Chapter 12: Too Close For Comfort
Three weeks had passed since Draco admitted to himself that he had a crush on Hermione, which was a concept he had now gotten used to. But he was now finding it difficult to not be so nervous around her.
Whenever he was around her, he couldn't speak for some reason, and would sometimes stutter over his words when he did say something. He would feel a boiling rush of emotion tingling in his body and his heart would start pounding rapidly against his chest whenever he looked at her if he talked. So he tried to avoid looking at her when he did say something as he knew it was a distraction.
There was even an incident in class where he accidentally dropped his quill on the floor. As he bent down to get it, his hand brushed against Hermione's thigh, sending the familiar goose bumps up his arm. He sat back up, heart pounding madly and edged away from her a bit, feeling his face go red in embarrassment, which she somehow didn't notice.
In the classes where he wasn't sitting next to her, he found himself staring at her when he didn't have any work to do. He also did this at mealtimes and in the common room when she was reading a book.
By some miracle, Hermione didn't seem to notice his strange behaviour towards her which he was thankful for.
Hermione, meanwhile, was glad that Malfoy wasn't insulting her as much anymore and had completely stopped calling her a 'Mudblood'. In fact the only most insulting thing he said in the weeks following him being back to normal was, "stop being such an insufferable know-it-all, Granger."
She didn't take much offence to this as she used to being called that and had learnt to ignore it. She actually found it peaceful that Malfoy hardly ever talked, but wondered why he would stutter sometimes. Or wouldn't even look at her.
After awhile, Draco was still trying to avoid Hermione, but it was difficult considering they shared a dorm, were in the same classes and had duties as heads to fulfil. The only time they weren't together was at mealtimes, when Draco would be sitting at the Slytherin table, and when he was in bed. Of course even then she haunted his dreams with the same nightmares he had been having since the start of term.
He wanted to figure out what they meant and at the same time find Lucius. Draco knew these nightmares related to him and that they might be telling him what was going to happen in the future. Of course he didn't want them to come true and hoped to hunt down his father soon - but he hadn't had any luck so far.
Victor Hanson hadn't got back to him since sending him the information they had about Lucius, so that meant they hadn't had any leads on him either. This was frustrating Draco a lot and he wanted nothing more than to leave Hogwarts and go to hunt Lucius himself.
But he knew he couldn't do that. As much as Narcissa wanted him to find out if Lucius poisoned her and give him hell for it, she wouldn't want her son to abandon his education.
Not that he was doing well in his education these days with Hermione, and thoughts of her, distracting him.
Draco wondered how long it was going to take until he cracked and admit his secret desire for her. He knew he could never tell her as she would probably yell at him and punch him in the face like she did in third year. It would scare the hell out of her when she found out and quite frankly, Draco couldn't blame her. So, for that matter, he vowed to himself that he would wait until maybe she trusted him better to make his move.
But that all changed on one Friday afternoon, three weeks after he started liking her and three weeks before the ball.
Dumbledore had told the Heads that he wanted them to put Christmas decorations up at least three weeks before the ball, and had allowed them to be out of class to do so. Usually, Draco wouldn't care if he was missing out on a class especially since it was Herbology they were missing out on, but he would rather be there than putting up Christmas decorations.
It wasn't like he was ashamed of being with Hermione, but there was one little problem. One of the decorations they had to put up was mistletoe … and by tradition, if you're standing under the mistletoe with someone, you're supposed to kiss them. Because Draco was head over heels for Hermione at the moment, he was afraid of being under the mistletoe with her. Not that there was anything wrong with kissing her (he wanted to anyway), but he was afraid of her reaction.
But there they were, in a deserted corridor on the second floor, sticking tinsel on the walls. Draco tried to concentrate, hovering the tinsel in the air while Hermione stuck it on the wall with a Temporary Sticking Charm once he had levelled it. He couldn't help, but notice her face as she concentrated on sticking the tinsel perfectly on the wall and flicked her wand with such flourish and grace. He didn't think that anyone was able to flick their wand the way she did.
As Draco was too busy staring at Hermione, his wand was pointing in an entirely different direction and the tinsel that he was hovering came flowing down onto the floor.
