DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. This fiction is purely for my own enjoyment and yours. No money is being made by me or anyone else from this fiction.

Author Note: Another thank you to all who have reviewed and added this story to your favorite and alert lists! And now for the awaited study date, in which both our main characters fight their feelings, flirt, and finally come to an agreement. Enjoy!

Chapter Four

Draco swaggered into the library with his usual arrogant smirk, his books tucked neatly away in his bag on his shoulder. He scanned the room for a head of familiar bushy hair, but the study tables scattered throughout the front of the room were empty save for a few second year Ravenclaws. Where is she? Hermione had left the Great Hall quite a while ago, and Draco was sure she would have come straight here to get started on her homework, if she hadn't already done that last night.

Suddenly Draco was curious as to whether or not Hermione had spent the night restless and awake like he had. Did she spend the night thinking about their dream? Does she see our girls in her daydreams? For a fleeting second the image of Naomi's clever smile floated about in his mind, but he quickly shook it away. He needed to be focused.

Slowly he made his way deeper into the library, heading for the tables in the back, near the Restricted Section. Perhaps Hermione was hiding back there. As he rounded a corner around one of the tall bookshelves, he finally spotted her at the furthest table from the front. As if it were involuntary, a smile crept across Draco's face.

Hermione was bent over one of her huge books, with three more laying open beside her, furiously scribbling away on her parchment. His smile grew. Walking over as silently as possible, Draco crept closer to her table until he was right beside her. Gently he set his bag on the floor beside him, freezing as Hermione let out a soft sigh. When she didn't look up, Draco continued with his plan. Let's see how she likes this. Slowly he leaned down until his mouth was right beside her ear and whispered, "Hello, Hermione."

Hermione yelped and jumped, banging her head into Draco's nose in the process. "Draco!" she scolded, putting her hand over her heart. Draco hissed in pain. Well that didn't turn out well, he thought, rubbing his bruised nose. Hermione saw his grimace and her face softened. "I'm sorry," she said earnestly. "But you did scare me. What did you think was going to happen?"

"Not that," Draco answered. He sniffed and wiggled his nose a bit. Damn that hurt. Note to self: never try that again. He smirked at Hermione. "But I suppose I'll live."

"Aw, and here I was, already composing your epitaph," Hermione said sweetly. Draco's eyebrows rose. Is she flirting with me? Maybe she didn't hear what I said earlier after all. He smirked. But that doesn't make it right, the Naomi in his head told him. Draco quickly quashed his guilt.

"Save your pretty words for better things, Granger," he said.

Hermione scoffed. "And what could be better than that?"

Draco was silent for a moment and looked down at her. He realized they were standing quite close since Hermione had jumped up to check on his nose. The faint blush rising in Hermione's cheeks told him she had noticed it as well. "I could think of a few things," he said with a smile.

Hermione's blush deepened and she stepped away. What I wouldn't give to know what is going through her mind right now, Draco thought. Hermione cleared her throat. "Well, I hope homework is one of those things, because we certainly have a lot of it," she said briskly in an attempt to steer the conversation back to safer ground. She sat down and started rearranging her books to make room for Draco. "I already started on Transfiguration if you want to work on that first, or if you would like we could work on Potions or Charms or…"

Draco let her ramble on; listing practically ever assignment they had as he settled himself into the chair across from her. As she rambled Draco studied her. He noticed for the first time that morning that her hair was not in its usual bushy state; she had taken the time to pull it back in a neat braid, save for a few short tendrils at the base of her neck. She really can be quite pretty. And with that flush to her cheeks…but that's odd. I almost miss her bushy hair. Draco blinked. Merlin, what am I thinking? I'm letting myself get carried away. But surely a little flirting can't hurt…

"Draco!" Hermione's voice cut through his argument with himself.

"What?"

Hermione pursed her lips. Draco found himself studying those as well. Are they as soft as they were in our dream? She sighed huffily. "Were you even listening to me? What do you want to work on?"

