After the confrontation in the hall with Draco, Hermione had decided to keep her distance for a few days to allow him, and everyone else, to calm down from the fight. Her luck had been pretty good, as well. She stayed as far from the tower as possible, spending most of her time in the library and Gryffindor tower. She'd go running early in the morning at the Quidditch pitch, and would go to bed early every night without a look in any direction but the stairs to her room. Maybe I can do this for the rest of the year. All I would have to do is keep doing the same things day after day, and then I could forget he exists. Hermione knew that this would probably be impossible, but the thought would still cross her mind daily.
"Damn," she said, sorting through her messy vanity one morning before breakfast. "I lose everything!"
No matter where she looked, Hermione couldn't find her favorite silver hoop earrings. She retraced her steps in her head, but came up empty handed. Suddenly she stopped and looked towards her door. She remembered that she had placed them on the table down in the common room the night before when she was reading her transfiguration notes.
Hermione quickly grabbed her things and ran downstairs, hoping to grab the earrings and make a clean break. As she got to the bottom of the steps, she noticed Draco getting ready to leave, making her somehow feel upset. And of course, he looked absolutely gorgeous. "Going somewhere?" Smooth, Hermione. Very nice with the obvious.
He turned around and half smiled, leaning against the door frame, "I don't know- is there a reason to stay?" You're dumb, Hermione, if he stays, you'll only get into trouble.
She turned her attention to the table and saw her earrings, snatching them up, "Hella good!"
"Hella good? That's nice, Granger," he smirked and walked out the door.
"Going somewhere?" she mocked herself, sitting down and putting her earrings in. You are absolutely stupid, Hemi. She got up and went to the mirror looking herself over and fixing her robes before leaving to join Harry and Ron for breakfast. "Maybe try not to make an idiot of yourself today, Hermione," she said to herself as she walked through the doors of the Great Hall. She caught Draco's eye and was certain that he saw a smile spread across his face for a split second, causing Hermione to relax a little. She walked briskly to her table and sat down, ready to lose herself in any conversation possible so as not to think about Draco staring or not staring at her.
"Your earrings are so beautiful, Hermione!" she turned to see Lavender Brown sitting across from her, putting make up on and, of course, being flanked by her entourage of groupies.
"Thanks," Hermione smiled sweetly, looking Lavender over trying to find something to compliment the girl on. She looked at her neck and noticed a very pretty necklace, "your necklace is really gorgeous. Where did you get it?"
"My mother took me to a Muggle jewelry store a few weeks before school started. I saw this and just had to have it!"
Hermione smiled, knowing that Lavender usually "had to have" everything she saw. She was one of those girls that thought the world was meant to revolve around her and didn't really care about school or grades. She knew that she was going to marry someone rich- even if love wasn't involved. She would have to- the girl was so high maintenance that Hermione didn't know how her parents stayed out of debt. Maybe they're drowning in it. They're an all for show family. She smirked, thinking it highly possible for Hermione's parents to be just as snobby and showy as their pretty daughter.
"Hermione? Are you listening?" Hermione looked up and saw Lavender staring at her, eyebrows raised and a pissed off look on her face.
"I'm sorry, I spaced out. What were you saying?"
"I was saying that there's going to be a hella good party after the Quidditch match tomorrow. I'm hoping that you'll come. Besides, Draco will be there," she said the last part in a sing songy voice. Hermione knew that Lavender had a huge crush on Draco herself, but got the feeling that she thought every girl did.
"Well…I don't know, I mean, I'll probably have a lot of homework-"
"Oh listen to yourself!" Lavender squealed, cutting Hermione off on her excuse, "The next day is Saturday, no classes. You need to chill out, Hermione!"
Hermione considered this for a minute, letting the idea of attending a social gathering with Draco sink in. You won't be together, Hemi! You need to start thinking about something other than Draco Malfoy! "Okay, I'm in."
Lavender clapped her hands and smiled, "Great!"
Draco's eyes followed Hermione as she walked to her table. He knew that Hermione had wanted him to stay, but why should he? She was the one that had been avoiding him ever since he had had that little fight with Weasley. She's bitter because I was kicking her friend's ass. He saw Crabbe and Goyle and started walking towards their general direction when he was cut off by Pansy.
Oh fuck, not today. And definitely not this early. "Hey Pansy," he said, slowing down as she stopped, ready to have a nice conversation.
