Born The Day You Kissed Me

Lyrics by Rascal Flatts

Dreams, Schemes and Holiday Themes

Hermione awoke the in the middle of the night from a very distressing dream. Her heart pounded as she recalled the events, and quickly ran from her bed to her Pensieve to preserve her thoughts.

In the dream, she had been in a raining forest. She soon recognized the forest to be the one next to her house as it came into sight. She began admiring the lights that lit the yard until her eyes fell apon her driveway where her parents' car usually sat. It wasn't there. It soon dawned on her that she was looking back on the night she had found Malfoy in her backyard. She glanced towards her house again and saw herself looking out the window.

The rain was steady and she suddenly heard a familiar popping noise that signified that apparition had taken place nearby. Hermione heard voices whispering, and leaves rustling under boots, and she ran towards the noise until she crossed paths with several men in long black robes. She was invisible to them, and began to follow them as they trudged through the trees.

A tall, aristocratic man with neatly parted long blonde hair led the group. He sniffed the air with disapproval, and wrinkled his nose with such exertion that his entire face seemed distorted with loathing.

Hermione knew this man to be Lucius Malfoy. Following him, were a few men and bringing up the tail was none other than Draco Malfoy.

She could see Draco rubbing his hands together for warmth, while silently following the men throughout the forest. After a while, she halted along with the men as Lucius raised his arm sternly. The men gathered around him, as they all peered at something through a distinct shrub. Hermione allowed herself to look as well, and she pushed aside a branch to get a clearer view.

They were watching...her. Hermione could see herself pacing her house through the large windows in her living room. Every man was watching her every move predatorily. Well, all the men save for Draco. He was still rubbing his hands together to try and keep warm, and was becoming entirely too amused at seeing his breath appear in the cold air.

"Lets go," Lucius said calmly, motioning for them to follow.

Hermione made to follow them, when a cold voice immobilized her and turned her blood to ice.

"Listen to me, boy!" a man snarled quietly. She snapped her head to where the voice had come from, fear overcoming her as she recognized it. She quickly walked closer and halted as she saw him holding Draco's robes in a death grip.

"You have no business being the key to this plan! Lucius only put you up to this because he wants the glory kept within his own blood! He wants The Dark Lord to praise the Malfoy's alone!" McNair hissed.

Draco roughly tugged his robes from his grasp while rolling his eyes and stalked away after his father, completely ignoring him.

"DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!" McNair screamed. When Draco kept walking, McNair grabbed his wand furiously.

It seemed that Draco heard the sound of his wand flipping out of his pocket and halted. He slowly turned around to find a wand pointed right at him. Hermione watched as before McNair could utter one syllable, Draco was running in the other direction.

The next few events happened so quickly that she wasn't sure if she saw it all. Draco ran while dodging spells, hid behind a telephone pole which McNair hit with a curse. The pole leaned forwards and was kept from falling only by the wires it was connected to. Hermione then heard the phone in her house ring loudly....and then before she knew it McNair had cornered Draco and shouted "CRUCIO!"

Draco fell to the ground screaming in agony and twisting inhumanly. McNair only laughed hollowly, walking closer seemingly delighted in Draco's suffering. Hermione screamed, but couldn't do anything to stop McNair.

He finally took the spell off and growled, "That'll teach the little bastard a lesson or two."

Draco was gasping for breath, and managed to mumble, "You...wait until my father..."

But before McNair could respond, Lucius' voice was heard thundering nearby.

At the sound of his voice, McNair seemed to get more and more nervous. "He can't know I cursed his son, he'll kill me," he whispered to himself. Then, right before Hermione's eyes, he pointed his wand at the nearly unconscious Draco and whispered, "Obliviate!"

A ray of light illuminated Draco's body for a moment before it seemed to dissolve into him. He groaned and tried to sit up.

"Oh no you don't," McNair said, and he kicked him hard in the stomach so that he rolled over several times before stopping in his mass of black robes. Hermione couldn't believe her eyes. So this man...this horrible man cursed Draco, then erased his memory and then...killed her parents.

Lucius' voice was growing louder, and McNair took off running towards him. Hermione leapt up to follow him.

