Chapter 2

Note: Still don't own anything.

Since I didn't have potions on Wednesdays, today was a better day than most and by dinner, I was quite happy. Professor Flitwick had a surprise charms test today which was quite exhilarating seeing as I had to go through an obstacle course-like thing which had many advanced charms I was to throw off. I had also earned my house ten points in Professor Wood's class. I was surprised myself when I learned that Oliver Wood, former Quidditch captain, had a knack for teaching Transfiguration at the beginning of this year.

Taking one last gulp of pumpkin juice, I went to Professor Slughorn's office, I had detention with him today. I saw Malfoy opening the door and heading inside and I hurried to go in before the door closed.

"Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger. You will be cleaning one of the dungeons today as the Gobstones Club had a little incident. To be frank, the place is covered in slime. I think the game was defective."

"Okay," I said. I was still feeling bad about the incident in class, not that it had been my fault, not entirely. I had help from a certain blonde. I went over to the door Professor Slughorn showed us to it was covered with green slime and it smelled disgusting.

"Wands please," Professor Slughorn said, "There are muggle cleaning supplies in the closet."

As soon as he left Malfoy muttered, "What is it with detentions and not using magic?" I couldn't help but agree with him. I walked over to the closet and pulled out a bottle of cleaning spray and a couple rags. "How the hell am I supposed to clean using these?" Malfoy asked.

"Quite simple really," pleased to know something Malfoy didn't, "You spray and wipe." I demonstrated.

"Muggles!" Malfoy said exasperated, "How do they live without magic?" I tossed a rag at him.

"Let's get started then," I said, there really was a lot of work to do. We worked for about an hour in silence, well I worked. Malfoy was half-heartedly pinching the rag with a disgusted look and barely wiping anything. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"What?" Malfoy asked me.

I shook my head, "Nothing," I wasn't going to make Malfoy do even less work, if it was possible, "We'd be done if you were doing anything." I mentioned. It was true, the half of the dungeon I was working on was spotless whereas there was only a small spot that was clean on his side.

"We wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for you," he stood up from the crouched position he had on the floor.

"Me? You were the one doing nothing," I retorted, he was being impossible and I'd have to clean the whole dungeon.

"You didn't want my help remember?"

"Well you should help me clean the dungeon," I huffed.

I walked over to his side of the dungeon. Then it all happened suddenly. I slipped on the green slime. Malfoy reached over to stop me from falling head first but then he slipped on the putrid substance. Next thing I knew, I was on top of him, my face centimeters from his. We just stared at each other for a moment and then I felt myself blush.

"Sorry! Are you okay?" I said, slightly rushed. But Malfoy had passed out.

I sat in the hospital wing a while later feeling completely lost. Malfoy was here because of me. After he had passed out, I had rushed to get Professor Slughorn and Malfoy was levitated to the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey had told me, though I had to keep pestering her until she gave up, that Malfoy had just hit his head and that he'd be fine. It was my fault though and I felt terrible. Malfoy had tried to stop me from falling.

I sat in the visitor's chair. I looked quite nice, actually, without his perpetual sneer. His straight blonde hair almost covered his eyes. I realized then that I had no idea what color his eyes were even though I had known him since first year. His face was more angular than when he had been younger and if I hadn't known him I may have thought he was handsome. I shook those thoughts from my head. It was only after another fifteen minutes that he started to come around.

"Malfoy? Are you okay? Oh I'm so sorry!" I hated that I was the reason he'd been lying here for two hours.

"How long have I been here?"

"About two hours," Madame Pomfrey said, "And Miss Granger, you can go now. I've let you stay for half an hour."

"Half an hour?" Malfoy muttered under breath.

Thursday morning bought with it another potions day. It was a dull, rainy day and I wasn't expecting much. First thing after breakfast, I walked down to the potions classroom with Harry and Ron. Professor Slughorn was in a joyous mood thanks to the fact that his classroom had been restored.

"Since we got our classroom back, let's continue our lessons! From now on, you'll just come here and start working, alright?" A few nods, "Okay then, you may begin!"

Professor Slughorn came to our table, "Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy, why don't the two of you make the Himpheri potion instead?"

"Okay, Professor," I said. Though it was not as advanced as I would have liked, it was better than doing nothing.

Once he left, I turned to Malfoy, "Let's try and be civil through our project, okay?"

