OMG I am SOOOO sorry guys! Ok excuses for why this chapter took so long will begin now: first my word program had deleted itself, then I went on vacation in Colorado for a week, and also, this chapter is 6 pages long, front and back, so it took a long time to write and twice as long to type. It was going to make it two chapters but I made it one long one to make up for my absence. ok here it is!

"That crazy old coot. I cant believe he did this." Hermione jogged up to him and pushed him away from the door portrait.

"What the hell? Draco?!? What's going on here?"

He had no answer but to shake his head. It was a portrait of the prefects in medieval type clothing, which normally would have been fine, but the portrait Hermione had her arms around portrait Draco, who had an arm around her waist. The other two people in the portrait were Padma Patil from Ravenclaw, and Justin Finch-Fletchey from Hufflepuff, and they were grinning down at Hermione and Draco standing in front of them.

"Rubbish, all of it. Blueberry Tart." Hermione said smartly, and the portrait swung open. She stalked in, trying to push the portrait from her mind. She had barely taken three steps inside when she stopped again, gazing around in wonder. The commonroom was, in a word, magnificent. There were four squashy couches placed in front of a fireplace. On each couch was a thick, fluffy blanket in green, red, yellow, and blue, according to house. In another section was the 'library', which covered the whole wall and had two armchairs facing each other. There were four doors, each with the occupants name in shimmering letters on it. In each room there was an adjoining passage to the commonroom of their respected house. There was another door leading to the prefect bath with the swimming pool sized tub and its many faucets.

"This - this place is - it's amazing!" Hermione gasped, trying to take it all in but looking like she was going to faint if she didn't calm down.

"It's alright." Draco said nonchalantly.

Hermione ignored him and raced to the door with her name on it and flung it open. "Oh my god!!" she shrieked , rushing into the room. Draco stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe and watching her antics. She flitted around the room, inspecting the small attached bathroom, the beaurou, the dresser, the bookshelf, the view from her balcony, and then finally leaping onto her queen sized four-poster bed with its' huge red and gold comforter and the gauzy red and gold curtains.

He had to laugh now, because she was sitting on her bed, her smile from ear to ear and her eyes shining with joy. "Isn't this great?!?" she said with glee.

"Yeah, it is." He agreed, smiling crookedly, and then turning to see his room. It was basically the same as Hermione's except in green and silver and minus the bookshelf (wonder why). 'Not too shabby' he thought, and gave the room an accepting nod. Hermione wasn't to be found when he returned, so he decided to take a nice relaxing swim in the huge prefect pool/tub. Getting into his trunks and a robe, he strutted to the prefect bath, whistling merrily. He opened the door and found himself staring at a very nice female rear. "There is a god!" he exclaimed, making Hermione turn in surprise and glare at him.

"Draco Malfoy how long have you been there?" she demanded, her hands on her hips.

"Long enough." He shrugged, looking over her figure in her red and black cherry covered bikini. "Granger if I had known that all of this was under all of that-" he said with a wink.

"Ugh!" was her only response as she slipped into the now full pool. She ducked her head back, wetting her hair, and then turned to face him. "Are you getting in or not?" she said, flipping her hair behind her.

"Right." He untied his robe slowly, and then chucked it away from the tub. He walked around the pool edge, stopping at a side very far away from her and took a few steps back.

"Don't you dare-" she began as he took a running leap and cannonballed into the pool. When he surfaced, grinning, he found himself facing a very wet, very mad Gryffindor. She swam over to him slowly, her eyes glinting with malice.

"Hermione .. What are you doing?" he asked cautiously as she wrapped an arm around his neck and the back of his head.

She brought her body close to his and leaned her head up to him. "Nothing.." she whispered. He breathed in sharply and then- she pushed him underwater. She swam away quickly, laughing merrily as he resurfaced, looking annoyed and a little hurt. (you thought she was going to kiss him didn't you?)

"You do know this means war, don't you?" he said.

"Quite." she replied, grinning widely.

They chased each other around the pool, their laughter reverberating off the walls as they splashed each other. He finally caught her in a corner and backed her up against the wall. "Uhoh.." She said, trying to sidle away from him. Quick as lightning he was there, and he grabbed her arms, backing her up against the wall to keep her from splashing.

"Surrender." He said simply. She looked him over, noting that no matter how much she struggled and squirmed he was able to keep her still. She sighed and gave him a 'look'- you know, the one that girls use to get their way (that I cant seem to get down). Mistaking her sigh for one of defeat (and not getting her look) he loosened his grip and relaxed.

"Haha!" she crowed as she wrenched her arms free and darted around his arms to an open end of the pool.. "I never gave up!"

"How do you swim so fast?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My mother's a mermaid." She said, enjoying his 'oh' of surprise. "No not really I just swam a lot over the summer, hee hee."

"Oh. Truce for now? I'm really hungry."

"Yeah ok, me too. Let me change and we can go down together." She climbed out of the pool and suddenly laughed.

"Ok?" he asked.

"It's nothing- it's just- I just realized you're probably acting like a human for probably the first time in your life."

His eyes flashed with anger and when he spoke his voice had an edge to it. "Granger, you of all people shouldn't make assumptions about people, especially those you barely know."

