Hermione had once again shut herself in the library in an attempt to avoid her friends. They weren't going to take their exams seriously and Hermione needed to study. She knew the basics of what would be on the exams but there were certain charms that she hadn't mastered yet and Hermione needed to do that. She had to master things so she had the best chance of getting an 'O' on each of her exams.
She really didn't mind the studying especially wen she got to sit in the library, because it was one of her favorite places to be. Because of that she stayed there for hours, as it was a Sunday and she had the choice, and the entire time she was looking over her notes for History of Magic. Hermione still wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to go into once she left Hogwarts so she didn't know if History of Magic would be beneficial, but she did enjoy learning about history. And after seven years she still didn't know everything there was to know, so she wanted to continue with the class. Most had dropped it after fifth year, but Hermione was one of about ten students in the class. She liked that as well.
After a while the library began to get stuffy as Madam Pince often refused to open the windows and Hermione wasn't the only person in the room. She didn't feel like dealing with the heat at that moment, so she packed up her notes and left the library. It had been a nice escape for the few hours she'd gotten to spend there, but Hermione knew that she would be fine in her own room or the common room-Hermione shook her head at that thought, her cheeks heating up considerably. Draco had changed in the last few weeks, since starting to have that Ravenclaw hang around him along with the Slytherins, and something made him enjoy kissing her a lot more than he had in the past. Not that she would complain as she enjoyed kissing him too, but it did distract her from studying. And when those events did happen, it was usually in the common room when Hannah and Terry weren't around. Meaning Hermione didn't think going back there when she was trying to study was a good idea, because she had no idea where the other delegates were.
She hurried to her room and spent most of her day sitting underneath the open window, listening to the students on the grounds and studying at the same time. It was actually relaxing, to Hermione's surprise, as she'd been sure the noise would bother her. It was quite the contrary though; the noise made her smile as she listened to the younger kids having fun and it didn't distract her too much.
The only thing that pulled her out of her room was the knock on her door. Hermione had noticed that the chatter from outside had gotten a lot quieter but she'd chosen not to pay attention to that. "Hermione? I know you're in there. Hannah let me in-You've got to go to dinner, Hermione, put your notes down!" Harry said loudly. At first she'd tried to ignore him and pretend like she wasn't in the room at all. She was well aware of where the kitchens were and Hermione knew that she could eat later; she wanted to finish going over her- "Hermione, honestly, don't make me come in there,"
"Just a second," she snapped irritably, setting her things aside and standing up. She took a few large steps to the door and yanked it open to find Harry rolling his eyes. "Listen, Harry, I'm going to eat later because I'm not really at a good stopping point in my-Hey!" she said as Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her into the common room and then into the corridor.
"No," he said, leading her toward the great hall. "Hermione you're going to lose your mind in the next two weeks until exams start and we've decided that we'd like to spend one last normal night with you,"
"We?"
"Ginny, Neville, Luna, and I,"
"Right," she said sadly, immediately noticing that Harry hadn't said Ron's name. It had been nearly a month since her friends had learned of her situation with Draco and Ron still hadn't said a word to her. Hermione knew that he felt betrayed because she'd fallen for the person he hated more than anyone else. But what was she supposed to do about that? It wasn't like Hermione was just able to snap her fingers and stop her feelings for him. She could only hope that one day Ron would understand and he would forgive her; she missed him. They'd been best friends for years and their last year of school seemed to have ruined everything; that fact alone made her incredibly sad.
"He'll come around," Harry said quietly as they walked through empty corridors. "He can't stay mad at you forever, you know that,"
"I don't know this time, Harry," Hermione mumbled. "He's so mad; I don't know how to make him feel better about what's happening between Draco and I. And I know that-"
"Hermione are you happy?" Harry interrupted suddenly, making her look at him with raised eyebrows.
"Excuse me?"
"With Malfoy, are you happy?"
"I-Yes, I am, but I don't see what that has to do with-"
"Then you don't need to do anything to make Ron happy. You're the one that matters in this situation. Ron will get used to it on his own time. And deep down all he really wants is for you to be happy,"
"Are you-"
"Yes, I'm sure," he said, laughing quietly. "Don't worry about that, Hermione. You've got enough on your mind with exams and what's going on with Malfoy,"
Hermione frowned and glanced over at Harry. "What do you mean by that?"
"You-I-" Harry stopped, his face going a red color that only made Hermione grow suspicious. What could Harry know about Draco that she didn't? He got around to telling her everything that was important in time, and Hermione knew that he would never go to Harry before he came to her. "You mean you don't know?"
"Know what, Harry?" she asked, her tone angry.
"Shit," Harry swore quietly, his eyes widening. "Shit-He's going to kill me,"
"Harry what are you talking about?"
"Hermione I promised him I wouldn't say anything-"
"Damn it, Harry, just tell me!"
