"And he just walked away?" Ron asked as soon as Hermione finished telling them everything. They were sitting in their usual squishy armchairs next to the warm fire in the Gryffindor common room.
"He just walked away. I wonder who he wanted to see…" replied Hermione.
"Probably Snape," said Harry, laughing. Ron snorted with laughter and fell to the floor next to Crookshanks, who promptly hissed and leapt into Hermione's lap.
Hermione began to laugh and scratched Crookshanks behind the ears, but she just couldn't shake this curiosity. Who did Draco want to see?
Hermione awoke early the next morning, head swimming, still wondering what Draco was doing in the corridors last night and who he wanted to see. The sun shone brilliantly through the high windows in the girl's dormitory. It was still rather early. Everyone was surely still asleep.
"Agh, why should I care what he was doing?" she exclaimed suddenly, causing some of the other girls to stir. She hopped out of her four-poster bed and got dressed. As she climbed out of the portrait hole alone she spotted Draco Malfoy yet again, speeding down the corridor, in the direction of the stairs to the Great Hall.
"What's he doing up here? Why is he up, period? It's the weekend. Harry and Ron aren't even up yet…" She muttered to herself, shaking her hair out of her eyes. Again, without thinking, she started following him.
Before she knew what she was doing, she called out to him.
"Hey, Draco, isn't the Slytherin common room in the dungeons? What are you doing up here?"
He turned around slowly, without stopping, and there, in his eyes, was that light again!
"Hermione…" She thought she heard him whisper, but then, "It's none of your business what I'm doing up here!"
"I was just asking." Hermione said quietly, eyes cast downward.
"I know… Sorry." Draco said quietly, a note of despair in his voice. At this, they looked up, both with looks of shock on their faces. His pale, hers' a deep shade of red. Draco then started to make very odd facial expressions, like he was having some sort of inner struggle.
"Nosy Mudblood," was all he could manage to say, before running down the corridor, going straight through Nearly Headless Nick, and apparently ignoring the cold.
"What's the matter with him? He looked as though he'd seen a ghost." Nearly Headless Nick chuckled.
"Yeah…" Hermione agreed.
She wandered in a sort of daze down to the Great Hall. The ceiling was the same as the bright blue sky outside. Still in a daze, Hermione sat in her usual spot at the long Gryffindor table. The Hall was almost empty, save for a select few students jabbering away animatedly. Draco Malfoy was not to be seen.
Harry and Ron wouldn't be joining her for at least another half hour, so she decided to go over her essay for Snape.
"Sleeping drafts… Potions… Draco… No, not Draco. Why would you be thinking about Draco?" She thought to herself, hitting herself lightly on the forehead. She had never given him this much thought before…. What was going on?
Students drifted in and out of the Great Hall, and before she knew it, over half an hour had passed by. Harry and Ron had joined her at the Gryffindor table, stretching and yawning. Harry sat down across from her, Ron beside her. Ron immediately began shoveling eggs and sausage into his mouth.
"Are you awake in there?" Ron said loudly to Hermione, with a mouthful. She was obviously deep in thought. She jumped a little.
"Oh! Yes, I was going over my Potions essay." She said, shaking her head a little, as if to get rid of an annoying insect.
"Well, now that we're on the subject of the essay…" Ron began, grinning sheepishly, ears turning pink.
"I got you some books from the library last night. Do you really need to look at mine? Why can't you do your own essay?" She said, a little louder than what she meant to.
"I can't concentrate! Sorry for asking!" Ron snapped.
"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. I've just had a lot on my mind lately…" She said apologetically, her mind drifting back to the occurrences in the corridor with Draco. Why couldn't she seem to stop thinking about him?
"I just can't seem to figure him out…" She accidentally said out loud.
"Who are you talking about?" Harry and Ron said together.
Hermione's eyes widened and she realized what she had just said.
"Well, I had another run-in with Malfoy, and he was acting…. Odd." She said quickly. "But I'm not going to give it too much thought."
"What happened this time?" Harry asked, leaning in and grabbing some toast. "Was he with his beloved Snape?"
Ron almost choked on a rather large bite of his sausage and immediately began downing a goblet of pumpkin juice.
Once Ron had recovered, Hermione recounted the morning's events.
"I wonder what he was up to… All the way up there…" Harry said thinking.
"I've been wondering the same thing all morning." Hermione said after swallowing a bite of egg. Suddenly she hopped up.
"Oh well!" She suddenly exclaimed. "I'm not going to let it ruin my weekend! It's gorgeous outside. Let's go down by the lake and relax!" She was secretly hoping a nice relaxing day by the lake with her friends would get her mind off of Draco Malfoy.
Ron stared after her as she trotted off toward the doors.
"Hermione wants us to relax? Something's not right…" He said, dumbfounded.
Harry nodded in agreement.