Read and review! I don't usually give music suggestions, but I was listening to the Favorite Worst Nightmare album by the Arctic Monkeys while writing this, it might help set the mood!

Chapter 10

"Hey Malfoy," grunted Goyle, clambering into bed. Draco huffed at him and continued to towel dry his hair. Crabbe came out of the washroom and sat on his respective bed.

"Hey, what's up with Pansy?" Crabbe asked. Draco snapped his head around to look at him questioningly.

"What about Pansy?" Draco asked sharply. Crabbe glanced at Goyle, who nodded slightly, before continuing.

"Well, she seems kind of pissed," Crabbe said. "And she's been spreading some rumor about you fooling around with Astoria Greengrass."

"Is it true?" Goyle asked eagerly. "'Cause she's smoking hot-" Draco was surprised, and more than a little suspicious. What was Pansy playing at here?

"It's not true, and if you guys had brains you would see that," Draco said irritably, flicking his towel into the corner and shaking out his hair. Didn't they realise that if he had been getting in on with Greengrass, who was more than smoking hot and was the only Slytherin prettier than Pansy, he would have made sure everyone knew? "Pansy's in bitch mode today."

"Why? Did you get into a fight?" Goyle prodded. Draco gave him a withering look.

"I'm not talking about my love life to you wankers," Draco scowled, and when he left the room he closed the door with a slam. He marched down the stairs with the intention of going to the library to see if there was anything that would prove useful to his task, expecting the common room to be empty.

When he entered the common room, however, his face darkened and his gray eyes turned black.

"Pansy." He said in greeting. The blonde Slytherin was draped over one of the chairs in the common room, wearing nothing but a matching set of green lace bra and nickers. She gave him a sultry smile and started moving her feet in slow circles.

"Draco," she purred, pulling her hands above her head in a mock stretch and pushing her chest out. "What brings you down here?"

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Oh, now don't be like that," Pansy pouted, reaching an arm out towards him. "I'm stuck, help me up?"

"No," Draco scowled, moving past her towards the exit. "And by the way, did you borrow those nickers from Greengrass? Or does she just have a similar pair?" Pansy's eyes widened. She shrieked and rolled off the chair, running towards him.

"So it's true?" Pansy screeched, walking up to Draco and banging a fist on his chest. The girl was weak and Draco hardly felt anything.

"Oh, now don't tell me you believe your own rumors, Parkinson," Draco drawled. "And you better step back, or I'll make you." Pansy took a tentative step back, and Draco smirked.

"What the fuck are you playing at, spreading rumors about me? Did you think I'd let you get away with it?" Draco asked. Pansy looked up at him with feigned innocence.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Pansy said. "But I've noticed you've been acting a little weird lately. Is something wrong?"

"Fuck off, Pansy," Draco growled. Pansy frowned and walked straight up to Draco, pressing her almost-bare chest against his.

"Don't be like that Draco," she whispered, her fingers creeping slowly down his stomach. "I've been feeling horny all day, and I need you, right now." She rubbed her fingers around his dick through his pants and smiled at him.

"You're pathetic," Draco pushed her off of him and strut out of the common room without looking back. Pansy watched him go, her face growing darker and darker by the second.

…

It was virtually impossible to accomplish anything in the library. A million thoughts were rushing through Draco's head, most of them involving Hermione and some of them bitterly recalling Pansy's feeble attempt at make-up sex. He couldn't believe what he had done. He was such a bloody fool.

As if kissing the famous mudblood Gryffindor wasn't enough, he had gone and given her a second kiss. A good-bye kiss. Any hope that she would call it a fluke was gone now that he had kissed her goodbye, a move every male knew suggested something deeper.

He was filled with self-loathing.

He couldn't possibly feel anything for a bloody Gryffindor, could he? But it had been the fourth time he had seen her alone and something had happened. Not just something- she had bloody saved his life. But why? He had been nothing but horrible to her for the past six years. He was letting his guard down, going soft, but she needed to be reminded of who he was.

A Malfoy.

