Chapter 5

Disclaimer- I do not own anything but the plot.

A/N- Hope everyone likes my story so far.. Thanks to all of my reviewers!!!

As the school year got under way, Hermione pushed all thought of the kiss, Draco, and everything else out of her head so she could focus on her studies. For a few days Hermione not only avoided Draco, but she spent practically no time in her common room at all. He had been acting like a total jerk to her ever since the kiss they had shared. He hasn't said a word to her since that very occasion. "Why did he have to kiss me anyway! That was totally disgusting! He is such a jerk!' she thought. Most everything was back to normal, except for that little part of her brain that seemed to linger on the kiss. She couldn't seem to totally push these thoughts out of her mind. 'Why did I kiss him back? Why did I seem to forget everything when we were kissing?…' Questions like these flowed through her head all of the time. She couldn't get over that one single kiss.

'Merlin, I can't get that damn kiss out of my head! What was I thinking, letting that Mudblood kiss me! I mean honestly, a Malfoy and a Mudblood! A Slytherin and a Gryffindor! No way in hell we would ever be together!---N-Not that I would ever want it to happen--yuck! Oh Merlin, now I am trying to convince myself! It's not like I like her! I am just kind of attracted to her looks! I am a guy after all! Merlin, I really need to get my mind off of her! I can't stand her at all!' he thought as he walked towards the Great Hall.

Five minutes later he bumped into a girl whose head was buried in a book. The girl grabbed onto his robes to keep from falling, only to pull him down on top of her. When they hit the ground he realized who she was.

"Hermione," said Draco as he looked down at her. "Are you okay?"

"Did you just call me Hermione?" she asked him quietly.

"No, I called you Granger just like always." he replied. "Now, are you okay or not?"

"Yes, Malfoy, except I can't breath!" She said, putting extra emphasis on his name. When he didn't react to her words she began to wriggle out from underneath his strong, muscular body.

"Oh, sorry…I didn't mean to squash you," he said as he moved off of her and stood up. After a second of hesitation, he held out his hand to help her up. "Sorry," he muttered under his breath.

"It's okay…I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I was really interested in my book." she said sheepishly. "W-where were you going, Dra--Malfoy!"

"I wasn't really going anywhere. I was just walking towards the Great Hall to get a little food, you?" he said.

"I just came back from there. I left early. I wasn't very hungry. Now I am heading back to our common room." she said.

"Well, I guess I will too. I am not really hungry either." he said falling into step beside her.

"Okay, we can walk together." she said as they walked back to the common room.

They walked in silence for a while until Draco couldn't take it anymore. "So, I've been meaning to ask you something…why did you say Weasley's name after we kissed?" he asked almost to quiet to hear.

With that, Hermione's jaw fell open and she tuned to look him in the eyes. "What?" she asked him.

"Oh, never mind. It was nothing, just forget it!" he said quickly, fully realizing what he had just asked her.

After a short, awkward pause Hermione said, "He's my boyfriend."

"What did you say?" he asked.

"The reason I said Ron was because he is my boyfriend." she said once again.

Draco looked at her with a slightly jealous look on his face. "What? You are with Weasel? That is nasty! I would have thought that you had better judgement than that." he said in a half jealous half disgusted voice.

"Shut-up, Malfoy! Ron is a very nice guy and he treats me good. He is way more of a gentleman than you are!" she said, trying to defend her boyfriend.

"He probably hasn't ever kissed you yet!" he joked. This caused her to turn her head away and blush ferociously. "He hasn't, has he?" he asked, slightly curious. She didn't answer and just continued to walk. "Merlin, you kissed me before you kissed Weasley?"

When he said this she abruptly turned to him and glared. "I did not kiss you! You kissed me, jerk-face!" she yelled.

Just then they reached the portrait hole and she yelled, "Marshmallow" at the picture. When it swung open she stomped in. 'How rude! Why does he treat people like crap all of the time. Ron is ten timed the man he will ever be!' she thought as she strode towards her stairs.

"Wait, I am sorry," he said without thinking. Then he ran towards her to stop her from going up the stairs.

This caused her to stop dead. 'Did he just apologize to me? That's not possible, is it?' she thought as she felt a hand grab onto her arm. She turned around slowly so she could look into his eyes. She searched for the sarcasm or unhonesty, but found none. 'Was he being sincere?' she wondered. After a few minutes she nodded her head and smiled down at him from her perch on the third step up.

"Look Malfoy," she said, "we are going to be fighting all year if we don't come up with some kind of compromise!" She had walked down to the foot of the steps by the time she had said the last.

"Okay, Granger. What's the compromise?" he asked.

"Well, how 'bout we just start over entirely?" she replied. When he nodded she extended out her hand and said, "Hi, my name is Hermione. What is yours?"

With only a short moment of hesitation he took her hand and said, "I'm Draco. Ummmm, it's nice to meet you Hermione."

They shook hands for another few seconds before Draco said, "Nice hand shake, Gra--Hermione."

"Thanks, Draco. Yours is a little weak. You should probably work on that." she kidded as she quickly pulled away.

"Thanks a lot!" he said in the most sarcastic tone he could muster.