A/N: Yay! A new chapter! I'm on a pretty consistent path of like updating once every 3 months. (I say like that's good.) I'm determined to finish this story! So this chapter is light and spicy... I think that's the right word. All I'm going to say is it takes a turn in an interesting direction. Anyway, I hope you like it. As always, bless you if you're still reading this story.

Disclaimer: JKR still and forever will own Harry Potter and all the characters therein. This is just my spin on it. :)

** Chapter Nine- And Then That Happened **

Hermione was hunched over, clutching her sides, and gasping for air all while trying to give her sore abs relief from continuously being engaged for the last hour. She hadn't laughed so hard in years.

Draco was standing across from her, trying to continue his impressions of their past (and some still current) professors. He was currently working on his rather good impression of Snape, but every time he started, he'd double over in laughter and have to start again.

"Wait, wait." He said, "Hang on. I've got this." He took off his black shirt and draped it over his head.

Hermione was crying from laughing and she gasped, "What the heck is that?"

"It's supposed to be his hair! I could go dunk my shirt in the Black Lake and then," he had to pause because he'd started laughing again, "and—then—then it'd—look—it'd look greasy."

At this point, Hermione was slamming her fist on the table. "Oh, Draco, stop! I can't—I can't breathe! My abs hurt so badly!"

He nodded and bent over, letting his shirt fall to the ground as they continued to crack up. A minute or so later, they both took the deep breath and sigh that will always follow a long, hearty, soul-healing laugh.

Hermione dabbed her eyes with her napkin while Draco put his shirt back on. He smiled at her and said, "I can't actually remember that last time I laughed like that. You're kind of fun, Granger."

"Me?" she questioned. "You're the one who was mercilessly mimicking our teachers."

He shrugged, "You started it."

Hermione had, in fact, started it. A little over an hour before this, Hermione had twisted her hair up in a tight bun and had pretended to be Professor McGonagall instructing them to return to the castle. Draco had replied with an equally hilarious impression of Professor Dumbledore and it had all been downhill from there.

She smiled at him, "You're right, I suppose I did."

"You suppose? You're hair is still in a bun! If you hadn't done that, we'd have been back at the castle and already done with patrolling the hallways."

"We? What we? I've been patrolling the hallways for the past four days while you've been off doing who knows what. There's no 'we' tonight. It's all you, mister."

He sighed over-dramatically. "Fine. After all you did today, I suppose I can live with that."

"Good. We really should head back now. It's almost curfew. The last thing I need is another detention."

He chuckled. "Yes, because one more on top of the other twenty-one is going to be the end of your future."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Of course not, but it's certainly not going to help any."

"Whatever, nerd. Mind if we stop at the Pitch? I want to grab my broom and try out that kit you gave me."

"Sure. Did you like it?"

He nodded and ran his fingers through his hair. "It's a really nice present."

"Good. I'd given one to Harry for Christmas in our third year and he loved it. I thought any Quidditch player would appreciate one."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that you'd already given one to Potter and just say thank you. It was perfect. All of the presents were."

She chuckled. "You're welcome. You know, you and Harry would probably get along fine if either of you tried at all."

He glared at her. "I did try. I introduced myself to him on the train and he didn't shake my hand."

"I wasn't there, but I'm relatively certain you'd just insulted Ron and his entire family so it's not really a huge shocker that Harry thought you were a douche." He looked like he was about to defend himself but Hermione continued, "And it's not like anything you did in the following years proved anything to the contrary."

"You three are assholes, too, you know. When I introduced myself, Ron had laughed at my name and if I recall correctly, you punched me in the face."

She pressed her lips together hard, trying not to laugh.

"Don't laugh! If I were a muggle, I'd have had a black eye for weeks."

She erupted into a fit of giggles, quickly regained control and said, "I'm sorry, but you deserved it."

"Did I?" he asked. "I don't even remember why you did it."

