Hermione yawned whilst rubbing her eyes to wake herself up, and she realised that she had slept through half an hour that she should have spent studying. But then again, she realised that it wouldn't have been worthwhile anyway since her mind was still swamped with thoughts regarding her detention, and the parchment he had given her. After reading through it again, she allowed her mind to wander back to when he had kissed her on the cheek—was it a sign of peace, or something more? Was it worth having these thoughts about a supposed enemy, and if not why was she left with so many questions about him? There was no doubting that his mind had been preoccupied lately, and she wondered what his attitude would be like today, and if he'd be the same decent person she'd met the night before. She groaned as she dragged herself out of bed and got dressed; she was feeling severely deprived of sleep and she could honestly say that she didn't feel like studying at all that morning. She folded the parchment carefully before pocketing it as she was going to attempt isolating Draco for long enough for him to explain why he had given it to her. She rubbed her eyes one final time and gathered her books to study by the warmth from the fire in the common room, and she noticed her two closest friends playing Wizard's Chess in the corner. She called out a greeting to them but they were so absorbed in the game that they didn't hear her, so she dejectedly sat down on her own to commence studying for her Christmas exams that would take place in less than five weeks. She couldn't bring herself to concentrate on the relevance of taking the alignments of the planets into account before performing a Skridelle spell in March, and the more she tried to remember the information from when she had first memorised the information, the more blank her memory seemed to become. She circumspectly took the leaf from the book out and read Draco's hand-written note at the top of it before reading the information that Warlock Gornby de Ferrière had written in Marseilles in the year 1685 for the third time that morning. She was so intrigued by the information that rested in the old paper that she never noticed someone leaning over her shoulder, until she heard the person saying 'found this in the book I was stuck transcribing; it'll probably interest you Granger' that is. She covered the page with her arms and turned around to demand what they were doing by invading her privacy like that, and her furnace-like cheeks matched the same colour of her friend's hair, Ronald Weasley.
"It's nothing—I found it in a book"
"You just happened to find it in a book?"
"Y-yes"
"Dedicated to you?"
"Umm"
"In ink from modern times?"
"Uhhhh…"
"Where'd you get it?"
"Um, Professor Flitwick gave it to me after Charms yesterday"
"And he's called you Granger since…? Why won't you just tell me who gave it to you?"
"Why are you being so nosy? If you must know, Neville gave it to me. I didn't want to tell you in case you began to act immaturely. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some studying to do"
"I was only asking you as a friend, and there was no need to be so crabby about it"
And with that, he turned and rejoined Harry for another game of Wizard's Chess, and he felt betrayed by Hermione's reluctance to tell him about an interesting article. He had only enquired out of interest, not out of selfish reasons, and she had openly lied to him; not only had they held an atrocious influence over her regarding breaking rules that made her an exceptional liar, he had easily recognised the handwriting. He glanced at her one more time before gaining an outstanding victory over Harry, but she never noticed his motion as she had become reabsorbed in the extract.
In the Slytherin common room, Draco was struggling to see his books through his foggy vision for he too wanted nothing more than to sleep for another twelve hours minimum. Even though he attempted to block the sounds of the ongoing whispers about him, there was only so much he could listen to before he snapped. He slammed the books shut and headed towards the portrait hole to find some solitude elsewhere in the vast castle; he wasn't willing to engage in yet another argument that would only result in his public degradation. He strode along the corridors with no destination in his mind, and he couldn't help but wonder what had made his life reverse all of a sudden—he used to be fairly popular within his House and now he was the most-talked about person in an entirely different sense; he had been forced to resign his position as Seeker in Quidditch; Snape had replaced the favouritism streak he had shown towards him with one of pure hatred, and now he was seeking attention from a Muggle-born girl. All in all, he felt more isolated than he had ever done in his life and he felt as though he had nobody to confide in with anything that bothered him. And, he darkly thought to himself, there was a lot he wanted to tell.
He leaned against a wall on the outside of the castle as he gazed at the white grounds before him, and he noticed some first years racing each other across the frozen lake on bewitched lily pads. He closed his eyes as he recalled the occasion that had initiated his isolation, but it was an action that was severed by a voice interrupting him.
