Hermione was having a bad day. A horrible day.
Ron still wasn't talking to her, Harry was keeping secrets, and she just didn't have the patience to deal with Luna at the moment.
She stalked into the Potions room, unconsciously wearing a dangerous expression that made everyone in the class wary of antagonising her. Neville shifted uncomfortably away from her when she slammed her books down next to him and sat down.
Snape rumbled in his deep baritone for a few minutes about making a potion that something, something, blah, blah, blah. When he had finished talking, he swept out of the room. Draco Malfoy smirked.
"Hey Granger, what's got your knickers in a twist? Did Potter break up with you?" He taunted, knowing her short temper would relieve his boredom.
She turned around to face him, her eyes flashing. "Harry is NOT my boyfriend, Ferret. I'm not even in a relationship, not that you would know what that is. All you've got is a piece of Velcro attached to your arm that you call a girlfriend."
Draco scowled and pried Pansy off of his arm, scrambling for a retort, and attacked her next weakest subject "Not even the weasel wants to date you."
Ron, sitting three rows behind Hermione was wearing a trapped expression crossed between wanting to defend himself, defend Hermione or continue the silent treatment towards Hermione. He opted for silence even as his ears steadily turned red.
Lavender Brown gave Hermione a glare. Poor girl had been dumped by Ron months ago, but refused to believe they were through. She sat in the row in front of him and kept batting her eyelashes and trying to catch his eye. He deliberately avoided her gaze and tried to focus on the assignment.
Hermione took a deep breath and reviewed the assignment. Draco turned back to the project when he saw that Hermione was done arguing.
Pansy reattached herself to Draco's arm and shifted so she was practically sitting in his lap. He glared at her and scooted out from underneath her. She gave him a fake pout and tried to sit back in his lap. Draco stood abruptly up and went the front of room to grab some ingredients.
Hermione bent over her book, scribbling furiously and trying to also stir the cauldron too.
He grabbed a fistful of powdered groutworm and dropped it in her cauldron as he swept by the girl. She didn't notice and merely finished the sentence she was writing. Minutes later, her cauldron turned a nasty shade of green. She spent twenty minutes trying to fix it. Draco tried not to smirk. He stood up and sidled up to Hermione.
"Granger, have you made mistake? Because God forbid you make a mistake." He sneered.
She turned with a nasty light in her eyes and stood up suddenly, glaring daggers.
"Malfoy," she snarled through gritted teeth, and promptly tackled him to the ground.
Unfortunately, in that moment, Neville tried to back up nervously, and knocked over Hermione's cauldron, spilling the liquid all over him and Hermione. Both turned to face the quivering boy.
Hermione slowly, deliberately got off of Draco and brushed the goop off of her shoulders.
She turned to look Neville in the eye. Draco leaned back to see what Hermione would do.
She pulled out her wand and raised it so it touched the middle of Neville's forehead. He was now violently shaking under the fierce chocolate gaze of an enraged, cranky girl. She tapped his forehead once, and nothing happened.
Suddenly, a cry of pain rang through the classroom. He began shaking and twitching, his face creased in pain. The entire classroom stared at Neville and Hermione.
She spun on the spot and flicked her wand at Draco as she left the classroom in a cloud of curled hair and dark robes. Draco felt a pressure on his heart, like molten iron bands, tightening around it. His breath came faster and his eyebrows furrowed in pain. He writhed the floor, letting out a strangled cry. Tears welled in his eyes, but didn't fall.
After what felt like eternity, it stopped and he lay in a crumpled ball. Pansy tried to offer him her hand, but he gave her a look of disgust. He stood up and practically sprinted out the classroom.
Granger was in the library. Of course. She was rather predictable. She had her nose buried in a book and her shoulders were heaving. Was the psychopath laughing?
Oh god no, he thought as he realised she was crying.
He ignored his inner conscience that told him to come back another time and pulled a chair out next to her.
"Granger, what spell did you just use on me?" He demanded.
Hermione gave him frosty glare, wiping her tears, and stayed silent.
"Tell me you stupid emotional child!" He said, anger colouring his tone.
Hermione sighed wearily like she was suddenly tired of life and handed him the book she was reading. He opened the book to the bookmarked page and scanned the page.
"What is this rubbish about love and whatnot?" He murmured to himself.
Hermione snatched away her precious book before he could finish.
"It's a spell that causes the target to get random attacks of heartache. Eventually the heart will break, and the person will never have a healed heart unless they kiss their true love in exactly a year." Hermione recited.
Malfoy's jaw dropped.
"You gave me a broken heart? God granger, that's cold for a gryffindor." He said, leaning back in his chair with shock.
Hermione rolled her eyes at his ignorance. "No Malfoy, it was only one time, the only reason it would continue was if you were veritably doused in powdered groutworm and wylieroot, and even though the potion Neville knocked over had wylieroot, there is no powdered groutworm in it."
