She does exist? ..... They do exist???

Disclaimer: still not mine

Punishment

"FIFTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR! YOU STUPID, STUPID GIRL! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS? DO YOU? YOU HAVE SET ME BACK FOR MONTHS, YEARS EVEN! THE ENTIRE WORLD MAY BE DESTROYED BY DARKNESS AND DEATH-EATERS, AND IT WILL BE ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT! DETENTION! TOMORROW! MY CLASSROOM AT SIX!"

"But dinner starts at six."

"MY CLASSROOM AT SIX!"

The angry professor stormed out of the room in a fury.

"Why didn't you tell him you dropped it to save me?"

"You don't get it do you?" she asked him.

"Apparently not."

"It doesn't matter what happened, Snape doesn't care. He hates all us Gryffindors."

"Even if you saved a Slytherin?"

"He'd chide me for not having enough coordination and strength to hold on to you both at once. You Slytherins can do whatever you want and not get in trouble, and even when we do what is right we are wrong."

"That's not true!"

"Wanna bet?"

Draco moved closer to her so that he had to look down at Hermione. "Is that a challenge?"

"I think it might be," she said with a smirk.

Draco grabbed her chin gently turning her head slightly from side to side appraising her facial. "You've been practicing," he remarked.

"I learned from the best."

The next day's potions class would prove to be quite a spectacle.

Draco was sitting with Hermione in their desk in the front center of the room, but the two students seemed to be doing very different things. Hermione, always the diligent student, was frivolously taking notes while Draco sat, not one book on is desk, slouching in his chair.

Snape looked at Draco, just for a moment before turning back to his lecture, and continuing on.

Draco, unsatisfied, tilted his chair backwards and began rocking back and forward. This caused Snape another pained look, but he immediately turned his head to the unfortunate red head in the fifth row.

"Weasley! Tell me, what are the common side effects of a Subvecto Potion."

"Ummm....." the redhead stammered trying to think of an answer as his face began to slowly turn the color of his hair.

"The words are not going to appear on the board I assure you Mr. Weasley! Do you even know what the potion does?"

Ron began to open and close his mouth trying to think of something to say.

"While your cod fish impression is quite impressive, Mr. Weasley, it will not help you PASS THIS CLASS."

Ron looked down angry and embarrassed.

"TWENTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR for Mr. Weasley's incompetence! The Subvecto Potion is a simple transport aid that was invented before apperating had been mastered. While it has dwindled out of common necessity, it can be used to travel in circumstances where apperation would not be possible.

"Now if you will turn to page thirteen-twenty-one in your text, you will find brewing instructions. Begin."

Draco walked over to the ingredients table with Hermione in tow. He picked up the bottle of pickled bat wings and deliberately threw it on the floor. The potions master snapped his head up spotting what he assumed caused the ruckus.

"LONGBOTTOM!"

"But sir! It wasn't me it was Draco!"

"Mr. Longbottom, I will see you in my classroom at seven tomorrow for a detention. You will learn not to lie before you leave!"

By the end of the class Draco had broken three more bottles of ingredients, set fire to the potion in the cauldron next to his by tripping, knocked another girl into her potion so that she had to be rushed to the hospital wing, and managed to make his own project explode.

By the end of class, no one had a working potion, everyone had been promised a zero on the potion, eight Gryffindors had detentions scheduled throughout the next two weeks, and Snape had never said one word to Draco about his behavior.

When they left the room, Hermione was wearing a very triumphant look one her face.

"What do I have to give you?"

"You'll see," she said smirking and walking past him leaving Draco to wonder if it had been an accident that her hand had just slid over his bum. Following the girl down the hallways, Draco imagined the possibilities.

Hermione silently giggled to herself; she knew that Draco would take her implications thinking she wanted something else. She did find herself pondering when she had become comfortable enough with Draco to share sexual jokes with him. It was strange. Thinking about it now, she could not even feel any true animosity for him.

