Harry Potter 1. Chapter 1: The Mark

_Disclaimer: Oh the joys of owning the world of HP, joys that sadly, only JK will ever experience. In other words, JK owns everything but the plot._

**Chapter 1: The Mark**

Hermione undid the top button of her shirt and pulled it down her shoulder to expose her collar bone. She was standing in front of a mirror in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, trying to tune out Myrtle's insistent babbling. Her efforts were quite successful as she had been doing this since first year.

In the reflection, she saw herself. She also saw the familiar mark of a fern, embedded in her skin. Not any different than when it had first appeared there.

She let out a resigned sigh, and redid her uniform. Myrtle was still talking, asking something about her 'tattoo'. Hermione didn't answer of course, the less any one else knew about her situation, the better.

Myrtle already knew more than Hermione would have liked. Myrtle knew that the situation went a little deeper than just a silly tattoo that Hermione wanted to keep hidden, but she didn't have a clue as to what it really was.

Myrtle was there when Hermione had first discovered the mark, and she had been there every time she went to check on it. Through the years, they had become friends of a sort. They came to each other and sometimes talked for hours on end and it was because of this friendship that Hermione trusted Myrtle to keep her secret. That, and Hermione threatening to never come back if she did, which meant Myrtle would lose the little company that she got. Usually, Hermione would patiently listen to Myrtle as she rambled, but today Hermione wasn't in the mood.

She looked at herself in her reflection again, and repeated the mantra that she had gotten accustomed to. You are strong. You are independent. You have a choice. After her breathing went back to normal, Hermione headed out the door. Try as she might, she couldn't stop her mind going over the passage that she had read so many years ago.

_Destiny's Mark. Destiny's Mark is one of many of the Wizarding World's unexplainable anomalies. When two that are destined for each other meet, the mark appears. The mark is one of the Maidenhair fern. This fern is believed to grow as the bond between the destined couple, grows. The Mark always resides on the persons left side of the body, above their heart. Because of this, the Mark tends to be hidden on a persons body._

_In the past, only two cases of the Maidenhair's Mark have been recorded, and both times, the couples found love in one another, no matter the situation. Some might say that this mark is a blessing, guiding you towards your soul mate, but the Maidenhair Mark also has a downside. If the couple that are destined take too long to unite, then the mark starts to turn into a curse, much like the affects of a Veela pining for a mate that rejects them. Because of this, Destiny's Mark has been considered to some as the Maidenhair's Curse. If, for some reason, they destined couple do not unite with their destined mate after a certain period of time, then the mark will start acting like a poison to the body, making it weak and weaker._

_Marked mates find that they are drawn to each other. At first, they will not be able to explain this attraction. At first, this attraction will be purely physical, but as the destined mates spend more time with each other, they will find that the attraction will go deeper, becoming emotional as well._

_In one of the two recorded Maidenhair Mark cases, one of the spouses passed away in an unexplained accident, and her mate died soon after. Some say that he died from having to carry the burden of the mark's curse combined with the grief of his lost love._

Hermione sighed. She did not want die to a tragic death because she couldn't find her so called 'destined mate'. She had been looking for the seven years that she had been at Hogwarts. She had been able to cross a few people off her list, but had not gotten very far. Though she couldn't be blamed. It wasn't as if she was going to go around the whole school pulling boys shirts down until their shoulders were exposed. No matter how tempted she was to get her search over and done with.

The excitement of having this mark growing on her had worn off during third year, and now she was starting to find the search a bit tedious.

How on earth was she going to find this 'mate' out of all the males at her school. The mark was not age specific, but this year, she was able to confirm that her mate was indeed in her year. She had read that if she was away from her mate for a long period of time, her mark would start to fade, causing it to ache. The mark had been there her first year, and had shown no signs of fading all the way up to seventh year, which meant that her mate had to have been in the same year as her all throughout Hogwarts, otherwise her mark wouldn't have been consistently there the whole time. That meant that about half searching had been for nothing these past years.

She sighed yet again, and made her way down the corridor, headed towards the quidditch pitch. Though she usually wasn't a fan of the brutal sport, she quite excited to watch the Gryffindor vs Slytherin match, though she would still cringe when someone got hurt. Everyone got excited when these two house faced one another, as they were the strongest out of the four, and almost matched in skill level. Gryffindor still tended to better the other house just slightly though.

"Hermione! Over here!" Hermione turned towards the voice and saw Ginny waving at her happily. Hermione made her way over to her friend. Normally Ginny would have been out there on the pitch, but she had hurt her leg playing the last match, and Harry had insisted that she sit this one out.

"Hey Ginny, did I miss anything so far?" She squeezed into the seat next to her friend.

"Not much, the games only really just started to pick up." Ginny grinned, Gryffindor was leading by 20 points already, and that was a lot considering how close Gryffindor and Slytherin games were.

Hermione turned her attention back to the players. Soon, she was engrossed, watching them. Slytherin had just scored, closing up the gap between the points.

Players were whizzing past each other, with speed that Hermione had never managed to accomplish. Harry dodged a bludger, and she winced when she saw the ugly ball whizz past his head. It had been less than a fingers length away from hitting him.

He continued on flying, his eyes searching the entire time for a flash of gold. His cheeks were flushed red, and his hair was whipped back in a way that only wind could accomplish. He looked as if someone had injected him with adrenaline. She knew how hard the Gryffindor quidditch team had been practising for this game, both houses wanting the pride that came with winning over their rivals.

Hermione moved on from Harry, and found herself watching Malfoy. He did not seem on his game today. His movements and reactions were a lot slower than usual. He was also searching for the illusive snitch, but he didn't seem to he be doing it wholeheartedly. Hermione frowned at this, as she knew that in game against Gryffindor, the Slytherin seeker would have usually been giving it his all to win, but she just brushed it off. It wasn't her problem anyway, so she carried on watching the game.

The score was 90 all. They were tied with Slytherin, and this seemed to rally up the crowd even more. Even she started to join in with the enthusiastic shouts that her house was chanting.

Ron saved another goal, just nicking it before it got into one of the hoops. The crowd cheered even louder. He grinned when Gryffindor started chanting his name, he was really on him game today. Another Slytherin tried to score while he was distracted, but Ron saved it again, though Hermione could tell that he had exaggerated it a bit, making it look more dramatic. The crowd however, went wild.

That was when a bludger decided to aim for him. It went hurtling towards him, gaining speed. Ron sat, oblivious. Just as the the ball was about to hit him though, one of the Gryffindor beaters whacked it away from him, in the other direction. Hermione exhaled shakily, this sport was going to be the death of her. The crowd cheered again, though some jeers could be heard from the Slytherin stands.

Hermione watched at the bludger went flying in another direction.

Heading straight for Malfoy.

He was sitting, facing the direction that the bludger was coming in, and had a clear view of it. Anyone with common sense would have immediately tried to get out its way, but it looked like he wasn't going to. His eyes were drooping, and it looked as if he wasn't even focusing on the game anymore.

He caught sight of the bludger too late. His eyes widened and even though he tried to swerve out of its way, he was too late.

Hermione tried to look the other way but it seemed she couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene happening before her. She watched as the bludger collided with his torso. Hard. He got knocked off his broom, and Hermione watching, feeling sick, as she watched his body tumbled down, down, down, and land with a 'thump.' The cheering came to an abrupt halt. Some shrill screams could be heard, the loudest coming from one Pansy Parkinson.

People immediately went to his aid, and the game momentarily paused as they all watched the blonde haired Slytherin get rushed to the Hospital Wing, looking very much dead. His body seemed to be jutting out in an odd direction.

In the end Gryffindor won by default, and they all headed back towards the school. It seemed that the while school was speculating about a certain blonde haired Slytherin, not the actual quidditch game they had just watched. It had been a while since someone had gotten that seriously hurt, especially for Malfoy. Usually, he was too on his game to get hit by a bludger.

"Hey Hermione! We're heading back to the common room to celebrate! You coming?" Ron came up behind her and slung his arm around her shoulder, grinning.

"Uh, sorry Ron. I don't really feel up to it. I might join you guys later." Ron shrugged and went off with the rest Gryffindor, shouting a chant that he had made up for Gryffindor.

She didn't know why she had turned down his offer, but for some reason, she just didn't feel up to it. Hermione walked down the corridor, planning to head to the library. She was musing over something they had learned in Transfiguration, when the suddenly, the walls started to spin around. She clutched her head, and her eyes squeezed shut as a wave of nausea hit her. She felt her knees go weak as her surroundings started to blur.

She stayed conscious long enough to feel herself fall to the cold floor. Her vision went black.

_Depending on the feedback I get, or lack of, will decide if I continue with this._

_So... Uhhh... Review with your thoughts if you want more!_


	2. Chapter 2: The Hospital Wing

_Disclaimer: the only time in my life when I will ever own the wonderful world of HP is when I'm charged with being clinically insane, in other words JK owns everything (including any familiar things you might see) but the plot. Seeing a pattern yet?_

_Sorry that I updated a later than I said I would! I just kept writing and writing, then the chapter got waaay to long so I spilt it into two. _

_Thanks to everyone that favourited or followed this story! A special thanks to the reviewers! I loove reviews! All of you amazing people are the reason I am updating! I also welcome constructive criticism with open arms, it helps me improve my writing, so feel free to point flaws out to save me from embarrassment!_

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**Chapter 2: The Hospital Wing**

Hermione was woken by the sound of obscenely loud clinking. There was a dull throbbing in the back of her head and she felt extremely drowsy, wanting nothing more than to throw the covers over her head to block out the bright light that was assaulting her eyes.

"Ah you're awake miss. Granger."

Her focus shifted to the woman standing by the bed she was lying in. Madam Pomfrey was next placing a greyish coloured liquid on the stand next to bed.

Hermione brought her arms to either side of herself and used them to prop herself up. Her limbs screamed and shook in protest at the movement. The moment she put weight on her arms, they gave out from under her causing Hermione to give out a little yelp in surprise. She fell back on her bed and groaned when jolts of pain went though her. The throbbing in her head intensified as she landed on a pillow that seemed to be as soft as a rock.

"Does you're head hurt Miss. Granger?"

Hermione nodded.

"Must have hit when you fell." Madam Pomfrey stated before she took out her wand and pointed it at her forehead, "Episkey."

Hermione's head suddenly felt very hot, then, as quick as it had come, it went away. She slowly exhaled all when the pain in her head disappeared all together.

It was then that Hermione took in her surroundings. Rows of beds with pristine white sheets with separators between each one. She recognised the Hospital Wing with a start and mentally scolded herself for not noticing something as important as her surroundings, sooner.

"W-what happened?" Her voice sounded groggy from just having woken up.

"It seems, Miss. Granger, that you fainted. A student found you lying unconscious in the corridors and brought you in here." Madam Pomfrey said, her back to her as she busied herself with the viles on her stand again.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"For a day."

"A day! What about my cla-"

"Miss. Granger," Madam Pomfrey said, holding up a finger and stopping her mid-rant. "Don't worry, your teachers have been notified about your condition and have given you time to catch up on the work that you've missed. Classes for today end in around ten minutes, so there's no point of you to be fussed about it. Everything's sorted."

Hermione visibly relaxed, "Thank you."

"I checked your vitals earlier on and it seemed that everything was in perfect health, though you fainted from what seemed like lack of strength. Here, I want you to drink this Invigoration Draught," Madam Pomfrey picked up the vile of greyish liquid and handed it to Hermione, before she could get her grasp on it though, Madam Pomfrey added, "I do however, suggest that you try to sleep more, eat more, and drink plenty of water to make sure this doesn't happen again."

"I will, I guess I was just getting to focused on studying already." She lied, and threw back the Invigoration Draught.

Just then, the doors were swung open with a loud 'bang', nearly causing Hermione to choke on the Draught, and two third years ran it, one carrying an infant in the crook of their arm. Immediately, they both started to explain what had happened at the same time.

Hermione only heard bits of their jumbled ramblings, "...potions... shrinking potion... tripped... spilt..." At this point their voice got too hysterical for her to hear the rest, but she didn't need to hear it to understand the situation.

So did Madam Pomfrey it seemed, and headed towards them, muttering something about how dangerous our curriculum was.

Hermione watched them for a bit, not sure of what she should of with herself. She eased herself out of bed, and was just about to leave when Madam Pomfrey turned around and said, "Don't leave just yet, I'll tend to these students first then I'll check to see how you are."

Not having the energy to reply, Hermione simply nodded her head again in consent. She sighed and went to lie down when she noticed a that at the far end of the room, was a single occupied bed. The curtains were drawn around it so you couldn't see who was behind them.

A frown graced Hermione's features. She felt the inexplicable urge to go and investigate, though she knew full well that it was not she had authority to and that the curtains were probably drawn for a reason.

She tried to ignore it and lay back down to wait for the Draught to kick in. It didn't seem to working at the moment, she felt as exhausted as she was before.

Unconsciously, her eyes shifted back to the far corner of the room. Who was behind it? And why did she want nothing more than to run over to see?

She looked over to Madam Pomfrey and saw that she was still feverishly fussing over the infant third year student. She wasn't even so much as glancing I'm Hermione's direction.

At this, Hermione nervously bit her lip and made up her mind. She gingerly lowered herself to the ground, then proceeded to hobble to the bed. As she got closer, her curiosity won over and she completely forgot about her weak state.

When she reached the bed, she hesitated before she slowly pulled back the curtain.

She peered inside, her gaze landing on the ashen face of a boy. She would not have recognised Draco Malfoy had it not been for his iconic white blonde hair. Hermione looked over her shoulder to see if any one had seen her, but attention was still trained on the third years. She looked from Malfoy to Madam Pomfrey, who was busy looking for something, and back again. Without a second thought, Hermione stepped inside the curtain and realised that this was one of the few times that she had seen him without having him insult her. For some reason, she couldn't help but take this opportunity to study him. At the moment, he was just another ordinary boy, not Draco Malfoy, muggle hater extraordinaire.

Gone was his ever present smirk or scowl, replaced with a peaceful expression, one that Hermione had never seen on him before. She could have sworn she saw his eyelids flutter, but she dismissed it. On close examination, she could see that his skin was absolutely flawless, something that Hermione knew many girls tried, and failed to achieve. His eye lashes were surprisingly long, a feature that yet again, many girls wished they had. His face shape was sharp and angular, but this only added to his aristocratic look. He was almost pleasant to look at. Almost.

Her gaze drifted lower to his torso. When she saw the Slytherin quidditch robes he was wearing, yesterday's incident came back to her and she cringed. That hit with the bludger had been a hard one, you could have almost heard the snapping of ribs from the gruesomeness of it. While now, he looked perfectly fine, Hermione shivered wondering what had to have been fixed and knitted back together for him to be back at this state. He was probably in an awful lot of pa-

"Checking me out Granger?"

Hermione nearly jumped in shock when she heard the presumably unconscious blonde speak, with his infamous smirk gracing his lips. She stared at him wide eyed and couldn't help but gape. At her reaction, Malfoy's smirk grew in what looked suspiciously like amusement. This snapped Hermione out of her daze, and she composed herself again.

She put on her most business like voice and prepared to bluff whatever came out of her mouth, "Of course not, but as a fellow Head, it's my duty to check to see your health and if it will possibly affect our schedule."

"How considerate of you." He dead panned. He was still smirking, but the amusement didn't seem to reach his eyes. They themselves were unreadable and seemed completely detached to the emotions he was showing.

"So, uh, how are you?" She asked this mostly because it went along well with the lie he told, though a minute part of her was asking because she was genuinely concerned. These past weeks, she had caught him, more than once, staring off into space, just like he had at the quidditch game. Something was bothering him.

