Chapter 2

...in which Draco gets the wrong idea.

Quidditch season had fallen upon Hogwarts once again, and already Blaise was sick to death of hearing about it. Since the announcement had been made for try-outs, every single conversation Blaise had with his friends was quickly ruined by Quidditch talk. He supposed being friends with three players of the Slytherin Quidditch team had something to do with it.

"Well you two are definitely shoe-ins," Draco said confidently to Weasley and Potter as they walked to breakfast one morning.

The two boys let out howls of celebration, causing many girls around them to giggle at their antics. They didn't notice, however, or they were just used to the attention and didn't care.

"What about you, Zabini?" Draco continued, smirking at the Italian who had been quiet during the conversation, "Sure you don't wanna try out this year? You do have good flying skills."

Weasley and Potter murmured in agreement. Blaise ignored them, they tried to convince him to try-out every year, but he never had. He hadn't felt Quidditch was an important thing to be focused on; he placed much more importance on intellect.

"Come on, Zabini!" Weasley whined, "You beat us all this summer when we played at Malfoy's. You've got natural skill, why don't you use it!"

They made their way to the Slytherin table and began dishing themselves breakfast.

"I've told you a million times, I'm not trying out." Blaise stated firmly, scooping scrambled eggs onto his plate.

"Come on," Draco complained, before looking around and leaning forward, "I can guarantee you a spot."

Blaise shook his head tiredly, "Doesn't it defeat the purpose of try-outs if you're just going to give the positions to your friends? I thought it was about skill?"

Weasley and Potter looked offended at his insinuation that they didn't have skill, Blaise ignored them, however; he knew they would get on the team whether they were friends with the Captain or not.

Draco smirked. "It is about skill, and you're better then all of the idiots who'll try out. Come on!" Draco insisted, in one last attempt to convince the Italian.

"Not gonna happen." Blaise said, with finality in his tone. The other boys grumbled at him, but eventually stopped like they did every year, knowing it was a lost cause. They continued breakfast chatting about the try-outs the next day and the upcoming game in two weeks between Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Blaise zoned out for the rest of breakfast.

Hermione awoke later than usual that morning; she was typically one of the first down to breakfast, but had allowed herself to sleep in for once, given that she'd be up later that night with her prefect duties. She dressed and brushed her hair, delighting in the way a few spells could smooth such a monstrosity.

Hermione wasn't sure how much she'd actually changed over the summer, but she had noticed that she'd been getting a few looks from the male population that were not of ridicule or disgust, in fact if Hermione had more experience with males she might have realised that they were actually checking her out. Being modest, naive Hermione though, she merely thought she must have had something stuck in her teeth. She smiled in the mirror to make sure she didn't, anyway, before making her way down to the common room where Neville was waiting to walk with her to the Great Hall.

The two chatted animatedly about the upcoming Hogsmeade visit in two weeks. It was a large topic of conversation amongst students as well, but given that Quidditch try-outs were tomorrow and the first game was in two weeks, just a day before the weekend, it had been pushed to the side. Hermione and Neville, however, not being Quidditch fans at all were focusing purely on what they would do at Hogsmeade.

They made their way to the entrance hall when Hermione noticed the group of boys she hated exiting the doors. Neville noticed too, and immediately tensed.

"Just ignore them," Hermione muttered to him keeping her eyes ahead, "Don't look at them, and don't acknowledge their pathetic presence at all."

She'd decided last night that she would just ignore the boys for as long as possible. Normally, she would glare at them or tell them to shut up, which would encourage them further, so she did what she wished and pretended that they didn't exist.

As they passed the boys who were surrounded by a few girls, Hermione heard Draco call, "Morning Mudblood! You're looking horrible as usual."

The girls around Draco giggled in amusement, but Hermione simply kept her eyes forward, acting like she'd never heard him and kept walking into the hall.

"Are you deaf, mudblood?" Draco hissed. Hermione almost broke her whole act when she felt the urge to smirk at the clear frustration in his voice, but didn't and entered the hall.

Once they reached their table, Neville said, "Why didn't we just do that before?"

He and Hermione shared a small chuckle and dug into their breakfast.

Outside the hall, Blaise was secretly amused by Hermione's antics, especially the affect they had on his platinum-haired friend.

Draco had been in a rather good mood that morning. With the prospect of Quidditch try-outs the next day and the fact that the first game was coming up, he'd been happily flirting with girls as they and many other groups hung outside the Great hall. Now, however, Blaise noticed Draco was about as happy as a Hippogriff who'd had its feathers plucked out.

Blaise had noticed it was Hermione's blatant ignorance of their daily remarks that set him off. Blaise had also noticed that a few members of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team thought the fact that Granger basically made Draco look like a fool, was hilarious.

