DISCLAIMER - NONE OF THE HARRY POTTER CHARACTERS ARE MINE. ONLY THE PLOT BELONGS TO ME.

Chapter 12

(In Hermione's bedroom)

Hermione furiously paced her bedroom, she was thinking about the new interaction between her and Draco.

"This is wrong thinking about Draco, no, MALFOY as a ... a... guy. Yeah, he's okay looking, romantic at heart, great singer, and seems to be there for me when times are rough, but he's also known as a womanizer. He's from Slytherin, and there is still that horrible past we have with each other! I can't help it that my two best friends and my House hate them... What do I do?" the brunette thought to herself.

There was a soft knock on her door, and the small voice of Ginny Weasely asked if she, Harry, and Ron could come in. Hermione quickly opened the door and led them inside.

"I'm so gla-" the girl was cut off by two furious boys.

"I can't believe you actually said YES to that twit!" Ron bellowed while his arms were flapping around in the air which quite resembled much like a distressed mother chicken.

"Hermione, can't you go with someone else? You know, besides Malfoy!" Harry followed after his red haired friend, except the arm flapping part.

"Well I think Draco has a distinctive charm, and is undeniably ... good looking," Ginny tried to help out her brunette friend.

Harry and Ron stopped yelling at Hermione and looked at Ron's younger sister in shock.

"Ginny Weasely, don't you ever say that again in your life, EVER!" Ron then decided to flail his arms at his sister now.

The messy haired boy just looked at Ginny as if she had grown two-heads right then and there.

"Oh grow up, you two," the red haired witch scolded the older boys. She then turned to look at Hermione and rolled her eyes.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh, and soon enough, the other girl joined in.

"Bloody girls, I don't understand them," Ron mumbled and walked out of the room, followed by Harry who also muttered something about girls and how incoherent they are.

That led them to another fit of laughter, but soon after they slowly calmed down, Ginny decided to ask about how Hermione was handling everything.

"Hermione, are you... all right? I know it seems as if your taking everything all well and mature, but then I'm afraid that you might not have anyone to talk to," Ginny quietly said.

The brunette sat down on her bed in an exhausted manner, while Ginny sat next to her friend.

"Gin, I don't know what to do anymore. The funeral last month was awful. While their casket was lowered, it came to me that I would never be able to see their faces for the last time," Hermione started to sob. "I still remember the fight that I had between my mum and me at the train station. It was over something really simple and stupid. She wanted me to come home for the Christmas holidays. I told her that I wanted to spend it in Hogwarts, you know, for one last time. We just ended up not saying goodbye in the end. Now I wish I can take it all back."

Hermione's face was tear-stained and her eyes were red. All Ginny could think of was to hug her friend and say nothing, she couldn't say that she understood what the brunette was going through, since her mum hadn't died.

"But, Malfoy-Draco... he was there for me at the times when I needed it," Hermione started to smile slowly.

"Did you know that he gave me my first kiss?" the brunette blushed pink and started to fumble around with her bedspread, "He also sang this beautiful song to me and did so much for me that all the guys in Hogwarts could never match up to. Ginny, I guess I'm mad or mental, but I think I'm in love with him..."

"Are you sure? I mean, you have to consider what he had done to us for the past six years. You two weren't exactly best mates," Ginny asked in a worried voice.

"Ginny, it's wrong… but it feels so right."

That was enough for her but she still decided that it would be safer if she kept a close eye on Draco. It was quite obvious that Draco was a womanizer and if all those rumors were true, he slept with almost all of the girls at Hogwarts.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

(Draco's Room with Blaise and Pansy)

Blaise and Pansy had followed Draco into his room with a full blown argument, but just decided to give up on trying to persuade the blonde to go to the ball with someone else.

"You know," Blaise suddenly asked, breaking the silence, "we should head over to somewhere fun over the winter break."

"Oh! We should go to Italy! I've always wanted to go to France! It's the city of romance and it would be just great. But we should bring someone with us, you know, since it'd be a little weird going just the three of us," Pansy quickly thought up of a plan.

"I see someone has been thinking about this for a very long time. Have you been waiting to ask Matthew or whatever his name is to come along with us? Well, news flash, we use magic and not using magic for over a week for those who have done magic their whole entire life doesn't exactly correspond that well," Blaise pointed out.

"I know that, and why would I invite Matthew when I can invite Blake," Pansy blurted out.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!" Blaise fell on the floor laughing.

"Oh yeah? Well then Mr. Zambini, who do you plan on bringing?" Pansy questioned.