"Well, you kind of tried to get the Hippogriff, Buckbeak, executed." Draco paled. She quickly added, "Don't worry, he got away. Harry and I sort of set him loose."

He rubbed his neck in an ashamed sort of way and then stuck his hands in his pockets. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"What do you tell your friends about me?"

She shot him a wicked grin, "That you're a cocky asshole with a god complex and iridescent hair."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Seriously."

"What do you mean?"

He shrugged, "I mean, you must talk about me to them. What do you say?"

"Oh. Well, they know everything that's going on, like the dinners with my parents and stuff, but I don't really talk about you specifically, except to Ron, I guess and with that it's really just advice on how to handle the situation."

He asked, "Is that all?"

"Basically. Draco, what are you really asking me?"

He stopped walking. "Do they know about—"

"Your Father?" she interjected. "No. I wouldn't share that with them. However, I did tell them what I heard between the two of you in that empty classroom, but that was before I even knew what was really going on."

He exhaled with relief and nodded. "Thank you. It's just that the only people who know about it are Blaise, Pansy, and now you. I like it that way, okay?"

Hermione didn't understand why he wouldn't tell someone that could really help, like Dumbledore or McGonagall. Maybe in some weird way he was trying to protect his father, or maybe he didn't want to hurt his mother, but whatever the reason, she decided not to push him any further, especially because they'd been getting on so well.

"Okay." She said.

He smiled at her and led her to the Slytherin locker room that he'd been in just hours before.

Hermione sat down on a bench while he went to his locker and grabbed his Nimbus 2001 and Broom Servicing Kit. She looked around the room, eyeing each of the broomsticks and shuddered.

Draco saw it and asked, "Why the shudder? I thought you liked Quidditch."

"Oh, I do. I don't really fancy flying, though. Truth be known, it terrifies me."

"Seriously?" Draco asked, in mild astonishment.

She nodded bashfully.

"That is absolutely ridiculous! Hermione, we're going flying."

Her eyes widened. "Wait. Right now?"

"Yup." He put down his broom kit and removed his tie, shoving it into his pocket.

He then grabbed her hand and pulled her out onto the pitch.

Hermione kept leaning back and trying to pull away while continuously yelling, "Draco, no!"

Without letting go of her hand, he let his broom hover a few feet above the ground and then easily picked her up and swung her on. He quickly and nimbly mounted the broom and took off before Hermione even had time to protest.

They rose rapidly into the air and Hermione's scream was drowned out by the rushing wind. She was absolutely terrified. She shut her eyes as tightly as she could and made sure she had a solid grasp on Draco's waist.

When they had stopped rising and had leveled out, Draco shouted, "You doing okay, Granger?"

Her grip on him tightened slightly and she yelled back, "When we're back on solid ground, I'm going to hex the fuck out of you, Malfoy!"

He laughed. "Sounds like this is my last hoorah on a broom. I'd better make it a good ride, then."

He leaned forward and the broom sped up. For a solid half hour, Hermione held on for dear life as Draco rose up into the clouds and dove back to the ground. He looped through the stars, around the pitch, and over the Black Forrest, throwing in as many twirls and loop-the-loops as possible.

When Hermione had had quite as much as she could take, she shouted, "Okay, Draco. You've had your fun. Can we stop now?" He replied with a simple nod.

As they were circling to the ground, the tie Draco had stuffed into his pocket earlier slipped out. He abruptly reached out to grab it, accidentally making the broom lurch. It was enough to send Hermione from mildly terrified to, well, scared shitless.

In a complete panic, she screeched, loudly, and let go of Draco. The screech startled Draco so much so that he caused the broom to lurch again, which then caused Hermione to fall off. Draco immediately jumped into action, diving to reach her before she met the ground. They were about twenty feet from the earth below when he caught up to her, wrapping his arm around her waist and attempting to halt the broom.

He managed to slow the broom just enough that they didn't crash into the ground, but tumbled instead. Hermione and Draco both rolled a few feet apart before settling and staring at each other in the light of the moon, waiting for someone to say something.

