Chapter Five

It's summer…loosen up!

"We have a surprise for you," Hermione's mother said as they pulled into the driveway of their house. Hermione walked in her home and saw her cousin Victoria.

"Oh Hello Vicki!" she said. Though she was glad to see her, she didn't think that this was much of a surprise. Victoria always came to see her when she came back from Hogwarts.

"My parents are on a second honeymoon so I'll be staying with you for two weeks," Victoria said.

Hermione's face lit up and then both girls giggled and ran to her room. This certainly was a pleasant surprise.

That night after dinner, Victoria felt that Hermione was in desperate need of a good night out on the town. She got Hermione to put on a white cap-sleeved top and a black a-line skirt that went to her knees and a pair of white sandaled heals. Victoria told her that she looked really nice and finally dragged Hermione out of the house. The girls left for Victoria's favorite local teen dance club, Club Innocence. The music was so loud that it was hard for Hermione to think. She also thought that Victoria must have hung out here too much since her judgment had obviously been impaired because she certainly wouldn't have left the house wearing what Vicki was wearing. The dark room and flashing lights was just not Hermione's typical scene of dusty books and quiet libraries. Though she was not as uptight as she used to be, she wasn't used to this environment or this style of dressing.

"Come on Hermione loosen up!" pleaded Victoria. "You do know how to dance, I know you took all those dance classes."

"'Those dance classes' had nothing to do with this kind of dancing!" she yelled over the music.

She finally relented to Victoria's pressure and started barely swinging her arms side to side. She didn't move anything else, just her arms.

"What the hell is that!" screamed Victoria.

"Dancing!"

"No it isn't! Just do what I do."

Usher's "Yeah" came on and Hermione started to get into it and let go. She felt liberated and free for the first time in a while. It was nice to blow off some steam and just be a teenager for a while. " In my Pocket", by Mandy Moore came on and it was cool because during parts of the song a strobe light would flash it gave the room an awesome feel. She was having a great time as she moved her body sensually.

"Hey this is kinda fun!" Hermione said loudly.

"Wow, you are really doing great! That's enough now though, the boys are all staring at you and you're starting to make me look bad!" Victoria laughed.

Victoria's friends David, Samantha, and Will showed up shortly. Victoria was in a band with her best friends. "Who wasn't in a band these days?" Hermione thought to herself. She had met her friends several times before and they exchanged greetings. Victoria and her friends started talking about going to David's pond where the band usually practiced, to play for a little while. David and Will excused themselves to go to the bathroom and Victoria kept talking to Samantha. Hermione stood there while they talked and an older boy came up and asked Hermione to dance.

"Oh, thanks but we are just getting ready to leave," she smiled.

The smile faded from his face and he grabbed her wrist violently and pulled her towards him out on the dance floor. She tried to yank it back but he held her tightly. She yelled to Victoria and Samantha and they came and pulled her away from him.

"What's the hell is bloody wrong with you!" Samantha yelled.

"Little miss priss thinks she's too good to dance with me," he sneered.

The girls turned to call David and Will who were just coming out of the bathroom. They came running over and they turned around to point him out but he was gone. He had been there just a moment ago, but now was nowhere to be seen.

"Probably got scared when he got a look at me," David boasted.

"You? My granny ain't even scared of your ugly mug! Must have been my impressive physique that frightened the poor bastard off," Will answered.

"Right you are mate, your granny ain't scared, she keeps beggin' me to come over and spend a wee bit of 'quality time' with her the old bat does," teased David.

That remark sent the two boys into a mock boxing match which the girls quickly broke up.

"There is no way he could have seen either of you two coming over," Victoria said. "He was facing the other way. You didn't do anything to him did you?" she asked Hermione.

"No," Hermione said. Several of her family members knew her secret and though she was a muggle, Victoria had always been most supportive of her.

They shrugged it off and left the club.

