To Die For

To Die For

Chapter Four-Surprises

"Tha...You!"

Draco continued to smirk; though Hermione knew he was still pondering over where he was going to steer himself in life.

Hermione glowered, but she wasn't really mad, and stalked over to the Slytherin portrait where the bearded old man was in deep conversation with the snippy woman, who didn't seem to be enjoying talking to him all that much. Most likely because he belonged to a portrait guarding a Gryffindor area, and she, a Slytherin. The people in the portraits tended to have something to do with where they were placed. Someone in a portrait who was deeply involved with the dark side wouldn't work out guarding a place such as the Gryffindor common room. They might possibly let someone not permitted to enter, or might not allow the Gryffindor students to enter. Dumbledore was pretty good at organizing the castle so that things went smoothly. Although, what Hermione wanted to go smoothly right now was getting a copy of the notes from the DADA class she had most unfortunately missed.

Hermione looked up apprehensively, not wanting to interrupt, especially with that scary looking woman there. She could hear Draco snickering in the background as she paused to wait for a break in the conversation. Rolling her eyes, she finally intervened.

"Um, excuse me?"

"Hello!" The man said cheerfully. The dog yipped in exhilaration. Hermione fidgeted and veered her gaze away from the woman, who was frowning at her in an unforgiving way and seemed to murmur something like, "Humph, manners these days. What is up with today's children?"

Hermione shivered and asked the man politely, "Would you please let me into the Gryffindor common room? You know, from your portrait?"

"Right away, Miss!" he answered obediently; almost reminding her of a house elf. He bid a goodbye to the woman and hopped out of view in the frame, only to appear a few seconds later in the one he had originally come from. It amazed Hermione to no end to where they went in-between the portraits. Were they just in pitch darkness or enter an expand of the portrait they had walked out of? But then would the scenery suddenly change for the when they entered the next portrait? What kind of world did they enter in these brief periods? What it actually, physically a place? Or was there nothing between-maybe they went straight from one to the next. She supposed she could ask one of the people in the portraits, but at the moment she was in a frenzy. She also knew how the old man could get into one of his lectures, almost like Professor Binns.

The glittering stars in the deep navy sky above the lush landscape in the portrait twinkled down innocently at Hermione. Something moved slightly in the distance, and a hoot owl was heard. Who would've thought that a picture could seem this real? A smile tugged at Hermione's lips at the peacefulness of it all.

Impatient to get going she grabbed her notebook, tucked it under her arm, and quickly said the password, "muggles rule." Harry and Ron had persuaded her into using it earlier the day before, to annoy Draco. It didn't seem that funny anymore thinking about the past hour. She made a mental note to change it later. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Draco raise an eyebrow.

"What!?" She exclaimed petulantly. He simply shrugged and looked down at his book.

As Hermione stepped through the portrait a whole crowd of people greeted her. Harry and Ron, as she had guessed, were playing an intriguing game of chess. Ginny was watching the game uninterestedly and almost looked as if she was half-asleep. Across the room was Neville, who had over the years become quite good looking, despite his continuos knack of clumsiness, though his looks couldn't compete with those of Harry's and Ron's. Both of them had become two of the most popular boys of their year. Ron's flaming hair was surprisingly one of the things that many girls liked about him, and his bulging muscles even more. As of now he was going out with Parvati. Harry had the "cute" look, and his smile just seemed to make girl want him even more. Hermione jumped when she added Draco to that list without thinking-his face wouldn't leave her mind. There was no doubt in her mind that he had become handsome, and was definitely sexy. She smiled at this thinking how she would've thought that she would never be thinking that. In a secluded corner of the room Lavender and Parvati were whispering and giggling madly about something, probably boys. And Seamous was touching up his homework. Apparently it looked as if they all always stayed up this late.

From all around came a chorus of Hi. Hermione waved to all of them hurriedly as she fast-walked over to Harry and Ron who didn't even take the time to look up at her from their game.

"Hey, can I copy one of your notes from DADA class?? Please!?" Hermione asked frantically, "I forgot all about them, I'm in desperate need!"

