And yes, I know there are lots of stories about Hermione and Draco, but I like to write my own and
be able to imagine every little bit…don’t know about you! Ah well, enjoy and review is all I ask :o)

Another thing-I called this the Ice Dragon and the Fiery Queen because Hermione is like a queen in so
many ways, and can be fiery…plus there was a Queen Hermione in Shakespeare somewhere! And the
Ice Dragon…well, just says it all about our Draco, doesn’t it?!!!

The Ice Dragon and the Fiery Queen

by Silver Willow
 
 

Chapter 1
Enter the Dragon
 

Hermione rushed down the corridor, strangely late for Potions. She turned the corner hurriedly
and tripped over Peeves, who had stuck his pointed foot out into the corridor in the hope that
someone would trip over it. He cackled heartlessly as Hermione stumbled, her books flying
onto the floor.

"Stupid Peeves," grumbled Hermione, picking up her books. She was startled to see a pair of
shoes next to where she was bent down. She looked up to see none other than…

"Malfoy!" she spat. "What are you doing here? Come to have a laugh at my expense?"

"I have to get my kicks somewhere, Granger," he smirked. "Why don’t I help you with your
books…I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be late for Potions."

"Thank you," replied Hermione, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "How charitable you are."
She continued to pick up her books, then looked up at him again. "And aren’t you supposed
to be in Potions with me? Are you up to no good again, Malfoy?"

"Well, if I was, I wouldn’t tell you, Granger," he shot back, coolly. He picked up two of her
books and handed them to her. "There you go…you can’t say I never do anything for you."

"Thank you, Malfoy," retorted Hermione. "The next time I drop my books, I’ll expect you to
be there."

"Think nothing of it, Hermione," he said, and stalked off in the direction of the dungeons.
Hermione clicked in exasperation and heaved her bag onto her shoulder. Walking quickly
towards the dungeons, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"He…he called me Hermione…" she whispered. A woman in a long white dress peered at
her from a portrait.

"That’s right, dear," said the woman. Hermione wheeled round in astonishment. "Such a
gentleman, that Draco Malfoy."

Hermione shook her head in puzzlement and carried on walking to Potions.
 
 

Ron pulled his books out of his bag and threw them on the table. He noticed that Snape l
ooked particularly mutinous today, for no apparent reason. He hoped that Snape wouldn’t
vent this anger on Hermione when she came into the lesson.

How wrong he was.

"Eight minutes late, Miss Granger," he sneered. "Eight, long, vitally important minutes of my
lesson. What did you have to do that was so much more important than missing eight minutes
of my lesson?"

"I said I was sorry," said Hermione, looking flustered as she took her place between Ron
and Harry.

"Sorry isn’t good enough, Miss Granger," hissed Snape. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for
your lateness and a further ten for your cheek."

The Gryffindors gasped.

"You can’t do that!" shouted Dean Thomas, and Seamus nodded vigorously in agreement.

"How dare you presume to tell me what I can and can’t do, Thomas!" shrieked Snape, his
black eyes flashing angrily. "Ten more points from Gryffindor, and if I hear another outburst
I will make it ten more! Do I make myself clear?"

The Gryffindors mumbled half-heartedly and resigned themselves to poring over their books,
studying the potion they were to make that lesson.

Hermione glanced across the classroom, and caught the eye of Draco Malfoy. She could
have sworn that in his cold, steely eyes, there was a glimpse of sympathy. No there isn’t,
Hermione, she told herself sternly. Draco Malfoy is still the same arrogant idiot you’ve
known since you were a first year. He hates you and always will do.

But Hermione could not ignore the feeling that had flashed through her when Draco’s hand
had brushed hers as he had picked a book up. It had sent shivers through every nerve in her
body, made her tingle as she reminded herself of it. She had always thought he would be
cold to touch, but his hand had felt pleasantly warm against hers. She began to wonder idly
what it would be like to run her fingers through Draco’s silvery hair, to gaze into those almost
ice blue eyes…

She shook her head slightly as if waking herself from a dream. She glanced once more
towards Draco, who was reading his Potions book. His silver blond hair flopped enticingly
over his smooth brow, and his lips pursed slightly as he concentrated on his work. She gave
herself another stern reminder. Stop it, Hermione, she told herself. You won’t ever get him;
he’s too good for you.

She didn’t ever count on Draco Malfoy feeling the same way.
 
