Just a Kiss

Chapter 27

Warning for blood and some violence in this chapter!

"Quickly Draco!" Hermione bellows up the stairs. "If we don't leave now, we'll miss the first showing!" She hears Draco release a long groan and grins. "Don't complain, I won this fair and square with our game! Besides, it's not like I've sentenced you to death."  Then again, he still never warmed up to her cousin Jeremy, so she supposes that two hours in a theater with him isn't exactly Draco's idea of fun. 

"This is just as bad," Draco moans miserably. 

Snickering to herself, Hermione gives him a five minute warning and goes to sit on her sofa. She's only just settled when a chill seems to blow through the room, raising goosebumps on her arms. Hermione sits up straighter, looking around for an open window or door, but everything is closed tight. Dread thunders through her, jagged and cold. 

She bolts to her feet and dashes for the stairs, only now realizing how silent it has become up there. 

"Draco, are you alright?" It takes effort to keep from shouting, a deep breath and a will to shove aside her growing panic. When she receives no response, though, that panic comes swelling back with a vengeance. "What happened? Are you hurt? Did something-" her words die on her lips as she throws own his door to see him sat at his desk. "Oh thank Merlin," she breathes, nearly collapsing in her relief. 

He stands abruptly and comes to her, placing his hands on her shoulders to keep her steady. "Are you alright? You look like you've seen Voldemort resurrected," he says, eyeing her searchingly. 

Hermione leans into his touch and takes a calming breath before giving a slight nod of her head. "I'm fine," she manages, a bit strangled.  

"Are you sure?" His brow is furrowed in disbelief and his eyes are flickering to the door across the hall, like he intends to shepard her to her room for a lie down. 

With a final breath, Hermione says, "I'm sure. I just had a bad feeling. You must understand, the war taught me to follow those sorts of instincts." She peers up at him through her lashes, timid and worried he might think her crazy. 

He smiles and she realizes a half beat later that his thumb is brushing soothingly along the nape of her neck. She can't find it in herself to mind the touch. "I understand. I'm the same way."

She intends to respond, but the door bell rings, jarring them both out of the moment. Draco jerks away from her like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't and Hermione stumbles back a few steps before regaining her bearings.

"Stay here," she demands after a moment. "I'm going to tell them to come back another time. You just keep getting ready." 

"Right, of course," he agrees, turning away to face his closet. 

Hermione lingers for a moment, worrying her lip, before she leaves the room and runs down to the front door. She adjusts her disheveled appearance and has just put her hand on the knob when the bell rings again, this time with three quick jabs of the button. 

Scowling at the impatience, Hermione yanks open the door. "No need to be so impatient. It's very impolite to ring the bell so many-" For the second time in less than five minutes, her words die away. Her body seem to go completely offline and the only comprehensible thought she can create while staring into those dreadfully familiar blue eyes is, that explains the bad feeling I had.

She's faintly aware of her mouth dropping open and is mostly sure that her eyes must be the size of saucers now. Somewhere in her foggy head, her brain seems to process the danger she might be in and she can feel her fingers deftly clutch around the slim wood of her wand. She's aware enough to not pull it out.