When Enemies Interact

Chapter 6: Midnight in the Library.

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Hermione made sure the common room was empty before heading out the portrait hole, into the dark, deserted corridors of the castle to head towards the library with Draco. She was due to meet him in the Charms corridor along the way.

She walked through the corridors and down in a couple of staircases, trying to keep in the shadows to make it harder for anyone to see her. She reached the Charms corridor and saw Draco. His silvery-blonde hair was shining in the moonlight that was coming in through one of the tall windows, which reached ceiling height. She slowly and quietly approached him, still staying in the shadows.

"Sorry I'm a little late," she whispered when she reached him. "I had to wait for Ginny and her friends to go to bed. Harry never came back from Quidditch training tonight and she wouldn't stop worrying."

"Look, we better go, it's almost midnight and I know for a fact that Filch and that damn cat of his patrol these corridors at this time," Draco said quietly. "I learnt that the hard way." Hermione nodded and began to follow him.

They walked down a flight of stairs and down a couple more corridors until they reached the door of the library. Draco looked around them and took out his wand. "Lumos," he muttered. The end of his wand lit up and he turned the doorknob on the door. It was locked. He looked over at Hermione, who rolled her eyes and took out her own wand.

"Alohomora," she murmured, taping the doorknob with her wand. The lock clicked and the door creaked open. Draco entered with Hermione right behind him.

The library was still and silent, but as Draco shone the light of his wand around the large room, they found it wasn't quite empty. Harry, still in his rather muddy Quidditch robes, was sitting at a table close by, using a book as a pillow as he slept soundly. Draco cast a sideways glance at Hermione and saw her looking at Harry with an unreadable expression on her face, before she turned her gaze to the Restricted Section and looked at it in anticipation.

"Come on," he murmured, leading the way over to the rope and stepping over it, Hermione behind him. "Stop breathing so loudly," he snapped quietly.

"Sorry, I'm just a bit ... nevermind." She took out her wand again. "Lumos." She headed over to the History of Magic section.

"Just a bit what?" Draco asked quietly, moving towards the Muggle section, which was opposite the History of Magic one.

"I said nevermind."

"Tell me."

"I'm," she hesitated, "a little bit scared of being caught." She looked over at him to see what he did, but he just continued to search the shelves for any book that could possibly have something to do with the Polyjuice Potion in it. She took a deep breath. "Can I ask you a question, Draco?"

"Go ahead."

"Did you mean what you said last night when you said that you-you -" She had a bit of trouble saying it.

"Cared about you," Draco finished, looking over. She nodded. "Yes, I do care about you, Hermione and you can -" He moved his feet uncomfortably "- you can talk to me if you want, about your problems and that." Hermione gave him a small smile.

"Thank-you," she said softly and quietly. "I care about you too." The effect of these words was amazing. Draco's face split into a real smile, one of the first Hermione had ever seen on his face and it made her heart skip a beat. She knew that they were no longer like they were before: enemies; she didn't see him as that anymore. In fact, she now saw him as someone worthy of being a friend.

They were silent for several minutes after that, searching the contents of the dusty shelves, looking in every section. They found nothing relevant in the History of Magic, Muggle, Charms and Spells or Divination sections. They then searched the Dark Arts and Magical Creatures sections, but again they found absolutely nothing. There were only a few sections left to search after that and Hermione was beginning to wonder if there was a book that could really help them. She proved herself wrong, however, when she reached the Transfiguration section and found, almost immediately, a rather thick book with a green cover and the title Transforming Potions written in gold on the spine.

"Draco," Hermione whispered, "I've found something." Draco walked over and knelt next to Hermione, his own wand adding more light as Hermione opened the book. They both scanned the contents page and found The Polyjuice Potion written clearly in green ink in the list. Hermione flipped quickly to the page and began to read aloud.

"The Polyjuice Potion is the most common of all the Transforming Potions and is used most often. It was outlawed in many countries in the 1950's, but there has been exceptions made in many of those countries since that allows you to only use the Potion for special reasons ruled by the country's Ministry of Magic.

"The Potion allows you to take the form of someone else for approximately an hour, but is to be used only for human transformations. Once the potion wears off, you will return to your natural form -" She stopped suddenly, going pale and Draco knew why.

