Hermione opened her eyes to a dark and empty space, seemingly floating in mid air. Everything felt in slow motion and she couldn't tell which way she was orientated. Looking at her sides, it was clear to see that she was in the middle of a vast barren void that was cold to the touch. Her existence minuscule in comparison.

It wasn't until she turned her head upward did she remember where she was, spotting the blurry outlines of the dark trees and their branches reaching out to her from above. They provided no escape, just false hope and she tried with great effort to swim to them.

But no matter what she did or how hard she tried, her body remained stationed in the murky waters where she was dragged under.

Hermione yelled or rather opened her mouth in frustration, not caring if she'd drown. Her lungs didn't fill up, fortunately, but she continued to float aimlessly in place.

Why was she cursed to remain in such frigid waters?

In time, a light glow started to radiate from beneath Hermione. She quickly tried to adjust herself to face downward, finding new hope in her endless struggle.

But as she began to move, unforeseen aquatic life, long and wiry, wrapped themselves around her wrists, ankles and neck to prevent her from swimming.

Hermione struggled to move her limbs but she managed to grasp the tangles around her throat to stop it from suffocating her. She wasn't giving up without a fight and quickly ripped as much of the cursed plants away from her as possible.

But the more frantic she became, the more forceful the possessed weeds grew and wrapped tighter around her screaming body, inhibiting her senses.

Hermione's eyes flew wide open the moment darkness befell on her. She was panting heavily in her bed, lying limp on her side with her hands clenched tight to her chest.

Another night facing another horrid dream. When was it ever going to end?

Tiredly, Hermione drew her bed curtain to the side to check the time and was surprised to find it was still too early in the morning to be awake. The room was still sheathed in darkness with the light sighs of her roommates sleeping peacefully in accompaniment.

She wanted to rest some more before class but she couldn't find a comfortable enough position.

Lying back on her side, she noticed a small piece of fabric sticking out from underneath her pillow and pulled on it to reveal a neatly folded Slytherin robe. She had almost forgotten Malfoy had given it to her after the bathroom incident.

The look in his eyes then spoke genuine concern for her and yet, their present situation now spoke distance.

Was he ignoring her?

Hermione held the robe close to her chest, ruminating about why Malfoy would possibly want to ignore her. She was completely wide awake and couldn't possibly fall back to sleep with him on her mind.

When it finally reached six o'clock, she quickly sat up, grabbed the robe and decided it was about time she mailed her response to his letter.

Later that morning, Hermione sat alone for breakfast in the Great Hall. Every once in a while she'd look to the entrance for Malfoy, patiently waiting to see if he'd come down for breakfast.

She figured if he saw her, he'd want to speak with her and apologise in person. It was wishful thinking but practical and so she sat quietly sipping her coffee in the meantime.

It wasn't until the owls starting flying in did Hermione finally see Malfoy make his way over to the Slytherin table. She watched as he took his seat after grabbing one of the adorn kettles of tea and helped himself to the drink.

Not once did he look up from his breakfast. Her constant glaring garnered no response. It was quite troubling.

Suddenly, the owl she had used from the owlery earlier that morning came flying down to land in front of Malfoy. In its claws, the animal held a parcel with a letter attached to it in twine. The boy at first looked somewhat startled as it wasn't his usual eagle owl but accepted his gift anyways.

Hermione watched as he carefully took the package from the creature before it flew away. Malfoy was in no hurry to open his present but eventually did so and found his robe inside. He delicately sliced open the letter with his wand shortly after and read its contents addressed to him from her.

Hermione was expecting Malfoy to look up after he was finished as she had written her desire to talk. However, he did not and slowly put the letter back into its envelope and moved the parcel onto the seat beside him. Again, she failed to catch his eye and grew angry at his unresponsiveness.

Every moment they shared together, every touch, every kiss was all just an act.

It certainly seemed that once Malfoy had won her over, he had no reason to continue their fake relationship and decided to throw her to the curb as if she wasn't a human being with a heart.

Why did she even bother?

Hermione knew she should've never trusted him and couldn't believe she fell for his stupid charm. Fuming with outrage, she got up from her seat and swiftly left her table regretting she ever befriended Draco Malfoy.

She, unfortunately, did not see his eventual gaze follow her out of the hall.

"Morning Zabini," Hermione greeted, preparing the tools on their shared table in potions.

Zabini looked from an equally intrigued Malfoy to her and responded back. "Morning."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to work with you today as I've already paired up with Ginny."

Today she was assigned to work with Malfoy, but because of their recent fallout, wanted to avoid him at all costs.

"All right."

Luckily the boy didn't mind as he didn't particularly care about partner assignments. On the other hand, Ginny was rather relieved not to be working with Zabini and happily gathered her things to meet with Malfoy who had not once bothered her since the start of the school year.

