Chapter Eight

Acceptance and Apologies

Alex wandered down the halls, looking for the library. The castle was like a maze to her, she hardly new her way around. She had recently attained a new project for Transfiguration, and she, like Jo wanted a good lead on it. She wanted to make a good impression on most of the teachers.

Ow! What the hell was that? She thought as she painfully stubbed her toe on a sharp edge. The brunette cringed, and grabbed her foot, holding back a tear in her watering eye. It would help if I knew where the hell I was going!

"Lumos," She said, wanting to see where she was. It was just after dinner, and students were still allowed to be in the corridors, but it was dark nonetheless.

"Friggin table. Sitting in the middle of nowhere." She exclaimed, still in serious pain, her Australian accent showing through.

"Did that hurt?" came a voice nearby her. The voice sounded familiar, but she had met so many people in the past few days that she couldn't remember this one in particular.

"Who is that? What do you want?" she snapped nervously, awaiting a response. The witch looked around but was dumbstruck, as there was nothing in her view other than the table and herself.

The shadowed figure stepped into the light of her wand. It was Draco, who was smirking seductively at the beautiful brunette. She shortly recognized him after taking a good look at him. His light blue- almost silver- eyes were masked, different from his expression. He wore darks robes, which were still partially hidden in the shadows.

"It's me. Draco. I really think that I should be asking you the question. What are you doing here in the night? This is the third floor. It's forbidden to all students, all the time. Didn't you know that?"

"Oh. In that case I guess I better be going, I'll see you later, Draco." She said while heading in the other direction eagerly. She blew him a brief kiss, practically making him melt.

"Really? I think you should stay," he replied forcefully, grabbing her arm. He moved close to her, and the scent of her hair overcame him. Desire madly ran throughout his body. He could hardly control his actions. Alex sharply pulled away from the muscular boy. It tortured him.

"Draco, I'm not that kind of girl. You don't want to be doing this. I don't want to have to-"

"I doubt that Durstrom." He said, fiercely claiming her lips with his own. His soft hands began to slide around her hips, trying to pull her in towards him. He loved the feeling of her body against his own, yet she was struggling against him. The blond only overpowered her, forcing himself on her even more.

"What are you- stop it!" She yelled, pushing him off her with great strength. At first, he held on too tight for her to remove herself from his grasp. He continually forced his lips onto hers, shooting electricity throughout him. "Draco, I'm telling you- get off ME!"

He ignored her comments and her voice was muffled as he continued to kiss the girl passionately. Suddenly he felt a surge of power in his shoulders as he was hurled backwards into the wall behind him. He looked back at Alex who was staring angrily at him.

"How- what did you- Why-"

"I told you to fucking let go of me. I did not want to have to hurt you. But it doesn't matter anymore. I told you this already. I'm not some kind of cheap whore that you can take as you please. Who the fuck do you think you are Draco? You know, at first I thought that you would be a polite, charming boy who maybe even had a chance with me. Apparently I thought wrong. I should've known that you'd have been a regular asshole from the start.

Alex stormed off, finding the closest staircase. I can't believe him. He's scum. She turned around to scold him one more time before leaving him sinking into the floor. She wiped her lips with her sleeve, pissed off at the stupid guy.

"If you so much as touch me one more time I will beat the shit right out of you. FUCK YOU!"

Jo was sitting in the library, twiddling her thumbs waiting for her new friend to come and meet her. They were planning to go over the Transfiguration project, but she was already ten minutes late. So far she's been pretty punctual Jo thought, becoming anxious. She looked at the clock which was ticking rather slowly... Tick.. Tock... Tick... Tock

"Jo? There you are! Listen, I'm terribly sorry that I'm so late, but I got totally lost and then I ran into that creep that you introduced me to earlier in the week. He was being complete jackass. He was trying to come onto me or something," She said, obviously extremely frustrated. Her expression was fiery and fierce.

"Are you by any chance talking about Draco? What'd he do this time?"

"Yes Draco, that's the one. I was minding my own business when I stubbed my toe. Then out of nowhere he shows up and tries to make out with me. He protested and wouldn't back off, so I basically threw him into the wall and left him to sit and rot."

"Whoa. That is so not the Draco that I know!" Jo said in shock of her sister's best friend. "Weird!"

"Whatever, lets just get to this homework. I need to get my mind off this shit for now. I've got a headache already."

The girls worked hard for the next hour or so. The commotion in the library was beginning to die down as students were heading off to bed. They actually enjoyed it better this way. It was much easier to work, and Alex's headache faded away.

"Do you think I should apologize? I kind of feel bad for hurting him the way I did," Alex said, catching Jo off guard. Her energy had slowed down and she was calm as her usual self again.

"Umm, it's really your choice. I can't decide that for you. But I think that he can be a good guy if you get to know him well. Maybe give him another chance," Jo advised.

"I guess so. Hopefully he's learned something in the past couple hours."

Hermione was grinning to herself uncontrollably. She felt the happiest she had in so long. It was truly amazing. Especially since lately Jo was getting on her nerves with her boyfriend.

"Girls just wanna have fu-un, Oh-oh girls just wanna ha-ave fun," She sang to herself as she waltzed alone in the common room.

"Someone is obviously in a good mood," said a smirking Pansy Parkinson. The blond had just walked in on Hermione's brief solo.

"Of course! Who wouldn't be in a good mood after- on a Friday night! It's nearly the weekend." She muttered.

"You don't expect me to believe that bullshit do you Granger?" Pansy inquired hastily. "Now tell me the truth. What really happened? Weren't you just in detention?"

