A/N : for those of you who are wondering why the story is so clichéd and filled with HP lexicon, let me tell you that it was deliberate - 'coz hullo! this is fan fiction right? … right….

Anyhoo…thanx for reading guyz – you rock my socks!

Disclaimer : c'mon you know drill…. Hey, do you think JKR should write another HP?

"Fine!" she thought furiously, if he was so adamant an behaving like a child. She hurried out of the hall, clutching her coffee mug, as he stared angrily after her.

Chapter Ten :

So Hermione dressed, collected her roll of parchment and books and headed off to the library on her own.

She worked very slowly as she distractedly kept glancing up whenever someone entered the library. But it was in vain as there was no sign of the blond even until dinner time.

Partly angry with herself and partly at Malfoy's petulant behaviour, she ate her dinner in a hurry and headed back to the dorm. Malfoy was there lounging in his chair reading the book on Potions' that she had so often scanned through in her free time. He didn't look up at her.

She rolled her eyes, then freshened up. Malfoy rose and walked out by himself when time for their patrol began. Rolling her eyes again at him, she followed after him. There was a huffy silence between them as they roamed the deserted corridors.

Malfoy never once looked at her.

Finally having had enough of this, Hermione burst out, "Malfoy, for God's sake! I'm sorry, ok? Now would you please start acting like an adult again?"

Malfoy completely ignored this, and hastened forward out of her reach.

"Malfoy," she called out, hurrying forward to keep up with him. "I said I was – " she said grasping his arm.

He snapped. He spun her around and threw her to the wall, pinning her arms on either side.

"Don't- touch- me," he spitted out, his nostrils flaring, glaring into her eyes. "You- filthy- m – " he stopped.

"Say it", she said biting back furious tears, "just say it why don't you?"

He didn't answer.

"Coward," she whispered hoarsely.

His eyes widened and he gripped her more painfully, her eyes glistened with tears and he seemed to freeze looking into her eyes.

"Don't call me that," he said quietly. He leant his head forwards, as she still glared into his gray eyes. She closed her eyes as she felt his lips on hers, they were soft and warm and shivering a little. Her mind grew blank. She was surprised to find herself kissing him back. All the anger, frustration and something else, something new – desire, poured into one kiss. His hands dropped from her arms and now were framing her face, his cold fingers delicately feeling her features. Her hands had found his hair and were now entangled in it.

The kiss seemed to last only for a second, but also seemed to stretch for eternity, washing them in bliss. They were lost in each other, leaving the dreary world behind. But like everything else, this had to end too, and it did. His lifted his lips form hers, his eyes still closed he rested his head in the crook of her neck, breathing in the sweet smell of her hair as it tickled his face.

Hermione opened her eyes atlast, her lips felt cold at the loss of contact. She saw her hands in his hair and gently removed them. She was staring wide eyed in front of her. She could feel his breath on her neck, his heart beating wildly against hers.

She pushed him gently away. He opened his eyes, and gray eyes intently stared into brown ones. He raised his hand and cupped the side of her face. But she removed his hand and backed away slowly from him breathing hoarsely, then she turned and ran, clutching at her heart, which seemed about to burst. She ran and ran, along one empty corridor and the next, until gasping she reached the door to their dorm. She shut the door to her room and slumped along it to the floor, still clutching at her heart.

Her brain was yelling at her, though her heart seemed to drown out the noise.

But oh my God! What had she done? She buried her face in her hands, she had kissed Malfoy – Draco and the worst part was that she never wanted the kiss to end!

She pictured Mal – Draco still standing in that dark corridor looking after her with his gray eyes, which seemed to have silver tinges around the edges.

She groaned.

Draco stood there, his hand still raised from where her face had been, staring into the darkness. He finally lowered his hand. Bloody hell! What had he done? He thought, blinking. He had kissed her – Granger – Hermione! He had just been swept up by the moment, he told himself, that's all. There was attraction, there was no denying that, but had he fallen for her? No! it was just teen hormones, yes, that's all, just hormones, he thought calming himself – although, the panic slowly rising within him refused to die down.

Hermione got up at the crack of dawn the next day, dressed quickly and headed to where she thought she might find some solace – to the Gryffindor Common room. She said the password and entered through the portrait hole. It was still dark in the room, though surprisingly the fire was still lit, and dozing before it in one of her old favourite armchairs, was Ginny. She had a book open on her lap and her head was lolling on the arm rest.