…

Later that night, Hermione lay awake in bed. Sleep was evading her, trapping her in her own head and her own thoughts. She couldn't think of anything other than Malfoy, and their kiss earlier that day. What had that meant? Had it just been an impulse? But then that second kiss… Draco must have realised what he was doing by then, and he had still kissed her. Hermione's heart fluttered and she had no clue why. This was Draco Malfoy, the boy who had tormented her for the past six years. But was she feeling something for him?

No, surely not. And anyway, he already had a girlfriend.

But he was a bloody good kisser.

Hermione rolled over and buried her head under her pillow, forcing herself to think of something, anything, else.

…

A week had passed and Hermione hadn't spoken to Draco. Whenever she saw him in class, he didn't acknowledge her, and however much she wanted to talk about their kiss she couldn't bring herself to ask him. Whatever she had seen that evening, like the warmness in Draco's eyes, was gone, and in place was the familiar snarky brat she knew and despised.

Hermione had begun going to the library late at night again, since her insomnia prevented her from getting much sleep anyway. She would tire herself out by reading, and had woken multiple times to Madam Pince's beady eyes and complaints about Hermione drooling on the books.

Anything to keep her mind off Draco.

Though she had been trying to avoid the library in the daytime, knowing there was a good chance she would run into Malfoy there, there was no way she could avoid it today. She was falling drastically behind on her homework, as she usually spent her late-night library periods researching Harry's stupid Half-Blood Prince. That book gave her the creeps similar to the ones she got from the horcruxes, but Harry wouldn't listen whenever she tried to warn him, and Ron wasn't much help. Right now they had Quidditch practice- the practices were becoming more and more frequent as the game with Ravenclaw approached and Hermione couldn't help but feel rather abandoned by her two best friends.

The library was busy, most of the tables full and the couches occupied by giggling pupils. Madam Pince sat at her desk, glaring at the kids over her cup of coffee. Hermione smiled at the familiar scene and walked straight over to the Charms sections. She found the book she was looking for quickly and looked around for a place to sit.

She frowned when she realised every spot was taken, and walked over to the back of the library where it was usually a bit emptier. She spotted a table only occupied by only one person and rushed over, setting her book down carefully so as not to disturb the stranger.

…

Draco watched her from under his eyelashes, groaning inwardly. She obviously hadn't realised it was him yet, but he did not need this. All he wanted to do was get some time by himself without her on his mind. Then again, this might be just the chance he needed to prove himself.

"May I ask you what in the bloody hell you're doing, Granger?" Draco asked, and Hermione jumped a foot in the air. She clapped her hand to her chest and slowed her breathing.

"Merlin, you scared me, Draco," Hermione panted, and Draco frowned. Why was she still calling him by his first name? He tried not to let it faze him.

"Good," Draco said bluntly. "Now you can go find another table with someone else to annoy, I don't want to inhale too much of your mudblood fumes." Draco let out a cruel laugh and Hermione looked stunned. She had forgotten how mean Draco could be, and it was like a punch in the gut.

"Oh, I'm sorry Malfoy, you're right- I think you've inhaled enough mudblood fumes for one week." Her bold suggestive comment about their kiss riled him up.

"Accidents happen, mudblood. But don't worry, I've had enough fumes to last a lifetime," Draco glared at her from over the table and Hermione matched his look.

"Yes, Malfoy, you almost had me fooled- for a second there I thought you had changed, but no, you are still snarky and arrogant and no amount of bloody good kissi-" she stopped herself and blushed. "I don't need this," she mumbled, picking up the book on Charms.

"Oi, mudblood," Draco shouted after her. She stopped but didn't look back. "Bother me in the library again and I won't hesitate to hex you." Hermione fingered her wand in her pocket and pulled it out, chanting silently in her head, and judging from the yelp behind her she knew her silent Stinging Hex had worked. She hurried out of the library, her head bent over her book, gulping back the tears that threatened to spill over.

Why was she letting Malfoy affect her like this?

…

Hermione had been dreading Potions class the entire day, and so naturally time had been moving unusually fast. Harry and Ron tried to engage her in a conversation about the Half-Blood Prince as they walked down to the dungeons, but they soon gave up when she only gave them one word answers. Her stomach was in knots, and she had no idea what to expect.

