A/N: A big big thank you to everyone who has put this story on alert and reviewed - it's always good for an extra boost of motivation to pick up the pace with my writing for this, so thanks you're all amazing!

This was such a fun chapter to write and I hope you all have just as much fun reading.

Snakes and Lions

9 days until the Yule Ball – Part 3

"What the hell did you do that for?" Hermione spat. She wrenched her wrist from Draco's grasp as his grip slackened.

"Ouch! Merlin, talk about friction burns Granger!" he shot back, rubbing his palm with his other hand. For once he hadn't been exaggerating: Hermione could see that the palm of his left hand was bright pink and looked incredibly sore. However in that moment, she could muster very little sympathy for the Slytherin. She had been so close to clinching a date with Viktor Krum, and this prat had ruined it right at the last second.

"Answer the question," she demanded as quietly as she could, almost forgetting that they were in the library.

Against Draco's better judgement, he couldn't help but turn the screw a little more.

"What happened to our little agreement about asking questions that aren't relevant to Charms, Granger?" he smirked at her.

"And what happened to me telling to you stop smirking?" Due to Hermione's rage, the words were out of her mouth before she had time to think about what she was saying. It was a pathetic comeback, and both of them knew it.

Draco raised an eyebrow at her and sank down on a chair next to the window. "As I recall, I said that to you first."

Hermione shot him a look that signalled to him that she wasn't in the mood for their usual banter. "Sorry," he continued, "what's this all about anyway? Why are you so annoyed?" He already knew the answer but if it would calm her down and lower the chances of her hexing his balls off, he would take it.

Maybe because you almost dislocated my shoulder, Hermione thought irritably. She decided not to speak her thoughts aloud though: too much had happened in one day for her to have the energy to argue with Malfoy. She sighed and lowered herself onto the seat next to his, placing her Charms books onto the table in front of them.

"If my instinct is right, which is usually is, Viktor was about to ask me to be his date for the Yule Ball," she said, considerably calmer than before. For some reason she felt comfortable talking to Malfoy about this, which was strange on so many levels.

"I didn't realise you had a thing for him," Draco replied through gritted teeth. He willed her to say 'no', mainly because it would effectively mean he would almost certainly lose the bet, and he didn't much fancy having to make a public disclosure of his 'feelings' for a girl he knew liked someone else; it was bad enough that Granger was a Mudblood whom he'd taunted for the last three years or so.

"It's complicated," Hermione said, "I mean he's good looking, really good looking actually, but there are one or two communication issues."

Draco leant forwards on his elbows on the table. "I'm confused. If you aren't completely smitten with him like every other bloody girl in the school is, then why the hissy fit when I dragged you away?"

"Draco Malfoy, do I detect a hint of jealousy?" she raised her eyebrows at him.

For a moment, Draco's heart almost jumped out of his throat. His first reaction was that she was implying that he was jealous about her feelings for Viktor, which he was, but simply because of the bet. He'd sooner face a herd of angry Hippogriffs before admitting or even allowing himself to have feelings for the girl in his company. The thought of it alone was the kind of thing that haunted Draco's nightmares – and that wasn't regarding the Hippogriffs.

After a few moments he understood what she meant and he regained his composure.

"No," he muttered, "as if I'd be jealous of someone like him! I probably have more brain cells than he shares with his entire family. Most girls would like him just because he's famous, anyway."

"Draco!" Hermione scolded half-heartedly, for his words had reduced her to a fit of the giggles. "What?" she asked when she took notice of the strange look Draco was giving her.

"You called me Draco," he stated.

"Nice observation skills, there," Hermione rolled her eyes, "what's the problem? I thought we were doing that now; you called me Hermione not two minutes ago."

Draco decided not to explain the real reason he had addressed her by her first name, which was that he wanted to convey a certain impression to Viktor and throw her off guard for a couple of seconds for good measure. He chose to take the easy route and play along.

"Well, I thought we were being cordial now," he shrugged, "where's Scar-head anyway?"

Hermione glared at him and he continued, "what? No one said anything about me being civil to him as well."

"He should be down in a minute," she said.

"So while we wait, are you going to tell me why it bothered you so much when I dragged you away?"

"Only if you tell me why you dragged me away in the first place," she countered.

"Fine. I'll answer first. Basically, as my tutor, I didn't think it very professional of you to be putting your social life before your 'students' as it were," Draco said smugly.

"I should have known it would have something to do with you having to be centre of attention," Hermione muttered.

"You asked," he shot back.

