Hermione got up the next morning after a long, sleepless night. After spending hours listening to Lavender and Parvati's catch up chatter, in which she attempted to dodge their questions as much as possible, she had been unable to get the look on Draco's face out of her head. Had he been wrong about himself when he said that he didn't care what others thought of him? Did he not want to be seen with her in public after all? And if he wanted to keep their relationship a secret would she be ok with it?

She planned to get an answer to all of these questions as soon as possible. So after dressing quickly and again avoiding Parvati as she asked whom she was so desperate to see so early in the morning, Hermione hurried down to breakfast. Unfortunately, when she reached the portrait hole she found herself face to face with Ginny, who was evidently also looking for an early breakfast.

'Oh. Hello,' Ginny said in surprise. Hermione, not feeling charitable, merely raised an eyebrow and didn't reply. She pushed passed Ginny and climbed through the portrait hole, heading down the corridor towards the stairs. With touch of annoyance but mostly surprise she heard footsteps behind her and turned slightly to see that Ginny was following her.

'Did you want something?' she snapped at her, feeling completely on edge and sensing another trap. Ginny seemed startled to be spoken to like that but recovered quickly.

'What, you're the only person who's allowed to have breakfast?' she said coolly, walking on ahead. Angrily, Hermione strode after her and caught up.

'I was referring to the fact that you were walking with me – see, I was under the impression that you thought I was a "Slytherin whore", to quote your brother,' Hermione said icily. Ginny let out a short laugh which only added to Hermione's fury.

'Classic Ron,' was all she said, however, not giving Hermione much to work with. There was silence for a while as Hermione continued to fume, until finally Ginny spoke again.

'You know, I'm not saying that what we did to you in the summer was right – it was Harry's idea, by the way – but don't forget that you don't exactly have a clean slate either.'

Hermione scoffed, half surprised and half annoyed. 'I haven't forgotten. What everyone else seems to have forgotten is that Ron did the exact same thing as I did, yet somehow I'm the one who's been ostracized.'

'I wouldn't say the exact same thing,' Ginny shot back quickly, 'Sleeping with a Gryffindor is different from sleeping with a Slytherin – that Slytherin, most of all.'

'Well, I had no idea that you were so narrow minded and prejudiced,' Hermione sneered. 'I would've thought that after dating half of Ravenclaw you might be moving on to Slytherin yourself soon enough.'

Ginny turned red and didn't answer. Feeling triumphant, her spirit lifting slightly, Hermione stalked ahead and quickly found herself alone. Firstly, she couldn't believe that Ginny was speaking to her at all – but then again, she was more mature than the boys. She certainly wouldn't expect the same treatment from them. And secondly, was it possible that Ginny didn't hate her as much as Hermione imagined? Maybe their friendship could be repaired after all. But not right now, Hermione thought. She was still mad at her for having a part in the events of the summer. Just walking with her had gotten her heart racing in anticipation of all the anger and hatred, which she thought would come her way. But she supposed that arguing was better than the silent treatment.

Putting Ginny out of her mind, Hermione continued down to the great hall and headed over to the almost empty Gryffindor table. She sat down by herself and did a quick sweep of the table at the other end of the hall. No Draco. Hermione was almost finished with her bowl of cereal when she saw Crabbe and Goyle stroll in together. It struck her as strange that Draco wasn't with them, so she waited a bit longer to see if he appeared. After ten more minutes, she resolved to go and look for him instead.

This, however, was not so easy. She couldn't just waltz down to the dungeons and demand to be let into the Slytherin common room. And the chances of running into him in the hallway were far too unlikely. Could he possibly be at the library? If by some chance he was looking for her as well then surely that's where he would start? Going on this logic, Hermione abandoned her breakfast and hurried off to the library.

Fortunately this was a place where she as always left alone. On the first day of term at this time of the morning it was completely empty. Hermione scanned the aisles looking for him, but had to give up when he obviously wasn't there. She decided against waiting – it felt too pathetic. But anxiety was creeping into her stomach. What was going on?

The bell rang for the first class of the day and Hermione hurried off for Transfiguration. As the seventh year class was so small, all of the houses would be taking it together. This only occurred to Hermione as she was walking towards the classroom door and she felt a knot of tension pull tighter inside of her. Now she would see him and she could gauge his behaviour properly, forgetting last night. As always, she was the first to arrive so she took a seat right at the back – she didn't want to have to feel the glares of the Gryffindors on her back.

