Chapter One

"Draco! I swear on my life that I will cut you to pieces if you lay a hand on Colin again!" The seventeen-year-old Hermione Granger screamed from the base of the oak tree Colin had been dangling from moments before. Her wand was outstretched, tip to throat, mimicking the incident they had had in their third year at Hogwarts. The truth was that she was hiding the fact that she was so damn sick of saving people, of being a hero. She was sick of never getting anything in return for all her hard work.

Draco smirked widely. He was not the same scared boy he had been in third year. He was not about to let this witch get the best of him again. "You'll cut me to pieces?" Draco questioned hotly. "Somehow, I really doubt that, Granger."

Hermione pulled back her fist and thrust it towards Draco's face. Draco slid his head to his right side, causing Hermione to hit her hand off of the tree trunk behind him. She wailed almost instantly, tears streaming down her face. She had not expected him to do that.

Draco scoffed for a moment and was about to leave, but then realizing that Hermione probably broke her hand, decided that he shouldn't leave her here. He knew that she would tell the professors what he had done to Colin, but perhaps if he helped her to the Hospital Wing, she would be merciful just this once. And that's how it all started – Draco just wanted to avoid detention. He never planned on Hermione Granger needing him, but that is what happened.

Draco picked Hermione up, cradling her like he was carrying her across the threshold after their wedding.

"Put me down, Malfoy," she managed softly with tears in her eyes. Draco couldn't believe how angry she still sounded with such a quiet voice.

"I'm taking you to the Hospital Wing," he said while looking straight ahead and not into her eyes. The truth was, he couldn't believe how good she felt in his arms. Little did he know, Hermione was thinking the exact same thing.

"I loathe you," she said.

"Good."

His strides grew longer. He wanted to get her away from him as fast as possible so that he could stop feeling her slender curves next to his body. It was making it difficult for him to keep himself "composed." Draco Malfoy certainly did not want these sexual feelings for a mudblood. The fact of the matter remained that Hermione was quite the "hottie" these days. Draco hated her with every ounce of his being, but that didn't hide the fact that he desperately wanted to throw her down on the ground and kiss every inch of her body.

As they approached the Hospital Wing, Hermione leapt out of Draco's arms without any prior warning. In doing so, she pushed on his chest quite hard and actually ended up stepping on his foot. She held her hand tightly to avoid causing further injury – to herself that is. Draco winced slightly but never lost his handsome composure.

"Don't tell anyone that I helped you out," he commanded as she grew farther away. "It's too embarrassing to even say out loud."

"Malfoy, the only thing that anyone is going to hear out of my lips is how big of an asshole you are, you great prat!" She fumed.

"Perfect. So we are in agreement," he said with a half smirk.

Hermione breathed out quickly. "Why do you insist on hurting me so much?"

Draco considered his answer quickly. "Perhaps it's because you are more attractive when you are pissed off."

Hermione was about to say 'Whatever,' when she realized what he had actually said. "Attractive?" Hermione was thrown off by his comment. She knew that that was precisely the reason why he had said it in the first place. Hermione knew that Draco would do anything to get under her skin, but she had no idea how much he wanted to rub his hands all over it. "What is your problem? Do you think I'm stupid?" She had tears in her eyes. It was mostly from the pain of her hand, but now there was an extra amount of drama that sent her over her breaking point.

Draco smiled with the left half of his mouth only. He was just about to open his mouth to speak when Madame Pomfrey beat him to it.

"My goodness! Miss Granger, what has happened to you?" She questioned with a small frenzied voice.

Draco looked at Hermione waiting for her to rat him out. It surprised him greatly when she answered, "I was being very rude to Mr. Malfoy here. I tried to hit him, and he fortunately got away from me. I ended up hitting my own hand, just like I really deserved." Hermione had always been a noble girl. Placing blame on Malfoy would only lead to more and more troubles with him; the cycle would never end unless she helped to stop it. Plus, Hermione needed Draco.

