"Hey, Granger!"
Draco's head whipped around in panic as he heard Hermione's name and for the first time since their return to Hogwarts from the holidays, he saw her. He had deliberately arrived early to the train for the journey back and all but locked himself in the Slytherin compartment, he had managed a full twenty-four hours of sulking through the Castle without laying eyes on her, and it had been easier then to tell himself that his feelings and actions before Christmas had been ridiculous, but the moment she appeared his heart began to race so fast he thought he might throw up. This couldn't be happening.
She had been accosted on her arrival in the library by Ernie McMillan, a Hufflepuff student for whom Draco had never had any time, his loud, pompous voice carried across the room as he asked her about her break.
Hermione's voice was so much softer that Draco could not catch much of her replies, but he sensed from her expression that she was probably lying, her smile wasn't genuine. Part of him wanted to reach out to her, to disappear into the stacks and hope that she followed him, but he couldn't. With a dry mouth he forced himself to look back down at the list of books he'd come for, gather them as quickly as possible, and not look in her direction again.
As he found the last title, a dull and boring book on the maintenance of magical carvings, he felt eyes on him and risked a glance on his shoulder. Hermione still had not escaped from Ernie, but was watching him with her beautiful brown eyes wide and confused. He felt himself flush at the memory of their encounter in the passageway outside of Slughorn's party, but forced it away, grabbing the book that he prayed would have some useful advice for his mission, and bolting from the library. He knew it was wrong, that he was probably hurting her, especially as his avoidance of her didn't marry with the gift that he'd sent; it had been a stroke of fate when he'd found the book among his great-grandfather's possessions, it had been tucked away in the attic where he'd disappeared for a little breathing room and he knew no one would notice it missing, not from the vast collection of antiques in Malfoy Manor. Plus the smile he knew it would bring to her face was worth the risk, or he thought it had been. It was stupid to send any form of communication to her, and while he was fairly certain no one had found out about the present, the fact he was distracted had not gone unnoticed. He felt a trickle of fear at the memory of his aunt's parting advice, it had been forced across as friendly and concerned, but the message had been crystal clear: complete the Dark Lord's mission, or his father would pay the price.
And so he left Hermione standing clueless in the library and rushed to the Room of Requirement, where he planned on locking himself each time he longed for her company in the library- because if the Dark Lord was prepared to kill one of his own followers to motivate Draco, he would take great relish in instead murdering a muggle-born.

