Fatal Affairs

1.

Strange Appearances

Harry sat in the Gryffindor common room, bored as hell. He had already done his Potions essay (with a little help from Hermione of course) and there was nothing else to do.

For a while he had read Quidditch Through the Ages, but not even this could keep him busy for long. An hour ago, Hermione had rushed out of the common room (Saying, 'I Have to go to the library') and Ron had gone up to their dormitory.

With a sigh Harry leaned deeper into the comfortable armchair in front of the fireplace, considering what to do now. Go searching for Hermione? No, better not disturbing her studies. And in the end he would probably run into that prat Malfoy. 'No thanks', he thought, 'I have no intentions to do so'.

He had just decided to write a letter to Sirius, when Dean Thomas stormed through the portrait hole, with a big grin in his face.

"Harry... you'll never guess... whom I've found... kissing in a corner...," he said, panting heavily.

Harry, who was grateful for the change of staring-into-the-fire, lifted his eyebrows expectantly. "Whom?"

"Ron and Lavender!!!"

"WHAAT? But I was here the whole time, how could he have gotten past me?"

But after a moment it dawned him.The Invisibility cloak, of course. He had been so engrossed with his book, Ron could have easily slipped through the portrait, without him noticing.

Dean shrugged his shoulders and continued with his explanation. "I just left Snape's office, you know, detention, and as I rounded a corner I saw them standing in a tight embrace with their lips locked! Thank God they didn't notice me."

"Hmm, how should they? After all, they were occupied." Harry couldn't help grinning. "But Ron? Are you sure?"

"Of course, how many other redheads aside from Fred and George are there in Gryffindor?"

Harry was already on his feet. "There's an easy way to check your story."

With Dean behind him he climbed up the stairs to their dormitory and stormed through the door. No Ron anywhere.

Harry went to his trunk, opened it and searched for his Invisibility cloak. Just as he'd imagined, it wasn't there. The Marauders Map lay on top. 'Hmm, let's see what ickle Ronnykins is doing,' he thought and took the map in his hand.

"Ah, Dean, I believe you're right. And now excuse me please, I have to go somewhere." With that he left a confused Dean behind and walked down to the common room, where he dropped in an armchair. Then he took his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at the map.

"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," he muttered. In an instant, the map of Hogwarts began to spread over the paper. Harry's eyes wandered to the place where Snape's office was located and there, hidden behind a corner, he found two points labelled 'Ronald Weasley' and 'Lavender Brown'. The points lay tight together. That caused Harry to smile.

It seemed that Dean had not exaggerated with 'tight embrace'. For a short time he observed the two of them, but after a while his eyes wandered.

'Let's see what the others are doing.'

Snape was still in his office, certainly making plans on how best to take points from Gryffindor in the next lesson. Filch, the caretaker, prowled the fifth floor corridor, and along side him was his disgusting cat, Mrs. Norris.

His eyes wandered to the library, and he was surprised not to find Hermione there.

Was she kidnapped? Otherwise she would not have left the library. Not voluntarily. But on the other hand, maybe she had simply finished her research.

His eyes scanned the map, until he found her in an empty classroom...

But it wasn't as empty as he thought it was. Close to Hermione's was another point.

Harry gawked in disbelief at the name.

"MALFOY???"

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2.

Goodnight

'That little bouncing ferret! If he did something to her, I will kill him!!!,' Harry thought furiously, as he raced through the corridors. Mentally, he was already planning a cruel and painful way of punishing Malfoy. What about a little nice curse...?

Panting hard, he reached the door of the classroom. There he waited and listened for any possible sounds of a fight. But there was nothing. 'He wouldn't...!' Harry thought, kicking the door open with a loud bang.

Gasping, Hermione slipped out of Draco's arms. "Harry, I..."

But Harry didn't hear her. Blindly he attacked Draco, who was so shocked that he was unable to defend himself.

"You prat, what did you do to Hermione?! I'll curse your ass off if you've hurt her!!!"

"Harry, stop it!" Hermione yelled. Then she laid her arms around Harry's waist and with all her strength she dragged him away from the utterly dazed blond boy.

"Harry, nothing happened. He didn't hurt me." Harry looked in her face, her cheeks were burning reddish and in her eyes he could see that she was shocked. "Come on, let's go, Harry," Hermione said, dragging him to the door, but not without giving Draco, who was still lay on the floor an apologetic look. But (luckily for her) Harry didn't notice.

"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked with a worried look in her eyes, after they closed the door behind them.

"Maybe I should ask you the same question," he replied. "What did the ferret want from you, Herm?"

She hastily averted her eyes, so that he wouldn't see her cheeks burning.