"Yup. But now it's over. So I think I'll go to bed now."

Once again, Hermione woke up in song, singing loudly to anything and everything that popped into her head. Since last night she felt as though she had been floating on cloud nine. She hardly paid attention to anybody, only replaying those last moments she spent with Harry. Also she was constantly wondering whether he was sharing these crazy thoughts with her.

"Draco? Listen. I want to accept your apology from yesterday. I was in a bad mood at the time. But now I'm thinking clearly," she said, running up to the wizard and pulling him into a warm embrace.

"Thanks Granger. I'm sorry for being such an ass."

"Ah, forget it. I'll blame it on your reputation," Hermione laughed. She decided that she would go for a quick walk outside, down to the lake, the very spot where Harry and herself shared their first quarrel-free conversation.

As she stepped outside of the castle she felt the warm sun beaming upon her face. It was great weather for an October day. A cool breeze whipped across her face as she skipped down the steps and onto a narrow dirt path.

"Never knew… I could feel like this/ Like I've never seen the sky before/ I want to vanish… inside your kiss… everyday I'm lov-" She stopped herself from continuing on with the song, her favourite song. The next words were "everyday I'm loving you more, and more."

Her hair blew behind her in the wind as she carried onto the lake. She found a large rock; stable enough to support her weight. A glimmer in the lake caught her eye while she was getting comfortable. She took a better look and noticed that the lake was parting to form words in a tiny corner.

Hey. I knew that you would be here. I already stopped by this

morning. I was wondering if you would meet me tonight on the quidditch

pitch. If I recall, you owe me a race. I'll bring the brooms.

The water filled up the spaces again, without a trace of the writing. I guess I could meet him. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? Hermione thought to herself as she let her thoughts roll around in her head.

Alex looked around the castle, frantically searching for Draco. I'm never gonna find him dammit! Alex thought as she called it quits, entering the common room. All of that for nothing! There was Draco, sitting in front of the fireplace in a large armchair. Alex easily spotted a dark bruise on the back of his neck as she stepped towards him.

"Draco," she said quietly, gently touching his bruise. He winced and grunted in reply, shrugging her off. "Draco, I'm sorry," Alex continued. "If you'll forgive me, I'm willing to give you another chance."

"Can't see how you would bloody want to," he grumbled.

"Well I do. And yes, I do want to give you another chance. I think it would just be best for us if we completely started over."

"Fine. Do whatever you want," Draco groaned, sinking further into the comfy armchair.

"Uh, okay. Hi. My name is Alexandra Durstrom, but you can call me Alex… or Ali if you prefer."

Draco smirked back at the witch in deep appreciation, his eyes sparkling brightly. He followed suit.

"Nice to meet you Durstrom. My name is Draco Malfoy. It's a good thing to know me in this school. I'll guide you to the popularity you've always dreamt of," he laughed. He once again kissed her soft hand gently.

"Wow! What a charmer. We will definitely have to spend some time together soon. Maybe you can show me around the school or something."

"Sound's hot."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, you know, hot as in its very hot outside," he recovered. Alex chuckled at him and punched him playfully in the shoulder.

"Ah! Not there! Bruise!"

"Oh, sorry. Does ickle Drakie want Alex to kiss it better? I bet he would! But too bad. No kissies for Drakie."

"Aw. Rip off."

"Well unfortunately that's what you get after coming on to me and forcing me to throw you into a wall. Quite painful I imagine."

"Between you and me, you have no idea."

Hermione must have spent a good twenty minutes on contemplating whether or not she should join Harry that night. Her mind kept saying no, but her gut feeling led her on.

"Shit! What am I going to wear! I have no help either! I'm definitely not asking Pansy. She'll dress me up like a slut!"

Oh! I know! Jo and Alex can help!

As soon as she had found the two girls they immediately accepted the challenge. Jo ran to get her makeup while Alex began to tear apart her closet.

"One. What are you doing? Two. Where are you going to be?" she inquired, eyeing a couple outfits.

"Well I think that I'm going to be flying, outside. It's chilly I think."

"Well that rules out skirts then."

Alex found a white long sleeve blouse that looked perfect, but the only problem was it was old ladyish and about five sizes too big.

"Okay. Just put this on and I'll make a couple adjustments."

Hermione threw on the shirt, allowing Alex to think about it for a minute. She slowly began to roll up the sleeves until they were three quarter length. Also she grabbed the two loose ends in front and tied them up, revealing about an inch of her stomach. Once the helpful brunette turned away she pulled it back down.

Jo came into the room, hands full of makeup and every hair product imaginable.

"Looks good so far. I say jean capris with that."

"Oh good call Jo. That will look perfect." Alex responded rummaging for the pants. After searching for a short while she finally found the pair that would match well with the shirt she had picked out.

"Now Mione, no offence but we really need to do something about your hair. Its all over the place!"

Alex and Jo swarmed Hermione, applying subtle make up, simply to bring out her eyes. Alex then took out her wand, gave it a flick and in seconds, the youngest girl's hair was newly arranged with soft curls.

"You look great Mione! Hug!" Jo said hugging her sister ever so tightly. "Now go knock em dead sis. Whoever the lucky guy is. I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun."

A/N: OMG! THis is so exciting! Hermione's going on a DATE! gasp.. well kind of a date. Okay not a real date but hey... alone time with Harry is always gonna be good. I'm thrilled about writing the next chapter. A penny for your thoughts on how this encounter should go. I'll try and incorporate it. Thankee. Especially reviewers.

Read and Review!!!:D