An Astronomy Lesson
Hermione snuck out of the dormitories while Ron was off at the bathroom. She slid past Harry who was only pretending to study for her sake.
“Are we going to meet this boy you’re going out with?”
“It’s not a date, Harry. He’s helping me study.” She slid her astronomy book into her bag and when she was at the porthole she turned back, “And no, you can’t meet him.”
“Fine.”
Draco was already laying in the grass when Hermione arrived. She nearly tripped over him in the darkness. She laid down beside him without a word, stretched out on her back and looked up at the stars.
“How terrible at this are you?” Draco said after a time.
“I’m not terrible, I’m just not great.” Hermione reached down to pick up her textbook.
“Leave it,” Draco said, “Just tell me what you can see right now.”
“Well, there’s ursa major,” Hermione said, pointing up at the constellations, “Orion, Cassiopeia.”
Draco began pointing to things as well. “What’s that one?” He pointed to a great Y in the sky.
“Which one?”
“Here,” he shifted so Hermione’s head was next to his, inches away. Then he held up his pointed finger above both their eyes and traced the shape.
“That’s Taurus.”
“And Taurus follows which constellations in its rotation?”
“Aries is before and after comes uhh...”
Again, Draco lifted his hand and traced the twins.
“Oh, Gemini.”
Right, so the sky is rotating which way through the year?”
“That way?” Hermione circled her finger in the air, smiling as Draco nodded.
“What star is that?” Draco pointed to the end of Taurus.
“Trick question, that’s the crab nebula.”
“Oh, you found me out.” Draco joked. “Can you see anything else.”
“Mercury is supposed to be out soon, but I can’t find it.” Hermione tried to reach for her book again, but Draco held her hand back.
“You won’t have your book on the test, only a telescope. How else can you find it?”
“Well, its red and small. It’s not always there, it will move positions faster than stars, so we can chart it through the weeks.”
“Not much good on a one hour test.”
“I’m trying to remember what I read.” Hermione said. “It’s near the horizon, in the direction where the moon rose.” Hermione pointed into the distance. “Is it that one?”
Draco took her hand in his and shifted it slightly downward. “It’s the dimmer one.”
Hermione turned to look at him, his pale face so close to hers, hardly lit in the moonlight. He dropped her hand and turned slightly toward her. “What else do you see?”
“You.”
Draco continued to stare at her. Her hair was wet from the dew on the grass, and sufficiently flattened by the weight of the moisture. Her cheeks bulged as she smiled toothily at him. Whatever she had done last year to straighten and shrink her teeth had done wonders.
“You’re right there.”
Hermione took Draco’s hand in hers now and pointed it to the sky. She traced out the shape of the great dragon. Hermoine began to laugh. Draco looked up at his constellation then back at Hermione. He wrapped his long white fingers in and held Hermione’s fingers in his. She turned to him and he leaned in, pressing his thin lips to hers.
Hermione returned to the common room with a smile plastered on her lips. Draco had faltered back, said it was too late and they shouldn’t be out. He had got up to leave, but still waited for Hermione so they could walk back to the castle together. They walked in silence, but Hermione could see the blush creeping up on Draco’s pale skin. He didn’t say goodbye when they got to the castle, just headed off toward the dungeons, as Hermione started up the stairs. Her own smile didn’t turn into a blush until she entered the common room to find Harry and Ron playing a game of wizard’s chess. Ron was playing embarrassingly badly and a rose hue was creeping up his neck and cheeks, all the way to his ears. Just like it had crept up Draco after he kissed her. Then Hermione began to turn red too. She tried to rush past the two boys without notice, but Harry grabbed her arm.
“How was studying?” Harry asked.
“Fine. It went fine.”
“You’re back faster than I expected you to be.”
“When Harry said you were at the library, I figured you’d be gone all night.” Ron said.
Hermione glanced up at him and blushed more, but he was staring at the chess board and chewing on his pink lip. Hermione couldn’t help but notice.
“Well, I ran into a problem I couldn’t really deal with there, so I figured I’d just come back.”
Harry turned a worried face to her. “Is everything alright?”
She couldn’t stop the awkward smile from creeping back onto her lips. “I’m fine.” She could still feel the dew sticking to her hair, her lips tingling from the pressure of draco's mouth.