After Hermione was finished situating herself furthest from Malfoy, she began heavily smashing her ingredients into her mortar with little precision. Usually she would have operated in a more cautiously effective way, however, due to her terrible mood, could have cared less.

Each pound produced a heavy sound and slight tremble of the table. Zabini immediately noticed the tension build around Hermione and raised a hand to stop her from further pulverising their rich ingredients.

"How about you calm down a bit, yeah?"

"How about you leave me alone and let me do my job?" Hermione snapped.

Zabini wasn't confrontational and let her seethe in her own fury before finding the right opportunity to address her again when she was calmed down.

"Does this possibly have anything to do with Draco?"

Right away, Hermione stopped her pounding to look up at Zabini, surprised he knew.

"Why do you say that?"

She sounded a little too defensive.

"Well you wanted to switch partners last minute," said Zabini as he carefully sliced the small amounts of dittany given to each group, "and your reaction just now makes it quite obvious."

"My aversion to him shouldn't be a suprise," Hermione said trying to justify herself.

Zabini didn't respond straight away. He waited for her to stop after another round of beating their ingredients to a pulp. "I just find it interesting that now you choose to act bitter when before you two seemed to be getting along well. So much so, you sat with Slytherin during the first quidditch match."

Hermione paused for a moment to consider what Zabini was saying.

"I thought that as well, but I guess I was too hopeful."

Hermione bet he didn't expect she'd admit to it and continued to smash her ingredients with less force. The task became tedious and she was exhausted at projecting her indignation. She wondered how Ginny could deal with such a vigorous way of coping and looked over at Zabini as he delicately trimmed the dittany.

The Slytherin didn't say much, but when he did speak, he spoke from observations and facts. She had to respect his sensibility and wanted to apologise for her behaviour earlier.

"I'm sorry," she said watching as he mechanically worked in his station, "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. It's just... you have an awfully strange way of showing cordality towards people, did you know?"

Her voice brought him out of his work to look at her.

"I'm not trying to be friendly."

Hermione found herself smiling at him, sceptical at his clear attempt to distance himself from everyone else.

"I don't believe that. I think that's just how you express your compassion, Blaise."

He raised a fascinated eyebrow at the sound of his name being spoken aloud by her.

She was glad to admit to herself that not all Slytherin were conniving sleazeballs like Malfoy and Nott.

"Is this your way of avoiding whatever issue you have with yourself, overanalysing other people, Hermione?" He asked, no hint of irritation, just curiosity.

"That's who I am," she confirmed, not minding that he spoke her name as well, "I can only function when I critique a Slytherin."

A rare Zabini smile graced his elegant face marking the first time she and the boy ever had a meaningful conversation.

"I concur."

In time, the two were able to get back to their work with no more interruptions. Hermione had almost forgotten about why she was so angry in the first place.

It suddenly hit Hermione when she felt eyes stare harshly at her with a force that caused her to look up and catch Malfoy watching her as she worked.

His eyes were obscure almost menacing but she felt no threat. To anyone, he didn't look any different in appearance but Hermione could tell he was feeling some sort of way but couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was.

Her pulse began to race as he continued to stare and it wasn't until he finally looked away did her breathing steadied back to normal.

What was Malfoy thinking?

Wednesday afternoon, another day had past and Hermione found herself aimlessly wandering down the corridors to clear her mind. There were far more important matters to dwell over than a silly boy she almost laughed in amusement over how childish she behaved.

In the midst of her musing, Hermione failed to notice a certain Ravenclaw boy make his was down from the opposite side and bumped straight into Head Boy Ronan Davies.

"I'm so sorry!" Hermione exclaimed as she quickly helped to pick up some scrolls that had fallen to the floor when they made contact.

"I've got them," he insisted politely, bending down to retrieve the scrolls in her hands.

She wondered why the boy didn't just charm them to levitate beside him.

"It's a good thing you've bumped into me," said Davies.

A confused look graced Hermione's features as she attentively waited for him to adjust himself after all of his scrolls were back in his arms.

"Your schedule's been changed. You'll patrol tomorrow night rather than on Friday. Fine by you?"

"Yeah, of course. I'll report to you then."

Although reluctantly, she had to commend Slughorn's efforts in making her go to such an expendable party. It would've been a shame not to attend at this point.

"Good," Davies duly said before making his way around her then stopping, "you are going to Slughorn's dinner party, correct?"

She was a bit surprised by his question but nodded to answer him.

"Are you going with anyone?"

"No, no one in particular, why do you ask?"

She had a slight idea why.

"Well, if it isn't a bother, how would you like to go to the party with... me?"

Davies was not a particularly shy person. He was less rigid than she previously thought him to be and she didn't find his company bothersome. It wouldn't hurt her to attend as friends and so she politely agreed to go with him.