Hermione was rather furious, to be honest. She was about to say this, but Draco spoke first.

"Your dress has grass stains." He said, with a smirk on his face.

Hermione could see the laughter in his eyes and the twitch in the corner of his lips.

"Oh yes? You suppose that's bad, do you? You should get a look at your face." She quipped.

For a moment, he looked mildly shocked, then, as seemed to be the trend that evening, he let out a hearty laugh.

Hermione sat up and shrieked, "Stop laughing! It's for this exact reason I'm terrified to fly!"

He willed himself to stop laughing and retorted, "That's an excuse. Need I remind you that everything was fine until you panicked and fell off of the broom? That's certainly not my fault."

Hermione crossed her arms stubbornly and said, "Alright, you've had your fun. Let's go back now."

She stood up and tried to walk away but Draco grabbed her hand. "No." he said. "Let's stay here for a bit."

She looked down at him incredulously. "It's already almost an hour past curfew! We're going to have a hard enough time explaining this to McGonagall as it is."

He smirked. "All the more reason to stay."

She smiled a demure yet mischievous smile and lay down next to him. Hermione lost track of how long they stayed like this, staring up at the stars in silence until Draco whispered, "Do you think this is what centaur's do all night long?"

"I suppose."

"Do you think what they see is real or a load of nonsense like Trelawney's classes?"

Hermione chuckled. "Maybe it's a little of both. Do you remember your first detention?"

"I think so. Why?"

"Well, it was the one you served with me, Harry and Neville in the Black Forrest with Hagrid."

"Oh right. We were looking for Unicorn blood."

"Mmmhmm. That night, Harry and I ran into a couple of centaurs. They kept repeating 'Mars is bright tonight' and it was annoying the ruddy hell out of Hagrid. Makes me think maybe it's a load of cocker, but maybe not."

Draco chuckled softly and said, "Whether it's real or not, you can't really blame them, can you? I mean, if I could stare up at the night sky under the pretense of telling the future and knew people would believe it, why wouldn't I? Look at it, it's beautiful."

"It really is."

A comfortable silence fell between them again and Hermione performed a charm to keep them warm. A half hour or so later, she looked over at Draco and with his eyes closed, presumed he was asleep.

She whispered, "I wonder what you tell your friends about me."

To her complete surprise he replied, "That you're annoying, shrill, strong-willed, persistent, witty, intelligent, beautiful and completely off limits because you're a mudblood."

"What?" Hermione whispered.

He sighed. "Remember the night we first slept together?"

"Yes. Ass-face. What about it?"

"That's why I kicked you out, Hermione. You're off limits."

She scoffed, "Well, that's an excuse if I ever heard one."

He sat up, "No, it's not!"

She sat up, also. "Yes, it is!" she retorted, "All you had to do was say 'Hermione, we can't be a couple. This can't continue.'" She imitated his deep voice, "But no! You made me leave and told me I was a mistake. Don't you dare tell me you did that because I'm off limits! And what the bloody hell does off limits even mean?"

"It means that if I wanted to be with you, if I wanted to tell you 'Hermione, stay!' if I wanted to actually be a couple, I couldn't and don't pretend you don't know why. That's what off limits means!"

"Well, then do something about it, Draco! If it bothers you so much how your father treats you, then you need to tell someone that can actually help! You can't just sneak around and take a bloody beating every time you slip up!"

He looked away and said, "The point is moot, Hermione, because I don't actually want you. I'm just saying that if I did, I couldn't."

Hermione was thankful for the cover of darkness as her cheeks flushed from embarrassment. An angry tear rolled down her cheek as she stood and said, "Way to ruin a perfect evening, asshole."

Hermione reached the castle doors with a flushed and tear-stained face. Why did she even bother trying to be nice to that foul creature they have the nerve to call a human being? Any time they fought, it seemed he would intentionally say something hurtful just for the sake of being mean.

