CHAPTER18

The next morning Hermione woke up quite late. It was 15 minutes to midday when she looked at her alarm clock. Her mood was really good and the only negative point was that she was extremely hungry. Hermione remembered why she didn't have dinner yesterday but that didn't even spoil her happy attitude for the day. She quickly took shower, which was somehow cold but that didn't bother her either, and ran to her wardrobe. She chose her favourite dark blue jeans and a lavender t-shirt. She didn't really bother with shoes and put on her loyal snickers. She looked around her room and noticed a book lying on her table, the one that she bought for Harry. Hermione rushed to her owl's cage ("Probably Ally returned at night", she thought) and let the beautiful creature out and quickly scribed a Late Happy Birthday note for Harry, mentioning the book. She tied a bag with the book and the note to Ally's leg, lightening the burden with a charm, and the owl flew off with a hoot that said she understood her mission.

Hermione ran out of her room, nearly knocking over a startled maid that was making her cleaning rounds. The girls lightly sprang down the stair and literally flew to the food table. She gathered the yummiest and tastiest stuff on her plate and went off for a search of a table. She spotted Malfoy in the corner this time, alone of course. She felt a bit guilty about not thanking him the other day so Hermione thought that it would be okay if she joined him for breakfast.

"Hey, Malfoy", she said casually, walking to him.

"Granger… what brings you here?" he said with no real interest in his voice, in fact there wasn't any emotion there.

"Duh, food is what brings me here", she said, "And I also wanted… wanted to… thank you… for... for yesterday and everything…"

This time Draco looked up at Hermione. She was staring timidly at her filled plate without eating, her cheeks flushed rose pink and one wavy stripe of hair felt down on her face and she was biting her lip. "She looks really cute", Draco noted. But this time the inner voice didn't reply in any way. When Hermione looked back into his eyes, Draco felt a bit uncomfortable (if that was possible for a Malfoy of course). He muttered something like, "Don't mention it", and proceeded with his food. Hermione started to eat too. And the uneasy silence felt on the table.

"Get a grip on your self, Draco", he told himself, "C'mon, it's just a girl, mudblood, for Christ sake".

"Weird", said Draco, taking a look on Hermione's plate.

"What's weird?" she asked, following his glance.

"No, it's just…nothing, forget it", he said awkwardly.

"C'mon, what is it?" Hermione pressed on.

"Oh, well, it's just that you seem to eat so much and you are quite light, I mean your weight", he said.

"How do you know I am...? Wait, you actually carried me!" Hermione said with a look of amusement on her face.

"Well, how do you think did you got to your room? Fairy Godmother helped, huh?" said Draco sarcastically but you could detect a tiny little trace of pink on his pale cheeks. And Hermione noticed that. She giggled.

"Never thought I would see the day when Draco Malfoy blushed", she said through the giggles.

"I did not!" Draco protested hotly but he felt that he did blush in fact.

"Oh, yes you did, like I can't see that", said Hermione giggling even harder at watching the color rise a bit more.

"Well… well, that would be the first and the last time then", he said starting to laugh too.

"Why… ha ha ha… why are you… hee hee… laughing?" she uttered through her laughs.

"I… ha ha…. have no idea… hee hee hee", said Draco, trying to sound serious but failing obviously. That made the two laugh even more and for 10 minutes they simply couldn't stop.

When they finally managed to stopped Hermione said with a slight smile, "You are not as bed as I thought".

"You too", said Draco, smiling slightly as well, and, then realising what he just said, he stood up, "Umm, I… I gotta go".

Hermione looked a bit taken aback and disappointed by the sudden turn of things, "Oh… okay then, bye", she said.

"See you around, Granger", he said walking away from the table and making his way to the door that led to the Diagon Alley. He didn't know where exactly he was going, he thought about just wandering around as he always did.

Hermione watched him leave. Then she remembered about her food and ate quietly for sometime, thinking. After a couple of minutes she rose and left through the same door as Draco. She was going to the Weasley's Wizard Wheeze as she promised to visit Melody the other night. But when she reached the shop, through the window Hermione saw only Fred and George at the counter. Anyhow she went in to ask where Melody was.

"Hey, Hermo!" said Fred.

"What's up?" George added.

"Hey, guys! Where is Melody?" she asked.

"Oh, she'd taken two weeks off and went to Germany to take her sis. Did Melody tell you that she'll be studying in Hogwarts in Ginny's year?" said Fred.

"Em, no, she hardly mentioned her in our talk, in fact I don't even know her name", said Hermo, frowning slightly.

"Her name is Prue", said Fred as the matter of factly.

"Oh, and Melody said that she's very sorry she couldn't spend time with you the next few weeks but she hopes that you'll get together later and you'll meet her sis", said George.

"Ok, thanks", said Hermione a bit saddened, "I think I am gonna… go, okay?" She felt a bit rude saying that.

"Oh, we understand, don't worry… we know how boring it is to spend your quality time with old boys like us", said George in a grandpa cranky voice. Everybody chuckled.

"Ok, see you, guys later", said Hermione walking out of the shop. She didn't know what to do now. She thought of Malfoy but after a moment brushed the thought away. "Probably having fun with Pansy again", she thought. Hermione decided to go sit in a small garden she spotted yesterday. It was at the end of the Alley where there were almost no shops and it was really quite. "Good thing I remembered to take a book with me", she said to her self, sitting down on the farthest bench from the entrance of the park and looking around. The beautiful trees and flowers were in bloom. Everything was bright green with glimpses of red, yellow and violet f lowers, which gave out their wonderful fresh aroma of summer. Hermione breathed in, closing her eyes. "Heaven", she thought, opening her book.

But a she began to read she heard all too familiar voice behind her, "Mind if I seat down?"