'Why would I need help from you?' Draco asked, refusing to look directly at her, his tone was flat.
'Well... The fact that you're staring off into space and also that your parchment is still blank'
Draco looked down, he had forgotten about everything in front of him, he couldn't be bothered to do the work anymore.
'Why would you want to help me?' Draco asked, curious.
Hermione pulled up and chair and sat opposite from Draco.
'Well...' she shrugged, Hermione didn't have an answer; she had no reason to be kind to him after all the years of shit Draco had given her and the others so she just dodged the question.
'The assignment is simple, there's a book which has all the answers in really, you just have to write it in your own words.' She said.
'Okay, which book?' Draco asked, he realised he might as well take the help from the smart witch of their age while he could instead of getting a complete idiot like Goyle to do it for him later.
Hermione got up out of her seat and wandered off to a bookshelf close to them.
'Ah' she said, smiling as she pulled out the right book and walked back to towards Draco. She flipped to the right page then spun the book so it was the right way up to Draco and with her long finger, pointed to the section Draco needed. She smiled.
'Here, this page – just read it, write it in your own words and there, you'll have done it'
Draco looked up at her and actually smiled.
'Thanks Granger'
'You might get a better grade if you started doing the work yourself you know' Hermione said, raising her brow at him.
'Yeah, because I knew exactly what book I needed before you came along' Draco said sarcastically
'You sounded like Harry then'
Just hearing his name caused Draco to go a bright shade of red, he kept his head own hoping she wouldn't notice.
'I will never understand your feud with each other...' Hermione said, as though she was talking to herself.
'I could easily imagine you two being friends if you both didn't argue all the time'
Draco looked up, he face fixed with shock.
'You really think that, Granger...?' He pushed his eyebrows together until they almost formed a clump in the middle of his forehead.
Hermione didn't know what to say, she hadn't see Draco look so... innocent before.
'Well... yeah, I don't see why not!' she retorted quickly.
Draco chuckled to himself, shaking his head he started writing, looking back at the book Hermione had laid out for him every few minutes. Hermione's eyes narrowed as she watched him work. She suddenly realised.
'Why are you in here? I've never seen a Slytherin in here, let alone you' Hermione wondered.
'Huh? Oh... Erm...' Draco was a little unsure how to answer.
Hermione crossed her arms across her chest, her eyes still narrowed as she waited for Draco to answer.
'Well, I needed more space to work'
'That's odd; normally you get someone else to do it for you'
'I felt like a change would be good'
Hermione shook her head. She pulled "Hogwarts, A History" out of her bag and began to read.
'Do you ever not read that book? Draco asked, he had see her countless of times with her head stuck in it.
Without even looking up, she answered.
'You always learn something new if you read it more than once.'
'Right...'
Draco ignored her and went to finish the assignment; he was only a few sentences off from the end when he heard his voice.
'Hermione, there you are... what are you-? Harry was speechless when he saw Draco sat on the other side of the table.
'Hermione! What are you doing with him? Are you ok? Did he force you or something? Ron babbled on.
Draco went to answer but instead he just sighed and looked down, he didn't want another reason for Harry to be mad at him again.
'Honestly Ronald!' Hermione raised her voice just enough to shock Ron.
'I was merely helping Draco with his assignment, my OWN choice.' Hermione emphasised on the last three words. All three boys stopped and stared at her.
Harry looked over to Draco, his cheeks went a little pink.
Harry cleared his throat a little and looked over to Ron, who was staring at his feet.
'We're going back to the common room, are you coming Hermione?' he said looking at her.
Still red-faced and angry, she replied quickly
'Yes'
'Ok, Well...' Harry started looking over to Draco who was looking back.
Hermione got up, lifting her book and carefully placing in back into her bag. She sighed.
'See you tomorrow then Malfoy, we have Professor Lupin first thing.' Harry said.
Draco nodded. Draco's favourite little crooked smiled appeared on Harry's face before he turned and walked away followed by Ron.
'Bye Draco!' Hermione said as she spun round and followed the others.
Finishing off his assignment and packing away his stuff, Draco smiled to himself, he had forgotten that they had Lupin first lesson tomorrow.
AN: sorry I won't be updating as often, I'm at my last few months of college so I got a lot of work to finish, but I won't stop writing half-way, that shit annoys me, when the holidays come I'll be able to update a lot more, but until then – bare with me thanks!.