A/N: Aren't I great! That was the quickest chapter update yet! Woohoo! I love everyone who is reviewing. Unfortunately I can't identify anyone yet becasue I haven't checked any of them. Plesae review for this chapter and I will get to updating as quick as I can. I have to say that things are going to move very quickly throughout these next chapters, so try not to get confused, ask if you problems. Now, on with the chapter!
OWLs
Over the next few months, Draco, Harry, Ron, Pansy, Hermione and Sierra tried cramming as much knowledge as they could into their heads for the upcoming OWL exams. They all found the constant strain of homework, studying and cramming a general depression throughout everyone in their year. They also felt the separation from each other rather unbearable. Draco had to drag Hermione out of the library just so they could relax and spend time together. It wasn't that relaxing since Hermione kept fretting worse than ever.
'Hermione! Sweet heart! Calm yourself! You'll do fine! I've never known you not to do anything other than perfect in a test. Just think of it as another normal test, just another one that you've had heaps of time to prepare yourself for, like you've known about this test all year and it's just another one that counts towards your end of year grades. Everything will be okay, don't worry about it. You'll get the best grade out of everyone in our year. Just remember, I love you, I'm not about to lie to you. I've never known anyone as smart as you, ever. Just stay calm.' Draco said to her. He pulled her close to his body to try and stop her fidgeting and wringing her fingers to oblivion.
'It's just, the OWLs are the most important thing that we have to do this year and I don't want to stuff it up. This is my chance to prove that even though I'm muggleborn, I'm just as smart as everyone else.' Hermione said, wrapping her arms around Draco's neck and burying her head in his chest.
'Is that what this is all about?' Draco asked, pulling away from her a little to look into her face. 'Just proving to everyone that a muggleborn is just as smart as a pureblood?' Hermione nodded and buried her head in him again. Draco wrapped his arms around her tighter, and rubbed her back as she sobbed into his shoulder.
'You don't need to prove anything Hermione; absolutely nothing. You are the most intelligent person in our entire year. You ace every test; you've put teachers in their place, for Merlins' sake! You don't need to prove anything to these people that you are as smart as you want them to think. I think that they know that already from being in classes with you for 5 years. Don't worry, it's just another test; and I might add that you are smarter than any pureblood I know; and definitely smarter than any muggleborns and half-bloods. Calm down.' Draco said, rocking her back and forth, rubbing her back and trying to quieten her down.
They were sitting outside in the cold, under a tree and just trying to enjoy the view of a white Hogwarts and surrounding scenery. Hermione was sitting against him for warmth anyway. The comfort about what she was going through was an added bonus. Though, she did need it. She felt horrible about the damn tests that were coming up, and she wasn't the only one. Some of the girls had already been taken to the Hospital Wing for treatment to calm their nerves down. Some of the boys had fainted from not enough sleep, some had fallen asleep in class while the teacher was talking and soon been aroused by other classmates that the lesson was over.
'At least you aren't fainting and falling asleep in class.' Draco joked. Hermione gave a sob wet laugh and cuddled up against him some more. He was warm and she needed to feel his arms around her.
'Are you feeling better now?' Draco asked. Hermione nodded and wiped her eyes on the back of her gloved hand. Draco looked into her eyes and started to wipe them for her himself.
'Do you want to go back to the library, or do you want to go rest in our common room?' He asked. The prefects had their own common room, though it wasn't much used. Most people tended to like their house common room more.
'I think I want to spend some more time in the library before heading into the common room for some rest. Will you come with me?' She asked.
'To the ends of the Earth my darling.' Draco answered. He got up and held out his hand for her to take. She did and he helped her up, not letting go of her hand, and made his way up to the library with her by his side, still wiping tears off her face before entering and starting some more revision.
After completing another three hours of studying, Hermione decided to give up and they both packed up and made their way to the Prefect Common Room.
Once they arrived, Draco took her over to one of the couches right in front of the fire and brought her right in close to him, holding her tight and planting a sweet kiss on the top of her head before resting his on hers. They stared into the fire for about an hour before Hermione looked up and caught his startled eyes.
'What's wrong sweet?' Draco asked her. She smiled lovingly up at him and gave him a soft kiss.
'I love you.' She whispered to him. Draco smiled back down to her and gave her a chaste kiss. His lips lingered just a little above hers.
'I love you too baby.' He answered in a sexy, deep voice. Hermione purred and kissed him again, but with a bit more passion. Draco responded and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. He lay down on his back and pulled her on top of him. She had her arms wrapped around his neck and brought them back down to rest on his chest, and his hands travelled down to her hips, which he squeezed lightly, making her moan. He smiled into their kiss at the sound, and was about to move his hands further round, when he heard the door open and close behind the couch. He broke the kiss and they both sat back up again to look into the eyes of none other than Harry James Potter.
