Chapter 15

When Hermione woke up the next morning she had a good feeling, but she had no idea why. She took a deep breath in before rolling out of bed. She raised her eyebrows when she heard a knock on her door. 'Yes?' 'Oh, you've already woken up.' Draco said, after having opened the door. 'Just now, yes.' Hermione smiled. 'Okay, I'll wait in the common room.' Draco said and closed the door again. Hermione quickly took a shower and got dressed before meeting Draco in the common room, where he had been waiting for her. 'Ready?' he asked, offering her a small smile. Hermione nodded and followed him out of the common room and down the stairs towards the Great Hall. 'Don't you think it's time to tell me what you wanted to tell me?' she asked. 'No, it's not the right time.' Draco answered, shaking his head. 'Ah come on, Draco. Apparently it was the right time yesterday morning! Why not now?' 'Because, I want to wait for the right moment.' Draco said, looking sideways at her. 'I think this is the perfect moment.' 'I don't think so.' 'Just tell me.' 'Why do you want to know so badly?' 'Because you sounded really serious.' Draco rolled his eyes at her before looking up. 'Hey Blaise!' 'Hey mate, good morning.' Blaise grinned, walking up to them. 'Good morning.' Hermione said. 'We're not finished talking about this.' she said as they entered the Great Hall. 'Yes we are.' Draco called after her. 'Do I want to know what this is about?' Blaise asked. 'No.' Draco answered. 'Draco's acting rather childish.' Hermione called over her shoulder as she walked towards the Gryffindor table. 'No surprise there.' Blaise winked, only to receive a shove between the ribs from Draco a second later. 'Good morning.' Hermione smiled, sitting down opposite Ginny and Harry. 'Morning.' 'You're cheerful.' Harry commented. 'Am I?' 'Did something happen?' Ginny grinned. 'Like what?' 'I don't know, perhaps it has something to do with Malfoy over there.' 'No.' she quickly answered, feeling blood rush up to her cheeks. Ginny chuckled, noticing the light red shade that had started to appear on Hermione's cheeks. 'What class do we have first?' Hermione asked, quickly wanting to change the subject. 'Like you don't know.' Harry said. 'DADA.' Ginny answered. Hermione nodded, taking a bite of her toast. After breakfast Hermione quickly headed to the Head Dormitory to fetch her books before class started, but just as she walked back out of the common room she almost bumped into Draco. 'Sorry.' she said, looking up at him. 'That's alright, could you wait for me? So we can walk to class together.' Draco said, hurrying into the common room.