The blue-eyed boy turned bright red and muttered, "It's none of your concern."

"It's that Ginny Weasely girl isn't it!" Pansy interrogated.

When Blaise only blushed harder as his response, the Slytherin girl practically fell down from laughing so hard.

"And a few seconds ago, you were making fun of me for wanting to bring Blake!" she commented while grabbing her side.

"How quaint, one of my friends is infatuated with a Weasely and the other is in love with a pervert," Draco eyed the two of them.

The two of them scowled, but they knew him long enough that he was just joking around.

"So, who are you planning on bringing?" Blaise asked.

"I haven't thought about it yet," the blonde Slytherin waved it off.

Pansy wasn't satisfied with the answer, so she blurted out, "Are you planning on inviting Granger?"

There was a sudden pause around them; Pansy mentally slapped herself in being so nosy in Draco's business. When he coughed, she immediately focused her attention back towards Draco.

"I think I might, if everything goes according to my plan."

Neither of Draco's friends asked what his plans were.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Once everyone was settled at the Great Hall for dinner, Albus Dumbledore made an announcement that it was a nice weather to have a meal outside. The students were confused, especially the older students, since this hadn't happened before.

"We will be dining near the lake," the Headmaster gave a clue in where they would eat.

Practically all the girls in the room were overjoyed with the idea, especially since it was so romantic eating outside by the lake and such. Although, the guys weren't all that happy, they just wanted food, mainly Ronald Weasely complained. As soon as everything was prepared for the faculty members and students, everyone all headed out to the grounds. The sight was incredible, instead of the four long tables that everyone were used to, there were many smaller tables scattered around with candles as the centerpiece.

"Feel free to sit wherever you want, mingle with other Houses. More importantly, have fun," Dumbledore smiled with a twinkle in his eye.

There was a huge bustle of commotion, but in the end nearly everyone were sitting with other House members. One particular blonde Slytherin walked over to a smiling, brunette Gryffindor.

"Mind if I join you?" Draco politely asked.

The smile on Hermione's face faltered for a second, but before she could answer, Blaise and Pansy decided to come and join them also. Pansy decided to sit next to Blake, who in return gave her a questioning look, and Blaise sat next to Ginny in a calm manner that made the red-haired girl a little nervous. Ginny scolded herself and attempted to try and remind herself that this is a Slytherin, but her plan failed miserably and shyly flirted with the blue-eyed teenager. Not waiting for Hermione to answer, the blonde sat next to Hermione and smiled hesitantly.

"I could move if you wanted," the blonde leaned over and whispered.

"It's okay, I'm sure Ginny doesn't mind, but Harry, Ron, and Blake-" the brunette was soon cut off.

"Did I hear my name?" Blake butted in to their conversation.

"Nobody was talking to you," Draco coldly responded.

"No need to be hostile," Blake grinned, obviously this guy didn't realize when he was wanted or not.

"So, Hermione," Blake continued, while wrapping an arm around the brunette's shoulder, "you know, I've been known to be a ladies man."

"That's nice," Hermione tried to push Blake's arm off her.

It didn't move an inch, but Blake still continued on, "And I know you've been dying to get to know me better."

At last he released the grasp around her shoulder, but just as soon as he left her shoulder, she felt him pinch her bottom. Hermione turned a furious shade of red and faced the boy, who was trying to give her a seductive smile, and slapped him as hard as she could.

"What the hell was that for!" Blake whined while cradling his face.

"You are a-a- disgusting pervert who obviously likes to feel girls up and try to get them in your bed! You should be ashamed of yourself!" Hermione started to yell at her fellow Gryffindor, "and I can't believe that the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor! You barely possess any Gryffindor qualities! You're more suited in S-"

Hermione had to stop herself, if she had said that Blake was more like a Slytherin, surely the Slytherin's who actually were sitting at their table would be offended deeply. Anybody's House compared with Blake would probably be ashamed.

"I was just joking around!"

"Arghh!"

Ginny couldn't help but laugh, and that caused the others who were sitting at the table with them, to laugh also. The brunette turned a bright shade of red, but when she glanced over at Draco, now sort of as a habit, she was surprised to see happiness gracing his facial figures. It almost took her breath away. Their laughters soon died away, and the particular Slytherin that Hermione was gazing at, turned to find the brunette blushing brilliantly. She was so embarrassed that Draco found out that she was 'glancing' at him.

"It's rude to stare," he whispered softly so that only she could hear him.

