July 21 7:13

Hermione: So I bought a hat

Draco: A hat?

Hermione: You know those things, they go on your head

Draco: I don't think I've ever seen you with a hat

Hermione: I know. I'm always buying them, but I never wear them

Draco: Why not?

Hermione: I don't know. I like them. But I just feel so weird wearing them. Like I'm the only one.

Draco: Let's go to the beach

Hermione: Today?

Draco: Yeah. You can wear your hat there.

Hermione: idk…

Draco: If you feel uncomfortable you can take it off. That simple.

Hermione: Ok…fine.

Draco: I'll see you in an hour then

When Hermione went to answer the door she was greeted with a big smile. She couldn't help but smile back. "You look great," he said, stepping inside. She pulled her big floppy hat further down on her head, "Really? You like it?" "Definitely. Apparating or car?" he said. "I thought we could take my car, it's supposed to be a nice drive once you get to the coast." Draco nodded, "Let's go then."

"Have fun you two!" Mrs. Granger called from the couch.

"You excited?" Draco asked once they were already in the car. "I guess so. It's my first beach trip. I just hope it doesn't rain." Her eyes didn't leave the road. Draco looked out the window. "I think we'll be fine. Weather should hold out until at least tonight."

"My friends say the water is always freezing." She said.

"Sometimes." He said, "But that's what towels are for. You got the snacks?"

"They're in the bag." She pointed to the backseat.

"Fair warning, sand gets everywhere."

She rolled her eyes. "I know Draco. That's the one thing everyone keeps saying."

"Granger you're such a stiff driver."

"I'm a careful driver."

"Relaaaxx." He shook her shoulders.

"Draco! That's not funny!"

He chuckled. "See? Tense."

She gave a dramatic sigh. "You are so annoying. You know that?"

"So are you."

She scoffed. "I'm not annoying. I'm like the best friend you've ever had."

He shrugged. "Can't really argue with that," he said, leaning back in the seat.

They continued on their drive, and Hermione admired the coast as they searched for somewhere to park. Draco played around with the radio. "Muggle songs are so weird." He said. "Not even," she argued, pulling into an open parking space. When she got out of the car, she was surprised at the amount of wind that smacked her in the face. She held her hat down with one hand. "Maybe I should take it off." She said. Draco shook his head. "We just got here, and it looks great. Very beach-y."

Walking on sand was a lot harder than Hermione had anticipated, and she had to hold Draco's hand to get across. "Take off the flip flops, it'll be easier." He said. She grimaced. "Just take off my shoes?" "Yeah." Hermione stopped to take off the flip flops. "This snack bag got really heavy all of a sudden." Draco extended his hand, "Here I'll take it." "You sure?" He nodded. She handed the bag over to him and he slung it on his shoulder. "You don't want to be too close, or the waves will ruin the blankets and everything." Hermione agreed. Eventually they settled on a spot, and the wind had died down a bit, so they began to lay their blankets down on the sand.

Draco spread his legs out and rested his head on the palms of his hands, eyes closed, facing up. Hermione sat on the blanket, holding her knees. "How d'you like it so far?" Draco asked, not opening his eyes. "It's incredible." She told him, "I wonder how cold the water is." "Probably freezing." He said. She looked at him briefly, her body shaking slightly as she realized she couldn't get in the water with her cover up on. His eyes were closed though, so now would be a good time for her to peel it off without it being too awkward. She pulled the dress up over her head and let it fall neatly at her side before getting up and heading down the small hill of sand until the waves just barely missed her feet. She didn't know why but she was nervous. As though the waves might swallow her whole. Suddenly Draco was next to her, and that made her tumble into a deeper kind of nervous. He had taken his shirt off, and she became incredibly self-conscious of her own body. Draco was incredibly well built, and clearly worked out. He had to, she thought, you don't get abs like that and arms as big as his without doing some sort of workout. The thought made her heart race, as much as she tried to calm down.

