There's a thin line between love and hate. It was a common Muggle saying, and being Muggle-born, Hermione Granger had heard it a great many times in her life. It had never made much sense to her however, until her fourth year at Hogwarts. That was the year that things got complicated. Not only was it the beginning of the war, but it was the year her emotions decided to turn on her completely. The year she finally understood the human capability of both loving and hating someone at the same time. And half the time she wasn't certain which emotion was which. All she knew was that it was all his fault. Draco Malfoy had been the bane of her existence for the past three years of her life and he still was, albeit in a different way. She alternated between wanting to yank his pale blonde hair out of his smug head to wishing she could run her fingers through it and find out if it was a silky as it looked. Her brain couldn't choose between slapping the smirk right off his face or simply kissing it away. She found herself longing to do whatever it took to make those icy silver eyes heat to the darker gray she knew they turned when he let his emotions get the best of him. Obviously, she had lost her mind and he was most certainly to blame. The worst part of it was that he seemed to know what he was doing and enjoyed intentionally catching her off guard. With Harry busy with the tournament and Ron generally off skulking somewhere near Fleur Delacour, Hermione had been spending more time on her own and Draco seemed to be taking full advantage of it. She would swear the Slytherin boy was following her. The only place that he wasn't turning up was the Gryffindor common room.
He brushed against her as they passed in the corridors, always making sure it looked accidental, but his touch lingering long enough for her to know that it wasn't. He leaned over her shoulder in the library to whisper his insults into her ear. He caught her eye in class just to watch her blush and look away. And he enjoyed every second of it. She wasn't accustomed to hiding what she was feeling. Subtle wasn't something she did well. So she knew that he'd noticed her reactions. She was just glad that nobody else seemed to be as observant. The last thing she wanted to have to explain was that she seemed to have developed a fascination with the one boy who would be perfectly happy to see her dead. The fact that she was feeling this way at all confused her and left her with vague feelings of shame. And yet, if she were truly honest with herself, she knew that she would be disappointed if he stopped. She was under no illusions that he was feeling the same unwelcome rush of feeling that she was. The obnoxious git was just enjoying a new form of torture. He enjoyed watching the little Mudblood squirm.
Which was why she had decided to turn his little game around on him. She had seen the looks she'd received at the Yule Ball from all the boys. It only stood to reason that if she tried, she could induce the same looks from him. Hermione knew that while she rarely bothered with her looks, she wasn't unattractive when she tried and so she began putting a little more effort into her appearance, telling herself that it was simply a little experiment. He seemed more than a little surprised when little Hermione Granger began using his own tricks against him. The look in his eyes was still a combination of disgust and mocking most of the time. Still, she couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that head of his. There were times when his gaze was less calculating and more . . . well, she wasn't exactly sure what it was. Just that it was even more unnerving than usual. There was a touch of what could be grudging respect and more than a little interest. And she loved it. Which made her hate him all the more. So yes, there was a thin line between love and hate and Hermione Granger was thoroughly enjoying the walk on the tightrope.