She walked into the dungeons and took a seat at her usual table. The Slytherins weren't present yet, so she set up the cauldron on her own. She followed the instructions written on the blackboard and got started juicing the Sopophorous Beans, cutting them and twisting the juice out. The beans were tiny, and she knew it would take forever to squeeze enough juice to fill the cauldron.

She gave the bean another hard twist and a drop of juice flew into her eye. She clapped her hand to her eye and looked around for some water to splash it with.

"Is there a problem, mudblood?" Hermione ignored Draco as he took the seat beside her. He looked at the beans on the table and back at her.

"Did you get Sopophorous Bean juice in your eye?" Draco asked, his voice mocking. Hermione gritted her teeth.

"Yes, I did, and do you think you could help me instead of making fun of me?" Hermione's voice was low. She hadn't forgotten what Draco had been like in the library the night before. The man seemed all over the place- one moment he was kissing her, the next he was complaining about her mudblood fumes. It was fucking with her head.

"Oh don't get your knickers in a twist, Granger," Draco said as he began chopping his own bean. "Sopophorous Bean juice is commonly used to treat eye irritation. I thought you were supposed to be smart." Hermione glared at him but removed her hand from her eye, realising that there wasn't, in fact, any irritation. He was right- she was supposed to be smart. How come she hadn't known that?

They worked in silence, the air between them tense. Draco watched her from the side and remembered what she had almost said the night before. So he was a good kisser, was he?

Hermione's eyes flitted to the side and caught him looking at her, and he quickly diverted his eyes.

"Malfoy?" Hermione asked shyly.

"Granger."

"I was… I was just wondering if you had gotten anywhere with the horcruxes," Hermione whispered, and Draco stiffened. Hermione knew what she was doing was risky- what if he hadn't been lying, and he was really keeping the horcruxes for the Dark Lord?

"What's your point, mudblood?" Draco asked suspiciously. Why was she bringing this up in Potions class, or at all for that matter? He didn't like it.

"I could help you, if you like," Hermione said. "I know some stuff that may be of use to you-"

"I don't need your bloody help, Granger," Draco hissed under his breath. "And don't you dare bring this up again-"

"Then meet me in the library at eight this night. We need to talk. And lose the attitude." Draco's balled up his fists and gave her a murderous look. Why wouldn't she just leave him alone and stop telling him what to do?

"No."

Hermione gave him an exasperated sigh.

"Well, I'm going to be down there anyway, so if you decide you've had enough of your half-wit friends I'll be waiting," Hermione said, realising it had seemed like she was just asking him to hang out with her. Draco smirked.

"You can wait all you want but I won't come."

"Whatever floats your boat, hotshot." Draco gave her an exasperated look.

"You Gryffindors try so hard to see the bloody good in people, why can't you just accept that some people are bad? That I won't come tonight? You people could see good in Voldemort. It's fucking annoying."

"No we couldn't, that's why Voldemort is so scary. There is no good in him." Draco considered this.

"I suppose so, but what about the people that… work… for him? The Death Eaters? You think they have good in them?"

"Well, some of them do and some of them don't. It seems the longer they have been working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named the worse they are, like he sucks the good out of them. No people are born evil."

"Voldemort was."

"Can you stop saying his name? And no, he wasn't- it's been instilled in him, but by now it's so deep inside him it's taken over his soul. He is completely evil, I'm not saying he isn't."

"And who do you suppose 'instilled' this evil in him? He was an orphan, or didn't you know?"

"I knew, thank you very much. And Dumbledore and Harry are working very hard to figure that out." Draco looked surprised and his lips curled. Hermione paused her cutting. She had said too much.

"They are, you say?" Draco prodded. Hermione's eyes darted to him, wide with fear.

"I've said too much."

"No, please go on-"

The bell rang and Draco let out a string of curses under his breath as Granger leapt up and scurried out the door. He had been so close to finding out what the headmaster was doing, vital information that could save his skin at the meeting next week. He would have to look into this, definitely. Which meant he was going to the library that night, whether he liked it or not.

Thanks so much for the Favourites and Story Alerts that you guys have given me! Some more reviews would be great, I love to hear what you guys think of the chapters and please give me suggestions!

I wonder what's going to happen at the library tonight. I wonder what Pansy's going to do next (the slut).

Guess we'll have to wait to find out.

xxxx,

malfoy-anonymous