6

Draco clamped his hand over Hermione's mouth as the huge beast leaned his massive head down and sniffed them. They could see rancid, bloody strips of flesh hanging from its razor sharp teeth, and the smell was enough to make them want to retch.

The T-Rex inhaled deeply, making their hair and clothes almost fall from their bodies. It cocked its head to the side, as if debating whether or not they were food.

Hermione whimpered, and Draco pressed his hand firmly over her mouth. That's all he needed was for her to scream again! The dinosaur would devour them in one bite!

It let out a huge snort, almost blowing them over, and then raised its head. As Draco and Hermione watched, it turned and stomped off into the dense foliage as if suddenly frightened.

Hermione collapsed against Draco and struggled to remain calm. "My god! What are we going to do?" she cried. "There is no way we can survive here until that clock comes back!"

"We have no choice, Granger. We're stuck here."

"Where exactly is here, anyway?" she said, looking around at the strange plants.

Draco stroked his chin. "I do believe we're somewhere in North America during the late Cretaceous period."

"And how the heck do you know that?" she said, studying a huge, strange looking, yellow flower.

"What boy hasn't been obsessed with dinosaurs at one time or another?" he said with a faint smile. "I remember reading that fossils of the T-Rex have only been found in North America, and since said 'dino' was only alive during the middle to late Cretaceous period, I just put two and two together..."

"So you know a lot about dinosaur species? Could you identify one if it was right in front of you?"

"Yes. Why?" Draco asked, suddenly aware that it was very quiet.

"Tell me, dinosaur expert, what the hell is that?" she pointed a quivering finger to a spot over his left shoulder.

Her face was very pale, and he was loath to turn around. "Is it big?"

She nodded her head.

Draco closed his eyes, took a deep breath and slowly turned around. "Run, Granger."

Hermione, eyes wide with fear, didn't hesitate for one second. She spun around and fled into the jungle. She heard a deafening roar and felt the ground shake as the monster gave chase.

Her heart was hammering in her chest, and her lungs were burning. She vaguely wondered where Draco was. She was slowing down, unable to run much further, when his hand grabbed hers and he pulled her along.

"Run, god damn it!" he said, almost pulling her arm out of the socket.

The enormous animal was almost upon them. It lunged forward and snapped its jaws, almost catching them.

Draco managed to drag Hermione along faster. Branches slapped him in the face, and small animals scurried out of their path. Just when he thought he could go no further, they broke through the trees and stopped at the edge of a cliff.

Hermione pulled him back before he could tumble over the side. "It's still coming!" she screamed. "What are we going to do?" she asked, looking over the edge at the water and sharp rocks that lay below.

The dinosaur crashed into view and stopped, staring down its prey. Hermione automatically took a step back, sending small pebbles falling over the side of the cliff.

Draco suddenly laughed a high-pitched, amused laugh.

Hermione thought for sure that he had turned to an idiot or something. "What are you laughing at? I see nothing funny!"

He held up his wand. "Why are we running? We have wands!"

Hermione seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. She pulled out her own wand, and together, she and Draco took a few steps forward.

"I think the old P.T. should work, don't you agree?" he asked her, smirking.

She smirked back at him. "On the count of three?"

The dinosaur bolted toward them. Draco and Hermione shouted, "Petrificus Totalis!" and the animal fell over, making the ground quake.

They lowered their wands and walked over to the rigid animal.

Hermione ran her finger over its pebbly skin. "What kind of monster is this?"

"It's a Gorgasaurus. A fierce carnivore. The T-Rex must have sensed it coming, and that's why it left so suddenly."

"It's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!"

"That's saying a lot, Granger! Even more disgusting than a naked Weasley? I KNOW you've seen one of those!"

"Jealous?" she said, winking at him.

"Like I'd want to see that lanky, freckly... Ew. Just the thought of it is making my balls crawl!"

"Well, if it'll make you feel any better, I never saw him naked. We always made love in the dark."

Draco frowned. "You and he made love?" he asked, trying not to let his anger show.

"Many times. In fact, sometimes Harry and Ginny would join us, and we'd have a big orgy," she said, grinning.

Draco grinned. "You had me going there for a second, Granger!" he said, relieved.

"I don't think we should be standing over the body of a petrified man-eating dinosaur discussing my sex life," she said, looking down at the animal.

"Or lack there of..."

Hermione aimed her wand in his face. "And just what do you mean by that?"

Draco held his hands up. "Whoa... I only meant that when it comes to sexual things, you need a few lessons."

"And I suppose you think you're the proper person to instruct me?"

"Haven't I already taught you a thing or two?" he said, suddenly pulling her close. He placed his lips close to hers so that they almost touched.

A fierce, thunderous roar echoed from not too far away, and Hermione jumped, smacking Draco in the bridge of his nose with her forehead.

"Ow, damn it!" he said, eyes watering.

"I don't think we should be standing out here in the open!" She glanced around fearfully.