"Let's go," Draco muttered moodily, glaring at the Hufflepuff Seeker, Wayne Hopkins, who was smirking.

In passing, Blaise heard Hopkins say, "I don't know what that stupid git Malfoy's on about anyway, Granger's nowhere near ugly. Bloody hell..."

There were murmurs of agreement from his group of friends. Blaise was sure Draco had heard this too, because his cheeks suddenly tinged pink and his hands balled into fists.

"Who the bloody hell does she think she is?" Draco hissed, as they walked down the stairs to the dungeons.

"Don't worry about it, mate," Weasley said, sounding far more relaxed than Draco, "She's just playing a little game, trying to pretend like she doesn't care what we say. She'll snap soon enough."

Draco still did not look comforted. Blaise was sure that his daily feuds with Hermione were one of the highlights of his day, and if Blaise was correct about his assumptions on Draco's real view of Hermione, he could only imagine that Draco was not sure what to do with himself 'til then.

Blaise, however, was not sure of what Draco really thought, so took his friends annoyance at face-value and assumed it was because he couldn't get a reaction from Granger. They prepared themselves for that day's lesson, and left the dungeons.

They were about to leave the castle and head to the greenhouses for Herbology, when Blaise spotted Hopkins and his friends heading up the stairs.

He quickly turned back to his friends, "Oi, I've gotta use the bathroom. I'll catch up. Tell Sprout where I am."

The other boys nodded and continued walking to Herbology; Blaise, however, turned and headed up the staircases after Hopkins and his friends.

The day passed quickly for Hermione and soon enough she was in the library that night finishing off as much homework as she could before she started patrolling the corridors. Rounds were taken in turns and were often switched around. Hermione was lucky that she was mostly always placed with a Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw prefect for their rounds.

She'd just put the finishing touches on her Arithmancy homework and began to pack up her things, when she noticed someone standing in front of her. She groaned inwardly, thinking it was one of those foolish Slytherin boy's, but was quite shocked when she saw Wayne Hopkins, Seeker for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team standing in front of her.

He was tall, with lean muscle that could be seen through his shirt. His skin was golden from exposure to the sun. His hair was short and strawberry blond, with lighter streaks through it, again, from the sun. He had a friendly smile, twinkling blue eyes, and a dusting of freckles across his nose.

All in all, he was quite handsome, which was why Hermione was thoroughly confused at why he was looking at her.

"Hello, Hermione," The boy began in a husky voice that didn't seem to match his appearance.

Hermione cocked an eyebrow, "Hello," she said quite plainly. She'd never spoken to him before, so she wasn't quite sure what his intentions were.

He leaned himself against Hermione's table and she couldn't help but notice his toned arms as he placed one beside her.

"I know we haven't spoken before," he began, "But I have noticed you around. I was actually wondering if you'd like to come to Hogsmeade with me?" He gave her a dazzling grin that Hermione was sure melted all the girls' hearts, but it really didn't have any effect on her.

"Oh...uh...well it's really nice of you to ask, but-," She was cut off by him standing, grinning at her.

"Great! I guess I'll see you then?" Hermione stared at him shocked, she'd said less than 15 words and none of them were anything close to 'yes'. She merely nodded, uncertainly. What could it hurt to say yes?

"Excellent! I'll see you round, Hermione." He gave her one last grin as he wandered off back through the shelves. Hermione shook her head in disbelief before gathering her things and exiting the library.

"Did she say yes?" Blaise asked impatiently as Hopkins rounded the corner to where he was standing next to the Transfiguration section.

"I didn't give her the option of saying no," Hopkins grinned wolfishly and Blaise scoffed.

"Right. Well here," he handed the boy a pouch of Galleons, "You better go through with it, otherwise you'll regret it." Blaise threatened.

"I don't see why you're paying me to ask out Granger, anyway...I probably would have done it for free, but a deal's a deal," he said quickly, pocketing the money.

Blaise scoffed again and left the Hufflepuff as he walked out of the library. It had taken quite some time to convince Hopkins to ask Granger out, mainly because everyone knew not to trust a Slytherin.

Once Blaise had convinced him that he wasn't the target of the plan, he'd agreed, with a bit of convincing from a pouch of Galleons of course. Blaise was interested to see what Draco's reaction would be if Hermione was 'dating' someone else, it would let him know for sure what his friends intentions were, because he knew he would never find out simply through asking.

Blaise entered his dorm room to find Potter and Weasley bustling around getting ready. Potter was desperately trying to flatten his hair in the mirror of the adjoining bathroom.

"What are you two up to, tonight?" Blaise asked, settling himself on his bed.

