Monday night they spent studying, having an enthusiastic conversation about the different applications of various potions ingredients as they scoured the Institute library for texts that caught their eye.

Tuesday they investigated the house library, their impassioned arguments in defense of various works of literature, both wizarding, and in Hermione's case muggle, muffled somewhat by the presence of so much and wood, carpet, as well as the books themselves.

Draco was sent to bed with a copy of Jane Austen's Persuasion, and a warning that they would be discussing it come friday.

Wednesday evening found them playing board games and answering each other's questions about sex and sexuality.

"What do guys think about when they, you know….wank?" Hermione asked as she picked up card from the Community Chest pile.

"Girls." Draco replied

"Well I know that" Hermione sighed with teasing exasperation. "But do you imagine particular girls, or create scenarios or imagine particular acts?"

Draco rolled the dice moving his token forward. "Bollocks" he muttered as he landed on one of Hermione's properties. "Well, I can't speak for all guys, though I assume there is a certain amount of consistency in approach, but yes, there is often a particular girl, though not always, and I usually like to imagine particular acts." he said sorting out the required money.

"Like?" Hermione replied rolling the dice.

"Like in the shower with her on her knees sucking me off." He announced matter-of-factly

"The shower?" Hermione queried a hit of intrigue curiosity in her voice. "I've never considered the concept of the shower." Draco could see the gears in her brain churning as she mulled it over.

"What is it about the shower that appeals to you?" she asked quickly tallying her available money "two houses please Mr Banker." Draco handed over the houses and Hermione lined them up carefully.

"It's warm, it's wet, huh, that sounds like i'm describing something else" he said winking lavisciously. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"The dripping of the water, the way it runs down your body creating little trails, I like how it feels."

"Mmm" Hermione groaned her breath catching with the sudden memory of watching water droplets run down his very back on their first night at Belby's.

Draco raised an eyebrow at her unexpectedly shameless response. "Like the sound of that do you?" he asked with a wolfish grin.

"Yeah, I do actually." Hermione admitted, laughing at herself. "Though I think I would be really grateful for cushioning charms if I had to kneel on a shower floor."

"Lucky you're a witch then."

"Indeed." She replied, slightly taken aback that Malfoy of all people had just called her a witch. Without qualification. An equal.

"So what kinds of girls do it for you?" she added when she realised she had been staring off in contemplation.

His eyes went wide and panic momentarily flooded his face as he struggled to maintain his mask of passive indifference, there was no way he was going to admit that she had been his wank material of choice the last few days.

"Oh, you know, The Patil twins, Daphne, Blythe Spencer, Meredith Perrin" he hedged.

"I don't know who they are." Hermione replied, moving her token up the board.

"Slytherin, fifth and sixth years."

"Ah." she picked up a card, and then counted out and handed Draco some money. "Attend a Ministry fundraiser, spend thirty Galleons on tickets." she said by way of explanation.

"Expensive fundraiser" Malfoy muttered with a raised brow.

"Yes well, i'm going to pretend that it's for a good cause, like a subsidised Wolfsbane program, and not for some silly sporting stadium" she replied acerbically.

"Not a fan of the world cup I take it?"

"Not a fan of Quidditch. I'm going of course." she explained "The Weasleys are taking Harry and I, but I expect I will be quite bored."

He looked at her like she'd suddenly sprouted tentacles from her ears. Shaking his head, he rolled the dice. "So who and what do you think about then?" he asked opting to steer the conversation back to safer territory.

"Me, oh, umm well you know about Charlie, uh, Dean, Terry Boot, Grant Page"

"The Ravenclaw keeper?"

She nodded. Of course there was also a certain blonde who had been invading her fantasies with more and more consistency since their arrival, but she wasn't saying that out loud. Even if she'd already kind of accidently alluded to it last week.

