*bows down* Wonderful reviewers, I love you. I never expected to get more
than 20 reviews for this, even with all chapters uploaded, since it's such
an unconventional pairing. Imagine my shock when I saw 79 reviews (last
time I looked). Thank you ever so much.
In this chapter; more Harry and Ron for those who asked where they were. *grins* I know I've made them a bit passive, but that's because I didn't really know how they'd react, and because they didn't really affect the plot anyway. However, they aren't forgotten. Just imagine they've been off to the side and playing Quidditch or something *shrugs*.
*********'
The lecture they received from Madame Pince was bad enough to rival Snape at his worst. One could believe they'd been burning the place to the ground, and not just sit quietly in two chairs all night, doing nothing.
Well, almost nothing anyway.
The kiss wasn't, and probably never would be, forgotten. Hermione had tried to talk to Blaise when he came back, but he had only snatched his book and set off again, not saying a word, or in any way answering her inquiries. So she'd sat down again, a little discouraged, and had waited out the night by herself, knowing that if she went after him, it'd only get worse; he needed time to sort things out.
She already had her thoughts sorted out. Being a practical girl, she had gone through her feelings one by one, identifying them and putting them in place. She'd concluded that she had at the very least a crush on the black haired Slytherin, if not more, and when she'd realized that, she'd wasted no time in ignoring it for the time being and gone back to her book.
Now, when they were outside the library with strict orders to go and not come back for at least two days, she turned to Blaise and was about to say something, when he turned on his heels and disappeared down the corridor towards the Slytherin Common Room.
She stared after him, open mouthed, not knowing what to do. The look on his face before he had turned had been one of carefully erected calm and control, as if he was afraid he'd do something rash or wrong if he didn't keep a tight leash on himself. He had almost seemed..afraid.
Feeling a little put down, and slightly sad, she walk towards the Great Hall, where breakfast would be served in a few minutes. She hunched her shoulders, as if to ward something unpleasant off, and trudged down the stairs silently. Maybe she could see Ron and Harry, and talk about Quidditch, or chess. Anything to get her mind off Blaise Zabini for the moment.
******'
Ron and Harry were, indeed, sitting at the Gryffindor table, already munching on their breakfast and talking Quidditch strategies between mouthfuls. She slid into her seat beside them, and started buttering a roll, glancing cautiously towards the Slytherin table. Blaise wasn't there.
Relieved, she turned back to her breakfast, and tried to pay attention to her two best friends. She felt kind of bad for almost ignoring them since she'd started the war with Blaise, and she wanted to pay them back for putting up with her being that way.
"...And then, I just kicked the Quaffle straight across the field, and nearly managed to score too!" Ron was saying.
"Can Keepers score in Quidditch?" She asked, breaking their concentration for a second.
"What? Oh, they can, but it doesn't happen often, you see it's like this." Ron began, immediately including her in the conversation.
She pretended to listen for a while, but had a hard time concentrating. For once, it wasn't because the topic was Quidditch; she merely had too much on her mind already to take it in and actually pay attention.
After a while, Harry noticed she was spacing off, and leaned across the table, looking concerned. This was enough to break her out of her reverie, and she stared at him for a moment before regaining her composure.
"Hermione, where were you last night?" Harry asked, sounding worried.
"What? Oh; I got locked in the library, since Madame Pince warded the doors overnight, and I couldn't get out." She explained sheepishly.
"What?" Ron asked, chuckling, "How? Didn't you tell us Madame Pince checks the library every night before closing?"
She was impressed, surprised even, that Ron, who always complained about her bookishness, had managed to remember such a trivial detail about the library, which she had only mentioned in a passing conversation a few weeks ago
"Well, she didn't this time; w- I was in the Muggle Literature section, and since she didn't see me come in, and I am the only one to my knowledge that reads Muggle literature here at Hogwarts, I guess she didn't bother to check." Hermione shrugged.
Ron burst out laughing. Harry chuckled a bit, and Hermione looked at them for a while, still smiling sheepishly, before joining them. Soon, all three of them were laughing loudly, causing several other students to look at them curiously.