Ron turned to him, straightening the collar of his shirt, "Padma Patil invited us all to a party in Ravenclaw tower; its Michael Corner's birthday I think, but any excuse for a party, right?" The red-head grinned, and stepped into the bathroom, just as a frustrated Harry exited.

"You coming, Zabini?" Harry asked, making a last attempt as flattening his hair.

"I dunno," Blaise answered, leaning back against the bed head.

"Aw, come on, its Friday night! Nothing interesting is going to happen here, and you know how much those Ravenclaw girls fawn over you, especially." Potter finished with a wink in his friends direction.

Blaise snorted in amusement. It was true; Ravenclaw girls favoured him over the others. While they did like all the boys, they seemed to have a soft spot for him especially.

"Yeah, alright," Blaise agreed after a moment, "wouldn't hurt, would it?" Potter grinned, as Blaise began getting ready.

"Oi, have you seen Malfoy?" Potter asked suddenly, turning to Blaise, who was going through his draws finding something to wear.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen him since dinner," Blaise answered. That was odd.

Weasley stepped out of the bathroom, "Malfoy here yet? He's gonna miss the party if he doesn't turn up soon."

The boys continued getting ready, until 5 minutes later when Draco walked through the door.

"Finally!" Cried Ron, "We were gonna leave without you, you were taking that bloody long!"

Draco, who seemed to be in a slightly better mood than he was that morning, gave Weasley a look like he was an idiot, "What are you on about, Ginger?"

Weasley groaned, while the others snickered at the nickname Draco had called him.

"We're invited to a party in Ravenclaw tower," Weasley said, impatiently, "There's going to be drinks there stronger than butter beer, and you know how I love my Ravenclaw ladies." Weasley grinned slyly, while the others snorted in amusement.

"You won't be getting too many of those Ravenclaw ladies with Zabini around." Potter added, patting Weasley on the shoulder, "Sorry, mate."

Weasley scoffed, "We'll see. They may love Zabini's 'intellect', but they haven't seen my determination." The red-head said, looking smug.

The others snickered. "So you're going to annoy them until they go out with you?" Potter asked, barely masking his amusement.

"Well I won't be doing anything if Malfoy doesn't get his ass moving and get ready, Padma is going to meet us outside the portrait hole in ten minutes to let us in. Hurry up!" Ron threw his pillow at Draco, who dodged it easily.

"Sorry boys, can't make it. I've got Prefect duties tonight." He stepped into the room and set his bag down.

"Since when do you have Prefect duties?" Asked Ron, narrowing his eyes.

"Since the Ravenclaw prefect asked me to take her spot so he could go to that party. My duties were tomorrow night, but since try-outs are tomorrow, I'll probably be too tired to do it then." He shrugged.

"Why would you agree to take them up tonight, you could go to the party yourself!" Cried Ron, scandalized.

Draco shrugged again, "Like I said, it was convenient. I've gotta go meet my partner in the hall now, anyway."

"Who's patrolling with you?" Asked Blaise, suddenly.

Draco turned to him, and he seemed to hesitate for a moment, before masking his face with a look of casual indifference, "Just some girl." He turned away from Blaise's penetrating stare.

"I'll see you idiots later." Draco said. He gave one last quick glance at Blaise before turning and walking out of the dorm.

"Well," said Weasley looking at the two remaining Silver Marauders, "Shall we get going?"

The others nodded and stood, making their way out of the dungeons and all the way up to Ravenclaw tower.

Hermione was currently standing in the Great Hall twirling her wand between her fingers. Tonight was her night on prefect duties, and looking at the schedule she was partnered with Mandy Brocklehurst, a Ravenclaw in her year. Mandy seemed to be running late, and Hermione was thinking perhaps she would just start without the girl so she didn't finish up too late.

Hermione let out a sigh and stood up from the table, heading toward the doors of the Great Hall. She had just opened them and stepped out when she came face to face with Draco Malfoy. She yelped in surprise and promptly stepped away from him.

"What are you doing out? It's past curfew." She tried to make her voice sound intimidating but failed; she was far too worried that she might end up with another bruised lung, or worse.

Malfoy scowled at her, "I'm a prefect too, Granger. Besides, I'm patrolling tonight."

Hermione eyes widened, "No you aren't! I looked at the schedule, Mandy's with me tonight." How would she possibly spend tonight in the presence of Malfoy without being seriously injured?

The Slytherin rolled his eyes, "Well the schedule has changed hasn't it. Now let's get this over with, I don't wanna spend more time near you then I have to."

Hermione glared at him and pushed past, making her way out the door to the entrance, "Well hurry up." She hissed looking back at him still standing at the door of the Great Hall.

He made his way over to her, his face sneering.

She crossed her arms, "If you hex me tonight, or do anything, I'll tell McGonagall. Now, you take that side of the grounds, I'll take this side." She pointed both right and left, "We'll meet up in the middle to go back inside and start on the floors."

