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Chapter 8: Day Eight Another Friday

Day Eight

Another Friday:

He awoke the next morning before she did. He hugged her body closer to him, to make sure that she was real, and that what happened last night wasn't just a dream. He wanted to stay like this forever. He never wanted to lose her. When she finally awoke, she looked up in his eyes and shyly said, "Good morning."

It was a good morning. He smiled at her and kissed her lips. He wanted to cry at the joy of touching her. He felt as if he had been numb his whole life, and she finally made him able to feel. He kissed her again, and then said, "Good morning to you, too."

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Still early, so don't worry, Miss Granger, you won't be late for work," he laughed.

"Good, because I have a lot of work to do, and then I was hoping my boss would let me leave early today, because I have a big date tonight," she said, then she turned to face him and put her hands on his chest.

He leaned over to kiss her again and asked, "Anyone I know?"

She laughed and answered, "Just my LOVER." To which they both laughed.

"Oh, I remember now," he joked, "you and I have had this long standing date planned since last week, haven't we? The one where I have three important questions to ask you, and then apparently I have one promise to make you."

"Yep," she said, "that's the deal." As she lay with her head on his chest, she said, "You could just end the suspense, and ask your questions now. I'm a rather captive audience at the moment, you know."

He kissed the top of her head, and said, "Frankly, you're such an open book, that I feel I already know the answers to my first two questions. In fact, you already answered one of them last night."

She sat up, pulled the sheet around her, and turned to face him and said, "Oh really now. I'm that transparent am I? Well, mister, you're not the only smart one here. I also already know what the first two questions you were going to ask me are, and if I were you, I wouldn't be so sure of my answers, and which one did I answer last night?"

He laughed and pulled her back to him and said, "Oh, if you really don't know, then I'm really not going to tell you, and believe this, if you already know the questions, then I really already know the answers."

"Well, then since the first two questions are already implied, why don't you go ahead and ask the third one," she implored, as she stroked his chest.

He said, "No, really, Hermione, dazzle me with your seer ability, and tell me what you think that question is." He was running his hand up and down her arm.

She laughed as her head was buried in this neck, and said, "You know, as long as the question isn't, 'will you marry me?', then I don't frankly care what you ask." She started kissing his neck.

He suddenly felt a constricted pain settle in his heart at the words she had just said. As long as the question isn't, 'will you marry me?' Afraid of losing her, and at this point unsure of how to respond, he just held her close, trying to forget what she had just said. He told her, "Let's go back to sleep." He held her until her breathing became slow and steady, and he knew that she was sleeping once more. He gently moved away from her, looked down at her sleeping form and said so softly, so that she would not hear, "That was undeniably the final question." He stood up and walked out of his bedroom.

Hermione awoke from a sound sleep, and for the briefest of moments, she was utterly confused. She was in her own bed. She knew in her soul that last night was not a dream, and neither was this morning. She was in Draco's bed. She knows she was. How did she end up back in her own? She called out his name, and he didn't respond. She got up and looked around her apartment for Draco or for at least some type of note from him, but could find neither. She threw on a robe and went to her fireplace to try to floo him, but he wasn't home. This was confusing. Did she do something wrong last night. What was going on here?

She went ahead and got a shower, and then dressed. It was almost 8 o'clock so she decided to go on to work. She would have to see him there.

Last night, cradled in his arms and watching him sleep, she felt so blissfully happy. She thought he felt happy as well. She couldn't be wrong. As she headed toward the lifts to go to her floor, she thought about the fact that she had only been dating him a week. She had only worked for him for five days. It seemed like an eternity, but in reality, it was such a short time. She felt like she had been in love with him all her life.

She walked out of the lift and started toward her department. Instead of going directly to her own office, she walked toward his. He had to love her as much as she loved him. He had to, but she had a very bad feeling about all of this.

