Okay, here is the second chapter of Dragon's Kiss. Enjoy! (And please remember, I own nothing, I have no moneyyou don't want to come after little old me do you???? Of course notJ ) Oh yeah...please review!!!!)
Hermione sped along the upper hallways; not paying attention to the things around her, such was her haste to get to Gryfinndor tower. Reaching the Fat Lady, she hurriedly said the password, and found herself panting and out of breath inside of the Gryfinndor common.
"Hermione!" Oh no, not Ginny. I don't have the strength to talk to anyoneoh, crap! She's with Harry!
Hermione forced herself to smile and turn around. "Ginny! Harry! Hownice! Have you been waiting for me?" Hermione asked, weaving through the students milling in the commons over to Harry and Ginny.
"No, not really. Have you heard how Ron is?" Harry asked. Hermione felt a stab of annoyance. Always Ron. That had been the case when she and Harry were dating toowhich probably explained the short-lived romance.
"NoI take it you haven't either?" Hermione asked anxiously. The two shook their heads.
"Madame Pomfrey won't let anyone inFred and George take this to mean that he's in pretty bad shape," said Ginny gloomily. "I was just about to ask Harry if we could use his map and cloak and see if we can sneak in there" She nudged Harry, who was looking out the window. He looked up.
"Erokay then. It's upstairs. I'll go get it." He stood up and stretched, yawning widely, his shirt rising slightly and showing off a thin line of stomach. He brought his arms back down rolled his shoulders. "On second thought Gin, can we wait until tomorrow? My head is aching," He rubbed his temples. Ginny looked disappointed.
"Okay then." She replied, slumping back against the cushions of the window seat. Harry patted her shoulder comfortingly.
"Thanks Gin," Harry said, beginning to walk away. "Madame Pomfrey might actually let us in tomorrow," he called over his shoulder. Ginny flashed a quick smile, and then turned to Hermione.
"Hey, want to sit down?" Hermione was about to refuse when she saw the look on Ginny's face.
"Sure Gin." The two sat in silence for a few minutes, Hermione gazing into the fire and Ginny looking down into her lap, restlessly turning her hands into puzzles, twining and untwining.
"Hermione?"
"Hm?" Hermione replied, tearing her gaze away from the showers of sparks and roaring flames.
"D'you reckon Ron is all right?" she asked in a small voice.
"I'm sure he is," Hermione said, trying to be comforting, her mind flashing back to what Draco had said earlier. Ah, but down worry Granger, your ickle-Ronniekins will be finein about a month. She shook her head, trying to clear the thought of the silver-haired Slytherin from her mind. They sat in silence for another few moments.
"Well" Ginny said reluctantly, standing up. "I'd better head up...I have homeworkand it's-"
"Getting late," Hermione finished, picking her bag up. "I hear you Gin. See you tomorrow at breakfast."
"Are you coming up too?"
"No, I think I'll stay a moment or two more" Hermione trailed off. Ginny nodded.
"I'm quite sure he's alright," Ginny said, mistaking Hermione's thoughtfulness for anxiety. "WellGood night, Hermione," Ginny called, disappearing up the spiral staircase. Hermione sighed. The common room was nearly empty, with the exception of a few rowdy fifth years.
Hermione made her way to the couches nearer the fireplace and flopped down, intending to finish off Professor Vector's homework. However, the work soon bored her, and her thoughts found their way to a certain gray-eyed, stonehearted Slytherin. Maybe not that stonehearted, Hermione thought, pausing, her quill resting over one ear. He did kiss me after alland what was that kiss REALLY about anyway? He's a Slytherinthey don't go around kissing Gryfinndors for no reasonI doubt that they go about kissing anyone for no reason. So why did he do it?
Why did I do it? Draco mourned the next day at breakfast. Her kiss had kept him up all night. It could all have gone according to plankiss Weasley's girl Watch his ears turn red when you tell him, see him try to attack you, finish him off with a good hexBut no! His girl had to kiss back. She couldn't just sit there an-
"Draco?" A feminine voice snapped Draco out of his reverie. He turned and found himself face to face with the pug faced Pansy Parkinson. He groaned inwardly.
"What?" he snapped, turning back to his breakfast.
"Wellfirst off, you had this really bad look on your face," Pansy began. Draco struggled not to roll his eyes. "And second of all" Pansy's voice changed dramatically. "The first Hogsmeade visit is on Saturday!!! What do you say we go together?" Her face sported a very large smile. She had thought they were a couple ever since the Yule Ball oh so very long ago. It mattered not at all to her that he'd been dating Blaise Zabini for the past four months nowEver since Granger started dating Weasley, Draco realized with a start.
"I don't know if I want to go at all." Draco replied. Let alone with you. Pansy's face fell.
"Ohokay then. See you later." She shuffled off. Draco poked at his cold oatmeal- his thoughts elsewhere as his gaze tuned unintentionally to the Gryfinndor table.
Hermione was sitting in between Potter and the Weasley girl, reading a textbook and twirling a curl around her fingersomething Draco had noticed she did when she was bored or upset. Probably misses Weasel, Draco thought, his face darkening. He viciously stabbed his oatmeal, which did absolutely nothing at all except make the other Slytherins stare at him. Glowering, he pushed back his chair and stood up, dropping his spoon into his bowl and stalking out of the Great Hall.
Over at the Gryfinndor table Hermione was sitting with her Ancient Runes book, feigning curiosity at a page while secretly looking at Malfoy. He seemed utterly handsome today, although he was dressed as he always was- as everyone else at his table was. Was it the striking hair? The brooding eyes? The witty and clever tongue that could be heard all the way across the hall, even over the commotion of eating and dropping forks and cramming for tests and joking?
