Chapter 13

Five Minutes!

Hermione lay on her bed wondering what had just happened. Well, she knew what had happened; she and Draco had kissed. Yet, she didn't know what happened happened.

He's just getting me back for bumping into him…still, she thought, rolling onto her side. What a HORRID man.

Boy, she corrected herself. A man wouldn't have reacted the way Draco had.

She sat up and turned to her Hi-Fi. She had spent a lot of her summer listening to some muggle bands. They were obviously nowhere near as good as Wizard/Witch bands but they were ok. Her Mum and Dad thought it was great. They loved the fact that she was a witch once they got used to the idea, but she knew they got frustrated when they talked to their friends about what their respective children were doing in school, what subjects they loved and what they wanted to be when they grew up. By listening to muggle music, Hermione gave her parents something to talk to other parents about.

Hermiones' Mum: "She had Lacuna Coil blasting last night; I don't know how she listens to that music!"

Other Mum: "I know, my Jacks the same! Always watching that awful MTv."

She looked through her CDs (yet another wonderful muggle invention) and put one into the player. Litmusvinyl came soothingly out of the speakers.

She lay back down on her bed and closed her eyes.

Memories of her shared kiss with Draco flooded her mind.

Why did her do it? He was the one that initiated it…wasn't he? I should have pushed him away. WHY didn't I push him away?

The only conclusion she could come to was that she was weak after her stay in the hospital wing and her mind was tired from it all.

The rotten little snot took advantage of me she thought, finally drifting off to sleep.

She awoke late the next morning barely having time to shower before breakfast. She didn't see hide nor hair of Draco. Thank God, she thought, going down to breakfast. She didn't know how to act around him after last night. She was going to try and ignore him and hope he did the same.

Sighing, she sat down next to Harry.

"Morning Herm," said Harry, giving a sideways look at Ron. "How'd you sleep?"

"Here, have some toast." said Ron around a mouth full of porridge.

Hermione took the offered toast and began to nibble at it.

"Great," she said, hiding a yawn.

Harry gave Ron another of his sideways looks.

Ron swallowed his porridge and opened his mouth to speak.

"If you're going to ask me how I am, say I don't look like I've slept or talk about me in general…shut it." Hermione said before he could begin.

Ron, obligingly, shut his mouth.

Hermione reached for the orange juice, glancing around the hall. Her eyes fell on Draco. He was sitting, as usual, in-between Crabbe and Goyle. What was not usual was the fact that he looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep either. His usual pale face looked even paler and he had dark rings under his eyes. He looked up and caught her staring. He reached out for his glass, lifted it in a salute and turned away.

Hermione didn't know what to make of it so she just poured her orange juice and continued eating her toast.

All of Hermiones' morning classes passed without incident. Unless of course you would class Neville sprouting feathers in transfiguration, (he was supposed to change a pencil into a worm. Feathers? Go figure.) Seamus getting detention for tangling his wand in an unfortunate first years hair and then said first year giving him a black eye. It almost made her smile…except for the fact that Gryffindor lost 20 points and she was the one that had to take them. She was in two minds whether to take 20 points off the first year aswell or let her go with a warning. She had compromised and taken 10 points. The poor girls' hair was punishment enough and Seamus' black eye might make him calm down a bit for a week or so. Maybe. Nah.

Hermione was still pondering this when she walked into Potions class. She had let Harry and Ron go ahead of her incase she was late. She had an excuse…they didn't. She was beginning to wish she'd eaten more at lunch. Her stomach was growling and dinner was still a couple of hours away.

She opened the door to the potions class and was greeted with a room in chaos. Cauldrons were belching obnoxious green and black smoke; one was even spewing a rancid yellow gunk all over Neville. Poor Neville. She looked up to the top of the class and found Snape glaring down at her.

"Miss Granger," he drawled "I know that you are the apple of every teacher's eye, and could probably get away with being late for their classes, but I will not tolerate it."

Hermione was taken aback. She was only a couple of minutes late at the most.

