The last of the snow had finally melted away. The winter season was coming to an end and everyone knew that spring was beginning its tentative approach. However, winter had yet to give up it's grasp of the Hogwarts' grounds. The light that was streaming through the trees did little to warm the air. A frigid chill hung about them and yet Draco was enjoying himself.
"Here, try it this way." He turned Hermione's wrist so that her wand angled to the right. "Now say it again."
Hermione looked nonplussed and repeated the spell. Her voice lilted musically over the words that seemed like they should be sung instead of spoken. A green mist, more like a haze than anything else shot from the end of her wand and permeated the ground at her feet. They held their mutual breaths and watched as tiny shoots of green grass began to spring up around her boots. As they continued to watch in awe, the little sprigs of grass withered away to dull brown bits.
"It's sad," Hermione spoke after a moment, "We give them a push to live but it's just too cold out. I feel like I've betrayed them somehow."
Draco looked at her in amusement, "Hermione, it's just a bit of grass."
Hermione glared at him halfheartedly and sat down on a large rock. Several books and scrolls of parchment were scattered around her. Draco watched as she pulled off her glove and dug through her bag looking for a quill. She groaned in frustration and began to dig even deeper.
Draco felt in his robe and pulled a black quill out of one pocket. "Here," he called tossing it to her. "What are you doing anyway?"
"I'm writing it down on the 'useful spell' list."
"Didn't seem that useful to me," Draco looked down at the ancient book in his hand and the notes that he had made himself. "All it did was make some grass grow."
"Honestly," Hermione looked up at him in consternation. "If it doesn't set something on fire or go boom you think that it's useless. Really, all boys are the same, Gryffindor and Slytherin."
"That's not true," Draco, countered, "I liked that one spell that you did earlier, you know, the one that almost sucked your robe right off."
Hermione blushed darkly and looked away. "But really, this is a very important spell if it can make plants grow faster. Can't you just imagine what Professor Sprout could do with a spell like this?"
Draco was still smiling about the memory of Hermione almost losing her robes. "I suppose so, if she could make her plants grow faster then I suppose that you wouldn't have had to spend so much time in the hospital wing our second year."
Hermione looked up in surprise, "how did you know that was in the hospital wing?"
"Well everyone knew. Virtually the whole school was in a panic over that whole 'heir of Slytherin' thing." A nostalgic smile flitted across Draco's face.
Hermione looked at him in annoyance.
"Well it's always good to keep tabs on your enemies." Draco said.
Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a penetrating gaze.
"Now don't get any ideas, it isn't as if I liked you then or anything." Draco added nervously. The way that she was staring was beginning to make him very uneasy.
"Do you like me now?" Hermione was still watching him with that penetrating gaze but her voice had gotten very quiet.
Draco stared at her with mouth agape and tried to think of something to say. He couldn't just come out and say that he liked her, could he? He was never entirely sure. Draco knew that he thought about her often, but was that what she was asking?
