**Disclaimer: I own nothing; everything belongs to the wonderful J. K. Rowling.
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Chapter 19:

"Ooh Harry, look out!" Hermione called desperately even though her voice was lost amongst the roaring of the crowd.

Harry's broomstick dipped suddenly beneath one of the Ravenclaw beaters and he pulled up in time to dodge the bludger that had been pursuing him.

Hermione sighed in relief and sat back down next to Ginny. She only had a moment to catch her breath though before a quick pass by one of the Ravenclaw chasers had her and Ginny on their feet again screaming at Ron. "Look out, he's right there!" The cries of warning from the Gryffindors weren't really necessary as Ron easily caught the ball and then sent it spinning away looking bored.

"This is turning into a really long game." Ginny commented as they sat back down again.

"I think it's one of the longest Hogwarts has had in almost thirty years." Hermione replied glancing at her watch. The sun was beginning to set behind the dark trees. The game itself had started early that morning.

"Harry could have won this easily, we've already seen the Snitch twice, but he doesn't want to show up Cho." Ginny muttered darkly.

Hermione glanced cautiously at her friend, "Gin, I don't think that Harry would lose on purpose." In fact, Hermione was quite certain that Harry would never lose intentionally, even if it were against Cho. "He's probably just giving her a sporting chance." She offered glibly.

Ginny looked unimpressed and glared hard at the Ravenclaw Seeker as she passed by. "Don't know what he sees in her anyway." She muttered quietly then glanced at Hermione and added "not that I care anyway."

Hermione nodded non-committaly. Ginny had long claimed to have left her Harry idolatry behind her, but Hermione often wondered how far back she had left it. Ginny was still obviously smitten with him and poor Harry was simply oblivious. Not that Hermione really had time to wonder about the relationships of her friends, what with school and her Arithmancy project. And, of course, there was Draco as well. A sudden close call as Fred nearly collided with a chaser sent Hermione and Ginny gasping in fear.

"He's looking at you again you know." Ginny whispered as they sat back down.

"What? Who is looking?" Hermione asked in confusion.

"Malfoy of course. Don't tell me that you haven't noticed." Ginny looked unbelievingly at Hermione and then sighed in exasperation. "You're hopeless you know. He's over there."

Hermione followed the direction that Ginny was looking and found Draco sitting in the next section over. The Slytherin boy was pointedly watching her.

"What's he want?" Ginny asked in an almost awed tone.

"I have no idea," Hermione replied quietly as she stared back at him. He abruptly stood up and started down the steps pausing at the bottom to give her one more demanding look. "I'll be right back Ginny."

"What? But what about the game?" Ginny grabbed Hermione's arm.

"I'll be right back Gin." Hermione replied firmly and tugged her arm loose.

Hermione turned her back on Ginny's disapproving gaze and followed after Draco. He had doubled back under the raised seats and was casually leaning against a pole. As Hermione approached she couldn't tell if he was smiling genuinely or smirking at her. Hermione walked right up to him and waited for him to speak. Instead of talking though, Draco brushed back a lock of her hair and leaned in to kiss her.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hermione asked in surprise as she backed away from him. "The whole school is sitting above us, are you crazy?"

There was no doubt now that Draco was smirking. "I wouldn't worry. All of your little Gryffindor pals are watching the game."

"And what about your little nest of Slytherins? Where are they all slinking about?" Hermione mimicked him.

Draco grinned, "Probably rooting for Ravenclaw I would think."

"What do you want Draco?" Hermione sighed in irritation.

"Well," Draco moved closer to her, "the passages that I translated last night didn't contain any potion recipes. Instead there were several spells, I think that they're charms but I'm not entirely sure."

"Really?" Hermione asked excitedly. So far, they had only found potions in the O'Leary books. Finding out that he had been making his potions was exciting enough, but creating his very own charms?

"I figured that we should go to the library and work on it." Draco finished.

"Now? I can't go now. We're in the middle of a match."

Draco's gray eyes darkened and he frowned at her. "You know that your blessed little Potter is going to catch the Snitch even if he is taking his time in doing so. I hardly see any point in staying to watch."

"I have to stay and support Ron and Harry," Hermione replied sharply.

"Not like they'd notice if you left. Probably wouldn't even care if you did either." Draco told her coldly.

Hermione glared at him furiously. Their voices had been getting louder and she glanced around to make sure that they were still alone. Turning back to him she spoke quietly, "I'm going to go and finish watching the game with Ginny. I will come to the library afterwards as long as you stop saying things that make me want to hex your pompous face."

Draco's glare grew fiercer, "And what should I do in the mean-time Granger?"

"I don't know," Hermione turned away from him, "why don't you build a better mouse trap?"



