Author's Note: Aaah! Sadly, summer sessions are starting soon (hey, alliteration!)—the first day of classes, I believe, is June 20th, the coming Monday. Unfortunately, this means that I won't have as much time to write anymore. Luckily for you guys, I've already written up to Ch. 27, so I will still be able to post a few more times, but I won't be updating as often as before. Sorry!

Chapter 18

Finally, I undo the knots around his fingers. "There."

He pulls his hands out of my hair and backs up a step.

I can't bring myself to look back up at his face; I'm afraid that I'll lose control if I see his eyes again. I resist the urge to lick my lips. Maybe that would make me seem eager to kiss him again, and I definitely do not want to give him that impression.

He still doesn't say anything, and I feel compelled to break the silence. What can I say? I think back and remember why I was standing in front of him with my eyes closed in the first place.

"Well… I'm not scared of you."

He smirks, and the familiarity of that expression comforts me. I can handle this Malfoy.

"Are you sure about that?" he says. "Maybe we should try it again, just to make sure."

I shake my head. "You lost."

"All right, then," he says readily enough.

I'm surprised that he doesn't argue for another chance to scare me.

"What do you want me to do?" he asks.

"I don't have anything in mind yet. I'll tell you when I think of something," I say.

I walk around him to get to the table. I have to get out of here, before I do another insane thing that I'll regret even more than that kiss. I pick up the map and my wand, but I can't seem to leave just yet. I have to get some sort of explanation from that… that intolerable ferret.

He turns around and sees me watching him. "Did you need something else, Granger?" he asks.

I decide on asking him directly. I'm a straightforward person, and I don't think he's so keen on beating around the bush either.

"Malfoy… what was that supposed to mean?" I ask.

"Oh but Granger, I thought you would know," he says with a grin.

Ugh, I want to wipe that look off his face. A nice, good slap would do.

"It means," he continues, "that I am deeply and irrevocably in love with you."

"I can't stand you. I couldn't back when we were at school, and I still can't now," I say truthfully.

He's still smirking when he replies, "That may be true." He steps closer, leans toward me, and says in an intimate voice, "but you have to admit you liked kissing me."

The nerve!

"I did not," I say through gritted teeth.

He leans farther down to get his wand off the coffee table, and I try unsuccessfully to back away—my calves are already right against the table. I glare at him. He'd better not try anything else with me.

"Liar," he whispers.

Then he's leaning toward me, and I feel his lips press lightly against mine for one dizzying moment before he twists away and vanishes.

Oh, that bloody ferret. The next time he's within reach, I'm going to wring his neck!

My lips are still buzzing from that last bit of contact, and fury threatens to overcome me. I can't believe that I let him kiss me, twice! I suppose the second kiss I couldn't really have prevented, but I definitely didn't fight as hard as I could have on the first one.

Oh god, but it was so perfect… I feel that same jolt of warmth surge through me at the mere memory of how his lips and tongue felt and tasted. Malfoy tastes of apples… apples and rich, creamy caramel.

I shake my head, as if to shake the thoughts right out of my brain.

I start to pace back and forth in front of the couch.

"No, girl," I mutter. "You can't lose your head over a kiss. It was just a kiss. He's clearly doing this just to throw you off. You just have to figure out why."

I sit down on the couch.

Why the hell would Malfoy kiss me? Why would he kiss me? Groaning, I let my face fall into my hands. Blaise yesterday, Malfoy today. I'm just such a guy magnet, aren't I? I moan into my hands.

I don't really mind the kiss with Blaise. Besides, he told me earlier today that he understands. And now, in comparison to what just happened between me and Malfoy, that kiss seems completely harmless. I just wish I could use a Time Turner to go back and tell myself not to let Malfoy provoke me into taking up his stupid bet.

After calming down considerably, I Apparate back to Grimmauld Place and knock on the door. The door swings open promptly, but instead of Ginny, Blaise appears in the doorway. After getting the right answers to the required questions, he steps back to let me in.

"What's wrong?" he asks me as he shuts the door.

I head toward the kitchen instead of the stairs. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

He doesn't reply until we're both in the kitchen. As he shuts the door, he says, "Don't lie to me, Hermione. I know you better than that."

I sigh and sit down at the table. Changing the subject, I ask, "What are you doing out of bed?"

"You can't keep the Great Zabini in bed longer than two days. You should know that, Hermione," he says, grinning. "Seriously though, what did Draco tell you?"

His words remind me that there's still something left undone. I place the map on the table in front of him and get up to go to the fireplace. I grab a fistful of Floo Powder and throw it into the fire.

"The Tonks' home," I say.

Then I place my head in the fire and wait. The small living room is empty, and I give a shout for Lupin. A few minutes later, I hear footsteps, and then he enters the room, fully dressed.

"Hermione," he says, seeing my face. "Is there an emergency?"

"I just got some information from Malfoy. Come to Grimmauld Place as soon as possible. Bring Tonks, if you can. There's going to be a Death Eater attack on Nottingham—that's a Muggle city."

Lupin nods. "Notify McGonagall. Shacklebolt left for Eastern Europe last night to contact our allies, so he'll be out of reach for a while. Tonks and I will arrive at Grimmauld Place within two minutes."