Malfoy merely began walking in the direction she'd pointed. Hermione glared daggers into his back, before turning and making her way in the other direction.

Up in Ravenclaw tower, Blaise was not having a good time. He was sitting with a bottle of butter beer on one of the couches in the Ravenclaw common room. He was currently being fawned over by two seventh year girls, one sixth year, and occasionally he got a flirty smile from a fifth year. He was pretending to listen to one of the seventh years, a blonde haired girl with green eyes, who was talking to him about her beach house in Brazil. He assumed she was a pureblood.

He looked around him; Potter and Weasley were on separate sides of the room trying to pick-up. Blaise noticed that it looked like they were both hitting the fire whiskey quite hard, and wondered whether they remembered that they had Quidditch try-outs tomorrow morning.

He continued looking around the room; there were a few Gryffindors as well as Hufflepuffs, and Blaise noticed Wayne Hopkins, the Hufflepuff Seeker getting rather cosy with a Ravenclaw girl that Blaise didn't recognise in the corner. He almost thought about walking over there to inform him that for the current time, he was supposed to be dating Hermione Granger.

He was interrupted from his thoughts, however, by Mandy Brocklehurst squeezing in beside him on the couch, much to the annoyance of the blonde haired seventh year who grumbled, but moved away to get more butter beer.

"Hey, Blaise," Mandy greeted brightly, "How've you been? I haven't spoken to you in a while."

Blaise and Mandy had often been paired together for assignments in classes they shared. Blaise liked her because, unlike many of the other Ravenclaw girls, she seemed to retain her brain when speaking to him. He'd often found Mandy to be a riveting conversationalist, and was always genuinely pleased when he got the chance to have a chat with her.

"I know," Blaise nodded, "Not since that duel in Defence at the end of last year. Which I kicked your ass in, may I remind you." He smirked as she scoffed, "I've been alright though. How've you been?"

"That's good to hear. Oh, I've been good. Summer holidays were ok, my family went to France. I got sick though. Food poisoning from trying Escargot, so I didn't enjoy it much." She wrinkled her nose.

"Escargot?" Blaise asked, curious as to what type of food she was speaking about.

She shook her head, laughing lightly, "You'd never look at me the same if I told you," she joked.

Blaise grinned. Mandy leaned back and took a sip of Butter beer, looking around the room before turning back to face him, "I'm surprised you're here, actually. It's like entering a lion's den for you especially."

Blaise smirked, "Well I had no other plans for my Friday night, so I thought I'd risk it. I should probably thank you for saving me before. I think blondie over there," he motioned to the seventh year, whose name he'd forgotten, "was a few seconds away from proposing."

Mandy laughed loudly, "Well you should consider yourself lucky that Malfoy came and asked to swap patrol duties, otherwise you might be planning your wedding right now." She smirked again before sipping on her butter beer.

Blaise stared at her for a moment. Malfoy had asked to change duties? He'd made out as though he had been asked to swap, and just agreed. Perhaps he was very serious about not being tired after try-outs tomorrow...

He was pulled from his thoughts by a loud crash. Looking up, he saw Potter and Hopkins sparring quite crazily on the floor. The table filled with butter beer had been knocked over and a couple of males, including Weasley and one of Hopkins' teammates were trying to pull them apart.

Mandy and Blaise raced over and began to assist in breaking up the fight, which was a feat in itself since everyone had crowded around them. Blaise pulled a rather drunk Potter off the floor, who'd sustained a cut lip, and turned to Mandy, "We should probably get out of here before Flitwick comes."

Mandy nodded, and turned back to the scene where a drunken Hopkins was yelling profanities at Harry. Harry, who was literally being dragged out by Ron and Blaise, was attempting to escape their grasps so he could get back to plant his fist in the other Seekers face.

Blaise literally shoved Potter out of the portrait hole, causing the drunken boy to stumble and nearly fall on his ass as they stepped out themselves.

"What the bloody hell was that about?" Growled Ron, rounding on the bespectacled boy.

"He's a bloody git!" Harry cried angrily, slurring slightly, "Started saying how he's going to kick my ass in the first game! Said my form was off and that I couldn't catch a cold in winter!"

Blaise shook his head in disbelief, "You started a fight because he was, so obviously, trying to goad you?"

Harry was quiet for a moment, before saying, "I didn't start the fight. He did. I stole his girlfriend tonight, the one he was all over. She left him to get another butter beer, so I swept in to piss him off, and turns out she liked me better." He shrugged, looking smug.

Weasley patted him on the back, "Good work, mate. Very cunning of you."

