Hey peoples! Sorry I'm so late updating. Life gets in the way. Mostly, though, technology gets in the way. Wanna know why?

So I was gonna update Saturday for sure, even though it was already late, but because technology is a bitch, my home computer wouldn't recognize the docx that I wrote half of this chap in at school that I saved on my flashdrive, so I tried emailing it to myself from school and I tried getting a converter and spent hours on the phone with a computer dude and…blah blah blah. Technology bites.

nooo! I'm sorry, I don't mean to bore you with my pointless existence.

Before we start, though, I would like to dedicate this chapter to Frenchie. He'll probably never read this no matter how many times I ask him, but if he does, maybe he'll understand what I wish had happened that last night (generally speaking). Also, I want him to think, after reading this chapter, that experience is not the equivalent of knowledge. I know things that you don't think I would. Hopefully, Frenchie, you get it.

Now, let's get reading shall we? This is the chapter I've been waiting for for a while now.

Enjoy!

Chapter 12: Good night

Draco was sitting in the Slytherin Common Room with Pansy. It was still early in the evening, but it was too cold to go outside and they didn't have any homework to do.

It was the last day before winter break. Draco was going back home for the vacation, but wasn't expecting to enjoy it much. Ever since his father had gone to Azkaban, his mother had been less...motherly. He doubted she had much planned for Christmas, and maybe he would be happier staying at the school with Blaise...but she needed him more than ever now, and Draco wasn't going to run from the little family he had left because it might be uncomfortable.

Draco was lounging on a green couch near the fireplace. Pansy was leaning against the opposite armrest, and their legs crossed at the middle of the couch.

There was a comfortable silence as each dwelled upon their own thoughts.

Pansy broke it.

"Have you noticed anything odd about Blaise lately?"

"No more than usual, but he's odd all the time."

"No," she said, "I mean, like, he's been acting differently."

"What d'you mean?"

"Well, he seems kind of uptight, and he's a lot less outgoing, and he keeps trying to get me on my own. It's kind of creepy."

Draco chuckled. He knew exactly what was going on with Blaise, but he wasn't going to tell Pansy that. "Well he has been kind of stressed lately, so it's no wonder that he's a bit different." Then, being the wonderful person that he was, Draco decided to try and push things along for his friend. "But he told me there was something he wanted to talk to you about. Don't ask me what," he said as Pansy opened her mouth. "I don't know, he wouldn't tell me, but it seems like something's been on his mind, and he wants to talk to you about it."

Pansy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Alright, maybe next time he asks if I wanna go for a walk I'll actually accept. Maybe," she added, smirking.

"Why maybe? What's so bad about hanging out with him alone?"

"I don't know, but it makes me nervous, like I'm going to say something I'll regret." She paused. "Kind of like what I did just there," she said, blushing slightly.

They both laughed a little, and Draco decided to stop beating around the bush. "What do you think of Blaise?"

"What do I think of him? What's that supposed to mean?" When Draco didn't elaborate, she went on. "He's my friend,. he's cool and I like hanging out with him. Besides, should I really be talking about other men with my boyfriend?"

"Don't change the subject, Pans," Draco said with a smirk.

"Okay, I like Blaise a lot."

"A lot? How much?"

"What's with the 20 questions! A LOT a lot! He's intriguing and cute and funny and sweet and…" she stopped speaking. "You did that on purpose, didn't you! You asked me so many questions I blurted out the answer. Damn it Draco! That's not fair!"

"I guess it's the lawyer in me." He smirked. "Besides, I know you too well."

"foulplay!," she exclaimed, kicking him as best she could in their odd position. "You can't tell anyone. ANYONE, hear me Drake?"

"I hear you, but maybe instead of telling me about all this, you should just tell him."

She pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows. At first he thought she was going to snap at him. Instead she seemed to consider it, before saying in a softer voice, "I'm not one to make the first move." She sighed.

"No problems there, then," he murmured. She looked up, but obviously didn't catch everything he had said and let it go. Draco chuckled to himself. Things were unfolding quite nicely.

Pansy of course was going home for the vacations, and Blaise probably wouldn't get the chance to talk to her before break started, but at least things were looking good for them.

And if things went Draco's way tonight, they would be going similarly for him and Hermione.

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That evening, Hermione was in her room, packing up. Taking a shirt out of her drawer, she walked to the open trunk lying on her bed. Most of her things were in it by now, but it was only half full. Hermione's neat tendencies came in handy on occasion.

