Disclaimer: I am just a mere visitor in the sublime world constructed by the brilliant mind that is J.K Rowling. Anything that rings a bell is hers.

Chapter 21

Hermione's POV

My concentration for Runes was in tatters considering I constantly kept glancing towards the door as it was well into the period and Ky was a no show. Maybe Snape and McGonagall were questioning her about the scandalous morning events.

Although most of our friends got rid of as many of the disgusting posters we could find, and Flitwick dealt with the remainder, I still had to confiscate a few from some third year Hufflepuff boys on my way to the sixth floor! These posters were going to crop up everywhere, students, especially with regards to banned items, had a tendency to become very innovative. We just had to be that much more diligent in our attempt to destroy all of those infernal posters.

Who would do this? Ron was adamant it was a Slytherin, seeing as Pansy Parkinson had a shirt sporting the infamous poster, meaning she had access to the poster prior to anyone else in the school, but she could have easily spelled the shirt upon seeing the poster, it barely took a few minutes to do so and she was known for being efficient in spells pertaining to fashion.

Plus, that poster, even though it was absolutely crass, barely painted Ky in a universally poor light with the student body. If anything it peeked the male student's interests more than it deterred it, and the last thing Parkinson would want is for Malfoy to observe Ky looking so… eye-catching.

What was the person, or people, hoping to achieve? I would hardly consider her reputation ruined…was it? How can I fix this?

"C."

"No, it's B. I'm telling you."

My ears pricked as Thomas Lee and Ernie McMillan argued over the answer to the question that Professor Babbling had set for us, a desk away, I rolled my eyes, glancing to where Babbling was, busy looking over Zabini's work and I turned to the boys before they succumbed to arguing physically.

"It's C." I whispered and Ernie looked over at me in frightened shock, what…I helped him out the last lesson as well, what was so surprising? Lee smirked back at me, turning to his friend, "Told you it was C. And who would know better than her?"

I smiled, that was sweet…well I was top of the class for Runes, but it was sweet for Lee to say never the less.

"Potter." Chirped Ernie, cocking an eyebrow at his friend. I frowned; Harry didn't even take Runes, why would he know better than me?

"Everybody knows they broke up!" Snapped Lee, why was he so offended.

"Bra size." I turned around, reeling away in shock as Theodore Nott sat in Ky's normal seat, next to me.

"Pardon." I breathed out, still recovering from the sneak attack. He smirked at me.

"What McMillan and Lee were discussing. Not the questions but Kitten's bra size." He whispered, "But the answer was C, either way right? Lee's decided he has a crush on Kitten see, McMillan is trying to convince him otherwise. McMillan likes to think himself Potter's friend."

I glared at him, "He is. And he's right in doing so, Ky isn't interested in anyone at the moment. Least of all blondes, she hates blondes." I added for good measure.

He shrugged as if he was bored with the topic, "Care to guess who was the mastermind behind the whole scandal."

I narrowed my eyes, "Probably one of you Snakes." I sighed, "I don't know. Is it Parkinson?" Why did I think he would answer, "I know it's not." I answered before he could, I didn't want him thinking that I needed his help to solve this mystery.

"Well of course it's not Pansy, not her style at all." He winked, reaching across me and I fought to keep my face straight, why did he smell so divine…it was positively distracting… I watched as his long fingers grabbed my pencil case and opened it leisurely…I should stop him…I watched as he took out my eraser and stared at in interest, "What's this? It's not a Revealer…is this a pencil eraser?"

I took a deep breath, camouflaging the action by straightening my back into my chair and bit back a smile at his expression. I decided against snatching my pencil case back like my itchy fingers intended.

His fascination grew as he picked out a pencil from my case, inspecting it from pointed tip to eraser end. "It is, isn't it? Do you know how they work, it's attraction you see. The eraser material is stickier than that of parchment, so the graphite particles which cause the writing of a pencil are picked up by the eraser, disappearing from the parchment and gathering onto the eraser. It's quite fascinating really; imagine the first muggle to decide I'm going to use this bit of rubber to remove this picture I just drew? What made them think it would actually work? What did they even try before? Resilient creatures, muggles."

I was mesmerized by the intrigue his voice expressed right till his last statement, I snapped my brows down and snatched my pencil case back, "They are not creatures."

He was shocked momentarily, but as usual it was barely expressed, his face transformed into a wide smirk, "I meant no disrespect Hermione, we are all creatures, are we not? Some are darker than others and some with more beneficial talents, but we are all creatures never the less."

I swallowed, I suddenly realised how close he was, he had his right arm across my half of the desk, resting from the moments when he delved into my pencil case like a treasure trove…the case was long since in my own hands yet he never moved back, his body turned to face me.

"Miss Granger, maybe you have the correct answer for Mr McMillan."

