Born The Day You Kissed Me

Hermione dashed through the rain back up to her house, practically drenched from head to toe once she was inside. She took her hair in her hands and attempted to wring it dry, when suddenly, for the second time that night, the phone rang. Hermione merely stared at the phone, her heart beating faster at the passing rings. Her hands began to sweat, and she scolded herself for being paranoid. The whole phone episode earlier had led to finding Malfoy in her backyard, so she was a little hesitant to pick it up again. She let the answering machine come on, and she heard her mother's voice saying her name. She raced to the phone. "Hello? Mum?" she said quickly.

"Oh, Hermione, did I wake you?" her mum asked.

"No, mum, I'm awake," she said.

"There has been an awful accident, and we are stuck in traffic. They are blocking off the freeway entrance, so we will probably be stuck here for a while, and I didn't want you to worry," Hermione's mum explained.

"Oh, okay mum. No problem, just be careful," she answered, her heartbeat becoming steady again. "Night, mum."

"Bye dear," she replied, and hung up the phone.

Hermione looked out the window at the raging storm. She vaguely wondered if the tree house would be okay in the terrible storm. Shrugging her shoulders, she headed to her room to change into some dry clothes.

* * *

Draco had thrown the clothes that Granger brought for him to the farthest corner, and applied a simple drying and cleaning spell on his own robes. He spun around at the sound of thunder, and ran his hand through his hair, trying to calm his nerves. The storm outside was progressively growing worse, and he wasn't so sure that he wanted to be out in this unstable shack, or "treehouse" as she had called it. He looked out the window, and saw a petite house a ways away. He could see that a few lights were on, and assumed that it was Granger's real house. Why should he have to stay in a rickety old shack while the mudblood was in a house? It was nothing special, it was probably as big as his bedroom, but at the moment he had to choose between staying in this shack and being killed by a thunderstorm, or making his way to the only stable shelter that he could see. Deciding that he chose life, he stepped outside, and cursed loudly when the wind almost knocked him off his feet. He ran up to the house and tried to open the door as quietly as possible, for he didn't know if anyone else was there with Granger.

He quickly and carelessly took off his soaking wet robes, and began to wander through the house, trying not to touch any of the foreign objects. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, and thought, "how can people live with such useless crap everywhere?" He peered behind random doors but there seemed to be no one else there. He saw light underneath a pale white door, and assumed that it must be Granger's room. When he opened the door, he gasped loudly as his jaw dropped to the floor.

There standing before him was Hermione, in nothing but her knickers and a towel around her head.

* * *

Hermione threw off the top that was sticking to her torso, and went to find a towel to dry her hair with. She struggled to get out of the jeans that were sticking to her body and threw them onto her bed along with her shirt. She walked around her bed to get dry clothes out of her dresser, and flung her bra off as she readjusted the towel on top of her head. That's when she heard a gasp. Her head shot up and found Malfoy standing at her door with his eyes wide opened, scanning her body.

"MALFOY!" she screamed as she pulled the towel off of her head to cover herself. She ran to her door and slammed it shut in his face, hard.

She heard Malfoy stumble back and curse her as he hit the wall. She couldn't believe that he had just walked in! Without even knocking! What nerve he had! Coming up to her house and snooping around alone, when she had told him to wait in the treehouse for her! Who the hell did he think he was, barging into her house uninvited?

Hermione threw on some pants and a long T-shirt and she cautiously opened her door to find her hallway empty. Her stomach lurked for a moment when he wasn't there; she was feeling very paranoid knowing Malfoy was lurking around her house. She made her way to the kitchen, and as she turned on a light, she found him sitting on a stool with his hand over his nose, as blood trickled down his face. She sighed deeply and walked over to him silently.

"Now, that was not polite, Granger," he said in a nasal tone as he clutched his nose.

"Well, you deserved it!" she shouted, crossing her arms across her torso. Malfoy couldn't help but look down at her very generous chest but was brought back to reality as she continued to yell at him. "You know, there is such thing as knocking! Besides, what are you doing up here? I thought I told you to wait for me to come and get you?" she said furiously as she began to pace.

"Look, the storm was getting worse, and I didn't think that your crummy little shack could hold out much longer," he sneered, his voice dripping with malice.

