I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to it.

Authors note: For this story, I made up extra characters and things to fill in needed elements of the story. If you see anything or anybody you don't recognize, that's the reason. Also, I read the books along time ago so my memory of all the stuff isn't as great as it used to be so if anyone sees any major mistakes or even little things, be sure to put it in the review, if you do decide to review.

THINGS CHANGE

By Red Tide

Chapter 2: That wasn't so bad, yesterday.

Hermione Granger tried to read her book, but her mind kept flying away. She continued to read; reading harder and faster, but again would lose her place, and have to read again. She tried to read aloud, walking about the empty room, and finally let the book fall and dropped her shoulders moaning, "Oh, it wasn't even that great of a kiss!"

She dropped onto her bed and sat with her head down, breathing. She couldn't think of anything else. Malfoy's eyes pierced into her mind, whenever she closed her eyes she saw them, saw his face, saw his smile.

Her fists suddenly clenched. Oh, how she hated him! How dare he kiss her? How dare she let herself be kissed! This was Draco Malfoy, the same Draco Malfoy that had made her life at Hogwarts horrible no matter how hard she had tried to ignore him. Draco Malfoy, the evil Draco Malfoy!

She moaned again through clenched teeth and slammed her clenched fist against the pillow of her bed. The door to the girl's dorm suddenly opened and a girl walked in, going to her bed and smiling to Hermione. She said hello and Hermione muttered a hello back, looking away. She suddenly got back to her senses in that moment and walked to the door to go to dinner. Harry and Ron would be waiting for her.

She had told them what had happened, all except the part where Draco had kissed her. She didn't know why she had kept it from them, they were her closest friends, and she trusted them with everything, but something had stopped her from saying anything. As she walked out to the main Gryfinndor room, she saw Harry and Ron sitting by the fire, talking with one another. Harry looked up and saw Hermione as she came into the room and Ron looked up also. They walked to her.

"Are you allright?" Harry asked again.

Hermione nodded, avoiding looking up at them. "Yes, I'm fine."

She felt a hand touch her chin and softly push her face up. "Are you sure you're allright, Hermione?" Ron asked.

She looked at him and Harry. "Yes. Yes, I'm okay." She smiled at them.

"C'mon then, let's go to dinner." Harry said, turning.

"Yeah, I'm starving." Ron said, patting his stomach. Hermione smiled and followed them out the room and they walked down the hallway together.

When they made to the hallway, Hermione saw Draco sitting at his seat, already eating. She looked away and followed Ron and Harry, sitting beside him. She looked up just in time to see Draco look away and she stared harshly at him, gritting her teeth beneath pursed lips. Draco glanced at her again and saw the anger on her face, looked away, and smiled to himself.

Dinner went by without any event, Hermione eat herself full, trying to get her mind off Draco. She glanced over at his table almost every minute or so, but he never looked up at her, never looked at her again.

She followed the rest up to the Gryfinndor tower and stayed up for another four hours, reading books and then playing a game of chess with Ginny. She lost of course, her mind in another place.

When she went to bed, she laid awoke for several hours, reliving the moment in her head over and over. Draco kissed her again several times that night in her mind, and she twisted and turned, trying to fight the feeling in her chest, how much she wanted it to go away, and the feeling of how much she had enjoyed the kiss.
Most of the next day passed without event, whenever Hermione was near Draco she looked away, ignoring him. She didn't want to think of him, and concentrated more and more on her work. But as she walked into her final class of the day, the only class she had alone with Draco, she felt her heart beat faster and faster.

Class went as usual, with a lecture and the teacher asking questions. With Hermione feeling Draco's eyes on her back, she almost couldn't answer a question when she was asked it, hardly paying attention at all.

She didn't notice something nice. Frank Dolby had gone completely silent the entire class time. He didn't even talk at all, and looked away from Hermione, a look of fear and anger on his face.

When class had ended, she grasped her books and turned around, glancing at Draco but only to find that Draco was not there, and had left the class already. She felt better, and almost sighed as she walked out the classroom.

She held her books across her chest as she walked down the hallway, glancing over her shoulder, to see if Dolby was following her, but also to see if Draco was. She saw no one behind her and walked around the corner.

"Dolby leaving you alone now, eh, Granger?" Draco said, making her turn and jump, seeing him. He was leaning against the wall, smiling.

Hermione just stared at him, stepping back a bit. She looked at him and then her face turned to anger. "Stay away, Malfoy."

"Now, don't I get a thank you?" Malfoy said. "Dolby's leaving you alone now, thanks to me."

"No," Hermione replied. "He's only leaving me alone now because he's afraid of you but sooner or later he'll start again."

Malfoy smiled. "I guess I'll just have to follow you every day then."

Hermione stared at him, then said, "Leave me alone." She walked past him, down the hall.

"Y'know, Granger," He called after her. "That wasn't so bad, yesterday."

Hermione stopped.

