Chapter 4

A week passed and Draco did not once bother to get Hermione out of some mishap. He was determined to not let what Annabelle said come true. Also, what those two buffoons Hermione calls friends said in class that day scarred his memory, and made him loathe the thought of ever being nice to someone. He's Draco Malfoy for crying out loud—a Death Eater, a follower of Lord Voldemort, who commanded him to kill Dumbledore... which he is going to do. He just hasn't been successful in doing it yet. Plus, he's bullied people to no end before. Yes, he's not a kind person. And he's keeping it that way.

It was after potions class that Draco and his posse happened to be walking a few people behind Hermione and her two friends. He overheard her say that she is going to be in the library until it closes because she needs to get an essay done. Weasley and Potter said fine, but then asked her if she would like some company. She shot back that she didn't need a babysitter. Draco smirked. She's always had that sharp tongue. He has always found it annoying, especially when it was aimed at him, but now, noticing it and her strong head, she is a little more... appealing.

His eyes widened at that thought. No! Her, appealing? No possible way!

Pushing that thought away, he walked on his his hands deep in his slacks pockets. Once those three friends were out of sight, Draco headed to his common room to get some homework done. He needs to get started on that same essay Hermione was talking about—one for Defense against the Dark Arts. He has to get that done as soon as possible since he has to go home for a conference with the Dark Lord the day that it's due. It has to be a good half-meter long, and he needs to use at least four books as sources.

"Dammit," he let out. He needs to get those books. He headed to the library, not liking that a certain girl was already there. But what else could he do? He needs those books in order to get a good grade. He'll grab them and go.

Madam Pince, the librarian, gave Draco an odd look when he walked in and passed her desk. Of course she wouldn't expect a Malfoy to enter the library, especially him. He paid no heed to people looking at him as he went to the shelves he needed. When he got to the needed shelves, of course, who is standing in that very aisle? He waited until she was done and went right in. Of course. She took literally all the books he wanted to use.

"Granger..." he cursed under his breath. He saw her sit at a table, one of about a dozen in this area of the library, and got some parchment and ink out. He stood there leaning against the shelves for a few minutes and watched as she thumbed through one of the four books, got to the needed page, and started writing. She was writing for a good five minutes before she looked up at the book. Draco hated that he was watching her work, but he watched her nonetheless. He should stop. He needs to get those books from her, and the only way to get them, aside form levitating them and stealing them from her that way, is to walk up to her and ask for them.

"Granger."

She looked up and her eyes widened. She almost spilled her ink bottle from the surprise of her nemesis standing a meter away from her table. "What?" she whispered forcefully.

"Let me borrow a couple of those books."

She gave him a look that said he was out of his mind. "I have to write that essay, too, you know," he shot at her in a quiet tone. It was a library, after all. "I need those books, too."

"Use other ones. There are dozens of books on this subject."

"But I want those ones."

"You can wait until I'm done with them."

Why is he doing this? He needs to be more forceful. "I'm on a schedule, Granger. I'm pressed more for time than you are."

She huffed through her nose. "Fine. If you want to borrow them, sit right there and use them while I'm not."

His nose twitched in disgust. "What? Share a table with you? Are you mad?"

"Then you have to wait."

He gritted his teeth. He didn't have time to wait. He took a book she wasn't looking at and sat down at an empty table next to hers, his back facing her. He heard her mutter something about being so proud and arrogant. Why did he care? He just wants to get good grades while pleasing The Dark Lord—both will bring a good image to the Malfoy name, and will make his father proud of him. He's already on his way to that—he has an excellent GPA at the moment and is even on the school's honor list, and a name above Hermione Granger. Oh, how that would diminish her pride. That mudblood probably has no idea he's right above her on that list.