"Malfoy, it's fine! That tree house has been there for over 10 years, I'm pretty sure it can withstand any storm!" Just as she said that, an enormous crack of thunder broke apart overhead. The lights in the kitchen flickered on and off, but eventually, Hermione and Draco were hurled into complete and utter darkness.

"Shit!" Hermione heard Malfoy curse. She heard him stand up off the stool as he bumped into her. "What happened?"

"The electricity went out," she said angrily.

"The what?" Mafloy asked baffled. He started to look for his wand to get them some light, but remembered that he had stripped off the wet cloak when he had come into the house.

"Electricity, it's a muggle thing," she tried to explain. "Watch it, Malfoy!" she scolded as he stepped on her foot. Hermione searched through the kitchen until she found a match and a candle. She made her way back to where Malfoy was standing, and lit it. When she looked up, she saw him standing only inches away from her, looking down at her surprised eyes. The blood on his face was beginning to dry up, and she vaguely wondered how someone could look so appealing when they were a mess. His hair hung haphazardly in his face, and Hermione stared at it intently, wishing she could push it back for him. He cleared his throat and her cinnamon eyes immediately flew to his gray ones while a chill crept up her spinal cord at his intense glare.

Draco's eyes began to travel across her face, and he memorized how the candlelight added a gentle glow to her skin. He'd never noticed that her eyes had gold in them, but it was exaggerated in this dim light. A loud explosion of thunder suddenly vented and it seemed to bring both of them back to earth. "Do you have a towel or something?" he asked, breaking the awkward silence. He motioned to his bloodied up face, and Hermione seemed to catch on.

She picked up a napkin that was nearby and handed it to him. He wiped his nose clean, and then tried to hand the bloody cloth back to her. She looked up at him, disgusted. "What am I, your slave?" she said rhetorically, trying to lighten the mood as she led him to the trash.

Suddenly, a low sound began to hum through the kitchen and both of their heads jerked towards her backyard. It was that sound again, the one that Hermione had heard earlier, the reason she went into her backyard in the first place.

"What was that?" he whispered. Something about that sound was familiar, and it was rubbing him the wrong way.

"I have no idea, but I heard it earlier this evening. It's the reason why I went outside in the first place, and that's when I found you," she said, as the candlelight began to flicker wildly in her hand.

Malfoy began to walk slowly towards a large rectangular window that overlooked her backyard; the sound was low and steady, and vibrated his ears. He felt Hermione step closer to him, and the candlelight reflected off the window to illuminate their bodies. The sound began to fade as they both peered out the window and suddenly all the lights in the house came back on.

Hermione looked up at him, and he looked just as bewildered as she did. "Something isn't right here," she thought as she watched a violent bolt of lightening dance across Malfoy's face.

Just then, Hermione saw car lights appear at the edge of her driveway. "My parents!" she screeched. "Malfoy, you have to hide!" she yelled as she pushed him towards her room. Hermione set the candle down on the counter of her bathroom and then instructed him to stay put. "Don't make any sounds, just shut up for 5 minutes, and try not to go wandering around again," she ordered. She went back to the door, and saw that Malfoy had thrown his robes off onto the floor. She quickly snatched the robes up and held them behind her back, trying to look unsuspicious, as her parents walked through the door.

"Sorry about that, honey. The traffic was a nightmare!" her mother said as she pulled Hermione into a huge hug.

"Oh, well I was just waiting for you to get back, so, goodnight!" she kissed her parents on the cheek and then headed straight for her room. She threw Malfoy's robes onto her bed along with her wet clothes, and then went to the bathroom. She found him looking through all of her stuff, and she swatted his hands away. "You know that it is not polite to snoop through other people's things. Or did your father not teach you any manners at all?" she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Clam down Granger, I already know what kind of things you keep in your bathroom, or have you forgotten that we share living quarters?" he said smugly.

"Okay, well, when will you be going home then?" she said, as she tapped her foot nervously on the floor.

Draco looked at her, and shook his head unknowingly. He stood up and walked into her room, and sat down on her bed, next to the heap of wet laundry. He had been wondering that for the past couple of hours. He knew that he couldn't apparate out of her house, he had no idea where he was. He didn't have his broom with him, and he knew she didn't own one. Besides, traveling through this storm didn't sound too inviting. His brain had drawn a blank as to any ideas of returning home that night, but he didn't want to admit to Granger that he had no plan in mind.