Davies smiled and bid Hermione a farewell until next time.

"Rumor has it you're going to the party with Head Boy Davies? Is this true?" Ginny asked as she strapped on her Quidditch gear.

The pungent smell emitting from the Gryffindor locker rooms was a mixture of leather, sweat and shower soaps of all kinds. It invaded Hermione's nose in a not so friendly manner but she wasn't too worried about that.

Another day had gone by marking the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match. Hermione wanted to show her support for Ginny by being with her in the locker room as she prepared to play. The girl's anxiety before the game radiated off of her body but talking about things other than Quidditch seemed to comfort her.

"Are you mad at me?" Hermione replied, worried that the younger girl wouldn't approve of the "date" since she still hasn't told her of her break up with Ron.

"Why would I be mad? It's Ron you'll have to explain yourself to."

Ginny grew focused on polishing her broomstick to an unnecessary glean. I️t looked as if it would break off under her heavy hand and nearly hit Hermione in the midst of her reckless hold.

"It's not a big deal. We're accompanying each other as friends and nothing more."

Ginny finally looked up from cleaning her broomstick dry and stared at Hermione with intensity. For a split second, the older witch felt as if Ginny knew of Ron and her relationship, or lack thereof, before turning her head to the lockers and yelling at her team to come forward.

It seemed the girl was just too nervous to be thinking about anything clearly and had somewhat dismissed Hermione to talk with her team.

Hermione didn't mind as she knew the girl was under a lot of pressure at the moment and stood back as she relayed strategies and encouraging words to her players.

The team yelled in unison once their captain was finished and headed out into the quidditch pitch where a huge roar greeted them.

Ginny was the only player left in the locker room stalling behind to address Hermione one last time before the game.

"After we win, I️ have a couple of dresses in my trunk you could pick from to wear for the party."

Hermione grinned at how multifaceted Ginny seemed to be in the moment and mouthed an "okay" to accept the girl's offer.

"Good luck out there," Hermione wished right before Ginny finally left the room and made her way out onto the pitch.

The Gryffindor common room was vibrant with crimson and gold coloured streamers and lights cascading down from the ceiling. Gryffindor had won the match against Hufflepuff and was now celebrating their win with an outlandish after party.

Ginny was in the middle of the crowd, dancing with her fellow teammates and peers in a drunken state while Hermione carefully watched over her from a corner of the room beside Neville.

She had no interest in ceremonialising the victory with cheers and dance but had applauded the team, especially Ginny, when they all made a toast earlier that day.

Later that evening, however, nearly every older student was in some sort of alcoholic stupor, conversing or grinding into each other around the bewitched room it was somewhat chaotic.

It had been a while since everyone had this much pride and excitement in the tower that Hermione couldn't stop them from enjoying their loud festivities.

"I️ have to patrol now, look after Ginny okay?" Hermione exclaimed into Neville's ear while trying to beat out the loud music.

Neville luckily heard and gave Hermione the "ok" before walking over to where Ginny was. The girl was trying to grab another cup of some kind of alcoholic beverage from a couple of mischief behaving boys which Neville was able to stop her from doing to their obvious dislike.

Hermione knew Neville would keep her safe but made sure to confund the boys messing with her right before leaving the common room area.

Once out of earshot from the boisterous tower, Hermione made her way down to the Great Hall to meet with her new partner and arrived to find a patiently waiting Head Boy.

Meeting half way, he greeted her kindly.

"You'll be partnered up with me for tonight."

Hermione nodded in compliance and retrieved the guide from his hand before making their way down the corridors.

The patrol started off a little awkward at first with no one speaking but as time went on, Davies had the courage to speak up.

"Y'know, I️ always respected you, Hermione. May I️ call you that?"

"Yeah, I️ don't mind," she blushed pink from the sudden compliment, "and thank you."

"The bravery you show and intelligence you share is admirable. I'm surprised you weren't sorted into Ravenclaw."

"Yeah?"

Hermione's heard similar statements said to her so many times before, it was nothing new.

"Have you decided what you wanted to do after graduation?" He asked as they made routine stops checking classrooms, stairways and smaller corridors.

Hermione paused contemplating on his sudden state of inquiry.

What did she want to do?

"No, I'm not entirely sure yet."

It scared her that she was uncertain of her future and she continued walking to avoid the subject.

"I️ have a suggestion if you'd like to hear?" When he saw her glance his way he continued, "I can already tell you'd do great working at the Ministry."

She paused, provoked by the thought, but continued onward trying not to engage.

"You'd make a bloody brilliant Minster of Magic. You're even more qualified than I am," echoed Davies as he tried to keep up with her.