"Touché," she said, "but in my defence, you arrived earlier than we discussed. Anyway, this disagreement I had with Ron ended up with me telling him that I already had a date to the Ball, which I don't. So I need to find a date, lest all of my dignity be shredded. Viktor has been the only person who has seemed likely to want to go with me." She decided to leave out her deal she made with Ginny.

Draco was rather interested to learn this. How opportune that Hermione was in a similar predicament as he was. It was overwhelmingly tempting to tell her that he needed a date too, but this was Hermione Granger he was dealing with. She wouldn't agree without first knowing all of the in's and out's of the bet, and she certainly wouldn't agree when she learned that his triumph would be at Potter's expense.

Although, it couldn't hurt to mention that he simply didn't have a date…

"Well if it makes you – and that motor mouth of yours – feel any better, I haven't got a date myself yet. I think your humiliation of some claim you made in the midst of an argument will be lessened somewhat by the embarrassment I shall feel."

"Ha – your self-righteous attitude finally coming back to haunt you?" Hermione teased in return for his 'motor mouth' comment.

"Must be," Draco shrugged.

"But what about Parkinson?" Hermione couldn't help but ask.

Draco frowned. "What about Parkinson?"

"I just presumed you two were an item, what with the sickening way you're all over each other all the time."

"You mean the way she's all over me all the time. However I concur that it is indeed, rather sickening," he gave a kind of side-ways half smile to her, and Hermione decided not to push her luck too far with this line of questioning.

"Sorry about your hand," she decided to change the subject so Draco wouldn't get his wand in a knot over her 'interrogations' again.

"Thanks, it's still quite sore though," he said, examining his left palm. Hermione glanced over and saw that the skin looked very raw. This time, she felt quite guilty about what she had done.

"Let me have a look," she said, reaching for his hand, which Draco snatched away.

"Stop being a baby, you won't get Mudblood germs or anything," she quipped, jumping to conclusions for the reason Draco had flinched.

"What are you going to do?" he asked suspiciously.

"I know a couple of spells that could lessen the irritation."

"Of course you do," Draco replied wearily. He stretched his hand out to her.

She gingerly took hold of the underside of his hand so she could examine his palm. Once again, she flinched slightly at the sudden burst of warmth that seemed to radiate from Draco's pale skin.

He took a sharp intake of breath and Hermione jumped, "What?" she asked a little breathlessly.

"Are your hands always this cold, Granger?" he asked back. There was a slight hitch to his voice that he couldn't quite explain. And are they always this soft? His mind wanted to ask. Then his rational thoughts kicked in, What?! NO. You can't think that, this is Hermione Granger. You're Draco Malfoy. You were practically put on this earth to get on each other's nerves.

Hermione didn't quite know how to respond to that. If Draco had been on form, his question would have been conveyed in his usual whiny, complacent tone; however this was lost when their hands had touched; he was taken aback that the girl's hands hadn't been dry and coarse from years of handling thousand year-old books every day as he thought they'd be.

She looked up at Draco, expecting his face to show discomfort, disgust and denial that he was, to an outsider, essentially holding hands with her in a public place. There was discomfort, yes, but neither of the other emotions she had anticipated. Her mouth kept opening and closing but no words would come.

Draco regained his composure first.

"I must say, I take it as a huge compliment that my undeniable good looks is enough to stun you into silence," he drawled.

Hermione curled her lip and scoffed, "Don't flatter yourself," she said lightly.

"See that's the thing, that's what I do so you best get used to it," Draco responded.

He was a little shocked that they hadn't even begun the 'lesson' yet and they seemed to be bearing each other's company just fine. That is, carrying out this plan didn't feel like the chore he first thought it would be. In fact, he might go as far to think that they were getting along.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked suspiciously as she took out her wand to soothe the irritation on Draco's hand.

"Er, you know, because you're going to be helping me with Charms the next few days." He improvised, feeling stupid for letting his guard down and mentioning that she should 'get used to it' I.E – because he had a bet to win.

"Oh," Hermione replied. She decided not to say anymore and started to heal Draco's wound, "Alcedonia," she said, focusing her attention on his hand.

Draco's hand instantly began tingling; for a split second he thought Hermione had tricked him and but a burning jinx on him instead. However, the sensation subsided quickly and he felt the heat seem to drain from his hand, like a mini ice storm had passed over him.

"Thanks…Hermione," he said, smiling at her. It still felt totally alien addressing her by her first name, but he would have to 'get used to it' as he had told her earlier.

"No problem," she smiled back. She noticed that they were still holding hands across the table even though she had done the spell. For a second, she could swear she felt Draco's thumb twitch and briefly stroke hers. Was she crazy to think that? Who was she kidding? She had had two civil conversations with Malfoy in one day and was now holding hands with him – she was definitely crazy.

