A/N: Okay, now things are starting to get interesting :) thanks for the reviews, favorites, & alerts, as always :)

"So he erased your memory," Harry said through gritted teeth, "but I suppose you got it back?"

"Well that's just it," Hermione half-smiled, "He removed my memory badly. I remembered getting to the Room of Requirement and binding him, but not unbinding him. And I had spotty memory of us casting curses at each other. But then that night when I fell asleep, the memories he did manage to take came back to me in dreams. Although he did somehow manage to erase my memories of my previous Arithmancy class, and that was the only one I didn't get back."

"Okay, so explain to me why you didn't go straight to Dumbledore and tell him what had just happened," Harry replied, still blistering with anger.

"Well first I had a look at the cabinet that he had been going to open, but it just looked like an ordinary cabinet to me. I looked around a bit more but I wasn't finding anything, so I left and went to bed. I thought long and hard about this, Harry, but if I went to Dumbledore and told him what had happened, and Draco was expelled and Voldemort killed him for failing at his mission - how could I live with that?"

"But you can live with him prowling about the castle trying to assassinate Dumbledore at every turn?"

"Harry, there's no way he's going to be able to do it, and he knows that. Even if he could, he doesn't want to, he can hardly bear the thought! I believed - and still believe - he desperately wants to come to our side, but he's too scared of what would happen if Voldemort found out."

"Right, well," Harry muttered, failing to feel once ounce of sympathy for Malfoy, "there must be more to the story because this doesn't explain what happened today."

"Yes, there is," Hermione said, hyper aware of the fact that a blush was creeping up on her cheeks despite her best efforts to suppress it, and Harry's expression turned horrified. He clearly knew far too well how to interpret his best friend's blushes.

"Hermione - why - oh God - you're not...?"

"Just be quiet and listen."

One and a half months ago

Hermione had been noticing Draco's nervous looks he'd been shooting her in class and at meals, and she tried to keep her expressions neutral but she was getting the feeling that he was starting to figure out that his memory charm had been dismal at best. Anyone else would have been in fear of their own safety at this point, since if Draco knew her memory was indeed intact, that made her his current loosest end that needed tying up.

But yet she wasn't scared. She had seen the look in his eyes when she had said Katie Bell's name. He was horrified by his own actions and it was eating him alive, and anyone who was truly looking at him could tell. And if he had wanted to hurt her, he would have done so in the Room of Requirement, not simply tinker badly with her memory. But one of these days soon, she decided, she was going to talk to him again, and she would convince him to come to his senses and to come to her side. If it didn't happen within a short period of time, she reasoned, she would go to Dumbledore. She didn't want to, but if he refused to budge, then he really left her no choice.

Unfortunately, in the span of two weeks after the incident in the Room of Requirement, Hermione found no opportunities to talk to Draco. He had learned to use the Room properly, so she couldn't sneak in there while he was inside again. Besides class and meals, and he was only showing up to half of those anymore, he was never anywhere to be found.

She was pondering procuring some Polyjuice Potion and getting to Draco that way one night as she made her return to Gryffindor tower from the library, but her thoughts were interrupted when a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders and she found herself being shoved into a dusty broom cupboard, one of the hands clamping over her mouth when she tried to scream.

The door slammed and her back was thrown to a wall, and there was not a single sliver of light to be found but Hermione knew instantly who she was with. Draco had her pinned with his body against the wall and his wand was poking her jaw, and she felt his breath ghosting across her lips. "Tell me what you remember, Granger!" he demanded.

"I - I don't know what you're talking about," she said feebly, knowing that she was terrible at playing dumb but her mind was curiously blank and non-functioning at the moment.

He used his free hand to dig into her right shoulder with his thin fingers, and his wand poked harder against her skin. "I'm not stupid, I see the way you look at me and I know I didn't do that spell right. Do you remember everything?"

Hermione's heart was thumping wildly, a little too wildly for her to understand, and it took a moment for her brain to catch up with his words. "Yes, I - I remember everything."

Draco released her with a shove, and he cursed as he turned away and with a swish of his wand lit the lamp in the room. She gulped in several deep breaths but her heart kept thumping, and her insides leapt a bit more when he turned back to her.

