'Fine,' said Madam Pomfrey, shaking her head. As she moved on to the scratches and cuts on his legs and feet, Draco brought his hand up to his face and squinted at it. Harry had cut a deep and jagged line across his palm, slashing side-to-side. It was hard to say in the dim light, but if he squinted at it, it looked a little like a bolt of lightning.
Exhausted as she was, Hermione found that there was little chance she would be able to get any sleep before telling the entire story of what had happened to Lavender and Parvati, who greeted her arrival with screams of happiness. Not, Hermione thought dourly as she sat in bed in her pyjamas (Narcissa's beautiful but now quite destroyed satin dress was folded neatly on her dresser) because they were so happy to see her, but because they were looking forward to some really good gossip.
'You kissed Draco Malfoy in a WARDROBE?' Lavender demanded, when Hermione was finally finished.
'Well, that wasn't really the point of the story,' said Hermione, 'but yes.'
'But he's so…evil,' said Parvati, her mouth open.
'Yet oddly attractive,' said Lavender, beginning to giggle. 'Come on, Parvati…he is cute…I've never seen anyone else with hair that color. Like Christmas tinsel.'
'I guess,' said Parvati, looking unconvinced.
'Did he get all sweaty?' asked Lavender. 'Did he take off any of his clothes?'
'LAVENDER,' howled Hermione. 'I'M NOT TELLING YOU THAT.'
'Well, how about Harry?' asked Lavender unrepentantly. 'How about kissing him?
Was it great?'
Hermione pondered whether kissing Harry could be called 'great'. It had been shattering, heart-breaking, wonderful and awful at the same time. Was that
'great'?
'It was okay,' she said.
Lavender rolled her eyes. 'That's exciting,' she said.
Parvati said, curiously, 'So are you going out with Draco now?'
Hermione considered this. 'I don't know,' she said.
'But you aren't going out with Harry,' said Lavender, in an offhand tone.
'He's not speaking to me,' said Hermione. 'So that would be a no. We're not going out, and,' she added, with a pang, 'I doubt we ever will be.'
'Well,' Lavender said, with slight hesitation, 'since it didn't work out with you and Harry, I was wondering…if you'd mind…if I asked him out.'
Hermione stared at Lavender with her mouth open. 'Lavender! Honestly!'
Lavender didn't seem abashed. 'I recognize you haven't done a lot of dating, Hermione,' she said coolly, 'so you might not know how this works. I can't speak for everyone, but I've stayed away from Harry for the past few years because we knew you liked him and we thought he liked you. Now, though…'
'What'd you think, Hermione?' snorted Parvati. 'Harry's famous, he's rich, he's good-looking and he's nice, too. Plus he's saved the world, oh, five or six times now. Of course, he's a terrible dancer,' she added thoughtfully, 'but most people don't know that.'
'And our last year is coming up,' said Lavender. 'We're going to need partners for the Yule Ball, for the Seventh Years' Dance, and Harry'll be Quidditch Captain by then…'
'And whoever goes with Harry'll probably get their picture in Witch Weekly,' chimed in Parvati.
Hermione looked at them both as if they had suddenly turned into werewolves.
''Are you telling me,' said Hermione, 'that from now on it's open season on Harry?'
'Well,' said Parvati, 'pretty much, yes.'
Hermione realized that after six years of hanging out almost exclusively with Harry and Ron, she obviously didn't know the first thing about other girls. She gazed at Lavender in mute horror, and Lavender gazed back, looking sympathetic but firm. 'I'm sorry, Hermione,' she said. 'But you really shouldn't care…should you?'
Hermione slept through that day and most of the next. When she finally got up and went down to lunch on wobbly legs, she found that the world she had known had changed overnight.
There was never any point trying to keep secrets at Hogwarts. Especially when they had to do with Harry. Everyone knew what had happened, where Harry and Hermione and Ron had gone, that Draco Malfoy's father was in jail, that Draco had nearly died, and that he and Hermione were now rumored to be, if not going out, at least seeing each other.
When she walked into the Great Hall, everyone turned and stared at her. She looked, out of habit, immediately for Ron and Harry. She found them, sitting at the Gryffindor table with Fred and George. When they saw her, Ron gave her a nervous smile.
But Harry looked away.
Hermione bit her lip hard. She would not cry. She looked away from them — and saw Draco. He was sitting at the Slytherin table, taking up three seats with his long legs as usual. When he caught sight of her, he smiled.
That decided it. Without even thinking about it, she walked across the hall and sat down next to him.
She heard the hissing buzz of voices that raced around the room like wildfire, but she didn't care. She was just happy to see Draco. His left hand was wrapped in white bandages but other than that he looked as healthy as he ever had.
'Hey,' he said, as she sat down next to him, and he folded up the Daily Prophet he had been reading. 'Do you know what I've been thinking?'
