Hermione was unnerved. It was not a feeling she enjoyed. She knew Malfoy had been watching her ever since Harry had mentioned it to her at dinner last week. She could feel his eyes on the back of her neck in class or on her figure as she left the great hall, but she could never catch him in the act. Whenever she whipped her head around to look at him, he was innocently taking notes, talking to Blaise, or something else equally as innocuous. She knew logically she should assume that he wasn't watching her anymore, since she couldn't gather any evidence of the fact herself, but she had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that he still was.
She had thought about asking Harry again whether or not Malfoy still had his eyes on her, but Harry had seemed rather preoccupied as of late and she didn't want to give him another reason to neglect his studies. She figured Malfoy would eventually come to harass her about whatever was biting him in due time. All she really needed to do was go about her daily business and wait for him to approach her, and possibly come up with some good insults for the confrontation that she was sure would follow.
It happened one morning as she was leaving Transfiguration. The ambush took her by surprise as they had Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws and she just wasn't mentally prepared for Malfoy to seek her out aside from their normal class schedule together. She stayed behind to ask Professor McGonagall where she could find more information in the library about human to animal transfiguration. Harry and Ron had left immediately after the lesson and hurried off to the Great Hall. "See you at lunch Hermione," Ron called carelessly over his shoulder.
She wondered if he would ever return or better yet notice her feelings at all. Hermione meandered down the 2nd floor corridor lost in thought about Ron and animal transformation. Without warning, she was abruptly yanked into an empty classroom. Her bag was jerked free of her grasp and before she could regain her balance and see who had pulled her, she heard a male voice mutter the incantations for a silencing and locking spell on the door. She turned slowly on her heel and locked gazes with the Slytherin. "Malfoy," she said without any inflection in her tone.
"Granger," he replied smirking.
They held eye contact for a long moment. Hermione's sepia brown eyes meeting Malfoy's storm cloud grey ones. Her eyes flicked down to her satchel, which Malfoy still had firmly in his grasp and that contained her wand.
"Whatever you have planned for me, you wont get away with it," she declared hotly.
Malfoy began to say something but she cut him off and began speaking quickly, her volume increasing with each phrase. "Ron and Harry will come looking if I don't show up at lunch and I've just come from talking to Professor McGonagall so I'm sure when they start searching they'll look near her classroom first and"
"Keep your knickers on Granger, I just want to have a chat."
Malfoy tossed her the bag he was holding and walked casually to an empty desk pushed against the far wall. He leaned against the table and lazily crossed his legs, looking at her expectantly.
"Oh," was all she said as she tugged nervously at the hem of her skirt.
Malfoy picked an invisible speck of lint off of his trousers. "I need your help Granger."
"What could you possibly want from me," she warily replied.
"I've been struggling recently in Arithmancy and I need a tutor. Father would go ballistic if he finds out I am doing poorly so I can't officially request one from the library. Therefore as my options are limited, I have selected you as the best option."
Hermione was stunned but snapped "Aren't you worried my dirty blood and inferior breeding will contaminate you in some way?"
He calmly retorted, "When was the last time I called you that word, or made any derogatory comment about your heritage?"
She paused again and realized she couldn't remember a single time this year that he had thrown a "Mudblood" comment her way.
He smirked again and asked, "So what do you think Granger? The meetings would have to be late and somewhat secretive. I don't want to risk any other Slytherins finding out I came to you for help."
When she made no outward response to his proposal, he pushed "Aw common Hermione, I'll even say please."
She looked up at him again in surprise at his use of her first name even more than his use of the magic word and decided she would help, if only to figure out what Malfoy was really up to. She was sure an ulterior motive was buried in this scheme somewhere. "Alright," she finally responded. "But if this is some kind of trick Malfoy, I will invent a new hex just for you, and I can assure you, it will not be pleasant."
"Tomorrow at midnight then," he said as he unlocked the door, another smile on his face, the only acknowledgement of her threat. "Back of the library," he called behind him as he left the room.
Hermione had to spend the next 5 minutes lowering her heart rate before joining Ron and Harry at lunch.