Draco's Christmas morning started at 5AM, when he awoke on the floor of the potions lab with a headache worse than any hangover he'd ever experienced. He struggled to rise to his feet, anxiously wracking his brain for how he ended up here. The last thing he remembered was toasting his empty dorm room with Theo's flask. Then the memories of the rest of the night began to trickle in. With each rediscovered memory, he groaned louder.

"Why did I say she was beautiful? And so many times?" he asked the empty room, his head in his hands, thinking about their exchange in the library. "Because you think she is beautiful, git," his own voice, one he'd worked hard to suppress over the years, yelled mentally at him. "Merlin, I called her naughty. Potter might actually kill me on his return." He blanched and turned on his heel back to his room. Down the corridor, he replayed the evening. "I can't believe she even tried to help me."

"Oh, Circe," he cursed upon thinking about what he had confessed regarding blood purity. He'd never shared any of that aloud, anxious it would somehow make it back to the ears of the Dark Lord or his father. Finally at his room, he slammed his room behind him and eased into the comfort of his bed. Just as he felt like he was about to fall asleep, another memory assaulted him. "Kill, marry, snog? Really?" he moaned into his pillow in embarrassment. "Am I thirteen?"

Then their kiss hit him. He sat straight up in bed, clutching his pillow to his chest. He felt her petite hand in his. He drank in her warm brown eyes looking up at him with apprehension and anticipation. He basked in the heat coming off her body. Draco remembered approaching her soft, pink lips gently at first, then growing more demanding, wanting her closer and closer. Draco began to smile, fully engulfed in the memory of the kiss. Granger had surprised him, her hips grinding into his. Then, his stomach dropped as he recalled her pushing him away and looking at him with sheer disgust. Draco slumped back into the bed. "I cornered a woman trying to help me and forced her to kiss me," he realized, with a pit in his stomach. "I'm going to murder Theo."

"Theo. Why did Theo give me tainted firewhiskey? This had to be some sort of joke gone wrong." Draco wracked his brain for what love potion would make him act so stupidly towards a girl he detested. Without the nasty side effect of falling all over someone he didn't and couldn't fancy, that potion was addictive. He hadn't realized how dark his world had become until last night, when that feeling melted away with Hermione's antidote. He'd have to ask Theo about the recipe and see if he could replicate it, sans the lovesick fool act.

Draco threw the pillow back to the head of the bed and walked over to his trunk, pulling out ink and parchment. He'd never sent a howler before, but knew if there was ever the time for one, it would be now.

As he walked the parchment up to the owlery, Draco kept turning the previous night over in his head. Draco had never been this embarrassed when it came to a woman. He didn't even know where to begin. This wasn't like a kiss after a bad date. He had kissed the girl who he taunted, hexed, and insulted for years. He kissed a girl who hated him, who he hated back, and he liked it. And she didn't. He wasn't sure which one was worse, but was pretty sure her not liking it was the important part. Surely the potion impacted how he felt about the kiss. Maybe a quick breakfast before a long nap could help him clear his head. Then he'd just have to avoid Granger until the break ended.

"Happy Christmas," Draco heard a voice say quietly behind him after he'd sat down. He winced, unwilling to look up. He decided to eat breakfast this early on Christmas morning for the express purpose of avoiding this encounter. Even though he'd witnessed how she had skipped meals when upset, he still took the precaution just in case. He wasn't prepared to talk to her yet, unsure of how he could apologize while reinstating the dynamic of their relationship prior to 9PM Christmas Eve.

"Granger," he nodded in her direction before turning back to his meal, never meeting her eyes. He noted the muggle jeans, his mind mentally filling in the shape of her thigh. He shook his head angrily before realizing he must look barmy.

"Malfoy," she returned. Draco hadn't expected his stomach to drop in disappointment when she reverted to calling him by his last name. "Mind if I join you?" the voice came again, with more hesitation.

"Why would she want to sit with me after the disaster that was yesterday?" Draco wondered, confused why any woman would want to talk to him after that horrible display. He schooled his features into a calm facade to balance the anxiety inside.

"Are you really that lonely? Back for more?" Draco made his voice acidic, one he usually reserved just for Potter. If Hermione felt any impact, she pushed forward anyway.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about how you are feeling. It was the first time I had brewed that particular antidote and I've never seen it administered. I'd love to collect some qualitative data," she explained, sitting next to him. From the corner of his eye Draco could see tension drop from her shoulders, as if she were thankful to step away from the personal and fall behind the shield of research.

