How Did This Happen?!

Trouble

Hermione sighed to herself, 'Why didn't he kiss me, I didn't do anything wrong did I? Did I want him to kiss me? I think I did but I don't know why. This is so wrong. Does he know how I'm feeling about him?'

Meanwhile...

'Does she know how I'm feeling about her? Does she know that I was dreaming of her, not Pansy? She couldn't know anything, could she? I'm not that obvious. Why didn't she push me away?'

'I'm so confused.' They both thought simultaneously.

They walked in silence thinking about each other most of the morning. Hermione of course having the advantage of being behind him, so he wouldn't notice that she kept staring at him, wondering if Malfoy could be any different, once you got to know him.

'But did she know him really? A few hours and a stressful situation wasn't the best judge of character. Perhaps it was some strange form of Stockholm Syndrome, but without the kidnapping?'

"Ouch, what the heck is that?"

"Draco, move! Get out of the way! Look out for that vine!" Hermione yelled as Draco was attacked.

It shot out suddenly and snared him around the ankle, dragging him into the forest. Hermione ran over, grabbed him by his left arm, and kept pulling as hard as she could to keep him there – but it wasn't quite working the way she had hoped.

The vine maintained the tug o' war, they had to do something before he was dragged away to who knows where. Draco drew his wand and stabbed it through the vine, his wand recognized his distress and shot burning sparks into the captor. The vicious plant let go, and they heard a loud screeching noise from the distance.

Draco and Hermione both stood and ran together, hiding behind a huge tree. They were both panting, desperate to catch their breath.

"Oh my goodness! Draco, you're bleeding."

She pointed to the dark, faintly copper-scented stain on his shoulder; from where he had landed when the vine pulled him over.

"Okay, take your robe off and let me see."

"No I'm alright, really, I'll be fine."

Hermione shot him an odd look then yelled at him, "Take it off! Or I swear I'll curse you when we get back to school!"

He reluctantly took off his robe. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt that cast tempting shadows over his upper body muscles. His stomach was taught and he had muscular arms. He also wore perfectly tailored blue jeans, and below his black leather belt was his... his... long muscular legs.

Hermione tried to look at the cut through the slice in his shirt, which was slowly soaking with blood; it was hard to tell how deep the wound went, as leaf litter and soil stuck to it. It had to be cleaned before she could make any form of judgment on it.

"Well, take your shirt off and let me take a proper look at that cut. It needs cleaning. Let me try to fix it for you."

He pulled his black shirt up over his head. He tossed it next to them and waited for Hermione to come and poke at his injured shoulder. She stared at him in amazement with her mouth hung open like a small snake eating a fat rabbit.

She quickly realized this and closed her mouth, crawling over and sitting behind him with her legs crossed Indian style.

She leaned over to try and take a good look at the cut but she was having difficulties with balancing on her legs the way they were and looking at his shoulder.

"You can get closer if you need to, I won't bite too hard I promise." Draco laughed.
She thought 'Okay but you're the one that decided it, you remember that.'