Hermione blushed brighter and more visible.

"Hermione! What's wrong with you?" Ron practically bellowed over the table.

"Ronald, I can hear you fine, so don't shout across the table! You're going to make me deaf," she scolded.

The red haired teenager muttered something incoherent, but nevertheless stopped his yelling.

Professor Dumbledore stood at one part of the Grounds and spoke loudly, "Students, I hope you have a good feast amongst your friends. And now… bon appetite!"

The wizened wizard slowly flicked his wand over the tables, and food immediately appeared in trays. As usual, Ron was staring lovingly at the food.

"Don't drool, Ron! That's gross!" Ginny Weasely cried out, taking notice to her brother's new affection to the food in front of them.

"Ha-ha, Gin. You're really funny," Ron sarcastically replied, but he started to pile enormous amount of food onto his plate.

Hermione chuckled while she too started to place food onto her plate. She picked up her fork and dug into her food. The brunette hadn't said a word while eating, so Draco took it upon himself to make her talk.

"Granger, if you ever hold a party, you're going to be a horribly boring host," Draco joked while playing around with his food in front of him.

The Gryffindor raised an eyebrow, "Really."

"Yes, really, and I'm sure Potter and Weasely, here might agree with me."

"Wha? Whoo?" Ron answered with food loaded in his mouth.

"That's disgusting," Ginny muttered to herself, and then decided to throw a roll at her brother.

"Oomph."

Harry laughed at his friend's face, which was contorted into funny expression. Hermione rolled her eyes rather noticeably and laughed, she soon stopped when she felt someone wrap their arm around her waist. She immediately thought it was Blake, since he had been harassing her earlier. The brunette threw a reproachful look at Blake, which he returned with a questionable glance since he was talking to Pansy. Besides, after what happened earlier, he was at least a foot apart from Hermione. Hermione looked down and noticed that the arm around her waist was strong and muscular; she immediately recognized it to be Draco Malfoy's. She started to inch away from his grasp, but it only caused to make him hold onto her stronger. The Gryffindor gave up and let him have an arm around her waist, in a protective manner, although it did make her uncomfortable.

Draco knew that he might have gone too far by putting his arm around Hermione's waist, but it was a chance that he was willing to take. He did feel her trying to move away, so he instinctively grabbed on tighter. After that, the brunette did nothing to move away from the Slytherin. He continued eating but with a smile on his face.

After dinner, the students were allowed to roam around the grounds for a span of about two hours. They all slowly got up. Ron groaned from eating too much food and Harry laughed. While Hermione started to stand up, she was still latched onto Draco's arm.

"Erm… Malfoy," Hermione mumbled so that the others couldn't hear her.

Draco looked at her questioningly, "What?"

Hermione didn't respond but just looked down at her waist that Draco was holding onto.

"Oh, yeah… er- sorry.."

He unwrapped his arm and the brunette was finally able to stand up. She stretched her legs by standing on her tip-toes.

"I wonder why Dumbledore's doing this," Hermione questioned out loud while the same group that had been sitting with them started to walk around the lake.

"Probably as a celebratory thing, you know, like yay-we-defeated-the-dark-lord-now-let's-party kind of thing," Ron responded happily and started to skip.

"You oaf, you look like a freakin' fairy," Ginny joked.

"I don't appreciate your criticisms," her brother exclaimed while he immediately stopped skipping.

"Constructive criticism is good for the soul, deal with it," the red haired witch growled.

"You two need to stop getting on each other's cases," Harry laughed while trying to separating the two Weaselys.

Hermione smiled, she then started to fall behind the happy group. The brunette deeply stared at the black shining waters of the lake. Quiet ripples were heard along with the soft chirping of animals in the forest and the wind that was softly blowing.

"Having any second thoughts?" a low voice interrupted the Gryffindor's thoughts.

"What!" the girl responded with shock.

"Are you starting to regret that you said yes to me?" Draco repeated.

"Why would I?"

"I dunno... have you ever had a feeling in your mind that this is wrong but right at the same time?"

"Erm... Malfoy I-" Hermione couldn't exactly respond to what the boy had just said to her.

"Or not." Draco muttered to himself when he saw the response that Hermione was giving him.

The two walked silently around the lake, now they were really far behind their friends.

"This is so awkward..." the brunette thought to herself.

"You know, you don't have to be around us, besides it sort of feels weird," Hermione confided to the blonde Slytherin.

Before Draco could protest, she kept going.

