Professor McGonagall had allowed them to keep arguing until midnight, though by that time it had turned into a shouting match between Terry and Malfoy. Hannah had already fallen asleep in her chair and Hermione honestly wasn't that far behind her. It had been the longest day so far, Hermione was sure, and she was just ready for it to end.
Terry was fighting fiercely for McGonagall to force the four Slytherins to just say who had hexed them so the fourth years could be punished and the matter could be erased from their minds. It was the best plan, he stated, because then the Slytherins would be safe and the other houses would know that actions like those were not going to be tolerated. Hermione had agreed with him, until Draco had started shouting back.
His idea was different; he was sure the other students would just make matters worse for the Slytherins if they told on anyone. Which was, Hermione remembered, what the Slytherins had said themselves. He was shouting furiously, telling Terry that the kids would be tortured if he made them do anything; it wasn't often Hermione saw him openly angry. He usually saved the shouting for when they were alone together. She didn't think she'd seen him so passionate before.
By the time he'd finished screaming at them, everyone was staring at Malfoy with wide eyes. Even Hannah had jerked awake halfway through to look at him. "What?" he snapped angrily, sitting back down. He'd stood at some point, maybe when Terry had called him a fool and stood up as well. Hermione wasn't sure.
"Why," Professor McGonagall asked slowly, glancing at the clock and cringing slightly. It was already Monday, Hermione realized. It was not going to be a good night of sleep for anyone except Hannah, who'd gotten a good bit of time while Terry and Draco had been shouting at each other. "Mr. Malfoy, have you never brought up matters like this before? Do you mean to tell me that if someone attacked you, you wouldn't mention it?"
"No, I wouldn't. It would only make things worse between me and whoever did it and that's a waste of my time,"
"Like hell you won't," Hermione muttered, finally speaking up. Her eyes were glued to McGonagall's desk; she didn't want to look at Malfoy because he probably wouldn't be happy with her.
"Miss Granger? Do you have something to add?"
"I only mean to say, Professor, that if Draco gets attacked by someone, I'll be sure he tells. I don't give a damn," she said quietly, glancing at Malfoy only to see surprise on his face. "if that wastes your time,"
"Granger if I-"
"Mr. Malfoy, quiet please," McGonagall said. Hermione glanced at her to see an odd expression on her face; she looked like she was contemplating something but Hermione wasn't sure what. It should be what to do about the Slytherins, but the look on her face wasn't serious enough to make it seem like those were her present thoughts.
"But I-"
"Mr. Malfoy, quiet!"
Hermione looked at him again, frowning at the look on his face. He turned his gaze to her as well and scowled, though Hermione didn't see any hatred in his eyes like she had before they'd come back to Hogwarts. "Professor," Terry tried, though a look from McGonagall silenced him.
"I will think over both of your arguments," she said after a long pause. "I will let you know my decision sometime tomorrow. You are all excused from your first two classes in the morning, so get some sleep. I expect tomorrow won't be any easier. You're excused," Terry and Hannah all but ran out of the room. Malfoy wasn't far behind them. He got to the door before, "Just a moment, Mr. Malfoy," sounded through the room. Hermione had been in the process of standing up to go back to the common room, though she paused when he walked angrily back to McGonagall's desk.
"What?" he asked rudely, an attempt at forced politeness failing miserably.
"I fully expect you to-"
"I will do whatever I see fit, Professor," he said, his eyes narrowing. "You may think you have any amount of control over me, Granger, but you don't and you will not force me to say anything. And I won't, unless it involves-" He stopped then, a horrified expression crossing his face as he looked at her.
"Unless it involves what?" Hermione asked.
She'd hoped rather desperately that he would actually tell her what he was thinking, though she should have known that wouldn't have happened. "Nothing,"
Professor McGonagall looked between the two with a raised eyebrow. "What is-"
"Nothing," Malfoy said again. "May we be excused?" With a sigh McGonagall nodded and Malfoy grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the office. "What the hell were you thinking?" he hissed angrily.
"Let go of me," Hermione replied, ripping her arm out of his grip.
"What were you thinking, Granger? Saying something like that? Making it sound like you-"
"Like I what, Malfoy? Like I care about you and your wellbeing? I don't know how many times I have to establish that I do care. But I'm getting rather sick of having to do that so if you could just accept it and move on that would be fantastic,"
"Granger-"
"And, oh I don't know, if you could ever tell me what's on your mind instead of getting close to saying something and then shutting down, I'd very much enjoy that as well,"
"What do you expect me to say, Granger? In front of people what can I honestly say without causing a problem?"
"I-Well then-"
"You don't have an answer, Granger," he said knowingly, smirking at her. "You don't have an answer and you hate that I'm right about this,"
"I don't hate that you're-You're not-"
He stared at her, the smirk falling away and Hermione fell silent. He was right, she knew that. People would make it a big deal that they were friends and neither of them wanted to deal with that. Harry might try to defend Hermione, though he still didn't like that she was getting closer to Malfoy. Hermione was quickly learning not to care about that though. "If this doesn't stop-"
"If what doesn't stop?"
"This whole nearly spilling everything,"
"Malfoy-"
"If it doesn't stop, Granger, we can't keep this friendship thing. Or whatever it is,"
"Well you can't just keep me in the dark about everything you're thinking!"
