Hermione may be a Granger, but right now you could've mistaken her temper for a Weasley's. It was a good thing that all of the students of Hogwarts were busy enjoying the sunshine outside. Hermione, normally the level-headed, book worm type, was now stomping down a fourth floor corridor and shouting like a mad woman to no one in particular.

"Stupid, bloody, ginger gits. I swear to Godric, who in their right mind charms a fanged frisbee to fly about the castle endlessly? Oh! That's right, the Weasley Twins would," Hermione's boisterous shouting echoed off the walls of the corridor, disturbing quite a few portraits. Even Peeves flew in the opposite direction when he saw her, "They're lucky it didn't behead one of them, on second thought, they're very unlucky. Now I'm here, not in the library where I should be, limping to the hospital wing, because, the damned thing gashed my leg. When I get done with them, they'll be missing more than their heads. Molly has plenty of other children to produce grandchildren for her."

Hermione pushed the large, wooden doors that lead to the hospital wing open. She was expecting to see a bright and cheery Madame Pomfrey, but was met with an empty room instead.

"Madame Pomfrey? Are you here, Madame Pomfrey?" Hermione's confident voice filled the room.

Hermione's mary janes clicked on the hard floor as she crossed from the door way to the back corner where Madame Pomfrey usually sat and filled out paperwork. She decided to wait on one of the examination counter till someone arrived; not a very logical decision, but we'll just blame it on the loss of blood.

I knew I should have spent more time on the "Cuts, Abrasions, and How to Fix Them!" book I skimmed through a couple of weeks ago. That's the last time I let Ronald convince me that our youth is for adventures outside a libr-

Hermione's thoughts were interrupted as she heard someone enter the room. She had expected it to be Madame Pomfrey; she was surprised, to say the least. It wasn't the long-time school nurse that had walked in, but Draco Malfoy instead. He hadn't even looked up from the book that he nearly had his nose buried in.

"I'll be with you in a second," his said distractedly.

There's no way he knows who he's talking to, he wouldn't be acting so kind. Why is he even in the infirmary any way?

She cleared her throat. He promptly set his book down and frowned at her impatience. He turned around and looked her straight in the eye. His expression didn't change; it was as if he didn't know that it was Hermione "Mudblood" Granger sitting on the counter in front of him.

Hermione was incredibly confused to say the least. She didn't know why he was in the hospital wing to begin with and she didn't know why he wasn't acting dismal as usual.

"What are you doing here?" She questioned. The tone of her voice was laced with skepticism.

"I'm trying to infiltrate Hogwarts. I've decided the best way to do so is to take over the hospital wing first," he answered in a blasé tone. His usually impassive eyes now lit up with mirth.

Hermione didn't find his answer amusing, in fact, she was speechless. Malfoy was joking? She didn't know that Malfoys possessed the ability to joke, or any abilities other than smirking and looking like ferrets, really.

Her silence didn't deter him from moving the conversation right along.

"What do you think I'm doing here? It's a hospital. I'm obviously doing something of medical importance. Really, Granger, I thought you were smarter than that," he chided her.

"Well, excuse me! I was trying to think of an explanation as to why a bouncing ferret would be working in an infirmary, wait; did you just give me a compliment?" She shot back, questioning his sanity.

She could see him mentally constructing a comeback. His cold, calculating eyes swept over her tiny form, but they lightened as he noticed the gash on her leg. She had gotten so caught up that she had forgotten as well.

"Weasley's charmed fanged flyers?" His question was spot on, but his tone was absolutely mystifying. Was it…..concern?

Hermione temporarily forgot about his compliment and nodded, "Yeah, where's Madame Pomfrey?"

"She had an unfortunate accident while testing a Draught of Living Death potion and had to retire to her chambers. I guess you're stuck with me, lucky you."

She continued to stare at Malfoy as if he had suddenly grown a second head. She was racking her brain for a reason as to why Draco "Slytherin Asshole" Malfoy was being civil and…..flirtatious? Draco Malfoy, however, just chuckled at his confusing effect on the book-wormish Gryffindor. He picked up a few jars off of the shelf and stood in front of the counter where Hermione was currently perched. Hermione's sanity nearly shattered when he tried to touch her knee.

"What the hell are you doing? You dumb rodent," she screamed at him as she smacked his chest; not that it did much good considering the size difference between the two of them.

"You going to have to spread your legs a bit," he practically purred the words. Hermione on the other hand looked absolutely scandalized, Draco just smirked, "I can't get a good look at that wound if you keep your legs crossed!"

