A/N: As you all know, I don't own any of the characters, setting or anything that falls into that category. I hope you all enjoy it, sorry its been a while since my last story... just hadn't had any ideas come to mind. Anywho, review! :)
Hermione Granger sat in the Great Hall trying her hardest to engage herself in the conversation Ron and Harry where having; something about Quidditch. Not that she was too crazy about Quidditch, but she normally had something to say. Not today though. Something else had stolen all her attention. Well, more like someone else. A certain someone on the clear opposite side on the room. Someone who she had no bisness stealing glances at, thinking about, and becoming addicted to. Someone with melted silver eyes, devilishly sexy smirk and brilliantly blond hair.
She glanced up from her untouched plate of food and looked toward the Slytherin's table. There, Draco Malfoy sat in all his beauty, surrounded by his usual gang of cronies. Draco glanced up and their gaze caught. She wanted to look away, but there was something in his eyes that was making it impossible to look away. Maybe it was that fact that he hadn't looked away yet, either. Whatever it was, it was keeping her stare. Pulling her in with some invisible force, making her think things that she should not be, considering who he was.
"Hermione?" Ron called to her.
She shook lightly, as if to help herself to pull away from Draco's stare. "Sorry, dazed off." She responded, finally able to look away from Draco's magnetic stare.
"You're going to the Quidditch game tomorrow, right? Or did you want to get a head start on Snape's essay?" Ron asked her, even though the question seemed pointless. Hermione always went to the Quidditch games, even if she had homework that needed to be done.
"Of course, wouldn't miss Harry play. Who's it against, again?" She asked as she forced thoughts out of her head that involved Draco and dark rooms.
"Slytherin." Harry said in between bites of mashed potatoes.
Harry and Ron indulged themselves into a conversation involving how Slytherin was going to get their rear end handed to them on a silver platter at tomorrows match. Hermione, on the other hand, chose not to contribute to the conversation. She was having this irking feeling like someone was watching her. Of course she wanted to look up, it was taking everything out of her not to, but she feared who it might be looking at her; if anyone. Against her better judgment, she took a deep breath and glanced up. Only for a split second, her eyes landed, once again, upon Draco's cold stare. It was as if he was trying to stare into her soul, or maybe that's just how his sexy stare is. Either way, she was slightly scared. Scared at the reason he would be looking at her so intensely, had he seen right through her earlier? Merlin's beard, she hoped not.
Quickly, she turned her eyes back down to the table. What she needed right now was to get out of the same room that Draco was in. It might have been nothing, him looking at her like that, but she didn't want to find out the hard way. Hell, it could have been just some new way he thought up to mess with her. Again, she still wanted to leave and quickly.
"I'm going to head back to the common room, I'll see you guys there." Hermione didn't wait for a response from her companions as she grabbed her bag and made her way to the entrance of the Great Hall. She didn't look over her shoulder as she pulled on the handle of the massive door and walked out of the hall, something told her that she should have, though.
As she made her way thought the corridors of Hogwarts towards her destination, she couldn't help but think about Draco. Not exactly about him, more like, why she had this random attraction towards him. Sure, his eyes looked as if they where crafted by the hands of angels. So what is he had the most perfect skin out of everyone she had ever met? True, on a daily basis, you could see his upper arm muscles and perfectly built torso through his uniform; which will make any girl drool. And last, his absolutely beautiful hair. Which, for some reason, made him look mysterious, maybe it was the way it falls against his forehead. Other than that, what the hell was there for Hermione to be attracted to? He had been an ass to her since her first day at Hogwarts; calling her all sorts of names and... well being a jerk. The rumors that floated around the school about him didn't help to lessen Hermione's attraction. Apparently, he was being called 'The Slytherin Sex God'.....
Before Hermione knew it, she was in fount of the portrait to the Griffindor common room.
"Password?" The Fat Lady asked.
"Pig Snout."
The portrait open and Hermione stepped into the cozy common room. Most of her housemates where still down in the Great Hall, enjoying the dinner that Hermione was unable to. With the common room completely empty, Hermione had the option of sitting where ever her heart desired. Instead of choosing her favorite seat, the plush chairs in fount of the roaring fire, she choose a table in the far corner of the common room and began to remove some of her school books from her bag. If she was going to attend the Quidditch game the next day, which she had every intention of doing, she would like to get a bit of a start on her homework; Professor Snape had a knack for assigning extra homework to the Gryffindors if there was a Quidditch game they where to be playing in coming up.
She flipped open her Potions book to the correct chapter and began to search some information that would be useful to her essay. As she searched, she found it harder and harder to actually take in the information her eyes where traveling over. Hermiones thoughts kept drifting back to Draco. There was something odd about the way her was staring at her in the Great Hall that was leaving her in a twist. But, then again, there was something so sexy about his intense glare that was driving her crazy. She needed to know what the hell he was up to, if anything. No, what she really needed to do was this essay that she had started on. Hermione gave herself a little shake and forced herself to pay attention. The minutes passed by and slowly but surly she was closer to getting this grueling essay done.