As the students began to file in Hermione found herself wedged between Parvati and Lavender. She wasn't sure if she was grateful for their constant treatment of her or annoyed that they had never seemed some interested before. But as her former friends finally arrived she decided that she was definitely grateful - this time yesterday she didn't think she would have a single friend in the school. In fact, she realised suddenly as if the entire memory had fallen out of her head, she was so grateful that she had forgotten to be mad at Lavender for sleeping with Ron. As this suddenly occurred to her she felt a stab of anger and edged closer towards Parvati instead. Maybe that's why the two of them were being so nice to her?

Seeing him for the first time, Hermione watched out of the corner of her eye as Harry entered the room. He immediately looked around and spotted her, clenched his jaw and strolled towards the front of the room. Ron followed after, determinedly gazing at the ceiling. Stubbornly, Hermione glared defiantly at the two of them until they were seated and Professor McGonagall came marching in.

'Welcome back, seventh years,' she started, and immediately the room was silent. 'Good to see everyone here – wait, where is Malfoy?' she suddenly demanded, searching the room again. She directed her question at Nott, the only Slytherin in the room, who shrugged.

'He can start the term off with a detention, then,' McGonagall sniffed and went on. 'As you can see, I will not tolerate slack attitude towards this class. The seventh year syllabus is very difficult and it will require a lot of hard work from all of you. We will be starting with transfiguration of the elements, which can be very useful if used properly. I have here several samples of earth – divide them up between you and see if you can turn them into wind or water. We won't be trying fire yet – not for a few weeks.'

Normally this kind of work would have thrilled Hermione, but she could only concentrate on the fact that Malfoy wasn't here. Was there something wrong with him? Surely he wasn't wagging just to avoid her, that was ridiculous. But still the idea stuck in her head and she barely had time to celebrate when she managed to make her pile of dirt whirl about her desk.

The lesson was a double, so when it was over it was time for break. Not feeling hungry, Hermione instead headed to the library in the hope that he might be here this time. Unfortunately it was as empty as it had been that morning. After break she had ancient runes, followed by lunch and then arithmancy. Lunch was another dead-end – Draco wasn't in the great hall either, and after eating another meal alone Hermione was beginning to feel very lonely. The last class of the day was double herbology, which was with the Hufflepuffs. Hermione, despite still being distracted, was a little relieved when she realised that many of the Hufflepuffs didn't seem to hate her either. This made it a lot easier to ignore Harry and Ron, who were returning the favour. She knew they would come face to face sometime, but until then she was happy with the arrangement.

Figuring that Draco wouldn't miss dinner after missing lunch, Hermione was sure that this time she had him. So when she entered the great hall and saw his blonde head at the Slytherin table she had to restrain herself from letting out a triumphant laugh. She had spent the entire day looking for him, and there he was sitting with his friends like nothing was wrong.

Hermione didn't know what to do next. She couldn't approach him at his table, and he seemed to be avoiding her. How was she going to get him alone. She made a point of walking right by him as she purposely took a long route to get to the Gryffindor table, but he didn't even look up. Hermione noted that he seemed perfectly normal, except maybe for a tightening in his jaw.

Reluctantly, she sat down for dinner with Parvati and Lavender, suddenly feeling a lot less friendly towards the pair of them now that she had remembered what had happened with Lavender and Ron. As if sensing this, Lavender seemed equally nervous and kept shooting Hermione furtive glances from over her pasta.

'So Hermione, you didn't get to finish telling us about you and Malfoy,' Parvati said halfway through the meal as if this had been the topic already. Hermione choked slightly.

'I don't think I started telling you about Malfoy,' she answered. Parvati was not to be stopped, though.

'Right, so start from the beginning?' she prompted her. Hermione seethed silently.

'I'd rather not,' she said through gritted teeth. Parvati's face fell.

'Come on, Hermione, this is the most interesting thing you've ever done! At least tell us what his body's like – so hard to tell under all those robes!'

Hermione stared at her coldly, but Parvati didn't even seem to notice. 'It's average,' Hermione lied, feeling mad at the lot of them. Parvati finally seemed to sense the tone and she shot quick look at Lavender. Hermione hoped that the conversation was over, but evidently not.

'Ok, I'm just going to say it since it's obviously the problem here,' Parvati suddenly announced, and the other two looked at her in surprise. 'Hermione, there isn't anything going on with Lavender and Ron. She didn't hear from him once all summer, and now he's ignoring her as much as he is you.'

