AN: Yay!! Chp 4!! And its Draco version time!! Woot woot!!

Chapter 4: Potions and Professors

'It's been a week since that bloody almost-duel with Granger. No detentions yet, that's good. But I haven't been able to get her back yet. Not good.' Draco sighed. He was still in bed being the late riser he was and he couldn't help but think and think and think. With a hand held over his eyes to block out the sun and his green silk sheets just coming up to his abs with his finely toned upper body bare to the world, he looked like the perfect picture of sexy and relaxed. The sexy part was of course true but relaxed, he most definitely was not. He clenched his hand in irritation and slammed his fist down onto his bed and sat up.

''I will get her back. Someway, somehow.''

"Talking to yourself again, huh?" Draco jumped and looked towards his bedroom doors as his best friend chuckled under his breath.

"Now let me guess." Blaise said as he walked towards Draco's bed, his lips curling upwards and his hands making a steeple in front of his chest. "You're thinking about getting a girl back in your bed?"

Draco scoffed and relaxed back into his pillows as Blaise walked around the outside of his large four-poster bed with the green and silver drapes.

"Ok, maybe not, considering your 'amazing skills' in bed." Blaise scoffed himself and smirked when he saw Draco raise an eyebrow. "Sooo, we'll just say that you want some other girl. One who's never been in your bed, maybe never been in anyone's bed. But I thought you didn't go for virgins Mr. Malfoy? What's with the change of women?" Blaise laughed out loud at Draco's expression which was torn between disgust and anger.

"You dumbass! Thank you for your simply thrilling guesses but you are farther from the truth than you've ever been." Draco nearly yelled.

"Aw! But you're forgetting that time when-"

"Oh put a sock in it!" Draco cut him off. Blaise just smirked and asked what the problem was.

"The problem? I hope you feel stupid when I tell you this for it was there in plain sight. Quite hard to miss really. It has rather large teeth-" Draco began but he was soon cut off too.

"Oh I know this one! A beaver!" And he made an impression of the little animal.

"No dumbass. It's-"

"Fine, a squirrel then! Those things are rabid so I can see where your getting with this." Blaise ended thoughtfully.

"You daft son of a troll! Its Hermione bloody Mudblood Granger! Jesus! Crabbe and Goyle would have gotten it faster than you!" Draco exploded. He was panting with anger until he noticed Blaise leaning on one of the bed posts, shaking with laughter. Draco turned away and muttered obstinacies under his breath.

Blaise wiped tears from his eyes and hiccupped himself into quiet amusement.

When Draco was sure Blaise was done he spoke again. "Are you quite finished laughing your ass off at my expense?"

And Blaise answered his customary answer whenever something like this happened. "Not for a long time. I'll always be laughing at your expense. So, what do you want to do to get our favorite Mudblood back in her place?"

Draco smiled. This was something he liked about Blaise. Even after making jokes, he always got right down to business and always knew what Draco wanted or needed to do and helped him do it. Blaise was a practical man who liked to have fun. Draco knew that if he ever wanted to settle down and have a family, he'd be the perfect man to do it. While, himself on the other hand, Draco knew that no woman would last more than a week, a month if they amused him nicely and that he'd only marry and have kids when he was getting on in age and his duty to carry out the Malfoy name came up and bit him in the ass. He knew that he would not love his wife, that he would most likely barely tolerate his son (for that's what he would have, no girls only a son) and he would do all he could to put what his father had put into him: a greed for power, a fear for those more powerful than oneself, and the brains to get a good job and follow said more powerful person. Yes, his family was one twisted up group of people but hey, that's what you get for intermingling family members trying to stay Purebloods.

"I'm not quite sure," he finally said. "I just know it has to be good. Something I'll remember for a long time. Maybe for her to remember too, I don't know, haven't really decided."

"Hmm…."Blaise thought for a few minutes then snapped his fingers. "We could-"

"Before you speak, nothing sexual, I don't want to soil myself with her filth."

Blaise's excitement faded off his face and he went back to thinking, occasionally saying things along the lines of 'You're no fun' and 'Then what the hell do you expect me to think of'.