"Well go on then," he said. She looked from him to their blankets. "Draco! Who's gonna watch our stuff?" He rolled his eyes. "No one's gonna take anything. Go on, dip your feet in."

Hesitantly, she took a few steps forward and let the waves rush out over her feet. She squealed as the cold hit her in sharp bursts. Draco laughed. "Oh my god! Why would anyone do this?" "It's fun Granger!" Draco shouted at her, going deeper into the water. "Draco! You're going to freeze!" He motioned for her to follow him. She shook her head. "No! Absolutely not!" He made his way back towards her, but she got an uneasy feeling. "Draco…" "What?" She had her hands held up, and backed away slightly. "I'm not going deeper," she said, shaking her head. "What's wrong? Why do you look so nervous?" Draco was smiling wide, inching his way closer and closer to her. "Draco...don't…" He chuckled. "Don't what?" He was really close to her now. Her hands began to shake. "Don't-" She squealed as he picked her up with ease, dragging her deeper into the freezing water. "No! Draco! It's so cold!" She kicked to no avail. Draco was laughing the whole time.

Either Hermione was incredibly light or Draco was terribly strong. She decided it was an intense mix of both. Feeling his hard chest against her back made it hard to breathe, and the cold of the water seemed to be freezing her muscles. For a brief moment she thought that maybe she wasn't fighting back hard enough, because maybe, maybe she didn't want him to let her go. A large wave came at them, nearly going over Hermione's head, but Draco lifted her up, hands on her waist, so that the water went up only to her collarbone. Draco, however, was completely submerged.

Finally, she wriggled free enough to run back to their blankets and wrap herself with a towel. She needed to get away. Even if only for a few minutes. Something about his hands on her bare skin had her blood pumping a bit too fast. "What did I ever do to you." She said, teeth chattering, as Draco approached her. He laughed some more as he sat down next to her, his hair dripping salt water. "Couldn't help it. It was too easy," he grabbed his own towel, "Your hat fell off by the way. Sorry about that." Hermione's hand instinctively went up to her head. She sighed. "Oh well. At least now I don't have to wear it anymore." She laughed.

"Shall we eat?" he asked. She nodded, reaching over for the snack bag. "Let's see, we have chips, carrots, apples, and the sandwiches of course." "Hand me the sandwich and an apple." She rummaged through the bag a bit, pulling out two sandwiches, the apple for Draco and the chips for herself. As they sat enjoying their meal, an older woman walked past, her towel over her shoulder.

"I just have to say, I saw you two out there in the water earlier, and you make the cutest couple." Wrinkles formed around her smile.

"Oh, we're-"

"Thank you." Draco smiled at the old woman and put his arm around Hermione. Her heart began to pound, and she wondered if he could hear it. She turned to him, giving him a 'what are you doing look' but he ignored her. The old woman smiled some more and went on her way. Hermione shrugged his arm off. "What was that about?" He took a bite out of his apple, "Well why not? No ones the wiser. Unless you think I could do better in terms of a girlfriend." Hermione scoffed but it turned into a half laugh, "You should be so lucky!" and lightly smacked his arm before taking a bite out of her sandwich.

Just as they had finished their food, it began to sprinkle. Draco looked up at the sky. "We better get going, it'll start pouring soon." Hermione began to put her cover up back on as Draco threw on his shirt. She quickly shoved her towel back into the bag, and they managed to fit the food and water, but they weren't quick enough to wrap up the blanket before the rain really began to come down. "I don't think this is going to work!" Hermione yelled, as the wind had picked up as well. "Nope!" Draco said. "This is pretty much hopeless." Draco looked up at the sky again. She couldn't help but look at him for a bit, noticing the white shirt sticking to his chest, the water making it see-through. She wondered about her own cover up; she could feel the fabric around her thighs. She shook her head, as though in a dream, and tried to deal with the blanket.