About 30 minutes passed before the common room started to fill up with students. Not too long after that, Ron and Harry found their way back to the common room and joined Hermione at her table. Just as she left them, they where still talking about Quidditch.
'Boys and their Quidditch, I'll never understand,' Hermione thought to herself as she turned the page of her textbook.
Harry scooted his chair a touch closer to Hermiones, pulled out a piece of parchment from him school bag along with a quill and ink jar and looked over Hermiones shoulder to better see what she was writing down.
"Hermione, do you mind if I copy off you? I've got that Quidditch game tomorrow and I don't know what I'd actually be able to do it myself." Harry asked her, even though he was already copying her.
"Don't you normally copy off me?"
"Was that a yes?"
"One of these days your going to have to do your work on your own."
"Well," chimed in Ron, as he got out some parchment and a quill, "until that day comes we'll continue to copy you."
"Now just wait a second, I never said you could copy me, and the only reason I'm allowing Harry to copy me is because he's got a game tomorrow." Hermione said, hiding her paper from Ron's wondering eyes.
"If I don't copy off you, I'm just going to copy off of Harry, and it's pretty much the same as copying off you, isn't it?"
Hermione rolled her eyes at the pair of them, but allowed them to copy off her. About an hour passed before Hermione had finished the essay. She handed it to her friends, bid them good night and headed off to bed, her mind completely rid of sly Slytherin boys.
The next morning Hermione awoke at a time that was considered rather early to her dorm-mates, that was just Hermione for you. She took a refreshing shower, getting up early gave you those kind of pleasures, put on a comfortable pair of pants and a shirt. Hermione headed down to the common room and was not surprised to find that no one was there yet. Glancing over to the table she was at last night, she was pleased to find her, Ron's and Harry's homework was still there. If someone else happened to copy it would remain a mystery. She left the common room and headed to the Great Hall.
Hermione would have been glad to say that her mind didn't drift to a certain Slytherin during her travel to the Great Hall, but since her mind didn't drift to that person, she didn't think to say it. As she neared the Great Hall, her nose picked up on different smells of bacon, cinnamon rolls and french toast. This put a light smile on her face, she always loved Hogwarts in the morning. She entered the Great Hall and noticed that a few of the Gryffindor house teammates where already at the table, along with some supporters. With another glance around the hall, she also noticed that the opposing team was beginning to make their way to the Great Hall. To Hermiones dismay, Draco happened to be one of the first on his team to show up. Everything that the had successfully driven out of her mind the previous night, had flooded back into her mind like a tidal wave.
Once again she forced herself to look away from the sexiness that was Draco Malfoy and continued her walk towards the house table. She put some scrambled eggs on her plate along with some bacon and filled her cup with orange juice without looking up at Draco. Hermione refused to do it, look at him, that is. The Great Hall began to become more loud as the rest of the school began to wake up. Before Hermione was able to finish her breakfast, the entire hall was filled and nerves where floating in the air. It was nearly game time and right before the teams had to depart, Hermione got the familiar feeling that she was being watched. Without thinking, she glanced up and found none other than Draco Malfoy staring at her with his famous Malfoy smirk. The one that made many Slytherin girls go week at the knees.
"Good luck Harry," Hermione said to Harry as he got up to leave, without taking her eyes off Draco.
"Lets go ahead and head down to the Quidditch stadium to get good seats," Ron said shortly after the teams left the Great Hall.
Hermione response only consisted of her getting up from her seat and fallowing Ron out of the hall. Apparently, the rest of the school had the same idea as everyone seemed to all be leaving at this same moment. As the school made its way to the stadium, there was excited talk about the Quidditch game. It seemed to Hermione that she was the only one who wasn't not thinking about the game. Instead, her thoughts consisted of Draco. Draco's body pressed against her own, his hands caressing her curves, her hands running through his silky hair. And anything and everything that falls into that category.
They finally arrived to the stadium and mannaged to get seats right at the edge of the field. Cheers began to fill the stadium as the two teams made their way onto the field. Somewhere in the distance, Luna Lovegoods lion head roared with the excited noise. With the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle, the teams kicked off and flew high into the sky. Hermione couldn't find it in herself to pay attention to what was happening in the game. All she was able to notice was the cheers and boos coming from the crowd and Draco. Her eyes fallowed him wherever he flew to. At one point, she could have sworn that he looked back at her. No, he was too far away to have.
Before long the game ended with a victory in Gryffindors favor. The Gryffindor supporters cheered on the win, and the Slytherins hung their head low as they left the stadium. Hermione and Ron left the seats to meat up with the team to celebrate. She glanced over her shoulder and noticed that Draco was hanging back from the team. Courisoty took the best of her.
