Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed part I!! You really inspired me to continue the story!
Well, here goes...

Unrequited Love

by indigo
 
 

Chapter 2
 

Draco left the Library feeling more miserable than ever. He hadn't found the Enchantment Potion, and he
was getting nowhere with Hermione. How was he going to tell her how he felt? WAS he going to tell her?
Somehow the thought made his stomach lurch. What would he say? He wasn't even sure if he wanted to
tell her anymore...it was probably just a meaningless infatuation...

He knew he was kidding himself. This was the real thing. Like it or not, he had fallen and fallen hard for a
Gryffindor, a MUDBLOOD Gryffindor at that. "Wow, love really IS blind..." he said to himself as he made
his way towards the Slytherin Common Room.

Pansy was waiting for him just inside the entrance. "Oh DRACO, there you are! I've been looking for you
ALL over the place! I asked Vincent and Gregory where you were but they told me they had no idea..."
Malfoy silently thanked Crabbe and Goyle for that, even though he knew it was more because of their lack
of brain cells rather than an actual attempt to protect him from Pansy. But, memory lapse or not, the last
thing he needed was for Hermione to see him with another girl...

"Urghmm." He said in reply, then flopped down on one of the sofas close to the fire. He cursed himself for
choosing a two-seater as Pansy sat right down next to him, close enough so that he had trouble breathing.
"Uh, Pansy, would you mind moving over a bit?"

She acted like she hadn't heard him as she went prattling on about how Snape had given the Hufflepuffs a
50 point deduction for some mistake Fletchley had made during a Potions class. "Can you believe that, 50
points? Well, it's not as if they were in the running at all for the House Cup but now they're SURE to pose
no threat whatsoever..."

Draco tried to be polite, nodding now and then to give the illusion he was listening, but after a while he
couldn't take it anymore. He left abruptly, mumbling some excuse about being tired, and trudged to the
boy's dormitories to wait for supper. At least he was safe from Pansy there.
 

***

"That Slytherin scum, I swear, one day he's going to go too far..." Ron was fuming as Hermione, Harry
and he walked back to the Tower. "One of these days I'm going to put a curse on him that'll make his legs
separate from his body!"

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, scandalized. "That's gross!"

"Don't tell me you're defending him!" Harry spoke up. "After everything he's done!"

"I am NOT defending him!" She said indignantly, and the three of them stayed silent as they entered the
Common Room.

"Up for a game of Wizard chess, Harry?" Ron asked as they sat down in the squishy armchairs littering
the Common Room. Harry nodded his reply and Ron raced off to get his set in the boy's dormitory.

"Hmm." Harry said as he looked at Hermione intently.

"What? WHAT?" She said shrilly.

"No need to get all worked up, Hermione! I was just thinking, you and Malfoy..."

"Don't even THINK it Harry!" she cried, and the subject was closed for the rest of the evening, which
Hermione spent watching Harry and Ron play Wizard chess.
 

***

After dinner, Draco managed to avoid Pansy and went straight to the dormitory to do some thinking.
He had made up his mind over a bowl of squash soup. He was going to tell Hermione tomorrow, whether
she liked him back or not. He had to know, at least. And if she didn't return his feelings...well, he'd have
shamed himself, his family, the whole of Slytherin House.

But suddenly he realized he didn't care about any of that. All he cared about was HER. "It doesn't matter
what the rest of them think!" he said fiercely to himself.

"You tell 'em, honey!" called the mirror from the other side of the room. Draco blushed furiously and pulled
on his pajamas, then climbed into bed. He fell asleep almost immediately.
 
 
 

Part III coming very soon! Please review!
 

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Chapter 3