DISCLAIMER: JK owns most of it; CJ owns the rest.

Chapter 9: The Fifteenth Hour (Awake)

9:35AM

Hermione slowly opened her eyes and took in the unfamiliar surroundings. Her pillow was lumpier than the one she was used to, and the sheets seemed thin and cheap. She stared at the stucco ceiling, nothing like the smooth white ceiling at Hogwarts, for quite some time until she remembered where she was… and who she was with.

Hermione stretched her arms out, and instead of one falling on Draco like she had expected, her arm fell to the mattress. Startled by the lack of her bedmate, she rolled over onto her side to see where Draco was. All she saw was empty space.

The events of the previous night flooded into Hermione's mind and she suddenly became worried. Draco had left her.

Was she a… one night stand?

Hermione sat up in bed and allowed previous conversations that Draco and she had had to unveil themselves in her mind.

"I've been a complete ass the last 6 years and I have no right to put you in a position like this."

'Haha,' she couldn't help but think, 'what a funny position to put me in last night.'

"It doesn't matter whether you are guy or a girl; I still wouldn't lower myself to a mud...muggleborn."

What if he wasn't joking? Who was she kidding? Draco Malloy couldn't fall in love with anybody. She had screwed up big time last night. Not only had she willingly given Draco her innocence, but a part of her heart as well.

Hermione curled her hands into fists as a silent, angry, tear fell down her cheek. She had trusted him and he had left her. She unclenched her fists, and rubbed the half moon indentations out of her palms. Sliding her feet onto the plush hotel carpet, Hermione quickly grabbed her robe and shoved her hands through the sleeves. After reassuringly checking her appearance in the bathroom mirror, she grabbed the cool, brass doorknob and walked out of the hotel room. She practically flew down the stairs, coming to a complete halt at the end.

Catching her breath, she looked around the room. Nobody was there. Not even the inn keeper. She was hoping that everything would be back to normal in the morning. Apparently it wasn't. Taking in a deep, calming breath, Hermione walked out of the inn, resolving that she would find Draco and let him have it when she did.

9:45

Hermione made like a Tom and cruised down the streets of Hogsmeade, looking for any sign of Draco. She stopped every now and then to look into deserted store windows, in hopes of seeing Draco. Shuffling her feet on the dusty road, Hermione stopped at Zonko's joke shop and looked in the window; her last attempt at finding Draco.

She was just about to turn around and go back to the inn when she heard piano music playing in the distance. "Grande Valse Brilliante, Chopin" she mumbled under her breath as she turned around, her ears magnets to the music.

Hermione had played piano as a young child, and of course, she was quite good. She recognized this piece immediately. It was one of her favorite pieces to play. She remembered sitting on the piano stool, her fingers gliding over the ivory keys, watching in awe as her parents would dance to the bouncy, playful song. She smiled as she felt her fingers twitch with excitement.

But wait…there were only two current occupants of Hogsmeade, herself and Draco. She obviously wasn't the one playing, so, who could it be? The curious George inside of her got the better of her, so she decided to follow the music flowing through her veins and find the culprit of such magnificent playing abilities.

9:55

Hermione's ears led her to a small, run down diner in a more secluded place in Hogsmeade. The yellow paint was flaking off the exterior walls, but even that could not diminish the beauty that flowed out the cracks in the walls.

Slowly twisting the doorknob, Hermione opened the door right as the forte of the song played. Bracing herself, Hermione turned and looked at the black, shiny, but dusty, grand piano in the center of the room.

Draco.

10:00

Her jaw dropped as she watched Draco's fingers glide with the elegance of a swan over the shiny, white keys. It showed Hermione a side of Draco she had never seen before, a passionate, yet sensitive side. There was more depth to him than she thought there was.

Draco, who hadn't seen Hermione enter, blushed a deep shade of red when he finally saw her. He halted his playing.

"Go on," Hermione said, all of her anger fading.

Draco, modestly at first, continued playing. He looked up and noticed Hermione's mouth was open in awe. "You better watch out, flies might fly in your mouth," Draco commented as he continued playing.

Hermione snapped her mouth shut and walked over to the closed piano. Deciding to be bold, Hermione slithered onto the shiny top of the piano.

Shocked, Draco looked up at her and noticed that the top of her shirt was gaping open in front, exposing quite a bit of cleavage. He knew that she was vulnerable and unaware of this, so he steered his eyes up to meet hers; he respected her too much to take advantage of her like that.

The song finally came to the end, an explosion of piano music in all of its glory, and Draco reached his hands up to put them on Hermione's shoulders in an endearing way. "Would you like to dance?" he asked.

Hermione slightly blushed before answering, "Yes."

Draco helped Hermione off the piano and grabbed his wand out of his robe pocket. Mumbling a charm, the piano began to play the song Draco was playing earlier. Taking Hermione's hand, Draco led Hermione out to the small, wooden dance floor.

Hermione nervously slid one hand around Draco's neck and took his hand in her other. Draco wrapped one hand around Hermione's waist and pulled her closer to him; their noses almost touching.

"I have to warn you," Hermione said, looking down at her feet, "I don't waltz much."

Draco laughed, "Do you trust me?"

Hermione voice faltered in her throat when his question triggered her memory of why she was here in the first place. "You left me," Hermione answered finally, a hint of anger present in her voice.

