In case you haven't noticed, this is not a story that will be updated at regular intervals. Sadly, life and myjob come before writing :(

However, I am trying to stay ahead of the game and get chapters out as soon as I can to you guys, so enjoy!

Draco swore up and down on Salzar Slytherins grave that he would never think of, look at or touch a Gryffindor in any way shape or form again, unless it was to cause them bodily or emotional damage..

But he never was very good at keeping promises.

It had been 9 days. 9 days since Draco Malfoy had pushed Hermione Mudblood Granger up against a wall and kissed her. And it was driving him mad. She wouldn't look at him, wouldn't even acknowledge his existence, not that he really acknowledged hers before hand, expect for the occasional quip or insult.

Draco tried forgetting about it, but on the nights he slept, he dreamed of sunshine and tea on his lips. The nights he tossed and turned restlessly were no better, he would guilt himself fitfully awake, telling himself his reaction to her was only because of the stress put on him by the oncoming war.

He tried to ignore her. He fought the annoying voice at the back of his head that was screaming at him.

Find her, bring her to her knees, make her beg, make the bitch pay for making you feel this way.

Truth be told, Draco wasn't sure what he was feeling. He felt betrayed, by his parents, by all the morals he thought he had ever known. He felt lied to, if pure bloods were so superior, he shouldn't be fighting himself to not catch any glance he could at Granger.

He felt disgusting, because he wanted to see how the light caught in her eyes, he wanted to feel her warm blush heating his skin, he wanted to memorize the way she sounded, the way she tasted. But more than anything, he felt defeated by his own beliefs.

Now he was doing the only thing he knew how to do and was quite good at, to squelch the burning itching crawling over his flesh that just so happened to occur whenever she walked into the same room as him.

Lashing out. He brooded and snapped at everyone that gave him half a reason. His father was less than pleased with his new found attitude. Snape was even less pleased and his Slytherin roommates avoided eye contact at all costs.

At every turn he cursed the filthy mudblood, grumbling under his breath whenever she annoyingly raised her hand in class to answer a question.

Draco wasn't the type to be caught up on anyone, let alone a muggle born. He dropped girls without a second thought or care and now know-it-all Granger left him in the dust, wanting.

It made his temper flare at inopportune times. He snapped irritably at Pansy in Potions class when she wouldn't shut up about cursing all the Gryffindor's after Voldemort took over. She sulked and pouted after him and it put him in an even pissier mood.

It didn't help that one row over was Granger, blatantly pretending he didn't even exist.

He felt ridiculous. He felt rejected. He felt sick.

She should be graveling at his knees, she should be honored that he had even thought about touching her. It was now more than ever that he had an extreme hate towards mudbloods, but it was only one particular mudblood and it wasn't for the reasons he thought it should be.

The only thing that kept him from going absolutely insane was his late night walks around Hogwarts. But even that didn't chase away his thoughts of Granger. Whether it was intentional or not, he would always find himself down that hallway he had seen her in that night.

It had been a particularly agitating day. He hadn't paid attention to any of his lessons, his head was throbbing, he had been uncontrollably antsy, he shifted his weight from foot to foot unable to get comfortable. People were starting to take notice of how restless he had become.

Goyle had even asked if he was ok. Draco brushed off his questions, avoiding giving any answer beyond a grunt or huff. He had to get a grip.

If I ever got close enough to Granger again I'm going to murder her.

He had been wandering for hours again. Aimlessly, trying to sort through everything that was going on in his head. He thought of his parents and wanting to make them proud, he thought of his aunt and the bloodshed that was to come.

He thought about serving a lord who believed in all the values that Draco had once held so high in esteem, but were now crumbling down around him. But most of all, he thought about a dark mark that would burn and haunt him for the rest of his life.

Draco looked up into the darkness, breaking free from the concerns that plagued him relentlessly. Here he was again, starring down the corridor to where Hermione Granger had possessed him.

He remembered how his hands had shook the whole way walking back to the Slytherin dorms. Anger bubbled up inside of him, breaching his surface, making his skin flush pink with heat.

Fucking bitch

He turned on his heels to leave, the last thing he wanted was to walk by that spot tonight or have any more of those thoughts parading around his in his head.

But before he could get into the next corridor and escape the view of where he surely had lost his sanity, a mass of brown tumbling curls in a school uniform, accented with the red and gold colors of the house that evoked so much irritation, appeared walking out of the stone wall.