Right. Homework. The reason we're here. Draco shrugged. "Transfiguration is fine," he said. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I've already started on my essays," she said in an all-business tone. "Did you look through your assignments last night?" Draco shook his head and started to say something, but Hermione blushed again and said, "Well, I wouldn't have gotten such a head start, but I couldn't sleep." Suddenly she looked at him quite keenly and bit her lip, as though she was fighting the decision to say something. A second later she must have come to a decision, because she asked tentatively, "What about you? Did you, ah—have any trouble sleeping last night?"

Draco was quiet for a moment, looking into Hermione's anxious face. It was quite clear she had spent some time worrying about this. Unasked questions were written across her face as she waited for his answer. What should I say? No, I didn't sleep at all last night because I was too afraid of what I might see when I closed my eyes? That I found out it didn't matter if I slept or not, because the daughter of our dreams haunts my waking thoughts? Several emotions flitted across Hermione's face, too rapidly for Draco to read them. She leaned forward. "Draco?" she asked quietly.

Bloody hell. Draco shook his head and Hermione looked as though he had just confirmed her worst fears. I can't have that, he thought. "I didn't sleep at all last night, actually," he told her honestly.

Hermione relaxed her shoulders, which had become rigid in the last few minutes. "I tried not to fall asleep," she began, but trailed off.

Draco looked at her. "Did you dream about them?" He held his breath, waiting for her answer. I can't have been the only one.

Hermione bit her lip and nodded. "It was further in the future," she said, her eyes getting a bit misty as she gazed wistfully off into space. Draco nodded. I knew it. Suddenly he was dying to know what she saw.

"How much further? Was the baby born?" he asked.

Hermione looked at him with surprise. What? Draco wanted to say, but held his tongue. He was allowed to be curious, wasn't he? "No," she said. "But I was bigger."

"What were we doing?" Draco wanted to know everything.

Hermione looked unsure for a moment, but continued. "We were putting the girls to bed. You were chasing them down the hall, pretending to be a monster and making them laugh. It ended with all of us laying on the bed laughing." Her cheeks tinged with pink, and it did not go unnoticed by Draco.

"What else?" he pressed.

"That's it, nothing else," Hermione said quickly. "I woke up after that." Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink.

You're not very good at lying, Hermione, Draco thought. There has to be more than this. "Did—did we do anything?" he asked.

"It's silly," she said, not looking at him. Draco frowned. Just tell me, damn it! Hermione looked at her lap. "You kissed me on the cheek," she said, so quietly that Draco needed to strain to hear her. "You smiled at me; a smile meant only for me and pulled me in close, like you really cared. It was nice." Hermione fell silent after that, and shuffled her papers a bit, looking anywhere but at Draco.

A sudden fit of madness hit him. "But what if it wasn't?" he said.

Hermione looked up at him in confusion. "I beg your pardon?"

"Granted," he said cheekily, but when Hermione frowned at him he quickly continued. "What if it wasn't silly? Your dream, I mean. What if I really did care? What if I did kiss you on the cheek?" He blurted all this out very quickly and looked into Hermione's stunned face. He felt his own cheeks grow hot. I must be mental. Since when am I such a sap? He looked away.

A soft touch to his hand made him jump. Hermione had reached across the table and took his hand in hers. She gave it a gentle squeeze. Draco's heart sped up. "I think that would be nice," she said sincerely. She smiled at him.

Sweet Merlin, this is really happening. I must be mad to want to try this. Draco smiled back. Hermione nodded and let go of his hand. "Now let's see about this homework, shall we?" Draco could only nod.

They worked in quiet companionship for the next couple hours, only speaking to each other to discuss a part of their essay or a correct spell pronunciation. All the while, Hermione's thoughts were a maelstrom in her head. Draco didn't sleep at all last night. He asked about our girls and the baby. He wanted to know more. The look in his eyes… She shook her head, trying to make sense of it all. Most dizzying of all was his words: "What if I did care? What if I did kiss you on the cheek?"

What if he did? I would love it, of course, her brain answered for her. But it can't happen, she told herself sadly. Harry and Ron would never accept it, let alone the rest of Gryffindor, or Slytherin, or Draco's parents…I should just give it up. She sighed.

"Hermione? Are you alright?" Draco's startled her out of her reverie.

