Disclaimer: HP...Definitely not. Only the plot.

A/N: Thanks everyone who reviewed!


Chapter 8: Draco's Actions


Hermione was interrupted by the four boys who barged into the common room noisily.

"Wow, you guys are fast," Ginny said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. However, Hermione was glad by the abrupt interruption because she didn't know how to respond to Ginny's question.

"Why, did we miss something?" asked Harry.

"No!" Hermione squeaked. Ginny shot her a suspicious look that caused her to blush. Nevertheless, the guys didn't bother asking since they wanted to get the small party started.

Draco and Blaise brought lots of butterbeers that threatened to spill on the hearthrug as they made their way towards the table. Harry and Ron on the other hand brought snacks and some leftover desserts from dinner earlier.

Ron told Hermione and Ginny how they had to frighten the elves by endangering the spotless countertops with fingerprints and other horrible things. Terrified, the elves agreed to give them food and then shooed them away from the kitchen. Nonetheless, Hermione was not looking happy about it. She had completely forgotten about the whole S.P.E.W. thing over the past two years when Voldemort's reign of terror strengthened. Everyone laughed except Hermione who pouted. Blaise told her that it was all a joke and that the elves were more than happy to get rid of the leftovers. This seemed to calm Hermione a bit after the 'you should've seen your face!' teases.

They all sat on the floor chatting and merrily laughing. The guys were getting hyped up from drinking so much butterbeers while the girls sipped modestly on theirs.

Seems like the boys had already forgotten the pasts...Hermione thought.

Draco left the circle and went up the stairs to his dorm. Hermione followed him with her eyes as he disappeared. When he came back, she noticed something in protruding out of his right pocket. She decided to ignore it, thinking it's none of her business, and resumed conversing with Ginny.

After half an hour or so, Hermione's gaze fell on her watch causing her to jump up in horror.

"Draco! We're extremely late for the meeting!" She rushed over to her chair, snatching her cloak.

"Late for what? Oh shit…the meeting." Draco stood up unsteadily. Blaise helped offered his help but Draco waved him off.

"Yes, the meeting now go get your cloak and let's go." Hermione rushed over to the desk, taking her notes for the meeting. "You guys may stay here if you want or go back to your own common rooms. Your choice."

"We'll wait for you guys," said Ginny and everyone agreed.

"All right then, I doubt that the meeting will take long since we already passed about half of it." Hermione tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for Draco to come downstairs. "Draco! Get your bloody ass down here!" There was no reply so she decided to rush up stairs into his room without knocking. Hermione put her hands over her mouth as she saw the shirtless Draco. She placed her hands over her eyes and turned around. Oh shit. "I'm sorry for coming in without notice but you have to bloody hurry up"

She didn't hear any response, but footsteps behind her. She turned crimson red, if that was even possible, from the embarrassment. When the footfalls disappeared, she felt a muscular arm wrap around her shoulders causing her to flinch. She looked up and saw a nauseous Draco smirking at her. She gave him a questioning look.

"Draco, are you okay?"

"Yea-aa…" He drawled woozily.

"Draco, ar-are you drunk?" Hermione stared in disbelief. She separated herself from him and looked at him face to face.

"Of course no-o tt…" Draco began to fall on Hermione but she continued to hold him up with great difficulty.

"Draco you clearly are. But that can't be, butterbeers can't make you pissed." Draco's weight was becoming unbearable so she decided to shift him a little bit. She heard a clank in Draco's pockets that sounded like coins and a bottle. She remembered what she saw when he came back down to the common room with something jutting out of his pants. "Draco, let me see your pockets."

Draco was too dizzy to reply so she just reached in his pockets, but before she could pull out what was inside, he backed away.

"No…there's nothing therrre, Hermony." Draco faltered as he stepped backwards. Hermione ran to his rescue before he hit the ground.

"Draco, let me see it, now!" Hermione was getting angry. She finally reached into his pockets and grabbed an empty bottle. "Wait a minute; this is a White Friar beer. This is a highly intoxicating drink. Why were you drinking this?"

"No-no-no…nothing." Draco blinked a few times trying to stay awake. "I need to sleep. Let's go to b-b-e-dd." Draco put his left arm around Hermione's shoulders and moved towards the bed.

"No! You're pissed! Look, I'll go to the meeting by myself. You stay here and rest. We'll talk about this tomorrow." Hermione laid him on his bed and draped the comforter over him.

"Will you be staying with me? Please…" Draco drawled eyes half-closed.

"No. I'll get Blaise to come up here and give you some coffee. I'll see you tomorrow." She tried to kiss him on the cheeks but Draco turned his face and their lips met. Startled, she backed away and left the room.

She went downstairs incredulous. She couldn't believe that he would be drinking beer under aged and in company of others. Ginny was the first one to notice the mixed expression of confusion and frustration on her face.

"What's wrong, Herms?"

"The little ferret's drunk. Blaise can you get him a cup of coffee? It might help him a little and can one of you guys give him an empty can in case he throws up?" They all nodded and did what they were told. Blaise ran out of the room towards the kitchens, while the rest looked for a can and other things that'll help Draco. Hermione double-checked if she had everything she needed for the prefect's meeting with her and proceeded towards the portrait hole. Once she was a few steps away from it, she heard a loud thud from the foot of the staircase. She turned around and saw Draco lying on the floor. Harry and Ron helped him stand while Ginny stood by with a pail from the lavatory.