She opened his office door, and saw nothing. No Draco, or lights on, or even a single piece of paper on the desk. Even odder was the fact that all the books that were on the shelves the first day she came here were gone. She walked to the lab, and asked a few people if anyone had seen Draco that morning. After a few negative responses, she thought she would ask if anyone had seen Scott. Again, all she heard from everyone was, "no".

She felt ill to her stomach. Something was definitely off and she didn't know what that was. She went to her office and sat with her head in her hands, not knowing what to think.

After an hour of just sitting and staring at her desk, Harry came running in to her office. "Hermione!" he exclaimed.

"Hello, Harry, what do you need?" she asked with a sad smile.

"He's gone, Hermione," he responded.

"Who's gone?" she asked, although in her heart she knew to whom he meant.

"Draco, he's gone."

She stood from her chair and walked over to him. No, this couldn't be right. "What do you mean, he's gone. Has something happened to him? He isn't hurt is he?" She really became worried.

"No, Hermione!" Harry yelled, "You don't understand. He's gone. He apparently told Percy earlier this week that he was resigning. Then I heard this morning that he came up, cleared out his office, and left. He walked into Percy's office and told him that he was leaving immediately, and that he should promote Scott to his position, and you to Scott's position. Percy was upset. He told me to go find him and tell him that he needed to given them more notice, but when I went to his flat, he wasn't there. The door attendant told me that Malfoy had moved out, and that his cousin or someone was going to sublet the flat. Hell, I even went to Malfoy Manor, but it was closed up tighter than a drum."

Hermione's head was reeling. What was Harry saying to her? Why would Malfoy just leave like that? 'Oh god,' she thought. It was because of last night. He had sex with her, and then decided he didn't love her after all.

She fell to the ground at Harry's feet and began to cry. He picked her up and held her in his arms. She cried for a long time.

"How could he do this to me, Harry?" she cried. "How could he make me love him, make me give myself over to him mind, body and soul, and then leave me? He said he loved me!"

Harry was so angry. He told her, "Malfoy loves no one but Malfoy. Last Friday he came by my flat and we invited him to stay for dinner. He actually asked me for my permission, MY PERMISSION, to start seeing you. He said that he had feelings for you for a very long time. I told him if he even thought about hurting you that I would kill him. I should have killed him that night. I should have told him to leave you the hell alone. He seemed so honest. He acted so genuine. This is my fault, Hermione. I'm so sorry." Harry continued to hold her in his arms.

"But why would he do this? Why would he hurt me like this? What did I ever do to him to make him treat me this way?" she asked him.

"It's probably more of the fact that you exist; the fact that you are good and loving. He can't handle that. He's such a bastard. I'll find him and make him pay for what he's done to you, Hermione," Harry told her. She stopped crying, but he continued to hold her. He finally said, "Why don't you go on home. Percy's offering Draco's position to Scott as we speak. I'll go tell Scott that you need to take the day off. Go home. I'll come by later." He kissed her cheek, and then said, "I love you, Hermione. Please, don't let this past week with Malfoy ruin you. Please." He left her office, and she went back to sit at her desk, and started to cry again.

Friday Evening, Again:

She didn't go home. She went back to the place where this whole thing started. She went back to her parents' graves. How was she going to survive this? She could not start to live the same grey life she had before. She would rather not live at all, then to go back to being grey.

After an hour of exhausted tears, she lay on the grave of her dead parents and cried some more. She cried for losing them. She cried for losing Draco, but most of all, she cried for losing herself.

Why give her one week of happiness, just to take it all away from her again? Was life that cruel? She sank back down to the ground, and didn't even notice when a pair of strong arms lifted her up, and carried her over to the stone bench. With her sitting on his lap, her face buried in his chest, and her hot tears melting his heart, he finally spoke the same words he uttered just a week ago, "Tell me, Granger, tell me why you are crying."