I jumped, startled by Professor Babbling's voice and my face heated as the whole class now stared at us, they saw didn't they? They saw how close he was to me. But none of the faces looked interested in the least, staring blankly at me, awaiting the answer. Professor Babbling had a small smile on her face, she always liked me, and she'd been trying to convince me to take up Runes at a tertiary level since last year.

I swallowed as the stares suddenly became more pronounced and Professor Babblings smile faltered. Oh Godric, I didn't even hear the question. This has never happened before! Ever.

"Jera, Professor." I glanced to my right, Theodore had answered Babbling's question, he was also comfortably seated in Ky's place, his back against the backrest of the chair as if he was seated so the whole time…how did he even hear the question when not five seconds ago his body was practically…I swallowed, get a hold of yourself.

"That is indeed the fifth letter of the Second Aett Mr Nott. Excellent, can you tell us what it stands for."

"Year." I stated, probably an octave or two louder than I should have in an attempt to beat Nott to the answer. Professor Babbling's smile re-emerged. "Being part of the Second Aett, it deals with precession. It has a strong astronomy link." I added for good measure.

"Well done Miss Granger, indeed it does…Mr Nott?"

I turned to Theodore who raised his right hand lazily, his eyes clamped on me. "I have to disagree with Miss Granger, I believe Jera pertains to Era. I agree that it is indeed part of the Second Aett, and it does deal with precession but I believe its link is with Divination."

I cleared my throat, smiling at Theodore coolly, "Well Mr Nott, it would seem you are hard of hearing. Professor Babbling just stated that I was correct. Jera is year, and its link is in Astronomy as it pertains to the Earths revolution around the Sun and it is indicative of the birth signs-"

"Birth signs have more of link with Divination, than Astronomy, you will have to agree Miss Granger. I assure you, it means Era. The Era that comes and goes, irrelevant of the Earth's travel about the sun but by the years that pass and accumulate into an Era, signifying a New Age or New Era, it could encompass five years, or five thousand." His eyes were on me, his lips quirking in the corners and I grabbed at Spellman's Syllabary without taking my eyes of him, I knew I had the page opened to Ancient Egyptian Runes already and pointed halfway down the page, please let that be it.

He glanced at what I gestured at and I turned to it as well, breathing a sigh of relief, I had gestured to the right thing. There in black and white was the symbol for Jera, the translation next to it reading year.

He shrugged, "Spellman's wrong."

I gasped, my mouth hanging open, he had the audacity to disprove a noted and celebrated Translator with such nonchalance. "Sigmund Spellman is one of the core translators behind more than half of the Runic languages we have in existence! If it were not for him, and his tireless effort in preserving the forgotten languages we would never understand all that our forefathers left to us."

"Sigmund Spellman was an old fart with a superiority complex, he hardly cared for passing down knowledge, caring more for his overzealous voice to be carried forth in generations to come, hence his fifty page Author's Note, the man just loved to talk Hermione, he didn't really care what the content was. Now Balzibar-"

"Balizibar!" I scoffed, pushing at the back of my chair and turning so I could glare at him face to face, "Balzibar would never be anything if it were not for the teachings of Spellman, he came much after Spellman's time and I would think again before reading anything from his works considering the man was obviously obsessed with…" I fought of the blush, I needed to prove a point and more importantly disprove Nott, it was no time to be shy, "obsessed with Runes of a more Carnal nature… he spent so much time with his head in his pants I would never take any translation he made seriously." The man spent half his life translating the Mount Himalayan Runes into the book we now know as the Karma Sutra!

"And I suppose Spellman's translation of the runes in Mount Kita were done purely for the benefit of mankind. I do believe it was those very Runes that introduced the right to polygamy that many Asian wizards follow. Spellman just wanted to have a party in his bed with as many Japanese girls that could fit-"

"Mr NOTT!" Snapped Babbling and we both turned around, the class burst into laughter, and Babbling's long nose was so flared I thought it would rip from the tension, "Mayhap you and Miss Granger continue this discussion outside class!"

I opened my mouth but she just gestured to the door with her finger…no…no…I was not…not kicked out of class…I stood, my throat scratching as a fusion of anger and embarrassment threatened to break through, grabbing my books and stuffing it into my bag whilst walking to the door.

My breathing was shallow by the time I reached the corridor and I tried to rein it in, how dare he! How dare he! My fingers trembled and I heard the door click shut and a shadow fall over me.

I snapped up, glaring at his smiling brown eyes as he stood in front of him, positively reeking self satisfaction. A familiar urge wafted over me, but I fought it, he didn't deserve the energy that I would expend by physically demonstrating the level of annoyance he riled up in me.

"It does mean Era."

My hand flew out, his face an easy smiling target not a foot away but the resulting slap never occurred, instead my right wrist was enclosed in long fingers and it banged against the corridor wall, positioned above my head, his face now level with mine, the smile still on it as he bent towards me. I made to push him away with my left hand but he deflected it with a soft push from the back of his right hand.