She spun around angrily (a lot of anger here) her hands on her hips. "Me of all people? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Because you're a mud- I mean-"

"Yeah that's what I thought. I think YOU should pay more attention to what YOU say, Mister Malfoy, because you don't know as much as you think you do either." She turned on her heel and marched out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Three seconds later she marched back in, picked up her robe with a 'hmph' and marched out again, her nose in the air. A Little While Later ~ ~ ~ ~

"That insensitive, stuck up loser. How could I have thought he had changed? God, why am I so mad about him? He always says insensitive stuff. I should be used to it." She stopped what she was doing, took out her muggle cd player and her muggle cd, and pressed the forward button to song nine. She danced around her room, unpacking her luggage and singing along to the words.

-On and on, reckless abandon-

"He doesn't know anything."

-Something's wrong, this is gonna shock them-

"How could he think he understands?"

-Nothing to hold on to-

"He thinks he's just so smart."

-We'll use this song to lead you on-

"He has absolutely no clue."

-And break the truth with more bad news-

"My life isn't perfect. It just- it isn't fair!"

-We left a scar size extra large-

She collapsed in a heap on her balcony, her body wracked with sobs. "Why did they do this to me? It was my fault, if only they had taken me instead of her but they didn't they- God it was all my fault! What did I do to deserve this?!?!" she yelled up at the sky with its massing dark clouds. There was a clap of thunder and it began to pour. "It isn't fair, it isn't fair." she mumbled, burying her face in her hands.

For the past five minutes Draco has been yelling for Hermione to talk to him, but he got no answer. 'She has that ghastly muggle noise playing too loud.' He thought as he pulled out he wand. "Alohomora" he said, and her door swung open. (spelling on that?) "Hermione!" He bellowed, turning off the cd player. He looked around the room, his gaze finally landing on the wide-open balcony doors. Hermione was there, her hands covering her face and her shoulders shaking with sobs. He rushed over to her, pulling her to her feet and leading her inside out of the rain. "Hermione I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it, it just slipped out I really didn't mean to say it I'm sorry-" he led her to her bed where they sat and Hermione proceded to sob into his shoulder. He delicately placed his arms around her and patted her on the back. "There there." He murmured, rocking her back and forth. "It's all my fault Draco, they took her and I couldn't do anything."

"Hermione what are you talking about?" She opened her mouth, and then closed it, deciding if she should tell him.

"Take your robes off." She said plainly.

"Ok.." He replied, slowly unbuttoning his robes to show his 'street' clothes underneath. She grabbed his arm, yanking the sleeve up and twisting his arm so that the palm of his hand faced up. 'The dark mark.' Draco thought when he realized the purpose of her antics. She sighed in relief when she saw the smooth, unmarked skin of his upper arm.

"It was the summer before our first year. August 13th. My sister, Anne, and I had just had a fight. I got my letter a day before her, you see. She was mad, cause I had said that hers took longer cause they weren't sure if she was good enough for Hogwarts. She got really mad, saying she hated me, and didn't talk to me, even at lunch." She took a deep breath, steadying herself, but when she spoke next her voice trembled. "It was 2:15 when he came.. Voldemort. People think Harry's the only person his age to stand and look at him in the face. Not true. He came, in a flash of light, and he glanced at me, and at my sister, and my parents. And he looked at me again, straight in the eye, and I couldn't stand the evil that I felt, and my knees buckled and I fell to the ground. He looked at my sister, with all her innocence, and maybe stupidity, cause she didn't seem to feel the evil that surrounded him, and stood his gaze. He grabbed her, said something, and disappeared. I know now that he probably apperated. But I don't know why he wanted her. I'm trying to find out."

Draco sat in shock for a moment, then cautiously asked, "What did your parents do?"

She tried to laugh, but her laugh came out as a chocked sob. "Them? When the ministry came, they were asked if they wanted memory charms. They said yes, I said no. Simple as that, they forgot her. My sister. Anne. My twin."

"Hermione, you kept saying it was your fault. What did you mean?"

"I know it sounds strange, but I think Voldemort made a mistake. I think he wanted me. See, we were identical. I don't know why, I just have a feeling, he didn't mean to take her, he wanted me. Draco!"

His head snapped up and he looked her straight in the eyes. "Yes?"

"You can't tell anyone. No one can know. Do you understand? No one. No one else knows."

"I swear on my soul and on my honor as a person that I will never utter what you have told me to another person on my own free will."

She nodded, pleased with his promise and then - "Draco!"

"Mmm?"

"Now that you know.. Well.. I need your help. I need you to help me figure out why he wanted her- or me."

"Sure thing but why me?"

"You have a very devious mind. You might be able to figure it out. You also have some VERY old books at your house. There might be something there." He nodded, and she continued. "I also- I - I don't think I could do it by myself."

"Hermione, if we cant figure I out, no one can."

She smiled, and there was more silence. "Draco?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

They both glanced up at each other, their eyes meeting, and then they both looked down.

"Hermione?"

She looked up, meeting his eyes again, and he held them with his. He slowly lowered his head, and she closed her eyes, leaning up to him. He pressed his lips to hers softly, and then pulled back. Her eyes fluttered open, her mouth in an 'O' of surprise. Then she smiled, blushing rosily.

"Ok?"

"That was my first kiss.."

"Oh. Hermione?" She looked up once more. "Mine too." He was silent again, and then said, "Let's go to dinner."

"Ok." She said, standing, and then she took his hand in hers, and they went to dinner.

OK!!! Woohoo go me go me go me I finally finished this thing alright! Ok just a little explaining the whole first kiss thing unlike popular belief I believe that Draco is NOT a man-ho who has been with half the girls in the school. I don't know any guys like that in my high school except for a few and they aren't very attractive so- you know, if you don't like it deal. Any reviews are welcome but I wish they would be positive, flames will be used to light my cats birthday cake. ~Lauren~