The night had been uneventful, just a nice dinner with unpacking. Despite the fact that he had been informed that he would be sharing a bedroom with Hermione, Draco managed to fall asleep on the extra twin within the room. They had spent half the night making sure their beds were as far apart as possible. It hadn't been the most comfortable situation, but nothing about this Yule break was proving to be easily stomached. Still the both of them fell asleep without saying goodnight.

Draco was turning over in the bed, the sheets managing to entangle his body but he didn't seem to mind. Half-naked due to the heater that was on blast in the room, his skin was covered in a thin sheet of sweat that glistened in the moonlight that spilled in from the window across the room. He groaned audibly and rolled over once more; his dreams seeming to give him a hell of a time.

Snow was falling steadily from the sky down onto his head, quickly melting due to the warmth. Even the snowflakes that touched his pale skin didn't stand much of a chance because the moment they met his skin they melted to further lubricate his body. Draco felt a tongue pushing into his mouth, sliding over the bottom row of his teeth. There were hands moving over his slick back, fingers tracing over the each dip of every vertebrae along his spine. Those same hands moved to the small of his back, fingers pressing harshly into the sacral dimples causing him to groan.

The body he pressed against was warm and wet, he felt each inch of supple skin give way to his fingertips as they drug along sloping sides. Long-fingers danced along gently bending spine before his hands moved to feel the swell of her breasts, but all he could seem to feel was the steady hammering of a heart behind skin and bone. Though he could not hear it Draco could feel his own heart beating in time with it, something about that made this all the more intimate. He pressed closer, trying to become one with his counterpart.

A soft, wanton moan caused him to pull out of the nirvana that had threatened to consume him whole. Just the sweet taste of her tongue, the soft feel of her lips on his was enough to enchant him. But that small noise caused him to snap out of it and slowly Draco pulled away from the girl in front of him. His eyes opened slowly, heavy lids almost unwilling to part from lower ones but as soon as he caught sight of that face they snapped open wide.

Hermione was standing before him, her brown eyes glittering so brilliantly despite the white flecks that caught on her lashes and obscured his vision. There was a delicate smile on her pink lips, much like the Mona Lisa's there surely was a secret behind it.

"Draco, what's wrong? Why are you stopping? I thought you wanted this," she cooed to him, her hand sliding along his hair.

He let out a groan, which caught him off guard and he instantly pulled away from her touch.

"Don't," he whispered.

Draco let his eyes drop away from his face, realizing that he was trembling and that the cold was starting to settle over his body. The only thing that had been keeping him so warm was Hermione's bare body against his own, her soft supple flesh was achingly gone now and he felt bare. A feeling of emptiness bubbled up from the pit of his stomach before he flinched as dainty hands cupped his face.

Her palms were warm and soft, they smelled vaguely of brown sugar. Though his heart had started beating so heavily within his chest he leaned into her hands, opening his eyes to find her brown ones. They were endless and warm, that empty feeling beginning to diminish because she was driving it away. His breath hitched at the back of his throat when he saw her moving forward and watched her lips part just-so just as their lips were to meet.

Just as he felt the pressure of his lips on hers, Draco sprang up in bed gasping for breath. He looked over to see the moonlight spilling over Hermione's face. There was a peaceful look on her face as she hadn't been bothered by his sudden start. The way the moonlight glistened in the natural light brown highlights in her hair, he felt his heart thud heavily in his chest. He had never noticed how beautiful she was, but there in the moonlight she could have been part of his dream. He could still be dreaming, but when she rolled over and bore her back to him he realized he wasn't.

Hermione had woken up the next day far before Draco had so she was sure to leave the room without disturbing him. Just because they were forced to do this project together hardly meant that she was obligated to let him ruin her entire Yule vacation, now did it? So she let him sleep, while she went into the town with her parents to pick up some food.

They had just returned to the cabin and put the food when Hugh and Elene left Hermione so that they could go skiing. Hermione assured them that she would meet with them after she made sure that Draco was settled and okay. Even though they told her to bring him along something told her that he wasn't going to be a willing participant in any winter escapades other than sitting beside a fire. Still though she decided to take the higher road in this and actually made him a mug of cocoa.