She stared at the entrance to the castle for a moment before trying the handle. She knew it wasn't going to open, however, because it was well past dark and the doors had long been locked. Great. She either knocked on the door and got in trouble for being out on the grounds so late or went back to where Draco was.

Hermione was quite tired of being in trouble so she reluctantly headed back down to the Quidditch Pitch. She was halfway there when an idea popped into her head. Before she could talk herself out of it, she turned to the left and walked the half hour to Hogsmeade. On the outskirts of the wizarding village, she turned on her heel, disapparated and landed with a pop on her parent's front lawn.

She walked up to the front door and started fishing in the pot next to the door for the spare key. At that moment, the porch light flickered on and the door opened to reveal her mother in a bathrobe.

"Oh, mum! I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to wake you."

"Nonsense, darling. Is everything aright?"

Hermione thought about what Draco had said and immediately started crying again. Seconds later, she was enveloped in her mother's arms.

"Sweetheart! Did you and Draco have a fight?"

Hermione didn't have to lie. Whether or not she and Draco were actually dating, the truth of the matter was they did have a fight and she showed up on her parent's front steps crying. She nodded in her mum's chest.

"Hermione, love," her mum cooed, "it's okay. Couples fight. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Hermione sniffed.

"Would you like a cup of tea?"

"No thanks, mum."

"Alright, last question. Aren't you going to get in trouble for being here? However did you manage to get out of the castle so late? It's nearly one o'clock in the morning."

Hermione sighed. "It's not that I got out. It's that I was already out and I couldn't get back in—without getting in trouble, at least—so I came here instead. May I stay?"

"Of course you may. Come. Let's go make up your bed."

They headed upstairs to Hermione's room and put some fresh linen on the bed. Hermione was just saying goodnight and thank you to her mum when they both heard a faint, but distinct pop.

Mrs. Granger walked over to the window and peeked outside. She turned to her daughter and said with a smile, "It looks like someone wants to make up. Do you want to let him in?"

Hermione groaned. "I suppose we can't just leave him outside like a dog."

Jean chuckled. "No, I suppose not. Don't be too noisy, okay. We don't want to wake your father."

Hermione walked back downstairs and opened the front door. Draco turned to face her as she stepped out onto the steps.

"How did you know I was here?"

He shrugged, "I followed you down to Hogsmeade. When you disapparated, I assumed this is where you went."

"Alright. What do you want?"

He crossed his arms. "Well, you're not going to make this easy, are you?"

"That's not what I'm doing, Draco. I'm an adult. I'm not playing a game with you. I just want you to think about what you did."

"Hermione, it's not like you want to be with me, either! I don't understand why you're so angry."

Hermione's eyes widened incredulously. "Wow. This is absolutely ridiculous. I shouldn't have to continuously explain to you why I'm upset." He just stared at her. "Okay. You're right. I don't want to be with you, either. That, believe it or not, is not actually what I'm upset about, though."

"Then what are—" She held out her hand to shush him.

"It's that you're a nice guy, Draco, but it's almost like you catch yourself being a decent human being and so you do or say something really hurtful just for the hell of it. Why?"

He threw his hands up in the air. "I don't know, okay."

"Do you treat any of your other friends like that?"

"My only real friend is Blaise. That's a completely different kind of friendship."

"Pansy's not your friend?"

He snorted, "No. She's a playmate, if you know what I mean."

Hermione was not amused. "Really, Draco? Really?"

"What do you want me to say, Hermione?"

She ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. "I want you to think about tonight, Draco. Think about everything that we talked about, everything that we did, and what a good time we had. Then I want you to think about what you said to me at the end and tell me why." She sat down on the front step. "I'll wait."

He stood in front of her for a solid five minutes before whispering, "It's for defense."

"Against what?"

"Against being close to someone. When I get vulnerable, it scares me, so I say mean things so you'll back off."

"Alright. That's a legitimate excuse for someone you just met or don't know very well, but you should know that I'm not going to hurt you. Don't you trust me?"

