Sorry everyone, I realized that in my first chapter I didn't have my disclaimer. OOPS! Here it is!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything Harry Potter like. All I have is the plot (which is nothing compared to what she comes up with)! I am not selling this, and am most definitely not making any money off of it…so please don't hurt me! All I ask is that you try bare with me as I attempt to write as good as the amazing J.K. Rowling!

I'd like to thank Dark Angel and Mary Elizzy for their reviews! Thanks guys, they've really given me some confidence to continue to write! I absolutely didn't expect to get a single review so they really mean a lot! I know that is pretty korny, but I'm serious! :)

Oh, and of course I'll email you Dark Angel to let you know that I've updated. If there is anyone else that would like me to email them about my updates, just let me know. I would be happy to!

NOW LETS GET TO THE SECOND CHAPTER!

Chapter 2

Steeling Glances

Hermione woke up slowly the following morning to a bright and sunny day. She carefully rubbed her tired eyes and somehow managed to make herself get out of the bed. Hey, it could be worse…it could be raining on the first day of classes, she thought. As she padded over to her trunk to pick out something to wear, she remembered Draco's odd behavior the night before. A shiver ran through her body as she also remembered the fact that he was in a way looking for her.

She finished picking out what she needed and quietly made her way to the showers, trying her best not to wake the girls around her.

********

About a half an hour later, Hermione was down stairs quietly reading her new Defense Against the Dark Arts book; trying to get in as much as she could before class started. A few more minutes later, she heard Harry and Ron making their way down the stairs. She looked up seeing them and couldn't help but laugh to herself as she saw that Harry's hair was sticking up on one side. Hmmm…someone must have slept like a rock, she thought.

Hermione put her book away and the three of them made their way out of the Griffindor common room and down to the Great Hall to have breakfast.

The Great Hall was very bright making Hermione feel that the day would have to be good. Looking towards the magical ceiling, she saw that there were tiny, white, puffy clouds all surrounding the sun high in the sky.

Harry, Ron and Hermione all took their seats near the end of the Griffindor table. Ron, immediately after sitting down, started filling his plate high with eggs, bacon, and sausage, then grabbing toast and applying butter to it. Hermione looked at Ron with a disgusted face, "You're going to make yourself sick before you even get to class!"

"Naa….," he managed to get out before he stuffed another spoonful of eggs in his mouth.

Hermione, feeling that there really wasn't anything she could say or do that would change his mind otherwise, reached for a slice of toast for herself. She then looked around the table for some butter to put on her toast…then realized that Ron had taken the last of hit. Errr…

While eating her toast and looking at her schedule for the day, she suddenly felt like someone was watching her. She looked up and down the Griffindor table; no one seemed to be acting out of place. Then, not sure why, she glanced over to the Slytherin table. Malfoy was looking directly at her, with absolutely no emotion showing on his face at all. They looked at each other for only a few seconds before they both ducked down trying to hide themselves.

"Hermione? What are you doing?" Harry asked with an eyebrow up as if going 'huh???'.

"Hmmm?" Hermione said softly while turning her head back towards her friend.

Harry looked at her for a few moments, searching her face, then turned towards the Slytherin table. Was she looking at Draco? Even if she was…why is she acting like she's hiding something? He smiled, shaking his head. I'm over reacting…calm down.

Suddenly something hit Harry…why does Hermione talking to Draco, or even looking at him bother me so much? It's not like she hasn't done it before in the past 6 years.

He looked at Draco again, not sure what he hoped to see, but he noticed that again he was looking in his general direction. Without even thinking about it, he looked next to him where Hermione was…now staring right at Draco. Both of them had a sort of blank look on their faces.

"We'd better get going…we don't want to be late to our first Potions class," said a voice Harry didn't recognize right away. "I think Snape would enjoy giving us detention too much."

"Huh?" Harry finally muttered coming out of the trans he was in while looking at Hermione.

"Potions…Snape…Hogworts…come on Harry…WAKE UP! Do I dare ask what you were thinking about?"

"Oh…uhh…sorry."

Harry quickly grabbed his books and noticed that Hermione was finally doing the same…now that she wasn't looking at Draco anymore. They made their way down the dark corridors in the direction of the dungeons for their Potions class.

********

There was an obvious change in the temperature down in the dungeons. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were standing in a small huddle outside the door of Snape's classroom. He hadn't arrived yet, and none of the students were about to unlock the door with their wands and walk in. Doing something like that would just be plain stupid…especially with Snape's door.

Several minutes went by and still there was no sign of Snape. The three had resorted to talking about what might be keeping Snape. They couldn't really remember a time that he was this late to his own class.

"Maybe Dumbledore has finally came to his senses and fired him," Ron said hopefully.

