A/N: I thought I would be nice and put up 2 chapters this week. I appreciate all the reviews I have gotten and all the people who favorite and watch this story. It makes me feel good to know people like this story.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

(") (") (")

Chapter 14

The rest of Christmas break soon came to a close. Draco and Hermione didn't realize it was ending because they were preoccupied with themselves to notice the days. On the morning of the last day, and everyone's return, Draco and Hermione left their common room a little later than normal and walked down to breakfast together. As they drew closer to the Great Hall, it dawned on them the rest of the school had returned. They stopped in their tracks and looked at each other.

"This is the last day of break? I can't believe it", Hermione said.

"I know! We sure did lose track of the days", Draco replied.

Hermione was shocked the break was over and everyone was back. She wanted to see her friends but she wasn't prepared at all and didn't know what to do.

Draco picked up on Hermione's worry, "Let's just act like we did before break until we figure out what to do."

"Yeah that would work. In public we won't be friendly at all, argue and act like we still despise each other."

"Ok, I think I can do that. Do you want to go in first?"

"Sure", Hermione replied. She turned toward the door and straightened herself before walking through the entrance.

Draco hung back for a couple of minutes before entering.

Hermione walked through the Great Hall, which was now full of students, as she made her way to her friends. She walked along the Gryffindor table, saying 'hi' to people as she passed and soon came to her friends. She sat next to Ginny who instantly threw her arms around her upon sight.

"Oh Hermione, I'm so happy to finally see you!" the red head squealed.

Hermione returned the hug and waved at Harry as she released.

"It's good to see you, Hermione", Harry greeted.

"I'm glad you're all back", she said as smiled at them. She then started to place food on her plate.

"How was your break? Was it lonely here all by yourself?" asked Ginny.

"It wasn't too bad. I liked the quiet", she replied as she began to eat.

"Malfoy didn't give you any trouble, did he?" Harry asked.

"Nope not at all, I barely saw him the entire time", she replied a little too quickly. Harry was the only one to catch it. He felt something was going but didn't say anything.

Draco entered the Great Hall and walked over to the Slytherin table, trying to avoid looking at the Gryffindor table. He took his place next to Blaise but was soon attacked by Pansy. She pushed her way next to him and attached herself to his arm. Draco wanted nothing more than to push her off onto the floor.

"Hi, Draco, how was your break?"

"It was good until now", he replied without any emotion.

She didn't pay much attention to his comment because she noticed he wasn't wearing the ring she had sent him but was wearing another one instead. "Why aren't you wearing the ring I sent you?" she demanded.

Draco lazily turned his face to her, "Because I didn't want to put it on", he replied still in the monotone voice.

Pansy lifted his right hand which had Nero's ring on it, "You put this one on but not the one I gave you!" she screeched.

Draco pulled his hand out of her grips, "This ring means something to me and I like it unlike the cheap thing you bought."

Pansy pulled back a little, "What are you saying, Draco?"

"Do I really have to spell it out for you? I don't like you or care about you! I never have, even that night months ago. I want you to stay away from me."

Students at the Slytherin table along with other near by turned to look at what was going on. Without even finished his breakfast, Draco tore himself away from Pansy, stood up and left the Great Hall. Almost every student was watching then, including Hermione who watched with curious eyes.

"Leave it to Malfoy to make a scene as soon as everyone comes back", said Ron.

No one commented but nodded. Hermione quickly returned to her breakfast to finish. She wanted to know what had happened over at the Slytherin table to make Draco storm out.

Draco stormed through the corridors back up to his room. He was surprised with himself for finally telling Pansy off. But now everyone was going to be talking about it and he hated that. All he wanted was to be left alone and for people to forget him.

He opened the door to his room and left it ajar as he lied down on his bed. He laid on his back, intertwining his fingers together a top his stomach. He wished it was still break so he and Hermione could just be alone together.

Five minutes later, Draco felt the presence of someone at his door. H raised his head off his pillow and saw Hermione.

"Can I join you?" she asked.

"Of course."

Hermione entered Draco's room for the very first time and gazed around at everything as she walked to his bed. It looked similar to her room except it was decorated in Slytherin colors and more boyish. Once she reached his bed, she gently sat down and eased herself on her back next to him.

"I never thought Hermione Granger would ever be in my bed."

Hermione playfully hit his arm.

"I'm just joking, Hermione. Who knew you were so violent."

