Disclaimer: I grew up reading the Harry Potter books, and the name of the author never changes. Cheers to my hero JK Rowling!

Chapter 2

"Clock is Ticking"

"S-Sorry," Draco stammered as his glass crashed into the floor. He smiled apologetically at the surprised women while kicking some of the glass pieces aside, trying to keep his cool.

And did he just stammer?

Well, of course he did!

This gorgeous girl in front of him right now was Hermione Granger!

Hermione Granger, dammit!

The last time he saw her, he was screaming into her face that she was ugly.

Right now, however, he was gawking at her like a lovesick fool.

He gulped.

He was so screwed.

"Erm… Ladies, this is my friend, Draco Malfoy. Surely you already know him, Mione?" Theo was frowning at Draco who seemed to have been perspiring a little.

"Yes, of course. Malfoy," Hermione acknowledged Draco for the first time, but he wasn't really sure if it made him happy or not.

She did it quite coldly, it almost hurt.

Just almost, of course.

The day that Draco would ever be hurt by a girl would be the day the world would stop turning, which was impossible of course.

And exactly the whole point of it.

Theo, however, stared at his friend incredulously. He seemed to be forever running his hand into his hair and wiping off some cold sweat on his forehead.

He knew that Hermione Granger was one hell of a woman, but it was the first time he actually saw Draco out of his cool.

The poor guy.

He seemed to get it really bad.

Perhaps he would let him have this girl for now?

Theo looked at Hermione, who then looked back at him. Her lip gloss seemed to shine from the dim light as her lips stretched into a breathtaking smirk.

Yes, it wasn't just a smile.

It was a smirk.

It was a tempting, seductive, bloody sexy smirk!

And smirks had a lot of meanings.

Oh Merlin.

He changed his mind. This girl was his. He saw her first, anyway.

Screw Draco.

He could make it up to him by giving him a lot of his model beaus later.

"Well, these are my friends, Mimi, Alex and Aaliyah," Hermione smiled as she introduced her friends.

Theo started on his move and kissed each of the ladies' hands in a very gentlemanly manner. Draco, however, was still rooted on the spot, until his friend nudged him. He then smiled as he followed Theo's lead.

What had gotten into him?

Goodness, he had to stop gaping at her before he embarrassed himself more.

By the time he was about to hold Hermione's hand, however, she suddenly took out her muggle phone and checked on something.

She did it very smoothly so the others couldn't see that little scene, but Draco knew she did that on purpose so he couldn't kiss her hand.

Shit.

This was going to be difficult.

If only he could go back in time, he'd happily smack his old self on the head with a bludger for being such an insufferable git.

"It's really nice that you've dropped by here. I was beginning to think you really hated me for being so annoying," Theo leaned towards Hermione's ear to counter the loud music. He had his hands on her hips lightly, pretending to balance himself.

Draco couldn't believe he was suddenly angry at his friend.

Was he… jealous?

What the hell?

It was honestly very foreign to him.

Was this what they called jealousy?

Because if it was, he didn't like it a bit.

He refused to accept the fact that he wasn't the recipient of it as he normally would be.

Girls get catfights because of him.

Men were jealous of him.

The world was supposed to be revolving around him and not making him jealous like this!

This was because of Hermione sexy-as-hell Granger! Someone should have warned him about this before and beat the crap out of his old bigoted, pompous self before having the things he'd said and done.

"I don't hate annoying people as long as they're not jerks. You're not a jerk, are you?" Hermione chuckled lightheartedly at Theo as he laughed back and kissed her hand again to let her see that he was anything but that.

Draco was damn sure that statement was for him.

He really had to make this right.

"Do you ladies care for a drink?" Theo asked them gleefully, excited of the fact that his mystery girl actually showed up, and with her lovely friends too. Nothing could get any better than this. Lemon drop Martini Cocktails and Strawberry Daiquiri were then served to Hermione and her friends with their preference as he started to tell them about the club and its fortes. Theo couldn't help but to stare at Hermione as she talked animatedly with her friends. Back at Hogwarts, he hadn't really looked at her. He had known her to be at the top of their class, yes, but she was a Gryffindor and a muggleborn. Yet, the more he stared at her, the more he had in fact remembered her younger self. Her natural feature hadn't really changed. She definitely improved, of course, but her beauty was still very natural. The only time he'd probably appraised her was when she was at the Yule Ball. She was such a belle that time, but because of her status, he had ignored her, just like all the other Slytherins who had definitely checked her out but could only spat insults on her way.