A half-hour passed, and Draco was three paragraphs into his essay. He twitched his nose as people walked by, eyeing him. He doesn't like working in the library, but he needs to if he's going to get this assignment done before that meeting with the Dark Lord. And the only way to do it is to use the books that that prideful, snarky, non-pureblood and albeit, pretty girl is using. And of course, he needs another book from her. He quickly got up, set the book he just used down on the table, making Hermione jump, and then took another one she wasn't using. He sat back down. He realized something as he opened the book—

He's sharing books with a mudblood. He eyed the book. He pulled out his wand and muttered an anti-germ charm. Better. He got to work again, trying to get his mind off of the girl sitting at the table behind him, and off of the students walking around eyeing and whispering things about Malfoy being in the library. Well, if his reputation wasn't tarnished before because he was seen with Annabelle, it is now.

About an hour later, Draco was so absorbed in his essay, that he didn't hear Hermione get out of her chair and walk over to him and look over his shoulder. He suddenly noticed her presence and jumped, making his heart leap to his throat. "What the devil are you doing, Granger?"

"Your essay is pretty good."

His eyes widened, and he flipped over the parchment. "Don't you have enough brains to know not to read over people's shoulders?"

"Sorry for paying you a compliment," she said in a condescending tone. "It'll never happen again." She left, then came back and placed the books she was using next to him. "I'll be back for these tomorrow."

He eyed them as she left, then he turned and watched her exit the library, or more cantering out of it, making her bushy hair bob as she went. He smirked. Since has he ever thought a girls temper as... cute?

He jumped out of that thought, appalled that he thought it. "Whatever," he muttered and got back to his essay. Only ten minutes passed when he got dreadfully bored and couldn't concentrate on what he was writing before Hermione rudely interrupted by looking over his shoulder and leaving a rather pleasant flowery scent behind her.

He got up from the table and pulled out his wand and muttered a spell that made the four books small enough to fit in his pockets. He left the library after he sneaked passed Madam Pince. She gave him another judging look. Maybe she didn't notice him essentially steal those books out of the library. Who cares? Maybe he should have just stole the books from Hermione. Why didn't he do that?

As he walked down the corridors among a few students here and there, he turned a corner and was about to descend the stairs down to his common room—the rout that people usually took. He's going this way as to not run into Annabelle. Before stepping down the stairs, he heard shouting off to his left. It was a female voice. Hermione's voice. Why the heck would she be down near the Slytherin common room?

He turned and suddenly found Hermione facing Crabbe and Goyle, wand out, and mean expression on her face.

"C'mon, mudblood," sneered Crabbe. "Can't you take a bit of fun?"

"Fun?" she barked. "Fun to you two pea-brains is causing harm to other people!"

"What did call us?" Goyle shouted.

Hermione had to jump out of the way because Goyle shot a spell at her. She shot one back at him, and caught his arm, which made him fall over backwards, and made him let out a huff of breath from the impact. Draco was about to jump in and do something, but then Goyle scrambled up.

"How dare you, mudblood!" he screamed, and it echoed through the empty corridor. Both he and Crabbe pointed their wands at her, ready to shout another spell, but Draco came into their sight.

"What do you think you're doing?!" he demanded, walking up to them. Hermione whirled around, her wand still pointed, and pointed straight at his face.

"Watch it, Granger!"

"Make me! You all stay away from me or you all will get it!"

Draco ignored her and passed her and her flowery perfume, or whatever it was. He went up to Crabbe and Goyle. "I've been looking for you two. Let's go to the common room." He looked at Hermione. "Get out of here. What are you even doing down here anyway?"

Her eyes widened in shock. "I was taking a different rout back, but I obviously made a mistake in doing so."

"Of course you did. Now Scram."

She stood there, staring at him with a bewildered look.

"Didn't you hear me, Granger?! I said beat it!" His voice echoed, and he looked back at his two friends. "Let's go."

"But Draco..." Goyle said as he pointed at Hermione shoved her wand into her robes and ran off.

"She's not worth it. She never is. C'mon."

The three left as Crabbe shouted, "We're not done with you yet, mudblood!" then left for their common room.

They walked in silence, besides Crabbe and Goyle whispering things to each other, and about him and what just happened. Draco shot them a glare and they stopped whispering. He looked back to the front and wondered why on earth he just rescued that mudblood. Again, like he said he wouldn't do! No, he just cut her a break. Plus, Hermione would have been fine, anyway, since she knows her spells. He just stopped his friends from getting hurt.

Yes, that is the case, nothing else.