Blaise sighed, "That's not his girlfriend. He's meant to be dating Granger." Blaise knew the story of the fight would be out in the morning, so he only hoped Potter and Blaise would add the rumour of Hopkins and Granger in when they told people. He needed Malfoy to believe they were dating.

Weasley and Potter shared a look, before breaking out into wild laughter. Blaise stood with his arms crossed, waiting for them to stop. Some moments later, they did, both wiping tears of mirth from their eyes.

"I can't believe he's seeing Granger!" Potter cried, laughing again.

"Well at least you don't have to worry about him catching the snitch in the first game," Weasley began, snickering, "He's clearly blind. Well, blinder than you." He said motioning to the glasses upon Potters nose. The latter gave a look of annoyance, but before an argument could start Blaise broke in.

"Can you two shut up?" he asked, massaging his temples, "We've been standing in the one spot for the last 15 minutes because of your non-stop idiocy. I swear you both should have been placed in Gryffindor." Blaise began walking down the corridor toward the staircase.

The two boys looked highly offended, before following their friend. They made it onto the fifth floor landing after a very long and stumbled walk, in which Blaise had very nearly hexed them both.

"Holy shit, I'm bleeding!" Potter exclaimed, suddenly. Both boys turned to face their friend, who was dabbing his lip with his finger.

"You only just realised that?" Blaise asked, almost amused.

"We should probably make a quick stop to the hospital wing, don't want it to ruin your form tomorrow." Weasley commented, sounding rather sober now.

"How could a split lip possibly ruin his form?" Blaise asked incredulously.

Weasley shrugged, "Don't wanna take any risks."

Potter agreed, and so it was settled, they would make a stop on the third floor to visit the Hospital Wing and get Potter's cut healed.

Meanwhile, Hermione was having a horrible night. If it wasn't for the presence of Draco Malfoy, it might not be so. They were currently patrolling the third floor, separately of course, as Hermione had suggested they split up to reduce the chance of killing each other. Malfoy had merely walked in the other direction without a word.

Hermione had to admit that the Slytherin was extremely odd. Half the time he was threatening to hex her, but tonight he'd been unusually quiet. She thought she could see him glancing at her from the corner of his eye a couple of times. Though she assumed being in her presence was torture for him; he was probably fighting the urge to hex her, or at least trip her over.

Hermione had just passed the Hospital Wing when she heard talking coming from around the corner. She stopped and crossed her arms, waiting to scold whoever it was for being out after curfew.

She lost all sense of confidence; however, when she saw the remaining three members of the Silver Marauders turn the corner, before stopping abruptly when they noticed her.

Potter and Weasley broke into identical, mischievous grins, while Blaise looked at her surprised.

"It's past curfew, you know. Why are you out?" She asked, trying to sound authoritative.

"Why are you out?" Blaise countered. Hermione turned her eyes from looking disgusted at Potter, who smelt strongly of Fire Whiskey, to Blaise.

"I'm patrolling tonight, so I have a reason to be out," she said, haughtily, "You three, however, do not. Five points from Slytherin-each." She added, barely hiding her satisfied smirk.

Weasley and Potter groaned, while Blaise furrowed his brow at her. She was patrolling tonight? And Draco had asked Mandy to swap him? It all seemed like too much. Perhaps Draco didn't know Hermione was patrolling tonight, maybe he'd swapped and then realised too late? Blaise didn't know, but he knew it would be clear once Draco found out about Hermione and Wayne Hopkins.

Almost as if reading the topic of Blaise's thoughts, Potter spoke up.

"Come on Granger, don't act like you don't have a naughty side," he sauntered toward her, she looked him up and down with a look of disdain on her face, and stepped away, "We know about you and that git, Hopkins." Hermione blushed, looking horrified.

"Personally, I think you should have come to me first. I have way more skill then him, and not just with catching a snitch..." Potter smirked and grabbed her around the waist pulling her to him.

"Potter, what the bloody-hell are you doing?" Malfoy had just rounded the corner and the first thing his eyes landed on was Potter trying to feel up Granger.

Everyone stopped to look at Malfoy, except for Hermione who used the opportunity to push Potter away from her, though he still seemed to keep a tight hold of her waist. Blaise noticed Draco seemed to narrow his eyes at this before turning to them.

Potter laughed, "I was just showing Granger that she should've picked me instead of that stupid prat Hopkins. I got in a fight with him tonight, he's a major asshole."

"Hopkins?" Malfoy asked incredulously. Blaise noticed he glanced at Hermione, before looking at Potter.

"Yep, I got him right in the nose," Potter boasted proudly.

"Good for you," Draco said, rather patronisingly, "But what's this about the mudblood and Hopkins?" He laughed, though Blaise thought it seemed forced. Blaise also noticed he had a rather sick expression on his face, like he's just swallowed something that didn't agree with him.

