A/N: This will have all my stories for the Houses Competition. Pairings, genres and ratings will vary.

Please enjoy.

Safety in Books

Draco walked quietly through the library, browsing the shelves. He had become bored with sitting in the common room for hours at a time and decided to find something to read.

As he walked, he accidentally ran into Hermione, who was carrying a sizable amount of books. She dropped most of them onto Draco's feet.

"Ow!" He grabbed one of his feet in pain. "Filthy Mudblood, watch where you're going!" His voice was a bit too loud for a library.

Hermione looked at him. She had tears in her eyes. She wiped them away, picked up her books and started off.

"Um, are you going to say anything? Come back!" Draco got onto his feet again, which were still throbbing from all that weight dropped onto them, and followed her.

Hermione wound her way through the library until she was in the back, near the restricted section. She turned around as Draco nearly ran into her yet again. "Go away, Malfoy," she said with a shaky breath, books clutched to herself.

Draco backed up a bit and crossed his arms. "Why?"

"I want to be alone for a while. I need to get work done," she said unconvincingly, looking at her feet.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "You always finish things in advance. What could you possibly have to work on now?"

"I have an essay for Snape I need to finish-"

"We turned that in yesterday."

"Oh. Well, that doesn't mean there won't be another coming soon."

"Granger, stop lying. It's not helping you at all."

Hermione sighed and hung her head. "I know. I just... you don't understand."

Draco frowned. "What is there to not understand? You're blatantly lying to my face, you're crying in the back of the library. Something's wrong. Tell me."

"Some shady men in Hogsmeade tried to kiss me..." Hermione began to cry again. "They came out of nowhere. They looked like students once they got close."

"Students? What house?" Draco had been asked to go to Hogsmeade earlier by some of his housemates, but he'd declined.

"I didn't see, but I think they were in Slytherin." She looked at him like she expected to recognize his face from the few who had cornered her.

So it had been them. Draco would speak to them all later. Now, as Hermione stood there crying,he stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder.

Hermione looked up into his steely gray eyes, then at his hand resting on her shoulder. "Malfoy, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Don't tell me this doesn't make you feel even the tiniest bit better. I hate seeing you cry like this." Draco moved his arm so it was around her a bit more.

"Well, maybe a little, but that doesn't make it okay," she said.

"What would make it okay, then?"

"I don't know...Something else."

"Well, if you aren't going to tell me, then I'll just leave you here. It's what you wanted-" Draco began to take his arm off of her.

"-No!" Hermione covered her mouth like she didn't think to say that. "I mean, you don't have to go."

Draco smirked. "Fine, I'll stay."

"Thank you."

Draco looked away and crossed his arms. "Whatever."

Draco started back to the common room, a book under his arm. He had spent the last hour listening to Hermione drone on about it, he figured it must be worth reading.

Why did he listen to her, anyway? They'd never liked each other, they'd had a mutual hate between them for years. Something must have changed. But what?

Maybe it was the way Hermione acted in the library. She looked vulnerable, which was so unlike her. She was always so confident in herself it was irritating.

He moved those thoughts aside as he entered the common room, sat down and began reading.

Hermione also returned to her common room. She was feeling much better than before, though she wasn't quite sure if she and Draco had something between now, and if they did, what was it?

She sat and read one of the books she'd brought from the library. She'd given one of them to Draco to pore over.

"Hey, Hermione," Ron and Harry said at the same time, before laughing at themselves.

"Hello, you two," Hermione greeted them, a reserved tone in her voice.

"We lost you in Hogsmeade! Where'd you go?" Harry asked.

"I thought I saw a friend of mine."

"Oh, that's all well and good. Nice to see you back." Ron smiled.

""I suppose so…"

"You sure you're okay?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded, acting more assured of herself this time. "Yes, I'm perfectly fine."

She wasn't lying, she did feel better. She just didn't know why.

"Did you see the look on Granger's face? Hilarious!"

"Absolutely. It's a shame you weren't there, Draco. You would've loved it."

"Yes, I'm sure I would have laughed my head off." Draco rolled his eyes.

"Well, I got super close to her, and she started crying. Can you believe that?"

"I certainly can. And you should be ashamed of yourselves."

"Why? It was funny."

"That's no excuse for making an innocent, smart, beautiful witch feel like she's being targeted. I ought to tell Professor Snape."

"Draco, come on. If you'd been there, I'm sure you would have done the same."

Draco stopped. Would he have done it if he hadn't seen how Granger would react? Was he as shallow as his housemates?

He wasn't sure what he knew or felt anymore. All he knew was that Hermione had been in tears, and Draco had helped her recover. Somehow, that made up for what could have happened.

Review please! Thanks for reading!