Hermione walked into the library and sat down at a table to do some homework. She silently berrated herself for not making time sooner, but her every waking moment seemed to already be occupied. Ever since that day at the lake, Draco Malfoy was everywhere Hermione went. Sometimes he would join her for meals; other times he would find her in the corridors; and sometimes, he would just seem to know where to find her…

Hermione didn't know what changed between them, but Draco seemed to never want to leave her side. Not only did it do wonders for her mission, but Hermione also found herself wanting to be with him as much as possible too. Smiling to herself, she looked up from her text just in time to see a blonde head peek around the doorway.

Draco pulled his head back around the corner, then casually strolled into the library as if he hadn't been looking for her; Hermione knew better. "What're you working on?" he asked as he sat next to her.

Hermione returned to skimming the page of her tome. "Transfiguration essay," she supplied absent mindedly. Then, she saw movement from the corner of her eye and looked just in time to see Draco put his wand away. Suspicious, she asked, "What did you do?"

Draco shrugged nonchalantly. "Magic."

"What kind of magic?" Hermione wondered as she rolled her eyes.

Just then, Hermione heard a whoosh, and seconds later, books and parchment landed on the table in front of Draco. "The summoning charm," he answered her with a smirk.

The two sat together in silence for a time, both doing their assignments. But, before long, Hermione had finished all of her work and desperately wanted to return to the secret room Dumbledore had led her to. That was the only problem she saw with Draco constantly around; she couldn't seem to get away long enough to do any research on Caelum Malfoy. She tried excuse after excuse to be on her own, but Draco always had a solution at the ready.

Frustrated, Hermione began to think of a solution. The only thing she could come up with, however, was to just continue researching whether Malfoy was with her or not. It was risky, but Hermione didn't see any other choice. Gaining the courage to actually go through with her plan, she said, "Excuse me for a moment, would you, Malfoy?" The Slytherin waved her off with his left hand as his right continued to scribble across the parchment.

Moments later, Hermione returned to the table with a stack of books from the secret room. At first, Hermione thought that Draco would be curious as to what she was reading and peek at the books. However, he was still busy with his assignments and didn't pay her any mind. Tucking in to Influencial Pureblood Wizards, Hermione began to read.

Not far into her research, however, Hermione began to feel a little light headed. She tried to push it out of the way, but the harder she tried, the feeling doubled its persistency…

The sun was shining brightly on a glorious, cloudless day. In the distance, Hermione could see a large castle sitting atop a hillside and a moat surrounding it. It looked a lot like Hogwarts, though she knew it wasn't. Closer upon inspection of the scene before her, Hermione found Colette sitting under a large willow tree, a picnic at her feet. Another girl sat alongside her, both chewing a piece of bread.

The girl looked towards Colette. "So what of your beloved?" she exclaimed excitedly.

"Shhh! Someone might hear!" Colette whispered as she looked around. She sighed with relief once she saw no one around them, and then continued in fervent whispers. "Caelum has agreed to be honorable. We will be wed in the next town over on the morrow's eve!"

The girl gasped. "And what of the Emmerson twit?!"

Colette smiled widely. "Caelum professed that he never intended to wed her, more so now that he and I shall have our own family ere long." She touched her stomach with her hand and stroked it gently. "The babe in mine womb deserves as much." Colette's eyes grew wide. "You must not speak of this, Constance! Should my father hear of it, I'll be dead for sure!"

Constance gave her a scandalized stare. "I will protect this secret as if it were my own life! Surely ye believe that I would never speak of it?"

Colette breathed a sigh of relief once more. "I apologize, cousin. I forgot with whom I was speaking."

The two sat in silence for a moment, both pondering of Colette's future. "So tell me," Constance began, "does Caelum kiss fair?"

Colette laughed heartily. "Constance! You are truly wicked!"

"And you're as stubborn as a hippogriff!" Constance stuck her tongue out before getting up and rushing towards the castle. Colette stood as well and soon began to chase after her cousin, both laughing with great mirth.

"The hippogriff is eating your collectible broomstick!"

Hermione blinked. Was someone saying something? She looked around her and found a set of stromy grey eyes staring back at her. "What was that?" she managed to croak out. She sat up, not even knowing how she managed to fall to the ground.

"I said the hippogriff is eating your collectible broomstick," Draco reiterrated, his usual smirk in place.

Confused, Hermione replied with, "But that makes no sense."

"Neither does you spacing out the way you did," Draco answered. "What was that all about? One moment you looked like you were thinking about something, quite profusely mind you, and the next you just- fell out of your chair." He looked at her oddly, then continued, "And you said the name Caelum Malfoy."

Crud, Hermione thought with exasperation, how am I going to cover this one up?! "It's extra credit work for History of Magic," she replied. It wasn't entirely a lie.

"And you chose my family?" he questioned with confusion. Then, he added, "Makes a fair bit of sense, I suppose. My family did influence the magical world frequently. I remember my father telling me that one of my ancestors was the real person who created the Golden Snitch."

