Of course it was Snape who had that hilarious idea of giving them a question for homework to which the answer could only be found in one single book. A book, which stood in the restricted section of the library and of which there was only one old copy which had a broken spine, several, missing pages and stains all over it whose origins Draco didn't even want to speculate about. He knew he would found the ingredients for the Dreadful Death Potion in that book as he had once been searching for something entirely different in it and then stumbled upon the pretty drastic drawing of a man taking that potion and dying with the most contorted and twisted body imaginable. Of course the Dreadful Death Potion which combined the force of two Unforgivable Curses in one simple solution had been banned for years. Some of the ingredients had been blackened out. Draco remembered that with a frown. So even if he got hold of that darned book before anyone else did, he would not get full marks on the exercise because he was missing crucial information. Still. He probably was the only one who even had a clue where to search for that potion recipe, so he would still end up getting extra house points for Slytherin for this one. He passed Madam Pince, throwing a quick "working on a homework for Professor Snape", her way and rushed towards the restricted section.

Of course it was Snape who had assigned them this task. Didn't he know that there was only one single copy of that book in the library? Hermione knew there was no other source she could get the recipe from. She had pretty much at least skimmed through every single book in the library during their fourth year whilst looking for a way to make Harry able to survive the Black Lake task. This was one of the books she had only very quickly checked the index of and then put it back quickly before her brain had had time to come up with ideas what the origin of the strange stains on the pages was. She had a photographic memory though. She knew exactly which shelf that book was on. Madam Pince greeted her with an almost happy smile – she had become kind of fond of the bookish Gryffindorgirl – and made her way to the restricted section. She turned the corner into the second corridor knowing that the book had to be on the second shelf to the left – and bumped into Draco Malfoy. And he was carrying a book. The book. How did Malfoy know where to find that book? How did he even know it existed? And why had he been quicker than her?

"Granger, I should have known."

She went into defense mode immediately. Oh how he loved to see her outraged. She did that weird thing with her nose then. Kind of a flare of the nostrils. Very slight, but if you knew what you were looking for, it was always there. That girl had a temper. And she was obviously displeased to find she was not the only one who knew every book in this library. She was so absorbed in her reading all the time, that she probably never had noticed how often they were here at the same time. She might have a few hours more per week than him as he spent that time on the Quidditch field practicing, but then he had had the Malfoy Manor library at his disposal from a very early age. He expected their knowledge levels to be about level. After all, they were both people of intelligence. They just lived in very different worlds. Draco thought, and scolded himself immediately for even admitting that much, that had she been a pure blood or even a half blood instead of the child of two filthy Muggles who made money of people's teeth, he might have considered liking her. If she had not been Harry Potter's best friend that was. If she had not been in Gryffindor, that house of too-full-of-themselves-and-their-darned-bravery eejits.

"Obviously the same thing as you, Malfoy. I am looking for that book you have in your hand."

"Well, that's a shame then, Granger. Because I have that book in my hand and I have no intention whatsoever to give it to you."

She bit her lip. Okay. He had been there first. He had beaten her to the task. But she was only centimeters away from the only book in this castle that contained the instructions for the Dreadful Death Potion. She couldn't really just turn around and walk away and admit defeat. There was no way in hell. But what was the alternative. She saw the smug smile on the Slytherin boy's face. Why did he always go for smug. If he had not always played the "arrogant git"-card at her, she might have been able to talk to him as if he was a normal person. She might even have tried to argue with him on the "Mudbloods are scum" point, which was not – as she believed – his own opinion but the belief that his horrible father and the rest of his pureblood family had distilled into him from when he was a baby. She knew he was intelligent. She knew he had read most of the books that she had read although she was pretty sure he had not noticed how often they were in the library at the same time. Otherwise he would not have let the opportunity go by to play his cruel little games on her. She blinked hard. Focus, Hermione, focus! You want the information in this book, he wants the information in this book. There is only one way out of this – and it is never going to work.

"You could put it on that table over there though and I could pull a chair up on one side and you on the other and we could both write the ingredients down and then put it back and tell nobody about it."

"As if you would not let Weasley copy your homework."

"I don't let him copy any of my homework at the moment because he behaved like an idiot."

"And Potter?"

"I will tell him I didn't find anything."

Malfoy looked surprised.

"You will lie to Potter?"

She glowered at him.

"I will rather lie to Potter than have you be the only one who gets points for this task."

For a few moments he seemed to hesitate, then he walked past her, brushing her with his shoulder and pushing her aside on purpose. He knew she expected him to walk out the door. He also knew that that would have been the sensible way, because he had the book and she was Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy did not consent to do homework with Hermione Granger. But on the other hand – she would probably do that nostril-thing again when he caught her off guard. With a grin, he turned on his heel, walked to the table and put the book down with a loud thud.

