Here's the next chapter! I don't own any of the characters! I only own the plot! Enjoy!

"It's too hot for this."

"That's unfortunate."

"Can we go inside please?"

"Are they gone yet?"

Padma peeked over the dashboard of my car before sliding back down her seat and letting out a huff of irritation.

"They're still there."

"Then no, we have to wait until they're gone."

I reclined in my chair and closed my eyes, resigning myself to more time trapped in Jesse. It was at least ninety degrees outside and Padma and I had already spent fifteen minutes in the sweltering furnace that was my car. After picking up Padma for school, I had pulled into my usual parking spot and been about to get out of the car when I noticed the bright red Ferrari parked directly in front of me. There was only one person at Hogwarts who was both rich and obnoxious enough to own that car. And, sure enough, Draco and Harry were in it having what looked like an intense discussion. Remembering my loud, one-sided conversation with Draco after school yesterday, I had immediately yanked Padma back into the car, locked the doors and hissed at her to get down.

"You can't avoid him forever," Padma insisted, trying to figure out what happened between us yesterday.

"Not with that attitude," I pulled out my phone and tried to distract myself from the heat.

"What happened?"

"You should stop asking so many questions."

"I always ask questions though."

She looked out the window at Draco's car again. She jumped in surprise and immediately ducked.

"What happened?" I asked suspiciously.

"He saw me..."

"What?"

"I think he's heading over here."

A second later there was a sharp rapping noise on my window, scaring the crap out of me. I whipped my head around and breathed a sigh of relief when I was greeted with the sight of a green-eyed, brunette with glasses. I rolled down my window a crack.

"Good morning," I sang nonchalantly.

"You're really dumb if you think I didn't notice you two from the moment you parked," Harry grinned. "Draco noticed too, but after you didn't come out for twenty minutes he went inside and asked if I'd talk to you instead."

I winced at this new piece of information and briefly considered driving away to avoid talking to Harry. There was no point though since I only had ten minutes before I was officially late, which meant that Harry would just wait until I inevitably had to drive back to school anyway. I reluctantly unlocked the car, motioning for him to get into the back seat.

"Hi Padma," Harry greeted her warmly. "Isn't Ginny normally the one involved in these situations?"

She shrugged. "I needed the ride this morning."

Harry nodded before turning to me. I braced myself for the barrage of unanswerable questions about what had happened with Draco. I was doing my best to forget he existed up until then.

"You guys want to know about soccer practice yesterday?" Harry addressed his question to both of us, but he kept his eyes fixed on me. Something about the way he was looking at me told me that I probably wanted to know.

"Go ahead," I said, turning up the air conditioning.

"Adrian Pucey and Draco were ten minutes late to practice and they were both really pissed," Harry began. "Draco made Adrian run like fifty sprints for no reason until he threw up. When Draco finally gave him a five-minute break, Marcus asked Adrian what happened, and he said that Draco was just being a bitch because his girl flirted with Adrian apparently."

At that point, Harry gave me a pointed look.

"So, Pansy flirted with Adrian?" Padma asked, confused about what that had to do with either of us.

"See, that's what I thought. But then Theo told me that Draco and Pansy broke up three days ago."

Padma immediately slapped my shoulder.

"OW!" I glared at her. "Why?!"

"You flirted with Adrian? That's disgusting!"

"I did not flirt with Adrian! Why would you even think that? Have a little more faith in me."

"Guys, I'm not done," Harry interrupted. "When we started scrimmages, Draco kept running into Adrian and knocking him down. I thought Adrian would have to leave practice in an ambulance at one point. And then before we all left to go home, Draco told Adrian that if he ever saw him near Hermione again, he'd break his kneecaps. Then he came up to Ron and me and apologized for the past few months. Ron wasn't willing to forgive Draco at first, but after seeing Adrian get the shit beat out of him for about an hour, he was okay with giving him another chance. So, the three of us went out for dinner yesterday and caught up."

"What did you guys talk about?" I nervously asked. I really didn't want to hear that Draco told them all about my meltdown.

"Lots of stuff. Ron and Lavender, Draco and Pansy, how you ignored me for two months after you realized I still like you."

I groaned at that reminder. It was not one of my finer moments.

"I apologized multiple times for that."

Harry grinned. "I know, I just like to remind you every once in a while, so that you know you still owe me."

I rolled my eyes, finally relaxing after confirming that no one else knew about yesterday's incident.

"Oh, but Draco told me to let you know that he's going to get you to talk to him. He said something about you knowing exactly how annoying he could be when he wants something."

Well, that moment of serenity definitely didn't last long.

