As you can see, there is a cover for this story now! Yes, I got permission from the person to use it and I would like to thank them again so, thank you. In case you're wondering, I do not often ship what the author hasn't already written but Dramione is one of my guilty pleasures. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I ship Feltson, too, and then there's the whole "forbidden love" aspect to it…but I digress! Here is another chapter (it's sooo much longer than I planned but yay!) for those of you who are reading :) Much love to you!

AN: I had to change the first chapter and the last two a bit to fit my story line. Instead of being fifth years, they are now sixth years. I'm still kicking myself in the butt for not thinking it through but I have to remember I started writing this five years ago so...yeah. I hope you still read it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters.


Hot, angry blood coursed through Hermione's body as she glowered at Draco causing her face to turn red. A vein in her forehead was throbbing and her normally soft, kind features morphed into a scowl. Her eyes became enraged and there seemed to be a subtle fire flickering angrily behind them only adding to the ferocity of her appearance.

"Please," Hermione said icily, "do repeat yourself, Malfoy." When Draco didn't say anything, she applied more pressure to her wand making it sink deeper into his neck. "What," she asked through gritted teeth, "did you call me?"

Draco wasn't sure what was going through his brain when he called Hermione a Mudblood. If he had been thinking straight it would have dawned on him not to insult her because Hermione was, in fact, a very strong witch. "Nothing," he choked. He did not dare push her away for he knew all too well that she was not above physical assault.

"Liar!" she snapped. Looking Draco square in the face, she saw that there was genuine fear behind those cool, grey eyes. Then she saw her reflection in those cool, grey eyes: angry, vicious, almost feral. She slowly lowered her wand to her side and stepped back from Draco. Her scowl turned into an expression of shock and then into shame as the anger and hatred she was feeling was overcome by the realization of what she was prepared to do to Draco.

"Bloody hell, Granger," Draco hissed as he rubbed the spot on his neck where Hermione had dug in her wand.

"You have no right," Hermione said turning her gaze towards the ground. "You have no right to call me that."

"Well, you had no right to read my letter." Draco was about to draw his wand and strike but he stopped before his hand even reached his cloak pocket. The furious, raging witch that had him pinned to a bookshelf just seconds before had become a scared, fragile looking girl with her head hanging down as she looking at her feet. Both of her hands were balled into fists at her sides and were shaking. Wow, he thought. I really hurt her. Before he could comprehend what he was doing, Draco found his hand reaching out towards Hermione. "Granger," he said placing his hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Go away," Hermione said swiping his hand off her shoulder.

"Granger, I'm so-"

"Just go!" she shouted not caring that her voice echoed throughout the empty library.

Folding the letter into quarters, Draco slid it into his pants pocket and backed his way out of the library. He opened his mouth to apologize but stopped himself and quickly made his way to the stairs leaving Hermione standing alone with her fists still shaking at her sides.

As he walked away, Draco was trying to process everything he had just seen. He couldn't believe the reaction, a fiery, explosive reaction, he caused by using that one word. The first time he called Hermione a Mudblood he was too busy laughing at Ron's backfired curse to pay attention to her. Now that he witnessed the effect of his words he felt confused and something he had never felt before: guilty.

Oh, developing a conscience now, are we?, asked a voice in the back of his mind.

Maybe I should go back and apologize, thought Draco. She was so angry. Then she looked...frightened.

She had a right to be frightened, cackled the voice. You should have cursed her for reading the letter.

But she was helping me look for it, he countered. If she hadn't read it, it would have seemed like a slip of parchment someone left in the book and someone else could have found it.

Please, scoffed the voice. You honestly think she found it in the first book she picked up? She had the letter from the start!

I still shouldn't have called her a Mudblood, Draco thought half-scolding himself. I should have just asked her this morning if she found it. Draco ignored the voice and spent the rest of the way back to Slytherin tower replaying the change of expression on Hermione's face and feeling more confused with each replay.

Back in the library, Hermione was rooted to the spot. She felt herself shaking in both fear and anger. Never before in her life had she been so mindlessly angry. She prided herself in being logical and collected but something about Draco Malfoy made all of that disappear. He infuriated her in such a way that her stomach felt like it was about to fall. The best part about her outburst was that she had Draco cowering under her wand. The worst part was that she had enjoyed it a bit and she hated herself for that. She promised herself that she would never let anyone get her so wound up again and if they did she would not resort to attacking them with magic. She just couldn't afford to lose her head and use magic out of anger.