"McNair, we need to get out of here, now! An unforgivable was used, we have to go before the Auror's come and catch on to our plan," Lucius huffed. "I can't find Draco, so I've sent Crabbe and Goyle to find him and bring him back using the port key. Come, we must go...."

Hermione's heart was pounding when she awoke, and even after she preserved the dream in her Pensieve, she couldn't stop shaking. She tried to lie back down, but felt she needed to share the dream with Malfoy.

She slipped on her silk night robe, opened the door to their shared bathroom, and crept across the cold tile slowly not sure why she felt the need to be so quiet.

Hermione opened the door to his room and was surprised to find candles lit and Draco sitting at his desk scratching away with a quill.

"What are you doing up at this hour?" she asked him while closing the bathroom door.

Draco spun around at her voice, "What are you doing up at this hour?" He laughed a bit until he saw her serious expression. "What's wrong?"

"I just had a very strange dream," she whispered. She started walking closer to him, "Actually, I don't think it was a dream, it was more like a vision."

"What kind of vision?"

"It was of the night I found you in my backyard. I already preserved it in my Pensieve, but Draco; I think you should come see it."

"Wait, you have a Pensieve?"

"Yes." At his astonished look she explained, "It was a gift."

He nodded and stood up. "Okay, let's go."

She led the way back to her room and they grasped hands as they leaned head first into her memories.

A few minutes later, they came stumbling out. Draco sat on the ground with a disturbed look on his face.

"Draco?" Hermione asked, crawling over to where he sat.

"You...you dreamt all that?"

She nodded silently.

"I had a dream like that too...well, not exactly like that, it was not that long, but it was me running through a forest by your house."

"When did you have it?"

"It was right after I brought you to the Manor. I dozed off while you bathed. I didn't think anything of it really," he admitted.

"Well, the one thing that stands out to me about my dream was that my telephone was acting weird that night. It kept ringing, and then there was no one on the other end. And in the dream, McNair sent a curse at you and it hit the telephone pole instead. It must have caused interference in the electricity for the phone line or something," Hermione said pulling her knees to her chest.

He wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about, but nodded his head anyway. "Well, if that was some sort of post premonition, it seems plausible," he stated.

"Yes, it does seem to add up," she whispered. Then she stood up and offered him a hand. "Well, I'm going to go back to bed."

She had already slipped off her night robe when she realized he was still standing in her room. "Yes?" she asked.

He smiled and walked over to her bed to pull back the covers for her. She crawled under her comforter, and snuggled under the covers.

"Night," he whispered, standing up to leave.

"Wait," she said grabbing his hand. "Don't I get a goodnight kiss?"

Draco turned around, and instead of kissing her on the mouth like she expected, he kissed her forehead softly while lightly outlining her face. "Get some sleep," he whispered before standing up and heading back to his room.

She sighed contentedly and within moments had dozed off.

* * *

January had flown by, and along with the start of February came a day that Hermione thought frivolous and overrated.

Valentine's Day.

Well, usually Hermione would think that it was a naïve holiday that gave girls an excuse to stalk and coo over boys. However, this year it would be different. This year Hermione had a boy to...coo over.

Draco was beginning to make a mark in her life whether she liked it or not. She could not deny the butterflies of excitement that bubbled in her stomach whenever she heard his voice, or the smile that stole her lips whenever his name was mentioned.

Furthermore, Professor McGonagall had come to Draco and Hermione one day after lessons and told them that they were going to host a Valentine's Day Ball for fifth years and up.

Hermione was also ecstatic to learn that not only would she and Draco be required to plan it all, it would also be mandatory for the two Heads to attend together.

With Valentine's Day barley two weeks away, Draco and Hermione had begun planning the event as soon as possible. If they weren't in the library doing homework or working on their many projects, and if they weren't having a meal, they were in their common room trying to plan the entire evening.

It was quickly apparent that the two needed help, so Hermione sent notices out to all prefects that an urgent meeting was being scheduled for the upcoming week.

* * *

It was Monday evening after lessons, and Pansy looked over the reminder notice in the Slytherin common room that there was a meeting for all prefects that night.

A prefect meeting would mean that both Draco and Granger would be away for a few hours at least. This would give Pansy the perfect opportunity to sneak into the Mudblood's room and see the thoughts in her Pensieve. It had been an agonizing week, and it seemed like she would never be able to concentrate until she found out everything she could about Draco's plan.