Hermione ignored his comment, "What happened in the Great Hall?"

"Aw, you're concerned about me?"

Hermione turned her head to the right to look at the blond, "I'm serious, Draco."

Draco turned to the left and met her gaze, "It's nothing really. Pansy got on my nerves. She noticed I wasn't wearing the ring from her but this one instead", he raised his hand to indicate he was referring to Nero's ring.

Hermione couldn't help but glance at Cassandra's ring, which was technically hers.

"I wanted to get away from her and I hated having everyone stare at me. So that's why I left."

"You don't like being the center of attention?" Hermione said a little laugh.

"Of course I like it, just not when it's in a negative way."

"Some things never change."

"You really came up here to check on me?" Draco asked getting serious.

"Yes, that's what friends do", she replied, "and Dumbledore sent us a message. Here is yours." Hermione reached into her pocket and pulled out the small, sealed envelope. She handed it to Draco who took it and ripped it open. He read through it before folding it back up.

"Lesson tonight, wonder if we'll actually do anything?"

"I hope so. I can't believe how stressful the rest of this school year is going to be. We have classes, preparing for exams and two extra lessons on top of it all."

"Well, least you have me and you aren't doing this alone", Draco said to comfort Hermione. As he gazed at her, he got the urge to kiss her again but restrained himself this time. He wanted to honor her wishes and be only friends.

But little did he know, Hermione wanted to kiss him as well. She bit her bottom lip as she turned away. "I better go. I promised Harry and Ginny I would meet them back at the Gryffindor common room. So, I guess I'll see you after dinner tonight."

"Alright then, bye."

Hermione climbed down off his bed and said 'bye' as she exited his room.

Draco remained on his bed staring up at the canopy top. He wanted Hermione so bad. It wasn't just about sex, which was a first for him. He just wanted to hold her in his arms and never let go. He turned to his side and hugged his pillow.

As Hermione walked through the corridors to the Gryffindor Tower, she had to fight the urge to turn around and go back to Draco. She couldn't understand the feeling that were racing though her. She lied when she told him she just wanted to be friends. She wanted so much more. Draco had a real caring side to him that she loved. But she knew she couldn't put herself through that now, not with what happened with Ron still fresh in her mind.

She pushed all thoughts of Draco out of her mind as she gave the Fat Lady the password and entered into the common room.

XxX

Once Hermione was finished with her dinner, she excused herself to go to Dumbledore's office. She saw Draco leave a couple of minutes before and didn't want him to wait too long for her. As she exited the Hall, she found Draco waiting for her leaned up against the staircase railing with his hands in his pockets.

"You didn't have to wait for me", she said as she approached him.

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "I wanted to. Plus I didn't want to sit in Dumbledore's office waiting for you", he added to play off he just wanted to walk with her.

"Thanks, but we better hurry up and get to his office."

The tow of them set off to the Headmaster's office in silence. There was a slight tension between them but they didn't know how to address it. Draco walked with his hands shoved his pockets the whole way while Hermione held hers clasped together behind her back. Both were relieved to finally reach his office door. Draco did the honor of knocking.

"Come in", they heard and Draco pushed open the door.

The old wizard was seated behind his desk, scribbling something onto a sheet of parchment in front of him as they advanced toward his desk. Once he was finished writing, he laid his quill down and put the parchment away. He finally looked up at the pair and smiled. "Good evening", he greeted.

"Good evening, professor", they replied together.

"Please, have a seat", he gestured to the seats in front of his desk. Once they were seated, Dumbledore continued, "Did you have a good break?"

"Yes, I enjoyed it", Hermione answered first.

"Same for me", Draco replied as he crossed his legs.

"Excellent! I want to begin tonight by giving a brief overview of what we'll be covering in these lessons. As I mentioned in our last meeting, your powers are growing. We need to focus on them so you can reach your full potential. I'll be working with you on teaching you advanced spells and being able to execute them nonverbally and wandless. Cassandra and Nero didn't use wands so I want to get both of you up to that level. Once you reach that then you'll be ready. I'll have you assist Mr. Potter in building his skills later on."

Draco rolled his eyes at the idea of having to help Harry but Dumbledore ignored him and continued on. "We're at the crucial tome now. My plan is to have the tow of you ready by the end of the school year. Then we can prepare for the battle."

At that statement, it really hit Hermione that she was going into battle, a war. She already knew she was going to fight but she didn't realize how quick that time was coming. Hermione's mind became so wrapped up at the thought of the battle that she missed the last things Dumbledore said.

