Draco walked slowly down the hall towards the Hogwarts dungeons. There was excited chatter all around him, as everyone was discussing all the goings on of the feast that night. Draco tuned everyone out, only to nod his head or smile vacantly whenever Pansy tried to involve him in her conversation. He had other things on his mind. He had been quite amused once off the train and surrounded by his fellow class mates. He had taken in all the changes- physical changes- and some things were just hard to ignore.

He reflected on this during his short stay in the common room before heading off to bed. Pansy was staring him down, her eyes narrowed and a look of suspicion upon her face. Sensing her glare, he flashed her a typical Draco Malfoy sneer and winked. Her face and attitude became suddenly warmer; he suspected his distance in the halls had pissed her off. He chuckled to himself on his way to his bedroom. She'd never be anyone he got attached to. Granted, he wasn't really attached to anyone except his mother; and Pansy would never be quite as beautiful or wonderful as Narcissa Malfoy.

She was pretty however (much to Draco's amusement) and he assumed he would probably be spending a night or two in her dorm room; yes, some people were just so easy to push around. Even the boy wonder, Harry Potter, and his irritating little friends were easy to manipulate. Draco loved getting a rise out of Ron, and he succeeded in this quite often. His satisfaction with this, however, was nothing compared to the satisfaction he got from pissing off Hermione Granger. She was just so level-headed; and she was a MudBlood too. Indeed, one of Draco's moments of glory was being slapped by Hermione. Embarassing, yes, but he loved knowing he could get to her like that.

Which is why, earlier that night, he had thrown a few insulting comments her way. As he had expected, she didn't respond with anger. Instead she looked at him with disdain, turned up her nose, and laughed. "You'll never change, you weak-minded ego-maniac." Draco grinned and reached over to touch her, only to be blocked by Ron and Harry. Ron gave a low growl, which only fueled Draco's amusement. He gave a hearty laugh and said "Don't worry Weasel... Potter... just wanted to touch her cheek and see if she was wearing that damned muggle makeup." Hermione, without thinking, reached up and touched her face. Draco's grin widened. "That's what I thought, mudblood. I knew you didn't just become attractive out of no where."

When he thought back on the incident, he was slightly disappointed with himself. She was pretty afterall, but how stupid of him to say it out loud. 'Did I actually used the word attractive while describing a muggle-born? Did I just say muggle-born? God damned mudblood!' Draco changed his clothes and layed down on top of his freshly made bed. He gave a great yawn, rolled over on to his side, and fell asleep later that night while trying to come up with havoc he could cause in the lives of the Annoyingly 'Wonderful' Trio.