Hi one and all! I have sad news! I'm going to be hit by Hurricane Frances soon and I'm not scared. It's only the third and worst one of my whole life. I don't think I like Florida anymore! Well I don't own anything, as you already know so on with the story.
When Draco walked in Hermione was going through her little red phone book looking up names. She called everyone who knew Ginny and told them to come to her house tomorrow afternoon. And to please not tell Ginny. Hermione was frantic again; she was cutting the grass and planting more flowers.
"Hermione what are you doing now?" asked Draco, as she was upturning dirt on both sides of the stone walkway.
"I'm trying to plant a flower garden. Oh, you see those rocks over there?" said Hermione, slipping a bit in her work.
Draco looked over and nodded.
"Can you set the big one in the center over there next to that tree, and place the rest of them around it?" asked Hermione.
"Sure, whatever." Said Draco, walking over and pointing his wand at them and whispering, "Feather light." That spell made things lighter. (Harry used it in one of the books, I can't think of which one just yet.)
He set them up like she wanted and then walked over to the stables and Hermione heard a yelp. She stopped what she was doing and ran to him.
"What's wrong? Are you ok?" asked Hermione.
"You put flowers on the boy horses?" Draco whined.
"But I needed to. It's for good causes trust me. I have to get back to work now." Said Hermione, taking out her small shovel.
"Yeah I guess. But you kind of ruined the maleness of him though." Draco mumbled.
Charley snorted in response and nudged Draco's shoulder. He turned around and rubbed his nose lovingly.
Hermione was working all day long. Her sandals were getting in the way of her work so Draco let her use some of his riding boots that were way too big for her.
%%%%% AROUND MIDNIGHT %%%%%
"I'm finally done!" exclaimed Hermione, plopping down on a soft chair.
"How did you get so dirty?" asked Draco, looking over the top of a potion book.
"When I was mowing the lawn I fell into a pile of dirt and then while I was planting a tulip and lily garden, dirt bounced back at me. So now I'm terribly dirty and I'm gonna take a bath and read. Goodnight." Said Hermione, getting up and kissing his cheek softly.
Draco felt the spot for a second. He already knew that he liked her, but was it a different like? I mean, any person could plainly tell that those kisses he gave her weren't just little things. They had great power in them. But did he truly feel that way? He couldn't, they were just friends, sort of...
Hermione took a nice warm bath with peach bubbles. She also added silk beads to the water to leave her skin feeling smooth and soft. She washed her hair in a peach cream like stuff and added foam conditioner, rinsed and shaved her legs. When she got out she put on some comfy pajamas and began to brush her hair and her teeth.
Draco walked by while she was combing through her now wet straight hair. He knocked on the door softly and she looked up.
"Can I do something for you? Do you want tea or anything?" Draco asked her, his cheeks getting warm but no color shone through.
"Can I have some milk please. Thank you so much." Said Hermione, going back to brushing her hair.
Draco nodded and went downstairs. Since when did he do nice and kind things for people besides his loving parents? He shrugged the feeling off and got her a cup of milk. When he got up stairs Hermione wasn't in the bathroom so he knocked on her door. She answered.
"Here. I'll see you tomorrow after your plans because you still have to practice. Get plenty of rest." Said Draco, handing over the cup.
"I know. Thanks again. See you tomorrow then." Said Hermione, giving him one last smile and then closing the door.
Hermione's heart was fluttering. She felt something more for him than she thought she did. She could tell that those kisses had so much more to them than she thought they did. She quickly drank the milk and slipped into her warm soft bed. It was October now and it was beginning to get cold. She slept soundly due to all of her hard work that day.
(NEXT MORNING)
Hermione shot out of bed, picked up some jeans and a tee shirt, took a shower and ran down stairs. Draco was sitting at the table eating eggs and beacon with some orange juice. He was also reading the Daily Prophet. When he noticed her presents he looked up.
"Good morning. I saved you some if you were hungry." Said Draco, looking over into the kitchen.
"Thanks. But I'll have to take it with me because I have to go to the store to get a few more things. See you when I get back." Said Hermione, gabbing some beacon and running out the door.
Draco smiled, only Hermione could be this busy when something wasn't due to happen for a long ways away. She was always like that, but everyone accepted her and loved her for it. Draco dressed too and went to the stable. It seemed as though Hermione had loosened up on the flowers or the horses had eaten them.
