Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Authors note: Reveiw, please! I love constructive critisism :)

Summary: Hermione is working at a private zoo. When Draco Malfoy turns up for a tour one day, there will be trouble. But what is Malfoy trying to do in a place full of muggles? Surely he should be running away with a scream?

Lions and Snakes

"Malfoy?" Hermione gasped, her face written over with pure shock. He was walking (swaggering) towards her boss, who had his back to the boy, a simple look of curiosity in his eyes. Hermione looked deeper, searching for some small sign of disgust, but found she couldn't see from this distance.

He was closing the space between them, and Hermione couldn't help herself. She practically dove between them, wrapping her fingers tightly around his fist and dragging him to the side before throwing it away from her.

"Good morning, Granger." He greeted pleasantly.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed in response, her eyes narrowing. "You do know that these are muggles, don't you? The things you despise more than anything in the world?"

"I know it as well as I do that you are a muggleborn." Draco responded cooly.

"What, no "mudblood"? What the hell is wrong with you, Malfoy? Are you sick?" Hermione was tempted to raise her hand to his forehead, wondering whether he would throw it off in disgust or retain the calm composure he had been wearing so well.

"Manners, Granger. I was only being polite." He scolded lightly.

"You haven't answered my initial question. What are you doing here?" She pressed, although she felt she already knew the reason.

"Curiosity." Hermione didn't beleive that for a second.

"You knew I was working here." She accused.

"Maybe I did." He admitted.

"You wanted to make my perfect job a living hell for the day." She took a step closer to him, narrowing her eyes again. They were only inches apart, 'too close for comfort' as some would say. She was breifly surprised that he didn't step back away from her. In fact, he almost seemed to relish in the closeness.

"I wouldn't go that far." He defended himself, leaning over her.

"Oh, go home, Malfoy!"

"No. I want to look around. I called in this morning, and your boss arranged a tour for me." His smile was smug, and yet not the smirk she had been waiting for. Hermione paused for a minute, shaken into silence by the strange beauty of Draco Malfoy smiling. It was a sight she had never been privelaged to witness before, and it only added to his draw.

Hermione finally shook herself from the stupour, trying to judge whether he was being honest or not. Mr Fowly had said somebody was coming around for a tour, but hadn't mentioned a name. It wasn't something that happened very often - despite the amazing variety of animals there, the private zoo was not particularly well known. Hidden away in the countryside of Cornwall, it was a surprise anyone ever actually turned up on time - it was so easy to get lost. Hermione silently blessed apparation and the cover of trees.

"Whatever, Malfoy. Follow me and keep your comments to yourself." She finally conceded. He looked shocked, though whether to her acceptance or orders she wasn't sure. In fact, she could swear she saw him pout. Now that was a memory to keep.

"I never- " He began to defend.

"Shut up." She interrupted harshly, walking away towards the edge of the courtyard and expecting him to follow. Follow he did, although closer than she had thought. When she stopped at the first cage and spun around, he crashed directly into her. They were frozen in each others gaze for a second, and neither could shake themselves out of it.

He has such beautiful eyes, she thought, stormy grey - no, silver. Melted, stormy silver. As if it's constantly flowling smoothly around his eye. How amazing.

This time, Draco was the one to break it. He turned to look at the long limbed monkeys inside the cage. He watched them for a while, but Hermione continued to surreptiously gaze at him, memorising every feature of his face.

"So what are these?" He suddenly asked her, breaking her concentration.

"Um," she turned to look at them, "they're ring tailed lemurs."

"I like their tails." He told her. She smiled gently, the first smile she had granted him all day. Draco caught it and grinned right back. Hermione gestured to keep walking, a questioning look on her face. He nodded eagerly, grin still in place.

"Why are you working here, then?" He asked, curious. There was none of his usual spite, and that shocked Hermione into answering honestly, rather than telling him to but the hell out of her private business.

"I've loved animals since I was a baby. I always had some sort of pet around me - dogs, cats, birds, rabbits. Usually all at once." He chuckled at her while they gazed at a pair of meerkats skuttering around on the floor. "My father thought it would be a great oppurtunity for me to get some work experience in the muggle world - you know, in case everything fell through with magic - and so my uncle asked his friend to take me on. And I get paid well for my age, too."

He nodded, looking somewhat lost in thought. Instead of waiting for a reply, Hermione gently grasped his wrist and walked him to the next cage. Though she refused to let go of him, once she had hold.

Draco never asked her too.

