Authors Note: Yay for all the alerts I got today, you guys are amazing. I'll try and write the second chapter today, otherwise you're going to be left hanging for the next few days. Don't hate me, haha.

If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

- J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

For the past three weeks, Draco Malfoy had been bursting with happiness over the fact that he could call Hermione Granger his girlfriend. While she was still worried about people finding out, Draco was more than happy to tell everyone he knew. He didn't, though. They both agreed on keeping it quiet until they were both comfortable with people knowing. Hermione had sworn that the only reason she wanted to keep things quiet was because she didn't know how Harry and Ronald would react, though Draco knew he'd end up in a horrible state.

Draco and Hermione were sitting on her couch, eating dinner and watching the fire crackle.

"Why does it matter if Weasley finds out? It's not like you guys are friends." Draco murmured.

"Draco, it's not that easy. To him, you're still the same annoying bully from school. He wouldn't understand that you've changed." Hermione sighed, resting her head in his lap.

"I could take him, you know." He said.

Hermione laughed, "I don't doubt that." Her expression turned serious, "Please, I really like the way things are going right now; I don't want to ruin it. Can we just keep this a secret until I talk to Harry? He loves me as if I'm his family; he has more chance of being understanding than Ronald. After that, we can talk about coming out to everyone else."

While Draco desperately wanted to argue, he just nodded and pushed Hermione up, so he could bring his lips to hers.

"Thank-you." She breathed.

His happiness was about to vanish, however, because as he sit on his kitchen counter waiting for the coffee pot to boil, his fireplace roared to life.

"Malfoy?" Harry Potter's voice hit Draco's ears and he jumped off the counter, gulping.

"Hello, Potter." The venom that was so often evident in his voice during his years at Hogwarts was gone, which took Harry back slightly.

"What the hell is this?" He roared, composing himself and throwing the latest addition of Bewitched magazine. On the cover was a photograph of Draco planting a kiss on Hermione's cheek, while Hermione blushed deeply. The headline read 'WAR HERO HERMIONE GRANGER'S STEAMY NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH DRACO MALFOY.'

Draco frowned. He considered this happening, of course. He should have been more careful, he should have made sure no one was around.

"What about it?" Asked Draco, dully.

Harry straightened up, "Is it true?"

Draco was sure that if he threw water on Harry right now, it would just sizzle off. His face was red and his glasses were askew. He was fuming, anyone could see that.

"Potter, why don't you just sit down?" Draco said. He didn't feel like getting punched in the face today.

"Is. It. True?" Harry said, taking deep breaths.

"Yes." That was all it took. The next thing Draco knew, he was lying on the floor clutching his now broken nose.

"What the fuck, Potter?" He yelled, sitting up and searching for his wand.

Harry's eyes grew wide, obviously shocked. He stumbled back on the couch and sat down, throwing his head in his hands.

"Ginny is going to kill me." He mumbled, causing Draco to laugh.

Draco had found his wand, and after muttering a quick spell to fix his broken nose, and swearing, he stood up and sat next to Harry.

"I think Granger will kill you first." He said.

"Why didn't she tell me?" He asked, talking more to himself then Draco.

"Um… because she would assume you'd do something stupid? No offence but you didn't exactly prove her wrong."

"Fuck off, Malfoy." Harry said, though he knew Draco was right.

As if their current situation couldn't get any worse, Hermione walked through the front door of Draco's apartment.

"Morning, Draco. I thought I'd sk- Oh my! Harry? What are you doing here?" Her eyes were wide and as they flicked down to the magazine on the floor, realization hit her.

She looked up at Draco and saw the blood covering his face. Shrieking, she made her way to help clear it.

"What the hell did you do, Harry?" She fumed.

"Nothing, I mean I just-"

"It doesn't look like nothing!" Hermione was pissed off, and Draco found himself strangely attracted to it.

"I'm sorry, Hermione." He said, lamely.

"It's not me you should be apologizing to!" She said.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "I'm not apologizing to Malfoy." He said, "Fucking hell, Hermione. When were you going to tell me that you're sleeping with him?" He said, anger boiling inside him.

Hermione went beet red, "I'm not sleeping with him. We haven't… well, that's not the point. The point is that I'm a grown woman and I can see whoever I chose." She flicked her wand and the blood around Draco's face disappeared.

"Granger, maybe we should just-" Draco started, but Hermione butted in.

"No, Draco. He needs to apologize." Hermione was firm. She turned her body toward Harry and raised her eyebrows, glaring.

"Sorry, Malfoy." It was barely a whisper, but Draco took it and stood. He made his way to the bathroom to clean himself up.

"Harry Potter!" He heard Hermione through the wall, "What do you think you're doing? You had no right."

"Hermione!" Harry started to plead, making Draco smirk, "What is going on? I read this this morning, and then Ginny just tells me that it's none of my business. I come in here and Draco doesn't even deny it!"

"If you must know, it's true. Draco Malfoy is my boyfriend." Draco thought he could hear a hint if pride in his voice, making him smile.