"Hi Draco! You know, there's a Quidditch match tomorrow," she said in a very high pitched voice. No, really? I'm not on the team or anything, I wouldn't know vital information such as that. "Anyway, I was wondering, you know, if it would be okay if a few girls and I made signs for you. You know, as support." She looked at the ground and then back up at him, as if trying to attract him in some way. He wasn't catching the bait.
"Umm….that's nice and all, Pansy," he stopped, unable to form the right words. You're a nasty slut and I don't want your hands ever writing my name? No, not good. "But it would be really weird, and no one else is going to have any. But it's really nice of you to offer." Why are you being nice? Just tell her she's a crazy mother fucker and move on. But for some reason Draco didn't have it in him to be mean to her. Maybe it's because I haven't eaten, he decided, ready to move on when Pansy stopped him.
"Draco, if you don't want me to, just say so. Don't be a fucking ass and beat around it," her eyes were cold and her face was conjured up into a pout almost identical to the one she had gotten when she started screaming like a banshee about him "cheating" on her.
"Okay. Pansy, go ahead and do whatever you want. I don't care," all Draco wanted to do was eat and get out of this awkward conversation. Couldn't a guy eat these days?
He noticed her face immediately light up, "Thanks, Draco! You won't be sorry! They'll be fantastic!" with that she started walking in the other direction, catching up to a few girls and whispering to them. Draco rolled his eyes, knowing that he should have told her to go stick a sign up her ass.
He sighed and started heading towards his destination again, when this time something caught his eye, making him stop dead. It was Hermione walking towards the Gryffindor table, talking to Lavender, or, rather, Lavender was talking and Hermione was acting like she was listening. He couldn't help but stare at her. As hard as he tried the harder it was to pull himself away from her. He knew that he should just keep walking, but his body wouldn't cooperate with his mind. Stop, Malfoy! Damn, you're acting like an idiot. An idiot- he cut himself off, he didn't want to go there at all.
Suddenly Draco was capable of moving again, but wasn't about to go sit down. There's no need to eat, I'm going to class. With that, he turned and got out of there as fast and he could.
Harry, Ron and Hermione walked towards the dungeons, discussing the upcoming Quidditch game. Harry was especially excited, seeing as he was certain that this would be the year that they won the Quidditch Cup- they deserved it. He and Ron had spent the better part of the summer coming up with a whole new strategy and the team had been working nonstop to make it perfect. Now, with the upcoming match against Slytherin, they would get to see just how all their hard work had paid off.
"You have to come Hermione! It's going to be bloody great," Ron was saying, "Harry here is going to catch the snitch in about ten minutes, anyway, and no one is going to score against me." Ron flashed a smile and Hermione laughed, tossing her hair out of her face. Harry couldn't help but smile too.
"Oh, okay, you've convinced me. I'll be there," she said, giving Ron a look of fake defeat. "I know how much all of this means to you two. I wouldn't have missed it, anyway." She walked ahead, reaching to door first and heading to their seats. Harry followed her in, amazed at how easily she got situated for a long lecture. Maybe Ron's right, maybe I should just tell her. Again, though, Harry's fear won out, refusing to let himself be rejected. Professor Snape entered the room, making Harry pay attention and dismiss the daydream of Hermione.
"If any of you plan on passing this year, I suggest you do better at studying," he held up the tests that they had taken the prior day, and Harry's stomach dropped, knowing that he had done badly. "As always, Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy are the only ones who passed. The rest- failed." He started walking around the room, slamming papers down in front of students. "Weasley, F! Potter, F! Parkinson," he stopped to look down at her in disgust, "such a bad F that I don't think that it's on the scale! I wanted to take points off for spelling 'potion' wrong!" he threw the paper at her and turned his back. Harry could see tears well up in Pansy's eyes and he felt sorry for her. He knew that she was having problems in the class, and often saw her struggling to get things right, and always failing to do so. She looked at Draco, apparently wanting some sort of sympathy, and all he did was raise his eyebrows in acknowledgement. Asshole, Harry, thought, knowing that even though the two had ended on bad terms last year, Draco had cheated on Pansy, that he should still be able to give her a comforting look when she's humiliated by Snape. Maybe he can't show sympathy. He also doesn't know what it's like to have Snape yell at him. He's Snape's favorite student. Harry looked at Hermione and smiled. She, of course, had gotten a perfect score. He saw Ron comparing their two papers, shaking his head and sighing every now and then.
