Hermione
Hogwarts
Morning after the second detention
Hermione rose early the next morning, getting next to no sleep. Neither her body nor her mind wanted to turn off.
When dawn broke, she was up, dressed, and down to the Great Hall a good hour before anyone would consider descending to breakfast.
She was trying her best to keep her mind off of the last moments from the night prior. Each time her attention lingered back, her body would grow hot and her chest would pound. The feeling was confusing and all consuming, and it was like nothing she had ever felt, which terrified her. So she tried to control it, to stop it.
Sitting at the Gryffindor table, with no one in the Great Hall sans for a few house elves who tidied up before the rush, Hermione took a breath and prepared herself.
She needed to be on offense if she wanted to get a handle on this…absurdity.
The seat she took at the Gryffidnor table gave her the best vantage point of the room. When Harry and Ron came in, likely demanding updates from the night prior, she would see them coming and not risk accidentally blurting out anything compromising. Not to mention, she had no clue how she would react when she would see that flash of blonde stride into the Great Hall. But brick by brick, she built a barrier to protect herself from the uncertainty of what it was she felt.
Try as she did, she couldn't fully suppress the memories from the night prior.
With shaky hands, Hermione grabbed a book from her bag and slammed it in front of her, hoping to rattle loose the problematic thoughts she bore. Flustered, she turned open to the middle of the book, and for the first time in a long while, she had to force herself to focus on reading.
—-
An hour later, Hermione was past her first hurdle: Surviving breakfast in the Great Hall.
Harry and Ron had approached her straight away to ask about the detention. Hermione couldn't help but notice though, that Ron seemed less keen to talk about Malfoy than in days prior.
Hermione decided to admit to having brief conversations with Malfoy this time rather than outright lying as she had done before and claiming she hadn't spoke to him at all.
"Well," Harry began, leaning into Hermione over his plate. "What did you talk about?"
"Potions." Hermione replied flatly, feeling the burning of something powerful rise up in her.
"Potions?" Harry questioned back, seeming skeptical.
Ginny quirked a brow. "Just potions Hermione?" The red head waggled her eye brows.
"He added a mixture," Hermione huffed, needing to add more truth to this conversation to save herself from falling apart. "Slughorn made us brew a class 3 potion. Malfoy added a mixture that would reduce the addictive qualities."
"Huh," Harry responded sounding lost, leaning back slightly from where he sat. To Harry's right, Ron scoffed.
"He was probably adding something to make it worse," Ron reasoned, taking a bite of food. Hermione narrowed her eyes.
"On what grounds do you assume that?" she retaliated, feeling a tensity of anger pool in her limbs.
"He's a bad bloke," Ron replied without giving much thought to his reasoning. Hermione rolled her eyes.
Hermione leaned in over Harry to get to Ron, and a protectiveness reared up in her, "he was doing a decent thing, Ron."
Ron eyed her suspiciously and a rush of something off putting washed over her. She had Ron's undivided attention, plus the mixture of fresh cut grass and spearmint that pooled off of him which would usually send her heart racing. But it did nothing for her.
In the moment Ron diverted his attention from Hermione, Malfoy walked into the hall with Blaise and Theo at his side. Hermione's breath hitched ever so slightly and she prayed no one saw.
The arrogance of his walk, the pompousness in the way he held himself, these traits no longer drew criticism from Hermione. She watched and found the previously detestable behaviors somewhat endearing.
And then, from across the Great Hall, he found her eyes.
It was like she couldn't tear her gaze away, as if she was in a vice of his doing. Even with the distance between, it felt that he was the only other person in the room with her.
She sensed a lightness in the way he held himself that morning; like he had let go of something that was weighing him down. He looked rather at ease for the brooding Slytherin.
Hermione thought it quite suited him.
"'Mione…" the sound of Ron pulled her focus away.
"Yeah," her voice sounded faint as her eyes slowly moved away from where she was looking.
"Did you do the potions homework?" he asked, but in a way that hardly sounded like a question, and sounded more like a request to copy.
—-
Her palms felt sweaty as she neared the final hallway before the long corridor that led to the Runes classroom.
Normally, or at least for the past week, Malfoy would linger outside the Runes classroom, feigning as if he was working on a class assignment. When she neared him, he would drop his pretense, lean into her, and open the door for both of them.
She still could not make heads or tails of why he did that. Parts of her wished to speculate, hope that there was some positive reason he did it, but she built a wall around that insane hope. How could she possibly consider a thought where she hoped that Malfoy harbored some type of feelings for her?
She refused to suss out the feelings she harbored for him though, choosing instead to focus on what he may feel towards her. She was not ready to face the truth that was swirling the drain of acceptance, so she hastily put up more walls up in her body and mind.