"Am I interrupting?" a voice cut through the air, and Hermione and Draco simultaneously snatched their hands away. Hermione whipped around, blushing furiously to be caught in such a position, and with Draco Malfoy of all people. The voice belonged to Harry.

"No," she said, smiling at her friend despite her embarrassment. Merlin, if she could run away and hide up in her dorm for the rest of the year, she would: Gryffindor or not.

"Yes," Draco said at the same time. Scar-head had bloody awful timing: he was finally getting somewhere with Hermione and now Potter was going to ruin everything.

Harry was utterly bewildered, "What's he doing here?" he asked, pointing at Draco, "and why were you holding his hand?"

"Harry," Hermione said as calmly as she could, "Draco's here for the same reason you are actually, apparently Professor Flitwick wanted him to have some tuition, and he hurt his hand so I was just healing it for him."

Harry frowned, "Draco?!"

"Yes, Potter that is my name. Well done," Draco said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Look Harry, this is why I was late getting to the common room. Draco and I started talking and decided it would be best to be cordial to one another, hence why I decided to help him just now," Hermione explained.

She was surprised when Harry didn't argue any further and sank into a seat on the other side of her. Where was the speech about how Draco had bullied them all incessantly for years and shouldn't be given a second chance? Where was the childish tantrum and refusal to study with him in a three-foot radius, if even at all?

Unbeknownst to Hermione, Harry's initial annoyance and confusion was merely pushed aside to make room for a sudden realisation that had hit him. He had sat down on the chair from the sheer effort of having to process the wild notion, trying to think of any reason it couldn't be true…yet all of the evidence told him that it was.

He had to tell Ron: Maybe he could shed some light onto the thought.

But before he was going to rile up his best friend over this, Harry decided to grit his teeth and bear Malfoy's company for the next hour or so, just to prove or disprove his theory. The blond git was lucky Harry had just had a lightbulb moment - else he'd be on the receiving end of an Instant-Scalping hex.

"Fine," he said, nodding curtly to Malfoy and taking out his Charms book.

"Okay," Hermione said slowly, a little confused at Harry's acceptance. She wanted to question him but decided against it in case she dropped herself in it like she did with the whole 'date' situation, "so I think we should practice banishing charms, for it can benefit you both. From what I've seen Draco just needs to refine his wand movement to make the spell work and you, Harry just have to work on getting more power behind it so you can banish larger objects like-"

"A fifty foot-long dragon?" Harry cut in dryly.

"And you say I'm dramatic?" Draco leant over and whispered to Hermione. She was about to reprimand him for his comment when another familiar face stepped into view.

"Draco! There you are!" Daphne exclaimed.

Draco tensed in his seat and scowled up at the blonde girl, though the two Gryffindors, who were also looking toward Daphne, didn't see this as Draco was sat furthest away, by the window. He knew immediately that Daphne was here to sabotage. The main giveaway was how she eerily echoed what he had said to Hermione earlier in order to get her away from Krum.

"Pansy said you'd be here," she said cryptically.

"What do you want?" Draco snapped, letting Daphne know that he was on to her.

Despite his efforts, Daphne seemed unperturbed by this and sank into the remaining empty chair at their table; apparently she had no qualms about not being invited to do so.

"Oh, are you joining us?" Hermione asked; feeling rather bemused by the whole thing.

"I may as well do since I've got homework to catch up on," Daphne lied with ease. She maintained her charade by taking out some textbooks, a piece of parchment, quill and pot of ink from her bag and placing them on the table, "don't mind me, just carry on," she said, pretending to read The Standard Book Of Spells: Grade 4.

Hermione bristled and squeaked indignantly at the forwardness and audacity of the Slytherin girl, who didn't seem to take notice of her protests. On any other day Hermione would have promptly dismissed her, or tried to at least, but just too many strange things had happened so far that she didn't have the energy to argue.

She turned to address Harry but came face to face with a mass of black hair on the back of his head instead. She peeked around his shoulder to see that he was looking at Daphne, though his expression was unreadable. Almost as if she sensed his eyes on her, Daphne looked up from her book and locked eyes with Harry through her rectangular glasses. Her eyes widened momentarily, she swallowed hard and quickly looked down again. As if that wasn't enough, Hermione turned her head forwards in enough time to see Daphne smirk evilly in Draco's direction, who glared at her in response.

Hermione looked between Daphne and Draco in confusion. She wondered what had happened between the two of them. Eventually, she told herself to not let her mind play on it, because the situation was bloody bizarre enough as it was.