"I'm not-"
"Well then, Malfoy, unless it involves what?"
He scowled at her again, though Hermione wasn't surprised by that. Him scowling in her direction was very common and sometimes she actually enjoyed seeing it. Things seemed normal then. "It's not fair of you to do this while you're keeping secrets too," he retorted.
"What secrets am I keeping?"
"You're not sleeping any better, I know,"
"Well then it's not a secret," Malfoy rolled his eyes and Hermione frowned at him. "So just tell me what you were going to say and we can go back to the common room and go to bed," His eyes flashed with anger and Hermione sighed. She knew it wasn't a good idea to keep pushing him but she wanted answers. She wanted to know why things were starting to feel odd between them and Hermione was convinced that Malfoy knew the answer. "It won't hurt you to share,"
"Unless it involves you," he said slowly, focusing his gaze on the window behind her head.
To say that she was shocked would be an understatement, a major understatement. "Excuse me?"
"You wanted to know what I was going to say, Granger. You never said I had to explain it,"
"No secrets, Malfoy. That's the new deal, so explain,"
"Then you have to share something too, Granger,"
"Fine. But you first,"
"The thought," he muttered, staring at her this time. "of someone saying something to me about you disturbs me. Makes me sick, in a way,"
"But-"
"I don't care if they're just talking about you, Granger, as long as it's not bad. But if someone said something to me that could result in something along the lines of what happened with those first years I..."
"You...?"
"I would lose it, I believe,"
"Why?"
"Granger," he groaned, running a hand over his face and looking at her with slightly pleading eyes.
She hesitated, torn between pushing him to hear his answer and letting it go so she wouldn't ruin things. After careful deliberation that lasted about five seconds, Hermione decided on the latter. "So it's my turn then?" She didn't wait for him to reply. "I... I liked holding your hand," she decided on saying. "If that's what you can call it, even," She wanted to say more, to get his current expression off his face and to make the heat leave her cheeks, but she couldn't. Hermione began frustrated with herself rather quickly. She could have said something about Harry or Ron or any other aspect of her life and she chose the one thing she hadn't wanted Malfoy to find out. "Come on then, let's get back to the common room,"
She walked away before he said anything else, though from the sound of footsteps behind her, Hermione knew that Draco was following her. The common room was empty when they reached it and Hermione quickly approached her door. She glanced back to see him shutting the door to the common room gently; he looked at her a few seconds later. "Granger I-"
"You don't have to say anything. I understand what you're going to say and I shouldn't have mentioned it anyway. I could have told you anything else-"
"Granger-"
"No, Draco, really, I know what you're-"
"Granger just shut up and listen to me for once," he said angrily. "Okay? For once listen to what I have to say instead of jumping to conclusions!"
"I already know what you're going to say,"
"I doubt that,"
"No, I do. You're going to complain about me liking what happened and then you're going to say that it's ridiculous to feel that way and of course I'll have to agree with you because it is rather ridiculous," she said quickly, frowning at him. He almost looked amused, though a little angry was another good way to see it.
"If you tell a soul, Granger, I'll-"
"Tell what, Malfoy? That's I've embarrassed myself by admitting that to you? It wasn't exactly my plan,"
It was to her absolute surprise that he said, "I enjoyed it too,"
Before she could say anything else he walked into his room and shut the door firmly behind him. She wanted to walk over and pound on his door, demanding an explanation, but at the same time she really wanted him to get some sleep. He'd looked rather tired, not that she'd mentioned it, but he had. Hermione knew he'd be irritated with her if she said anything about it; he always got mad at her when she mentioned that he needed more sleep.
Hermione was not going to get any sleep that night though. She laid down in her bed, yes, and tried to close her eyes but she only ended up staring at the ceiling. And thinking; Hermione had been in that position before, though it was never Malfoy she'd thought about before. Honestly, if she'd ever thought she'd be thinking about him instead of sleeping then Hermione would have laughed herself silly. She was laying awake, thinking about Draco Malfoy.
She sat up slowly, running her hands over her face and sighing. She wouldn't be getting any sleep. She'd already spent an hour staring at the ceiling and even though she was tired, sleep was a long ways away. Instead, she cracked open a book and sat reading until five in the morning, when she decided it would be a good idea to get ready for the day. It didn't matter to her that Professor McGonagall had excused them from their first two classes; Hermione couldn't sleep anyway so why would she need to skip them? She'd only have to make up the classes later and Hermione had no desire to do that.
By the time Hermione got to her last class of the day, Arithmancy, she was about ready to fall asleep on her desk. Of course Arithmancy was the only class in her day that she shared with Draco, who she'd been careful to avoid looking at during the day. And of course that was the class he sat by her in. About halfway through, knowing that she was prepared to fall asleep despite being called to McGonagall's office after classes, Hermione felt something bump her knee. She blinked in surprise, sitting up a little straighter and glancing to her left where Malfoy was sitting. His cheeks were a bright pink color and when she looked down, she saw his pale, shaking hand near hers. Hermione wasn't entirely sure what had inspired him to reach for her hand halfway through class, though she didn't think over it much as she reached over and took his hand in hers. It was as warm as it had been before and Hermione smiled slightly. Malfoy couldn't see; he was looking straight ahead at Professor Vector. At the same time his grip on her hand tightened slightly.