"Professor," she began.

"Don't Professor me Granger!" Snape literally spat. "This is unacceptable!"

"But…I'm only five minutes late! I had Prefect work and I couldn't help it!"

Snape blinked slowly and grinned.

"Five minutes? Five minutes Granger?" he said incredulously. "I understand that a female's sense of timing is very different to the rest of the worlds but this is ridiculous."

Hermione stared blankly at him. It was only five minutes. She stopped to take points off Seamus and the first year, told Harry and Ron to go on without her, gave directions to a different first year and then…she…she came here.

Snapes' grin began to fade. He strode down the dungeon towards her.

"Miss Granger," he said stopping before her. "You have missed and entire double class."

As if to prove his point, the bell rang to signal the end of the day.

Hermione looked around her. Nobody moved. Everyone was too interested in what was going on. She glanced at Ron and Harry. They had identical worried looks on their faces.

"Wha…what's going on?" she stuttered. "I'm only five minutes late. I…I should only be five minutes late."

"What was the last thing you did Granger? Where were you?" Snapes' questions continued to fly at her and the class continued to stare. A few of the Slytherin girls were snickering and making stupid faces at her. The room began to swim. She could feel her legs begin to tremble.

Hermiones' mind reeled. She tried to remember getting to where she was…but her head began to pound. She remembered her head feeing weird on the way over...like she had cotton wool between her ears.

"I don't know." She breathed, passing out. The last thing she remembered was Harry and Ron rushing forward to catch her.

Draco looked down at the unconscious mudblood in his arms. He had no idea what had possessed him to stop her from cracking her know-it-all head on the stone floor but just like when she had fell off of his broom, he found himself unable to resist helping her.

He looked closer and saw that her eyelashes made a perfect fan against her pale cheek, her soft, silky, yet still mildly bushy hair spilled lazily over his arm.

With a rush of energy he swept her up into his arms and promptly nearly dropped her onto her know-it-all head as someone crashed into him.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing!" shouted Ron reaching for Hermione.

Before he could reply Snape stepped in.

"Mr. Malfoy, could you please bring Miss. Granger to my office. Although undesirable, it is the closest."

"Give her over Malfoy!" spat Harry through his teeth. "She wouldn't want you filthy hands on her. You probably did this to her aswell."

Dracos' jaw clenched.

"I didn't do anything to her. She just passed out. It was probably from seeing what a mess you made of a simple voice changing potion!"

Harry made a move to grab Hermione. Draco growled low in his throat.

"Just try it Potter." He said in a low voice that sounded nothing like his own.

Confusion flashed in Harry's eyes.

"Mr. Malfoy, I haven't got all day." Snape said through his nose.

Draco turned on his heal and headed off to Snapes' office. He was shocked. Why had he acted so protectively of Granger? She was a mudblood after all, not to mention Potter's friend! Just thinking about it made him what to drop the light wisp of a girl in his arms right where he stood…but again, he couldn't.

"What's going on?" he muttered under his breath.

Hermione woke up to the sound of voices.

Not again, she thought.

She opened her eyes slowly and was greeted by a pair of keen blue eyes looking down at her. Focusing, she realised that the eyes belonged to Draco Malfoy. Turning to look away, she also realised that she was cradled in his arms.

"What's going on" she asked in a small voice.

Malfoy blinked. What's going on? How in Merlin's name do I know!

"What? Miss Know-it-all doesn't know what going on?" he said scathingly. "You passed out, again. Not only did you pass out" he said, eyes narrowing, "I have to carry you to Snapes' office."

Hermione immediately began to wriggle in his arms.

"Would you stop that?" Malfoy said, easily containing her. "I'll put you down as soon as I get there. I'm not getting the blame if you pass out again and crack your skull."

Hermione slowly stilled in his arms. She didn't want to admit it but she was enjoying being held in his arms. His arms were firm without being bulky. She stifled a shudder at the memory of those strong arms wrapped around her.