Draco was true to his word and in the next four hours I saw him more often than I had seen him since the beginning of the school year. He was waiting for me after each class and the only reason he hadn't managed to corner me yet was because I could hear the giggling of the third and fourth years following him wherever he went. They acted like a kind of warning, allowing me to slip out of each of my classes by hiding within a group of students and then I would speed walk away to my next class while ignoring the blonde boy calling my name from somewhere behind me.

I dropped my stuff onto the table and sank into my chair next to Ginny in Advanced Arithmetic. I surveyed the room quickly, noting that Mrs. Sprout had replaced our individual desks with larger tables that seated up to four students at each one. I also noticed that Draco wasn't there yet.

"Rough day?" Ginny asked, watching Mrs. Sprout carefully while she talked to me. "Where were you last class?"

"I was picking up Coach Hooch's daughter from the elementary school."

Coach Hooch was in charge of both the cross country and soccer teams. She was also a close family friend that I had known since I was about seven-years old, so she would often ask me to run errands for her if she knew I could afford to skip a class. Since we had a study hall during Chemistry, she had asked me to pick up her sick nine-year old daughter from school and bring her to Hogwarts to sit in Coach Hooch's office until the end of the day.

"Mhhm, and I'm sure the fact that Draco was in our last class has nothing to do with you skipping?"

I may have not been actually asked by Coach Hooch to get her daughter. In reality, I had tracked her down and begged her to give me something to do so that I could skip Chemistry. Unfortunately, she would not let me skip two classes in a row, especially since there was a quiz today in Advanced Arithmetic.

"That was just a happy coincidence."

"Right, and you're not going to tell me why you're avoiding him, correct?" she confirmed.

"Nope, I prefer to sit here in peace and enjoy the feeling of little succulents surrounding me."

"I'm glad you can relax while Mrs. Sprout plots our deaths."

"She's not doing that, Ginny."

"I'm going to prove it by the end of the year," she insisted.

Before I could respond, I was greeted by the sight of a familiar, but unwelcome, blonde seating himself in the currently empty chair across from me.

"Someone else sits there." I snapped.

"Oh, so you can see me. I was starting to doubt whether you could since you've been ignoring me all day."

Draco was smirking at me and I was reminded of how hard it was not to punch him in the face.

"Go away."

"It's a free country."

"It's not a free table."

"Your name isn't on it."

Seamus Finnigan, who normally sat in front of me, chose that moment to walk up to his seat.

"Beat it Seamus," Draco said without even looking at him. "Hermione and I need to talk."

Seamus just looked at me for a second before shrugging and taking Draco's empty spot in the back of the room. I just watched in shock as Seamus made absolutely no attempt to take his seat, leaving me with Draco, Ginny and a random seventh year student. I was pretty sure his name was something along the lines of Josh or John.

"Ginevra," Draco greeted, slightly unsure of himself for the first time since he walked into the classroom. For good reason. If Ginny was holding a grudge against him, then he should fear for his life.

"Draco," Ginny responded coldly, "you have something you want to say to me."

A normal person would have assumed that was a question, but from Ginny's tone of voice it was obvious that she wasn't asking, she was telling.

"I'm sorry and I love you," he smiled sweetly at her.

There was a pregnant pause while we waited for Ginny to unleash her fury.

"Fine."

I blinked slowly, my mouth agape. There was no way Ginny forgave Draco ignoring her for four months that easily. She simply shrugged.

"I missed my bitch."

I glared at Draco. This did not mean we were okay or that I would be speaking to him. Luckily for me, Mrs. Sprout began to lecture and there wasn't any time for us to talk even if I wanted to. For the next thirty minutes he didn't do anything. He just sat there and did his classwork. I was irritated by the fact that no one except for me had a problem with his presence at the table. He wasn't bothering me so I couldn't say anything or ask the teacher to move him, but the fact that he was just minding his own business was even worse. All I could do was sit and wait for him to piss me off.

Mrs. Sprout handed out the quizzes and for a little bit I was able to ignore the boy in front of me as I focused on my quiz. I eventually found myself stuck on one problem. It wasn't difficult at all; I was just having issues with the calculations. I continued to stare at the arithmetic in front of me, becoming increasingly frustrated after repeatedly inputting the same numbers into my calculator only to get the wrong answer over and over again.

Suddenly, I felt Draco kick my leg and my whole body tensed. I was not about to play that stupid game with him. I opened my mouth, two seconds from yelling at Draco to get his damn feet away from me, when I noticed him pointing at his calculator, which he had slid onto my desk. Confused, I looked at the calculator screen and saw 5,631 typed out. I turned back to Draco and mouthed: what? Draco continued to gesture to the calculator before finally giving up after realizing that I had no idea what he was trying to tell me.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the quiz in front of me. I finally found the mistake I kept making. I had been adding two numbers together during one step of the calculation instead of subtracting them. Once I used the new numbers to solve the problem, I managed to get the correct answer. It was 5,631. My head shot up and I glared at Draco.

