A/N: This is one of my favorite chapters and I hope you enjoy it too. It was a lot of fun to write. It was originally with the previous chapter but I thought it would be better to separate them.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Chapter 12

The following day was Christmas. Hermione awoke to see a large pile of gifts at the bottom of her bed. She crawled to the end of her bed and began going through the boxes. The first one she opened was from Mrs. Weasley and was a new blue sweater. Ginny sent her a charm bracelet with a note saying she had an identical one as well. Harry's gift was a rare book on Ancient Runes she had been searching for. The twins sent her a package of their newest inventions. The last present was a small, thin box from Ron. She hesitated to open it but she decided to out of curiosity. It was a gold chained necklace with a small jewel hanging from it. She closed the lid and tossed it into her trunk without a second glance.

Adjacent to Hermione's room, Draco sat at the end of his bed looking own at his few gifts he had received. He didn't expect much but still hoped for more. It wasn't that he wanted a lot of presents, but he wished more people cared enough about him to send something. The first gift he picked up was from his Bellatrix. He wasn't sure exactly what it was but it came from Borgin and Burkes. Draco unwrapped the smallest box with was from Pansy. He had no interest in what was inside so he tossed it to the side. Snape sent him an interesting book on Advanced Defensive Spells. The last gift he opened was a new leather bound journal with a dragon on the cover and his initials on the back from his mother. This was the only gift he liked. He placed the journal in the drawer of his night stand and the rest went into his trunk out of sight. Draco then proceeded to get dressed for the day. He wondered if Hermione was still in her room.

Draco exited his room and knocked on her door. Hermione bolted off her bed and reached the door in a couple of seconds. She opened the door and smiled at Draco.

"Happy Christmas, Hermione," Draco greeted with a smile.

"Happy Christmas, Draco. It's funny I was just about to come over to your room."

"Great minds think a like", Draco replied with a laugh. He then cleared his throat before shyly asking, "So, I was wondering if you wanted to join me for breakfast and then spend the rest of the day goofing off with me?"

"Sure, let me change real quick then we can go. Are we going to be outside at all?"

"Yes so dress for the cold," answered Draco.

Hermione closed the door and ran to her closet. Draco walked down to the common room to wait for her. The brunette stood at her closet unsure of what to wear. She wasn't sure why she wanted to impress Draco but she wanted to look nice. She pulled out an emerald turtle neck with black hip hugger jeans she had only bought because Ginny convinced she looked good in them. She threw them on quickly as she summoned her boots to her to speed up the process. She ran a brush through her hair, grabbed her cloak, hat and gloves and was out the door.

Draco rose off the couch when he heard her door close. He watched Hermione as she descended the stairs. "Green looks really good on you, Hermione."

"Thanks", she replied with a warm smile, "ready for breakfast?"

"Yes, after you."

Hermione led the way out of the common room with Draco following behind her. Once in the corridor he moved to be right beside Hermione. As they walked, they discussed the presents they received. Draco wasn't happy about Ron having the nerves to send her a necklace but he kept it to himself.

The Great Hall was decorated for Christmas like every year. Draco had really never paid much attention to the trees or decorations before but he couldn't help admire them. The pair grabbed a plate and placed an assortment on it. They sat at their usual spot at the end of the table and quickly ate.

Once they were finished they made their way outside. A beautiful sight greeted them. The grounds were completely covered in white snow that was untouched. The Lake was frozen over. There tons of ice sickles hanging from the branches of the trees. It looked like a photograph.

"It's so beautiful", Hermione whispered.

"It is. I love it", Draco said in agreement. Draco turned to Hermione and offered his arm to her.

She looked back at him a little surprised but accepted without a word.

The two descend the stairs to the pure white ground below. There was silence except for the crunch of the snow underneath their feet. Hermione had a bright smile on her face as they walked. Draco snuck a glance down at Hermione and she brought a smile to his face as well.

Soon, they arrived at the rock Hermione and Harry sat on before. Draco gestured to her if she wanted to sit and Hermione agreed. The Slytherin and Gryffindor sat together on the rock and gazed out at the lake.

"What are your plans after the war is finally over?" Hermione asked.

Draco thought for a moment before replying, "I'm not sure."

"Oh come one. You have to have some kind of idea", Hermione encouraged.

"I guess if I survive, I want to change my family's reputation. The Malfoy name has never been any good with all the bad things associated with it. Lucius did a lot of the recent stuff all by himself. I'm not exactly sure how I can change it or if it's even possible but I'll still try. What about you?" he asked looking at Hermione but she didn't meet his gaze.

She kept her eyes straight ahead of her, "Either be a teacher or work at the Ministry and try to fix it. I also want to start a family. I thought it would be with Ron but that dream is gone."

