Hermione hunched over the stangely coloured concoction in her bubbling cauldron. She winced as the bubbles began to rise over the rim of the pot. Snape had stepped out of the room and Ron and Harry were laughing boisterously as she struggled. They were clearly taking too much joy in their clever friend's first mistake. "Harry." Hermione whined, "Quit laughing and give me a hand you git." Harry only managed a quick shake of his head as his glasses slid down the bridge of his nose and his laughter flowed.
Just as Hermione was giving up hope on her potion, the cool familiar arms of a certain blonde Slytherin pressed against her waist. She didn't bother shewing Draco away as she usually would when he flirted with her. "Draco, help me fix this." Hermione did her best to make sure that her voice didn't quiver as his touch put her on edge. Draco stared down into the frantic brown eyes of his favourite Gryffindor and restrained his urge to kiss her gently on the tip of her ski-slope nose. Draco had long ago decided not to lie to himself by pretending that he wasn't attracted to the crazy female specimen. His need to talk to her was larger than his pride, if that's possible. Draco leaned over her and stared at the concerning colour of the potion. "God Granger, you really made a mess of things." She huffed with annoyance and held her face up high, keeping herself together to the best of her abilities. "If you can't fix it just say so. No need to point out my mistakes."
Draco was about to give up on the potion, figuring that the trouble of fixing it wasn't worth the final product, when he caught sight of Weasel, no longer laughing and staring at him with a red angry face. Now that, was worth fixing the potion. He smirked at Ron when Hermione was busy whacking Harry with her textbook in a desperate attempt to get him to stop laughing. Draco glided over to his table at the back of the room, picked up his warm cauldron containing an almost Granger worthy level of perfection, and switched it with the one fizzing all over Hermione's desk. Her features lit up at the sweet gesture then quickly changed to disapproval. "Malfoy, I can't take this." He smirked at her and leaned against her desk. "Why not?" "Because its not mine! Because you would have to take responsibility for my horrid concoction, and because its wrong." She shot off her response at a rapid pace. Draco rolled his eyes and walked away, disposing of her ridiculous worries with a flick if his wrist. Snape walked swiftly into the room just as Draco settled down at his desk.
Snape stepped around the room examining the young witches and wizards steaming cauldrons. He nodded his approval at each Slytherin's potions without even a glance and scrutinized the Gryffindor's lengthily. "Too much Asphodel, Potter. What even is that slop, Weasley?" Ron frowned down at his cauldron and Hermione fiddled with a quill nervously. Snape paused at her desk as expected. He stared at the clear liquid in Hermione's fat cauldron with cold black eyes. "Not bad Granger." He said. Hermione smiled with relief and turned in her chair, her bushy hair flipping over her small shoulder, to glance at Draco. He had been watching her at didn't bother stopping as she turned around . Granger grinned and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. Not bad, she thought coyly, perhaps he's quite the opposite.