Still dancing lively, Draco replied, "I didn't mean to, but you looked so angelic when you were sleeping I didn't have the heart to wake you up. I am an early riser, and even though I really like you, I don't have the patience to wait in bed with you."

Hermione looked up at him and slightly pulled away, breaking the dance.

Draco met her eyes and found confusion and hurt hiding behind her chocolaty orbs. "What…?"

Hermione looked down, her eyes gazing at everything except his eyes, "You only like me. I mean, maybe I am asking too much, or maybe I am completely blowing this out of proportion, but I gave myself to you last night. I know that some people are okay about doing that without any substance behind it, but I am not like that..." Hermione trailed off, not knowing how else to express herself.

"Hermione…" Draco said, trying to move closer to embrace Hermione in a hug, but she pushed him away.

"No, Draco, I shouldn't have said all that. I'm being silly. I knew what I was doing last night, and I had all the power to stop myself. It's not your fault; I shouldn't be yelling at you like this," Hermione rambled, afraid of what he might say when she stopped talking.

"Hermione, look at me," Draco said, moving closer, not allowing her to block his forthcoming words.

Hermione looked up, her worried eyes cautiously meeting his.

"I really like you, and I promise I will not hurt you. I cannot say that I love you because I simply haven't known you long enough. You have to trust me when I say this. We come from two different worlds, but with time, we can weld them together. Time can change many things. I really do like you Hermione. More than I have ever felt for anybody else. And despite the rumors you might have heard about my promiscuous behavior, I gave myself to you last night, too."

At that, Hermione looked up, and suddenly felt relieved of everything and walked into his waiting arms, "I trust you."

10:15

Hermione and Draco both sat on the bench of the piano, occasionally playing a duet from the book abandoned on the piano stand. "So, how did you learn to play this well? I thought your family didn't believe in muggle objects," Hermione asked, curiously.

"What well brought up family doesn't have a piano?" Draco laughed, "My mother is more sensitive to muggle objects so she enrolled a private piano teacher for me before I came to Hogwarts. When I found this piano this morning, I, myself, was surprised to find that I could still play this well. How do you know how to play?"

"Basically the same reason you do. I took lessons before I came to Hogwarts. It was my out from all of the loneliness in my life."

"It seems we have more in common than we let on to," Draco said under his breath.

Before Hermione could reply, Draco cut in, "Do you hear that?"

She did indeed hear it. The sounds of teenagers running through the streets of Hogsmeade filled the room. The mirthful laughter and pungent sounds of joyfulness sugarcoated the small town.

"But I thought it was just you and me?" Hermione asked, as she got up and went to look out the window. She waved her hand to remove the dust and form a little peep-hole. "Harry!" she yelled excitedly as she saw one of her best friends walk past the diner.

Draco rolled his eyes, but followed Hermione out of the diner and onto the street.

"Ron!" Hermione continued to yell as she ran to catch up to the two boys.

Instead of turning around to greet Hermione, they continued walking.

Hermione stopped in her tracks. Didn't they hear her? She ran up and walked in front of the two boys, but surprisingly, instead of stopping at her presence, the boys walked right though her, leaving her back to them.

Hermione's mouth dropped and she looked over at Draco, who in return shot her a blank, equally shocked look.

Hermione's breathing quickened and she quickly turned around to face the images of Harry and Ron.

"Hermione!" Harry yelled, "We're over here!"

Hermione's heartbeat quickened as she walked over to them. Expecting them to finally recognize her, they walked away towards…another Hermione.

An exact look-a-like of Hermione walked out of a book store, her hands full of books. "Hey guys!" she yelled.

The image of Harry walked over to Hermione and gave her a hug, "Here let me help you with that." Harry took out his wand and shrunk all of Hermione's books so they would fit in her pocket.

The image of Hermione nodded in appreciation and put the books in her robe pocket.

The real Hermione turned around and looked at Draco. Her eyes met his as she reached into her own robe pocket and pulled out several shrunk books.

"Draco," she whispered hoarsely, "this is exactly what happened yesterday at this time. This is right after we arrived yesterday."

"We're reliving yesterday," he said as he walked over towards Hermione and wrapped his arms around her waist, "We're in the past."

10:35PM

A/N: Jenn here. Wow, I apologize ten million times for taking so incredibly long to update. I had major computer issues; I had almost half of the chapter written then my laptop crashed and I had to completely wipe the hard drive, so I was pretty upset about that. Anywho, I hope you guys get what is happening here. If not, feel free to ask questions. Hopefully, the next chapter will be up soon! Thanks so much to:

Smrt Cids The Punk Rock Goddess: sorry! As much as I know we all love to read it, we are both horrible at writing those scenes. Catie is writing the next chapter, so there most likely will be more "action" :-D Niten Gale Zoogerbas1: Oooops!!! Jessjica Chamorro Applescm Carissa Dani Nelly22 Fionger Cozzagirl16 Average jane Elly8: According to our reviews, I'm not so sure that you do speak for everybody. We can't please everybody, and there is an actual plot to this story, so some things need to occur for this story to work. Lazy Pixieballerina Granger-gurl-rox

Love,

C&J

P.S. If you want to hear the song that Draco played, go to: =1091327793/sr=2-1/ref=sr21/102-2299845-7175328 and preview Grande Valse Brilliante.