"I swear If you don't get your butt down here now I will come up there and pull you out of your room, with or without your hair done" Hermione was screaming from the bottom of the stairs. It was three weeks later and both had forgotten what had happened after the carnival, but things were slightly tense. Things were changing.

It was now the last warm day they would be having, seeing as winter was just around the corner, and she had organised with a few friends to go to the beach. The days were often still a little warm and the nights were cold. Another reminder that Christmas was approaching.

Malfoy came out of his room and took his sweet time coming down the stairs.

"You'd like that now wouldn't you Granger? You just want to see if I wear boxers or not" he smirked as he pushed past her towards the door. Hermione made a disgusted face.

"Please. As if I would want to know what underwear you have on" she rolled her eyes and grabbed the bag by the door. Hermione headed out the door and locked it. As she turned around, she found Malfoy already seated in the passenger seat waiting for her when she neared the car however, Malfoy leaned over in his seat and began to press the horn.

"MALFOY! Don't do that!" Hermione ripped the door open and pushed his hand away.

"Bout bloody time. I could feel myself getting old" Hermione looked and him.

"You are such an idiot you know?" Malfoy smiled and placed a hand over his heart.

"Aw, how your words sweep me off my feet" he fluttered his eyelashes and Hermione actually couldn't help but smile slightly. She started the engine and backed out the driveway.

"So why exactly am I wearing these ridiculous shorts?" he asked Hermione a little while later.

"I told you already. I was going to the beach but of course my parents forced you to come. They are swimming shorts"

"I think you put me in these so you can get a perve at my sexy legs" Hermione actually laughed at that.

'Oh yes Malfoy, your sexy legs" Hermione said sarcastically and shook her head.

"I knew you wanted me" he said as he looked out the window.

"Please. You are so delusional" Hermione turned down a street. The air was quite warm and she was trying to soak it up as much as she could. She was too lost in her own musings that she didn't even notice Malfoy staring at her. She was wearing, apart form her bathers, a white tank top and a small pair of yellow shorts. Malfoy was leaning on his hand which was up against the door and was silently looking her up and down. He took in a sharp breath and looked away.

Hermione had finally came to the parking lot and began looking for a spot.

"There's one. Hurry up I need to pee" Malfoy held his hands over himself and began to wriggle in the seat.

"Calm down. And no, that is a disabled parking spot. I cant go there" Malfoy began to whine and bop his legs up and down.

"There! For the love of Merlin park the car I need to go!" Hermione shook her head, he was such a child sometimes. She smirked to herself and deliberately drove past the empty space. "What did you do that for? I swear I will make it my mission to drown you" Hermione shot him a glare.

"How am I not surprised at that? You probably had planned it from this morning". Five minutes later, Malfoy was on the verge of jumping out of the moving car.

"THERE! For Merlins…" he didn't get to finish his sentence because the minute Hermione turned into the empty parking spot, Malfoy opened the door; oblivious to Hermione's yells of protest and took off down the path.

Hermione was busy unpacking the boot and mumbling to herself. She was furious that he had done that. He could have been injured. Why would I care if he got hurt anyway?

"I still will never get used to you swearing Granger," Hermione looked up to see Malfoy leaning against the car. She turned back to the task at hand and closed the boot walking off with Malfoy in toe.

"Granger, where are we going?" Hermione didn't answer him, she just kept on walking. "hello? talk to me, I hate being ignored. Granger, Granger! Look, a naked man with a copy of Hogwarts A. History" he sped up to her, and turned around walking backwards infront of Hermione trying to get her attention. She just looked the other way, making her way down to the beach. "No matter how much I hate you Granger, I still expect some form of attention from you. If you're ignoring me I cant annoy you" he was walking backwards and nearly tripped over the curb as they moved onto the grass and down to the sand.

Hermione tried to look anywhere but at him. He was wearing his shorts that came down to his knees and a tight fitted t-shirt. He was trying everything to try and get a rise out of her and she was trying so hard not to laugh. Malfoy turned around and instead of walking infront of her, began to walk as close to her as possible. Hermione began to feel a little awkward. He was such an annoying git. At one stage, as they neared a bush, she pushed her with his hip and she went flying. Of course Malfoy found this utterly hilarious and dodged the bag tat came swinging at his head.

A couple minutes later, a bag slipped off Hermione's shoulder and onto the ground. She sighed and reached down to pick it up. Standing back up again, she turned around to see if Malfoy was still with her.

"MALFOY!" her scream startled him. He jumped and looked at her with wide eyes. "What the hell are you doing?" she had her hands on her hips.

"Uh, I was-"

"Looking at my backside?"