She looked up and saw his grey eyes through her tears. He was looking at her sternly, and she thought without compassion, which just made her cry even more. She buried her head into her hands, and sunk deeper into the cradle of his arms. He held her tighter and demanded, "Tell me this instant why you are back here, laying on the cold hard ground, and full of utter despair."

In the softest of voices, she said, "Because my life is grey again."

"Why is your life grey again, Granger?" he asked, as he lifted her off his lap to sit her beside him on the bench.

"You left me," she said.

"So that would make your life grey?" he again asked sternly.

What was he playing? She stood up and through her tears said, "What are you playing at, Malfoy? Why are you playing with my emotions? I'm a human being; maybe a Mudblood to you; but still a human being with a heart, and feelings, and emotions. You cannot just come into my life, promise me things, and then leave! You can't!"

He stood next to her and asked, "What the hell did I promise you, Hermione? You haven't made me promise you anything yet!" He was so angry he felt like hitting her to shut her up. "Why did you think I left you?"

Was he serious? She began, "Well, first we made love last night. I mean, to me it was making love, and it meant more to me than you'll ever know, and then this morning I find myself back in my own bed, you're nowhere to be seen, you quit your job, moved out of your flat, with no word to me at all. So, yeah, that's why I thought you left me, Malfoy." She walked up to him and pushed him hard.

He tried to speak, but she was not done. "I made love to you, Malfoy! That meant something to me! You meant something to me. This last week has probably been the best week of my life….but it was all a lie. Do you hate me that much? Why did you do this to me?" She sat back on the bench, and continued to sob.

"Remember I was going to ask you three questions tonight. Well, I'm going to ask you two of them now, and depending on how you answer, I may or may not ask the third," he said as he grabbed her shoulders to force her to stand.

"You have no bloody right to ask me anything, you bastard!" she yelled.

"Well you know what, I'm going to ask them anyway!" he shrieked back. He moved away from her and held up one finger, "First question, Granger! Last Saturday night on my rooftop, you started to tell me something and then stopped. My first question is, what were you going to say?"

"I'm really not going to answer any of your questions, you bloody prat." She started to walk away, and he pulled her back and pointed his wand at her. "Are you going to hex me now, Malfoy? Treating me like dirt and humiliating me wasn't enough for you?"

"I figured a good hex deserves one back. You hexed me, and now I will definitely hex you back if you don't answer my question, you crazy bint," he said. He walked up closer to her and put the tip of his wand on her chest.

"You are so dead," she murmured.

"Yeah, well tell me something I don't know," he hissed back.

"I hate you!" she screamed.

"Same to you bitch," he bellowed back. He still had his wand pointed at her chest and said, "I'm waiting, Granger."

"Fine you arse-hole. The thing I was going to tell you that night was that I had wanted to be with you for such a long time, and that I couldn't believe we were finally together. Funny, isn't it, Malfoy?" she said through clenched teeth.

He turned to walk around her, without turning his back to her, and when he again faced her, he spoke. "That wasn't too difficult, was it, Granger? Okay, let's get the second question over with, even though it seems obsolete now that you just told me you hated me, but my second question was going to be, do you love me?" He was clenching his jaw so tight that his face contorted in rage.

She said, "Well then, I guess I don't have to answer that one, do I?"

"What would your answer had been if you weren't such a bloody fool, Granger?" he asked caustically.

"Fine, I would have said I loved you, but as you said, that was then and this is now."

"Let's finish this once and for all, Granger, so we can get on with what is left of our feeble, miserable lives," he said as he put his wand away, and then went to stand behind her so quickly, that she lost her balance and he had to put his arms around her to hold her up. He was holding her from behind, so tightly, that she felt like she was in a vise. He put his hot breath next to her ear, and said, "For our encore, tell me what it was that you wanted me to promise you."

She took a couple of breaths, to calm herself, and very slowly said, "You ask me your third question first."

He laughed in her ear and said, "It seems to me that you're not in a position to make demands, Granger."

