Author's Notes: I know this has taken me ages to pick this story back up again but clearly my recent crack at some other Harry Potter stories has gotten me into the right mood.

Disclaimer: I don't own it and make no money...as usual

Special thanks as always to my beta JenJenSon for all her help.

Unfortunately Ginny hadn't been much help with her Draco situation. In fact her suggestions had been option one; avoid the bastard like the plague and let him suffer or two give him a good snog and a good shag and let her know how he is in the sack.

Neither of which sounded very helpful to Hermione...she didn't really want to let him off easy since he did lie to her but at the same time she'd also like his whole dare to be over so that if he was still nice to her she knew it wouldn't just be for the dare.

She decided that she'd wait and see how their next encounter went and go from there, after all he'd probably try everything he could think of to win her over now.

However she found she was wrong.

Draco if anything stopped talking to her.

It threw Hermione completely, he passed her in the hall on the way to breakfast and murmured a simple "Morning Hermione" and headed straight to the Slytherin table to join his friends and that was it. She stood a little baffled at the entrance to the great hall for a few moments before going to join her own friends at her table. The rest of the day went much the same, he stayed away from her and only in Potions when they crossed paths at the supply closet did he simply gesture for her to go first like a gentleman but said nothing.

It was completely strange and uncharted waters for her...he wasn't being nasty to her, he wasn't exactly being nice to her either...or he was but not... She frowned to herself; why did she care? It wasn't as if she actually liked him flirting with her was it?

Unfortunately by the end of the week Hermione had decided that actually yes, she did miss him being nice to her and flirting with her and even kissing her. So she made a plan and on their last lesson of the day and she waited just down the hall from the classroom for him to pass so she could grab him.

"Hey what are yo- Hermione?" he asked incredulously. "What are you doing? You know wandering the dungeons is dangerous for a Gryffindor." She didn't let go of his arm, instead lifting his hand so that she could see it.

"I'm fairly certain I can handle myself." She replied, not looking up at him but instead unravelling the bandage on his hand to inspect the raw wound there. "If you were going to give up why didn't you just go and get the antidote?"

"I haven't exactly given up I just didn't know exactly how to go about another plan. The last few didn't turn out so well." He smirked.

"Did you think of coming up to me and asking nicely?" she asked him.

"I'm a Malfoy, what do you think?" he grinned. She murmured some spells on his hand and the itching and pain reduced by a great deal. So much that he even let out a small sigh of relief. "Thanks."

"Wow, that must be a Malfoy first." She said, letting go of his hand at last and looking up at him.

"We like to believe we've grown a little." He replied, casually leaning back against the wall. "What about you, do you think you've changed after it all?"

"Definitely." She nodded. "We all did. The lives ruined, lives lost and just...we all had to grow up rather quickly don't you think?" She blushed a little feeling slightly strange that she was having an actual conversation with Draco Malfoy of all people.

"Yeah I mean did you see Longbottom go? If I hadn't been there I would have never believed that it would be Longbottom to tell the Dark Lord to his face to shove it." Draco laughed. "I have to admit I wanted to say a few of those things myself but...my mother was the one I was following not him."

"It's alright Draco, you don't have to explain it to me." She said carefully. "You had your trial and you got released without punishment so you obviously did nothing wrong."

"Did nothing wrong?" he laughed a bit more darkly. "Are you joking? I have this thing on my arm to remind me of what I did!" He shoved his sleeves up baring his faded mark to her. "You should know better than anyone how evil I really am."

"You may not be a saint but I find it hard to believe you're evil Draco Malfoy." She replied angrily. "You had plenty of chances to turn Harry in and you didn't."

"That doesn't mean I didn't do terrible things." He told her, before turning and leaving her alone in the hallway.

Hermione once again found that she didn't know what to think. One minute she had been having a civil conversation with Draco Malfoy, which was strange enough in itself and the next he was telling her how evil he was. He looked more scared than she did...he looked disgusted with himself.

Yes, she thought, the war had most certainly changed Draco Malfoy; it had torn him up inside completely...he was almost as much a victim in this as anyone else had been.

When she returned to the common room the others all greeted her as usual if a little curious.

"Where did you go Mione?" Ron asked, "one minute you're there, the next poof, gone."