"So, banishing charms." Hermione said awkwardly to no one in particular.

"Yes." Harry and Draco said simultaneously, both of their heads snapping up to face her in perfect synchronisation. Hermione tried not to giggle at this but it proved to be more than difficult.

"Now, now Granger act professional," Draco drawled. She proceeded to kick him in the shin under the table, and he moaned in pain at the impact.

"That didn't hurt," Hermione told him coolly. He sneered at her and she smiled playfully at him. Beside her, Harry cleared his throat and she tried to focus again.

"Right, so Draco, you can have a go first. I took the liberty of shrinking my pillow and bringing it from the common room so we can practice," she said, removing a tiny pillow from her robes pockets, and enlarging it back to full size.

"Impressive," Draco commented.

Hermione didn't know if he was being sarcastic or not so decided to ignore him, "Harry, why don't you look through the spell books I brought whilst I help Draco. Try and find anything that may be useful in the Tournament," she ordered.

"That'd be a bit difficult since I don't even know what the next task is going to be," Harry muttered, taking his frustration out on his friend whose main priority was apparently to help Malfoy of all people, over him.

"And whose fault is that?" Hermione shot back icily, narrowing her eyes at him.

Harry conceded that he had walked right into that one, so didn't argue any further. He dragged a book towards him and started leafing through the pages, all the while not actually reading and instead focusing his attention on Hermione and Malfoy.

Hermione turned her attention back to Draco. She rose from her seat, stacked up a pile of books a little way away from the table and placed the pillow on top.

"Okay, use the banishing charm we learnt in class on the pillow," she said.

Draco turned slightly in his chair and lazily lifted his wand. Before he could say the spell, Hermione cut across him,

"Stand up, please."

"Why?" he asked. She was getting on his nerves already and they'd only just begun their tuition session. This kiss between Daphne and Potter better be bloody worth it, he thought.

"So I can see what you're doing more clearly," Hermione replied.

"Fine," Draco snapped. He stood up and stretched himself out as he had done in their earlier Charms lesson, "you know, part of me just thinks you're doing this so you can ogle me," he commented, continuing to stretch. This time he decided to up the ante. He removed his school robes and stretched out pretty much every part of his upper body as slowly as he could: from his shoulders to his back, even to lacing his fingers together and stretching his arms out. Truth be told, he felt like an utter prat, but he knew how the female mind worked (to some degree) and now that Hermione had heard his comment, she would begin to take notice of his body. After all, Granger may be unfeminine in many senses but in the hormones department, she was very much the same as every other girl.

Daphne may be able to sabotage his smooth-talking charm, but she was powerless to prevent him from using his 'physical charm' as it were.

Hermione had acted like a puppet on a string. Sure enough, when Draco made that complacent remark, she automatically began to look at him, despite her rational thoughts screaming that this was wrong on so many levels. After all, rationally, she wouldn't be taken in by his arrogant display, but her subconscious was telling another story. She always knew that Draco was thin, but she had never thought about the possibility that he would be somewhat toned as well. Hell, she had never wanted to think about it, but the proof was staring at her; his school jumper and shirt were hiked up when he stretched his arms above his head, just as Viktor's had done earlier. The muscles of his abdomen weren't as obviously defined and prominent as Viktor's, but they were still very much noticeable.

Apparently Quidditch was more of a physically demanding sport than she had given it credit for, and in spite of everything and her history with this boy, she had to admit, if only to herself, that Draco Malfoy was undeniably damn good looking. It's a shame that such handsome features had to go to waste on someone as infuriating as he was, especially because on some level, he had a right to brag about his looks.

"Is this clear enough for you?" Draco smirked as he caught Hermione looking.

She blushed at being noticed. Merlin, he would never let her live this down now.

Daphne had also been watching, and caught on to Draco's tactics immediately. She just hadn't been expecting that reaction from Granger at all. Daphne wondered what they had actually talked about before Draco returned to the common room earlier that evening, and she wondered if she had underestimated Draco's 'abilities'. This thought made her worry, so she needed to act fast.

"You aren't seriously going to fall for that are you Granger? I thought you were supposed to be smart," Daphne snorted, shaking her head at the other girl.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked back.

"That," Daphne said, gesturing towards Draco, "that's like a 'move' of his to hit on girls when giving them compliments and flirting with them doesn't work. It's become a speciality of his."

"Pfft," Hermione exhaled in disbelief, "we may be civil to one another now but in the hour or so that we have agreed to that, not once has Draco given me a compliment!"

