Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Yet. –Enter Slytherin Evil laugh –
A/N: Oh, so this is what utter and complete disappointment feels like :/
Anyway, thanks reviewers for the birthday wishes and reviews in general: verapaige01, Grovek26, lexxiebabey, Jmvh, blackhawksbabe29, annabethchase1620, abster122, TheWeirdGirl, Guest and RobynRavenclaw98!
Enjoy this chapter :)
Chapter Eleven
"Draco, mate" said Blaise Zabini as he eyed his friend oddly.
"What?" murmured Draco distractedly.
"Um, you're staring at Granger. And not in an evil I'm-plotting-something way either. You're staring at her in really weird way," said Zabini uncomfortably.
Draco snapped back into reality and glared at his best mate, "Shut up, Blaise. You're being ridiculous."
"A bit touchy, aren't you today?" smirked Blaise.
"A bit repulsive, aren't you today? Oh wait, you're repulsive every day. My bad" Draco shot back snappily.
Blaise smirk widened. "Insult me all you want mate, but that doesn't change the fact that you were openly staring at Granger the way a bloke stares at a chick when he fancies her. You know, in that mushy, sickening way?"
In his mind, Draco was performing Unforgivables on Blaise but alas, he could only do it in his mind.
"Are you going to shut your mouth or should I make you?" Draco threatened coldly.
Blaise shrugged and stopped talking but not before sniggering irritably resulting in Draco dropping newt eyes in Blaise's cauldron and it blowing up in his face.
Draco smirked at Blaise's now soot black face, "What do you think now? Do I still stare at Granger like I fancy her?"
Had it been Crabbe, Goyle or any other idiotic Slytherin, they would've shook their heads obediently and apologized profusely but this was Blaise Zabini, Draco's best mate.
"Yeah you were and if you put another wrong ingredient in my cauldron, I'm telling Snape," said Blaise, as he started to prepare his potion again, "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something."
"Shoot," said Draco, relieved at the change of topic.
"Where'd that Cindy chick go? I haven't seen her since the night of the party and as far as I know, she isn't with you either," said Blaise, not looking at Draco.
Draco cursed under his breath. "Uh…she went away."
Blaise raised a dark eyebrow. "Yeah? Where?"
"Um…Beauxbatons. She transferred there and nobody knows because she wanted to keep it a secret and Dumbledore obliged," said Draco hesitantly.
Blaise didn't look entirely convinced but shrugged and said, "Too bad. Seemed my type."
They worked together in silence for a few minutes before Blaise exclaimed, "Oh! I almost forgot! Today's the last day of your detention, right? What do you say, should I smuggle in some Firewhiskey?"
Draco nodded and shrugged.
"Good. I can't imagine how glad you must be…finally getting rid of Granger," said Blaise, anxious to see Draco's reaction to this and he wasn't disappointed.
"Yeah, I'm ecstatic," said Draco with forced enthusiasm. In actuality, he wasn't glad. At all.
"Hermione, stop it," hissed Ginny Weasley as she nudged Hermione Granger while they were having dinner.
"What?" asked Hermione irritably.
"Stop staring at the Slytherins. Or Slytherin should I say?" said Ginny with a scowl.
Hermione tore her eyes away from the table which was most certainly not Slytherin and looked at Ginny, "What are you talking about, Ginevra? I was doing no such thing."
Ginny said sacracstically, "Of course you weren't. Your eyes just aimlessly wandered and started staring at Draco Malfoy. It wasn't you who did it. Pfft, no."
"Who's staring at Draco Malfoy?" asked Harry as he sat beside Ginny and kissed her cheek. Yeah, they had finally gotten together.
Harry was with Ginny, Ron with Lavender and Hermione was the only one who wasn't with anyone.
Actually, a pesky voice in her head said, if you count that kiss with Draco yesterday…
Thinking about that kiss sent Hermione's mind whizzing and stomach flip-flopped.
Shut up! She screamed in her mind. Or maybe not.
"What?" Harry asked, startled, "What did I do?"