"I mean... we haven't been the best of friends until the war was over, well not exactly. We've been off until that... day," her voice slowly died out.

The Slytherin had a worried expression on his face. He wasn't sure himself why he was around her today.

"Granger, I'm not sure if I can explain fully why I'm around with you so much."

"You could always try," Hermione needed an answer.

Draco let out a sigh, how was he supposed to explain his ways to her when he doesn't know himself?

"We should save this topic for a later time. Now, we need to get back to our friends, they might get the wrong idea about us," the blonde grabbed Hermione's hand and started to run towards the group that were a good 15-20 feet away from them.

When they reached their friends, Draco didn't release his grasp on Hermione's hand. A few of them thought that they were officially together, but then Hermione pried the blonde's hand away from hers.

"Took you two long enough."

Ron decided to remind everyone that the two were alone and actually talking for a considerably long period of time.

"We weren't gone that long. Besides we were just talking about Head duties and things," Hermione waved off the subject.

Draco concealed his hurt expression on his face, it seemed as if Hermione was embarrassed that she was talking to him about something else that did not go anywhere near the topic of Head duties.

After a few more minutes, Dumbledore announced that it was time to get back inside the school and go back to their own Houses. Hermione immediately rushed over the Ginny and started to talk to her. Draco sighed and walked slowly back to the castle. Blaise was walked towards his blonde friend.

"You know mate, after you two got back from talking or something, I saw that look that was on your face. No matter how hard you try to hide it, we can still see it. Is there something wrong?" Blake cautiously, he didn't exactly want a very angry Draco yelling things in his face.

"I don't know," Draco raked his hand through his blonde hair, "It just seems to me as if she's embarrassed about what we were talking about while we were walking."

"I'm guessing you two weren't talking about Head duties," Blake sheepishly smiled.

"Do you think I would even want to talk about bloody Head duties? Hell no. I was just asking her…" he paused, "if she had second thoughts going to the ball with me."

"That's it?"

"It got a little personal towards the ending..."

"Drake, you've got to be kidding me. Okay, if it was personal, why would you think Granger would have wanted to tell the rest of her friends about what you two were talking about? And if she did say it out loud, wouldn't it be embarrassing for you?"

"Guess your right," Draco muttered.

"Now, go get her tiger. Make sure she doesn't have any regrets in going to the ball with you," Blaise slapped his hand on Draco's back.

"You're mental," the blonde Slytherin laughed while walking up the steps that led to the front entrance of Hogwarts.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Blaise and Pansy split off from the rest to go to the Slytherin's Common Room and Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Blaise walked off to Gryffindor's Common Room. Hermione and Draco started to walk silently to their own common rooms. The brunette turned at the corner where the Room of Requirements was located at, but Draco grabbed her by her hand.

"I'm pretty sure that both of us are going to be bored in our rooms, so if you don't mind... can you come over to my room?" the Slytherin looked into Hermione's eyes, pleadingly.

"Malfoy..."

"I'm not asking you to spend the night. We could just keep each other company since I'm sure that-" Draco was cut off by Hermione.

"Okay then, let's go," the brunette agreed but took back her hand.

When they reached the Head's Common Room, Draco muttered the password and went in, Hermione following behind him. It was the same as Hermione remembered it to be, the red and green couches, the beautiful mantle, and the stairs leading up to the rooms. Draco immediately sat down on one of the green couches; Hermione sat on a red one.

"Malfoy, I don't kn-"

"You don't have to say anything, its okay," the blonde silently whispered.

Hermione frowned; she saw no point in coming here if he wasn't even planning on talking to her. The Slytherin noticed and smiled faintly, he had to admit that he was missing the days when the brunette Gryffindor would be so angry and yell at him. Now, it was just awkward between the two of them, neither knowing what to say to each other. Especially after Hermione's parent's death, nothing has been going to the same as it used to be.

He got up from the couch, Hermione's eyes traveled up with him.

"I'm going to go change. Be right back," he nodded, turned around and walked up the stairs.

Hermione stuck out her tongue; it wasn't as if he could see what she was doing.

'Why does he even want me here? I don't know what to say, and I don't know what to do. And then he goes upstairs but before telling me that he's going to change into different clothes. Like I care what he's doing up there.'

"This is stupid," the brunette muttered, and stood up.

She cautiously walked towards the staircase; she suddenly remembered the day that she found the destruction in her old bedroom. Hermione shuddered, casted her eyes downward, but slowly, step by step, she walked up. She couldn't bring herself to go to her old room, so she walked slowly towards Draco's. When she reached the door, her hand was about to twist the doorknob open, but something in her mind told her to knock first, so she did. No answer. Hermione twisted the knob, and walked in, her head peering first to see if Draco was in a state that she wasn't supposed to see him in.

