**Coming Together**

A/N: ::Singing to All or Nothing by O'Town which is playing at a loud volume on her radio. Suddenly she notices the readers watching her and stops dancing and singing, smiling in an embarassed sort of way.:: Um...hi. Sorry got a little carried away. :;turns of her radio:: Well I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out I just couldn't get myself into writing, no not writers block I just didn't have the urge to write. But I finished it! Throughout this chapter like many before I have some A/N interruptions! Sorry it's not my fault. My hyper teenage side went a little well...psycho on me. ::glares at her hyper side:: Anyway, This chapter isn't to great but I still hope you like it. So here it is chapter three.... ::turns up her radio which is now blasting Samantha Mumba's Come on over. Starts singing again, as her reader stop reading the stupid author's note and begin to read chapter three::

Hermione was gripping Harry's waist tighter than ever, as they flew over water. Harry choked.

"Come on Hermione, loosen up. It's not that bad." He assured her. Hermione ignored him, still keeping a very firm grip on him. Draco steered his broom right beside them.

"What's the matter, Granger? You scared?" he said sniggering.

"Shut up, Malfoy." Hermione said glancing over at him, and glaring.

"Herm, ignore Malfoy and check the map." Harry said. Hermione took one arm off of Harry cautiously, slid her backpack to her side, and pulled the map out of it.

"We should be seeing land right about.......now." right on cue, land appeared in the horizon.

"Thank god, I mean I love flying, but a guy's got to eat." Harry said speeding up to reach the land faster. Ron and Draco sped in front of them, and landed on the shore a few moments before they did. Hermione, gladly hopped off the broom and looked as though she could kiss the ground. She looked around, they were on a small beach, which looked deserted and just ahead of them was a thick forest.

"I guess we should go set up camp in the forest, I mean that's where the bicorn is most likely to be and we probably aren't going to finish by nightfall so we might as well sleep here." Hermione suggested. The others nodded and made their way into the forest, Harry in the lead. The forest was much thicker than it had looked on the beach. The four didn't have to walk long, though, before they came upon a small clearing, with enough room for a fire and tent. Hermione flicked her wand, mumbled a few choice words, and a tent which was slightly larger than most to fit four peopleappeared.

"Should we wait until, nightfall?" Ron asked.

"No I don't think that would be wise. I mean we don't know this forest and we'd probably end up getting lost." Hermione said. "I think it would be best if we started looking now, we should split into pairs." Immediately the three boys started arguing.

"I can't be with him!" Ron shouted, glaring at Malfoy.

"Well I can't be with him either!" Draco retorted, returning Ron's glacier cold glare.

"But I can't be with him either!" Harry yelled.

"Enough!" Hermione shouted at the top of her lungs, sounding like a younger version of Professor McGonagall. The boys stopped shouting, all though they were still glaring at each other. "Harry, Ron, you go together. I'll go with Malfoy. If I send either of you off with him, you'll come back an assortment of hexes on you. Meet back here in two hours, which would be at..." she consulted her watch. "4:30. If you find the unicorn send up blue sparks, if you're in trouble send up red sparks. Got it?" Harry and Ron nodded. "Good. Malfoy and I will go off to the left and you two go off towards the right. Meet you back here in two hours." she said finally and walked off out of the clearing and into the thicket of trees. Malfoy was walking a bit behind her silently, Hermione glanced back at him. "What's your problem today?" she asked. Malfoy looked up at her as they continued to walk, raising his eyebrows as if asking what she meant. "I mean you're not acting like yourself. You haven't insulted me once, and Harry and Ron aren't even around to back me up." she said.

"What? Do you want me to make fun of you?" He asked emotionlessly.

"No...but...what's wrong?" she asked a bit cautiously.

"Nothing's wrong ok!? Just lay off!" he snapped.

"There see that sounds more like you." she said, smiling playfully. Draco just scowled. Hermione turned her eyes away from him, and scanned the forest. For a moment her eyes flickered back to Malfoy where she a saw a wolf...wait a wolf? She double taked.

"Are you trying to get yourself caught, Malfoy?" she asked. Malfoy shook his now wolf head. "What if Harry and Ron show up?" Malfoy just padded up in front of her. Hermione rolled her eyes. Malfoy didn't listen to Hermione and stayed in his wolf form for the next two hours and only changed back into his seventeen year old self when they started nearing the camp again. Harry and Ron were allready there, they looked at Hermione and shrugged.

"Maybe we'll be able to find it tonight." Ron said.

