Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to Harry Potter and/or like characters. They are property of the highly talented J.K. Rowling. Larry's mine, mine, mine.

Sorry this took a while. I'm a busy junior in high school, and, well ~squinting at March calendar~, it's gonna be a long month. I'll try my best to keep updated. This point was difficult, I had two directions in which I could have lead this story, and I had to choose one. This is it:

Chapter Four: All of Ten Hours

            Draco had an amazing talent for covering up his true emotions. He forced his usual high-and-mighty smirk onto his face and slouched apathetically onto the table of the Arithmancy classroom. Inside he was squirming with discomfort. He had been surprised and relieved when Hermione's attentions had quickly shifted from Draco's pocket to the front of the room when Professor Vector had entered. Hermione had not given Draco a second glance throughout the entire lecture. He glanced at her from time to time, always expecting to catcher her eyeing his robe. But she was always hunched down over her large notebook, diligently taking notes.

            Draco glanced up and was surprised to see that the class had ended, the professor had returned to her office, and the students had all filed out through the door. All except for one Hermione Granger. She was rushing to finish her third page of notes, using her free hand to shove her textbooks into a pile. Draco's mouth curled into a half-grin when he noticed that she murmured to herself as she wrote.

            A loud SLAM! made Draco jump. Hermione had accidentally shoved one of her books onto the floor while attempting to grab another. Before he could think about what he was doing, Draco was off of his stool and kneeling on the floor, reaching under the table for the fallen text. He pulled at the corner of the book with the tips of his fingers, sliding it back under the table towards his knees. Only then did he realize what he was doing. Draco slowly glanced back up at the table, hoping Hermione was focused too intently on her notes to take notice of his apparent act of kindness. No such luck. Hermione peered down at him, confusion evident in her amber eyes.

            "What are you gawking at, Mudblood?" Draco snapped, making Hermione jump. He quickly tossed the heavy book up in Hermione's face and jumped to his feet. As Draco turned swiftly on his heel he could see Hermione jump in surprise as the book flew in her face. As she fumbled with the heavy text she dropped her quill to the floor. Draco grabbed his things off of the table and strode defiantly to the door. Just as he reached the door, Draco heard Hermione gasp, followed by a loud scrape and clatter. Confused, Draco turned around. The scene that met his eyes made Draco drop his books.

            Hermione was on the floor; apparently she had been retrieving her quill. She was scooting quickly backwards on her palms and kicking out with her feet. She had run into her chair and sent it clattering to the floor. A round, spiky purple ball was clawing his way up the front of Hermione's robes. Larry's eyes were wide and his mouth was open, revealing a row of small, sharp teeth. Oh no, Draco thought, he must've crawled out while I was on the floor!

Draco began to rush back to the front of the room just as Larry made his way onto Hermione's chest. Hermione froze. From what Draco could see from behind, her face was mere inches from Larry's.

            Draco skidded to a stop beside Hermione. Her eyes were wide with shock. She flinched when the little creature on her chest let out a squeal. Larry happily proceeded to lick Hermione's face. Hermione laughed and sighed with relief.

            Draco knelt down and grabbed Larry away from Hermione. He angrily shoved the fuzzball back into his inner pocket.

"Hey, be careful with the little guy!" Hermione admonished. The disapproval evident on her face quickly gave way to wonder. "Malfoy… what… what is that?"

Draco scowled. "I thought you knew everything, Granger. Anyway, it doesn't matter to you what it is, except that it's mine."

Hermione's face transformed into a scowl that matched Draco's. "Don't be so childish Malfoy, I wasn't going to take it away from you. Besides, it's not really yours is it? I saw it come to you out of the Forest last night."

So that's how she knew, the little spy.

"He's mine because I say he's mine. Malfoys get what they want."

With that remark Draco turned quickly to leave the room for the second time. Hermione rolled her eyes and got up off the floor, dusting herself off. As Draco snatched up his books off the floor he heard Hermione mutter, "Prat."

* * *

Great, juuuuust great, Draco thought, his expression stormy as he walked briskly down the hall. That secret lasted all of ten hours. To make things worse, Draco realized that his next class was Care of Magical Creatures with the Gryffindors. Oh joy. Larry was blessedly quiet in Draco's pocket, but that didn't stop Draco from muttering curses at the creature as he made his way out the doors and across the yard to Hagrid's hut.

"Stupid animal," Draco huffed as he joined the group of students mingling outside of the paddock.

"Well, Malfoy, that was exactly what I was thinking when I saw you."

