It was Valentine's day. Not that Hermione had a ton of interest in the holiday, she never had, though most of the other students seemed to be interested. It wasn't the same large, festive event Lockhart had made it in second year, but most were paying attention to it. Harry and Ginny were acting like a typical couple, though they were a bit sappier than usual. Even Terry had been acting rather sweet to a girl in Ravenclaw that Hermione didn't know the name of. Hermione just didn't have an interest in it, not anymore. Half of her mind was occupied with the thought that it should be a special day for Remus and Tonks; they shouldn't be dead. The other half was focusing on school, as there were still classes. Some of the professors had gone with the holiday; Slughorn had them brew a weak love potion and then he'd assigned an essay on the dangers of them. He'd even brought back Amortentia as an example. Most of the girls in class had tried walking over to it again, but Hermione had remained firmly in her place. She'd walked past it to get back to her spot and smelled it then anyway. She hadn't caught a trace of spearmint toothpaste or freshly mown grass, which she took to mean she was no longer attracted to Ron even though she'd known that for a while. Instead she'd smelled traces of something that smelled remarkably clean and the smell of Fred and George's bruise removal paste. As bright as she knew she was, Hermione wasn't sure what that meant. Though she was fairly certain she wasn't falling for George.

The love potion had not been pleasant to brew with Draco though. In fact it had been rather awkward. They were both red in the face before they even started brewing, though Hermione was sure no one had noticed that. Even if they did, Hermione didn't know what they would say. She didn't know what she would say either, as she didn't know why brewing a potion with him had flustered her so much. They'd brewed plenty together since they'd started working together, and she'd never had a problem then. Maybe the Amortentia in the front of the room had thrown her off, as she was convinced that she was still smelling that clean scent. Though there was a lid on the Amortentia cauldron, so Hermione couldn't understand how that could happen.

With a shake of her head, Hermione adjusted the book on her lap. She'd been attempting to do her homework for the past hour so she could just go down to dinner and not have to worry about it, but nothing was happening. It wasn't often that Hermione got stuck, but her mind was too busy thinking of other things to be able to focus on how dangerous a love potion can be. Hermione sighed quietly and packed away her things, sticking them inside her room. She didn't know what she planned on doing in the half hour before dinner, but she knew that sitting on the sofa and staring at a half finished essay would drive her crazy. She was sure that her drifting thoughts were proof of her mind slipping away. Which was a horrible thought, and at such a young age... Hermione rolled her eyes and left the common room. If she didn't stop that depressing train of thought then nothing would ever get better.

The most comfortable place for her besides the common room was the library, so Hermione decided to go there. She could always get another book to read that night, as it was one of the nights when she didn't meet Draco in the common room and she didn't want to reread one of the books she'd brought with her at the beginning of the year. Hermione knew that she could browse the shelves of the library for hours, even though it wouldn't take her that long to find ten books she wanted to read. It might only take her five minutes to do that.

She passed a couple kissing before she walked in, and Hermione scowled. Yes it was the day of love or whatever, but Hermione wasn't a fan of doing things publically like that couple was. She was fairly sure the girl being kissed was Hannah though, so Hermione hadn't said anything. At least she'd enjoyed herself; Hermione had to guess that if some enjoyment came from the action she couldn't be too irritated with it happening.

The library was rather empty when she walked in, though that wasn't surprising. It was often empty, as many prefer studying in their common room where distractions were easy to find; Hermione had always found studying in the Gryffindor common room infuriating because of that. Especially when Fred and George had been in school; it had been almost unbearable then to try and study there. Hermione sighed again; thinking about the twins brought back memories of Fred's death, which she didn't need, and the confusing scent she'd smelled in Potions.

Her thoughts soon scattered though, as she'd caught sight of Malfoy sitting at a table, looking rather uncomfortable. The four first years who'd been attacked were sitting around him, talking rather quietly, and his eyebrows were raised in concern. The girl, Hermione thought her name was Elizabeth but she wasn't sure if she was remembering correctly, was doing most of the talking. Hermione wasn't surprised by that; she'd done most of the talking that night in the hospital wing as well. For a moment Hermione had the intent of walking over and asking what was going on, but then she realized something: no one had ever approached him to talk about their concerns. No one had ever felt comfortable. But these first years, the ones who had looked at him so incredibly warily when he'd first met them, decided that they trusted him enough to come to him with whatever was happening.

A wave of emotion rushed over her at that moment, though Hermione wasn't sure if it was pride or something else. She would go with pride; that was safer. She was proud of him because even though he looked uncomfortable, he was sitting there and listening to those first years and he had to be trying to help them, in some way. Instead of going over like she wanted to, Hermione ducked behind a shelf and began browsing the books. The Slytherins didn't seem to be as comfortable around her and she didn't want to ruin anything. It was maybe another ten minutes of looking at the spines of books before someone spoke to her. "You know I saw you walk in here, don't you?"

"I didn't, actually," Hermione said, putting a book back on the shelf and looking at Malfoy. "I didn't want to disturb you by going over and saying hello,"

"It wasn't me you would have disturbed," he muttered.

"What was it they wanted?"

"Nothing important," he said evasively, pulling a book down and studying it. Maybe, Hermione thought, he was still acting as oddly around her as she felt around him because of how weird Potions had been. It wouldn't surprise her. "Something I'll take care of,"

"Something you don't want to talk about then?"

"Not particularly,"

It took a moment for her to nod and loosen her grip on the books she'd been clinging to. "All right then,"

"I thought you were working on homework?"

"Oh, I couldn't focus,"

"You couldn't focus? You're Granger, you're always focused,"

"Well I was thinking, it's not that uncommon," she said defensively.

