A/N: First off a disclaimer, I do not own anything. Now I won't bore everyone with a big long author's note but I just wanted to let yall all know that while I do have a basic idea for the story, that really is all I do know. I will try my hardest to update weekly but I have to work to pay my college tuition so I may take longer than a week to update. Also I really wanted to avoid cliches but well sometimes things can't be helped.
Now the story disregards the last two books and the war is over, no more Voldemort ect. No Professor Dumbledore though, sorry guys I did have to keep some things canon. Well now on with the story, I like reviews and constructive criticism.
Loud pounding jarred Hermione from her first decent night of sleep in a week. Between studying, her friends, and dealing with Malfoy she had taken it upon herself to pull too many all-nighters and now she was paying for it. Pulling her pillow over her head, she tried to ignore the noise and succumb to the wonderful lure of sleep but no such luck for Hermione as the pounding continued on and became increasingly louder. She roughly yanked away her pillow and tossed it aside, as it had done nothing to help block the noise. Shuffling closer to her nightstand, she searched around blindly to check the time, but accidently knocked her clock onto the floor in the process. Groaning in disbelief, Hermione tossed back her covers and crawled out of bed to find her stupid clock. By the time she found it, conveniently hidden under the bed, the coldness had seeped through her pajamas and cleared her mind of sleep. According to her timepiece, it was just after two in the morning and her once lovely night of sleep was now nothing more than a distant thought.
Leaving her clock on the floor, Hermione grumbled to herself as she made her way to the source of her problem. Turning on the lights, she pushed her hair out of the way and squinted her eyes at the brightness of her room. The four-poster bed looked invitingly rumpled and the floor was mostly spotless except for her study corner. The desk held nothing more then an organizer and some pens. Looking back at her bed once more with a sad sigh, she exited her wonderful private room and crossed the common room. It was nights like this that the perks of being Head Girl were not worth the aggravation of dealing with the Head Boy, because she just knew he was the reason for her being out of bed at this hour.
This kind of thing happened once in a while but it was never this late at night. Every now and then Hogwarts own Head Boy, Draco Malfoy, would be locked out the common room, leaving her with the unwanted duty of letting him back in. It was his entire fault really, he just had to insult the portrait guarding their common room and in retaliation Sir William liked to change the password to piss him off. Luckily for Hermione, Sir William had taken a liking to her and didn't make her suffer the same fate as Malfoy. The only thing that bothered her was that this situation only ever happened in the early evenings and well before curfew. Her brows furrowed in confusion but her tired mind refused to process any real conclusions.
Pulling the door open and glaring she asked the obvious question, "So what did you say this time?"
"Nothing, the freaking portrait must have decided to go on a midnight stroll."
Malfoy stepped into the common room with a fierce scowl and bitter curses dropping from his lips. Most of his phrasing had something to do with permanent damage to the painting but he seemed to run out of steam once he collapsed on the couch. Hermione stood back and watched as he stalked passed her without one considerate word. It shouldn't surprise her but it was just so late, the least he could do was offer her a thank you.
"Just to let you know, it's actually around two in the morning and since you are not suppose to be out roaming about, Sir William can do as he pleases."
Malfoy just rolled his eyes and grunted in annoyance but did not offer any other acknowledgement. Hermione's brows furrowed and concern for the ungrateful prat began to overtake her anger. After all this was not his normal behavior, he usually bantered playfully with her for a bit before smugly going off to bed knowing she would stay up for hours overanalyzing their conversation. Maybe something was wrong or something bad had happened?
"Malfoy is everything ok?" Hermione tentatively questioned while making her way to the couch.
"Not now Granger. I really am not in the mood to deal with your know it all self."
Malfoy lifted his head up and scowled at her like she was the cause of all his problems; all thoughts of concern left her mind as she frowned down at him.
"Well excuse me for having a slight twinge of concern. You come in here and offer me the silent treatment; of course I am going to wonder what the hell your problem was. It is not my fault the only side of you I have ever witnessed is your sarcasm and barbaric manners. I have never seen you exhibit normal behavior."
Her last statement was technically false, but Malfoy did not really need to know that.
"You know Granger, that was probably a lovely speech but I can tell you right now that I didn't listen to a word you said, so do me a favor and shut up."
He groaned and let his head drop back to the couch but instead of dropping his hands he brought them up to massage his temples. Now Hermione was beginning to wonder if she had been right from the start. Something really was bothering Malfoy. A headache would be no problem to fix but if it was anything more serious, then she was going to have to convince him to go to the hospital wing. She went to her room for a headache remedy she always kept around, since the greatest source of her headaches was Malfoy himself.
Walking back into the common room with the small bottle of headache potion and a cold damp washcloth, Hermione noticed nothing had changed. Malfoy still reclined on the couch and even though he appeared asleep, his frowned deepened with the sound of her approach. Laying the washcloth across his forehead and ignoring the surprised look in his now open eyes, she offered the bottle of potion.
"Here."
Malfoy eyed the potion suspiciously but took it and popped the top. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and let the washcloth fall to his lap.
