"Hermione, wait up!"

Hermione had left the club, irritated with Calista, pissed off at Draco, and just ready to go home. But she didn't want to go home. She didn't want to have to listen to Calista bitch about how she 'shagged' Malfoy.

Yeah right.

She turned around and saw Cato jogging up to her. "Hey, you're actually here!"

She gave him a hug and then he fell into step next to her. "Headed home?"

She let out a long sigh and said, "No. My completely wasted cousin is throwing a fit, so I figure I'll just stay at a hotel or something until she sobers up enough to realize she was being stupid."

Calista was most definitely a dramatic drunk.

"No way are you staying in a hotel. Come stay with me." he said with a smile.

"Hey I'm not-"

He cut her off quickly, "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you could stay in my house instead of having to pay the ridiculous amount of money for a hotel in the city."

At that she smiled but shook her head, "I would rather not be in such close proximity to Malfoy."

"Sure didn't seem like you minded a few minutes ago." he said with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes and punched his arm playfully. "Shut up."

They walked in silence for a few moments, Hermione not really paying attention to where she was going, until Cato spoke again.

"Please stay tonight. I promise Draco won't bother you. Besides, I could never forgive myself if I let you stay in a hotel." he said, flashing her a smile.

She sighed, thinking it over. She didn't know if she even had enough money for a hotel in the first place, and she wasn't that keen on staying by herself in a city she didn't know. Besides she didn't have her wand, she'd left it at Calista's apartment.

To hell with it all, she thought. "Alright, I'll stay to soothe your conscience."

He smirked and took her hand, pulling out his wand, and apparated to his home.

An hour had passed and Hermione was fairly sure that if she continued playing this stupid drinking game with Cato, she would be completely hammered.

The point of the game was to ask a question and if the other person lied about the answer they took a shot of Fire Whiskey, instead of having to admit it out loud, automatically letting the other person know they were lying.

"So how many girls have you slept with?" she asked, her head leaning against the chair.

They were situated on the floor between two plush chairs, one behind Hermione and one behind Cato, with the Fire Whiskey between them.

Cato chuckled and seemed to be mentally counting in his head, "No more than...fifteen..."

She studied him carefully and he sighed, picking up the bottle and taking a swig.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, "More or less?"

"I do believe it's my turn to ask a question, dear." he said with a smirk.

She sighed, but motioned for him to ask. But before he could ask Draco walked in the door, looking surprisingly sober.

His eyes grew wide when he spotted the two of them on the floor together. "What the hell mate?" he asked, walking over to them.

"Playing a game. Care to join us?" asked Cato, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

He glanced over at Hermione and noticed her eyes had already been on him. He smirked and sat down by them, a bit closer to Hermione than Cato.

"How do you play?"

At that Hermione spoke up, her voice only slightly slurred, "Well you ask one of us a question, and we can either tell you the truth or lie, but if we lie we have to take a drink of the Fire Whiskey."

"So then why would you lie in the first place, if we'll know anyway?" he questioned.

"Because," she said, a slight smile on her face, "Sometimes it's easier to admit the truth without having to say it to anybody."

He nodded slowly, "Alright,"

Cato smirked and turned his attention to Hermione, "Do you like Draco?"

Her eyes went wide and a slight tint came to her cheeks, but she managed to say, "Depends on how you mean it."

Draco felt like he could throttle his friend, but he was curious to know her answer.

"I mean in the-"

"Uh-uh." she said, holding up her hand. "I answered the question you asked me. It's my turn now."

She thought for a moment, and then looked to Draco, "Why'd you kiss me earlier at the club?"

He smirked and let his eyes trail across her features, she really was a good looking witch...dare he even say beautiful?

No, of course not. He was Draco Fucking Malfoy, he didn't think that.

At least not out loud.

"Because I wanted to."

She was surprised when he didn't take a drink from the bottle, but shrugged it off and leaned back against the chair, closing her eyes momentarily.

She heard a few mumbled things and then she heard someone standing up. When she opened her eyes Cato was standing.

"I'm going to go to bed. Don't get too wasted alright. And I'll take you back to Calista's in the morning."

Before she could protest he had disappeared up the stairs, leaving her alone with Draco.

He was watching her intently until she couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"If you still want to play, it's your turn."

He smiled and asked, "Did you enjoy yourself?"

"No," she said immediately. After a short pause she picked up the bottle and took a sip.

Draco let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, relieved that he wasn't the only one who'd enjoyed their kiss.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked after placing the bottle back on the ground between them.

He looked at her and cocked his head to the side, a smirk on his face, "Because I want to."

