A/N: thanks for favouriting and following and reviewing! In this chapter, Draco uses Legilimency... and the vision will be in BOLD. any text within brackets ( ) are HIS thoughts during said vision.

Chapter 14

She needed to run; fast, for the second she released the spell he would be after her and catch up to her in a blink of an eye. She may be fit, but not nearly as athletic as Malfoy, the man played Quidditch after all! Upon such a realization, she felt the need to hide. As she sprinted down the corridor, she found no such place, as the entire corridor was all bricks.

"Curses!"she muttered as she tried with all her might to run even faster, which proved to be rather difficult when her shoulder bag slinging back and forth. She heard the echoing of foot steps behind her, and the adrenaline within her kicked into high gear and she bolted. Paying no mind to the raging ache in her legs, or the convulsing muscles in her chest, she tried her best to keep up the relatively fast pace. However, before she could even gain enough momentum, she felt his arms link right around her middle, stopping her dead.

"Now Granger, did you really think you could out run me?"

'Maybe' Hermione felt her pulse jump and her skin tingled at feeling his breath fan against her cheek. She swallowed tightly and shut her eyes; she could almost feel the dull thudding of his heart against her back. She fought against her instincts to struggle herself free; as she knew such an action would only make him revel in it. However, she did try to use her elbow to maim him, but it only made him hold onto her even tighter.

"Especially when you cost me another zero?"

Hermione sighed heavily as she chewed on her bottom lip, "You deserved it"

"Oh did I?" he hummed, and dropped his head down to the curve of her neck and shoulder.

"Stop it," she tried to use her shoulder to push him away and held her tongue from saying that it tickles, as it would not help her with her current situation. 'What rotten luck!'

He chuckled, "You know I was rather surprised of your...display. I thought, after what happened on our date that is, you would be against performing in front of an audience?" He loosened his grip on her waist and slowly turned her around so he could look at her face.

Hermione did not want to let him know what happened had made her feel anxious, that the feel of his body under her was actually nice, no it was done purely on impulse to prove a point, so she put on her best blank expression and rolled her eyes.

"You make it out to be such a big deal..." she ran a hand through her hair. "I wasn't even sitting on you that long," 'Oh wow, did I really say that with a straight face?'

"Perhaps..." he gave her a slow look up and down, "But it is the fact that you did, is what makes it so...curious. And let's not forget you kissed me,"

He shut his eyes for a long moment as he took himself back to that glorious moment of when she took it upon herself to sit on top of him. 'Too bad she was sideways' taunted the voice in his mind.

Hermione shuffled her feet, and again, trying to ignore the knowing gaze on his face. His eyes went a tinge darker than what she was used to, and his pupils dilated a mere fraction, causing her heart to dance, 'God, do I hate it when he looks at me like that.'

Trying to keep her calm composure, she went on acting like nothing had affected her, "So?" her voice was a slight octave higher that she had to quickly disguise it with a loud cough, "It's happened before, so really, I don't understand where you're going with this. Unless you believe I'm what? Embarrassed?"

Draco narrowed his eyes slightly, the corner of his lips tugging into a small smile as he caught the slight tremble in her voice. 'Such a virgin...'

He slowly licked his lips and made a mock expression of himself thinking, "Just, making an observation."

Truthfully, he couldn't be more pleased with himself; she was finally starting to be less guarded and so this task jumps up to a whole new level.

He stuck out his hand to her, "Let's take a walk"

Hermione studied him for a moment, uncertain if he was being truly sincere. 'Does he mean...privately?' Just the thought of the word made her feel all warm inside as it was one of her favourite things to do, and would be disappointed whenever Ron would decline her offer.

"Come on Granger, neither of us have class now, so..." his tone held a hint of amusement as he watched her battle with her mind. "What do you say?"

Hermione folded her arms and made a sound like she just sneezed, "So you want to spend it walking? Together?"

"Don't sound so surprised..." he said sliding his hand into his pocket.

"Well I would have figured...that is to say..." she felt the heat rising to her cheeks and throat, "Why? No one...I mean..." she trailed off in a harsh breath, 'God, why the heck am I so nervous?'

He noticed the light pink tinge spreading across her cheeks and bit down on his lip to stop himself from grinning, "Well contrary to what you believe, I rather...enjoyed myself in Hogsmeade with you. True, it was all for...good fun, but now, I feel, it would be beneficial to us if we got more... acquainted with one another,"

With a nervous swipe of her tongue across her lips, Hermione released a long hard breath. "You're...serious?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders lazily, "Would make it more convincing if I at least knew something about you aside from..." his eyes dropped down to where she was playing with the hem of her shirt, "the obvious,"

Hermione caught his gaze and immediately dropped her hands to her sides, "And you...you want to do this now? Today?"

"Look at the colours..." he said, as he approached the archway leading to the side courtyard, and leant up against it folding his arms and crossing his ankles. 'If she accepts, then I might even attempt to use the next move...'