Draco kept quiet until he looked at the clock and promptly threw a pillow in Blaise's direction.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me it was time for breakfast?!" He shouted.

"Oh yeah. Well, you see," Blaise said from behind the pillow as Draco threw the covers off his nude form and got dressed. "I did come here for that reason but then you spoke to yourself and I got carried away."

"No shit." Draco said dryly. "Next time, just say what you came for first, then you can laugh at my expense."

Blaise peeked over his pillow to see Draco buttoning his robes and deemed it safe to put the pillow back on the bed. "Are you giving me permission?" He asked hopefully.

Draco glared at him as he laced up his shoes. "Hell no."

"Well damn."

"Come on, we can think of something at breakfast. I'm sure inspiration will hit."

And sure enough it did. But only after the two of them gave themselves headaches over trying to think of what to do and when to do it. But what seemed like seconds after they had finished their breakfast, Professor Snape came up behind Draco and dropped a piece of parchment onto the table where just a second ago a plate had disappeared.

When Draco looked up at him curiously, Snape merely narrowed his eyes in disapproval. Draco mutely gulped and opened the piece of folded parchment and found the details of his detention. He looked back up at Snape who's face was still dark and this time, his gulp wasn't as silent as he would have hoped. Snape's lip curled. "Be sure you're there on time." And he was gone.

"Well," Blaise trailed off. "I think I've thought of a when to get back at your Miss Problem."

Draco looked from Blaise who was staring at the writing on the offending piece of paper to the piece of parchment itself then back to Blaise. A wand suddenly lit up in Malfoy's head and he smiled evilly.

"My dear Mr. Zabini, I think we're going to have some fun." He said slowly.

"Finally!" Blaise exclaimed loudly to curious looks of others around them as they exited the Great Hall and headed for Potions.

"We have to make plans though. And that'll take a while. The detention is," Draco looked at the parchment again. "Saturday. That gives us only five days to perfect a plan. After we make one of course." He sighed. He was never very good at making plans and seeing them through.

Blaise nodded solemnly. "I think…."

"What? You actually thinking. That's a start." Draco said smugly.

Blaise punched his arm and Draco feigned hurt, making them both laugh.

"I think we should get her interested in what we might or might not be thinking of doing." Blaise said finally. He looked at Draco for approval of his brilliant plan only to find Draco looking confused. "What I mean is, we should get her curious, like, I don't know, send her little looks, brush against her but nothing else. Act as, well, nice as possible I guess. And then she will confront us herself and demand to know what the hell we're doing. Good, no?"

Draco nodded thoughtfully. It would be just like her to go after them, trying to figure out what they were up to. She probably wouldn't even tell Scarhead and the Weasel about her thoughts. Yes, this seemed like a very good plan indeed.

Draco clapped his best friend on the back, nearly sending him face first into a pair of Slytherins walking ahead of them. Blaise glared at him as he walked by and smirked.

"Good job Blaise. You might just be smarter than you look." He sneered.

Blaise ruffled his black hair with his hand and his cinnamon eyes twinkled like jewels. "Now what's that about my amazing looks?" And he winked at a passing sixth year Slytherin on her way to the common room who giggled and ran to catch up to her friends to tell them Blaise Zabini had winked at her. Said boy chuckled. "Girls are so easy so manipulate."

Draco shook his blonde head. "Come on, Potions awaits."

Blaise pouted and looked back at the girls. "So pretty and tempting…"

"Come on lover boy." And he proceeded to grab the neck of Blaise's robes and drag him to the entryway of the Potions corridor. He let go of him just as they entered and they both headed towards the pack of Slytherins as they waited for Snape to open the doors. Draco inconspicuously glanced towards the Gryffindor section of their class and was disappointed in not finding the Trio there yet. Especially her.

"Oi, you might not want to be looking over there, Pansy will think you're looking for some other girl." Blaise nodded his head slightly to their left to indicate Pansy shooting them both looks. Draco nodded. "How have things been between you two anyway?" The dark boy asked.

"Not very good as of late. She found out about my little rendezvous over the summer with that girl from France." He said darkly.

