Legal...dur...Y'know. The plot is miiine, the characters aren't. Someone come comfort me :(

thanks to Charm, LilMizTake, eskimopie, Princess Anastaja, and Unique T. you guys are great!

sucker for HermioneDraco: You'll be surprised at the ending. I'm not sure of what's in store, but I promise that there shall be endless snogging, proposal or not! thankz for the review

Wildbizket: He'll go as far as he wants, after all, he's a Malfoy *grin* thxx!

Ch. 3

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Draco Malfoy led Hermione down endless stone steps and hallways, each step making the air damper and damper. No light from the sun shone down here, and the flickering torches gave a menacing look to the place. It was as if Hermione felt like she wouldn't be coming back.

In a way, she wouldn't. She had a feeling that an enormous change would happen, and that this change would flip her world upside down. Every step closer to his chamber brought her a step closer to utter chaos, and her heart began beating a little faster. She hadn't been much for adventures, but Harry and Ron had changed that.

Logic told her that Malfoy just needed to get himself off, and that her perfect schoolgirl image was a sick outlet for him. But her emotional side had the flicker of hope that maybe she and Malfoy could put everything behind. She was a bundle of confused thoughts when they reached the Slytherin common room, which was blissfully empty.

"Hermione? Hermione?" Draco slightly shook her out of her stupor.

"Oh...what?" she snapped awake.

"We're here." he squeezed her hand comfortingly.

"You're not just being sweet to get me in your bed, are you?"

"And if I was?"

"I'd walk right out of here."

"Good luck finding your way out of this maze from Hell." he grinned.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't thought to remember which way they'd came. Damn. She mentally slapped herself.

"Listen," he took her hands in his pale ones, "I'm not just doing this to get off. I have Pansy for that. I think I'm taking a liking to you, Granger." Wait. That wasn't supposed to come out! Malfoy's heart skipped a beat, wondering what her reaction would be. He had convinced himself that Pansy was getting boring and Granger was her replacement, damnit! It should stay that way!

She had the look of an innocent child in an adult's body. He doubted she'd had any experience in...those kinds of matters, and normally that would disgust him. But he was intrigued. She was walking sex in a skirt, and didn't even know it. Everyone else did, but not she. It was rather interesting. And endearing.

"Yeah...well...I doubt that." her eyes darkened a bit and she bit her lip. There was no rational explanation for why she was down here, in a place where no daylight showed, with a Malfoy. There just wasn't. And there was definitely not an explanation for his latter comment.

"Do you?" he tilted his head, allowing a loose strand of hair fall over a storm-gray eye.

She didn't answer. He led her up a few more steps to his Head Boy dorm, and hissed "Serpentus Iricltullis" into the gargoyle knocker with flaming green eyes. The heavy black door opened and he took her inside.

There was an enormous bed, shrouded in black silk hangings and covers, and two hanging candleabras glowed a faint greenish white amidst the darkness of the room. Draco lit a fire, and the flames were green, in keeping with the Slytherin colors. It was very surreal.

"How can you stand not seeing the sun in the morning?" Hermione asked in awe.

"I'm used to it. Not much of a sun lover." Draco's deathly white skin gave off an ethereal glow in the candle and firelight.

"I think you're part Vampire or something." she said, joking.

"Nah. Well, I might have a bit of that blood in me somewhere, but not much."

She sat down in a chair, hesitating when she saw that it had skulls as legs.

"Er...Malfoy..." she began in a mouse-like voice.

"We Slytherins are quite morbid. And yes, darling, those are real."

He looked over to see her eyeballing the skulls, frightened, and her arms were hugging her knees. It was very amusing to see, and it made him want to squeeze and kiss her. Surprisingly, after all the girls he'd been with (he'd run out of fingers and toes to count), he realized he hadn't wanted that with any of them.

"You really are something, Granger." he muttered under his breath. They waited silently, each wondering what was to happen next. Then Malfoy could stand it no longer. A few brisk steps across the room and he had her in his arms, kissing her fervently.

From the beginning it was a battle for each other, Draco's tongue pushing in her mouth, Hermione's tongue pushing fiercely back. Their hands grabbed hair, shoulders, elbows, waists, everything. Where he squeezed, she squeezed harder, and where she touched, he'd match it. Both of their bodies shook with longing, as if they'd never get the chance to sample their taste of heaven again.