David had a pond on his family's property that the band would go to play some music. They too had just completed their terms at their schools and were all heading to college in the fall. They began to play and sing some songs there in the night air enjoying their last real summer of freedom, as did Hermione. Her formal training as an Auror would commence immediately after the next school year and this would be her last free summer as well. Hermione was actually surprised that the band sounded good for just having acoustic guitars. She sat on a large rock by the pond and let her feet dangle in the water listening to the music. They sounded so peaceful and the music let her wind down. She finally let go and relaxed. She had been through a lot over the past six years and had a lot to look forward to next year, along with the anticipated extra responsibilities of being Head Girl. Victoria asked her to sing with them, which she did and complemented them nicely. Victoria told her she should join the band too, but Hermione said that she should be glad that she had even gotten her to dance.

"So how did everything go with that guy Ron, that you had a crush on?" Victoria asked Hermione.

"Oh, he liked me as well. After we talked about how we felt we kissed and well…" Hermione broke off.

"Well what?" Victoria asked.

"There was nothing"

"Nothing?"

"Nothing, we just laughed it off. Since then our relationship has never been better. We are more like brother and sister now, so it's great."

"Is there anyone else that you have your eyes on?"

"I don't have any time for a relationship right now, there is so much that I want and I don't need anything to distract me from it."

"I see, well you never know." Victoria said with a smile.

Their entire evening had, unbeknownst to them, been watched by a steel gray set of eyes.

The next two weeks went by quickly. She had a lot of fun with Victoria and the band but they too had to return to their lives and responsibilities, though they continued to get together occasionally.

The fireplace in Hermione's home was always a welcoming sight to her.

Ever since her family had received the letter from Hogwart's a little over seven years ago it had become a magical thing for her. Hermione wasn't the only thing in the house that possessed magical properties. The Granger fireplace was on the floo network.

Hermione now used the floo network everyday to get to her job at the ice cream parlor in Hogsmeade. During the day she worked and did her pre-term readings when business was slow. She loved the opportunity to be close to those she cared so much about and to be in the magical world. It also let her see Harry, Ron and Ginny almost everyday. They would stop by, as would a lot of the Hogwart's students. Unfortunately, Malfoy and his friends also would come in. Though the tension was thick between them, he would just stare at her and listen to his friend's endless chatter.

One evening after work she joined Victoria at Club Innocence.

"So how is your job going?" Victoria asked.

"It's great! But, there is this guy from school that keeps coming in and bothering me," Hermione said.

"What does he say to you?"

"Well, nothing he just sits and stares at me."

"Maybe he likes you!"

"No way. Not this guy. He has tormented me since I got there and he's just creeping me out, at least I think he is. He seems to be everywhere I go."

"Has he tried anything?"

"No he just sits stares, it's really unnerving. He's not someone that you want following you around. It's not romantic or cute, its… well ominous I guess."

"Hey watch your mouth! You know we don't use language like that around here!" Victoria teased.

"Oh right, sorry. Menacing?" Hermione suggested.

Victoria rolled her eyes as someone taps on her shoulder. Victoria turned and greets the person and they start a conversation. Hermione looked around the room at the sights and noticed the guy that had tried to drag her out on the dance floor. He had a black eye and a busted lip that appeared to be about a couple weeks old. He looked at her and instantly looked away as if frightened and nervously left his stool and walked as quickly as he could away from her. She thought to herself that he probably had treated someone else the way he had treated her and someone had taught him a lesson. But she wondered why he looked at her that way. She shrugged and turned her attention to her drink.

Hermione sat there playing with her drink and kindly asked the bartender to refill her drink. A song she had never heard started playing in the club. She liked it so she asked the bartender whom it was by.

"It's called 'Saturate Me' by Mandy Moore, love," the bartender replied. "The manager is obsessed with her."

" Oh, thanks," she smiled. She returned her attention back to her drink and continued to listen to the song.

She noticed someone stand next to her and heard him order a drink. The name of the drink escaped her but the voice ordering it did not. She turned to look over and was inches away from Draco's face. She didn't gasp or flinch away and neither did he. She was taken aback by it, but she didn't let on. He just stood there looking at her straight in the eye. There was something there that she had never seen before but she didn't exactly know what it was. She was feeling something strange herself. It felt like something electrical was playing down her spine, feeling the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. A cool sensation ran just under the surface of her skin. Her pulse quickened and she hadn't exhaled since she first saw him. He just stood there as the song played, their eyes locked until the bartender handed him his drink. He took his eyes away from hers to glance at his drink and then returned to stare back at her. His mouth cracked into that smirk she had seen the night he was outside her window. His eyes roamed her face then settled them back to her eyes and he walked away. She followed him with her eyes as she turned smoothly swiveling her seat. He stopped a few meters away from her and glanced back at her and then continued walking away. She turned back around and this time met Victoria's questioning eyes.

