Hermione didn't go to breakfast the next morning. Instead, the witch decided to stay in her common room, and began to work on an essay for Professor Snape, the current Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. She kept telling herself that she was only doing this to get the work out of the way, but the truth was she just wanted to get her mind off things. Hermione had decided that she would be going to speak to Draco later that day, after afternoon classes. She decided that he was going to stop lying to her, one way or another, whether he liked it or not.
It was then that Hermione was jerked out of her thoughts by a knock at the door.
"Hermione?" A voice rang out, before gently pounding on the door once again. "Are you there?"
"Co-" Hermione took a deep breath and set her book aside. "Come in."
Slowly the door opened to reveal one of Hermione's closest friends, Ginny Weasley. Ginny was a year below Hermione (whom was currently in her sixth year), Ron's younger sister (obviously), and one of Hermione's closest friends that was not Ron or Harry. They'd known each other for about five or so years now.
"Hey." Ginny greeted with a small smile. "You weren't at breakfast earlier." The ginger points out, taking a seat on one of the other beds in the room. "Something wrong?"
Hermione shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Just… want to get this essay for Snape done."
Ginny crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Obviously, she didn't believe the brunette. It wasn't very difficult to tell when Hermione Granger was lying. At least, not to the people that knew her well enough.
"Really?" Ginny asked. "I highly doubt that; it's Draco, isn't it?"
"Is it really that obvious?" Hermione sighed.
Ginny nodded. They were close friends; nothing was a secret between them. Honestly, Hermione's friendship with Draco was secret at first… but Ginny noticed Hermione getting up in the middle of the nights and leaving. Eventually, she decided to follow the bushy-haired girl, and found her meeting none other than Draco Malfoy in the Room of Requirement. Since then, Hermione and Ginny haven't kept a single thing from each other.
"It is." The ginger laughed and nodded, but quickly went back to being 'serious'. "So?" She asked. "What's going on between you two?"
It was silent for a couple moments, before Hermione finally decided to open up.
"You know Harry's theory about Draco, right?" She asked, closing her book in frustration. She watched as Ginny nodded, signaling her to continue. "That's what's going on. Draco is practically ignoring me, and Harry doesn't want to entertain the possibility that he's not a Death Eater! I don't know what to do- and the attack on Katie Bell doesn't help anything."
"You don't know what to believe?" Ginny suggested.
Hermione paused for a moment, and then nodded. "Exactly. I know that… his father was one. What reason is there to believe that Draco himself isn't?"
"And with him ignoring you, it's only making everything worse, am I right?"
"It is."
Ginny stood up and slowly began to walk toward the door. She leaned against the wall and a soft sigh passed through her lips. "I'll have him meet you in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. It's still out of order, right?"
"How, exactly, are you planning on getting him there? If he's not going to talk to me willingly, anyway. You can't just go up to him and say 'meet Hermione in the bathroom'. For one, that just sounds wrong."
Ginny laughed lightly and shook her head. "No, silly. I've got my ways; just be there about an hour before curfew."
Hermione just rolled her eyes playfully and agreed, though she didn't actually think that Ginny would be able to do it; Draco could be hard to reason with. And if Ginny happened to mention that she would be there, then what was the point of this whole thing anyway? Draco probably wouldn't show up, and Hermione would just be left in the bathroom by herself. Though, it was sweet of Ginny to try and help.
The rest of the day passed by fairly quickly.
It was lunch before Hermione spoke to Ron and Harry again. None of them mentioned the previous night's events, nor did they talk about Draco, or any other Slytherin. No one even brought up Voldemort, which Hermione greatly appreciated.
Dinner, thankfully, was no different.
After the last class of the day, Hermione made her way into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and sat down on the floor in the corner that was farthest away from the door. She opened her bag and searched through it for a couple of moments, before finally pulling out her copy of Hogwarts, a History (which she has read through once already). She began to read, desperately searching for things (no matter how insignificant) that she missed the first time through.
Draco should be arriving in about an hour, if he was even going to come, to read a couple chapters and then work on her Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. You know, Snape did give a bunch of homework. Much, much more than he did when he was the Potions professor. It got quite annoying, but at the moment, Hermione needed the distraction.
Even with the multiple interruptions from Moaning Myrtle herself, Hermione had managed to accomplish a lot during the short hour or so she spent in the bathroom floor.
"Let go of me, you filthy blood-traitor!"
Hermione jumped slightly from the sudden yelling, but quickly realized that the voice belonged to Draco. She gently placed her essay back into her bag, along with her quill and ink, and then stood up. Slowly, the bushy-haired girl walked toward the bathroom entrance and peaked outside.
The sight was pretty… interesting, to see. Ginny, in all her red-headed glory, was pulling Draco Malfoy down the hall like it was absolutely nothing. Hermione found herself wondering if Ginny is just ridiculously strong, or if she placed a light-weight spell or charm on the blond.
"No." A feminine voice said sternly, "You're going to talk things out with her. You can't just avoid each other for the rest of your lives."
"Well, it was working perfectly fine before you stuck your nose into it!" Draco yelled in an outrage. "You have no right to-"
Ginny cleared her throat, stopping Draco mid-sentence. "Actually, Hermione is one of my closest friends. Therefore, I do have a right to do this. She's upset, Malfoy. You're her friend, and you need to bloody act like it!"
Draco huffed and reluctantly stopped fighting against the ginger. She was right. He couldn't avoid Granger forever. But maybe he could make things go back the way used to be between them. Like they were in second year. No, definitely not. The more he thought about it, though, the more sense it made.
Hermione leaned back against the wall. Her heart began to beat faster than it normally did, her palms began to sweat, and her mind began to race. She'd never been this nervous to talk to Draco - at least, not since their third year. So why now, you ask?
Hermione Granger is afraid.
Would her suspicions be confirmed, or would they be shrugged off. Would she be proved right, or wrong? Was Draco innocent, like she believed? Or was he guilty? Was he ignoring her so that she couldn't ask, or did he just hate her like he used to?
These same questions kept Hermione up at night. Literally.
Draco Malfoy slowly entered the bathroom at the side of Ginny Weasley. The red-head had a tight hold on the blond's arm as she led him toward Hermione, whom had moved back to her corner before the pair walked in. Ginny leaned toward Draco and whispered something into his ear, before letting him go.
"Granger." Draco greeted, dusting off his clothes as if he had been rolling in dirt. His eyes followed Ginny's receding form with a glare that could frighten even Professor Snape. It was fairly obvious that the Malfoy boy was angry with the Weasley. But that wasn't exactly a shock now, was it?
"Draco…" Hermione smiled nervously, choosing to look down at her hands, instead of up at the blond. "I didn't- I didn't think you'd actually show up."