There were only a few more weeks left before the students were allowed to go home to celebrate Christmas with their families. Hermione had been thinking about what she would get her friends for Christmas that year, but hadn't been able to come up with something yet. She figured she'd look in Hogsmeade the next Hogsmeade weekend for presents. Hermione sat down in one of the armchairs after dinner had finished and tried to warm up in front of the fire. 'Good evening.' Draco said, slightly startling Hermione, snapping her back to reality. 'Hey.' 'How was your day?' Draco asked, sitting down in the other chair. 'It was alright, what about yours?' 'Same.' 'What are you going to do during Christmas?' 'I don't know.' Draco shrugged. 'Are you staying at Hogwarts during the holiday?' 'No, I'm going to the Burrow, what about you?' 'I'm going home.' Draco answered. 'Won't it be awkward, spending the holidays with the Weasley's?' 'Why would it be?' 'Because you just broke up with Weasley?' 'I'm guessing Ron will let them know before we get there, but I'm sure it'll be alright.' Hermione shrugged. 'I mean we've been friends as long as we've known each other, apart from the past few months when we had some kind of relationship.' Hermione looked up at the clock on the wall before getting up from her chair. 'Would you like to see, and perhaps do, something fun?' Hermione asked. 'Uhm- sure.' Draco answered, looking up at Hermione, who offered him her hand. 'Come on then, it has already begun.' Hermione said as Draco took her hand and she pulled him after her. 'Where are we going?' Draco asked. 'Just wait and see for yourself.' Hermione grinned. They walked out of the castle and into the snow where all the Gryffindor students were busying themselves with making snowballs and throwing them at each other. But they all stopped what they were doing when they saw Hermione and Draco, some raising their eyebrows at the two of them. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows before she slightly widened her eyes when she noticed she was still holding Draco's hand, which she quickly, after realising, let go. All of a sudden Hermione was hit by a snowball on her arm. She turned to look to her left to see where it came from and saw Harry not even trying to keep himself from laughing. Hermione shook her head with a grin and ducked to grab a handful of snow, formed it into a snowball and threw it at Harry, hitting him against the head. 'Score!' Hermione laughed. The other students started to throw snow at each other again after this, but no one dared to throw a snowball at Draco for some reason, Hermione on the other hand wasn't going to give the smirking Draco such an easy time. She grabbed some snow, formed a ball out of it and threw it at the back of Draco's head. Draco whipped his head around, trying to find the person who caused the cold snow to fall into the back of his sweater. His eyes landed on Hermione, a mischievous smirk appearing on his face as he bowed down and grabbed a handful of snow. Hermione wanted to duck before he could hit her but it was already too late. Draco had thrown the snowball at her and hit her shoulder. Hermione laughed, grabbing some snow, but before she could throw it, she was hit against the back of her head. 'Who did that?' she demanded, turning around. 'Harry!' Ron called. 'I'm sure it was.' Hermione laughed, throwing the snowball ,she had made to throw at Draco, at Ron and hitting the side of his face. After about an hour everyone's clothes were completely soaked and they called it a day. 'That was so much fun!' Hermione chuckled as Draco and herself made their way up the stairs towards their common room. Draco laughed and nodded. 'It sure was.' he said before telling Snape the password and letting Hermione enter the common room first. A shiver ran down Hermione's spine and she couldn't wait to get rid of the wet clothes and take a nice hot shower. 'I'm going to take a shower.' Draco announced. 'No! I'm want to go first.' Hermione said. Draco shook his head at her. 'No, you're going to wait until I'm done.' Draco told her. 'What happened to "ladies first"?' 'I just let you enter the common room first.' Draco grinned. 'So I'm going first and if you can't wait to take a shower you can always join me.' 'Okay.' Hermione shrugged. 'Excuse me?' Draco asked startled. 'Alright, I'll join you.' 'Alright, alright, you can go first.' Draco told her. Hermione grinned. 'Thank you.' she called over her shoulder, walking up to her room. She quickly grabbed her pyjama's and clean underwear before walking into the bathroom and locking both doors. She took as quick a shower as she could, so that Draco wouldn't have to wait too long in his cold wet clothes, before stepping out from under the nice, warm water and pulling her pyjama's on. She made her way into the common room and let herself fall back in the armchair in front of the fire. 'Your turn.' she said. Draco looked up from his book and stared at her for a moment, making Hermione turn her head to meet his gaze. 'What?' 'You've got some mud on your jaw.' he notes. 'Where?' Hermione asked. 'Here.' he said, moving his hand to her jaw. His palm touched her neck as he started to wipe the mud on her jaw away with his thumb. A warm sensation travelled from Hermione's neck down her body at the touch of their skins and she felt her cheeks starting to flush. Draco pulled away and nodded. 'There you go.' 'Thanks.' Hermione muttered. Draco nodded again and pushed himself out of the armchair. 'Oh and Hermione?' 'Yes?' 'We still have to make our rounds.' he remarked, looking down at her pyjama's. 'Oh for Merlin's sake.' Hermione muttered, pushing herself out of her armchair and making her way back to her room.

'Will you tell me the thing you wanted to tell me before the holiday?' Hermione asked, trying to get it out of Draco, which hadn't resulted in much success the few times she asked about it during their rounds. 'I don't know.' Draco shrugged. 'Are you ever going to stop asking about it?' 'Not before you tell me.' Hermione grinned. Draco slowly shook his head, trying to keep himself from laughing. 'I'm off to bed.' Hermione announced. 'Alright, good night.' 'Good night.' Hermione nodded, walking towards her bedroom and looking over her shoulder one last time, only to see Draco gaze at her. She offered him a small smile before she closed the door behind her.