Blaise smirked. "That's what you get, lover boy." He threw Draco's own words back at him.

Draco scoffed. "There's nothing loving about it."

"You know, you should really start looking for an actual girlfriend. Someone who's not just looking for a romp in your bed like Daphne," Said blonde haired girl was currently latched onto some other Slytherin guy. "Someone who matches your intellect, which I've heard about but never really seen," Draco's blue grey eyes stared him down till he relented. "Fine, fine, but you should still get someone smart and beautiful but isn't clingy like Pansy over there."

"Yeah, and where am I going to find a girl like that?" He asked sardonically.

"Well you could look-hey, there's Granger." Blaise ended in a whisper.

Draco's head snapped up and around. He caught only a quick glance of the girl before her best friends ('More like bodyguards,' he thought.) closed in around her, cutting her off from his cold gaze. He sneered at them. They always seemed to be protecting her. He would have to modify his final plans to make sure they were out of the way, if only temporarily.

While Draco glared at the two Gryffindor boys, Blaise caught Hermione's eye and winked at her. Her face turned from curiosity to surprise and fright. She looked down after a while of seeming to search his face and Blaise nudged his best friend and Draco knew this little plan of theirs just might work after all.

At that time, Snape opened the Potions classroom doors and they all filed in, Draco going in after Blaise and watching him brush past Hermione on his way to their usual table near the front. He looked back at her and saw her hands shaking, not knowing if it was from fear or anger. Probably anger. It took a lot to scare a Gryffindor if it wasn't named Neville Longbottom at least.

Soon, Draco was hard at work trying to make the love potion Snape had presented to his class. At the moment, he was hovering over Longbottom's horrible excuse for a potion while Hermione, seated not so far away was staring at her potion book in fright and disbelief. Draco looked at her curiously. He glanced at her potion and saw his own eye color staring back at him. It dawned on him then and he watched in dread as she looked up at him with the same expression as him except ten times worse and then….she just started to fall.

He was by her side in a moment and caught her as she fell towards the floor. Knocking her cauldron to the ground in the process. The room became still. Draco looked down at her face which was scrunched in pain but she didn't seem to be close to waking up. He looked up at Potter and Weasley who were looking at him in shock and mounting suspicion and anger. Snape came up to them with the whole class looking on in bewilderment. Blaise was pale beneath his black skin and Draco knew that he had seen the potion before it had fallen and soaked into the stone of the classroom.

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Malfoy?" Snape asked coldly. His black eyes glittering menacingly.

Draco frowned. He didn't know what to say. He looked to Blaise hoping he'd have an explanation. Thankfully the dark boy stepped up to plate brilliantly. Literally.

Blaise walked over. "Draco was just going to get more ingredients, sir. And Granger fainted and he caught her. Ugh, sir." He finished lamely. But Draco didn't care, he lied amazingly. He just hoped Snape wouldn't feel obligated to use Ligilmency to find the truth. After a few seconds of Snape looking over Blaise, he turned back to Draco and he inwardly sighed in relief, it didn't seem as if Snape had read into Blaise's mind.

"Take Miss Granger to the Hospital Wing Mr. Malfoy." Snape said silkily.

A protest was on his lips Weasley beat him to it.

"He's not going to take her anywhere!" The red head yelled.

Snape glared at him, his pale lips drawing together.

Harry interjected before Ron could say anything else, stepping on his foot in the process.

"Please sit, let me or Ron take her. We're her friends and we we'll come right back." Harry said softly.

The whole class was gazing in wonderment at the scene in front of them. Blaise was standing behind Snape who was glaring at the two Gryffindor boys who were fighting to get their best friend out of the ferret's hands. It was quite the show for the previously bored students who were hoping for something to happen this year since the Dark Lord had been vanquished. They seemed to have found the perfect opportunity too.

Draco was still holding Hermione-no, Granger in his arms and he tried to tell himself that it wasn't gently. That he was just holding her and that was it. But of course, it didn't look that way. One hand was wrapped around her thin waist while the other cradled her head in his lap. And he couldn't help but think of how soft her bushy-looking hair felt on his fingers and he stopped himself from wrapping a strand on hair around a finger to feel it properly.

