A/N: Birthday update!

"Or you can ignore me. That's fine."

Malfoy, once again, pretended not to hear her.

"I'm sorry. I was under the impression that it was common courtesy to answer when someone asks you a question."

Still no response.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at the back of his head. All she'd wanted to know is why he'd locked her cat in the bathroom, but he'd been ignoring her under the pretense of being overly focused on his video game.

"Malfoy."

Nothing.

With an irritated 'Hmph!' Hermione marched over and yanked the plug for the console out of the outlet.

"Hey!" Malfoy exclaimed. "I was about to win!"

"What is your problem?"

"You, apparently."

"I only did it because you were ignoring me."

"It was a critical point in the game."

"More critical than locking Crookshanks in the bathroom the entire time I was at work?"

Malfoy glanced over at the cat, who had been glowering at the blond from atop the refrigerator since Hermione had let him out of his prison. "He was bothering me."

"You can't just lock other people's pets away like that! God, what is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with me? How original!" he exploded, causing Hermione to take a reflexive step back. "Of course there's got to be something wrong with me, doesn't there?"

"What? No, that's not what I-"

"Can't you ever shut up for just a minute? Jesus, Granger!"

"Don't tell me to shut up!" Hermione shouted back at him, quickly rising to meet his anger. Ever since they'd gotten back, Malfoy had been outrageously quick to anger over trivial matters that always led to shouting matches. It pissed Hermione off almost as much as his cold, detached manner whenever he wasn't picking fights.

"Then don't be so fucking quick to assume that everything is my fault!"

"This is your fault, you half-wit!"

"Oh, so now I'm stupid?"

"You're sure acting that way!"

"How else do you expect me to react to such a colossal bitch?"

"I'm done with this," Hermione seethed, stomping around him towards her room. "Feel free to let yourself out," she snarled over her shoulder before slamming her bedroom door shut.

Hermione angrily turned the lock, glaring at her door as her body simmered in fury. He really was just the world's biggest ass these days, and Hermione knew he was just acting out because of how she'd treated him. He had apologized, though, so she wasn't sure why. All she knew was that he was taking everything out on her, and so these fights had become so frequent that happened every couple of days. And they all seemed to result in Hermione locking herself in her room.

Hermione watched the doorknob rattle but didn't move to unlock it. She never did.

"Look, I'm sorry." Malfoy's apology was muffled through the door, but she could hear his heavy sigh.

Hermione heard the thump of him leaning against her door as he uselessly tried to open it again.

"You know I didn't mean it, Granger. Just open the door."

"No," she replied. "I'd rather not be around you anymore."

"I'm sorry, alright?" he pleaded. "Please open the door?"

Hermione sighed. She knew she shouldn't let the cycle continue, but she also hated being mad at him so much.

With that in mind, Hermione quickly unlocked the door. As she opened the door, Hermione only got a brief look at Malfoy's stricken face before he'd reached out and pulled her into a desperate hug.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

"It's okay," Hermione said, wrapping her arms around him. She wasn't solving anything by forgiving him, she knew, but...

He held her a little closer, his breath tickling her ear.

But this was better than staying mad.

"Typical! You can't admit you're wrong, so you run off!"

Hermione slammed the door in his face, just beating him to her room. "Go away!" she screamed through the door.

"Maybe I will!"

"Maybe you should!" she shouted, her fists clenching and unclenching.

There was a long moment of silence before he tried to open the door. "I wish you wouldn't lock me out," he said through the door.

"I wish you weren't such an ass," she retorted.

"I know," he said with a sigh. "I'm sorry."

She opened the door, but only a crack. "You can't keep doing this."

He wedged the door all the way open with his elbow. "I know."

She stepped back when he reached out to her. "I mean it."

He stepped forward to negate her movement. "I know."

"Saying the words isn't enough, Malfoy."

He looked down at her, his face nothing but apologetic. "I know," he said again, and this time Hermione didn't step away from him when he reached for her.

"Get out!"

"Watch me!"

"Dammit, Granger, stop locking me out!"

"Don't touch me!" Hermione yanked her arm out of his grasp, darting for her room.

"Stop running away from me!" he shouted, grabbing her by the wrist and spinning her around.

"I'll run wherever I damn well please!" she screamed, shoving at him with her free arm. "Let me go!"

Hermione pressed her face agains his chest, wondering if she was a bad person for starting to want the fights because of the end result.

"I'm sorry."

"No you're not."

"You're being irrational."

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child!"

"Then stop acting like one!"

"Your apologies are meaningless!"

"So you're going to just pretend that all didn't happen?"

Malfoy had leapt to his feet the second Ron had Flooed out and started criticizing Hermione for accepting Ron's invitation to Harry's birthday with the Weasleys. The invitation hadn't included Malfoy.

"What do you want me to say, Malfoy? You don't even like Ron or his family!"

"It's the principle of the matter. I was sitting right here."

"So what, you wanted a pity invite?" as soon as the sarcastic words left her mouth she knew she'd said just the wrong thing.

"Because that's who I am, isn't it?" he raged. "I'm Draco Malfoy, everyone's favorite pitiful loser."

