Drabble #3

[madeleone]

Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 844
Note: For day 3 of the Valentine's Day 2009 challenge,  using quotes from Gone With the Wind,  using prompts #1. With enough courage, you can do without a reputation. #6. If I said I was madly in love with you you'd know I was lying.   unbeta'd all mistakes are my own,


ASKING HER OUT

“Are you chatting me up?” she asked taking a sip of her wine.

“Yes, I am,”  he answered turning on the bar stool to face her.  “Why won’t you go out with me?”

It had been a random meeting, at least that’s what she thought.  He just happened to sit on the stool next to her, at the bar she had stopped at after work.   She really needed a drink.  It was a total coincidence that he just happened to show up in the same bar……right.

“ Why would you want to go out with me, Malfoy?  Is this some kind of a trick?”  She asked suspiciously.

“Can’t I just be asking you out on a date?  Is that so wrong?  Maybe I’m just curious whether we might hit it off if we gave it chance.  Stranger things have happened.”

“I can’t go out with you.”  She stated emphatically.

“Why not?”  he insisted.

“I just can’t.” 

“What are you afraid of ?”

“Nothing, I just can’t.”

“Why not?   The lily white Hermione Granger can’t be seen with the dark, evil, son of a former Death Eater, Draco Malfoy?  What, you’re afraid of what people will say?”   He looked at her, as if trying to figure her out.

“They wouldn’t understand.  My friends, my co-workers, my boss…..they wouldn’t understand.”

He looked shocked, “Sweet Merlin, you are afraid of what people will think.   It‘s not that you personally wouldn‘t want to go out with me, but you’re scared of what others will think.”

“Malfoy, my friends already think I’m going through some kind of phase, breaking up with Ron.   They still think I will get back with him once I get over aforementioned phase.”

“So what better way of convincing them you won’t be getting back together with the Weas…….“  he stopped abruptly at her glare….“er I mean Weasly than by going out with me?”  He asked while signaling to the bartender for a refill for both their drinks.

“Thanks,” she said, “for the drink,  but I still won’t go out with you.  There would be gossip, people would talk.”

“And you care about gossip because……?”

“I can’t”

“Are you worried about your reputation?

“I just can’t, okay? Would you drop it please,” She sounded frustrated.

He was quiet for a few minutes, thinking, sipping his fire whiskey.  “Where’s that Bloody Gryffindor courage you all are so fond of?
 You know, my Grandfather once told me with enough courage, you can do without a reputation.  He said just hold your head up, be proud, do what you must and ignore what everyone else thinks.”

She sniffed delicately.  “Well, I guess I don’t have as much courage as your Grandpa.”

Draco looked at her, then glanced quickly around the bar like he was looking for someone.   “Who are you?” he asked.

“What?”  She looked confused.

“Are you the real Hermione Granger?  Because the Hermione Granger I know has more courage than any other woman I have ever met in my entire life.”

She snorted, “Flattery will get you nowhere , Draco.”

“Do you think I’m making this up?”  he asked.  He took her hand  interlacing fingers with hers and looked into her eyes.  “Do you think this is a lie?   A joke?  Because I swear to you, it’s not.” 

Hermione didn’t know what to say, he seemed so sincere. 

Still holding her hand his grip tightened and he continued, his voice low but intense.  “I watched you writhing in pain on the floor of my childhood home while my creepy, crazy, psychopathic, bitch of an aunt….who was scarier that just about anyone I know in the entire world, except for maybe, just maybe You-Know-Who;  and I saw her torture you to the very brink of insanity and still you would not give her the information she wanted, you would not betray your friends or your cause.” 

He paused for a moment trying to collect himself before he continued gazing directly into her soft brown eyes.   “Granger…..I still have scars on my heart from the sound of your screams that day.   I wanted so badly to help you, to make it all stop,  to do something, anything….but there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do, not a fucking thing.”

Not breaking his gaze she lay her other hand on his chest over his heart she whispered,  “I know that.  I do….I know that.”

He looked away for a moment and took a deep breath before looking back to her and tried to lighten the mood.  Still holding onto her hand, he continued.  “Look if I said I was madly in love with you you’d know I was lying.  But I’d like the chance to see if maybe I could be, if you could be.   What do you say, Granger?  Give us a chance, will you?”

She sat silently for a moment, looking at him.  She smiled a funny little crooked smile, she sighed.  Then she leaned in close to softly kiss his cheek.  “You drive a very hard bargain, Malfoy.”

“And????”

“Yes, I’ll go out with you.”