Potter turned back to Hermione and pulled her towards him once again despite her efforts to get away. Blaise noticed Draco's arm twitch as though he was about to do something, but instead he looked on with balled fists.

"Hermione, here, is dating Hopkins," Potter stated, smirking at the struggling witch, "Pretty bad choice, even for you, Know-it-all. Though, I suppose you don't get many choices. I'm giving you one though, I'd be quite happy to provide my services to you."

Weasley snickered, while Blaise glanced at Malfoy and saw he was looking at where Potter's hands were running down Hermione's back, and where they were pressed together.

Blaise noticed Malfoy's jaw tense and his cheeks tinged pink, showing anger. Blaise stepped forward and grabbed Potter by the back of the robes, pulling him away from the protesting witch. He noticed that Malfoy seemed to relax at the distance put between them.

"Ugh, you're disgusting, Potter." Hermione said, sneering at him, not the slightest bit scared right now, "I'm moving onto the next floor." She moved past them toward the staircase.

"I could always hex you for that comment, Granger!" Potter cried angrily after her.

"I could always take 100 points from Slytherin for threatening to hex a prefect, Potter!" She called back from down the corridor she'd just turned down. Potter grumbled, while Weasley snickered.

"Just shut it and go get Madam Pomfrey, she's probably asleep by this." Blaise said, pushing Potter toward the doors of the hospital wing. Potter walked through them, followed by Weasley, who muttered, "You think she'll give me a Pepper-up Potion? I feel a hang-over coming on..."

Blaise turned to Draco who was watching the door swing shut with a rather blank expression.

"So," Blaise began, acting casual, "Rounds with Granger; that must be hell." Draco scoffed and nodded.

"It's been shit," Draco agreed. His face didn't seem to match the sentiment, however.

"Why'd you agree to it then?" Blaise asked.

Draco glanced at him, then away. "Brocklehurst asked me to take her spot so she could go to that party...I only agreed because it was convenient for me. If I'd known Granger was there I would have told her to shove it."

Blaise narrowed his eyes. That's not the story Mandy had told him. Would she lie about something that insignificant? Blaise didn't believe she would, after all, this seemed like too much of a coincidence to have just happened by accident. Had Draco intentionally taken Mandy's spot, just so he could be near Granger? He let his thoughts go, however, when Potter and Weasley exited the Hospital Wing looking much better for wear.

"You idiots better get back to the dungeons, now;" Draco said lightly, "Filch is around here somewhere."

At the mention of Filch, Blaise and the two boys left with a quick "Cya!" over their shoulders, and raced down the staircase. On the way down, Blaise looked back and saw Draco climbing the staircase to the fourth floor, to meet up with Hermione. He frowned, before turning and following his counterparts down the stairs.

Hermione stifled a yawn as she walked along, listening to the sound of her footsteps echo of the stone walls. Tonight had been one of the most uneventful patrols of her life (if you didn't count the near maiming from Potter), and she was thoroughly bored.

She turned the corner and continued walking. She was surprised that they hadn't hexed her tonight; perhaps ignoring them today had given them a bit more respect for her. She almost laughed out loud, that thought was ridiculous.

She continued walking thoughtlessly for a moment, in a daze from her tiredness, when she rounded another corner and ran into something hard. She yelped and fell on her backside, looking up she saw the sneering face of Malfoy looking down at her.

"Honestly, mudblood. Get up." He moved to walk around her. Hermione stood and glared daggers into his back.

"Stop calling me that!" She hissed, angrily.

Malfoy chuckled mirthlessly, causing her anger to boil even more so. "Finally reacting, hmm? I knew you couldn't keep up your little game of ignoring my insults for long."

Hermione cursed inwardly. "What are you doing here anyway? I've already patrolled that corridor!" Malfoy turned to glare at her.

"Don't yell at me, you filthy mudblood." He hissed, "Honestly, Merlin help Hopkins if the rumours are true." He turned and continued walking, though Hermione noticed it was down the corridor she hadn't patrolled yet.

"Well blood doesn't matter to some people," Hermione said, stubbornly. She hated admitting she agreed to go out with Hopkins, but if it got a reaction out of the git in front of her, it was worth it.

Malfoy simply snorted, and they were silent for a moment before he spoke. "So is the great Hopkins taking you to Hogsmeade?"

Hermione didn't answer, but looked at her feet, her cheeks red with anger and embarrassment. Malfoy looked over his shoulder and smirked, "How romantic." He continued walking.

"Shut up, you stupid git." Once again, Hermione regretted her words as they left her mouth.

Malfoy stopped abruptly and turned. Hermione felt the fear build up inside her as he began striding back to her. She backed away, but he kept coming forward, until eventually she could feel her back hit the cold stone wall and he was looking down at her with a look of pure rage.