"Well with you there would be different circumstances," Daphne explained with no hesitation, "you've had a bad history with him up until now so don't you think that him openly apologising to you and calling a truce would be the equivalent to complimenting a girl whom has no past conflicts with him?"

As soon as Daphne said this, Hermione began to see the logic behind it. It made sense. But was it true? She had never noticed Draco having romantic intentions with anyone besides Pansy; however she was never really looking.

This was also news to Harry, who was still pretending to be engrossed in the textbook. So many snippets of information were being exchanged that he was having trouble keeping up. Despite this, he had learnt one or two things that, unfortunately, backed up his earlier assumptions.

Draco scowled at Daphne. He couldn't believe how manipulative she was being. He'd be impressed if her sneaky actions wouldn't consequently bite him in the arse… stupid bet…

"That was a very impressive lie, Greengrass. It's a shame there's no evidence to back up your claims," he drawled, trying to act as if her words hadn't affected him.

"There doesn't need to be evidence. I'm sure Granger has a good enough reading on you to judge the truth behind what I said for herself," Daphne answered, looking back down to her book.

"Thanks Daphne," Hermione said uncertainly. Truth be told, she was fairly sure that Daphne was lying, as Draco had said. However she had her own reasons; she wasn't just backing up Draco. Something was obviously going on between the two of them, so frankly, Hermione didn't trust either of them. She would rely on her instinct alone, and it was telling her that Daphne had to be lying, because if she weren't, that would mean that Draco had been attempting to flirt with her, and Merlin knows why he would do that.

…But there was the whole 'hand holding' thing…and he did mention not having a date to the Ball… No Hermione, stop it! Just keep an open mind about it. Or, try at least. It won't last long but for now just focus on getting through this with your sanity still in tact.

After a couple of minutes arguing with her own brain, Hermione decided to listen to herself and worry about this tomorrow. Evidently, two Slytherins were too much to handle at once.

Somehow, she managed to get through the lesson, albeit with one or two interruptions from Daphne. The blonde disarmed Draco when Hermione reached for his hand to demonstrate the correct wand motion to him, to name one example. But the hour had finally come to an end, and Harry had learnt a couple of new spells so all things considered, Hermione thought it to be a success.

Both Daphne and Harry seemed a little put out by the end, and had slunk off whilst Hermione was gathering her belongings together. Draco hung behind too.

'"Why didn't you go with Daphne?" Hermione inquired.

"Things are a little…dicey between us," Draco replied, stretching again and rubbing his eyes.

"What? did you ask her to the Ball and get turned down?" She joked, "or did you ask someone else? If that happened I'm sure Pansy wouldn't be too happy about it, and Daphne's a friend of hers so maybe that's why you two are on edge around each other."

Draco became uncomfortable with the way the conversation was headed, so decided to make a break for it too. It was a shame that Hermione had to be so nosy, for he had hung behind for the sole reason of asking her to the Ball. Despite Daphne's interference, he had an inkling that Hermione saw right through her. "I'm way too tired for more interrogation, Granger. Ask me again tomorrow, or never. Both work for me. I'm going to head to the common room too."

"Oh and Hermione," he said as he started to walk away, "thanks for your effort tonight but I don't think we managed to make much progress, what with Greengrass and all.'

"You're right, shall we meet here again tomorrow, just the two of us?" Hermione flushed when she saw Draco smirk at her. She knew how it must have sounded to him, "oh grow up," she added.

"See you tomorrow, Granger," Draco laughed. He turned and Hermione watched him walk away, slightly confused. Did that response mean just 'see you in class' or 'yes, we will meet again tomorrow'? Hermione shook her head and shrunk down her pillow again. She conceded that it might not be a bad thing that she wouldn't have to tutor Draco again the next day: an hour just now was enough to mentally drain her.

Outside in the third floor corridor, Harry and Daphne were engaged in a conversation that was not entirely dissimilar to the one she and Draco had just had.

To be continued...

A/N: This was my favourite chapter so far, but I have big plans for what happens at the weekend when that comes around (21st-22nd December in this timeline). I can't wait to get started on those parts.

Sorry that Daphne's part kind of took a back seat - it was originally intended to be the main focus of the chapter but I ended up taking a different path - I think it still worked well though.

The spell Hermione used: I searched around for healing spells actually known to the series, but none of them were really appropriate for Draco's 'wound' so I made Alcedonia up. The Latin translation is 'calm' as in soothe (the irritation).

I hope you enjoyed this part and if you're a new reader, I hope you're enjoying this story so far. Reviews are always appreciated :)