"Yeah," Malfoy replied, "Okay."

I flipped through my potions book. The first stem was to simmer minced gurdyroots on low. I turned to reach for the gurdyroots but I saw that Malfoy already had them and was halfway through mincing them.

"How did you know that was the first step?" I asked him.

"Maybe I wasn't trying before," he smirked.

Was he really not trying before? I noticed that he was taking pleasure in my confusion so I immediately stopped. Instead, I decided to do better than him. Okay, next step, 'Add in finely chopped myrtleweed.' I went to the supply closet rather quickly and brought out the amount specified. Before I started, I glanced over at Malfoy. The gurdyroots were, to my extreme frustration, perfectly minced. I started chopping the myrtleweed while Malfoy took some and started chopping as well. By the time I was done, so was he and it was obvious which one was chopped much better, his.

This continued on the entire time in potions. Though we didn't talk, even once, I could tell that he knew I was trying to best him. By the end of class, none of my ingredients were better than his and though I hated to admit it, he was slightly better than I was. Determined to do better next time, I walked to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. All the while, I was wondering if Malfoy had told the truth and he really wasn't trying before.

"Hermione are you alright? You seem kind of quiet."

It was Harry. I shook all thoughts of the arrogant Slytherin out of my mind and walked a bit faster to keep up with Harry, "Yeah, I'm fine."

We walked into the classroom. Professor Black looked quite excited, almost jumping up and down. We soon realized that we were starting our nonverbal dueling today. Professor Black had taught nonverbal spells much better than Snape had and even Neville could do a summoning spell nonverbally by the end of the lesson. I partnered up with Neville as Dean really wanted to duel Harry and Neville was usually my partner anyway.

After an uneventful day of classes, I went up the common room and flopped down on my favorite armchair by the fire. Harry, Ron, Lavender, and Ginny came and sat down near me at one point but I was busy too busy reading to give them any attention.

As I took out my notebook to answer the extra credit charms questions, I remembered that I was going to best Malfoy next time at Potions. I grabbed my potions book and flipped the pages until I saw our potion, the Himpheri. Thinking that I'd better see what we were going to do next, I saw that we had already finished three days' worth in one class. At this rate, we'd be done in about a week and a half while the rest of the class would take a month. Feeling oddly proud, I tried to memorize the next steps.

Detention was with Professor Slughorn again, though today was the last day. Malfoy and I were just cleaning cauldrons, our wands taken from us.

After a while I asked him the question that was bothering me, "Were you really not trying at potions before?"

Malfoy shrugged, "I didn't have to because Professor Snape gave me Outstanding even if I was terrible."

"All the Slytherins?" I asked, wondering how unfair Snape had really been.

"No," Malfoy answered simply. We were silent for a while before he asked, "Did you really stay with me for half an hour, yesterday?"

I shrugged, "It was my fault. Why?"

He didn't answer and we finished the cleaning without another word.

Friday was bright and sunny. I went down to breakfast quite early and sat down with Neville. Harry, Ron, and Ginny had Quidditch practice in the morning now.

Potions was almost the same as yesterday. We didn't talk but I was still trying to do better than him. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

I spent most of the day contemplating how much better Malfoy was than me and when detention time came around, I still had no idea.

Filtch was in charge of our detention today so I had no hope at all. Muttering about old punishments and how much better they were, Filtch led the two of us to the Forbidden Forest.

"Last year was the best. If you stepped a toe out of line, it was the Cruciatus Curse for you!" I winced, putting children under that kind of torture was just cruel. "Well, see these plants? Madame Pomfrey needs them so you'll need to collect two baskets full." He handed us each one. It wasn't too big, actually. "Just make sure you don't get bit, they do like to drink blood." With that, Filtch left, leaving us a single lantern.

"Drink blood?" I said, I had never heard of these plants.

"Yeah, pick them like this," Malfoy pinched one at the root and put it in his basket.

"Okay," I reached down to pinch one but a thorn from its stem pricked me, "Ouch." A small bead of blood blossomed on my finger near the thorn.

"Granger, I'll do it, just sit down on that rock over there and don't come near these things. They're slightly poisonous so it will hurt for a while after it pricks you."