Draco scowled at the smirk on Ron Weasley's face. Draco put on a blatantly fake smile and drawled, "Good morning Weasley. Bit chilly this morning, wouldn't you say? Hope your ankles don't get too cold in that cloak, seeing as it's a good five inches too short. Why didn't you just buy a new one? Oh, wait…"

            Ron made an attempt to leap at Draco, but Harry grabbed the back of his cloak, holding the angry boy back. Draco laughed, "Your face is as red as your hair, Weasley."

"Sod off, Malfoy," said Harry, his voice reflecting his impatience. Draco decided to do as he was told as he saw Hagrid lumber out of his hut.

            Draco was standing by himself outside of the group when he heard a voice whisper closely behind him, "Perhaps Hagrid could be of some help with your bouncy little friend."

            Draco spun around to face Hermione. He took a step so that he was standing toe-to-toe with the girl. His skin was pulled tight over his face as he scowled at her. Hermione's amber eyes widened in surprise as they met Draco's fierce silver ones. "Listen Granger," Draco breathed through his clenched teeth, "You will keep this quiet. You will not tell a soul about what you saw today, or I will have my father get you thrown out of this school so fast, you won't know what hit you."

            Hermione stared at Draco in stunned silence. Suddenly a laugh escaped her throat, making Draco knot his eyebrows in confusion. "Goodness, Malfoy, no reason to get so worked up over a little fuzzy-wuzzy!" Draco hated the way she cooed the words "little fuzzy-wuzzy."

            "Just stay out of my business, Mudblood. I don't need any help; not from you and certainly not from that idiot half-giant," Draco hissed.

            Hermione wasn't joking anymore. "Insult Hagrid again," Hermione hissed threateningly, "and I will go straight to the Headmaster about your disallowed pet on school grounds."

            Draco suddenly became aware of how close his face was to Hermione's, just as he became aware that all of the other students were watching the exchange with rapt anticipation. The students couldn't hear anything that was said between the Slytherin and the Gryffindor, but the pairs' expressions told the whole story. Draco's countenance wavered, causing Hermione to smirk. She whispered, "Ahh, so the high and mighty Malfoy is worried about what other people think."

            Hermione laughed softly at the worried expression on Draco's face. Draco was amazed to find himself at a loss for words. The amused students couldn't see it, but Hermione had reached around Draco's side and slid her hand down his cloak. She wrapped her fingers around a fold of fabric on the outside of the pocket where she knew the fuzzball was hiding. She gave the cloak a playful tug and raised an eyebrow knowingly at Draco.

            Draco gasped and shuffled backwards on his feet. The crowd sighed in disappointment as Hermione turned and made her way quietly over to her group of friends. When they gave him curious looks, Draco narrowed his eyes at the students, and the matter was quickly dropped. Hagrid was on his way to the paddock, calling back for his students to follow.

            Draco was mentally kicking himself as he shuffled behind the students. The Mudblood had got the best of him.

            As Draco neared the paddock behind Hagrid's hut, he could hear the sounds of hissing and scratching coming from a large crate. He could feel Larry start to tremble inside his pocket. I should chuck the little ball of trouble in there with that creature, Draco thought. The idea was fleeting, though, and Draco sighed as he leaned against the wooden paddock railing. He hated himself for thinking that about his new pet. Larry was, after all, the closest thing Draco had had to a friend in a long time, perhaps ever. How pathetic am I? My closest friend is a squeaking, squealing, purple, er… fuzzball. Draco's self-pity must have showed on his face. He caught sight of Hermione looking at him with what appeared to be concern, but she quickly turned away and acted like she was listening intently to Hagrid's rambling. Draco rolled his eyes in exasperation and pulled himself up onto the paddock railing. He casually gathered the ends of his cloak into his lap, holding the trembling little creature close to his body. He tried to soothe the poor thing while making it look like he was bored and brushing lint off of his cloak. Apparently Hermione could see right through him, as Draco caught a small smile turn up the corners of her mouth.

* * *

tbc

~Whew~ Okay, took me a while. It's not even a very long chapter really, but it took so long. Well, I'll try my hardest to write the next chapter tomorrow, seeing as it's Sunday and too snowy to go anywhere. Thank you to my wonderful reviewers, especially Poetic Phoenix who pointed out minor mistakes in my earlier chapters. I'll try to fix them when I get a chance. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, so I try not to let mistakes slide, thanks for alerting me to them.

Thanks again for reviewing, I love you all. You make me so happy! ^_^

If Draco seems a bit too angry in this chapter, it's probably cuz I projected my anger onto him. Poor guy. I went to see "Queen of the Damned" and got so mad that they screwed up the story line so bad. Did they read the bloody book?! Now the Harry Potter movie, that's a good adaptation. I can't wait for the next one to come out! Okay, now I'm rambling…

Anyway, please REVIEW!!! I gotta know what you peeps think, so I know what to change and what to keep! I will love you forever if you REVIEW!

But Siriusly