"And I don't think I have a favorite scene, it depends what mood i'm in. Sometimes it's something romantic, sometimes it's really just about how things feel and there's no real backdrop, and sometimes it's something daring like getting fingered in the library" she admitted with a slight blush.

Draco's jaw dropped.

"Sweet Salazar" he uttered his breath shuddering. "Damn, Granger, who would ever guess that there's a secret minx hidden beneath that bookishness!"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Prat, oh, and pay up" she added pointing to his token which he'd just moved to one of her properties.

He rolled his eyes, "of course you'd make me pay for landing on my own bloody house." he muttered.

"Sorry" she sang "but I think you'll find it's my house, seeing as I have the property deed right here." she said with a smug smile holding up the card describing Malfoy Mannor.

By Thursday were relaxed enough in each other's presence to be seen playfully hitting, casually touching, using each other's first names and even sitting leaned up against each other in much the same way that Hermione would do with Harry or Ron.

That evening their debates and discussions entered a much more personal territory.

Draco had finished Persuasion.

"You think Elliot is me don't you?" He asked sharply as he entered Hermione's room slamming the door open. Hermione looked up from her perch on the window seat where she was reading Belby's copy of Alice in Wonderland.

"No" she began carefully. "But I do think that the potential is there for you and your housemates to become him."

Draco raised a brow and crossed his arms. "Explain."

"Well," she sighed. "In some way, yes, you already are Sir Walter Elliot, or at least you are being groomed to be. Your housemates and family place all of a person's value on the circumstance of their birth, collectively you are obsessed with the idea that 'pure' blood makes you better than others, but at the same time a family can loose the social standing that comes with being a pureblood, even the so-called 'sacred twenty-eight', simply by having different beliefs about human rights." taking a breath Hermione willed herself to keep her tone non-judgmental. "That's the world you have been raised in, that's what you have been taught to believe, taught to emulate for the last fourteen years. If nothing happens to cause you to challenge that belief structure, then yes, it is very likely that you and your housemates will end up being Sir Walter's and Elizabeth or Mary Elliot's." Draco did not look impressed.

"I take it you've take it upon yourself to be the one who challenges my beliefs then?" he asked scornfully.

Hermione rolled her eyes and put down her book. "Yes actually," she replied pompously, standing so that she was closer to his height. "Someone has to, or at least somebody should."

"Screw you, Granger. What gives you the right to make me your little charity project?"

"Nothing. But I think it would be a damn shame if that's who you grew up to be, and if I don't take the opportunity to challenge you, who knows if you'll ever be challenged. And no, that's not me thinking awfully highly of myself" she continued anticipating his response, "that's me thinking sensibly, seeing an opportunity that exists now, and capitalising on it. You may be presented with a veritable buffet of chances to challenge your beliefs over the next few years, but on the other hand, you may not, and if I said nothing then then the window would close, and neither of us can know if it will ever open again. You can think i'm a meddlesome bint all you want, but one day," she pointed to her chest and dropped her voice an octave " I'm going bring down this blood-purity ridiculousness, and then your perfect world where purebloods are top shit, and muggle-borns are vermin and anyone who aligns with them is a blood traitor will be gone." she warned. "You, right now, have forewarning. Adapt or die Draco. Now kindly please leave. my. room." She added.

Draco shot her his most hostile stare, straight out of the Lucius Malfoy business deal playbook. But Hermione wasn't even looking. She had already returned to the window seat, picked up her book, and was proceeding to ignore his presence. Furious, Draco stormed from the room and went in search of something to hit.

Friday he ignored her. But by dinner he was starting to consider that maybe she was right. He spent the night re-reading Persuasion and considering what she had said.

On Saturday, when he eventually rose it was to find a note stuck to his dresser.

If you don't hate me too much. I've devised a game.

A way to move forward with our experiment.

Hermione.