'Having fun there?' He asked. Hermione and Draco glared forcefully at him.
'We were until you barged in.' Draco snapped at the boy. Harry sniggered at them and drew a piece of parchment out of his pocket and waved it in front of their faces.
'What's that Harry?' Hermione asked, eyeing the paper.
'This is a letter from my father. Do you want to read it, or do you want to continue your snog session?' Harry deadpanned.
'It all depends on what's in the letter. Is it important or interesting?' Draco asked. He had a questioning look on his face and was waiting rather impatiently for Harry's answer. Harry shrugged his shoulders.
'You'd have to read it to find out if it's interesting to you.' Harry was still waving the sheet in front of their faces when Hermione snatched it from out of his grasp and quickly skim read it. She handed it back to him with an eyebrow raised.
'All it has is that he wishes us well on our test and hopes to see us again soon.' Hermione said. 'Definitely not interesting.' She added, passing it back to him.
'Well, it was my first letter from him, so I thought it was interesting.' Harry pouted. Hermione giggled at the look on his face.
'Sorry Harry. You keep the letter and treasure it. But I just don't think that it's that interesting.' Hermione responded. Draco laughed a little at the scene. Harry shot a glare at him and turned back to Hermione.
'Fine then, you two can keep snogging and I'll see you in ten minutes for dinner.' Harry said.
'Sure Harry. See you.' Draco said, waving the boy away and pulling Hermione back to him to make Harry get out quickly.
The boy in question rolled his eyes at the pair and left the room, not wanting to listen to them doing whatever they were going to do.
'That got him to leave.' Draco said to Hermione. Their foreheads were touching and their lips were very close to each other. Hermione groaned a yes and kissed him sweetly. Draco acted on it and pushed her onto her back. Hermione squealed a bit and giggled into the kiss. Draco lifted his head away and smirked at her. She hit him in the arm and pulled him back down on top of her.
He landed on her with an 'Oomph.' Hermione giggled again and licked his lower lip for entry, which was granted hungrily. Hermione wrapped her legs around his torso and hugged him tight to her.
Draco broke the angry kiss and planted searing kisses down from her earlobe straight to her neck along her jaw line. He continued planting kisses down her neck until he reached the edge of her shirt and groaned.
'There is one reason why I don't like winter.' Draco said into her neck as he went back to kissing up it again.
'What is that?' Hermione asked. She had her head turned up so Draco could have more space.
'Too many clothes.' He answered. Hermione laughed lightly as Draco slipped his hands up the back of her shirt and around her waist and up her back. He rubbed her sides and made her groan.
His hands made their way up to the top of her stomach and rubbed his thumbs in circles there. This made Hermione groan more and pull his face up for another hot kiss.
After pulling away, Hermione checked her watch and swore under her breath.
'Was that swearing I heard come from the perfect Miss Hermione Granger?' Draco asked sarcastically. Hermione sent him a playful glare and proceeded to edge her way out from underneath him.
Draco groaned at the lack of contact and stood up with her. He wrapped his arms around her from the back and kissed her neck.
'What's wrong baby?' He asked into her neck.
'Dinner is in 5 minutes. I'd rather not have the embarrassment of walking in late with you and having the minds of our fellow peers and teachers wander to irrelevant parts of their brain to think up why were late to dinner.' Hermione explained, pulling away from him and taking his hand.
Draco groaned and followed her out of the door with his head hanging back and looking at the ceiling and was groaning.
'Do we have to go down to dinner?' Draco asked.
'Yes, because people will question as to my whereabouts, and they might do the same to you too.' She explained and they made their way downstairs to the Great Hall and found their friends waiting outside for them. They entered together and sat at their respective tables.
After eating a hearty meal, they retired to their rooms. They had a great nights' sleep and the last thought Hermione had was I wish Draco could have stayed with me.
The next week was full of studying, like all the weeks before. It was only once in a blue moon that Draco was now able to take Hermione away from the library and to have a proper snog with her without being interrupted. She was taking the test very seriously now that the OWLs were only a month away. The only time they had together was when Draco got reinforcements, namely, Harry, Ron, Pansy and Sierra, sometimes McGonagall when the time called for it, like when Hermione skipped meals to study more.
Then the big day came and Hermione was a mess. She was constantly fretting over what questions would be on the test and how hard it would be. Not even Draco could calm her down with any of his special treatments. She was too up the wall about it.
He would most of his time trying to calm her down, get her to take deep breaths and he would rub her back for hours and whisper to her encouraging things.
