A/N: Glad you guys are liking the fic so much! In this chapter the meetings start, so basically the real fic is starting now I guess you could say! Enjoy! Also there has been a little war going on about Draco or more precisely the guy who plays Draco (Tom Felton). Yes it would seem two individuals are fighting very strongly, one against Tom and one for Tom. I find it all very amusing that its on my review board for all to see lol. I say, back them up lol, whoever you agree with, back them up lol!
Disclaimer: Read previous chapter!
Credit: Read previous chapter!
Thanks too: Junsui Chikyuu, Sihaya, Shadow Slytherin, Hermione Malfoy, Undercover Kitty, Slytherinzs Angelz and Slytherin Vixen for reviewing!
Chapter 4
Harry and Hermione walked out of the class room and began walking towards the Great Hall along with everyone else, "So how'd you do on the quiz?" Harry asked.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Alright, I suppose. It would've been easier to focus if certain imbeciles weren't sitting next to me trying to make themselves better than every one else!"
Suddenly Hermione heard a voice gently whisper in her ear, "See you after dinner Granger."
Hermione's eyes went wide as she heard Draco whisper in her ear, she then looked behind her to see where he was but he wasn't there.
"What is it Hermione?" Harry asked apparently never noticing Draco's presence.
"Did you…didn't you…I mean did you see…?" Hermione began in a scramble.
"See what?" Harry asked.
Hermione sighed, "Nothing, just an annoying rat I suppose."
Harry looked at Hermione confused but just shrugged in response.
The two of them finally reached the Great Hall and joined Ron at the Gryffindor table, "So was today better than yesterday?" asked Ron.
"Yea." replied Harry.
"No." replied Hermione with a tint of anger in her voice.
Ron looked at Harry and Harry merely shook his head in warning as to just not go there with Hermione and bring up class anymore…though no sooner was that done that Hermione spoke up again.
"What makes him think he's so much better than me huh?" She snapped.
"Well, uh-"
"I mean is he really so much better than me? I certainly don't think so, I'm sure I have higher grades than he does don't I?" She continued slowly turning red.
"Uh, 'mione maybe you should calm-"
"Who in Hogwarts does he think he is? I just want to jab him with my quill, and slap that cocky grin off his face." Hermione said clenching her hands into fists.
"I'm sure a quill would do loads of damage 'mione but you already slapped the cocky grin off his face back in third year." Ron said, slightly afraid of Hermione's rage.
"Oh yea." Hermione said as a smile of satisfaction and approval spread across her face.
"Good one." Harry mouthed to Ron, without Hermione noticing.
"I'm good I know." replied Ron in the same silent way.
All through out dinner Hermione kept on glancing over at the Slytherin table, a sense of rage boiled up within her every time she glanced over at Draco and he would meet her gaze with his cocky grin. She would instantly look away as Draco would chuckle at how she'd react.
"So Harry want to play wizards chess tonight?" Ron asked taking a bite out of his chicken leg.
Harry was about to say 'sure' when he remembered that he had to stay with Lucia in the library today since it was Tuesday.
"I would Ron but, I have to meet with Lucia tonight in the library. She decided on Tuesdays and Thursdays after dinner we will meet and 'get to know each other'." Harry said doing the quotes sign with his fingers and rolling his eyes.
"Oh…good luck with that." Ron said going back to eating his food.
"When are you and Malfoy going to start getting together 'mione?" Harry asked looking across at Hermione who was glancing over in the direction of the Slytherin table with disgust, "Hello? Hermione!?"
"What!?" Hermione said jumping back into reality.
"Do you know when your going to start meeting with Malfoy?"
Hermione shrugged, "I think he said something about meeting him right after dinner tonight, though it could've been my imagination or an annoying rat."
"Annoying rat?" Harry and Ron asked together.
"Forget it, all I can say is that its going to take a miracle to keep my temper in check with that, that snake!" Hermione spat.
"Explains why he's in Slytherin." Ron said with a grin.
After dinner everyone began to get up and head to wherever it was they were headed, Harry sighed, "Well I'm off to go look into the eyes of my death bringer, see you guys later."