"Her-hermione... I'll come with you. You can't deal with those prefects by yourself," said Draco.

"Of course I can. YOU cannot since you're drunk." Blaise came in the room holding a thermos and a mug. Hermione instructed them to bring him back to his bed and give him some coffee. After they did, she glanced at her watch and left.

Hermione stepped out of the common room going towards the Astronomy tower for the prefects' meeting. She was so drowned in thoughts of how to explain to the prefects' what took her so long that she lost her track in the darkness. She was stuck in a windowless corridor. She reached inside her robes searching for her wand, which unfortunately was not there. She held her hands out, looking for the wall. After some time of painting's complaining of noise or Hermione touching them and stumbling on floor crevasses, she turned to a lit corridor with faintly glowing candles. She ran as fast as she could hoping that the meeting is still going on and that she'd reach a bit of it.

Just as she was about to about to the door towards the Astronomy classroom, someone grabbed her by the arm causing her to look back. She was astonished to see Draco looking right back at her.

"Draco? Just go back, you need to rest. I don't want you collapsing during this meeting because I think these students are already mad at us for being late," said Hermione.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I had 2 coffees already," said Draco.

"That doesn't matter, you still need rest."

"Can we just go in since we're already here," said Draco stubbornly who opened the doorknob. Hermione didn't have any choice but to follow him inside.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up." Alissa said in a sarcastic sing-song voice. She was a fifth year Hupplepuff prefect with black hair streaked in red.

"You're an hour and 20 minutes late!" Mark yelled who bore a Ravenclaw insignia.

"To think that you guys are Heads! We could've gone to your common room but no one knew the password and we didn't want to bother any of the sleeping professors for help regarding two people who organized this meeting!" raged Alexis. Everyone looked at the two menacingly, obviously furious for what they've done.

"We're really sorry guys but we lost track of time and something came u-" Hermione was interrupted while taking a seat beside Draco in front of the whole student body.

"Can we just get on with this meeting's agenda? You guys are even lucky we're still here and if you still go on explaining your 'reasons,' we'd be stuck here until dawn. I have a big test on Monday and I would like to get as much sleep as I can thank you very much." Alexis ramped. Hermione recognized her as the student who delivered her letter informing her of becoming the Head Girl during the train ride to Hogwarts. However, her thoughts were diverted when the rest of the irritated and impatient prefects threatened to leave if the meeting was prolonged much longer.

So Hermione and Draco proposed their ideas and so did the others-well mostly Hermione. During the meeting when Hermione and Draco weren't there, they thought of what kinds of food should be served at the refreshments table, decorations, lighting and others. Their notes were highly detailed which would explain why they stayed so long in the room that even Hermione and Draco, being more than an hour late, still afforded to catch them. The discussion only took 15 minutes, which were a great relief to the rest of the students who had been sitting on the chairs for so long. They rushed out of the room when they were dismissed leaving Hermione and Draco alone.

Hermione went close to the door, saying goodbye to the last of the prefects. "Let's go Draco, it'll be twelve soo" While Hermione was turning around, she saw the peaceful Draco sleeping tranquilly with his arms cradling his head on a desk. Hermione gave a pleased sigh shook him slowly to wake him up. He did wake up although still very sleepy. Hermione helped him by putting her left arm around his waist and supporting Draco's right arm around her shoulder with the other one.

When they reached heir common room, they saw Blaise and Ron sleeping on the hearthrug and Harry and Ginny sleeping on the couch. Hermione smiled at the undisturbed sleepers. She continued to walk Draco up to his dorm, telling Draco to clutch the handrail for some stability. As soon as they reached the bed, Draco fell on it instinctively dragging Hermione with him.

Draco was starting to look sickly and ever so pale again. He managed to open his eyes and look at her. "Just sleep in my room for tonight please, Hermione?" He closed his eyes again, extremely tired.

Hermione feared that he might get a fever; "Fine. I'm just going to go change." Hermione left the room and into hers to change into her pajamas.

Draco smiled to himself; he pulled his heavy school robes and his shirt off. When Hermione returned, she saw him with his half naked body and green boxers. She averted her eyes from him. She now noticed that there was no couch for her to sleep in but the large bed where Draco laid.

Draco noticing this quickly and tiredly replied"Sleep in the bed with me...well you know what i mean."

Hermione sighed angrily for what she is doing to herself, but she set herself on the opposite side of the bed, very close to the edge. Draco turned his head only to find her back to him.

"Oi Granger, i mean Hermione, I'm not going to bite you. Come closer."

Hermione did as what she was told, but her back still facing him. Suddenly, Draco put his left arm around Hermione's waist and placed his other arm underneath Hermione's neck. Hermione felt comfortable, but she knew it was wrong. She tried to squirm herself free but Draco wouldn't let go. She was too tired and weak to reason with him and she knew that nothing would happen since they're both really sleepy. Draco however, smirked to himself, glad that Hermione didn't argue. He could feel the warmth emanating from her.

Ask me again...why am I here? Thought Hermione angrily.


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