Disclaimer: I own nothing! The plot line is mine but that's pretty much it... If I owned it, I wouldn't be here now would I?

Homework, Bext-tooks, and Bubbles

Hermione walked into the library notebook in hand ready to study. She walked farther and farther into the library, looking for her favourite table. She finally came to her table only to find it occupied by a certain Malfoy.

"Malfoy, is your soul purpose in life to aggravate me?" Hermione asked exasperatedly.

"Uhm," answered Malfoy.

"Just my luck," Hermione muttered, then sat on the other side of the table, and began studying.

"If you don't mind Granger, I prefer to work alone," said Malfoy, obviously having homework problems of his own.

"You were the one who stole my table, so don't complain, leave if it annoys you that much," she replied returning to her homework.

"What did you get for number 16?" asked a perplexed Malfoy.

"What subject?" questioned Hermione stunned that he said a whole sentence without insulting her once.

"Arithmancy," Malfoy stated.

"X equals the distance between Europa and Pluto," Hermione replied.

"Damn. I got it wrong, how did you get that?" said Malfoy.

'Why the heck is he being ... un-normal?' she questioned herself as she explained the question to Malfoy.

"That's how you do that! But I... damn I'll have to redo all 15 questions!" he hissed.

"Have fun with that, the professor explained this in class, were you daydreaming or something?" she questioned with a laugh.

"I was in the hospital wing, puking up slugs!" Malfoy stated.

"Ewww... wait slugs?" She stuck out her tongue in disgust.

"Yes slugs, Weasel finally got that stupid spell to work right, but he needs to work on his aim... It was supposed to hit Blaise, not me!" he said frustratedly.

"I have to agree with you on that, his aim is definitely off," she sighed and began writing again.

"What's something that rhymes with orange?"

"Orange? Nothing rhymes with orange. Hold on, you're doing Arithmancy, why are you talking about rhyming words of all things?"

"I gave up on Arithmancy... It ended up that most of the others were somehow right anyway. What rhymes with squash then?"

"Uh, the only word I can think of is quash- and yes; that is a word."

"What does it mean? I can't put it in a sentence if I don't know what it means," said and overly tired Draco.

"Why do you have to put it in a sentence? It's not like we have an English class or anything," replied Hermione clearly getting annoyed.

"Sorry," Draco said with a big yawn, as he put his head down on some bext tooks and closed his eyes.

"I thought you had homework to finish," Hermione stated and went back to her homework.

"Whatever."

"Ok then," she replied rolling her eyes.

"I'm bored..." after a long pause he got up and went to stand behind Hermione, peering over her shoulder at what she was writing. Which apparently wasn't homework at all, but some kind of journal.

"Must you read over my shoulder? I am trying to write," she said as she slammed the book shut. On the cover it read 'Property of Hermione J. Granger.' "Haven't you ever heard of privacy?"

He leaned down whispering in her ear, "No, privacy is over rated. I prefer to be open to the world."

A shiver went up her spine, he was way inside her personal bubble. "Why does that surprise me?"

"But there is one thing I've been keeping a secret," He whispered into her ear as he ran his hands down her shoulders.

"And what, exactly, would that be?" she whispered.

"Guess," he said, placing kisses down her neck.

"Uh- um," she stuttered, not really trusting herself to speak. "Whoa, hold on," she said pushing her chair away from him and standing up. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I, well, uh, ummm, uh... I sorta thought that was obvious," Draco stuttered.

"Well, sorry, but it isn't obvious to me," Hermione replied, not wanting to say what she was actually thinking.

"Hermione, you're smart. Just think about it! I've always liked you, I guess that's one of the reasons I've treated you badly all these years, to hide the fact that I like you..."

Hermione was stunned. How do you reply to something like that? Your enemy of six years, saying they've always liked you, isn't exactly what one expects to hear in a conversation.

"Hermione, I can't hide it anymore. Can you please just give me a chance?" Draco hesitated when she turned away from him. "There's a Hogsmeade weekend in two days... Maybe we could go together?" he said hopefully putting his hands on her shoulders.

Hermione slowly turned to face him, she saw no hatred in his eyes, only hope, and what was that? Desperation? Wow, he was serious. "Umm, Malfoy..." she couldn't continue, none of this made any sense.

"Yes?" he said. You'd swear that the suspense in the air could be cut with a knife.

"Mal- Draco," Hermione began. "This is really unexpected, and it's nice and everything, but it just doesn't seem right." She could tell that this was not the answer he had expected. He looked, to be honest, like a lost puppy with sad eyes and a small frown of defeat.

"Please..." he trailed off, there was a long uncomfortable pause. Draco stared into her eyes, "Just consider it," he said as he picked up his books from the table. He walked halfway down the aisle then turned back to face her, "Think about it for awhile... Tell me when you figure out an answer." He rounded the corner and walked away.

This is so not normal, Hermione thought to herself. Malfoy is being serious, he likes me, he wants me to go to Hogsmeade with him, oh I'm so confused. Hermione packed up her stuff and walked further back into library looking for a quiet corner to think this out, and hopefully find a logical explanation.

"Mr. Malfoy! Where do you think you're going with those books?" said Madam Pince, the librarian.

"Oh, I'm sorry Madam Pince, my mind was somewhere else. Can I check these books out?"

"Yes, yes, very well," Madam Pince quickly signed the books out then went to rescue a second year Hufflepuff from "The Monster Book of Monsters."

I wonder what Hermione is thinking about right now, Draco thought.

Hermione was sitting in the back of the library with a million thoughts going through her head. How the heck am I going to answer him? If I say no then he will be extremely depressed... Hold on, when did I start caring about Malfoy? She shook her head, and tried to think about the task at hand.

I can't believe I just spilled my heart out, my whole reputation will be ruined now! But, hey, even if she says no, I doubt I'll have to worry about her punching me again, and she probably won't hex me as much... You know what, I'd rather have all the bad things she's done to me over the years happen to me all at once right now, than have her reject me. Because you know what? I think I -

"Oh, Drakipoo! There you are!" exclaimed Pansy Parkinson. "I've been looking for you all day!"

"Thank Merlin you didn't find me earlier," Draco muttered under his breath.

"What was the Draky?"

"Uh, nothing. Listen, I got homework to do, so I don't need you bothering me!" He walked away, leaving a stunned Pansy by herself.

Hermione had finally come to a conclusion, now all she had to do was find Malfoy, now where did he go? She grabbed her stuff and walked out of the library and past Pansy Parkinson. She continued down the corridor until she saw exactly who she was looking for. "Hey Draco!"

"Yeah!" He spun around with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"I've made my decision," Hermione began, and took a deep breath preparing for what she was about to say. "I would love to go to Hogsmeade with you." There, she said it, and she didn't regret it one bit. Malfoy on the other hand seemed to be struck speechless.

"...Really?" was all he could say.

"Yes, really," Hermione replied, just above a whisper.

Draco took a step towards her, "So, I guess I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall on Saturday?"

"Yah," Hermione looked around to see that the corridor was completely empty. "Til then." She placed a light kiss on his cheek and walked up the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower.

She stopped in her tracks when she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, a weird thought just came to her mind, "I'm going on a date with a Slytherin."

A/N: Well, not sure if it's gonna be multi-chapter or not, and I must admit that this part was co-written by The Next Hermione Granger. Hope you liked it! R & R. Flames are only for marshmallows which will then be dipped in Bailey's (which is surprisingly really good).