"So who was that?" she said saucily.

"That's the guy I was telling you about!" she hissed.

"And you're complaining?" Victoria asked half jokingly.

Hermione shot her a look and Victoria shrugged. She had felt something strange during that stare. She wasn't quite sure what it was and she wasn't sure why she felt it either. Weather it was the song or the way he had looked at her or both.

The next few days were quite boring and uneventful and Draco and his friends came in every day like clockwork. She didn't look at him when he ordered. She didn't need to even talk to him, as he ordered the same thing everyday, two scoops of chocolate ice cream on a cone. Draco and his friends sat at the corner table. Since there were no other customers in the store she went to the back room to tidy up. She could hear the chairs sliding back from the table and heard the bell ring as the front door opened and closed. She exhaled, relived that they were leaving. Elizabeth, Hermione's coworker and boss, told Hermione that she was going on her break. A minute later Hermione heard the bell chime again and then heard footsteps coming back towards the back room. Realizing that is wasn't a customer she assumed it was Elizabeth. She turned around to speak.

"Did you forget some…"

"Silencio!"

Draco's Silencing Charm caught her by surprise. She stood frozen in her tracks as he advanced on her. She realized that her wand was in the pocket of her cloak that was now hanging behind the counter in the front of the store. He stopped only feet in front of her then stepped towards her with his wand in one hand and his chocolate ice cream cone in the other. He raised the ice cream up and rubbed it against her neck and set the cone down on the desk next to them. Even if she could speak she wouldn't have had any words to say. He smirked as he put his wand away. He leaned in and began licking the ice cream off her neck gently and then moved into kissing her neck, rubbing his tongue over her skin. The feelings from their encounter at the club came flooding back to her and she melted into him. She brought her hands up to the back of his shoulders as he pushed his palms against the front of the bare part of her thighs right below the hem of the skirt of her uniform. Gently backed her up a few feet towards the table in the back of the room. His mouth never left her neck as she stepped back and leaned against the table. His hands gripped her smooth thighs then slid his hands down to the back of her knees lifting them, pulling them to his sides as he began to lean her back onto the table kissing both sides of her neck moving up towards her mouth aggressively. He had just about reached her mouth when the bell chimed again and he quickly backed away from her with a look of frustration on his face. He drew out his wand and waved it at her throat returning her voice as he darted out the back door without a single word.

Hermione hurried quickly to the front of the store where a family was waiting. She quickly served them the best she could.

"Excuse me miss, but you seem to have a spot of chocolate ice cream on your neck there," the gentleman said.

"Oh, thanks! Sorry about that," she said uneasily trying to wipe the spot.

"Nonsense! It's nice to see that you really get into your work!" he said with a smile as they all turned out the door.

"What just happened, what did I almost do? What's wrong with me? Never again!" she said as she leaned over the counter with her head in her hands still trying to recollect herself emotionally and physically. "I can never let that happen again, EVER!"

A/N: First to answer a popular question: Why is Draco following Hermione? Well she saw his dark mark and if he were to be caught that could be very bad for him, on both sides. So that is just the start but for what it turns into, if it even does, you will just have to read and find out.:) And for the Second question the story is not over. The story has 33 chapters in total I have already written all of it so you guys don't have to worry about me not finishing it and leaving you forever to wonder what happened next. So it is okay to fall in love and get addicted. Lol. I will be putting up a chapter every couple of days. So please review it help get them out faster, lol. I do hope that you enjoyed the chapter this is my first fanfic so be kind. Now to the thank you's : Thank you to profet, abby, inugirl now, rkgrl, prin69, Gentilschi, Irol, Knives Girl Haru, xOxOkIsSmYaSsXoXO, Callista and Mish-serenity! And thank you to the ones who had reviewed after I put this up! Thanks for reviewing you have no idea how much it means to me! Keep reading and Reviewing and most of all Enjoying!