Hermione looked out the window at the raging storm, and then back at his uncertain face. "Well, you don't exactly look like you are in decent shape to travel. We have plenty of rooms that you could stay in, if you want to avoid the storm," she said looking around her room. She grabbed a remote control for her television and turned it on to see what the weather was going to be like.

Draco jumped slightly when she turned it on. "What is it?" he asked in puzzlement.

"It's called a television, and I am in no mood to explain to you the details of how it works." It took a few minutes for the commercials to end, but soon the weather man was broadcasting. "Okay, lets see, it looks like we are going to be getting an awful lot of snow...it's not supposed to calm down for another few days," she said as she clicked the television off.

She looked back at Malfoy, and he was lying on her bed with his eyes closed. He looked extremely uncomfortable, with one hand and one leg dangling off the side, and she snickered at how pathetic he looked. Shaking her head, she went over to wake him, so that she could show him to another room. She decided to use the room that was connected to the other side of her bathroom. It was almost as if they were simply back at Hogwarts in the dorm they shared. Hermione shook Malfoy's shoulder as he grunted in annoyance, and she was astonished to find that even his grunt sounded enticing.

"Okay, I'm awake. Just let me go, Granger," he mumbled. She guided him to the connecting room, and he fell onto the bed with ease, and was immediately out like a light.

Hermione took a moment to look at the boy in front of her. She bit her bottom lip as her eyebrows dove together in concern for him. She had a million questions, and she had gotten practically nothing answered after she had found him. He looked as though he had just escaped death, as he was extremely pale and thin. She had to wonder, who had left him there to die? What went on, and why couldn't he remember? She couldn't even begin to guess as to how he got in her backyard in the first place. Something was very wrong, and there was no way she would just let him leave with no explanation. For all she knew death eaters could be hidden in her backyard, and the thought of that made her stomach flip. Her brain began to race as she tried to come up with a way to get him home, because the farther away he was, the farther away her family would be from harm.

Hermione dashed through the rain back up to her house, practically drenched from head to toe once she was inside. She took her hair in her hands and attempted to wring it dry, when suddenly, for the second time that night, the phone rang. Hermione merely stared at the phone, her heart beating faster at the passing rings. Her hands began to sweat, and she scolded herself for being paranoid. The whole phone episode earlier had led to finding Malfoy in her backyard, so she was a little hesitant to pick it up again. She let the answering machine come on, and she heard her mother's voice saying her name. She raced to the phone. "Hello? Mum?" she said quickly.

"Oh, Hermione, did I wake you?" her mum asked.

"No, mum, I'm awake," she said.

"There has been an awful accident, and we are stuck in traffic. They are blocking off the freeway entrance, so we will probably be stuck here for a while, and I didn't want you to worry," Hermione's mum explained.

"Oh, okay mum. No problem, just be careful," she answered, her heartbeat becoming steady again. "Night, mum."

"Bye dear," she replied, and hung up the phone.

Hermione looked out the window at the raging storm. She vaguely wondered if the tree house would be okay in the terrible storm. Shrugging her shoulders, she headed to her room to change into some dry clothes.

* * *

Draco had thrown the clothes that Granger brought for him to the farthest corner, and applied a simple drying and cleaning spell on his own robes. He spun around at the sound of thunder, and ran his hand through his hair, trying to calm his nerves. The storm outside was progressively growing worse, and he wasn't so sure that he wanted to be out in this unstable shack, or "treehouse" as she had called it. He looked out the window, and saw a petite house a ways away. He could see that a few lights were on, and assumed that it was Granger's real house. Why should he have to stay in a rickety old shack while the mudblood was in a house? It was nothing special, it was probably as big as his bedroom, but at the moment he had to choose between staying in this shack and being killed by a thunderstorm, or making his way to the only stable shelter that he could see. Deciding that he chose life, he stepped outside, and cursed loudly when the wind almost knocked him off his feet. He ran up to the house and tried to open the door as quietly as possible, for he didn't know if anyone else was there with Granger.