"Well, yeah, but give me a break, Hermione. We've hated each other our whole lives. This friendship thing started, what, six hours ago? You can't expect me to change that quickly."

"Fair enough."

"Thank you. Now, I'm sorry, Hermione. Will you forgive me?"

Hermione sighed, "Yes, Draco, I forgive you. You know, you can't keep falling back on 'my daddy doesn't love me' every time you screw up, okay? You are capable of making the right choices on your own, but I'm sorry, too. I'll try not to be so harsh with you."

He smiled. "Thanks."

She stood up and said, "We should get to bed. We've got to be back at the castle by no later than 7:30 if we don't want anyone to notice we were gone. There's only my room, though, so we'll have to share a bed."

Draco looked startled. "Shouldn't I sleep on the sofa or something? Aren't your parents going to mind?"

"They won't mind. All we're doing is sleeping. Besides, it's a loveseat, not a sofa. You wouldn't be very comfortable on that." He still didn't follow her so she walked over to him and grabbed his hand. "Come on. I'm exhausted."

She led him up the stairs to her bedroom and said, "The bathroom is out the door to the right and my parent's room is downstairs, so no need to worry about that."

He nodded.

"Okay, I'm just going to go change. I'll be back in a minute."

She grabbed some pajamas out of her dresser and headed to the bathroom to change. While brushing her teeth, she thought about everything that happened that evening. This friendship thing with Draco wasn't going to be easy. She walked back into her room and Draco was lying in her bed with his back to the door.

She carefully crept into the bed next to him and whispered, "Goodnight, Draco."

An hour and a half later and Hermione was still not asleep. Draco moved an awful lot in his sleep, however, that wasn't what was keeping Hermione awake. In his movement, Draco's shirt crept higher and higher up his torso revealing much of his upper body and although the sight of his sculpted, muscular back would be enough to keep anybody awake, this still wasn't what was depriving Hermione of rest.

She was counting the scars on his body over and over again, almost compulsively. She started at the top again, this time reaching out to slightly touch each one as she counted.

When she reached the base of his spine, Draco sleepily growled, "Granger, no one gave you permission to touch me like that."

She gasped and withdrew her hand. "I'm sorry. I…" she didn't quite know what to say.

He propped himself onto one elbow and pulled down his shirt. Without looking at her, he said, "Don't worry about those. They go away." He pulled the blanket over his shoulders.

Hermione looked at him for a moment before pulling the blanket away from his shoulders and down to his waist. She then slid her hand slowly up his back, pushing his t-shirt back up with her wrist.

She placed her finger on a faded white scar on his left shoulder. "This one didn't." she whispered. She moved her hand to another scar a little lower on his shoulder blade. "Or this one." Her hand found another. "Another one." Down his spine, she touched a few more. "These, either." Now her hand was by his waist. "Here, also. Should I keep going?"

He sighed loudly and turned around to face her. "We've already covered this topic, Hermione. A few times, actually and I really don't like talking about it."

She nodded. "I know. I just keep replaying what happened to you last night in my head. I can't—I can't move past it."

He smirked. "Well, what can I do to help you through this difficult time?"

She grunted in frustration. "Stop it, Draco. You know I didn't mean it like that! How can you be so cavalier about this?"

He sat up. "I've been dealing with this for as long as I can remember, Hermione. I already know how to handle it."

She rubbed her temples in a show of exasperation. "You don't know how to handle it, Draco. Walking on eggshells through the whole of your life and being an asshole to everyone so you won't get beaten is not handling it."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" he yelled so loudly Hermione was concerned it had woken her parents.

"Help, Draco. I want you to let me help you."

He scoffed. "You can't."

"I can't if I don't try. We could talk to Dumbledore or the Ministry. You could stay here on holidays or at the Burrow with Ron and Harry. We could keep you away from him. Draco, if the right people knew about it, someone could help."

She stopped rambling off ideas and waited for him to respond.

"Why do you care?" he asked.