Hermione giggled to herself, remembering Colette's memory. "Yeah, I heard that somewhere," she responded, still laughing to herself.

Draco perked up suddenly. "Hey! You tried to change the subject! Well, the joke's on you because it didn't work! What's the deal with you going catatonic?"

Hermione blanched. What should I tell him? "Erm- just daydreaming," she said, shrugging her shoulders and trying her best to be casual.

Draco's glare hardened. "I may be rich enough to buy whatever I want, but I'm not buying that."

Finally, Hermione pretended to faint ignorance. "Well, how am I supposed to know then? I was passed out!" she huffed. "I may be the smartest witch of our year, but I don't know everything!"

Draco shrugged. "Well, if you can't answer that, then riddle me this: why were you digging into my family?" he saw her about to say something, so he added, "The real reason?"

"Mere curiousity, I suppose. Hanging out with you a lot lately has got my mind thinking about who you are and where you come from."

Hermione thought that perhaps Draco would be angry with her for digging into his heritage, especially considering that he never necessarily needed a reason to be angry. That was why she was slightly surprised when all he asked was, "What did you find out?"

She couldn't tell him about her missions of course, but it couldn't hurt to tell him what she had learned about the Malfoys. After all, they were his family. "I was reading up on a Caelum Malfoy. The book said that at first he wasn't very political like the rest of his family, but then became very much so when his parents stepped out of the public eye." She decided she wanted to see if Draco knew anything about him, something she hadn't come across yet or something that wasn't in the books altogether. So, she asked, "Is he one of your direct ancestors?"

Draco shook his head. "My branch of the family traced themselves back to his brother, Perseus Malfoy."

"Did Caelum have any descendants?" Hermione asked, trying not to sound too excited. Maybe Draco could give her a clue as to whether or not Colette's child lived. After all, the memories could be in chronological order, or they could be scattered through time; Hermione wasn't certain. Perhaps, with what Draco could tell her, Hermione could figure out if her last vision was before or after the DeFontes disappeared.

Hermione watched as Draco's eyebrows knitted together in thought. She watched as he brought his pointer finger to his lips, and she watched as he ran said finger back and forth over his bottom lip. The motion was mesmerizing to her, and she couldn't figure out why she couldn't take her gaze away from it.

When he brought his hand back down, Hermione expected to follow the movement. And yet, still she stared at his lips. In the back of her mind, she heard the broken voice of Constance: Does Caelum kiss fair? Over and over again, the phrase reverberated throughtout her thoughts. It got so jumbled that she found herself thinking, Does Draco kiss fair?

Draco's voice interrupted her thoughts before Hermione had time to dwell on them. "I'm not entirely positive, but if memory serves me correct, he had two children. His wife…"

Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat as he talked, trying to keep her mind focused on what he was saying, but it was a difficult feat. All her mind was focused on was how his lips moved with every word. Why can't I stop staring at them?! She cried silently, willing her eyes to look away but unable to do so.

"…why are you staring at me like that?"

Finally, Hermione was able to take her eyes away from his mouth. She looked up into his eyes, which wasn't any better. She found herself being lost withing the pools of liquid iron. "What?"

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Draco asked again, "And why do I have to keep repeating myself today?"

Still slightly dazed, Hermione replied, "I have no idea." Not knowing what else to do, she went back to researching. In her peripheral vision, she saw Draco do the same, turning just so where his leg was resting against her own; Hermione smiled.

* * * * *

Hermione woke up in her bed, and her first thought was, It's Christmas Eve. Her second thought was, I didn't have any dreams. Deciding to make a note of it to tell Dumbledore at their meeting that day, she got up and got ready for the new day.

She headed out of the Gryffindor Common Room only to be surprised that the first thing she saw when the portrait of the fat lady swung open was Draco Malfoy. "What're you doing up here?" She wondered.

The two began to walk side by side down the stairs. "Waiting for your lazy bum to wake up," he replied, his well known smirk in place.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Just make sure that in the future, you keep your thoughts off of my lazy bum."

Draco's smirk widened further, if that was at all possible. "But why? I rather like the idea of your lazy bum." To prove his point, he tilted his head back far enough to get a good view of said lazy bum. "You know, I've never noticed before, but that bum of yours-"

Hermione swiftly turned and stopped herself right in front of him. She cut him off by replying, "If you say one more word about my bum, you're going to find that yours will be rather itchy."

Draco held his hands up in surrender. "No more words about your bum." She began to walk again and heard him mumble, "But it doesn't mean I won't have thoughts about it."

She just ignored him and continued on her way. Draco caught up to her, and soon, the two entered the Great Hall.

While they tucked in, Draco asked, "So, what's on the agenda today? I was thinking we could go down to the Quidditch Pitch."