"Shit!" Draco cursed. He tried to cast Wingardium Leviosa on the tinsel, but failed. His hand seemed to be shaking for some reason and he couldn't hold his wand steady. Although he knew quite well what that reason was.
"Here, let me do it," Hermione spoke up, noticing that he was having trouble levitating the tinsel. "Wingardium Leviosa." She waved her wand in a smooth motion and set the tinsel flying back in the air and hovered it near the wall. "Can you stick it to the wall, Malfoy?"
"Oh sure," he muttered, waving his wand and the tinsel stuck to the wall in place.
"Thank you," Hermione replied, stepping back to admire the decorated wall. "I think it looks really nice now - in my opinion. Now then, how about putting up the hollies?"
Draco also admired the wall, but didn't answer to what Hermione said. He had to admit, the wall look much better with coloured tinsel instead of just being the bare brown wall it usually was, and he was proud of the fact that they were able to work together to put it up without any arguments.
Draco glanced over at Hermione who was remerging through a box to find the hollies. He went over to her and fiddled through the box as well.
"These are hollies, aren't they?" he quietly asked, when he found some sort of decoration with three dark green leaves and what looked like red cherries in the middle of the leaves.
Hermione looked up and saw he was holding up the hollies. "Um, yeah, they're hollies."
Draco looked at them and frowned slightly. "Why are they called hollies?" he wondered out loud.
Hermione shrugged. "Don't know really. All I remember about hollies is that you're supposed to – as they say in a Christmas carol – deck the halls with holly."
Draco stared blankly at her. "Huh?"
"Don't you know Christmas carols?" she asked, looking slightly amused. He shook his head. "Well this particular carol goes something along like this … deck the halls with boughs of holly fa la la la, la la la la … it's the season to be jolly fa la la la, la la la la."
She went red as she finished singing. "Sorry, I'm not that good at singing. Don't you sing carols at Christmas time?"
"No. Father's not into singing carols, let alone anything," Draco answered, getting up and wondering where he should hang the hollies.
"Hang them in between the tinsel," Hermione called, as if she read his thoughts, remerging in the box again.
"Right. You're not bad at singing, your voice is beautiful," he muttered under his breath as he levitated the hollies to hang in between the tinsel.
Draco sighed to himself, wondering how he was going to eventually make his move before any guy took her to the ball. Well once they found out about it, Dumbledore hadn't announced it or put up posters about it yet. But he still wasn't sure whether or not he should take her, officially.
Sure they were dancing together first, but that was only one song. And he wasn't going to risk Lucius finding out. Well let's just say that Draco was confused as hell at the moment.
As Draco hovered the last holly up he heard a couple of people laughing in the distance and someone say, "Did you see the way he fell down the stairs screaming like a lunatic? What a loser!"
"That was a classic,Samson, really brilliant."
"Why thank you. That was brilliant, if I don't say so myself."
Slytherins, Draco thought, recognising that the voices were of people from his house. He stuck the holly on the wall and started to walk back to where Hermione was. The Slytherins had drawn level with her, and were taunting her.
"What are you doing Mudblood? Shouldn't you be in a special class for filth like you?" a girl's voice spat in disgust.
Draco shuddered at the word 'Mudblood,' having hating the word since he found he didn't like his father's views on them. He thought of going up to the Slytherins and giving them a piece of his mind, but it seemed that Hermione was already doing that.
"Shouldn't I be asking you why you lot out of class? Lessons don't end for another half an hour and you're wondering around the corridors?"
"Why are you out of class, Mudblood?" said another Slytherin, this time a boy's voice.
"I happen to have permission to be out of class as I'm Head Girl. You lot don't have permission and so I'm going to have to report you."
"Ah yes, I forgot. Mudblood Granger is Head Girl. That's why the school has gone to the dogs this year."
"Oooh, is goody two-shoes Granger going to run off to high mighty Dumbledore and report us for merely walking around?" the Slytherin girl mocked in Hermione's voice. "I'd liked to see you try!"
"You have no authority over us, Mudblood. Even though you are Head Girl, Slytherins still rule over Mudbloods as we're all Purebloods. That is a fact that will never change."
Draco curled his fists in anger at how disrespectful they were being to her. He didn't forget that he was once in their shoes, doing the same thing to her. But he was better than that now and they worked together. He wasn't going to stand there as they continued to tease her. If he was ever going to prove to her how much he really changed, he had to stand up for her. Even if it was in front of students from his own house.
