Hermione stood up and winced as the stiff muscles in her legs protested. She had been sitting in the same position, book on lap and quill in hand, for hours now and her body was hating her for it. Again she cursed Snape for giving them the essay and causing her hand to cramp as well. Their essay had finally been finished. Each of them had done a part and then combined it into one ridiculously long essay. With that done they'd all had to copy each other's parts. Hermione could finally say that she was finished.

Hermione looked over at Ron who had fallen asleep and was drooling on the table. She debated upon waking him up so that he wouldn't have a sore neck but she wasn't sure that her legs would allow her to walk over to him just yet. Harry was laying on one of the sofas, half asleep, trying to cram for a History of Magic quiz that they were having in the morning. Hermione stretched just as the clock chimed eleven. She was glad that it wasn't as late as she'd originally thought.

She was already late for her Head Girl patrol duties so she decided she ought to get busy. Feeling slightly better after having stretched she made her way out of the Common Room. She usually enjoyed her patrol duties because it gave her a break from homework and a chance to exercise her stiff muscles but right now she just wanted to finish her homework and go to sleep.

Hermione sighed as she walked down the hall. She still wasn't finished with all of her assignments. She had a paper on Ancient Runes to finish and that was it but she really wanted to finish patrolling and then climb into her bed and sleep until morning. Damn Snape. Hopefully tomorrow would be better and he wouldn't spend the whole class period constantly berating them and then punishing them with inhumane amounts of homework.

After a few minutes of walking, and finding the Halls deserted, she ran into Ernie McMillan, a Hufflepuff Prefect. They stood there talking for a few minutes about Prefect things and then they went their separate ways. Her next encounter was with a fifth year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff who were on their way up to the Astronomy Tower. She sent them back to their Common Rooms and then decided that she ought to go up there and see if there were any other students intent on a rendezvous.

Hermione climbed the many stairs up to the top and opened the door, feeling a rush of cold air hit her as she walked outside. Standing a few feet away was a figure with their back turned to her. It never seemed to fail, someone was always up there.

"It's past curfew, I'm going to have to ask you to go back to your Common Room," Hermione said, using her most authoritative voice. The person turned around and Hermione saw that it was Draco. Her heart began beating furiously when she saw him. He had been the last person that she had expected to run into. He usually had better things to do than patrol. His cheeks were red and she assumed that he had been up there for awhile.

In the midst of her studying she had nearly forgotten about earlier when he had come to see her. She was now intensely curious as to why he had sought her out in that way. She felt very guilty for turning him down and for the fact that Ron had interrupted them before she had a chance to explain herself. Did she want to talk to him? Yes and no. If she hadn't had so much homework she would have relented, it hadn't been about him, well, not really.

"You wanted to talk to me?" she asked. She stepped forward, wanting to be just a little closer to him. She had spent all day trying to convince herself that she didn't need him in her life and then the moment he wanted to talk to her all of that fell away. She wanted to know what was wrong with him. Maybe it was something to do with his father, whatever it was she just wanted to be there for him.

"It was nothing. Just homework," he said staring off into the distance. Hermione knew that he was lying, she could hear it in his voice. She tried not to get annoyed over the fact that he was hiding things from her.

"Talk to me," she said, laying her hand on his arm. He shrugged her off and then moved away from her.

"Not much to talk about," he said, and before she could stop him, he was out the door and making his way down the Astronomy Tower stairs. Hermione sighed and then decided that she should probably get back to the Common Room and finish the rest of her homework. She wanted to go after him but she didn't think that following him back to his Common Room was really going to get her anywhere.

The next morning, Hermione woke up in bed and groaned. She didn't want to leave the warm comfort of her blankets and her pillows and get ready for class. She'd finally climbed into bed around midnight and it seemed to her as if the hours spent sleeping had gone entirely too fast. After a few minutes of laying there she finally convinced herself that if she laid in bed a moment longer then she was going to fall back asleep and risk being late. She climbed out of bed, quickly showered, and then got dressed and made her way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Hermione was hoping that it would be quiet so that she might be able to catch a five minute cat nap. Her wishes were not granted. It seemed like all of the students were talking in hushed whispers about something. Hermione was only glad that they weren't looking her way. She hated being the center of attention. As she walked towards her spot by Harry and Ron she caught little bits of conversation.

"- was an emerald in her mouth."

"Heard they gouged out her eyes and replaced 'em with diamonds."

"- found in Diagon Alley."

"Right outside Gringotts!"

"Wonder where the money went?"

"- he did it, that's for sure."

Hermione sat down and was just about to ask what everyone was talking about when Colin Creevey decided to fill them all in.

"You won't believe what happened. The other day a body was found in Diagon Alley, it's all over the papers. They say it was Narcissa Malfoy and she choked on a diamond."

