~Author's Note~

Sorry it took me so long to update! (writer's block is a pain)

*anyways, on with the story*

Ch5: The First Day Back to Work

This part of the story reflexes my first compassionate feelings towards Hermione. There had been lust from the beginning, that's for sure, for ever since our fifth year, she has been beautiful in my eyes, but I think that this was the first time I really hated to see her unhappy. And although I didn't know it then, it was when I fell in love…

Hermione woke to the birds singing out her window. Enchanted by the lullaby of the mother birds, she rolled over, and looked out the window. And when she did, saw the most beautiful day she had seen in months.

I want to just get up, and go outside to play… But as she was laying there, dreaming of what she wanted to do, she realized that today was Monday.

A day for work and school! Ugg! She thoughts as she got out of bed. Deciding that a quick shower would wake her up, she crossed the room, gathered her things and went into the bath room.

The hot water felt good on her cold skin, as she hummed to herself. And time passed without her realizing it. She was enjoying her morning too much to realize how long she actually spent inside the shower.

Draco, dressed and cooling his heels in the down stairs lobby, waited rather impatiently for Hermione. The other two had already left five minutes before, but Draco had insisted on waiting for her. Where the hell are you Hermione? He wondered as he paced the room for the millionth time. He had been thinking a lot about her, more than he was ever used to thinking about one woman. More than was comfortable. But this isn't the time for romance, he told himself, not when there was work to be done.

"That's it!" he cried, and he went to find his companion.

Hermione had just gotten out of the shower when she heard her door slam open. Then she heard a familiar voice calling her name. It was not long before a face appeared with the voice.

"Hermione we've-" he stopped in mid-sentence, looked down, and gaped. For there was Hermione Granger, wearing nothing but a small towel that rode seductively high on her thighs and low on her breasts.

Seeing Draco's response to what she was wearing, Hermione took this as an opportunity to press her advantage.

"Draco Malfoy! What in the bloody hell are you doing in my room?! Get out!" she yelled, but inwardly she was laughing at him, at her, and at the whole situation.

"I'm- I'm…" he tried to say, but he could take his eyes off the way the towel fit snugly around her breasts, and how the very tops of them were showing. Oh how he would like to feel them against his skin, under his hands- Stop! he told himself, and forced himself to talk.

"Sorry, it's just that, well, we're late…"

"Oh," her voice sounded surprised. She hadn't realized that she had taken up so much of the time in the shower, and it touched her that Draco would wait for her.

"Well, just hold on a minute." She said as she grabbed her wand. With a flick of the wrist, she was dressed and ready to go. Draco, for the second time that morning, just gaped.

"How, how did you learn that?"

"Oh, it was just something that I picked up, rather simple really." she said as she swept passed him and out the door. Leaving Draco no other option but to follow.

Hermione walked into the classroom, just two minutes late. Her fast-walking spell had done the trick, both her and Draco had been shocked when it did. She looked around the room, and noticed that Slytherins and Gryffindors were still filling in, chatting with friends and sitting on the tops of desks.

"Everyone sit down." she told them in a voice that was so harsh that it didn't matter if no one heard her. The coldness cut right through the aura of friendliness. And she inwardly smiled when all the students followed her command.

"Now, I am to be your new teacher- at least for the time being. But , on top of that, I am a student. So, if you have a question or are confused, please feel free to ask me and consider me your friend. Now, you all have had a couple months of listening to Professor Bins' lessons. Please note that my class will not be a thing like that." She paused as cheers rose up over the students.

"Instead of just listening and taking notes, you will split up into groups, and read about a particular event. Now, you have to be careful, because you have to understand what happens fully. Then, you will write a report on what happened. The next step is to act out what happened with you and your group members. The last step will be to act it out in front of the class." she waited for groans or cheers of protest or agreement. She heard neither.

"Any questions?" she asked, and pointed to a small girl with blond pig tails.

"Will the lines have to be memorized?"

"Yes, but don't worry you will have plenty of time."

As her class went on, she felt more and more confident that her plan would work. By the middle of the first class she was exhausted and ready to call it a day. By the end of the class, she was ready to die.

