D/M/D/M/D/M/D

Deliberately messing with Granger that day still ranks in the top three of my regret list.

It was uncomfortable, you know? I mean, I walked right in front of them and they acted like I was dead, mouthing off at the Malfoy mob represented by me and my dad in the back, and all because I wanted to punish a beast that got me hurt! Hey, I really don't see what's wrong with me?

Granger's sobbing voice came from behind as she mumbled in annoyance over the beast along with the wildling who taught Care of Magical Creatures lessons. My goose bumps rose. It wasn't right. Really. To be honest, I've been messing with Granger since the moment I stepped onto the Hogwarts train in first year, this anachronistic muggle-born with too much presence has always made me feel bad, so far I've been messing with her for three years now - I didn't really understand what made this time different from before, why did I find it so upsetting?

"Hey Granger," I turned my head to strike up a conversation with her after the wild man had fled back to his pathetically small cabin with his face covered, "you should have learned your lesson, really, knowing that the beast wouldn't have ended up in this situation if it hadn't been for hurting me." I said with my customary condescending fake smile, but - hey, hey, Draco what are you doing? You do know that this isn't quite what you were trying to convey in your head, right?

Granger snorted loudly and gazed at me with a hateful look in his eyes. Instantly I knew I'd fucked up a bit. She looked bad, bloodshot under her eyes, big dark circles hanging haggardly under them ... really bad, I wondered what the hell she'd done to herself, I heard she'd taken all her electives, was she crazy?

She took my stare as a declaration of war and was just about to speak when Weasley next to her shouted, "Stop pretending Malfoy, if you hadn't deliberately provoked Buckbeak, how could it have hurt you! Even you were fine after only one afternoon in the Hospital Wing!"

Potter chimed in, "You didn't listen to Hagrid's instructions in the first place!"

"Oh don't be funny St. Potter," protectively and reflexively I exclaimed, "it's as if you think that savage is qualified to teach the lessons, that poor little cabin is where he'll end up- ouch!"

Before the words were out Granger had taken a punch to my face. The sky spun and the intense pain was transmitted unreservedly through my smashed nose, I could see her messy, flying hair as she swung her fist, her bright eyes burning with rage and even the little way she wrinkled her nose in anger ... Damn it, now I was totally fucked up.

I can't help myself!

I started having dreams about her every night. Most of the time it was a repeat of that day - yes, simply that I was being beaten by her. There were occasional exceptions. The way she looked when she pushed through my compartment on the first year train to ask about a ridiculous toad, the way she sat next to the useless Neville Longbottom staring open-mouthed and dumbfounded at Hogwarts on the lake, or even the rare occasions the way she met me alone, wrinkled her nose and passed me quickly, and each time I was tempted to take the opportunity to hold her messy flying hair.

"I can't figure this out!" I exclaimed, red-faced, "This is weird, isn't it?!I can't like her for beating me up!"

"Go away Malfoy," Nott, who I had grabbed, impatiently tried to shake me off, "You should really be glad everyone is a drunken mess, otherwise your obsession with ridiculous little mudbloods would soon bring you into disrepute, and then you'd be carried home and beaten up even harder by your dear father."he frowned in disgust.

"Hey," I said, "you're rude!"

"Did you forget?" Nott looked at me with pity, "It's sad, she'll never forgive you for the rest of her life, about your uncultured insult to her bloodline."

Then I reacted as an afterthought that he was just copying what I had said.

"Why not?" I asked innocently, "I can apologise, well, if she doesn't like that word." Then I grabbed his book - The Genealogy of Wizards since the Middle Ages, what the hell - and clattered through it, hiccuping on a certain page, "Hey Nott, it's a fake book, Malfoy couldn't have intermarried with a Muggle. We're pureblood wizards."

Nott said coldly, "-so says the drunk."

Just wait, soon he can't be happy as I started scribbling Hermione Granger's name on his book and he was caught by Flint, who was still crying in pain at his feet, as if he was a broom.

"Get off me-!" He screamed, "Bloody Malfoy, bloody Flint, bloody Quidditch!"

I think he may never want to go to a Quidditch party again in his life - even though it was to vent about losing.

B/Z/B/Z/B/Z/B

Poor Theo. I really don't know what's wrong with him, he's been looking like his dad died since he got back from his elective -well, if that's true, he'll probably be ecstatic enough to approach the Weasley twins to buy fireworks to set off at Nott Estate. I hope I get a share of them then too.

"Theo, are you okay?" I asked him this over lunch.

"I don't think so ..." he muttered, "I want to kill Malfoy."

Hey bro, you can't do that to him just because he's the only one of us with a dad!

Draco turned around in horror, "Is everything alright, friends?" I'm sure I'm not in this friends, "You guys have been weird since Granger," I'm sure I'm not in this you guys, "I hope you're still leaving this to my dad, you know, no rush to kill me now... ..."

Merlin, poor Draco, what had he suffered?

"Mate," I said sympathetically, "why don't you try and have some other fun? Look, I'd be happy to introduce you to a day job at Snape's office -" Draco let out a strangled squeal, "you understand we don't have to cut our whole lives short for fetishes... you know, you could have let your pureblood wife beat yourself up after you got married ..."

"Shit!" He raged, "I don't have that kind of fetish."

