Be prepared for anything, I don't know what I'm going to write until I do.

Chapter Ten

Hermione

What Draco didn't know, was that Hermione had seen him looking at her in the great hall. His face had a more human expression than usual; she couldn't get it out of her mind. He looked almost as though he wanted to say something to her, and lately, she wished that he had. Hermione had a few things in mind to say in return.

She had heard about the night alone that Draco and Magdalena had shared, and she felt that it was totally uncalled-for. She believed that no one should be allowed to break the rules that way without suffering the consequences, although, she knew in her heart no actual rule had been broken. Girls are aloud in the boy's dormitories, she herself had been in Harry's. There was no rule stating that a girl couldn't stay all night, even if it did appear indecent.

The fact of the matter was this: Hermione was jealous of Magdalena. She regretted ever introducing her to Harry, and even more so, that Draco had met her afterwards. She couldn't decide who bothered her more, Harry or Draco.

She had skipped breakfast when she heard about Draco and Magdalena, "Sorry, I lost my appetite" she said to a rather confused Harry. She didn't want to see the two love birds in person. Hermione had forgotten that she had every class with them both, she couldn't help running into them during their first class of the day: potions.

When Hermione walked into that familiar dungeon, she was obviously unfavorably surprised. The first thing she saw was Draco kissing Magdalena, passionately. Hermione dropped her books and ran out of the classroom.

Before she was all the way out the door, Draco caught sight of her. Once again, he hated himself. He didn't know why all the sudden he cared so much how Hermione felt, but he did. This fiasco was enough to make him scoot away from Maggy and think reflectively on the matter.

He had decided what he was going to do; he was going to talk to her. He didn't quite know what he was going to say, but he felt bad for all the pain and heartache he had put her through throughout their years together at Hogwarts. He felt that he owed her at least a few moments of civil conversation.

Potions class was half-way over, Hermione had still not returned. Draco was beginning to worry that he would never get his chance to redeem himself. Finally, he struck up the nerve to ask Professor Plunket, a new teacher at Hogwarts, if he could be excused to find Hermione.

The entire class gasped in surprise, Harry turned around to face Draco.

"Why the devil do you care where she is?" He said hatefully to Malfoy, he too had heard the story about the dormitory.

"Why shouldn't I care," he replied in the most sincerely fake voice he could muster, (He didn't want to really appear to care about Hermione) "We should all cherish our fellow classmates, Potter. Don't you agree Professor?"

Plunket look as confused as everyone else in the room, "Eh? Oh, sure Draco, and hurry back, and please, if you find Miss Granger, bring her with you?"

"Of course Professor." Draco tried to sneer, but he feared that he only ended up looking constipated. Harry watched Draco from the corner of his eye until he was out the door, and out of sight.

Draco wondered the halls for a good while, when he heard her. She was gasping for breath as if she'd been sobbing. He turned a corner, slowly because he didn't want to frighten her, and he saw her lying on the ground, huddled against a statue's feet. She looked miserable, 'doesn't at all have the same effect Maggy has when she's crying' Draco thought, but he still found himself wanting to hold her.

He took three more steps before she noticed he was there. As soon as she saw him, she stopped crying, straightened up, and she tried to appear as though nothing were ever bothering her. This was a horrible failure, and she knew it, because Draco had seen her sobbing only minutes before.

Hermione was the first to speak, "Go on then, jeer. Laugh, joke, tease. Do whatever you feel like you need to do in order to feel more like a man. Go ahead, I'm waiting!"

Draco was hurt by her words. "Hermione, I've come to see that you're ok…"

At this, she began to laugh. She laughed so hard that tears began to fall once again from her large brown eyes. "As if you'd care! Why do you even bother Malfoy? Everyone knows you're a fake. All the sudden, this year, your last year, you're going to be nice to all the muggleborns in the school? It's a trap, it has to be. What are you planning?"

"Hermione…" he took a step closer, "I'm not planning anything. I'm not running any sort of scam, I realize I've been terrible to you, and I'm sorry. Please let me make it up to you?"

Hermione stood her ground; she wasn't going to be taken in by any of his lies. But then, he did look so honest, so sincere, so handsome...Once again her mind traveled back to when she caught him looking at her. She began to believe him. She looked up into his face and said, "Malfoy, your whole family is deatheaters, I want to believe you're telling the truth, you have no idea how much I want to believe it…." she said to him, and partly, to herself.

"Hermione, I have a first name. Please call me by something a little more familiar?"

"Oh, I'm sorry… Draco."

He took another step nearer her. They were only separated by approximately a foot of space, he took her hand. "Forgive me, please?" He held her hand up to his mouth, and he kissed it.

Hermione felt very weak; the only words she could say were, "Yes, Draco, I forgive you."

Once again, the plot thickens.