"Leave her alone Malfoy, like all your friends have left you"
"Isn't there an award out there somewhere that you should be winning Potter, or haven't they invented the prize for obnoxious little brats yet?"
"I'd have thought you'd remember the only thing you've ever won honestly in your life Malfoy, or is interfering with members of a different house your new ploy?"
"I'd imagine that you're the interfering one, seeing that I haven't said or done anything to you lately"
"She's our friend Malfoy, and we're not going to let a spoilt brat like you give her false information"
"What false information do you mean?"
"We saw the page you gave her"
"I couldn't have known the extent of that information, and if either of you research it you'll find out if its true or not"
"How can we research it if you defile books?"
"Query it all you want, but it's the truth as far as I can tell. Surely you are capable of using a counter-charm to see if it's been tampered with?"
"What have you told her?"
"You mean you've just come out here to tell me not to give someone information and you don't even know what it said?"
"That's not fair Malfoy"
"Really? Why not?"
Draco turned around for the first time since leaving the castle and glared at his opposition, who were presently blocking his only chance of re-entering the cosy building, and with a contemptuous glare he barged between them and interweaved the many corridors to return the way he had come. He knocked into the girl that he had perplexed after detention, and her eyes noticeably brightened as he apologised disconsolately and picked up her books for her. She asked him if something was wrong and he muttered that it was nothing Potter probably couldn't handle with both sarcasm and depression noted in his tone. She asked him if he had enough time to spare to tell her what was bothering him, and he sighed as he revealed that he had all the time in the world, ignoring a remark being made about him actually talking to someone, but even though he hoped she hadn't heard it (which she hadn't), anguish was visible on his face. He traced her jaw line with his forefinger and asked her if she could meet him that night when they'd be alone, as he was uncomfortable discussing anything in the corridors. She agreed and asked him if he wanted to meet her at the edge of the Forbidden Forest at eleven—an hour after curfew—and if one of them hadn't shown up by ten minutes, they were to return instead of prolonging the chance of being given another detention. He smiled at her whilst she took her books back from him and he tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, neither of them daring to blink as the moment became more intense. Or at least it would have done, had Peeves not just floated through a wall behind Hermione and pushed her into Draco, telling her to control her emotions in public places, and the scream she had released had alerted Ron and Harry to the scene, and they attempted to ward Malfoy off. He glared at both of them prior to angrily turning around and heading towards the Slytherin dungeon since there was nowhere else he could go without being ridiculed, and Harry and Ron had proved just that. He didn't want to enter his own house for he knew the fate that would befall him behind the portrait, and it was a certainty as he had suffered the same torment from them all week (he was grateful for Madame Pomfrey's expertise when she had cleared up a black eye that a third year he didn't even know had given him a couple of days beforehand). At least he now had tonight to look forward to, unless Hermione was joking with him and she would never show up, just to act as a form of payback for all the times he had stupidly called her a Mudblood. Fury and depression flowed through his veins upon seeing his books on the table where he had left them, or more correctly, the remnants of them, and mocking laughter echoed in his ears as he heard the whole room laugh at him as he collected the irreparable pieces.
Hermione had been interrogated for reasons why she was angry with them for saving her when they had clearly heard her scream in Draco's arms, and when she was asked if he had tried to force her to kiss him, she snapped for them both to mind their own business since her lips had gone nowhere near his, and in her mind, she added 'unfortunately'. They decided to visit Hagrid, and despite their differences regarding Malfoy, they were able to hide their minor conflict in their large friend's hut. Fang whined at Ron's feet and Hagrid explained that the boarhound hadn't seen them in a while and was beginning to worry about them like a human would. They had been so caught up in revision that they had barely seen Hagrid at all over the last month, with the exception of Care Of Magical Creatures class, or as Ron called it, Caution Of Monstrous Creatures. Hermione seemed to have forgotten all about her study regime as she chomped on one of Hagrid's infamous rock buns out of politeness, and they excitedly told him everything that had happened of interest lately, with the past forty-eight hours. They were sorry to leave the comforting warmth of the hut as darkness approached since they didn't want to end up in the Forbidden Forest as an unknown creature's meal under any circumstances, and they seemed to have forgotten about their dispute even though Hermione's eyes gleamed with anticipation about the next time she would be down there, and who she would be down there with.
