It All Started With Duties

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Chapter Five

Hermione's Crisis

The kiss. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't get it out of her mind. Whether it was the feel of his mouth on hers or the softness of his lips, it was always there, in her mind, and she didn't like it.

Hermione had just woken up from the dream she had been having every night for the past week.

In the dream, she's in a beautiful garden full of flowers, fairies and glitter, heading towards a huge fountain in which Draco is standing in front of, looking up at it. She stops beside him and looks up as well.

"It's beautiful, isn't it Draco," she says breathlessly.

"Yes," Draco agrees, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer and looking at her. "But no where near as beautiful as you, Hermione."

Hermione then blushes slightly and Draco places both his arms around her tightly. She turns to face him and is greeted with a loving kiss; a kiss like no other.

Then she wakes up, her heart beating fast and an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She hadn't told anyone about the kiss and she wasn't going to. She was going to deal with this little, crisis, as one may call it, by herself; she was not going to let Draco make her feel this way. But he already was, somehow she was falling in love with him, all because he kissed her so she shut up. And to Hermione, that was an even worse crisis.

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Next day, Hermione had quite a lot of trouble keeping her thoughts on nothing school work, because as it was the day she had Double Care of Magical Creatures and Double Potions, meaning the seventh year Gryffindor's would be having four full lessons with the Slytherin's.

In Care of Magical Creatures, Hermione stood around the baby manticore with Harry and Ron, they were supposed to trying to make it eat, but her eyes weren't set upon the beast, but Draco, who was standing nearby, lazily watching Crabbe and Goyle struggle to feed theirs, which seemed more in the mood to eat them then the lump of bloody chicken breast in Goyle's hand.

"...Hermione?"

Hermione turned back to see Harry trying to get her attention. "What?" she asked abruptly.

"We were just asking whether you wanted to have a try," Harry said, holding out a piece of chicken, which was dripping blood all of the ground.

Hermione screwed up her nose, disgusted. "No thanks."

"What were you staring at, Hermione?" Ron asked, frowning slightly.

"Nothing, nothing, just day dreaming about nothing in particular," she sighed.

Hermione turned her gaze back to Draco, to be greeted by his grey stare, which seemed to be slowly inching into her. They stood there, staring at each other for quite some time, each not making any move to stop.

The class heard the distant bell ring and everyone made towards their bags to head back up to the school for morning break, everyone but Hermione and Draco, who seemed transfixed with each other stare. Draco gave her a small smile, and Hermione quite suddenly realised what she was doing and turned abruptly to gather up her bag and headed towards the castle at a fast walk, leaving a rather confused Draco behind with his unwanted thoughts.

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Chapter Six

In the Astronomy Tower

Hermione sat eating her porridge silently when the mail came at breakfast, not expecting a large barn owl to land on the table in front of her, knocking her goblet of pumpkin juice over. Identifying the neat scrawl on the piece of parchment, which was tied to the owls leg, as Professor McGonagall's, she untied it and read it quickly.

Miss Granger,

A few first years have detention this evening and they will be given the job of painting the Astronomy Tower balcony without magic and I am giving yourself and Mr. Malfoy the duty of supervising them. See Mr. Malfoy for further details, such as times etc.

- Professor McGonagall.

Hermione folded up the piece of parchment with a sigh. 'That would be right,' she thought, 'make me talk to Malfoy just to find out what time I have to be in the Astronomy Tower by.' But she didn't have to, because at that moment, another owl landed in front of her and this time it was from Draco.

Granger,

We have to supervise some first years painting the Astronomy Tower balcony tonight, so be there - at the Astronomy Tower - by eight.

- Draco Malfoy.

P.S. stop avoiding me. The, you know, meant nothing. I swear.

Hermione sighed again and placed both notes in her pocket. Then it hit her, what does he mean, 'stop avoiding him'? She usually always avoids him.

She shook her head, clearing her strain of thought and finished her porridge. She really didn't can if he didn't like her avoiding him, because it might, just might, make these unusual feelings, which she held for him, disappear.

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Hermione walked up the last staircase and reached the Astronomy Tower. It was five minutes to eight and it was fairly dark, but the dim light coming from a high oil lamp cast a light glow over Draco's silver-blonde hair, making him easy to see. He was standing out on the balcony, looking up at the stars, while humming a soft, slow tune quietly.

"It's nice up here, isn't it?" Hermione said, coming over to stand beside him and looking up as well.

Draco looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Yeah, I guess, but your presence spoils it," he said, though, with hardly any feeling.

Hermione ignored his comment and changed the topic. "I heard you broke up with Pansy," she said.

"What did you just find out?" Draco smirked, "God, Hermione, I broke up with seven months ago!"

"I knew that!" Hermione snapped. It took her a while to realise he'd called her by her first name. Draco must have realised as well, because he was now looking and shifting uncomfortably. "Dra-"

"Excuse me, but are you two here to supervise us?" a young Ravenclaw first year girl interrupted nervously from behind them. They both turned to three first years all of them were carrying brushes, but the girl who spoke and only girl there was carrying a large tin of light brown Muggle paint.

"Yes," Hermione replied in a sweet innocent voice in which Draco scowled at. "I guess you guys should start then. I'm Hermione, the Head Girl, by the way and this is -"

"Draco. Draco Malfoy. Head Boy,' Draco interrupted, getting with the sweet and innocent voice Hermione was using.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him angrily and walked over to sit on one of the chairs, which sat by a wall nearby. Draco also walked over and sat in the seat next to her, watching the first with an amused look on his face as they struggled to remove the lid of the tin of paint.

"You were saying..." Draco said, turning to face her after the first years got the lid off.

"Oh yeah," Hermione said, "Draco-" she stopped suddenly and frowned. "I forgot."

"So, we're on a first name basis, are we?" Draco asked.

"Yes, I guess we are," Hermione replied with a short nod.

"Can I ask you a question?" He didn't wait for an answer, "Was it hard coming from a Muggle background into the wizarding world?"

The question took her by surprise. "Fairly, yes," she replied. "Harry's no different -"

"I don't care about Potter alright!" Draco snarled loudly, making the first years jump slightly. "the way you go on about him, it's like you're not just friends with him, but deeply in love with the git. Harry this. Harry that. I honestly don't care about bloody Potter!"

"Well, I'm so very sorry about that!" Hermione yelled, standing up. Draco stood up as well, wanting to be the taller one. "He's my best friend and I find it -"

Draco took a step towards and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. He then bent down slightly and cut her off with a gentle kiss on the lips. She responded immediately and did the only thing her brain, and heart, was telling her to do, she opened her mouth and let Draco's tongue enter it again to explore. She kissed him back, making him deepen it and pull her even closer.

This time he wasn't kissing her just to shut her up, but because he wanted, and by the looks of it, she wanted to too.

They slowly broke away, but Draco didn't let go of her, and her arms, which were wrapped around his neck, didn't move, instead, he pulled her, if possible, even closer so she was fully against him and ran his fingers through her smooth, yet bushy, hair, feeling her fast heart beat against his chest and listening to her irregular breathing, which gradually slowed.

They stayed like this for a long time, but finally, they broke apart slowly, both knowing that they were no longer enemies and that they were now the very opposite; that their lives would never be the same again.