Snape looked from Harry to Ron to Draco and then back again. He was about to say something when the bell rang overhead, making the three soon-to-be-men jump, Draco's grip tightened momentarily on Hermione's body, but still, she didn't wake.

Everyone else in the room grabbed their things and headed out for their next class while Draco with Hermione, Harry and Ron, Snape, and Blaise stayed behind.

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He turned his back on them and headed for his office, throwing words behind him, not caring what the reaction would be.

"One of you just take her to the damned Hospital Wing. And if you start fighting over it, take it outside." And he slammed his door shut, leaving the four boys staring at each other or the brown haired girl who was sound asleep.

"Give her to us Malfoy." Spat Ron.

Draco smirked. "And why should I? She seems to quite like being in my arms." That wasn't exactly true but she wasn't grimacing or feigning away in her sleep so it counted for something. Draco told himself he was just trying to tease the two boys before him but something in the back of his mind kept nagging him, kept saying things like he liked her in his arms and rubbish like that. But he just pushed the thoughts away and focused on the enraged red head who was starting to grab for his wand.

Blaise was immediately at his side, wand drawn and pointed at the Weasel's chest. Harry drew his wand and pointed it at Blaise who switched to Harry. Draco carefully but hurriedly dropped Hermione and raised his own wand to point at Ron. It was like a square with Hermione in the middle of it all. Draco noticed with disdain how strong and fearless the Boy Who Lived to Make His Life One Fucked Up Place and his sidekick seemed to be faced with the safety of their little Mudblood. It totally pissed him off for no reason why she let them protect her like this. She was a strong and smart girl, she could take care of herself. Maybe not in the position she was in presently but like before when they were waiting for the Potions doors to open, she had just let the two stand in front of her while she did nothing.

Draco's arm locked and he was about to draw breath to utter a jinx when Snape's raised voice reached them through the thick door of his office.

"You had all better be gone in thirty seconds! And if your not and I find you with your wands drawn, I will give you all detention!"

Blaise and Harry, the more reasonable of the four immediately dropped their wand arms, though slowly. While Ron and Draco continued to glare at each other, them being the more temperamental of the group.

"Ron, just lower your wand." Harry said softly.

"Not until he lowers his and leaves Hermione alone." Ron growled.

Draco smirked. "Now we all know that that last part won't happen for quite some time. For everyone knows who much I like to play with her."

Ron's face turned a deeper red than his hair and he gripped his wand ever tighter.

"Ron…" Harry said, shooting a glance at Snape's office door. Their thirty seconds were nearly over.

Draco watched as the red head gnashed his teeth in indignation but lowered his wand very slowly. Draco did so as well but rather smugly.

"Come on Draco, lets get out of here before Snape opens his doors and gives you another detention." Blaise said calmly. When he saw Draco hesitate, he grabbed him firmly by the arm and dragged him away, leaving Hermione with her best friends to take her to the Hospital Wing. He didn't know why but that made him very angry indeed. And his mind continued to think dark thoughts about the filthy blood traitor all the way to Arithmancy.

The two boys entered the room just as the bell rang. Professor Vector gave them a reproachful look which Blaise managed to charm away while Draco sat broodingly at his desk, absentmindedly flipping through the thick Arithmancy book.

While Professor Vector was talking about what they will be learning today, Blaise tried to get Draco to talk to him about what happened.

"Draco, what happened back there? Blaise asked curiously. It was like you couldn't let her go. I thought you said she was a filthy Mudbl-"

"Don't you dare say that word about her." He said ferociously. He then thought about what he had just said and his mouth fell open in shock. "I…I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry for yelling at you Blaise."

Blaise's cinnamon eyes softened slightly in sympathy to his best friend. He nudged him gently with his elbow. "It's all good, man. I saw the potion too. It's okay, you're just under shock, that's all."