Sighing she shook her head. Stupid boys! This was all their fault!

"Draco," Hermione said sometime later, leaning over him in his seat. There was still two hours before she had to be in Snape's classroom, plenty of time for what she had in planned. "It's time to pay up!"

Draco turned in his chair so that he faced her. "Is it?" he asked raising a long arched eyebrow.

Hermione smiled knowingly holding up a piece of cloth.

"What's this?"

"A blindfold," she said nonchalantly.

"Kinky one aren't we?"

"Well, a girl's gotta have some fun now doesn't she?"

Draco raised one of his elegant eyebrows.

"Oh, just put it on wouldja?"

Smirking Draco tied the band around his head.

"You brought your wallet right?"

"Wallet? What for?"

"Do you have it?"

The blond stammered for a moment before finally admitting that he had it with him.

"Good"

Draco seemed to find himself pushed through a hole, lead through a tunnel, falling on the floor, getting up and walking again, and finally climbing the stairs and being lead outside. Finally the blindfold fell away from his eyes, and he was in...

"Hogsmede? But how?"

He turned to look back at the girl who was wearing a winning smile. "I have my ways."

The teens spent the afternoon sharing jokes and drinking butterbeer when suddenly Hermione, who was facing the door, gasped. Before Draco could register what was going on, he was one the floor next to Hermione watching the feet of Professor Snape walking by the table.

Both teens relaxed when his feet walked passed them, but by some cruel twist of fate, he turned around and sat at the table above them.

"What can I get for you today professor?"

"Give me the strongest thing you've got!" and then he murmured something about stupid children. "In fact, make it two!"

"Coming right up sir."

"Draco, what are we going to do?"

"Stop making noise, that's for sure!"

"But Draco....."

But the blond cut her off when he clasped her mouth and pressed closer to her as their professor shifted above them. A look seemed sufficient enough to share their plan, and the two crawled out of the bar. Without breaking eye contact or pulling away at all, Draco cast a disillusionment charm over the both of them.

Of course, there were some causalities on thee way. Hermione's hair brushed a lady's ankle.

"A RAT!! A RAT!!" she shrieked causing much the same reaction from the other women in the bar. As they all stood up and attempting to run from the unseen avenger, on impeccably large specimen of woman trotted on Draco's back.

"Oof!" The blond fell pinned to the floor further inhibiting his movements and quite frankly freaking the large woman out entirely.

Hermione not knowing what else to do, rammed into the lady knocking her over into a tall scrawny man wearing a brown bowler hat and an olive green suit and consequently freeing Draco.

Observing the chaotic scene in the pub, the two teens decided to run for it.

About twenty minutes later, the two were back in their room, Draco laying on the bed with his shirt unbuttoned and Hermione inspecting his rib cage. The cold cloth pressing on his ribs made the boy grit his teeth.

"Your such a baby," Hermione muttered.

"I'm such a baby? Me? Who freaked out when Snape came into the pub?"

"Excuse me, but there was definitely no freaking involved."

"Really? I seem to recall a great deal of freaking."

"I was not!" she emphasized punching him once in the arm for good measure.

"Were too."

"No!" Now Hermione began to slap him repeatedly with both hands and in an attempt to stop her, Draco grabbed both wrists and pulling his own hands behind his back so that she couldn't hit him any more.

At first, Hermione struggled, but gradually she put up less and less of a fight, leaving Draco's face and her own less than an inch apart. And suddenly the inch ceases to exist. In fact the entire world ceased to exist. The only thing that was real was her, Draco, and the amazing feeling that shot through her body all at once.

TO BE CONTINUED...

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Guess what? Tomorrow is my last day before spring break!!! You know what that means? MORE CHAPTERS!!! Well, I am sorry before, life started kicking my ass and kicking it hard! In any case, I am back now. And I have a live journal! Under the same name as this, so check it out... no really check it out! Sorry for the long wait, and thank you for bearing with me! Bye.

~Atiannala