Disclaimer-If I was J.K Rowling, why would I be writing fan fiction? I would be writing the real thing!
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A Good Night
"Draco Malfoy get your arse down here!" came Hermione's very annoyed voice. It had been a week since the scene in the common room, and frankly Draco was very annoyed with her lack of recognition.
"I'm coming Granger, keep your shirt on!" he yelled back. Actually, he told himself, please don't take my advice. He ran down the stairs, shouldering his backpack, and into the common room. Hermione was there waiting for him.
"Finally, you take longer than me to get ready!" she complained.
"And yet, you still manage to look good," he said and smirked. Her face, unfortunately, did not show amusement.
"I'm going to ignore that." she simply said. She marched to the portrait and yanked it open as Draco yelled, "You can't ignore it forever, we have to talk about this!"
"Not now, we have classes now," she said and walked out. Draco sighed and rushed out after her, with a very grumpy look on his face.
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"Today, we will be working on a very complex potion, and you will be writing 4 feet of parchment on it for homework, due to me next Tuesday. Now, let's begin please. Find your partners, directions are on the board. Begin!" Professor Snape snapped to the class, and the shuffling began.
Hermione and Draco were paired up; they always were, being the smartest in the class. They worked on the potion for the full 2 hours they were given, and it looked exactly as it should at the end. When Snape said to, they handed in a sample of their potion and left.
Draco wandered down to dinner, because Potions had been their final subject that day; a day where, again, Hermione had managed to ignore him. He sat at the Slytherin table and ate quietly, and went back upstairs to start his Potions essay, which would surely take hours. Unfortunately, screams were being issued from down the Hufflepuff common room quarters, and Draco went down to see what was wrong.
A group of students, looking to be around third year, were up against a wall, and a large snake was slithering at their heels. The snake reared back as in to attack, but then caught Draco's eyes. It stared at him with his large, lamp-like yellow eyes that did not blink. Draco couldn't move for fear, but finally found the strength to bring out his wand. He snake moved closer to him, baring its fanged, venomous teeth.
He remembered a person being attacked by a snake like this one in his fifth year, but who? Oh yeah, Weasley Senior! They cured him, didn't they? What a minute, wasn't that Voldemort's snake? Yes it was; he remembered his father telling him that Voldemort owned a large snake, named Nagini. He needed Potter; he could talk to snakes, couldn't he? Would the snake listen? Probably not to Harry, why would it?
The snake slithered closer to Draco, and it looked like it was going to strike. Draco raised his wand and, finally finding his voice, yelled, "Stupefy!" as the snake launched itself at Draco. In midair the snake got hit with the spell, and its body got thrown back into the stone wall. The group of third years screeched and ran for it. Draco stepped back, and turned heel and ran.
He ran all the way back to the Great Hall and burst through the doors. "Snake! Snake down the Hufflepuff corridor!" he gasped, and sank into a bench at the Slytherin table. He was breathing hard, and his heart was beating very fast. A few teachers got up and ran towards where the snake was, but Dumbledore stayed to talk to Draco.
"What happened Mr. Malfoy?" he asked kindly but urgently. Draco took a deep breath and relived his story for Dumbledore. When he was done, Dumbledore called over a few of the Hufflepuff students and asked them what happened. At that time, the teachers returned with bad news.
"The snake, Nagini, has escaped, Headmaster. We followed the trail of blood. He slipped in through a crack in the wall. Nagini is a special snake, you see, that can squeeze itself into different forms. Draco, you are lucky to be alive," Professor Snape said in a curt voice quite unlike his own.
The teachers held a council, and Snape walked away suddenly, clutching his left forearm. His lip was curled as always, but seemed to be in a particularly bad mood. Draco knew very well what was wrong with Snape, but he followed him anyways.
"What's wrong Professor Snape?" he asked, smirking.
"You know what is wrong with me, Draco. Go away; I have to go to this call. No doubt concerning that snake," he said with an annoyed tone to match Hermione's.
"Fine," he said in a bored tone, and watched his Professor's retreating back. He wandered back up to his common room, where he found Hermione laying on the couch.
When he arrived, she jumped up, ran over to him, and gave him a hug. Draco was very taken-aback, and tripped over his feet and fell. Hermione helped him up.
"Control yourself Granger, I know I'm stunningly handsome but learn to deal with it," he said jokingly. This time she laughed and said, "I was just concerned that you were alright."
"Yeah, Yeah. Can we talk now?" he pleaded as he sat on the couch and took out ink and parchment.
Hermione sighed, sat down and said, "Yea, alright, we can talk now. What is wrong with you!" she positively screamed.
"There's nothing wrong with me!" he snapped. Why did she think something was wrong with him?
"Obviously there is, because there is no other explanation as to why you like me. Someone is forcing you to do this, and its bothering me."
"Do I look like the kind of person that can be forced to do anything?" he asked.
She took a long time to consider the question, and finally said, "I'm not being your flavor of the week Malfoy."
"You're not the 'flavor of the week' Hermione. You're the only thing I could think about all summer. And when you finally realize that people other than Ron and Harry care about you, come and find me."
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"Watch it Crabbe! That almost hit my head you dolt! You're supposed to protect us from the bludgers, not hit them at us!" Draco screamed. Today was quidditch practice, and so far Draco was not having a good time. Yeah, his team was very good, but the bludgers seemed to be targeting only him. That might be because he wasn't practicing, rather just sitting there yelling out orders.
