Viktor and Hermione's goodbye was bittersweet. She promised to write him, and he kissed her cheek. The sensation lingered all day, and she almost felt okay for a bit.

All of Hermione's time was split up between Harry and Cho. Cho still didn't really want to talk, but she followed Hermione around as much as she was able. Most people didn't really know how to talk to Cho anymore, and everyone sort of thought Harry had gone crazy in the maze. If Hermione was being completely honest, she wasn't sure he hadn't. Of course she believed him about You-Know-Who, but Harry had been acting distant and moody all year and now… well now Harry was redefining 'reckless'. He was picking fights with anyone who was willing, and a lot of people were willing. Since Ron wasn't particularly good at helping to avoid fights, Hermione was exhausting herself trying to control the both of them. And her own temper wasn't historically mild.

Right now actually, she was...not doing great at keeping herself in check.

"You are an absolute moron!"

"Am not!"

"You once put a pumpernik parsnip in a speed of dragon potion instead of pickled pine nuts!" Hermione yelled, "the whole classroom smelled like rotting parsnips for a week, and the vines broke through the wall!"

"At least I'm not a fucking know-it-all!" Pansy shouted, then turned back to Harry, "or a pitiful orphan lying to get attention."

"No, you just get your attention by being the Slytherin house community broomstick- everyone gets a ride."

"Ron!" Hermione chastised. She may hate the slag, but she would not stand for slut-shaming.

Pansy turned red, "you dirty blood traitor!" she screamed, "you're a disgrace! Your whole family is! A bunch of mudblood-loving weasels!"

Cho gasped from beside Hermione. "Don't you dare use that word!" Harry shouted at the same time Ron rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, weasel, gosh I've never heard that one before."

"Is there a problem here," McGonagall asked, entering the classroom.

"Of course not Professor," Pansy said sweetly. McGonagall looked doubtful, but began her lecture anyway.

Hermione was so mad she could hardly see her notes. Pansy usually didn't get under her skin, but she had been so on edge lately. She glared at the witches back in the chair in front of Hermione. Hermione nearly allowed Ron to pull out his wand and aim it at Pansy, but she stopped him before he could.

Hermione was still fuming when class let out, she needed a moment alone. She loved Cho, and was glad to be of some help, but honestly Hermione wasn't the most comforting person. She had no idea why Cho had latched on to her, other than that Hermione still treated her the same as she had before- not talking to her much but also not looking at her with pity in her eyes. Still, Hermione was an introvert, she did best when she was alone with a book, and she hadn't been really alone for days.

"I'm going to the Gryffindor common room," she told Cho, and headed off that direction, but when the stairwell going up to the tower decided to plunge down into the dungeons Hermione took it anyway.

She hadn't spent much time in the dungeons of Hogwarts, mostly because the hallways were swarming with Slytherins and occasionally Snape, but Hermione was so angry she almost wished someone would try and mess with her. She kept moving past the Potions classroom and past entrance to the Slytherin common room. She turned a corner into an empty hallway and began trying doors. She was so desperate for a moment alone she didn't even notice she was being followed. The first led to Professor Snape's office, the next to a creepy dank stairwell down further underneath Hogwarts. Finally she found a semi-spacious supply closet, and shut herself inside.

Hermione slid to the floor beside ink, parchment paper, and spare quills. She began crying, stinging, angry tears that only made her more angry and cry harder. She was angry at herself for crying, angry that she let Pansy get her this upset, angry that that stupid word had so much power over her. It was so moronic, no scientist had ever found any real difference between the blood of muggles, muggle-borns, and pure-blood wizards. A few "scientists" had faked their findings and made up some hogwash about iron levels, but no respectable intellectual believed those skewed findings.

Just then the door opened, and Draco Malfoy stood in the doorway.

"What the hell are you doing down here, stealing from us? These supplies belong to Slytherin house," he said accusingly, then he noticed her tears.

"Oh, um, I didn't realize you were, uh… I'll just go."

"Stealing? Really Malfoy? You think that little of me?" Hermione snapped. He looked a little taken aback at the amount of venom in her voice.

"Well what the bloody hell else would you be doing in a supply closet?" Malfoy asked defensively.

"Can't a girl have a moment alone?" Hermione yelled.

"Shh!" Malfoy hissed, "unless you want the whole of Slytherin house to see you bawling in a closet!" he said as he closed the door behind him.

"Are you daft? I just said I wanted to be alone!" she scolded.

"Quiet down first! What if someone heard you screaming your head off? I don't want someone to go looking for the source of all the ruckus and find me in a closet alone with you."

"Then get out of the damn closet!" Hermione yelled.

"Shh!" Draco hissed again.

Hermione complied with a pout, "Why do you always do this? You always bother me in moments when I just want to be alone," she whispered.

"You always want to be alone," Draco rolled his eyes, "it's a wonder you have any friends at all."

"Well your friends are prejudiced, ignorant, bumbling morons!"

Draco shrugged, he didn't even look slightly offended.

"And you're just as bad! You intrusive, inconsistent, confusing, elitist!"

Again, Draco hardly reacted except to raise a single eyebrow.

Hermione sighed and wiped the tears away from her eyes. She had sort of been looking for a fight, but Draco wasn't exactly cooperating. Perhaps she needed more biting insults.

"Are you quite done then, you condescending, weak-willed, snivelling know-it-all?" Malfoy asked with a slight twitch of a smile. His words weren't harsh, they were almost soft, like they were playing a game. Hermione nearly laughed. Instead she stood and brushed herself off. The closet was small, but not so small that she couldn't move around a bit without bumping into Draco.

"Right then. Another minute or so and then I'll leave. In the meantime, what did you mean by 'confusing'?"

Hermione shook her head, "I don't know, you-"

"Well those are three words I never thought I'd hear Hermione Granger say," Draco laughed with genuine surprise.

Hermione narrowed her eyes, but continued, "You're smart but you don't act like it, you hate me but you saved me from the lake, you insist on tormenting me with your presence but you've refrained from calling me a mud-mudblood in months." Hermione's mouth tumbled over the word, unaccustomed to the way it felt leaving her lips.

"It's not my choice to be around you, we just keep getting… stuck together," Malfoy said.

"Well, I'm tired of it. You can stay here being afraid of what others think of you, I'm going to find somewhere to try and get a moment's peace in this blasted castle," Hermione said as she reached for the doorknob, but when she turned it… It stuck.

"No," Hermione whispered, "no!" she wailed.