"You feel it don't you?"

I tried to twist my right hand out of his grip, pushing at his unmoving chest with my left hand, "Move! Let go of me! Move!"

Suddenly my left wrist joined my right, prisoners above my head and my whole body froze has he moved closer yet again, I could feel the fibres of his grey jersey tickle my nose as he straightened up, towering above me. "Be honest, all I ask is that. I'll let you go if you answer one question."

I gulped, his proximity made everything feel like a furnace, my ears were ringing and I'm pretty sure my mouth never felt like this before… and it hit me that I hadn't been wriggling any more…my back was arched instead, as far away from the wall as possible and as close to him as I could manage…why was I not fighting him off…he was accosting me…wasn't he?

"Fine." My voice was a steady whisper and I stared at the green border of his jersey, indulging in sniffing his scent without his knowledge.

"May I sit with you in Arithmancy?"

I growled, "No." I snapped, but it was so embarrassingly half hearted.

The grey mass of jersey in front of me was swapped for a white collar and I felt his moist lips at my right ear as he bent to my height again, "Honesty, Miss Granger, wield it."

I sighed in defeat and I was so grateful that he wasn't looking at my face as it shone bright red, I felt a drop of sweat trickle its way down and I definitely…definitely felt something…inside me…I licked my lips, "Fine." He won the stupid bet we made weeks ago, or proposition, whatever it was…he won.

I heard a dark chuckle at my ear, "I believe today is the day impossible things happen…who would have thought."

I felt fingers at my back and my body shivered as he pulled me to him, his arms circling my waist and his hands resting on my hips, I glanced up, his face was lax, but his brown eyes brimmed with a need that sent an exhilarating spike through me, nobody ever looked at me like that before. "Was that whole thing staged to impress me?" I whispered, I was surprised to recognize that I had a cocky lilt to my voice.

"Impress you, Hermione? No, my honesty is intended to impress you. My now sincere treatment of muggleborns is done to impress you. Finding out who did this to Kitten, will be done to impress you. That show inside, where I defied you and challenged you and made you bubble with anger…that was not done to impress you. You think you want to be wooed by idiots like Terry Boot, to be noticed by Ronald Weasley, but what you really want is a Snake in your bed to keep you awake all night, if not just to keep you on your toes."

And suddenly the air lightened and his scent disappeared as he lithely stepped back, "See you in Arithmancy, Hermione."

I didn't respond, my eyes wide at what he had just said, watching as his black cloaked back disappeared and my knees trembled and my wrists, which was pinned above my head long after he left fell limply to my side…my fingers touching the place on my waist that his hands touched and my back hitting the cold wall, chasing away the heat that his fingers left in its placed…what was happening to me. My heart continued to thud erratically and I quickly pushed off the wall, the cold realisation that anyone could have seen what just occurred between us and I quickly fled the sixth floor corridor, my hand bunching in my hair…

I bumped into somebody and I sighed when I saw the familiar face.

"What's wrong?" We both asked at the same time as I saw the very expression I knew to be on my own face, reflected on my best friend's.

"Nothing." We both answered, and her grey eyes glinted at me as I narrowed my own at her…why was she lying? She looked like she had run a mile, her shirt stuck out of her skirt untidily but that was usually not cause for concern in Ky's case but her face was so red.

She sighed, a guilty look on her face and I bit my lip, if I can't tell my best friend, then who can I tell?

"I-"We started simultaneously.

"I've been looking for you everywhere." I stepped away from the loud voice in my ear, my ear seemed too accustomed to low toned whispers. Lavender glared at me in annoyance, flicking her eyes to Ky and her expression turned quizzical, "Hey Ky. What's up with you two, you look like you've been running?"

"We have." We stated in unison and Lavender's brows furrowed.

"We were late-" Ky started and I finished, "For Arithmancy."

"Arithmancy?" Lavender and Ky asked in question and I blinked, shaking my head, why was I thinking about Arithmancy!

"I mean, Ancient Runes. Sorry, busy morning…"

That seemed to remind Lavender of something and she grabbed my hand, "You have to come with me. See you later Ky." She tugged me and I followed, glancing back at Ky who looked slightly relieved that I was going.

"I thought Runes only finishes at 9 30, I was planning to wait for you."

I tried to act indifferent; I still can't believe I was kicked out of class. I have to go and apologise for my behaviour to Professor Nott. I mean Professor Babbling!

"I finished my translations early, what do you need from me Lavender?"

I was so distracted I never thought what the dirty blonde head drama queen could possibly want from me.

"It's not what I need from you; it's what we need from him." I frowned, staring at the large and familiar wooden door of the Defence against the Dark Arts Classroom…what would we ever need from him and why would I ever be the representative to inquire?

A/N: Hermione and Ky sure have been busy

Please review guys, they mean SO much.

Kalina