"But we don't know the forest an--" Hermione began.

"We just stay in pairs and send up sparks if we get lost. I mean come on Hermione, you're the smartest witch in the school, and you're head girl. You must be able to come up with a spell to find your way back if you get lost." Ron stated. Hermione nodded, he was right she had allready thought of a spell once he said that.

"Ok, after dinner." she said.

"I'll catch dinner." Draco said and trotted off into the woods. Hermione assumed that once he was out of sight he would change into a wolf and kill their future dinner. Hermione's gazed lingered in the direction of where Draco had went, longer than she had intended. But for some odd reason she didn't want to look away, even though he had gone. Hermione shook herself mentally. 'What are you doing? This is Malfoy you're staring after. You remember, that pureblood scumbag who once told Harry and Ron he hoped you died, the same Malfoy that----'.

"Hermione!" Harry yelled, shaking her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" she said absently. Harry was staring at her suspiciously.

"Are you ok?" he asked her, as Ron started a fire.

"What?... Yeah." she said still confused by her thoughts. Harry eyed her doubtfully and shook his head looking back to the fire Ron was trying to start. Hermione walked off into the tent and dropped her backpack on the ground, taking out a bottle of water and sipped it. She searched through her pack and found a shruken sleeping bag. She pulled it out and mumbled the counter curse bringing it back to normal size, and laying it near the wall of the tent. Hermione walked back out of the tent, water in hand, Malfoy was back with a small dead deer. Could he had made it more obvious he had attacked it while in wolf form? It was almost torn in half.

"God, Malfoy it looked like you attacked this thing with your teeth." Harry thought aloud.

"That's because he did." Hermione mumbled. Draco, who was standing next to her was the only one who heard her. He glared at her.

"Shut up, Mudblood." He mumbled so only he could hear. Harry and Ron walked away putting the small (it was very small) deer on a stick and hanging it over the fire.

"Back to your regular self I see?" she said to Draco, as she turned to him.

"I've been myself all day. Don't forget what I said Granger, if it slips out to Potter or Weasley about me being an Animagi, I'll kill you." He said threateningly. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, spare me the threats, Malfoy. You don't have the guts to kill me." she said, without a hint of fear in her voice.

"Oh really?" he said taking a step toward her, staring her down challengingly. "You don't think I have the guts to kill you, eh? Well if that's what you think, you better not sleep much, I might just decide to snap in the middle of the night." he said menacingly.

"Yeah, that's what I think. But I'm not going to lose sleep over it." she said gazing back at him her eyes just as challenging. "If you had the guts to kill, and if you wanted to kill me, you wouldn't have saved me from that wolf." she said cooly, and walked away toward Harry and Ron. Draco gaped at her, and walked off into the tent, fuming.

*~*~*~*~*

After an almost silent dinner, Hermione decided they better get started.

"Ok, stay together you two." she said to Harry and Ron. "If you get lost or hurt send up red sparks like last time and blue if you find the bicorn." they nodded. "Come on, Malfoy." she said. pulling him off into the forest. The sun was setting casting eerie shadows across the forest. Hermione and Draco walked, in silence (to Hermione's surprise) for a half an hour, searching for the bicorn.

"Just because I didn't let that wolf kill you doesn't mean I won't do it myself if you tell Potter and Weasley." Draco said suddenly, cutting through the silence. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Suuure." Hermione said skeptically.

"Don't underestimate me, Granger. I didn't let that wolf kill you because, I couldn't let him kill you for me, anyway....as much as it hurts me to say this because it's almost like giving you a compliment which I'm not if you died before you had to Potter, Weasley, and I would kill each other without you around." he said. The shadows were getting eerier as the sun dissipated, and the moon replaced it. Hermione sighed, irritated.

"Listen, Malfoy no one cares that you actually have feelings and couldn't let that wolf kill me. And no one cares that you don't have the guts to kill me and you would feel awful if you did. It's something us humans call emotions. Something you've obivously never--" Hermione felt herself being shoved into a tree, Draco's hand over her mouth, the other on her shoulder, holding her against the tree.

"What the heck, Malfoy--" she said trying to pull his hand off her mouth.