"Now, just how do I get in there?" Pansy thought as she turned around to head off to dinner. She wasn't looking where she was going however, and she ran straight into Blaise Zabini.

"Sorry about that Pansy," Blaise said quickly, reaching a hand out to steady her.

A smile formed on her face, "No problem Blaise, I was actually just thinking about you," she said with a wink.

Blaise did a double take. "You were? Why?"

Pansy wrapped her hand around his arm as she led him to the couch in front of the fire. "I was thinking about the other day, when I saw you with your new invisibility cloak," she said crossing her legs provocatively.

Blaise stared, clearing his throat and nodding his head. "Yea, I got it from my grandfather for Christmas," he explained.

"Well," she said leaning towards him, "I've never used one before, and I was just...curious," she whispered placing a hand on his thigh, "as to how it feels."

Blaise shifted on the couch, being none the wiser as to the reason for Pansy's advances. "Well, it...it's silky, I guess," Blaise said rather quietly. His jaw dropped as he watched her tongue circle her lips suggestively.

Pansy smirked, her hand moving further up his thigh. "Well, could you show it to me?" she asked staring at him from under her eyelashes.

He nodded and motioned for her to stand and follow him to his room. "Here it is," he said as he unlocked his trunk and pulled it out.

Pansy ran her hand over it, "Ooooh," she cooed. Suddenly, she snatched it out of his hand and tossed it on the ground. She sashayed over to his door to lock it before she strode over and pushed the tall Slytherin onto his bed.

Thirty minutes later, Pansy silently buttoned up her blouse, straightened her skirt and picked up the invisibility cloak from the ground. She thanked Merlin that Blaise had dozed off after their activities, as she was able to take his cloak without question. She swiftly threw it around her shoulders, and quietly left the room.

Sneaking carefully through the common room, she made for the Great Hall. Dinner would soon be ending, and she was going to wait for Draco or Granger to leave. She just hoped that the Head Boy and Girl would retreat to their dormitories before they went to the meeting.

* * *

"Okay, I expect to see you two at the meeting," Hermione said to Ron and Ginny as she got up from Gryffindor table.

She walked over to the Head table to remind Professor McGonagall about the meeting that she and Draco had called.

"Very well Miss Granger," McGonagall said with an appreciative smile.

Hermione nodded and made her way back towards the entrance.

"Oy, Hermione, how long do we have?" she heard Ron call as she passed Gryffindor table.

"An hour!" she shouted to him from over her shoulder. She pushed the doors opened and made her way back to her dorm.

Pansy waited for no more than ten minutes before the doors of the Great Hall were swung opened, and out stepped the Head Girl. Pansy's heart skipped a few beats as she saw how fast she was walking and had to pull the invisibility cloak up a bit to make sure that her feet didn't get caught in the long material. A few minutes and a few staircases later Granger stopped suddenly.

"Amoureux," Granger said to a large portrait. The portrait swung forth, and Pansy followed right behind her. Her jaw dropped for a moment when she saw their enormous common room. Then, realizing that her feet were still showing, she dropped the cloak from the clutches of her hands. She was relieved to see that Granger walked straight into her room. This meant that there were no additional spells against her room that Pansy would have to worry about getting through.

Hermione walked through her common room and into her room. She was excited about the meeting, and about planning the dance. She and Draco thought it would be great fun to have a masquerade, and she couldn't wait to propose the idea to the rest of the prefects. She took off her skirt and slid on some comfortable trousers, then replaced her button up shirt for a dark blue cashmere sweater.

She sat on her bed momentarily as she hugged herself. Her mother had given her this sweater for her birthday. Tears spilled over her eyes as she realized that she hadn't cried about them for some time now. She began to feel guilty for the happiness she'd been feeling lately, mainly because of Draco, and felt that she should still be mourning their deaths.

Hermione wiped her eyes and sighed loudly. She slid some black pumps over her stocking clad feet before retreating to the bathroom to wash her tear strained face.

When she opened the door, it was to find Draco standing in the steamy room in naught but a towel.

Her jaw went slack. Draco was definitely...a man.