"But, he's… Malfoy! He was horrible to you; he called you names and pushed you around. How can you trust him?" Draco felt a pang of guilt at Harry's words, knowing how truthful they were.

He heard the couch groan, guessing they were now sitting down.

"I don't know, Harry. I mean, we've worked together for long enough. I just kept trying to hate him, but he's so charming that it's hard not to like him."

"I don't like this, Hermione." Harry said.

"You don't have to," Hermione sighed, "Look, just go home, Harry. I'll come over sometime soon and talk to you about this as much as you want."

Draco heard the fireplace start up, and after the crackling ceased, he decided it was okay to come out.

Hermione was curled up on the couch with her head in her hands. Draco walked over to her and grabbed her arm, pulling her up softly before slipping his arms around her waist.

"It's okay, Granger." He soothed.

"I know it is, it's just… Harry is my best friend. I should have told him." Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and relaxed into him.

"Maybe you should go see him, then." Draco said, though he didn't want to let her go.

"No, Ginny will want to deal with him. I'll go over there next weekend." She said, pulling away from Draco.

Draco pulled Hermione to the bathroom and sat her down on the edge of the bathtub. He grabbed a wash cloth and slowly trailed it along her face, removing the few tears that had fallen.

"Did you have anything to do today?" He whispered.

Hermione shook her head, "I thought we could stay in." She said.

Draco nodded and put down the wash cloth.

"You know, you've never given me a proper tour of your house before." Hermione winked.

Draco pulled her up and linked their arms, as he made his way back to the living room.

"This is my lounge room. And this is my kitchen," He said, pointing to the small room a few meters away.

He lead her down the hall, "My bathroom," He said, showing her the room they were just in, "And my bedroom." He opened the door to his room and she walked inside.

Hermione threw herself onto the bed and let out a moan.

"Your bed is so comfortable!" She said, rolling over to lie on her back.

Draco shivered at her moan, wishing terribly that he could make her sound like that. No, he couldn't move on her like that just after her fight with Harry. He didn't want to fuck things up.

"Draco?" Hermione called, patting the spot next to her, Draco smiled and sat next to her.

"What's wrong?" She asked, trailing her finger down his back.

"Nothing, Granger. I'm okay, promise." He smiled, trying to focus on anything but the hand on his back, while her moan was replaying in his head.

Then, Hermione wrapped her leg around Draco's hip. she pushed him down so he was lying flat on his back, and ground her hips into his.

"Draco," She smirked. Then, she brought her lips to his.

His whole body heated up and Draco responded to her kiss enthusiastically. Hermione smirked and began to unbutton his top.

"Granger, wait. What are you doing?" He murmured, cursing himself for stopping.

"Trying to have sex with my boyfriend, why?" Draco smiled at the way the word 'boyfriend' sounded so proud.

"Hermione, you have no idea how much I hate myself right now, but we can't." Draco closed his eyes.

"Why not?" She sounded pissed off.

"Your fight with Potter, it wouldn't be right to just-" Hermione cut him off with a kiss.

"Forget about it." She whispered, moving her head down to his neck, kissing and biting.

Draco closed his eyes. He wanted so desperately to just give in, but Hermione deserved better than that.

He grabbed her arms and pulled her up.

"Come over for dinner tonight. I'll cook whatever you want." He pleaded. He had a plan, if Hermione wanted this so bad then he wasn't going to be the one to deny it, but he was going to make sure she never forgot it.

Hermione looked in his eyes for a long time, before she realised what he meant.

"Okay." She whispered.

They sat up and Hermione adjusted her clothes while Draco redid the few buttons that Hermione had taken off.

"I think I'll go shopping with Ginny today." She said. Draco wondered if she was angry at him.

"Okay, what about Potter?" He asked, standing up.

"Don't worry about him, Ginny will be looking to blow off some steam anyway." She laughed nervously.

"Hermione…" Draco swallowed.

"Draco, forget it." She sighed.

"No, I just… I've never really had a proper girlfriend before. I mean, there was that whole thing with Astoria but we were never really dating. Our parents wanted us to get married and I sort of clung to the idea, I was so keen to please my family. There were girls in school, but none I ever dated. Just sex."

Hermione absorbed his information, "Just sex?" She whispered.

"The point I'm failing to make is that I don't want you to think I'm only in this relationship for that. I don't want to ruin this and I don't want you to think that the only way to make me stay is by having sex with me." Draco sighed.

"I don't think that." She said, looking at Draco awkwardly.

"Good." He said, nodding his head. Draco kissed Hermione softly, he smiled when she kissed him back.

"What do you want for dinner tonight?" He murmured against her lips.

"I don't care, whatever you want." She smiled. She broke away and stood up.

"I best be going, I'll see you at six?" She asked, hugging him.

"Okay, Hermione. Have fun." He smiled.

When she walked out the door, Draco leapt into action. After half an hour of planning, he decided exactly what he was going to do tonight.

He was going to make Hermione Granger fall in love with him.