"I'm fine." Malfoy replied, not missing a beat.

"_Right_." Hermione couldn't keep the sarcasm from her voice. She looked him in the eye, and said in a soft voice, "Now how are you _really?_"

He didn't answer her straight away this time. Instead, his eyes narrowed slightly and he stared at her intently, gouging whether or not she was sincere or if she had ulterior motives. He must have decided on the latter, because when he finally replied, he wore another unconvincing smirk, "As I said Granger, I'm perfectly fine. My condition won't disrupt the oh so important schedule."

Hermione was tempted to push him a little bit further for taking a jab at her, but decided to leave it. What was going on in Draco Malfoy's personal life was none of her business.

She sighed and looked around, noticing for the first time how bare it looked. There was not one get well card, or get well chocolate, or anything really. She knew that Slytherins didn't often show affection towards others, but she was expecting _something_. Wasn't he the so called "Slytherin Prince" after all? Malfoy didn't seem to notice this, and continued staring at her, non plussed.

Hermione, determined not to squirm under his gaze, turned around to leave, drawing open the curtain and stepping out. Before she let the curtain fall back into place though, she looked over her shoulder to the blonde Slytherin and said in her sincerest voice, "Get well soon Malfoy," and left. She completely missing the look that came over Malfoy's face.

Hermione walked back to her bed and sat down on the edge of it, waiting for Madam Pomfrey. She started swinging her legs and humming to give herself something to do, not noticing that she no longer felt tired.

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	3. Chapter 3: Detention

**SORRY SORRY SORRY for the late update! I'm still here! For future reference I know not to try and write a whole chapter based entirely on the line "They get detention," writers block is inevitable.**

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**Chapter 3: Detention**

Hermione had overslept. Her alarm usually woke her up, but she seemed to have slept through it as she should have been awake a while ago. She jumped out of bed and flinched when she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. It was as if someone had kicked her there repeatedly and then chucked a bowling ball at her. It was a mystery as to how she could have gotten injured, as she was perfectly fine the night before and hadn't done anything physically dangerous at all lately. Nevertheless, the pain she felt was definitely real, and she winced every time she moved. She glanced at her clock and she decided to ignore it. She was already late enough, she could get it checked put later if it got any worse.

Hermione threw on her uniform, and attempted to tame her wild mane of hair before she gave up like she did every morning and headed to the great hall. Breakfast was already nearly half over by the time she walked through the double doors. People were already starting to file out, having already eaten. She made her way over to the Gryffindor bench and plopped down next to Harry.

"Morning," she greeted, still out of breath from her run walk there. Head girl had to set an example, and breaking the rules by running in the halls was not one of the things she aspired to do.

"Mormin," Ron said, looking up from his plate with cheeks full of sausage.

Hermione started filling her plate with food she knew she wasn't going to be able to stomach.

"So why are you late?" Harry asked.

"I slept through my alarm. I've never slept through my alarm before, but I did this morning. I must have just had a late night and was too tired." She purposefully left out the stomach pains, though she didn't know why.

"Sho I 'eard somefin inchestin dis mornin," Ron said, both cheeks stuffed with food.

"Swallow before you talk." Hermione reprimanded almost automatically, not even looking up from her plate.

He rolled his eyes but swallowed before saying, "So I heard something interesting this morning. According to Dean, who heard from Seamus, who overheard some sixth year Slytherins saying that Malfoy quit quidditch! So unless they can find a seeker as good as Malfoy or even remotely close to Harry skill wise, we're sure to win every game!"

Hermione was pretty sure that Ron was oblivious to the fact that he had just complimented Malfoy during his mini rant.

"Isn't this great?!" Ron was grinning widely.

"I don't think you should be this excited over another teams demise. Besides, Malfoy probably only pulled out from the fact he was seriously injured."

"Who cares? It's Malfoy! And it's the Slytherins we're talking out here, not just any other team. Watching their faces as we beat their asses every game will be so freakin amazing!"

It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes.

Ron ignored her and carried on, "And have you heard about the Hufflepuff team captain? He's thinking of dropping out! I guess he was getting tired of his teeth getting knocked out."

At this point, Hermione tuned out of their conversation. Quidditch was not really something she liked to talk about in her spare time. She had tried many times before to redirect the conversation, but the subject always seemed to pop up again when Ron was there.

She sat quietly and ate her breakfast, though her appetite seemed to have disappeared, he wasn't going to starve herself.

Her scrambled egg was halfway to her mouth when she felt it. A small tugging sensation in the left side of her chest. Her fork dropped with a loud clatter when she realised what it was, "I - I've got to go." She stood up so fast, she nearly knocked over her goblet of pumpkin juice.

She grabbed her bag and ran from the great hall before Harry or Ron could even get a word of question out of their mouths. They simply stared at her retreating back quizzically and shrugged at each other. Hermione was a puzzle sometimes.

Hermione ran. Her feet pounded against the stone floor, her robes flew behind her, much like a cape. Not once did she register the thought that she was breaking a rule, nor did she care. Luckily, everyone was either still eating breakfast or in their common room as she didn't encounter anyone on her way to Myrtles bathroom.

She nearly kicked down the door, locking it behind her. For the first time ever, her mark was aching. It may not have been a good sign, but it was still the first time ever that it had done anything. She couldn't help but be excited, though we excitement was doused when the ache seemed to triple in strength.

Hermione gripped the side of the sink to steady herself. She felt as if she was on fire from the inside, a flame she couldn't extinguish. One could have mistaken all of these symptoms as a heart attack, but she knew better. She tried to steady her breathing to try and make her mind focus on something else other than the pain, but the task seemed impossible. She could feel beads of sweat starting to form on her forehead.

Just as she decided that she should go to madam Pomfrey, the pain subsided. It left so quickly, that Hermione blinked, confused.

She unbuttoned her top and pulled it down we shoulder. To her surprise, the mark seemed perfectly normal. She was expecting at least some sort of change, but apparently the change wasn't physical, and could only be felt.

She sighed, this meant she was obviously not making any progress with her search.

She turned and engaged in some polite conversation with Myrtle as per agreement. When the length of it seemed passable, she left. Her earlier enthusiasm was completely gone, and now she just felt drained. It was like she had finally crashed down from riding the high you get from caffeine. She didn't even care that 1) she'd broken a school rule, or 2) was late to her first class, potions, with Snape.

She dragged her feet on the trip to Potions, rueing the day as she went, though no too much, for it was still disrespectful to arrive too late to a class.

When she reached the door, she hesitated for a moment, but only for a moment. It wasn't as if she would skive class just because she had her first "mark attack", she'd decided to call them.

She cursed the door hinges as they made a loud creak, announcing to everyone her presence. When she looked up, she found that all eyes were on her, and she blushed.

Snape simply glanced at her and said, "You're late miss. Granger. 20 points from Gryffindor."

She but her lip to stop herself from making a retort, and made her way to the back of the class and sat down at a table where Ron and Harry were. Harry sent her a worried look, probably wondering why she was late, but she simply waved him off and told him she'd forgotten something for her next class. She pretended she was unaware of Harrys inquisitive stare beside her. He must have given up or deemed this a good enough explanation, as he turned his attention back to Snape.

"Now as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, is that this year, most of the work completed in class, will be done in pairs." The door opened, yet again interrupting his speech, and in walked a calm looking Malfoy. There was no proof of what had happened prior the day before, he looked as immaculate and smug as ever. Though on closer examination, his skin had a greyish tinge to it, not exactly a sign of great health. Snape _coincidentally_ seemed to miss Malfoy's late arrival and continued on talking, "Dumbledore himself has picked out these pairs. He chose the pairs based on skill level as to avoid one partner carrying the other and doing most of the work. You will have no say as to who your partner will be. Once everyone has been called out, I want all of you to move to sit with your partners. I do not care who else is at your table, as long as you are with your partner. "

"The pairs are:

"Ron Weasley and Theodorre Nott," Snape was interrupted by some jeers from the Slytherin side of the classroom, but they all stopped when he sent them a hard glare. "Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil,"

They sent each other polite smiles and Patil moved to Dean's table.

Snape called out the rest of the pairs, to which some rude comments were made.

Hermione sat patiently, waiting for her name to be called out, but it wasn't. She looked around the room and saw that there were only four people left that hasn't been called out: herself, Harry, Zabini and Malfoy.

She silently pleaded for her and Harry to be partnered together. It would make the year so much easier.

"Harry Potter," _Please_ "and," _please please please, _"Hermione Granger." She sighed in relief and smiled at Harry. Maybe this year her luck would turn-

"Wait, I've read the wrong line. Harry Potter and Blaise Zabini." The was yet again, more jeers.

Hermione felt herself deflate. If Harry was with Zabini, then that meant that-

"Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy."

Almost immediately after, protests were heard from the Slytherins. Pansy seemed particularly unhappy, her face resembling of one that was sucking on a lemon.

"Quiet! As I said before these pairs are predetermined will not change depending on whether or not you like who you're with." He said this last line, not looking partially pleased, wearing a scowl.

Hermione looked over to Malfoy, it didn't seem like he was moving, so she sighed and packed up her stuff and made her way towards him. She pointedly ignored the glares she got.

She sat down on the side next to him so she wouldn't have to constantly reach over to the cauldron. His equipment was set out in the precise order that they were needed, while the utensils were set apart. All in all it was neat, and not unlike the way that she prepared for brewing potions; secretly, she approved. Ron's part of the table was always a pig sty, though there were never a whole lot of ingredients, he always managed to strew everything about, something Hermione found extremely annoying. She had more than once, nearly spoiled a potion by putting in the wrong ingredient because he had accidentally placed it in her ingredient pile.

For some strange reason, this fastidious habit that they shared made her feel slightly less bitter about the fact that Malfoy was going to be her potions partner for the majority of the year. At least she had been paired with someone near her intellectual ability, and most importantly, wasn't a slob.

She looked up at him to see if he'd noticed her assessing his work station, but he was paying her no mind. His eyes were trained at the front, his expression blank. He was completely ignoring her presence. It wasn't as if she minded, she was perfectly happy to work in silence and ignore him as well.

She opened her textbook to the right page and read through the instructions.

_Juice two Shrivelfigs and add their ruby blood to you cauldron._

_Stir slowly._

_Gently heat your potion._

Malfoy was already juicing them so she read the next line and moved on to the next step.

_Chop four daisy roots more finely and add to cauldron._

She carefully went about chopping up the daisy roots. After she was done, she chopped them again, until she was satisfied with the result. Then she added them to the potion.

_Add five hairy caterpillars._

She dropped them into the cauldron, though she couldn't help but look away slightly as she did.

_Add well-shaken wormwood._

_Stir vigourously._

She started shaking the wormwood. Her arms started to get tired from the effort, but she kept shaking for good measure. When she looked up again, she saw that Malfoy was already stirring, he must have already added it while she wasn't looking. She put down the wormwood, slightly peeved that her efforts had gone to waste.

_Juice four leeches and add._

She juiced them and threw them in the cauldron.

_Stir slowly and with caution._

_Shake rat spleen and add to cauldron._

She started to slowly stir the potion, careful not to spill any. He looked over at the others around the room and was pleased to see that they were far a head of everyone else in the class. Satisfied, she looked over at Malfoy. He was holding juiced leaches, which was strange considering that they'd already added them. As she opened her mouth to ask him what he was up to, he added it to the potion.

"Malfoy!" She all but screeched. She watched as their potion turned a brilliant orange colour.

He looked up at her alarmed at her outburst and confused, but only for a moment. The failed potion seemed to explode, the gooey substance landed everywhere in the classroom, effectively ruining everyone else's potions as some landed it their cauldrons.

The classroom turned havoc. Pansy, the drama queen she was, started screaming, while others were bad mouthing about how their potions were ruined and they would have to start again.

Hermione turned to Malfoy and started telling him off for the mess that they were in.

"SILENCE!" Snape shouted. The class immediately shut up, not used to the potions master raising his voice. "Scourgify." Every last bit of the mess vanished, along with the potions of everyone else in the room.

"Mr Malfoy, Miss Granger," His attention now directed to the cause of the mess. The two appeared to have shrunken slightly, being the only ones to have gotten some of the potion in their mouths from the fact that they had been shouting accusations at each other when their potion exploded.

"Head to the hospital wing so Madam Pomfrey can un-shrink you both, as you were both smart enough to consume a half finished tainted potion." His voice was eerily calm, not a good sign. He turned around and Hermione wondered if he was going to let them off without punishment, when he spun back around on his heel, "Oh, and one months detention for both of you startingtonight. Be at my office at five fifteen on the dot, no later."

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**Coming up: A chapter written from Draco's perspective!**


	4. Chapter 4: Draco

**Thanks to everyone who has favourited/followed/reviewed! I love you all! Again, I don't take harshly to constructive criticism; I welcome it! So feel free to comment if you see an error that I've missed. **

**To clear up confusion, this chapter is written from Draco waking up in the hospital onwards.**

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**Chapter 4: Draco**

Draco's head was in the blissfully fuzzy haze that came with waking up from a undisturbed sleep. No thoughts were running through his mind, just the simple comfort of a warm bed and a good rest. Reality, as usual, seemed to crash into him again, and it was then that he noticed that he was lying on the scratchy white sheets of the hospital wing. He gasped, and immediately regretted it. His ribs must have taken quite a beating as they seemed to have concave on him, constricting his breathing. His whole body was in agony all because of a juvenile game.

Quidditch.

Draco, for the life of him, could not remember why he ever liked Quidditch. Sitting for hours on top of a broom, searching for a snitch that's almost impossible to catch. That's how long it felt like he'd been up there, though it had probably only been about an hour at most. He'd long given up searching for the snitch, choosing instead to simply let his mind go off on a course on its own. This was a mistake, as it led his thoughts down other paths, something that he'd been doing a lot of lately.

There was so much to do, in so little time. He knew the consequences had he fail, and he knew the odd were stacked against him.

Those thoughts had led to him getting a bludger in the stomach and falling and landing on an unbelievably hard ground. At the time it hasn't hurt that much, as he didn't really have time feel anything before he blacked out. Now was a completely different story, he could do nothing but lie there and feel pain with every movement. It was stupid of him to not have been paying attention, it had been a stupid mistake, and this was his consequence.

At some point of lying there in a half daze, madam Pomfrey had come in to check on him and ask him some questions as to how he was feeling. He wasn't conscious enough to start describing his present state, so he just replied with a simple 'bad.'

She gave him some sort of potion that made his eyelids feel ridiculously heavy. He tried to fight off the impending tiredness, but he must have dozed as he woke again some time later feeling stiff. His limbs had cramped up from a long period of misuse.

In the background, he could hear voices, though they were too far away to make out what they were saying. He strained his ears to hear and caught bits of the conversation.

"A day! What about my cla-" This voice sounded shrill yet comforting to him, he had no idea why. It was obviously from a female.

Madam Pomfrey's voice was distinguishable, though he couldn't quite figure out what she was saying as she was speaking in a much calmer tone.

Whatever Madam Pomfrey said must have relaxed the berate female she was talking to as the next time she spoke, her voice was once again indistinguishable. This annoyed him as ease dropping on a conversation gave him something else to do, instead of feeling sorry for himself.

He couldn't see behind the curtain, so he jumped in shock when he heard the hospital wing doors slam open.

Two hysteric voices started talking over the other. He had no idea what was going on; all he managed to catch was "shrinking potion" and "tripped", but that pretty much summed up the brunt of it.

He basically blacked out again after that. This time, he awoke to footsteps.

