1If you can see anything different in the writing style from this point on it's because this is where I stopped the story the first time around. It's been like a year, so my writing may have changed. Sorry if it has!

Chapter 9: Fascinated Kissing

Draco made his way through the crowded night club, eyes desperately searching for a glimpse of May. It was Wednesday night and he was desperate. Draco knew that if he didn't find his mystery girl he would lose his mind. Already he was slipping; it was only the third week of school and already he was behind in every class but Potions. Snape was giving him extensions.

Lucky for Draco the American mudblood had cancelled the animagus class that night and nothing had stopped him from going to the club. He didn't think that he could handle another failed transformation.

Draco had been losing sleep as well. His dreams were haunted by wolves and May's face. Very peculiar.

As Draco continued to explore the dance floor the music, some song by the Weird Sisters, cut off abruptly. There were loud groans from the crowd but they were stopped when the small stage at the back of the club lit up.

The club's usual band was setting up. The drummer was sliding into place as the guitarist and bassist slipped on their instruments. The guitarist stepped up to the empty microphone at the front of the stage and started speaking.

"Hi everybody," he said. "As some of you might know last week we lost our lead singer, but tonight we are happy to present someone new. This is her first show, so everybody give a round of applause for the lovely May!"

There was some scattered applause through the crowd. Draco's jaw had dropped.

"Hey," May said nervously. She appeared to be composing herself. The music started.

May was great. Draco had no idea what she was saying (A/N: I'm REALLY bad at song writing, hehe) but he could tell that her voice was incredible. It flowed over him like honey and he couldn't stop himself from dancing along with the rest of the crowd.

The music stirred feelings in him that Draco couldn't completely understand. He felt happy and sad depending on the tone of the song. Draco had never been so moved by music, or anything really, in his whole life. It was May's magic, working on him in yet another way.

The set lasted for about an hour. When it ended the crowd applauded loudly. Clearly May had earned her right to stay. Draco had made his way to the front of the stage and was clapping along with everyone else. That is, he was clapping until he saw May hug the guitarist. Over the other wizard's shoulder May met Draco's eyes and her happy expression seemed frozen in place. Maybe some of what Draco had been feeling had leaked into his face. He turned around and walked away.

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Hermione had dreaded this day. She had been excited and nauseous all at the same time. She was thrilled to be performing for the first time but the thought of baring her soul in front of all of those people was terrifying. Not to mention the added stress of Malfoy possibly being there. And then there was Tom… Hermione didn't know what to do about Tom. She liked him, but she didn't really think that she was interested in him. But he was in the band and she didn't want to hurt his feelings and screw everything up… To say the least Hermione was a bit of a wreck.

Jule had cancelled the class that night to give them extra prep-time, so Jule had been able to distract Hermione for a while at least. At dinner Hermione had been listlessly picking at her food when Jule had plopped down next to her.

"Yo!" Jule said loudly. Hermione jumped a bit. "My, my. Aren't we the nervous wreck this lovely evening?"

Hermione growled indistinctly.

"I'll take that as a yes," Jule decided. "What, aren't you excited to see your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend," Hermione snapped.

"Chill, man," Jule held up her hands in an attempt to placate Hermione. "I was just joking. Didn't he kiss you again at the practice though?"

"Yeah," Hermione muttered gloomily. "But I'm just not that attracted to him."

"Damn," Jule nodded. "I understand. He's not your type. No blond hair, no gray eyes. Totally wrong for you."

"I will stab you with this fork."

Jule's only response was to move backward a bit.

After several moments of awkward silence Jule decided to break the ice. "So anyway, let's go. You're not eating anyway and we need to sexify you for tonight."

"Mifk."

"I'll take that as an OK."

"Hrmf."

"Alright, let's just go."

Jule had practically dragged Hermione from the Great Hall up to the Head's common room. Malfoy was thankfully elsewhere.

Jule shoved Hermione onto her bed and dumped out the contents of her school bag. "Tonight we have a selection, since it's a special occasion," she proclaimed proudly.

Hermione shifted through the material briefly. "You choose, I think I need to lie down."

"Yay!" Jule pulled out a sleeveless black corset that buttoned up the back and a frilly black skirt that looked a bit like a tutu. "Put these on, ya bitch!"

