♕ thirty seven

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He was everything. 

Hermione loved every single thing about him; his hair, his chin, his voice, his laugh, his hands, his feet, his eyes... She wanted all of Cormac McLaggen. 

"I'm sorry, baby," he crooned, "but I've got class."

Hermione pouted and clutched his hands as if he would be swept away from her the moment she let go. He was like her oxygen, she need him. 

"How will I get through a whole two hours without you?" she asked helplessly. Across the table, Ginny gave McLaggen a withering stare.

"I'm sure you'll manage," she hissed sarcastically. She then proceeded to stab her lunch rather aggressively, missing her shepherd's pie by a few inches. 

Hermione didn't mind Ginny's anger. All she cared about was McLaggen and her. Together. 

But how could they be together if they barely got to spend any time with each other?

"I'll see you later," McLaggen said with a grin. He pecked Hermione on the cheek and left the Great Hall. 

It made her gut wrench to see him walk away from her, even though she knew he would come back. If she lost him, she would probably cease to exist. He was her whole life. 

Hermione couldn't even remember a time before McLaggen. 

Now that she thought about it, she couldn't even remember anything that had happened in the past few months. She only remembered waking up this morning in her dormitory and coming down for breakfast with Ginny and Harry, then eating breakfast and going to Transfiguration with McLaggen. Now it was lunch, and she couldn't get enough of him. She watched his retreating figure with wistful eyes. 

"Don't you just love him, Ginny?" she asked, turning toward her best friend. Ginny too was staring at McLaggen as he left the Hall. 

"You two make just the PERFECT couple," she said through clenched teeth, stabbing her green beans and shoveling them into her mouth. Harry put a calming hand over her arm. 

"What Ginny means to say, is that we're happy for you, Mione," Harry said, but he didn't look quite sincere. 

"I love him," she said with wide eyes, begging them to realize that her heart beat for him. 

"If he makes you happy, then I guess..."

Harry never finished his sentence and instead became very interested in a plate of ribs. 

Hermione cleared her throat, trying to ease the awkwardness. 

"What class do we have, Gin?" 

Ginny stopped demolishing her green beans for a moment to look down at her schedule. 

"Astronomy," she said without a second thought. Hermione nodded. 

Then Ginny's eyes grew wide. She let her fork drop onto the table with a clatter and turned to Harry excitedly. 

"Astronomy," she repeated, this time a tone of urgency in her voice. Then Harry's eyes grew wide and he turned to look at Ginny. 

"Astronomy," he said breathlessly. 

"What?" Hermione asked, confused. Ginny paused. 

"We just really love Astronomy!" she exclaimed, waving her arms excitedly. 

Hermione shrugged and turned her attention back to her food and as she swallowed her final carrot. 

"Let's go then, shall we?" 

The three made their way out of the hall and down the corridor toward the stairs to the Astronomy tower. Seeing the base of the steps tugged a memory in Hermione's brain, but she couldn't seem to pull it out. Maybe she and McLaggen had met here or something?

"Do you know why I love this class, Harry?" Ginny said rather loudly. Harry turned to her. 

"Oh, do tell me, Ginny. What do you like about the majestic art of Astronomy?" 

"Well, there are some really nice people in this class! Some that we probably forget about. But they're still there!" She turned to Hermione and gave a wide smile as she continued to march up the stairs like a toy soldier. 

"What are you two playing at?" Hermione laughed, as they finally reached the top of the staircase. She looked into the classroom, the navy blue benches and tables set up around the perimeter. The clear glass dome of the roof, the moon just barely visible in the light of the day. Ginny, Harry, and a Hermione were just about the last to arrive; Hermione took a seat at the back of the room. 

"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Sinistra from the front of the room. 

Next to Hermione, Ginny was craning her neck, as if looking for someone. Apparently, that someone was absent; she took one last sweep of the room with her eyes and then slumped her shoulders, looking disappointed. 

"Now. Today, as you can see, our class is in the early afternoon. Therefore, we will not be stargazing as planned; instead, we will be studying a little mythology on the planets and their traits. Everyone, grab a group of three and make your way up to the model." She gestured to the model of the solar system in the center of the classroom as Harry, Ginny, and Hermione made their way to the middle of the observatory. 

As soon as everyone had congregated at the solar system model, Professor Sinistra took out her wand and gave it a flick, making the mini planets orbit and mini moons spin. 

"Now as you can see, our planets all have different sizes and colors and are named adequately for these traits. Neptune, for example, is blue; and so is christened after the God of the Sea." 

Hermione turned to look at the tiny model of Neptune, whirring around the outer edge of the model. 

"Mars, the red planet, is named after the War god, for its blood red colo-" 

Suddenly the door flew open, and the whole class turned to look at who had entered. Hermione couldn't see over the head of the person standing in front of her. 

"Sorry I'm late, professor," said a voice that made her senses explode. 

She recognized that voice. 

"That's quite alright, Mr. Malfoy," Professor Sinistra said. "Please come have a look at our Solar System, along with the rest of the class." 

Suddenly the crowd parted to let him through and all Hermione could see were his eyes. 

His stormy grey eyes, looking broken and detached but still strong and defiant. The moment their eyes found each other they locked. Hermione couldn't look away. It was as if her mind were downloading all the memories that had been missing from the past few months. 

She saw the boy, picking her up and spinning her around in the middle of a lavishly decorated Great Hall. He was smiling from ear to ear and she could hear herself giggling with delight. 

She saw herself cozied up next to him by the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common room, his arm around her and her head leaning comfortably on his shoulder. 

She saw them sitting next to each other in Potions class, laughing as she watched him tell her something funny. 

Months and months of memories with him flashed before her eyes, making her heart burst with the love that was returning to her chest. It filled her very soul and mind as every emotion she had ever felt for him entered her system and made fireworks explode at the corners of her vision as the memories continued to play. All of him and her; laughing, smiling, tenderly embracing. She felt her fingers begin to tingle. 

Suddenly, the memories disappeared into her mind and she was sucked back into reality. Hermione still hadn't looked away from the boy and he still hadn't looked away from her; suddenly his name was all she heard, ringing in her ears, even though no one had spoken. 

"Draco," she whispered; and she felt a bright feeling spread throughout her body as his name left her lips. She saw a tear slip down his cheek and his mouth parted slightly before the world went black, and she crumpled to the ground. 

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