What was she doing enjoying being held be Draco worm for brains? The thought of him being so close to her should be repulsive, yet she felt herself relax into his arms and lean into him more. His scent invades her senses.

He smells good, she though.

They reached the door to Snapes office and Malfoy reached out to open it. Hermione slipped forward and knocked her elbow against the hard wood.

"Sorry." Malfoy muttered.

He strode into the office and looked around. It was sparsely furnished. A desk, a chair behind the desk, a bookcase full to bursting point with books that had titles such as 'Potions in a Pinch' and 'Advanced Potions for the Advanced Practitioner', and shelves that were full of things Hermione didn't even want to know about.

Malfoy sat her down in the only chair and took the desk for himself, sitting directly in front of her. Hermione tucked her legs in under her, cold now that she didn't have Malfoys body to warm her. She glanced up to find him staring at her again.

"What?' she asked proudly. She just knew he was going to make some snide remark about her passing out again, or about her being a heavy cow. Steeling herself, she glared at him, awaiting his ridicule.

"Maybe you should have eaten more at lunch. Girls are always passing out because they're starving themselves." He said in a matter of fact tone.

Hermione couldn't have been more surprised if he had confessed his undying love to her.

"I…I had a salad." She mumbled.

"Like I said, maybe you should have eaten more." He replied.

Hermione nodded. What else could she do?

Draco shook his head in irritation. What am I doing, he though to himself. What do I care if she eats or not? Filthy mudblood!

He noticed Hermione was holding her right knee. He poked at it with his foot. She yelped and slapped his foot away.

"What happened?" he asked, looking around.

Hermione carefully set her feet back on the floor.

"I think I hit it when I fell." She said, giving his foot a wary look.

"No you didn't, I caught you before you had a chance to hurt yourself. Stupid mudblood." He added.

Hermione winced as she carefully raised her skirt to see the offending knee.

Malfoy also looked. It was, in fact, bloody and bruised. It almost looked as if she had scraped it somehow.

"Well I can assure you, that didn't happen when you passed out." He said, going to his knees to inspect the wound. It wasn't too deep, just a few gashes and scraped skin. A bruise was already staring to form.

He took a tissue out of his pocket and held it to the cuts.

Hermione wiggled. Malfoy glared up at her.

"Don't worry, it's clean." He said.

Hermione blushed. She hadn't moved because it hurt, she had moved because the feel of his hands on her leg made her feel funny. She squirmed again and held her breath as he moved one of his hands to her left knee.

Draco heard her inhale, and then hold her breath. It couldn't hurt that much he thought. Looking up at her, he was caught off-guard at the look on her face. She was pale, yet her neck was flushed. Kind of cute really, he mused. He followed the gentle heat of her neck to her mouth, plumper and redder than he had ever noticed…or bothered to notice. His gazed moved effortlessly over the rest of her face and came to a lazy halt on her eyes.

He remembered their colour from the night before, a delicious chocolate brown. Memories flooded back to him and he felt his own face flare with heat. He looked down at his hands and found that they had moved onto Hermiones thighs. The feel of her school skirt was rough under his palms, especially in contrast to her soft knees. He dared a fleeting glance up at Hermione and found her wide-eyed. Embarrassed, he moved to take his hands back.

Hermione didn't know what had gotten into her when she reached out and held Malfoy's hands in place. She knew it was wrong, and sick and a betrayal of Harry and Ron; she just couldn't seem to stop herself.

She reached out and made him look at her. His eyes were frightened and confused, but his hands were steady. Each breath they took seemed to bring them closer to each other. Hermiones heart was pounding so loudly she could hear it in her ears, feel her pulse beating wildly in her throat, like a caged bird trying to escape. Their lips were a hairs width apart. She could feel his breath mixing with hers. Closing her eyes, she braced herself for the rush that Malfoys' kiss brought her.

"Forgive me for intruding, but I was under the impression that Miss Granger was ill." Said Dumbledore from the doorway, eyebrows raised.

"It seems however," he grinned, "that I was mistaken."