Hermione caught site of that shock of blonde hair in the dim light right away. There was no doubting who it belonged to, even if she couldn't see the long lean body of the Slytherin. She couldn't stop her stomach from dropping or her heart from jumping in her throat.

Draco was caught off guard and stood shocked, but just for a second. He quickly recomposed as one thing was very obvious, Hermione, who was no more than 50 feet in front of him, was taken back even more so than he was.

Well, well. What do we have here.

He couldn't help the smirk that rose across his features as Hermione stood stock still in front of him, like a cornered animal. Except she wasn't cornered. And when that realization hit her she took off running in the other direction.

Draco's smirk grew wider and then he was after her. It didn't take much to make up the ground and catch up to the Gryffindor. His legs were longer, he was faster, stronger, he was an athlete. For those same reasons, it took just as little effort to grab her by the back of her shoulders, spin her around and push her against the wall.

She squirmed against him, but he could see the circles under her eyes were even deeper than before. She was too tired to put up much of a fight. He was towering over her, Draco had her pinned. Again.

His heart was racing. He tightened the grip on her shoulders, his long fingers digging into the cotton material. It was enough to stop her thrashing around. She set her chin and glared at him defiantly. He scoffed.

If looks could kill.

He was ready for the storm to come, he needed to fight with her, for some reason unknown to him, unknown to either of them, for whatever reason they were put in each others lives to bother the hell out of one another.

"I fancy that little trick of yours, Granger. Really, I never knew you could walk through walls."

"Bugger off, Malfoy" She spat at him. Just as ready to fight as he was.

He could feel his smirk curve into a snarl.

"Don't reckon I will, Mudblood. Not until you tell me what it was I just saw." He motioned down the corridor with a toss of his head.

"Go to Hell" She struggled against him again, but it was useless. He pushed back to still her against the wall.

Draco leaned in closer, almost brushing his lips against her ears. She tensed against him, but he could feel the heat coming off of her. He suppressed the shiver of pleasure that was threatening to race down his spine.

"Funny thing is, I don't think you have much room for argument here."

His whisper was hot against her skin. It made her legs feel weak, she wanted to collapse against him. He drew back and she was left feeling the emptiness in the space between them.

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her jumping nerves. Draco couldn't help but watch the slow rise and fall of her chest.

I want to taste every inch of your skin…

When she opened her eyes, he broke from his reverie. He was cursing himself again, this girl was driving him mad, he hated her more than anything.

Get your shit together, Draco.

Hermione was glaring at him, her anger and frustration palpable. She clenched her jaw until it ached, weighing her optioned. There was no way to escape, once again she was trapped between Malfoys leaned muscled body and a stone wall.

Draco was meeting her glare, he was never the type to back down from anything.

She huffed as she came to terms with the dilemma she was facing. Fighting off the stone wall might be easier

Draco breath stirred the curls surrounding her face, it creeped over her skin, making her flesh jump to life. He wasn't even touching her, but she could feel her heart racing, pounding against her chest as she silently begged him to.

She pushed the thought into the back of her head. It was only because it had been so long since anyone looked at her the way Malfoy was looking at her now. Like the world hung on the next words that would pass through her lips, that she even thought those things,

Deflecting your emotions because of stress, she psycho-analyzed herself, that is the only explanation.

"Fine."

She squeezed her arms in between them to cross over her chest. She thought it would put enough space between them to allow her to gain her composure. Except her forearms brushed up against his solid chest. She wanted to spread her fingers across the muscle, the feel his heart beat under her palms.

Her lips were slightly parted, Draco wanted to capture them with his own. His skin was buzzing from her grazing against him. He wanted to pull her flush against him, to feel her squirm against every inch of him…

"It's a room."

He scoffed. "Bloody hell, you are brilliant aren't you?" The sarcasm dripped off each word. "I figured it was a room, Granger. But why don't you tell me what kind of room you are sneaking around in past curfew."

Hermione could never remember being so agitated with someone that she scowled at them, but Malfoy had just pushed her to that point.

She managed to shove her way past him, avoiding as much contact as possible and started walking back where they came from. There was no point in trying to get away from the infuriating blonde twat, Hermione knew there was no way she could out run him, Draco knew it too.