Draco considered it as he showered and dressed, he considered it while he found some breakfast, noting that it was actually almost lunch time, and he considered it as he walked back, checking first the sitting room and then the library for her presence. Even as he reached the hallway that led to their rooms, he wasn't sure what he wanted, yet he found his feet guiding him towards her door. Just as he was about to knock the door swung open, revealing Hermione on the other side. She was effortlessly pretty in a spaghetti strap, button down black floral sundress with a white babydoll tee underneath it and Sketchers.

"Oh" she said. "I was just going to to go swap my book" she said holding up a copy of a book called Oliver Twist.

"Oh," he echoed, nervously stuffing his hands in his pockets and toeing the carpet with his shoe. "Well, I got your note."

"Ok." she said uncertainty. "Well, do you want to come in?" the underlying vulnerability was plain as day across her face.

He shrugged. "Sure, tell me about this game".

The game was essentially a pile of playing cards, each one containing a question or an action.

"So we mix the cards all together, shuffle them, and then take turns pulling one from the pile." Hermione explained.

"And then we do what's on the card?"

"Yeah, or answer the question."

"Hrm, alright then" he replied all feigned indifference.

Hermione shuffled the cards and held them out to Draco to draw. They were both sitting cross-legged on her bed, but she placed the rest of the pile down on the bedside table.

"They're out of our way there" she said when he raised his eyebrow in silent question. "Go on".

He turned the card over and read the question. "Describe a time when you were unexpectedly turned on"

"Ok" she said tucking her hair behind her ears. "Well... oh, I got turned on by this guy at the park the other week actually. I went for a walk, and it took me past the playground, and there was this guy maybe eighteen, nineteen, with a kid who was maybe two, three. It might have been his kid, might have been a sibling or cousin or something, but he was just so responsive with the little boy. Playing and looking out for him, and really listening... caring." she let out a dramatic sigh "god's it was hot."

Draco looked at her bemeaused.

"What?"

"Nothing." he replied amusedly. "So why do you think that turned you on?"

She shrugged, "I assume it's some sort of evolutionary encoding that makes men who show a desire to care for children more desirable as mates because it increase the chances of your children's survival."

"I have no idea what that means."

She laughed. "Basically, girls dig guys who show fatherly tendencies, because they're more likely to stick around."

"'...Kay…... But, you're fifteen Granger. Isn't it a bit early to be getting clucky?" he questioned clearly a little bit freaked out.

"In our society, of course, and trust me, I've got no intentions of having kids until i'm well established in my career. But biologically speaking, I'm right at the start of my peak breeding years." she explained. "So it's not that surprising that my body reacted that way. For most of human history I'd be married by now and having kids soon. It's just an instinct thing." she added shrugging it off. "Anyway, your turn to answer."

"Right, well" he thought for a minute, before looking at the ceiling. "Oh what the hell" he sighed dropping his head back down, "you already know about it, so I may as well give you the details."

He looked at her seemingly weighing up exactly how much he was going to reveal. "Cassius Warrington."

Hermione kept her face determinedly blank.

"I see other guys naked all the time, it's part and parcel of living at boarding school and playing sports. And normally, nothing. But after Quidditch practice one time I forgot my boots, so I went back to get them. Everyone else had left, except Warrington, he was just getting out of the shower. He had one towel hanging around his neck and another one slung around his hips, sitting really low in a way that showed off this vee shape the older guys have down the front of their pelvis. I could see the trail of hair running down his stomach, and his skin was, well, kind of glistening with the reflection of the candles off the water droplets. And then he saw me, and he just stared at me and his cock twitched. He was bursting out of the towel, and I thought he'd be embarrassed or freak out, but he didn't he just stood there completely calmly, put one leg up on the bench to draw attention to his cock, and kept looking at me as he dried himself off. Smirking"

Hermione bit her lip and took a sudden sharp intake of breath, her eyes rolling back in her head imagining the scene. Draco laughed self-deprecatingly. "Yeah, that was about my reaction too. And then of course I realised that Warrington is a guy, and here I was getting hard just looking at him, and I got freaked out and fled." he finished.

