Title: Ready or Not

Summary: We make various decisions everyday, whether it maybe what pants we wear or where we want to go to school. either way every decision we make changes the course we take in our lives...so who will Hermione choose? This story is not only about choices, but also about life's punishments and rewards. So, relax and I hope you enjoy the story.

Rating: R

Pairing: HG/DM

Editor/computer stuff: yummyjajangmyun

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Thank You Serpent de Feu for your reviews and Sadistic freak and Always dreaming! You guys keep me going! And special thanks to yummyjajangmyun!

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Chapter 6~

The next morning in Potions she wondered if she should tell Ron what happened or not. For the first time she wasn't paying attention to what the Professor was saying. She was so consumed with her thoughts, arguing whether or not she should or even want to tell Ron the revelations of last night.

Ron's head was bobbing back and forth; he was fast asleep. She smacked the back of his head and gave him a 'pay- attention' look, although she wasn't paying attention herself. She looked at the front of the class and saw Draco sitting with Pansy; they were both busy taking notes on Snape's lecture.

Draco looked different to her. He looked more like a human being who has hopes, desires, and feels pain… there was something about him that made her want to know more. He intrigued her... she just sat there looking at all his features coming to the conclusion that he had no faults. The clear porcelain skin, with bright blonde hair, and his hands… hands that belonged to someone that struggled and labored. They had thick knuckles and long fingers with wide palms…

"Hello?" Ron whispered as he waved his hand in front of her eyes. Hermoine shook her head and turned her attention towards Ron.

"Yeah?" asked Hermoine.

"What's up with you? You have nothing on your parchment; hell even I wrote down more notes than you. You feeling ok?" asked Ron, but before she could answer him Snape dismissed the class and the two began busily packing their things away, in a hurry to get out of Snape's class before he assigned homework. Hermoine looked up after she gathered all her things and noticed Draco staring at her as he left the room. She ran to the door hoping to talk to him but by the time she reached it he was already down the hall with Pansy at his side. Ron tapped her on the shoulder with a concerned look.

"Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

"I never said if anything was." replied Hermoine. For a split second the thought of telling Ron everything ran through her mind, but she decided against it. Ron's reaction scared her so she chose to wait it out for a bit longer; maybe she wouldn't have to tell him at all.

That evening Hermoine, Ron, Ginny, and Neville headed down the winding staircase to dinner in the Great Hall. Ron and Ginny were discussing the different Quidditch plays for the game that was coming up in a week. Neville was looking at his remembral and scratching his head, trying to remember what he forgot. Hermoine suggested few ideas, but Neville quickly dismissed them all. The staircase they were on moved to another corridor so they decided to get off there and take the long way to dinner since they were in no hurry to eat.

"Ginny, you're hopeless. I'm telling you that that play won't work against Slytherin. They already know that one. Harry…" Ron went dead silent, all emotions falling from his face. Hermione and him zoned out, memories floating to the past... All four of them went back to their visions of the funeral...

Hermoine remembered walking steadily to the coffin, clenching onto the invisibility cloak against her breasts. Her warm tears falling down her cheeks one by one…

"Well then! Shall we proceed to dinner? I think my stomach is getting bigger by the second." said Neville as he gave a nervous chuckle. The journey to the past faded away as the other three came back to reality.

"You're always hungry." replied Ginny, and she gave a small smile. They quickly ran to the Great Hall and sat at their usual seats. Hermoine sat in between Ron and Ginny as Neville sat next to Seamus and Dean.

Hermoine looked over her shoulder towards the Slytherin table to see if Draco was there or not. She looked her right and left, but he was no where to be seen. She couldn't help but find herself feeling disappointed. She looked down at her plate and found that she suddenly lost her appetite. Ron gave a her a look of worry and threw a pea at her to get her attention. Hermoine quickly turned around .

"What's wrong Hermoine? It looks as if you failed a test or something, if that were possible," laughed Ron.

"No, nothing's wrong." She slid her pate away from and grabbed her bag. "I've just suddenly lost my appetite for eating, I guess." She got out of her seat and told everyone that she was going to go to the Prefect's common room to study some more. They all gave a small shrug and continued eating. Ron looked back as she walked slowly towards the massive double doors.

Hermoine threw her bag onto the floor and plopped down onto the velvet couch staring into the flames of the marble fireplace. The flames consumed her eyes and her thoughts consumed of Malfoy. Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by a loud sneeze. She snapped her head towards the place where the noise was coming from. It was Malfoy. They locked eyes with one another and not one of them moved... not one muscle. Hermoine's mind went blank, after a whole day of thinking about things to say to him flew out of her mind. Malfoy was the first to break the silence.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to sneeze, I just came down here to grab my astronomy book, I didn't want to disturb you seeing that you were into your thoughts." Malfoy picked up his book by the table which was next to the couch and gave a small smirk. Hermoine smiled back, and snapped out of whatever she was in.

"No, it's quite all right, I wasn't thinking about anything important." She moved a little to her left and asked Draco to sit down. He sat down next to her with the book still in his hands.

"So.. You're into astronomy?" Her heart started to beat faster than usual and she laid her hand on her chest, hoping that Draco wouldn't hear it.

"No, not really… I guess I'm just taking it to fill up some time."

"Oh, I see." Silence filled the room again. They both made small movements to make up for the awkwardness .

"Hermoine."

"Yes." said Hermoine immediately.

"Why aren't you at dinner?" asked Draco. Hermoine sulked back down to the couch and looked at him for a moment.

"Well, I guess for the same reason you aren't eating dinner. I just wasn't hungry and I decided to come up here and catch up on some reading or something."

"I see. So… do you still keep in contact with Victor?" he kicked himself for asking, but he didn't want to beat his head every night wondering if it was ok to like her or not. He needed to know.

"Who? Oh… yes, well, we still do write one another now and then, but I feel more and more distant towards him as time goes on. Why do you ask?"

"No, no I was just wondering, you know."

"Well, I am thinking about breaking up with him. Maybe… I'm not sure. I haven't seen him since last year and it doesn't seem like he fancies me anymore."

"I don't know anyone who would stop fancying you." whispered Draco.

"What?" Hermoine looked at him with both shock and the desire to believe that what she just heard wasn't the figment of her imagination.

"Nothing, I said I don't know anyone who would fancy Krum for that long. Obviously you must like this guy a lot." Hermoine gave a disappointing sigh and said, "Oh, yes I did fancy him three years ago, and I guess it stopped a couple of months ago. We just are two different people really."

"So, it seems that you guys are really going to quit, or at least you seem to want to."

"Yes, I do. I kind of want to move on, and long- distant relationships never really work----."

She was stopped in the middle of her sentence by Malfoy. He was kissing her. She opened her eyes wide, to see if it was really him, and her heart stopped of shock. Her heart was beating either too fast or not at all; either way she began to kiss him back. The kiss was long and deep. She had to push Malfoy away, in order for her to catch her breath. Malfoy wiped his lips and his face became red.

"I'm sorry Hermoine, I didn't mean to… well, I got to go." Hermoine just sat there like a dumbfounded duck trying to comprehend what just happened. She stood up and called out his name, just before he managed to get up the stairs. Malfoy stopped at the sudden call of his name. Before he knew it, Hermoine ran to him, grabbed his shirt, pushed him against the stone wall, and kissed him back.

Everything else fell apart. As far as she was concerned, they weren't at Hogwarts; they weren't anywhere... it was just them.