"Right, right," I nodded hurriedly, "Look, I had a father with your symptoms, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that ..."

Draco seemed to choke for a moment.

"I'm sure I wasn't going to kill you over a ridiculous question like that," Theo said, squeezing the knife hard as if trying to kill the sausage on the plate - why sausage again, "I didn't want to until Granger put that damn page with her name all over it."

"..." I couldn't control my embarrassed expression and I felt a little sorry for Draco and Theo.

"I can't stop thinking about what she'll think of me - damn it, a Slytherin!" He shuddered, covering his face, and if it weren't for the sausage stuck in the fork, I'm sure it would be stuck in his hair right now, "A ... pureblood, holding a book of blood discrimination, and then writing the name of another Muggle-born all over it!"

Hey my friend, what's wrong with you, isn't something like blood rank taken for granted, where's the discrimination?

"Mate," I spoke up, patting him on the shoulder, I'm sure Theo, who was already delirious and starting to babble, needed my reassurance more than Draco did right now, "Why don't you think about considering a day trip to Snape's office with me?"

Before the words were out of my mouth, I suddenly felt a familiar chill and the way Draco and Theodore moved with the exact same expression as last time made it all clear to , how did this happen at lunchtime again!

"Yes, sir!" I stood up with a swish, "I'll report to your office tonight."

Snape stared at me for a moment with narrowed eyes and hissed, "I hope you didn't do that on purpose for your little girlfriend."

It wasn't until the evening that I realized what he meant.

Granger had been confined again.

H/G/H/G/H/G/H

I think I may never get out of Snape's office.

When I walked in there with my head hanging, I was greeted by Blaise Zabini, who had long been standing by the cauldron.

"Hey Granger, you don't look too good," he said with his sleeves rolled up and I scanned his face, jealously noticing that he looked very refreshed, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No, thanks." I yawned, "I think I just need some sleep."

He turned his face sideways and looked at me carefully, making an odd expression.

"Yes as you might imagine," I flicked my hair back a little and squinted, laboriously yarding the daisies neatly in preparation for the knife, "one unfortunate day when I was walking out of the library after curfew, I drifted off to sleep, lost my sense of what was going on around me and bam -solidly crashed into Professor Snape."

He raised an eyebrow at me, "Some unfortunate last night?"

"Yes."

"No wonder he asked me in a shady way today how I was so well-informed," Zabini inclined his head towards Professor Snape at my confused look and lowered his voice, "You didn't know? He thinks we're lovers."

"... Merlin." I slashed at the daisy petals. Zabini almost jumped at my shock, "Damn it, Granger!" He called out, "Why aren't you wearing gloves, do you know it's easy to hurt your hand?"

"?" I said, "Why don't you wear them?"

"But you," he stuck for a moment, then got angry and sheepish, "can we stop obsessing about that damn glove every time we're in detention?"

I didn't really want to pay attention to him, nay he had snatched my knife, so I went to touch his, only for him to slap it down again. Truth be told I really wanted to ask him for advice on why he wouldn't get cut and bleed.

"Bres Zabini what's wrong with you!?" I shouted with a suppressed voice, "What new form of bullying is this? Did Malfoy send you to ground me every night after a few days of silence to pick on me?"

He gestured at me to set the daisies, "Really Granger, he's picking on you? Come on, he has fallen into a deep obsession with you!"

I faked a smile, " Obsessed with picking on me?"

I'm already a little disturbed, Merlin, we're in Professor Snape's office, not some random hallway, lawn, or empty classroom! We're in detention and not ... according to him random whatever romance! And I'm so tired, I just want to hurry up and handle my daisy roots and then go back to my dormitory and sleep. Gosh, maybe I should really think about sleeping with a time-turner, I'm too inefficient and ineffective at this rate.

"Listen Granger," he said as he moved my yard of daisies in front of himself, gesturing from side to side in an attempt to get under the knife, "believe it or not, he talks about ... what are you doing? "

I clutched his wrist.

"What do you want?" He asked, a little alarmed, with his neck flushed in embarrassment.

"You're a Slytherin and your Headmaster is a Professor of Potions! And you don't even know how to handle daisy roots," I said sharply, reaching out to grab his tie and yank him over, "You don't cut straight and press the roots! You have to hold the flower head down and then cut it diagonally sideways so it leaves more of a cut to blend with the rest of the material, Merlin, Zabini!"

"Er, er, so that's it," Zabini stammered, stiffening as he allowed me to force his hand, and I shouted in annoyance, "God, will you stop shaking your hands so much!"

"Merlin's beard," said Zabini, red-faced and breathing heavily as we ended our detention that day, "Granger, you're a terrible witch sometimes, you know that?"

I didn't. I was cranky from lack of sleep and I just wanted to go back to sleep.

"Hey Granger, let me take you back!" He stumbled after me, "Hey Granger! Please, Granger - you don't want to fall asleep in the hallway and then run into another professor ...!"

I thought well, whatever then. By that time my proud brain had been eaten away by sleep and I didn't even bother to think about whether he was going to pick on me on the way, whether he was trying to use me to find Gryffindor House, or whether he had something else in mind for me, I just said "Oh whatever" and let him follow me all the way to the portrait in the common room.

I hope you have fun reading!

your foreeze