Title: The Carriage Ride

Previously on chapter 2- A Series Of Crazy Events

What the hell was that? she thought as she panicked. Did he just blow me a kiss?

She didn't imagine it as Ron saw it too, his face turning red like his hair.

Chapter 3- A Chaotic Mess

I'm stuck with a bunch of crazy Gryffindorks, might as well have fun, thought Draco as he continued to stare at Hermione.

"Ron, stop that this instant! I can't believe you said that," said Hermione in shock, catching a few words here and there.

Ron turned away, his face hidden from Hermione's view but she did hear a soft "aw" from Luna and the Hufflepuff girl.

For the next five minutes, everyone sat in stony silence. The Hufflepuffs were all staring at Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco as though they had never seen anything so exciting and thrilling. Seeing the Hufflepuff girl, whose name was Amanda, giving the thumbs up to Hermione only worsened Hermione's mood. In response, even though she was going a little too far, gave her a very dirty look. Harry was sitting comfortably; trying to clean his glasses so the fuzzy people around him could take shape while Crookshanks was sleeping on his lap. Draco, meanwhile was staring at Hermione out of the corner of his eye, a small smirk forming on his lips.

This is fun, he thought suddenly. I should bug them more often.

"Hey, why am I sitting on the ground?" asked Ron suddenly, breaking the long and awkward silence.

Taking his eyes off the very still girl sitting beside him, Draco briefly eyed Ron.

"Good job on showing everyone how thick you are," he snorted.

"Ooh, look. They're finally talking!" exclaimed Amanda, tugging on Luna's sleeve.

"Quiet Amanda, I'm pretty sure that I just saw some sort of creature fly into Hermione's ear. I'm almost positive that I saw a picture like that in an article my father was writing for the Quibbler. It's so very interesting. I can't believe that I forgot the name but I do remember one thing. They only hide in people's ear that have a very bad hygiene," explained Luna, her voice loud enough for everyone in the carriage to hear.

Harry, who was still cleaning his glasses, snapped them by accident as he stared wide-eyed at Luna.

Is this girl crazy? thought Draco. The odd thing was that Luna didn't have any malice in her voice whatsoever.

Everyone slowly turned around to see Hermione's reaction. Her mouth was open in shock and her eyes were dark. She was very, very mad. Her attention was directly solely on Luna.

"Excuse me?" she asked in a deadly whisper.

Draco, unlike everyone else who was staring at Luna and Hermione, was staring at Harry and Ron.

Now let's see. What would honestly tick those two off? he wondered. Then suddenly an evil smile spread across his face as he was just hit with inspiration.

Draco, acting cool and collected, put an arm around Hermione's shoulder. That earned a gasp from Amanda and everyone forgot about the tension between Luna and Hermione.

"What-what are y-you doing?" stuttered Hermione, her anger disappearing. She looked so nervous and confused that made Draco almost thought she looked cute. Almost.

"Nothing really," replied Draco quietly, quiet that only Hermione could hear.

What he did next shocked everyone but most importantly Hermione. Taking not a second longer, Draco lightly bit Hermione's earlob and tugged on it playfully. Letting go, he slowly licked the inside of Hermione's ear before sitting back comfortably; the biggest smirk on his face as though he was king of the world.

Hermione was still as stone, a shocked expression on her face. But everything around her was chaotic.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Did you see that, Luna? Did you see that, Luna?" squealed Amanda, sounding like a broken record, repeating over and over again.

Harry was repeatedly asking what was going on, saying that he couldn't see anything. Ron, meanwhile, looked as if he was about to have a heart attack. The Hufflepuffs boys, who were younger than the Golden Trio and Draco by one or two years, were laughing and making rude jokes that made half of the Hufflepuff girls blush with embarrassment (Amanda being an exception as she wasn't paying attention to them).

"Malfoy, I swear I am going to kill you!" yelled Ron so loud that Hermione flinched at the volume.