"Why?" Hermione asked

"Because i'm straight!" He replied as if she'd asked the most ridiculous question ever. "i've never been attracted to a guy before. Only girls."

She made a humming noise. "Did you know that contrary to the current panicked homophobia in society, there are plenty of times throughout history where male on male sex has been a normal part of life. Not just something 'gay' men did, but something that almost all men did. At least within certain sub-classes or occupations."

He looked at her disbelievingly

Hermione continued with her rambling explanation. "It was particularly common in military societies, but existed in a range of cultures. In some the women were free to engage in sexual acts with other women as well, in others it was only the men. Sometimes it was something that you did only on military campaign. Sometimes it was just how you had sex in everyday life, with male/female intercourse being reserved for procreation since they had no contraception. And sometimes it only happened as part of a particular rite, during some sort of religious festival, Though that was often more of a group orgy thing, than a just two guys thing. But the point is, that human sexuatlity hasn't always been defined by this very rigid definition of gay or straight." She said matter of factly "There are even therories that bisexualtiy is actually the biological norm for our species, and that humans have either embraced or shunned that side of ourselves based on the societal ideals at the time."

"Gods, you really are a know-it-all aren't you." Draco replied one eyebrow raised.

She pushed his shoulder. "I'm just saying, why get freaked out, just because our society now doesn't let people explore their attraction to the same gender, doesn't mean it's not normal. In fact biologically speaking, our society is the abnormal one."

"Again, you're using all these words I really don't understand. Biologically, evo-loo-shun."

Hermione laughed. "I'll explain another time. My card." she reached over to the pile and collected one. "Do boys really rate the girls at school?"

Malfoy surprisingly rolled his eyes. "Yes" he replied sounding unimpressed.

"You seem like you don't approve…..?" she queried.

"I don't." Draco replied. "I mean sure, check a girl out, even tell your mates you think she's hot, but giving numerical ratings. It's a bit….."

"Like a cattle auction?" Hermione supplied.

Malfoy laughed. "Yeah. And looks are subjective anyway. Just because one guy thinks that Gwendolyn Searbaker is the epitome of a perfect ten, doesn't mean every other bloke thinks the same. But when they're doing it, you feel like you have to agree with what the crowd thinks even if you don't."

"Is there a lot of pressure to be involved then?"

He hummed. "A bit. I can usually distance myself by playing up the Pureblood Aristocracy card, claiming I wouldn't lower myself to even look at anyone lesser, but that only works if they blokes involved are rating Half-bloods and Muggle-borns."

Hermione was slightly taken aback. Sure she'd come to realise that a lot of Malfoy's behaviour at school was a front, but she'd never considered that he might act like a racist, playing up his expected role in order to avoid acting like a chauvinist.

"Have you ever seen a girl naked in real life?"

A loud buzzing noise sounded and Malfoy glared up at her. They were back in the sitting room, playing Operation.

"You ruined my turn woman" he barked.

"Sorry" Hermione replied feigning innocence. "so , have you?"

"No"

"I haven't either, a guy I mean….. Well not the front." she added blushing.

Malfoy arched his eyebrow, placing the plastic scalpel down on the edge of the game and spreading his hands across the table. "Who's back have you seen? Wait, was it Weasley's? Don't tell me if it was Weasleys, I don't want that image." he added holding up one hand and scrunching his face in disgust.

"No it wasn't Ron" Hermione replied rolling her eyes.

"Well then, who was it?"

Hermione looked down at the table, bit her lip and then raised her eyes to his, trying to convey the answer silently.

"Come on, spill!"

Crap

"You" she squeaked quietly, looking quickly away and fidgeting with her hands.

"What?" came the slightly hard edged response.

Nervously Hermione looked back at him, then covered her face with her hands. "Our first night here, I was completely absorbed in my brain and didn't even notice the sound of the shower, and I walked into the bathroom and well, you were there. In the shower." she chanced another glance up at him.

