A/N: And the plot thickens... You can all probably guess what's going to happen, but don't worry, I'm not going gushy on you. Plus there's a delightfully angsty twist near the end. Just to keep you on your toes.

Disclaimer: Blah Blah Blah, yadda yadda yadda, etc. etc. etc...

- - - -

She didn't have much of an appetite for dinner that night, somehow the thought of detention with Malfoy wasn't all that appealing to her stomach. But Harry and Ron's sympathy helped a bit.

"If he lays a hand on you, you just tell us, and we'll make him rue the day he set foot on Hogwarts ground, the slimeball." Ron had growled over a heaping plateful of mashed potatoes, Harry nodding along with him. Her friends' concerns made her feel a bit better, even if they sounded a bit cruel. She'd had a good dose of Snapes detentions before, and wasn't happy to be repeating the experience. What kind of Head Girl gets detention? "Thanks, I really appreciate it..." Hermione smiled faintly, taking a small nibble off the corner of a roll. "I just hope it doesn't come to that." Sneaking a furtive glance over to the Slytherin table, she got a short glimpse of him laughing at some surely obscene joke Blaise Zabini was telling him. It was going to be a long night for sure.

- - - -

She arrived at the Potions dungeon only a moment before Malfoy, smug grin in place as always. Snape emerged from the back of the room wielding two bristle-hair brushes with malice written all over his face.

"I have business to attend to, but I'm sure you will not need my presence when you are cleaning cauldrons." A menacing sneer twitched at his lips, directed at Hermione. "*Without* magic." Setting the brushes on a nearby table, he extracted his own wand, and with a flick of the tip and mutter of 'Accio' he had both of their wands in his hand. That was just like Snape, when things seemed like easy goings, he'd go and muck it all up.

"Now get to work, you two." Snape walked past them and out the door before either had a chance to protest, as if they could. With an incoherent grumble, Hermione stamped across the room, picked up one brush and flung it straight at Malfoy's smirking face. Great, just great. It would definitely take them hours to clean the vast array of cauldrons that needed their attention. Obviously Snape felt that a plethora of cauldrons would straighten them up into upstanding students, though his remedy would surely be an annoying experience.

"Well, we'd better get to work." Malfoy responded almost cheerfully despite their predicament. He was lucky her aim was bad, and the brush bounced ineffectively off his shoulder.

Brush in hand, Hermione started in on the first cauldron, attacking it with a vengeance. Clenching her teeth, she pictured that it's grimy surface was Draco Malfoy's infuriatingly handsome face as she took the brush to it. Obviously her antics had not gone unnoticed by certain grey eyes within the room, for a moment later Draco spoke, one eyebrow raise in question.

"Good god, Granger. We want to *clean* the cauldrons, not put holes in them." She shot him a silencing glare that not even the infamous Draco Malfoy cared to respond to.

- - - -

Hours later and still scrubbing furiously away at what seemed like her thousandth cauldron, she felt a soft tap on her shoulder, make her start, and look up into the amazingly penetrating eyes of Draco Malfoy. He was holding to cups of something, and one was extended down to her. Hermione dropped the brush into the bottom of her current cauldron, then, rising slowly, she wiped her hands inconspicuously on her robes before gingerly taking the mug between her hands, eyes it untrustingly.

"I didn't slip anything in it Granger..." A frustrating smile tugged at his lips. She snuck a glance at his face, then back to the swirling cup of pumpkin cider, still unsure. Rolling his eyes to the ceiling, he reached out, took the cup she had been holding, and replaced it with his. Raising a brow to her, he took a long swig, proving the validity of the drink. Almost instantly a smile broke onto her face as she mirrored his action.

"So," Taking another sip, she decided Malfoy wasn't too bad afterall."Where in Merlins' ghost did you get this?" She had known had known he was resourceful, but...

"A Malfoy, Miss Granger, is *always* prepared." His voice seemed to have lost it's edge, she noticed, and was pleasantly surprised when he dug inside his robe pocket and extracted a handful of chocolate frogs.

The air lost some of its' viscosity, and breathing was much easier. Laughing, she took one of the offered chocolates, and -after unwrapping it- popped it into her mouth with a grin. "I guess I should thank you, Malfoy."

He shrugged off her reply, an almost shy smile taking form on his pale features. "No problem, and call me Draco, 'Malfoy' sounds so... cold."

"Cold?" She didn't catch his meaning.

"Frosty."

"Frosty?" A spark of anger crawled into her throat."I can tell you, *Draco*, that I'm neither cold nor frosty nor..." She was advancing on him now, definitely imposing had she come to more than his chest.

"Frigid." He interrupted. Even he had no idea where he was going with this, but a small voice in the back of his head urged him to further it.

'*How dare he?*' She gasped, her eyes narrowing as she took another step closer to him, stabbing him in the chest with the tip of her forefinger to emphasize every word. "I. am. *not*. frigid."

"Prove it." He grinned like a cheshire cat, broadly, with gleaming with teeth. "Prove it, prove it, prove it." Taking her now-empty mug once more from her hands, he set both on a table next to them. The smug look on her face should have been warning enough, but he was completely unprepared for what happened next.

Grasping the front of his robes in her outstretched hand, she pulled with a forced he wouldn't have imagined she had, until his lips were locked with hers. At first he resisted, trying to push her away feebly, but then he relaxed to her touch, bliss coming when her tongue stroked longingly against his lips, begging entrance, and at last he gave it to her.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist, he brought her flush against his toned body, leanly muscled from years of Quidditch. She threw herself against him, the feather-like brush of his tongue making her feel as though a Jelly-Legs Curse had just hit her full force. And yet she ached for more.

Her scalp prickled, sending shivers up her spine. Tilting her head, she deepened the kiss, losing her self in it. When at last he pushed her away, though reluctantly, she spotted the naked hunger in those shielded grey eyes, hoping her own eyes hid hers.

It took her a moment to regain her composure and speaking, thanking the Lord above that her voice was steady enough, though her mind wasn't. What on earth was going on here? First Draco Malfoy, most hated enemy was being *nice* to her, then she was kissing him, but nonetheless, she definitely wasn't showing *him* she was frazzled in the least.

"Convinced Draco?" Somehow being on a first-name basis seemed almost intimate, with one such as him. Draco had nearly no idea what had happened, but it wasn't all too painful.A lopsided smile hung at his lips, arms hanging limply at his sides. Muttering something incoherent, Hermione was surprised that for the first time in his seventeen years of life, she'd wager, Draco Malfoy was speechless.

- - - -

Heh, had to be evil and end it there. Ain't I a stinker? Anywho, I'm surprised I got this done so quickly, only one hour for all this... I'm surprised at myself.

Coming up: ... A little chat... surprises...