Hermione looked at him suspiciously, but realized he had a point. She looked down at the cut on the inside of her right thigh. She looked at Draco; his silver eyes seemed to be laughing at her. She uncrossed her legs, pushing her skirt down as far as she could. His warm hands grasped her leg just above her knee. She shuddered at his touch, his fingers calloused from quidditch.

With hands like those, one could almost forget that he was a rat face ferret.

He must have noticed the dreamy expression that had come across her face; he chuckled and shot her a smug look. She hissed as he applied the salve; Draco smirked and she could have sworn he mumbled "big baby" under his breath.

"You know, you're pretty lucky, any higher and you would've been in trouble," he spoke as his hand moved up her thigh. Hermione was less that amused, but she seemed to have found her Gryffindor spirit, "Yeah, well, any higher and you're going to be in trouble," she gave a pointed look at his hand that was inching up her thigh. The message was clear 'I will chop your hands off and anything else you hold dear.'

He just grinned and mumbled a few words. The blood was washed up and the wound closed instantly. Hermione would have been impressed with his wand less magic, but she was too busy noticing how his lips moved.

They're so nice. No, what am I thinking. I'm fraternizing with the enemy, Oh Godric, I sound like Ron.

"Hello, Earth to Granger," his words snapped her out of her daydream.

He laughed at her, again, and she smacked him, again.

"If you keep doing that, I'm going to have to tie you down. Oh, on second thought, you'd probably prefer that," he didn't even wait for her to react before he started rubbing another salve on her bruised leg.

Hermione just rolled her eyes and decided to change the subject.

"Why are you here?" She asked impatiently and for the second time today..

"Well, you see, my Mum and Dad," he began in his usual drawl.

"No, I mean here in the hospital wing?" She expanded as a blush spread across her face.

"Well, I like medical science, if you must know,"

She was struck speechless by his honesty and sincerity. He started to put the salves away; he had never looked so human before. It was silent for a moment.

"So, you want to be a healer?"

"Yeah, someday," his answer was short, but she knew just how important it was. It meant not going into the "family business", HIS business. He could practically hear the questions that Hermione was dying to ask.

"What about…," she couldn't quite finish the question.

"My father? I'm sure he's heard all about it by now," he spoke as if his father was a stranger, having no part in his life.

He had probably sense the questions that were whizzing about her brain, because, he explained further, "I've asked for protective custody for my mother and myself from the Order of the Phoenix. Oh, don't pretend like you don't know who they are. Feigned stupidity suits you about as well as those beaver teeth you had in 3rd year."

She chewed this over for a moment. She noted that when he wasn't being a brooding little brat he was pleasant. He had even grown out of his pointy features and was, in fact, handsome. She even bypassed the mention of those horrible teeth.

"How…brave of you," was about all Hermione could manage to articulate.

"Don't try to squish me into you're ridiculous Gryffindor standards. What I did was for pure self preservation, nothing else. That's a Slytherin trait if you recall."

"Well, it must have been more than a Slytherin trait. You saved your mum too. You have to admit that most of the people in Slytherin would hand their mums over in an instant if it meant they got to live.

Draco didn't particularly like her correcting him, but he didn't move to patronize her. He soon regretted it, as she just had to push it a little bit further.

"Ah ha, I knew it. You are brave and reckless. If you didn't already know, those are Gryffindor traits," she teased.

"I would hate to have to kill you, Granger, after all the time I've just spent helping you," his eyes narrowed, but she just smirked in satisfaction, "Oh Salazar, you're smirking. I'm never showing compassion again. You can't just steal a man's patented facial expressions."

Hermione didn't even blink an eye at his little rant, "You've patented your smirk?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.

Draco was not amused, not amused at all, "I'm beginning to think you're more troublesome than you're worth," He made to exit the room.

"Where are you going?" She must have sounded pathetic, she thought to herself.

"To study, I'm not going to become a healer sitting around here and letting you use my own smirk against me," he sneered over his shoulder.

"Could I…Could I join you?" She had never been so scared of asking questions. She had no problem with being the first and sometimes only student to raise her hand in class, but this simple question gave her butterflies.

He thought for a few seconds and smirked, not a demeaning smirk, but a smug one.

"The library is public domain, you can do want you want. But, stop smirking, that's my gig."

He continued towards the door as she slid off of the counter and followed en suit. The pure and simple fact was that Draco Malfoy had changed. Never in a million years did Hermione Granger think that she would be sitting across a table studying with him. No one was complaining, but that was most likely due to the fact that Ron and Harry didn't know what was happening yet.