He was right, my hand suddenly exploded in pain and it was all I could do to not yell out. After what seemed like forever, though it was only a minute on my watch, it lessened to a dull pain. I watched as Malfoy expertly picked the plants. My eyes wandered to the castle and I looked up at Gryffindor tower. My thoughts wandering to a Defense essay I had yet to start, I looked at stars twinkling merrily. From my parent's house, which was near the city, I hadn't seen this many stars shine so brightly.

I felt a light tap on my head and looked up to see Malfoy, "We're done, come on."

I followed behind him, holding the lantern as he held both baskets of the plants. It wasn't until we reached inside the castle that I noticed Malfoy's hands.

"Malfoy!" I said, "Your hands, they're bleeding." I took the baskets from him and set them on the floor. I took both of his hands which he had shoved into his pockets as soon as I had taken the baskets. They were curled into fists. I tried to pry it open gently. "Let me see," I said.

"No, I'm fine."

"You're not fine, a single one of those thorns pricked me and I still feel it."

"Granger, it's okay," Malfoy grabbed the two baskets from the ground and walked over to Filtch's office. I almost ran to keep up with his long strides.

As we left his office, I looked up at him. I hadn't noticed it before but he was now a bit more than half a head taller than me. "Go see Madame Pomfrey," I urged him.

"Granger really, stop bothering me." With that, he left toward the dungeons.

As I headed upstairs, the little thorn fell from my palm and even the dull pain stopped. I hoped Malfoy would be okay. He was really stupid, I could only guess how much those vile plants hurt him. I muttered a few curses directed at Filtch and went upstairs to my bed.

Breakfast the next morning was a pleasant affair. Since there was Quidditch practice, I was wondering whether or not I should go to Hogsmede. Neville came and sat next to me.

"Hi Neville," I said, glancing up from the Daily Prophet.

"Hermione, did you know they opened a book store in Hogsmede?"

"They did?" I asked, intrigued.

"Yeah, I'm going to Hogsmede so do you want to come with me?"

"Sure, Neville," I said. His face lit up with a smile. I spent most of breakfast talking about the new book store that was actually part of a smaller branch of Flourish and Blotts.

I went upstairs to fetch my outdoor cloak and I walked together with Neville to Hogsmede. Neville seemed worried about a Transfiguration essay I had finished last week.

"Let's go in the Three Broomsticks and I'll help you," I said.

"Thanks, Hermione," Neville grinned. We ordered two Butterbeers and went to sit down in at a table in the corner.

A while later, I made my way to Flourish and Blotts where I saw a load of interesting books. Neville had gone to a Herbology shop to help Professor Sprout choose plants for the first year class. I went to a place where you could read and I opened a book on useful everyday charms.

I grinned happily at the smell of fresh paper and never-before-opened books. I was about to start reading the first paragraph when Malfoy came and stood near me.

"Hello, Granger!"

"Malfoy? What are you doing here?"

"Hunting Hippogriffs." I scowled.

I looked at his hands. They were still covered with scratches, "Are your hands okay?"

"Really, Granger, I thought we'd been over this."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," I said, "We need to work on our potions essay. And at the rate we're working, we'd be done with our potion in about ten more days."

"Let's go, then."

I agreed since Neville was going back with Professor Sprout anyway. We left the shop after I bought a couple books and went outside. It had started to drizzle lightly and by the time we got to the castle, we were both quite wet.

Drying myself off with my wand, I headed off to the library with Malfoy. Excitedly, I searched the library for books that mentioned the Himpheri potion and came back to the table with a teetering stack. Malfoy had a couple books strewn on the table already. We each took notes on it in silence until I finally stood up and decided to stop for today. The sun was already setting and I realized we accidentally missed dinner.

Malfoy must have noticed too because he said, "Hungry?"

"Yeah," I said, picking up my stack of notes and putting them in my bag.

As I put away the books, I noticed Malfoy had left leaving his stack of books at the table. I decided to put them back because I didn't want Madame Pince to get angry and not let me in the library. Angry at Malfoy at leaving me to clean up after him, I left the library a while later.

"Granger!"

"Malfoy? I had clean up after you!"

"Don't get your hair all bushy," Malfoy said, "Here."

He handed be a sandwich and a slice of cake, "Thanks." I said feeling bad for yelling at him, "Sorry."

"Sorry?"

"For getting angry at you," I explained.

"Oh," Malfoy said. And I would swear that he actually gave me a small smile before walking off.