Her eyes welled up with tears. "Why would I not care?"

The words had barely left her mouth when Draco's lips had suddenly come crashing down on hers. She kissed him back for a moment before pulling away in surprise. She looked at him carefully, contemplating her next move.

She put her hand gently behind his neck and whispered, "As long as afterwards, you don't kick me out again."

She watched the corners of his mouth raise into a smile before pulling his head down and reconnecting their lips. She ran her hands down his back and felt for his boxers. When her hands felt the waistband, she hooked her thumbs in and yanked down.

Draco broke the kiss and chuckled, "Eager, are we?"

Hermione blushed and nodded as he got off the bed to step out of his clothes. He got back on the bed with a smirk, bent down and started placing kisses down her still clothed upper half. When he reached her middle, he slid her t-shirt up her body and over her arms and casually threw it on the ground before mimicking her actions and hooking his thumbs in her panties. She lifted her hips as he slid them off and tossed them aside.

He briefly slid his thumb over her clit, making her inhale sharply before moving his hand up her stomach and over her breast. He then intertwined his other hand in her hair and pulled her in for a kiss as he simultaneously slid into her.

He was just about to pull out when Hermione said, "Hang on."

Draco stilled, "Is something wrong?"

She shook her head and reached over to the bedside table and grabbed her wand.

"What are you doing?" he asked, concerned.

"Calm down, Mr. Paranoid. I'm just going to cast a silencing charm on the room."

His eyes lit up in amusement and he smirked.

"Don't smirk at me. My bed squeaks." She casually flicked her wand. "There. Now you don't have to hold back. Now move."

His eyebrows raised in mildly amused shock. "Wow. You're a bossy little thing, aren't you?"

She put both hands behind his head and pulled so that their foreheads were almost touching. "Don't play with me right now, Draco. MOVE."

Draco's lips curled into a smile. "Yes, ma'am." He pecked her quickly on the lips, pulled back so he was almost completely out and then slammed back into her.

They groaned in unison from the pleasure and force of his impact. He pulled out and thrust again, continuously and with slowly increasing speed. Hermione slid her hands down his back and rested them on his waist. She easily matched his rhythm and let the increasing feeling of pleasure build.

Draco's thrusts became quicker and more forceful as he said through gritted teeth, "I'm close. Are you close?"

"Almost." She gasped.

She then grabbed his hand and guided it to where they were connected. Draco caught on and quickly found her clit. It wasn't long afterward that Hermione came undone. She cried out in complete bliss and felt Draco still as the feeling of her walls tightening sent him soaring over the edge. They were both breathing hard as they came down from their orgasms.

Draco rolled off of her, leaned over to kiss her temple and said, "Holy fuck."

Hermione, still breathless, giggled loudly and then asked, "Right? Was it that good the first time we had sex?"

"It couldn't have been as I'm quite certain that was the best sex I've ever had. In fact, I'm sure that was the best sex anyone has ever had in this world, ever."

"Do you know what I think?"

"What?"

She smiled and said in mockingly serious voice, "I think that if we want to turn that from opinion into fact, we need to do it at least one more time."

He smirked. "Oh, is that so?"

She nodded. "Absolutely. You know what they say. 'Twice- an opinion, thrice- a fact.'"

He chuckled and leaned over to kiss her nose. He said, "That's definitely not a thing people say." He kissed below her earlobe.

"It's not?" she asked, in mimicked surprise.

He kissed her throat. "Nope."

She lifted his chin with her finger and whispered, "It should be."

He nodded and connected their lips in a soft kiss.

Twenty minutes later and they were once again trying to catch their breath as they recovered from their orgasms. Draco pulled Hermione close to him, her back to his front and rested his chin on her shoulder. She smiled at the gesture and kissed the hand of the arm he had wrapped around her.

When she could finally talk again, she asked, "Fact?"

"Fact."

A few seconds later and Draco erupted into uncontrollable laughter. Hermione sat in astonishment and kept repeating 'what's so funny?' It wasn't until he had calmed down did he reply, "Your bed really does squeak."