Hermione blushed. She had said that out loud. "Nothing Harry. I just meant it for someone else."
Harry gave her an odd look before piling pasta on his plate. Then Ron came and sat opposite Hermione. He was blushing madly and the tips of his ears were red. Hermione had been noticing this for a while. Whenever Ron was around her, he was jittery and nervous and completely red. She, couldn't for the life of her, figure out what was up with that but frankly, she didn't really care all that much either.
"Anyway, who was staring at Draco Malfoy?" asked Harry, eyeing Hermione suspiciously.
She laughed nervously. "Pansy Parkinson. Ginny and I were just discussing how she's always staring at him and trying to catch his attention. Pathetic really."
"Yeah," sniggered Ginny, "Very pathetic."
Harry looked confused while Ron still wasn't making eye-contact with Hermione. She decided to do something about it.
She placed a hand on Ron's hand and asked softly, "Ron, is everything okay?"
Ron quickly took his hand away and cleared his throat. "Yes, yes of course. Why do you ask?"
"You're looking very…red," said Hermione.
Harry and Ginny nodded in agreement.
Ron sighed. "It's nothing. Just thinking of Lav."
Ginny snorted while Harry and Hermione looked at him wearing a disgusted expression.
"You did not have to tell us that, mate," said Harry making a face.
Ron glared at him. "Shut up, Harry and eat your food."
"Anyway," said Hermione suddenly getting up, "I have to get going. Detention."
"Do you have to go so early?" whined Ron.
Hermione smiled at me. "Yes, Ron. I don't make a habit of being late."
Ginny grinned wickedly and said, "On the contrary, I seem to remember –"
"Shut up Ginny Weasley. Or I'll tell Harry about the scrapbook thing," smirked Hermione rubbing her hands together in what she hoped was an evil way. Well, she wasn't a Slytherin so all these small gestures of evilness didn't come to her naturally.
It wasn't actually that big a thing. There had been a time when Ginny was obsessed with Harry (much like Colin Creevey) and she kept a scrapbook about him. It was filled with his pictures and little pink hearts were drawn around them. Hermione had accidently found it at the Burrow when she was trying to find her Potions textbook. Ginny had begged Hermione not to tell anyone especially Harry and Hermione, like the excellent friend she was had kept her mouth shut.
Ginny blushed scarlet and said, "No. You wouldn't dare."
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, Gin" said Hermione. Actually she still wasn't going to tell anyone about the scrapbook but a little blackmailing couldn't do much harm.
"I think Malfoy's having a bad influence on her," whispered Ron to Harry.
"I heard that!" snapped Hermione, "Whatever. So I should really get going now. Bye! I'll see you guys in the Common Room!"
"See you 'Mione!" they chorused together.
Halfway to the statue of the one-eyed witch, Hermione's hand was seized and she found herself against the corridor wall, looking up at lustful, stormy grey eyes. Then without a moment's notice suddenly a pair of lips was on hers and Hermione felt she was going to faint right there and then.
She gasped in surprise and the owner of those eyes, Draco Malfoy, took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. Hermione felt was overwhelmed with the desire that was present in his kiss and the desire she felt herself. She put her hands around his neck and kissed him back with equal vigour.
Hermione had never been kissed like this before. No one had ever kissed her with such longing. Even Viktor's Krum's kiss had been all gentle and fluttery and brief.
Draco's lips moved to her neck and Hermione shivered involuntarily. That was all Draco needed to bring his lips to hers again.
While she was fully enjoying the kiss, a voice somewhere deep down inside of her spoke up, Take control of the situation. You HAVE to take control of it.
Hermione pushed Draco away with difficulty and he scowled at her. "What's wrong?"
Hermione ran a hand through her bushy (now not so bushy hair) and said, "What is this? What are we doing?"
Draco groaned. He knew this was going to come but he didn't want it to be so soon. "Can we talk about this later please?"
"No," snapped Hermione defiantly, "We'll talk about this now."