"No," Malfoy scoffed. Hermione raised her eyes brows and tapped her foot.

"Really? So what then exactly?" Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"Get over yourself" Malfoy shoved past her and continued to walk. Hermione's mouth dropped. She turned and hurried after him.

"Excuse me?" she hurried, struggling with the bags to keep up with his strides. "This coming from Draco Malfoy? Mister I-spend-three-hours-infront-to-of-the-mirror-to-pefect-my-hair-and-stroke-my-enormous-ego? What a classic"

"Granger. You are so full of yourself. Thinking everyone likes you. And besides, I'm not the one running around in little shorts begging for it"

"What!?" she grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "What the hell are you on about?"

"You heard me. Now get your hand off me"

"No! Tell me" he clenched his jaw.

"Granger," he warned through clenched teeth "Get your hand off me" he ripped his arm out of her grasp and continued down onto the sand.

Hermione stood there for a minute trying to work out what had just happened. She was confused beyond belief. What a weirdo.

Malfoy stormed off trying to straighten out his thoughts. When she had bent over to collect the bag, he couldn't help it. He was male after all. But it was different, he wanted to touch her for some strange reason and when she had grabbed his arm, it had sent something through him and he had freaked.

"Hey guys" Iana bounced up to Hermione and Draco as they came down on the beach. She was wearing just her bikini. "Hey Draco" she slid up to his side and looked up at him through her lashes.

"Hey." he grabbed her hand and headed down the beach leaving Hermione struggling with the bags. A sudden wave of anger and jealousy shot through Hermione as she watched the display. It wasn't a secret that right after the carnival, Iana and Draco had been flirting furiously and had the occasional hook up. They were nothing but that. As far as Draco was concerned, Iana was just an easy lay. He used her as a decoy for this twisted thing with Hermione. If it was a thing at all.

"Son of a bitch" Hermione mumbled to herself as she placed all the bags with her friends ones.

"Hey Hermione"

"Hi Sara" Hermione layed out her towel and sat down on it.

"How is it going with Draco?" Sara spread sunscreen on herself as she spoke. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"He is a git as usual. I swear I am this close to smothering him in his sleep" she looked over at Malfoy who was standing with Iana. He reached back and pulled his t-shirt over his head. Hermione's breath caught at the sight of his back muscles flexing. Shaking her head she began to try and distract herself by talking to Sara.

"Draco, lets go into the water. I have something special for you" Iana reached up and licked his ear-lobe softly and began to run off down the sand.

"I'll be with you in a minute" he gave her a cheeky smile and turned around. Sometimes Iana actually reminded him of Pansy. She got on his nerves. He turned around to put his t-shirt away, but his eyes caught something else.

Hermione stood up and pulled her tank top over her head and then unbuttoned her shorts and pushed them down. He caught his breath. He turned around quickly and ran off into the water.

An hour later, after abit of sunbaking, Hermione decided to head off into the water.

"Hermione! Over here!" Sara called. She looked up and saw her waving from the water. She was up to waist deep with Iana, Draco, Jessica, Brain, Matt, Brea, Lara and Jamie. "We're playing volleyball" Hermione stepped into the water and came over to them.

"Alrighty, now that everyone is here, we are going to split into two teams.

One team will be…Matt, Jessica, Lara, Draco, Iana. And the other is me, Hermione, Brian, Brea and Jamie.

The side of the beach they were on, had a net already set up over the water, so the teams split up on either side. Hermione pulled her hair up into a ponytail and looked up to find Malfoy directly opposite her on the other side if the net.

"Right Malfoy, prepare to go down" she mumbled to herself. She was passed the ball and crouched down in the water. She jumped up and out, throwing the ball up in the air and hitting it over the net.

"Go Iana" screamed Matt. She jumped out and hit the ball towards Brea and she flew forward and hit it into the net.

The game went on for a while. Draco's team was one point behind and it was becoming vicious. Malfoy crouched down and jumped up hitting the ball directly at Hermione, narrowly missing her head.

"FOUL! Foul!" Screamed Brian

"What the hell was that Malfoy! You stupid git!" screamed Hermione

"Don't call me a git you bitch! That was a good shot!"

"Good shot! You nearly hit me in the head!" Malfoy smiled.

"Good" he smirked. Hermione was furious. All through the game he had been trying to hit her with the ball at whatever chance he got.

"Right!" she had lost it. As fast as she could get through the water, she ripped the net up and came over to Malfoy who had been slowly swimming backwards, and smiling. "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to hurt me?" he still kept smiling at her and moving slowly away. Hermione was getting frustrated. She lunged forward trying to grab him. "Stand still!" she shrieked. Malfoy chuckled.

