Chapter 2: Don't pretend you're not watching.
When Hermione walked into the Entrance Hall the next morning, her head instinctively turned towards the dungeons, almost expecting to see a tall blond figure watching her. She halted and continued staring down the cold grey stops, remembering what had happened the previous afternoon.
***
When Hermione left the classroom yesterday, she began telling herself what happened was simply a hallucination from the heat, something she often did when something is easier to not to think about. The pain in her wrists from him holding her too tight was just her imagination and her heart was only accelerating because she was practically running to get to her Arithmancy lesson on time. However, Hermione decided she might as well slow down since she was already five minutes late and she couldn't even concentrate enough to see where she was heading. This was very out of her character but Hermione could not care less. She didn't feel like herself, her head spinning, processing every detail. She breathed in deeply as she walked through an area of the corridor that was engulfed in shadows. She thought about what Malfoy had told her. Now that Hermione thought about it (as she turned a corner into a area of the castle with red satin folding and flowing neatly down from the ceiling), she remembered that she had often noticed Draco staring at her since the beginning of term but she had decided it was simply him trying to annoy her or glare at her …she must have been very wrong then.
When she turned another corner, Hermione saw she was at the foot of a swirling red staircase. She looked through the arched window to her right only to see a view of the forest. She knew at this point that she had managed to lead herself to the wrong side of the castle. Groaning she turned around and ran in the opposite direction.
When Hermione entered the classroom red faced and panting, Professor Vector looked up from the book he had been reading to give her a very concerned and confused look.
"Miss Granger? Are you quite alright?" he asked.
Smiling slightly, Hermione replied "Lost track of time sir. Definitely won't happen again."
Smiling back, the Professor indicated a seat in the back corner. Hermione turned, her hair swinging around to her front and began to walk towards her seat but slowed down slightly, her smile turning into a feeble blank expression, as she saw the good-looking blond Slytherin sitting next to her allocated chair. He was fixated on a poster on the wall to his left but did not seem even slightly interested in the symbols chart on it. As Hermione carefully sat down and took her things out her bag, his head moved slightly at an angle, and although he seemed to be looking at the Professor, Hermione knew he was actually watching her from the corner of his eye. Hermione noticed how tense he was; his hands were clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white; he was biting his lip and stooping over his desk. Plus, a slight amount of colour had appeared on his cheeks.
Professor Vector began to explain the various things they had to copy from the book onto their notes and said he did not expect any talking. Hermione straightened up, grabbed her new yellow tipped, purple and white print quill and began to write. Draco did nothing. He just watched her and never looked straight at her when she glanced at him. Hermione kept fidgeting, feeling extremely uncomfortable, and found it strange that Malfoy was so unnerved by how awkward Hermione was acting.
When only a minute was left until the end of the lesson, Draco bent down swiftly to snap open his bag from which he pulled out a small piece of parchment. Hermione watched him as he leaned over the table to tap Blaise Zabini on the shoulder, who turned round and looked at Draco questioningly. Instead of speaking, Malfoy snatched Blaise's quill straight out his hand, paused as his face screwed with concentration, perhaps thinking what to write. Then he scribbled something onto the parchment and threw the quill back at Zabini, who turned shaking his head slightly. Malfoy tapped his parchment with his wand, causing it to glow pink then returned back to normal before he ripping it into pieces, and then throwing them into the air. The bell went as he grabbed his bag, not looking at Hermione once while he rapidly left the room. As Hermione just began to pack her things, the small pieces of parchment sucked back together, reforming in front of her. Hermione picked up the parchment and read what Malfoy had written.
"…I like your quill…"
Hermione rolled her eye, smiling with amusement but frowned again instantly whilst grabbing the parchment and tearing it up, telling herself not to think about him.
***
Seeing quite clearly that Malfoy was not approaching, Hermione turned to grin at Harry and Ron who had been watching her inquisitively. She walked along side them into the Great Hall which was packed with students who bustling happily because the unbearable heat wave was over. Hermione didn't move her eyes from the Gryffindor table until she had sat down and pulled a bowl of grapes towards her.
When she was settled, she looked up directly at Malfoy, as if her eyes were magnetized to his exact seat somehow. He froze when she looked at him even though his glazed faraway eyes were on the table in front of him but carried on ripping his toast into small pieces. He hadn't slept. She could tell. With every stolen glance she risked towards him, the darker the circles seemed to be under his eyes, disturbing his usually perfect face.
She couldn't concentrate. She tried to carry on reading her Transfiguration notes that she had propped up against her bowl of grapes on the table, but failed. Whilst swiftly turning towards the cereal, she managed to knock a milk jug all over her notes. She stood up instinctively and watched the milk drip to the floor and saw, with amazement, that her notes had not absorbed any of the milk. She assumed that she had put some sort of shield around them to prevent damage. She was about to sit down again, when she second guessed herself. Looking up, she saw Draco watching her, and his wand held tightly in his hand, pointing directly at her pieces of askew papers on the table in front of her…of course he had been watching her. She just tensed her eyebrows, grabbed the pile of papers, flung her bag over her shoulder and made a hasty leave, ignoring the questioning looks she was getting from her friends.