Draco sighed looking at the floor and said, "Fine" then muttered under his breath, "Way to ruin a perfectly good snog."
Hermione chose to ignore that and said, "Draco why did you kiss me last night?"
Draco was so frustrated, he didn't notice she had called him by his first name. He ran a hand through his hair and said, "I don't know, okay? I wasn't thinking! I felt like it and it just happened."
Hermione's nose flared. "Oh, so you just felt like it? So tomorrow when you don't feel like it, you'll just go back to your nasty ways, won't you?"
"Look," he said, "I didn't mean it that way. And what about you? You kissed me right back, didn't you?"
Despite herself she blushed but said, "So what if I did? You haven't got much choice in these situations, alright?"
Draco smirked. "Actually, you do. You could've just pushed me away and perform one of your stupid hexes on me."
Hermione sighed and admitted, "Fine, I wasn't thinking either. So where do we go from here?"
"I was thinking my dorm or if it isn't occupied, the Room of Requirement. And oh, there's always the Astronomy Tower," said Draco eagerly.
Hermione couldn't help but laugh at that. "You know I didn't mean it that way."
Draco smiled that gorgeous smile (not smirk) of his, leaned in and kissed her softly. The kiss was of maximum two seconds but enough to form fluttering butterflies in Hermione stomach.
"I suggest we just don't think about it for a while," he whispered after pulling away.
As much as Hermione wanted to do that, she knew she couldn't. "I can't do that. What if Harry and Ron and Ginny find out? What if your Slytherin cronies find out?"
Draco frowned at the word 'cronies' but said simply, "We'll be discreet."
"It isn't that simple, Draco," said Hermione tiredly.
"You know I find it extremely hot when you say my first name," he smirked seductively. But sadly, he didn't get the reaction he wanted.
"Merlin, can't you keep your stupid hormones at bay for one second?" screamed Hermione.
Draco backed away instantly. No, he wasn't a wimp but the girl was pretty frightening when she was mad.
"Sorry," he said quickly before things got out of hand, "What I was saying is no one will know. We'll be sneaky. I'll have you know I'm very good at that sort of thing, Granger."
"Hermione," she muttered quietly.
"What?" asked Draco, puzzled.
Hermione took a deep breath. "Not Granger. Call me Hermione."
"Okay," he said uncertainly, "Her…Hermione."
Hermione smiled. It sounded strange on his lips but strange didn't mean not wonderful. She could get used to it.
"Good," she said, "Now it's time for patrol. Try to keep your hands off me."
"Can't guarantee it," said Draco under his breath.
"I heard that," said Hermione and giggled. Then she abruptly stopped. Hermione Granger did not giggle. How many times did she have to tell herself that?
Draco was not good for her mental health.
Patrol was uneventful. They sent one prankster and two couples off to their dormitories. They couldn't bring themselves to take points because one time at the Astronomy Tower, they had been doing exactly what the couples had been. And it was bloody amazing.
After they returned their bewitched wands to McGonagall, to Hermione's surprise, Draco suddenly turned courteous and offered to accompany her to the Fat Lady's portrait. Hermione had to oblige.
I mean, what is sweeter than a Slytherin bad boy being such a gentleman just for you?
They reached the portrait and fortunately, the Fat Lady was snoozing so she didn't see it when Draco gave Hermione a good, long goodnight snog. But Hermione quickly pushed him away when she realized where they were and said, "You never know. Some Gryffindor may be lurking around."
She didn't know how right she was.
The last thing Draco thought before he disappeared out of Hermione's sight was, Merlin, I am going soft.
Hermione sighed dreamily, then laughed at her silliness.
What was wrong with her? She was acting like a lovesick fool, not the mature almost-adult she was supposed to be.
But her happiness was short lived.
She gasped in shock as a certain redhead materialized out of the shadows.
Ginny Weasley didn't look like she wanted to be messed with. "You better have a good explanation for what just happened here, Hermione," she said.
A/N: I'm tired of all my fruitless speeches so I'm just going to ask you once: Please review! They make my day :)