"I don't need your help," I hissed. "I would have gotten the answer by myself. I don't need to fucking cheat."

"I know," he whispered back. "I was just trying to help you. You knew how to do the problem, so I just tried to help you use the right numbers because you were taking so fucking long and we need to talk."

"No, we don't."

I ignored Draco and turned in my quiz before pulling out a book from my bag and reading. I could feel his eyes on me as he determined the best way to get me to speak to him.

"Hermione."

I kept my eyes on my book. Mrs. Sprout had given us free time at the end of class to talk or work on any other assignments we had due. So, I couldn't exactly tell the teacher that he wouldn't shut up since he was technically allowed to be talking.

"Her. Mio. Ne"

I glanced towards Ginny next to me for assistance, only to find her listening to music with her eyes closed and her head on her desk. Josh or John was equally unhelpful, choosing to get up and talk to Seamus at the back of the classroom.

If I just ignore him for a little longer, the bell will ring and I can leave, I thought to myself.

"Hermione!"

"Shut up!" I said angrily.

Before I could stop myself, I tried to kick him as hard as I could in an attempt to get him to leave me alone. Unfortunately, Draco was able to quickly bend down and catch my foot in his hand.

"Let go of my fucking foot."

"Not until you talk to me."

"I'd rather eat a dick."

"As interesting as that topic is," he winked, "that's not what I need to talk to you about."

"I do not care!"

I reached under the table to try and pry my foot out of his hand. Draco quickly dropped my foot and grabbed my hand instead.

"LET G-"

I felt my words get caught in my throat when he intertwined our fingers. He held my hand tightly and gently traced circles on the back of it. It felt like my entire hand was on fire and every rational thought immediately left my head when his eyes connected with mine.

"We need to talk Hermione."

My mouth felt dry. "I-"

Ring, ring, ring.

After a moment of hesitation, I wrenched my hand out of his, grabbed my book bag and Ginny's arm, and then dragged her out of the room.

"Why am I being manhandled right now?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Maybe you should give him a chance to explain."

"I don't want to talk about it."

Once we had rounded another corner, I finally stopped to let Ginny catch her breath, looking around to make sure Draco hadn't followed us.

"What happened during class?" Ginny demanded.

I sighed. There was no way Ginny would drop this, so I decided it was better to tell her right then instead of letting her nag me about it for the rest of the day.

"Draco grabbed my hand."

"So? He's done that before."

"He was being different."

She rolled her eyes at my weak explanation, but all I could think about was how it felt like his fingers were still ghosting over the back of my hand and sending shivers down my spine.

Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of two boys arguing.

"What the fuck was that at practice yesterday, Malfoy?"

I immediately moved to run away from the voices, but Ginny grabbed my arm and kept me there. She raised a finger to her lips, telling me to stay quiet and listen.

"You know what it was. Stay away from Hermione, Pucey."

"Or. Fucking. What? That bitch wanted me, and you just have a stick up your ass because you and Pansy broke up."

"I mean it. Don't fucking touch her."

"You jealous? I'm probably going to pop her cherry soon Malfoy. I want you to think about that every time you look at her."

My temper had been rising from the beginning of their sexist conversation, but when I heard Adrian's final remark, I saw red.

"Hermione, don't!"

Completely ignoring Ginny, I marched around the corner shoving Draco out of the way. I barely registered Draco crashing into the lockers lining the side of the hallway before my fist collided with the left side of Adrian's face. I grinned, satisfied with the bruise already beginning to form on the boy at my feet.

"If you come near me again, I guarantee I will do much worse to you than Malfoy ever could," I said, seething with anger.

I then turned on my heel and walked off down the hallway, still fuming over boys and toxic masculinity. I didn't get far before I felt someone grab my hand and spin me around towards them. When my eyes met Draco's silver ones, I tried to pull away desperately.

"Let go, Malfoy!"

"We are talking whether you like it or not!"

I glared up at him, wanting nothing more than to punch him in the face too. "You don't need to fucking defend me all the time! I can take care of myself!"

"I know that," he snapped back. "I didn't know you were around the corner though and I wasn't about to just listen to him say those things about you."

I huffed and finally stopped trying to pull away. I noticed we were starting to attract the attention of other students passing us in the hallway, not to mention the group of giggling fourth years that were watching Draco from about five feet away.

"Let go of me and I guess we can talk," I tried to ignore all the people staring at us and tugged gently to try and get him to drop my hand.

"I don't want to let go though," he said softly, taking a step closer to me and interlocking our fingers once again.