"So, that makes me more in charge of you lot," he spoke up, stepping out of the shadows to face the Slytherins.
The Slytherins had their backs to him and they whipped around at the sound of his voice. Hermione merely looked stunned at his arrival, but didn't know whether he was there to stick up for her and punish them or joining in on their jeering at her.
Draco recognised the Slytherin threesome consisting of two boys named Samson and Welsh, and the girl, Frasier,who were fourth years. He remembered threatening them back when they were in first year, and these days they were nothing but trouble. Today was no exception.
"Why, Malfoy, what a surprise, you're sticking up for the Mudblood Head Girl," drawled Samson, not at all frightened of the tall seventh year. "What are you doing out of class yourself?"
"In case you haven't notice, Samson, I'm Head Boy and I should be asking you why you lot aren't in class? You didn't answer Granger's question."
"Because we just don't feel like listening to McGonagall for an hour," Frasier answered, rolling her eyes. "So we decided to skip class and curse the gargoyles!" She laughed in a menacing way. "And as if we would listen to what the Mudblood says!"
Draco frowned at them darkly. "Well, you know what I think? I think I should punish you lot for skipping class, and I don't care what class it is," he added, as he saw the looks of horror on the fourth years' faces. "You're wasting your education and your parents' money if you skip class."
"You wouldn't dare punish us," Welsh snarled, folding his arms.
"Watch me," Draco threatened, pointing his finger at them.
"Ooohh … so now Malfoy tries to take responsibility over us, hey?" Samson mocked as his two companions sniggered, "I never thought I would see the day when he would take points off his own house."
"Twenty points from Slytherin," Draco snarled, making a move to take out his wand. "Each."
The fourth years gaped at him in shock. They looked at each other and wicked grins crossed their face. "Oh … I don't think so," Frasier drawled with an evil glint in her eyes. "Boys, would you do the honours?" She clicked her fingers as if she was ordering them.
In one quick motion, Samson and Welsh rushed forwards and grabbed Draco under the armpits and started to drag him down the hallway.
"Hey! Let me go!" Draco protested, trying to wedge out of their grip, but their strength put together overpowered his.
Samson opened the door to a broom cupboard and both boys threw Draco in unceremoniously in the darkness. Draco tumbled in and banged his shoulder against the wall and knocked over a few buckets and brooms.
"Take his wand!" Frasier called, and Samson quickly grabbed Draco's wand from his robes before he could react. "Now then, what shall we do about the Mudblood?"
"I reckon she should be in there as well," Welsh answered, running back down the hallway after Samson. "Come on, Mudblood."
"Hey, let go of me! I will report you!" Hermione screamed as the boys dragged her over to the cupboard.
They threw her in as well and she landed on top of Draco, sending shivers up his spine at the contact. She quickly got off him and ran to the door just as the Slytherins slammed it shut in her face. She banged on it rapidly and yelled, "Open up!"
Draco pushed her aside and tried to break it down with his shoulder and his foot, but it wouldn't budge. He rapped on the door loudly. "Open this door right now or you'll get detention too!"
The Slytherins laughed in response and he heard them walk away.
Draco swore loudly and sank down to the floor. "They are so going to get it later."
Hermione stared at him in disbelief. "Did you just try punishing them?"
Draco raised his eyebrows, but didn't look at her. "I think I just did or at least tried to. Should have known they wouldn't have listened to me, but I tried anyway."
Hermione gave him a small smile which he didn't notice. Finally he's trying to take responsibility as Head Boy, and not favour his house, she thought, her smile growing slightly wider. Maybe turning him into a small human really did do him some good. But then her face turned back to anger as she remembered where they were now, because of his new found responsibility.
"Well thanks a lot, Malfoy!" she snapped, frowning at him and wishing he would actually look at her. "Now look where we ended up!"
Draco jumped at her harsh words and glared at her. "Hey, I was trying to do what you've wanted me to do since day one, okay? You should be thanking me that I tried!"
"Yeah, well now look where we've ended up!" Hermione shouted, folding her arms. "We're locked in a cupboard with no way out!"
"I didn't make them put us in a cupboard, Granger! And surely you can unlock the cupboard as you have a wand!"