Before he drank it, Malfoy raised his eyes to meet Hermione's and asked, "You aren't planning on poisoning me, Granger?"
Hermione shrugged giving him a mysterious grin.
"You'll just have to drink it and find out, won't you Malfoy?"
He gave a tiny smirk then raised the bottle in a mock toast before downing the contents, making a disgusted face when he swallowed.
"Granger that was revolting."
"It will take a few minutes to take effect but you should be fine, if a headache was your only issue."
"Please like a minor headache would cause me that much pain, it was a migraine," Malfoy corrected indignantly.
Hermione rolled her eyes at his attempts to sound macho. She pushed his feet off the couch and sat on the opposite end. Malfoy raised an eyebrow at her behavior but did not comment, as it was he already owed her for the medicine and lets not forget letting him into his own common room.
Folding her legs under her, Hermione sat facing Malfoy with her back resting against the armrest. Making sure she was comfortable Hermione settled in for the inquisition.
"Ok, so are you going to tell me what happened?"
"And how is it any of your business, Granger?"
"Well Malfoy, as Head Girl it is my responsibility to report misbehaving students and I am sure Headmistress McGonagall would love to know about the Head Boy's late night. In fact, I am sure she would agree with me that it is a blatant disregard of the rules and that you are abusing your position of power," finished Hermione with a smile.
"It is times like this that I think you would have made a great Slytherin," said Malfoy running a hand through his hair, "all right I will tell you but don't freak out on me when you don't like what I have say."
Hermione nodded and replied, "Fine."
"Well this is the first and last time I ever agree to go on a date with a girl from Hufflepuff. She was clingy and needy and talked my head off. Why do you think I came in with a migraine? The girl would not shut up and the perfume she bathed in before hand was so nauseating, I felt like being sick. Then to top it all off, she refused to let me end the date, always making up some kind of crappy excuse. I was lucky Filch almost caught us or I never would have escaped"
Hermione sat there in shock. Getting up in the middle of the night and being concerned for the jerk all because of a bad date, oh Malfoy was going to pay. Grabbing a pillow on the couch, she threw it at his head. The only damage it did was mess up his hair but the angry glare he gave her made his thoughts very clear.
"What the hell, Granger? I told you were not going to like what I had to say, no need to resort to muggle violence."
Hermione spoke in a strained tone; "You mean to tell me that the reason why I am up at this hour is because I was worried over a bad date!"
Malfoy shrugged and answered, "Well I never made you wake up or worry, so that's not really my fault."
Hermione threw another pillow at him.
"Stop throwing those pillows, you mad woman!"
"Of course, it's your fault Malfoy," shriek Hermione, "you were pounding on the door and I had to get up or the noise would never have stopped. Besides I am not like you, I couldn't just ignore a person in need. Then you come in, without even a thank you, groaning and acting like a wounded animal. So of course I had to try and help only to find out everything I had done tonight in concern for you was nothing more than a bad date!"
"Honestly Granger, if you knew the girl, you would completely understand where I am coming from."
Hermione had jumped up in the middle of her speech and her breathing was a little erratic at this point from her passionate words. Malfoy was completely relaxed and did not look affected by her words at all. Hermione dropped back down on the couch with a sigh, the fight completely out of her. She really was too tired for this.
"Who was the girl?" She asked indifferently.
"Megan Jones."
Hermione wrinkled her nose in distaste. In the past, Hermione had had a few run-ins with the girl and that had been enough.
"Megan Jones? What on earth possessed you to go out with her?"
Malfoy smirked.
"Why Granger, you sound jealous."
"In your dreams, Malfoy." Hermione answered while leveling a glare at him.
"No darling more like my nightmares but then again after my date tonight, which was due to me being completely mislead, I would take just about anyone but her."
Hermione raised a skeptical eyebrow at this comment.
"How exactly were you mislead?"
"Blaise was pissed because the girl he wanted, spent their whole date talking about how great I am, so he decided to get even, which sucks because I don't even know the girl. So he sets up a blind date for me; not telling me why or that he is pissed at me, and so I was like why not? Big freaking mistake! Tomorrow that asshole is going to get what's coming to him though."
"Just brag about what an amazing time you had, then convince him to go on a date with Megan. He will be angry because his plan back fired so he will want to steal her from you and you will get your revenge because in reality she is impossible to deal with."
Malfoy started laughing and pushed himself off the couch. He walked over to where she resided on the couch and leaned down to her level, looking in her eyes he gave the most dashing smirk in his repertoire.
"I'm telling you Granger, sometimes you're positively Slytherin."
He then did the most shocking thing ever. He leaned down further and pressed a kiss to her forehead. He straightened back up and gave her another heart melting grin and a wink before going off to his private room.
Hermione sat completely still on the couch after Malfoy left. She could still feel his lips on her forehead and the smell of him in her nose. Her mind was traveling at light speed but it was going around in circles preventing her from comprehending anything. Tonight had been very unusual, all she knew was that she had helped Malfoy out and in the end he had kissed her. Well now sleep was completely out of the question, maybe it was time to advance in her study of potions, after all she was only four chapters ahead.