"Can you ever answer with anything other than that sentence?" she snapped.

"What do you want me to say?" That stupid smirk still on his face.

"Why are you such and arrogant arse?"

"I think you like it."

She stood up and glared at him, "No, I don't. You walk around here like you're better than everybody. You're arrogant and self centered and you don't give a damn about me or anybody. All you care about is yourself." She spun on her heel and headed for the stairs.

He stood up and grabbed her arm suddenly, pushing her into the wall and knocking the air out of her lungs. "Don't tell me that I don't care Granger. Because you don't know the half of it."

"Get off me." she demanded, her voice a little breathier than she would have liked.

"No." he said, his eyes boring into hers. "You think you know me don't you?"

"I don't pretend to know anybody. That's what you do. You're the one who assumes that you know people. You're the one who thinks that just because I'm a bookworm I don't know how to have fun. You're the one who thinks that I'm beneath you because of-"

He slammed a hand over her mouth and dropped his voice dangerously low, his eyes holding hers with an intensity she'd never seen before.

"I do not think that you are beneath me, Granger. I haven't thought that in a really long time. Give me some credit, because I have changed."

"Good for you Malfoy. What do you want? A pat on the back? You think that because you changed I'm supposed to forget the hell you put me through back at Hogwarts?"

"No," he said, his voice level, "What I want is just for you to hear me out. Just listen to what I have to say."

She snorted, "Yeah right, it really seemed like you wanted to talk at the club."

He sighed and loosened his grip on her arms, sliding them down to her waist, "I can't help it."

She had her hands resting on his chest, comfortingly warm through the fabric of his shirt. He lifted one hand from her hip and used it to brush away a strand of her hair.

She closed her eyes, "Why are you doing this? Why me? It's not like you have trouble getting girls Malfoy."

He chuckled and brought his lips down to her neck, pressing light kisses along the soft flesh before murmuring, "Just because Granger. Bloody hell, do you need a reason for everything."

She tensed up and pushed him away, "Yes! Yes I need a fucking reason!"

He was shocked, but only momentarily. "Well I don't have a reason for you."

"Of course not. You never have to have a reason because every girl just falls into your bed and you shoo them out like they're trash."

"Hermione-"

She ignored him and kept talking, "But I'm not one of those people. I don't sleep with completely arrogant bastards, especially you. We have a past that is anything but nice."

"Damn it Granger, wait." he said when she started to walk away. "You're not...I don't...Granger, you're not like the rest of them."

"Right, I'm the nerdy bookworm who-"

"You are most definitely not a nerd. Especially not in that little dress."

He took satisfaction in the fact that she blushed.

"You never looked at me before tonight, the one night where I dress like the girls you usually get into bed with. You really expect me to believe that you think I'm different. I mean you just said that you didn't have a reason."

"Bullshit. I looked at you plenty Granger. You just weren't looking at me."

She opened and closed her mouth, trying to come up with something to say. She didn't know that he'd been paying her any attention, but she hadn't really seen much of him since they'd left Hogwarts, and they'd done a pretty good job in their last year of avoiding each other.

Finally she looked up at him and asked, "What do you want from me?"

Before Draco could think it through completely he said, "To let me take you on a date."

Hermione's eyes went wide, "What?"

Thinking that he might as well go with it now, he said, "You heard me, Granger."

"Why?"

"Do you have to question everything?"

"If I feel like you're just using that as an excuse to get me into your bed, then yes!" she said, not really angry just completely confused.

"Granger," he said, making sure she was looking dead at him, "I'm not just using it as an excuse to get you in my bed, granted I'm not going to lie and say that I don't. But," he said, shooting her a look when she tried to interrupt, "That's not the only reason. I would actually like to have a conversation with you that doesn't end in us arguing."

She eyed him, still unsure. "I don't know...besides, I'm sure the last thing you need is to be seen around with a muggle-born. I do know that you run the family business now."

"Don't worry about them." he said easily.

"Malfoy..."

"Oh come on. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I end up sleeping with you." as soon as the words left her mouth she regretted them. The smirk that stretched across Draco's face was as smug as she'd ever seen it.

"Well you know-"

"I'll go, okay? Just no talk about sex. I want an actual conversation as you said."

He smiled before he could stop himself.

He was going on a date with Hermione Granger.

Bloody hell.

It was getting hard for him to keep track of whether or not he was still doing this to prove to Cato that he could, or if it was because he really did care for the silly bint.

Was Draco Malfoy, son of a notorious Death Eater, and former Death Eater himself, actually falling for a muggle born witch?

He could literally feel his ancestors turning over in their graves. But for once in his life, he just didn't give a damn.