She watched as Pansy Parkinson sauntered over, her dirty blonde curls swinging to and fro. Watched as she sat down next to Malfoy, giggling and talking, placing one of her hands on his. Watched, amazed, as Malfoy sent her away, a dark look overcoming his face. And horrified, she saw that he was looking at her, and she was looking right back. She stared as he stood, glowering, and stalked out of the Great Hall, shooting her a poisonous look as he left.
"Wonder what bee got in Malfoy's bonnet," Harry observed, watching the other boy storm out of the Great Hall, his robes swirling in a likeness of the greasy-haired Potions Master. Hermione didn't look up, but Harry could swear she was blushing.
"No idea," she murmured, hurriedly flipping through the pages of her Ancient Runes text. I'm such a liar, Hermione thought. I know exactly what he was thinking aboutthe same thing I'm thinking about.
"Hermione?" Ginny's voice sounded alarmed. Hermione's head snapped up.
"Is something wrong?" Harry asked, concern evident in his voice.
"No" Hermione replied slowly. "Why?"
"You've been really quiet all of breakfast, you didn't berate Harry for not finishing his Charms work, and when Neville looked upset because of something Snape said to himyou didn't comfort him." Ginny listed.
Hermione sighed. She was beginning to get a headache. "Listen Gin. Do I have to do everything around here? I mean, I am not a goddess, or some kind of miracle worker! Maybe I'm just having a bad morning! So bug off!" Hermione snapped, grabbing her bag and heading out, in the same direction Draco had taken only seconds before.
"Well," said Ginny, leaning back in her chair. "I'd say the same thing that's eating Malfoy is eating herbut what is it?"
Draco slumped outside on the stone steps, leading up to the Entrance Hall. The cold, crisp air felt good on his heated face, and he lifted his head to catch some of the growing sun, his eyes closing with contentment. He didn't look up when the heavy outer Hogwarts door flew open and slammed again, knowing precisely who it would be.
" Hello Granger," he said, not bothering to turn around. He heard her footsteps approach him, and a moment later, she sat down a few feet away.
"Malfoy," she replied. Now he turned to look at her. The wind was blowing her curly hair across her face, her cheeks red from the biting cold.
"So" he said, scooting towards her a bit. "What's bothering you?"
"Why do you care," she asked, setting her gloved hands underneath her chin, and turning her blue-eyed stare to meet his gray one.
"Damn good question Granger." Draco replied. "Maybe because I have a hunch that it has to do with last night," he suggested.
She flushed slightly. "What about last night?" she asked, somewhat coldly.
"Ouch," came the reply. "Wellif you can recall. In the Potions dungeon, locked in, my eyes meeting yoursrather like they are now," Hermione turned away, surprised when Draco's long fingers caught her chin and turned it slowly back to face him.
"Why?" she whispered.
"Did I kiss you?" Draco smirked. "I really have no idea whatsoever. Perhaps it is I that should be asking you why I kissed you. I mean, it's not like you're pretty or anything," he said, as meanly as he could possibly make it sound.
Hermione's face went red and she recoiled, backing into the step behind her. "I didn't come out here to be insulted by a half-brained moron who isn't any better than I am even if he thinks that his blood runs purer than mine."
Draco gazed at her, nonplussed. "What are you trying to say, mudblood?" he asked dangerously. "That I am the same as you are? That you and I are-" he spat the next word out. "Equal?" He let out a short bark of laughter, eyeing her coldly. "I think not."
"Well bully for you. I'm surprised that you managed to connect the words I was speaking to their actual meaning," Hermione replied, her voice rising. "You really ought to be amended for thatI had heard that all that inbreeding destroys brain cells."
"I am not inbred!" Draco snapped, a dull flush rising in his cheeks. "The Malfoy line is pure and untainted by such things as incest and inbreeding!" he sounded as if he was quoting from something someone had once told him.
"The Malfoy line is pure and untainted by such things as incest and inbreeding!" Hermione mocked, knowing it was stupid and immature. "The Malfoy line is also composed of jingle headed creeps, losers, murderers and oh what was the last one? Rapists!"
"I did not rape you!" Draco snarled, his voice low and fury filled.
"It was attempted!" Hermione replied her voice harsh and cool.
"And if I can recall correctly," Draco said nastily. "You were giving back just as much spit as I was. Or can you not remember that, Granger?"
Hermione stood up, eyes blazing, her back whipping around her, full of heavy books. "Inbred Barbarian!" she snapped.
"Grotesque commoner!" Draco hurled back at her, also standing.
"Stay away from me!" Hermione cried, stepping back. She was livid, furious, raging. She wanted to hurt him for all the things he had said about her, more than she had ever wanted to do anything in her life.
"Shouldn't be a problem," Draco sneered. "You'll just get your muggle lover and your wimpy hero to protect you, won't you? Oh, I am so scared." His eyes were sparking, dark as the night, no longer the silvery gray they usually were.
"You'll never be as good as either of them," Hermione retorted savagely. "And that bothers you, doesn't it? Knowing that those two lesser beings will always be better than you are." She turned to leave.
Draco lunged forward and grabbed the back of her arm, twisting it. Hermione cried out and fell back going limp in an effort to free herself. Surprised at the sudden weight on his arm, Draco cursed and let go. He saw her frightened face for a fleeting second as she scrabbled on the icy stairs, trying to regain her balance. He reached out to help her, steady her. He watched, horrified as she slipped, twisting to get away from his touch, her heavy bag swinging out into the open air, her slender arms fighting to stay upright.
The bag was too heavy. It jerked her off of the stair by sheer momentum. She stumbled, tripped, her feet hit a patch of wet ice on the rough stone stairs and she went down, her head striking the stair with shocking finality. The last thing she heard was her name on Draco's lips.