"Oh really? Like what you saw?" he teased.

Hermione could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks.

"Anyway, there's only so much you can really tell from pictures, you know." she continued in her academic voice.

"So you think that should be next on our list then?"

Hermione nodded

"A'right, come on then." Draco replied putting the Operation wand down and standing up, he started to unbutton his shirt.

"Here!? " Hermione squeaked looking around frantically.

Draco rolled his eyes, pulling his wand from his trousers and lazily spelling the door shut, and adding a proximity alert ward.

"Better?" he asked archly.

"Yes, actually. Thanks" she replied slightly thrown. She still wasn't quite used to this considerate Malfoy. And then his shirt came off and he was undoing his belt.

"Come on Granger, catch up." he winked.

She huffed, and stuck her tongue out at him, but started toeing off her shoes and unbuttoning the front of her dress as she did so. When she stood before him in nothing but her underwear she closed her eyes, sucking in a nervous breath.

"Worried?" Draco asked.

She let the breath out, and rolled her eyes. "A little, I know I shouldn't be, it's just skin, but….."

"But it feels kinda vulnerable?"

"Yeah."

He shrugged. "Allright, I'll go first then." he hooked his thumbs into the tops of his boxers, and pushed them down, and Hermione's eyes widened in time with his rapidly rising cock.

"Uh, yeah, sorry, looks like you're not going to get to see it in its usual state. Something about stripping in front of an also mostly naked pretty girl seems to have set it off." Draco joked with a wink, that somehow made him seem effortlessly cool rather than nervous or embarrassed.

Hermione slowly walked towards him, her eyes raking in every detail of his body as she circled it. After two turns she returned to face him. Biting her lower lip nervously, she spoke, "Can I look closer?" she asked nodding down towards his penis.

Draco nodded in reply, and Hermione lowered herself down onto her knees. She just knelt there for a moment looking at him. Observing the trail of white blonde hair, leading to a darker blonde thatch, the way his balls hung beneath him, even erect, the length, width and colour. The veins that ran up his penis and the way his foreskin pulled back off the head.

"You can touch it if you want." Draco choked out, his voice cracking slightly. "You know to help you get a better understanding…. For science."

Hermione looked up at him all wide eyed, and he had to gulp back a groan at how much that made him ache. He was leaking, he could feel it, damn it, this was supposed to just be scientific, but his body was not co-operating.

Granger reached her hands up slowly, placing one on his hip, and lightly tracing a path across his pelvis with the other. Glancing back down she tilted her head sideways, and suddenly her fingers were touching the head of his cock, as she picked up a bead of his pre-cum and held it up to observe.

"Hrrm, it's more liquidy than I expected." she announced. Then with a shrug, she popped her finger into her mouth. "Salty"

"MHGFH!" Draco groaned, causing her to look up at him curiously.

"Nothing" he squeaked.

Granger narrowed her eyes at him, but shook her head and returned to her investigations nonetheless.

She reached her hand back out, and weighed his balls, then rolled them between her fingers.

"Yep, they're as weird as I imagined." she stated baldly.

"Hey!" he replied indignant.

But his ire was quickly lost, as she started to trace one finger, lightly up the length of him.

"The skin is softer than I expected. Kind of…...velvety."

"It feels even softer still when i'm not hard" Draco managed to croak out, his voice cracking slightly.

"I wonder…." She began, and suddenly Draco couldn't think as her hand wrapped around his shaft and her tongue darted out to lick around the head.

Oh my God, i'm giving Malfoy a blow job! A voice in Hermione's head screamed.

This was not in the plan. A second voice replied.

Shut up you! The first retorted. Just go with it. See what happens.

I guess we have to learn somehow, after all that's the point of this whole deal right?

HA! Yes, yes it is. The first preened.

Hermione shrugged and simply continued her exploration.

"You know I never did end up seeing you naked" Draco announced that night. It was after dinner and they were in his room. Hermione was reading, and Draco was flicking through her lists.