"But that's just it! That potion-"

"Mr. Malfoy, please keep quiet in my class and pay attention. Mr. Zabini, I expect better from you." Professor Vector had appeared out of no where. She looked down her plump nose at them with an irritable expression on her face. "Now please turn to page 889 in your books and begin reading on what city is compatible with your Character Numbers. If you cannot remember them, I suggest you do so, and soon please, we will be advancing ever more this year." And she walked off to help a Ravenclaw girl by the name of Marie Moon who was having problems deciding if she really should live in Italy or not while her best friend Sophia Cozna was having the same difficulty except with some other far of place and whether she should open a bakery or not.

"Of course ma'am." Blaise had said before she had walked off to help the confused Ravenclaw girls. But when her back was turned his face fell and he stuck his tongue out at her quite childishly. "Ugh, she can be a right pain in the-"

"I don't care is she causes you pain, back to the damned potion, but discreetly this time if you will. This is, well, bad." Draco whispered as he looked through his book and wrote down Tokyo though he had no interest at all in going there. He had heard that the cherry blossom trees, though beautiful were commonly used by witches there to steal hearts. Literally.

"How is this bad?" Blaise asked, affronted. "Did I not tell you that you needed someone smart, beautiful, and not-clingy? She's fucking perfect! She beats you in every class so she's obviously smart."

"Yes, but too smart. I want someone submissive, not someone who can easily bounce back." Draco scoffed.

Blaise frowned. "Submissive? We are just talking about a little girlfriend-boyfriend thing here right? Just a little fling? Not strings attached?"

Draco was silent.

"My God. You're taking that potion seriously?!" Blaise's voice rose. He turned apologetically to Professor Vector and resumed taking notes while looking through the book in front of them. There was silence for a few moments before he deemed it safe that Vector had moved on to someone else. Then he rounded on Draco.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He whispered furiously. "Its just a damn potion! She could have done something wrong for all we know!"

"Which is highly unlikely and you know it." Draco bit back.

"Yes, well, she's brilliant like that I suppose." He submitted. "But, you never know, she could have been so distracted but out plan that she wasn't paying close enough attention or the fumes got to her or-"

"Blaise, just drop it. She didn't mess up on her potion." Draco glared at him.

Blaise raised his hands in defeat. "Fine. But now it sounds to me as if you want this to be true. Like you want to be with her."

"Of course I don't! I don't want a filthy Mu-" But he couldn't say it. It was like his throat had closed up or something. He cleared it and tried again. "She's just a M-" But he didn't even make it passed the first sound. It wasn't natural. He thought back to when Hermione had fainted….

"Oh shit."

"What? What's wrong?" Blaise's voice was worried.

"You know when I ran to catch Granger when she fell?" Draco asked anxiously.

"Yes…" Blaise said slowly.

"You know how I knocked over her potion when I tried to get to her?" His voice now seemed as if the obvious was right there but for the life of him, Blaise couldn't get it.

"Yeah so? I just saw it spill on the floor." But Draco was shaking his head before Blaise had even finished and then it dawned on him with such force he gasped aloud.

"No way…" He whispered. "The potion fell on you didn't it?"

Draco nodded and lifted the hem of his robes for the two of them to see his damp sock.

"Oh shit." Blaise repeated. Then he whistled under his breath. "She's one fine potions brewer. If she could make her potion work with just a little soaked patch of a sock, I don't think I wanna be there when she makes the Draught of Living Death."

Draco nodded solemnly. "I think this sets back our plans a bit don't you think?"

Blaise sighed. "Yep."

They were silent for a while. Draco stared off into space while Blaise continued to stare at Draco's ankle. Then he scoffed. Draco looked at him with a frown on his face. "What's your problem?"

"Just when I get a good plan, she fucking ruins it. And she doesn't even know! Ugh! That just makes me wanna jump into the lake with the big fat fucking squid." Blaise's voice rose dramatically. They both realized too late that this was a very bad thing and both raised their heads slowly to find a Professor Vector glaring full out at them.

"You probably shouldn't have sworn quite so loudly, mate." Draco whispered.

Blaise just gulped in fright.

AN: I finished!! Hell yeah!! Hope you like! 10 pages!! Whoop whoop!!