Later that night, when they had finally finished their potion and returned to their dorms, Hermione was too tired to cry

Later that night, when they had finally finished their potion and returned to their dorms, Hermione was too tired to cry. He had almost known about it.

'That was close' she thought before drifting off to sleep.

Chapter Six

The alarm clock rang far too early. Hermione groaned and forced herself to stand up, rubbing her eyes. The thought of simply not going to lessons crossed her mind, but she quickly dismissed it and got ready.

Potions was first. Just great. At least they had finished off their potion, and Hermione hoped that this would enable her to keep her distance from Malfoy. She might be paired up with someone else next time.

Breakfast first though. First challenge of the day, too, since it consisted facing Seamus.

'Facing Seamus…' the young girl thought pensively. Had she really started considering it as a challenge?

'No' she decided. She would definitely give him one more chance, and forget about the whole thing. If it happened again, she could still walk away. It didn't cross her mind that it might already be too late by then.

She didn't know why she wanted to give him that chance, when she had thought that she couldn't just the day before. She just felt like forgiving him, and she didn't want anything to stand between them.

In the hall, she smiled cheerfully and leaned against Seamus, who looked at her wonderingly, but then smiled back. It seemed as if everything was going fine and that she had made up her mind.

Looking over to the Slytherin table unconsciously, her gaze fell upon Malfoy. As if he had noticed her looking at him, he looked up, then sneered and deliberately turned his head.

Hermione frowned, but couldn't really blame him. He had been so close to uncovering her secret, and she had mocked him for his…concern? She couldn't believe that he had actually done what he had the night before. Had it all been a dream?

She thoughtfully stared at her plate for a few seconds, and in those seconds, it was the young Slytherin who lifted his eyes to look at her. He wondered what she was thinking, and why he wanted to know, for she had proven him yesterday that he had been wrong with his theory.

The day passed rather quickly, and Hermione was able to talk to Seamus. They were holding hands again, and all the while she was smiling or laughing with him.

Just like before.

She sighed as she had to sit down for potions that morning, and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. She didn't know why, but she felt slightly uncomfortable being in this room again.

Slughorn came in, and started praising the students for they had all completed their homework.

"However, I am not happy with two of you." His gaze bore into Hermione's, and she frowned.

"Don't act as if you didn't know, Miss Granger. I would have expected better from you. Mr. Malfoy, same goes for you."

"I don't understand, professor" the young girl said hesitantly. "We both finished the potion and left it here…"

"Ah, but you see my dear, that's where the problem is. I didn't see you yesterday, but I was in this classroom for the whole afternoon. This forces me to assume that one of you must have done the potion on his own."

"But that…"

"No buts, Mr. Malfoy, I thought I warned you sufficiently!"

"We both did the potion here, it was just later because…"

Hermione was cut off by Slughorn's impatient wiggle of his hand. "Enough! If I hear one more word… As it is, you will both have detention with me, so don't make it worse than it is! Tonight, after dinner, in here."

The young Gryffindor simply gaped at him in shock, and slowly turned towards her right side to see Malfoy do the same.

The potions master simply turned away and started his lesson, while Harry shot Hermione a glance saying something like "unlucky", and Ron staring over to Malfoy, who was scowling at the man standing in front of the class.

At the end of the lesson, Malfoy swiftly stood up and walked past Hermione, giving her a death glare, but saying nothing otherwise.

"I can't believe I'm stuck with that…git!" Hermione exclaimed to her friends as they sat down in the library. Seamus was going to pick her up later, he still had something to do.

"Yeah, I can't imagine what that must be like" Ron added, shuddering, earning a disapproving look from Harry and a scowl from Hermione.

"What?" he asked. "I was just saying!"

"Yes Ron, sure you were" Harry sighed, which for some reason caused the young girl to smile.

"Where are Ginny and Lavender?" she asked.

"Doing stuff together" Ron muttered, shrugging.

"Now that is a very satisfying answer" she answered, which made Ron glare playfully at her.

Behind her, she could hear steps, and immediately knew who it was.

"Guess I'll leave you now, and I think you should go looking for the two" Hermione said before turning around and taking hold of Seamus' hand, who smiled down at her and pulled her with him towards the stone bench they had in a way made theirs.

Once they were seated, he pulled out a small box from his pocket and opened it for her. It was a small flower-shaped hairpin.

"I just wanted to give you this" he whispered, gently stroking her hair and pinning it behind her ear, his hands faltering. She giggled and slowly took the pin out of his hand to do it herself, but her eyes never leaving his.

"Thank you" she murmured, kissing him. She couldn't really be mad at him now, could she? Why did she keep on asking herself that question then? It didn't matter.

It started raining after a bit, as if trying to remind them that it was almost winter after all. Seamus looked up and then pulled her from the bench, though they couldn't get wet anyway, but still pulled her inside. Hermione wondered what it would feel like to have the cold drops hit her skin, trickle down her arms and soak her hair. It had been a long time since she had danced in the rain, for Seamus always preferred to sit under a cover. She was happy though, and soon enough, it was time for dinner after which they entered their common room.

"How about you don't go to that detention of yours?" he asked quietly after they had seated themselves at the fire, stroking her arm.

"I think we already had that discussion, didn't we?" Hermione asked playfully.

"So your answer will be the same?" he grimaced.

"I'm afraid so" she smiled. She didn't know why she really had the urge to go to that detention though, but she somehow wanted to apologise to Malfoy for being like that to him the night before. It seemed as if he had really only tried to help, no matter how unlikely that seemed.

"You look tired" Seamus suddenly said.

"Prefect duties" Hermione yawned, shrugging. "It's okay, I also had to finish that potion last night, so when I come back from that stupid detention, I will go to sleep straight away."

After a look at his face, she added that he wouldn't have to wait for her tonight. "You look like you need some sleep too, so I think you should go early as well."

"I don't know, but I think you're right… Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I should go now, if I don't want to be late."

"Which I am sure you don't" he grinned. "Have fun."

"Right…"she made a face. "Good night." With a kiss, she left.

Seamus slowly made his way towards the boy's dorms. It was empty, the rest of the Gryffindors still in the common room or somewhere else.

Looking around, he couldn't help but feel guilty, and hesitated shortly. He didn't know why he was doing it, really, but it just had this irresistible effect on him. He wouldn't hurt her, not this time.

Slowly, he crouched down onto the floor and lifted up a piece of the wooden surface, unseen because it was exactly under his bed. Underneath was a bottle filled with a clear liquid.

"Besides, I won't drink as much as the other night, so it can't be that bad" he said quietly before taking a deep swig from the strong drink, enjoying the feeling of warmth spreading in his chest.

A bit short, but well..

Just wanted to say right here that my next update is probably going to be the last for the next two months, PROBABLY, since I'm going on holidays :)

I promise though that I will try my best to finish the story in that time, and post it when I get back.