Hermione sat down quietly in a chair beside the redhead and stared, thinking, into the embers of the fire. After a while Ginny stirred, and the book fell down, she opened her eyes blearily.

"Hey Hermione," she yawned looking around the room. "You seem troubled."

"What? I'm not troubled," Hermione said looking at her.

"Hermione you're awake at this ungodly hour and staring into the fire," she said picking up her fallen book and closing it shut. "I say, you are troubled," she repeated.

"Its nothing. I'm not troubled," she said again giving her a smile. "You go back to sleep."

Ginny frowned at her. "If you don't want talk about it now, I'd understand, but you'll tell me later anyway," she said getting up from the armchair and stretching. "um..Hermione, did you start the fire again?"

"No."

"Oh, 'coz it was almost gone out when I was falling asleep," she said frowning to herself. "Oh well, wait here, and I'll come down to breakfast with you. Then we can talk about what's not bothering you," she said disappearing up the stairs.

Hermione returned to her staring into the fire, when she was interrupted again by another redhead.

"Hermione!" he said surprised.

"Good Morning Ron", she said looking a bit guiltily at him, "how come you're up so early?"

"It's 'coz of Harry!" he exclaimed indignantly. "He kept going in and out of the room at around two in the morning! And now he's asleep and I'm not!"

"Oh," she said, realizing who had relit the fire for Ginny.

"So, what's wrong with you? And don't tell me Malfoy had nothing to do with it," he said looking closely at her. "What did he do this time?"

"What! Nothing!" she squeaked. "Malfoy didn't do anything – I certainly didn't do anything – Nothing happened! We didn't do anything!" she ranted, pulling her hair nervously.

"Hermione, you're blabbering," Ron said frowning at her.

Just then thankfully for Hermione, "I'm here!" Ginny announced, appearing at the foot of the stairs, she went about collecting her books and putting them into her bag.

"Hermione, er, I actually wanted to do ask you something," he said quietly so Ginny wouldn't hear.

Hermione raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"er… may be later," he said glancing at Ginny as she came towards them.

Hermione nodded and stepped out the portrait hole after Ginny. She ate her breakfast listening to Ginny talk animatedly about Fred and George's latest product. She listened with difficulty as her mind regularly wandered off to dark cozy corridors.

She sighed into her goblet.

The Hall gradually filled around them. She glanced up from her goblet and watched him enter the Hall. His eyes seemed to lock unto hers, all the noise around them seemed to filter out. It was just the two of them, their hearts beating a mile a second –

"er Hermione? Why are you staring at Malfoy?" Ginny asked beside her.

She tore her gaze away from him and put on an incredulous look, "I'm not staring at Malfoy!" she laughed nervously.

Ginny seemed satisfied and returned to her pancakes.

Hermione glanced around discreetly and saw him- Malfoy- Draco, watching her intently. She turned back, but still could feel the funny prickle on the back of her neck.

Soon she was in Potions, working between Harry and Ron. Malfoy had taken the adjacent bench, along with Crabbe and Goyle. Her nape still prickled as she nervously added ingredients to her potion. Halfway through the class, Ron pulled Hermione aside away from Harry. Hermione who could feel Malfoy lurking just behind her, felt highly discomfited with the situation. Her hand twitched nervously as Ron leaned in to whisper to her. In the background Draco's eyes glinted dangerously.

"Hermione, I wanted to ask you something," Ron was saying.

She nodded for him to continue – fast.

"Will you – will you go out with me this Saturday – Hogsmeade?", he said nervously, his ears turning red.

Hermione just stood there, stupefied. Perfect timing, you Twit!

"Ron", she began as he stared at her hopefully, "I don't know. I-"

"Just- just think about it and then tell me your reply, ok?" he said looking earnestly at her.

She nodded slowly, and moved back to her cauldron, not noticing the look on the face of the seething blond who had been behind her.

OoOoOoO

A/N : so here it is! The first kiss! And I felt totally cheesy writing this. Oh well…

you must have noticed they're no pages n pages of psychoanalytical babble, 'coz that's not my style- instead I'm trying to put it across subtly through dialogue….hope you don't mind.

Anyhoo…review folks

PS : I cant believe the number of hits this got, just for the last 12 hrs! I'm flyin' high!