Hermione watched Draco rush out of the library as if the room was on fire, and felt her heart sink in her chest. She made a polite excuse to leave Ernie mid-sentence and disappeared into the stacks in the pretence of searching for a translation book for her Ancient Runes class. That's where Ginny found her a few moments later, "You don't need to bother lying to me, I know you've read that at least three times," she told her when Hermione grabbed the nearest book upon realising she was not alone. Her friend folded her arms across her chest and gave her a look Mrs Weasley would have been very proud of, "Do you want to tell me what's going on?"
Hermione opened her mouth to refuse, but suddenly thought better of it. She often felt a little isolated from others, even her own friends, but what if that was her own doing, what if that was because she was too afraid to open up? She met Ginny's curious gaze and admitted, "I have a lot going on."
"I've got time," she said softly.
It sort of came pouring out of Hermione then, that between her studies, her grandmother's failing health and the weirdness between her and the boys since Ron got together with Lavender, had been all getting too much- "and… well, there's also this boy," she said finally and Ginny snorted.
"Oh please, I was waiting for you to admit it. Of course your weird behaviour is because of a boy! Do you think I'm stupid? So tell me- who is it?"
Hermione was not well accustomed to "girl-talk" and felt herself blush furiously, "I- I can't tell you. No, don't ask it's just too embarrassing!"
Now she really had Ginny's attention, "Oh come on Hermione you have to tell me who it is! I can probably guess…"
"It's not Ron," she said firmly and she could tell that she didn't believe her, "No, I mean it- I was jealous of him and Lavender at first, I was hurt because I thought I might have a strange… notion, or crush, but that's passed. I'm serious!" she insisted when Ginny giggled, "I promise I'm not crushing on your brother."
Ginny perched on the edge of one of the narrow study tables and asked, "Okay, so this mystery guy- has anything happened between you?" She got her answer immediately when Hermione turned an even deeper shade of pink, "Oh-my-God you really have been keeping secrets!"
"It's complicated," she whispered, acutely aware they were in a very public place, though the library was admittedly quite empty as classes hadn't resumed yet. She'd only come in to try and find Draco.
"What's complicated about it? You like him, he likes you… he does like you right?"
"I-I thought so, but I'm not so sure now." Hermione hid her face in her hands, "I'm not you Ginny! I'm not good at this stuff, I've never had a boy interested in me before other than-"
"A totally hot and completely famous international Quiddich player," Ginny finished with a touch of sarcasm, and both girls dissolved into giggles.
"That was bizarre enough," Hermione told her, "But this is even worse!"
Ginny threw her hands in the air, "I can't help you if I don't know who it is!"
"Yes you can, you can help me figure out how to decide what to do next. Say that- say that something happened and said person, despite insisting that a relationship is completely out of the question, decided to kiss me," Ginny's mouth dropped open but Hermione ploughed on before she could interrupt, "And then afterwards they ignore me and pretend like nothing happened."
Her friend pulled a face, "Then he's a coward who doesn't deserve you!"
It was a lovely thing to say, but she had a feeling if Ginny understood the situation more then she'd be insisting Hermione pretend it never happened either. "I'm telling you, it's rather complicated!"
"It- it's not a teacher is it?"
"What? God no! Whatever would make you ask that?"
"Well that would be a complicated, forbidden relationship," Ginny laughed and Hermione rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.
"No- no it is certainly not a teacher, he's a student."
"A Gryffindor student?"
"You're prying, I'll stop talking if you keep prying," she threatened and Ginny mimicked zipping her mouth closed. "Okay, so there was a hypothetical kiss, and then a lot of ignoring, but then what if over the holidays he sends you an extremely thoughtful and personal gift, that no one else in the world ever would, but now is still ignoring you?"
Ginny looked thoughtful, "Are you sure the gift is from him?"
Hermione had considered it a lot since Christmas Day, but she nodded firmly, "Absolutely. There was no note, but he's the only person who would even know I'd want it." And be able to afford it, she added mentally.
She huffed out a sigh, "It sounds like he's pretty into you, but something is definitely getting in the way. He hasn't got a girlfriend or anything has he?" She didn't give Hermione time to format an answer to that, "Either way I'd say he can't make bold gestures like kissing you or sending you lavish gifts and then not have any time for you, you're worth more than that, and he definitely owes you a straight up answer, so my advice is, go get one."
"What if he doesn't want to talk to me?"
Ginny stood up straight and took Hermione's shoulders firmly, "You're Hermione Granger, you're the girl who helped Harry beat all those challenges before acquiring the Philosopher's Stone, you're the girl who figured out when even Dumbledore hadn't that Slytherin's monster was a Basilisk, you travelled in time for an entire year to cram in more work than most seventh years take on when you were thirteen, plus you dated an International Quiddich player- you can do anything you put that huge brain of yours too, so if this boy is too afraid to talk to you it just means he probably has a little sense." Hermione laughed feebly, and Ginny shook her, "Make him talk to you, and if the answer is no, well we'll find you another Quiddich player."

This was a bit of a favourite of mine to write, while I adore Harry Potter and it's certainly not a story lacking in strong female characters, sometimes because it's written from Harry's perspective I think we miss some of the details of the female friendships, especially Hermione and Ginny. I've got an amazing group of friends where we all have this fierce belief in each other and are constantly there to support each other, and I feel like that is the kind of friendship I'd love these two to have. So less of Draco in this chapter, though hopefully you have got a bit of an explanation about why he's acting so erratically, but I like writing about Hermione and Ginny. Next chapter will focus back on the relationship I promise, would love some reviews on this one guys, hope you enjoyed!

-H