"I need to talk to one of the Professors about a paper, I'll see you in the common room." She said to Ron, who merely nodded in response.
She turned around and headed the stadium again, searching for Draco. Hermione spotted him entering the changing room. She picked up her speed and as the crowd left the field. Hermione reached the changing room. Nervous began to build within her as she reached for the door handle. What was she going to say if she actually went through with this? Inhaling a breath that might have been a bit too big for her lungs, she slowly opened the door just a crack and peeked into the small changing room. She found what she had been looking for, his back facing her, rumbling through an open locker.
Any thought process that she might have had, completely left her body. As if her limbs had a mind of their own, she opened the door just wide enough to fit through and walked into the changing room. Draco hadn't heard her enter; she was grateful for it. Gently, she closed the door and leaned her back against the closed door.
What the hell was she supposed to do now? Say something? But what.............
"Are you okay?" was the first think that came to her mind.
Draco spun around a bit too fast, tripped over his Quidditch robes and fell onto his backside.
"I didn't mean to frighten you," Hermione said as she hurried over to Draco and offered him a hand up.
"Then what did you mean to do?" Draco responded as he took her offered hand and got up. He leaded against the lockers, crossed his arms over his chest and gave Hermione that same pricing stare he had given her in the Great Hall the night before.
"I..... I saw you hanging back from the team and I just wanted to make sure you where okay." Her face blushed a bit at how silly she sounded and her gaze fell to the floor.
"Why?"
Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but found that she didn't have an actual answer to his question. Why had she come back to check on him? Her eyes came back to his gaze and locked there.
Before she could understand what was happening, she found herself moving closer to him. So close that they where only an inch or two apart. Her hand came up to him face and lightly brushed his cheek. Her fingers trailed to his lips, traced their outline, fell to his jawline and fallowed it until her hand rested on the back of his neck. Draco came to find his own hands wrapping themselves around her waist, pulling her closer to him, until their bodies where pressed against each others. Their lips found each others in the most perfect kiss to ever come across two enemies. Folding in perfect harmony, Hermione felt as though he was going to float away. Hermione slid her hand into Draco's perfect hair and tangled her fingers into the golden locks. Draco slid his hands away from Hermiones sides and rested them on her upper arms. Before Hermione knew what was happening, Draco pushed her away from him. She looked into his eyes only to find a look of horror on his face.
"I don't know what you've done to me, but it needs to end, now." Draco said to her. Without looking back at her, he left the locker room. Leaving Hermione feeling both hurt and confused.
A short time later, Hermione joined in with the celebrations in the Gryffindor common room. As much as she would have liked to feel as happy as the rest of her housemates, all she could feel was sadness. What Draco did to her was wrong in her eyes, would be wrong in anyone's eyes. All she did was put on a smile, so long as no one noticed how she actually felt. If Hermione had to explain to someone what was wrong... well it wasn't likely to end well.
It was well into the night before the party ended and even later for Hermione to fall into a not very good sleep. She found herself tossing and turning in her bed for what felt like hours, replaying what happened with Draco in her head. To make matters worse, she had Potions class first thing the next morning... always with the Slytherins. Maybe what happened between them would cause Draco to never want to speak to her again. Maybe it would end all the name calling. What Hermione couldn't understand was why he pushed her away. It would have made more sense if he hadn't kissed her back, but he had. Why though?
Hermione awoke the next morning with nerves bouncing in the pit of her stomach. She met up with Ron and Harry in the Great Hall. Once again, they where talking about Quidditch. Hermione couldn't force herself to eat anything; she was worried that anything the put into her stomach might come back up. She thought of glancing over at Draco, but no, she couldn't do it. Things where different now, in a way.
The bell rang, and with cold feet, Hermione and her usual gang headed for the Dungeons. As normal, the room was cold and decently dark. Professor Snape instructed the class to turn in their essays and start on a potion. Hermione got out the needed supplies for the potion and quietly got to work, every once in a while leaning over to help Ron and Harry with something.
Hermione was just about to add the Boomslang skin to her potion when a piece of parchment landed in fount of her cauldron. She looked up quickly to see the rest of the class fast at work on their potion as well as Professor Snapes back turned to her. She grabbed the note and placed it into her lap and opened it.
Written in slightly slanted neat penmanship, the note read: 'What was that yesterday? Draco.'
Hermione glanced up for a quick second, Snapes back was still turned on the class. She brought the note back up to the table, dipped her quill into the ink jar and wrote back 'Exactly what you made it into, a mistake.' Hermione set her quill down on the table and bewitched the note to go back to Draco. Its needless to say that Hermione completely forget about the potion she was working on as she waited for a reply from Draco, not that she had too wait too long. No more than 30 seconds went by when the note came back to Hermione.