"Hey Jack. Do you want to go for a ride today?" Draco asked the other palomino.
Jack snorted and nodded his head. Draco took this as a yes and suited him up and took him out to the field. He mounted and Jack started with a fast gallop. Draco pressed his sides a little tighter and he went a full run. The cold wind went sweeping over him. He did this every so often and when he did, he felt free.
Hermione came back and stood back to watch him ride around. She smiled and then snapped out of it. She had to get more work done. Draco just let Jack walk around free for a while until he saw his car had returned to the driveway and he went inside, leaving his horse out to wander.
"So, what are you going to make?" he asked, coming up beside her.
"I'm going to try and make peppermint ice cream bombes, petit fours and some lemonade. Do you think you could help me?" asked Hermione, starting on the ice cream.
"I can't cook. I nearly burnt breakfast and sadly I can't even boil water." Said Draco.
Hermione rolled her eyes. How so like a boy.
"Well can't you apply icing and put stuff into bowls? I'm sure you can do that." Said Hermione patting his shoulder.
"What do you want me to do now, since nothing is done just yet?" asked Draco, running his fingers through his loose hair.
"Nothing really, unless you want to take the horses out or something. They seem really in need of a good run, all of them." Said Hermione, not looking up from her work.
Draco went back to the stable and let the horses out and free to run about. While the ice cream was freezing and her little cakes were baking she went and sat on a bench in Draco's back yard. She watched one of the black horses come up to him from behind and nudge him in the back. Then he'd turn around and run after them. She soon figured out that they were playing tag. What could be sweeter than a guy and his horses?
"Can I play?" Hermione called over, taking him by surprise.
He called back to her.
"Come on, you're the new 'it'." Said Draco running away.
Hermione ran over and tagged Misty, a Royal. He happily trotted after his twin and nudged him in the neck. The game went on for a long time until Hermione remembered her cooking. She ran back inside and remembered she put a charm on them to take themselves out when they were done. Thank goodness for magic. Draco came in a little after her.
"They didn't want to go back in, so I'm just going to let them wander. So, I'm ready to put icing on." Said Draco, rubbing his hands together.
Hermione handed him 4 different colored jars. Yellow, green, Very light blue, and powder pink. And then she handed him the fours and he put the same color on two each. There were 8. Hermione put the bombes into nice crystal ice cream bowls with some light peppermint toppings. She put all 8 back into the freezer. She then poured some fresh pink lemonade into a nice hand-painted glass pitcher. The pitcher had little pink cherries on it. When Draco was done she put them on a glass plate and took them outside to the table.
She had transfigured the rocks into a wide wicker table and matching chairs with white cushions. She dressed the table with an embroidered lace-edge tablecloth, glass goblets to match the pitcher, gold knives and forks and little bunches of nosegays. It looked beautiful, Ginny was so lucky.
"What do you think?" Hermione asked standing back to admire her work.
"It's alright I guess for a girl type thing. They should be here soon right?" asked Draco.
Hermione looked at her watch and nodded. Draco went into the house and came back out with a jacket on and silvery shades. Hermione's heart skipped a beat.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked, placing a hand on her hip.
"I'm going to a ranch not too far away. Whenever you're done, just call the number that I left by your phone. No one steps foot into the house, unless it's a pure emergency. Bye." Said Draco, jumping into his car and whizzing off.
Hermione huffed and went back inside to change into a longer dress. It was cream colored and had a big bow in the back. Soon all of the guests arrived. They held gifts wrapped in white paper with pink ribbons. You could say that this party would have been held in 1904 or around that time. That's what Hermione was going for, the Victorian age.
"Hi Hermione! I'm missed you so." Exclaimed Lavender. She was married to this guy from Drumstrang and was 5 months pregnant with his kid.
"Nice to see you too. Where's Simon?" asked Hermione.
"He wanted to go and group with his friends. How are you? You actually live here?" asked Lavender.
"It's really Draco's but I have my own room. It's really nice." Said Hermione as Parvati and Padma walked over.
"Hey guys. Welcome and hope you have fun." Said Hermione, going to greet other people.
Not too long after everyone came, Ginny's convertible pulled up. Hermione ran over to her while the other guests went to sit at the table.
