A/N: Chapter written by avdubs! Remember this story is being uploaded on ao3 under her username too. Enjoy!

Hermione was very much looking forward to rounds tonight. She was supposed to be paired with Draco and couldn't wait to properly congratulate him on his little stunt in Potions. Harry clearly wasn't going to learn this lesson any other way, and maybe now he would start to learn that trusting a few scribbled notes in the margins of an old textbook was a bad idea.

She stood at the top of the Grand Staircase, leaning over the bannister, and watched the last of the students make their way to their respective dormitories. When they disappeared from her view, she checked her watch. It was almost quarter past ten. Where is he? She thought.

The sudden sound of footsteps behind her brought on a sigh of relief.

"Evening, Granger," said the familiar voice of Draco Malfoy.

A small smirk played on her lips but when she turned to face him, her expression quickly faded. He looked awful. There was a greenish tint to his skin and there were dark circles around his eyes. It had been a few days since she'd seen him around the castle; had be been ill without her even noticing?

"Malfoy," she frowned. "Are you alright?"

"M' fine," he mumbled. He didn't look fine, though. "Let's just do our rounds."

She wanted to question him more, but noticed he didn't look like he was in the mood for talking even though she still wanted to thank him for what he had done. They started on the seventh floor, walking slowly side by side. "Brilliant move, by the way," she commented. "Ruining Ron's potion too. He's started copying off of Harry and it's just so infuriating when-"

"Calm down, Granger," Draco snapped. "It was for my benefit, obviously."

She scowled but said nothing to retort his snippy comment. What was with him anyway? He was being much more of an arse than usual, and that was saying something.

"It's horrible what happened to Katie," she said quietly after several minutes of silence. They were on the sixth floor now. All had been quiet so far.

"Oi! Get back to your common rooms now or I'm taking twenty points. Each!" Draco roared at two Hufflepuffs, who were caught in a somewhat compromising position behind a tapestry. The two younger students scampered off, leaving behind a shocked Hermione and an angry looking Draco.

"Honestly, the sixth floor? You'd think they would stick closer to their common room…" He muttered as they picked up their pace again.

Hermione hummed in agreement. She noticed, once again, how horrible he looked. The dim orange glow of the lamps did no justice to his normally pale features. He looked positively exhausted. Harry's outrageous accusations echoed in her mind, but she brushed them off quickly. Sixth year was proving to be draining, and it was only a month or so into the term. Draco could be tired from the workload and prefect duties, that was a perfectly logical explanation. Much more logical than a sixteen year old being branded with the Dark Mark and attacking students.

He never responded to her comment about Katie, and after pondering on this for a moment, she realized she had no reason to expect him to. Katie was a Gryffindor, and she was on the Quidditch team. There was no reason for Draco to care at all what happened to Katie. So it really wasn't all that strange... Was it?

They finished the rest of their rounds in silence, something that only agitated Hermione. Draco was very fidgety and kept glancing back behind them. When she asked if everything was alright (again), he told her to mind her own business. She told him he didn't have to be such a prat just because he was tired and he had fallen silent at that.

When they reached the Entrance Hall an hour later, concluding their rounds, Draco wasted no time in retreating to the dungeons where his common room resided, without so much as a good-bye.

"So Katie was moved to St. Mungo's," Hermione said briskly as she squeezed herself between Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table. "Leanne is still a mess, the poor girl."

Ron was piling scrambled eggs onto his plate and shot a sympathetic look towards Hermione. Harry leaned in towards the pair of them and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I hope Katie's alright," he whispered. "But I want to know who the real target was. There's no way that necklace was meant for Katie…And of course, Malfoy's heard about all this."

Hermione sighed inaudibly and shot a wary glance at Ron, who brought up when the first Quidditch Practice would be. It was enough to distract Harry from the topic of Katie, and inevitably, Malfoy. She and Ron had gotten quite good at redirecting conversations to avoid Harry spewing his theories about Malfoy again. He and Ron started rattling off their free times for the rest of the week, while Hermione dug out her Transfiguration homework.

While Harry was at his lesson with Dumbledore that night, Hermione decided to head to the library to get some work done. She had an Arithmancy test coming up and she needed to be prepared.

She was glad to be away from the boys for a little while; she could clear her head of Quidditch talk, Harry's ridiculous theories about Malfoy, and the Half-Blood Prince.

Hermione set up her books and notes at her usual table and set to work on going over her notes. When she reached her notes on chapter six, she saw she had written down some questions she originally had and a reminder to check out a book from the library. She repeated the title to herself and set out to find the book she required.

She took her time examining the shelves, letting her fingers run across the worn and faded spines. It was when she nearly reached the end of the row that she heard the low murmuring of voices, and it was only the familiarity of the voices that made her stop in her tracks.

"She deserves it as much as the other two. Why not sabotage the Mudblood?"

Zabini.

She was shaking in anger. How could Malfoy tell Zabini about this?

"I've got better and bigger things to worry about than sabotage against a Mudblood, Blaise," Draco snapped irritably.