"Hello," he greeted her. He turned back to the mirror as if it didn't matter at all that she'd just walked in on him barley dressed. He had obviously just stepped out of the shower and he ran his hands through his hair a few times before muttering a drying spell. "Fancy seeing you in here," he said breaking the silence. She still hadn't moved from her spot.

Hermione smiled weakly and walked closer to him. He was watching her through the reflection of the mirror. Suddenly he turned back to her, concern on his face. He could tell that she'd been crying.

"You okay?" he asked putting a hand on her shoulder.

Hermione nodded her head solemnly. His hand began to wander down her arm, and then back up to her shoulder. "Wow, this is incredibly soft," he commented. His hand was still wandering.

She smiled sadly, "My mum gave it to me for my birthday."

Understanding flooded Draco's face and he pulled her to him in a comforting hug. "I'm sorry," he whispered

Hermione's heart leapt to her throat when he wrapped his bare arms around her. Here he was comforting her because of her parents, and now all she could think about was how...naked he was.

She tentatively raised her hands to wrap them around his back, and couldn't stop her fingers from roaming over his bare skin. He shivered involuntarily as she began to run her nails in a swaying motion back and forth.

Hermione didn't want to move. It was nice to be held by him, and it seemed even more comforting to be wrapped up in nothing but skin. She had a sudden impulse to turn her head towards him and place small kisses all over his chest, collar-bone and neck.

"Granger?" he asked her, surprised by her boldness.

She didn't respond, only grabbed his head and began attacking his lips. He responded immediately, and turned around so that she was pushed against their porcelain sink.

Hermione's hands had now moved from his back to his chest and she ran her hands over his skin, savoring the feeling. It was strange; his skin seemed so different from her own. It was pale, tight and muscular, as opposed to her soft, tan and delicate skin.

"Not fair," she heard Draco mumble between kisses.

"What's not fair?"

"I want to run my hands over your skin too," he whispered in her ear.

Her heart sped up at these words, as her hands came to a halt. "You do?" she asked uncertainly.

Draco nodded, breathing his hot breath over her neck and making her sway against him.

"Okay," she breathed after a moment.

Draco's fingers began to trail down her arms to the hem of her sweater. He grasped each side and began lifting it up, his knuckles trailing on her stomach.

CRASH!

They each jumped in shock. "What was that?" they both asked leaping away from each other.

"It came from the common room," Draco said as he opened the bathroom door and raced to where the sound came from.

"Shit!" Pansy thought, backing away into the shadows near their portrait hole. She hadn't seen a small table by the couch and she'd bumped into it and sent a few text books and a small mug onto the ground where it now lay in hundreds of tiny pieces.

Just then she saw Draco running out into the common room in nothing but a towel. The Mudblood ran out behind him, and Pansy gritted her teeth to keep from screaming.

"What happened?" Hermione said walking towards the mess. She knelt down and began picking up her text books and sat them back on the table.

Draco began walking around the room, moving chairs to check under tables to see if anyone was hiding there.

"Reparo!" Hermione said to clean up the broken mug. "Do you think someone's in here?"

"I don't know, but text books and goblets usually don't fall over all by themselves," he said walking towards the windows to ruffle the curtains.

Pansy broke out into a cold sweat. She couldn't move because they would surely hear her; if Draco came over to where she was she was going to be discovered.

A few minutes passed as Draco searched the room. "You need to get dressed, we have to get going to the meeting," Hermione said setting the goblet down on the table next to the books. "We'll worry about it later."

"Fine," he said throwing his arms up in defeat. "Give me a minute then," he muttered while making his way back to his room.

Pansy's shoulders fell in relief.

Then Draco kissed the Mudblood on his way to his room, and she tensed again in anger.

Hermione smiled sweetly and ran to her room to fetch her papers that outlined their plans for the ball. When Draco returned to the common room, they made their way out of the portrait hole.

Pansy waited for a while to make sure that they'd continued down the corridor, and then made her way to Granger's room. After that episode, she didn't want to be here any longer than she had to.