Harry and Ron were starting to get really annoyed with her constant worrying. Ron got so annoyed with her one day that he absolutely cracked.
'Hermione! You are going to do better than all of us put together! Stop your bloody worrying!' He yelled.
'Well sorry Ronald! At least I am taking my education seriously!' Hermione screamed back. This went on for another half and hour until Ginny went to get Draco and he calmed her down.
'Shhh. Calm down baby. Ron just knows how well you're going to do and he wants you to stop worrying so much. Everyone knows that you're going to ace it. Calm down and just relax. Just relax.' He whispered to her. He nodded a thank you to Ginny and brought Hermione over to the couch in the Gryffindor Common Room where he held her and rubbed her back as she cried. Draco glared at Ron and the boy winced noticeably. He came over and sat on Hermione's other side.
'Hermione, I'm sorry for yelling at you, but was just getting a bit sick of you always worrying about your test scores and stuff like that. You don't need to worry. You're going to overtake everyone in our year. You shouldn't be worrying.' Ron said soothingly. Hermione pried herself out of Draco's grasp and wiped the tears from her eyes.
'I'm sorry too Ron. I shouldn't have gone off like that. It's just, this test is putting so much pressure on me and I don't want to fail it and I hate having all of it on my shoulders and having to remember all of it. I'm sorry.' She mumbled, crying into Ron's shoulder. He patted her back awkwardly and shot Draco an apologetic look. Draco just looked highly amused at the scene between his girlfriend and his friend.
Hermione pulled away from him soon after and leant into Draco, who instantly put his arms around her and kissed her neck tenderly.
'You okay now?' He whispered into her neck. Hermione nodded and wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head into his chest.
After a while, she lifted her head and looked at him curiously.
'How did you get into Gryffindor Common Room?' She asked. Draco turned a light pink and bowed his head a little.
'When you and Ron started fighting Ginny came and got me saying that you were exploding on Ron and that it wasn't pretty. I came as soon as I could and she let me in. She didn't say it that loudly because she was still a little embarrassed at who opened the Slytherin Common Room door for her.' Draco smirked at the younger girl who had started to blush and was glaring at him. Hermione looked up and smiled at the younger girl.
'He opened it, didn't he?' Hermione asked with an amused sound to her voice. Ginny turned her glare to Hermione.
'Yes.' She replied shortly. Hermione just smiled and put her head back on Draco's chest again. Just then she heard the unmistakeable voice of Professor McGonagall coming towards the Common Room. Hermione got up quickly and pulled Draco after her.
Draco gave Hermione a look and the others were giggling and sniggering at them.
'Hermione darling, I really don't think that this is the right time for anything like that.' Draco said. Hermione blushed lightly and kept pulling him up the stairs.
'I'm not pulling you up here for that reason, McGonagall is coming. I don't think that she will take kindly to you being in Gryffindor Tower, do you?' Hermione asked him.
'You know what; I don't think she will either. So, where are you taking me?' He asked her.
'Harry and Ron's dormitory, you won't be able to make it up to the Girls' one. You'll be thrown back down.' She explained.
'How fun.' Draco muttered as he followed up the stairs after her.
'Hurry!' Hermione said.
'I'm coming!' He retorted.
Hermione opened a door to her right and threw Draco inside.
'Sit on one of the beds and wait until I come in and get you.' She instructed. She heard Draco mumble something about her staying with him, but Hermione just smiled sweetly at him and closed the door, sprinting back downstairs.
He butt hit the seat just as McGonagall entered the Tower. She looked around and found Hermione sitting on the couch. She walked over to the harassed looking girl and stood in front of her.
Hermione looked up and smiled brightly at her Head of House.
'Hello Professor. Is everything all right?' She asked.
'I was just coming in to check on you Hermione. You have had me very worried over the past few weeks with your constant studying and missing meals.' McGonagall answered. Hermione smiled up at the older woman.
'Everything is fine Professor. I won't be skipping meals anymore and my friends have convinced me to stop worrying as much.' Hermione answered. McGonagall smiled at the girl.
'That's great Miss Granger. I expect to see you at dinner. Have a great day.' McGonagall told her before leaving the Common Room with a sweep of her robes.
As soon as she had gone from the room, Hermione slumped back onto the couch and gave a loud sigh.
'Thank Merlin that's over. I better go get Draco.' Hermione said and raced back up the boys' dormitory stairs to the 5th year boys' room.
When she opened the door, she saw Draco lying on Harry's bed with his eyes closed. Hermione smiled to herself and walked up next to him as quietly as she could.
