well aware that a place between a group of trees wasn't going to do any better job at keeping her cooler than a clearing. But wandering about seemed the only measure she could resort to, to curb her restlessness.
Also, she was exquisitely pissed at Ginny's role in all this. For as long as she'd known the redhead, Hermione had considered her to be a person with a backbone and strong opinions. And now, watching her bend in accordance to her fiancé's whims, was starting to give Hermione a migraine from stress. She wondered if that was a thing…
Did migraines gave categories?
Hermione shook her head. Biology and medicine had never been her forte. Whatever little she knew―granted, it wasn't actually very little―had come from Theodore Nott. Theo, her neighbor that she'd dated when she got into business college. He was studying medicine, and… he probably was a doctor, now.
She let out another breath, and marched ahead.
They'd broken off within a few months because, one, Hermione had realized that she had just started to look for Draco in Theo's person. And two, because Theo had turned out to be actual family friends with one Draco Malfoy.
"It's a small world, indeed," Hermione mumbled to herself, shaking her head.
Why was she even thinking about all this?
"Reflections, Granger?"
Hermione jumped a foot in the air, her mobile phone dropping to the ground and her hand coming up to clutch at her racing heart. Then she growled, loudly.
"What the holy fuck, Malfoy?" she screamed, leaping to pick up her phone, and pointed the flashlight at his perched form upon a low branch of the tree she stood beneath. "I thought I left you at the tent?"
Draco scoffed―actually, physically gave a scoff in response. The audacity! "Who are you, my mom?"
Hermione made a frustrated sound at the back of her throat, and walked past the tree. She didn't have time for his insanity. Not now, not ever.
"What?" he called after her. "Come on, Granger, you're standing for the Speaker's elections! The least you can do is speak!"
Hermione pressed her lips together, tightly, and exhaled through her nose. Don't stop, don't listen. Ignore him. He's insignificant, she chanted in her head, and kept walking.
"Running away? Very mature," Draco said again, now sounding much nearer. Great, now he was following her. "It's been eleven ballets, already, Granger. We've made history for having the most repeated votes, after 1923. So, if you give this up now, we won't need another. We can cut this short―"
"God, stop. Stop!" Her restraint broke, and Hermione turned to look at his smug face. "Are you even listening to yourself? You don't even make any sense, Malfoy!"
An unreadable look crossed his face, and Hermione faltered. She'd expected a ridiculing laugh in response, or, better yet, another taunting remark at her incompetence. But this look he had in his eyes? She wasn't prepared for it.
She took a step back, the dampness on her forehead increasing exponentially.
"It doesn't, does it?" Draco's voice was so low, so grating, that she had to almost stop breathing to listen to it. "Oh, my bad. I thought it made just as much sense as you going out with Theo Nott, not three months after you'd accused me of having used you, did."
Hermione's breath left her in a resounding whoosh. She stood before a red faced Draco, gaping at him, as the flashlight of her phone highlighted the anger engraved into every line on his forehead.
She had been in a very bad place when she went into that relationship, and she'd come out of it because she hadn't gotten over this gigantic idiot standing before her. But, said idiot didn't know about her internal struggles, did he? All he would have known would have been what Theo told him… and Hermione hadn't exactly been honest with her heart's predicament with Theo, either.
Oh, God…
For the first time, ever since the night before her High School's French exam, she saw real pain on Draco's face. And for the first time ever since that night, she finally saw an action of hers―a mistake―that could've hurt him.
For the first time ever in her life, she tried to put herself in his place and look at what he would've seen.
Draco shut his eyes, cursing his treacherous heart to hell, when Hermione's expressions turned from shocked to remorseful.
He was aware that she knew him just as inside out as he knew her. That was, after all, the reason why they got on each other's nerves as awfully as they did.
Right now, with one remark about her and Theo, he'd told her about every little thing he'd gone through; about every little thing he hadn't ever meant to tell her.
He hadn't meant to―hadn't ever wanted to―let her know about how depressed he'd really been after their breakup, beneath all the smug smiles he maintained on the outside. He'd never wanted her to know about the sleepless nights he'd spent after Theo had revealed the details about this new neighbor of his that he'd begun seeing.
He hadn't wanted her to know how he almost lost all motive in his life when he realized how quickly she'd moved on. He stopped talking to his parents, almost lost faith in relationships, because he'd always considered her, his "forever".
It had been a terribly low time in his life, one that he never wanted to recall. Ever.
He had built a shell around himself, after the chaos in his mind settled a bit, and had sworn to not let anyone come close, ever again.
And now, by one measly sentence, he'd just opened his heart up for the one person who'd trampled it, years ago.
God knew what came over him. Just merely looking at her face, finding her standing so close to himself had made those all too revealing, jealousy laden words roll off his tongue, without any control.
"Draco, I―"
"Save it," he spat, brushing past her to get back to the tents.
He didn't have to wait for tomorrow if he wanted to leave. His jet was at the ready, for him and Pansy to board it again at whatever time they pleased. And so, he was gonna leave this place, right now, and withdraw from the nominations first thing tomorrow morning.
He was going to turn out a shitty leader if his personal life remained in such fucked up turmoils.
"I said fucking wait!" Hermione's snappy tone reached his ears just as her dainty fingers wrapped around his wrist in a firm grip, and gave it a strong tug.
Draco stumbled to a stop, and looked at the curly haired brunette with clenched jaw. "Let go, Granger."
Her soft gaze were running over his entire face, obviously searching for something. Well, he wasn't gonna let her have it, whatever it was.