Hermione felt as if a ton of bricks had landed in her stomach and for a moment she was sure that she hadn't heard him correctly. She was immediately swamped with guilt. Draco's mother had died and he had come to talk to her about it and she had pushed him away like it was nothing. She felt sick to her stomach and like she was going to cry.

Hermione's eyes went to the Slytherin table and she didn't see him. She needed to talk to him and she needed to know if he was okay. Hermione quickly excused herself from the table and then made her way out of the hall and towards the Slytherin Dungeon. She was walking quickly and glad that the halls were empty and she didn't have to push past people. She finally got to the entrance to the Slytherin Dungeons and said the password. The door effortlessly slid open.

Hermione hesitated a moment before deciding to go inside. Hopefully everyone was already in the Great Hall and she wouldn't run into anyone that would curse her for being in their private domain. The Common Room was empty so Hermione went towards the Hall that held the Boy's Dormitories. She was just about to the Seventh Year Dorm when the door opened and out came Pansy Parkinson. The moment she saw Hermione she glared.

"What do you think you are doing here, Mudblood?" she snarled.

"I'm looking for Draco, it's important." While Hermione was very uneasy over the fact that she was alone with the female Slytherin her need to find Draco overruled her dislike of Parkinson.

"Draco? Since when are you allowed to call him Draco? That's a name reserved for people who actually like him. Or is that the point, you like him?" Pansy asked as she crossed her arms across her chest and simultaneously blocking Hermione's way into the room.

"Do you know where he is?" Hermione persisted. She had a feeling that she wasn't going to get any real answers from her but it didn't hurt to try.

"So Draco's been trying to get up your skirt? How cute! And you're actually buying into it. Too bad you didn't show up about twenty minutes ago. His bed was occupied. I wonder by who? Oh yeah... me," the Slytherin said with a sneer.

"Move out of my way, Parkinson," Hermione growled. She knew that Pansy was just trying to get under her skin and she was determined not to let her. It didn't matter what Draco and Pansy had been doing, at that moment she couldn't let herself care.

"He's not in there, maybe he knew you were coming," Pansy said as she moved out of the way and walked down the hall and out of sight. Hermione took that opportunity to peek her head into Draco's room and just like Pansy had said, it was empty.

Hermione sighed and decided that she'd better get to class before she ended up being late.

Draco walked through the halls of Hogwarts wanting nothing more than to bury his head in the sand. He debated upon taking Snape's advice and skipping classes for the day but that seemed weak to him. He had attempted to go to breakfast this morning and chaos had erupted. Everyone had been talking about him. In whispers that were loud enough for him to hear.

Some students had accused him of killing his mother himself. Other students had remarked about him not looking upset. Everyone was talking about him and while he generally enjoyed being the center of attention this was one time when he wished he could give it all up. He'd give it all up if they'd just stop reminding him that his mother was dead.

Draco had decided to end breakfast early and spent the rest of the time wandering the halls until class started. He couldn't believe that people actually thought that he had snuck out of Hogwarts to murder his own mother. That was the way everyone saw him, as a murderer, a liar, a cheater. He hated everyone's perception of him but he didn't know what else he could be. His role came so easily to him, he was the Slytherin Prince, he was cold, and ruthless, and calculating. He was the embodiment of everything Slytherin stood for, but not anymore.

Hermione had changed him. Or maybe he had changed himself. He didn't know anymore.

Draco was waiting outside of the Charms classroom, his arms crossed, and his back against the wall, hoping that Professor Flitwick would show up soon, when he heard someone coming down the hall. He looked up to see Pansy storming down the hall, and she didn't look at all happy.

"What are you doing with the Mudblood?" Pansy asked furiously. Draco didn't have any idea what she was talking about. He'd barely talked to Hermione since school started back up.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Nothing at all Draco? If you are seeing her behind my back I will destroy you. You can have anyone else but her."

"I don't believe that I need your permission to have anyone," Draco said sourly. He definitely wasn't in the mood to deal with Pansy and her insecurities. It wasn't like she could do much harm to him. Ruin his reputation? That was a joke.

"Would you like your father to find out? I can make that happen and don't think I won't." Pansy turned around and walked away as Draco stared after her. He knew that she wouldn't dare do anything to harm him. Even if she did he had a story ready for his father. He was talking to Hermione in an attempt to find out information. It would be as simple as that. He wasn't afraid of Pansy or her threats. He did wonder what had given her the idea that there was anything to be worried about as far as Hermione was concerned. There really wasn't.

A few hours later Draco sat in his Potions class trying his hardest not to look at Hermione. He could feel her eyes looking at him but he refused to pay her any attention. His feelings were still hurt over last night, even though he kept telling himself that he deserved it. He had rebuffed her first. She hadn't known that his mother had died. Still, the fact that she had gone back inside with Weasley had caused him more hurt than anything.