"Bye Harry!" Shouted Ron and Hermione.
"So where are you meeting Malfoy 'mione?" Ron asked as they reached the exit to the Great Hall. She shrugged.
"Don't know, he never said where, just that we'd meet after dinner." She said.
"Well alright then, I'm going to go play wizards chess with Neville in the common room, see ya later. I want to know how everything went." He said waving goodbye and heading up towards the Gryffindor common room. Hermione sighed as she began heading towards the library thinking it was the most obvious place that Draco would be.
As she was ready to turn a corner a long arm grabbed her suddenly and pulled her past the corner and pushed her up against a wall. When her eyes opened she saw two blue-gray eyes looking into her brown, it was Draco.
"So, Granger, were you going to forget about our meeting?" He asked, putting a hand up against the wall and leaning in a little closer to her.
"Um…uh…I was going to-…wait a minute, why am I explaining myself to you when you just grabbed me from out of nowhere and pinned me up against a wall!?" She said pushing him away from her.
He laughed as he saw the look on Hermione's pouting face, "Feisty one aren't you."
She looked at him, "Oh spare me…have you got quills and parchment?"
He padded his hidden pocket underneath his cloak, "Yea right here."
"So then let's go to the library." Hermione said starting to head towards the library when she was stopped suddenly feeling a hand grab her arm, she looked back and saw Draco who looked at her with a grin.
"Not the library." He said in a low tone.
"T-Then where, if not the library…then where?" she said looking back into his eyes.
His eyes moved from her to up the stairs, "Third floor?"
"Why?" She asked not understanding his logic.
He shrugged, "More private."
She rolled her eyes, "Like it matters?"
"Fine, then let's go to the library." He said gesturing towards the library. Hermione brushed past him and lead the way as the two of them entered the library, Draco was trying extremely hard not to show how much he was enjoying messing with the Gryffindor witch, as if he'd ever want to go to the third floor with her.
No sooner had they entered the library that quiet a few heads turned in their direction, a few whispers and murmurs where heard from a few Slytherins as Draco and Hermione took a seat in a far corner of the library. Hermione spotted Harry and Lucia having what appeared to be a conversation. Harry looked stiff and a little frightened, while Lucia was talking to him rather calmly while writing notes in her scroll as Harry spoke.
"They seem to be going somewhere." Hermione said in a low whisper.
Draco looked over at his cousin and Harry and glared, Hermione noticed and rolled her eyes, "Get over it Malfoy. The crystals paired them together, there's nothing you can do about it so save your glares for something else."
He shot his glance to her and looked ready to say something, but she glared right at him fiercely and he just began taking the parchment and quills out of his pockets under his robes.
Then once everything was out, they sat there, five minutes then ten then fifteen.
Draco sat leaned back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest looking sightlessly at the table while Hermione merely sat there looking down at her blank parchment.
Every once in a while their eyes would meet then they'd break contact and then they'd look at each other again and break contact again. Hermione was fed up, if Lucia and Harry could manage to have communication then certainly she could manage some type of anything with Draco.
"So." She said trying to break the silence.
He didn't look at her, "Yea, so."
She rolled her eyes, "Oh honestly are we six or sixteen?"
He looked at her eyes narrowed slightly, "I don't know Granger, you figure it out."
"So then you want a bad grade? You don't want to develop your mind powers?" she asked hoping that he had some sense in his self consumed head.
He looked like for a moment he was going to say what Hermione had feared but then he shrugged, "Fine, let's start this…at least let's try and make the year tolerable." He said still leaned back in his chair and arms crossed.
"Good, at least that's one thing we can agree on…so…uh…oh dear…where to begin?" She said realizing that it was a lot harder to start a conversation with someone when it was being forced.
"How about with a question, Granger?" Draco replied trying to make it sound obvious.
She frowned at him, "Fine, here's one…why do you enjoy being the way you are?"
He arched a brow of curiosity up at her, "Why am I the way I am?"
"Yes, why are you always so mean, and cold and why do you like making other people miserable?" She asked in a rather angry tone.