"Even for a mudblood, you kiss well, Granger." Malfoy smiled as she turned around. The fire was back in her eyes.

Hermione wanted to slap him, but restrained herself. "Never.kiss me again." She said.

"Me, kiss? Oh, no, Granger, that was all you!" He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms.

"What?" She almost yelled. "That was you!"

"Sure, Granger, whatever you say." Malfoy rolled his eyes.

Hermione almost growled. Suddenly, she turned on her heels and started to walk away.
Draco stood there for a second, smiling, watching her walk away, then started after her.

"Granger." He called. She kept walking as if she hadn't heard him. He walked faster, came up and grabbed her arm. "Hermione."

She roughly knocked his arm away. "Get off, Malfoy." But suddenly glanced at him for a moment after hearing him call her Hermione. He hadn't even realized it himself. Then she started to walk away again.

"Hey." He smiled, grasping for her arm again. She pulled her arm away.

"Stay away, Malfoy." She muttered.

"Hey, look, ok, I did kiss you." He said.

She turned to him, looking at his eyes. He suddenly saw how nice her eyes looked then.

He smiled. "Yeah, I did. I'm sorry."

She looked at him. "Don't ever think you can kiss me and never ever do it again." She said, the fire in her eyes. "Now leave me alone." She started to walk away.

"Hey, hey, c'mon," He said, going for her arm again. She knocked it away. He grasped it again. "Hey, you looked like you wanted me to! You were staring into my eyes, you didn't stop me, you didn't say anything, what do you expect?" He pleaded. "Hmm?" He looked at her eyes.

She looked at him for a moment, and he saw her calculating in her head, he was right. She turned and walked away again.

"Hey, why don't you let me apologize to you?" He said, grasping her arm again. "C'mon, I'll make it up to you."

"Make it up to me? You?" She suddenly said, her eyebrows raised. "Forget it!" She almost screamed, fighting his grip and walking faster. He was right behind her, grabbing her arm again. She wasn't getting away.

"Hey, c'mon, I can make it all up to you." He pleaded. "How about I, uh, buy you some candy or something?"

"I wouldn't trust anything you gave me." She said coldly, but it didn't have an effect on him.

"Ok then, uh, how about a ride around the lake tonight?" He smiled. "I got my broom, c'mon, you look like the romantic type, you'd like it. I do it myself sometimes, it's very peaceful out there, very nice."

Hermione looked at him with a look of almost shock on her face. "No." She finally said, turned and walked away.

"C'mon," Draco continued, walking beside her. "I don't see why you're being so mean, I'm trying to make this up to you." A crowd of voices was heard around the corner in front of them. Draco grabbed her quickly. "What do you say? C'mon." He smiled at her, looking into her eyes.

She looked back, heard the people coming, stared at him and said.

"No."

Draco's smile almost disappeared.

".At least, not tonight." She finished, looking down and away. Draco suddenly looked up, a smile slowly returning to his face. She didn't smile back and looked away. He smiled at her again and then dashed off, disappearing around the corner as the crowd of Gryfinndors appeared at the other side of the hallway.

Draco ran back to the Syltherin dorm and changed, then went to dinner. Everything was working out fine so far; he might be able to pull this off, he thought as he walked to the great hallway. Hermione had now fallen to him, at least he thought so, and he only needed to do now was spend more time with her, tell her she was pretty, all that lovely stuff, and she was his. He thought for a moment it had been kind of easy, not as hard as he thought, but it wasn't over yet.

As he sat to eat, he looked over at the Gryfinndor table and saw Hermione sitting, eating. A weird thing happened then. She looked different to him, as if he had seen her for the first time. Now, looking at her, she was much more attractive. He noticed things now. Her curly brown hair, her eyes, and her lips. They now appeared to him like he'd never noticed them before. He almost became dazed looking at her now, staring as if nothing was between them, as if they were the only ones there.

When dinner had finished and he made his way back upstairs, he avoided Crabbe and Goyle and walked the halls by himself, thinking. He passed by the Syltherin dormitory and walked about the empty halls for sometime. Images of Hermione flooded through his head. She was beautiful to him now, as if no other woman ever existed. She smiled to him in his head, and he even smiled himself, and then stopped in his tracks.

"Oh," He suddenly said out loud, not even registering that he had. Was he falling for her? He thought to himself. Was he falling for her like he thought she was falling for him? A word suddenly flashed in his head.

MUDBLOOD.

He breathed out, as if he had just held his breath for an hour. He reached out and balanced himself against the wall.

His father's face came before his eyes, his mother's face. He could never.was he? A mudblood, no, not him. He couldn't, he wouldn't, what would they think? Besides, this was all a bet, nothing more, just a wager, he'd take her to the ball and that'd be it, he'd be done with her.

But why was her image still in his head? Why was he still thinking of her? Why was he thinking of her as if he had felt this way his whole life?

To Be Continued.