The euphoria over winning the game hadn't even begun to ebb in the Gryffindor tower when Hermione gathered up her books and headed to the library. After an hour more of play Harry had finally made the fateful dive that brought almost everyone to their feet in horror only to have him pull up at the last second, Snitch in hand. Harry had turned a brilliant scarlet when he shook hands with Cho and Ginny had been beside herself with fury, much the way that Hermione felt. Malfoy had such nerve. He honestly seemed to think that she would just drop everything when he told her too.

"Hermione? Are you leaving?"

She stopped with her hand on the back of the portrait hole, about to push it open. "Just for a little while, Harry." She said glancing back over her should at her crimson robed friend.

"Malfoy again?" He tried to hide the disapproval in his voice.

"It's not just Malfoy, the books are really vital. They're important to me." Hermione replied, fighting the urge to just dart through the portrait hole and abandon this wretched conversation.

Harry crossed his arms over his chest in a typical Hermione fashion. "And is he important to you as well?"

Hermione blushed and looked at the floor trying hard to find the words that could explain what exactly she felt for Draco. So much of the time she wanted to throw things at him, but then she found that all she wanted was to be near him, to talk to him. "Yes," she whispered finally, "yes I think he is."

Harry started to say something, but whatever his first reaction to this news was, Hermione never found out. Fred and George Weasley appeared through the portrait laden with sweets from the kitchen. A mass of people converged on the entrance and Hermione lost sight of Harry. Deciding that now would be the best opportunity to go, she turned and pushed her way through the crowd and out into the hall.

Through the arched windows that she passed, Hermione could see twinkling stars. She didn't really know the exact location of Hogwarts but Hermione knew that it had to be some place high. The stars never seemed so close to her windows at home. But here, sometimes Hermione thought that if she leaned just a little farther out, and stretched her hand just a little more, then she could pluck one right from the sky. Not that Hermione was often taken with such fanciful ideas of pulling stars out of the open sky. But it was hard not to on a night like tonight. The icy cold wind blew through the Forbidden Forest in the distance, ruffling the heads of the ancient trees. Snow lay soft on the ground and only served to reflect the stars own light back upon them. Hermione pulled her cloak tighter around her and continued to the library.

There were a few students still lingering amongst the looming stacks of books and towering cases. But no one seemed particularly interested in Hermione as she made her way dutifully to the deserted back and up the small spiral staircase. In fact, as she made her way quietly down the narrow walkway that led to their room, the few remaining students had made their way to Madame Pince near the door.

Hermione paused with her hand on the old copper knob and took a deep breath. The hushed voices from below faded as the great door swung shut and Hermione pulled open the door.

She didn't hear the incantation as it finished, but the spell that sent her flying backwards into the railing was certainly hard to miss. Hermione lay dazed for several moments; the brilliant light that had seemed to hit her was still glinting in her eyes. She tried shaking her head to clear it but found that this only served to make her dizzy.

"Hermione?" A worried voice could be heard through the searing light. "Hermione are you all right?"

Hermione blinked her eyes and found that as the light faded she could make out Draco's worried face. "What did you do?"

"Are you all right, can you stand? What the bloody hell are you doing opening doors like that!" Draco's face was paler than usual.

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut trying to block out the light that still seemed to glow around her. There was a sharp pain in her head and Hermione felt woozy. "What were you doing?" She asked him through gritted teeth.

"I got tired of waiting for you so I decided to try out some of the spells that I told you about earlier." Draco was kneeling besides her helping her to stand.

"So you decided to try them out on me?" She snapped and felt her forehead where a cut was sending a trickle of blood down her cheek.

"Well you're being too ill-tempered to be badly hurt." Draco said as he finally helped her to stand.

Hermione was only able to stand on her own for a moment before she swooned. Draco caught her and easily scooped her up into his arms.

"That's it, I'm taking you to the hospital wing." Draco said firmly as he cradled her.

"I don't need to go the hospital wing," Hermione said just as firmly while trying unsuccessfully to get out of his embrace.

"Of course you don't, you can never walk on your own. And look, you always go around bleeding, Gryffindor tradition." Draco refused to let her go.

"Oh shut up Malfoy." Hermione muttered crossly.



"I think it was some type of stunning charm." Draco told her as he stared up at the ceiling.

Hermione glanced over at him from where she was laying. "Well it worked very well considering that you'd never practiced it before."

"I am sorry about that almost knocking you unconscious bit. But I thought that spell was only going to make light, like the lumos spell. How was I to know that it was going to do something nasty, or that you were going to open the door," Draco sat up and glanced over at her bed.