As she packed, she could let her mind wander. Hermione thought over the past week. Her last school week, before break, had been riddled with tests and quizzes and essays. Even Hermione, being the studious person she was, had joined in with Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Malfoy (though him separately) in complaining loudly about the teachers being unable to find other times for tests, except right on top of each other.

She thought back to the weekend before. Madam Pomfrey had let her out of the Hospital Wing late afternoon on Sunday. She had spent the evening with Harry and Ron, most of which consisted of telling them that she felt fine, despite their concerns.

They had come to see her in the morning, when they found out what had happened. Their conversation had been mainly focused on the events of the previous night. Ron asked more than once if she wasn't sure that Malfoy had pushed her without her noticing. Hermione had not appreciated the jibe, and told him so. Harry, thankfully, had stayed silent. She'd wondered why—usually he was the first to back Ron up in an anti-Malfoy conversation.

After that they had spoken a bit about schoolwork and other people who had similarly been worried about Hermione.

Until something surprising happened: Malfoy came in. Hermione didn't miss the way her heart sped up at the sight of him as an extremely awkward pause ensued, where Harry considered Malfoy, Ron looked mutinous, and Malfoy simply peered at them coolly as Hermione looked between the three of them.

Finally, Harry nodded at Malfoy, and Malfoy, eyebrows raised slightly, nodded back. Ron glared at him but did nothing.

"Let's go, Ron," Harry said, and Ron got up and left with Harry, albeit with reluctance.

Hermione looked confusedly at Malfoy when they were alone. "What was that about?"

He sat down on one of the vacated chairs. "It seems Potter appreciates that I went to tell them about last night's events."

"You told them?"

"Yes. Someone had to, and I was the only one who knew about it. They would have freaked out if you just disappeared the next morning."

She looked at him appreciatively. "Thanks, Malfoy. Of course Ron still thinks you're the scum of the universe, but.—"

"Eh, that doesn't bother me. He'll come around or not. There's nothing wrong with me being friends with you." They smiled briefly, and Hermione decided it was a good moment to say what she had wanted to when he appeared at the curtain.

"No, really, I don't remember everything that happened last night, but I know that I took a pretty bad fall, and if you hadn't been there…"

"No problem, Granger. Besides, what was I supposed to do? Leave you there? Then again, I think you owe me a back rub. I was pretty sore this morning."

"I owe you more than that." She murmured. "Anyway, weren't we going to go out and appreciate nature this weekend?"

"Not anymore."

"What?"

"Look, Granger, you're hurt. Don't push yourself."

"I'm fine, Malfoy. Come on, will it really hurt?"

"It might." He leaned forward and put his hand on top of hers. "Really, it's ok, we can do another time. Besides, I know I'm up to my neck in work, and it's really cold out there, anyway." He pulled back, sitting more comfortably on the chair by her bed.

Hermione conceded that he had a point, but having his hand on hers brought back a memory that wasn't really a memory.

"Malfoy? Did you stay here last night?"

He seemed to consider, before saying, "I waited until Madam Pomfrey told me you would be ok, and then I left."

"Did you come and talk to me before you left?"

"No," he said simply.

"Huh" she said to herself.

"What?"

"It's just, I had this dream…I guess it was a dream…where you were here, and you held my hand and there was a lot of giggling and questions and—" she had blushed slightly at the mortifying thought of actually having told Malfoy both that she wasn't a virgin and that she had a huge crush on him. Luckily, she thought, it hadn't happened.

Hermione, finally finished with her packing, had sat down on her bed, still thinking—mostly about Malfoy—when the object of her thoughts knocked on the door and poked his head into her room.

"There you are. What're you up to?"

"Just finished packing. What's up?"

"Care to join me in the common room?"

"Sure."

Behind Malfoy, she descended the stairs to their common room. Upon entering the room, Hermione was surprised to see a few butterbeers on the coffee table, and she noticed that the only light was coming from the blazing fireplace. If she didn't know better, Hermione would say Malfoy was trying to seduce her. The thought made her giggle.

"What's so funny?"

Hermione decided not to confront him about it. "Oh, nothing. Thanks for the butterbeers. What's the occasion?" she asked, plopping down in her usual spot on the right side of the sofa.

"Well, we're not going to see each other for, like, 2 weeks. Besides, I figure some celebration is in order either way, for getting through the last 5 days."

She smiled. "Yeah, you can say that again. As much as I love school, I'm glad the week is over."