"This is … different," Hermione murmured to herself while walking fully in the green and silver clad room.

Hermione jumped up when she heard running of water faintly running from a sink or a shower. She laughed hesitantly to herself while placing a hand over her heart. She continued on to her little adventure of touring the young Malfoy's room. The brunette noticed a two row shelf filled with old and new leather bound books. She immediately walked towards the shelf and let her finger run across their spines. There were some interesting topics, although some of the genre included sports, such as Quidditch. She rolled her eyes and huffed, all guys were the same in one way or the other.

Hermione was too occupied with her thoughts to notice Draco open the bathroom door. He had washed his hair and a towel was draped over a shoulder, and his blonde hair was still slightly wet. Otherwise, he was wearing a black fitted short sleeve t-shirt and plaid pajama pants. Surprisingly, it was what a Muggle would wear. He couldn't help but smile at the sight before him. Something made him walk up behind her and wrap his arms tightly around her small figure.

The brunette hitched in a breath from shock. Somebody came up to her and was giving her a bear hug. The person then laid his head down on her shoulder.

'Don't panic, don't panic. It's just Malfoy... what the hell; he wouldn't do this, would he?'

She slowly turned her head around to find the cool grey eyed Draco Malfoy she knew for six years.

"What the he-" she was cut off by the cool lips of a certain Slytherin that gently touched hers.

A/N: (sigh) I wish a guy would just come up behind me and kiss me. :) haha.. yeah. Well, anyways... here are the excuses that you need to know.

1) My laptop's microsoft word thing expired and so I had to transfer this document to the downstairs computer. (i.e. my laptop only uses cd's instead of disks so I had to send it via email.)
2) Too bad that the downstair's computer's internet is crappy.
3) I even tried to just submit it in rough draft, but I couldn't do that to you guys.
4) The end of the school year was getting closer and everything was hectic. Since I'm going to highschool next year, we had to get all our forms in, study for our final exams and blah blah blah. And BAM it was the end of the school year. WOO HOO! and BOO HOO:P
5) My cousins came over from Lousisian YAY! And we all went on a cruise to the caribbeans. We visited Key West and Cozumel. WOO HOO! Dude the boat and our rooms were flippin ssssswwwweeeeettttt.

Before going on the cruise though, this guy that my uncle knew came along with my cousins (he came with his family too). And YES! He is a computer person so he fixed everything. And he put a new word thing so I can do it right here on my laptop.
Now... all I have to say besides all the reviews, I hope you liked this chapter. I have to tell you that it was hard for me to write since I've had an extremely long case of writers block, but then I had this idea about Hermione being kissed by Draco in an unexpected manner. And there you go, it's right up there, although I have to say, SORRY FOR THE CLIFFHANGER!

HERE ARE ZE REVIEWS FOR CHAPTER 11:

rowlinghermione - thank you so much. It's nice to know that my story is keeping you awake :) How was the skiing? Hope there's enough change for you in this chapter...
Seldom Darlin - Yeah, of course it's a girl's dream! I'm practically writing about what I would like to happen to me. Haha.. YES! I don't have skimpy chapters:P I hate it when the stories that I read have so short chapters, it drives me nuts. I try to follow jk and write super long ones, but sorry to disappoint on this one. Like I said above, blame my writers block please.
Silent Screams In The Night - I'm glad that you loved that chapter. Nowlove this chapter! I COMMAND YOU! haha.. I'm just kidding.
dracoshott28 - it's so nice to receive compliments on my story. yayyyyy hope you enjoyed this chapter
rizahawkeye21 - aww don't cry! And thank you very much that you liked this chapter. Sorry for not updating sooner, but I have another chapter coming up really soon.
kakashisninjadogs - I know I've said this a lot, but I seriously love your s/n it's very unique and your small dialogues are really funny! OH! OH! DID YOU LIKE THE WAY BLAKE WAS IN THIS CHAPTER? I'LL MAKE HIM EVEN MORE PERVERSE but that was all I could do in this chapter. And the angsty part isn't over yet, so just keep on waiting for the next chapters to come.
i take people's whits - : looks up : yes! she stopped! WOO HOO! go you! you love bon jovi too!

All right... so I have 91 reviews in total. That makes me really happy :) thanks for the support. Until next time...

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