Hermione shifted her gaze over to the horizon. Different shades of yellows, oranges, and reds were all scattered around the Black Lake. With careful steps, she finally reached his side and smiled, watching the leaves flutter around the air in the gentle breeze.

"It really is...pretty" she braved a glance at Draco, seeing that he was staring off into the distance as though he were lost in thought. 'Oh get over yourself, Hermione, it is just a walk! You already spent an entire DAY with the man...'

"Okay," she whispered with a nod, "I'll...walk with you"

Draco slowly turned his head to her, and then spotted that she was holding her hand out for him to take. 'Well, that was easy,'

Hermione rolled her eyes, at his hesitation, "Oh for the love of-" she pulled at his arm, "Let's go!"

'And she's anxious too, I like it,'

After a long, almost forty-minute walk but hardly any talk (much to Hermione's disappointment), the two of them found themselves by a large rock structure. Hermione walked over and sat down upon the smoothest surface she could find than stared right up at the sky and released a sigh of content.

"We're at the border," she said running her hand along the rock before she dropped her gaze to her hand. "We go past this rock, and we're able to Apparate to anywhere we wanted to"

"I know," came his cool reply as he settled himself against a tree. He smirked at her expression, it had been the first words he had spoken to her in the last ten minutes of their walk. "You're not the only one who read that stupid book,"

Offended of his brash behaviour Hermione snapped her head right to him, ready to fight, "I wasn't-"

"Oh yes you were," he said with a shrug, "You always do. Why else do you think so many people hate you? You're always shoving your knowledge in their faces" He kept his gaze upon her, watching intently as what she would do next.

'Great, so this is why he chose to be silent? So he can just fight with me? Git'

"That wasn't what I was doing," she said after a long pause, "you just made that assumption because that's what you do; you assume things. I was only remarking, stating a rhetorical, not meant to be answered, fact."

She got up off her seat and walked over to a some nearby trees and began collecting leaves.

Draco tilted his head back against the tree's trunk with a dull thud, and smirked; he always enjoyed dealing with an angered Hermione, and it wasn't until now did he realize, this was the first time he insulted her since this whole thing started, and just like all the other times, he felt amused.

"But thank you for that delightful insight..." she spat sarcastically while keeping her back to him. "Makes me feel so...wonderful," she murmured to herself.

In truth, she hasn't been the 'insufferable know-it-all' as Snape had dubbed her, in years. She did participate in classes, yes, but nowhere near as she used to; regardless of her constant thirst for knowledge.

Draco paid no attention to her retort and just continued to watch her in silence as she gathered more leaves; wondering what could possibly be going through her mind, that would make her have such an unreadable expression upon her face.

Then it hit him; use Legilimency.

Straightening his posture, Draco rolled his shoulders, stretched and cracked his neck, then with the utmost concentration, thought the word 'Legilimens'

The vision focused upon himself, donning on his Slytherin Quidditch robes and sitting on a windowsill in the corridor, reading a book; Hogwarts, After The War, while eating a green apple. (I remember this!)

He watched as the apple slowly started to disintegrate, and the pages kept on flipping. His head turned to the side, looking out the window he currently was blocking, to pin point the source of the laughter that was now echoing in the corridor. He sneered, magicked the apple core to vanish and then resumed his reading, (Wait is she watching me?)

"Damn, the Mudblood's right," he heard himself murmur, staring at the book in his hands in disbelief. "You really CAN Apparate by the grounds..."

"Oi, Draco!" hollered a distant voice, but the vision remained upon himself. He muttered a spell and sent the book off. He stood up, and dusted off his robes. He placed on his gloves and ran a hand through the hair that got into his face.

For a moment the vision lingered on his form before he retreated off into the opposite direction.

"Herm-why in the world are you staring at Malfoy?!"

The vision turned to the owner of the voice; Weasley, he was sporting the most unpleasant look upon his face.

And then he was looking at nothing but black. (Damn, she caught me)

Draco shook his head, and rubbed his forehead gently. He glanced over to Hermione, who was glaring at him.

The second she saw his grey eyes, Hermione scoffed with annoyance and stalked off, dropping all the leaves she had gathered to the ground.

With his head held high, Draco pushed away from the tree he was currently against and slowly, sauntered his way toward Hermione, catching her just before she reached the Apparition Point.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Hermione swallowed and stared at him, worried as to what he might try to do to her, "Obvious isn't it? Away from you!"

"Oh come now, Granger, it wasn't all bad! Truthfully I blame your expression; it was quite perplexing, so I was curious. Now I know, whenever you look like that. I am on your mind."

"Your behaviour actually," she corrected, with her nose wrinkling, "Don't want you to get too excited."

"That's not what I saw," he said stepping within her space, "Tell me, is it a habit of yours to spy on me?"

"I don't spy on you. Never will. That...what you saw, was just a one time occurence!" She took a large step back, 'One that you should have never seen!' but with his quick reflexes, he caught her by the wrist.

"You know, the first game of the season is this Saturday, the standard Slytherin versus Gryffindor. Tell me, kitten, will you cheer for me?"