They were getting closer. He hoped it wasn't some sort of crazed assassin that'd come to attack him while his guard was down. They had another thing coming if they thought that.

He reached for his wand and tucked his hand under the blanket with it, ready to defend himself. He pretended to still be asleep, but opened his right eye slightly so he could see.

The last thing he would have ever expected was a familiar wild bush of hair to pop inside the curtain. Had Granger not turned around and looked behind her, she would have saw Draco's eyebrows raise ever so slightly.

He immediately schooled his expression and feigned being asleep.

She looked hesitant, and just as he thought she was going to leave, she stepped inside and pulled the curtain behind her.

What was she doing here? Did she come to mock him and spread around school how pathetic he was? The Slytherin prince, reduced to an immobile lump on a bed, completely unable to defend himself if it weren't for his wand.

He felt her eyes on him, and was thankful for the fact that he had long eye lashes to cover up the fact that his eyes were slightly open. He tried his hardest to not shift under her prying eyes. When he felt her gaze leave his face he relaxed. He opened his eyes slightly wider and saw that she was studying his stomach. She was frowning.

His mouth seemed to move on its own accord, "Checking me out Granger?" He said, amusement clear in his voice. She had clearly not thought he'd be conscious as her eyes widened comically, her mouth hanging slightly agape. Draco smirked.

He saw her compose herself, the flush that had earlier graced her cheeks completely gone, "Of course not, but as a fellow Head, it's my duty to check to see your health and if it will possibly affect our schedule."

He felt something in him snap. Here he was, lying half dead in the hospital wing, and not one person had come in to wish him well. Slytherins weren't overly compassionate people, but he had expected at least _something_. His parents were absent, though he knew that they'd probably have a lot going on at the moment, things that were probably a lot more important than him getting injured in a game of quidditch. Still, at that moment, Draco could not help but feel utterly and completely alone. Having Granger to be the only one to visit him, and also be forced to, wasn't exactly gratifying. Draco felt his demeanour harden.

"How _considerate_ of you." He continued smirking at her, though it was hollow, like so many others had been.

"So, uh, how are you?" She seemed completely casual.

"I'm fine." He replied automatically, already used to it being his response to everything lately.

"Right." She gave him a look that said 'do you think I'm stupid.' "Now how are you really?" Draco did not fail to notice her softer change in tone.

What did she expect him to say? It wasn't as if he was going to start sprouting off about everything that was going wrong in his life. He didn't trust anyone with that kind of information, let alone the right hand man of saint potter himself.

"As I said Granger, I'm perfectly fine. My condition won't disrupt the _oh_ so important schedule."

She sighed at him and started looking around the 'room', which he thought looked awfully a lot like stalling. He stared straight at her, hoping it'd make her uncomfortable, wishing she would hurry up and leave. He didn't want to become more of a burden to visit than he already was.

She seemed to read his mind, and to his relief, turned to leave.

She pulled back the curtain and stepped out. Draco sighed and slumped on his bed again, not expecting her to turn, look over her shoulder, and say, "Get well soon Malfoy,"

Draco froze. Had she just said what he thought she said?

A bizarre happiness settled in his stomach, which made him disgusted and angry with himself, mostly though, he felt confused. Then he felt nothing.

He slipped into darkness again, this time no nightmares greeted him, only more nothingness.

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He stood outside of the classroom, inhaling and exhaling deeply, focusing on calming his breaths. It didn't help much as with every inhale, his ribs protested.

He had to keep his acting up, word had probably already spread that he had quit quidditch, and he had to convince them all that it was because he was still as snobbish and afraid of pain as he had been before everything had happened. He really had quit because he needed time, he needed as much as he could get. He was running out of it, and the due date was looming over his head.

He felt himself mentally build up his walls, layer by layer, until his mask was back at full force. Satisfied, he walked in.

"- Dumbledore himself has picked out these pairs. He chose the pairs based on skill level as to avoid one partner carrying the other and doing most of the work. You will have no say as to who your partner will be. Once everyone has been called out, I want all of you to move to sit with your partners. I do not care who else is at your table, as long as you are with your partner. "

Pairs? They were going to have to work in pairs the whole year?

He strode to the back of the class, smirking at the people who glared at him.

"The pairs are:

"Ron Weasley and Theodorre Nott," Theodorre, Crabbe and Goyle started hissing their complaints but shut up when Snape have them a cold look. "Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil," the two Gryffindors smiled at each other.

Draco started tuning out after the third pair was called. He suddenly found the pattern of the bench top much more exciting than Dumbledore's evil sense of humour for his choice of pairs.

The idea of a whole year of potions shared with a buddy? Ridiculous. They were perfectly competent students- well, most of them were. He did not want to be buddy anything this year, getting to know someone as an actual person rather than someone forgettable made it so much more easy to match a face with a name. Which made it harder for him to know that fact that they might be ki-

"Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy." This immediately brought him out of his daze. He was going to spend the rest of potions with _her_?! The epitome of smart ass goody goods that ever existed. He could almost see them throwing hexes at each other all ready.

He watched from the corner of his eye as she moved towards him. He clenched his jaw, but otherwise have no other indication that he acknowledged her presence. Maybe she would take the message and just leave.

Nope; not happening.

His eyes skimmed the page of the book they were working from, and he rolled his eyes when he saw the potion that they were going to brew, shrinking potion. It was a potion for beginners, and was quite an easy one at that, it was even the same potion that the second or third years had brewed the day before. This was either because of Snape's unimaginative thinking, or the result of some clever thinking on the behalf of his teacher. Why not test the waters of the pairs with a potion that was fairly simple?

He felt bored of the potion already.

_Juice two Shrivelfigs and add their ruby blood to you cauldron._

_Stir slowly._

_Gently heat your potion._

_Chop four daisy roots more finely and add to cauldron._

His body seemed to be on autopilot as he moved. He grabbed two Shrivelfigs and started to juice them. He willed his limbs to move faster, but it felt was if they were surrounded by thick mud. To his greatest displeasure, his eyelids started to droop. He'd been having trouble sleeping lately, nightmares haunted him every time he closed his eyes, and it seemed it was finally catching up to him. The drug induced sleep in the hospital had only done to help heal him, not refresh him.

When he saw the juice from the Shrivelfigs, his walls collapsed. Seeing it, reminded him too closely of blood. So many images that he'd buried at the back of his mind resurfaced. So many things that he wished he had not witnessed.

Of course, nobody knew what was going on inside his head, and to them, it looked like a boy staring wide eyes at his own hands. Draco knew this, and he knew he was not supposed draw attention to himself this year, so he forced himself to continue on.

It all happened so fast to Draco's eyes, he barely registered what was going on until he heard her shout.

"Malfoy!"

He dropped what he was doing and stared wide eyed at her.

What did she want now!

He didn't even have time to send her a nasty glare when his question got answered. Hot orange goo splattered everywhere.

"What did you _do_!" He practically growled at her.

"Me?! That was your fault! _You _weren't watching what you were doing!"

"If you were watching what you were doing, then _I_ wouldn't have to!"

"You should always-

"SILENCE!"

He pressed his lips together, but continued to glare at her.

"Mr Malfoy, Miss Granger, head to the hospital wing so Madam Pomfrey can un-shrink you both, as you were both smart enough to consume a half finished tainted potion." He walked away from them, then spun back around on his heel, "Oh, and one months detention for both of you starting tonight. Be at my office at five fifteen on the dot, no later."

He heard her enter the common room. The portrait door opened with a familiar creek.

His head was lying on the crook of his arm, as he was 'resting his eyes' and taking a break from studying.

He focused on making his breaths even, to trick her into thinking he was asleep again, to avoid having to acknowledge her presence.

She must have saw through his act this time, and for the second time that day, she rocked him to his core with a four simple words,

"I'm sorry about potions."

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	5. Chapter 5: Destined for Ron?

**I'm back! Hope you like it!**

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**Chapter 5: Destined for Ron?**

She was late for detention. She had gotten detention for being late to class, only to be late for the detention.

She had been held back in the Gryffindor common room with Harry. He had cornered her.

"I knew you didn't forget a book for class, so why'd you run off like that?"

"What do you mean?" She bit her lip unconsciously.

"Hermione, I know you pack all of your books the night before, you've done it since first year."

"Harry, you really don't want to know. Besides, I'm in a hurry, I have detention soon."

"'Mione, I do. Trust me. Snape can wait."

"Okay then, but I warned you..." She scuffed her feet on the floor to stall as she frantically tried to come up with something. As if a light bulb went off in her head, the perfect excuse came to her, "It was girl stuff."

"Girl stuff?"

"You know, it happens every month, it makes us moody, etcetera etcetera. Girl stuff."

"Every month? What- oh." His went as red as a beetroot.

"Girl stuff."

"Right. Um okay, good talk. Iii guess I'll see you later." He gave her a weak wave which she returned, then she quickly strode to the portrait door. She yanked it open and ran out, running straight into a wall.

"Oof." She stumbled and fell back onto her butt with a thud.

She didn't realise her eyes were shut until she opened them again and saw the 'walls' face.

"Sorry! Are you alright Hermione?"

"I'm- fine Neville. Just a bit winded."

"Here let me help you up." He offered her his hand and she took it, using it to pull herself back up.

She stood and brushed the dust off her robes "Thanks."

She made her way briskly to Snape's office, though she was careful to keep her pace steady as their were people about.

She made her way to the dungeons, shivering slightly as she descended some stairs; she hated the dungeons. Out of all of the places at Hogwarts, the dungeons were the only place that never failed to unnerve her. She couldn't understand why people from Slytherin liked it here so much, even their sleeping quarters were situated here. Hermione couldn't imagine falling asleep somewhere like this.

She dismissed her thoughts and kept walking.

She rounded the corner and saw the familiar door. She cautiously walked up to it, half expecting traps to spring up, and rapped her knuckles against the wood.

Snape opened the door and stepped back, she took a step forward.

The first thing she noticed was that it was dark. The room was dimly lit and it added to the already gloomy atmosphere. The walls were lined with jars filled with merlin knows what. The room was exactly the same as when she had snuck in and stolen stole bicorn horn and boomslang skin for polyjuice potion in second year, except now, there seemed to be hundreds and hundreds of jars.

"I want you to clean every dirty surface of this office until its sparkling clean, which includes the soot in the fireplace." That was fairly easy, all she had to do was- "Without the use of a wand."

She forced her mouth to stay shut and she handed over her wand to his outstretched hand. "You will get this back after you are done." He left the room with a cold smirk on his face. When he reached the door, he looked over his shoulder and said, "Though if you so much as touch my ingredients, I will see to it that you are expelled so fast that you won't know what's happening until you are being escorted from this school." He started off saying his threat fast and fluently and by the end of it he was speaking scathingly slowly, over pronouncing every syllable.

She simply nodded, not knowing if she just dismiss him or actually be threatened. His demeanour brought her back her first years when she was deathly frightened of him. He was the only teacher that would harshly mark if she even stepped inch out of line.

He turned and left with a swish of his robes.

She gritted her teeth and started to wipe a cupboard down with one of the old rags that he had left her.

The door opened when she was halfway through her second cupboard. She looked up from her cleaning and her eyes locked with his. To her surprise, Malfoy looked away first. He then proceeded to make his way to the cauldrons that needed cleaning, which all happened to be on the other side if the room.

She wasn't sure if he preferred cleaning cauldrons, or if he was avoiding her. While sitting in the hospital wing yet again, she had time to think through what had gone so wrong during potions. Carefully, she went through today's events, trying to pick out faults. The first thing that had came to mind, shamefully, was that it was Malfoy's fault. He had been the one who wasn't watching what he was doing and ended up adding extra juiced leaches. Admittedly though, she hasn't been paying much attention to what she was doing either. She has fallen into her normal rhythm which pretty much blocked out everything surrounding her. This doubling with the fact that they weren't communicating at all, meant that they had set themselves for disaster from the beginning. She'd let her stubborn pride get in the way, he had been snubbing her, so she had snubbed him back.

She didn't know what she had expected him to do, but she couldn't say this reaction was expected.

She turned back to her cupboard and went back to her cleaning.

The air was so thick with tension that you could practically see it, a dark, unsettling fog. It was only fuelled by the fact that neither would admit they were in the wrong. The silence was deafening, the only noise that could be heard between the two was the scrubbing from a brush and the wringing out of a rag.

The awkwardness soon fell away from Hermione as she started getting into cleaning. The repetitive series of movement involves seemed to work away at her tension. Something about being in that room, cleaning, seemed to relax her. She felt her knots slowly untie themselves, and she held back the contempt sigh that threatened to leave her lips.

She finished off her cupboard and stood back to admire her work. Before she had started, it was grimy and covered in dust, now it look as good as new. She smiled a small smile, a little ridiculous bout of pride settling in her gut. Her smile turned into a frown when she heard how quiet it had gotten. She couldn't hear anything coming from the other side of the room. She snuck a peak from the corner of her eye and saw his rigid figure staring blanking at the space in front of him.

"Malfoy? Malfoy." No response. "Have you fallen asleep with your eyes open?" She laughed apprehensively, her weak attempt at joke falling on deaf ears. She tried it a little but louder, "Malfoy." Silence. "Malfoy!" It was as if he couldn't even hear her.

With a humph, she walked directly in front of him and tried again, this time waving her hand in his face, "Malfoy."

Finally, he reacted. He blinked twice, as if he had just realised she was there. Hermione could tell immediately that she had caught him off guard. It was actually quite intriguing to watch his reaction. First, he looked confused, most likely from just having woken up from a daydream, then surprised at his surroundings, then surprised again, this time he was looking directly at her. Something in his brain must have clinked in place, his expression hardened, yet took on a look of boredom, one that she knew was fake.

"What do you want." His voice was cold.

"I've been calling your name for at least a good minute and you haven't been replying at all."

"So what?"

"Soo, don't you think that it's a bit weird for you to zone out like that?"

"No." He was trying to be nonchalant, but she could see how stiff his posture was.

"Okay fine, you don't have to tell me."

She walked back to her half of the office and picked up her rag again.

They worked in steady silence for the rest of their time there. The task of cleaning the office took a whole two and a half hours to complete. She knew that Snape could have simply cleaned his office with a flick of his wrist with his wand, but of course, he always had to make things difficult.

When Snape gave them back their wands, Hermione made a beeline for the library. She wasn't going to let the rest of her night go to waste.

"Prohibitum." The knight opened the door for her and it swung open with a loud creek.

The first thing she noticed when she walked in was a head of blonde hair lying against the table. She wasn't going to fall for this act again though, she knew he was awake.

"I'm sorry about potions."

She left quickly and headed towards her room so she wouldn't have to see his reaction.

When she shut the door behind her, she got changed and ready for bed, today had really taken it out of her. Too much happened at once. She slipped under the covers, welcoming the warmth that it brought. As she closed her eyes and started to drift off, she suddenly felt very... awake. Her whole body felt alert and energised, almost as if someone had gone and dumped a bucket of ice on her. She sat up, alarmed, and for a second she expected to see someone standing next to her holding an empty bucket, but she didn't. That was when she noticed that this 'energy' was coming from just above her heart. Her breathing quickened, this was nothing like the attack she had earlier on, that had drained her and hurt her, this feeling was quite the opposite.

Wide eyed curious, she carefully pulled down the side of her night gown. At first, she did not see anything different, when she looked closer, she saw something that made her heart leap. There, in the midst of fern leaves, was a tiny new shoot that seemed to be growing out from underneath them. A wide goofy grin broke out onto Hermione's face. Something had happened that day that has moved along her relationship with her mystery man.