"Where are you going for the holidays?"

"To the burrow—Mrs. Weasley makes a mean Christmas dinner. What about you?"

"I'll be going back to my mum's house. It may not be the most lively of Christmases, and the food probably won't be amazing, but we haven't seen each other in a while, so I should really go." He took a sip of hi butterbeer.

"It doesn't sound like you really want to."

"Yeah, well, I kind of do, and I should, so I will...am I making sense?"

0

He was thankful when she didn't push the subject. "Perfect sense"

"Good" they both took drinks. Draco could feel the liquid warming him. As much as he loved hanging out with Hermione, he was feeling a bit nervous tonight. He didn't have a definite plan, so the drink was helping to calm his nerves.

"Can't you cook?"

"Well, I never really had to...house elves and all." She scowled at him slightly. "But I know the basics. I can boil water, and make scrambled eggs, and...no, that's about it."

Hermione snorted. "Wow, Malfoy that's a pretty pathetic menu."

"Oh, and you can do better?"

"Of course I can. Ever since I was little I would watch my mom cook and bake, and I learned what to do and what not to do, and then when I got older, she let me help her. Now I can make just about anything you give me a recipe for."

"For example?" He was curious.

"Let's see...Some of my favorites are pasta with ricotta cheese, peas, bacon, and onions, French onion soup, lemon loaf, omelets with peppers and tomatoes and cheese and onions and mushrooms, tomato soup, sweet potato pie with marshmallows, string beans with almonds, chocolate cake with mocha icing...shall I go on?" She grinned.

Draco grinned back. "No, my mouth is watering enough already. How do you know all that?"

"It's simple really. I mean, some of it is culinary instinct, but a lot of it is just understanding a recipe. You could learn if you tried."

"Then that's another thing you have to teach me."

"Seems like you need a lot of lessons on life."

"Hey, are you insulting my knowledge of everyday things?" He feigned hurt.

"Of course I am. You just make it so easy, Malfoy" she said, smirking.

He moved closer and reached out to hit her bent leg, which was curled so her ankle was under her other thigh. However, after hitting her, Draco didn't move back again, but stayed where he was. The closer he was the better, he thought.

They talked and talked for a very long while. Each finishing their first bottle, Draco opened two more and handed one to her, their fingers brushing as he did so. Maybe Draco imagined the shiver that seemed to sweep through her.

Much later that evening, many butterbeers into their conversation, they were no longer distanced. Hermione was sitting Indian-style facing him on the couch, her back against the armrest, and Draco had one knee bent in front of him, also facing her. The flames were lower now and casting a steady orange glow on everything in the room.

"Have you packed yet?" she said sometime late into the evening.

"Nah, I'll do it in the morning."

Hermione snorted. "You're such a procrastinator."

"That I am. But hey, at least I'm not an organized neat freak."

"Excuse me?" she huffed. "There's nothing wrong with being organized. At least I can actually find things in my bag."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I've seen your schoolbag. It's a disaster! All your parchment is ripped and crumpled and things are sticking out at weird angles. I mean, how do you find anything in there!"

"Well at least I don't spend hours making sure all the books in my room are alphabetically organized by author's last name. Now that's crazy."

"I find no problem in wanting my room to be neat. So my books are alphabetized. So what? Does that mean that you can just..." At this point, she was ranting. Draco stopped listening.

She was flustered now. She looked beautiful, with her wild brown hair flying and catching the light and the soft glow of the fireplace intensifying the color of her cheeks, which were getting pinker by the minute, and her lips...bright and red and soft—he couldn't help himself.

Leaning forward so quickly she didn't have time to react, Draco cut off whatever she had been saying and planted his lips on hers.

He moved slowly at first, giving her time to get over the shock, but when she responded, Draco raised his hand and rested it on her cheek before moving it to the side of her neck and pulling her closer.

If Hermione had been surprised at his first move, she didn't care. He was so warm. As he put his hand to her neck, deepening the kiss, Hermione felt her body respond before her mind could process the information. Pressing her body more firmly into his, she put her arms around his neck and let her lips move with his.

Eventually, Draco let his tongue brush against her lower lip, asking for entrance. And she gave it to him. Fireworks were going off in his head as he traced her open lips with his tongue before pushing it into her mouth. Her own tongue came up to meet his. He could feel the tremors going through her supple body in response to the kiss.

She tasted delicious. The scent of raspberries seemed to be pervading his skin. It was everywhere.