She wanted to roll her eyes at the nickname he gave her, but instead kept her face completely relaxed. 'After invading my mind again? I don't think so!'

"I never cared for the sport, really." she bit out slowly through gritted teeth, "I only watched to be closer to Ron, but now that is...out of the picture, I really don't see why I should..." she snarled the last word, using her other hand to push against his to make him release his grip on her wrist.

The casual way she said Weasley's name, triggered something within him. Annoyance. Extreme annoyance.

"All the more reason to cheer for me. I'll even loan you my scarf, so 'those nasty Slytherins' as you like to say, won't bother you"

Immediately Hermione stopped struggling once having caught his words. 'He...what? His scarf?' She felt a sudden rush of chills run through her body at the idea of wearing something of his.

"But that's not for another five days..." He cleared his throat and brushed off her hand from his wrist, "Now...where would you like to have lunch?"

"So, where were you all afternoon?"

'Finland' Draco thought with a half smile. He just finished up working on the essay for the Herbology lesson he missed when his house-mate Theodore Nott decided to saunter into his room. He sealed off the scroll, then packed away his quill and ink, and gave Theo a lazy look.

"Don't think I didn't notice...in fact, you should know that your girlfriend wasn't in class either but I'm sure I know why that is" he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Draco rolled his eyes, but said nothing. Theo pressed on.

"I must say, I am rather shocked. You've never been with a girl this long. Even if she was a good shag," Theo dropped his gaze down, pretending to inspect his nails as he waited patiently for a response. When he didn't get one, he proceeded further with his questioning.

"So enlighten me, why spend all this time on her? What's Granger got that those other girls don't? Maybe after you're done with her, I could have a go! Or wait...don't tell me you actually fancy her? Then again, all the more reason to go after her!"

'There, that should've triggered a response!' he thought with a wicked grin.

Draco folded his arms and shook his head to get the hair from his eyes, "Don't be stupid; Blaise and I have a bet." he said matching Theo's grin.

Theo's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Oh really? Well that makes sense I suppose. How long you got then? Must be soon if you're spending this much time on her..."

"Hallowe'en."

"Oh! That's..." Theo began counting the days on his fingers.

"Twenty-three days from now" Draco answered for him. 'He better not fuck it up for me'

Theo stopped counting and snapped his fingers, "Right. Say, if you want any pointers in getting her, I will be more than happy to help."

Draco rolled his eyes again, knowing his house-mates 'good intentions' aren't really that great. "I don't need any help" he strolled passed Theo, and opened his door.

"Hey now, don't you walk away from me! Oi!"

Great Hall, Evening Meal

"Uh, you want to run that by me again?"

Hermione took a long sigh as she helped herself to some dinner, before she stared at her table companion, Ginny.

"You not only skipped class, but you spent the entire afternoon with Malfoy?!" Ginny fidgeted in her seat, "How very unlike you!"

Hermione shied away, "Yes I know..."

"And...what happened? Where did he take you?" she pushed aside her plate full of food and moved herself closer.

Hermione knew that saying Finland was completely out of the question, as she had no idea how to put the experience to words; it was a mix between a date and a friendly meal. 'Will he ever just be normal?' Hermione wanted to laugh thinking of the word normal and Draco in the same sentence.

"Um, just a walk around the Black Lake and chatted a fair bit." she took a few forkfuls of mashed potatoes and chewed quickly.

Ginny shook her head, in disbelief that Malfoy would do something so tame. "Sorry, what?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Why bother asking if you're not going to listen to the answer? I said-"

"Oh stop!" Ginny raised her hand to Hermione's face, "I mean...yes I heard what you said I just... Malfoy walking around the Black Lake while keeping up a conversation is strange to me. I thought doing something like that would be beneath him..."

Hermione shrugged her shoulders, and then went on enjoying her meal.

"What? You're not going to say anything to that?" Ginny said with a pout. "Just going to leave me hanging?"

"Well I actually have to meet up with Ernie straight after dinner for our patrols so...yes Ginny, I'm afraid our conversation will have to end here."

Ginny let out an exaggerated sigh, "Lame"

Hermione chuckled softly, her eyes gazed over to the Slytherin table where she spotted Draco, who was sitting amongst his usual friends.

"Well, I don't believe you would appreciate it, if we talk about you and Dean right in the open, hmm?"

"True, but hey, I was just curious. Hermione Granger, Hogwarts very own Head Girl, skips class so she can spend time with her boyfriend! Sounds like something Lavender would do."

"He's not my boyfriend" Hermione corrected with a snarl; not having liked to be compared to Lavender.

"No, of course not, he just took you on some romantic walk so you two can be alone..." Ginny giggled into her hand, "So not what a boyfriend would do!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, vowing every muscle in her body to not climb over the table to strangle her.

E/N: I know it's short, but it's the way my muse worked for this update... sorry :/ don't worry folks... Draco's feelings will change... soon enough :) and then we can get to the real fun part of the story!