The Music Box

Several days passed and Hermione was recovering from her missed subjects faster than she’d ever imagined. Draco was not only helping her, he was nicer than she ever thought and he listened to her every word. Their breaks between the studies were becoming bigger because they couldn’t stop talking about their ordinary lives. Malfoy’s expression when he heard about Muggle stuff was priceless. Hermione never thought he would be so interested in hearing her so attentively.

Hermione never thought she could call Draco Malfoy a “friend”. The only place that they met was in the empty classroom, besides that they avoided each other like before. Though when Harry and Ron were entertained talking bad about Malfoy, she made deaf ears.

It was a usual winter day outside, rain blustered against the windows, the cold made every centimetre of their skin shiver. It was a Hogsmeade weekend and most of the students, even with the freezing cold, were in the village. But not Hermione and Draco.

They were studying like always. Draco wanted to leave with his friends but Hermione asked him not to since they need to study again. Draco lowered his head and stayed silent for a bit. He then lifted his head and a smile crossed his mouth, his silver eyes shining and he nodded.

While in her room, throwing some potion notes to the school bag, Hermione wondered what that glare in Draco’s eyes. She looked at herself in the mirror and let out a sigh. She continued to notice all her flaws, especially her wild hair. “How can ever boys like me? I’m so not pretty. I wished I’d asked Krum what he liked about me.”

Looking at her trunk she noticed all her clothes were a little… dorky. Everything was so simple in her. Hermione liked it though, but could boys like it too? She decided to pick a magic bottle of a hair product. She noticed that with it, her hair was not so messy; it had its original curves, but it looked smoother and shined a lot more.

She picked up her favourite trousers and a brown blouse which, if she opened her upper button, revealed some cleavage. But she decided it was too much for her, so she left her breasts perfectly covered. Since it was cold, she wore her blazer (which she had never tried before at Hogwarts).

She left the room with her hand bag in one shoulder, and travelled through the almost empty corridors, to the meeting of Draco Malfoy.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As she entered the empty classroom, she found the person she was expecting. She closed the door with her wand and turned her head to him. To her surprise, he was looking at her up and down slowly with his eyes. He lifted an eyebrow and continued to flick his notes. Shyly she approached his table (what was she thinking dressing like that?) and sat next to him smiling. His expression was different from before. He was quite uncomfortable with her.

As their session began, Hermione conjured some fires around them making them warm. At that time Malfoy looked in her eyes so intensely that the sudden heat in the room couldn’t be only because of the fire.

Today they were studying Potions. Draco was criticizing Snape for not giving her all the necessary annotations which made her blush a little. She followed his words and for several moments the studies were forgotten and all they could talk about Snape, and his injustices. Surely Draco had nothing to complain about this since Snape always favoured him, but strangely he was agreeing with her in every point.

Like never before, Draco was being so kind to her. When they were reaching for a quill simultaneously, their hands touched and Hermione felt herself blush. She took her hand and quickly grabbed another quill from her handbag. Continuously avoiding Malfoy’s staring eyes.

After a good while Draco was the one to talk. “I think we should take a break, Hermione,” he said in a low voice.

She threw a quick glance at him and put the quill back in the ink bottle. She was indeed a little tired. She got up and approached a window. The rain was still falling outside and she could see her reflex in the glass. A flush of blond hair stood behind her with a smile. “What are you thinking?” he asked her innocently.

“Nothing in particular.” She was lying. She now was thinking how that shirt suited him so well. She noticed his small muscles, but still prominent. Fortunately he was behind her, so that he couldn’t see her blush. He was till smiling, maybe the years of relationships with the dark arts have made his smile almost looking like a smirk, but she liked it. She knew it was real and that was enough for her.

He stepped forward and played with her hair, following its curves. She closed her eyes to feel his pale skin making contact with hers. However, his hand was no longer in the back of her head; she felt it lowering down to her shoulders and to her hand grabbing it.

Hermione opened her eyes to meet Draco’s face. He lifted his hand and, with a finger, made small circles in her right cheekbone. Hermione felt her heart beating faster as he leaned to her. “You are so beautiful Hermione.” And he pressed his lips against her mouth.

After the initial shock, she kissed him back too, closing her eyes to feel all the waves of heat that were going through her body now. His lips were soft and small, but so were hers so she didn’t mind. Draco was grabbing her waist now, making her closer to him. She crossed her arms around his neck and felt all his warm body pressed against her clothes.

A small wet thing touched her lips, and she opened her mouth a little to let Draco explore it. As their tongues played together in a tender dance, Hermione was letting Draco grab her hips against his, touching her waist under the blouse, enough to make her moan inside his mouth.

He broke the kiss so fast that her breath was still heavy. They looked at each other in horror without knowing what they could say. After several minutes’ Hermione sat in a nearby chair watching Draco’s face in shock. “I think… we’ve made a mistake.” He sounded impenetrable but his hand was shaking. “I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

She froze, her eyes wider. “Yes I knew it; it’s all a game for you, isn’t it? I should have guessed something like that from a… from you!”

“I didn’t say that. We can’t be together that’s just it.” He bit his lips and looked to everywhere but her.

“I guess that’s because of your arrogance isn’t it? You’re so full of yourself you can’t even admit what you feel!”

“Don’t tell me how I should I feel Granger!” he shouted making her shiny eyes dry.

“Oh! Now we’re using surnames are we? I hope you’re pretty pleased yourself for joking around with my face! Bet you’re going to tell all about me to your friends aren’t you? You piece of…”

“Shut up! How dare you to talk to me way? You were the one who caused this you know?”

“Caused what?”

“Coming near me with those clothes… and touching me with your skin.”

“Yeah, go blame all in the hormones.” A tear ran down her cheek and she quickly cleaned it.

“You just don’t understand do you?” He sighed deeply and turned to the door.

“I understand more than you ever will Malfoy!” He hesitated at the door knob, but disappeared two seconds later.