"Ah. Always a swot," he replied, meeting her eyes for the first time. She was chewing her lip nervously at him, which he now thought was a rather charming habit. In fact, he couldn't look away from her lips. "Have they always been so plump and pink? They looked especially inviting, like they'd like another - no!" He thought to himself, now angry. "I'm going to kill Theo for whatever the hell that potion was, it must have had residual effects." He realized he hadn't said anything for a few moments, only staring at her and her lips. "What's in it for me?" Draco asked, quirking a pale eyebrow expectantly at the witch.

"Intellectual satisfaction," the witch responded primly, making him chuckle. "At least, that is what I'm after."

"You know how to tempt a wizard," Draco smirked at her for a moment. "Do sit down," he motioned to the seat next to him. "We simply must attend to your satisfaction." Next to him Hermione's eyes briefly went wide before she ducked her head and rustled around in her bag, secretly thrilling Draco. As he stifled a chuckle, he silently thanked Theo for possibly the only benefit to last night's soiree: an added ability to get under Granger's skin. Perhaps he wouldn't have to apologize at all and they could both skirt the issue with comments like that instead.

When the witch pulled out a parchment and quill, Draco scoffed loudly. "What?" Hermione asked as she glared at him.

"Is this necessary?" he growled, pointing at her materials. He couldn't believe she wanted to catalog his most embarrassing moment for her own twisted research purposes. What kind of self-respecting witch spends time with the wizard who bloody assaulted her without even demanding an apology. Unless this was a new way of torturing him. Draco's mood soured even further.

"Notes are always necessary," she responded practically. "Unlike what your girlfriend told Skeeter fourth year, I did not have the potion experience to brew either a love potion or the anecdote until this year," Hermione said, her voice now bitter.

"My girlfriend?" Draco asked after a confused beat.

"Pansy?" Hermione was chewing on her lip again.

Draco began to choke on his water. This witch really had no social life if she thought he was still dating Pansy. "Not my girlfriend," he corrected before he paused. "For the record."

"Er - noted," Hermione said, now studying the blank parchment and avoiding his eyes. Draco detested this stifled silence, desperate to get this interview from hell over with.

"I didn't think you liked potions. It is the only class I've ever beat you in," Draco said to her, watching to see her reaction. "Why bother with these notes?"

"Well isn't that exactly why I should be taking notes? Trying to improve?" Hermione looked back up at him, shooting him a defiant look. "Worried I'll beat you in that too now?" As she spoke an owl dropped a letter in front of him, and two in front of Hermione. They both ignored them, eyes locked on the other.

"Are you really so desperate that you're asking for feedback on a kiss?" Draco sneered at her, hoping his rudeness would put her off this horrible conversation. "I can speed this little Q&A up - it was mediocre at best. If you weren't so unappealing to the eye, perhaps I would sit through this interview for your sake. But given how you- Ouch!" An aching in his forearmcut him off. "Damn!" Draco yelped, glaring at Hermione for shooting a wordless stinging hex at him.

"Serves you right. I spent my entire night helping you, you absolute arse!" Hermione yelled, drawing looks for the scattered students who had walked into the Great Hall since they'd started their conversation. "I came over here to apologize and help you figure out who did this to you! To us! I just thought this," she gestured to the notes, "would be a good way to talk about it. I should have known that you would be so...so you about it. Happy Christmas, you miserable ferret." She shoved the parchment into her bag and stormed out of the room. Draco looked down at the table and rubbed his temples, irritated by her spectacle.

"Apologize?" he wondered, after running through her tirade a second time mentally. "What does she need to apologize for?" Granger had helped him and hadn't even hexed him when he'd kissed her, something she clearly wasn't interested in.

After a few minutes of quiet, he looked at the letter in front of him. Draco hoped it was from his mother, but saw Theo had already written him back. As he scanned the words, his stomach dropped. "Fuck." He reread it a few more times before slamming it down on the table, angrily. "Fuck!" Draco looked at the place where she'd just sat, two letters now in that space, both addressed to her. "Fuck," he sighed heavily.

Hermione stormed back up to her dorm room, throwing her bag on the ground and falling into her bed. She huffed, livid that Malfoy had been so horrid. "Why am I even bothering?" Hermione asked the empty room in frustration. "He is just an absolute arse!" But as time stretched on and she thought about it more, she realized she was even more frustrated at herself for letting him get her so upset and that she walked away before even apologizing.

She sat up and grabbed the parchment she'd written her notes in. After a few minutes looking it over, she groaned. "I need answers," she told herself with a heavy sigh. As she dropped the parchment back in the drawer, the Weasley box on her bedside table caught her eye. A smile broke out on Hermione's face as it inspired an idea. Perhaps a bit of levity could help them get past the awkwardness and let them get to the bottom of this.