"I am not doing this today," Hermione seethed, standing up.

"Don't you dare," he snarled, moving to block her path to her bedroom.

"Oh, I dare," Hermione spat as she shoved him away from her. "Get out of my apartment."

"If you lock yourself in there again," he said dangerously, successfully restraining her with a firm grip on her upper arm. "I swear I'll-"

"You'll what?" she demanded, trying to pull free of him. "Spew out a bunch of fake apologies so we can do this all again tomorrow? Thanks, but no thanks."

"Just admit that I'm right, and it'll be done."

"Admit you're right about what, exactly?"

"You pity me."

Hermione gaped at him. "I do not!"

"You're lying!" he yelled, now gripping both of her arms.

"No I'm-"

"God, do you think I'm stupid, too?" he thundered. "If you didn't think me so pitiful you wouldn't shut me out. It doesn't take a genius."

"I shut you out because I don't like you yelling in my face," she snapped, glaring up at him.

"Do you miss your parents?" he asked suddenly.

"What? Yes, of course I do!"

"And you're sad they didn't come back?"

"Of course-"

"But you're okay with it?"

Hermione blinked. What? "I told you, I'm fine-"

"You lied," he accused, his hands squeezing her arms. "I saw you crying that night, and you lied when I asked if you were okay."

Hermione flushed. She had lied.

"Why?" he demanded.

"I don't actually like being caught in weak moments," she hedged, her mind racing to come up with an acceptable answer.

"Right," he snorted. "More like you're embarrassed to be seen as weak by someone you like feeling stronger than."

Her skin seemed to burn where he gripped her as she felt the color drain from her face. It was a horrible accusation, and if he hadn't been holding her arms in a death grip she would have chosen that moment to slam her bedroom door against his face.

Because, she realized with a terrible pang of guilty horror, he was right.

She could lie again. But his eyes were blazing down at her, and she could see how much she was hurting him by being untruthful.

"I didn't mean to," she admitted finally.

She a look of triumph flick across his expression before it fell back to a sort of melancholic anger.

Hermione closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry."

It was the first time she'd been the one to apologize first. When she opened her eyes, his expression had shifted, and he was looking at her with a fierce gleam in his eyes that suddenly made her very conscious of how close they were standing and how his hands no longer seemed to be gripping her out of anger.

She stepped away quickly. "I'm sorry," she said again, before finally fleeing to her room.

"Don't," she warned, but it was too late.

"Let me guess, everyone sat around and had a good laugh at my expense?"

"No!"

Malfoy dropped the fruitcake Mrs. Weasley had made Hermione bring back for him on the table. "Very convincing. Another try?"

"We hardly even talked about you," she said, immediately wanting to stick her foot in her mouth.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"All I meant was that they asked how you were and I said fine and that was it," Hermione said quickly.

"That's it?" he asked skeptically.

"Yes, that's it," Hermione said with a sigh. "You shouldn't be so quick to assume the worst."

"It's hard not to when I have such a high success rate."

"Don't be like that."

"Like what? Honest?"

"Pessimistic."

"Funny how often the two seem to coincide for me."

"And who's pitying you now? Because it sounds like it's yourself," Hermione said, a tad more aggressively than she meant to.

Malfoy's eyes flashed. "Don't turn that on me."

"Why? You're so quick to call everyone else out on it, why exclude yourself? Are you really that big of a hypocrite?"

"No," he growled, turning his back to her and making towards her apartment door. "You're going too far, Granger, and I'm not in the mood for it."

Hermione bristled. "Facts are stubborn things, aren't they?"

"And yet only half as stubborn as you," he snapped back, one hand on the doorknob.

"No!" Hermione pleaded, realizing what she'd done. She rushed forward, ducking around him to shut the door just as he opened it. "I'm sorry," she said, leaning against the door.

He glared down at her. "No you're not."

"I am!" Hermione insisted, lowering his outstretched arm with a firm hand. "I did'n mean it, I was angry, and...I'm sorry, okay?"

Malfoy turned his face away from her, but his expression had softened a bit.

"Forgive me?" she asked, tugging on his arm.

He sighed, accepting her invitation and enveloping her in his arms. "Yeah, I forgive you."

"I'm only saying you should think about it," Hermione said carefully.

"I have. The answer is no," Malfoy retorted.

Hermione folded her hands in front of her. "You haven't. You rejected the invitation before you'd finished reading the letter."

"Because I don't want to go."

"It's just that...you know it would mean a lot to your mother."

Malfoy threw her a glare but didn't say anything.

Hermione took a deep, bracing breath. The air had thickened with tension the minute Malfoy had waked in, throwing a letter from his mother at Hermione. The letter included a invitation to a garden party. Malfoy had immediately stated his intention to not attend, warning Hermione that if she tried to convince him to go he'd throw her cat out the window.

"Fine," he snapped after a moment. "I'll think about it."

"Okay," Hermione said with relief.

"But if I go, you're going with me."

Hermione shook her head. "No, I'm not."

"Then I'm not going."

Hermione pushed away from the table, standing up with a sigh. "Fine, don't go, whatever. I don't care."