"Harry, how did you do?" he looked up to see Hermione's sympathetic smile and felt his cheeks get red with embarrassment. Why would she ever want to date him? She wanted someone on the same intellectual level as herself. Someone who she could talk to about schoolwork without him getting lost someone like- Harry stopped, looking back over to Pansy and then to Draco. Harry knew how smart Draco was. He and Hermione were both tied for the top spot in their class. Based purely on a mental level, Hermione wanted someone like Draco. So what? So Draco is smart. Big deal. He has nothing else even remotely good about him. He's not nice, Hermione says that he's a slob, and- Harry stopped, knowing that the effort was futile. He had heard the girls talk about "gorgeous Draco Malfoy" enough to know that they all thought he was perfect. Which meant trouble for Harry- because they were living together- and if he wanted, Draco could easily try to sway Hermione's opinion.
Hermione walked into the library, putting her things down onto a nearby table. She needed a book for her Herbology paper, and wanted to get started as soon as possible. She walked over to a shelf and started reading the titles to herself. Just then she noticed someone standing beside her. She looked, and was relieved to see Harry, smiling at her. "Harry! What are you doing in the library?" she asked, knowing full well that Ron and Harry both only went to the library after Hermione would drag them.
"The same as you. Looking for a book," he took one off the shelf and held it up. "I was also looking for you. I wanted to ask you something." Hermione noticed how nervous Harry now looked. Oh no, something's wrong.
"What is it, Harry?" he walked over the table and sat down, gesturing for her to do the same. Hermione slowly followed suit, settling down in her chair and smoothing out her skirt. She finally looked up at him, praying that there was no real problem. "Well? Come on, Harry, tell me!"
"Well…you see, the thing is," Harry was now fidgeting in his seat and Hermione knew that he only got like this when he was going to lay something big on her. "Hermione, you know. At the beginning of the year, when I saw you" Harry stopped and jumped up out of his seat as a loud crash came. Hermione got up and looked in the direction that it had came from, and noticed that a cart of new books had been knocked over, and the librarian was giving Neville Longbottom a very good talking to.
"Maybe we should go," Hermione suggested, and noticed the dejected look on Harry's face. He quickly recovered and nodded, agreeing and started to walk towards the door. "You can tell me later, okay? Maybe we can talk after the Quidditch game tomorrow." She noticed how happy he looked and congratulated herself on the fast thinking.
"Okay, Hermione, I'll see you at the game!" Harry took off down the hall in the direction of Gryffindor tower. Hermione shook her head, wondering what on earth Harry could want to talk about. Maybe there's a girl. He has a crush on a girl. Hermione had always suspected that he had a crush on Ron's sister, Ginny, even though he had furiously denied it. Maybe he's no longer in denial about himself. Hermione smiled, and walked towards her own tower when she saw Draco, doing the same. He looked at her and smiled, stopping to wait for her to catch up.
"And where were you tonight?" he asked as they started walking again.
"The library, I wanted to get started on our paper for Herbology," she stated, trying to balance all the books in her arms. She finally got situated and looked up at him, "what were you doing?" she then looked down and noticed he was carrying his broomstick. Sweet Hermione, you have gotten great at looking stupid in front of him.
"Quidditch practice, we needed to go over a few things for tomorrow," he had totally ignored her stupid question, and Hermione was thankful, she didn't want to argue anymore. "Are you coming?" Hermione looked up at him, confused.
"Coming where?" she asked, knowing that she had been ignoring him while he talked. She could feel herself getting red as Draco laughed, "The Quidditch match. Are you coming?" She could see the excitement in his eyes and was in complete shock. Draco was never excited about anything. Especially when talking to her.
"Of course I'm going. Harry and Ron talk about nothing else," Hermione immediately chided herself for the comment as should saw all the happiness drain from Draco's face. Why would he be surprised? Did he really think I would go for him? Very unlikely.
"Of course. Potter and Weasley need their favorite cheerleader to be there to witness their humiliating defeat," his voice was yet again filled with sarcasm. The normal conversation they were having was gone, and Hermione knew she was in for a night of exchanging insults.
"Draco, why do you have to act like this? They're my best friends. Why else would I go to the match? For you? Not in this lifetime. Maybe if you showed some interest in my company, or acted like you cared if I were there or not I would, but no, you're a bastard all the time."
"It's hella good, Hemi, hella good. Don't worry, I'm not expecting anything from you." With that he walked on into the room, leaving Hermione standing there, wondering what had just happened. I can't believe he didn't call me Mudblood. He must be thinking about Quidditch. That's it. After tomorrow, everything will be the same.