Lessons begin

Hermione rose that morning at 6:00 am, she hoped nobody would be up as she wanted to get a head start on her revision of new spells without being disrupted. To her relief, of course, the common room was completely empty, the fire from the night before had gone out and there were several empty bottles of fire-whiskey scattered across the rug. Those bloody Slytherins.

She crossed the threshold and headed towards the portrait entrance, as she reached it the door swung open, Draco Malfoy stepped in and did not even notice Hermione heading towards him. He walked straight into her and made a noise that resembled a mouse as he looked up and saw who it was. Both equally as embarrassed that they had been caught staring at each other the previous night, they went to move quickly out of each other's way, but to make matters worse they kept stepping the same way in a rash attempt to avoid eye contact.

'Sorry Malfoy' Hermione whispered very flustered with her idiocy, once more stepping to the left at the same time as him.

Without thought Draco placed two hands on her shoulders and guided her to the right, his touch was so unexpected Hermione made a small intake of breath. He removed his hands and made a step towards her; 'Call me Draco' he whispered into her ear, running a hand through his tousled hair.

Oh Merlin.

Hermione froze where she was, watching him walk towards the dormitories. What had just happened. Was he flirting? It was hard to tell, it's not like she hadn't had attention before but this was from Malfoy; Pure-blood maniac, Mudblood hater. Coming back to her senses she looked at her watch, it was 6:17 am.

Draco stopped halfway up the spiral staircase and let himself fall back against the wall, his breathing ragged. He screwed his face up in concentration and let out a sigh. He had just made it plainly obvious he had shown interest in her. 'Call me Draco' he repeated mocking himself. 'That's it Malfoy, make a dickead of yourself'

Later that day, the Slytherin's and Gryffindor's had Potions together. Professor Slughorn took this class which made it rather more enjoyable. Harry and Ron had caught up with Hermione at breakfast, where she had put the incident of that morning to the back of her mind after some intense revision.

'Oi Mione' I like what you've done with your hair you know, it's not so bushy anymore!' Ron exclaimed beaming at her and resting an arm around her shoulder. Hermione giggled. Bless Ron he could be so clumsy with his words but charming all the same. Smiling back at him she rested her head onto his shoulder.

Harry was in deep conversation with Seamus as the 4 of them entered the classroom. Instantly Draco looked up and felt a surge of envy and anger rush through him, he was unaware that he had just snapped his quill in half. Ron was draped all over Hermione. What the fuck was wrong with him, why did he care?

Blaise slyly looked beside him at Draco when he heard the sound of his quill snap. He was staring at the redhead and mudblood with a look of murder. Blaise quickly looked away from him and back to his potions book, Draco was his eldest friend, he didn't want to make things uncomfortable for him by making it aware that he knew something was up.

Before he could control himself Draco wolf-whistled and shouted across the room at them, 'Congratulations Weaslebee, finally got yourself a girlfriend, mind you the mudbloods probably the only thing that could touch you without making you into more filth than you already are' raising his eyebrows and smirking at them he let out a shrill laugh along with the other Slytherin's.

'I swear to Merlin Malfoy I will fucking kill you' Ron spat, reaching inside his robes for his wand.

'TRY ME' Draco roared back preparing for war.

'That's enough , I will not tolerate that language in my classroom!' said Slughorn giving them both a disapproving look.

Harry had managed to pull Ron out of the way and sit him down before he could throw a hex at Malfoy, who had raised out of his seat ready for a fight also. But Hermione continued to stand where she was and stare at Draco with loathing before finally looking away and settling down between Ron and Harry. He was shocked to see she actually looked hurt by what he had said. Sitting down sheepishly he took to burying his head in his potions book suddenly feeling embarrassed and ashamed. That was twice he had made himself look stupid in one day. Where had that outburst of jealousy come from. What was Hermione doing to him all of a sudden.

From across the room Pansy was staring at Draco, he had picked his book up and was reading it upside down. Something was up with him and she was going to find out what.