They were such hypocrites before.

He almost felt like his father.

Minutes later, some blokes had then gathered around the girls to ask them for a dance. All of them were taken, except Hermione, obviously due to Draco and Theo's evil warning looks at the guys.

"Would you like to dance?"

"Why don't we go to the dance floor?"

Both Draco and Theo stared at each other after speaking at the same time, until their stares turned into glares making Hermione quite uncomfortable.

"Er… Can you excuse us a bit, Mione?" Theo smiled at Hermione through gritted teeth before he dragged Draco into the corner, not caring that he'd bumped some of the people, crashing their drinks at the process and earning glares and curses.

"What was that? Draco, I saw her first," Theo shouted at his friend, but also cautiously looking behind him. Hermione was looking at them worriedly.

"I know man, I just—" Draco stopped as he ran his hand through his hair.

Theo was right, of course. He'd seen her first, but he just couldn't help it.

He needed to have Hermione Granger or it would kill him.

"Damn, you got it really bad, huh?" Theo grimaced at his friend.

Draco just shrugged, then nodded, then shrugged again.

"Stop it, you look stupid," Theo glared at him in disgust.

Draco was about to gripe back, until he realized he certainly had a point.

Dammit.

"Just—" Draco breathed heavily, too heavy actually he was sure his lungs had inflated to its limit; "Let's just say, I did a really stupid mistake before; but I swear I never really meant it. I mean, I was an arsehole but I was very young too, plus the fact that we were brainwashed about this blood status and everything. I just want to make things right, you know. Give me this chance with Granger, will you?"

Theo seemed to think about what his best friend said as he stared at him. He could definitely relate on what he was talking about. Before the war had taken place, everything was so different. The war was both a curse and a blessing. Yes, it had ended a lot of lives, but it had also ended a huge chauvinism and bigotry.

Everything was better now.

They were free to do everything and witness every people on the way without having to check their blood status…

They were free to be with the people who have actually proven themselves on the society on their own and not just because of where they've come from.

Amazing, remarkable people.

People like Hermione Granger.

"Alright," Theo sighed.

"Alright? Alright what?" Draco had a look of appraisal, anxiousness and hope on his face, if that was possible.

"Alright, you can have a move on Hermione," Theo exhaled noisily.

Draco grinned boyishly as if he was suddenly given his first forbidden candy.

"But,"

"Of course there's a but," Draco frowned.

Theo just rolled his eyes and ignored his comment.

"But if it turns out that she really doesn't like you, I'll make my move," Theo continued.

"But you know she really doesn't like me! She—"

"I don't care how you'll fix this, Draco, but I really like her and I intend to make her mine if you can't," Theo warned him almost evilly.

Both then had turned towards the corner Hermione was standing minutes ago and had suddenly realized she was nowhere in sight.

"Clock is ticking," Theo smirked at him.

888

A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews! As you can see, I've read all of them and I thought: Hey, what about placing some of these lovely reviewers' names in the story?

And seeing that I'm quite obsessive and crazy, lol, I actually went to see your profiles, and the first three reviewers who had their names on their usernames or profiles became Hermione's HOT GORGEOUS friends. Yay! mimi faith,waterflower20 and aaliyah5509, I hope you lovely ladies won't mind? Teehee

Thank you so much for your reviews:

omgwtfmuch

IGOTEAMEDWARD

lazywingss

yoyo

mimi faith

waterflower20

aaliyah5509

helikesitheymikey

rec2527

In your dreams bby x3

J

Sarah

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Charmeine

IHeartEru

bluestriker666

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HarryPGinnyW4eva

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fnrizka

twilghtroxmysox

See? I updated faster, and just for one day too! Yay! Hehe

And mostly because fnrizka actually threatened me: "Sue, if you're not posting the next chapter by, errr, tomorrow, we have problem in our hands"

Hahaha! That seriously made me type more to update as soon as I can. Lol

Tell me what you guys think about this chapter, k? More reviews please.

Love and kisses, Sue