He formed a fake grin and shook his head, "Why would something like that matter to you Granger?"
"I've always wanted to know, this was my chance."
He frowned, "Listen Granger, I don't talk about myself to no one, you understand, no one. So heavens knows I wouldn't tell you a thing, your just like everyone else you know that?"
Hermione hated being compared with everyone else, for one thing she always believed was that she was not like everyone else, she was unique in her own special way, there was no way she was going to let Draco Malfoy of all people tell her otherwise.
"I am most certainly not like everyone else. Why would you even say that?"
He growled, "Cause, why do you think I am the way I am, huh? In your own opinion?"
Hermione took a moment to think about the question, she never really bothered thinking about answering the question before from her own personal opinion.
"Well, I thought…because you liked it," She began, and she saw Draco's face soften a bit, "You always smile and laugh when you got someone else down, like you always do to me and Harry and Ron and Hagrid and everyone else."
"That's why your like everyone else Granger, cause that's just what everyone else thinks." He said sounding almost…offended? "See you tomorrow, obviously we're getting nowhere tonight. Your presence is beginning to irritate me."
She said nothing as he walked away and his cold face suddenly turned into one of anger and he stormed out of the library, she saw Lucia look over at her curious as to what had just happened. Hermione suddenly felt like an ice brick got dumped into her stomach and she packed up Draco's quills and parchments which he had forgotten to take with him.
"I guess I'll give these back to him tomorrow." she said shakily, she suddenly felt like certain things she had thought were true about Draco were perhaps…false?
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Draco sat by the fire in the empty Slyhterin common room. He just watched the flames dance in the fire as he tried to think about anything but that blasted girl that obviously didn't have a clue as to who he really was. Everything she said was wrong, everything she knows is wrong. But who's fault was that in all truth and honesty? His or hers? But why should that even matter? Obviously the role he tried to play before lost its fun in the library, he wasn't even planning on being the Draco Malfoy he usually was…the one she had mentioned, the cold, mean and selfish Draco Malfoy. Maybe he should give him to her since she asked for him, after all. Yet why did that anger him? Perhaps because he didn't like that Draco either?
He then heard the portrait door open and in stepped Lucia.
He merely looked her way once and then back at the fire.
"How'd your meeting go?" She asked pretending not to have even some clue.
He let out a small chuckle cause he didn't know how to speak just then, but after a big sigh, "Not nearly as well as yours I'd gather."
She slowly walked over to the seat next to him and sat down and glanced at his distant looking face, "Why are you looking at the fire?" she asked.
"Cause I'm thinking." He replied still looking at the fire.
"About what?"
He shrugged.
Lucia shook her head, "What happened with your meeting with Hermione?"
"What meeting? We got nowhere, the little witch just…doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut." He said getting up from his seat and walked over to the fireplace leaning a hand against the wall looking sightlessly into the flames.
"Oh, what happened? Did she strike a nerve?" Lucia asked curiously with a tint of humor in her voice.
He shook his head, "She asked me a question…a stupid question…though why should that surprise me, she has always asked questions, most of them always being stupid."
"What did she ask you?" Lucia asked, starting to get annoyed with Draco's babble.
"She asked me, why I am the way I am?" He replied finally looking up at Lucia with an expressionless stare.
Lucia, was silent a moment, "Why you are who you are? As in why you are…what?"
His eyes lit up with an inner flame of anger and resentment towards the Gryffindor girl, "As in why I'm mean, cruel, cold, selfish…as in why do I laugh at others misfortune…" He trailed off not wanting to go on.
"I see," Lucia began, "You seemed to be acting like an annoyingly charming idiot around her ever since you two were paired, I'm surprised she wasn't referring to that."
Draco smirked finally, "I only acted that way with her to get her annoyed and angry."
"Ah, but when its she who gets you angry…you walk away?" She replied.
"Well…she…" he then stopped and held back a wave of anger, "I didn't get personal."
Lucia shook her head, "Draco, the main purpose of the assignment is to get personal."