"Oh I know you think, but usually you can stay focused," He smirked at her, raising an eyebrow. He was definitely in a better mood than she was in that moment. "So what's got you all riled up, Granger?" he asked, taking a few of the books from her arms and holding onto them himself.

"I can hold those myself," she snapped, surprised by the gesture. Hermione reached out to take the books back and he went a light shade of pink that almost made her want to smirk back at him. "And it's none of your business,"

"Right," he said, nodding slowly and handing the books back to her. "They just looked like they were heavy, I don't know why I grabbed them,"

Hermione shrugged slightly. "I shouldn't have snapped at you," she said simply. "I'm going to check these out and take them back to the common room,"

"And?"

"Are you coming?"

"If you'd like,"

"I would,"

They ended up walking each other to dinner as well, though as soon as they got to the great hall he paused by the door. "I'll see you after," he said simply, giving her a small nod. Hermione sighed quietly; she couldn't wait for the day when they could walk somewhere together and have him not care. It would be lovely, as sometimes he pushed her away and Hermione felt as if he were embarrassed by their friendship. She knew it was probably something else, though she didn't want to upset him so she didn't ask.

Dinner wasn't amazing, as the amount of couples trying not to get caught kissing was making things irritating. Or maybe it was just her, Hermione couldn't really tell. She'd been irritated most of the day though for the life of her she couldn't understand what was frustrating her. It had to just be a bad day; she'd had plenty of those in the past and they'd all been similar. Every now and then she would glance at Draco, who was focusing on his meal. The first years were once again sitting around him which Hermione found to be sweet, though he looked like he really wanted out of the great hall. She couldn't blame him; she wanted nothing more than to leave as well. She would miss him that night, at two in the morning when she began to feel lonely. On the days he was with her she felt happy, almost, even though she'd always just been through something rotten. He didn't glance at her though, or at least Hermione wasn't looking if he did.

Once she was finished with her meal, Hermione pushed her plate away and walked back to the common room. She spent the next two hours finishing her essay by herself, as no one else had come in and she didn't have anything better to do. Hannah and Terry were probably off with other people, enjoying the holiday. Hermione had no idea where Malfoy would be, but it probably had something to do with the first years who'd approached him. As for her, she finished her essay after finally being able to focus. After that she'd, of course, gone to bed. Hermione was exhausted and she wanted nothing more than to get more than three hours of sleep, though she doubted that would happen.

It was ten thirty before she fell asleep, and she'd been able to hear people enter the common room so she knew that the other three were back. Of course that didn't matter much, as she didn't plan on interacting with any of them. Hermione had fallen asleep to the sounds of Hannah and Terry's quiet words, and the sound of their murmuring found its way into her dream. It wasn't that bad, at first, it started off as just being at Hogwarts. And Hermione didn't mind that, she was just walking around and cringing at the memories that flew across her mind. The further away she got from the common room the quieter the sounds of conversation got. Though as the conversation died away, Hermione began to hear whimpering and a few muffled screams. She took off running then, wanting to find the source of the noise and make sure everything was okay. She had to, panic was swelling in her chest and she had to make sure everything was okay. The corridors suddenly got cold and Hermione slowed her pace; the whimpering was louder and a door had appeared in front of her, so she was sure that was where the noise was coming from.

She opened the door, and was immediately out of Hogwarts. She recognized the walls of the room she was in, though at the moment she didn't realize where she knew them from. Her attention had immediately been caught by the pale blond hair of the boy on the floor. Hermione knew it was Draco, she recognized him easily, though knowing who it was didn't help her at all. There was blood all around him and he had a glassy look in his eye until he caught sight of her. He reached a shaking hand in her direction, a horrified look in his eyes then. Hermione had been in the process of rushing over to him when he was hit by a green spell, and he went still.

Hermione woke up with a scream dying in her throat, and she looked around the room with wild eyes. She'd never had a dream like that, about him; it was usually something involving the war. Apparently routine didn't matter anymore.

It definitely didn't matter to her; Hermione threw off her blankets and ran out of her room to his door, pounding on it wildly. She had the horrifying thought that it wasn't a nightmare at all, but a way to let her know that something had happened to him. Hermione didn't know what she would do if something happened to him and she didn't know why that thought freaked her out even more. "Malfoy!" she called desperately, continuing her pounding. "Draco please open your door! Please let me in!"

His door was thrown open after a few more seconds and there was a panicked look in his eyes that had to match her own. "Granger what's-"

She threw her arms around him and pressed her face against his chest before she could even think about what she was doing. "You're okay, I know, I-"

"Granger what on earth-"

She began to pull away from him, embarrassment creeping into her mind, but he slowly put his arms around her as well. He seemed nervous about the gesture, and almost like he regretted it, but that didn't stop him. "I-You'll laugh but just..."

Hermione was sure he scowled at that, but she couldn't see his face. She could hear, however, the sounds of Hannah and Terry opening their doors as well. "What's going-" Terry started.

"Hermione is everything all right?"

Draco released her almost immediately, his face going pink, and Hermione nodded. "Yes, of course, I just..."

"As long as everything's all right," Hannah said, pushing Terry back into his room and shutting herself in her own.

Hermione looked at the floor, her embarrassment quickly being replaced by shame. She couldn't believe a nightmare had scared her so badly that she'd gone running to him; she should have kept better control of her emotions and not let herself panic so much. Before she could offer him an apology, he hugged her again. Hermione was shocked to feel his lips press against her forehead before he sighed heavily. "You don't have to explain," he said quietly. "Though I won't pretend to understand what possessed you to come banging on my door at one in the morning, Granger. You should know that everything is okay,"

"I-"

"Granger don't even think about apologizing,"

"But I-"

He only shook his head and released her. "I'll get an essay. Meet you back out here?" Hermione could do nothing but nod.