"I think it's highly unlikely that Dumbledore would fire a teacher now…after all these years of trusting him. And besides, he was at dinner last night," Hermione said with her head up high.

"Did anyone see him at breakfast this morning…I didn't even look," Said Harry after a while.

After a few more minutes of just standing there, Draco comes up to them. Harry looked up from his feet to stare at something that he hoped would be more interesting…like the wall. As he did, the saw Draco.

"Good morning," Draco said with a nervous look n his face.

"Uh…good morning to you too, Malfoy," Hermione said quickly with a little smile on her face.

"Can we help you? Or have you come back to make a fool of yourself like you did last night?" Ron said quite rudely.

"No…I uh…just…uh…" was all that he was able to get out.

"You…uh…just uh?" Harry said in his mocking voice.

Hermione looked at them both, "Stop…"

At about that time, Snape came practically running right between Draco and the other three in his haste to get to his door and unlock it. The four took one last look at everyone else and turned to walk into the classroom and take their seats before Snape yelled at them to do so.

"I'm going to apologize, although I don't believe I have to, for my tardiness to class. I was needed in a small emergency meeting. It seems that we have a spider problem in our castle, and the other teachers have asked me to make a potion to drive them away."

"S-spiders???" Ron choked out.

Snape glared at Ron for speaking out of turn. "Ron, is there something that you would like to share with the rest of the class?" he sneered.

By that time, Ron was about the color of a strawberry… Gulp… "No sir, sorry."

"Alright then, moving on. Seeing as you are all 7th years, I believe that none of you should have a problem in making the simple potion needed. The directions are on the board, and all of the ingredients can be found on the table at the front of the room. I want all of you to be finished by the end of class. Get started."

Hermione somehow managed to get stuck with Ron, who was now so worried about the spider problem, wasn't much help at all.

"Ron…come on…pay attention! You were about to add too much snake skin!"

"S-sorry," he said while brushing off his arm like something was crawling up it.

Hermione sighed loudly and glanced around the room seeing how far along everyone else had gotten so far. Once she reached Draco, he looked up right at her. Both of them stood dead still for a few minutes, looking into each other's eyes. Hermione could feel heat running through her body, starting from her stomach and she suddenly felt nervous. With that, she looked down quickly at her feet, hiding how she felt, then back up into his eyes again. He smiled at her…

Oh my god! Did he just smile at me? I don't think I've ever seen him smile… unless he thinking about something horrible he's about to do! Even then, it's not really a smile…but more of a …smirk.

She gathered her courage and made herself look at him again. He was still watching her, but with a nervous look on his face now. Awww… She couldn't help herself…she had to smile at him. It was so neat his reaction to something as small as a smile. He broke into a wide grin showing his unusually white teeth against his pale skin. His reaction made her giggle out loud quietly.

Harry heard Hermione at the table to his right giggling. It was not like her to be laughing in class; she's so serious about her grades. He looked over at her and saw her laughing softly, looking down to the ground, then back up to…who…DRACO???

********

It seemed like the end of class would never come. The potion that Snape had everyone working on really wasn't that hard, but Ron still wasn't being of much help. He spent most of his time looking around the classroom walls and under the tables and chairs for spiders. Occasionally he would get this deathly look on his face and stare at his arm while (once again) smacking at it trying to kill…well nothing at all.

Snape dismissed the class and Ron grabbed his things and ran from the room. Harry followed close behind him laughing out loud about the way Ron was acting. "Catch you later, Hermione!"

Hermione slowly picked up her things and was one of the last to leave the classroom. She was about all the way out of the dungeons when she heard someone call her name behind her. Turning around, she saw Draco jogging up to her.

"Hey…" he said.

"Hi."

For a few minutes, they had a very friendly conversation about Potions class, and what Snape had them doing. Hermione never really noticed it before, but Draco was a very bright guy…if he let it be known.

They were about to the Great Hall when he suddenly stopped. Hermione stopped too, and turned around with a puzzled face, looking to see why he had quit walking.

"I'd like to say I'm sorry for acting so differently last night after dinner. I'm sure I really freaked you, Harry and Ron out."

"Oh, that's alright," she said kind of smiling and not really sure what to say.

"If it's any consolation, I meant what I said…when I said that I wanted to overcome our differences. And if at all possible…become friends."

Hermione didn't know what to think…she couldn't think. He must really mean this to be saying this again, it really isn't like him otherwise. She looked up from the ground, first seeing his mouth and his bottom lip that he was chewing on slightly. Then she looked up into his eyes, to see if maybe she would tell if what he was saying was true and that he really meant it. That is when she saw the vast hunger in his eyes…for her.

****************************************************************************

Hey guys, I hope you like it…because I really enjoyed writing it! Let me know what you think please! I'll do my best to update as fast as I am humanly possible…promise! :)