He quickly and carelessly took off his soaking wet robes, and began to wander through the house, trying not to touch any of the foreign objects. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, and thought, "how can people live with such useless crap everywhere?" He peered behind random doors but there seemed to be no one else there. He saw light underneath a pale white door, and assumed that it must be Granger's room. When he opened the door, he gasped loudly as his jaw dropped to the floor.

There standing before him was Hermione, in nothing but her knickers and a towel around her head.

* * *

Hermione threw off the top that was sticking to her torso, and went to find a towel to dry her hair with. She struggled to get out of the jeans that were sticking to her body and threw them onto her bed along with her shirt. She walked around her bed to get dry clothes out of her dresser, and flung her bra off as she readjusted the towel on top of her head. That's when she heard a gasp. Her head shot up and found Malfoy standing at her door with his eyes wide opened, scanning her body.

"MALFOY!" she screamed as she pulled the towel off of her head to cover herself. She ran to her door and slammed it shut in his face, hard.

She heard Malfoy stumble back and curse her as he hit the wall. She couldn't believe that he had just walked in! Without even knocking! What nerve he had! Coming up to her house and snooping around alone, when she had told him to wait in the treehouse for her! Who the hell did he think he was, barging into her house uninvited?

Hermione threw on some pants and a long T-shirt and she cautiously opened her door to find her hallway empty. Her stomach lurked for a moment when he wasn't there; she was feeling very paranoid knowing Malfoy was lurking around her house. She made her way to the kitchen, and as she turned on a light, she found him sitting on a stool with his hand over his nose, as blood trickled down his face. She sighed deeply and walked over to him silently.

"Now, that was not polite, Granger," he said in a nasal tone as he clutched his nose.

"Well, you deserved it!" she shouted, crossing her arms across her torso. Malfoy couldn't help but look down at her very generous chest but was brought back to reality as she continued to yell at him. "You know, there is such thing as knocking! Besides, what are you doing up here? I thought I told you to wait for me to come and get you?" she said furiously as she began to pace.

"Look, the storm was getting worse, and I didn't think that your crummy little shack could hold out much longer," he sneered, his voice dripping with malice.

"Malfoy, it's fine! That tree house has been there for over 10 years, I'm pretty sure it can withstand any storm!" Just as she said that, an enormous crack of thunder broke apart overhead. The lights in the kitchen flickered on and off, but eventually, Hermione and Draco were hurled into complete and utter darkness.

"Shit!" Hermione heard Malfoy curse. She heard him stand up off the stool as he bumped into her. "What happened?"

"The electricity went out," she said angrily.

"The what?" Mafloy asked baffled. He started to look for his wand to get them some light, but remembered that he had stripped off the wet cloak when he had come into the house.

"Electricity, it's a muggle thing," she tried to explain. "Watch it, Malfoy!" she scolded as he stepped on her foot. Hermione searched through the kitchen until she found a match and a candle. She made her way back to where Malfoy was standing, and lit it. When she looked up, she saw him standing only inches away from her, looking down at her surprised eyes. The blood on his face was beginning to dry up, and she vaguely wondered how someone could look so appealing when they were a mess. His hair hung haphazardly in his face, and Hermione stared at it intently, wishing she could push it back for him. He cleared his throat and her cinnamon eyes immediately flew to his gray ones while a chill crept up her spinal cord at his intense glare.

Draco's eyes began to travel across her face, and he memorized how the candlelight added a gentle glow to her skin. He'd never noticed that her eyes had gold in them, but it was exaggerated in this dim light. A loud explosion of thunder suddenly vented and it seemed to bring both of them back to earth. "Do you have a towel or something?" he asked, breaking the awkward silence. He motioned to his bloodied up face, and Hermione seemed to catch on.

She picked up a napkin that was nearby and handed it to him. He wiped his nose clean, and then tried to hand the bloody cloth back to her. She looked up at him, disgusted. "What am I, your slave?" she said rhetorically, trying to lighten the mood as she led him to the trash.

Suddenly, a low sound began to hum through the kitchen and both of their heads jerked towards her backyard. It was that sound again, the one that Hermione had heard earlier, the reason she went into her backyard in the first place.