Whilst eating in the Great Hall later that evening, Hermione noticed Draco talking to a younger male Slytherin, and his body language gave her the impression that it wasn't a friendly discussion they were having. She heard the entire Griffindor table hoot with laughter and she realised that she had missed the punch line of one of Nick's jokes, which were usually quite funny. She smiled nervously whilst pretending that she had heard it, and she found it hard to keep her eyes away from the blond youth that had caught her attention. She noticed Draco turning his back on the other Slytherin and the young male took his wand out and began to call out a curse much to her astonishment. She automatically pointed her wand at him whilst crying out 'Expelliarmus!' to save her former nemesis from humiliation. Her practical reaction earned more laughter, only this time from the Slytherin table, and when she looked back at the door there was no sign of Draco. She excused herself from the table before she tore out of the room after him to see if she could try and help him, but much to her dismay there wasn't a trace of him. A plan suddenly entered her head and she raced back to do something that she would never have dreamt of doing in the past—she intended to steal the Invisibility Cloak that Harry's father had bequeathed him. She left an apologetic note in the drawer that bore the Cloak in the boys' dormitory in case they saw it was missing before she had replaced it. She ran back to her room and exhaled deeply to release some of the adrenaline that was suddenly coursing through her body, and she gleefully thought of seeing Draco within the next two hours.
Once everyone had departed from the main room as it drew near to eleven o' clock, she slid out of her room and approached the portrait of the Fat Lady to make her escape. She received a warning about sneaking out of the common room after curfew, but the painting swung back nevertheless and Hermione eagerly clambered out as she inconspicuously made her way to the Forbidden Forest. She saw the boy in question resting against a tree where they had agreed to meet, and she silently walked over to him to get a good look at the emotions that were visible on his face before making her presence known. The same weary look met her eyes and she gasped out of shock when he turned his head to look right at her, and for a moment she had forgotten that she was invisible. Her sound startled him and he took his wand out and muttered 'Lumos' to try and find out who was in the vicinity, and he was shocked when he saw Hermione materialise before him, as he was completely unaccustomed to Invisibility Cloaks. She breathed out a form of a greeting between laughter at his face, and luckily he understood the funny side of it. He took the shimmering material in his hand and asked her how she had acquired it, and instantly dropped it when he found out whom the owner was. She raised an eyebrow at him quizzically as if to dare him to voice his opinions, but he decided against it all the same. He was about to say something when they heard Hagrid demanding to know who was there as Fang had caught their scents on the bitterly cold breeze that was blowing, and Hermione suddenly realised that their cloak wouldn't serve to conceal their footprints on the stark white ground. She pointed this out as quietly as she possibly could to Draco, and after he had extinguished the flame at the tip of his wand, he grabbed her wrist and sped off into the general direction of the castle. They heard an indignant miaow from Mrs Norris at the sound of their heavy breathing, and they reluctantly continued down the corridor in the main foyer. Once they had sufficiently distanced themselves from the feline, they rested against a wall bedecked with sleeping portraits and they threw the Cloak over themselves to buy them some time. They initially felt awkward at the closeness that was required of them to keep completely covered, and she felt her cheeks being replaced with heating cauldrons when he pulled her even closer to him. Their lips had only touched momentarily when their good mood sank to the pits of their stomachs when Peeves tore the Cloak from them and bellowed out down the corridor:
"TWO SIXTH YEARS OUT OF BED AND ALL OVER EACH OTHER!!! SEVERUS!!!"
Their attempts to reclaim the Cloak were futile, and they heard the unmistakable swoosh of their Potions teacher's cloak along the stone floor, and they saw the glow of a wand getting brighter at the corner from which they had run away from Mrs Norris…