He blew his whistle and the team came to a huddle around him. "Alright guys, we've got the best chasers in Hogwarts this year. We've got two idiots for beaters, but that's ok. Our keeper is unstoppable. And there's me, who can beat Potter with this nice new broom I have. So, let's keep working for another hour, and then hit the showers. Resume!" he said, and they flew back to their positions.
Draco flew back down to the crate holding the balls on the edge of the field and grabbed the snitch. He was about to turn around when he noticed someone sitting in the stands. It was Hermione.
Draco let the snitch go and flew up high into the air. Instead of going to look for the snitch he lay flat on his broom and went as fast as he could. He swooped right over Hermione's head, making her almost topple backwards out of her seat. He laughed, stopped, and turned around. He slowed down and jumped off his broom to see what she was doing here.
"Granger."
"Malfoy."
"What are you doing here? Spying for Potter?" he asked suspiciously. He knew she wasn't, he had asked her to come, but he liked to annoy her anyways.
"No, I came to watch an extremely good-looking Slytherin Seeker play quidditch. Unfortunately, he hasn't been doing too much playing; he's been ordering around the other players."
"Well that's my job. Fine, you can watch me now, and tell Potter how good I am. Ha!" he yelled and mounted his broom. He zoomed off down the field searching for the snitch. It wasn't very long until he spotted the gold ball fluttering near a goalpost, and he dove down and caught it in his outstretched hand.
Hermione sat in the stands and clapped. He let it go, and caught it once more. By the time quidditch practice ended, in which they all got very muddy and wet because it had started to rain, Draco had caught the snitch 4 times, and Hermione's hands were red from clapping. Draco took a quick shower, changed, and shouldered his broom. Hermione was waiting for him in the lobby of the changing rooms.
"That was impressive work today, Mr. Quidditch Captain," she said, trying to hide the giggles.
"Want a ride?" he asked. Her face quickly turned to fear as he grabbed her around the waist and pushed her onto the broom. He hopped on in back on her.
"Draco, no!" she yelled. Draco stopped. He stared at her wide-eyed.
"You called me Draco…" he said. He was very confused. She had shown signs of liking him, but she had never called him by his first name. Hermione turned very red. She got off the broom and sprinted back up to the castle, like Draco had done 6 years ago after he had seen baby Norbert. He hung his head; this was much harder than he thought.
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Draco Malfoy was pacing around his room with his head in his hands. The sound of water was being issued from the bathroom because Hermione was taking a shower. He was very confused and very stressed out. He had to walk the halls with Hermione tonight for 2 hours, and he was already exhausted from quidditch. She probably wouldn't talk to him anymore; she was very embarrassed about the events at the pitch, and she had always been sensitive.
The water came to a stop, and the sound of the other door clicked. She was getting ready now, and they would be leaving shortly. Draco grabbed his wand off the table and stuffed it into his robes' pocket. He gave his hair one final look in the mirror and set off for the common room.
After about 10 minutes more of pacing, Hermione emerged from the door that led to her room. Draco stopped pacing abruptly.
"Hi Hermione!" he said energetically. She nodded to tell him that she saw him. "Oh, it's nice to see you too grumpy," he spat.
"Shut up, Draco."
"There you go again, calling me by my first name."
"You call me Hermione, I'm calling you Draco. Happy?" she said while smirking.
"Very," he said. Her smirk turned into a smile.
She walked to the door and out of the portrait, Draco hot on her heels. They walked slowly down the hallways, treading the familiar path. Draco casually slipped his hand down next to Hermione's and held it. He waited a second, and then entwined his fingers in hers. Hermione looked up at him and smiled, and for the first time in his life, he felt like there was something right about him.
"You know, I've never met a girl like you," he said. He smirked (as was the normal custom), and she smiles back. By the end of the night, he was almost fully convinced she liked him as much as he liked her.
"Hermione you're so wonderful and everything you know," he said as they stepped inside the common room, which was barely illuminated. He leaned a little closer to her and said, "But I don't know anymore, this is all so different to me…" but Hermione cut him off.
"Just shut up and kiss me Draco," she murmured. Was he imagining this? He leaned further in and placed a delicate kiss on her lips. He pulled back, as he was very unsure of her reaction.
"Goodnight Draco," she whispered.
"Goodnight." This was very sincere; this had been a good night.
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A/n- Alright, two orders of business. Firstly, and most importantly, Reviewers need to be recognized!
theBomb- Wow, thanks for you're review! I feel honored that my story is the reason you registered for fan fiction! I don't plan on stopping, just read the note after review recognitions.
Yuna and lenne-Thanks for you're advice, but I actually like tp proofread my stories on my own. Sorta missed those few details, sorry about that. I hope you liked this chapter!
Auden-Annalia- I realize Draco seems a bit desperate, but think of his life. His life is going to be normal either, but I don't want to give anything away! Please keep reading and reviewing, it's great that you like my story, I appreciate it!
Hermy1092- You remind me of myself, I'm also impatient. Please read following author's note, it contains information on next updates! Glad you liked my stories, please review all the time! I love them! Thanks!
Ok, second thing. The thing is, I am leaving for a weeklong vacation to the beach with my family on Friday. I will be home on the following Saturday morning. I plan on getting one more chapter(chapter 5) up before I leave. When I return, I will be sure to update by Sunday night. And I promise to make up for a week lost by updating faster. The more reviews I get, the happier I am and the more desire I have to write. Thanks to all that review, I appreciate compliments and criticism.