A/N: So this chapter is shorter than the rest of the recent ones, but I need to try to explain Hermione's thoughts. Enjoy!

Chapter 14 – Reflections

The letter came four days later, so early it woke Hermione up. I guess he must be a morning person then she thought, groaning slightly as she slowly got out of the warmth that was her bed. She untied the letter from the owl's leg, and sat down at her desk to read it.

Hermione,

Tomorrow's the day you are not allowed to think!

I will arrive at 10 o'clock in the morning. Whatever happens next is up to you.

Draco

She now kept her parchment, quills and ink ready on her desk, Draco's letters were so frequent she did not see the point in putting them away.

Draco,

See you at 10 o'clock tomorrow then.

Can't believe you talked me into this.

All my best,

Hermione

The rest of the day, she received no more letters from him, which was odd, considering she normally received quite a few. She wondered if she should take this lack of communication as a good or bad sign. It was possible he was just busy, it was also possible this meant he was planning something. When her parents got home that night from work, she went downstairs to greet them and tell them of her plans for tomorrow.

"You're going out tomorrow with Draco? How wonderful!" her mother exclaimed, smiling.

"Is it a date?" Her father looked suspicious. "Not that I would mind, he was a damn good chess player, didn't play dirty either."

"No Dad, it isn't a date. Like I told you before, he is having some troubles at home so I think he just likes seeing a friendly face." She explained to them sadly.

"That would explain why he has been writing so much." Her mother said, smiling.

"I could think of another reason he's been writing so much." Her father mumbled under his breath.

"Dad!" Hermione exclaimed.

"What? Hermione, boys generally don't meet a girls parents that deliberately just because he likes writing to her." Her dad teased.

"Dad!" Hermione exclaimed again, but she could not deny that fact. She had no idea about what Draco's feelings towards her were, or what her feelings were towards him. They had kissed, twice, both times initiated by him. For all of term, he had really been nothing but nice to her. She had always assumed it was because of House Unity, but he had gone above and beyond being nice to her in front of other people. Really, it was when they were alone where he had showed the most compassion towards her.

When he had come back to the dorm after lessons to her screaming, he had held her until she stopped crying. After he had told her not to lock her door anymore, she had noticed her nightmares had not been as bad, and though he was never there when she woke up, she had a feeling that he would hold her until she stopped screaming. He would always leave though, but really, that was her fault. After all, she had attacked him when she had found him in her bed.

Then, there was how he had reacted when she had come back fro seeing Ron. If she had not known better, she would have said that he was jealous. Why would Draco be jealous though? Jealous of Ron? That did not sound at all like Draco. He had also kissed her that night, after she had challenged him as to why he even cared about her, thinking that he was just being a prat. She had told him that she hated him, something that was not true at all, but she had been so angry, her only thought had been how much she wanted to hurt him. He had then kissed her, and in a whirlwind of emotions, she had kissed him back. What a kiss it had been, it was as if all the fire from her anger that had consumed her turned into a fire of lust. All she had wanted was him, everywhere. He had stirred up feelings inside her that she did not even knew existed, and that scared her.

It seemed that he knew his effect on her as well, on that last day before Christmas holidays, he had used it to his advantage. Whenever she had tried to deny it, he had grabbed her, pressing their bodies together. Though, for all his cockiness and smug behaviour, he seemed to really care about her. Because you're worth it he had told her. At the time, she assumed that it was just another one of those lines that guys say when they wanted to convince a girl he cared so he could shag her, but on reflection, she saw that it had really been a slip up. He generally hid behind a wall of sarcastic remarks, but every so often, he would say something that he truly meant.

Think about it. Those were possibly the three most confusing words ever uttered from the mouth of Draco Malfoy. For all his jokes on the Sunday he had come over, he had not asked about if she had thought about her feelings. The only time he mentioned it was in that dare, but even then, he had lost so horrendously, she had her doubts on whether or not he had lost on purpose. Not only so she was not forced to answer his question, but also so he could show off his cooking skills.

Draco Malfoy was a riddle, that was one thing she was sure of. He had the opportunity to get whatever he had wanted from her, as he had known he was going to beat her in chess, but instead of embarrassing her, or making her do something, he had gone with something that he probably thought would benefit her the most.

"Honey?" her mother's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Yes? Sorry Mom, I was thinking." Hermione apologized, knowing she had probably just been ignoring her parents for several minutes.

"When are you not?" Her mother laughed. Her mother did not know the true humour in her comment though, because tomorrow, she was supposed to be doing exactly that, not thinking.

She did not say much throughout dinner, her thoughts still full of a certain blonde that she would be seeing for all of tomorrow.

She went to bed early that night, but not because she was tired. She needed to think, and felt bad zoning out on her parents.

She needed to figure out what was going though Draco's mind. She needed to figure out what was going through her mind. She also needed to think, a lot, because tomorrow, she was not allowed to.

Okay, so he kissed me, and I enjoyed it. That meant she liked snogging Draco, it did not tell her what her feelings were towards him. She assumed it also meant he liked snogging her, or at least liked her reaction when he snogged her. The first option seemed more likely though, because she was not the only one who was affected whenever they were close.

So we like snogging each other she concluded. That was something.

She flopped down onto her bed, figuring this out was exhausting.

Slowly, she drifted to sleep. Her dreams were confusing. In one dream, Draco was down on one knee in front of her with a ring, but when he opened his mouth, it was not his voice. He slowly turned into Ron, who told her that he wanted to be the man who made her happy, and Draco made her happy. In another, she saw Draco and Harry shaking hands, and the talking in a friendly manner, but she could not make out what they were saying. Ron suddenly appeared beside her and started dragging her away from the friendly Harry and Draco, telling her that he needed to tell her something and proceeded to take her into an empty broom cupboard and try to snog her. She had pushed him away and walked out of the broom cupboard and literally walked into Draco. She began to apologize profusely telling him that Ron had snogged her and she promised that she had not kissed him back. Draco had then kissed her, and when they finally broke apart smiled and informed her that he felt the need to make sure it was his taste on her lips, not Ron's.

She woke up even more confused than she went to sleep. She checked her clock, 8:00, plenty of time.

She went to the kitchen for breakfast, trying to decipher any reasonable meaning fro her weird dreams. In the end, she decided to just forget it, she had much more pressing issues than weird dreams.

After eating, she showered and got dressed. She tried not to think too much as she chose her outfit, and wore a blouse that she normally would not wear as she considered it impractical and slightly too tight.

At 10 o'clock exactly, she heard a Crack! that announced that Draco Malfoy had arrived.

Here goes nothing she thought, and went to meet him.

A/N: And I leave you (hopefully) wanting more. Another shout out to my glorious editor, hopefully between the two of us, my writing will be mistake free!

Thanks for reading!

Always,

Shan :)