"Fine," she squeaked. Draco frowned, obviously not buying it. Hermione bit her lip. What are all these thoughts about giving up? Am I a Gryffindor or not? I never gave up on the house-elves, and I shouldn't give up on him either. She took a deep breath. "I defended you against Harry and Ron this morning."

Draco suddenly looked gleeful. "So that's why Potter and Weasley were so upset at breakfast? I wondered what had gotten their knickers in a twist."

Hermione frowned. Some things never change. "You didn't antagonize them, did you?

Draco smirked. "Me? I would never," he said.

Hermione sighed in annoyance. "Draco, that doesn't really help things. I was sitting in the common room this morning, thinking about our dream and Harry came in-"

"Sticking his nose where it doesn't belong," Draco said.

Prat. "Harry's my best friend, Draco. Of course he would ask me what's wrong." Draco rolled his eyes and Hermione gave him a stern glare. You're ruining it, Draco. "Anyway, I told him he had died in my dream, and that's what had me so upset-"

"But you were lying, of course," Draco said.

Hermione glared at him. "Stop interrupting! And no, I wasn't. That was part of what was bothering me." She breathed heavily through her nose and continued. "So Harry made a joke and said it wasn't like he had died and everyone became Death Eaters and I was married to you-"

Draco choked. "What?"

"I told you to stop interrupting."

"But," Draco started. Hermione raised an eyebrow. He fell silent.

Hermione continued. "So I got a bit huffy and said you weren't a Death Eater and I may have implied that it wouldn't be so bad being married to you. But I'm not sure that's what Harry took out of it. He was still hung up on the Death Eater thing. So we started arguing about how all Slytherins aren't inherently evil and…" she paused. Draco was gaping at her, his eyes sort of glazed over. She refrained from rolling her eyes, but just barely. "Draco, are you even listening to me?" He didn't answer. "Draco!"

He snapped out of his daze. "You told Potter that it wouldn't be bad being married to me?"

Boys. They never listen. "No, I said I implied it. That's completely different." Hermione rolled her eyes as Draco grinned.

"But you obviously didn't deny it, as I'm sure Potter and Weasley wanted you to." He grinned wider. "This is great."

No wonder Harry and Ron thought I was mental. I think I'm mental. This is impossible! Hermione stood up and put her hands on her hips. "No, it is not great. Draco, how can we ever be friends, let along anything else if you can't prove that you're not a complete prat?" Across the table, Draco froze. Doubt suddenly gnawed at Hermione's stomach. "Unless you don't want to be," she said. "Unless—Draco, did you mean what you said earlier?"

Oh, this is it. He's just been playing with me the whole time. And I fell for it. Stupid, trusting Gryffindor… "Yes," said Draco.

"What?" Hermione's thoughts stopped mid-rant.

"I did mean it," Draco repeated. "I…" he swallowed. "I do want to be your friend, Hermione."

"And the other thing?" Hermione asked. She held her breath. You just had to ask that, didn't you Hermione?

Draco smirked, looking much like his usual self again. "Anxious to kiss me again, Hermione?" he teased.

She blushed. "You're the one who suggested it," she teased back. Draco just grinned.

"We'll see," he said.

"Right," she said. This is really happening! I'm going to be friends with Draco Malfoy. "It's not going to be easy."

"I'll manage," Draco said with a shrug.

Hermione frowned. This isn't something to shrug off. "Really, Draco. I think you're the one who has a lot more social expectations of you than me. Being friends with me…with a Gryffindor, with Harry Potter's best friend, it's going to change everything."

"You don't think I know that?" Draco challenged.

"Of course not, but…" she trailed off. I'm scared for you, Draco.

"Look, I'm throwing caution into the wind here, okay? So for now, let's just go with it," Draco said with finality.

Hermione nodded. I can do that. "So…homework?"

Draco rolled his eyes and shook his head. He smiled at her. "Yes. Let's get back to work. This might take a while."

Hermione smiled and nodded back. She had a feeling he wasn't just talking about their homework. Being friends with Draco Malfoy, a challenge indeed. She smiled to herself as she sat down. Hermione loved a good challenge.