Chapter II- Unexpected

Hermione did not notice how the staff and students of Hogwarts were looking at her as she passed them in the hallways until she reached her usual spot in the back of the large dimly lit library. She sat down and pulled Voyages with Vampires from her book bag for some light reading. Hermione was a quarter of the way through the book when she felt a faint prickling sensation on the back of her neck. She looked up and found what had startled her. Neville was staring at her like he had never seen her before. With a deep blush she returned to her book, hoping he would drop his gaze. She looked over again; he had not. Now Hermione was a bit bemused, what had brought this on? She dropped her gaze and returned to read her book, hoping that Neville would do the same. She looked up for a third time to see that Neville had actually gotten up and was walking over to her. She decided to set Lockhart's book down and see what was up with him. Neville came up to her and sat down in the seat opposite her. Playing it cool, she said brightly:

'Hey Neville, you all right?'

'What?' 'Oh, oh yeah.'

'Did you have a question about Slughorn's Moonstone essay? I'm nearly done with mine. I thought I'd get it out of the way.'

'Oh, no. I mean, I haven't started it yet, but- Hermione, umm I, well, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Slughorn's party with me, you know—'

At this Hermione raised her eyebrows in surprise; she had not been expecting this. Seeing her reaction, Neville spluttered,

'Oh well, I just thought I'd ask, but it's OK, I understand…'

Before she could say anything, let alone tell Neville that she wasn't planning on going, he leapt up from his chair as if he had just been bitten by a teething Venomous Tentactula and nearly ran out of the library. She felt bad; she had not wanted to hurt Neville's feelings but she thought that it would be wrong of her to lead him on.

Deciding that there was little point in just sitting bewildered in the library, she left. She quickly packed her bag and hung it over her shoulder. She walked out of the library, weaving through other groups of Hogwarts students studying. As she passed them, she felt eyes on her and at that she quickened her pace. What was happening? Was this all due to Ginny's perfume?

'Oh, for goodness sake!' She exclaimed in agitation, as a couple of first years at the end of the hall jumped as Hermione burst from the library.

Hermione barely noticed where she was heading as thoughts started whirling around her head. What had she been thinking this morning? Tarting herself up, putting on perfume which now, in hindsight seemed to be a little more than perfume…

'Trying to cover up the overwhelming stench of muggle blood, Granger?'

Hermione whipped around and saw that Draco Malfoy was leaning against the top of a stairway which she knew led towards down to the dungeons. Any other day, Hermione might have ignored it, but as she already had a sense of purpose flooding through her and a strong screw-the-world mentality…

'Oh, how very polite of you.' Hermione bit out sarcastically. 'But I wouldn't have expected much from Lucius Malfoy's son. How is he doing? I haven't seen him since he was wearing Death Eater robes.'

Draco made an angry movement and started towards her.

'How dare you talk about my father-'

But the rest of Draco's sentence was cut off due to the fact that Hermione had just whipped out her wand and it was now pointed directly in Draco's face.

'So help me Malfoy, I will, so don't tempt me.'

Draco stepped towards her with a smirk and said,

'What, you're going to hex me? Miss Perfect Pants going to get herself into-

Hermione had moved so quickly that Draco didn't even have time to blink.

'Impedimenta!'

Draco stumbled back and almost tripped before he could steady himself. Hermione could practically see the anger and humiliation well up in him as he stood there. Then in what seemed like a half a second Draco started towards her, a mix of emotions flitted across his face. Hermione didn't know what to do, she was so overwhelmed. As Draco reached her she saw the anger in his clear grey eyes transform into burning desire.

Caught off guard, she didn't react until Draco had reached her. He grabbed her arms, moved her back against the opposite wall and captured her mouth with his. Hermione let out a small inaudible gasp as Draco started kissing her intensely. She opened her mouth ever so slightly and felt his hot breath mingle with hers. When she felt Draco not too gently bite her bottom lip, Hermione became completely undone. She slowly ran her tongue over his bottom lip and shivered as Draco responded with equal vigor. With a breathy moan she wound her arms around his neck and ran her fingers through his white blond hair thereby shifting her body away from the wall and pressing herself fully against Draco's slightly taller frame.

It seemed as though all rational thought had left the scene when Draco slowly moved his hands down from Hermione's waist to cup her bottom from under her skirt. Her heart rate accelerated as she felt Draco move his hands over her lace underwear. Hermione couldn't believe that this was happening. Furthermore, she couldn't believe that an unmistakable something had begun to press into her, a clear testimony that Draco was enjoying this impromptu make out session just as much as she was.

CRASH

There was an almighty crash as they both heard what could only have been several of the castle's more valuable vases being sent flying down a nearby stairwell. A loud cackle told them that Peeves, the school poltergeist, was behind the disrupting festivities. As the sound and slight tremor hit them, Draco and Hermione broke apart, both breathing heavily. Draco ran an unsteady hand though his hair and stepped back, a clear dazed expression on his face.

'What…' Hermione started to say but she heard Peeves loud sing-song voice cackle from just around the corner from where they stood. Draco stepped ever so slightly towards her but seemed to reconsider as he slipped down the stairwell leading to the dungeons.

Hermione leaned back against the wall briefly before straightening up and setting off in the opposite direction of the loud bangs coming from Peeves.

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