Ahhh! FINALLY! I had such a giant case of writer's block and then classes started. Yay for five hours of lecture! It's a little bit shorter than usual...I think...I was too lazy to do a word count XD
So, just some forewarning, there is some language. Just one or two words, nothing horrible.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. HAIL TO QUEEN JO!
As the clock struck seven and the crickets began to chirp, Draco and Blaise slowly made their way to the library. Before they had even reached the second floor landing, Draco started to feel uneasy. It was the same feeling he got whenever his father called him into his study during summer holiday to "speak to him about important matters". To keep his balance, he firmly gripped the railing with his right hand and used his left to massage his temple and this did help a bit but not enough to avoid Blaise's keen eye.
"Honestly, man," Blaise groaned as he rolled his eyes. "It's just Granger. No need to go turning into a flobberworm now, yeah?"
"I'm okay. Just give me a moment."
"No," said Blaise, grabbing hold of Draco's arm and tugging him up the stairs. "You need to do this or, I swear on the soul of my grandmother's favorite cat, I will hex you."
Once the two boys reached the library, Draco took a deep breath to steady his nerves. With a good amount of nudging and shoving from Blaise, Draco slowly made his towards Hermione. Taking the seat opposite of Hermione, he waited for her to look up from her work.
"If you want me to help you with your Charms project," she said without looking up. "I already have mine to do so I can't help you."
"Well," Draco started as smoothly as his nervous brain would allow. "That's a shame. If you can't help me, then our grade will suffer."
"Oh," Hermione replied, looking slightly taken aback. "I thought you were Ron."
"Weasel King always come round asking for your help?" Draco prodded as he slowly got past that nauseous feeling.
"His name is "Ron"," Hermione glowered. "And that's none of your business."
"My apologies, Granger," Draco said with a minute trace of sincerity. "Do you want to put the project together or are you just going to sit there glaring at me?"
Hermione let the comment about Ron slide; she figured it was best to put the project together and get it over with. As the two of them put their halves of the project together and began working on the oral portion of the report, Blaise observed through a nearby bookshelf. Every so often he would catch Draco steal a glance at Hermione when she was absorbed in writing her portion of the oral report onto notecards. Although he couldn't hear what Draco was saying, he was pretty sure that his friend was being charming because Hermione was laughing.
As the minutes crept by, Draco wound up on the same side of the table as Hermione and they whispered and laughed as they rehearsed their bits of the oral presentation.
Bastard fancies her, Blaise thought, chuckling a bit to himself. He could see why. Granger was pretty enough, especially since fourth year after the whole tooth-growing hex fiasco that earned Draco a week's worth of scrubbing down the stalls in the boys' lavatory and gave Hermione a night in the Hospital Wing. What she lacked in looks, she made up for in brains; she was pretty smart...for a Muggle born. But there was something else about her that made her appealing to Draco that Blaise couldn't put his finger on. Draco wasn't even aware of it but someone, somewhere in the library, knew.
Oh, he'd heard practically everything about everyone in the school, after all the castle walls did have ears of a sort. Yes, he'd heard of the bushy-haired, bright and quick witted witch and her numerous adventures (and not-so-legal adventures) with the famous Harry Potter and friends. He'd heard of her kindness and warmth, albeit unwanted and unneeded kindness and warmth, towards the house elves of Hogwarts. He'd also heard of the platinum haired, silver tongued boy with the heart of ice: unkind to those of "lower blood status", ferretting his way out of all sorts of situations by threatening people with his father's position in the Ministry of Magic, and caring of nobody but himself. But Draco was changing. From his place in the library, he saw something that nobody else could see. Ever so slowly, the boy with the heart of ice was warming up to the quick witted witch and this someone, somewhere in the library, was silently cheering for this freshly planted seed to bloom and blossom into a full blown romance.
OooOOohhHHHhhhh! Who is this mystery person? Anyone have any ideas?
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