'You can't blame me for reacting the way I did. Would you have not done the same if I came up to you out of the blue and kissed you?'
A small popping sound came from her forgotten potion, but Hermione didn't care as she wrote her response. 'Then the real question is why did you kiss me back? Why did you wait until I kissed you to act that way?' With a quick glance to Professor Snape, who happened to be grading one of the essays, Hermione bewitched the note again to go back to Draco. In nearly the same amount of time as the last, the note back back to Hermione.
'As hard as this may be to believe, I kissed you back because I wanted to. I can't explain why I pushed you away, nor can I explain why I wanted to feel your lips against mine.'
Hermione couldn't help the smile grow on her face. She glanced up at Draco and watched him for just a second as he worked on his potion. Hermione looked back down to the note, dipped her quill into the ink jar. She was just about to write a reply when the her potion suddenly exploded. The contents of the cauldron went flying around the room, but some how it seemed to miss Hermione completely. Snape jerked his head up from his desk and stormed over towards Hermione with a look on his face that could kill.
"Miss Granger, would you care to explain why you have made such a mess in my classroom?" Professor Snape asked her.
"I was being careless, sir." Was all Hermione could think to say.
"And would this," Snape said as he reached for the note that Hermione had left on the table and picked it up, "have anything to do with your carelessness?"
To this, Hermione had no answer. She allowed her eyes to fall away from the Potion Masters stare and into her ruined potion.
"Well, I do believe that whatever you where writing while you should have been making the assigned potion was more important then the potion. In that case, it should be read aloud to the class."
Hermiones head snapped up at this, her eyes opened to wide they where threatening to escape their sockets. Something in her head said that Snape wouldn't be that cruel, but she knew better than that.
Snape took a deep breath and to Hermiones, and most likely Dracos, horror, Snape read the note aloud to the entire class. Hermione could feel her face redden as Snape read the note. The eyes of her classmates dug into Hermiones skull. For some reason, Snape seemed to skip over the part that said Dracos name. This Hermione had to thank Merlin's beard for. If Snape where to have said his name, she'd never life it down. What she had done with Draco was nothing less than evil in every Gryffindors eyes.
The class finally ended with 5 points taken away from Gryffindor. And through out the rest of the day Harry and Ron pecked Hermione with questions about when and who she had kissed whomever she kissed. Funnily enough though, they seemed to be happy that she might have found someone, even Ron, who everyone knew had feelings for her.
The end of the day finally came and everyone headed to the Great Hall for dinner. For the first time in almost two days, Hermione finally found herself able to eat. Ron and Harry still wouldn't stop bugging her about her, as they liked to call him, 'snogging buddy'.
"I'm going to the library and if you two fallow me to ask me more questions I'm hexing you." Hermione said once she got tired of the line of questions. Thankfully they didn't fallow her.
Hermiones walk to the library was quite uneventful seeing as all the students where still in the Great Hall. She was able to find a quite table in a far part of the library. Hermione reached into her school bag and got out her homework. She set herself hard to work at some problems from charms class. With her quill scratching against her parchment, Hermione was unable to hear the approaching foot steps growing closer and closer to where she was.
"Is this seat taken?" Said a voice, taking her attention away from her work. She looked up to see none other Draco standing there with his hand on the back of a chain in front of Hermione. She simply shook her head no and got back to her work.
"You're not going to at least say hi to me?" Draco asked her with a raised eyebrow.
With a small sigh she looked up from her work, "I'm trying to do my homework."
"Odd way to say hi, don't you think?"
"What do you want," Hermione started, "I would like to get my work done."
"Well, since our conversation got cut short in potions class I thought we could at least talk."
"Honestly, I don't think we have anything else left to say to each other."
"Is that so?" Draco said with a slightly teasing tone in his voice, almost as if to say he knew that there was more to be said.
"Look," Hermione glanced around for a quick moment to make sure no one was listening in, "that might have been the most out of character moment for two enemies to have, but you pushed me away. That tells me everything that I need to know. It says that I'm being stupid for having any sort of feeling for you. To be honest, I have no idea where they came from and I don't care at the moment. All I care about is to forget that I ever had the gall to do something like that. So, why don't we just let everything go back to normal?"
"Back to normal, eh?"
"That's all I ask for."
"Well," Draco began as he walked over to Hermione and bent down to be eye level with her, "if that's exactly what you want." With that last word, Draco leaned in and kissed Hermione only this time, Hermione didn't kiss back. Instead she jumped out of her chair and backed into the bookcase away from Draco. "That's not normal for us!" Hermione said.
A small chuckle escaped from Draco. He walked over to Hermione and began to comb his fingers through her hair. He brushed his noes against hers in that cute affectionate way and whispered, "I don't believe there is a normal."