Knowing that his dark secret was still intact, he smiled lazily, leaned forward, and fiddled with a tiny snowflake in her hair.
Draco managed to remove it before it turned into icy water... soaking into her hair.
"I had only vaguely suspected it before. But that day, our conversation solidified my belief. But why did you not just tell me?" Hermione asked him, her face slightly flushed.
The way he gently stroked her hair sent a tingling sensation through a patch of her scalp.
The feeling was not unpleasant. His movements were gentle, causing her no discomfort; instead, she felt as if she were being cherished and protected. A strange, light, and ethereal feeling.
"Why are you being so vague and hesitant?" Hermione pressed, her tone gradually softening.
His grey eyes... like ice beads reflecting the colour of snow... were fixed intently on her. How could she possibly have the audacity to question him?
She pouted in annoyance, like a bewildered squirrel with its mouth full of hazelnuts, unsure which one to eat first.
The boy noticed her expression. He suddenly had a desire to reach out and pinch her cheek, to dispel that annoyance.
But never mind, she seems a little unhappy just now, Draco thought sullenly.
"Sometimes, I feel so foolish, being completely fooled by you, watching you give me such profound and unfathomable hints..." More snowflakes were falling on her head, seemingly pressing Hermione's head down.
She lowered her head and said dejectedly, "And all I can do is follow behind you, trying to guess. Why are you doing this to me?"
Draco continued picking snowflakes from his sleeve... as if it were some huge undertaking... and said with a smirk, "I thought you were the kind of girl who liked riddles and puzzles."
"I enjoy riddles and solving puzzles, but I do not like being kept in the dark. There is a fundamental difference!" Hermione said angrily, staring at the tiny marks in the snow, which seemed to have been left by some rodent.
"If I told you directly, would you believe me?" Draco chuckled lightly, a touch of sadness settling in his heart.
"Of course! I will believe whatever you tell me... anything." The hazel eyes looked up defiantly, meeting his gaze directly.
Her proud eyes were unexpectedly filled with a kind of firmness.
Draco's hand, which was reaching for the snowflakes, froze in mid-air.
"You... would you believe me?" he asked doubtfully, as if he could not understand her eyes.
There should not be such pure and sincere trust in them.
She should not have trusted him. She should have been wary of him. She should have been at least cautious about him; she should have doubted everything.
That is how Hermione Granger should treat Draco Malfoy, is it not?
"Of course I believe you. Why would I not?" she said matter-of-factly.
She looked him over and felt that the light in his eyes was extremely complex.
A mixture of confusion and surprise lingered in his eyes, with a kind of tender, fragile ash settling deep within them.
What was he thinking? She was very puzzled.
After a long pause, the stunned boy in front of her came to his senses and whispered, "I... I am very touched by your trust."
Touched? Hermione found this feeling of being touched rather perplexing.
Why? Why was he so moved? Did he feel that she did not trust him?
Did she leave him with that impression? A girl full of suspicion?
She thought there would be at least some understanding between them; were they not trusting study partners?
Did he think that just any boy could touch her hair and lull her to sleep?
Hermione thought, blushing and indignant.
"So, what are you going to do? Report him, or continue to remain silent?" Draco changed the subject to hide his emotions.
He was genuinely curious about what choice Hermione was about to make.
How would a Gryffindor girl who considers herself "brave" deal with this?
Hermione hesitated, about to say something, when she suddenly saw something strange over Draco's shoulder.
"Draco... if I remember correctly, the Shrieking Shack is uninhabited, is it not?" Her voice began to tremble.
"Of course, do you not know it is the most famous haunted house in all of Britain?" Draco said impatiently, but his hands did not stop.
Blasted snowflakes! They are falling more and more.
It looked as though he would never finish picking them all off.
"Look!" Hermione exclaimed, raising her hand and pointing towards the Shrieking Shack.
Draco briefly abandoned his snow-collecting project and casually turned back... following her pale fingertip... and saw a faint light flickering in the Shrieking Shack.
This was something new. He frowned. He had never seen anything like it at the Shrieking Shack before.
"Let us go," he said suddenly, a sense of foreboding creeping into his heart. "Let us get away from the Shrieking Shack."
"All right," Hermione said cautiously. She quietly tugged at Draco's sleeve and followed him back the way they had come.
However, they had only taken a few steps back when a snowball appeared out of thin air.
It suddenly hurtled at Draco, who reacted swiftly by tilting his head, and it whizzed past his fur hat.
"Who is there?" His clear voice echoed coldly across the empty snow.
No one responded.
Draco glanced around, tensing up. He took a step closer to Hermione, adopting a protective stance... she looked frightened, her face instantly turning pale.
Both the werewolf revelation and the eerie atmosphere of the Shrieking Shack had made the two of them a little paranoid.
Another snowball. It came suddenly, this time aimed at Hermione.
Draco leapt forward and swung his wand, shattering it. Snowflakes scattered, and cold fragments flew everywhere, landing on their faces and clothes.
Before he could think, his body reacted instinctively. He suddenly stretched out his arm, wrapped his free hand around her, and held the girl tightly against him. Then he turned to the side, pointed his wand towards where the snowball had come from, and looked on warily.
Hermione was startled.
His arm had moved with lightning speed and force. Caught off guard, they collided. She fell against him, held so tightly by that arm, it felt like a dream.
She was a budding firework in the snow, and he was a silent spark beneath the ashes.
He pulled her against him, like sparks embracing fireworks, bursting forth with colour in the silence.
Fireworks suddenly soared into the air, exploded with a deafening roar, and were dazzlingly spectacular.
Fireworks, lots of fireworks, fireworks were blooming in her mind.
They bloomed cruelly in clusters, scattering sparks that scorched her insides.
Why did a mere physical collision trigger such a complex chain reaction in her soul?
In her daze, the air in her mind was burned away by the fireworks, and the flames spread to her heart.
Heart palpitations.
That terrible feeling of palpitations.
For a moment, her legs went weak. She was almost overwhelmed by this sudden, fresh, and intense feeling of palpitations.
Hermione rested her face on his shoulder, snuggling close to him, breathing rapidly, her cheeks slowly burning.
Then came a sudden, roiling reaction within her, like a cauldron of potion with the wrong ingredients added, leaving her completely bewildered.
"Hermione, your wand," he said sharply.
She snapped out of her daze, her hands trembling, and after two attempts, she managed to pull out her wand, then, just like him, aimed it forward.
She did not want to look at him.
Reason told her she should pay attention to what was happening ahead. But it was no use.
She could not help but look up and glance at his profile... it was extremely serious, yet possessed an indescribable, cold beauty that filled her with despair.
It was both heart-wrenching and despairing. Hermione inexplicably sighed inwardly.
You cannot look any longer, your heart is pounding. If you keep looking, you might faint, she told herself.
She forced herself to turn her head away, forced herself to ignore his sharply defined profile and his cool, intoxicating aura, and continued looking ahead.
Two lines of footprints quickly appeared in the distance, getting closer and closer to them.
Someone must have cast a Disillusionment Charm.
Draco pointed the tip of his wand in the direction of the footprints and said coldly, "Show yourselves, or I shall cast a hex."
Two humanoid figures suddenly appeared in front of them; they were Harry and Ron.