"Ms. Granger, are you alright?"

Hermione blinked a couple of times, refocusing her eyes as she looked at the Headmaster. "Yes, I'm fine", she said with a smile though it was faked.

Draco felt something was wrong with her and decided to ask her once they had returned to their common room.

"Alright, shall we begin?" Dumbledore asked as he rose from his chair.

XxX

After two intense hours of practicing, Draco and Hermione left the Headmaster's office. They spent the whole time practicing throwing pillows at each other and blocking them without their wands.

"Who would have thought trying to hit each other with pillows would have been so hard. I'll be lucky to live through the rest of the year with all this training", Draco said.

"Oh quit complaining, Draco. It's not that bad."

The pair walked through the quiet castle corridors. Since it was close to curfew, they made their rounds through the rest of the school together patrolling. They saw other Prefects in the halls and distanced themselves until the Prefect was gone.

Hermione was distant the entire time and hardly responded to what Draco was saying. Draco was getting worried about Hermione and the way she was acting. He hadn't seen Hermione act like this before. She was a strong woman who was generally in control of her emotions around other people.

As they finished their job, they finally headed to their dorm. Draco wanted to test how much Hermione was paying attention to him. "Hermione, I'm going to go run through the school naked screaming I'm a penguin."

Their portrait looked at Draco with a bewildered expression. All Hermione said was, "Ok, sounds good to me."

Draco sighed and said the password. Hermione entered first and Draco followed. Hermione slowly walked to the couch and sat down. She leaned her upper body forward, placing her arms on her knees. She stared in front of her but didn't look at anything in particular. Draco joined her on the couch mimicking her posture while he waited for her to speak.

They sat in silence for nearly five minutes before Hermione spoke what was on her mind. "For years now, I've always known I would stand alongside Harry in the final battle against Voldemort. I've never seconded guessed it. But I haven't given much thought to it. Tonight in Dumbledore's office, it finally hit me I'm going into battle, to war, sooner than I imagined. I don't know why it hit me this hard and now all of a sudden but this is really happening", she turned her gaze to Draco, "within this year or so, we're going to go up against Voldemort and Death Eaters. We could die."

"No, we're not going to die", Draco said firmly locking eyes with Hermione, "it's natural for you to feel this way. Being seventeen and expected to help take down the darkest wizard ever is a daunting task. It's a lot to be asked of us but Hermione, we'll be ready."

Draco scooted close to Hermione and wrapped his arm around her, hugging her body to his. "I was actually wondering how long it would take for you to say this. You've been so level headed about it for so long; I knew it wouldn't last for ever."

Hermione shook her head, "I'm really in no position to complain about this. I mean, Harry has it worse than me and all of us. He's the one destined to defeat him."

"But you've choose to do this. You've taken the responsibility all on your own. No one said you had to."

"Well, not with Dumbledore telling us who we are how can I refuse?"

Draco shook his head no, "You could have told him no. Before this year and the revelation from Dumbledore, you already decided you would be apart of this. Hermione…" he gently placed his finger under her chin and raised her face up to his, "you are the smartest and bravest witch of our time. Nobody could be in your place and do it willingly."

Hermione smiled at Draco. A single tear fell down her cheek. Draco wiped it away and smiled back at her. He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.

"You're exhausted. I think it's time to go sleep. Classes start tomorrow."

Hermione nodded her head in agreement. She didn't move for a moment because she didn't want to leave Draco's warm embrace.

Draco didn't want her to go either bit it was for the best that she did. He slowly removed his arm and Hermione rose off the couch.

"Thanks, Draco", she leaned back down and kissed him on the cheek. "Good night." She turned to leave and walked to her room.

Draco watched her until she was out of sight in her room. Being just friends was already too hard for him. He soon stood up stretching and walked up to his room to shower then go to sleep.

Hermione changed into her pajamas. As she lied on her bed, Draco filled her thoughts. When she had kissed him on the cheek she wanted to kiss him on lips instead. She didn't imagine it would be this hard to be just friends.

(") (") (")

A/N: I hoped you enjoyed that. I recently finished revising chapters 8 and 9 and are now up. If you care to you should go back and read them. I'm happy to be trucking along here on this story. I have the next chapter ready to go and I'm currently writing 16. I don't start school again until August 30 so I'm hoping to have a lot updated before that.