"Okay, Granger. Got your quill and some parchment with you?"

She was surprised. Surprised and taken aback. Was he trying to play a trick on her? But he just sat down in one of the chairs and filed through the book until he found the page with the instructions. She stared at the drawings on the opposite page.

"Quite disturbing, isn't it? I guess it's good they banned it. Get yourself a chair Granger and don't stand there as if someone stunned you."

She followed suit and pulled out a quill and some parchment, wrote down the headline, then stopped again.

"There's stuff missing", she said, pointing at the blackened sections. "Why is there stuff missing?"

She almost sounded panicky.

Draco chuckled.

"There is stuff missing, because, Miss Granger, it's a banned Potion and young Miss Granger sniffling about in the library should not be able to go ahead and brew this in one of the cubicle's in moaning Myrtle's bathroom, like she did with Polyjuice Potion in our second year."

"But we won't get full points then."

"Correct again, Miss Granger. Wise observation", Draco snarled. "So what are you going to do about it?"

She had begun writing again, but her forehead was wrinkled and she was chewing on her lower lip. Draco started writing as well, unable to stop himself from comparing her neat handwriting to his own scrawl. Why did she have to be so friggin perfect in everything she did? It made it much too difficult to dislike her.

Why was he watching her? Did he think she didn't notice that just because he was doing it out of the corner of his eye? Concentrate, concentrate. Don't think about Draco Malfoy although he's sitting right next to you and smelling of summer and grass because he's been to the Quidditch field during lunch break. Focus! Think! There must be a way to...

She suddenly looked up and jumped out of her seat in one fluid motion.

"I've got it."

"Ah, Heureka. So are we going to take a bath together now?"

That almost threw her off balance. It took about two seconds for her to get the reference to Archimedes and to laugh a bit as was obviously expected from her.

"No, we are going to look for a book."

"Granger, you know as well as I do that there is no other book with that potion recipe in it."

She grinned and her eyes were flashing.

"Yes, I do. But these", she pointed to the black blotches that had wiped out the missing ingredients, "did get there somehow. I won't even try an ink-removal spell. As this is classified information they won't have made it that easy."

"Says the girl, who warned the Weasley twins an age-line drawn by Dumbledore could not be fooled by an ageing potion. I am with you. So what are we looking for?"

She noticed his change from "you" into "we" and accepted it without blinking. This was a truce. They would do this homework together and afterwards she would wash her hands off it. They did some brainstorming on what kind of spell they might be looking for and then went off to the respective shelves to systematically work through them. After about three hours they were still stuck although they had already tried about a dozen different spells on the blotches and missed dinner.

Draco shut another huge book with a loud clap and shoved it back into its gap on the shelf before throwing his hands up in mock capitulation and sinking down on his chair again.

"Merlin, there's nothing. This is ridiculous. What the hell did they use on this?"

Hermione sighed as well and sat down next to him staring at the book as if it had personally insulted her. With her head resting on her hands which were folded on the table, she looked much younger than she was, a bit like the girl she had been two years ago when she had hit him. Her hair was much curlier than usual. She had the habit of ruffling it when she was excited. Draco made an effort not to like these brown curls, but he was too tired to manage.

"Know what, Granger, let's call it a day."

She looked up.

"What?"

"Well we won't find the solution in any of these books."

He made a gesture that spanned the whole library.

"So, here's what we do next: We've both copied what we have. We will hand this in tomorrow, see what Snape says."

"But it's incomplete."

"Granger, you're almost falling off your chair, that's how tired you are. And don't tell me you are not. You've yawned seven times in the last five minutes."

"You counted?"

"It registered without me actively making the effort."

They both started packing their bags, then both hesitated.

"Darn", murmured Draco.

"Not one for giving up either, are you?", Hermione sighed with another yawn.

She yawned like a cat, stretching her hands and opening her mouth wide. It was not particularly graceful, but Draco could not help to think it was cute. It made him want to pat her back and stroke her hair. He really needed to be knackered to allow his thoughts to wander in that direction. But as the young witch had already stated – he had never been one for giving up on a task and this would not be the day he started doing it.

They sat there in silence, pondering.

"You know what is weird?". Hermione said in a whisper. "Madam Pince has not been here to throw us out yet and it must be after hours already."

They exchanged a look and a grin stole on both their faces. The Gryffindor girl and the Slytherin boy had been sitting at the corner behind the restricted section which was the spot furthest away from the librarians desk. They tiptoed through the hallways expecting to see Madam Pince either entranced by one of her favourite "The Wondrous Wizard" series which she usually only got out when she was sure not to be overlooked. One of her students could have been blabbering about her infatuation with cheap novels which came printed on super-thin paper and had colourful covers and even more colourful names.

