Authors' Note: Thank you for all of your reviews! This chapter is the continuation of the first part of the first chapter, where Hermione slams into a bookcase. The other characters in this chapter belong to us, we were getting tired of seeing Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff and Terry Boot of Ravenclaw in almost every fan fiction with prefects. And so, we decided to put in our own characters, if no one minds. Thanks again!

Chapter 3: What a Mistake Can Lead to

Someone was still pinning her against the bookcase. He was tall and heavy. And he might want to violate her again.

Willing her body to move, she thrashed against the person holding her. She kicked at him and pounded her fists on his chest, not wanting the same thing to happen to her again. He was going to rape her... And she would not allow that ever to happen. Not in a million years.

"Get off me!" Hermione exclaimed, trying to push him away. He held both her wrists in one hand but still she struggled. Tears were leaking out of her eyes and she desperately wanted to get away. "I won't let you do it again! I won't..." She screamed, opening her eyes as she tried to look at Ron.

But Ron didn't have blonde hair, did he?

Her breath caught. This wasn't Ron... Ron didn't have blue eyes or pale skin. No, this wasn't Ron at all. It was Draco Malfoy. And he was looking at her strangely. Once Hermione realized that he was dangerously close to her and was still holding her wrists in one hand, the defiance blazed in her eyes as she wrenched her wrists from his grip... She pushed him off her and wiped the tears from her face.

"Malfoy! What are you doing?" She demanded. He looked at her with a confused look on his face.

"Me? What's up with you, Granger?"

"What do you mean? You were attacking me!"

"Attacking you?" Draco repeated, still looking at her in confusion. "It was more of you attacking me."

"What? I wasn't attacking you, you pinned me to the bookcase and grabbed my wrists!" Hermione countered defensively.

"I slammed into you because I was running and I didn't see you." Draco explained. "Nothing more than an accident. I was about to get off you when you started thrashing around and started kicking and hitting me. That's why I had to grab your hands."

Hermione just stared. At first she didn't believe him... but then when she looked at him in the eye, she knew that he was telling the truth.

Oh my God... Hermione thought, tearing her eyes away from him and looking down. She gently massaged her temples, trying to think about what had happened. I can't believe I accused him of attacking me! She thought. I thought... I thought that he was Ron...

Draco was looking at her, wondering what she had going on in her head. He didn't mean to slam into her; he just didn't see her standing near the bookcase. But why did she act like she was being attacked? Why did she kick and hit and squirm? Why did she cry? And what were the words that she said... 'I won't let you do it again'.

"Look Granger, I..." Draco paused. He never apologized to anyone before. But when he saw her looking so distraught, it was the only thing he could think about right now. "I'm sorry if I slammed into you..."

"No." Hermione interrupted, feeling totally ashamed of herself and the way she reacted to his harmless move. "I should be the one apologizing... I didn't know it was you."

"What if it weren't me?" Draco asked. He winced at the look that she gave him after he said those words. They'd just slipped out.

"I..." Hermione started, looking at him helplessly.

"Don't answer that..." Draco interrupted, shaking his head. "That was rude of me."

Hermione looked away and around the prefect's common room. The fire was lit, but they were the only ones around. She recalled that she had just finished her assignments and had just placed the book back in the shelf when she heard running. When she turned, he slammed into her.

It was nothing more than an accident. Hermione realized and berated herself for being so paranoid and delusional. Damn. She'd almost said Ron's name in the process... in front of Malfoy.

"I'm sorry." Hermione said, lifting her back off the bookcase and walking towards her bag and book which were spread out on the table the four prefects had designated as a study desk. She manically placed all her books in her book bag, locked the clasp and swung the strap over her shoulder. She looked at Draco once more and gave him a weak smile. "I'm sorry for hitting you... Good night."

And she was walking briskly towards her room which was located on the left side, before Draco could even get a word out.

Now what in the hell was that? Draco asked himself. He couldn't understand her tonight. Usually she would be so level-headed and she never jumped to conclusions. But now, she was doing the exact opposite of what he thought of her, what he knew about her.

Shaking his head, he went over to his room, which was on the opposite side of the direction Hermione went. Once he entered, he made sure that he would get to the bottom of this whole thing. Despite their differences, he would do whatever it took to know what made Hermione act like that tonight.

Over the next week, Draco was still thinking about that incident with Hermione. Although, sometimes he would get a hold of himself and remind himself that she was none of his business. And besides, she was a Gryffindor, he was a Slytherin. Why meddle with the affairs of the enemy?

Because something happened to her and you want to know what! His subconscious constantly defended during those times. Because you want to know why she acted like that!