"Shh!" he said sharply. His steel gray eyes were darting around wildly. Then she heard the rustle of leaves ahead of them, getting closer and closer. Hermione squinted, as she tried to look beyond Draco toward where the sound was coming from. Draco let her go, and turned toward the sound, he could see the form of something, a human, an animal...he wasn't sure. Hermione squinted her brown eyes even more, trying to make out the figure as it neared. Then she saw it, it was a bicorn.. She gasped, it was a beautiful sight. Silvery, white fur, sparkling black eyes, and two elegantly long horns protruding from its flawless head. At the same time she and Draco must have realized what their job was once again and yelled 'Stupefy!' at the same time. The bicorn froze and fell, gracelessly to the ground with a soft 'thud'. Hermione picked up her wand, sending up blue sparks. Minutes later Harry and Ron arrived and helped Draco and Hermione carry the bicorn back to the camp. They lay it down as gently as possible on the ground, the boys looked at Hermione.

"What?" she asked looking back.

"The spell." Harry said. Hermione gave him a clueless look. "Oh come on Hermione don't choose this moment to get all like a ditzy seventeen year old girl on me. The spell, the one to take off one of it's horns."

"Oh!" Hermione said, regaining her composure which she lost to her seventeen year old mind. "Remevius Nodous." she muttered. The horn looked as though an invisible saw had cut it cleanly from it's head. Hermione collected the horn and put it safely into her back pack as Harry and Ron brought the bicorn back into the woods where they would revive it. Draco was staring deeply into the small fire that was burning, when she looked up from her bag. He looked very troubled. What did Hermione feel? Was it pity? Possibly.

"Are you ok?" she asked softly, from where she was kneeled on the ground next to her back pack.

"Why would you care?" he asked, not turning his head to look at her.

"I'm just asking you a question why can't you answer?" she inquired him, her soft manner dropping a bit.

"I'm fine ok? You happy now? I answered your question." He spat walking off into the woods which led in the direction of the deserted beach. For some reason she got up and followed him, hurrying behind him.

"Why do you keep pushing me away?"

"Maybe I don't want to talk to you, Granger!" he said walking as fast as he could so he stayed in front of her as the reached the beach and walked toward the shoreline.

"Why? I was just trying to ask you a question."

"Well maybe I'm getting sick and tired of your questions, Granger! Will you just go away? You're the most aggravating person I've ever met, now leave, you stupid mudblood!" He said angrily, as he stood on the shoreline, the water almost coming to his feet. Hermione standing a few feet behind him.

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I was concerned?" she said quietly. Only Draco's eyes looked back to her, even though he couldn't see her. She was concerned for him? Did he hear her right? "Why do you have to be so mean all time?" she asked sounding a bit hurt at his last comments. Draco turned around to Hermione slowly, her arms were crossed in an attempt to keep warm, and her long brown hair was blowing around her face from the wind, brown eyes set on Draco.

"I was brought up to be mean, Hermione. Cruel, heartless, and a future death eater. I never wanted to be a death eater, but hey nothing wrong with being cruel and heartless can't go to Azkaban for it." He said looking directly at her. "What?" he asked at her shocked expression.

"You said my name." she informed him.

"What? No I didn't." he protested. Hermione nodded fervently.

"Yeah, you did." she smirked a bit but regained her serious expression. "But that's not the point. Just because you can't go to Azkaban for being cruel doesn't mean it's right."

"Like I care?" Draco said. "What's it to you anyway? You're suddenly acting like you want to be my friend or something."

"Maybe I do." Draco looked just as shocked as Hermione had before.

"Why?"

"Have you ever had a real friend before?" Hermione asked.

"Of course I have. Crabbe and Goyle--"

"They weren't your real friends and you know it. You only hung out with them because they were like your body guards. If they had been your real friends you would have called them by their first names." Draco hated to admit she was right. But as he thought about it, it finally sunk in that he hadn't ever had a real friend, she was the first person to really try and reach out to him. He sank down to the sand, looking down. "It doesn't have to stay that way you know." He looked up at her. Her honey brown eyes gazed down at him, then she turned away and walked back into the woods and towards the camp, leaving him to his own thoughts.

When Hermione arrived back at the tent she recieved suspicious glances from Harry and Ron.

"Where've you been?" asked Harry.

"No where important." Hermione replied.

"Where's Malfoy?" Ron asked.

"Out on the shore. What is this an inquiry?" she said smirking, as she flopped down on her squashy blue sleeping bag. She didn't even bother to get out of her clothes because the moment she closed her eyes sleep eluded her.

"Where do you think she was?" Harry asked Ron, as he layed down between Hermione and Ron.

"Probably out talking to ferret boy." Ron said getting into his sleeping bag. "Maybe he'll get lost in the woods on his way back." said Ron sniggering.