"Hrm?" she hummed, looking up from her book.

"Earlier, we were supposed to be doing you show me yours i'll show you mine, and then you went off script." he teased.

Hermione blushed red.

"Oh i'm not complaining. It was a fantastic deviation. But it occurs to me, that I still don't know what a girl looks like naked, and" he stalked towards where she was sitting on the ottoman, eyeing her intently, "i'm really hoping that you'll say yes and let me look at you."

Hermione's breath caught, and she nodded slowly, slightly dazed. "Uh huh"

"Good" he smirked kneeling down in front of her. He removed the book from her hands, placing it out of the way on the floor, and slowly began to unbutton her dress.

Hermione's breath was in her ears, she was spread out, on the ottoman, Draco having slowly, teasingly undressed her down to just her knickers. He looked down at her from his position straddling her legs, shooting her a questioning look.

She nodded slowly, giving him permission to remove her pants, exposing herself to his gaze. And maybe his fingers and mouth. The voice piped up.

He slowly inched her underwear down her legs, shimmying them off her then placed her feet back onto the ground, sank down in front of them, and looked her over. When he had satisfied himself with the front view, he placed his hands on her knees.

"Open up?" he asked gently.

Hermione swallowed thickly, and started to part her legs. Draco kept eye contact with her as they inched her legs apart. There was a heady sense of anticipation, mixed with trust, something Hermione would never have expected to find with Malfoy of all people. It created a sense of intimacy that went well beyond the physical. Only when her knees had reached the edge of the ottoman did he lower his gaze, taking in the full sight of her for the first time.

Draco mimicked her earlier actions, simply observing to start with. To be honest he was a bit overwhelmed. There was hair and foldy bits of skin, and he was pretty sure that that, right there was the hole. But he had no idea what any of the rest was for. Did those bits that looked like flappy lips do something? What was the kind of triangular bit at the top for? He was lost. He needed some direction.

"Sooo, uh, Granger?"

Her head quickly popped into his vision as she propped herself up onto her elbows. "Yeah?"

"Uh, you might need to give me one of those biology lessons here."

"Oh!" she seemed to think for a moment "Right, well, can you pass me a pillow then?"

"A pillow" he replied confused.

"Yeah" she nodded expectantly.

"Oookkkayy" he replied standing and grabbing one off the bed. He returned to the ottoman handing it to her.

"You can go back to where you were sitting" Hermione said, stuffing the pillow under her lower back to help prop herself up.

Draco looked at her perplexed, but sank down again.

"Ok well, um. Give me your hand."

He reached his hand out, and she took it in hers, guiding it to touch her mound.

"So this part is the pubic mound, and technically everything you can see is called the vulva, the vagina is actually inside…"

She moved his hand down to touch the pointy triangular thing. "This is the clitoris, remember this one, it's probably the most important" she kept moving his hand, on to the flappy bits. "And these are the Labia, there's an outer set and an inner set, and then this" she pressed the tip of his finger to the hole he'd noted earlier. "Is the entrance of the vagina."

They'd been looking at each other the whole time she directed his hand, and he saw her chest heaving in his peripheral vision.

"Ok, now I have a map, but I still don't know what any of it does, or, well more to the point, what i'm supposed to do with it."

'M"

He coughed looking down, "so ahh. You reckon you could show me?"

He looked back just in time to see her eyebrows fly up her head.

"You want to watch me touch myself?" she squeaked.

"Uh, well, that…. Actually….." he let out a sharp breath. "God's Granger that sounds all kinds of amazing, but I was actually meaning that you could keep showing me what to do with your hand guiding mine."

"Oh" she replied blushing. "Yeah, I guess that would work."

She picked his hand up slowly, hovering it over her mound but not touching anything.

"So how do you like to be touched?" he whispered.

Hermione let out a whimpery groan, and pressed his hand down against her, "like this…."