"Jesus, Draco, could you just focus for once." Hermione exclaimed over the cauldron. "If you do even one thing wrong this whole assignment could literally blow up in our faces." She cut her Valerian sprigs and placed them into the cauldron while Draco stirred. "Like this, Granger?" Draco said with a smirk. Hermione kept her head down but looked at the boy up through her bangs. Potions was Draco's best subject, it was clear he was just trying to rile her up.
"Miss Granger, you are aware that you should have added the mandrake root before the Valerian sprigs." Snape came up from behind her startling her. She drop an entire sprig into the cauldron and just as she had predicted, the potion exploded with a large puff of smoke. "Hmm. 50 points from Gryffindor and I would like a 1000 word paper on what you did wrong and why your potion reacted the way that it did." Taking her consequence without any retort, Hermione started to gather her books and clean her workspace. "Here let me give you hand Granger." She looked up and Draco was grabbing a rag to clean up the table. "Thanks?" Draco chuckled. "You know you're cute when you're confused." Confused was definitely the correct term. Especially now. Did Draco just call her cute? She finished gathering her books and put them in her bag. "Here let me walk you to your next class." Hermione could do nothing but stare. "I'm sorry did something hit you in the head when the cauldron exploded?" Again Draco laughed. "No. I'm perfectly fine. Can't a guy help a pretty girl carry her books to class?" Hermione looked around the room and it seemed the exchange had caught some attention. Ron's jaw was almost literally on the ground and Harry looked somewhere between shock and anger. But their looks paled in comparison to Pansy's. "Pretty girl?! She's a pretty girl?! She's a filthy mudblood Draco! How could you think she's a pretty girl!" Her shrieks could have rivaled that of a banshee. Snape stepped from his desk. "That language will not be tolerated in my classroom Miss Parkinson. And you all need to clear the room as I have first years coming in." The students funneled out of the door, Hermione going with Harry and Ron, attempting to avoid another awkward interaction with Draco. "Granger! Wait up!" Well, so much for that plan. "Hey can I talk to you for a second. Alone." He added the last part while giving a knowing look at the other boys. Taking a deep breath, Hermione followed Draco into an empty classroom off the corridor. "Listen. I don't know what's going on with you but it's…" Her words were cut off as Draco suddenly closed the space between them and kissed her. Hermione held her hands out in shock. "What are you doing? Is this some kind of joke? Should I be expecting Pansy or one of your goons to pop out from behind one of these desks?" Draco stroked her arm and she backed away. "Look Granger. I don't know what's going on either but I have an overwhelming need to be close to you. To tell you how I feel. To be honest, it's how I've felt for a long time." He leaned in again but Hermione backed away. "Draco we have to get to class. Perhaps you should go see Madame Pomfrey. That accident really seemed to mess with your head." Draco's expression changed quicker than Boggart reacts to a riddikulus spell. "Why are you mocking my feelings!? Why do you assume something is wrong because I finally have the courage to tell you how I feel." Hermione continued to back away and backed right into Professor Snape. "Professor, I'm sorry sir, I didn't see you." Snape was as stone faced as always. "Your fellow students heard the commotion you were creating from out in the hallway. I usually would not involve myself in such matters but I was looking for you two. It seems there may have been a side effect to that atrocity of a potion you created in class Miss Granger." Hermione looked at Draco with her signature know-it-all smile. "It seems that you inadvertently have created some sort of airborne truth serum. I would be very careful about what you say today Mr. Malfoy. There's no telling how long this effects could last but as I don't see the harm in the truth I won't be in any hurry to fix your mistake Miss Granger." He spun Around, his cloak billowing behind him as usual. Hermione could feel Draco's gaze on the back of her head. "Okay but technically I was right. Something did happen to you when the potion exploded." She said with an awkward half laugh. "Let's go to class and then we can talk about this later" Hermione left the classroom in a hurry. Harry and Ron had waited for her outside the Charms classroom. "What did Malfoy want?" Hermione decided to not tell the boys about their discussion. "He was begging for me to tutor him in Transfiguration. Seems he's having trouble turning his pig into a writing desk." The trio entered the room.
Hermione successfully navigated herself out of Draco's path. That evening she was sitting in the common room working on her assignment from Snape. "Aha! I've got it!" The boys looked at each other as their friend hopped out of her chair and left the room through the portrait hole.
Hermione made her way down to Professor Snape's office and was lucky enough to find the Professor at his desk. "Sir. I think I have found the way to reverse the effects of what has happened, or what I did, to Draco. But I need to create a new potion." Snape contemplated her request and made a look as if he were about to completely deny her but then said, " By all means Miss Granger. I will admit Mr Malfoy's constant dribble of truth is getting rather annoying. I will go retrieve him while you work." Hermione got to work as Snape left the room. She carefully mixed the ingredients and fell into a rhythm. It was such a different experience to be able to do this with no distractions. She could see now why Draco and even Snape loved Potions so much. It could be rather relaxing. As she dropped in the last ingredient, Draco walked into the room. "And here I thought you were avoiding me Granger." He lingered near the door before walking around the room. "So are we finally going to have this conversation?" Hermione took a spoon from the table and filled it with potion. "Could you please just drink this? You'll thank me for it. Or not. At least then I'll know you're back to normal." Draco looked at the ground and then back at her with a smile that made Hermione's heart skip a beat. He covered her hand with his own and drank the potion. He swallowed it and looked back at her. "Could have used a little peppermint perhaps but not bad." What was going on? Hermione knew that she had gotten this potion perfect this time. "Oh I see that look Granger. You antidote worked. The sky is purple, the grass is pink, and Snape likes to dress up in pretty dresses. See all lies. But what's the point in hiding my feelings now. You know they were true." He closed the space between them again but stopped short. Hermione could smell his cologne and her mind started to swim. She left a quick kiss on his cheek and smiled. She didn't know where this would go but perhaps her one mishap had a positive outcome in the end.