Malfoy winced in horrid understanding, swearing under his breath and scooting his chair forward. "Yes there was."
Hermione tilted her head, confused.
"No there isn't, I always follow the rules in case you didn't know." She informed him, a trifle offended he thought she might have made the potion wrong.
"No, everyone already knows that you Bush Head. I put the groutworm in your cauldron." Malfoy snapped.
Hermione's face heated in anger, then all the blood drained out of her face quickly, as she realised what she had done.
She leaned forward and put her head in her hands. She looked up to see Malfoy's reaction. Malfoy braced for an explosion, and then stopped caring as waves of despair and then anger hit him, until it fell back to despair.
His eyes dropped to the ground in total shock but looked up to meet Hermione's gaze. Malfoy heaved a huge breath that tickled the flyaways from her messy bun. His breath smelled like frosty mint. Hermione's knee brushed Draco's as she shifted her weight. It was oddly comforting for both of them for just one second.
Hermione studied Draco's face. Long angular cheekbones, a sharp chin, a pointed nose and strong jaw, feathery blonde hair brushing his ears and his silvery eyelashes. And his eyes, his beautiful eyes. Molten silver, traces of ice blue swirling around with emotion.
Draco looked down on the unreadable expression on the bookworm's face. Her arched eyebrows were furrowed, and her full creamy pink lips pursed. Rosy cheeks, long, dark eyelashes framing eyes like coffee, although now that he looked closer, her eyes looked more umber gold than brown. He could even see the light dusting of freckles across her button nose and cheekbones.
His lips quirked with a crooked half smile as he realised his earlier insult, Bush Head, wasn't really true. In first and second year maybe, but not any more. Her riotous frizz had turned into a mass of chestnut and caramel curls, which were currently pulled back, but a few stray strand framed her lightly tanned, heart shaped face.
They both realised how close they were sitting at the same time.
A screech rang through the entire library as they both scooted back from each other at the same time. Flushed, Hermione and Draco sat back down.
"Hope you enjoyed the view Beaver teeth, because that's as close as you're ever going to get again." Malfoy sneered, trying to mask his astonishment that he had let her get that close.
His hasty sneer froze, and it melted into raw pain as another attack of heartache hit him. He convulsed on the floor, while Hermione stared with shock. When the violence finally stopped, Malfoy was laying on the floor unmoving.
Hermione dropped to her knees, and touched the side of this neck, feeling for a pulse. It beat like a hummingbird's under her gentle touch. Malfoy let out an involuntary sigh of relief at her cool fingers, and his head curled around to settle his chin on her fingers. Hermione echoed the sigh, as the pulse reassured her she hadn't killed him. He was still unconscious though, and she hadn't the strength to lift him up.
"Levicorpus." She whispered, waving her wand, and he floated into the air. She ran over to a bookshelf and pulled out a book called "Secret Doors, and Other Passageways. She pushed a button concealed by the thick tome, and like the entrance to diagon alley, the books shifted to form a doorway to a long flight of stairs.
She floated Malfoy over and hit the button on the other side to close the secret door behind them.
...
She dropped Malfoy onto the emerald satin sheets. On instinct, she magicked the bedsheets over him up to his chin. His head lolled to the side, and a tiny smile graced his sharp features. She noticed how it softened his features, and made his face look kind and approachable. She brushed a lock of feathery silver hair off of his pale face.
Draco was awake. Someone was brushing the hair out of his face.
He decided to leave his eyes shut and try and find out what was happening. He remembered passing out in the library. If he knew Granger, she wouldn't leave him in there, so he was probably where ever he was now at Granger's hand.
And he wasn't in the Slytherin common room because she didn't have the password, and she wasn't dumb enough to let him in the Gryffindor common room, so he must be in the Room of Requirement. And the hand touching his face must be Granger's. Her soft fingers lingered on his jawline and it sent tingles down his spine. He finally opened his eyes.
Her golden eyes were bright with tears and she was biting her lip.
"Why are you crying?" He murmured softly, as a tear fell from her eye, leaving a silvery trail down her flushed cheeks.
"I did this to you. Out of spite. And you're going to die, because of me. I'm a horrible person." She whispered, her voice trembling.
He reached up and wiped the tear off of her face and sat up. She watched him carefully, her brows drawn in concern. He looked deep in her eyes, and found what he was looking for. She really did care about him.
Hermione glanced away and mumbled something about leaving. She backed out the door and ran away.
Draco jumped out of bed and ran after her for the second time that day, and caught up to her just as she was rounding the corner.
"Hermione?" He said, as she turned to face him.
"Yes?" She asked, arching a brow.
"Thank you." He whispered, right before pressing a sweet kiss to her soft lips.
She stood shocked for a moment, but returned it. Hermione broke it off and turned and walked down the corridor to the Gryffindor common room.
Draco pressed a hand to his lips and watched her leave. He felt them tingling. A grin split his face and he turned around and walked away.
Draco never another attack again.