"Hermione! We're in the middle of a game! And no way are you going up to the boys dormitories to get ours." Ron paused for a moment for his move. He moved his knight back out of Harry's reach, causing Harry to swear under his breath and mutter, "I almost had you!" "Go ask Parvati or Lavender. They seem to be having a good time over there. Ron finished this absently without even taking his eyes from the game once.

"What good friends I have!" Hermione said sarcastically, accenting the good strongly, and rolling her eyes.

"Mmm," answered Harry.

""Boys!" Hermione and Ginny said simultaneously shaking their heads.

* * *

Hermione did eventually get the notes, from Seamous, who had reluctantly let Hermione borrow them. Parvati or Lavender's notes hadn't been satisfactory enough for her. Lavender's, although neat, had been thoroughly covered with little hearts and perfectly done "I love Dean's" with large, loopy curlicues. In contrast, Parvati's had been sloppy and hadn't have seemed to cover all the material. So Hermione had gone hunting and finally come across Seamous, whose notes seemed to fit her standards.

Once back in her common room with a fresh set of notes she had smiled sweetly at Draco who winked back at her causing her heart to flutter. How quick things could change. Just last year she would've burst into a hysterical fit of laughter even by thinking about having a decent conversation with Draco Malfoy. None of it seemed possible. Over a measure of only two days things between them had changed drastically. She had seen a whole new side to the boy she thought was going to become deeply involved with the dark side. Throughout the last six years she had never seen any kind of feelings except hatred in him. Now she had seen him worried when she had gotten hurt. He had been happy and cheerful in a way that he was caring, not because he was making a put down. A joking side of him had been revealed to her. And even scared, when he was thinking about becoming a death eater. All of these were things that Hermione had never thought would be from Draco. She had never thought that he could actually ever have a good side to him. Just by looking at him she could tell that he was slowly becoming a new person; realizing things rightly; entering a more healthy life, hopefully to stay this way.

But would Draco continue to be considerate toward her once around other people? Would he put up the wall once again when around house members? The Slytherins would become suspicious if they saw them together and maybe go against Draco. They couldn't very well hang out together if Draco was planning on becoming a spy. He was risking everything! Her hopes vanished of ever becoming closer to him. She hadn't even known she had really wanted him like that until this moment. She would love to look deeper into those shadowy eyes of his, run her hands through his beautiful hair... Nothing like that would ever happen if they were only able to talk alone I their common room. For now she would have to deal with that, though.

With these thoughts flittering through her mind she walked over to the couch and sat down, being careful not to sit too close. That didn't stop her from sitting close.

"So, what book are you reading?" She asked him casually, catching sight of the book lying open in his lap.

Hermione wondered why that had caused him to blush. She had only asked him what book he was reading, for God's sake.

"Er," He blushed even deeper red. "Er, wellIwassortaboredsoIdecidedtotakeoneofyourmugglebooksfromyourbookcase, isthatok?" Draco said all this quickly without pausing to take a breath once.

"Excuse me!?"

"Is it ok that I borrowed one of your muggle books?" He held up the book, which happened to be Wolf Tower, an old favorite of Hermione's.

Hermione snorted. "You could've asked, you know."

"You mad?"

"No!" Hermione smiled and Draco looked relieved.

A moment of silence.

Hermione looked up into Draco's eyes. They were misty, like Draco's life was right now. A slight tinge came to Hermione's cheeks when she remembered that she had just been thinking about doing this very thing. Draco gazed down at her, and a sense of warmness came to her. Their lips were only an inch apart, if only... Draco's face searched her's almost asking if it was ok, could he...she looked back at him with trust. Then his lips covered Hermione's.

It was heaven.

It was perfect.

Hermione had been kissed before, but never like this. They were together and it was right. She lost herself to the kiss and there was nothing else she could think about; nothing to focus on. Just this.

Then...

STUPID, STUPID GIRL! WE WARNED YOU! WE TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT OF IT!

Hermione jerked back and looked straight up into the glaring red eyes of no other than Voldemort.