He was standing way too close to me. There were very few things I was capable of processing right then. They were the feeling of his hand enclosed around mine, how his eyes were watching my every move, and the way his cologne seemed to envelope me. Draco smelled like aftershave, sandalwood and something else unidentifiable that was just him.

"Nice punch by the way," he grinned at me.

"Hm, thanks," I murmured in a complete daze. His smile was practically dazzling me and before I knew it, I found myself staring at his lips. Maybe those fourth years are on to something.

It was that concept that finally broke me out of my thoughts. Those fourth years were definitely not on to something and I definitely did not just find Draco Malfoy attractive enough to kiss.

"I'm not forgiving you as easily as everyone else has."

"Then what will make you forgive me?" he leaned closer and whispered his next words directly into my ear. "I'll do anything you want."

My face broke out into a broad grin as I was blessed with an amazing idea.

"Anything?"

"Of course."

He would definitely regret saying that.

"Please not this."

We were outside in the parking lot after school and a small crowd had formed to witness this historic moment.

"You said anything."

"You're asking me to give up the one thing that matters to me."

"For fifteen minutes."

Draco was naturally pale, but the idea of me driving his precious Ferrari made him as white as a ghost. I was known for being more on the reckless side when I drove because I had absolutely no sense of self preservation, so he was understandably upset at the thought of me being in charge of his expensive baby.

Draco's Ferrari was a beautiful crimson with a brown leather interior. It was his pride and joy and he let no other human being drive it. Ever. Pansy had begged a million times and his only response had been: "over my dead body." In fact, I could see Pansy, and Adrian, glaring at me from the midst of the crowd.

"Is it true?"

I turned to see Ron and Luna pushing through the group to approach us.

"You're letting Hermione drive your Ferrari?" Ron asked incredulously as Luna high-fived me.

"I'm considering it," Draco muttered, still looking like he was going to be sick.

"You better let me drive it next."

"No!" Draco immediately turned to face Ron and the rest of the crowd. "I want to clarify that this is a one-time thing and it will never happen again as long as I live."

He turned back towards me and glared.

"What?" I said charmingly, trying my best to look as innocent as possible.

"You're putting me through absolute hell right now."

"I'm worth it. Just give me the keys to your little toy and this will all be over before you know it."

"This car costs six figures."

"So, it's a fancy ass toy," I corrected myself.

I sighed, feeling slightly guilty after seeing the intensely nervous look on his face. The fact that he was even considering this showed exactly how serious he was about having me back in his life. I decided to make a small concession in return.

"You can come with me."

Draco hesitated, turning to look at Ron for some kind of support. He only shrugged.

"That's probably the best deal you're going to get man. I'd take it if I were you."

Draco faced me with a resigned look on his face, dangling his keys just out of my reach.

"No donuts, sharp turns or going above fifty."

"120."

"Sixty."

"One hundred."

"Seventy-five."

"Deal." I jumped up and grabbed the keys out of his hand before hopping into the driver's seat. "You coming or what?"

He muttered under his breath something about how he'd murder me one day and opened the passenger door, gracefully sliding into the seat.

I grinned, staring the ignition. "I may go closer to ninety."

"What?"

Before he could protest further, I gunned it out of the parking lot, enjoying the feeling of the wind in my hair and the fact that I couldn't hear the angry complaints of the boy next to me over the sound of the car.

I finally pulled back into the school thirty minutes later, satisfied with my little joy ride. Draco had given me fifteen extra minutes after he saw how much fun I was having. Parking the car, I handed him his keys and got out of the Ferrari. I felt slightly dirty, as if I had cheated on Jesse with this car.

"What would Jesse think?" Draco echoed my thoughts, grinning at the way I was reluctant to leave the beautiful piece of machinery in front of me.

"He would understand," I muttered, closing the car door. "He knows he's my first and only love."

"Mhhm, sure."

Draco walked me over to my own car, holding open the door as I got in and making sure he didn't touch the exterior of the car more than necessary. I grinned up at him.

"You're forgiven by the way."

"I figured. I am really sorry though. For everything."

He again took my hand in his and this time I didn't pull away, but instead willingly allowed our fingers to be tangled together before pulling him nearer to me.

"Just promise me that next time you have a girlfriend, you won't pull the same bullshit you usually do."

"Deal," he smiled and gently tucked a lock of hair that had fallen out of my bun behind my ear. He watched me with an unreadable look in his eyes for another moment before pulling me up out of the car seat and into a tight hug.

I hesitated and then wrapped my arms around his neck as I closed my eyes and truly relaxed for what felt like the first time since we had started our fifth year.

"I missed you a lot, Draco," I finally admitted, calling him by his first name.

His hold on my waist tightened as he tried to bring me just a little bit closer.

"I missed you too."

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