Hermione pulled the blanket up a little bit higher, feeling strangely revealing in her hospital gown. "I know you didn't do it on purpose. I think that from now on though, when we test out spells, we should do it outside of the school."

Draco slid off of the bed that he had perched himself on and came to her. "Really? You still want to try them even after what happened? It could get worse you know. I thought that I had a pretty accurate translation for what the intended results would be."

"Well," she mused softly, "It did make light."

"That's true," Draco agreed.

Hermione glanced at the door of Madame Pomfrey's office. Hermione would be fine of course. They had told her that Hermione had taken a bit of a fall. They weren't sure if she had believed them or not, but the school nurse always seemed more concerned with the wounds instead of the accidents that caused them.

Draco settled himself on the edge of her bed and grinned down at her. It was an expression that Hermione often found very unsettling. She tried to scoot farther back but there was no more room on the small bed.

"Madame Pomfrey is going to be very angry if she finds out that you're still here." Hermione said quickly, aware of the darkness in the room and the thin hospital gown that she was wearing.

"That busy-body of a nurse doesn't worry me. And anyway, it's nearly impossible to hear through those walls in her office. In my third year Crabbe and I jinxed some bedpans to follow that little idiot Gryffindor, the one with the camera, all around the room. They were clanging off walls, knocking over cabinets, and Madame Pomfrey never heard any of it. Really very funny." Draco laughed.

Hermione glared at him with disapproval but she couldn't really get mad. Not that she would ever admit it to anyone, especially not Draco, but there were times when she had been tempted to hex Colin herself. He was always running around, getting in the way, taking pictures of Harry. Once he even knocked a whole vial Lavender's violet ink over her Charms homework.

Raising a hand, she gently touched the slight lump on her forehead. Madame Pomfrey and fixed the cut right away, and all in all, Hermione felt okay. She didn't think that it was really necessary for her to stay in the hospital wing overnight, but the nurse had insisted. The room was empty save Hermione and Draco, who was looking at her in that way that always made her knees feel weak.

"Draco," Hermione began but stopped as he leaned down to kiss her. His hand gently cupped her face. It amazed her often he could be gentle. Her breathing began to quicken and Draco leaned closer to her, his other hand trailing down to find hers. His fingertips leaving a path of goose bumps on her arm before his hand closed over her own.

"Get away from her!"

The yell was followed almost immediately by a red-haired blur that knocked Draco to the ground. Hermione stared in horror as Ron punched Draco squarely on the chin.

"Ron stop it!" She cried struggling to disentangle herself form the hospital blanket.

Ron took no notice of Hermione, however, he continued to pummel Draco who seemed too stunned to really do anything about it other than struggle to get out from under the furious Weasley.

"Ron!," Hermione slid from the bed and grabbed his arm before he could strike again. "Ron stop it!"

"Stop?" Ron paused and looked at Hermione, confused, "but he was attacking you!"

Hermione blushed crimson and noticed Harry standing by the foot of her bed, a guarded expression on his face. "No Ron, he wasn't hurting me." She managed to whisper through a mouth that had gone completely dry.

"What are you saying?" Ron asked quietly, torn between looking furious and appalled.

"I...I..." Hermione looked past Ron to Draco. He was watching her intently, oblivious to the blood trickling down from his lip.

A light suddenly cut across the darkness of the hospital room. Madame Pomfrey stood illuminated in the door of her office. A look of abject fury on her face. "What in the world is going on here? Fighting? Fighting in not allowed in school!"

Ron stepped back from Draco and Hermione noticed that he was limping.

"Ms. Granger, back onto your bed. And the three of you, detention." None of the boys argued, the nurse looked like she could spit nails. "You, what's wrong with your leg?" She asked Ron.

"I twisted my ankle, showing Dean how I blocked that quaffle earlier today." Ron mumbled.

"Fine, in my office. You," she turned on Draco, "That's a nasty cut on your lip, over there, that room, wait for me."

Draco glanced at Hermione and then entered the small room that appeared to be used mostly for storing supplies.

"And Mr. Potter, of course, it wouldn't be the hospital wing without a visit from you. Well, what's wrong?" Madame Pomfrey asked sharply.

"Nothing, I just helped Ron get here." Harry told her.

The nurse nodded and then pointed at the door, "Out," was all she said and Harry turned and quickly left the room. The nurse glared at Hermione and then pulled the curtains closed around her bed.

Hermione lay staring up at the ceiling wishing that she would never have to leave the hospital wing. What were Ron and Harry going to say to her tomorrow? And worse, what about Draco? She had seen the way that he had reacted to Pansy seeing them together in the hall, and that had been innocent. But this? It was a very long time before Hermione found herself able to sleep.