Hermione bit her lip. After breakfast, she had her meeting with Dumbledore. She would have to think of a very good excuse for him to leave her be. And just as she thought that, an idea came to her. "I promised Hagrid that I would visit him today, right after breakfast. Maybe we could go to the pitch afterwards?"

Draco scoffed. "Why you actually like that giant oaf is beyond me, no pun intended, of course."

"And, why you actually like being a big jerk is beyond me, Malfoy."

"Oh, come now, you don't truly believe that," he said with a pout.

"Well… not today, at least," was all she could respond.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Ugh! Fine, go see your friend, and then meet me at the pitch." With that, he got up and left her on her own.

A few moments later, Hermione made her way to the gargoyle statue protecting the Headmaster's office. But when she opened the door at the top of the stairs, no one was in the room. She just figured Dumbledore was running a little late for their meeting and sat down in a nearby chair to wait for him.

Unfortunately a little late turned into very late and still Dumbledore hadn't arrived. Finally the door opened, but it wasn't Dumbledore.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting," Snape said as he came in, although the sarcasm in his voice made it clear he wasn't sorry and would probably rather be doing anything else.

"You're not Professor Dumbledore."

"Obviously." He sneered. "The headmaster is currently detained. So, any new information concerning your missions will be given to me. I will pass it along to Dumbledore."

Not exactly what she was hoping for. She already had to see Snape far too often for her liking. Apparently though, there was no way to avoid this, and she reminded herself that Dumbledore did trust Snape.

"The visions are happening when I'm awake now. I thought normally they happen during dreams."

"I'm sure," Snape said, sounding annoyed, "That Professor Dumbledore told you that is not always the case."

Now that he said that, she did seem to remember Dumbledore telling her the memories usually came in dreams, not that they always did.

"Apparently," Snape continued, "Someone or something is now triggering the memories."

Who or what could that be? What was different now than at the beginning of the year? The only thing that came to mind was her improved relationship with Malfoy and the amount of time she spent with him. Could that be the difference?

"I'm making good progress with Draco. The only problem is now it's hard to slip away from him to meet with Dumbledore."

"So the two lovebirds are joined at the hip now?"

Hermione went red. "It's nothing like that at all!" No way. She was barely friends with Draco. Lovebirds? No. No. No.

"Apparently you and Mr. Malfoy are both skilled actors. You could have fooled anyone into thinking the two of you were now a couple."

The red in Hermione's face deepened. She decided to change the subject.

"So, how am I supposed to keep my meetings with Dumbledore a secret if Malfoy is spending so much time with me?"

Snape seemed to consider for a moment.

"You could make the excuse of needing to use the floo to contact your parents. After all, it must be hard being at Hogwarts cut off from mommy and daddy."

"Why is it you always have good ideas, but give advice so sarcastically?"

Snape gave her a look, raising an eyebrow as he said. "I'll be sure to relay what you've told me to Dumbledore. Perhaps you could run along and find your better half; in other words, get out."

Hermione ignored his comment and turned to leave. When she reached the door, she paused for a moment and turned to face her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Snape was staring straight at her, his cold, dark eyes as expressionless as ever. She stared back, a slow smile spreading across her lips. Hermione opened the door behind her, and, still staring at her professor, stuck out her tongue as far as it would go before quickly exiting Dumbledore's office.

Once she was safe on the other side of the door, Hermione laughed to herself, more carefree than she had felt in a long time. So carefree was she that she began to skip down the empty corridor.

Suddenly she felt someone pull her into a dark alcove. In such dangerous times and in a place with everything from acromantulas to house elves there was no way to be sure what was going on, and it was a natural response to start to scream, but a hand came over her mouth and prevented it.

"It's just me, Granger."

Hermione whipped around and faced Malfoy, sparks in her eyes.

"You've given me a terrible fright!"

That smirk on Malfoy's face was definitely annoying.

"I've almost forgotten what that looks like."

The spark in Hermione's eyes faded, replaced by a look of confusion.

"What what looks like?"

"The fight in your eyes."

For a reason unbeknownst to her, Hermione kept hearing Snape's voice repeat Lovebirds over and over in her head. That's not even remotely accurate, she told herself, but she couldn't deny how Malfoy had the capability to keep her smiling, just as with Harry and Ron. So, were her feelings for him completely platonic, as with Harry, or a bit more, like it was with Ron? As soon as she thought it, Hermione realized that she no longer felt the same way about her red-haired friend. Sure, she still cared about him, but the feelings she once had were now somewhat diminished.

Not wanting to dwell on it any longer, Hermione looked up and saw that Malfoy was still smirking at her. She couldn't deal with where her thoughts were leading her. So, she did the only thing that seemed natural- she ran.

Malfoy watched Hermione run away from him. "This ought to be just the type of fun I was looking for," he said to himself, then called out louder so Hermione could hear him.

"Merry Christmas, Granger."

Hermione paused, nearly to the end of the corridor. She turned to answer, a smile returning to her face.

"Merry Christmas, Malfoy."