"And you are in no position to tell me what to do," she retorted back, and then she tried to wiggle out of his grip. He loosened the hold slightly, but only to turn her around to face him. She finally said, "Fine, let's end this right here, right now. You got what you wanted from me. You got your precious potion, you got me to declare my love for you, and you got me to make a fool of myself. You even got my virginity." She glared at him.

He was still holding her, but at this last remark, he let her go and she fell to the ground. He reached out his hand to help her up, but she slapped it away. As she stood up on her own, she said, "That's right, Malfoy, little virginal Granger. You took my virginity. Now you want my dignity, too. Can't you be content with the knowledge that as much as I felt like a big nothing before this all began, I now feel like less than nothing! Fine, if you want me to tell you what I was going to make you promise me, I will. I wanted you to promise me never to leave me, although it's a little too late for that now, isn't it, seeing that you already left. You won, you bastard."

"If I won, Granger, what's the prize? The feeling that someone has taken a dagger and cut my heart out? If I'm the monster that you think I am, then why do I feel such incredible grief and pain? I never set out to hurt you. My goal was to never hurt you again, and if anything, you have hurt me much more than I could ever hurt you!" he spat.

"How have I hurt you?" she yelled back.

"Another stupid question, from a stupid, stupid girl!" he yelled as he grabbed her once more and pulled on her arm, as if to wrench it from its socket. "I wish you would just shut your stupid mouth up!"

"Fine, I'll shut up, but I think you owe me one, Malfoy. I told you what I was going to make you promise me, now you tell me what your last question was," she asked him as she put her hand against his to try to break his grip on her arm.

This time he took a deep breath, and let it out. He let go of her arm, and with words that sounded calmer than he felt, he said, "If I tell you, Granger, will this entire thing end? Will you just let it go? Will you just shut up and let all of this go?"

She just stared at him, without saying yes or no.

"Before I ask you my last question, tell me why you think I left?" He finally realized that she had not yet told him.

"Now who's being stupid?" she snapped. "First, you apparently took me from your bed and left me in mine without even telling me goodbye. You quit your job, cleared out your office, and moved from your flat. Then Harry told me…"

Before she could finish that sentence he grabbed her again, this time by the shoulders and asked, "What the hell does Potter have to do with this?"

"He told me that you asked his permission last Friday to start seeing me; he told me that you apparently had feelings for me for a long time. He also told me about you quitting your job, and he said he had looked everywhere for you, but that you were gone, so therefore you were playing both of us. You never loved me. You have to admit the evidence pointed to you leaving, Malfoy!" she yelled back. Then she continued, "You left no note, we made love, and you told me you loved me, but then you just left, as if in a puff of smoke. You were just gone. YOU LEFT ME!"

Hermione was so tired. She walked away from him, sat back down on the bench, and started to cry again.

Malfoy walked up to her, and looked down and said, "You know, I admit that probably didn't look good, but I did not leave you. I needed time to think, true, so I left, but I did not leave you. I quit my job earlier this week. I told Percy I would leave my job by Friday. It's Friday. I arranged to sublet my apartment to my cousin, also earlier this week. Neither of these were rash decisions. I had to apparate you back to your apartment because my cousin wanted to move in today, and I couldn't bear to wake you."

"I know none of this looks good, but it still doesn't mean that I left you. What I said to Potter was true. I have wanted you for such a long time. I did orchestrate all of this to make you see how much I love you. I didn't want to hurt you, but let me tell you, you've hurt me, too. On Tuesday when I took you to Malfoy Manor, do you remember when I told you I had to go get something from the family vault? I went there to get a ring. This ring…" he pulled a ring from his pocket. "It's a ring that my grandfather gave my grandmother for their engagement. I wanted to give it to you, so I'll tell you what that third question is now, Hermione. I was going to ask you to marry me, beg you never to leave me, but after what you said this morning, I knew it was all happening too fast for you. So I just needed time to think, to figure out what to do next, but I DIDN"T LEAVE YOU!"

