Chapter 10

"Thank you for all finally gracing us with your presence" Professor Snape drawled.

"What? We're on time" Ron mumbled as he Harry and Hermione took their seats.

Some of the Slytherins were also late so Professor Snape couldn't take points off Gryffindor, much to his displeasure, but he did have the whole lesson to make their lives miserable.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Blaise said as he and Draco sat at the back of the class, "and don't look at me like that, you know what I mean."

Draco sighed, and shook his head.

"I don't know, Pansy pissed me off."

Blaise rolled his eyes; Draco could be so stupid sometimes.

"Mr Malfoy, Mr Zabini, please try to pay attention" Snape drawled.

"That's not fair" Ron whinged, "if that had been one of us he'd have given us detention."

Hermione told him to be quiet as she was trying to listen to the instruction Professor Snape was giving. The class had to make a potion that allowed the drinkers to feel what the other is feeling when they touch each other. The effect would only last about a minute, but they had to be careful when collecting the ingredients as one particular one (Fire lizard blood), caused burning and possibly blistering if it came into contact with the skin.

"For this potion you will be placed in partners of my choosing" Snape said with a disturbingly amused smile.

The students held their breaths as Professor Snape placed them with someone from the opposite house. As the list went on neither Hermione or Draco had been called.

"Granger" Snape called out, "let's see, you shall work with…Malfoy"

Hermione winced at this as Harry and Ron gave her sympathetic smiles from across the room, oddly enough they'd been put with some of the more friendly Slytherins. Snape must have been in the mood for disaster as he'd put Neville Longbottom with Vincent Crabbe, neither were particularly good in that subject.

Hermione moved cautiously to where Draco was sitting and sat down making sure there was a clear gap between them.

Draco was also having problems with this pairing, he felt guilty about what he'd said earlier but didn't want to spark any rumours by being nice after the incident, he thought it would cause trouble for both of them.

"D-do you w-want to g-get the ingredients or the equipment" Hermione stuttered quietly.

Draco looked at her and felt even worse it was his fault she was in this state.

"I don't mind, how about I get the equipment?" he answered simply not wanting to draw attention.

Hermione just nodded and went towards the store cupboard.

"Hey, you OK?" Blaise said to Hermione as he walked out of the cupboard.

"Yeah" she answered quietly.

"He didn't mean it. He was just annoyed" Blaise tried to explain.

"I'd better get the ingredients" she replied trying to change the subject.

Blaise gave her a small smile and let her get into the cupboard. As she was gathering the ingredients Pansy walked in behind her and pushed past causing Hermione to fall into one of the shelves wincing as she thudded against the hard wood, without realising it she cut her hand on a shard of glass sticking out.

"Whoops, was that my fault" Pansy said in a sarcastic voice, "didn't see you, then again, it's not like you matter."

Hermione took a deep breath and willed herself not to cry, she could feel the sting of tears but didn't want to give Pansy the satisfaction of knowing how much she got to her.

Pansy was just about to say something else when Seamus Finnegan walked in, he had been paired up with Pansy and had come to see if she needed any help as he'd already got their equipment and didn't want to just wait for her incase Snape took points off Gryffindor.

"Pansy, do you need any help…Hermione are you OK?" Seamus said with a worried expression.

"I'm fine thanks" Hermione replied quietly.

Before Hermione or Seamus had a chance to say anything else Pansy handed Seamus a couple of ingredients and sweetly asked him if he'd carry them. She gathered the remaining ingredients and pushed back past Hermione.

"Draco would never be interested in you, as we found out earlier, so stay away from him" she hissed as she followed Seamus out of the cupboard.

Hermione let out a breath and wiped away a small tear that had managed to escape. She took a deep breath and gathered the ingredients and walked back to Draco. Blaise, who was near the front of the class, saw the hurt and upset look on her face as she exited the cupboard.

Draco saw her approach their table quickly and carefully set the ingredients down. He also noticed that she looked more upset then she did earlier.

When Hermione put the last jar on the table Draco saw a red smudged against it, he looked at Hermione who was looking down at her hand. He saw the cut across her palm and without thinking reached over and lifted her hand.

As soon as Draco touched her hand Hermiones breath caught in her chest and she could feel her self get shivers down her spine, she briefly closed her eyes at the sensation.

Draco also felt his heart jump when he touched her sparks of excitement rushed through him, making him have to focus hard on where they were.

"What happened?" he asked cautiously.

"I-I must cut it on some glass in the cupboard" she said as she regained her senses.

She could feel Draco's thumb run over her palm and had to fight to keep focus. She then did something that wasn't the best idea, she looked up and her deep brown eyes locked with his mysterious grey ones.

"I, uh, w-we better start the potion" she stammered in a daze.

"Oh, right, yeah" he replied and started mixing the ingredients whilst Hermione used her wand to heal her cut.

They worked in silence occasionally stealing glances at each other, and trying to keep their senses under control. Hermione was confused, one minute he was acting like he hated her and the next he was gently stroking her hand. Why did she have to feel like this, things weren't supposed to happen to people like her. Things like this happen to people like Ginny, Staz or Lavender, not her.

Meanwhile Draco was wondering why did things have to be so complicated. The war was over, there was no light/dark hatred in the school anymore, sure there was house rivalry but that was it. He knew that there were Gryffindors and Slytherins that got on in others years and in his, but it seemed forbidden for him to be allowed to like anyone in Gryffindor. He was apparently the Slytherin Prince, yeah, OK, he used to be one of the worst for tormenting, but he'd changed and grown up, but some of his housemates obviously hadn't.

A little while later and the potions were almost ready for testing. Pansy had decided to wander round the class as she so often did and annoy people, she always got away with it by claiming she needed to borrow ingredients.

"Hi Draco" she purred as she walked by their table.

Hermione, who had just picked up a beaker to put their potion in, dropped it when she saw Pansy had the Fire Lizard blood with her. She was swirling the open vial as if the contents were as harmless as water. If Pansy was feeling that jealous or angry, God knows what she was capable of.

"Problems Miss Granger?" Professor Snape drawled from a few tables away.

"No sir" she answered quickly and picked the beaker up, shaking slightly.

"What do you want pansy? Shouldn't you be testing your potion…over there" Draco said clearly annoyed.

"Just saying hi" she smiled as she flounced off glaring daggers at Hermione as she went.

By now Hermione had got quite edgy, what with Pansy's constant threats and Draco's bad mood, which she thought was due to her dropping the beaker, Hermione just wanted to get the class over with.

"Right students, if your potion is a deep red colour drink it, wait a few seconds then touch your partner" Snape said, "preferably on the hand" he added dryly.

Hermione and Draco took the potion, then warily held hands. Immediately when they touched Hermione felt Draco's anger and it made her shake a bit more. Draco felt Hermiones fear and was shocked, was she scared of him?

They immediately broke apart, and started to clear away their things, not daring to look at each other. At one point they both reached in the same direction and their hands brushed, the potion hadn't worn off as they both felt each other get shivers and a sense of wanting that confused them even more.

Professor Snape magically cleared everything else away and dismissed the class. Hermione gathered her things and rushed out of the room, she needed to think. Blaise saw this and went over to Draco.

"What happened this time?" he asked.

Draco shook his head and sighed, why did things have to be so messed up!

"Where do I start?"

A/N: Hopefully more tomorrow xx