They heard a door slam and it was definitely not from a great distance away, in fact, they were positive it was the library door closing. Was it just Harry leaving or was it someone else who was going to spring out and catch them? The question was answered the moment they heard the greasy voice of Mr. Filch the caretaker.

"Go and find them, my sweet," they heard Filch say. Draco looked over at the entrance to the Restricted Section and saw the shadow of Filch bend down and the shadow of a cat, evidently Mrs. Norris, leap out of his arms. Hermione had gone rigid, staring at the shadows with wide eyes. Finch spoke again: "I know you're in here, no way to escape now. Making a lot of noise you were."

Hermione suddenly came to her senses and quietly closed the book. She grabbed Draco's hand and headed silently to the back of the room, hiding in the shadows as they went. They looked around frantically, trying to find a good place to hide. Suddenly something caught Draco's eye. In the far corner was a low sort of table, covered by a dark sheet. It was their only hope. He pulled her over to it and pulled up the sheet. Hermione looked underneath the table in disbelief.

"Draco," she said in a very quiet whisper, "There's no way we'll be able to sit under there; it's too low."

"Then don't sit, lay," Draco whispered back just as quietly. "It's long enough." Hermione looked at him in disbelief. "Hermione, either co-operate and lay under there, with me on top of you or kiss your Head Girl badge goodbye." Hermione hesitantly nodded and climbed in under the table.

It was lucky that the table was as long as it was, because as Draco carefully climbed in under and got on top of her, his feet would've been seen hanging out the end if it was any shorter.

Draco didn't know why he had decided to get in this position, but he rather liked it. He lay there, on top of her, staring down into Hermione's deep brown eyes, which he, for the first time in his life, noticed were absolutely beautiful, but he also noticed how beautiful her face was too. Her soft, creamy skin, her cute, petite nose, the soft blush on her cheeks, which was growing steadily redder as he studied her and her lips...

Yes, her lips, they were what a lot of Draco's attention was on. Her pink, perfect lips, which he thought looked extremely kissable...

He hadn't even noticed that her hands were on his shoulders and that she was looking up at him, lost in his grey eyes, which had seemed to become slightly warmer as he studied her face. She loved the way his hair fell into his face and the way he had a small smile playing on his lips as he looked at her. She loved the feel of him against her, with his hands resting on her waist, just like he loved the feel of being against her. Neither of them knew where these feelings for each other had come from, but they were definitely there.

Draco slowly brought one of his hands away from her waist and gently stroked her face. He was no longer smiling, he just had a blank look on his face. He pushed a stray strand of her hair behind her ear and slowly, very slowly bent his face down to hers. He kissed her softly on the lips, before leaning back to see her reaction. Her eyes were closed, but she slowly opened them as she licked her lips and breathed in deeply. He rested his hands on her hips, before leaning forward once more, this time kissing her more deeply. She responded to the kiss almost immediately and wrapped her arms around his neck in an attempt to pull him closer.

If Harry was a good kisser, he was nothing compared to Draco. Draco's kisses were sweet, fiery, extremely passionate and a whole lot of other things put together, while Harry's had been not much more than just passionate and sweet. The moment the kiss had begun, Hermione had felt every thought leave her mind, all her fear of being caught, everything. She was also completely oblivious of what was going on around them, just as Draco seemed to be as well. All she wanted was to be here, with Draco, but a tiny part of her brain knew this was wrong. Four days previous and she could've said that she hated him to death, but now, she couldn't. She definitely couldn't.

Draco continued to kiss her, deeply, forcefully and passionately. She was a wonderful kisser and was kissing him back with same amount of intensity as he was kissing her. All he could smell was her, all he could see -even with his eyes closed- was her. He never wanted to stop or let her go, even though he knew this was wrong and that he should, but he couldn't. She, on the other hand, proved she could as she did the moment that thought had crossed his mind, by turning her face to one side so he was suddenly kissing her cheek.

"Get off me, Draco," she said breathlessly. She sounded slightly scared, but Draco didn't understand why. He rolled off her and she got out from under the table, the Transforming Potions book in her hand. Draco followed suit. She looked him up and down, before turning and running towards the exit. Right now, she didn't care if Filch caught her.

Draco watched her retreat, before looking down at his aching groin area and the excitement going on down there. He suddenly realised with a groan why she had sounded scared; because she was scared, scared that he would take it too far, when they had hated each other just less than a week before, even though they didn't now...

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