But no, Madam Pince was not reading about the sexual adventures of Deanna the witch and her tall dark and handsome Muggle-born wizard from far far away. She had not fallen asleep behind the desk either.

"She's gone", whispered Hermione.

Both of their heads simultaneously turned to the door. They were at it in no time and Draco pushed down the handle. The door was locked. They were shut in.

"Alohomora", murmured Draco pointing his wand at the doorknob. Nothing happened. Of course, Madam Pince secured her precious books with more than just a simple closing spell. Which meant that they were locked in. And unless they wanted to alert Mrs Norris and Mr Filch to their having been in the library when they should have already been in their respective common rooms or sleeping quarters for hours, this was where they would have to stay for the rest of the night.

"Brilliant, now I'm stuck in here with a Mudblood", Draco said with the usual sneer in his voice.

He regretted the words the moment he had said them noticing the surprised and hurt expressions on Hermione's face. They had gotten along so well for the last couple of hours. Why did he have to say such a thing? Was he afraid of being alone with her? He shook his head and held out his hand.

"Sorry, old habits."

"No worries, Malfoy."

She ignored his hand, turned on the spot and walked to one of the reading corners which had a few comfy armchairs in it. She pushed two of them together, ran back to the table behind the restricted section to get a huge volume out of her bag and settled comfortably in her self-built nest.

Draco followed her example. His brain was still working on the blotches-problem but did not produce any new results. So sleeping a little couldn't hurt, could it? He made himself comfortable and closed his eyes. The smell of books which had been around him for hours but which had become an unconscious thing suddenly was overwhelming. The mixture of leather, dust and parchment made him smile. There was also a faint hint of something else in the air which he could not really lay his finger on. But all in all it was a most pleasant mixture.

"It's funny", Hermione said, her voice dragging a bit because she was so tired, "I always wanted to get locked up in a library. I mean, I imagined it to be a library full of books I had not read yet and I imagined reading them until the sun rose again. Or I dreamed all the heroes from the story books would come alive at night and have a party between the shelves."

"That would be fun", grinned Draco.

"I think it's so peaceful in libraries. It's like they are little islands that are floating through reality unperturbed by anything that happens outside."

Unperturbed by the fact that the girl and the boy stuck in here who were talking to each other as if they were good friends, were actually mortal enemies.

Draco turned his head and opened his eyes to find Hermione watching him. She had put the book down – obviously her brain was not up to "Advanced Arithmancy" at this time of night any more – and looked as if she was going to fall into a deep slumber any second. Her pupils were so large he could see his own reflection in them.

Hermione thought he looked younger when he was tired. She had found out during their feverish work on the exercise that there was another Malfoy beneath the one she had known for five years. He was much more intelligent than he let out and also much kinder. He was still overly self-confident, but that was all right. Not everyone buried his confidence in the back yard like Ron did all the time. And he was incredibly unaware of anything concerning Muggles. But that was hardly surprising as most wizards lived in complete ignorance of what people could achieve without magical means. Something clicked in her head and an idea stole into her thoughts.

"Malfoy?", she murmured, pushing herself up onto one arm.

But the Slytherin boy had fallen asleep. His head rested on one of the armrests of his chair. His blonde hair fell into his face and a smile played around his lips as if he was having pleasant dreams. She lifted her hand to push against his shoulder and wake him up, but he looked so calm and happy that she hesitated. When had Draco Malfoy ever looked calm and happy? For a few minutes she just watched him sleep. Her breath automatically synchronized with his deep and regular breathing and soon, she had drifted off into a slumber as well.

Draco had never slept so well in his entire life. When he woke up because the early morning sun was shining through one of the librarie's windows and onto his face, it took him a while to realize where he was and a slightly longer while to remember why he was there. Oh dear, had he really ended up doing homework with Granger?

He looked around. The chairs had been shoved back into their original position. The school bag had been removed from where the girl had dropped it the night before. He sighed. Of course. She was gone. And he would have bet she had taken the book with her as well as the parchment which he had copied the instructions on. He heaved a sigh. Draco Malfoy, you are an imbecile idiot. As if Hermione Granger, cleverest witch of their year, would have considered sharing the reward when there was any way to keep it to herself. She had played that game marvellously. He had to admit that much. But he should still have seen it coming.

He stood up and threw a glance at Madame Pince's desk, wondering when she would get in, when he noticed the librarian already lounging in her chair.

