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Chapter 4 - Distracted

            Needless to say, Hermione was unable to sleep that night.  She had found her way back to her room, put away her things, and gotten ready for bed in a daze.  She now lay, in between her sheets, staring at her ceiling, wide awake.  She could still feel the gentleness of his breath against her lips, and his words echoed incessantly through her mind; "I can make all your fantasies come true.".  Against her own will, she was aroused.  "Damn you Malfoy!  Why?  Why me?"  she cried silently in her mind.  "Why do you affect me like this?  Do you like playing with me?  With my mind?"  Her questions haunted her all through the night.  Morning came, but she was unsure if she had slept.

Needless to say, Harry and Ron noticed the change in their friend.  First of all, she looked like she hadn't slept a wink, and more obviously, was the fact that she was distracted in her classes, not raising her hand to answer every question.  Even Snape seemed to notice Hermione's change, as he asked the class a complex question concerning their new potion.  His eyes came to rest on Hermione, fully prepared to ignore her hand as it anxiously shot up, as it always did, but she never raised her hand.  He was a bit disappointed, ignoring her flailing hand was one of the few joys of his class.  Harry and Ron both questioned Hermione, asking her what was the matter, but she just shook her head at them, "Nothing." She would simply reply.

That night, Hermione stayed in her room, afraid to venture out to the library once more and risk a replay of last night.  At around 11:00, she gave up on her Potions essay, telling herself she would finish it tomorrow, and retired to her private bathroom to take a shower.  She tried to keep her mind off Malfoy as she showered, but the image of him standing in front of her kept drifting into her mind.  She concentrated on the warm caress of the water, trying hard not to image it was his fingers caressing her body.  Something deep inside of her yearned for him to be as close to her as he had been last night.  Only inches away…

She shook her head, and broke her train of thought.  She was determined to stop thinking of him.  It was getting in the way of her schoolwork, which was substantially more important than Draco Malfoy.

She wrapped a towel around herself as she stepped out of the bathroom, and headed for her bed, where she had lain out her pajamas.  Just as she was going to start to change, she got the strange feeling as if she was being watched.  She looked up, and screamed as she saw a pair of piercing gray eyes staring at her from the other side of her room.