The weekend passed without incident. Hermione and Draco saw nothing of each other and they said nothing about the library incident to their friends. Crabbe and Goyle were too stupid to ask and Harry and Ron were smart enough to know not to ask. Not knowing what happened in the library ate away at Harry like a hoard of flesh-eating slugs but he wasn't going to press the issue with Hermione. He knew just as well as Ron that to go digging for information when Hermione was in a foul mood was akin to signing their own death warrants, so they waited until after dinner on Sunday to ask Ginny if Hermione had told her anything.

"Well it's nice to see you, too, Ron," Ginny said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I do love how you acknowledge my existence only when you need something."

"This is important, Ginny," Ron said as sternly as he could. "Hermione has been very quiet all weekend and we don't know why. We thought maybe she confided in you."

"She hasn't spoken to me all weekend, either," Ginny said with a worried frown. "I hope she's alright. You can try asking Parvati or Lavender but I doubt Hermione said anything to them."

...

The following morning, Harry and Ron strolled into the Great Hall with the intention of asking Hermione about the night she followed Draco but she was not there. When asked, Lavender just shrugged and said that Hermione was already gone when she woke up and left just as she got to the Great Hall.

"She looked a little distressed," Lavender said worriedly. "I was going to follow her but I thought better of it. It's best not to cross her when she's like this."

...

Hermione sat on the bench outside of the Charms classroom. She still felt horrible about assaulting Draco in the library and she could not shake the guilt away no matter how much she tried to justify her actions in her head. He's a prejudicial bastard, she thought. It was bound to happen to him at some point in his life and this wasn't the first time he's called me that. He deserved it. "I don't want to talk about it," she said glumly as Harry and Ron arrived outside the classroom.

"We weren't going to ask," Harry said taking a seat beside her.

"Yeah," said Ron as he sat on the other side. "We're not stupid enough to ask."

Hermione smiled at this and put her arms around her two best friends. While Harry and Ron could be annoying and childish, there were times that their actions and words made Hermione forget anything that was wrong with her day. Their friendship meant the world to her and she really couldn't ask for anyone better than Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.

More students from both Gryffindor and Slytherin began to arrive for their joint lesson as time passed but Professor Flitwick was nowhere to be seen. They waited outside the door for nearly twenty minutes which felt like an eternity for Hermione as she actively avoided eye contact with Draco and vice versa.

"Sorry I'm late students," said Professor Flitwick as his short, little legs carried him down the hall at a surprisingly quick pace. "Someone decided to set off firecrackers this morning and I had to take care of them." He was panting a bit as he took out his wand and unlocked the classroom door so the students could file in. Once he was at his little podium at the front of the room he took out his planner and sighed. "It seems that we only have a very short amount of time left for this class. What I had planned to do today was to have you all practice a new spell but there is not enough time." Students began murmuring hopefully as the possibility of a canceled class came closer to reality. "So instead of a new spell, I want you all to meet with your partners and I shall come around to each pair to see how far along you've come. You may ask me questions if you feel the need." The class emitted a collective groan as students reluctantly moved around so that they shared a table with their partners. The moment Hermione did not even know she was dreading had arrived.

Hermione stayed in her seat waiting for Draco to come over and when he did, she avoided eye contact again. The guilt began to resurface and she had a very tough time pushing it back down. Draco had the same problem. He could not decide if he should start by apologizing or if he should pretend like Friday night never happened. The pair of them sat in silence as each struggled with their emotions and thoughts.

Draco was the first to speak. "Granger," he said slowly. "I'm sorry...about the other night."

Hermione looked up from her lap and just stared at him blankly. Where is this coming from?, she wondered. As far I know he's never apologized to anyone for anything. What is he playing at?

"I shouldn't have called you a...I shouldn't have called you that." You shouldn't call anyone that, said his newly found conscience. If it affected Granger that way, how do you think it affects other people?

Hermione could hardly believe her ears. He felt guilty. He can feel guilt?, her mind's voice scoffed but the look in his eyes was sincere. Draco Malfoy was apologizing. This sudden change of heart took left Hermione utterly flabbergasted and she struggled to form a response. "I'm…" she stuttered, "I'm sorry for attacking you."

Draco let out a small laugh and looked down sheepishly. "I'm pretty sure I deserved it." He looked back up at Hermione and the two of them implicitly forgave the other and started to put together what little information they had for their project.


I felt that Hermione was a bit OCC but given the circumstances of her situation I think it was an appropriate reaction. I have experienced racism firsthand so I can very much relate to Hermione in this case although I wouldn't go as far as pinning the person to a bookshelf and threatening them. I also like the idea of Hermione and Lavender as friends. It does Hermione some good to have some girl friends.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Ideas? I'll take them all!