She looked up at him in confusion, and said, "What did I say this morning?"

He walked over to her and stood her up. "You said you didn't care what the three questions I had to ask you were; as long as one of them wasn't 'will you marry me?'. Since one of them was in fact that very question; well, it shook me a little, because I realized that even though I was ready for marriage, because I have been in love with you for a long time, that one week of dating wasn't long enough for you. Therefore, that's why I had to be by myself for a while. My pride was hurting a bit, and I had to figure out what to do next."

"What did you decide to do next?" she asked quietly.

"Well, I decided that no matter how much time you needed, it wasn't going to change how much I love you, so even if you never wanted to get married, just having you in my life was enough for me." He took her hand and kissed her palm, and said, "When I got back to the office, I went to look for you to tell you all of this, and I couldn't find you. No one knew where you were. When I saw Potter and asked him where you were, he told me to leave you the hell alone. I didn't know what was going on, so I decided to take a chance and see if you came back here. When I saw you, once again on the ground, crying at the foot of your parents' graves, my heart literally shattered in a million pieces. I love you so much, Hermione. I'll not ever leave you, if you'll not leave me. Please, say you'll forgive me and we'll come back from this terrible mistake in one piece again." He wrapped his arms around her and held her for a long time, until her sobs ceased.

Draco finally spoke again, "Hermione, I'll make that promise to you that you wanted me to make. I promise I'll never leave you. If you recall, last Saturday night I already made one promise to you, and that was that I would never make you do anything that you don't want to do, and that includes answering my third question."

Hermione reached up to his face, and cupped his cheek in her hand. She said, "Ask me again, you prat." She moved away from him, crossed her arms, and stared at him. "Well, I'm waiting. Ask your question."

"Is this so you can formally tell me 'no' and then take my heart out and stomp on it and crush it in the ground?" he pondered.

"You are such a drama queen." She rolled her eyes.

He gave her a glare, and said, "I may be a drama queen, but at least I'm not a pain in the arse know-it-all. Honestly, jumping to conclusions about 'people leaving people' without any hard evidence. Granger, as I said before, for a smart witch, you're stupid."

He sat down on the bench, and she sat next to him. "Are you trying to avoid asking your third question by making me hex you again, you self-centered, egotistical, sissy boy?"

He gave her a shove and she fell off the bench. As she stood up, she brushed off her skirt and said, "Expect a cleaning bill in the morning, Malfoy."

"Sorry, Granger, I'm unemployed now, I can't afford cleaning bills. In fact, I seem to be homeless as well. I'll just have to move in with you. Oh, and by the way," he continued, "will you marry me, Granger?" He pulled the ring out of his pocket again, and took her hand to slip it on her finger.

She pulled her hand away and said, "Could you possibly call me by my first name during a marriage proposal, you prat?"

"If you call me a prat again, I might be tempted," he smiled.

"Prat, prat, prat," she said as she moved to sit on his lap.

He again took her hand and slipped the ring on her finger, and said, "Will you marry me, Hermione?"

"Yes," she answered. "You know, I only said that thing about hoping you didn't ask me, because I was so insecure, and I felt like I should let you know that I wasn't expecting a proposal, so you didn't have to offer one." She turned her head and kissed him languidly.

When they finally stopped kissing, he said, "One more question, I didn't really take your virginity, did I?"

"Yes you did," she laughed.

"Well, I really will have to marry you now, to make an honest woman out of you and all. Can't have you going around being a little tart, having sex before marriage, right Granger?"

"I guess so, Malfoy."

They kissed again. They kissed as if it was their first kiss. Draco knew that he could not give her up, anymore than he could give up breathing. When they broke from the kiss, he asked, "What are you thinking?'

All she said was, "What a week it's been."

(End of Day Eight)

*Be sure to read the second part of the four part series: Another Week in the Life