"And why would I do that?" Hermione was flushed in the cheeks. She lunged forward again and Malfoy kept floating backwards. His eyes never leaving her, she was beyond frustrated by now.

"Malfoy! Just you wait till we get home, I swear you wont know what hit you!" Malfoy couldn't stop grinning. He was enjoying this way too much.

Looking over her head, Malfoy noticed that everyone had gotten out of the water and started packing up their things to get lunch. He was interrupted though when he was suddenly pushed under the water.

He came up gasping for air. Hermione smiled sweetly and pushed him under again. Malfoy came up quickly and grabbed Hermione by the waist, picking her up out of the water and threw her backwards. Hermione screamed as she hit the water; she gasped for air and lunged forward grabbing Malfoy by the shoulders and pushing him backwards.

"You are so annoying! Do you live to piss me off?" she pushed his head under the water. He grabbed her arms and came up pushing her back.

"Don't think you are that special Mudblood. I would never waste my time on you" Hermione pushed him in the chest and he pushed her right back.

"OOH! STOP IT! GOD I CANT STAND YOU!"

"WELL THE FEELING IS FUCKING MUTUAL" they continued like this. One pushing the other under the water as if trying to see which would drown first.

Suddenly Malfoy grabbed Hermione and began to shake her.

"Calm the fuck down, you need serious help"

"The only one who needs help here Malfoy is you. Now fucking let go of me!"

"No! not until you calm down. And stop trying to drown me" Hermione struggled for a moment but stopped when Malfoy stopped shaking her and held her tighter They were breathing hard; she looked up at him. She could see the water droplets falling from his face. His hair was a wet mess and there was a pink tinge to his cheeks.

"Will you calm down now? I know you hate me but for Merlins sake" Hermione couldn't look away from him. The contact had sent something through her that she didn't understand.

Before she realised what she was doing, she put her arms on his shoulders and brought him close to her. Malfoy was bearly aware of him floating towards her. He was too wrapped up in staring at her. Hermione felt her skin under the water come into contact with his; she took in a silent breath and slid her hands up behind his neck and ran them through his hair. Her eyes was searching his face; his eyes were doing the same.

A million different things were going through their minds. They were both entranced, annoyed, frustrated, breathless…many different words could describe what was going on right now.

Malfoy, who had placed his hands on her wrists when she put them around his neck, slid them down to her shoulders and to the sides of her waist. He held her, not moving. Hermione licked her lips and began to lean forward. Malfoy looked down to her lips and looked back up. Hermione began to close her eyes as she moved towards him; he blinked a few times leaning in…

Splash

Hermione was startled by the sudden splash of water. She jumped back from Malfoy as far as she could in the water.

"Jake! What did I say about throwing that ball around?...I am so sorry" a Man said to Hermione. Hermione looked shaken but replied anyway.

"It's, It's ok. Kids are kids" She couldn't even look at Malfoy. She got out of the water as fast as she could.

The drive home was pure torture. Hermione and Draco would not even look at each other let alone exchange words. The shock of what almost happened still hadn't set in properly. Hermione felt as though she were floating.

She parked the car in the drive way and Malfoy shot out and into the house. Hermione trudged up to her room with her bags and dropped everything on the floor. She closed the door, standing there staring off into nothing. She ran a hand over her face and whispered to herself.

"Oh Hermione, What are you doing?" she was startled when her mother called up to her.

"Hermione. Darling! There is an envelope from Albus" Hermione's mind of Malfoy was immediately wiped clean for that moment. She opened her door and ran down the stairs.

"What is it? Is it bad?" she looked from her dad to her mum. She refused to look at Malfoy.

"What does it say?" Malfoy asked from the couch. Hermione's father walked over to him and handed over the envelope.

"It's addressed to you" without hesitation, he ripped open the letter.

Dear Mr. Malfoy,

I sincerely hope all is going well at the Granger house. News now is that your father is becoming increasingly frustrated with your disappearance. You still must be careful Draco, he must not find you. As long as you are with the Grangers' you are safe. Your mother is safe and well. Your father will not harm her.

I hope there is no arguments with Miss. Granger and I shall see you soon.

Albus Dumbledore.

Draco handed the letter to Hermione's father and headed towards the kitchen.

"How was the beach dears?" asked her mother. Malfoy froze and turned around. Hermione's heart dropped and her mouth went dry. She licked her lips.

"It was good. You know the usual, sand and water" Hermione smiled and turned to go up the stairs. Her dad who finished putting the letter away in a draw turned around and clasped his hands together.

"So, get changed, we are going out for dinner." He said beaming.