It started in fourth year, their meetings, or so Hermione liked to call them because they were not really meetings, just glances and looks given to each other while passing in the corridors and small one-line conversations during the classes if they happened to be close to each other. Hermione hadn't really started them deliberately or with any intention of having any cordial relationship with Malfoy, but they just happened. From what she recalled, neither she nor Malfoy had been exactly friendly with each other, but they always seemed to have something to say to each other. Most of the times she had felt like hitting him again like in third year but she still carried on those secret rendezvous and conversations with him. She remembered how it had happened the first time..............................

It was the Yule Ball, and the bell chimes told 11'O clock. Hermione had sat down with Harry and Ron, feeling hot from dancing when Ron had started on her for 'fraternising with the enemy'. In the end she got up, frustrated, and came out of the Great Hall, and into the Entrance Hallway. A lot of girls were standing there. One of them noticed her and nudged her partner, immediately the whole group was glaring at her. She recognised them, it was the Viktor Krum fan club and these girls constantly followed him everywhere he went. As the girls started whispering to each other about Hermione, (taking care to be loud enough- 'what does he see in her?', and 'he rejected me for her!' and 'I don't see anything so extraordinary.') she couldn't take it. Her mind was on Ron, she had been wondering how to identify the reason behind his stupid behaviour minutes ago and whether it showed that he was jealous- of Hermione or of Victor, she didn't know that, when the girls started talking about Krum. And suddenly she remembered what Ginny had whispered to her before leaving for the ball-about the possibility of Viktor kissing her. Even thinking about kissing anyone let alone Viktor Bloody Krum made Hermione blush.

Suddenly the Entrance Hallway seemed to have turned hotter, stifling. She needed air, cold air. She moved away immediately towards the entrance door, turned the fat doorknob and stepped outside. She wasn't sure that she was supposed to be out here but she could tell that there must be couples out here, in the bushes. The thought almost made her go back but she needed the cold air. It was December and she was clad in a thin, no arms floaty dress but she still walked away, eager for the coldness to engulf her, to make her alert. She walked down the stairs briskly, afraid that anyone would see her, and turned left to go behind the castle where she knew the area would be deserted because there were no bushes there. Already the cold had started affecting her; she rubbed her palms on her bare arm, breathing through her mouth. As she came to the clearing beside the tress, she sighed, the night looked spectacular. The sky was inky black with stars twinkling like diamonds. It was all quiet here, and the place suddenly seemed spiritual, soothing, as compared to the faint din of the party that she had left behind. In the distance, she could see Hagrid's hut, all black now, giving it a very medieval look as if it belonged to an ancient time. She inhaled the smell of air around her and stood by the cold wall, taking its support, finally feeling calm after the whole day.

Suddenly someone coughed; the sound came from her right, from the trees. Hermione jumped and gave a tiny shriek. Then came the sound of jumping, and she heard a boy swear.

"What the fuck!"

"Who's there?" Hermione asked. Already her wand was out and pointing at the direction from where the sound came.

"I'd like to know the same thing," said a drawling voice.

She immediately recognized his voice. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?" she snapped.

"Who's that?" he asked, a little more irritated. Then a beam of light fell from his wand on her, Hermione straightened her hand, ready to tackle any curse if it came sailing.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here." He said. "The Lady Mudblood herself." Hermione knew that talking to Draco Son-of-a-bitch Malfoy was useless. All she'll get from him are taunts and insults. She immediately turned away to go back in the castle, knowing it was useless standing there anymore. Malfoy followed her.

"Off to your surly boyfriend?" He drawled from behind.

Hermione made no reply.

"I wonder why he chose you as his special date when he could have had dozens better."
"Don't let him get your buttons," Hermione told herself. Her walk became brisk.

"Oh, in a hurry, are we?" He had noticed. "Why the sudden hurry, when you'd been standing there for Merlin knows how long?"

Again she made no reply, but silently climbed the steps to Entrance gate which were bathed in moonlight.

"Oh, I know, you must have been thinking how to get the answer of the clue from Potter to give Krum, right, Granger?"

Hermione turned fiercely, and skidded slightly on the cold glazed surface of the marble floor under her, and caught hold of Malfoy's neck to support her body accidently. He had been just behind her so that meant that meant that there was not much space between them. Hermione had not meant to do it, but in order to balance herself she ended up holding his neck. For a moment, Malfoy looked frightened.

The expression he had on his face was too much, she couldn't help laughing. As she laughed, Malfoy regained his manliness and pushed her away, making a disgusted face.

"How dare you touch me, Mudblood?" He said.

Unlike before, his words deeply affected Hermione. She liked to say they affected her, but it actually means that Malfoy pissed her off real bad. It entered her mind, the indifferent disgust in his voice, full of malice and hatred. Her hand rose involuntarily, she didn't consciously remember making the decision, but her hand was up and she was going to slap him again, (were they making it a ritual, a slap for Malfoy from Hermione every year?) when he caught it. He looked slightly surprised at his own action for a moment but then her hand was in his vice like grip and he was twisting it.

"Ouch," Hermione said softly, and immediately regretted it because of the look of satisfaction it brought on Malfoy's face.

"Yeah, ouch." He said, twisting her hand more. Her wand dropped from her other hand as she tried to free herself from his grip. "You were going to slap me again, huh, Granger? Again? How dare you, you filthy-"

But he suddenly stopped. Hermione looked up; she had been looking down, biting down a cry that was in her throat as she tried pry Malfoy's fingers from her hand. It was then that she noticed how close they both were standing to each other; she was almost nose-to-nose with Malfoy.

The expression she saw in his eyes did not match with the action he was doing at the moment. He was looking at her so intently, so deeply, directly into her eyes, that she stopped struggling. His breath fell on her face, and just like the cold, it made her hair stand up.

Malfoy had also noticed how things had progressed and how they were practically standing there half hugging-half wrestling. He jerked his hands away from her and stepped back. He stared at her as if seeing her for the first time or as if she had changed in some way in front of him. She stared back, astonished, trying to decipher the strange look on his face.

Then he side-stepped her and opened the entrance door and walked away as of nothing that had just happened had happened. The din of the party still going on inside in the great hall hit Hermione, who had her back to the door, then the door shut back and there was silence again.

She kept standing there transfixed, whether in shock or just to give Malfoy enough time to move away so that she doesn't see him on her way back. She was not going to return to the party, let Viktor Krum go to hell. Her hand had started paining slightly and she was done for the night. She turned and stooped to pick up her wand and then slowly walked to the door and pushed her hand out to open it. She didn't need to; it was opening on its own. It was Hagrid, coming out of the party with a lost look on his face. Hermione cowered slightly, cursing her ill luck to be seen by Hagrid there, but he passed her without noticing her. It seemed like the ball hadn't gone nice for most of the people.

She shut the door after her and made her way across sleepy couples surrounding the entrance hall area. She took the stairs, holding her left hand in right, making way across girls sitting surrounding a crying girl in the middle. If she had turned back to look at the great hall's entrance, she would have seen the gray eyes that followed her till she went out of their vision.

Author's Note: Hi! This is my first time at Dracomione fics. Please leave a review if you liked it!