"What was that?" he whispered. Something about that sound was familiar, and it was rubbing him the wrong way.

"I have no idea, but I heard it earlier this evening. It's the reason why I went outside in the first place, and that's when I found you," she said, as the candlelight began to flicker wildly in her hand.

Malfoy began to walk slowly towards a large rectangular window that overlooked her backyard; the sound was low and steady, and vibrated his ears. He felt Hermione step closer to him, and the candlelight reflected off the window to illuminate their bodies. The sound began to fade as they both peered out the window and suddenly all the lights in the house came back on.

Hermione looked up at him, and he looked just as bewildered as she did. "Something isn't right here," she thought as she watched a violent bolt of lightening dance across Malfoy's face.

Just then, Hermione saw car lights appear at the edge of her driveway. "My parents!" she screeched. "Malfoy, you have to hide!" she yelled as she pushed him towards her room. Hermione set the candle down on the counter of her bathroom and then instructed him to stay put. "Don't make any sounds, just shut up for 5 minutes, and try not to go wandering around again," she ordered. She went back to the door, and saw that Malfoy had thrown his robes off onto the floor. She quickly snatched the robes up and held them behind her back, trying to look unsuspicious, as her parents walked through the door.

"Sorry about that, honey. The traffic was a nightmare!" her mother said as she pulled Hermione into a huge hug.

"Oh, well I was just waiting for you to get back, so, goodnight!" she kissed her parents on the cheek and then headed straight for her room. She threw Malfoy's robes onto her bed along with her wet clothes, and then went to the bathroom. She found him looking through all of her stuff, and she swatted his hands away. "You know that it is not polite to snoop through other people's things. Or did your father not teach you any manners at all?" she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Clam down Granger, I already know what kind of things you keep in your bathroom, or have you forgotten that we share living quarters?" he said smugly.

"Okay, well, when will you be going home then?" she said, as she tapped her foot nervously on the floor.

Draco looked at her, and shook his head unknowingly. He stood up and walked into her room, and sat down on her bed, next to the heap of wet laundry. He had been wondering that for the past couple of hours. He knew that he couldn't apparate out of her house, he had no idea where he was. He didn't have his broom with him, and he knew she didn't own one. Besides, traveling through this storm didn't sound too inviting. His brain had drawn a blank as to any ideas of returning home that night, but he didn't want to admit to Granger that he had no plan in mind.

Hermione looked out the window at the raging storm, and then back at his uncertain face. "Well, you don't exactly look like you are in decent shape to travel. We have plenty of rooms that you could stay in, if you want to avoid the storm," she said looking around her room. She grabbed a remote control for her television and turned it on to see what the weather was going to be like.

Draco jumped slightly when she turned it on. "What is it?" he asked in puzzlement.

"It's called a television, and I am in no mood to explain to you the details of how it works. Okay, lets see, it looks like we are going to be getting an awful lot of rain and snow, it is not supposed to calm down for another few days," she said as she clicked the television off.

She looked back at Malfoy, and he was lying on her bed with his eyes closed. He looked extremely uncomfortable, with one hand and one leg dangling off the side, and she snickered at how pathetic he looked. Shaking her head, she went over to wake him, so that she could show him to another room. She decided to use the room that was connected to the other side of her bathroom. It was almost as if they were simply back at Hogwarts in the dorm they shared. Hermione shook Malfoy's shoulder as he grunted in annoyance, and she was astonished to find that even his grunt sounded enticing.

"Okay, I'm awake. Just let me go, Granger," he mumbled. She guided him to the connecting room, and he fell onto the bed with ease, and was immediately out like a light.

Hermione took a moment to look at the boy in front of her. She bit her bottom lip as her eyebrows dove together in concern for him. She had a million questions, and she had gotten practically nothing answered after she had found him. He looked as though he had just escaped death, as he was extremely pale and thin. She had to wonder, who had left him there to die? What went on, and why couldn't he remember? She couldn't even begin to guess as to how he got in her backyard in the first place. Something was very wrong, and there was no way she would just let him leave with no explanation. For all she knew death eaters could be hidden in her backyard, and the thought of that made her stomach flip. Her brain began to race as she tried to come up with a way to get him home, because the farther away he was, the farther away her family would be from harm.