"They took my wand before they dragged me to the closet, Malfoy!" she snapped angrily. "And you don't have a wand either, so we're stuck here unless you have some kind of solution?"
"I could try breaking down the door again," Draco suggested, seeing that was the only way out. "Stand back, Granger."
Hermione obeyed as Draco backed up to the back of the cupboard to take a little run up. It was useless to do so as the cupboard was very small and there was a small uncomfortable gap between him and Hermione.
He ignored this and ran up to the door shoving his right shoulder against the door. It didn't budge and Draco went back to try again. It still didn't budge and his shoulder was now throbbing in searing pain. He gasped out, holding his shoulder with his left hand and slid down to the floor.
"Well, that worked perfectly fine," Hermione said sarcastically. "Does your shoulder really hurt?" she asked in a somewhat kinder voice.
Draco only nodded in reply as he was still gasping in pain. It took awhile for the pain to subside and Hermione just paced back and forwards in the meantime. "How are we going to get out now?" he finally managed to ask, still not looking at her, but instead staring at the door.
"Well, we're just going to have to make a lot of noise and wait for someone to hear us and let us out I suppose," Hermione huffed, sitting down on the floor. She looked at her watch. "Twenty minutes until lessons end."
Draco groaned silently to himself. Twenty minutes he was going to be stuck with Hermione in a small area. He was surely going to crack eventually, with being this close to her, and do something stupid.
Hermione, meanwhile, couldn't believe she had to be stuck with ferret boy in a cupboard that was very small. She could almost touch him if she moved a couple of inches.
Though she had to admire the fact he had tried to punish people from his house, which would have been very hard for him to do, and would have taken a lot of courage to do so. She couldn't help, but think maybe he had stepped in, to stand up for her. She shook this thought away though. He would never do that - he hated her.
To the both of them, twenty minutes was going to be a long time to wait.
"Hey Harry, where's Hermione?" Ron asked, when he had finished copying down Spourt's notes on "How to recognise a Devil's Snare" from the board.
"She's putting up Christmas decorations with Malfoy," Harry answered, finishing as well and putting his quill down. "She told you she was going to do with him at lunch time. Why are you asking?"
"I was just wondering," said Ron absent-mildly, flicking through his textbook. "I hope she's okay. I really don't trust her with Malfoy."
"I know, Ron; you've said that every day since the start of term."
The bell rang and the class gathered their stuff and headed out of the classroom, relived that it was the end of the day. Classes usually ended at four-thirty on Fridays, much to everyone's relief. Harry and Ron walked back to the Gryffindor common room and went to get started on the weekend's homework for once. Hermione would be pleased with them later on once she heard of this, that was for sure.
A couple of minutes later, their sudden motivation to do their homework was list when Ginny and Felicity walked into the common room, arguing. Both Harry and Ron stopped to listen into their argument, deciding their squabble was much more interesting than the Draught of Living Death.
"I tell you I heard her calling for help! It sounded like she was stuck in a cupboard or something!"
"Flick, you're being ridiculous! You must be hearing voices again, because I certainly didn't hear her calling."
"I'm not hearing things!" Felicity yelled, stamping her foot in frustration. "I heard her and that scum banging on the door and yelling out over the noise in the corridor. Surely you must have heard it as well as me, you have good ears!"
Ginny stared blankly at her, not uttering a word. Clearly, she didn't believe what her best friend was saying.
"Ugh, you still don't believe me!" Flick exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "Forget it! I'm going to get to the bottom of this, believe me! I'll prove to you that I'm not hearing things!"
She then turned around and stormed out of the portrait hole, slamming it behind her. Ginny growled in frustration and stalked off to the girls' dormitories.
"What was that about?" Ron asked in bewilderment. Harry only shook his head in reply. Their argument, in his opinion, did not make sense at all. Only Hermione would be able to figure out what they were talking about.
Where was she anyway?
Felicity climbed out of the portrait hole and started running back to where she thought she heard Hermione's voice coming from a broom cupboard. She was quite sure she had heard the Head Girl's voice yell out, just over the loud chatter of the crowd of students heading out of classes. Flick had tried to get over to the cupboard in question, but Ginny had dragged her away, complaining that her bag was getting heavy and that it was just two students playing a prank.