"I said―"
"You meant it, didn't you?" she suddenly questioned, her voice broken and as desperate as her eyes were. "When you said you needed a break. When you said - when you said you needed to find focus in your life? You really, truly meant it, didn't you? You were going to come back to me, Draco. Weren't you?"
Her voice was teary now, and throat visibly convulsing. Draco swallowed past the lump in his own throat and looked away from the woman that was always going to conquer his heart.
Again, and again.
"Yes," he whispered, still looking away. "Not that it meant a thing, in the long run. We were too different," he lied. "It would never have worked out, anyway."
Hermione's sharp snort was like a slap to his lying face. "Different? Draco, we're exactly the same, what the hell are you talking about?" she snarled, pushing him away. "Do you know why it didn't work out between me and Theo? Do you?"
"No!" he shouted, roughly, his head snapping back to glower at her. "And I don't want to, either, so―"
"But you'll have to!" Hermione grabbed his hand and stepped closer to him.
And suddenly, he was transported back in time. He shut his eyes and inhaled, and the burst of fruity fragrances at the back of his throat was almost the way it used to be when he used to sneak off to steal kisses with this girl between breaks, in High School, and when they used to snuggle under blankets on the living room couch at her place in the name of revising biology that she could never really understand, and when―
"Because he wasn't you, Draco," Hermione breathed out, her breath fanning his face, and Draco opened his eyes. "No one can measure up, ever, because you're only you. The one guy who'll always have my heart."
Draco brokenly exhaled, snaking his arms around her waist and pulling her flush against himself. "Oh, Hermione," he mumbled into her fruit scented hair, and took in another lungful of his most favorite scent in the world.
Hermione didn't know how long she stood there, in the middle of a somewhat-forest, somewhere in Bolivia, with Draco's arms tight around her. She was subconsciously aware that he hadn't yet vocalized anything other than utter jealousy and hurt at her being with Theo, confirming her worst fears about him waiting for her while she hadn't shown any faith in him, and a laughable attempt at lying to her about not believing in their togetherness.
But when it came to Draco Malfoy, his mere eyes had always been enough for her to take a peek at what was going on in his heart.
She let out a small breath, readjusting her face into the nook between his shoulder and neck.
And then she took the leap. "I love you. I still love you, Draco. So much."
For a terrifying heartbeat, Hermione imagined him throwing her away and laughing in her face - mocking at what an utter fool she had been to trust him again.
But the next moment, his grip on her became tighter.
"I never stopped either, Hermione. I love you, too," he whispered, and she could breathe again.
She pulled back, then, and smiled up at him. Gosh, it had been so long since she'd last smiled at him. When he smiled back, she realized just how much she'd missed this glint of affection that was always reflected in his gaze when he looked at her.
Speaking of things she'd missed, her gaze fell down to his lips. But before she could have even begun to hesitate, he made the decision for her by snooping down to plant his lips over hers.
Kissing Draco―or being kissed by him―was just as ethereal as she remembered. Her body reacted in exactly the same manner, leaning into him on the outside, while it exploded into fireworks on the inside.
Hermione smiled against his lips, gripping his biceps when Draco tilted his head to gain better access to her mouth.
The next moment, though, Hermione pulled back. Everything was way too hot, already, without adding the heated sparks of arousal to it.
"We're never taking a break again," Draco said to her, honesty, and just a little bit of humor in his eyes. "It leads to wasted time, heartbreaks and stupid, stupid decisions on both of our ends."
Hermione laughed. "Can't argue with that."
He smiled again, and just, simply kept looking at her. She didn't mind, though, because she could understand. Sure, she'd looked at the mighty Draco Malfoy's visage plenty of times through all these years that they'd been apart, but when she looked at him, right now, it was completely different.
Right now, she looked at the man she loved, and more importantly, the man that loved her. She saw emotions on his face, in his eyes, that she'd only been able to look at when they'd been together.
And, quite honestly, Hermione believed that she could look at them forever and never get tired.
"I… just had a thought," Draco suddenly spoke, and Hermione blinked, intrigued. "We can't be together and stand up against each other in the elections. It's bad enough that we belong to different political parties."
Hermione, surprising herself, made the decision very easily and shrugged her shoulders. "Guess what I'm gonna let go of?" she playfully asked him, swiping a thumb over his sweaty brows. "Hint… it's not the guy I just got back after a decade of heartbreak."
Draco laughed, first, and placed a soft kiss on her lips. And then he shook his head. "No, Hermione, I'm the one that's gonna withdraw from the nominations. I was already planning on it, minutes ago."
Hermione frowned. Why did it feel like they were going to have a serious debate over this?
"Draco―"
"Hey, guys!"
Hermione looked over her shoulder, startled, and then frowned when she saw Pansy waving at them from a distance. "Pansy?" she yelled back, sharing a look with an equally confused Draco.
"We've found a stream, a mile down the hillside. You still wanna go, Granger?" Pansy shouted back, excitement flowing through her words.
Hermione chuckled. "Hell, yeah!"
With a loud bark of laughter, Pansy gestured to a side. "It's over there, you can see the sparkling water in moonlight. Come on!"
And then she ran off. It was sort of weird how Pansy seemed totally not surprised at seeing her and Draco standing so close, wasn't it? Or, maybe… their friends had more brains, and had figured out the endgame to their equation before she and Draco could have touched it. She shook her head at the thought, smiling.
Draco cleared his throat. "Uh, where do you still want to go?" he hesitantly questioned her, and Hermione bit her lip.
"This is gonna be so much fun," she mysteriously told him, before quickly pressing her lips against his, again, and tugging at his hand to follow the path Pansy had pointed at.
And just like that, she was a woman in love―not bothered by the heat wave, or her compromising political situation. It was almost unbelievable what all love could achieve.
THE END