"Aren't we peppy tonight," Hermione muttered before grabbing the clothing and walking into the bathroom. After she was dressed she had been forced to admit that she looked pretty damn hot. "Good choice," she begrudgingly admitted to Jule.

"You look sexy. Make-up time!"

"Seriously, what did you take today? You're kind of freaking me out."

"I just popped some amphetamines. No biggy. I get them for ADHD."

"Do you even have ADHD?"

"No, but my doctor doesn't know that," Jule laughed.

Hermione just shrugged and let Jule do her make-up. When she was done Hermione's hair hung in soft black curls down to her waist. Her skin was still tan and her lips were ruby red. Her eyes were outlined in black and she had silver glitter eye-shadow.

"Cool," she said into the mirror, still inspecting herself.

"Yeah, I am," Jule agreed. Here, put these on too." She handed Hermione a pair of black fish-net stockings. "That's hot," she added after Hermione had pulled them on.

As Hermione was putting her steel-toed boots on Jule changed too. She ended up wearing what looked to Hermione like a black and pink Tinkerbelle dress. Her make-up was pale and glittery except for bright pink lipstick and her hair was a pale purple pixie-cut.

"Cute but weird," Hermione commented. Jule blew her a kiss as her only response.

The girl's had flown to the club and been allowed in through the back door. The back door led to a small make-up room where the band got ready. Tom had given Hermione a warm hug before walking away to talk to the drummer, Jim.

At present Hermione was sitting staring into her hands as a Weird Sister's song played in the other room. She was feeling even more nauseous than she had all day when Jule sat down next to her.

"Are you okay?" Jule sounded uncharacteristically serious.

"I'm just nervous. What if they hate me?" Hermione whispered.

"For one thing they won't hate you. You're a hot chick with a great voice. And for another thing even if they did hate you it wouldn't really be you. It would just be May."

"I should probably be worried that you're starting to make sense to me," Hermione half-joked.

"I know, scary isn't it?" Jule grinned mischievously.

Just then the music blasting from the other room stopped abruptly. "This is it." Hermione stated as Tom introduced her.

"…applause for the lovely May!" Tom was saying as Hermione walked out into the main room of the club. The scattered applause didn't discourage her as she let herself fully slip into the persona of May. The disregard of the audience only fueled May's desire to prove herself.

Taking a deep breath Hermione started to sing.

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Almost an hour later the set was finished. The audience was cheering and Hermione's heart was beating so hard that she thought it would explode. She was flushed with an intense joy and pride and could do nothing but fling her arms around Tom.

Looking over Tom's shoulder at the crowd Hermione saw the person she had been dreading. Malfoy's gaze was glued to her face and Hermione felt herself being sucked in as her eyes met his. The look on Malfoy's face was a combination of pain, anger, and longing. Hermione could feel her smile freezing as she looked into the eyes of her enemy and found… pity. There was no hatred, no anger in her heart, but the intense desire to help the lost little boy she could see in Malfoy.

Then Malfoy was gone. It was so sudden that Hermione didn't even realize he was leaving until he was gone.

Tearing herself out of Tom's arms Hermione leapt off the small stage and practically ran through the crowd. Lucky for her it was so crowded that Malfoy had had trouble getting far. Unlucky for her the crowd was all over her.

Eventually Hermione fought her way out of the crowd and towards the bar. She was just in time to see Malfoy's blond hair disappearing through the front door of the club. Hermione ran after him.

By the time Hermione caught up to Malfoy he was almost a block away from the club.

"Hi," Hermione said awkwardly. Now that she had reached Malfoy she was beginning to realize that she had absolutely no idea what she was doing.

Malfoy whipped around in surprise. "What are you doing here?" He asked bluntly.

"Um, I'm not quite sure," Hermione admitted. "It's just; I saw you're face in there and… I don't know, I felt like I needed to talk to you or something. Like I owed you an explanation."

"What is there to explain?" Malfoy said bitterly. "You were just hugging your boyfriend or whatever."

"He's not my boyfriend," Hermione said quietly. "He's just my friend."

"Girl's like you can't have guys as just friends," Malfoy sneered.

"Are you calling me a slut?" Hermione gasped. Malfoy's face blanched.