The bottom line was she was always going to pick her "friends" over him. There wasn't room for Draco Malfoy in her life. He wasn't ready to make room for her either.

They were half way through class and Draco had listened to Snape give detention to half the class for not completing the essay assignment that he had given them the day before. Draco wondered what the whole story was between his mother and Snape. The Potions professor seemed affected by her death but Draco didn't know why. He wasn't sure he had the courage to ask either, at least not while Snape was in such a horrible mood.

Seemingly fed up with the whole class, Snape told them to take notes from their books and then walked into his office, slamming the door behind him. The minute the door shut everyone began talking, thankfully they had the decency not to talk about him. Draco pulled out a sheet of parchment, opened his book to the latest chapter, and began taking notes as he had nothing better to do.

He had written a few lines when words appeared in the middle of his parchment in handwriting not his own.

'I'm sorry.'

Draco wondered who was playing a trick on him. Whoever it was it wasn't funny. It reminded him way too much of what he had heard of Tom Riddle's diary. The words disappeared and formed new ones.

'You can write back...'

Draco stared stupidly at the parchment.

'Who is this?' he wrote back. His words disappeared.

'Hermione.'

Draco turned around and looked at her. She pointed to the piece of paper in front of her so he looked back at his.

'I found this spell in a book in the Restricted Section. Much easier than passing notes. I wanted to apologize for yesterday.'

Draco was half tempted to crumble up the piece of parchment and throw it at her but he decided not to let his anger get the best of him. She was apologizing after all.

'I survived,' he wrote.

'Can we please talk after class?'

Draco considered it. He didn't want to start depending on her again. It had been hard to let go of her and he didn't want to have to go through all of that again. He knew that if he let her in again he would only have to push her away. There was no way that things could ever be the way that he wanted them to be. No matter how hard he tried, or how badly he wanted to work at it, they were doomed.

He also wasn't sure that he wanted to talk to her about his mother. She wasn't a topic that he had ever shared with anyone and he was afraid that if he actually talked about her death he might begin to care and he didn't want to care. It was much nicer to feel the persistent numbness that had enveloped him since he'd heard the news.

Taking a deep breath he answered with a 'Where?'. She wrote him to meet her after dinner in the Library and Draco told her that he would. He couldn't help but agree to her. As much as he didn't want to get involved again he knew that it was too hard to stop himself. Ignoring her worked but he couldn't do that forever. Sometimes he just had to give in.

And give in he did because several hours later he was walking into the Library. He went to the familiar spot where they seemed to have so many important conversations. Curfew was in about an hour and the Library was considerably empty. Draco was secretly glad that there was no one there to see him. Hermione was already there, sitting on the floor, a book in one hand, her lighted wand in the other. When she saw him she shut the book and stuck it back on the shelf.

"Muggle romance novels. Who would've thought there'd be some here in the Library?"

Draco shrugged and sat down beside her. It felt good to be near her again, to be alone with her. Again he yearned for those nights and mornings spent in the Gryffindor Tower with her. He never realized that he would miss staying there so much.

"I am really sorry about yesterday. I can be a bit thick at times," she said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it," he said shrugging again. All of a sudden he felt nervous around her. He didn't know what to say. Whether or not to push her away. He wanted things to be normal between them but he didn't know what kind of normal he wanted. The 'I-hate-you' normal or the 'I-want-to-kiss-you' normal.

"I do worry about it. I want to be here for you and you keep pushing me away. I don't know whether or not to let you do that. I want to be there for you. I want to be someone you can talk to."

"I don't need you to be someone that I can talk to. I don't need to talk to anyone. I can deal with things by myself. I'm used to it." He hated lying to her.

"Look where that's gotten you! You need someone you can talk to," Hermione persisted.

"And why do you have to be that person?" he asked angrily. He didn't like the fact that she was implying that he couldn't take care of himself. He could, he always had, he didn't know any other way to go about things. Here she was trying to get him to be someone he wasn't, give her something that he wasn't sure he could ever give anyone.

"Because I have feelings for you and no matter how hard I try they won't go away. Every time we start to get anywhere you put up walls and push me away and then we have to start all over again." Draco had to admit that she was right. It was just so hard for him not to push her away. He'd spent almost eighteen years alone in his head with his father. That constant voice telling him that he wasn't good enough and that he was nothing but a failure. Hermione's voice clashed with his father's.

"If it's so much work then stop trying. Leave," he said before he could even censor his words. He was always saying or doing something to hurt her. He didn't know why she still stayed around. Because he didn't really mean it? Did that even matter?

"See! You're making this tons more difficult then it has to be," she said quietly.

"What do you want from me?" he asked not knowing what else to say.

"I want... well, I suppose I want you."

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