two months later
Hermione Granger walked down the lightly lit corridor, on her way to the Gryffindor common room from the library. Her nose buried deep inside Guide to Advanced Transfiguration by Ermic Switch. Professor McGonagall hadn't assigned any homework that day, and the book was a whole level above what they were learning, but Hermione always liked a head start, and believed you could never know too much and anything less then advanced, was too little.
As she walked she looked around every few seconds a tad frightened of walking on her own such a long way in the near darkness. A lamp flickered to her left, startling her and causing herself and her book to trip and fall to the ground thank god nobody saw that thought Hermione standing whilst leaning over to brush off her dusty skirt. Just as she was about to stand up straight and grab her book, a dark figure appeared in front of her. There was no mistaking the black suit the figure was wearing, and the pale hands that hung at his sides. Hermione straightened quickly throwing her shoulders back and meeting eyes with Draco Malfoy.
"Granger" said Draco coolly with a smug look on his face.
"H-hello Malfoy" Hermione tried to sound confident, but failed being embarrassed from her fall.
"Whatchu' got there?" asked Draco nodding his head towards the book still lying on the ground, not loosing eye contact with Hermione.
"A book" said Hermione in a way that suggested he'd never heard of one. She broke eye contact and leaned down to grab it, but Draco was quicker, swooping it off the ground and opening it in his hands. Then turning to the front cover to read the title. His gaze left the book title with a puzzled expression, looking back up to Hermione.
"What're you reading this for?" he asked as if it were the entire dictionary or something as equally long and pointless.
"None of your business" snarled Hermione "now give it back" she lunged forward trying to grab the book and leave as quick as she could, speaking with Draco always annoyed her more then anything (Probably annoyed her even more then getting less then a 99% on a grade in class), but Draco again was quicker taking a swift step back.
"Don't tell me what to do you filthy mudb-" Draco stopped mid-word before calling Hermione one of the worst names a wizard (half blood for that matter) can be called. Mudblood.
"What's the matter? Is there a teacher behind me" asked Hermione sarcastically and turned around. Honestly she was slightly hurt when Draco would say those sorts of things to her. Yet she always kept a confident, non-caring front.
"Um no" said Draco as she turned back to face him "here" he handed her the book looking down at the floor between them.
"Uh- thanks" said Hermione with a puzzled expression, grabbing the book from his hands and pulling it against her torso "well bye" she said quickly still confused by Draco's lack of insults and almost kind gesture. And began down the hall
"Granger!" he called behind her as she walked away quickly.
"Um yes?" asked Hermione turning to face him
"I was only trying to make small talk you know. I had no intention of insulting you. And well um- I'm sorry" he spat the last word quickly then in one swift movement, broke their eye contact, turned, and walked towards the Slytherin common-room, opposite direction of Hermione.
She wasn't completely sure why, but Hermione found herself thinking a lot about the previous night, about her encounter with Draco. It seemed odd didn't it? The way Draco had an open shot at an insult, nearly took it, then withdrew quickly returning her book, and then to top it off actually APOLOGIZING? All of this was running through Hermione's head. She just couldn't figure it out. She hated it of course, having all that to think about when she should be focused on her studies, not on some silly encounter she had with the school bully, or more specifically the bully to her and her friends.
She shook her head violently trying hard to pay attention to professor Flitwick's lesson, which Ron was nearly snoring too sitting next to her "Ronald pay attention!" said Hermione jabbing her elbow into Ron's side
"Blimey Hermione you can't honestly think this is in any way enjoyable! I mean I know you're a know-it all but even you can't find this interesting" it was true that Hermione was having trouble focusing, but again this was slightly because of last nights encounter, but mostly because she had already studied the lesson Flitwick was teaching last year and could have recited it word-for-word just as Flitwick read it from the text book. "It's got me almost excited for potions," said Ron slouching in his chair.
"Potions?" asked Hermione not really paying attention to Ron or anything else around her.
"Yeah potions, it's what we have next. What's the matter with you today? Where's your head?" asked Ron, but Hermione gave no reply considering she didn't necessarily hear him. She was thinking of how they had potions with the Slytherins, and Hermione would have a chance to ask Draco what last night was all about. Not that it particularly mattered, but a girl can wonder why her tormenter has suddenly decided to stop and apologize.
Flitwick sighed at the sight of his class bored to tears and told them to "just talk amongst yourselves until the end of class, and don't fret about the homework" sighed again and stepped of the pile of books he had been standing on, and wallowing over to his desk.
"Homework? What homework?" gasped Ron sitting up quickly in his chair
"Oh you know Ron," said Harry Potter sneaking a sly smile at Hermione "we have to write a full parchment of what we've learned today"
"Flitwick says twenty points off your exam if it's not on his desk before class tomorrow" assisted Hermione.
"What we've learned?" a horrified expression grew across Ron's face "um, what did we learn?" he asked hopefully turning quickly through his textbook.
Hermione returned Harry's smile "goodness Ron weren't you paying attention?"
"NO!" shouted Ron "no one was! Just tell me what I missed! Please I can't afford to lose twenty marks!"
"I don't know Hermione I don't feel it's our place to tell him," said Harry in a fake meaningful way, looking past Ron to Hermione. Then the two broke into laughter at the look of betrayal and horrific face of Ron Weasley.
"Oh you both think you're sooo funny don't you?" said Ron in a disgusted tone as the three of them walked to potions. Hermione and Harry had decided to let Ron in on their little joke when Ron ran up to professor Flitwick begging him for a review on the day's lesson.
"Yeah actually I do" grinned Harry. Hermione let out a soft laugh, which quickly stopped when she walked into the potions class noticing Draco Malfoy looking straight at her, with daggering, yet soft, eyes. She looked away quickly and took her seat. Cautiously she looked back at Draco to see if he was still looking at her, he wasn't. He was staring down at the table with a vacant look on his face. Hermione turned back to face the front where professor Snape stood ordering the class to be silent.