But There Is

A/N : One-shot – the start of a new romance. Goes with Underneath it All – sort of. Draco Malfoy's POV.

Suggestion : Listen to Can't Get You Out of my Head by Kylie Minouge while you read this. It sets the mood. (Look for the ***)

DISCLAIMER : I do not own any thing affiliated with Harry Potter that is mentioned in this story.

Now we begin…

Draco sighed before heading out of the Charms classroom to join the steady stream of students heading towards the Great Hall. It was so crowded and down-right annoying to have to actually make contact with all of these people so that he could eat lunch. It wouldn't have been so bad if there were some attractive girls that he had to "accidentally" brush past, but, that wasn't the case at Hogwarts. None of the girls there appealed to him. Many of them were complete idiots that only cared about their looks, while the rest of them cared about nothing but school. It was a shame that there wasn't a girl that was a good mix – pretty and intelligent.

'But there is,' a little voice inside Draco's head interjected.


Draco shook his head. Hearing voices inside his head was never a good thing – he needed food; he was hungry and had missed breakfast. If having to shove past all of these people was the only way to get to the Great Hall soon, then shove he would.

Without a moment's though, Draco pushed past a small group of First Year Ravenclaws who were just standing there and gossiping about Merlin knew what. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only obstacle in his way. It was too bad that Crabbe and Goyle hadn't managed and OWL in Charms – at least they'd be able to push away everyone so that Draco would have been able to get to the Great Hall. They were probably stuffing their faces by now.

After snaking around several other groups of people, Draco was nearly there. He still had to get past a group of Fifth Year Gryffindors.

'Perhaps it won't be that bad,' Draco thought; noticing that the youngest Weasley was in that group. It was so easy to torment the Weasley's – they had such high tempers and got angry at nothing; it was quite amusing to watch – especially since they turned as red as their hair.

"Weaslette," Draco snarled, as he bumped into Ginny.

Ginny glared at him before turning back to her conversation.

"What, no hello?" Draco asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Sod off, Malfoy," Ginny retorted, starting to turn the trademark Weasley red.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I'm hurt, Weaslette," he replied, feigning hurt.

Ginny was positively fuming, but before she could say anything, Draco brushed past her, pushing her away.

Draco had had his fun, but now he was hungry. Fun as it was, his hunger would come first.

By now, the halls were fairly empty of students – only a few were left milling around. Had the halls been completely deserted, Draco would have broken in to a run. Bur Malfoys never fun – to or from anything; ever. So, Draco walked as quickly as he could while maintaining an aura of dignity around himself.

Soon enough, the doors to the Great Hall were in full view; unfortunately, Harry and Ron just had to be standing there, blocking his path – but where was the other part of the Dream Team?

The hall was slowly filling up with other students – there was no time to think about where the Mudblood was.

*** cue music ***

As if on cue, Hermione started to walk towards the Great Hall. Draco could easily pick her out of the crowd of people; there was something about her that made you notice her. Perhaps it was the smile on her face, or the way that she held herself with confidence, or maybe it was the fact that she looked different appearance-wise – she was no longer the small bushy-haired little bookworm anymore. She had grown into a woman that wasn't torture to look at.

Draco stared at her in awe as she weaved her way in between people towards her two best friends who seemed oblivious that someone so beautiful would grace their presence.

*** stop music (unless you want to keep playing it, lolz) ***

While her friends were busy talking about Merlin knows what, Hermione tripped over the hem of her robes. Her books dropped out of her hands as she tried to regain her balance; a look of shock and panic fell upon her delicate features. Without pausing to think about what he was doing, Draco ran back to her through all the people to try and catch her. He made it just in time - Hermione fell right into his arms.

For a moment, Draco stood there holding Hermione, admiring her while she was in his arms. As he snapped back to reality, he realized what he had just done, and looked horrified, not knowing what to do. Had anyone seen him?

Hermione didn't know who had caught her, for as she was about to turn around, she felt the person lifting her to her feet and then letting go of her. She turned to see if she could catch them, but all she could see was a crowd of people – whoever it was must have slipped back into the crowd, unnoticed.

~*~