Draco looked at her in a way that seemed like he didn't know that was the main purpose of the assignment, "Well it's the most ridiculous assignment I've ever had so far."
Lucia sighed, "Did you tell her why you are the way you are?"
"No," he replied dryly, "I left after she asked."
"Do you plan on telling her?"
"Are you insane Lucia!? Would you tell Potter about how we've been brought up!?" He asked in a loud tone, "Cause that's where all those answers are."
Lucia's eyes went glossy as she glanced at Draco, "I doubt it…unless it was absolutely necessary…which I also doubt."
"So then don't expect me to answer Granger's stupid questions." He replied coldly.
She shrugged and stood up, "I've had enough of this conversation. I don't wait two months out of the year to come here only to have to think about the one place I desire to stay away from now that I'm finally here."
Draco glanced at her with a tint of guilt, "Yea, I know."
She sighed, "Look it's a simple enough assignment, yet you and Hermione are making it out to be exceedingly difficult for yourselves. Once its over you can go back to ignoring her and not having to even look her way, its not like something unthinkable is going to come out of all this, so just suck it up and deal with it. At least try and act like a Malfoy will you." She then walked right passed him without even looking at him and she slammed her room door.
"Act like a Malfoy, yea like that's what I really want to do." He said coldly, though he sounded a bit resentful and sarcastic. He then went to bed.
That morning Harry, Ron and Hermione went into the Great Hall for breakfast, Harry and Ron dug right into their porridge, but they noticed that Hermione wasn't really eating and she looked a little distant, "'Mione, you ok? You've been awful quiet this morning." Ron said looking at her concerned.
Hermione glanced at the two boys looking at them silently, "Question, why do you think Malfoy is the way he is?"
"Honestly? I think its cause he enjoys torturing those who aren't like him." Ron said without really thinking about anything he had just said.
Hermione's eyes dropped in amazement, "He was right."
"Say what?" Ron said stopping his consumption of porridge.
"He said that everyone thinks-" she then stopped, she thought perhaps…just perhaps it wasn't her place to say that he just proved Draco true. Though Ron was just one out of a hundred or so students…but if she counted herself that was two…who knows?
"Whatever Hermione…why not eat we have Potions first today." Ron said.
"Alright." Hermione said in a low voice, though she hardly ate anything as she watched Draco at the Slytherin table and a stab of guilt went right through her.
"Well at least in Potions I don't have to deal with Malfoy." She muttered to herself.
They then saw Professor Dumbledore walk by their table holding a thick white drink with a slice of pineapple stuck on the rim and a pink umbrella poking out of it. He saw the three of them looking at him and he stopped at them and smiled, "Hello."
"Hello Professor." They all replied.
"Uh, professor what are you drinking?" Harry asked curiously.
"Oh this?" Dumbledore began raising his glass a little, "This is a pina-colada from one of the Spanish countries, its quite good."
"Uh, Professor…I have a question about our Magic of the Minds assignment." Hermione said looking at him questioningly.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" He asked sipping his drink.
"Why do we have to get to know our partner? What if we just don't think we can get along with them?" She asked helplessly.
He smiled down at her, "My dear, some things never start out easy. Give it time…the crystals are never wrong I assure you. Don't give up, for given time all things fall into place."
"But how does our partner help us develop our minds?" She asked.
"Didn't you hear me before? Only they can wake up the magic inside of you my dear." He said with a twinkle in his eye. He then walked away sipping his drink.
"Great." Hermione said with a pout.
Just then it was time to head to Potions, and they all went very, very reluctantly.
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A/N: Alright, hope you liked. Did you like? Please let me know what you think and any questions you have please e-mail me and let me know…my e-mail is Maygirl5306@aol.com. Just to let you all know the conversation between Lucia and Draco was done so that you could get a small idea as to what Draco thinks and if you were really paying attention the conversation shows you a clue as to what big role Lucia plays in the future of Draco and Hermione's relationship and much more. Everyone has big roles to play, even Ron…and don't worry…he'll get a girl lol.
Next Chapter: Draco and Hermione get…stuck?
