A/N- Thank you to my two reviewers, Draco is the man and Juliet-Malfoy. I will continue to keep writing even though nobody else is reviewing my story. *ahem* So, anyway, onward towards chapter three.

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Chapter Three: And the School Year Begins

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Love is like quicksand, the deeper you fall in, the harder it is to come out …

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The sunlight peeked through Hermione's drawn curtains as she woke up from a deep slumber. It was the morning after her first night back at Hogwarts and the beginning of lessons for another year. She glanced over at her bedside clock, wondering if she had enough time for a shower before class. What she saw next jolted her fully awake. Class started at 9am sharp. It was 8:56am.

Pulling on her robes frantically, she wondered why she didn't wake up on time. She grabbed her book bag (which she had packed last night) and stumbled out to the living area, to be greeted by the sight of Malfoy, looking cheerful.

"Good morning, Granger," he said pleasantly.

"Morning," she muttered. And not even wondering what he was doing there or why he was being so nice, she ran out the portrait hole and into the Great Hall. There was no one there. Had she been that late? Did Harry and Ron just abandon her? She looked at her watch. 6:59am. One more minute till . . . wait a minute. 6:59?!? There was at least two hours before class started. Feeling very foolish, Hermione made her way back up to the 4th floor. How come her bedside clock had said 8:56 when it was probably only 6:56???

And then she remembered.

"Malfoy."

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"Jeez, Hermione, you don't look too good today. Rough night?"

Hermione mumbled something that sounded like 'damn Slytherin'.

It was 8:15am, 45 minutes before classes started and Hermione had found Ron and Harry when she re-entered the Great Hall 15 minutes ago.

So, anyway, when she had found out that Malfoy was the most likely one behind making her wake up earlier than usual, she walked dumbly back to their dormitory, feeling very stupid. She entered and was greeted by the sight of Malfoy, sitting there on the sofa, looking perfectly calm.

"7 minutes, Granger. Tsk, tsk. I expected you to figure it out by at least 5 minutes," he said, with a hint of a smirk on his face.

"Malfoy!"

That was all she managed to sputter. She was furious. He had tricked her from a nice, hot and tempting shower, made her run around the castle, thinking that she was late. She was humiliated that she even fell for it. Not that anyone was even there to see her. But she was still mad.

"Do you know what you made me go through . . . you evil . . . thing?" she demanded.

He looked at her, thoroughly amused. He liked to see Herm-, Granger mad.

"No, enlighten me, please," he said, very pleasantly.

But Hermione's patience had worn out.

"Oh my God! Just leave me alone, would you? You have started annoying me ever since day one that we met each other! You didn't give me a chance to show you what kind of a person I was and you treated me like scum on the bottom of your shoe! Don't you have anything else better to do? Like snog some Slytherin sluts for example?"

Hermione breathed heavily. She couldn't believe what had just happened.

Draco's eyes were slits. It seemed strange how quickly one's face can change.

"Very well, Granger. I understand that a mudblood like you can't take a joke."

He stood up, walked into his room and slammed the door.

Hermione let out a shaky breath. She had been an idiot. She shouldn't have overreacted like that. What was wrong with her? She knew that she had a temper problem sometimes, but when had it gone that bad? At least she didn't slap Malfoy on the face again.

But she blamed herself for Malfoy being mad at her, after all she did make him think that he had spinach on his teeth last night.

She sighed wearily and walked to her room and closed the door.

Then, without bothering to change out of her perfectly ironed robes, she just slumped on the bed and fell asleep.

So that's what led to a very cranky Hermione. Luckily she didn't see Malfoy again when she woke up. She shuddered at the thought of him.

"Hermione, if you're not going to drink that soup, I'll be more than happy to have it."

"Yeah, go on, take it. I'm not hungry," she mumbled.

Ron immediately seized the soup.

"Are you alright, Hermione?" asked Harry, looking concerned.

Hermione smiled to herself. Good old Harry, always the kind and sensitive one.

"Don't mind me, I'm fine," she replied.

Suddenly, she had an urge to go get some fresh air, so she decided to take a stroll along the lake. After all, no one would miss her. No one even noticed that for once in her six years at Hogwarts, she had her hair unbushy [ A/N- I don't know how else to describe it ], using some magical hair care products that Lavender Brown had given her for her last birthday.

She told Ron and Harry where she was going and left the Great Hall and entered the Hogwart's School Grounds.

To her relief, there was no one else out there. Or so she thought.

She was just strolling leisurely alongside the lake, when she sensed another person nearby.

She looked up.

And saw Drac-Malfoy.

He was just standing under a tree, staring out towards the lake, not moving a muscle.

She turned and decided to leave. She didn't want to be around him after what happened in the morning.

"Pansy, I told you to leave me alone earlier, don't follow me anymore."

Draco's voice rang into the silence.

Hermione stiffened.

She didn't notice that Pansy was there, she wasn't, was she?

Feeling that she shouldn't overhear what was going on between them, she started to walk away quickly.

He spoke again.

"Don't pretend you can't hear me, Parkinson. Come back here. And I demand you tell me why you followed me. Oh wait, you don't need to. I already know that you're helplessly in love with me."