They veiwed the exotic animals for an hour or so, some of which Draco seemed to know more about than Hermione - his many holidays, he told her. The snakes had obviously been his favourite, and he had been thrilled when she had let him hold the giant python. Eventually, they had finally reached the final enclosure . Or maybe enclosure was a bit far fetched; it was a large feild.

"You have horses here." Draco told her. He was right - in the field before him stood two large horses and a pony, quietly grazing. The pony was black, while one of the horses was piebald brown and white and the other was a buckskin.

"Yes." Hermione agreed with his statement.

"In a private zoo." He continued.

"Well observed." She teased lightly.

"Alongside lions and snakes."

"Top exaggerating, Draco - they were Cervils, not lions." She scolded.

"My point still stands."

We're widely ranged." She explained, a smile curving the corners of her lips.

"I never would have guessed."

"Shut up." She demanded, still smiling.

"You've said that to me a lot, today. I find it rude." He teased.

"Shut the hell up?"

"That's hardly any better."

"Well how about, 'shut the hell up or you'll get a mouth full of fist?"

Draco stayed silent for a little while, although his grin matched Hermione's. After a minute of watching them graze, Hermione spoke up again.

"So, do you know anything about horses?" She asked him.

"Of course I know about horses!" He exclaimed, almost offended. It was comical. "Mother loved them. She taught me to ride when I was six."

"Well, these are fresh off the moors, and-" She began to explain, but apparantly Draco wasn't finished.

"Let's see if I can't remember..." Her hand had slipped from his wrist to his own hand during the course of the day. At some point, their fingers had become intwined, though she hadn't noticed. When he gently pulled away from her, she immediately missed the contact. Only when he had leapt over the fence did she realise what he was doing.

"No, Malfoy! Malfoy, these horses aren't broken in yet! You need to stop!" She shouted towards him, suddenly panicked. She ran up to the wood, struggling to climb over it, before running after Draco. But he was already getting prepared to jump onto the oblivious buckskin horse.

"Nonsense, Granger, watch and learn!" He told her, before vaulting on. The horse immediately panicked, squealing as it spun around, bucking and rearing as she tried to get Draco off of her back.

"No, Malfoy! You could hurt her! Stop it! Get off!" Hermione cried, running towards the horse. She needed to get to him before the horse galloped accross the feild and managed to throw him off.

"Jesus, what's wrong with this thing?" Draco cried out, fear trembling in his voice.

"Malfoy, stop it! Get the hell off!" She finally reached them, grabbing Draco's leg and yanking him from the horse. Immediately the horse took off to the other side of the paddock, where her friends had retreated.

On the ground, the pair had toppled unsteadily over. Hermione found herself straddling Draco's waist, leaning over his face. Her eyes were closed as she tried to steady her breathing and cool her anger. She almost didn't notice when light fingers began dancing patterns on her hips - but she did, and it managed to help calm her further.

"I am so tempted to punch you right now." She threatened him.

"I think I should thank you for -"

"Shut up. I was only doing it for the horse." That was a lie. Of course she had been worried about the horse - her back could have been seriously injured because of his stupid stunt - but the brunt of her fear had been for Draco. The idiot had risked death.

"Whoever you were doing it for. Thank you anyway."

"You're such an idiot." She told him.

"I'm sorry."

"Just shut up while I calm down."

"Granger, I -"

"If you say one more word, I will do something somebody will regret. I wonder who?" Her fingers were flexing in the ground, ready to tighten into a fist and throw it into his face. His fingers were digging deeper into her hips, increasing the tension between them as she fell steadily closer.

"I never -"

The something Hermione proceeded to do was not what either of them had been expecting. Rather than pulling her fist back and promptly throwing it into his face, Hermione leant down and proceeded to cover his lips with her own. She kissed him furiously, angrily, and it took him a second to take in the situation before he responded, equally as passionate.

"Hermione, I-"

"Shut up." She kissed him again, the fury slowly ebbing out as the seconds went by.

"I love you." He finished when the paused for breath. Hermione sat in silence for a while, before dropping her face to his once more.

"So that's why you turned up today." She finally responded, a teasing note in her voice.

"Shut up."

"That's my line" She complained, pouting. He raised an eyebrow at her before she let out a laugh. "I love you too, you great fool. Thank you for making my job a living hell for the day."

"That's a bit extreme, don't you think?"

"Oh shut up, Draco. I can think of much more interesting things to do with that mouth than yap."

"Ah, that would be why you've been telling me to shut up all day - didn't want to give into temptation, Hermione?"

Hermione just grinned, and Draco pulled her down to him again. He didn't care that his shirt was getting filthy in the mud, or that three equestrians were watching them intently. He finally had the beautiful witch in his arms, and he was never going to let her go.