She reached out and rubbed Draco's chest before lowering her mouth to his and kissing him sweetly. She felt Draco pull her on top of him and wrapped his arms tightly around her. Hermione squealed at him and feel very ungracefully on top of him.
Draco pulled out of the kiss and laughed at her.
'You never were all that graceful when it came to this stuff were you?' He asked with a cheeky smile on his face. Hermione hit him on the arm and got up. Draco groaned and followed suit.
'Why are we getting up again?' He asked, following her to the door.
'Because I think that most of the people downstairs that saw me come up here will wonder why and get the wrong idea if I am up here too long.' Hermione said. She tried to open the door but Draco gently closed it and had her pressed up against it.
'I thought you didn't give a damn what other people thought.' He whispered huskily to her. Hermione closed her eyes as she felt his warm breath on her cheek and breathed deeply when she felt his hands travel up her sides and landed just under her armpits. She groaned deeply when he started trailing searing kisses down from her jaw to the V of her shirt and back up the other side.
Hermione turned her head to look at him and he captured her lips in a hot, demanding kiss. She wrapped her arms quickly around his neck and tried to pull him even closer to her.
She lifted her leg to let her foot rest on the door. Draco ran one of his hands down to her thigh and up under her skirt to just under her butt.
Hermione gasped a little, and tangled her hands in his hair even more.
Draco broke the kiss and started kissing her neck again. Hermione groaned and pushed him off a little.
'We should get down, they will already think that something happened.' Hermione whispered.
'And something did.' Draco answered.
'Yes, but I really think we should.' She said.
'Fine, but you owe me.' He retorted. Hermione smirked at him and straightened her skirt and ran her fingers through her hair a little to make it even a little presentable. Draco just grabbed her around the waist, opened the door and pushed her gently out of it.
'You look perfect.' He whispered in her ear. Hermione blushed lightly and walked down the stairs with a little jump in her step.
When they arrived down in the Common Room, their friends all looked at them and sniggered.
'That was a quickie.' Ron teased. Hermione went bright red and Draco hit over the back of the head as he walked past.
'I better get going; I don't particularly want to have my head as a trophy on McGonagall's wall.' Draco said, rubbing his neck. They all nodded their agreements and Draco bent down to give Hermione a goodbye kiss before leaving. It wasn't like the one in the dormitory. This one was soft, sweet, and delicate. Hermione smiled as he broke away slowly.
'See you gorgeous.' He whispered.
'See you too.' She whispered back. He gave her his so-called award-winning smile and left the Common Room, leaving a vert happy Hermione in his wake.
'There is only one thing I want to say. Our room better not be in a mess.' Ron said. Hermione grabbed a pillow from the couch she was sitting on and hit him in the head with it while the others laughed loudly at his comment.
The day was finally upon them. The OWLs were scheduled for today and everyone was in hysterics trying to remember all of their stuff.
The Charms test was first, theory, and Professor Flitwick and the OWL administrator, who was to be in all their theory tests, were looking over them as they did it.
You could see the teens sweating and trying to remember what they had to.
You could also see Hermione's hand whizzing across the paper, answering all the questions correctly and finishing the test very quickly.
Draco kept looking up and over to where Hermione sat and smiling to himself.
The test was finally over and Draco met Hermione and the others outside in the Entrance Hall (the test was in the Great Hall), and went to go get ready for lunch.
After lunch would be the Charms practical and then dinner. They had at least three to four days of exams and a lot of studying to do in between.
The Charms practical went well enough. Only Ron stuffed up one of the charms he was taught by saying it a little wrong and ended up blowing something up and singeing both his eyebrows and the eyebrows of his examiner. They were immediately put right, and Ron apologized to the examiner and was rather surprised to see him laughing.
'My boy, I have been through a lot worse as an examiner. This was very funny.' He said, chuckling. Ron frowned at the laughing man and finished his exam quickly.
'That one was at least enjoyable.' Hermione said after completing the test and waiting outside for everyone else.
'Speak for yourself. That was horrible! I burnt my eyebrows for Merlins' sake!' Ron exclaimed. They all laughed at his misfortune and Draco draped his arm around Hermione's waist and kissed the side of her head.
Hermione smiled up at him and kissed him gently on the lips before turning back to her friends and joining in the conversation.
The next few days were tough on everyone. It was the last of their tests and History of Magic was the last one left, then they had the rest of the year off classes and just lounging around in their Common Room and around the school.
The test wasn't that hard. Most found it rather easy and only got stuck in some parts. They left the Great Hall feeling like a great weight had been lifted off of their shoulders. They sat in the sun under the beech tree by the lake and just relaxed, talked and felt relieved that it was over.