"I want to start my own family as well. I want my children to have the life I never had."

There was a brief silence between them. They sat there for a moment thinking of their possibilities.

"I'm going to admit something to you I thought I would never say", said Draco.

Hermione tore her eyes away from the lake and looked at the blond, "What is it?"

Draco cleared his throat as he looked her straight in the eyes, "I'm glad to be here with you right now."

"Really?" Hermione didn't say it but she felt the same way.

Their faces drew closer together unintentionally.

"Really", Draco said not breaking the gaze.

They kept getting closer together and their faces were a few inches apart. Hermione started to freak out when she realized how close their faces were. She quickly grabbed a hand full of snow and smeared it in his face. Draco just sat there for a moment stunned before he rubbed the snow off his face. He looked at Hermione with a calm face, which scarred Hermione a little bit.

"You're dead, Granger."

Hermione jumped off the rock and started to run away, "You'll have to catch me first", she called back to him.

Draco rose from the rock and summoned three snowballs and made them fly toward Hermione. Two of them missed and zoomed past her body but one hit her in the back.

"Hey! No magic", she yelled to him.

Draco put his wand away, "Fine, but I'm still going to win!"

Hermione continued to run toward all the foliage on the outskirts of the forest. She jumped behind a bush and crouched down hoping he didn't see where she went. She instantly began clumping snow together and stacking them next to her.

Draco soon caught up to where she was. He looked around and called, "Come out, come out where ever you are." Draco clutched a large snowball behind his back. He soon closed in on Hermione's hiding spot.

Hermione heard him approaching and picked up a snowball to be ready. When she knew he was close she jumped up with the snowball in hand. But Draco wasn't there. She heard snow crunch behind her. She slowly turned around and saw Draco smiling at her.

"Hello, Hermione."

The snowball fell out her hand, "I'm sorry, Draco."

"That's not acceptable", he replied stepping closer to her.

Hermione backed up, forgetting the bush was behind her, and fell down. She laid in the snow as Draco walked toward and stood over her. She tried to crawl away but was unsuccessful as Draco pulled her back to him. He straddled her waist to prevent her from moving. Draco pulled the snowball from behind his back rubbed it all over her face.

"How does it feel to have snow in your face?" Draco asked in a joking tone.

Hermione cleaned off her face. "Not too bad actually but…" she grabbed some snow and before Draco realized what she was doing, she stuffed it down his pants, "not as bad as it being in your pants."

Draco quickly got off Hermione. He turned around to unzip his pants and quickly got the cold snow out of his trousers. Once it was all cleared out and his pants zipped up, he turned back to the brunette, "That was so wrong, Hermione. Never would have thought you would play dirty."

Hermione laughed, "I'm sorry, that was a little too far but the look on your face as priceless."

"Oh really?" he asked as he walked to her.

"Truce?" Hermione asked as she extended her hand.

Before Hermione knew what happened, Draco pulled the collar of her shirt out and shoved a handful of snow inside.

With a smile he replied, "Truce. Now we are even."

Hermione turned around as she pulled the now out of her shirt. "Snowball fight is officially over now", she said as she turned back to him.

Draco offered his hand to her and helped pull up from the ground, "Let's go back inside and warm up."

"Yes, lets. I know just the place to go. Follow me."

They quickly returned to the warm castle and Hermione led him to the seventh floor. Once she found the right spot, Hermione walked three times in front of it and the door appeared.

"The old Room of Requirement, nice choice", Draco said as he followed her inside.

They were greeted with the sight of a fireplace with a roaring fire within, a very comfy looking love seat and a coffee table with two mugs of hot chocolate.

Hermione removed her soaked turtle neck to only wear a tank top underneath. She draped the shirt close to the fire. Draco remained frozen by the door as he watched Hermione. She then sat down on the couch and removed her boots. Draco could feel his pants getting a little tight. He never thought he would see Hermione basically strip in front of him. She wasn't taking off all of clothes but still.

Once Hermione had both of her boots off, she glanced up at Draco, "You ok, Draco?" She didn't realized how uncomfortable she was making him.

'Is she serious?' Draco thought, 'Maybe she doesn't realize what she's doing to me. Oh I better say something before she does think something is wrong.'

"I'm fine", he finally said.

"Then would you want to come join me on the couch?" she asked as she picked up the mug closet to her.

Draco gulped as he tried to adjust his pants so she wouldn't notice and walked toward the couch. He sat next to her and picked up the other mug and took a sip.

