………She could hear his heart beat, his soft breath and she put up her hands almost defensively but then ended up resting her palms against the cool skin of his chest. And then it felt like she split into two different people. One side was the sensible Hermione Granger who wanted to tear away and run as far from him as possible and the other one wanted to melt into his embrace..wanted to feel the touch of his lips…and the latter won. She felt the cool touch of his lips against hers and her fingers relax against his skin.

This kiss was tender and gentle and she felt it to her core. It was like molten lava melting its way into her slowly but surely. She sighed and his lips pulled slightly away from hers and touched the side of her lips instead, then he was trailing kisses down her jaw line, along her neck…like little flickers of fire trickling along her skin..and then

And then…a loud knock sounded on the doorway and he pulled away from her fast as lightning. His face told her that even he was shocked by what he had been about to do.

"Draco, do you want to get your Father mad at you on his first day back" A hiss sounded through the door. "Hurry up and get down for Breakfast"

He scowled. "Like he needs a reason to be pissed off with me" He muttered under his breath. "Get lost Granger" the calmness that was in him before had left and was replaced by something stone cold and fiery.

She turned around and ran, not stopping until she reached the back garden and leant against the back wall of the kitchen, trying to catch her breath.

She had actually missed his warmth, the feel of him so close to her when he pulled away. How could she feel like that in the arms of her enemy? She lifted her hands and touched her lips, ran her fingers along her neck where his lips had been a moment ago. She closed her eyes wondering if it had all been a figment of her imagination. He had helped her….helped her and then kissed her. The words Draco Malfoy and 'Helped' should not, as far as she was concerned, be able to go in the same sentence and yet..

She closed her eyes trying to put things together in her head but opened them immediately as she felt a presence in front of her. Raven waving his hand in front of her face.

"That was fast, I normally take all morning to clean Malfoy Jr.'s room" Raven told her leaning against the wall next to her. Then she tilted her head her eyes narrowing at Hermione.

"Are you alright Herm…Jane? You do look flustered"

"Oh, I'm fine"

"Are you sure…" She hesitated for a minute "Did something happen with you and Malfoy again?..did the two of you have another argument? I saw Malfoy come down for breakfast, he looked like a storm cloud"

Hermione gave a feeble smile. When Raven asked if something happened again she had nearly panicked. This was why she hated to keep secrets, but there were something she wasn't ready to discuss yet. "Nothing out of the usual"

"Well…alright if you say so….anyway Nick was looking for you earlier, he went to stables you could go talk to him until breakfast is over, then we have to start clearing up and start on lunch"

It was at the mention of breakfast that Hermione realized she hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast yesterday, but there was no time now. And she didn't really feel like talking to Nick right now anyway. He had a strange knack for reading people too well and she wasn't ready to put up with a quizzing session. So she decided to take a walk in the opposite direction instead.

Harry's end of things

Harry sat up in his bed, it was around four in the evening and he had been deep in thought about what he should do and he had just made up his mind about something. And he had to go make a phone call before he convinced himself otherwise.

Returning to his room he sat down and took the 'wooden stick' out and placed it on his bed with the rest of the things he had showed Jade earlier. But now that he looked at everything doubt was creeping back into his mind. Did he really want to share the last of the items with Jade? Would she think he was being dishonest or fooling around? Before he could delve deeper into this thought he heard the shop bell downstairs ring and Bill say 'Hello' in reply to Jade.

Too late now to ponder.

He heard her run up the stairs and opened the room door in time to see her reach the floor.

"Hey Harry, what's up? You sounded really serious on the phone"

"Hey, er… I have something to show you" He told her leading her into the room, glad he had stuffed all the junk into his cupboard in an attempt to straighten the place that morning. "You'll probably think I'm crazy or something but erm…its sort of weird" He added as she settled herself on his bed and reached out to take the 'wooden stick' he indicated with his head.

"Er Harry, I don't think you're crazy…but this is just a stick" She muttered tilting her head from one side to the other examining it. She waved it in front of his face and nothing happened. No red sparks.

"No, but it shoots red sparks….and…wait give it here" He took it from her and gave it a wave and there as usual red sparks shot out of the end of it and she literally jumped back holding up her hand.

"careful….wow how d'you do that?" She took it from him and again waved it then gave it back to him. "It doesn't do anything…how did you do that Harry?"

"I…I don't know, but it can do other stuff too" He held it up towards a hair brush on his table and it floated upwards for an instant before falling back down.

"Oh my god Harry, I think I know….I might know what this means" Jade said with a gasp before grabbing his hand and dragging him outside "Bring it with you" She told him. He shouted a quick goodbye to Bill before following her outside.

"Wait Jade, where are we going?" She literally forced him into her mini cooper before getting on to the otherside and pulling out of the driveway.

"To see someone…a friend who might be able to help you"

He was a little nervous "Are you sure you're not…you know taking me to some people in white coats or something?" He was half joking but half serious all the same.

"Oh yes Harry I'm just going to drive around someone I believe to be a maniac cuz you know I have a death wish and all"

"ah you can't blame me for asking"

She just rolled her eyes and kept on driving. "It'll take around ten minutes, wait and see"

He tried to relax but he couldn't deny that he was very excited and hopeful. Perhaps this would finally enlighten him as to his past…

After what seemed like hours, but what was only like she said 10 minutes, they pulled up in front of a rather old looking house situated away from the general neighborhood and surrounded by rather overgrown greenery and a very unkempt garden.