Yeah right! Ginny should have known better, Flick thought sarcastically.
She ran down a few flights of stairs when she suddenly tripped and came crashing down to the bottom of the stairs on the third floor. She got up, swearing loudly and heard snorts of laughter from the flight above her. She rolled her eyes and glanced up to see three fourth year Slytherins, two boys and a girl sniggering at her. "Oh very funny midgets! Shoot a tripping spell when you see the next Gryffindor and almost make them break their necks! Real witty."
"Well I thought it was," said the girl, tossing her black hair over her shoulder and shooting daggers at the Gryffindor sixth year.
"Where were you going anyway? There's no such thing as a 'rock gig' at Hogwarts if you haven't learnt that by now hippy!" yelled one of the boys.
Felicity frowned as they laughed again, wondering how the boy knew what a hippy was. She decided to ignore the comment and keep walking.
"Hey don't walk away from me, bitch!" the girl snapped, pointing her wand in Felicity's direction and making her trip again. "You didn't answer our question!"
"Well I don't have to answer your stupid question, you bloody bitch!" Felicity retorted, as she got off the floor. "Now if you excuse me, as much as I enjoy being in your company, I have to save a friend who's stuck in a cupboard!"
For some reason they dissolved into more fits of laughter and couldn't stop for awhile. Is that all Slytherins can do when they've done something that seems evil? Felicity thought irritably as she waited for them to stop.
Finally the girl was able to speak. "You mean you're friends with Mudblood Granger?" she asked, hiccupping slightly.
"Yes … wait, what the hell have you done to her?" Felicity yelled, getting worried and very angry at the same time.
The same boy who spoke before answered. "Why nothing, hippy...we didn't kill her if that's what you mean. We just locked her in a broom cupboard with Malfoy and took their wands. They've been there for ages!" They started to giggle again.
So Hermione is in a cupboard and that's how she got there, because of these three brats! And – OH GOD! MALFOY IS WITH HER? BLOODY SLYTHERINS! THEY WILL PAY!
"Why, you little -" Felicity started to shout, taking out her wand, but was interrupted by a cold sneering voice behind her.
"My, my, goody-goody Miss Higgins thinks its okay to curse in front of minors. Very naughty. Twenty points from Gryffindor."
The Slytherins jeered in glee of Felicity losing house points and that they had contributed. Felicity growled and curled her fists in anger. She hated Professor Snape so much.
"But sir," she protested, shooting furious looks at the Slytherins, "they've locked up Hermione and Malfoy in a broom cupboard and took their wands from them!"
"Honestly, Professor Snape, why would you believe a word of what she says?" asked the girl innocently, trying to put on a puppy dog face. "Why would we lock Malfoy in a cupboard with the Mudblood? It seems highly wrong on so many levels to do so."
Snape looked from Felicity to the Slytherins and back to Felicity again. His shifty gaze was creeping Felicity out as she had the feeling he could read minds sometimes. Although, in this case she hoped he could then he would know she was telling the truth. Sure enough, he turned and frowned at the Slytherins.
"Detention," he ordered sternly. The Slytherins' grins faded as quick as using Scongifly, and they protested in anger.
"But, sir, it wasn't us –"
"She's just a stupid Gryffindor! Why would you listen to her?"
"She's lying, Professor! She's just trying to get us back for making her swear –"
"SILENCE!" Snape bellowed and the Slytherins fell silent immediately. "You will serve detention not only for locking Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger in a broom cupboard, but also for skipping class this afternoon. Yes I know about that," he added, when he noticed the looks of shock on their faces. "Professor McGonagall informed me of your absence from her class and she wasn't very pleased. I'm not pleased as I don't like students of my house disobeying me."
He frowned at them and shook his head before holding his hand out. "Now hand over the wands you took."
"But sir –" the girl protested.
"Accio wands," Snape said, raising his wand.
The wands zoomed out of one of the girl's pockets and into Snape's hand. "Thank you. I'll shall be reporting this to the Headmaster and informing him of the Heads whereabouts. Report to my office at seven next Monday and as for you, Miss Higgins –" he rounded on Felicity who was still there. "Where did you hear Miss Granger's voice?"
Felicity wondered for a minute how he knew she heard actually heard Hermione, but wasted no time answering his question. "Second floor corridor."
