Title: Encounters
Author: Sangi
Rating: PG13/T
EDITED: SEPTEMBER 1 2007:

This story is old and really not very good in my eyes. If you want to read it, just keep in mind it was written a very, very long time ago, and that my newer works are practically a billion times bitter. Anyways, enjoy (or try to).

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Their lives aways twirled about each other. There was always the one time they ran into each other every year that had not been recorded – that had never been written down…

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I.

She sighed, rubbing her head in irritation. It was very late and she was at the library, trying to finish up some last-minute work on her Potions Essay. I know – surprised, that Hermione Granger would be doing last-minute work? She was herself. She had just started to pack up her things in her bag when she heard a chilling voice from behind her.

“Granger,” Malfoy sneered at her and as she turned around and saw him she suppressed a groan. “Never knew you were one for staying up so late, considering you seem like the early-to-bed type.” He added, raising his eyebrows, and smirked annoyingly.

She gathered up the rest of her books and materials and had started to walk away. “Leave it, Malfoy.” He grabbed her arm forcefully and quickly turned her around.

“I wasn’t done talking to you, Granger.”

She pulled her arm away. “Live with it.”

II.

She walked out of the curtains surrounding a bed in the infirmary, holding her books closely to her. Her feet made light tapping noises on the floor, and someone was just lucky enough to hear them.

“Granger,” came again the chilling voice, but more of a whisper than the first.

“Malfoy, keep your voice down,” she hissed at him, looking around for signs of anybody else. No one. She was in her alone with him. “What are you doing here?”

He gestured to the bulking bodies of his friends. ”And you?” He spat out venomously.

“Visiting Ginny.” She said meekly, feelingly slightly guilty that the reason Malfoy was here so late was because of them.

“Visiting a Weasley? Oh, I see.” He snickered softly. Hermione was just about to retort when Madame Pomfrey stepped into the room and looked between the two of them. Hermione stepped away and firmly walked out of the infirmary, leaving two very confused people in her wake.

III.

If she could turn back time for some strange reason other than what she needed it for, then it would surely be just to have a chance that this wouldn’t have happened.

“No, Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger, my decision is quite final.”

Malfoy glared at Snape and Hermione looked just like she was going to cry. She walked back to her seat and gathered up her things, and headed through the door. But she was stopped –like before- by an arm reaching out to grab her.

“Looks like we’ll be working together, Granger.” He sneered at her.

She just made a face and didn’t rise to the bait. “Shove it, Malfoy.”

IV.

It somehow ended up where both of them were the last two to leave the dining hall. She bumped into his elbow, not noticing at first, but then looking up to meet his adamant stare. She pulled away from his silvery gaze and started to walk away, but was stopped by his arm, like many times before.

“It seems like the last few times we’ve been meeting, Granger, you’ve told me to leave it, shove it, and you just walked away.” He looked down at her. “Or two out of the three,” he added as an afterthought.

“What are you getting at, Malfoy?”

“Well,” he said evasively, “I was just thinking that we could end things differently from now on.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like this.” He pushed her back against the wall and brought her closer to him, his hand resting on the small of back, and the other still on her arm. He touched his mouth to his, and closed his eyes.

She didn’t pull away.

V.

She sat by the lake and looked at the beautiful moon, fully aware that it was late and she shouldn’t be out here anymore. She signed delicately and leaned back into the grass on the ill she was resting on. Rain started to fall from the party cloudy night sky and she shivered.

She tensed up when she hear a twig snap in the direction of the forest, but loosened a bit after she heard a familiar voice.

“Fancy meeting you, Granger.”

He looked at her shivering, wet body and his automatic sneer softened a bit. He sat down next to her (very close, she noticed). She looked to him for an explanation and he shrugged, saying she looked cold.

She sent him a longing glance, and to her momentary chagrin, he noticed. He leaned forward slightly toward her and she took the final step and connected their lips, and they were rolling, rolling down the side of the hill.

They reached the bottom but she didn’t notice. She opened her mouth, finally, sealing the deal and granting herself to him.

VI.

She was in her cold bed, alone and all by herself. She turned over and over under the covers, not finding one seemingly comfortable position to fall asleep in. Thoughts ran through her mind a mile per minute and she couldn’t help but think that he hadn’t made it.

When she heard the soft padding of his boots on the wooden floor, she threw her covers off and ran to the door, opening it to find a one Draco Malfoy, his arm raised up and about to knock on the once-closed door. She embraced him, smelling his musky scent and mixing it with the smell of her salty tears.

“Oh, are you alright?” She asked him, searching his body.

Laughing gently and leading her back towards the bed, he answered her. “Of course.”

VII.

The debris around them was the ruins of the Order’s Headquarters, but it had not been lost in vain. He was gone and everything was over. They were the only ones there at the time, and their eyes met from across the distance.

In only moments he was holding her in his arms, murmuring sweet words. She pulled away from him just long enough for him to hear her say, “Harry knows.”

But he didn’t care anymore. “It’s alright, it’s okay. It’s all alright.”

She smiled gently up at him and softly touched her nose to his.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

And then he was back to whispering sweet murmurings and she had her face buried in his neck.