A/N- You guys are seriously wonderful! Thank you so much for all the reviews. I am so sorry I still havn't been able to fix the problem with my account, hence being unable to reply to any of you. But thanks again and especially to those of you who liked my characterization of Ron. Hope you like this chapter and leave lots and lots of reviews!

Disclaimer- Don't own anything except the plot!

"Granger, hey Granger, wake up!"

Hermione opened her eyes slowly. Through her sleep drenched vision, she saw his face. It was so beautiful, it took her breath away. And it was just inches away from her own face. She could see the flecks of blue in the grey irises, she could count the the thick gold lashes that framed his lids. She watched the high cheek bones and the square jaw. His hair was the color of the sun rays. He looked like a golden god, like a statue that had been sculpted by the hands of Michael Angelo himself. In her dazed state, she felt a big, goofy smile spread across her lips on its own accord.

She had been dreaming about this face just now. She had been dreaming of kissing Draco Malfoy.

She watched his features assemble themselves into a slight frown at her smile.

"Granger, why the hell are you smiling at me? Are you alright?" The voice seemed to come from far away. It was stern and impatient. Finally, sleep let go of her and Hermione finally realized exactly who she was smiling up at. Hastily, she picked her face up from the desk where she had fallen asleep studying. She hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep the previous night, thanks to Malfoy's strange behavior earlier that day. Strange was too kind a word. His behavior had been down right scary. Why on earth would Draco Malfoy kiss her? Was this a new strategy to make her life a living hell. Maybe he wanted to sabotage her position as Head Girl. He had made it absolutely clear how much he despised having to share his own position as Head Boy with her, on their ride to Hogwarts. Yes, this must be it. He was just trying to mess things up for her usual. After all, it must be agonizing for him that a pureblood like himself had to work with a mudblood. Maybe he wanted Pansy to be Head Girl. Hermione sniggered. Pansy. Head Girl. That would be hilarious.

"Seriously, Granger, cut it out. You are starting to scare me."

Hermione glanced at the clock. It was past midnight. "Malfoy, why are you pestering me at this god awaful hour?"

"I need you to teach me the renevocondo spell." He announced.

Hermione yawned, gettiing up from the chair, "Can't this wait till tomorrow, Malfoy? I am really tired right now."

"I can't afford to lose any time, Granger. I have to learn this sepll by tonight."

"Why tonight?"

"Er, I have a test tomorrow."

Hermione looked at him suspiciously. "What test?"

"Fine. No test. McGonagall gave me extra homework for falling asleep in class. There, happy?" he sneered.

For the first time, Hermione noticed the purple shadows under his eyes and the the fact that he looked sickly pale. She stared too long once again and Draco cleared his throat. Hermione noted that she needed to scold hereself severey for these weird thoughts about Malfoy. He was nothing but the amazing bouncing ferret.

"Why don't you got to the library to learn the spell?" She suggested.

"Library's closed."

"What did you do all day, then?"

"I was busy. Merlin, Granger, what's with the interrogation?" He snapped impatiently. "Will you help me or not?"

"Tell me, Malfoy. Why the hell should I help you?" Hermione asked coldly.

"If you do, you will receive a kiss from me as your reward." He stated arrogantly. "Just like the one yesterday."

Hermione gasped. The git! "Yeah, Malfoy, I am just dying for your lousy, disgusting kiss!" she spat.

He stepped closer to her his voice dropping to a whisper. "Is that right, Granger? You mean to tell me that you did not stay up all of last night thinking about our little kiss just like I did?"

Hermione ignored the shiver that ran through her. "No way." She lied.

"You are a pathetic liar, Granger, you know that? Let me prove it to you right now." With that he closed the last gap and sealed her lips with his.

It shocked her how different his kiss was from his words. Gone was the arrogance, the menace. He kissed her as if she was a porcelin doll, so gentle so tender. Just a whisper of breaths at first and then the sipping of lips. All the time his hands cupped her cheeks, his touch soft and delicate. Hermione tried to search for the hatered that he felt for her but invain. He handled her as if he knew she was wary of him, he kissed her like he wanted to show her something. What?

Then he slipped his tongue inside her mouth and her head started to reel from the sensations that his touch evoked. Carefully, she wrapped her arms around his waist, clinging to him, leaning into the kiss. When he finally, pulled away, he made a sound low in his throat as if he was in some kind of pain. He leaned his forhead against hers and Hermione watched a strange shadow cross his eyes. Hermione could not decipher this look. She had seen it several times in the last year. She had watched him grow paler and the shadows underneath his eyes darken gradually. The summer hand't done any good to him. Now, back for his seventh year, he still had that hollow look in his eyes.

She felt something close to pity for this boy. Along with the regular hatred of course. But Hermione could not deny to herself any longer that she liked Draco's Malfoy's kiss. Very much indeed. And she did not know what to do about it at all.

Draco let go of her and his familiar smirk slid back in place. "Let's get started with the spell, shall we, Granger?"