How can professors live like this? Well, least I only have to teach one class. She mused as she thought of her aching feet and throbbing head as she made her way towards the her next class, potions,

There, she met up with Ron and Harry, who, to say the least, looked much better than she felt.

"Hi," she mumbled.

"Hey, 'Mione are you alright?" Harry asked as a line of concern grew across his forehead.

"Yeah, you look like you need a long, long nap." Ron commented.

"No, no I'm alright, just tired." she waved it off and sat down. Harry and Ron followed the suit, and soon Snape was instructing them in how to make a sleeping potion. As she class paired off, Hermione was left to work with Neville. She didn't mind working with him, although her grades suffered from it, it was just that she didn't feel like dealing with him at the moment. Her seemingly small headache had erupted into a full blow head, neck and back ache. This made her temper surface and her patience thin.

What I really need is a massage, oh, how good that would feel! she mused, as she watched Neville, yet again, screw up their potion by not following the directions.

"Neville, it says, add 5 teaspoons of unicorn dust, not 5 tablespoons," she instructed him, trying to be polite, but anyone could tell that there was ice behind it. Anyone except Neville, that is. He was too preoccupied about his current mistake to notice how exasperated Hermione was.

"Oh, I wondered what that meant…" he shrugged. As they worked, Hermione tried to focus on getting rid of her headache, but Neville's constant mistakes seemed to make it grow.

"All right!" she finally cried after he had added too much snakes skin for the third time,

"I'll do the whole thing, just go sit down!" Neville, now completely scared, did what he was told. And the class watched in interest as she completed the potion with ease. When she was done, she let out a huff of success.

"Well, well, Miss Granger." Snape walked over towards her,

" I see you have completed your assignment. While I'm sure it works, the task was, however, to do this with a partner. I'm afraid you didn't follow directions, that deserves and F." This outraged Hermione even more.

"You cannot seriously give me and F Professor! I tried to work with Neville. It's not my bloody fault if he gets things mixed up!" After she finished, it suddenly dawned on her that she had just yelled at a professor, and not just any professor, she had yelled at Professor Snape. The one professor who would expel you rather than look at you.

"Are you done, Miss Granger?" he calmly asked.

"Yes," she said, her voice sounding small even to her own ears.

"Well then, I will take into consideration your statement and give you a grade accordingly. For now, it remains an F." Although he said he would consider her grade, she knew it would remain an F, no matter what she did.

As the bell rung, all the students filed out of the class room, Hermione was one of the last.

"You don't deserve that F." Harry said with disgust

"Yeah, you were wonderful, making that potion like that. Oh, well, forget about it, Snape's a bloody arse hole, if you ask me." Ron agreed. Hermione just sighed as they headed towards their next class.

By the end of dinner, Hermione felt sick. She had never, in her life, felt this miserable.

Not even when I had the chicken pox! she mused as she climbed up the stairs, to her room. When she entered, she plopped down on the bed and attempted to sleep.

Her attempts were interrupted, however, by a knocking on the door.

"What?" she exclaimed.

"It's Draco. Are you ok?" he asked, his voice muffled.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." she answered, and prepared to try and go back to sleep. Her attempts were interrupted, again, by Draco walking into her room.

"I said I'm bloody fine!" she yelled.

"Could have fooled me, you look like hell." he smiled.

"What do you want? I'm sick." she asked. Instead of answering, he sat next to her on the bed.

"Turn you back towards me." he commanded.

"Why-"

"Just to it." he told her, and she complied. When he began to massage her neck and shoulders, she all but purred.

"Why?" she asked, after a minute.

"Because you need it." was his only answer. The truth to that question, however, was something that Draco couldn't even understand. He had seen her in pain and had felt the need to comfort, to soothe. So he did.

"There, all better?" he asked as he toyed with the ends of her hair.

"Yeah, thanks," she mumbled.

"Welcome." he kissed the back of her head, and got off her bed and walked towards the door. With his hand on the doorknob, he turned toward her,

"You didn't deserve that F." he said and left. After the door had shut, Hermione, too tired to contemplate what Draco had meant and why he had said it, finally drifted off to sleep.