Pansy ogled at the room she was now standing in. It was practically the same size as her entire dorm! She was definitely a perfectionist as every item seemed to have its own place. All the red and gold was making her sick to her stomach, and she had to restrain herself from ripping her lion-clad curtains to shreds. In fact the idea of making a mess in the perfectly kept room was incredibly appealing, but she knew that that would only cause more trouble.

She walked over to her dresser and jumped a bit when she looked into the mirror and saw nothing looking back at her. She slid the cloak off hurriedly while muttering, "Weird," under her breath.

Pansy turned back to her bed and that's when she saw it. It had to be a Pensieve. She'd seen bigger, but it still had the glowing qualities that most Pensieves had. She placed the invisibility cloak onto her bed before peering into the glowing blue depths of the Head Girls thoughts....

* * *

Hermione and Draco headed to the empty classroom that Professor McGonagall had reserved for their use. They were pleased to see that a lot of prefects had decided to show up early, obviously excited about this emergency meeting. Hermione smiled and waved at Ginny and Ron who were already sitting down.

"Evening everyone, take your seats so we can start," Draco said raising his voice. He waited as the late students scurried through the door to find a seat.

"Okay, we are going to get straight to it," Hermione said standing up in front of everyone. "We are going to have a Valentine's Day Ball for fifth years and up," she said, and waited for the oooh's of excitement to die down. "Professor McGonagall gave us the privilege to plan it all, and I think that Malfoy and I have come up with a fantastic theme. A masquerade," she exclaimed.

"That sounds fantastic!" Ginny squealed.

"Yea Hermione, that sounds like a lot of fun," another Ravenclaw said.

"Thank you. Just out of curiosity, does anyone else have any suggestions?" Hermione asked.

Everyone shook their heads, and shrugged. "No?" she said. "Okay, then, a masquerade it is!"

Everyone, especially the girls, were grinning with anticipation.

"Granger and I have already begun planning, but we are going to need your help with a lot of the decorations, and with making sure that the lower years don't sneak in," Draco said, standing up beside Hermione. "Now, for those of you who have forgotten, we have a Hogsmeade weekend coming up this weekend, and it is an ideal time to gather all the supplies we'll need."

"And it is time for us to shop for our costumes, which means that we need to inform the rest of school as soon as possible so that they can make plans as well," Hermione added.

"I have a question," Hannah Abbott spoke up suddenly. When Hermione gave the girl her attention she continued. "Should we require that couples have matching costumes?"

Hermione thought about it, and shrugged. "I'm not sure, what do you all think?"

The girls seemed to be nodding and grinning while more of they boys shook their heads and protested.

"I don't think we should make it a requirement, but I suppose you should at least try to match," Hermione said.

Hannah seemed to be satisfied with the answer, as were the boys.

They spent the next hour assigning tasks to people, and arranging time for when the ball would take place. Everyone now had a job to do, and things to get at Hogsmeade.

Hermione said a brief goodbye to Ginny and Ron and then left with Draco.

"Draco?"

"Hmmm," he muttered.

"You do remember what McGonagall said, don't you?" He shook his head. "She said we have to attend together," she said glancing up at him.

"What about it?"

Hermione shook her head and looked forward. "Nothing, I was just reminding you," she said. "Well, that and we have to find something to wear."

"We'll pick something up at Hogsmeade this weekend," he said simply. "Hey is that--Blaise!" he shouted through the corridor.

"Hey Malfoy," Blaise said coming towards them, a little out of breath. "Listen, have you seen--"

"Why weren't you at the prefects meeting?" Draco said, cutting him off.

Realization dawned on his face. "Oh, sorry 'bout that mate, I uh...I wasn't feeling well," he lied.

"Well for your information, we are having a masquerade ball for Valentine's day. You can help the Hufflepuffs with the lighting, they were short on help," he said. "Talk to Abbott about it. Oh, and do pass the message on to Pansy as she decided to skive off like you," Draco said, sounding annoyed that his own house was being so lazy.

"Listen, about Pansy, have you seen her?" Blaise asked.

"No, I've just told you, she wasn't at the meeting!"

"Okay," Blaise said, then turned around and wandered down the hall.

"He seems mad," Draco muttered.

"What was that all about?" Hermione asked as they continued walking.

"Who knows. Judging by the look on his face, Blaise probably just got caught in one of Parkinson's ridiculous conspiracies."