Draco wiped his nose, checking for blood. "You're right. Let's find somewhere safe, a cave or something."

***

They were carefully walking through the jungle, trying to be as quiet as possible. Every once in a while, a tiny dinosaur would hop along beside them curiously.

"Aw! Isn't he cute?" Hermione said, crouching down to pet a particularly bothersome critter that had been scampering beside them for some time. It snapped at her finger and then ran off.

"Stupid little bugger!" she said, looking at her finger while Draco laughed.

"Serves you right, Granger! I told you not to touch anything!"

"Oh shut up!" she snapped. "It was cute. I didn't think it was vicious!"

Draco raised his eyebrows in amusement. "It's always the cute ones that are vicious. Take me for example..."

Hermione rolled her eyes and pushed past him. "Let's keep moving."

They came to a clearing where a herd of Einiosaurs were drinking from a stream. Further down was a duckbilled dinosaur, which Draco said was called a Corythosaurus. Its babies were squeaking for her attention, and she nuzzled them lovingly.

"Wow! Now this is more like it!" Hermione said. The scene was very peaceful, and they found themselves relaxing a bit. "Shall we sit for a while?"

Draco reached up and plucked a piece of fruit from a tree, sniffed it, took a bite and then offered it to Hermione. "Want some? It tastes sort of like a pear or something." He plopped down next to her, lounging on his side.

"Thanks," she said, taking it and biting into the fruit. "This is quite good." She froze as Draco wiped the juice from her chin with his finger.

"Delicious!" he said, sticking the finger in his mouth and sucking it dry. To his surprise, Hermione leaned in and kissed him. "Even more delicious!" he said as she pulled away. "Not that I'm complaining, but what brought that on?"

Hermione smiled. "The heat must be getting to me." She stretched her legs out in front of her and took off her shoes and socks. "It IS really hot here."

"You're not kidding." He stripped off his shirt and lay back in the grass.

"Granger?"

"What?"

"I have wanted to ask you this for a long time."

Hermione's heart jumped into her throat. "Yes?"

"Do you recall back in sixth year, when that Amortensia potion was brewing, and you said you smelled grass and parchment?"

Hermione could see where this was going, and she started to panic. "Um, I think so."

Draco rolled onto his side. "Now don't play dumb with me. I know you remember. You started to say you smelled something else, but then you stopped, clearly embarrassed."

Hermione picked at the grass. "You want to know what it was, huh?"

"You would not believe how the answer to this question has plagued my mind for all these months!"

Hermione looked over at his smirking face. "Why do you want to know so badly?"

"I just do. Now tell me."

"You'll laugh."

"I will not!"

"Yes, you will!"

"I promise I won't laugh, Granger. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." He looked at her, serious as a heart attack.

"You."

"Me?" he asked, confused. "You mean you smelled me?" He started to laugh, but she shot him a dirty look, and he grinned instead. "How could you know what I smelled like? We had never really been close enough to allow that to happen."

"Okay. This one time, I was headed to the Prefect bathroom to take a bath. I saw you come out, all clean and... and..." She knew she was blushing and wished she could sink into the ground and hide. "I hid around the corner until you were out of sight. I didn't want to have a run in with you."

Draco smiled slyly. "Yes? Go on."

"When I went in, I saw that you had left some things behind."

"What things?" he asked, very intrigued.

"Oh, you know--your bottle of cologne, your black shirt with the little dragon on it..."

"Did you steal my shirt, Granger?"

"No!" she said, offended. "I... I just smelled it a bit, that's all!"

Now, Draco did laugh. He fell onto his back and laughed his ass off, picturing Hermione standing in the Prefects bathroom sniffing his dirty shirt. If only he would have walked in on that!

"I knew you would laugh!" She put her socks and shoes back on and started to stomp away toward the water.

He quickly got to his feet and ran after her, still laughing. "I'm sorry! I really am! It's just so damn funny!"

She wouldn't stop walking, so he jumped in front of her.

"Move."

"No."

Hermione shoved him out of the way and kept walking.

"And just where exactly do you think you're going?" he asked.

"Somewhere far away from you!"

"I wouldn't wander too far, Granger!" He desperately wanted to follow her, but thought she just might kill him if he tried. "If you're not back in twenty minutes, I'm coming after you!" he yelled to her retreating back.

He put his hands in his pockets and watched as she walked away, keeping clear of the thirsty herbivores. "Stupid girl! She's going to get herself eaten!" He looked up at the fruit tree. "Speaking of eating." He plucked a piece of fruit and sat down to wait for her to come back.

Hermione walked, mumbling to herself about how much of an asshole Draco was. She tried to convince herself that she didn't feel one speck of affection for him. "It was only a brief infatuation After all, he is quite good looking and can be charming when he wants to be..." She left the water's edge and made her way into the jungle, intent on finding something better than fruit to eat. "I hate him. I hate him! Who am I kidding? I don't hate him!"

She was so involved with her inner monologue that she failed to notice the pack of very hungry Deinonychus that was stalking her.