A/N: Sorry about the really really late update! I've just been so caught up with school work, it's unimaginable! So please review? This is definitely my second-to-last chapter, and I'd sincerely appreciate it if you could review? And thanks to everybody who's been reviewing! You guys totally rock my world!

---------------------------------------------------------GREEN AND GOLD---------------------------------------------------------

Two torturous days had passed, and the spell that Ronald Weasley had cast upon Draco still hadn't been lifted. Draco had taken to carrying on in muted silence, taking to writing notes instead of talking. He'd researched just about every book he could lay his hands on, and his results proved futile. He couldn't even ask Madam Pince without insulting her senseless.

The absence of Hermione's scent and her deep brown eyes made him feel as if a part of him was missing, and he needed it back - immediately. He hadn't the faintest idea whether she was avoiding him or whether the girl had some ulterior motive, but whenever he walked into their Common Room, she was not in sight, but he could almost definitely hear the faint scratching of a quill against parchment coming from her room. And that time they accidently bumped into each other in the library? She muttered an incoherent sentence and walked away in the opposite direction.

He was trying to fight this ... this thing, and he was quite sure he wasn't improving. He took to drawing tiny sketches of her, never completing them. He always felt as if his drawings weren't doing any justice to her, so he scrunched them up, and tried to make the next one better, something that could come close to her perfection.

He sat now, sketching, leaning against the headboard of his bed. His tongue stuck out slightly out the side of his mouth, the way it usually did when he was drawing. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he tried to draw the wave her hair usually created when she laughed. Making a mistake, he waved his wand so as to undo it.

While he was drawing, he thought about ways he could get back at the red-headed weasel, but then realized that if he was to sabotage one of Hermione's best friends, it wouldn't help matters.

His quill dragged along the contour of Hermione's mouth slowly, and he wished with all his might that things between him and her were different.

He heard a timid knock on his door, and the sound snapped him out of his musings. His thoughts lingered on the identity of his visitor. Was it even possible? Was it really her? He dragged himself off the bed, ruffling his hair. There was nothing he could do about his messed up hair; it was sticking up all over the place.

He slowly pulled himself to the door, and the door opened. Do not insult. Do not insult. Do not insult. He pressed his lips into a tight line, and gazed at the girl before him. He was right, his sketches did no justice to her; she was perfection incarnate. There were those big brown eyes he'd missed, and that intoxicating scent. He breathed her in deeply, trying not to be too obvious.

But Hermione barged straight into his room, not even waiting for a greeting or a "Would you like to come in?"

She had a pile of books stacked in her arms, and tendrils of hair were flying around the sides of her face. There were purple-like shadows under her eyes, but at that moment, she looked like the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen.

"Don't talk. I think you might regret it." That was it. Straight out. Plain and simple. To the point.

He stared wordlessly at her. He still couldn't believe that she was in his room of all places.

"Thanks," she said, and then she smiled. Her smile did marvellous things to Draco, and he couldn't stop himself from smiling back at her. He wanted to say something to her, but thought it wise if he just did as he was told - for once - and not talk.

She motioned towards the chair by his desk in his room for him to take a seat. She was asking him to take a seat in his room? Malfoy wanted to laugh at the thought, but obeyed her wordless half-command anyway.

She dropped the stack of books on his desk, ad they made a dull thump noise as they hit the desk.

"I've been doing some research and I found that all these books have your answer in them." She started to pace up and down in front of him, and the action reminded him of something that he did, but only when he was nervous...

She glanced at him, and said, "I know that something was done to you, because I'd like to think that I've gotten to know you a bit better, and that you wouldn't insult m - uh, McGonagall - like how you did, or anybody for that matter. Not now, anyway. And your expression didn't even match with your words, so that also meant something ... And every time you said something, you'd get this look in your eyes ..." She cut herself off, realizing that she was speaking too much. She blushed as her eyes met his, and she quickly averted her eyes.

"Anyway, I do hope that you weren't given a potion, because those are rather horrible to reverse. And also to make such a potion would require a lot of advanced magic, and I don't think ..." She trailed off, not knowing how to complete her sentence. "So I think that perhaps it was a spell that was cast upon you. But then again, there are many spells that can reap such results. But in those books there," here she nodded her head in the direction of the books on his table, "should help. It will take some time to go through them, and a lot of the counter-spells are difficult. But you're clev - you'll know what to do, so ..." She stopped her pacing, and she found herself staring out the window.

Draco gazed at her, dumbfounded. She had dark circles under her eyes because of him? She researched all of this for him? She knew? She must have if she had done all of this. She wasn't avoiding him. Not at all. He smiled inwardly, and he felt like dancing on the spot right there. He still wanted to say something, to thank her.

When she looked back at him, she interpreted the look correctly in his eyes, and said quietly, "You're welcome." She gazed at him for a moment longer, before tearing her eyes away from his bright silver ones. Her gaze landed on his bed, and she fought a gasp.

Malfoy followed her stare with his own eyes, and cringed. He had forgotten to put his sketch of her away. There it was, openly screaming his feelings for her. He looked at her quickly, wanting to gauge her reaction, to find that she was still looking at the piece of parchment, a small smile playing on her lips. His eyes didn't leave her, and when she finally turned to face him, she blushed under his heated gaze.

"Um, I'm going to go now. You should... you should, um, go through those." He had forgotten about the books temporarily, but he nodded and smiled in response. He grabbed his wand and waved it in the air in front of him. A smoke of green and gold shot out of his wand, and swirled around to form the words, Thank you. He wasn't only thanking her for the books. But she didn't need to know that.

His eyes stayed on her, and she smiled. She stared at the words a moment longer and walked away, closing the door gently behind her.

Hermione hurried to her room, and closed her door. She threw herself onto her cool bed, and attempted to slow down her thudding heart. She still felt so warm. The way he looked at her... She just couldn't get over how he managed to conjure up those words, an image of green and gold - like two halves brought together.

Hope you liked this chapter! Review please!