Hermione's jaw slackened in shock. She'd learned over the years to let the use of that word towards her roll off her shoulder, and she'd gotten awfully good at sticking her nose in the air and ranting about why that was ridiculous, but this time it hurt more than she was willing to let on. Draco was merely an acquaintance in reality, but they had something in common. They had, on several occasions, vented to one another, and that had felt nice for a change. Harry and Ron didn't care about academics the way she did and Harry always had so much on his plate, she didn't care to bother him with her worries and outrages. With the Half-Blood Prince involved, she couldn't even vent to Harry about everything because it was Harry that she was frustrated with.

But she'd been able to talk about this sort of stuff with Draco, however brief and irregular it was. His dismissal of her had stung a bit to say the least.

"Yeah well, it's not as if that's making any progress, so why not have some fun in the meantime? Granger would freak out, it'd be hysterical," Blaise retorted.

She heard Draco growl followed by a loud thud. Hermione wished she could see them, but shuffling a bunch of books around would give her away.

"Piss off, Blaise. Are you obsessed with her something?" Draco sneered mockingly.

This seemed to shut Blaise up, as there was silence on the other side of the shelf. She heard the sound of fading footsteps and assumed one of them had left. Hermione took this opportunity to slip back to her table.

When she returned, she realized she had completely forgotten about the book she'd needed, but she was too angry to study now. There was no way she was going to get anything done with the incessant worry that next Potions class, her work would be ruined.

Hermione was shocked when her Potion was left untampered with on Monday, then she thought perhaps Malfoy wanted her to feel secure. On Tuesday morning, she was a bundle of nerves as she headed down to the dungeons first thing after breakfast. She kept close to her cauldron the entire time, waiting for someone try and pull her away. No one disturbed her as she worked, however.

Thursday remained the same as her two previous classes that week. She hadn't even talked to Malfoy since their Prefects rounds and that was what kept her on edge.

"Professor Slughorn has been begging me to get your schedule so he can invite you to his Christmas party, Harry," she whispered as Professor Sprout explained what they would be doing this lesson. "Will you please come?"

It was rather annoying, actually. Professor Slughorn knew she existed when it came to pestering her about Harry, but when it came to Potions, it was if she were invisible.

Ron made a disgruntled noise and bent down under the table to retrieve extra bowls for the pods they were supposed to be extracting from the vicious plants.

"I don't know, Hermione," he said. "I don't care for Slughorn all that much."

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh. "They're really not that bad."

Harry shrugged.

"He brought Gwenog Jones to his last dinner," she said.

Both boys perked up at this. Hermione bit back her satisfied smirk.

"Gwenog Jones?" Ron asked, astounded. "Like, Gwenog Jones, Captain of the Holyhead Harpies?"

Hermione nodded. "The one and only."

Ron's features twisted into an ugly sneer as he squeezed one of the pods. "Is this Christmas Party for Slughorn's precious members only?"

Hermione shot him a warning look and sighed in annoyance. "Yes, Ronald it is. Though, we're allowed to invite a guest and I was thinking of asking you so that we could all go together, but I don't think I want you to be my plus one if you're going to be like this!"

Ron's ears turned red. He squeezed the pod even harder and a moment later there was a loud popping sound. Bright green slime exploded everywhere; all over the other plants, their clean bowls and their robes.

Hermione screeched and jumped back. Harry was looking for something to wipe the excess off with when Professor Sprout came over, shaking her head in a disappointed manner.

"Clearly, you three weren't listening when I told everyone not to squeeze so hard," Sprout scolded. "You're lucky this juice isn't poisonous. Head up to the castle and clean yourselves up!"

Ron looked furious as he set off towards the castle, not bothering to wait for Harry or Hermione.

Ron hadn't spoken to her since their conversation in Herbology, which had only dampened her already sour mood. She dreaded Potions because of Harry and his obsessions, and now Ron was giving her the cold shoulder. They were so frustrating sometimes! If Ron hadn't been such an arse about Slughorn's Christmas party, she probably would have asked him! It was the Yule Ball all over again...

Hermione knew Ron was angry with her, but she didn't know he would move to an empty table. To her surprise, Harry joined him at the table, leaving Hermione alone. Ernie, it seemed, was absent from today's class. Of course, she thought to herself. This is the perfect opportunity for Malfoy to ruin my Potion.

They were experimenting with poison antidotes today, only making the lesson worse.

Hermione got out her ingredients and replenished her stock with extra ingredients so she didn't have to leave her station. Professor Slughorn told them they could start and Hermione set to work straight away, but every few seconds, she would glance up at Malfoy. Every time she looked, he was working just as diligently as she was.

Thirty minutes in, she was peering into her cauldron to see if it had turned a dark blue as the instructions indicated it should be when she heard the sound footsteps passing by her table. She heard a thud and when she looked up, her book had fallen to the ground. She bent down quickly to retrieve it and when she stood back up, steam was billowing out of her cauldron.

"No!" She cried, her cheeks turning red when several students turned around to look.

