SEVEN

Thursday, 4 September 1944

They had stayed in the library way past curfew the previous night. He had helped her shelve a few more memories and then she retreated into her own mind to practice on her own. He had dozed off in his chair while reading a book. They made it back to their dorms miraculously without getting caught.

The next morning, Hermione found herself up early again, but this time after getting ready, she went back to her bed and brought out the book she used to communicate with Malfoy. She wrote to him letting him know that she was up and wanted to go to the common room. She was glad when she didn't have to wait long for his response.

She gathered her things and ventured out to find him already perched on one of the black leather sofas. "Good morning," she said, taking a seat next to him.

"Morning."

"Did you sleep okay?"

"Better than last night. How's your head?"

"A little sore."

He sighed. "You did more when you got to your room, didn't you?" Her answer came in the form of wide eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "You have to allow yourself time to rest, Granger. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how well you're doing, you won't be able to lock that door."

"Okay."

"Promise me you won't push yourself."

"I already said okay!" she snapped and then wrinkled her nose upon her own outburst. "Sorry. I promise I won't burn myself out."

He nodded and then got to his feet. He extended a hand to her and pulled her to her feet as well when she took it. "Come on, we have some time before breakfast. I need some fresh air."

They didn't stray far; only going to the courtyard where he had once been turned into a ferret. Hermione smiled to herself, but didn't say anything as she knew he was still haunted by it. They sat on the first bench they could find and Hermione took in a deep breath of fresh air.

As she looked around, the silence slowly turned to distant sounds of battle. She could hear screams, curses, and shouts. The courtyard before her eyes twisted and turned until images of broken bodies and blood took shape.

She jumped as Malfoy filled her vision. He was on his knees in the grass before her with his hands firmly grasping hers. He was staring up at her as if he knew what she saw. She concentrated on him and slowly, the courtyard returned to normal in her periphery.

"What if there's nothing left to go back to?" she heard herself ask.

"There will be."

"And if there isn't?"

He sighed and got to his feet, pulling her up with him, but not letting go of her hands. "Granger, I need you to breathe. Don't think about the future. Just concentrate on the here and now okay? We haven't even had breakfast yet."

She saw the wavering smile of his lips and found herself transfixed on them. She found herself wondering why they looked so fascinating and why she wanted to know if they were as soft as they looked. She wondered if they had looked this tantalizing each time he hurled that slur her way or if this was something new. Her tongue darted out to wet her own lips and slowly let her gaze lift to his eyes.

He was watching her with a curious expression. The moment she met his gaze, she felt the heat rise to her cheeks and pulled herself away from him. She smoothed the front of the robes and tucked her hair behind her ears more than once. "They should be serving breakfast now," she said and turned away without waiting for him.

Hermione regretted signing up for Defense the moment the lesson began. She had been glad for automatically adding it to her roster initially and when she met Riddle, she was glad to keep up her learning of the subject. But the first thing out of Professor Merrythought's mouth was, "Has anyone been involved in a duel outside a controlled learning environment?"

As a natural reaction, Hermione's hand shot into the air and Malfoy's barely lifted off the desk. Realizing what she had admitted, she yanked her hand back down and stared at her desk. Images of every life-threatening situation she'd been in over the years flashed before her eyes in a matter of seconds.

"It is no easy task," Merrythought said, giving them a sympathetic smile. "Have you faced Unforgiveables?"

Hermione nodded slowly.

"I'm not going to ask you about the details; if it wasn't a controlled exercise, I'm sure it was traumatic." She turned her attention to the rest of the class. "This year, as NEWTs approach, the lessons will be more practical application than inches of paper. You will switch partners often as you will never face the same person more than once in the real world. In most cases anyway. Today we will continue our work on forum and movements, just like Charms. Next week we will begin dueling. Partner up."

As students partnered up around them, desks began to move out of the way. They found a corner of the room and stood to face each other. "Great, now I get to listen to you tell me about how my form is off," Malfoy teased.

"Well, I have seen you disarmed more than once," she informed him with a small smile of her own. "Maybe you could use a few lessons on form."

"I'm a Malfoy. We ooze graze and poise. I assure you, there is nothing wrong with my form," he said, holding his wand out as if to hurl a spell.

"Not bad," she praised and did the same.

They stood there for a moment with their wands pointed at one another. Hermione's breaths began to come in uneven waves as she thought about the Manor.

He lowered his wand and reached out to lay his hand over hers. Gently he brought her hand down as well and waited until she was breathing normally again before he stepped back.

"I don't think you and I have ever actually dueled," he said.

"I wouldn't say that."

"Breaking my nose twice doesn't count as a duel," he replied.

"Then what would you call it?" she asked, a smirk on her lips.

"A cheap shot."

She snorted loudly, attracting a little attention from nearby pairs of students. "How so?" she asked, crossing her arms.

