Chapter 3

Hermione woke up the next morning feeling not-at-all refreshed and completely groggy. The events of the earlier hours of that day were nowhere in her thoughts this morning. Her eyes were dry and itchy, and her whole body felt like a big stiff lump.

She crawled out of bed and yawned widely. She walked down the hallway on her way to the bathroom, her eyes half-closed and unfocused, her mind cloudy, and her arms hanging limply at her sides.

She opened the bathroom door and screamed. Quickly, she slammed the door closed again and leaned against it in the hallway, panting for breath at the thought of what she just saw. She had just opened the door to reveal a naked and dripping wet Draco Malfoy reaching for a fluffy white towel, probably fresh from the shower. Suddenly she remembered the dream and how he had taken her back up to bed. Had he been there the whole night?

The door Hermione had been leaning on flew open, causing her to fall to the floor. A strong hand had reached down and gripped her upper arm and pulled her back to her feet. She was face to face with Draco Malfoy. His hair was soaked and sticking to his forehead. He had the white towel wrapped around his waist. On his face was a look of utter disgust. Hermione blushed furiously.

"What the hells the matter with you?" yelled Draco " You have one bad dream and all of a sudden you can't keep your eyes off me?"

"Draco...Im sorry...I just...I didn't want to I just...forgot...you understand right?" Hermione stammered. She had called him Draco again. She made a mental note not to do that.

Hermione stared at her feet. She knew Malfoy thought she was the biggest pervert alive. I didn't want to see him like that. she told herself I was just tired and I had to pee. I wasn't thinking about the stupid shower rule. She believed herself about this, but it only lasted for about a nano-second. Maybe you didn't remember the rule because you really did want to see him naked. A second voice said this. She couldn't help but notice it sounded and awefull lot like Ron's.

Draco turned around and walked back into the bathroom, slamming the door behing him right into Hermiones face.

She ran back to her room and grabbed a bag. Into it, she threw her school robes, a pair of muggle shorts and a T-shirt, a pair of pajamas, her toothbrush, and everything else she used on a daily basis. She then quickly slipped on her shoes and ran out the portrait hole. She didn't stop running untill she was in the 7th floor corridor, in front of the portrait of the fat lady.

"Bravery" said Hermione. This was a special password that was given to only herself and Draco, that allowed them into any house common room. Dumbledor thought they would need it for Head duties and emergencies. Hermione thought about that word. Bravery.

She started to cry. She was in gryffindor...she was supposed to be noble and brave and yet she was running away from a bouncing ferret with platinum hair. She wiped her face and the portrait swung aside to reveal to the hole to gryffindor common room.

"It was nice to see you again, deary. Its been ages." said the fat lady.

"You too" Hermione mumbled in a rushed voiced as she scrambled through the portrait hole. The only people sitting in the common room were Harry and Ron, playing a game of wizards chess, Ginny, watching the game and looking rather bored, and a couple of second year students talking quietly in the corner.

"Hermione!" said Harry, looking up from the game " What are you doing here? And why are you so out of breath?"

"And why aren't you dressed?" asked Ron, as his ears turned characteristically pink. Hermione looked down and realized that she was still wearing her short shorts and tank top. She had been in such a rush to get out of her dorm that she forgot she was still in her pajamas. Luckily she had met very few people along the way to gryffindor common room. Most were at breakfast.

"Long story" she said. " Ginny can we go up to your dorm? she asked the red-haired girl.

"Sure, c'mon up." said Ginny as she stood up to leave.

She and Hermione walked into Ginny's dorm to find it completely empty. Hermione assumed all of her dorm-mates were at breakfast.

"Something you need to talk about?" asked Ginny

"More than you think" said hermione. She sat down on one of the beds, ready to confess everything.

"And then you caught him in the shower?" asked Ginny, after Hermione was done explaining her night and morning with Draco.

"No..." said Hermione "He was out of the shower. It probably would have been better if he would have been. I put a charm on the shower door so you couldn't see through it. And then after he got out of the shower on the first day I put on noise charm on so he couldn't hear anything outside of the shower and I couldn't hear anything in. You wouldn't believe the songs he sings when he's bathing. Crookshanks hid in my bedroom untill he stopped."

"So if he was in the shower he wouldn't have heard you come in and you wouldn't have seen...anything," said Ginny.

"Exactly!" proclaimed Hermione. " But he wasn't and he did and I did. But I didn't want to!" Hermione added after seeing the mischievious look in Ginny's eyes. She was obviously taught all she knew by Fred and George.

"Are you sure you didn't want to? Because I really would understand if you did." said Ginny, trying to sound like she believed Hermione, but obliviously failing.

"Of course not Ginny!" cried Hermione " How can you think that? You're my best friend! You, of all people, should know that im not like that."

" I do Hermione! I do!" panted Ginny "But nothing like that has ever happened to you! I mean look at you!" Ginny pulled Hermione up to stand in front of her "You grew up Hermione! It's only natural to feel that way and to have some new emotions. Have you ever cried over that dream before?" Ginny aseked.

Hermione had had the death-eater dream dozens of times and it never changed. The only person she had ever told was Ginny. And she had only cried over it once, which was last night.

" No..." said Hermione "But it wasn't the dream...It was stress or something. I had a ton of homework last night. "

"Thats not an excuse" said Ginny " Its the first day of classes!"

Herione scowled at her.

"Hermione it's ok! I know you didn't want to see Malfoy naked. I mean lets face it who would but-"

Ginny's sentence was cut off by Hermione

"Have you seen him this year! Hes gorgeous!" She relized she had made a big mistake when Ginny's face lit up.

"You like him, don't you!" squealed Ginny. "Hermione think about this!" she said in a more serious and worried voice " Its MALFOY! No offense, but he'll never like you back. I mean a girl has a bad dream, shes all vunerable, he swoopes in, says a few charming words, and as soon as you know it he's up holding your hand all night! What will happen next?"

"NOTHING!" yelled Hermione. She tried to calm down, her friend had never seen her scream more that probably 2 times and she knew Ginny was sensitive about yelling " I don't even like him. He's just cute. But come on you'd have to see him to believe! He's changed so much! It would shock you!"

"Ok lets go then" said Ginny, standing up and eager to see what Hermione was talking about.

"Oh no you don't!" cried Hermione " We're not going to see him! He thinks I like him or something. He probably suspects I have hidden camaras in the shower or something!"

Ginny sat back down. She could tell Hemione was upset about it.

"Whats with the bag?" Ginny asked as she noticed the mini-duffle draped over Hermiones shoulder

" Erm, can I maybe stay here tonight? I don't think I want to go back to my room untill Draco understands it was all a misunderstanding."

Ginny's eyes twinkled. She sat there for a minuet staring,until Hermione finally asked:

"Whats the matter with you? Thats the look Fred and George had when they set off the fireworks in the great hall."

Ginny opened her mouth as if she was going to talk, and then closed it again. She looked to be at an utter loss of words. All the while, she was grinning.

"WHAT?" asked Hermione desperately. She was getting rather frusturated.

Ginny finally spoke in a whisper, as if she thought the whole school was watching to see what she would say next.

" You called him Draco."