So despite her attempt at a fast pace in hope of leaving Malfoy trailing behind, with his long legs and his own quick pace he shortly caught up with her and was beside her matching her stride for stride.

Her face was intense, looking straight ahead as she strained to not glance out the side of her eye at the tall boy next to her. She tried to not notice his sharp jaw line smattered with stubble, or his slender strong arms roped with muscle, or the way his shirt clung to his chest when he walked..

She stopped and turned facing the stone pattern she had become so accustom too the past weeks. She memorized every nook and cranny so she wouldn't forget where she had to go.

This place had become her sanctuary, the only reason she had survived and not gone absolutely mad this long. And now, by force, she was about to show it to the one person in the entire world that she wanted to share it with least.

Hermione pulled her wand from her robes, gave Malfoy a quick 'I resent you more than anything on thisplanet' look and passed her wand over the seemingly normal stone wall and whispered the charm

"Revelio"

At first there was nothing and Draco soon became impatient waiting for something to happen. He shifted his weight from foot to foot and just as he was about to say something rude, as usual, the wall began to shimmer like the heat rising off black top. He caught a glimpse of the wild haired Gryfindors wide, proud of herself, smile before she stepped forward into the wall and disappeared.

She watched as Malfoy stepped through the doorway hidden away from the rest of the Hogwarts inhabitants. He had always seemed so high and mighty to her. Like he was above everyone else, but now, watching him glance around the room, assessing it all, Hermione saw something different in the upright tense set of his shoulders, how his hands hung at his sides and his brows furrowed in unanswered questions.

She realized now that Malfoy looked more like an awkward shy git than a total wanker. Until he opened his mouth of course.

The room was lined with book cases, the gold and silver lettering engraved into the spines of all shades of colors glistened against the glow of the candles scattered and suspended just below the high ceiling. Where there was small spaces between book cases the color of deep burgundy walls were visible.

In the middle of the room was a long wooden table, with a single chair on each side. The backs where tall, carved into a circular emblem in the center was symbol for each house. At the far end, Draco could see the red and gold griffin, with its wings spread, bright against the grainy wood, with a stack of books, parchment and ink in front of it.

Closer to where they stood, there was a large marble table with a couch of dark, aged leather on either side, very much like the ones present in the common rooms of each house.

"What is this?" He asked without giving away any emotion, he almost sounded bored she thought.

"I'm not sure yet. A room someone built a long time ago, that was forgotten. There are so many like it here, hidden around the castle. It presented itself to me one night." She was almost wistful. The room had amazed her when she first discovered it and now it had become more of a home to her then her own bedroom.

She shrugged her shoulders

"I suppose it knew I needed somewhere to hide away from it all for a bit."

"Hmpf" Was all he gave in answer. They stood together for a few long, strained moments. Hermione was debating how to tell him to leave.

Draco gave the room one last appraising look around and turned towards the hidden entrance.

Just as Hermione was beginning to think the whole situation was going perfectly, that Malfoy had no interest in a boring old room full of books and candles, he turned his head towards her just enough so she could make out his beautiful, arrogant, ear to ear grin and said with just a hint of too much amusement in his voice.

"I'll see you tomorrow night, Granger."

He stepped through the door way and disappeared back into the dark, crisp hallways of Hogwarts, leaving Hermione with her mouth gapped and grief stricken. Her stomach flipped as she thought about losing her peaceful retreat, the only place she could get away from all the struggles that had become her everyday life. The only place she found she was able to properly burry herself in her school work or a book without the activities beyond the castles walls intruding into her thoughts.

While Draco went back to his dorm and slept the first peaceful sleep he had in months, plotting a revenge, he wasn't completely sure was deserved, but pushing his guilt to the side to feed the more sadistic persona growing underneath, desperate to focus energies anywhere that did not involve a certain dark lord.

Hermione finally managed to collect her thoughts together, although slowly, and made her way back up to Gryffindor tower. She crawled under her sheets, curled up and silently cried, before forcing her composure. Harshly wiping tears from her cheeks, leaving angry red streaks. She would not let Malfoy destroy the only time she had to herself anymore, she would be stronger than him, as she always was.

Draco had never beat Hermione at anything and she wasn't about to let him start winning now.

Thank you for the reviews everyone, as always they are appreciated, I love knowing what you guys are thinking and how you think I can make this better for everyone, so keep them coming!