"We can only hope." said Harry yawning.

*~*~*~*

When Draco returned, and climbed into the tent quietly Ron, Harry, and Hermione had all fallen asleep. As he lay down, his sleeping bag farthest from the other three he could see Hermione's sleeping form on the other side of Harry. He was still thinking about what she had said to him. Maybe he could change the fact he had no real friends. But that would mean losing his hard, Slytherin attitude...or maybe he didn't. Why the hell did he care? He had never cared about having real friends before. Draco tried push his thoughts aside as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

*~*~*~*~*

A/N: Hey guys. Did ya like it?? Well review it! Did ya hate it? Well review it! I don't care what you thought of it just review!!! That chapter wasn't as good as chapter 2 I don't think. But lately I haven't had any ideas really. Except I have chapter four forming in my mind and I'll probably start writing it tonight after dinner or something. But let me tell you chapter four will be jam packed with a lot of action and I'm really trying hard to form the romance which will appear A LOT in chapter four...maybe a kiss? hmmm...maybe not. I'm not going to give any more info away about chapter four cause I think that one will be a really good chapter. I'll probably get it posted by next week. Well I think I'm gonna go outside and enjoy our lovely Florida weather. God it's scorching outside I think I'm gonna hop into the pool after I thank all reviewers. Thanks for all the reviews you guys!! Love ya! Here's some thanks to my reviewers so far. Thanks to: Ayla Pascal:Thanks for being my first review on this story I'm glad you like it! Draco'z Lil' Devil: Thanks! I'm glad you think it's good...I love Draco's attitude too! Serena: Thanks you! Audrey: I'm glad you like it, I tried to make it a little romantic with Draco saving Hermione ya know? MuShRoOm: I'm writing more I hope you enjoy all of the chapters. Bryant: Thanks! Draco Fan: Thanks for the great review...you said it's different from other d/h romances, do you like the difference? Idiana Jones: Thanks for reviewing both chapters and for being honest in the first. I guess you liked the second chapter better? You'll probably give me another kinda bad review about this chapter, only cuz I know the second chapter is soo much better. Thank you though, I need to get an occasional review where people think it's weird. TrintaC: Hmm...maybe the other wolf was normal maybe not. Well spotted! PotterFanz: Thanks a bunch! Keyara: How is it different? Thanks I hope you enjoyed the second chapter! Key: I'm flattered Katherine: I'm glad you think so! Queen Kate: Wow! Thanks sooo much! Juliet: I will keep writing! The thing with Draco being an illegal animagi just like came to me so I had to write and I knew I wanted him to be a wolf so that's how Draco became and aninagi! Unicorn Chick: I hope you liked my other stories! Messasinna: Thanks a mill! Alexis: I'm glad you think it's kewl but I'm sorry this is going to be a D/H story! Don't hate me I am a H/H supporter too so if you want a story like that go read my fic Falling For Each Other. Demiguise: Never fear she's not turning into a werewolf! Ginny Delacour: Thanks sooo much!! sez: Glad you liked it! Captain Antilles: Duh! Of course I'll keep going! I love to write waaay to much not to. Dru: I so liked your review it made me laugh how you were all like 'Dammnit now I'm all into the story'...lol. whateva: I'm soo totally continuing Kimberly: I wouldn't mind if you were impatient or eager for the next chapter as long as you like it! ~Hermione Pika~: I'm glad you like it! Of course I'm not going to Avada Kedavra you because you think my fic is second best to Gypsy's 'Across Enemy Lines' cuz let me tell you that fic is soooo totally awesome, it's one of my favorites! Don't worry! Raelene: Thank you! Black Kitten: Did you mention you loved it? Lol...I'm glad you did. del: phew! I'm relieved you didn't mind the interruptions. Writer: After you mentioned Cho Celeste I went off and read her story and I really didn't mean it to sound a bit like hers. I'll make sure this one is alot different ok? Wow you have split personalities? Me too! ::looks over at Hyper teenager, smarty pants, mellow yellow girl, lazy bum, and Freda (a.k.a the cheerleader personality who is all for school spirit...she comes out whenever I'm at cheering at games.), and Jessie the normal one:: GoGoGirl: Trust me I know my summaries suck! But I'm soo ecstatic that you liked the story! *Sweet Singer*: Dude I know Harry is the best...along with Draco. Thanks! Black Kitten: Thanks for reviewing again. I'm glad you liked my terminology cuz all I did throughout this chapter was hit shift F7 (thesaurus).