His eyes widened in disbelief. "How so?" he repeated. "The first time-"

She rolled her eyes. "You clearly didn't take the threat of my wand seriously enough," she said, raising it up to his throat in demonstration. This time, instead of cowering in fear like he had in Third Year, he just went still and watched her carefully. "You just had to gloat when I turned away so I punched your pretty little face." She lowered her wand. "Maybe that was a cheap shot, but it felt really good."

"You thought my face was pretty?" he asked after a moment.

She rolled her eyes again. "Is that really what you're focusing on here?"

"It is a rather good-looking face."

"And yet so easily ruined when you speak."

They stared at one another and Hermione felt butterflies swirling up a storm in her stomach. She realized what she was doing. Flirting. With Draco Malfoy. In class of all places. She cleared her throat and turned her shoulder to him so she could practice her form towards the wall.

He moved to be right behind her. Her body stilled as she felt his right arm stretch out to meet hers. He adjusted her arm slightly while using his knee to nudge at her stance. "Tell me, Granger," he breathed in her ear. "How long have you considered my face pretty?"

Her throat had gone dry and she did her best to ignore him.

"If memory serves you called me foul and loathsome," he continued. His fingers drifted up her arm and she shivered. "When was that no longer the case with you?"

She tore herself away from him only to whirl around and face him. "You still are a foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach, Malfoy," she hissed. "But I never said you were physically unattractive. Just your personality. Which overrides anything else about you."

His reply was cut off by Professor Merrythought announcing to the class that they were to practice a series of hexes at their targets. As she said named the hexes, the dummies appeared before each partnered couple.

They said nothing but the hexes for the remainder of the lesson and by the time it was over, the dummy was nothing but dust and rubble on the classroom floor.

Neither of them spoke as they went to the library afterwards. For the hour that he was there with her before Ancient Runes, they threw themselves into research. When he left for class, she had taken a much-needed deep breath of relief and closed her books. Alone, she focused on her thoughts and filing them away into little books on shelves like he had taught her.

Her solidarity didn't last long as Agnes slid into the chair across from her. "Is it okay that I sit here?" she asked.

"Of course," Hermione replied.

"That was some display back in Defense," she said, a smirk on her lips.

Hermione sighed. "I got a little carried away with the hexes," she admitted.

"Not that," she laughed with a wave of dismissal. "Of you and Draco."

Hermione flushed and played with the parchment on the desk. "I don't-"

"I thought for sure you'd snog him right there in front of everyone. What's it like?" she asked, leaning forward, a dreamy look in her eyes. "The snogging. If the two of you have that kind of passion for the other I can only-"

"It's fine."

"Fine?" There was doubt in Agnes' eyes and Hermione had to look away. She reminded her of Ginny with her right to the point questions and blunt approach. "There was way too much passion-"

"It's not like that," Hermione protested.

Agnes' eyes went wide. "Have you two not…"

"No." It took all of Hermione's self-control not to make a face at the thought of shagging Malfoy let alone kiss him. It took even more concentration to squash the inner most curiosity at the thought. She wasn't sure which bothered her more; the repulsion or the discovery that it might not be.

She cleared her throat and smiled at Agnes. "To be honest, I've always thought him the world's biggest prat. We were around each other all the time because of our parents, but we couldn't stand one another. He kissed me at the end of the school year and I punched him because I thought it was a joke. He wrote to me all summer trying to convince me that it wasn't. I told him to prove it. To come to Hogwarts with me for Seventh Year, stop being a prat, and that maybe I would consider."

Agnes' eyes were wide as saucers as she ate up every bit of the lie. "Oh, Merlin! You haven't even snogged him properly, have you?"

Hermione shook her head.

"When you do, please make sure to tell me how utterly epic it was! Oh! Please share this with Kalista and Gertrude. We can even help give you some privacy if you'd like," she said, eyes blazing with mischief. "Just say the word and the dorm will be all yours when you need it."

Hermione blushed again and cleared her throat. "That's a long way off, I think."

"After that display I highly doubt it." Her smirk made Hermione's stomach flip again.

"Where are you going?" she asked as Agnes scrambled to her feet. "You just got here."

"I know, but I've just thought of something. I'll see you later, Harmony!"

Hermione watched her leave the library in a flurry and sank back in her chair. She closed her eyes and let her head hang over the back of the chair. She had no idea why she had said any of that to Agnes and now she had to relay the story to Malfoy so that they could guard themselves against whatever it was that Agnes had clearly stormed off to plan.

And then she caught herself thinking of what it would be like to kiss Malfoy. She wondered what his lips would feel like pillowed against her own. The way his hands would feel as they tugged at her hair. She wondered if his hair was as soft as it looked and bit her lip as she fingers curled with the want to see for herself.

Realizing that she was fantasizing about kissing Draco sodding Malfoy, she straightened herself in her chair, filed that thought into a book, and sent it hurtling towards the dark recesses of her mind. After, she cracked open the book on time travel again and devoured the words on the pages before her. They needed to get home before either of them did something stupid.