HERMIONE'S POV:

I woke the next morning to sunlight shining right in my face, a few girls whispering about their boyfriends, and a massive headache. I groaned and pulled my pillow over my face, throwing the covers off my body in the process.

For once this month, I wasn't freezing. It was very warm for January.

I laid awake in bed for a while before memories of the dream started surfacing. Images flashed behind my eyelids. Me in a blue dress with my hair swept over one shoulder and held in place by a crystal clip. Draco in a suit with his hands in his pockets and an actual smile on his face. Draco holding my cheek in his hand. Draco leaning in to kiss me.

The dream was unfinished. I remembered waking up after that. The kiss never happened.

I felt disappointed but I knew it was stupid. I didn't have feelings for Draco Malfoy and even if I did, it was just a dream. It wasn't like, if the kiss had happened, it would've meant anything.

At least that's what I told myself as I sat up and got dressed, ready to go down and eat breakfast with Harry and Ron.

RON'S POV:

Hermione was different this morning. She wore her hair in a different way. It was pulled loosely to one side with a shiny clip. She was beautiful.

But I would never admit it to Harry or Hermione or…

"Won Won!"

Lavender.

I really did like her a lot, but that name was really starting to grate on my nerves.

Groaning internally, I slowly turned in my seat on the long bench to see her standing with her hands clasped and an overexcited smile on her face. Great, she probably had something planned for us to do today.

"Yes?" I said warily.

"I've got something for us to do today!" she said, obviously overjoyed with her plan-making skills.

I really didn't feel like doing anything today. If I was being completely honest, I only wanted to talk to Hermione at the moment.

Harry caught on to my deer-in-the-headlights expression and cut in just in time.

"Um, actually, Lavender, Ron already said he was going to hang out with me and Hermione today. Sorry." he said, his fib sounding completely honest.

She turned her glare on Hermione and, by the way her glare turned from resentment to hatred, saw exactly how gorgeous she looked.

It wasn't just the hair. Something else was different. She was more confident, she seemed to be looking forward to something, or maybe like something had already happened.

Lavender's eyes widened and turned on me with an outrageous accusatory expression in them.

"Really? You're going to choose your friends over me?" she said, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes.

I knew exactly what she was doing. She was challenging my "love" for her with my friendship for Hermione. This wasn't about choosing my friends over her. To her, it was about choosing Hermione over her.

"Lavender, I'm not choosing anyone over you, you know that." I said, only trying to appease her.

When her expression brightened again and her mouth reopened to let out a stream of animated comments about how wonderful the day would be, I cut her off saying, "But I did promise Harry that I would be able to spend some time with him today." I purposefully didnt bring up Hermione.

This seemed to work just fine.

"Okay." she nodded and ran off to sit with her friends.

I turned back around, sighing heavily.

Hermione's face was half turned away from me, half turned toward the Slytherin table. Harry didn't seem to notice; he and a few other kids were too preoccupied with the mysterious green goop in his food.

Malfoy looked up once, his eyes finding Hermione's easily. He looked surprised but happy. I could have punched him.

I could have seen Hermione's blush from the other side of the hall.

Realizing what he had been doing, he blinked a few times, trying to regain composure and then smiled at her.

I had never in all my life imagined Draco Malfoy capable of a smile like that. Like he was actually happy in a nice way.

Then he turned around.

Hermione, too, turned and saw me watching. Her blush deepened and she looked down, finishing her breakfast in silence.

DRACO'S POV:

I couldn't believe it. She looked exactly the same way she had in my dream. The hair, the glow around her, the eyes. There was something in her eyes that was very similar to last night. The only thing that was missing was the dress and the nearness. I wished desperately for that nearness to come again, even if only for a moment.

After breakfast, I used homework I didn't have as an excuse to escape my group and head to the library, hoping Hermione would go there, too. Sure enough, Hermione saw me heading away and waited for Harry and Ron to catch up to her so she could tell them she was going to the library.

I waited around the corner for her. I thought maybe I would scare her, but when I jumped out from behind the corner, she ran straight into me, knocking both of us to the ground.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so-" she began.

But she was stopped by my laughter. It was shaking my chest in a way that was almost as comical as our little bump.

She sat up on the floor next to me. I rested my head against the floor, a few chuckles still coming out quietly.

She looked surprised that I laughed.

I hopped up into a sitting position and then bounced up onto my feet in one quick second. I turned to see her still staring at me, still surprised. I held out my hand.

She slid hers into mine and once again I felt my heart do something odd that was becoming familiar. Her hand was cold again, but this time, she gripped it a little tighter than when she held my hand in the Astrology Tower. Maybe because she was pulling herself to her feet.

But I hoped it was something else. Something I knew it never really could be.

HERMIONE'S POV:

I had decided to wear my hair the way I had in the dream. I had never worn it like this before, but I liked the way it looked, so I figured, why not? Both Draco and Ron seemed to like it. Not that I cared what either of them thought of my hair.

Draco and I chose an aisle to sit in and we both pulled a random book off the shelf and began reading.

Draco pulled out a piece of creamy white paper and a pencil and began jotting down some things, looking down at his book every once in a while.

We sat on opposite sides of the aisle, reading out books. Or at least he read.

I sat upright in my chair, hiding my face and watching Draco. He sat with his feet propped up on the ledge of the bookshelf, his hair tousled slightly and his eyes the same slate gray as usual. But when he turned to look at me and caught me watching him, he smiled and his eyes shined and turned silver again.

I blushed and looked down at my book. I tried desperately to concentrate on the words in front of me, but my thoughts were somewhere else…

There was a rustling of paper and then a very light thud on the ground. I looked down and saw Draco's paper sitting, folded up, on the floor. I looked up at him, but he was reading intently. Or at least he seemed to be.

I picked the piece of paper up and unfolded it, elegant black script flowing across it.

"Do you want to be my friend?"

It was innocent enough, but my pulse still quickened a little at the thought.

I picked his pencil up from the ledge and began writing.

"Yes."

And I passed it back, throwing it right into his lap. He smiled as he read and my heart did a few flips.

DRACO'S POV:

So she did want to be my friend. I couldn't stop smiling about it, but I didn't write back; I already had the information I needed and I didn't know what else to say.

I sat and read (well, pretended to read) and snuck glances at her. Occasionally, we would both look at each other at the same time and blush, smirking at each other.

We were both getting bored of sitting in the library, so we started putting up our books.

When we reached up, our hands touched and I felt something. Like static electricity. She must have felt it, too. She looked at our hands in amazement and then looked up and smiled at me.

"What's going on here?" came an outraged whisper from behind me.

I instinctively slid away from Hermione and she did the same.

"Ron, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked in a slightly shaky voice.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Weasley standing red-faced at the end cap of the bookshelf behind us.