Draco swore under his breath and looked around if anyone was around. He was in an empty classroom, waiting for the other prefects to arrive. Professor McGonagall had called a meeting for the prefects and the Head Boy and Head Girl at around 3 o'clock that Saturday. And so far, it was five to.

He slumped back in his chair and propped his feet on the empty chair in front of him. He continued to replay the incident over and over in his mind, looking for some signs that would tell him more than what was on the surface. He thought about the anger, the helplessness and the pleading on Hermione's face when she started kicking and screaming at him to get off her.

But why...?

It was at that time that Draco was snapped back to the present. He heard light footfalls nearing his way. Turning his head to the side, he saw a spaced-out Hermione Granger entering the room. When she realized that someone was inside, she focused her attention on him. Their eyes locked for a brief second before Hermione looked away, a faint blush on her cheeks.

It was possible that she was thinking about the incident as well... or something deeper.

She turned to an empty chair, a few feet from where Draco was sitting and sat down. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked straight ahead, refusing to meet his gaze and almost refusing to acknowledge his presence.

They sat that way, simply wallowing in their own world. To some other person, that would seem normal, as they had been enemies for some time. But if one looked closely and observed them, one would notice how Draco would often steal glances at Hermione. And if one happened to catch the expression in his eyes when he glanced at her, one would see traces of worry and concern masked with boredom and nonchalance.

Fortunately, the silence was cut as the two other prefects came in. Joanna Davidson was a willowy sixth year from Ravenclaw who had short black hair and gray eyes. She was outgoing and friendly... to anybody. Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw - she considered them all as friends, which probably was a reason for her being a prefect this year. Shawn Jones was the sixth year Hufflepuff prefect. He was tall and beefy, therefore earning him a spot on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team as a beater. But he was also quiet and very studious.

When they came in, they both looked at the other two prefects and looked warily at each other. Joanna attempted to break the silence.

"Hey, I think it's the first time that we didn't come in with you two at each other's throats." Joanna said cheerfully, plopping down on a chair as well and crossing one leg over the other. Shawn then sat down as well.

Hermione turned to Joanna and stuck her tongue out at the girl. "Maybe Malfoy grew tired of churning out insults." She said, smiling.

Draco turned at the mention of his name. He caught Hermione's eye and she looked at him with indifference. He turned to Joanna and raised an eyebrow. "I never grew tired of insults... Granger was simply too slow in making her comebacks." He retorted.

"Oh yeah?" Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Hell yeah." Was Draco's drawling reply.

"Guys... okay, okay... so having a meeting without the two of you fighting is virtually impossible." Joanna interrupted, fearing a verbal battle between the two that might escalate to a physical one if she didn't stop it right now. "Drop it and let's move on."

And the two went back to their own world, ignoring the other two. Shrugging, Joanna turned to Shawn and started a conversation with him.

A minute later, Professor McGonagall along with the Head Boy, Joshua Farris, and the Head Girl, Elizabeth Haden, came inside the room. All stood up to greet the Deputy Headmistress and the two Heads except for Draco who simply looked on in boredom. Josh grinned at Draco, knowing all too well his friend's arrogance and self-superiority over others. Draco smirked as Elizabeth looked in horror.

"Please sit down, all of you." Professor McGonagall said as the students all took their seats. She looked pointedly at Draco. "Mister Malfoy, I would request you to please remove your feet from that chair." And Draco removed his feet, but his slumped position did not change. Sighing, the professor continued. "I called this meeting because we would need to discuss the plans for this school year. I think Elizabeth has prepared the agenda... Elizabeth?"

And as Elizabeth's crisp voice read over her prepared agenda, Draco's mind drifted off to other things. He didn't care about listening to whatever the Head Girl was saying. After all, he'd decided that he would be caught doing nothing because all-around Granger would be doing the things assigned, even if they weren't assigned to her.

The thought of Hermione made him shift his gaze towards her. She was sitting across him in the little circle they'd arranged the chairs into. She was still listening attentively, offering a few comments every now and then and writing in her parchment. But something made him look at her more closely...

When her sleeve lowered down her arm, he caught a glimpse of a bruise that formed around her wrist. Now why would she have that? He looked up into her face and caught her eye. Catching her attention, he pointed to his own wrist and raised his eyebrow. She looked terrified and brought the sleeve back up to cover it. They did not make eye contact for the rest of the meeting, but now her movements were jerky and she was becoming restless.

Soon, the meeting ended. The minute it did, Hermione quickly got off her seat, walked towards the door and got out. Draco's eyes followed after her, wondering why she was so eager to get away. Even Joanna was looking confused. Draco shrugged and went out the room, fully intending, for the second time in his life, to get to the bottom of what was bothering Hermione Granger.