Hermione's logic was pummeled into submission by the waves of hormones overcoming her, and she let her mind meld into his. She seemed to know where he wanted to be touched, and he knew where she did. She felt his hot lips press her ears, her cheeks, neck, and his impatient fingers messed with the buttons on her shirt.

Deciding they were too stubborn, Draco ripped the shirt open and began to lick, kiss and bite each inch of skin he found. Hermione reached below his belt and stroked the large, rock hard member she found. A stifled gasp came from the blond head between her breasts, and to get her back, he expertly unclasped her bra and began to work her sensitive nipples.

"Malfoy..." she moaned.

He stood up, fury and passion in his eyes. "I'm Draco, say it. Draco."

The first time she'd ever call him that untauntingly. "Draco..." she purred, and then another attack began between the teenagers' lips. Hermione's were smooth as silk, and as he held onto her, he realized her body fit perfectly with his.

All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door.

"Draco!!! Dracoooo!!!" it was Crabbe.

"For SATAN'S SAKE, CRABBE, YOU IDIOT, I'M BUSY!!" Draco heaved.

"But, but your girlfriend's right outside."

"What?! I have no girlfriend!"

"Draaacoooo!" Pansy's voice cooed. "Come on, don't you want to have a bedtime story?"

How disgusting, he thought. "No, I don't. Leave me the hell alone, Pansy."

Hermione glared at the door, and then at Malfoy. "Bedtime story, eh?"

"No! God, that bitch. I can't stand her."

Hermione's blood began to cool. "Maybe I should go."

"But..."

"It's late. I have to be rested for tomorrow. And besides...Malfoy...I mean, Draco...we're supposed to hate each other."

Draco looked crestfallen. "I...I see." He immediately regretted treating her so badly. "Well, you better do that invisibility charm, and I'll open the door for you, pretending like I'm yelling at Crabbe."

"Alright." they both hesitated.

"I don't want you to go." How could he tell her how empty he was? And how much he longed for someone? That he hadn't felt that warmth of his heart in a decade? Tears of frustration threatened him behind his eyes.

"I know." Hermione said, and fought back an urge to hug him. Slowly, she chanted the incantation, and Draco sighed as she disappeared before his very eyes.

"Crabbe, what is it." Draco asked dully, opening the door.

The beady eyed, thick-headed boy looked in the opening. "Where's the chick?"

"That's my secret." he felt a whiff of air pass by, and then his heart sank.

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The week passed by uneventfully. Draco and Hermione snuck looks at each other during class and dinner, and no one was the wiser. Ron and Harry suspected something was up, but said nothing, figuring Hermione was studying late.

Malfoy longed to see her again, but she'd been avoiding him. Usually when girls did that, they were silently saying "Do you still want me?" or something like that. He sent her notes, but she ignored them.

He pulled the Arithmancy trick on her again, and once more they were nearly kissing in the nook.

"Why've you been ignoring me?" he sounded hurt and angry. The sliver of his eyes were full of longing.

"I...Well...I'm supposed to hate you."

"So?"

"Harry and Ron would be so upset!"

"Fuck them for once. You realize, you haven't even been able to have your own life, Granger! It's all about them. What they do, you have to help or go along. Hell, if anyone wrote a book about it, you'd only be mentioned when you helped them! Where's your life, huh? Why can't you and I even have some brief interlude?"

"But I do hate things about you. You're arrogant, you insult people, and are full of disrespect."

"There's one in every school. And would you even be talking to me if I wasn't? I saw the longing in your eyes that night, Hermione, the same as I have in mine now."

He took her hands and kissed them. "I want you to be mine."

"We don't love each other." Hermione said, only half believing it was true.

"Kiss me." he ignored her comment.

"Draco...I..." she was silenced by a long, sweet kiss. She never realized how good he smelled, a combination of that unmistakable male musk and burning leaves. It was enough to drive her mad.

"Meet me at your portrait hole again."

"But, I can't-"

"This is your time. No one has to know. With you, I feel...I feel warm again. You're the sun in my dark dungeon of a soul."

He ran off down the hall, leaving Hermione completely stunned.