"Did he annoy you? Oh, I will get him for this!" Harry was actually turning to run back, but Hermione prevented this by holding on to his cloak.

"It was nothing. He.. er... he wanted me to do his homework," Hermione said.

Harry observed her quietly. As he spoke, his voice sounded harsh, but he made himself keep it under control again.

"Well, you should just have slapped him."

"Hmm, I think, you managed that for me, didn't you," she said grinning. They walked the rest of the way to their common room in silence.

Arduously Draco got to his feet. 'Wow, Pothead can really knock you out. Who would have thought?' Then he shook his head. 'But what wouldn't I do for her,' he thought with a softening expression, while looking carefully around the corridor to see if it was empty. Without paying attention to the ache in his belly he ran unobtrusively to the dungeons.

As they walked through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room, they saw Ron sitting in an armchair by the fire.

"Hermione! Harry! Where have you been?" he asked.

"Oh, we just strolled around, sweetheart," Harry replied with a girlish sing-song voice. The view of Rons disgusted face made him laugh.

Neither he nor Hermione found it necessary to tell Ron what had happened minutes ago.

He would just get excited and then he would act like a madman.

Then Harry remembered, where, or better, whom Ron had been with. Slyly he asked him, "And where have you been a while ago? You weren't in our dormitory."

Now it was Ron, who blushed. "Well, I forgot my book in Potions... and you know... the essay... I needed the book for it..."

"Oh, all right, Ron," Harry said, not sounding convinced at all.

Hermione had used that time to slowly walk backwards to the stairs that led to her dorm and mentioned that she was tired and would go to bed. Both of the boys told her goodnight and went also to their dorm.

"Phew, that was to close for comfort," Hermione sighed and pulled her nightdress on. If Harry had appeared only seconds earlier, she would have needed a good explanation. How would she have explained that she, Hermione Granger, and Draco Malfoy, Gryffindor's Enemy #1, had been kissing?

As she thought of this a smile crept over her face. Slowly she slipped under her blanket and remembered how his gray eyes had gleamed, how soft his lips had been...

***flashback***

Monday, two weeks ago

She just walked out of her last lesson of the day, Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Dumbledore hadn't managed to find a new teacher for this subject, so he himself taught them now. After all, he was known as "the greatest wizad of modern times".

Suddenly, somebody behind her touched her by the shoulder.

"Listen, Granger, I have to talk to you," a familiar male voice said.

Confused she turned around, because the person, to whom this voice belonged, wouldn't have talked to her. It was inconceivable.

But she was right.

In front of her stood, cool and cold, Draco Malfoy, Slytherin House's most notorious member.

"What?" Hermione asked. "The great Draco Malfoy is so kind to speak to a lowly Muggle-born? A Non-Pureblood? Are you ill, Malfoy?"

She eyed him suspiciously. Surely he was up to something that would make her life hell.

Draco looked down on her, obviously nettled. His eyes showed no feelings and his otherwise sensual mouth was pressed to a thin white line. "Shut up and listen, Granger," was his only comment. Annoyed she drew her eyebrows together.

"What do you want?" she asked coldly.

"Nothing you could give me, Mudblood, but that's not the point," he answered with an evil grin. "I'm going to offer you a deal. Although I'm incredibly intelligent, my grades in Transfiguration aren't satisfactory, but that's just because of the teacher. So, here's the deal. You help me with Transfiguration and I will manage to bring Snape to treat you fair in Potions."

Hermione didn't know what was more amazing: Malfoy's self-confidence or his offer to help her dealing with Snape. Moments passed while she stared unbelievingly at him. Finally he lost his patience and dropped his hand from her shoulder.

"Think about it, Granger." With that he turned and walked down the corridor. 'Oh Boy,' was all Hermione could think.

***end of flashback***

Almost asleep she thought back to the day two weeks ago, when he had stopped her on the corridor. In the meantime several things had changed. With her thoughts still on Draco she drifted to sleep, with a small smile playing on her lips.

Harry laid awake in his bed and listened to Ron's steady breathing. The fact that he was snoring didn't help him find sleep.

'Why hadn't Ron told me about him and Lavender?' Harry thought. 'And anyway, Ron and Lavender? I always thought, he had a thing for Hermione. The way he acted last year, when Victor Krum was here in Hogwarts... I expected him to finally tell her about his feelings.'

But then Harry shrugged off those thoughts. 'Probably he doesn't even realize his feelings.' He stayed awake for a long time, disappointed by the fact that his best friend didn't seem to find it necessary to tell him about his new girlfriend.

'Tomorrow morning I will ask him about it,' was his last thought.

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