Hermione stopped in her tracks, irritated by the suggestion. She would never work in the ministry where corruption and lack of policy reformation ran rampant.

"The ministry is out of the question," said Hermione with deep enmity at the slightest thought she'd work there.

"My apologies. I️ must have struck a nerve then?"

Hermione brushed his persistence off as ignorance and couldn't blame him for recommending the job.

"What about you? What do you want to do?" She asked, trying to divert attention from herself.

"Me? Well, I️ want to work at the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Hopefully, the early application process works in my favour."

Before he could further elaborate on his future endeavours, the two stumbled upon a mist of smoke leaking out of one of the classrooms. They could hear a couple of deep mumbles come from within the room and concluded there were students gathered inside.

"What is going on in here?" Davies loudly asked as he barged into the room.

Hermione quickly followed suit to provide support.

She was startled to find a group of Slytherin boys smoking cigarettes and possibly cannabis with Nott sitting among them.

"Smoking on school grounds is prohibited. Give those up and receive a 50 point reduction with detention, all of you."

The group went quiet at first at the Head Boy's sudden intrusion and then burst into laughter after hearing their punishment. The only person not laughing among the five deviant students was Nott, who was disturbingly eyeing Hermione.

Hermione's veins pulsated in fear. She subconsciously walked over to Davies' side as he readdressed the boys.

"This is a serious offence. State your names now or-"

"Or what Cuck Boy, you'll make us submit to the likes of you?"

It was Frances, the bully she supposedly got ejected from the Slytherin Quidditch team from earlier.

He held a piece in between his skeleton fingers and took one long drag before blowing the smoke into the Head Boy's face. Davies did not like that at all.

Before he could reprimand the boy, however, Nott had stepped in with his mere voice calling out to Frances to move aside. The lanky boy complied and moved out of the way, extinguishing the cigarette on the floor.

The Slytherin captain made his daunting way over to the two after extinguishing his own cigarette into a table top.

"Let's not overreact now," his smooth voice sounded shifty, "we could settle on an agreement of some sort, what do you say?"

Hermione carefully watched Nott's movements. The two were outnumbered and with Nott as the leader, everything could go awry.

"Sorry, that's not possible. Either you give those up and accept my punishment or I️ send you to the Headmistress."

The boys in the back all mocked astonished faces before erupting into another round of laughter.

Davies stood tall in the face of a burly Nott. The boy barely towered over anyone but his mere stance exuded authority. Hermione wished she could stand proudly by his side but the sight of Nott smiling in retaliation at Davies frightened her more.

"Ronan, it's okay," she finally said as Nott wouldn't stand down.

A surprised look appeared on the Head Boy's face as she spoke.

"Everyone has a first warning, we should let this incident go."

She didn't look at Nott's mischievous eyes but she could feel him grin criminally at her.

"But, Hermione- "

"Listen to Granger, she's reasonable," Nott replied.

Her word seemed to make all the difference and Davies complied. He backed off looking at Hermione as if she's lost her mind.

"In turn, you all leave for your dorms immediately," she warned for all to hear. The boys were rather stubborn and booed her but when Nott turned with a sharp look on his face, they quieted down.

One quick nod to the door had all four boys get up and leave.

Once they had left, Nott turned back to the Head Boy.

"It was nice speaking with you Davies, you have a good night now," he taunted as he brushed the Ravenclaw's shoulder and straightened his collar for him before leaving himself.

The moment the Slytherin was out of sight, Davies turned to Hermione. She expected him to give her a good lecture or worse, ask that her badge be revoked but received none of that.

Instead, she was given a grave statement.

"I️ don't like him. Not one bit."

She couldn't have agreed more.

Friday morning, Hermione woke up to a heavily hung over Ginny who she had to force to get up and take an antidote.

Luckily it worked like a charm but it didn't account for how out of it she felt.

As they were in potions, Zabini couldn't help but notice how tired the redhead looked.

"I'm not in the mood Zabini," Ginny exhaustingly said, leaning her chin against her palm.

"I️ could see that," he gleefully replied, "I️ just wanted to congratulate you on your win."

Hermione was too distracted to listen to the two continue on as she was partnered back with Malfoy. The two of them had remained quiet since the start of class and only spoke when it was absolutely necessary which was rare since they knew exactly what they were doing.

She'd sneak a couple of glances his way only to be let down by his obvious deterrence to her.

She didn't want to admit to it out loud, but it hurt deeply.

Unfortunately, Hermione didn't catch Malfoy's worried glance as Slughorn came over to speak with the group.

"See you all at the dinner party," he exclaimed happily before commenting on Ginny's unruly appearance.

It seemed Slughorn had something planned for them all and he just couldn't wait to hear how great everyone and their families were doing.

AN: Definitely more Draco to come. I just like to work up to it.