It was nearly ten in the morning and yet he still wasn't up, she honestly hoped he wasn't thinking he was going to just sleep away his time here. One more glance at the watch on her wrist and she huffed before leaving the table with her hot cocoa and his on top of it. Hermione nearly stomped down the hallway to her usual room only to push open the door to find Draco standing there with his nicely tailored slacks undone at the front to reveal the black boxer-briefs he wore beneath. His white shirt was open and not tucked because he was too busy fiddling with one of his cufflinks.

As soon as he saw Hermione standing in the doorway he instantly brought his shirt to a close so she couldn't get a view of his bare chest beneath it. There was no blush on his cheeks from embarrassment, but Draco was glaring daggers at her as he continued to mess with his cufflink.

"Stare any harder, Granger, and I'll begin to think you like what you see."

"I," Hermione said with a dry mouth before rolling her eyes and clearing her throat. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were up yet."

"I was up shortly after you left. I didn't want to bathe with you in the house."

"And why not?"

"You may have accidentally let yourself in not knowing I was naked," he said with a sneer.

"I'm not going to spy on you, Draco. You're not my type."

"You mean gangly, stupid, and ginger? Definitely not."

Hermione felt the heat of her annoyance in her face; he was acting like he always did when they were in school. For a moment there she thought that he would actually put effort in trying to make this work without too much of a hitch. And dare she even think it, she was sure he was starting to loosen up. Apparently she was wrong.

"Leave Ronald out of this," she hissed at him. "And hurry up; I'd rather be with my parents then waiting for you."

Draco seemed to be totally enthralled with the task of doing up each button of his dress shirt then tucking it in. Even after a nearly hour long shower, he couldn't shake the feeling of that dream from his skin. If he closed his eyes for too long he could feel the softness of Hermione's body against his, he could even taste her kisses on his lips. It wasn't supposed to be like this, she was not the type of girl that he was supposed to dream about. Though, in all honesty, it wasn't like he had ever spent his nights dreaming about the likes of Pansy Parkinson or Daphne Greengrass either.

Finally, he shrugged into his dress jacket and buttoned it at his stomach before he turned his gray eyes back on Hermione. She was still standing in the doorway looking as pissed off as ever, but he wouldn't allow himself to care.

"I'm not at all surprised by that, Granger."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean of course you'd rather be with your kind. I'd rather be with mine, but alas I'm surrounded by a bunch of useless muggles."

Once again Hermione was floored by Draco and she couldn't find a word to say to him because she was too angry. Instead she left the doorway and slammed the door to the room shut behind her leaving Draco to his thoughts as she rushed to the kitchen.

The poor mug of cocoa that she had made for him didn't stand a chance from the moment that she picked it up. Hermione flung it into the sink and the mug shattered, the hot liquid sprayed all over her hand it burned but not as much as the piece of the mug embedded in her open palm. Sniffling, she forcefully turned the faucet on and held her bleeding hand under the running water. The angry tears in her eyes kept her from being able to tell whether she was going to need stitches or not, but she pulled her hand free of the water and wrapped it in a dishtowel.

It was the sound of the wooden floor creaking that caused her to turn on her heels, her brown eyes glaring daggers at Draco. There he stood with a placid and unreadable look on his face, even as he glanced down at her hand wrapped in the towel. He watched as her nostrils flared in the anger she was trying to keep under control.

"What do you want? Why don't you just go home? No grade is worth dealing with you! You're a foul, horrid person, Draco Malfoy! You don't know how to be human! You're soulless and cowardly; you don't know how to be anything less than your father's son! How dare you come on my vacation with my family and act like you're above us! You're not!"

Hermione was shouting so loud that she was nearly shaking at this point.

"You're lower than dirt, lower than the mud you compare my blood to. Everyone deserves a chance to redeem themselves, but you are beyond redemption! You are just a foul, lonely, angry little boy! I don't want to deal with that, I don't have to deal with that."