Draco raised an eyebrow at her. Hermione looked back into his eyes and for once saw something that she had never noticed before – humanity. It was really there after all.

"And Mr. Malfoy brought you all the way here?" She asked skeptically.

"Yes, he was very considerate of my injury. Even after I had been awful to him, he still helped me out."

"Well that's lovely," Pomfrey said delightedly. She took out her wand and healed Hermione's hand in a matter of seconds. "Have a nice day, and please be more careful. Thank you for being a gentleman," she said while looking at Draco. It was the first time he had ever heard those words. He nodded curtly and turned to walk to the Slytherin common room.

As Draco kept a comfortably fast pace down the hallway, Hermione caught up with him. "This isn't over," she said with a hotness still in her voice. Now that the pain was gone, there was only frustration left.

"I really think it is," Malfoy sneered. "You shouldn't defend me like that. It's confusing."

"Well I'm glad that you are the one that is being confused for once in our damn lives!" She grabbed his wrist to stop him from going any farther.

He inadvertently snarled slightly at her. "What the hell do you want, Mudblood?"

She winced and then ignored the hateful slur. "I want this to be over. I want to call a truce. God, you could even say I want to be your friend," she breathed out with the most stressed out voice she could manage.

Draco narrowed his eyes at her. "We can never be friends. I am a Malfoy, you are a mudblood. My parents work for the ministry, and your parents are muggles. I'm a Slytherin, you are a Gryffindor. We are complete and total opposites."

"It has nothing to do with all of that," she said desperately. "I can tell that this is personal. It's always been personal. What do you hate about me?"

"You are too damn perfect. You're a fucking poster child for being perfect. I hate that. Isn't that enough?"

Her eyes flashed a quick sadness. "No. I don't think that is enough, Draco. First of all, I am not perfect. Second of all, even if I was perfect that is not a reason to hate me. And I'm not as good as you may think. I'm," she paused trying to find the words that would make her sound the way she wanted to come across, "envious."

"Of what? Not that I really care."

"Of you," she hid the tears in her eyes by looking down at the ground. "Of your life and your friends. I'm jealous of watching you have fun and get everything you want, especially when I'm miserable and doing everything for everyone except myself!" She clenched her fists and closed her eyes tightly.

Draco's expression softened. She was jealous of him? "And what do you want me to do about that?" At this point, Draco probably would do her any favors that she asked, if he actually could.

Hermione had known for a while what he could do for her. "You're having a party tonight, aren't you? In your common room?" Draco nodded, so Hermione continued. "I've heard about your parties. Supposedly they are wild and crazy fun. You all get wasted and hook up with random people. Or something to that effect, right? "

Draco tilted his head sideways. "Something like that. What do you want Granger?"

"I want to go. It's as simple as that. I want to go and not be made fun of for being there. I want to fit in like I'm supposed to be there," Hermione ran her hand through her hair. "For just once, I want to have a good time and not be all in control. I've never been drunk. I've never hooked up with anyone. And why? So I don't tarnish my reputation? I want it to be tarnished! Just like yours, Draco! You have this whole bad-boy thing working for you, and I want that for myself. Please."

Draco was completely baffled by her request. "Well that's never going to happen, Granger. There is no way that my friends are going to accept the fact that you are there. Not a chance. We don't even invite many Ravenclaws to our parties, let alone Gryffindors. Especially you."

Hermione was not an idiot. "Don't you think I've already thought of all of that? I have a spell."

"A spell for what?"

"A spell that will make all of them not realize that I don't belong there. It's full proof."

"What makes you think that I'll do this for you?" Draco asked her. "What's your angle?"

"Why wouldn't you do this? Instead of me giving you a hard time all the time, I want to out and have fun with you. Shouldn't you be happy?"

"Well if you've thought of all of this, then why do you need my help?" Draco was actually considering doing this for her, and he couldn't believe how seriously she was taking this.

"Isn't it obvious?" She asked with a grin. "I need the password."