Her smile faltered when she realised that this was the first (positive) thing to happen to her mark, and she had no idea what had caused it.

She couldn't remember having any encounters with males that could have potentially made their feelings for her change.

Unless her being late for breakfast and a class, then blowing a potion sparked a new interest in her mate that day...

She hasn't even been looking her best today, her hair had flailed all over the place.

Maybe she'd overlooked something, though what had she overlooked? Maybe she had it just too unexpected for her too...

Ron. He had visited her in the hospital wing.

Was Ron her destined mate?

She had been in an awful mood before he came in. Her mind flashed back to earlier on in the day, carefully picking apart her memory.

Ron came up from behind her and slung his arm around shoulder. "Hey 'mione, feeling better?"

She grumbled something incoherent.

"Cheer up Hermione, if this can't be fixed, you'll be in with a chance with Professor Flitwik."

She couldn't help it, she'd smiled.

"Is that a smile I see?" He gave her a lopsided grin. This was all it took for her to cave, and she smiled back at him.

"Shut up." She tried to glare at him but failed miserably since she was still smiling.

Madam Pomfrey had then come in to shoo him out, though by that time, her mood had already improved.

She sat there, in a sort of daze. She had never even considered the possibility that Ron was her mate. Was it possible that after all this time, she had been looking for someone that was right under her nose?

She decided to weigh her pros and cons in her head. Pro: he was funny, which meant that he knew how to cheer her up, con: he would sometimes not take things was seriously as she would like. Pro: he was tall, a trait she had always secretly wanted her future husband to have, con: his sudden growth spurt made him sort of gangly. Pro: they were comfortable around each other, con: he was just a bit too comfortable around her and sometimes seemed forget she was even a girl. Pro: dating him would mean that they would become closer... con: if they broke up, their friendship might be in jeopardy.

She grunted her frustration into her pillow.

What was she meant to do?

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	6. Chapter 6: Giddy

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**Chapter 6: Giddy**

Hermione woke up feeling dreadful. She had gotten no sleep due to her new revelation yesterday. To top it all off, she had been hallucinating nightmares. She'd woken up in the dead of night to mangled cries. They weren't feminine noises either. They were low guttural sounds that unnerved her deeply. She was nearly one hundred percent sure she had heard them, and that she had not dreamt it, but unless Crooshanks had injured himself and suddenly started howling in pain, then she must have imagined it. The only other person even close to her, was Malfoy, though she would have pinned it on Crookshanks before she so much as considered him. After that, she couldn't get back to sleep, when the hallucinating stopped, she still couldn't sleep. She finally drifted off when the first days of light shone through her window.

So when morning came, Hermione woke up with practically no sleep and no plan as to how she would see if Ron was really her mate.

Sitting up, she could already tell that her hair was a mess. The humid weather lately hadn't helped her much in the frizz department. She was pretty sure that if she was to go out as she looked now, people were more than likely to think a lion had escaped from the zoo and was currently strutting around in Hogwarts uniform. Ron was probably going to go running the other way when he saw her.

She wasn't going to let this deter her. She was Hermione Granger, as stubborn and as determined they came, and she wasn't going to give up without a fight.

Grabbing her clothes, she headed straight do the bathroom. To her surprise, she found that it was unoccupied. Having to share a bathroom with someone that was very conscious of how they looked meant having to constantly stand outside the bathroom door waiting for Malfoy to finish. For it to be free was quite uncommon, though she wasn't complaining.

She strode to the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to the mirror. As expected, her hair was an absolute mess. Her eyes looked tired and worn, last nights restlessness evident in her face.

Quickly the stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower. A sigh escaped her lips as the water hit her. She let the powerful stream of water pound away at her back, working away at her tense muscles. Closing her eyes, she let the warm water soothe all of her aches and imagined it washing away all of her doubts and worries. She reached for her shampoo that made her hair smell like honey suckle, and began to wash.

When she finally stepped out of the shower, Hermione felt as if she had a new skin. She felt rejuvenised and alert. She dried herself and got dressed, then prepared herself for the task at hand; her hair.

She opened the cupboard and reached for the tube of Sleekeazy. She hasn't touched this stuff since fourth year, when she'd used it for the yule ball, but now was a good as a time as ever for it. She squeezed a generous amount of the gel onto the palm of her hand, before she rubbed her hands together. She exhaled, and ran them through her still damp hair. She then dried her hair with a simple spell and looked at her work.

Her face broke out into a grin when she saw that her hair was no longer a birds nest. It now fell into neat waves that framed her face. She applied a teeny tiny bit of lip gloss, then swiftly wiped it off after deciding it was too much. She opted to go natural, and simply applied moisturiser all over her body until her skin was baby smooth. She didn't need any foundation since her skin was already practically blemish free, and she thanked her lucky stars for her good genes.

When she looked in the mirror again, she was pretty happy with her accomplishment. She looked, she dare say, pretty. But only passable, Hermione had always knew she was plain. Her hair had always been a contributing factor, but now, it seemed to bring out her features more.

Satisfied, she turned on her heel opened the door and almost walked head first into Malfoy. He looked as startled as she felt, obviously not expecting her to suddenly burst through the door.

This close, she could see eyes weren't actually blue like she thought they were, they were grey.

He had obviously just woken up. His hair, not severely slicked back, was disheveled in such a way that made her want to run her hands though it and-

What was she thinking?! She did not want to do anything of the sort! Though she had, once again, been staring at him.

He didn't seem to have noticed this time though, Malfoy was now blatantly staring at her. Did she really look that different?

She looked him directly in the eyes again, and this seemed to snap him out of it.

He swallowed, before looking away. He stepped around her and closed the door.

Determined and resolute, she marched straight through the Great Hall doors. Her gaze fell directly on the red head who was shovelling food into his mouth while laughing at the same time. She eyed the empty spot next to Harry, her usual seat. Like a receding tide, she felt her confidence slowly drain away, but she kept her stride strong.

She longed for the seat saved by Harry, but knew that if she was going to accomplish anything, she was going to have to dive straight into the deep end.

She hoped that her nerves wouldn't give her away, and said in the most casual voice she could muster, "Good morning." She realised that her posture was extremely stiff, so she forced herself to slouch.

It felt like minutes before they both finally replied, "Morning Hermione."

She felt herself relax with relief; the first stage was complete. She started piling food onto her plate, slowly smiling a secret smile at how silly she'd been reacting over a silly seat.

The smile however, turned into a frown. Hermione's body went tense; someone was watching her. She looked up from her plate and scanned the rows of of tables. It seemed no one was paying any attention to her, they were all chatting away merrily, except for the Slytherins, they seemed to be muttering in subdued voices. She started absently cutting her scrambled eggs into tiny bite size pieces to distract herself, thinking the feeling would go away by itself. One plate of mutilated eggs later, she still couldn't quite shake off the feeling of being watched. Huffing in frustration, she turned back to her friends, she wasn't going to let her paranoia stop her from achieving her goal.

She turned on the bench until she was facing him. "Sooo Ron. Have- have you been feeling different lately?" He paused his eating for a moment, his attention focused on her. His hair was still as bright as ever, unlike Ginny's, who's hair had grown out and turned into a darker, rich tone of red. He had grown even taller over the summer, his limbs seeming to big for his body. Gangly was a way to describe him, some might find this trait endearing. Hermione couldn't decide if this included herself, although sometimes she found herself comparing him to a new born baby giraffe.

"Giffrent?" He swallowed his sausage and looked at her though half of his face was still facing his plate so he could continue eating. "Different how?"

"Just- . Okay, wrong word, not different, more like, changed? Maybe? Or maybe had a... had a revelation of some sort? I mean not a big one but maybe it was sparked by- not sparked! No sparks have to have been included! I mean, maybe their may have been sparks but I'm not saying their had to have been. I mean-" she looked up at Ron and saw his extremely perplexed expression.

"Are you feeling alright Hermione? Do you need to go to madam Pomfrey?"

"What? Oh yes I'm fine. I've just been meaning to ask you..." She readjusted her skirt, though there was nothing wrong with it. "Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with this coming weekend?"

His eyes widened slightly and he swallowed the food in his mouth. "Hogs- Hogsmeade? With you?" A flush came across his cheeks, Hermione looked at him expectantly. "S- sure." He cleared his throat. "Sure."

"Okay then, good." She grinned at him. He smiled back at her, his cheeks still flushed pink.

"Oh, I've got to go. I need to ask Miss McGonagall about the essay she gave us."

Harry broke away from his conversation with Dean and gave her a amused look, "You mean the one that's due a month from now?"

Hermione didn't reply, she didn't need too, instead she gave him a sheepish grin and stood.

Waving to them she left. She had to ask Miss. McGonagall about the essay. Last night, she had attempted to write it, only to realise that the professor has forgotten to specify which spell she wanted them to write about. They had learnt the about two spells that week and she didn't know which one she should write about. Maybe she wanted the one-

"I saw you drooling on Weasley in there. You were practically sitting on his lap."

She tensed immediately. That lazy drawl was easily distinguishable.

She whirled around and faced him, giving him her best glare.

"Shut up Malfoy, and for your information, I was not sitting in his lap Malfoy."

"So you admit that you were drooling all over him?"

"I-" Hermione wanted to slap the smug smirk right off his face. Instead of replying, she just let out an incoherent growl. Had she looked like some sort of love sick puppy? "Leave me alone Malfoy! Why do you care anyway?!"

His face seemed to completely shut down and turned expressionless. A pause. "I don't." His eyebrows draw together, as if he was confused with his own actions.

"Then go away!" She glared at him and stomped away.

She was angry of course, but she couldnt help but feel humiliated. Had she been that forward with Ron? Had he seemed desperate? She was only at seven when she heard the light click clack footsteps following her. All at once, she felt her anger resurface.

"I told you to leave me alone Malfoy!" She whirled around and faced him again.

He regarded her with a serenely. "I would, but I had come to inform you that one of the Slytherin prefects cannot do his Wednesday nightly rounds. He asked me to inform you about it."

She blinked at him. All at once she felt her anger slip, making her feel somewhat deflated, despite the fact that it was only the start of the day. She willed herself not to flush from having reacted so brashly and snapped at him for no reason. "Oh, um, ok. I actually know of a Gryffindor prefect that would be happy to fill in for him, as long as you wouldn't mind a Gryffindor hanging around the dungeons."

"I don't see why that would disrupt anything that goes down in the dungeons. Just be sure to warn that Gryffindor to always bring their wand with them."

"Okay then, I will."

She felt extremely giddy. She hardly ever felt giddy. It was an emotion that she reserved only for getting perfect scores for exams and school work. She couldn't recall a time when she felt quite like this because she had asked a boy to Hogsmeade with her. Maybe Ron really was her destined one, if he made her feel like this just from talking to him. The pieces of her life were finally starting to fit together again, after so many years of mindless searching, she could get the whole mark thing under control.


	7. Chapter 7: Hogsmeade

**I know my updates have been a bit slow lately, and this is because lately I've been feeling a bit uninspired. Put some spirit into these fingers of mine, you know what to do! **

**REVIEW!**

**Ps. Excuse me if my take on Hagrid is a bit off, I've been dreading writing his accent.**

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**Chapter 7: Hogsmeade**

As cliche as it seemed, the week, Hermione could not help it as the week flew by like a blur. Before she knew it, Saturday came, and they were all headed off to Hogsmeade. Hermione was standing in front of her floor length mirror in her room.

She was currently looking at what must have been her tenth outfit she had tried. The clothes she had discarded were now forming a small mountain on her bed.

She'd woken up early, showered and gotten her hair and face ready, but her indecisiveness had slowed down her progress. She could either go casual, and maybe wear some jeans and a shirt, or she could go for something more formal. At the moment she was dressed in a pair of well worn jeans and one of her favourite t-shirts. She looked in the mirror and growled in frustration, she was too underdressed. She didn't want Ron to think this was just another day out with friends.

In the end, she decided on something that suited the wonderful weather they'd been having; a sundress that ended just below mid-thigh. It was modest and not slutty, though it showed slightly more skin than she'd hoped. What made up for it was how utterly comfortable it was. The material was so light and flowy that it felt like silk on her skin. She opted for some matching ankle boots with a hidden heel that Ginny had given to her as a gift, hoping that they would make up for some of the height difference between her and Ron.

She messed around with her hair for a while, before she gave up and just left it down.

She walked out of her room, just as the bathroom door opened and Malfoy stepped out. He looked as if he hasn't slept, Hermione didn't doubt that he hadn't been. No matter how much she despised him, you'd have to have been blind to see that something was off about him. Though she would never tell a soul, she had found herself watching him occasionally, and she knew that he was lonely. He obviously tried to hide it, but something was going on behind the scenes that he apparently couldn't tell even his Slytherin friends. At one point, Hermione had even tried guessing what was making him so distressed, and had come up empty handed.

Whatever it was, it seemed to have changed his character quite dramatically, and at the same time none at all. In most ways, he was exactly the same, and it has taken her quite a long time to realise what was different about him. No matter how well staged his mask was, he could not cover up the fact that everything about him seemed hollow. His cruel remarks nowadays were almost halfhearted, as if he were just saying them for the sake of it, and not meaning it. From her hatred of him, grew an emotion that she had never once considered associating with Malfoy, a tenderness, or a soft spot. Tiny as it was, it still existed.

That's why it wasn't uncommon for her to say what she said next. "Morning Malfoy."

He seemed to still be thinking of something, or something was distracting him, as he unexpectedly replied. "Morning." He may not have realised what he was saying, but it was the first time he had actually said something back to Hermione when she greeted him in the morning. He usually just ignored her, or glared at her before continuing in his way.

He walked to the portrait door and opened it before stepping through and shutting it behind him. He was probably going to Hogsmeade as well.

She was puzzled by his behaviour; he hasn't even said the customary half hearted rude remark. She shook it off, literally shaking her shoulders, before grabbing her bag and heading out as well.

Malfoy wasn't that far ahead of her, his stride slow. Hermione tried to keep her pace slow as well, but soon found herself caught up to him. She was only a few paces behind him, and was now stuck with two choices, the awkward, super slow pace that meant she stayed behind him, or the speed walk to get past him. She tried the super slow walk for a bit, but found her strides quickening on their own. She ended up walking at the same pace as Malfoy, and beside him. He didn't even seem to notice her walking pace dilemma, he just kept on walking, staring ahead at nothing. She soon just gave up and strode alongside him. He didn't make any remarks on it, and the rhythmic click clack of their soles actually calmed any lingering nerves for the 'date'.

The moment they stepped outside, the warm rays of the sun hit her skin, and she sighed happily. After summer had gone by without having actually arrived, everyone, including her, had been feeling a bit deprived of good old vitamin d. This sudden clear day was a random occurrence, but no one was complaining.

They made their way out of the doors silently. Maybe not the most comfortable journey, but at least he wasn't insulting her.

She saw a familiar bright head of hair at the same time he saw her. Ron waved at her, smiling, but it faltered, presumably from seeing who she was standing next to. He stalked towards them, his face suspicious and alert. As if Malfoy was going to go and try to hurt her in broad daylight.

When Ron got in earshot, Hermione went to greet him, but he spoke first.

"What's he doing here?" His tone biting.

She stated plainly, "He's just going to Hogsmeade as well."

"Then why are you two standing so close?"

Hermione looked to her left, and was surprised to see that Malfoy was indeed standing extremely close. Their shoulders were touching. The odd thing was, if it had been with anyone else but her, Hermione would have said Malfoy's stance was almost protective, but then again, he was Malfoy, and she was, well, her. Had they been standing this close before? She was sure they hadn't. Had they subconsciously moved closer? No, of course not, why would she do that?