This time, Hermione realized that he was talking to HER.

She felt herself boil. He thought that she was in love with him?!?

No, Hermione, calm down. He thinks you're someone else.

So what are you doing just standing here?!? Turn around!

She reluctantly turned.

She saw Draco's expression change from frustration to . . . surprise.

"It . . . it's you Granger? I didn't realize . . . it's . . . just that . . . your hair . . . you looked like . . . Pansy from the back . . ."

Draco looked lost for words.

Hermione would've giggled if she didn't remind herself of what happened today.

"Well, I guess I'd better leave you alone then," she said, "you might want to continue that dialogue you were having with an invisible someone."

Draco blushed. Or actually, a faint pink rose on his cheeks.

"I was just leaving, Granger," he said in what he hoped was a rough voice.

He stalked past Hermione. She stared after him and after a five second silent debate, she called out after him.

"Malfoy!"

He turned.

"Yeah?"

She blushed.

"Erm, about today . . . morning . . . your prank . . ." she mumbled.

"You don't have to say it, Granger." He slightly lifted up the corners of his lips so it was like a very small smile and walked away.

She smiled at his retreating back. At least he wasn't still mad at her. She stood there for another ten minutes, silent and alone before heading towards her first class for this year, Transfiguration.

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"Hermione, I don't understand it. You went out to the school grounds and managed to still get back in time for class before everyone else."

Hermione smiled as Ron muttered about her 'untardyness'.

They were standing outside their classroom, waiting for their teacher to come. Since it was first lesson, the classrooms weren't open yet.

Hermione had decided that she shouldn't tell Harry and Ron that she actually had a conversation with Draco today. After all, it didn't hurt to just hide one secret from them, right?

Professor McGonagall arrived minutes after and they were all hustled into their classroom.

"Alright, class. Settle down. Since you are all in 6th year now, I expect that you all know that I approve of you all reading at least the first chapter of your textbooks before school starts."

She looked around the class. Everyone except Hermione was trying to sneak their textbook onto their table and read the first chapter now. Hermione had, of course, read the whole book during the holidays.

"Now, I expect you all to be able to turn this yellow canary into a water cracker."

She demonstrated to the class and with a 'poof', the yellow canary that was on her desk turned into a cracker.

Everyone took a canary and started to point their wands and say the magic words, 'raven aryooh ish'.

Hermione watched her peers fail at this very simple (to her) task.

She picked up her wand and said loudly and clearly, "Raven aryooh ish."

*POOF*

Hermione stared at the now black canary on her desk.

The people around her giggled and Hermione shot them an icy glare.

This was the first time that she didn't manage to make a spell work. Now she knew what failure felt like. She didn't like it.

She tried, maybe fifty times through the rest of the class but she didn't manage to turn the yellow canary into a water cracker.

No one else succeeded and that made her feel a little better but she still wasn't happy.

By the end of the class, everyone else in her classroom knew of her 'failure'.

When the bell marking the end of lesson rang, Professor McGonagall managed to call out over the noise of everyone leaving the room.

"Miss Granger! A word please!"

Hermione walked sadly to her professor's desk. Had she failed that bad? Would she be expelled from school because of a failing such a simple exercise? But everyone didn't manage to succeed either . . .

Professor McGonagall closed the door after the last student had finally left the classroom.

"Don't worry, Miss Granger, it's nothing about school. It's more of a . . . erm, personal subject."

Hermione stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Now, Miss Granger, if I'm not mistaken, you are turning 16 soon, 15 at the moment?"

Hermione nodded.

"Very well then. I don't know if you know yet, but wizards and witches go through different things during their . . . erm . . . hormone stages. Witches usually experience it around 15-17 years and during this time, many changes can occur, not just physically. During this time, witches tend to be more forgetful, more touchy, more . . . sensitive. And basically, they just aren't themselves. I noticed today that you had some problems with transforming the canary and since I know what you're going through, it's alright. I also know that you have muggle parents so they may not know about this 'hormone change' so they could not warn you beforehand. Therefore, I felt it was my duty to inform you of this."

Hermione just stared at her. So that's why she had been so touchy with Draco and why she had forgotten to tell Harry and Ron of her prefect news. It made sense.

Feeling much better before, knowing that she wasn't going stupid or anything, she smiled at the professor.

"Thanks, professor. I really appreciate it."

And she walked out.

Professor McGonagall was surprised. She didn't expect the talk to go that well.

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For the next few days, the Hogwarts students started getting use to going back to school again and were tortured by the amount of homework given out to them.

But Hermione was happy as it gave her excuses to go to the library. Not just because it was her favorite place. But also because she needed some 'Hermione-time' during this period of her life.

So it was a very common sight during those days to see Hermione at the library, either doing homework, reading a (thick) book or just looking out the window.

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A/N- Okay, we'll just leave it at there. Wow, looks like a long chapter. I hope you like it. And I promise more H/D stuff in the chapters to come. Unfortunately, I'm having my half-yearly's soon so I'll be spending more time studying than updating but when the half-yearly's over … there's the holidays [ yay! ] so there'll be more time then to write more. Till then . . . latahz . . .