"Good morning Mr Malfoy", she whispered when she saw he was awake. "I am so sorry I locked you and Miss Granger up in here last night. I did not check all the desks and it was so quiet and I thought everyone had left already. But it's still inexcusable. I will do anything to make up for it, Mr Malfoy."

He stared at her. Was that fear he heard in her voice? Was this the effect he had on people? The effect his family name had on people? The effect his father's name had on people? He always had thought it was respect that he heard in their voiced, but Madame Pince sounded close to tears and her hands were trembling.

He shrugged.

"It's all right", he said. "I always imagined being locked up in a library when I was a kid. Just out of curiosity, where has my fellow prisoner gone?"

Madame Pince looked as if he had just told her the library would be transferred to a room twice its size and stocked up with a thousand new books.

"Oh, Miss Granger just went out of the door a minute before you woke up. I don't know. I gues shse has gone back to the Gryffindor tower to freshen up."

Draco groaned inwardly. So he had been right. She had tricked him, the damned little Mudblood. Why had he even given in to her suggestion to do this homework together in the first place. He wanted to scream. He wanted to shout at his reflection that he was a stupid idiot. He wanted to kick something. He wanted to find a helpless first year and throw him down a stair case. And probably none of it would have made any difference on the feeling of defeat that had taken hold of him.

He didn't know how long he had just been sitting there staring at a book shelf without seeing anything, when the library door burst open again and Hermione came in, a triumphant smile on her face. He stared at her in disbelief.

"What...?" he started.

She didn't let him talk, but grabbed his hand and determinedly pulled him towards the desk they had been working at during the last night. She threw her bag on one of the chairs and pulled out both his homework and hers and finally the old stained book. Then she rummaged around for a bit until she pulled out a small plastic bottle of light blue liquid.

"I had this idea last night. I wanted to tell you but you were already asleep and I didn't want to wake you up again. We could not have tried it yesterday anyways as I usually don't have it with me. It's like reverse psychology so it doesn't make much sense. But it's perfectly sensible if you think how few things wizards know about Muggles. I don't know whether it will work, but it's worth a try."

She was so excited she just kept blabbering without noticing the million emotions that were rushing over his face. He had to take a deep breath to regain control over himself. He took the bottle from her hands and turned it around. It had a screwcap. When he removed it, a whiff of something very strong and very chemical made him gag.

"Merlin's beard. What is this?"

Hermione grinned and took the bottle back from him, pouring some of the smelly liquid onto a handkerchief.

"Muggle magic", she said. "It's nail polish remover. It's been lying in my bedside table ever since the Yule Ball as I usually don't wear nail polish. If they did what I think they did with these pages, I might be able to... aaaaha. I guess we're lucky it's a printed book and not a hand written one."

Draco watched her as she dabbed the handkerchief on the first blackened row. The stain immediately blurred and went from black to blue except for a small section in the middle. Draco held the page at an angle and a smile appeared on his face.

"Dragon scales", he said. "We've got the first secret ingredient. And I don't like saying it, and I will have to kill you if you tell anyone I said this in an hour of weakness, but you're a genious, Granger."

In less than fifteen minutes they had uncovered all the missing ingredients, copied them down on their respective parchments and Hermione had restored the blackened sections by using a smelly black feltpen.

They were walking towards the library door together, when Hermione suddenly burst out laughing.

"What now?", asked Draco befuddled.

"It's just... I can't wait to see Snape's reaction when he finds the two most unlikely people to cooperate on homework are the only ones who have managed to find the recipe for the Dreadful Death Potion."

Their eyes met and Draco couldn't help it. He started laughing as well.

"Oh dear, that will leave him completely bewildered. I want someone to take a picture of it. Do you think that little idiot in your house, tiny, tuns around with a camera all the time..."

"Colin Creevey."

"Yeah, we should ask him to come round and take a snapshot of Snapes face when he collects our homework."

"I always thought you liked Snape."

"The hell I do. He seems to like me though."

Silence fell like a sword. It was Hermione, who broke it.

"I think, now, I can finally understand why", she said shifting from one foot to the other.

Draco sneered half-heartedly, but there was no way he could pretend nothing had changed.

"I never understood, why he dislikes you so much", he responded trying to make it sound casual and failing badly.

Again, silence. Then, with a quick move, he pulled her towards him and pressed his lips on hers. She responded after only a seconds hesitation, linking her fingers with his while moving closer. It only lasted hald a minute but it made the whole construction if Draco Malfoy's orderly world fall to pieces.

"Better get going", he murmured. "Should not risk being late for potions."

They walked out the door, both trying to regain their composure with Madam Pince following them with her eyes clearly wondering whether anyone had slipped drugs into her morning tea that were likely to cause hallucinations.

THE END