Blaise was sniggering at his table. Her eyes narrowed and scanned the room until they found the head of blonde hair she was looking for. Malfoy was over at the supply closet, aimlessly rummaging through the potion ingredients. She glared at his back so intensely she thought she might burn a hole through his robes. He actually did it; he completely ruined her potion!

She whipped around to see if Harry or Ron had noticed, but both were too focused on brewing. When she looked to see if Slughorn had seen, she saw he wasn't even at his desk. In fact, he was nowhere to be found. The door to his office stood ajar, however. She wanted to scream. The one time he leaves the classroom, and it had to be that day!

There was nothing she could do except try to remedy her potion - which she failed to, despite stopping the mass amounts of steam - and stew in her anger. What she wouldn't give to hex Malfoy and Zabini right now... The next time she was alone with Malfoy, he was going to regret this, she would make sure of it!

With only ten minutes left to go in class, Professor Slughorn asked for everyone to start cleaning up and bottling a sample of their potions. Hermione begrudgingly filled the vial with her ugly, paste-like green potion and turned to clean up her ingredients when she heard a loud gasp from behind her.

"What the bloody hell!" Ron was looking between his cauldron and the rest of the class, his eyes wide and an incredulous look upon his freckled features.

Harry looked furious and confused beside him, also staring down into his cauldron.

Hermione looked over in Malfoy's direction and saw a satisfied smirk settled on his lips. She couldn't help the upward twitch of her lip, at least Harry and Ron had suffered too.

"Where did our potions go?" Harry asked Ron.

"Mr. Weasley, correct?" Professor Slughorn said. "Watch your language, will you?"

Ron's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. He muttered something to Harry before they both started cleaning up their stations. Hermione didn't even bother waiting for them and left before the two had even packed their bags.

She did, however, wait farther along the corridor to try and catch Draco. What she would do, she didn't know, but she was still shaking with anger over what he'd done to her work. She'd never provided a bad sample in Potions! Not once in six years and he had ruined that for her.

She never saw Malfoy emerge from the classroom. Could she have missed him? Maybe he had left not long after her. He'd be gone by now if that were the case. She growled and gripped her books tighter to her chest. He can't avoid me forever, she thought.

Hermione was walking down the seventh floor corridor towards the Gryffindor Tower after being at the library. She was at the library a lot these days since Ron still wasn't speaking to her and she didn't want Harry to pick sides. She'd also not seen Malfoy in a while and still wanted to confront him about what he had done to her poison antidote.

She was tired from being in the library since dinner and her back was aching from carrying around her heavy textbooks all day, but all thoughts of sleep and her bed left her head as she saw someone walk around the corner - someone with a blonde head of hair.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. She picked up her pace, speeding towards him as fast as she could and her heart was beginning to pound as she fumbled for her wand in the pocket of her robes. All of her forgotten anger returned, hot and explosive as she marched towards him, wand clutched tightly in her hand now.

"You!" She seethed, drawing up to full height and stepping directly in his path.

His eyebrows raised momentarily before he cleared his expression. His eyes looked red and puffy, she noticed as he glared at her. Had he been crying?

"How could you do that?" She accused angrily, jabbing his chest with the tip of her wand. "There was no point to that!" Another jab. "You complete arse!" Another jab and Malfoy yelped.

When she withdrew her wand, she saw a hole in the white fabric of his shirt.

"No point to it?" He sneered. "I saved you from Potter growing suspicious of why you weren't being messed with too!"

"Don't lie to me, Malfoy!" She said warningly. "I heard you in the library with Zabini the other night! I know-"

"So you were eavesdropping?" He shot back, looking even more angry now.

Hermione stomped her foot on the ground and pulled her bag up higher on her shoulder. Draco towered over her in the dimly lit corridor, his arms tight at his sides and his hands curled into fists.

"Maybe your friends shouldn't discuss such things in public places like the library, where there could always be someone listening!" She retorted. Draco huffed but didn't seem to have an argument to that. Hermione wasn't done, however. "And really, Malfoy, knocking my book off the table? Is that the best distraction you could come up with?" She asked with harsh laugh.

"Will you just listen?" He snapped a little too loudly.

They both looked around to see if anyone was coming. Draco grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into a nearby alcove. She struggled the whole way but his grip was too strong.

Once inside, he whipped out his wand and cast a silencing spell on her; her mouth was still moving but no sound came out.

She was sure her face was red-hot now as she glared up at him.

"Yes, Zabini suggested it, but I wasn't going to at first," he said in a low voice. "And then I thought Potter might grow suspicious. He might ask you why your potion wasn't tampered with too."

He released the silencing spell and she hit him as hard as she could in the arm with her fist.

"Ow! Granger what the-"

"Harry was supposed to think it was because he was following that book's instructions!" She cried.

His face fell at this realization. Clearly, he had forgotten about that aspect.

"Shite," he muttered and stared down at his feet.

Hermione sighed. "Since Harry didn't see anything, I can pass it off as my own mistake."

Draco nodded, not looking at her now. Hermione hit him in the arm again.

"Granger, seriously-"

"I'm still angry at you," she hissed before ducking out of the alcove and hurrying to Gryffindor Tower before he could follow.