"Has-Hasn't Malfoy mentioned anything about what's going on once we're done with school?" he asked, avoiding actually answering her question.
"No, he hasn't," Hermione said, her anger only getting worse and appearing more in her voice. "Harry if you don't tell me right now I swear I'll-"
"He's-He's going to trial, Hermione. He promised me he'd tell you but he hasn't, apparently,"
"Trial for-"
"For what happened during the war," Harry said, nodding slightly. "Hermione I-"
"He's not going to kill you, Harry," she said, remembering his first remark about Draco.
"Hermione you look really angry, I think-"
"Because I'm going to kill him-I can't believe he didn't tell me! I can't believe you knew and didn't tell me! Harry when it's things about people you love you always say something! You'd want me to tell you if something like this happens to Ginny, right?"
Instead of answering her question, Harry stared at her in shock. She was getting very sick of him leaving her hanging, but Hermione knew that wasn't the biggest problem. "Did you just say love?"
"What?" she snapped angrily.
"Hermione you just said people you love, like you love-"
"I meant care," she said, horrified at the word she'd let slip. She was sure she didn't love Draco at the moment; maybe someday but it was too soon for a word like that. "Honestly, Harry, I was just angry and it slipped out. I did mean to say people you care about,"
"You know I wouldn't be mad if you did mean love,"
"But I don't, so it doesn't matter,"
"Right, well, if you could just pretend that I never mentioned anything that would be great because I don't want him coming after me,"
"Harry?"
"What?"
"You know that's not going to happen," she stated before she began walking quickly to the great hall. Hermione wasn't entirely sure what she would do when she saw Draco again but she did know that there would be a rather large fight. She couldn't believe he hadn't told her himself; he knew that something like that was something she would want to know about. Hermione didn't know how long he'd known about his trial but she did know that there was a lot of wasted time. She could have been researching similar trials so she could have helped with his defense. She would have focused on that above her exams, something Hermione couldn't say about anything else. She'd always wanted to prepare for exams despite any adventures she'd had with Harry and Ron and now she was prepared to throw that all away to make sure Draco didn't end up in Azkaban.
Hermione glanced at the Slytherin table once she arrived in the great hall, though the small look told her that Draco wasn't at dinner yet. With a heavy sigh she walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down. She put food on her plate, of course, though she didn't eat a lot of it. She mostly stabbed at the food on her plate and stared at the doors with a furious expression on her face. For a while she didn't say anything despite her friend's attempts to lure her into conversation. Ginny even tried to talk to her about studying, but Hermione no longer cared about that. What she cared about was the fact that Draco could be going to Azkaban after Hogwarts and he hadn't even bothered to tell her.
When her friends were about halfway through dinner, the doors to the great hall opened and Draco walked in with the younger students he'd grown close to surrounding him. The sight almost made her smile because she was incredibly proud of him for making those connections and caring about the younger students, but one thought of how Sirius had looked after Azkaban had her fuming once more. He glanced in her direction and raised an eyebrow when he saw her expression. But he kept walking toward his table.
Hermione didn't make it very long after he'd walked into the room before she stood up and began walking over to him. He looked about ready to sit down at the table but stopped when he saw her coming. "Grang-" he began as she reached him.
He couldn't even finish saying her name; Hermione had pulled her fist back and punched him in the nose. "How dare you!" she shouted, shaking her hand. She was sure it hadn't hurt as much when she'd punched him in third year, but his nose had done a number on her hand. "I can't believe you would do this!"
"What the hell, Granger?" Draco yelled, holding his nose and glaring at her. Hermione noticed a bit of blood begin to trickle out of his nose and for a moment she felt guilty, but once again the thought of Azkaban made her anger resurface.
"I could kill you, do you realize? You've no idea the pleasure it would bring me to start hexing you right here and I swear if you-"
"Miss Granger!" Professor McGonagall shouted, interrupting her rant. Hermione stopped, turning to glare at her favorite teacher. "What on earth do you think you're doing? My office, now! Both of you!"
They walked to her office in complete silence, though Hermione didn't lose any of her anger. There was a scowl on her face the entire time, which was unusual for her. Once they reached the office, Professor McGonagall forced them both to sit down in chairs before she began yelling at Hermione for her display of violence. At the same time she was clearing the blood off Draco's face and glancing at his nose. It wasn't broken which Hermione knew she should be thankful for, but she was beginning to wish that it was. Hermione wasn't just angry about the fact that Draco hadn't told her, she was hurt to. And what hurt almost as much was the fact that he wasn't even the one who had told her, it was Harry.
"So, Miss Granger, I would like to know why you would ever chose to display such horrid behavior in the middle of the great hall. Explain, now,"
"Because he's an absolute ass and I-"
"Miss Granger, language!"
"Oh whatever!" she snapped, feeling awful for being disrespectful to the older witch but not caring enough to correct her behavior. "Honestly, Draco, don't you think you should mention the fact that you're going to trial?"