 

Draco was reading down the page of his book, grimacing inwardly. He hated brewing
Invisibility Potions. They could so easily go wrong, if the ingredients were added in the wrong
order. But however much Draco messed up a potion, it always seemed to work. Draco
supposed this must be Snape performing some kind of magic to rectify the mistakes. Snape
feared Lucius Malfoy, and Draco assumed it was this fear that gave him such good marks
in Potions. He grinned to himself and carried on down the ingredients list, trying hard to
concentrate.

There was something else that was stopping his concentration, however. He didn’t even know
why he was bothered about her.

Why should he be bothered about Hermione Granger?

Draco had felt a spark of chemistry between them when he had helped her pick up her books
before the lesson. He had taken a fleeting look at her face as she bent down, to stare at the deep
brown eyes, the perfect proportions of her face, the faint freckles on her nose. They contrasted
well with her pale porcelain skin and her glossy chestnut hair. Draco had always seen Hermione
as ‘that ugly Mudblood’ in previous years, but he had to admit that Hermione Granger was not
the same girl he had known in the first few years at Hogwarts. Her nose had lengthened slightly,
giving her a graceful look. Her naturally white teeth had straightened due to the Shrinking Potion
Madam Pomfrey had given her in their fourth year. Draco could not help but notice that Hermione
had womanly curves that she had not had before. He blushed slightly at the thought, and carried
on with his work, snatching as many glances of Hermione as he dared.

The class began to move around as they got their cauldrons and potion ingredients out. Harry
and Ron stood up and got their cauldrons out. Hermione was reading her Potions book with a
glazed look in her eyes.

"Hermione?" asked Ron, tapping her shoulder. "Earth calling Hermione?"

Hermione sat up suddenly. "What?"

"We’ve got to make the potion now," said Ron, grimacing. "Sorry to disturb you from your
sleep," he added, grinning. Hermione slapped him good-naturedly and got up. As she got up,
she was facing the Slytherins, and she looked over towards them. She gave an involuntary
start as she saw Malfoy glance into her eyes. It was like a sudden flash, almost like two
opposite, volatile substances meeting for the first time, ready to cause an explosion. She
looked away hurriedly, feeling her cheeks blush a furious red, and began to rummage around
for Potions ingredients.

Meanwhile, Snape had taken to bullying Neville Longbottom again, something which he took
great pleasure in doing. It took the dullness out of Snape’s mundane, monotonous lessons.
Neville hated Potions for this reason; he was cowering behind his cauldron as it was.

"Longbottom, are you a complete nincompoop?" he barked. "Most normal people would
know that you never add a Shrivelfig to undiluted Bubotuber pus! You dilute the pus with
five drops of water. But then again, an idiot like you would not realise that."

The Gryffindors all shouted at Snape at once, and Ron had to hold Seamus back from
Snape, otherwise Seamus might well have given Snape an injury.

"Silence!" he yelled, his black eyes glinting furiously. "I will not be talked to like that! That
will be fifty points from Gryffindor! You should think yourselves lucky it isn’t more!"

Seamus sat down, his cheeks a furious red and his fists balled angrily.

"Why is he being so unfair?" growled Ron, pounding his beetles to a fine black dust. He dug
the pestle harder into the powder, until Harry had to take it off him for fear he would bore a
hole through the mortar. "Neville can’t help being bad at Potions, and I mean, Snape is strict.
I feel really sorry for Neville."

Harry and Hermione glanced over at Neville, who was being consoled by Parvati Patil and
Lavender Brown. His round face was red with embarrassment, and he was trying to hide
himself as much as he could.

"Poor Neville," said Hermione, sympathetically. "I had a feeling Snape was going to shout
at him." She went back to shredding her Flutterby leaves into her scales, leaving Harry to
shrug in agreement.

By the end of the lesson, Snape had shouted at Neville a further five times ("Silly boy, I
suppose you didn’t think to add the ginger roots before adding the beetles?") and Hermione
was one of the only ones in the class to perfect the Invisibility Potion. But even then Snape
was not happy.

"Miss Granger, the potion is meant to be an iridescent lilac," he snarled. "Yours is more like
an iridescent pink."

Hermione didn’t mind. At least Snape could not say she had done anything drastically wrong.
It was lucky for her that she was clever at Potions.