Their tongues danced back and forth as Hermione's hand found its way into his hair. Her fingers brushed a sensitive spot on the back of his head and Draco shivered.

He was half kneeling, half lying on top of her, supporting himself with one arm, her shoulders against the armrest for support. Hermione was glad for it. If she had been standing, her legs probably wouldn't have held her. If she thought he had had an affect on her before, from a distance, she could barely comprehend the electricity running through her body now.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Draco pulled back. He was breathing heavily, as was she, when he rested his forehead on hers. Looking into her lidded brown eyes, he saw the swirl of emotion and knew his own were reflecting the same feelings.

"I think, Granger," he said quietly, "that there are some things you don't have to teach me."

She laughed huskily, remembering their earlier conversation. Her head still spinning, all she could manage was, "I can tell."

Finally, after catching his breath, Draco withdrew the hand on her neck and sat back on the couch. Putting her elbows on the armrest, Hermione similarly righted herself.

They looked at each other for a moment before she said, "why couldn't that have happened a week ago?"

"What do you mean?" They were speaking quietly, and even thought Draco wasn't sure why, he went along with it.

"We're both leaving tomorrow." He frowned slightly, remembering this. In fact, he had forgotten everything except for the feeling of her body and lips against his.

They were still sitting close enough so their knees touched, and Draco smirked. "I guess we'll just have to make up for lost time when we get back."

"Why don't we start now," she said, and this time Hermione surprised Draco and leaned toward him, setting her mouth firmly on his.

Putting her hands on his shoulders to steady herself, she opened her mouth the moment she felt his tongue. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.

The delicious battle reigned, as they kneeled on the couch, the flames of the fire slowly dying out. When Draco again pulled back from their second fiery kiss, Hermione glanced at the clock next to the staircase and realized it was well past midnight.

"Damn, it's late." She looked back at him, hands still on his shoulder, and said "we should really get to bed."

"Should we? It's not all that late."

"Not all that late?! It's almost one in the morning!"

"Wow, Granger, you really know how to ruin a party."

She blushed, but saw that he was smiling and realized he was only kidding.

"Alright," he said, sighing. "Let's go."

He stood after her and they began toward the stairs, slowly, not wanting the night to end. But it had to. Hermione was right. It was very late, and the train would come early the next morning. If truth be told, he was actually quite tired himself.

At the top of the stairs, she turned to the right toward her room, but Draco put out a hand and gently grabbed her wrist, spinning her around and kissing her again.

After only a few moments, though, Hermione pulled back, before he got the chance to deepen the kiss further. He had no idea why he had done it in the first place, but it seemed that once Draco started kissing her, he couldn't quite get enough of it.

He noticed proudly as she stared at him, that she looked thoroughly kissed. A smirk tugged at his lips as he examined her face—blotchy, pink cheeks; puffed, redder than usual lips; her eyes were molten, pulling him in.

Until she blinked, sighed, and reluctantly pulled away from his embrace.

"Goodnight, Malfoy."

She walked away, and when her door closed, Draco was still standing where she had left him.

Quietly, even though he was sure she wouldn't hear him, he spoke.

"Goodnight, Hermione."

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Haha! YES!!! Was that epic or was that epic? I'd say the latter. Or the former. Either way...

It took me a while to write that. However, I think the end result was satisfactory. I've been waiting way too long for some action...you too, right?

As for the updating, now that I'm waist-deep in school, I'm gonna update every weekend with 7-8 page long chapters, rather than every 3 days with 4 page long chapters. Then I have time for schoolwork and you get more meat in each update.

Oh, also, I recently found this fanfiction called Before the Dawn by snarkyroxy. Maybe you know it (I say that because my friend Kate knew it, and we have very different tastes in fics, even when she used to read HP fics) but if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It is spectacular. It's a Snape-Hermione, and if I hadn't read the 6th and 7th books, I would be totally convinced that her version was the truth. Absolutely the best fanfiction I've ever read.

Ok, so I'm wondering if you guys have noticed the very subtle first name vs. last name changes that have been going on. If not I'll clue you in...just because I can.

At first, they each refer to the other by last name. After Draco's talk with Blaise, however, Draco starts calling Hermione by her first name, though only in his head, not out loud. During the falling scenario, they were both calling each other by their first names, until the end of the chapter. Since then they are referring to the other by last name again, even though Draco wants to call her Hermione. Hence the last line of this chapter.

Comprendeis?

Good

Review! I is be needing your input!

-Ginger