"Alohamora!" Hermione said pointing her wand at the offending lock.

She tried to open the door again but it held fast. She glared at it as if the strength of her gaze alone might cause it to open. She wasn't that lucky. She turned her glare towards Draco as he walked up with his wand at the ready. So he thought his spell would be so much better than hers, did he? Well let him try. She folded her arms and waited for him to attempt to open it.

"Alohamora!" Draco said firmly as he pointed his wand at the door. Hermione stepped forward and with a smug look on her face she tried the door again only to see that it was still locked. Turning back to him she gave him an annoyed look.

"Anything else you'd like to try. Don't let me get in the way, we all know how good you are at Charms."

Suddenly the whole situation seemed to strike him as extremely funny and much to her chagrin he began to laugh. This made him worthy of a glare that Harry and Ron had long ago learned to be afraid of. Unfortunately it didn't stop his bout of laughter.

"This isn't funny, we have to find a way out of here, I have a Potions assignment I need to work on and it's my room."

This made him laugh harder and she was very close to casting a silencing charm on him. Why all of a sudden was he finding everything so incredibly funny? And why did she feel like it was at her expense? The corner of her mouth twitched in a near attempt at a wry smile. At least he wasn't upset. She supposed that was something.

"What is so funny?" she asked as she resisted the urge to put her hands on her hips. He looked at her and she was taken a bit aback. It suddenly occurred to her that he was smiling. Really smiling. The moonlight coming through the windows was illuminating him and it did wonders in improving his face. He didn't look like so much a ferret. He actually looked human. For some reason this surprised and perplexed her. In her mind Draco had always been one thing. Well, not exactly one thing, several things. Annoying. Rude. Hateful. Smirking. Those words came to mind. Laughing and smiling wasn't among them. She wasn't sure that she appreciated him ruining her image of him and replacing it with this person who was acting like a real human being. She always saw Draco through a haze of dislike and she wasn't sure she'd ever really looked at him.

She was looking now.

"It's Friday, Granger. You have all weekend to get your homework finished," he replied when he had stopped laughing. She watched as he leaned against a table, his arms folded across his chest. Hermione wondered if he was coming to any strange conclusions about her. Other than the fact that she was insane for wanting to actually do homework.

"Yes, well I like to get things done earlier," she muttered unhappily. One day, one day there would be someone who understood her compulsive need to be perfect when it came to her academics. It would always boggle her as to why everyone was so set on pushing homework aside. After all it had to be done so whether or not you jumped right in or procrastinated you'd have to do it anyway. Why not be happy about it? Enjoy it even? She shrugged. Sometimes she was a bit too bookish for her own good. Rarely did it bother her. Sometimes she just wanted someone to like her for it.

"So how are we going to get out of here?" She asked changing the subject. Several ideas floated through her head but none of them were likely to work, or end in anything but detention.

"Wait for Pince to come back in the morning?" he suggested helplessly. "I suppose we could try to bang on the door and hope someone who isn't Filch comes along and unlocks it, but it is after curfew so that's unlikely. Won't Potter and Weasley notice you're gone and come looking for you or something?"

"Doubtful. By this time they're usually off playing Wizard's Chess and I'm in my room studying." It wasn't that she didn't enjoy spending time with her best friends but this was her last year at Hogwarts and studies had to take a higher priority than they used to. While before she would sit and do homework while Harry and Ron did whatever Harry and Ron do it did take it's toll on her concentration when she was sitting there reading and they were arguing the finer points of a Quidditch match.

She sighed. "We have to find a way out. I'm not staying in here alone with you for an entire night. Why are the doors locked all of a sudden and why won't alohamora work?" Many times had there been midnight trips to the library by one of the trio and never had they had a problem getting in or out. This was definitely something new.

"Because someone broke in here a few nights ago and stole a very dangerous book from the restricted section." He said simply.

She stared at him.

"It wasn't me," he said defensively.

"But you know who did take it?" She asked knowing that in all likelihood he did. She couldn't imagine that Draco Malfoy, Prince of the Slytherins was left out of the loop on very much, especially if it involved stealing or something else that a student wasn't supposed to be doing. If a student had stolen it at all. She wondered what book it was.

"I have my suspicions," he said with a shrug.

"Well that makes you just as bad if you don't tell someone." He was hiding something. Physically he wasn't giving anything away but in her gut she could just feel that he had more than his suspicions. Well she wouldn't press the issue. It seemed to be a waste of time. She sat down in a chair next to him and rested her chin on her hands. "I guess the only thing we can do is wait until morning and then sneak out then," she said with a sigh of resignation. It was going to be an oh so very long night.

"I'm not happy about this either, Granger, but it is your fault, if you would have just left me alone we wouldn't be stuck here together. I guess being a Gryffindor and all you feel bound to save the world. Some people don't want saved."

"You know, I was beginning to think that minus the insults, the sarcasm, and the arrogance you were actually tolerable but I was wrong," she said walking off.

