Chapter 3: We both took a chance

Draco was leaning against a table in the dim dungeons next to Blaise Zabini, who had begun eating an apple as he had missed breakfast. As Draco had ten minutes before the lesson would commence, he was trying to do the buttons on the cuffs of his shirt whilst leaning against a table. His hands were shaking slightly, as he watched Granger enter with Weasley, deep in discussion about something written on the parchment Weasley was holding. They were followed closely by Potter.

Granger had not given Draco the satisfaction of voluntarily looking at him in the eye for a whole week and Draco had not attempted to communicate with her further. As she spoke animatedly with the Weaselgit, Draco felt like a piece of heavy, unwanted realisation had struck him; this mad idea that Draco had let engulf him, that Granger could even consider looking at Draco differently, seemed very much nonexistent. A pain in Draco's forehead started to creep up on him, as it had done for the last few days. But a hopeful voice reminded him, that sometimes he was sure he could feel someone watching the back of his head.

When Draco gave up on his buttons and pushed his sleeves up instead, his headache did not improve as he felt his pulse started to pound heavily in his temple as he watched Granger continue to whisper with the Weasel. Draco scowled, squeezing his hands into fists, hating that Granger spoke to Weasley so affectionately, leaning close and making him laugh.

When Draco stood up from the table, his clouded instincts told him to go up to go up to Weasley and punch him in the face. Instead, he took out his wand and twisted it carefully in his hands. Wands do more damage.

As Granger placed her bag on the table and began to walk away from Weasley, he pushed the line. He had noticed a feather in her hair, reached up and pulled it out carefully as she walked, letting the tips of his fingers to run through her hair. Draco watched, filled with jealousy and rage, and suddenly slammed his left hand, containing his wand, onto the table. His wand sent out violent gold and black sparks as the table cracked in half directly where Draco wand hit it. Draco watched, sniggering as Blaise stumbled and made a heavy "umph" noise as he landed on the floor. He swore has he got up and hit Draco on the arm. Draco bent down to pick up his wand and realised a hand was already grasping it.

Hermione had started to walk towards Draco, hoping to get a chance to speak to him. Then, she had seen him smash the table. Smiling slightly, she had bent down to get his wand for him but got heavily distracted as she met Draco's eyes for the first time in a while.

For the few moments he got to look at her so closely, she looked more than beautiful. Draco's memory had failed miserably for the past week whenever it had tried to make Hermione's angelic face appear in his mind. Her eyes were sparkling and she was smiling widely with polite amusement. She looked flustered and distracted by him and Draco's heart burned with an uncontrollable urge to reach out and stroke her face. When Snape walked into the room, Hermione was the first to get up abruptly and walk straight back to her table. As Draco also got up, he looked at Weasley. He knew that expression; jealousy and rage. Draco smirked as he turned round, repaired the table and sat back down to face Granger.

***

The shadows crept around the class and no noise was made apart from the delicate scratching of quills or odd sigh. Everyone worked with their heads down, shivering slightly as they once again copied bits of text from the book.

Draco kept stopping every time he finished a paragraph to watch Granger finish hers. Draco smiled slightly when he first noticed that this meant that he and Granger wrote at more or less the same pace, as Granger had began writing slightly after him. 'At least we have something in common.' he thought miserably.

When Draco finished his last paragraph, he sharply placed his quill back down on the desk, folded his arms and lent back on his chair, listening to it groan and creak. A mere ten seconds later, Granger dropped her snazzy quill next her inkpot and looked up at Draco with her wonderfully staged blank expression. It seemed like she was checking that he was watching her, before putting her hand up.

Snape murmured "what" in a bored, matter-of-fact tone, without looking up from his dull desk, scattered with various parchments. Granger asked whether she could be excused as she was needed at her Arithmancy lesson fifteen minutes early today. This was a complete lie and only Malfoy noticed. As she spoke, Malfoy noted she only looked away from him when she sensed Potter and Weasley look up at her questioningly.

"Does this affect anyone else in the class?" Snape drawled, uninterestedly. Malfoy took a big gamble as he raised his hand slowly, still watching Granger as she packed her bag. Weasel's eyes narrowed as he glowered at Malfoy but Granger's expression did not seem to change much but Draco swore that he noticed a slight soft knowing smile appearing as she continued to assemble her things.

Malfoy dragged his arm across the table cautiously to gather his various belongings, wanting to catch up with Granger as quickly as possible as she had already left but not without glancing back at Draco once more. Draco slipped his bag over his shoulder, panting heavily with anticipation as his heartbeat soured. He ignored Blaise's smirk as he sped out the room.