Hermione let out a high-pitched laugh. "I told you! You want to know how I found that out?"

"How?"

"My parents signed me up for this camp during summer holiday when I was about nine or ten. I was supposed to be gone for a couple of weeks but two days into the camp and I'd accidentally made the campfire flare up and singe off the eyebrows and eyelashes of girl who'd been mean to me. The camp called my dad to have me picked up. I was wasting time by jumping on the bed and my mum didn't know I was home. She stormed into my room holding an umbrella in the air posed to attack. She thought my dad was having an affair!"

Draco said through his laughter, "Well, thank goodness for that otherwise you wouldn't have put that silencing charm, we'd have woken your parents and it would be your father beating me instead of mine."

Hermione's smile faded. "And we've come full circle."

He sighed. "Come on, Hermione. It was a joke."

"It's not funny."

"You're right, it's not, but if I can't joke about it, then I've let him win. Now, before you take this conversation in a direction I don't want it to go, let's talk about what just happened."

She turned around to face him. "You're not going to tell me to leave again, are you? If you did that'd be a little awkward because, you know, this is my house."

He shook his head. "No. I'm going to ask you to make this relationship real."

Hermione blinked. She sat up and whispered, "What did you just say?"

He sat up, too, so that they were facing each other and said, "Before you say no, hear me out." She nodded, prompting him to continue. "It seems like you care about me in a way that no one has really cared about me before. Seriously, that treasure hunt last night—that was amazing. The presents, the dinner, making fun of our professors, the laughing—If I misread all that, then I'm sorry—I take it back, but Hermione, we work. Maybe we'd have never known if we weren't forced to spend time together, but I really do like you and I want to try this."

Hermione sat for a solid five minutes just processing.

"Say something." He whispered.

"I'm confused. The pranks, the mean words, the 'we're not friends and we're never going to be.' crap you've spouted since term began. I mean, four hours ago you literally said and I quote "I don't actually want you. I'm just saying that if I did, I couldn't."

He sighed, "Defense, Hermione. Remember? I didn't mean it."

"Really? Because it sounded pretty genuine to me."

"Really. That's just how I operate. The pranks however, that was just both of us being really immature. They did teach me that you have a pretty solid sense of humour, though. I promise this doesn't have anything to do with how amazing you are at sex, although that is a huge bonus, but, all this is irrelevant if you don't want to." She still didn't respond so he kept talking. "In fact, your lack of response is showing me that you probably don't and I'm stupid and I got swept up in your 'how could I not care' bullshit and now I—"

Hermione cut him off by pressing her lips to his and she immediately felt his body relax in relief.

She broke the kiss and asked, "Can I just share my hesitation with you?"

"Please."

"I'm nervous. I'm afraid you're going to wake up tomorrow and realize what you did and you're just going to switch on me and turn into an asshole again. That's what you do. You do something nice and then you turn into a dick, nice then dick, nice then dick. I don't really think I can put up with that in a relationship."

"That's fair. I can't promise I won't have bad moments, Hermione, but I promise that I'll always try not to. Can you give me a chance?"

She sighed, "Okay. We can try this."

He lit up. "Really?"

She chuckled, "Really."

He pulled her into his lap and kissed her on the cheek.

She smiled and said, "This is literally the complete opposite of how I expected tonight to turn out. It's interesting even, because yesterday Ron and Ginny told me they thought that I liked you."

"Oh, really? What did you say?"

"I told them that I just wanted to be your friend, but tonight when I was looking at your back, I realized that I cared a lot more, even if you didn't want me to."

He kissed her temple and whispered, "This is good, isn't it?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I think it is."

A/N 2: WHOA! You weren't expecting them to get together this early, were you? I was, but I still have a lot of interesting things planned... more of the funny stuff from the beginning, I promise. Next chapter will have more of the other characters, as well. Review if you feel so inclined. LOVE YOU!