"What did you call me, you filthy mudblood?"

Hermione swallowed nervously, "I was just joking. You know, playing around." She laughed nervously; Malfoy did not look amused in the slightest. His face however did seem to soften, slightly.

"You're scared of me aren't you, mudblood?" He asked, some anger still left in his voice.

"No," Hermione replied, though it was too quickly. She didn't want him to think that, it would only encourage him.

He stepped back slightly, "Good. So if you don't want me to hex you, don't make me mad."

She scoffed, "You hex me even when I don't do anything to you!"

"Well, obviously, because it's fun. And because someone needs to put you in your place." He turned and walked the other way.

"Stupid git," Hermione mumbled under her breath. She froze when she saw Malfoy stop mid-step. She must have said that louder than she thought. She cursed inwardly.

"What was that, Mudblood?" He said, turning on the spot to look at her.

Hermione squirmed under his gaze, "N-Nothing."

He merely raised an eyebrow, which was shortly followed by his wand, "Rectusempra." He muttered calmly, and Hermione was instantly on the floor.

She noticed however, that she wasn't in pain, which surprised her. She was just being tickled to almost unbearable levels, and she had actually collapsed to the ground laughing.

She soon realised, when breathing became difficult, why this spell would be dangerous. She began gasping for air in between her giggles, and was relieved when Malfoy removed the spell.

She looked up at him, a stray piece of hair falling over her eyes. He was staring at her with a blank expression, though Hermione noticed he looked like he was deep in thought.

She stood and brushed the dust off her robes, feeling awkward under his gaze. They stood with their eyes locked for a moment, before Malfoy muttered something to her that was almost inaudible.

"I hate you."

He turned and walked away leaving Hermione to stare after him with a mixture of confusion, anger, and surprisingly, the smallest bit of hurt.

Hermione decided to leave Malfoy to finish this floor, so she began to walk to the staircase and begin patrolling the fifth floor.

Hermione's thoughts were still on Malfoy, even as she began patrolling the corridors. He had acted odd toward her. First, he'd actually talked to her; second, he barely hexed her at all, and thirdly, the way he looked at her was not normal. She amused herself in thinking that perhaps her presence was causing him to have some sort of mental breakdown. She shook her head at the thought; he wouldn't even let her affect him that much.

She continued on patrolling that night, making sure to avoid Malfoy at all costs. Eventually, at 12 o'clock she was done and was only too thankful to get to her bed and rest. Her sleep was restless however, because she couldn't help thinking about Draco's words 'I hate you.' and how much he seemed to mean it. More importantly, she couldn't understand why it had hurt her.

Blaise awoke the next day to the sound of his friend's rushing around. They were in their Quidditch uniforms, and yelling random things like "Have you seen my other sock?" and "That's my glove, not yours!"

Blaise attempted to drown out the noise with his pillow, but gave up after a couple of minutes. He sat up and saw Potter and Weasley racing around, while Malfoy sat quietly on his bed, staring into space.

Blaise frowned. He'd noticed his friend had been rather quiet lately, and he wondered if it had to do with Hermione. Right now, he just looked depressed.

Draco looked up at Blaise, having noticed someone watching him. The latter grinned at his friend, "Hope you find some good players today, mate."

Draco gave a small smile back, "We could always do with you as a player, Zabini."

Blaise smirked, "No chance, mate." He stood and made his way to the bathroom to shower. When he emerged, he found the dorm empty, beside Goyle who was still snoring away. He dressed and grabbed his bag, before heading in the direction of the library.

He knew many people spent the day watching the try-outs for all the House Quidditch teams, but Blaise was never a sports fanatic so instead had decided to spend the day, or at least part of it, in the library and get some homework done.

Blaise entered the quiet room to find it reasonably empty. There were a few Ravenclaws scattered around, who he avoided, and a couple of Hufflepuffs, but he assumed most people were enjoying their weekend by doing fun things, not school work.

He walked further into the library towards a secluded area of table that he enjoyed using. He'd studied at the same table for years, and had never let anyone else sit there. As he rounded the corner, however, he saw and unmistakeable mane of curly brown hair poking up from his seat.

He approached her. "Granger, since when do you sit here?"

She jumped slightly in her, no his, seat and turned to look at him, "What?"

He rolled his eyes, before speaking slowly and deliberately, "Since when do you sit here?" he pointed to the chair underneath her.

She scowled at him, "No need to be an ass; there's a Ravenclaw girl sitting at my regular table today, so I came over here instead. I quite like it here," she said looking around, "it's much more peaceful."

Blaise narrowed his eyes, "This is my table, do not even think about making this a permanent arrangement." Blaise rarely got annoyed about things, but when people tried to hone in on his territory, it bugged him to no end.