"Good, now get out of my sight." Felicity jumped and scurried away, not wanting more points taking off her for not doing as she was told.
Professor Snape, meanwhile, headed to Dumbledore's office. After giving the gargoyle the password, he walked up the staircase and knocked on the door.
"Yes, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, when he opened the door.
"I know where Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger are."
Meanwhile, Draco and Hermione were still locked in the cupboard half an hour later. When they had heard people out in the hallway, they yelled out and banged on the door, trying to get someone's attention. But no one heard the two Heads as they were all too busy talking and mucking around to hear two students trapped in a broom cupboard. Even Flitch didn't come along and see what was the noise or to take out a broom to clean an area.
Draco had given up on yelling out a long time ago and sat back down on the floor, his elbows propped on his knees and his head in his hands. Hermione was still trying to attract people's attention outside, rapping her knuckle on the door rapidly and yelling out as loud as she could.
"Hello! Hello! Can anyone hear me? Hello!"
Draco couldn't help, but roll his eyes. "Granger, give it up," he mumbled, lifting his head out of his hands momentarily. "No one can hear us."
Hermione ignored him and continued to yell as loudly as she could. She thought she heard Felicity call her name a few minutes ago, and was trying to hear if she was still outside. But it seemed she had gone already, like everyone else.
Draco sighed and shook his head. A quality he thought that he really liked about her, she never gave up. No matter how difficult the problem or the situation was, she would still try to find a way out. And her solution was to yell until someone heard them and let them out.
But soon she did give up and sat down next to him, sighing in frustration. "Now what do we do?" she groaned, leaning her head against the wall.
Draco shrugged. "I guess we wait till someone notices we're missing. I'm sure it won't take long. Pansy freaks when she hasn't seen me for less than five minutes."
Hermione rolled her eyes and folded her arms in annoyance. Trust Malfoy to make it all about himself. And relate it to Pansy, of course!
There was an awkward silence between them for a few minutes – or, at least to Draco, it was awkward. Hermione, on the other hand, hadn't particularly noticed. She seemed more irritated by the fact that she was still stuck in the cupboard with him.
After awhile, Draco couldn't take it anymore and decided to try and make conversation with her. He had to make use of the time while he was stuck in this small cupboard with her and it was a great opportunity to get to know her without any distractions. But the problem was coming up with a subject to talk about. He racked his brains for ideas and finally got one.
"So – er – how's Annabel?"
Hermione whipped around to glare at him darkly. "What?" she snapped, wondering why he asked that.
"I asked you how Annabel is," Draco repeated as politely as he could. "Is that a hard question to answer?"
"Why are you so interested in her?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
Draco shrugged. "I just wanted to know how she is. She seemed to take a liking to me."
Hermione rolled her eyes again. "She's fine," she replied. "She's at school too, a girls' boarding school in fact. She got school captain which is the same as being Heads like us except the school votes for who they want. She'll be disappointed when she hears I'm not coming home for Christmas because sometimes, our whole extended family get together and spend a whole week together."
"How big is the family?" he asked, now wanting to know more about her family.
"Um … I have fourteen cousins. Ten of them come from my mum's side. She grew up in a big family of six." She blinked at him in confusion. "Why so keen to know?"
"Well, we are stuck in a cupboard, what else are we going to talk about?" he asked, grinning to himself.
Hermione shrugged in reply, not knowing what to think about Draco Malfoy suddenly being nice to her and asking about her family. It was odd for him to be asking, that's for sure.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" he asked.
Hermione shook her head. "Only child. I've always wanted a brother or sister to play with when I was younger, but now I really don't mind. Annabel is an only child too. We used to go over to each other's house and play with dolls until she moved an hour away in a mansion."
"She lives in a mansion?" Draco asked, surprised and yet curious. "Is her family rich or something?"
"Yes, they are," Hermione replied, with a frown on her face. "What, do you think Muggles can't have a lot of money or something?"
Draco shrugged again. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "I don't know, but I was wondering if your family was rich because you had some big thing that you controlled when I saw you with Annabel and Weaselbee and Pothead in the holidays …"
"It's called a car," Hermione explained almost patiently, as she was annoyed by yet another example of wizards not knowing people who didn't use magic. "It has four wheels which move the body of the car and it can have one or more people travelling in it depending on how big it is, or how many seats there are in the car. You need an energy source called petrol to power up the car, and you need someone to control it."