He looked as if he hadn't slept in days. His pale blonde hair was ruffled and hung slightly over his tired gray eyes, and she could see his hands trembling. "Draco -"

His eyes snapped up to look at her and she could almost see the strange reaction happening inside him to the sound of his name. He was no closer to understanding it now than he was two weeks ago. "I haven't told anyone. I don't want to. I've been wanting to talk to you, but..."

"I've already told you, I'm not joining your bloody Order or whatever it is you want me to do," Draco spat. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Then why did you shove me in a broom cupboard?"

The words had barely left her mouth when she realized with a jolt of horror that he was holding both their wands in his right hand. Where was her head at that she was just now noticing this?

"Well that's a bit obvious, isn't it? Come on, for being the 'brightest witch of our age', you're being a bit dim," He answered with a sneer. "I know how to do memory charms correctly now."

Hermione bit her lip and pushed herself closer to the wall as he advanced. She didn't see any way out of this, and he was getting closer - her heart sped up even further and she thought it might burst, and just as he closed the gap between them, a wild idea sprang up in her mind.

He raised his wand and opened his mouth to mutter the incantation, his face screwed up in concentration, and Hermione knew it was now or never.

She launched herself at Draco and kissed him.

She felt as if lightning had touched her as soon as her lips were pressed against his, and Draco must have felt it too - he shuddered against her before becoming completely frozen, his arms paralyzed at his sides.

Her body seemed to act of its own accord; her hands lifted and found his face, and her insides somersaulted when suddenly he ceased to be a stone and his lips moved against hers. It was tentative at first, and she opened her eyes just slightly to see his face. His eyes were shut so tightly he looked as if he were in pain, and she couldn't be sure, but she thought there might have been a tear sliding out from his eye but she never knew, because he overcame his apprehension and his hands found her waist, and there was a whole new wave of electricity as he roughly pushed her against the wall.

She had never felt anything like this before, and she could hardly believe it was real. It seemed this was a new experience for Draco as well, as he seemed almost clumsy, his hands moving wildly as their kiss grew more and more frantic. One hand tangled in her already unruly hair, the other moved over and side and to her lower back and back again. Hermione was gripping his slightly too-long hair, gasping for breath where she could find it, and wanting to be closer to him, even though she wasn't sure their bodies could be pressing any harder against one another...

It could have lasted hours, or days, she didn't know; but when he finally pried his lips away from hers she let out a frustrated whimper, and opened her eyes.

By now his hands were on either side of her face, holding it gently, and he looked into her big brown eyes and slowly came to realize what had just happened. Both of their chests were heaving with deep, ragged breaths, and once again, time seemed to stand still.

A part of Hermione screamed not to say anything, but she couldn't stop herself. "I'm sorry, I... I had to..."

"Yeah," Draco muttered stupidly, still staring at her as if it were the first time in his life he had ever seen her.

It was taking all of her self control not to jump on him again. "Draco..."

And then he was on her again, kissing her hard, taking her breath away, and making her dizzy with feelings and sensations she wasn't sure she would ever get used to. But as soon as she had allowed herself to get lost in him again, he was gone.

She opened her eyes, and saw him start to pace with his head in his hands. He looked a bit mad, and Hermione was afraid to say anything, so she wobbled forward on unsteady feet and grabbed their wands off of the floor when his back was to her. He then stopped pacing but was still gripping his head by his hair, and she thought she heard him mumbling to himself.

"Are you okay?" She asked feebly, and as soon as he heard her voice his head snapped up. He looked from her to the door and back again and rushed to the door, clumsily fiddling with the knob, when Hermione stepped to him.

"Don't go, Draco," she muttered, placing her hand over the one of his that was still fumbling with the doorknob. He flinched at her touch and half-slammed his head against the door. She withdrew her hand.

"I shouldn't have... shouldn't... just leave me alone," he stammered, twisting the knob successfully at last and storming out the cupboard.

Hermione stared for a moment at the door as it slammed shut, but then she looked down at her hand that was still clutching hers and Draco's wands. He may have told her to leave him alone, but she had the feeling it wouldn't take him long to retract that statement once he realized what he'd left behind.