Hermione raised her eyebrow, "Alright, calm down. There's a table right across from this, why can't you sit there for today?"

Blaise sighed in annoyance, but merely moved to the other table; it would be once and once only that he let Granger get away with that, however.

"Since you're here," Hermione began, while biting her quill, "We may as well work on the Potions assignment."

Blaise merely nodded, before standing to gather some books on the ingredients in Polyjuice potion. He was perusing the shelves when Hermione approached him from behind.

"I should probably say thank you for last night," Hermione said, looking awkward. Blaise looked over his shoulder at her, while still running his finger along the titles of the books.

"What for?" he asked, turning back to the shelf in front of him.

"For getting drunken Potter away from me," she said quietly, "I doubt anyone else would have done anything."

Blaise disagreed, though he didn't mention it. He saw how mad Malfoy was getting when Potter was all over Hermione. He'd stepped in to save Draco from embarrassment, and Potter from further injury, because he knew he was going to step in soon.

No, Draco would have stopped Potter eventually, though probably with his fist. That's why Blaise was now certain that his friend was keen on the girl he'd tortured practically every day for the last five years. He just wasn't sure where to go from there. He should probably tell Hopkins to back off, lest he want to risk bodily injury.

"Oh...well it was nothing." Blaise said, eventually, "Potter's alright, he just can't handle his alcohol."

Hermione scoffed but said nothing, and they continued their search for books.

Two hours later, they were sitting at their tables, quill-to-parchment, scribbling furiously. They had found information on three ingredients so far, and were currently summarising and beginning their paper.

They had argued on the structure of it for a long ten minutes, and eventually both had agreed that they would split the work load between them and allow the other to write in their own style, and then collaborate at the end. Hermione put her quill down to stretch, and was surprised when her stomach grumbled.

Looking up at the clock she realised it was lunch time; they'd been so absorbed in their work they hadn't noticed. She looked over to Zabini, who was still scribbling away.

"Hey," she said, he looked up at her from his work, "It's lunchtime, and I'm starved."

Blaise put his quill down and stretched, "Now that you mention it so am I." He stood from his seat.

"Should we come back after, or take our stuff?" She asked.

"We could always come back after," he replied, "If we keep going at this rate, we could have it finished by today."

He and Hermione ventured out of the library and down the staircases. Hermione noticed he was still keeping pace with her.

"Aren't you afraid to be seen with me?" She asked, thoroughly surprised.

Blaise merely shrugged, before smirking. "If anyone see's us, I'll just say I'm about to hex you."

To his surprise, Hermione laughed. He couldn't help but join in.

"Well you can't torture me as bad as Malfoy does. He's hated me since birth, literally, because I'm muggle born." Her smile faded and was replaced with a small frown. Blaise looked away feeling awkward. If only she knew...

"Malfoy's just been raised to be small-minded about certain things. Not his fault." Blaise said simply. He knew of the nature of Draco's upbringing, and he didn't envy him at all.

Hermione merely shook her head, either in pity or disbelief; he assumed it was the latter. They'd made it to the outside of the hall, where Blaise noticed his friends were standing around in their Quidditch uniforms, being hounded by females.

Draco looked over at Blaise, before his eyes moved to Hermione, then back to Blaise. He seemed to be evaluating the situation, though Blaise was sure he was misinterpreting it highly.

"Are you coming in?" Hermione asked, making her way inside.

"No," he replied, eyes still on Malfoy, whose own eyes had narrowed slightly, "I'll catch you back in the library after lunch."

Hermione nodded and gave him a bright smile, which unfortunately didn't go unnoticed by Draco, before strolling inside and sitting at the table with Neville, who'd only just gotten back from the Greenhouses after working on his extra-credit project all morning.

Blaise made his way over to the other Silver Marauders. "How were try-outs?" He asked conversationally.

"Fine," Draco answered, stiffly. Not looking at Blaise. Blaise sighed.

The others began to move into the hall, and Blaise held back, tapping Draco on the shoulder. The blond haired boy turned to him, scowling. "What?"

Blaise wasn't sure what made him say it, but he regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth. "I'm keen on Ginny Weasley, not her."

They both knew which 'her' he was talking about, but apparently Draco was in denial, not only to his friends, but to himself.

"Does it look like a give a shit who likes Granger?"

Blaise wanted to say, "Yes, actually," but didn't.

"I told you before Zabini, whatever idea you've got, it's wrong. She's a mudblood." Draco hissed, before turning and entering the hall.

Blaise ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Perhaps getting Draco to admit it, at least to him was a lost cause. He sighed tiredly and strolled into the great hall, where Draco was silently watching Hermione, while those around him talked animatedly. Blaise just shook his head.

Please review and let me know what you think!

-Leni