How Did This Happen?!

Pretend to Sleep

Draco sauntered over to Hermione and made sure that he got close enough that she could feel every part of his muscled body touching hers; the unexpected, intimate closeness deepened her breathing.

"So, if I'm so ugly I guess this doesn't affect you at all, does it?"

Hermione had no way to escape this situation, she was aware that he knew she had lied about calling him ugly. If she was being honest, she was one of those previously mentioned people who had a crush on him... she just wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, she even tried to lie to herself, sometimes. She was helpless when it came to his handsome appearance, and now that he was so close to her it was one of the greatest sensations of 'helplessness' she had ever felt.

She stood shocked for a moment as Draco moved to the spot where they were going to sleep, Making sure he spread out as much as possible. One leg was bent at the knee, a large foot planted on the make-shift mattress; the other long leg stretched out straight. He posed one arm behind his head, showing the bulge of a bicep that had taken hours of weightlifting to achieve, the opposite arm lay across the area where Hermione wanted to lay.

'Great!' She thought, 'Now I have to fight over sleeping space, you git!' She sat down next to him and pinched him hard on the exposed arm.

"Ouch! What are you doing Granger? Are you trying to take my arm off?"

"Well if you would stay in your own space then you wouldn't have to worry about it."

She lay down, whispering to herself: "It wasn't a hard nip anyway, you're just being a baby, as usual."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

About an hour later, Hermione finally fell asleep and rolled over so that her nose was just barely touching his. Draco slowly opened his eyes and looked at her. He realized how beautiful her skin was close up; so silky smooth and creamy pale.

'What am I thinking? Granger is not good-looking in any way possible. She's filthy with her long, curly, brown, sweet hair. She has great hair... I'm hopeless, I'm going to sleep now before I go completely mad while just staring at her.'

He rolled over and closed his eyes for a good night's rest, which he didn't know how badly he would need the next day.

When Draco rolled over, Hermione decided that it was safe enough to stop pretending to sleep. She couldn't help feeling the sensations she got when she accidentally touched his nose with hers just moments ago. He was the most attractive young man that she had ever seen, but he had such a nasty personality. She began thinking about the terrible things that he had done to her; the thing's he'd done to Harry and Ron. She thought about how the words from Draco had really hurt; even if she didn't let it show.

She sighed deeply to prevent the tears from the memories; she hated how he could make her cry.

Draco rolled over and they stared at each other for a while.

"What?" she said.

"Well, you woke me up, I should be asking you what." He replied

"If that's the case then go back to sleep because I'm not going to talk to YOU about it." It was a childish reply, but in her exhaustion, she couldn't come up with something else.

"Why not, it's not as though you can tell anybody else right now."

She simply blinked at him and turned away slightly, "I guess I won't tell anybody then. I only tell my problems to people who care, and you're not one of those people. Goodnight." She whispered.

"Maybe I don't care, but if your problems are keeping me awake then I'll help just so I can get some bloody rest! So what is it?" he grumbled

Hermione glared at him for a while before she answered, "Aren't you wondering what we're going to find when we... YOU get yourself out of here tomorrow? I mean there could be bodies everywhere, we heard them screaming... What if we go out there and see our friends..." She couldn't finish the sentence.

Draco looked around as if looking for the right thing to say. The dark compartment offered no answers.

"That's not what we're going to find when we get ourselves out of here. I wager that everyone is safe, back at Hogwarts and getting ready to look for us tomorrow."

He knew this probably wasn't true but he felt that for some reason he should comfort her. Hermione turned and looked into his eyes, realizing for the first time just how beautiful they were. They were a mixture of a Grayish-Blue and Silver.

They looked so deep and inviting that it was almost unbearable.
She looked away as she realized that she must have been staring at his eyes for a noticeable length of time.

Draco pulled her chin up so that they were making eye contact again.

"So, you like the way my eyes look?" he asked, mockingly.

"Yeah, and you know what, if you weren't such an arse, you might actually be a very good-looking young man. But we both know that you're not going to change the way you act anytime soon... so you're stuck being an ugly person." She replied, pushing his hand away from her face.

"Really, what makes you think that I couldn't change if I wanted to?" he accused.

She laughed, "Well, I have known you for the past six years and you've always been the same; such a big change would be impossible – you would never be able to do it. Maybe if you had a really good reason, you could change, but I doubt a reason is going to suddenly hit you."

He leaned a little closer, making her a little uncomfortable. He whispered quietly: "Maybe I do have a good enough reason to change. You'll see, I'll prove you wrong on this one Hermione. You're not always right."

And with that said he leaned in and kissed her lightly on the cheek before laying down and turning away from her.

* * * * * * * *

Hermione lay there in shock for at least ten minutes; the same thought running through her mind. 'He just called me Hermione, he said my name. What's wrong with him? Perhaps he hit his head when we fell in here. Oh my God! he kissed me... Draco Malfoy just kissed me!'

She started blushing as she thought further into this unusual and unexpected development, before trying to dismiss her thought and rolling over to try and get some much-needed sleep.

'I just kissed Granger on the cheek, have I run mad?! Merlin, I called her by her first name, this is insane!' Draco thought, his thought trespassing into territory they shouldn't enter.

They both lay there thinking about what just happened between them; even though it wasn't much, they wondered if things would be different in the morning. They wondered if either of them wanted it to be, and most importantly, what would happen if they did want to change?