Draco lay awake all night that night. Damn rainstorms. Damn thunder! It was nearing four AM and the rain was still coming down in buckets. Draco grunted and rolled over in anger. He could hardly believe that he had been so close to kissing Hermione and something like the weather had DARED to interrupt. As far as he was concerned, Mother Nature could kiss his pale white behind.

Hermione didn't sleep all week. Every night she stayed awake wondering why in the name of magic she was going to actually kiss Draco Malfoy. More importantly, she was wondering why she hadn't gone through with it. When she finally managed to drift off to sleep, she dreamt of the kiss that never happened. It always ended the same way: Hermione would wake up and lie in bed, missing the feeling of Draco's warm body and then push the feelings aside, muttering "Hormones," and trudging towards the showers.

Wednesday rolled around and Draco was anxious to talk to Hermione about what had happened. He sat in the Transfiguration classroom tapping his foot. He wasn't quite sure if he would be able to fully admit his feelings for her yet, but he was determined to find out what she thought about the kiss that wasn't. Draco also wanted to be sure he was in love with Hermione. He had somehow convinced himself that once she was back to looking like - well like normal Hermione - that he wouldn't feel so...so...speechless.

His head popped up as he heard the door open. Hermione walked into the room, looking every bit as she had before the ball. Draco sucked in his breath and all of his doubts flew out of the window. There was no doubt about it; he was in love with her. He no longer knew how to handle himself. Normally he would be cocky and overtly flirtatious, which worked with all the other girls he'd been into. But Hermione wasn't like those other girls. He hadn't been in love with anyone ever and the feeling was completely alien to him. Now he didn't know how to handle himself or his feelings.

Hermione walked in the door feeling more nervous than she had on her first day at Hogwarts. She was sure that Draco thought she was an idiot and that he wouldn't want to speak to her. When Draco said hello to her, she nearly dropped everything.

"Hey, Hermione," he said in a fake cheerful voice.

"Oh... hey... so listen, today I thought we'd discuss-"

"Actually, Hermione, I'd like to discuss what happened the other night."

She avoided eye contact and pretended to be searching in her bag for something.

"Oh? What about it? The ball was lovely; don't you think they did a good job of it?"

"That wasn't what I wanted to talk about."

"And they did a spectacular job with the music."

"Hermione," Draco put his hand under her chin forcing her to look at him. It was the first time their eyes had met since that night during the ball and the feelings were no less intense then they had been previously. Draco was leaning in to finish what they'd started when Hermione spoke up.

"I know it was a mistake. It's ok. I understand," she whispered, their faces inches apart. His silver eyes turned to steel.

"A mistake? No, Hermione-"

"No, I know that we were both just caught up in the moment. I mean, we're teenagers, we have hormones, it makes sense."

He let go of her chin and sighed. "I suppose so." He turned from her. "So what did you want to work on today?"

The lesson ended and they were about to part ways when Draco stopped her at the door.

"You never told me what was wrong the other night."

She looked down. "Oh well, after Ron pulled me away, he suggested that we leave. He said that no one would be in the common room, and that we'd have it all to ourselves. He thought the night of the ball would make it perfect for me. I told him I didn't want to, that I was enjoying the ball, and he didn't take that very well. He managed to stay calm for a bit, and then sort of let off some steam he had about you and me dancing. Seemed to think the reason I wanted to stay was you. He was getting so upset that I had to leave. I think that's about where you found me."

"Anyways, I got back up to the common room and he had calmed down. Apparently, Lavender had followed him up and managed to get him back in his senses. So we're ok now."

Draco snorted. Lavender had a reputation of being attracted to guys who were already spoken for, and he was sure that Ron was no exception.

"I hate to sound like a broken record, but Weasley's a real jerk, Hermione." He took her hands in his. "You could do a lot better."

She shook her head. "No. Ron and I make sense, he's the best choice for me."

"That's not true."

"Sure it is," said a voice behind Draco. He turned around to come face to face with Ron.

"Ah, so nice of you to join us Weasel. But I don't remember inviting you into this conversation."

"Well, Malfoy, when you're holding my girlfriend's hands and telling her that I'm not good enough for her, I can't help but join in. My most sincere apologies."

"I'm sorry that you don't know how to treat your girlfriend."

"Oh as if you knew how to treat a woman. Rape em' and beat 'em, isn't that the Death Eater creed?" Draco was seeing red.

"Ron!" Hermione was furious.

"I don't think you can afford that kind of comment, Weasley. Then again, it may be the only thing you actually CAN afford... it is free, after all." Draco gave Ron his signature Malfoy smirk.

"Oh come on boys, stop it. Ron come on we can just go back to the common room."

"No I don't think so, Hermione. I think Malfoy and I will just have to fight this out."

"Ronald Weasley, don't you even think about doing that..."

But it was too late. Before she could finish her statement, Ron had thrown a punch at Draco's nose. Not being one to just sit still, Draco punched Ron back, but Ron had been expecting such a thing and blocked the throw. He then pushed Draco down to the ground where he sat on his torso and proceeded to throw punches, missing many but landing a good few.

"RON WEASLEY! TWENTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR AND A DETENTION!" Hermione was livid.

Ron paid attention. "Hermione, you can't be serious? You can't take points from your own house!"

"Ron I TOLD you NOT to hit him and you did it anyways. Fighting is forbidden in school, you know that."

"Well what about Malfoy," he spat on Draco. "It wasn't a one sided fight you know."

She sighed. "Silver, five points from Slytherin house for that comment earlier." Draco nodded from the floor.

Ron's eyes bugged out. "FIVE POINTS! FIVE BLOODY POINTS! THATS IT? Have you gone daft, Hermione?"

"Ron, you don't have a scratch on you, he couldn't get a punch in with you having gone nuts. I took points off because you provoked him into making a comment, which in turn provoked you into hitting him. But that's no excuse. You'll go see Professor McGonagall as soon as possible. Tell her I'll write a report up tonight."

"Ex-CUSE me!"

"Ronald, go."

"I can't believe you're being such a bitch," he hissed as he passed her.

Hermione just rolled her eyes and helped Draco off the ground. "Are you ok?"

He wiped a bit of blood from his lip. "Yea, I'll be fine."

"All the same, I think I'll take you to the hospital wing. Make sure you're really ok."

"Hermione, I'm not a pansy here, I can take care of myself."

"I know, its just... I just want to be sure."

He nodded and let her escort him to Madam Pomfrey. He was happy for her company. Though his manliness had been threatened, Hermione understood that he could not have hit Ron with his arms pinned down by Ron's knobby knees. She had stood up for him, even though it meant going against Ron. Maybe she knew inside of her that their near kiss hadn't been a mistake.

Hermione made it back to her dorm a little after Ron had. No one felt it was out of Hermione's character to uphold the rules, and everyone knew the twenty points would easily be made up by Hermione's intelligence. All in all, only Ron was in a rage about his pending detention, and Hermione could go to bed relaxed. An owl flew in an open window near Lavender and dropped a note on Hermione's four poster bed. While the other girls were getting ready for bed, she opened the letter.

"Just so you know, it wasn't a mistake.

-Silver"