"Ron, where are you? What's going on? What happened? Is Hermione all right?" asked Harry, a million questions shouting out of his mouth. He waited impatiently for an answer to find that momentarily he was being ignored. Crookshanks, who had been sleeping on Harry's lap, was thrown off as Harry jumped up. The surprised cat gave a hiss as he painfully hit the ground.

Ron stood up, looking quite menacing indeed with his large bump, looking as though something was growing from his forehead. Draco didn't know why, but it oddly reminded him of Mad Eye Moody.

Ron grabbed his wand out of his pocket, stared at it then thought better of it. He tucked it back into his robes.

"I'm going to beat you up with my own hands," he said, rolling his sleeves up while standing up.

Draco snorted in response. Hermione, meanwhile, slowly and tentatively raised her hand and touched her ear with her long and slim fingers. Draco stared at her out of the corner of his eye, noticing for the first time that she had very beautiful skin.

Hmm, never really noticed that before, thought Draco. And for some reason, he stored that information somewhere in his mind.

"What is GOING ON?" yelled Harry, swinging his arms in frustration.

Ron stared at Hermione then back at Harry.

"Don't worry Hermione, I'll be right back," promised Ron before quickly moving towards Harry, to explain the situation.

Draco couldn't help but to snort out loud and roll his eyes.

"Honestly Weasel, it's only two steps away. Surely you can manage the distance. The hunger isn't killing you, is it?" sneered Draco.

"Shut it Malfoy! I'm already going to kick your ferret ass, you don't want me to do it again!" warned Ron as he stood beside Harry.

"Oh really?" asked Draco with a raised eyebrow.

Something in Draco's voice made Hermione snap out of her daze and stare at him. The intensity in her stare made Draco speechless for a moment.

What the hell is wrong with me? I don't actually like her, it was just a joke, thought Draco trying to explain the weird feeling in his stomach.

Within a few quick seconds, Draco skillfully masked the nervousness that showed on his face. But he couldn't squash that weird feeling that was traveling through his body, as he stared back. Then he took his plan to phase 2.

Gently he brought his hands into Hermione's wild, bushy hair, playing with her hair. What he had been expecting was rough, uncombed hair and that he couldn't get his hands out. But to his great surprise, he found that Hermione's hair was so smooth and so soft. He realized that he didn't even want to get his hands out of her hair. Hs fingers refused to leave Hermione's hair while his mind was screaming at him to stop. Draco's plan of getting Ron and Harry angrier quickly faded from his mind as he leaned closer, his eyes locked into hers.

"So you hold him from the back and I'll punch him on the face. Oh yea, here's your glasses, that ought to do it- Malfoy, get your slimy fingers away from Hermione!" roared Ron suddenly as he saw Hermione and Draco barely a few inches apart, their noses almost touching.

Suddenly the carriage came to a sudden halt, throwing everyone inside in different direction. Luna's turban look-a-like hit Amanda square on the jaw, while Ron and Harry both hit each other on the forehead. Ron cried out in pain, clutching onto his bump that was getting larger. The Hufflepuff boys and girls were on the ground, on top of each other. Hermione, who had pulled away when she heard Ron's voice, went smashing into Draco's chest.

"Ow," she moaned.

It took her a while for her to realize where exactly she was. Her eyes widened and she bolted her head up, smashing right into Draco's chin. The carriage was filled with cries of pain and grumbling.

"If it's not too late, let's throw Malfoy out," suggested Ron as a new bump, right over his left eyebrow started to form.

"Are we there yet?" asked a Hufflepuff boy. Harry opened the door to see that they still had some distance to cover before reaching the castle.

"By the looks of it, I think we hit an animal," yelled Harry over the howling wind.

"Well, close the door for Merlin's sake!" cried Draco angrily; clutching his chin while Hermione massaged the top of her head.

End of chapter 3.

(A/N: I know that this chapter isn't as long as the first two, but the next chapter will be longer than this! And yes, I decided to add one more chapter. Thanks for all the reviews!! Loved them all.)