It seemed similar thoughts were running through Malfoy's head, and without warning stepped well away from her, not before Hermione saw him flinch.

A knot formed in her throat. She ignored it.

Without another word, Malfoy walked away from them. From the corner of her eye, she saw Pansy run up to him and latch on his arm. She grit her teeth. Ron, on the other hand, visibly brightened up after he left.

He grinned at her, "G'morning Hermione."

She found herself smiling back, "Morning Ron."

"Are you ready?"

She was going to state that it would have been extremely inconvenient of her to not have been ready, but she decided to spare him the lecture. "Yep."

They made their together to the carriages, where Miss. McGonagall what talking to some students, looking quite frazzled. They had to tap her on the back to get her attention.

"Oh hello miss. Granger, mr. Weasley. How many of you are there today?"

"It's just us Professor, and may I ask, what's going on?" The scene in front of was a buzz of motion.

She gave a weary sigh before answering, "Some fifth years thought it'd be funny to nick all of our carriages the day before the Hogsmeade trip. We have searched everywhere but have not located them in time. These were old ones that we found, but unfortunately, we only found a few. Would you mind sharing?"

"We're perfectly fine with it."

"Oh good. Just in here." She swept her arm and directed to the carriage to the left of her. They made their way towards it.

"I hope you find the carriages soon." Hermione added as an afterthought.

The old Professor regarded her with a tired tone, "I hope we do too. These pranks always make things so convenient. Her face was stern but Hermione saw the amused glint in her eyes. This was taking her mind off certain bad things going on at the moment. Time away from it all did everyone some good. Hermione started to wonder whether or not she should punish the people responsible, or thank them.

They headed towards the carriages, which looked about as old as McGonagall. They reached the one that she'd pointed to, and Ron stepped inside when Hermione heard him groan. She was going to ask what was wrong when she stepped inside herself and saw the other two people in the carriage. One the left, was Malfoy, and clinging to his side was Pansy. At that moment, Hermione decided that she looked uncannily like a leech. Hermione sat down next to Ron, biting her cheek to keep from commenting on it.

Pansy was giving her a death glare, albeit she ignored, though if looks could kill, Hermione wouldn't doubt that she'd be lying cold on the floor. Malfoy seemed expressionless, but he actually seemed to be showing small signs of relief. She must have been imagining it; weren't him and Pansy betrothed? Rumours had been circulating around the school about it. What average, hormonal teenage boy didn't want to be alone with their future fiancée?

The carriage jolted forward, beginning the dreaded journey ahead.

Pansy decided to break the silence first. "Oh looky who we have here; Granger and Weasley out on a widdle date. Scraping the bottom of the barrel with her aren't you Weasley?"

Hermione felt Ron tense beside her, so he grabbed his arm to stop him from doing something irrational. She continued to look out the window of the carriage, as if she hasn't heard any of it.

Pansy was obviously not satisfied with this lack of response, and unhappy about being ignored, kept talking. "I guess it's for the best, wouldn't want any mudbloods like her running around contaminating any respectable pureblood lines, though I doubt any but the likes of you would even touch such filth."

Hermione felt her blood run cold. Without having to look at Ron, she knew that his face would be bright red. If Pansy were not a girl, Ron probably would have pounced on her by now.

"You-!" He was cut off when Hermione clamped her hand over his mouth. She was not going to let someone as pitiful as Pansy rile her up and spoil what was supposed to be their first date.

"Insulato." The soundproof barrier cut off anymore insults that Pansy was bound to make. "Ignore them."

It took her a while, but Hermione got Ron to completely ignore them. They spent the rest of the ride to Hogsmeade as if it was only the two of them, talking and laughing.

When the carriage came to a stop, they hopped off first and went on their way.

"So where to first?"

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Hermione found that she was really enjoying Ron's company. When Harry was there, and it was the three of them, it was still nice too, but being alone with Ron felt different. They walked around, and talked and laughed while eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. The first ones that they'd eaten were actually quite pleasant, Hermione got mint while Ron got gravy. As the day wore on though, the flavours they picked out kept getting more and more disgusting. Ron got phlegm while Hermione got earthworm which promptly made her gag. After this she politely refused when Ron tried to offer her more. He just shrugged his shoulders and she watched as he got dog food, cinnamon, chilly powder and onion, but he eventually stopped too when he got an old sock.

They went around and Hermione shopped for some stationary she needed. She finally got some of the new self inking quills she'd been wanting to get since last Christmas.

She'd not so subtly hinted that she had wanted them to Ron on more than one occasion. After a week of saying how tiresome it was to have to constantly have to dip the end of a quill in ink to write, Hermione had thought that he'd gotten it, but a week later, when Christmas came by, it turned out that he went and bought her a writing journal, so she could write in it. The journal itself was actually really exquisite; leather bound and was lined with a golden rim, so of course she'd still been happy to receive it. Not quite what she'd been expecting, but she had been happy none the less.

Hours went by; hours of laughter and silliness. By the end of it, Hermione felt as if her smile wouldn't come off her face. When it was nearly time to leave, Hermione suggested they split up so he could go to the quidditch shop while she headed off to the book store. He was reluctant at first, but gave in when Seamus and Dean went by and told him about some guy and how he and some other had guy had done a triple something. Of course he hadn't said that exactly, but quidditch talk really did just go straight past her head.

She made her was towards the bookstore, taking extra care, walking the long route. She glanced behind her and watched Ron disappear from her sight before she ducked inside the shop. She quickly went straight to the section she wanted, since she knew the layout off by heart.

She strolled past the A's, then the B's, unable to resist sticking her hand out and running her hand over the spines of new books. She urged herself on as to not waste time, but as usual, found her eye caught on the title of a random book, Building a strong Relationship.

She knew what was going to happen, she would get side tracked and leave the shop hours later when in fact she'd come for specific books. She went to put the book away why new shiny letters of the spine caught her attention; limited addition. This pretty much made up her mind for her. Normally she would has scoffed at the idea of such a book, but she was definitely in need of it at the moment, besides, it gave her something for light reading. She tucked the book in her arm and kept on walking, refusing to glance side ways in case she got distracted again.

She stopped at the section of C's, curses and cures. Once upon a time, she would have searched in the divination section, or the marks section, or even the relationship section, but she knew it now for what it was; a curse. Of course if you did manage to find your mate, it was not one, but if you weren't so lucky... the rest was history.

She grabbed three on the subject that looked promising. Normally she would have gotten more, but today she was downsizing.

From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw movement, and she looked to her sides. Nothing but stacks of books. Was she imagining things now?

"What's with the secrecy Granger?"

The voice was low and whispered in her ear. She involuntarily shivered. Hermione tensed, but otherwise didn't react much to Malfoy sneaking up on her. Still, she was unhappy that he caught her off guard, she thought she had been careful. Obviously not careful enough. She quickly tucked the book about curses at the bottom of her pile. She closed her eyes and gathered herself before slowly and purposefully turned on her heel to face him.

She kept her tone neutral and said with what she hoped had some conviction, "What secrecy? I was just getting some books for light reading."

He looked at the stack of books in her hand, and Hermione breathed an imaginary sigh if relief that she's had the hindsight to hide the books about curses. They would have been hard to explain, and she was not that good of a liar.

He narrowed his eyes at her, and Hermione started to get worried. It wouldn't take him much longer to realise that she was in the curse section and see something was up.

She blurted the next thing that came to mind, "Why are you following me?"

His face quickly went from suspicious, to blank. She kept her eyes on his face, and watched his mask appear again. This time, it was spiteful.

"Who said I was following you? This is a public place, is it not?" He gave her another impassive smirk.

She opened her mouth to retort, when her gaze slid past him and onto the time that the clock on the wall was showing. It must have not been working; there was no way it was already that late. To her horror, this thought was immediately expelled when she saw that it ticking along in perfect working order.

"The time! You've made me late!" Inwardly, a voice chided that her lateness was actually mostly due to her stalling, but she pretended not to have though it.

She quickly packed up her stuff and rushed to the counter and paid for her books. She looked at the clock again, biting her lip at how close they were cutting it. She tried to mentally assure herself that they wouldn't all leave without them.

She rushed back to the carriages as fast as her legs would carry her, where Hagrid was waiting.

"I'm sorry I'm late! The time completely slipped my mind!"

"It alright 'ermione. I don't mind wait'in, though I'm afraid there's only one carriage left."

She looked past Hagrid and saw that there was indeed only a single carriage.

He leaned in closer to her and whispered, "I'm afraid ye gonna hav'ta share with him." He jerked his head in the direction of Malfoy, who was looking at them with a bored expression. "Sorry 'bout that."

Determined to be undeterred, she smiled up at him, "It's alright Hagrid. It's my fault for being late anyway. If he tries anything funny, I'm always perfectly capable of defending myself."

"I know ye are. Don't 'old back either, 'cause I didn't 'ear a thing." He winked at her. She only smiled back in response.

Malfoy didn't try anything. In fact he sat straight and and immediately busied himself by looking gloomily out of the carriage window. If it wasn't for the rattling of the carriage, it would have been awkwardly silent.

Hermione wished that she were alone, as then she could start reading her books, but she wasn't. She closed her eyes and sighed.


	8. Chapter 8: Secrets spilled

**I only realised in the previous chapter that has been eating up my page dividers, so sorry if it has caused any confusion! Hopefully this one works!**

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Chapter 8: Secrets Spilled

_Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.  
\- André Malraux_

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He was contempt in pretending that the scenery outside was interesting. He was ignoring the girl that sat across from him in the small carriage. He had felt inexplicably angered by her, and for reasons he could not fathom. It had been on his mind all day, more precisely, _she_ had been on his mind all day. The moment he had seen the Weasel headed towards them, and just him alone, he had felt a tightening in his chest. He had no idea what this feeling was; he had never felt it before. He hadn't even been around people that could have even evoked such feelings. They were alien to him.

Why hadn't Potter been going with them? Without him to be the buffer it was just Granger and Weasley, a set up that seemed suspiciously like a date. Draco knew about the little boy crush that Ron had on Granger, you'd have to be either extremely stupid or extremely in denial to not see it. Granger was the latter. She may have been considered the brightest witch of their generation, but she sure as hell wasn't the best when it came to the relationship department. Weasley was extremely obvious about his affections as well, to the point that he reminded Draco of a puppy dog trailing after Granger.

Weasley wasn't even the only boy in school that held affections for the fiery Gryffindor. Thomas seemed to have a thing for her, so did Longbottom. At one point, even Blaise had even commented on how she was 'easy on the eyes'; for a Gryffindor of course.

When one first laid eyes on Hermione Granger, the first thought that came to mind wasn't that she was a raving beauty, in fact Draco had more than once compared her to a beaver. The problem was that now, he found himself thinking about this 'ugly beaver' more and more often. He'd then check himself, and list all of the reasons why he shouldn't be thinking about her.

He had been doing well too, until he saw her alone at Hogsmeade acting all suspicious, so he had done what most people would have in that situation; he followed her. He was half expecting her to walk into an extremely shady store located in some sort of alleyway by how secretive she was being, but no, Granger looked behind her and ambled into a bookstore. Leave it to Granger to be completely intriguing yet predictably boring at the same time.

He kept a few paces behind her and followed her in. He must admit, he was a good spy, but his efforts appeared to be in vain. All she was doing was looking at books. Draco had followed her around a bit longer before he had announced his presence.

She had turned to face him calmly, but she couldn't hide the surprise that had registered in he eyes. He inwardly clapped himself on the back for sneaking up on her.

When he let his gaze drop to the stack if books in her hand, he felt the gnawing at his chest again. There, blatantly on show, was a book titled 'Building a strong relationship.' The gold words seemed to reflect back at him, almost mockingly. Draco couldn't think of anyone else that Granger would want to form a 'strong relationship' with apart from Weasley. The thought made him feel sick. Who would want to build a strong relationship with that dimwit?

She had then even accused him of following her! The nerve! Even though he technically had been following her, she should not have had the guts to call him out on it.

All of these events lead up to the carriage ride that he was sharing. Granger was sitting with her eyes closed, looking as if she were asleep. She was probably in her own world at the moment, unaware of her surroundings, her guard not completely down though. No, Hermione Granger never had her guard fully down; there was always something. He felt extremely out of place and awkward, almost as if he had intruded in her space, which he guess he had. The only solution he could think for this was to pretend he wasn't there, and gloomily out the window.

He soon got bored of doing this, and for the first time in a long while, he allowed himself to simply stare at someone. He studied her face, the way it looked older, her skin drawn, presumably from stress. There were so many things in the girls life that could have stressed her out, far more than any average teenage witch. Most girls, Pansy for example, cared mostly about how their hair looked or if their makeup was running, their biggest worries were whether or not they chipped a nail. The thing that Pansy had always wanted to talk about was gossip that she had heard from other girls like herself, _about_ girls like herself. It got extremely tiring over time. Granger, was different.

Granger was polite to those who were polite back to her, and she had tidy manners. They were impossible not to notice when she sat across from a red headed slob. Her whole disposition went completely against what he had been taught to believe. She was not some greedy animal, no, Millicent filled in that category. She exuded qualities that could only be the result of a good up bringing.

_Too bad she's a Mudblood_. A small voice whispered in his head, that suspiciously resembled Lucius.

A small thudding pain started clawing at his chest, but it was small, small enough to ignore. They had started a while ago, and he now knew what they were. All of them were caused by ridiculous mark that had appeared suddenly of his left shoulder when he'd come to Hogwarts. Small changes were starting to take shape, and with the changes brought the attacks. They occurred quite randomly, during day or night. The worst he could remember of it had happened at night, at the start of the week. He had been dreaming, of what he could not remember, but he had woken up in blinding pain. He had writhed around for what felt like hours before he was able to control it, all of this caused by a stupid nightmare. When he'd woken up the next day, his throat was sore and croaky.

The attacks were always random, so he always just ignored them for the time being until he could focus on it more later when he was alone.

He looked at her eyes to distract himself. Her eyes were not brown as he'd thought them to be, they were honey coloured, and, he realised with a start, they were staring straight at him.

"What are you staring at me for?" Her voice did not hold any accusation, simply curiosity.

He forced the muscles in his cheek to quirk upward into a smirk. "Just seeing if anything deadly is likely to jump out of that mangled hair of yours."

She gave him a long, hard quelling look before saying, "Is that the best excuse you can come up with?"

It had been weak, but he'd been put on the spot. When that happened, he usually resorted to insulting the person, which would hopefully make them insult him back and promptly ignore him. As he saw it, why stray from tradition?

"No, it isn't, but I wouldn't use my best with the likes of you."

Nothing. Then, "Do you ever get lonely Malfoy?"

He opened his mouth as if to reply, then closed it again. Had he heard right? He then opened it again, his jaw working while no sound came out of it mouth. It looked quite comical, and Hermione applauded herself for catching Malfoy completely off guard.

The 'insult and go' method had completely backfired. It had backfired beyond comprehension. He was completely speechless, trying to search for an acceptable reply. What kind of a person _asked_ this kind of thing? Apparently people like Hermione Granger do. He realised his mouth was still open, and he hadn't replied yet, just sat there, so he hissed out what came to mind first. _"What?"_

She looked at him patiently and said, "Do you ever get lonely Malfoy?"

He sneered at her, having recovered. "Why on earth would I be lonely Granger? I can have everything I ever desire on my beck and call. Unlike those friends of yours, I'm privileged with vast amounts if wealth."

Her tone stayed calm and neutral, despite his biting tone. "You didn't answer my question Malfoy."