"No, no, of course not," he hurried to assure her. "What I mean is, no man could be around you and only think of you as a friend. You're too beautiful."

"You'd be surprised how many guys are just my friends," Hermione said wryly. "Anyway, what I want to know is why you were so upset when you thought Tom was my boyfriend."

"I wasn't upset," Malfoy snapped back arrogantly.

"Don't lie to me Malfoy," Hermione snapped back just as arrogantly. "I saw your face. You really suck at hiding your emotions by the way."

"I wouldn't say I was upset," Malfoy, for once, was struggling for words. "More like disappointed."

"And why was that?" Hermione took a hesitant step towards Malfoy.

"Well…" Malfoy seemed to be leaning forward a bit.

"What?" Hermione moved even closer so that her chest was almost touching his.

For a long moment they merely stared at one another in silence. Hermione could hear his breathing, and noticed how they were somehow breathing in sync. For a second she almost suspected that she could hear his heart beating, it was so still. Leaning forward even closer, Malfoy drew in a long breath.

"You fascinate me," Malfoy whispered right before he kissed her.

Hermione shouldn't have been surprised. A blind idiot a mile away could have read their body language and expected the kiss long before it happened. Hermione shouldn't have been surprised, but she was. What surprised her most about the kiss was the fact that she liked it.

Malfoy's lips were like fire on her own, his hands hot on her back, crushing her body against his as they both opened their mouths and battled with their tongues. Hermione's hands were around his neck as Malfoy's hands were buried in her hair.

The kiss was long and intense and Hermione thought she might collapse by the time it was over. When at long last Malfoy did pull away Hermione had to keep her hands around his neck to keep from falling.

"I can't believe it's only been two weeks since I first saw you," Malfoy whispered. "I feel like I've known you all my life, May."

The sound of her alter-ego's name froze any warmth Hermione had been feeling. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized that she had just kissed Malfoy again.

"Er, I gotta go." Hermione gasped before she broke away from his grip and ran back towards the club.

Draco watched her go in heart-broken confusion.

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Tom was waiting for Hermione at the entrance to the club. His lips were pressed together tightly and he didn't say anything as he walked Hermione back to the dressing room. Clearly he had seen her and Malfoy kissing.

As soon as they were both in the empty dressing room Tom closed the door and gave Hermione a long look.

"May, can I ask you why you were just kissing Draco Malfoy?" Tom asked slowly.

"I'd tell you if I knew," Hermione said weakly.

"You don't know?" Tom seemed angry. "What about me? I haven't exactly been subtle May; didn't I make it obvious to you that I was interested?"

"Yes." Hermione whispered.

"Well couldn't you tell me that you already had something going on with Malfoy?" Tom yelled.

"Look, if you want to know the truth I met Malfoy once two weeks ago in this club. We kissed and I haven't seen him since. I didn't tell you anything was going on because I didn't know anything was going on. There's something strange between Malfoy and me, and I'm not exactly sure what it is. Chemistry or something." Hermione was angry by this point. "But even if I hadn't kissed Malfoy tonight I still would have had to have this talk with you eventually. I like you, but I'm not attracted to you. I'm sorry, but I can't change that and it's probably for the best because if things didn't work out then the whole band thing would be screwed up and it means a lot to me to have you as a friend!" By the end Hermione was nearly incomprehensible and panting. She justified some of the semi-truths about things with Malfoy by the fact that technically May had only met him two weeks ago and hadn't seen him since.

Tom was taken aback. It probably had never occurred to him the Hermione might not return his favor. "OK then." He said slowly. "I guess we can still be friends then."

Hermione was still catching her breath. "We can?" She gasped.

"Yes," Tom was calm again. "I can't force you to be attracted to me after all."

Hermione would never understand men.

A/N: OK, this is the first thing I've written in a really long time, so don't yell at me if it sucks. Um, hopefully future chapters will be more plotful, this chapter was just meant to kind of move things along between Draco and Hermione and to get rid of the threat of Tom. Um…. Sorry about no lyrics for the song, it's just I can't write songs for shit and I didn't want them to do a cover.

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Preview:

"Headmaster, I was wondering how much you knew about a girl named May Claremont."