Ch. 35

Hermione's POV

"Harry, I feel ridiculous," I muttered as I awkwardly sat underneath his cloak. We were waiting at the Leaky Cauldron for Draco to show up, and my stomach became more knotted up the longer we waited.

Harry chuckled and muttered under his breath, "We could've gone with Ginny's idea to just hold him down and make him drink it. Would've been over with faster."

I glared at him and sighed, shifting my weight. "Maybe we should've just done this at your place."

"It's a bit late for that," Harry muttered again as we both watched Draco walk in.

He waved Draco over to the table and made sure he sat down across from Harry and next to me, though he didn't realize it.

"Hey," Draco greeted warmly. "Why'd you ask me out for drinks this late, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "I didn't think it was that late and considering how the party went..."

"I'm just glad I ended things with her," Draco shook his head. My heart dropped again but I reminded myself that this was the Hate Potion talking and not him. "She was just always so condescending and the same know-it-all from school. I couldn't take it anymore."

"How about a round of firewhiskey?" Harry asked, changing the subject abruptly. I bumped his knee as a silent thank you and saw him nod ever so slightly.

"That sounds great," Draco nodded.

My leg started to bounce up and down quickly as anxiety filled me. I groaned inwardly and tried to stay as quiet as possible as all of the what-ifs began to take over my mind again.

"I hope Ginny wasn't too mad that it was such a public break-up," Draco started again as they waited for the barkeep to bring them their drinks.

Harry shrugged nonchalantly and avoided looking at Draco, clearly uncomfortable. "She was more upset with her brother at that point. They're pretty sure he put something in your drink."

I stared at Harry in shock but panicked more as Draco rolled his eyes. "Of course they think that. I feel fine though so I doubt it. I mean, what would he even put in my drink? Clearly it wasn't poison. Hermione was worried for nothing, though she always worries too much about everything. Drove me crazy."

"Yeah," Harry nodded absentmindedly.

"I mean," Draco sat back in his chair, his brow furrowing as he went on. "She would always overthink everything. It got so annoying after a while, hearing her go on and on about things. She still tries to prove that she's the smartest one in the room too; I don't know how I was dealing with it before. Maybe she slipped me a love potion or something."

Harry snorted and I kicked his leg quietly, causing him to shoot me a very quick glare. "Draco, are you sure this is how you really feel? You two were in love."

"Yeah, a love potion tends to do that," Draco answered sarcastically. Then he sighed and said, "I still need to get my things from her apartment. Or rather, my old one. Still can't believe I let her use it. Or that I even started to move in with her."

This caught both mine and Harry's attention. Harry asked, "You were moving in with her?"

Draco nodded, a scowl on his face. "Yeah, started to slowly move my clothes in with her. I just really wanted to for some reason, probably whatever love potion she gave me. We were mostly sleeping at her place anyway so I figured it would be easier to have my things there so I could leave for work in the morning without having to go back to my place."

The bartender finally delivered their drinks to the table and my stomach started doing flips as I quickly got the bottle of Amortentia ready. What if this didn't work? Was he going to hate me for the rest of our lives?

Harry nodded towards something in the other direction and feigned surprise, asking, "Did you see that?"

Draco looked away and I took my chance to quickly pour the Amortentia into his firewhiskey as he asked, "What? I don't see anything unusual."

I nudged Harry's knee again and he shrugged. "I thought I saw a niffler, sorry."

Draco turned back towards Harry and shook his head. "Haven't seen one of those in forever. We'd probably know though if there was one; it'd be stealing the jewels off every witch in here."

Harry chuckled and raised his glass. "Cheers, mate. Here's to hopefully having a better night soon."

Draco clinked his glass against Harry's and I waited, holding my breath as he drank it. He then set the glass down and after a few minutes he suddenly froze.

Harry noticed it too and we both waited quietly for him to do something. When he didn't, Harry asked, "Everything alright?"

Draco didn't respond, continuing to stare forward silently. I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to be able to take the waiting, but then he suddenly put his head in his hands and mumbled, "Harry...I may kill Ron for this."

"Understandable," Harry grinned slightly. "How do you feel?"

"I need to find Hermione," Draco answered quickly, lifting his head and standing up. "Is she at her apartment? I need to see her."

I stood up then and quickly pulled the cloak off, making him jump. I didn't move though, since I wasn't sure if there was any remaining Hate Potion in his system, and I waited for him to make the first move.

He grabbed me and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tightly against him. "I am so sorry, Hermione; that wasn't me at all, I don't know what happened but I hope you understand I didn't mean any of the things I said."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face into his neck, unable to stop smiling. He rocked me back and forth gently for a few moments before pulling away slightly to give me a long kiss.

"Well," Harry interrupted, standing up behind us. "My work here is done. You two go home; I'm sure you both want to talk about this."

"Thank you, Harry," I said, smiling at him.

He nodded and apparated away, leaving the two of us standing there. I didn't even care that we were receiving odd glances and stares from the other confused patrons; I was just happy to have him back.

"Come on," He said quietly after a few moments, squeezing my arms as he pulled away. "Let's go."

He apparated us back into my apartment but we didn't move when we landed. I kept my head on his chest and his chin was still on the top of my head, though he would press kisses against the top of my head every so often.

"I'm so sorry," He said quietly after a few minutes. "I said so many horrible things..."

"Draco, that wasn't you," I replied, pulling away to look up at him. "You were under a Hate Potion, apparently a really powerful one."

He glared forward as he said, "I will make sure Ron pays for this, I promise you that."

"Let's worry about that tomorrow," I said quietly. "Harry has him held at the Ministry right now in one of their holding cells."