"Just needed a quick word with Draco." She replied without really thinking about it.

"Did you put him out of his misery?" Ginny asked.

"Not yet...I was going to but he left before I could." Hermione replied.

"Draco? As in Draco Malfoy? As in the slimy ferret that made our lives living hell at school for the last several years?" Ron asked in disbelief, his voice getting louder and louder as he went.

"Yes Ronald that Draco." Hermione replied.

"Are you mad? What were you thinking talking to him?" he continued to rant.

"Are you seriously telling me you don't know mate?" Neville asked, looking back over the sofa at them. "The rumours have been flying for weeks!"

"Really?" Hermione asked Ginny who just nodded in response.

"No! What rumours?" he demanded, turning on Neville now.

"Mate, he got caught out playing one of your brother's inventions, the truth or dare one. He had to get Hermione to kiss him and has been trying ever since. Must have a pretty nasty mark by now too I bet." He explained.

"It is pretty bad. That's why I was going to let him off today." Hermione replied.

"Are you mental? Let the bastard suffer Hermione after all that's what he did to you in his own house." He snapped. "He stood there and watched his Aunt torturing you on his floor and did nothing about it."

"Did you ever think that maybe things aren't quite so black and white Ronald?" Hermione asked bluntly.

"Come on Ron, leave it. He was let off for a reason. He obviously didn't do anything wrong." Harry told his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah nothing, that's exactly what he did, nothing." Ron muttered, heading up to the boys dorms.

"I'm sure he'll be fine by dinner." Ginny said reassuringly.

Luckily for the most part Ginny was right, by dinner Ron seemed to have forgotten all about it until he spotted Malfoy at the Slytherin table but he didn't do anything, just glared at his back and continued to eat.

It was Sunday evening when Hermione found Draco again, completely by accident though. She had headed up to the Astronomy tower to think as she sometimes liked to do and there he stood looking out at the sky. He turned as soon as he heard her footsteps.

"Sorry, I expected it to be empty." She said, quickly turning to leave. He looked like she'd pulled him out of some pretty intense thinking.

"Wait Hermione." He called out to her. She paused on the top step of the stairway. "I'm sorry about the other day. I wasn't angry with you."

"It's alright." She shrugged, turning back to him.

"You don't have to leave if you don't want to." He said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. Hermione slowly walked over to join him at the railing. "I like the quiet here, the common room can get a little loud sometimes."

"I know what you mean, I used to hide in the library but it seems that the library has become a cool hang out now." She replied.

"That would be all those young girls trying to be the next Hermione Granger." He smirked.

"I doubt that's really it." She smiled. "So are you going back to avoiding me again?" He turned to look at her; his grey eyes seemed to spark suddenly.

"What's the matter? Missing me?" he smirked.

"Maybe a little." She admitted with a smile, he hadn't actually expected her to say that. "You're actually one of the most intelligent people in our year yourself, it makes for better conversation."

"Ah yes, it always comes back to something to improve your already oversized brain." He grinned, before frowning and scratching at his hand.

"All you have to do is ask you know." She said quietly. He looked back up to her in surprise and seemed to lose track of his thoughts for a moment. She really had the most incredibly gorgeous deep chocolate coloured eyes...there were very tempting.

"Will you go out with me?" he asked.

"Pardon?" she asked blinking up at him.

"On a date, just once if you don't like it you can avoid me like the plague afterwards and I won't hold it against you." He explained.

"Um...that wasn't what I thought you would ask." She replied.

"I know." He grinned, before turning back to look out at the sky. "I didn't really think I'd ever ask you that myself but even you have to admit we've got something."

"Something?" she asked, internally wondering how the boy she had punched in her third year was now asking her out."

"You said yourself that you like talking to me, and surprisingly I like talking to you and you know that we have chemistry." He told her, his eyes meeting hers, drawing her in as he leant closer.

"Alright." Hermione agreed.

"It's half term but I have detention tomorrow so how about Tuesday?" he asked.

"Um...yes Tuesday is fine for me." She nodded.

"Meet me at the gates at half eleven tomorrow then." He told her.

"Where are we going?" she couldn't help but ask.

"Surprise." He shrugged. He bent down to kiss her quickly, taking her by surprise before heading down the steps and leaving her alone.