"So that's what you do, right?" Draco asked, trying to process what she had just said about a 'car'.
"Yes, but you have to learn to drive one, and it takes a while to do so. I've been learning since I turned sixteen and I got what's called a 'car licence' halfway through last year. My parents brought the car for doing well in my O.W.Ls and so to answer your original question, yes, my family is rich."
Draco just sat there stunned, and thinking hard. He felt ashamed that he always thought of Hermione's family as being poor except when he saw her with the car, but he thought later that they must have gone broke because of it. Shaking the thoughts he used to have out of his head, Draco tried to imagine Hermione's car and him driving it. But he couldn't as he was still confused as to what it was.
"Why would you bother with having a car though, Granger?" he wondered out loud, shaking his head in amusement. "I mean, you are able to Apparate from place to place in less than a second if you want, and yet you chose to learn to use some useless Muggle object that you probably will hardly use once you leave Hogwarts –"
"For your information, Malfoy, I had my cousin to stay for the whole holidays and in case you forgot what I told you in that shop, Annabel doesn't know I'm a witch, so it would be stupid of me to take her for Side-Along-Apparation."
She took a deep breath before ranting on again. "And you know, it's not useless to know how to work a Muggle device and use it in every day life. Why, you might even make friends with a Muggle one day, or marry one, but seeing as though you are very prejudiced against Muggles and Muggle-borns, I highly doubt that would happen!"
"Hey … I –" Draco began, trying to argue what he really meant, but Hermione cut across him. Apparently that wasn't the end of her rant just yet. She glared at him as she continued on.
"I really hate wizards like you," she hissed, her eyes flashing angrily. "They always think they're so much better than a Muggle and think they don't need to learn to adapt to being a Muggle as well as a wizard, ever. They think that because they have a wand, magic can do everything. Well newsflash, Malfoy, magic can't do everything and it's about time you learnt that. Of course, you're closed minded so you wouldn't be open to accept that Muggles are clever too, and still think you're better than them."
Draco froze in shock, not knowing what to think after her speech about close minded wizards. He wasn't like that at all! Well, at least not anymore. But she didn't know that, did she?
He glanced over at her to tell her off for saying that, when he suddenly became distracted as he would these days. It was like he was hiding in the bathtub again, admiring Hermione in a way he wouldn't have thought possible. He had been looking at her more than usual over the last three weeks, but he hadn't been this close to her since she grew him back.
Her face looked smooth, sensitive to touch. Her eyes looked like chocolate, lighting up like stars due to her anger. Her full, pink lips that usually held words looked tempting to kiss.
Not really knowing what he was doing, Draco leaned towards her, rested his hands upon her shoulders and pulled her closer to place a soft kiss on her lips. He moved his mouth slowly and delicately against them, closing his eyes dreamily. He felt Hermione froze in shock, as if she wondered what the hell he was doing. But surprisingly, she didn't attempt to push him away, as he expected her to.
It was at that moment, the cupboard door opened and there stood Professor Dumbledore. Draco and Hermione leaped back in shock.
"Professor Dumbledore!" cried Hermione, her voice a little high.
"Am I interrupting something?" he asked, looking knowingly between the two.
"No … no, we were just … we were just …"
"Stuck in this cupboard," Draco spoke up, cheeks a little pink. He felt so embarrassed that they were caught … or had Dumbledore noticed? He ignored the thought for a moment to continue his explanation. "We were locked from the outside andcouldn't get out."
"Oh yes, I thought that was it," Dumbledore said, nodding. "Professor Snape told me some Slytherins skipped class this afternoon and had locked the two of you in the cupboard when you tried to punish them. He took the liberty of getting your wands back from them and giving them detention for what they did."
He reached into his pockets and held out two wands.
"Oh … thanks," Draco muttered, taking the hawthorn wand back.
"What's the time?" asked Hermione, after taking hers back too and checking it over.
"It's five to five," Dumbledore replied, checking his watch.
"You mean … we were stuck in there for over two hours!" Hermione cried out, looking shocked.
Draco couldn't help, but roll his eyes. It wasn't two hours they were in there for. It was in fact an hour and a half at the most.