"Where are you going?" he asked getting off the table and following her.

"I'm going back to the corner to try and get some sleep, I don't want Madame Pince to walk in tomorrow morning and find us." 'I don't want anyone to walk in and find us,' she added silently to herself. She could only imagine what people would think.


Draco wanted to tell her to find her own corner, after all it was his not-so-secret-anymore- place. He debated upon finding some place else to rest until morning but he figured it was more practical to stay in the part of the library that he knew Pince wouldn't visit in the morning. Also, although he refused to admit it, being alone in the Library while it was dark didn't really appeal to him.

He followed her back to the reclusive little corner, his wand lighting the way so that he didn't get lost. He was surprised not to see the light from hers in front of him. Apparently she was adept at navigating through the library in the dark. Not that he was really that surprised. They made it to the little nook and he sat down a few feet away from her. He was beginning to regret ever going there in the first place. Today had been an uncharacteristically bad day and he had wanted to be left alone to think. His day had started off normal enough and then in Transfiguration he'd gotten a less than stellar grade on a test which was odd because he usually did really well in all of his classes. He was top student in his house, sixth student in his year, Granger being number one of course. The bad grade had stung a little.

After classes he'd had Quidditch practice and it had gone really well until he'd been hit by a bludger and had fallen twenty feet to the ground in front of everyone. It didn't look so good when the Captain of the Quidditch team falls off his broom. His team mates definitely hadn't thought so. Then he had gone up to his dorm, intent on taking a nap. Lately nightmares plagued his sleep and he usually woke up feeling more tired than when he'd gone to sleep. It was almost to the point where he was contemplating asking Madam Pomfrey for a sleeping draught. Something to chase away the night terrors. His nap had been postponed when he'd reached his room and found a letter sitting on his bed.

He opened it and knew immediately who it was from, his father. The last year and a half had been the best of Draco's life mainly because of the fact that his father was locked up in Azkaban Prison. Besides the occasional letter, he had been virtually free of his father. This letter had been berating as usual, the same old same old about letting a mudblood get higher grades than him. How it was making them look bad. As if being in Azkaban made a good impression on the world. The rest of the letter had gone on to talk about how his mother had visited him but Draco hadn't and how it was "disappointing". However, it had been the end of the letter that had sent chills through him.

"You're 'coming of age' ceremony will take place as planned this summer and I will be there to witness it" Draco knew exactly what ceremony he had been talking about, the one that would make him a Death-Eater.

"Are you all right? You kind of spaced out there for a moment," said Hermione and Draco looked over to see her watching him intently by the light of his wand that he still hadn't extinguished. He tried to pull his thoughts away from the path they had been going down. Thinking about what would happen wouldn't change it. Wouldn't stop it.

"I'm fine, I was just thinking." He said shortly. He hoped that she would leave it at that but he doubted he'd be that lucky. Maybe if he tossed a book at her she'd be distracted like a dog with a stick. That thought gave him a bit of amusement.

"What were you thinking about?"

"None of you business," he said plainly.

"Fair enough."

There were a few moments of silence as he looked off into the darkness. Suddenly shadows started moving and he looked over to see that she was taking off her robe. She then proceeded to undo her tie.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to get comfortable so I can go to sleep," she said pulling her vest over her head and then taking off her shoes so that she was wearing just her blouse and skirt.

He watched as she folded her vest to make a pillow and then laid down with her robe covering her like a blanket. He sat there for a little while, his wand still lit as he watched her back wondering if she was asleep yet. He smothered a yawn, it was getting late and he had a Quidditch match tomorrow. If he didn't sleep there was no way he was going to be alert enough to find the snitch. Granted the match was against Hufflepuff so he wasn't that worried.

He laid down and realized that he was in close proximity to Granger. Well, it couldn't very well be helped. He made sure no part of him was touching her and then he closed his eyes. If anyone had told him this morning that he would be sleeping next to Granger he would have hexed them into New Years without a second thought. Funny how life was like that. It would be a great way to torture Potter and Weasley, telling them that he had slept with their best friend. The only problem with that was she could in turn tell the whole school about how she had found him... upset. Not that they would believe her, but he decided he'd better not risk it.

He had never liked Granger much, there was the fact that she was a Gryffindor, a mudblood, and friend of Potter's, that in itself was enough to condemn her. He had also never forgotten about that incident in their third year when she had slapped him. No one slapped him. He had once wondered if she would have been put into Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor whether or not he would have liked her any better... probably not.

"Malfoy?" Hermione said sleepily from beside him.

"Yes?" he replied.

"Good night."

He was caught off guard, he couldn't ever remember anyone saying those words to him, two simple words that he was sure other people heard all the time but were so rare to him. He didn't quite know what to say. Part of him wanted to come up with some scalding response but he swallowed any sarcastic retort that was bubbling forth.

"Er... 'night, Granger." It was going to be a long night.