"See you soon."

I sit nervously in the kitchen, waiting. I hate being left here, twiddling my thumbs and feeling absolutely useless while others are out there, fighting.

Lupin led all of the Order members from Grimmauld Place, except me, to meet some more fighters who are staying with Xenophilius Lovegood, who regained the will to fight after losing Luna to the Death Eaters at the Leaky Cauldron.

If Malfoy's map is accurate, they should be battling Death Eaters on the outskirts of Nottingham even now.

I can't stand being unable to help!

Lupin told me that I have to stay safe, at least for now. If Malfoy's information proves to be dependable, I'll become very valuable to the Order. This doesn't make sense to me—if I die, they can always replace me with a different contact. If we should be worried about anybody's life, surely it should be Malfoy's, shouldn't it? But Lupin didn't give me time to argue, and I didn't want to distract him from his work.

A smaller reason for staying here is because we always have to keep someone inside, so that they can let the others in. Before Kreacher died, we could always rely on him to open to door for us and ask the correct questions—it's amazing how much his relationship with us improved after we treated him better. But now, we always have to keep someone back at headquarters.

And Seamus is officially missing.

Earlier today, Fred and George left for a few hours to go looking for him because he hadn't returned this morning, as he said he would. The twins returned without a clue as to where he could be.

For now, we're just hoping that he'll turn up on his own, injured but alive. After the fight at Nottingham, we might send someone out to search again, but to risk lives on almost futile missions is, realistically, a waste of time and energy.

Of course, I hope that Seamus will turn out to be all right, but as always, I don't like to give myself false hope. If he didn't return when he said he would and couldn't be found by the twins either, then there's a large chance that he's been killed or captured already. And really, there's not a large difference between the two fates. The former outcome may even be preferable to the latter.

I hope fervently that the Order members will make it out of this skirmish all right—all of them, even Ron. He apologized to me this morning as soon as he saw me, but I could tell that he only did so because Harry asked him to. I accepted the apology anyway. From Blaise's expression, I knew that he didn't approve, but it really was my choice, not his.

My mind wanders back to last night, and that heat swells in my belly yet again as I recall the feeling of Malfoy's lean, hard body pressing me into the wall.

I haven't told anyone about the kiss. I almost told Blaise this morning, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't know how I would explain it. I can't see why Malfoy would ever…

I find myself wondering if he would ever tell anyone that he kissed me. He'd probably avoid it. I'm sure he wouldn't be caught dead kissing a Mudblood like me. But that brings me back to that same question. Why? I make up my mind that I'll ask him the next time I see him, and I won't let him leave without answering me.

Then there's a knock on the door, and I hurry out of the kitchen to open it. Fred's on the doorstep, carrying an unconscious Angelina in his arms. I point my wand at him nevertheless.

"Why did your mother place an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door?"

"Extendable Ears," he grunts.

"Who did you first try the Ton-Tongue Toffee on?" I ask.

"Dursley—Harry's cousin."

"Dudley," I correct him, stepping aside to let him in.

I pull the door shut and follow him quickly into the kitchen, where he sets Angelina down on the kitchen table. I transfigure it into a stretcher and conjure several more while I'm at it before leaning over to look at Angelina.

"What happened to her?" I ask, unable to see any blemishes on her.

"I don't know—some curse from Dolohov," he says worriedly.

"If it's from Dolohov…" my voice fades off.

I've been on the receiving end of that particular curse, but it had been cast nonverbally, and still I took an excruciatingly long time to recover.

But at least I have the combination of potions on hand that will help Angelina. I flick my wand numerous times, Summoning a number of bottles in a variety of shapes and sizes from the potions cabinet. Fred looks at the collection, eyes wide.

"These—she'll drink all of these?" he asks. "How can you know what they are? They're not even labeled."

Then I feel the burn of the charm on my skin and curse aloud.

Fred looks at me, alarmed. "What? What's wrong?"

"It's… nothing," I reply.

I flick my wand once, and the thirteen bottles that were floating in the air arrange themselves in the correct order. I conjure a small table beside Angelina's stretcher and let the vials come to rest on it.

"Give her a drop of each of these potions—only a drop, no more—in this order."

Fred glances up at me. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," I snap at him.

He immediately picks up the first bottle. I turn and take a few steps away from him. I know that he'll be too distracted with helping Angelina to pay any attention to me, but I still glance back quickly just to make sure.

Then I pull the charm out and see that the word "now" has materialized yet again. I tuck the charm back into my shirt and sigh, frustrated.

"What is it?" Fred asks.

He's holding the third bottle over Angelina's mouth, which has been charmed to stay open.

"Malfoy. He wants to see me now."

"Now? What could he want with you now?"

"I have to go," I say. "If he has information…"

He nods. "I'll watch the door, don't worry."

"How is it out there?" I ask as I head for the kitchen door.

He grimaces. "We're doing all right. No one's dead yet, at least," he finishes with a small smile.

He hasn't looked at me during our conversation, concentrating on making sure Angelina gets only one drop of each potion.

"That's always a plus," I say before leaving the room.

Damn Malfoy. What does he want now?