"Yes, but don't worry, the decorations are all up now, and the castle looks beautiful. I daresay you two did something useful to pass the time."
There was a knowing look in his eye that made Draco felt uneasy, and he didn't like it at all. Judging by the look in the Headmaster's eyes, Draco guessed he really did notice what the Heads were doing before the cupboard door was open. Hermione looked like she felt uneasy too, and she took one last glance at Draco before scrambling out of the cupboard and running off down the corridor.
"My … my, Miss Granger seems to be in a bit of hurry, doesn't she?" Dumbledore asked thoughtfully. "Shops at Hogsmeade shut at six if she wants to start shopping for a gown to wear to the ball."
Draco glared at the Headmaster.
"You might want to get going too, Mr Malfoy," Dumbledore added in his usual good natured tone. "Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions has a branch in Hogsmeade and they'll be running short of dress robes soon."
Draco shook his head at the Headmaster as he climbed out of the closet and ran down the corridor, heading to the Heads common room.
Stupid Dumbledore choosing that exact moment to find us and open the door. I was so close to showing Hermione how I feel about her! At least I got to kiss her for a couple of seconds, her lips tasted like strawberries …
"Carpe diem," he mumbled, and the portrait opened, allowing him to walk into the common where he collapsed on the couch as he suddenly felt very sleepy.
He sighed and closed his eyes, dreaming of the moment which occurred just minutes ago.
Hermione ran as fast as she could from Malfoy. She couldn't believe he had just kissed her and that it was her second kiss she had received in her life.
She remembered who her first kiss had been, Viktor Krum. He had kissed her before he left Hogwarts at the end of her fourth year. It was nice, but she was sorry to tell him she didn't feel the same way about him and preferred to be friends. She felt stupid afterwards, because she said "thank you" after he kissed her.
But Malfoy … he can't like me, he's my enemy. He was just too close to me in the cupboard, caught up in the moment of being so close to me. He probably thought he could seduce me there.
She shook her head. Malfoy ever like me? That's impossible.
She reached the portrait, noticing it had changed again; to fifth year. Malfoy had grown a lot that year, while Hermione had started to fill out in the right places. They still stood back-to-back to each other. She stated the password and stalked into her room, slamming the door behind her.
She paced the room, thinking about the kiss. For some reason, it was starting to affect her and she didn't like it at all. The way he moved his lips against hers, she thought she could still feel them there. She had felt like her breath had been taken away when he kissed her and felt something missing when they suddenly broke apart. The spots where those firm, but gentle hands rested laid just minutes before were tingling, as if he still had his hands there.
The kiss itself was … sweet? Tender? Satisfying? She didn't know how to explain it … it was fairly breath-taking. She couldn't believe how someone who always had a smirk or a snarl on his face could kiss ever so softly and gently … and make her feel breathless afterwards.
Hermione growled in anger and punched her fist on her bedspread. How dare Malfoy capture her lips like that?
She started pacing her room again, thinking hard. She knew it was surely against nature for a Slytherin to ever kiss someone not in their house, especially a Mudblood. And how dare she allow herself to be so affected by the kiss.
Maybe she was only affected by it because it was her second kiss and because the first time was a bit nervy for her and she kinda expected it. Well, it wasn't as if she knew Malfoy wanted to kiss her for awhile. At least Annabel will be happy.
She stopped pacing remembering something. "I dare you to go and snog Draco when you get back to school."
Annabel's dare … she had forgotten about it. Well, now she had done it, she had snogged Malfoy. She wasn't exactly the one who made the first move, but surely it would count, she did sort of kiss him back, did she? It wouldn't matter that much to Annabel anyway. To her, a snog was a snog no matter who it was shared by, how long it lasted or its circumstances.
Hermione suddenly grabbed her handbag and ran out of her room. She glanced over to see Malfoy sprawled out on the couch fast asleep as she hurried towards the portrait. He looked fairly peaceful as he laid there, his blonde bangs covering his eyes. She suddenly longed to brush the strands away, it didn't look too neat. She scowled as she realised what she was thinking.
No, Hermione! Don't go there. It was only one kiss and that doesn't mean anything.
Hermione agreed with that thought and so tried not to think more about him as she walked outside, heading to Hogsmeade.