His mouth fell open and surprise took over his face. He obviously had no idea what had made her so angry until that moment and he did not seem pleased that she knew. "How do you-Potter," he snarled, his eyes narrowing and his fists clenching as he looked at her.
"No don't you dare get angry; you have no right to be angry about this. You don't even have the decency to tell me about this when you know how I feel about you and how I'd obviously want to help and-"
"Granger shut up!"
"No! How long have you know?"
"Granger can we not-"
"How long you have you known?" she asked shrilly, well aware that she was beginning to lose control of herself.
"Maybe a month or two,"
"Which one is it?"
"Closer to two," he mumbled.
Hermione had the strong urge to punch him again but she managed to stay still. "Two months?"
"Granger I-"
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?"
"How was I supposed to tell you and try and help you learn to deal with it when I can't even deal with it myself, Granger? Honestly, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you but I can barely handle this on my own and I don't know how you expect me to try and help you through it!"
"Draco-"
"And I wasn't going to sit around and watch you turn into some sleepless zombie like you did in third year-I wasn't going to sit around and watch that happen to you again!"
"How do you know what happened in third year?"
"Please, Granger, I wasn't blind,"
"But you-"
"Of course I saw you, Granger. At that point in time it was my goal to make your life miserable; I knew what was going on with you,"
"Harry and Ron didn't know,"
"Excuse me?"
"Harry and Ron didn't know, not for a while anyway, but you knew?"
"I-"
"And your reason for not telling me was-"
"Granger we've been over this,"
She hesitated for a few seconds before she nodded. "Fine,"
"Fine what?"
"Fine, I accept it, I accept that you didn't tell me and I'm absolutely furious but I... I want to help you, Draco, just tell me how I can help,"
"Granger I don't need your help,"
"You don't exactly have a choice in the matter,"
"What about your studying, Granger? That's all you've been doing lately; how are you supposed to study for your exams and try and help me?"
Hermione paused again, frowning at him. He must not know very much about her because despite how much she adored school and everything related to that, but her friends were always more important. "Screw the exams," she said, watching Professor McGonagall and Draco look at her in surprise. "You've no idea how much more important you are to me than those exams. I-I'm sure I'll be fine. I have studied a lot lately, I-I'm sure I'll be okay,"
"Granger I refuse to ask you to do that,"
"You're not asking,"
"But there's no reason why-"
"Yes, there is,"
Once they were dismissed from the office, Hermione with two detentions in the following week, they walked to the common room in near silence. The only sounds were the occasional apology of Hermione for punching him. She hadn't been that angry at Draco since they were in third year, and she was surprised that she'd gotten there again. She'd promised herself that she would never get to that point again and yet here she was.
They got back to the common room only to find it empty. Hermione couldn't tell if Hannah and Terry were back from dinner and just hiding out or if they were still eating but there was no real way for her to know. She looked to Draco, who looked conflicted and kept his eyes away from her. "Draco I really am sorry for punching you," she said quietly. "I was angry and I was hurt that you hadn't told me but I didn't know your reasons. I understand, I do, and I'm sorry,"
"It doesn't matter," he said, glancing toward his door. "I didn't want you to find out this way,"
"Harry feels very bad about letting it slip; I think he thought I already knew,"
Draco rolled his eyes and frowned, finally looking at her. "I don't care about Potter,"
"Right, I knew that,"
"Granger, can I ask you something?"
"Of course,"
"What happens if I do get sent to Azkaban?" he asked, a tired sound to his voice that clued Hermione in to how much he'd actually been worrying about the trial. "I understand that I'll be in Azkaban and rotting in prison like I probably should be but I mean-I-I want to know what you're going to do,"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I know we have, well, something going on between us. I just want to make sure that you're not going to sit around waiting for something to happen if I get out,"
"I'll have you know I would never just sit around waiting for a guy," she said slowly, offering him a cheeky smile that quickly melted off her face. "Secondly, I don't think, if you do go, that you'll go for very long,"
"But I-"
"Draco?"
"What?"
"I care about you, you know that. I can't even remmeber the number of times I've told you that. I won't give up what I feel unless you want it to stop or something completely insane happens. If we chose to have whatever we are go any further and lead to something outside of Hogwarts then I'm not going to just stop trying because you're gone for a period of time. There are plenty of other things I can do to occupy my time instead of sitting around and waiting for you,"
To her surprise Draco quickly pulled her into a tight hug. Hermione held him for a moment before stepping back. She wanted to say something else, something about how she really did want whatever they were to continue, but he quickly turned away and locked himself into his room. Hermione raised an eyebrow at the reaction before going to her own room. Starting the next afternoon she would be looking for information on trials for those who commited crimes when they were underage. Hermione was well aware of what Draco had done. That didn't change the fact that she didn't want him in prison.