"Ginny I've missed you so much!" Exclaimed Hermione, taking her up in a big hug.
"I've missed you too! Thanks for asking me over. I wanted to tell you that Harry asked me out two days ago. He is so wonderful." Said Ginny walking with Hermione.
"That's so great Gin! How long has it been since you've talked to the girls of Gryffindor house?" asked Hermione, smiling brightly.
"I haven't in a very long time, why?" said Ginny.
"Don't you think it's about time that you did?"
When Hermione said that, all the other girls came up to her and said happy birthday! Ginny was so surprised. She didn't think that Hermione would throw her a party. They all went over to the beautiful table talked and ate.
It went very well. Then it was time for presents and the girls gathered in a semi-circle and Ginny sat in front. Most of them gave her books and some of them gave her dresses and beauty kits. Hermione gave her a light brown teddy bear with a pink bow around its neck.
"Where did you get this?" asked Ginny holding it close to her.
"Well I looked in all the antique shops I could find. And only one of them had an original bear from New York. It's very special and since you're my very best friend, I thought that you might like it." Said Hermione.
Ginny smiled and then they heard a horse neigh. They all stood up and walked over to the field. The horses were running around and playing tag with each other.
"Hermione, you never told us that you had horses." Exclaimed one girl with blond curly hair.
"Well two of them are mine and the rest are Draco's. He's so sweet, today we were playing tag with the horses." Said Hermione somewhat dreamily.
The other girls had a feeling that something major was going on between them.
"Do you and Draco have something or what?" asked Ginny.
"What, no. He's my friend and my coach. Nothing is really going on serious. I mean we go out and kiss sometimes but nothing big." Said Hermione, looking at her watch.
The party ended and Hermione waved goodbye to her friends and cleaned up the stuff with a wave of her wand. The table and chairs turned back into rocks and she moved them back. And she cleaned the dishes and put them away. Then she had to heard the horses back into their normal stable. She then went inside called Draco and told him that she was done and he could come home now.
Draco came back with a horse trailer attached to his car. Hermione came running outside.
"Hi. What's in there?" asked Hermione, hugging him.
That took him by surprise but he hugged her back anyway.
"I went to this guy at this ranch and he said he found a wild horse. Said that he couldn't get close enough to him to let him saddle it up. So I told him that if I got it broken in I would get to keep it. So here we are." Said Draco, patting the trailer.
"Draco Malfoy, are you mad? It could hurt you and worse, it might kill you and then what am I suppose to do?" asked Hermione, a hand on her hip.
"I didn't know that you cared." Draco smirked.
"Of course I care, you're one of my best friends. I'd die if something happened to you and I know that I could have stopped it." Said Hermione, running a hand through her hair.
Draco rolled his eyes and smirked. He went and opened the back up and a cream colored horse trotted out. It was indeed a wild stallion. Its eyes were ice blue and it had a pure white tail and mane. Draco took out a saddle and quickly put it on the horse. He jumped on and the horse bucked almost throwing Draco off.
The horse ran over to the field and continued to try and ram him off. Hermione shrieked every time and started biting her nails. Finally the horse threw him off and it looked as though it stepped on his back. Hermione ran over to him.
"Draco are you alright? Please say or do something. Don't be hurt please be alright." said Hermione about to start crying.
The tears started to fall and she flipped him over and saw that he was laughing. Hermione quickly wiped her tears away.
"You had me so worried about you. Don't do that ever again, next time I'm not going to help you." Said Hermione. Hitting on the side of his head and storming off.
"I'm fine Hermione! Although now my head hurts, change your close we're going to the gym to work off all new body fats." Called Draco, walking behind her.
"Okay. Be more careful next time all right? That really scared me." Stated Hermione, going up the steps.
"Sure, just as long as you don't hit me again." Said Draco, rubbing his head.
Hermione nodded and went to her room to change.
A/N: THIS CHAPTER SORT OF SUCKED. SO IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE IT, I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND. WISH ME THE BEST WITH THE HURRICANE. I'M NOT SCARED AT ALL, BUT THIS ONE IS GOING TO BE THE WORST OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. WELL IT'S ONLY THE THIRD ONE, BUT OUT OF THREE IT'S THE WORST. BYE FOR NOW.
-JENNIFER