***

Hermione rubbed her hands tiredly over her face waiting for the clock to stike eight. It must be the stuff Ron had said last night that was bringing up all these memories of Malfoy. But it was clear to her now why he had sought her out like that at the beginning of seventh year. The Renevocondo spell. He must have needed it to fix the vanishing cabinet, having failed to do so throughout the sixt year. Hermione shuddered. Had she helped him then, in his mission to kill Dumbledore? He had been fake from the very beginning, she realized bitterly. And she had been so bloody blind. Nothing had ever been real between the two of them. Even after all these years, to acknowledge this fact brought with it a crippling pain. Yes, Hermione was a pathetic liar, back then. And for Draco Malfoy, lies came easier than the truth. One more reason why he could never again have a place in her life, Hermione resolved firmly.

***

On saturday evenining, while returning from a business meeting at down town London, something compelled Draco to stop at a muggle shop to buy some flowers from a small girl of about eight whose dimples winked adoringly at him when she smiled. Later, Draco stopped to scoff at himself. Little girls with flowers! What next, picking up puppies from the street? What was happening to him? His father would surely have a heart attack!

But then he realized that this was exactly what Hermione always did to him. Something about her nature insisted others be better people themselves. Just her very presence in his life now had reminded himself once again that he did posses a heart. The last time she had affected him like this was at Hogwarts when she had helped him unknowingly at the darkest time of his life despite the hatred and meaness he threw at her at every chance. But he hadn't been able to resist returning the favor.

***

Things had been strange between him and Granger for the past two weeks ever since he had kissed her that night in their common room. Draco found himself soughting her out few times a day to take her to a secluded corner and steal sweet kisses from her. At first she was shy, hesitant but then slowly she started to get bold. And she never questioned these encounters at all. Maybe like him, she too believed that those kisses were a dream that they had to indulge in as fully as possible before they both woke up to harsh reality.

Talking was avoided. Silently, they had agreed that words would taint this dream. Hermione made sure that she cleared away from the common room before midnight because that was when he came in. Draco learned to communicate with her through eyes only. She was the only thing that kept him sane these days. With her he could forget for a few minutes the looming darkness that would envelop his world if he did not complete his mission at the end of this year.

Flying at night was the next best thing. It helped clear his head. Or rather it it helped him focus on the thoughts that he truly wanted to think about, like Hermione, and kept out the less pleasant ones like Voldemort. This was one of the benfits of being Head Boy that Draco really enjoyed. He did not have to follow curfew.

It was past midnight when he returned to the common room and he was surprised to see that Hermione had not gone to bed yet. She was concentrating intently on stirring a potion in a small cauldron. She sat crossed leg on the floor, beads of sweat shinning on her forhead, hair escaping wildy from the lose bun on the top of her head. Her eyes were narrowed and her nose scrunched up. Draco almost smiled. She looked quite adorable.

When she noticed his presence after a while, she hastily started to apologize, "Oh, Malfoy, I am so sorry. I had to start on this potion at midnight so that it can be ready at exactly this time tomorrow. It's full-

"-moon tomorrow night, I know, Granger. I was given this assingment too." He interrupted.

"Oh. Of course. Well, then why haven't you started on your's yet?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Lost track of time, I guess. It doesn't matter, really. Snape will let me off the hook."

"But, if you don't do it, you won't be allowed to sit for your NEWTS!" she cried.

"Granger, relax, its no big deal."

As he shrugged off his quidditch robes, he watched her stare at the potion for a while as if contempating something. Finally she said, "Well, uh-" she bit her lips, hesitating, "I could give you a sample of mine. You can help me now with this so that we won't have to completey lie..." Her scentence trailed off.

Draco watched her for a second. "That would be kinda nice, Granger."

"Well, okay then. I still need to add a few stuff. Here, stir this whie I cut the ginger roots. Three times clock wise and-"

"One time anticlockwise, I know, Granger."

As they worked together, Draco started to notice the subtle changes in her attitude towards him. Grudgingly, he admitted that it was quite a nice feeling to not have to bicker and throw vile profanities at each other all the time. The silence was very soothing. Few times, their hands brushed and each time Hermione would glance up at him shyly. Draco felt a rush each time her eyes met his. He had to work quite hard to contain a smile. He was actually enjoying himself.

Two hours later, their work was done. Hermione stared to clear up and went to her desk to put the ingredients back into her potion kit. Draco found that he just could not ignore the tension that had been slowly building up in the room for the past few hours. Silenly, he walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. He heard her long intake of breath as he pressed his face into her warm neck.

"Draco?"

"Hermione."

"Where are you going with this?"

"I don't really know, Hermione."

"Oh."

"Do you want to find out?"

There was a pause.

"I don't really know, Draco."

"Tell you what, " He said turning her to face him, "lets not be Granger and Malfoy for a while. Lets just be Draco and Hermione. Just two random people who have found something magical and want to see how long this magic lasts."

"I think we could do that."

"Good. It will be our little secret."

"Okay."

"Hermione?"

"Draco."

"May I have my good night kiss?"

For the first time ever, Hermione Granger smiled up at him without any reservation. He didn't know how devastating the effect was until it was too late.

***

Draco sighed. Well, the flowers were very pretty and he supposed he shouldn't waste them. So he apparated to Hogsmead and knocked on Hermione's door.

She wouldn't be happy to see him, he thought. It was a long shot that would even be home on a saturday evening. But surprisingly, she opened the door, staring at him coldly, arms crossed formidably over her chest.

"Granger," he threatened, "I bought flowers for you from a muggle girl at a muggle shop with muggle money! So you better let me in."

***

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