Turning the corner, her eyes angled up to see Malfoy standing next to the classroom door, his back was against the wall, arms crossed and one foot cocked back against the stones behind him. Once she was visible to him, a devilish, subtle little grin formed at his lips.
It was as if Hermione ran into an invisible wall. Her feet stuttered to a complete halt.
Malfoy was focused on her alone, and in seeing her flustered reaction, looked close to chuckling.
The bricks she had stacked around her in defense began to crumble into dust.
Slowly, Hermione resumed walking towards the classroom, which in turn meant she was walking towards Malfoy.
A flush creep up her neck; but she maintained eye contact with him as she approached. His jaw clenched in some unclear facial response as she got closer.
It was strange; there were other students coming and going all around them, yet for the first time, the two interacted as if the world as they knew it didn't exist around them.
"Granger," Malfoy greeted poshly once she settled in front of where he stood.
"Malfoy," she nodded back, but her voice was shaky, as if that was the first time she had ever said his name aloud. His lip quirked at her discomfort.
The two stood there for seconds longer, neither saying a word, but also not looking away. Hermione struggled to come up with words. She had been almost certain that in the light of day, Malfoy would have done everything in his power to forget their interlude the night prior. This exchange said otherwise.
"Do you need to copy my homework before we go in?" Malfoy broke the silence with a snarky question. Her brows crunched together in confusion. "You are notoriously unprepared for class"
A laugh escaped her before she could control her reaction. She looked back up at him to see a playfulness in his stare.
"I would, but you notoriously mis-translate runes. I wouldn't want to hurt my standing as top of class now, would I?" she replied, and she found it felt almost effortless.
He raised a brow, and the edge of his lips quirked again. She cursed the part of her body that reacted without consulting her mind.
Without another word, he turned his body towards the door and into where she stood, sending his calming scent into her proximity. He yanked the door open and nodded for her to go in.
"After you Granger" he commanded under his breath; close enough to her ear where she could feel the heat of his breath, sending her nerve endings on fire.
They sat in different rows, as always, and per usual, one studious Ravenclaw separated their line of site.
Throughout the class, Hermione risked a glance his way, and often enough, Malfoy was already looking at her. When their eyes would meet, he'd tilt his head tauntingly and mouth 'pay attention Granger' then angle his head to the board with a smirk.
A part of Hermione felt as if she were in a fever dream. Nothing about what he did, or how she felt seemed to come from anything based in reality.
Professor Babbling dismissed them about an hour or so later. Independent of one another, they took their time at packing their things, which left them as last two to exit the classroom.
They walked side by side and in silence out the propped open door and stalled just outside the doors. There was no one left in the secluded hallway that led to the Runes classroom.
When Hermione looked up, she found that Malfoy had turned his tall, lean body into hers, and moved closer into her than she realized. She had to angle her chin up to take in his expression.
His cool blue eyes were almost dark looking down on her. It was the look he gave her the night prior, right before they broke apart. A look like he wanted to consume her.
"Uh!" Hermione blurted out, which caused his eyes to widen a fraction, then soften with laughter behind them.
"Jumpy aren't you Granger?" he commented, his voice low in their close proximity.
Her thoughts were a blur and had no definition. They bubbled between suspicion at what he was doing it, and why, to the betrayal she felt at these secret feelings for the proverbial enemy which she tried to suppress.
"What are you up to, Malfoy?" Hermione questioned in an accusatory way, settling on the former thought, though made no move to step away, which showed allegiance with her latter thought.
"I have no idea Granger," he said, but the tone was playful if not a bit manic sounding. "But it's better than the alternative."
Hermione's eyes screwed up at his comment. What was the alternative? She watched him, trying to understand his motives and found that it only made her more invested. Everything about him was a contradiction.
Then her eyes angled down to his lips, and her neck felt as if it could break out into hives.
"Come on," he nearly laughed, watching her come apart at the seams in his presence. "I imagine we'll be late to potions."
She shook her head. "Right."
His head angled down the hallway as they began moving once again. "Probably not the best idea of I walked with you."
"Right," Hermione replied, every ounce of her confused.
Nearing the fork in the hallway, Malfoy turned to her once more.
"See you in Potions Granger…" he said, and once more he cast a look over her that left her body on unstable grounds.
"Yes," she found her voice. "See you in Potions, Malfoy." And despite trying to shut down any outward confirmation of her torment at whatever it was she was feeling towards him, she gave him a quipped smile.
But, unfortunately, she would not see him in Potions. She wouldn't see Malfoy for another week.