She wasn't going to let this go was she? Granger was always one to pry where she was not wanted, this was no exception. He made his tone as cold as possible and said, "Why do you care? What do you gain from this?"

She did not flinch at his harsh tone, nor did she show any other sign that she was the least bit intimidated by him. "I don't gain anything Malfoy, not everything has to be beneficial. I was simply asking a question."

"Well _don't_."

She turned away at him at this, obviously not wanting to push it. She didn't mention that he still had not answered her.

Malfoy looked away as well. Would he have even known what the answer to her question was? It was true that he got practically anything he wanted, father would buy it for him. He was a spoiled child and he knew it. All of the toys stacked inside a spare room filled with other presents proved it. His social status meant that he could marry just about any pureblood girl he would ever want, which guaranteed a family. Did that make him lonely? His mind flashed back to his child hood. Being in a huge, glamorous manner. The click clacking of his shoes the only sound that could be heard. Walking down the empty halls, calling out names and having absolutely _no one_ reply.

_Yes_.

The carriage went over a bump and jolted him out of his memories. His eyes found his way back to hers, which were, once again staring straight back at him. Her brows were slightly furrowed, and her face looked so... sad.

Had he said it out loud? No, of course not. He would never let something like that slip. He batted away the annoying voice in his head again.

They didn't speak for the rest of the ride back to Hogwarts, no words were needed. Draco was almost positive by the end of it that he hadn't said his thoughts aloud, but the look in her eyes told him otherwise.

When the carriage came to a stop, he practically ran away from her. He went directly to the Great Hall where he knew his other housemates would be.

Pansy was sitting next to Blaise, and had out her bag on the other side of her so that no one else could sit by her other side. Apparently she was still mad at him for ditching her. Draco couldn't care less. He went and sat in between Crabbe and Goyle.

"Hey mate, how was Hogsmeade?" Blaise said, ignoring Pansy's glare.

_The carriage ride. Sitting across from her. Telling her-_

"It was alright, nothing eventful happened."

Pansy stabbed at her pumpkin pie.

Blaise noticed this and raised a single eyebrow at him, smirking.

Draco waved him off and gave him a look that said 'I'll tell you later'.

So what if he had ditched her? It's not like he really cared what she thought of him, she would always get over it to ensure that she married into the Malfoy family name.

His thoughts were on how ugly pug faced blonde kids would look, when a huge grin broke out on his face. It wasn't the thought of their children that made him smile though, it was something else. The telltale fast beating of his heart proved it.

He stood up abruptly, knocking over his goblet of pumpkin juice. In the distance, he heard something that sounded like Blaise complaining about spilling it but he paid it no mind. He quickly strode out of the great hall, not looking back.  
Once he was outside of the doors and out of sight, he ran. He had never felt so exhilarated in his life. He felt so... bubbly. It was ridiculous, but he couldn't stop it.

He ran straight towards the one place he knew no one else would be, Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. It was his sanctuary, and Myrtle knew to keep her mouth shut.

He ran inside, not bothering to greet Myrtle. He quickly threw off his top and it landed somewhere on the floor. His breathing was rapid as he stared at himself in the mirror. The mark, bold against the pale skin of his shoulder stared back at him. A small, but noticeable fern was poking out from behind that big one that had been there for years.

He grin grew bigger, if that was even possible. He felt more awake than he had for months, like someone had come along and zapped him with electricity that coursed through all of his limbs.

_Something_ during the day had made the mark change, something must have happened. The first ever change that had ever happened to the blasted mark that cursed him. He might not die yet.

A noise broke off his celebration. The sound if something dropping on the marble floor.

He whipped around, his whole body tense. Lying on the ground, was a wand. Next to it, with eyes as big as saucers, stood Hermione Granger. She was staring straight at his mark.

His secret was out.


	9. Chapter 9: Confessions

**Disclaimer: **I haven't done one of these in a while, so I might as well. Can you guess what I'm going to say next? I don't own anything you may recognise but the plot! JK Rowling does.

* * *

**Chapter 9: Confessions**

_Many people pray to be kept out of unexpected problems.  
Some people pray to be able to confront and overcome them._

\- Toba Beta, Betelgeuse Incident

* * *

_He whipped around, his whole body tense. Lying on the ground, was a wand. Next to it, with eyes as big as saucers, stood Hermione Granger. She was staring straight at his mark._

_His secret was out._

* * *

Hermione Granger had never been one for melodramatics. She had always been a steady, level headed person, but at that moment, she was anything but level headed. She felt as if someone had gone and yanked the floor away from under her, and she was falling. She knew she was staring, but she couldn't look away.

"You're- you're _marked_?" She couldn't keep her voice from rising a pitch. "You- you're destined for..." _Me. _She couldn't finish the sentence. She felt dizzy and sick to her stomach.

Her words snapped him out of whatever reverie he was in and smirked, but it didn't reach his eyes. They were hard and unreadable. "What are you on about Granger? It's my birthmark. Don't you know that most purebloods of high status are born with one?" His words were purposeful and deliberate, as if he was trodding on thin ice over a lake.

She shook her head mutely at him. "I know what that is Malfoy. It's not some birth mark." He frowned slightly, as if he didn't know where she was taking this. She didn't know either. "Thats the Maidenhair's mark. It binds you to you're destined mate."

The look on his face darkened. "Don't you dare tell anyone about this-" He took a step towards her, his tone threatening.

"I wouldn't," She cut in. She was expressionless, still numb from shock. He stopped, unsure of himself. He obviously had been expecting more resistance, or maybe even blackmail. She chose not to mince her next words, the truth had to come out sooner or later, why delay it any further? "Because I'm your mate." She stated plainly.

He flinched and recoiled, as if she had physically lashed out at him. Maybe she should have minced her words, if just a little bit, to make the news easier to digest. Hermione saw all of his bottled up emotions show on his face; anger, confusion, suspicion, disbelief, and others she could not decipher. She wondered how rarely he got caught off guard enough to let his emotions show.

All at once, these emotions disappeared, and his expression changed into one of complete loathing, aimed directly at her.

He strode forward to where she stood against the door. A flicker or fear went up her spine, dully she was aware that her wand lay inches away from her on the ground, out of reach. She was unarmed and defenceless.

_"What game are you playing at? Do you think this is some _joke?_" _He spoke with a low voice, his body shaking with barely controlled anger. He still hadn't pulled his shirt back on, and she could see how all of his lean muscle was tensed. She'd forgotten how quickly his mood could change. If he were to attack her at that moment, there was little doubt that he would win and possibly severely harm her. Despite being resolute to stay unaffected, she involuntarily flinched.

He saw, and something unreadable flashed fleetingly in his eyes, but it was gone before she could figure out what it was. He stepped away from her, his face completely blank. He spun around, grabbed him robes and gave her one final glare before left the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Only when she could no longer hear his receding footsteps, when she was sure that he was gone, did she allow herself to slump. Her knees gave out from underneath her, and she slid down the bathroom wall. It took her a moment to realise what he had meant when he said what he said. He had been accusing her of mocking him, and he didn't believe her. He thought that she was lying to him, which was ridiculous.

_Six years_ she had searched, and all along, _Malfoy _had beenmarked. Arrogant, prejudiced, insufferable Malfoy.

Things weren't meant to turn out this way, her husband was supposed to like intelligent, and thoughtful, and humble. He was supposed to be solely devoted to her. Never had she dreamed that she'd be destined for someone like Malfoy. She didn't want to be destined for him, and she doubted she would want to be in a million years. The only problem was that she couldn't escape from it, not like she could with a failed relationship. The moment the mark had appeared on her shoulder, she was trapped with him.

This thought led to another equally depressing one; Ron. She had led him on, going on what had been an unspoken date, and now she had to go back completely on herself and end whatever had been there. Once, she had even entertained the thought of what it'd be like to have little curly haired red heads running around. She had even come up with a name that she would have named their first daughter, Rose. Now it all seemed ridiculous, even if she'd only done it out of curiosity stemmed from boredom.

If it were all happening to any one else, she might have laughed at how ironic this all was for Malfoy. Raised to hate muggle borns, to think that they were inferior, only to end up being forced to live a life with one of them. A Gryffindor no less.

She contemplated sitting there, wallowing in self pity for a while, but she knew it would get her no where. Besides, she wasn't one to give up so easily.

She stood up, picked up her wand and ran out after him.

She made it to their common room, out of breath, just as he was going to climb the steps to his room.

"Malfoy!"

He paused, his foot on the bottom step. He didn't acknowledge her, but the fact that he'd stopped meant that he was listening.

"I- I wasn't lying."

This time, she wasn't sure if he had actually heard her, until he took his foot off of the step and turn to face her.

"About what?" His tone was testing.

"I'm your mate Malfoy." She finished a little breathlessly.

His brows were furrowed, as if he was trying to figure her out her motive. "Prove it."

She kept eye contact with him as she undid the first two buttons of her top. She pulled down the left side, fully exposing her collar bone. This action would have seemed intimate in any other situation, with any other person.

He was silent, his gaze trained solely on her exposed shoulder and the dark black mark. All of his arrogance that usually graced his posture evaporated into nothing. She didn't know if he was conscious of the wall he had built around himself was breaking. He looked nearly frightened when he whispered almost to himself, "That can't be real."

She stared at him, her mouth agape, not believing what he had just said. "What more proof do you want Malfoy? You've seen my mark!"

"No. It can't be you." His hand curled at his heart, almost defensively. "It _can't_ be you." He looked like a caged mouse.

"Malfoy, don't you get it? We don't have a choice in this."

"Don't _you_ get it? I'm a _pureblood_! I can't have a future with the likes of you!" His breathing had turned into gasps now, as if he had been the one running.

She knew she shouldn't push him, but she couldn't help herself. They both knew what he had implied, but Hermione was beyond caring. She couldn't believe that her whole life depended on the fancy of this _boy_ that stood in front of her. She wanted a way to vent out all of her emotions.

"Is that your excuse? That just because you're a pureblood, _I_ somehow have the upper hand in this? Wake up Malfoy! You're probably the last person I'd want to be stuck with either!" She was aware that a small ache had erupted on her left shoulder, tiny needle like pinpricks were making their way across it, but she was too absorbed in the fight to acknowledge it.

"You just _don't get it_ do you? Do you have any idea what people would say? What my _family_ would say if they found out that I'm- I'm destined for a _mud_-" he broke off mid word.

It was then that Hermione realised that there was something off about him. His face was impossibly white, void of color apart from two red patches that dotted the top of each cheekbone. The hand that had been resting on his heart before was now clutched into a tight fist. All of her anger dissipated.

"Malfoy?"

He didn't seem to hear her. His eyes were screwed shut. She took a few cautious steps toward him.

"What's wrong Malfoy?" He didn't respond, now looking a light shade of green. She reached him and gently put a hand on his right shoulder. "It's your mark isn't it? What did you do?"

He doubled over at her words, folding in on himself into a somewhat defensive stance.

"Malfoy! You're scaring me! Tell me what's wrong!" She was border lining hysteria, not knowing what to do with herself. Her hands found his shoulders and she tried to make him look at her, but he wouldn't.

"Draco please."

He gasped, and his eyes shot opened. His head lifted, and from his crouched state he was level with her, their faces barely inches apart. His breathing was quickened and his breath on her neck sent a shiver down her spine. Suddenly aware of their close proximity, she quickly removed her hands from his shoulders.

She could feel his gaze on her and she forced herself to meet it. His face was flushed and his face was held in a grimace, but he looked in considerable less pain then moments before.

He tried to straighten up but was deterred by he fact that he was drained of energy. His tried to take a step forward, but his knee buckled and he teetered forward. Without thinking she rushed forward and put her arm around his waist to steady him. He tensed against her, then tried pulled away, opening his mouth is if to object, and nearly collapsed with out her support.

Hermione quickly went to his side again and half held him upright. "You know it's okay to ask for help. You don't always have to be self-reliant." She said, as gently as she could.

He didn't respond but he didn't pull away either.

She slowly helped him up the stairs. With every step, he leaned more and more of his body onto her. By the time they were in his room, he was a deadweight. She gingerly lowered him onto his bed. She gently pulled the blanket onto him, his half lidded eyes following her movements. He looked at her for a few more seconds before his eyes fluttered shut.

He looked impossibly small against the dark sheets, even though he towered over her.

She surveyed his room, curious, and found it exactly like its owner; immaculate and glamorous yet to her it would be hard and uncomfortable to live in. The curtains were still drawn, and she wondered if he ever opened them, or of they were always shut, keeping him in oppressive darkness.

Malfoy groaned and shifted in his bed. A crease appeared between his brows as if he was in discomfort. Hermione cautiously leaned forward to see if inspect him when his hand reached out and grabbed hers. She gasped and tried to pull her hand away, but his grip was tight. She was about to slap him hand away when she realised that his eyes were still closed. Was he reaching for her subconsciously for comfort? She got her answer when his fingers laced with hers, and a satisfied sigh escaped his lips.

A blush started to make its way to her cheeks and she mentally scolded herself. He was asleep and he had still managed to make her flustered.

She waited until his breathing fell into a rhythmic pattern before she untangled her hand from his and quietly exited his room.

She stepped into her own and found that she was exhausted, even though it was still early. She considered staying up about longer to study, but the thought was dismissed. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she went out like light.

* * *

_Interpret this chapter. I dare you!_

_I had trouble writing this chapter. I kept re starting it and then changing my mind about it, in the end your reviews helped me decide on the finished product!_

_I'm quite interested to see if you guys can guess what's going to happen next, and what you actually want to happen, so have at it! If a majority lean towards one thing I write it in. Any one who guesses events right will get a big slice of strawberry cheese cake sent their way! Or some caramel mint brownie... Or maybe a big ship load of fudge... *drools*_

_Review!_


	10. Chapter 10: Dream or Reality?

Disclaimer: Do I own HP you ask? Oh sure, and I hide everything that has o do with it in a box in the attic. I just hired that lady to be my public image, you know since I'm the giant SQUID from Hogwarts and all. You know, JK Rowling? Great lady, she even wrote the HP series for me and owns everything related! I have had put a lot of input into the HP series too you know, I bought and read them. ;-) Just to be safe, I DO NOT OWN!

We've reached 100+ reviews! This is seriously amazing! I want to thank everyone that has favourited/followed and reviewed for this story! My schedule has been a bit busy lately and I'm finding it harder and harder to make my 'at least one chapter per week' goal, and your reviews are what's keeping me enthusiastic! THANK YOU!

Your predictions that you left were entertaining to read :-) Some of you were headed in the right direction but you took a huge wrong turn, and some of you were eerily accurate.

Thanks goes to Anya (guest) and jediluver033for suggesting the first scene!