Hermione blinked several times after this revelation. She looked at Lavender, who didn't seem to know if she was angry at Parvati for bringing it up or anxious to see Hermione's reaction. Sensing that she had to speak next, Hermione took a deep breath to calm herself and forced a small smile onto her face.

'That's nice to know. Honestly, though, I don't care what Ron does with himself anymore. So you can have him if you want him, Lavender. And I guess –' she sighed again, realising it as she said it out loud, '- I guess that I don't have any right to be mad at you, considering what I…' she trailed off, but the girls didn't seem to notice. Both were looking at each other excitedly.

'You really wouldn't mind if Ron and I went out?' Lavender asked her. 'Because, I mean he is ignoring me, but if he asked me out I'd like to say yes!'

Hermione felt taken aback by this update but shrugged as if she didn't care. 'Sure, take him. I'm warning you, he's a lousy boyfriend, but if you like him then it's none of my business.'

Lavender and Parvati squealed in delight and Hermione rolled her eyes, looking away in barely concealed disgust. Her eyes found a pair that was looking straight at her from way across the hall, and she stopped. The silver eyes immediately looked away, but he had definitely been looking. Hermione's level of confusion increased once more. She had to talk to him and find out what was going on or she was going to go mad.

Waving goodbye to the girls, she casually exited the hall and found a nice hiding place off a corridor that she knew led to the Slythein common room. She felt pathetic, waiting for him crouched like a child, but she was going to talk to him whether he liked it or not.

After a longer wait than she had been counting on, there was the sudden chatter of a rambunctious group heading her way. Hermione slid out of sight into a doorway and waited. Just as she'd hoped, the first to go by were the annoying Pansy and her friends, followed by Nott and Zabini who were lapping up the attention. Next came Draco, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Not liking what she was about to do but feeling that she had no other option, Hermione sprang out of the doorway once they had all trodden by and cleared her throat loudly.

The beginning of their gang didn't hear and kept walking, but Draco, Crabbe and Goyle turned in surprise. Without looking at the latter two, Hermione looked at Draco expressionlessly.

'If you two don't mind I have to discuss several things with the Head Boy, since he seems to have forgotten his duties already,' she said evenly. Draco was looking back at her just as expressionlessly as she was looking at him. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him uncertainly, then over their shoulders at the rest of their group who were already disappearing up the other end of the corridor.

'Anything you say to me you can say in front of my friends,' Draco said at last. It was so good to hear his voice again, Hermione thought. But then she registered what he was saying and her brow furrowed in confusion. What was he doing? She had given him the perfect opportunity to get away from his friends so that they could talk in private.

'Actually, it might take a while. They probably don't want to wait,' Hermione said, trying to communicate with him through her eyes. Come with me, come with me, come with me, she urged him silently. But his eyes were impenetrable.

'Everybody waits for me,' he replied coldly. Hermione was struck dumb by the sheer force of unwelcome that she felt in his words.

'Ok then,' Hermione tried not to let her voice shake as she struggled to think of something to say. 'Well, since you weren't at the meeting on the train so we could discuss it then, we have to make up a schedule for corridor patrols for the prefects.'

'Surely you can do that yourself,' Draco said. It wasn't a question. Hermione blinked, taken aback once more. Crabbe and Goyle were guffawing at her stupidly and she felt under scrutiny.

'Why weren't you in transfiguration this morning?' Hermione suddenly shot at him, before she even knew she was saying it. 'You weren't trying to avoid –'

'It's none of your business what I get up to, Granger. Now, if you don't mind…'

And then he was walking away, just like that.

'Wait!' Hermione cried after him desperately. She didn't know what else to do. What was happening? Was he just pretending or did he really not want to talk to her? She couldn't read him at all. Mercifully he turned, but only halfway. He raised a cool eyebrow at her and waited. She didn't know what to say.

'Yes?' he said harshly. And just that one word had Hermione almost in tears. She silently pleaded for him not to go. He shook his head slowly, hatred flowing out of his eyes, and then he was gone, and Hermione was all alone once more.

Hi there and welcome back! As always sorry for the delays, I've been very busy lately but I'm on holidays now so hopefully can keep writing. I'm attempting an update of all three of my stories at once after reading so many reviews asking for an update...I really appreciate that you like the stories enough to write to me and ask for more :) So thank you very much to everyone who has been loyally reading and reviewing. I'll have to read them all again to check for questions which I haven't answered yet. I know this chapter is a bit short and non-eventful but that's because the next part requires a chapter to itself. To those of you who are interested, I've posted a new chapter of my story We Own The Skies, probably the first update in two years! Slave to come. Enjoy! xx