"Yeah. I won't."

"Fine."

"Good."

"Okay."

"Right."

Hermione eyed him suspiciously.

Malfoy raised his eyebrows.

She sat back down cautiously. The would-be argument was settled, but she didn't feel any less tense.

"What did you do with the remote?"

"Nothing."

"Did you take it?"

"No. But I do live here, so I would be entitled to take it if I wanted to."

"Very funny, Granger. Where is it?"

"Maybe you misplaced it."

"Are you saying I'm forgetful?"

"No, I'm saying you were still holding it when you went to get some water. Isn't that it over there by the sink?"

"Yeah. Okay. My mistake."

They weren't fighting anymore, but there was a tension that made Hermione crazy. It was as if they were always on the brink of fighting...or something else. All Hermione knew was that it was becoming unbearable, and whatever it was that needed to happen to end it needed to happen soon or she'd lose her mind.

"I'm not having this fight again, Malfoy!" she screamed, though secretly she was relieved that the tension had finally boiled over. They were standing across from each other behind the couch, shouting their heads off at each other so passionately that Crookshanks had hid in a closet.

"You're the one who brought it up!"

"I did no such thing, and for you to imply-"

"'Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Malfoy,'" he said in a mocking, sing-song voice. "You started it! All I did was point out your hypocrisy?"

"Hypocrisy? Me?" Hermione laughed humorlessly. "I'm not the one who balks at anyone feeling sorry for me only to bitch and moan about no one liking me ten seconds later!"

"I'm not going to listen to you preach to me about not feeling sorry for myself when you still insist on treating me like charity case!"

"I do not treat you like a charity case!"

"You spend every day feeling sorry for me. Just admit it."

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"No, what I'd like is for you to start seeing me as a real person!"

"I do-"

"No you don't!" he thundered. "All you do is walk on eggshells around me because you're so afraid of setting me off!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It doesn't take much, does it?"

He ignored her. "And you'll just not talk about thinks because you're afraid I'll get mad at you for it, or that you'll hurt my feelings, or whatever else you think will happen. You wouldn't do that to someone you thought of as your equal!"

"I don't avoid things!"

"You ignore everything!" he yelled, one hand going up to twist his hair in frustration. He turned on his heel, taking a few steps away from her before turning back around.

Hermione stepped back reflexively in shock as he continued towards her, his eyes blazing. The next thing she knew, he had her in his arms and he was kissing her.

Hermione felt like she should pull away, push his arms off her and banish him from her apartment for good. Malfoy slid a hand up around her neck, the other arm wrapped firmly around her waist. Within seconds, that initial feeling was overtaken by another, stronger one that was telling her that this was what had been building between them.

This was what needed to happen.

Malfoy pulled back just enough, but only just barely. "Whatever you do, Granger, please don't ignore me anymore."

Hermione's breathing was so ragged – partially due to Malfoy and partially due to her own shaking in reaction the decision she had made – that she was afraid to speak. Instead, she tilted her mouth up to his, kissing him slowly. Her hands were fisted in the fabric of his shirt, and she felt him tense in surprise. It only lasted a moment before he responded heatedly, pushing her back a few steps until her back hit the wall.

She twined her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Malfoy's hands were running down her sides, coming to rest at her hips. Hermione pressed against him, her body demanding that there be no space left between them. She tangled one of her hands in his hair as he explored her mouth with his tongue, and she couldn't suppress a moan when one of his hands crept under the hem of her shirt.

The cautious part of her brain was warning her to stop, that she was in danger of letting things get out of control, but Hermione pushed the thought away before it could fully formulate. This wasn't the time for caution. Caution wasn't going to solve the heat that had been brewing in recent weeks.

Hermione started to make a noise of protest when he leaned away from her, but she was silenced when she realized it was because he was reaching for her bedroom door.

And then Malfoy was pushing her onto her bed, crawling up her body as she pulled his head back down, the brief break in contact having been too long for her liking. His body covered hers with an exquisite heaviness, but she made no move to stop him when he flipped her over top of him, pushing them up so that he was in a sitting position and she straddled his legs. She had guessed the motivation behind the move, and Hermione happily held her arms up as he slid her shirt up and over head. She found his lips again as his hands ran along her bare back, stopping to unclasp her bra. Hermione shrugged the garment off, tossing it aside to tug off his shirt, pushing him back down once the task was finished. Malfoy kissed her hungrily as he rolled back on top of her, and Hermione arched her body against his as he pushed her pants down.

Once there was no more clothing separating them, Malfoy bent his head to whisper a question in her ear.

"Yes," Hermione breathed.

Malfoy pressed a lingering kiss to her lips. In one swift movement he brought them together, and Hermione let herself be swept away in him.

A/N: ...and now there won't be any more subtle "get things moving along!" comments. Cool cool cool (/abed). Naturally, the hurdles are not over yet, my friends. IS Hermione done being insensitive? WILL Malfoy turn into a lovesick puppy? HOW will Hermione over-analyze things? And WHAT will happen to these crazy kids next?

Your guess is as good as mine. Well, maybe not as good. But you can pretend it is.