**Chapter 10: Dream or Reality?**

_She stepped into her own and found that she was exhausted, even though it was still early. She considered staying up about longer to study, but the thought was dismissed. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she went out like light. _

* * *

_She was hopping off the Hogwarts express wide eyed and bursting with excitement. This first step signified so much more than getting off a magical train, it was stepping into the unknown. She looked at the magnificent castle structure in front of her, this was to be the place where she learnt about things that defied logic. By the time she left, she'd be able to cast spells and transfigure objects with a stick- wand. Just like in all of the magic shows her parents had brought her to see, except it would be real. _

_She followed the other first years, chatting adamantly to anyone who would listen. _

_A flash of blonde caught her eye. She turned her head to look and found herself drowning in pools of grey. The grey turned into two piercing eyes if an owl, she yelped and ducked as it reached its talons out to claw at her. None of this made sense, but she didn't have time to question it. She readied herself for the assult, but it didn't come. She looked up, confused, but it had disappeared. Her face was still wet though, she was crying. _

_Images flashes past her eyes in a blur , and she was no longer surrounded by people. She was alone in a bathroom, scared out of her wits by the sudden appearance of a strange mark. _

_She felt herself start to change, and she gasped in surprise when she saw the reflection of herself. Her legs grew longer, as did her arms, her school robes growing with them. Her face grew slimmer, her cheekbones more defined. Her hair, while it lost some of its volume, still fell in frizzy waves. With a start she realised she was watching herself age. The only thing that didn't change at all was the black mark near her collar bone. _

_She reached out to the mirror, with shaking fingers to touch her reflection. Just before her fingers reached the glass, the mirror shattered before her, showering her with debris. The glass rained around her, but didn't cut her, as it should have, it merely passed _through_ her, as if she were a projection. She tensed, suddenly aware that the lower half of her body felt numbingly cold. Warily, she looked down, and screamed. _

_Her school robes had been replaced by a night gown, but that wasn't what made her scream. She was standing hip deep in a swamp. Her eyes darted up and she opened her mouth to call out for help, but she wasn't in a bathroom anymore. Everywhere she looked, all she could see was swamp. It stretched far out into the horizons, further than she could see. There was no way out. She started moving, not knowing which way she was going. She could feel her legs moving, but she seemed to stay in the exact same spot in the swamp. The level of the murky water was rising, it was now at her waist. Panicking, she pumped her legs, trying to resist against the heavy slosh she was practically swimming in. This only seemed to make the swamp rise faster. _

_She finally got what people meant when the said they were chilled to the bone. The freezing muddy water seemed to seep into her skin, and she felt as if she could never be warm again. She was numb all over. She let out one last scream as the swamp rose to her throat. Soon, it would drown her. _

_She craned her neck, to stay above the water for as long as possible, and took a last breathe just as the water completely submerged her. She tried to move forwards, hoping to find higher footing, but the sludge a slowed her down significantly. Her lungs started to burn, pleading for air. She started to thrash around, hoping to get a grasp of something, anything that she could use to pull herself out with. Just as she felt her lungs were about to burst, an arm pulled her out of the muck. _

_She didn't get a look at her saviour's face, she was too focused on the fact that she had nearly died. Whatever had saved her had pulled her close, she could feel the body heat emanating off them. A strange sensation came over her, she not only felt warm but strangely safe. _

_When she looked up, all she saw was a pair or brilliant grey eyes staring back at her. She reached out her hand and-_

She was dry. Her breath was no longer coming out in gasps. The comforting warmth was still next to her, encompassing her, she still must be dreaming since even Crooshanks wasn't this warm. She shifted closer to the warmth and let out a content sigh.

Her moving made the person next to her groan in annoyance and tighten their hold on her, pulling her closer to them. She woke completely from her lucid state; she had not imagined that groan, and the feel of their arm around felt very much real. They were definitely _male _too.

Her eyes flew open, and she was suddenly very aware of the hard chest that was flush against her back. Hermione screamed bloody murder.

Immediately, she tried to get away from him by pushing on his chest, but he would not let go of her. The arms that encircled her waist were surprisingly strong, and they resisted against her futile attempts to escape.

She felt a nose drag along the side of her neck in inhale. She elbowed them hard in the gut. They groaned again, this time in pain. The grip on her waist loostened, and she crawled to her bedside table where her wand was as fast as she could. She whipped around, pointing it at a grumpy and very disorientated blonde.

"MALFOY!" She screeched at him, seething in anger.

This definitely woke him up, and his eyes flew open at her.

"What the hell are you doing in my bed Granger!"

"You nitwit! You're in MINE!"

She caught him by surprise again, and his gaze swept over her room, which was largely decorated with the bright Gryffindor colors, and gold.

"Oh." Was all he said in reply.

"Oh in-deed!" She said through gritted teeth. "Care to explain why I woke up to find you in it? In MY bed?" Her wand was still pointed at him.

"I don't know! The last thing I remember from last night was falling asleep after-" He paused as last nights events came back to him.

She looked at him oddly, before realising something that made her stop in her tracks. "What time is it?"

This time he looked at her oddly, "I don't know, ten maybe. Why?"

"WHAT! We're missing classes!" She ran around, collecting her uniform faster than she ever had before, mumbling incoherently to herself as she went. "... missed... second time... can't afford to... "

"Granger."

"... NEWTS soon... practically no time..."

"Granger!"

"... fail... hard work...wasted..."

Draco, who was getting annoyed and a little bit worried about the frantic girl in front of him did the first thing he could think of. He took her shoulders and physically shook her. "Granger!"

"What?!" Her hair was in her face, and Draco briefly thought she looked like a crazed chimpanzee.

He looked her in the eyes, and said clearly, pronouncing each syllable. "It's Sunday."

The book she had been stuffing into her bag fell to the ground. "It's Sunday?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Oh indeed." He said, mocking her, amused by her fast changing moods.

Hermione glared at him and shook him hands from her shoulders. He was smiling at her, no, grinning. She had never seen him do it before, sure she had seen him leer at her before plenty of times, but never grin. Reluctantly, she felt the corners of her mouth twitch into a smile.

A knock sounded on her door, and before she could tell him not to get it, Malfoy went and had opened it wide.

"Herm-"

The sound of a familiar voice caught her attention, and her eyes widened in shock. Ron's hand was raised in mid air, as if poised to knock, when the door had swung open.

His mouth dropped open, and his eyes bugged out of his head as he looked from her to Malfoy, then back to herself. She could tell he didn't believe his eyes.

He got over his shock before she did. "What the hell in HE doing in your ROOM!" He pointed an accusing finger at Malfoy.

"I can explain! He-" she stopped. She couldn't_explain_. She couldn't tell him that during the night Malfoy had most likely sleep walked to her room to comfort her because she'd been having nightmares. How could she explain that he did this because of connection that existed between them than Ron didn't even know about? The story, even though they were telling the truth combined with Ron's bull headed stubbornness would mean he wouldn't believe her anyway.

She was standing there speechless, unable to finish her sentence. Malfoy was looking at her expectantly, knowing the situation that she was in; smug bastard. Then he said the worst possible thing he could have, he goaded him. "What does it look like is going on Weasley? You have a brain don't you? Or was I mistaken?"

Ron's attention snapped back to Malfoy. He didn't respond, but the tips of his ears were turning bright red.

He took one look at Malfoy's appearance, his rumpled clothes, mussed up hair, and whipped out his wand.

Hermione saw Malfoy's hand reach for his wand in instinct, but he relaxed it, opting to shove his hands in his pockets instead. She realised his wand must still be in be room. A sense of déjà vu came over her.

"You disgusting ferret! If you've done anything to hurt Hermione I'll-!"

"Ron! He hasn't done anything wrong! Put your wand down!" The words that spilled from her mouth felt like they were uttered from another's lips. She forced her face to remain calm and determined. She said to herself that the only reason she was defending Malfoy was to avoid the fight that was bound to happen.

Malfoy turned his head and looked at her for the first time since Ron had arrived. He arched a single brow at her.

Hermione did not spare him a glance, her eyes were trained on Ron. He looked so angry that she half expected steam to start coming out if his ears.

"Hermione! How can you choose_ his _side over_ mine_!" He was literally shaking with anger.

"I'm not_choosing sides_Ronald, I'm... I'm simply..." She stared helplessly at him. What_was_she doing?

"I don't want to hear it." His voice cut like the edge of a blade. The hurt look on his face made it worse.

He stormed off and Hermione went to chase after him, only realising Malfoy was there the whole time when she bumped into him as she pushed past.

"Wait-" The common room door slammed shut, cutting off her plea.

Malfoy strutted over to her, "What are you getting all worked up for? There's no chance for you and him."

She glared at him. "Because I'm stuck with you?"

She didn't wait around to hear what he had to say, she was out of the door and chasing after Ron to try and make amends. She wasn't looking forward to today.

* * *

Anon asked if I had an updating schedule... that's a bit of a tricky question. When I started, it was update when ever the chapter was done but now I've kinda fallen into a rhythm. For now it's Wednesday or Thursday! So check back with me then a a new chapter should be up! Hopefully! I'll tell you guys if it changes.

Leave a review my lovelies! Even if to say hello!


	11. Chapter 11: Letters to the devil

Disclaimer: do I own HP? Why... No I don't.

Eehhh sorry, I know it was a long wait. I don't know of anyone is still reading, but don't give up on me yet! This chapter is dedicated to one rather enthusiastic pm telling me to get off my butt and write!

**Chapter 11: Letters to the devil**

_She glared at him. "Because I'm stuck with you?"_

She didn't wait around to hear what he had to say, she was out of the door and chasing after Ron to try and make amends. She wasn't looking forward to today.

* * *

She called out after him. "Ron! Ron wait!" She caught up to him and grabbed him arm, forcing him to look at her. "What's wrong? Why did you storm off like that?"

He was red in the face and looked livid. "You're getting too close to him! Ever since you guys started sharing common room, you and him have gotten too friendly! I've seen the way you two talk with each other, as if you two are the only ones in the room, and its disgusting. Are you forgetting that its _Malfoy_! Have you forgotten the years that he's _tormented_ us?"

"I haven't forgotten Ron!" She could tell that the conversation was headed into a full blown fight, so she tried to pull the reins back in. "I just can't as well go around I hating him everyday, you know that Heads have to share each others passwords for 'emergencies'. He could sneak up on me and hex when I'm asleep if I wasn't careful." Liar. Liar, liar, liar. "We have our duties as Heads, and we have to co-operate to fulfil them. You can't honestly expect me to ignore him when he lives across from me? Besides, none of what goes on between him and I really any if your business..." It had been the wrong thing to say.

"It's none if my business?!" Ron's face turned redder. "Hermione, I've been your friend for six years, and he's been _enemy_ for just as long! Now you're telling _me_ is none of my business? Well why don't you come and talk to me when it _becomes my business_. I wouldn't want to get in your way." He yanked his arm from her grasp and stormed off. Hermione wished over and over again in her head that she'd never told Ron the password to their common room.

What would happen if Ron knew the whole situation? What would he say? What would her _Harry _say? Would they think she'd somehow betrayed them? That was certainly how it felt like at the moment. She couldn't tell them, at least not for now; who knows how they would react?

She had to keep it to herself.

* * *

How dare she. How _dare_ she talk to him like that and then chase after _Weasley_. Was the girl mad?

Draco kicked the sofa.

It wasn't his fault that he'd woken up in the blasted girl's room. He hadn't the slightest recollection of ever getting up and out of his bed. He had been dreaming.

He'd dreamt of a faceless angel. It hadn't been faceless at the time, but the moment he'd woken, her face left his mind completely. It didn't have wings, but she had been surrounded by a bright glow. She had looked down at him with big eyes and smiled.

The angel stayed where she was, standing over him, when suddenly she had screamed. Her face contorted in pain as she screamed. Draco had sat up, trying to see what was hurting her, but she had seemed perfectly fine. She was simply screaming, an she wouldn't stop. It was a horrible sound, and it made his chest tighten. Her eyes were closed, and he'd willed her to open them and look at him. She had no reason to be screaming, everything was fine. He reached out his hand and shook her, trying to get her attention on him. She'd been freezing cold. He instinctively pulled her to him, trying to warm her up. This finally made her open her eyes and look at him. They searched his face, and he smiled at her as if to say 'everything is fine'. She shakily smiled back at him and laid her head on his shoulder.

She seemed to melt away in his arms, moulding perfectly with him. She no longer felt cold, instead she had been comfortingly warm, smiling up at him again. The image was shattered by the sound of Granger's loud screeching.

He took back his earlier thoughts of her resembling a chimpanzee, no, she was more like a virago. A virago that was he was most likely going to be stuck with for the remainder of his life...

He headed for his bedroom, feeling angry, tired and confused. He riffled through his bag and grabbed a piece of spare parchment. He scrawled onto it six simple words addressed to his parents. He did not sign his name, but he knew it wasn't needed, that they would figure it out.

He attached the note to his owl, Hermia. She was a small, golden brown feathered owl that he had picked himself. His father had wanted him to buy a rare large white owl that apparently had been breed and shipped specially in from Italy, but he had insisted on Hermia.

He stroked the owls feathers, revelling in their softness, and she affectionately nipped at his fingers.

Draco opened the nearest window for her and watched as the owl flew off into the distance. You could have never guessed that this owl held with it a message that would flip his life upside down. It would cause all hell to break loose. Six simple words.

_I've found her. It's Hermione Granger. _

When he could longer see Hermia flying off into the horizon, Draco got up and went looking for a distraction. He thought he was walking around aimlessly, but before he knew it, he found himself standing at the Slytherin dungeons. Of course, in a time like this, he naturally sought out the one person he knew he could trust.

"Blaise, I want to talk to you."

"It's nice to see you too." Blaise said lighty, not looking up from his essay he was writing.

Blaise was the only person that could get away with treating Draco like this. He was the only one that didn't give in to Draco's spoilt ways, or his coldness. Draco hated this, but he had to admit that this was one of the reasons why he hung around the boy so much. Blaise treated him like an equal, and he did not want something from him like everyone else did.

Blaise finally looked up from his writing, intrigued by the lack of reaction from Draco. Just because he was lenient with Blaise did not mean that he didn't usually back talk. The blonde was standing hunched over, looking in distain at his shoes.

He noticed that the common room was practically deserted, which was probably because everyone was outside doing things instead of staying cooped in the dungeons. There were only three people in the room, Draco, himself, and a first year studying in the corner. The first year was ease dropping on their conversation, having clearly not perfected the skill of subtlety yet.

Draco glared at him, and both he and Blaise could tell that he was trying not to be intimidated. The first year knew better then to get on both their bad sides though, and packed up his things. He attempted to swagger to the portrait door, and failed. The moment the door shut behind him, Draco collapsed onto the sofa next to Blaise and put his head in his hands.

"Mate, what's wrong? You look horrible." Blaise said.

Draco kept his head in his hands, and took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. He lifted his gaze to Blaise.

"What do you think of Granger?" He practically blurted out.

The other Slytherin looked at Draco with a quizzical expression, but knew not to bother asking when it had some thing to do with Hermione Granger. He knew he would never get a straight answer. "Granger? Hmmm." He made a show of tapping his chin, as if in deep thought, "Well, as I've told you before, she's easy on the eyes-"

"No, not how she _looks_." Draco interrupted, his tone carrying a slight edge. "I meant what do you think of her overall?"

"Overall all? I think she's interesting. She's smart for one thing, to the point that some people see it as a flaw. She's dignified, but she's bossy. She does have manners, better than some of the girls in Slytherin. She far surpasses my expectations for a muggle born witch."

Blaise looked at Draco, who was staring off into the distance.

"Mate, are you listening?" Blaise said, with a twinge of humour.

Draco's head snapped to attention. "Huh? Yeah." He stood up slowly, clearly still distracted, "I'll see you later." and walked off, leaving behind one very confused Blaise.

* * *

There was a tap at his bedroom window, it was Hermia. Draco opened the latch of the window and let her in. She ruffled her wind beaten feathers until they fell back into place. She offered him the note attached to her leg, and he took it. Hermia then went and settled back into her cage.

Draco immediately recognised the perfect cursive writing addressing the letter to him. He slowly opened it.