Potter and Weasley were giving Draco odd looks during breakfast the next day. Hermione probably told them about the night before, and Draco's heroism, if you could really call it that. When Crabbe and Goyle came and sat on either side of him, Potter and Weasley's looks hardened. No doubt they didn't like that their friend was in danger last night. Yes, he knew how skillful Hermione is, but he also knew how much of a bully his friends can be. Since they learned from him. Hermione came and sat by her friends, and Draco looked away and refused to look at her the rest of the meal, as difficult as it was to do just that.

After eating his ham and eggs, and on the way to class, Draco spotted Annabelle through an an open-air window, smiling at him. He hasn't seen her for a while, and he can admit that to only himself that he missed seeing her pretty face. Even so, he walked on, not wanting to talk her. She's just going to talk about Hermione again, and he doesn't want that since that mudblood is all he thinks about now, thanks to her, his new ghost friend. He felt her presence behind him—a comforting feeling, and a warm one.

"Draco, are you ignoring me?"

"Maybe."

"I saw you rescue Hermione from those friends of yours last night. I knew you were trying to make it seem like you were just wanting to get back to your common room with your friends, but anyone could see that you were rescuing her from them."

He stopped walking and turned around abruptly, and Annabelle went straight through him. He looked around. Thank God people don't think twice about a ghost floating around and going through people. She appeared in front of him.

"It was touching," she said. "You're heeding my advice."

He walked on, but she followed next to him, and they got looks from people. "I am not heeding your ludicrous advice."

"Then what are you doing?"

How is he to answer that without telling her that he is, in fact, following what she said to do: get along with her and look out for her? Well, he's looking out for her, as shocking as it is, but they are definitely not getting along. That's never going to happen.

"You're paying attention to her now," she said.

"No thanks to you," he shot at her, and they stopped at the door to his class, and people walking into definitely noticed them. "I had no choice since your words are ingrained in my head."

"No, you had a choice. You could've chosen not to do anything, but you did." She paused and pursed her lips, like she wanted to tell him something, but was thinking against it. He might as well hear it.

"What, Annabelle?" he asked.

"Well... I thought you should know that rescuing her from that stone pillar, and you rescuing her from your friends was apart of my vision. Given, I couldn't seen your friends' faces, but I recall seeing her standing with them in an empty corridor, her wand out, and you suddenly showing up and telling them not to bother with her. It's shocking to me, how similar it all is. I mean, that it played out almost exactly as I envisioned it. That has never happened with my other visions before."

He stared at her beautiful face for a moment and took that in. "It was all... the same?"

"Yes. Even you ordering her to go, and she did so."

Draco let out a breath through his nose, not wanting to believe that this was true. But he couldn't help but think that she was right, and has been right all along. He frowned, not liking that he's starting to become protective of that... non-pureblood. And it's because this ghost saw it all.

"This is all your fault..." he muttered.

"No it isn't. Everything would have happened regardless of you knowing about my vision. Perhaps you were simply walking to class and saw her about to run into a pillar and you stopped her from doing so. And perhaps you were growing tired of your friends constantly picking on people and you went in and pulled them away from her."

Draco folded his arms and looked down at his black school shoes. Yes, that could have happened, because, honestly, since he has received his task from the Dark Lord, he has cared less about bullying other people. He has been more focused on mending that transportation wardrobe, and finding ways to make Dumbledore go as painless as possible.

"Alright, I won't pester you about it," Annabelle said. "But you know that I am right." She put a transparent hand up to his cheek, and he flinched when he felt a cool sensation on his there. "Sorry. I've always wanted to do that." She smiled. "Alright. Get on to class."

"Don't boss me around," he said and went on into the classroom. "And don't touch me again."

"I didn't," she said, but he hardly heard it. Of course she didn't touch him, since she's a ghost, but he still felt it. And liked it. What he feared, and what he thought wasn't possible actually happened... a ghost girl has caught his fancy, and he's starting to feel something towards a non-pureblood, and he feels protective of her, after years of causing her pain.

He's starting to become a nicer person, just what he didn't want to happen. Or he's just losing his mind.

Merlin help him.