"Clean your things up," barked Snape, from the front of the class. "The lesson is nearly over,
and we shall be testing these potions out, to see if they are indeed, the correct potion."

Neville whimpered and began to stir his potion feverishly. It seemed the right colour, thanks
to Parvati’s help.

The class cleared their things away, having bottled their potions for testing first. Hermione
carried her small cauldron, pestle and mortar and several small vials to the sink and began
to wash them under the stream of water that gushed from the gargoyle’s mouth. Somebody
bumped into her, and as she wheeled around to see who it was, she dropped a vial into
the sink.

"Frightfully sorry," came the smooth drawl of Draco Malfoy. "Awfully clumsy today, aren’t
we Granger?"

"Shut up," snarled Hermione. "That was your fault, Malfoy. Like it was probably your fault
that I dropped my books before this lesson."

"Don’t blame the actions of a pilfering poltergeist on me, Granger," retorted Malfoy.

"What are you going to do about it, ferret features?"

Malfoy went pink. "Don’t you hurl names at me, you dirty Mudblood," he spat.

SLAP!

Hermione had slapped Malfoy hard across the face, and was shaking.

"Don’t you ever call me that again," she hissed. "Watch yourself, Malfoy."

"As long as you keep that ugly head of yours down," he snapped, walking away.
Hermione scowled after his retreating back, and began to wash her cauldron out rather
vigorously, splashing Harry who had just come to the sink to wash his hands.

"Watch it, Hermione!" said Harry, wiping water off his face. "There’s more water out of
the sink than there is in it!"

Hermione smiled weakly. She didn’t want to tell Harry what Malfoy had just said to her.

"Are you okay?" he continued. "You look flustered."

"Oh, it’s nothing," she lied. "You can leave without me if you want, I’ll meet you in the
common room."

"Well okay," replied Harry, not sounding too sure. "Mind you, me and Ron have to do
Divination homework."

"Should have given it up like me then," said Hermione brightly. Harry grimaced.

"Well bully for you," he said, grinning. "We’ll meet you in the common room then."

"Yeah, see you," called Hermione, doing the last of her washing up. She carried her cauldron
over to the cupboard in the corner, which was where students left their cauldrons after each
lesson.

Snape had luckily forgotten about testing the Invisibility Potions, seeing as how "Mr Malfoy
brewed his potion to perfection." Well, he would say that, thought Hermione, as she pocketed
the vial of iridescent fluid. She bent down to get her bag to put her books away, and also to
rescue it from the feet of Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls.

"Too ashamed to show your face, Granger?" sneered Pansy. "Not teacher’s pet anymore?"

"Oh, that’s really clever, that is," said Hermione sarcastically. "Really mature." She walked off,
leaving Pansy and her gang to snicker after her. As she strode down the corridor, she noticed a
small piece of crumpled parchment and read through it. It was scrawled hastily, but the writing
was still small and neat, and written in sky blue ink. It read:

Hermione,

I’ve never really had the guts to tell you this before. I really like you and think I’m falling
for you.

The only thing is, my father and everyone would kill me if they knew I liked you, as I am in
Slytherin, and it wouldn’t be deemed appropriate for us to be together.

Please meet me at the Astronomy Tower at midnight tonight. I swear I won’t try anything
and I swear I’m not lying to you.

Please don’t tell anybody where you are going tonight if you do decide to come and meet me.

Love always,

?

Hermione stared in disbelief at the parchment. Who on earth would like her? And in Slytherin?
She stared at the crowd of Slytherins that had just left Potions and were walking noisily towards
their common room, wondering who it could be. Surely not Derrick? And certainly not Bole.
So who could it be then? Surely not…it couldn’t be…Malfoy, could it?

Stop fantasising, Hermione, she told herself angrily. Malfoy does not like you and you know it.
Goodness knows where you got that silly idea from, girl!

She stalked off to the Gryffindor common room, still brandishing the parchment and wondering
who could have sent it.

If she had bothered to look around the next corner as she rushed off, she would have seen who
sent the letter. His eyes glittered in delight as he watched Hermione read the letter and smile
slightly. He grinned to himself and rushed back in the direction of the Slytherin common room.
 
 
 

A/N: Well, that was Chapter 1, folks! So what do you reckon then? Do you think it actually is Draco who
has sent the letter, or is it somebody else? Hmmm…the mind boggles! Well, please R/R, I love to get reviews!
 

Chapter 2