_Draco,_

_It's a disgrace for this mudblood to have any connection with us, I hope you know this. We had hoped that something like this wouldn't happen, and I cannot express how angry your mother and I are. _

_We have searched for cures for this curse, but yet have been unsuccessful. We will inform you immediately when we find something. _

_Do not worry son, I have come up with an ingenious plan. We can use this situation and turn it in our favour. _

_I want you Draco, to use her. Gain her trust, make the silly girl believe that you actually care for her. Use this trust, and use it to learn anything you can about her and her pitiful friends. We know that the mudblood trusts people far too easily, and I want you to take advantage of this weakness. Once we no longer have use for her, crush her pathetic heart. It would be such an amusing sight. _

_When you learn something, report it back to me. I will be waiting for your reply. _

_L.M_

Draco read the letter through, then he read it again. About the third time through, the impact of the words finally hit him.

The room felt too small, as if it were closing in on him. He had never been claustrophobic before, but at that moment, he had the inexplicable feeling that the room was closing in on him. He was aware that he was breathing hard, though he had not actually done anything physically taxing.

He needed air.

He yanked his door open so violently that he wouldn't be surprised if it had been ripped off its hinges. He took in a large breath and stepped forward- then froze.

There was a stack of books and parchment strewed across the common room table, and in the midst of it all, lay Granger. She looked almost as if she was... was she... was she _glowing_? He blinked and the glow disappeared. First he had had strange dreams, and now he was hallucinating?

By the looks of it, she had fallen asleep while studying. Her head was pillowed by the crook of her arm, which was resting carelessly on the table. Her hair was flared out around her like a halo.

_Once we no longer have use for her, crush her pathetic heart._

He strode past her and slammed the common room door.

* * *

Random question, what age/gender do you readers out there think I am? Just wondering :-) I want to see if anyone guesses right :-)

Leave a review! It'll only take a few seconds and it'll make my day! I promise! Come on!

Or else Umbridge will pay you a visit...

Review!


	12. Chapter 12: A glob of Yellow Sunshine

**Yes, it's a miracle, I've updated. I'm extremely sorry to all of my loyal readers, but I've really just lost my motivation for writing this story. It started off with a couple if days procrastinating writing, and that has now turned into months. I've managed to wring this chapter of me, but if I were you, I wouldn't keep my hopes up about there being another one soon... or maybe even ever... sorry**

**I guess it really just depends on if I get out of this writing rut I'm in. Hopefully I will. **

**Chapter 12: A glob of yellow sunshine**

_Once we no longer have use for her, crush her pathetic heart._

He strode past her and slammed the common room door.

She walked in the the class and straight past Harry and Ron who were at a full table with Dean and Seamus. She made her way to the back and joined Neville Padma and at the back. Ron had called them over to come and join them at their table. This had been going on for some time now, ever since she and him fought. At first he had been extremely angry and had started multiple fights with her, which usually ended up with Harry breaking them up. Now he was at the stage where he was superficially calm and purposefully ignoring her whenever she was around. She couldn't say that she preferred this over the screaming.

She had hoped that it wouldn't have led to this, but when it did happen, she couldn't say that she hadn't been expecting it. He was evidently upset by what had happened, and by his determination, it wasn't going to boil over easily like their other fights.

The morning after their fight, she'd actually made it through her daily morning routine, completely forgetting about the fight. Ron had woken up late so she had missed him during breakfast, but when realisation finally dawned on her that they were fighting, it had hit her like a ton of bricks.

She'd walked into Transfiguration and had been heading towards her usual seat when Ron had called out.

"Hey Dean, Seamus, over here."

Hermione's heart sunk and she'd willed her disappointment to not show on her face. Harry looked at her and Ron with a puzzled expression on his face, Ron didn't even glance in her direction. Who knew how easy it was for him to completely block someone out of their life? She strode past them with her head held high and made her way to an empty spot two rows behind them. She was not used to sitting so far from the front, in all of her classes she positioned herself a comfortable distance from the teacher.

The back of the classroom was inhibited mostly by Slytherins, and as she headed towards the table, some of them sneered in her direction, probably trying to discourage her, but she stared back at them blankly before seating herself.

Harry, at the end of class, dropped back to talk to her.

"I'm sorry about back there Hermione. Ron's saying some ridiculous stuff about how I have to choose a side. I don't know what's brought this on, but you know Ron, he'll get over it soon enough."

"It's alright Harry, I understand. There's no point in getting Ron angry with you too." She didn't say to him about how this wouldn't blow over soon. Fights she had with Ron were usually always resolved by Hermione apologizing, and in this situation, she couldn't because it was on going. He would keep holding the grudge over her until she did something about it, which she couldn't see herself doing anytime soon.

It was like this way during the rest of the days classes. Ron would surround himself and Harry with people so that she couldn't sit next to them, in the end Hermione ended up sitting next to Neville for most of the classes which wasn't so bad. Neville was nice and funny to talk to, he got her to smile during the second class she was seated next to him. She still couldn't help but miss Harry and Ron, things just weren't the same without them in her daily schedule.

Things had been like this for days now, and Harry was getting more than annoyed at Ron's refusal to speak to her. Understandably, he had been wedged between them as they fought.

Hermione walked into potions, avoiding eye contact with Malfoy as she seated herself across from him. A silence fell between them, as usual, as they waited for their professor to make his way to the class. When Snape did arrive, he seemed to be in a rather nasty mood, or at least a worst mood than usual.

"Turn to page 36 and start the Elixir to Induce Euphoria potion." He snapped at them.

Many eyebrows were raised at this. It was a strange sight for Snape, the grumpiest teacher at Hogwarts, to be asking them to make a potion that was meant to bring the drinker happiness. Hermione thought he needed a big dose of it today.

Hermione gathered her ingredients without having to consult the book. She had studied this potion thoroughly over the holidays and knew it practically off by heart. She had been captivated by the amusing side effects of the potion, some potions gave you warts or itchy skin, or other bothersome side effects, but this potion made the drinker's nose twitch uncontrollably and made them sing. The only thing that counteracted this was adding a sprig of peppermint.

She had been looking forward to the day when they would attempt this potion, but now she just felt like crawling under a rock. She reached their table and stared at the ingredients in front of her. She knew she was not in the highest of spirits, but her determined stubborn self would not let this affect her brewing skills though. She carefully added the shrivelfig and porcupine quills and got to stirring. After she stirred the mixture anti-clockwise exactly four times, she added a sprig of peppermint to it.

Her body moved on autopilot, finishing the potion while her head was lost in thoughts that swam inside her mind like a jumbled mess. Malfoy kept glancing at her and she had no idea why. He was giving her odd looks, not sneers or smirks, as if she were some strange foreign plant that he was deciding whether or not was safe to poke.

Malfoy was just another mystery that had been brought into her life that she was determined to ignore. He hadn't insulted her once these past days, and it was almost as if he sought her out in the corridors as after classes, which just made her more determined to avoid him.

Others were starting to speculate about how something was off between her, Harry and Ron, and sure enough, rumours had start to spread. Some were close to the truth whiles other were outrageously wrong. A brave fifth year had come up to her asking if it was true that Ron had walked in on Harry and her snogging, and she dismissed the notion with a wave of a hand, unable to stop laughing at the absurd was.

She frowned but kept stirring. After her sixth and final turn, a small, colorful rainbow rise from her cauldron. She stared at it, and watched as it shimmered and started to fade. She knew that the rainbow meant the potion had succeeded, but she didn't feel the quiet sense of accomplishment that usually came with completing a potion. The whole thing with Ron had dampened her spirits, and now she was beginning to feel guiltier and guiltier by the day. With nothing to do now that she finished with her potion, she absentmindedly watched a partially fascinating piece of dust float around the space in front of her. It flew freely, caught in one of the potions classes many drafts; up and up it went before it performed a somersault and plummeted back down to swirl its way back up again.

She had been watching this interesting piece of dust for a good five minutes before something else grabbed her attention. At first she thought she was imagining it, and blinked twice, but when she opened her eyes again, it was still visible; there, floating in the center of the room, was a brightly colored glob. She looked around, to see if anyone else had noticed it, and surely enough others were stopping what they were doing and watching as this glob, which she had identified as the Elixir to Induce Euphoria potion, move across the room. No one said anything as it closer to the professor, who was standing with their backs turned to them. Snape turned around to address the class, and at that exact moment, the glob floated gracefully into the open mouth of the professor.

Snape looked, for lack of a better word, shocked. He swallowed from what looked like a reflex and seemed to freeze, realising what he had done.

The whole class was now watching intently, and Hermione could almost sense all of them holding their breaths, waiting to see what was going to happen next.

Snape's voice cuts through the silence, deep but clear. "This one's going out to all the lovers out there. Hold each other tight, and keep each other warm. And dance your final dance."

Apart from Snape's singing, the room is deathly silent, everyone's breath caught in their throat. No one spoke, before all at once, everyone burst in a roarus laughter. No one could keep a straight face at the sight of their potions teacher belting out a song off-key. He was grinning manically, which was actually quite unnerving and amusing at the same time.

"This is your final chance

To hold the one you love

You know you've waited long enough. So, believe that magic works. Don't be afraid of being hurt. Don't let this magic die, the answer's there; oh, just look in her eyes."

Hermione, for the first time in days, felt a genuine smile creep onto her face. The logical side of her brain told her to try and control the situation and fulfil her duty as Head Girl, but the sight that she was witnessing was a once in a lifetime experience. She wanted this image to be seared into her memory for whenever she needed cheering up.

She glanced at Malfoy; he was smirking but she could tell he was trying not to smile.

"And make your final move.

Don't be scared, she wants you to

Yeah, it's hard, you must be brave, don't let this moment slip away."

They all watched as Snape continued to sing and prance around the room for another good five minutes before Hermione begrudgingly fulfilled her role as Head Girl and went to get Mcgonagall to handle the situation, smiling the whole way. The professor had been more than a little surprised to walk in on a room full of hysterical seventh years watching their potions teacher sing. She dismissed them early from their class to handle the situation.

As they all packed up their working stations, Hermione took notice of another workbench. It caught her eye because and lying next to a cauldron of yellow potion, was a single sprig of peppermint.

On the way out of class, Harry whispered in her ear, "Meet me outside of the hall after diner."

As he'd asked her, Hermione waited outside the dining hall when she had finished eating, instead of walking off, she stood and waited patiently for whatever Harry had planned.

She heard them coming before she saw them.

"What is this about? And why is she here?"

Hermione looked at Ron's face which bore an expression of suspicion, anger and hurt; the same look he'd been giving her for days. That was of course, when he actually did acknowledge her, which was rarely.

"I think its pretty clear why she's here. This ridiculous little fight you guys have been having has got to stop. I'm tired of watching my two best friends fight, and I'm tired of being thrown into a fight that was started by something neither of you will tell me about. Why don't you both just apologise and we can forget this whole stupidー"

Ron didn't let him finish "Not until she tells me what Malfoy was doing in her room at seven in the morning! Looking all... rumpled!"

Hermione bit the inside of her cheek as Harry turned to her with a perplexed expression. "Hermione, what was he doing in your room?"

She didn't answer, and looked at him helplessly.

"Granger," A voice called from behind them, "We've got detention."

They all turned to look and saw Malfoy standing behind them. He had said it directly to Hermione, cutting out Harry and Ron as if they didn't exist. She looked back at him in surprise; she'd forgotten about their detention completely.

He strode past, barely acknowledging the two boys. As he passed her, he gave her an expectant look that said 'are you coming?'.

"I'm sorry Harry. I... can't explain it to you yet." She sighed before following him. As she did, she swore she caught him smirking. Smug bastard. She'd rather not stay and start yet another argument. As they walked away, they could hear the two boys arguing behind them.

The reached Snape's classroom to find him already there waiting for them.

He let them in an shut the door behind them without uttering a single word. It seemed the Elixir to induce Euphoria was already starting to wear off, and Snape was turning into his old grumpy self. Despite his cold brush off, he really didn't need to explain anything to them anyway; they knew the routine. They were to clean up his cauldrons that were used for the day, and exactly one hour later he would return and inspect them, if they were up to his standard he would let them leave. They usually finished before the given time, but they weren't allowed to leave until the hour was up. The door was thoroughly locked and couldn't be unlocked by anyone but Snape; they'd tried. Hermione didn't like admitting it, but this punishment was quite cunning, it meant that they had to work side by side with each other as they cleaned. Once they were done they had nothing else to do and only have the other for company or conversation. This meant that either they would slowly learn to get along and tolerate each others presence, or they would kill each other trying; Snape didn't seem too bothered with the outcome. He really only seemed to care about what it meant for the condition of his classroom.

Sighing, Hermione picked up a rag and started cleaning the nearest cauldron.

She saw in the corner if her eye, Malfoy taking out his wand and scourify his share of the cauldrons. He smirked, clearly pleased with himself. She doubted that the wand he'd given Snape was his own.

"He's probably already realised that the wand I always hand over to him is fake, but he doesn't say anything about it." He sounded smug. I tried to drown out his voice.

"Aren't you going to preach about how unfair it is that Snape treats houses unequally?" She imagines that the table she's wiping down is his face, and the dirt is his smug smirk.

"Granger, your hairs on fire." She wipes harder.

Clearly annoyed, Malfoy casts a scourify on the rest of the classroom, leaving her with nothing to do. "There, all clean." He smirked, twirling his wand in his hand.

"Do you ever complete a task without some form of deceitfulness?"

"I do, but only when I feel like it and I'm not being ignored." He sighed dramatically, pretending to look hurt.

She rolled her eyes. "You sure do like being the center of attention don't you? You should try running down the streets naked, it'd sure get you a lot of media coverage."

"And don't forget the amazing view I would be giving the witches of the world."

"If by amazing you mean 'would render someone blind' then sure."

"Blinded by awe no doubt."

"In awe of seeing a large albino ferret?"

"I wouldn't know, I've never seen one. Maybe it escaped from that wild mane you call hair." She didn't know what brought it on, his unnecessary seriousness, or the tone of his voice, but for the second time that day, Hermione felt a begrudging smile make its way onto her face.

Malfoy raised his brow at her, but she noticed that the corners of his mouth were twitching upward.

She was caught off guard by what he said next. "So Weasel has been ignoring you lately. What's wrong, lovers spat?"

At the mention of Ron, Hermione's mood dampened immediately, her smile vanishing completely. Ron was a bit of a touchy subject at the moment. "That's none of your business." She turned away from him and proceeded to put away her rag.

They were silent for a while, and Hermione had almost entertained the idea that this detention might be nice and quiet when he spoke again.

"I heard a rumour that you passionately snogged Potter up at the Astronomy Tower and Weasleby is oh so jealous!" He put on a fake sympathetic voice.

She turned towards him with an indifferent look and mimicked his tone. "Really? Oh how you must have felt when you found out!"

The smirk stayed put in his face, but Hermione noticed a slight twitch in his jaw. His eyes darkened considerably. She was sure he was going to lash out at her when his expression smoothed out, and he said calmly, "At first, I was extremely distraught, but then I came to my senses. It was just a rumour after all, and why would I care? I'm just a nasty Slytherin after all; incapable of human emotion." He said bitterly.

She sat and stared at her hands before getting the courage to say what had been on her mind for hours, "I knew it was you in potions."

He continued to twirl his wand and looked sideways at her, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Don't try to deny it, I saw the peppermint lying on your side of the table. You didn't out it in your

potion, and I doubt you forgot. It was the most stressed step in the process."

"Maybe it slipped my mindー" She opened her mouth, ready to argue with him, "Or maybe I had done it on purpose. You can't blame me, I was getting sick of you looking like someone had up and died right in front of you."

Hermione paused before answering, repeating in her head what he'd said. Did that mean, that in his own way, Malfoy had been trying to cheer her up? Surely not. Absolutely not. He would never do something so kind... especially for her. No way.

_Would _he?


End file.