"Granger," Draco started, but stopped when he caught her gaze. She was still glaring at him, daring him to say something else tactless and hurtful. "I'm sorry."

"No! You're not. You don't know how to feel remorse, Draco. So just leave! Owl your mother and leave. I'm sure she can send someone to fetch you."

"I can't go home."

"Well, you can't stay here. Not if you're going to insult my parents, insulting me is one thing but they have this warped idea that you're a fine, upstanding gentleman. And I'd rather they not learn how wrong they are, so just leave!"

"You're not listening to me!"

"Because I don't have to listen to you! We're not friends as you constantly remind me with your derogatory comments about me and my family. So just go home!"

"I can't."

"And why not? Does your mother not want you or something?"

"Of course, she wants me!" Draco nearly shouted at her. "She's the only person who has ever wanted me even at my worst times my mother wanted me."

"Then why stay here? She wants you, I don't. So go home, you're never going to change."

"Your parents don't see me like you see me; they don't judge me for what I've done to you even if they should," Draco said, running fingers through his hair. "I can't go home because then she'll wonder where I was and even though she won't get angry when I tell her I know she'll be disappointed. Because even though my mother loves me she doesn't look at me like your mother and father look at you. I'm her pride and joy because I'm the perfect pure blood, but you're their pride and joy because you're you. They probably had no prerequisites for you before you were born. I was expected to be blond and gray-eyed like my father, I lived up to that but now I'm expected to be as strong and as stubborn and as devious as him. You have no idea how lucky you are or how jealous I am of you. Mudblood or not, you've got everything!"

The silence that fell between them after his last sentence seemed endless. Hermione was staring at him and felt as if someone had hit her with a stupefy charm in the center of her chest. It was hard to fathom that Draco Malfoy could possibly be jealous of her. All the years of him holding his blood status over her head like it was the ultimate prize, Hermione always knew that it wasn't because she was happy without it. But it never occurred to her that he could see that, that he could actually come to realize that she didn't need what he had to be happy.

Though her lips parted so that she could say something nothing came out. Instead she stood there near the sink, leaning back against it and looked down to her bandaged hand. There was blood staining the dishtowel already. Draco saw the blood and his brow knitted together as he took a step closer to her, grabbing her hand within his own. Slowly he peeled the dishtowel away from her palm, his bottom lip caught between his perfect teeth as if he were concentrating as hard as he could so not to hurt her.

All she could hear was the steady thudding of her heart in her ears; the warmth in her face was a giveaway that she was surely blushing because he was touching her so tenderly. Hermione took the moment that he was concentrating on her hand to study his face. No one could say that Draco was anything less than handsome. There was beauty in the way that his blond hair fell over his forehead when it wasn't properly slicked back. Even if there was a devil-may-care attitude about the way his hair fell onto his forehead, Hermione couldn't help herself as she reached to smooth his hair back.

Surprisingly his hair didn't feel greasy beneath her fingers; it felt like silk and easily gave way to slide through her slightly parted fingers. Draco had been so immersed in studying her hand that he didn't realize that her fingers where in his hair till she actually went in for the second time. He pulled back slowly, his gray eyes finding her brown ones before he swallowed thickly.

"I've got some salve to help heal this since we can't use magic," he said as he released her hand and took a step back.

"No, that's okay. I'm of age," Hermione informed him as she looked down to her hand.

"Already?"

"Yes, my birthday was in September."

"Well, happy belated birthday, Granger."

Hermione laughed without thinking not bothering to linger on the fact that she had just run her fingers through his blond hair. She could still feel the silken tresses between her fingers, but she knew that wasn't going to be happening again anytime soon.

"Thank you, I'll ignore the sarcasm."

"You're welcome," Draco said with a smirk.

"I'm going to heal this and go out with my parents."

"What are they doing?"

"Skiing. You don't have to come; I mean you could just come out and watch."

"Not willing to teach me, Granger?"

"Are you willing to learn?"

"Only if you think I'm worth the pain."

"You're worth a lot more than I give you credit for."