"Hey Hermione" she stopped struggling with the blanket and looked over at him. He slowly lowered his head from the sky to look at her. "Have you ever danced in the rain?" Why did it feel as though her legs had suddenly turned to jelly? "No." she said, "Have you?" He stretched his hand out to her. "No, but there's a first time for everything." She walked over to him, wet sand sticking to her feet. He linked his left arm around her waist, and took her hand with his right. She placed her right hand on his shoulder but had her head down. His tattoo seemed extra black against the paleness of his skin.

He pulled her closer to him and she stumbled a bit. "I got you." He smiled. She looked up and returned the smile awkwardly. "I'm glad we're friends Granger." He told her. "I am too." She said, getting the courage to rest her head against his chest, as they swayed to the rhythm of the waves.

As they made their way to the car, they were completely drenched. Hermione noticed the puddles in the parking lot and she smiled thinking about how Draco had used to love jumping in them. She put the bag on the floor and grabbed Draco's arm, dragging him to a nearby puddle. Draco stumbled but followed her without question. She let go of his arm and jumped right into the biggest puddle she could find. "You're crazy, Granger." Draco laughed. She shrugged, "We're already wet! Might as well!" He jumped in right next to her, causing more splash.

Their laughter tumbled over each other, and they lost track of time, until Hermione began to sneeze. "We better get back in the car. You can't be sick for the party next week." Hermione was sad to leave but agreed, and they finally made their way into the car.

"Can I drive?" Draco said.

"No."

"Come on, just a little bit."

Hermione backed the car out of the lot. "No."

Draco squinted at her. "Whatever. You're just worried I'd be better at it than you."

She laughed. "As if."

He smirked. "Watch out, I bet I would be."

"We'll we're sure as hell not trying today." She sneezed again. Draco pulled out his wand. "Is it ok if I?" She nodded, "Yeah. Please do actually. I really rather not get sick." Draco cloaked her with the healing spell and they stayed in quiet for most of the drive home.

The quiet only gave Hermione the chance to think. When Draco had put his arm around her, she had brushed it away, but the image kept coming up to the front of her mind. What if she and Draco were to be together? Like together together. She smiled. Then he would have his arm around her all the time. She would always feel safe, she knew that. And she would always have someone to dance with. What had that all been about? Maybe he was just crazy. Or secretly loved dancing and never could because it was frowned upon in his family or something. She shook her head. This is stupid. Get it together Hermione. But maybe it wasn't so stupid. Maybe someone like him really could like someone like her. And then all the girls would be like, oh my gosh Hermione you're sooo lucky. Yeah. That'd be pretty great. She bit her lip and glanced over at him. He seemed to be lightly asleep. But that was all silly fantasy. Not even fantasy, really. They were just friends. Deep down she knew that. Draco Malfoy wasn't the type to wait this long to start a relationship, that much she knew. And even if they did start to be more than just friends, it would be taken as an absolute joke. No one at Hogwarts would accept that. And then Hermione would have Narcissa to worry about. Maybe Draco had some sort of arranged marriage she didn't know about or something. All these wizards that came from old money generally did. Besides, did she really want to have Narcissa as a mother in law? She shivered. Jeez Hermione you jump from a casual beach trip to marriage. She rolled her eyes at herself. She was being ridiculous. She couldn't wait to get home, take a nice hot shower and head straight to bed.

"You wanna come inside and dry off a bit?" Hermione said, struggling to find her keys in the bag. Draco cleared his throat. "Um, sure, I mean no, but Hermione?" he cleared his throat. She looked up at him. His hands were in his pockets and he seemed to be on his toes.

"Yeah?"

He cleared his throat again, his face looking strained.

"You all right?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah I just gotta get going. But I had fun today. I'll see you at the block party."

"Um, ok."

They stood staring at each other for the longest and most agonizing two seconds anyone has ever gone through.

"Ok, I'll see you!" And with that he was gone.