She got off and nodded to him. "Come on Harry! I'm sure he'll be home now…He hardly ever goes out anyway" She added almost to herself.

After a couple of knocks on the door she stood back and turned to him. "Relax Harry, he's just someone who's been living here a while. I've seen him do some stuff…"

Before she could finish the door opened rather abruptly and they came face to face with a sourly looking extremely pale man.

"What is it Miss. Jade…" He started to say in a very British accent but then saw Harry and stopped in mid sentence, blinked a few times then stared a little more before looking around outside hurriedly as if he was afraid that someone might there with a gun to attack them.

"Merlin...What are you…why?..." Then he stopped himself seeming to regain his composure and ushered them inside. "Hurry up before someone sees" He hissed finally still staring at Harry as if he'd seen a ghost.

Back to Hermione's end of things

She walked back down to the kitchen, after clearing or coming as close to clearing her head as possible and ashe shw was about to prepare for lunch She felt a small tug on the tattered dress he was wearing and she looked own to see a very nervous looking Winky.

"Good Morning Winky" She sounded just a little hesitant wondering what could be causing the elf to look so scared.

"Erm, Miss will not tell anyone of this, but Winky...Winky was to...What Winky means is that she has something to help miss...the bruises on miss's face" The elf was looking directly at the floor while holding up a small pot with some sort of paste in it. Hermione reached out and took, very much surprised at the elf. She wasn't sure if Winky should be helping her but not accepting it would be more insulting to the elf.

As the house elf noded and walked away she took a little bit of the balm and applied some around her eyes where the skin was blue and black wondering if it would actually work. But what proded at her thoughts more was another question; 'how did the elf manage to get a healing balm?' Servents weren't allowed such luxuries afterall...

The day went by as usual full of work and pretty much no time to themselves and now that Lucius was back in the house any 'mudblood' seen not doing work would be punished and severely.

Finally after supper and the older Malfoys ascended to bed and the cleaning was over that the servants got to let out a breath of relief at having passed the day without too much turmoil.

However just as they were about to sit down for some leftovers to make a meal out of, the bell rang from Draco Malfoy's room and everyone looked at each other before his voice rang out of thin air, ordering some hot chocolate into his room.

Everyone stood for a moment, no one actually willing to volunteer and since the other two had already started eating the only one left to take it up was Hermione. She was extremely hesitant, unsure of how to handle the situation, she couldn't ask anyone else to go, but how was she to handle herself with Malfoy? Would he bring up the incident this morning? She hoped not.

As quickly and quietly as she could she carried a small jug full of hot coco and a mug in a tray and knocked on his room door. Her heat, she thought, was beating louder than the knock she sounded and she was almost afraid that someone might hear it. The door opened, but no one was behind it, assuming it was probably magic she walked in to find Malfoy lounging on the sofa with a book in his hands.

He waved his hand towards the table in front of him without bothering to look up as she approached.

Her hands were shaking just a little as she placed the tray on the table, causing the filled up jug to slide to one side of the trey, and hit the mug causing it to fall on floor and shatter into pieces.

"Shit" she muttered out loud, without really thinking and he finally looked up upon hearing her voice.

After a moment of silence he spoke up "Granger you really are a clumsy idiot. I don't know how you manage to put one foot in front of the other without tripping yourself" was it just her. Or did his tone hold no disdain at all. It was said as if it were just a passing comment. "Clean it up and for god's sake try not to break everything else in the process"

"I'm not clums…" She started to say, but stopped herself. What was the matter with her that she really was clumsy around him? And the talking back…that was almost a habit. Something that was so normal that she didn't even have to give it moments thought before her lips spat out a comment almost of its own accord. But she had to stop herself, specially now that Lucius Malfoy was in the house.

Suddenly a thought occurred to her. Had he told Lucius who she was?

"Granger stop staring and just get on with it" his voice brought her out of her thoughts and she blinked and she turned around, not meeting his eyes but hurrying down the stairs to get cleaning equipment.

She hated the long flights of stairs at the Malfoy manor, climbing them a few times alone could burn a person out, specially since his room was on the top floor and she was tired as it was, not to mention extremely hungry.

But when she went upstairs what she found surprised and annoyed her.

"Malfoy, if you were planning on cleaning it up why did you wait until I went down to get all this rubbish" She hissed, turning to face him for the first time. He seemed completely absorbed by his book.

"Malfoy I'm talking to you" She was forgetting her place again.

He finally looked up at her, mild annoyance tinged with slight amusement in his expression.

"Since when did I care for what you have to say?"

"Since when did you care about anything, would be a more appropriate comment" She hissed back, her temper flaring up. That smirk appearing at the corner of his lips wasn't helping at all.

"Exactly" His nonchalant tone was annoying her even more. Why?...she had no idea.

She scowled really pissed off now. Her temper was so in the surface these days it amazed her at times. And it also made her do things she normally wouldn't even dream of.

She brushed her hand forcefully across the intact mug filled with hot chocolate now and it fell to the floor with a loud smashing sound and she turned to a very shocked looking Malfoy.

"Oops Clumsy me, You can clean that up to Malfoy" She snapped before turning towards the door, but just as she reached it, it shut with a loud thud, trapping her inside the room.

Can you guys guess who the man Jade took Harry to see? IT should be pretty obvious I think lol. I know not a lot happened here, but much more will happen in the next chapter I promise. Please review!