They sat in silence as they sipped their hot chocolate. Draco tried to focus on the drink and not the girl sitting beside him. He wished she would put the turtle neck back on. It wasn't because he thought she was ugly but the total opposite. He never took the time to really appreciate her body before. The school uniforms really did hide a lot. When he finally felt it was ok to look at her, he ran his eyes down her entire body. He couldn't believe how beautiful she had become over the past six years. But, he then thought of how Ron had violated her so badly. 'How could he or anyone harm such a beautiful thing?' he asked himself.

"Are you there, Draco?" Hermione asked as she waved her hand in front of his face.

Draco blinked several times. He didn't realize he had been staring at her so he quickly looked away, "Yes I'm fine, and why do you ask?" He hoped she didn't notice him staring at her.

"Because you were just staring at me for almost three minutes", she replied.

'Damn.' "Oh I was just thinking about something."

"Okay", Hermione replied. She decided to change the subject, "want to watch a movie?"

"A what?" Draco asked confused.

"Well, you're about to find out. I know electrical devices don't work at Hogwarts but this year I asked Dumbledore if they could work in here."

"That still doesn't explain."

Just then, the fireplace disappeared and was replaced with a wall with a large, black screen on it and was accompanied with speakers on both sides. Other foreign objects appeared as well that Draco had never seen before, which included a DVD player and a large bookcase full of movies, all of Hermione's favorites.

"Ok, so a movie is a form of Muggle entertainment. There are people called actors and actresses and their job is to play or pretend to be another person to tell a story. Some movies are based on real events or just completely made up", Hermione explained.

Hermione got off the couch and walked over to the bookcase to pick a movie. She ran her hand across the shelf as she decided. Draco couldn't help but look at her backside. Once she finally decided on a movie and began to turn around Draco adverted his eyes. "This is one of my favorite movies", she said as she walked toward the TV and placed The Princess Bride into the player. She picked up the remote and returned to the couch.

"The movies are shown on a Television screen like the one in front of us." A large bowl of popcorn appeared on the table along with a blanket. Hermione grabbed the blanket, covering herself and offered the other end to Draco. He accepted and scouted a little close to her. She then picked up the bowl and offered some to Draco, "This is popcorn a movie food snack."

Draco grabbed a couple of pieces and threw them into his mouth. After swallowing, he took the bowl from Hermione's hand and shoveled more in. Hermione laughed. Another bowl appeared and she placed it in her lap. She grabbed the remote once the menu showed up and clicked play.

Soon the movie started and Hermione closed the small gap in between her and Draco. Draco was mesmerized by the movie immediately from the start. About half way through the movie, Hermione's head rested upon his shoulder. Draco glanced over at her and smiled. Everything felt so perfect. There were no worries about the impending war, what Hermione's friends would think or anything at all. As Hermione laid there on Draco, she felt complete for the first time in her life. Draco felt the same exact way, but neither one of them knew how to put it into words.

Draco readjusted himself as he slowly slid his arm around Hermione, pulling her body closer to him. Hermione blushed a little bit as he did so but she didn't resist. She wasn't used to this kind of affection from him but she liked it. He didn't know why he did it but Draco felt like it was the right thing to do. He liked the feeling of having Hermione so close to him and he never wanted to let go.

Once the couple kissed and the scene faded out, the movie was over but neither of them wanted to move. Hermione decided she should move to grab the remote but as she started to move, Draco didn't remove his arm which was around her waist. Hermione looked up at him and she saw something in his eyes that she had never seen before, comfort, lust and uncertainty.

"Did you like the movie?" Hermione finally asked to break the silence.

"Yes, I did. It was very good."

"Would you like to watch another one?"

"Not right now", Draco said as he moved his face closer down to hers.

Hermione didn't know what to do. She really couldn't move away from Draco but she realized she didn't want to. When their faces were close together like before, Hermione allowed him to kiss her. As his lips touch hers she felt herself melt and returned the kiss. As they did so, both of their rings began to shine purple.

Hermione was soon glad she didn't push Draco away. Slowly, her arms snaked around his neck. They continued to kiss for almost ten seconds. As Draco slowly and reluctantly pulled away, the light disappeared but he noticed it before it was completely gone. Hermione opened her eyes and refocused them as she starred up at Draco. He wanted so much to continue the kiss but he knew if they continued he might end up going too far and pushing her limits. That was the last thing he wanted to do.

There weren't words to describe what they were feeling, especially for each other.

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A/N: They had their first kiss! But that doesn't mean they are together yet, I wouldn't let them get together that quickly ;) I'm still looking for ideas for Hermione's Animagus animal if anyone has any suggestions.

On a side note, I've posted a one-shot with Draco and Hermione so I would like for you to check it out. But I warn you, it's not a happy story.