Chapter 2- the first week

Hermione's first day started badly and ended worse. Returning to Hogwarts, which was supposed to be comforting, seemed to remind everyone of what they lost. Hermione was struck by how different the castle was every time she stubbed her toe on some new piece of architecture in the otherwise-unchanged halls. And it physically hurt to see the people who lost their loved ones in the war. The Creevey brothers never should have been split. Parvati seemed incomplete without Lavender. Hermione could see the pain etched onto their faces as she made her way to breakfast. She sat with Harry and Ron, but only half-listened to their conversation (which was mostly made up of Harry waxing poetic about how he wasn't allowed to be captain of the quidditch team, since Ginny had taken the spot when they had skipped their 7th year) in favor of studying the people around her. She noticed a few lonely faces, and made mental notes to talk to them at some point before the week was over. But as she added another name to the list, Harley Vasquez, she found herself suddenly drawn to a face behind the young Hufflepuff, a face that she knew she hated, but in that moment couldn't remember why. Because for a quick moment, she saw someone she'd never seen before. And for a quick moment, he looked just as lost, if not more so, than everyone else. And for a quick moment, Draco Malfoy looked completely, utterly, undeniably human.

Wait a minute, backtrack, Hermione thought to herself. Of course he was human. He had always been human. She tore her eyes away from the face that had already re-erected the tough, infallible facade that graced his expression every day. Trying desperately to reorient herself, though she couldn't remember when she had become so flustered, she joined back into her boys' conversation, which had thankfully been steered away from Quidditch just moments before, as owls started swooping overhead. "Schedules!" Hermione exclaimed. She was ever so excited to see her schedule. It would be quite a lot of work but she figured she'd do fine, considering DADA would be easy, Slughorn liked her, and one of the classes was divination, and that just took mindless lies to get an O. After receiving her schedule, she saw that she had Advanced Potions first thing, all the way in the dungeons. She'd have to leave now, or she'd definitely be late.

"I have to go, I have Potions first!" Hermione hurriedly finished her hot chocolate and ran out the huge doors, book bag swinging behind her.

Down a hundred stairs, up a hundred stairs, up another hundred, down again for lunch… Hermione was not happy with this schedule. Why why why did she have astronomy right after potions? She had the worst luck. And no classes with Harry or Ron except DADA! Who was out to get her? Was Snape haunting her, making her schedule all wonky? She was seriously considering it.

And not only that, but Malfoy had been in her Potions class. She wasn't really surprised, since he was fairly smart and liked the subject, but was nevertheless disappointed when he showed up. She managed to ignore him for the period, however, and partnered with Padma Patil to brew a rheumatism- relieving potion. She supposed the good samples would go to some teacher or other with back pains, since it was difficult to see any other reason they'd be making it…

"'Mione!" Her thoughts were interrupted by Ron's voice as she made her way into the great hall for lunch. Seeing her friends at the end of the Gryffindor table, she began walking towards them. She had just gotten about halfway across the hall and then BAM!

"My apologies, I didn't see you- oh it's you," Draco abruptly stopped his formality when he saw the wild brown curls of the girl he'd slammed into. Granger. Ugh. Hogwarts was not this small! Not only did they see each other on the train, but they also had Advanced Potions together, and he was nearly certain he overheard her say she had Divination third tomorrow. Same time as him. Some spirit with a really bad sense of humor must be haunting him, making his schedule wonky.

Snape, probably.

Draco glanced down at the girl, who was almost done regathering her school books. She seemed unfazed by the crash, as if she had fully expected to run into him, her nemesis, and was absolutely fine with it. He watched silently as she got to her feet and started toward her friends, walking past him like he wasn't there. Crazy girl.

Shaking off the encounter, Draco made his way over to his spot at the Slytherin table, sandwiching himself between Blaise and Theo. He poured a glass of water and then piled some chicken onto his plate. He was starving. As he ate, he pondered over his run-ins with Gryffindor's princess, and tried to forget the fascinated look on her face earlier that day. Of course, the one time he forgot to keep up his "high-and-mighty" facial expression was when she happened to look over. And although he convinced himself that she'd already forgotten the encounter, a niggling thought in the back of his mind reminded him that she wasn't called the brightest witch of her generation for nothing. He would have to be careful around the girl. Draco hadn't forgotten the calculating, yet not unkind look on her face on the train. Granger was more than she appeared to be. He wouldn't let her read him as easily as the thousands of books she'd gone through in her life. He couldn't let Hermione Granger, a girl who hated him, figure out how much he was hurting.

"You okay, man?" Draco started at Blaise's question.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Tired. How are you guys holding up?"

Theo gave him an odd look. "Have you been listening to us at all?" Draco gave him an apologetic grin. "I'll take that as a no. Well, if you had been listening, you would know that I am holding up just fine, but your horribly misguided friend here has gotten into some trouble," he grinned, "with a girl who doesn't like him."

"She will! One day! No girl is able to resist me for long!" Blaise argued with a whiny voice.

Draco laughed, "Who's the girl? A Slytherin, I hope. The girls here are the only ones for whom that statement could be false. And I, personally, would love to see you pine after a girl with no interest in you. Might knock you down a few pegs."

Blaise's face lit up. "Nope! A Ravenclaw. Lisa Turpin."

Draco groaned. "That brunette book-lover in our year? She'll be willing to go out with you by the end of the week!"

Blaise's face lit up. "You really think so?" Theo laughed, and they spent the rest of lunch teasing him about his new interest, distracting Draco from the girl he kept bumping into. Had he not been distracted, he may have glanced over and seen her studying him from across the hall, and he may have locked glances with her, and they may have come to an understanding. However, he did not look over, they did not lock glances, and they did not come to an understanding. Instead, over the course of the next week, the tension between them would strengthen as they continued to ignore each other. Until it broke.

A/N: Yes, I'm a horrible person. So so so sorry I took so long to update! To be fair, school started up again and I've been super busy. I should be more consistent now, though: I'm aiming for once a week minimum.

Also: Super huge thank you to Ravenleaf-of-RavenClan ! My first-ever review! You encouraged me to update again :)