However, Hermione's laughter stopped abruptly when the doors to the Great Hall opened, and Draco Malfoy came in, dragging Blaise Zabini by the collar. The black haired boy looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there, but reluctantly sat down in his seat when his blond House mate pushed him towards it.
Hermione caught his eye across the hall, but Blaise quickly looked down in his late and refused to meet her gaze. Hermione turned back to her own breakfast, and tried to ignore the tightening of her throat and the slight prickle in her eyes. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry in front of the whole Hall.
She was steadily becoming unsure if he really gave a damn about her, and if that kiss had only been something new to taunt her with. She hoped that that wasn't the case, but with a Slytherin, one could never know. She blinked back the tears and concentrated, once again, on Ron and Harry's conversation, without actually joining in.
*****'
Had Hermione known of the events that played out in the Slytherin boy's dorms only half an hour earlier, she might have reacted differently to seeing Blaise. As it was, she hadn't, and reacted the way she did.
Draco had come into the dorm looking for his tie, which he'd forgotten to put on, and found Blaise sitting on his bed, tie untied, cloak on the floor, staring at the wall with a far-away expression on his face.
The black haired boy didn't even notice him, until he sat down on the bed next to him, and even then, he only turned his head slightly. He looked as if he hadn't slept for days, and he had a sort of hopeless look in his eyes.
"Blaise, what's wrong with you? You look like hell." Draco ventured.
"Nothing." Blaise mumbled. "Except I got locked in the library, made an idiot of myself, and drastically screwed up my life."
"That doesn't sound good. What happened?" Draco asked.
He was alarmed that his friend, previously the Slytherin of the most sunny disposition, in as far as a Slytherin could be sunny, was sitting on his bed, looking for the world as if he'd lost everything.
"Nothing important," Blaise shrugged so carelessly that it only made Draco more suspicious that something important really had happened. "I just made a mistake too big for words, and now I don't know what to do."
"Ah. Girl-trouble." Draco said, grinning slightly. "It was only a matter of time until it happened to you."
While all other Slytherin boys, with the exception of Crabbe and Goyle, had had girlfriends at least once, and all of them had had some sort of trouble with the opposite sex, Blaise had stayed amazingly clear of such problems. Now, it seemed, disaster had finally struck him.
And if the look on his face, fear mixed with alarm and embarrassment, was anything to judge from, Draco had been right in his assumptions. Now all he had to do was figure out whom the girl was. He sat for a moment, before his brain kicked into action and realization began to dawn.
"It isn't Granger, is it?" He asked, and seeing the look on Blaise's face change quickly, he knew he'd been right, "It is. I can't believe it. Why Granger? She's just a bookworm Gryffindor with bushy hair!"
"I don't know. I'm such a damn fool." Blaise mumbled as he buried his face in his hands.
It came as a shock, to say the least, finding out that his friend fancied a Gryffindor, but thinking about it, it made sense. The two had been tormenting each other over the last two months, but neither actually hurt the other if they could avoid it. And, when it came to the inner workings of love, who was he to judge?
"Ah. Well, love makes fools of the best of us." Draco said wisely, "And this calls for immediate action. Breakfast."
"What?" Draco's seemingly illogical change of subject confused Blaise to say the least.
"Breakfast; you'll think better with food in your stomach. Besides, it's blueberry pancakes, and you'd be stupid to say no to that." Draco winked.
"Oh no," Blaise whined, "I should have known. Do all your grand plans equal food?"
"Of course," Draco said, dragging him out of the room.
******'
Now, Blaise was sitting in the Great Hall, picking at his pancakes, trying not to stare at Hermione too much. She'd tried to catch his eye, but being afraid of what he'd see there, he'd looked away immediately.
Draco had of course seen the exchange, and had threatened to go over there and tell her about it, but desisted when Blaise threatened to hex him. Now, Draco only glanced at him from time to time and grinned.
He tried to ignore the world around him, but it had an annoying habit of getting in his way. Sighing, he ate his breakfast silently, and kept his thoughts to himself.
******'
Charms; a nice, normal lesson with a nice and nearly normal teacher. Lately, however, it had become a battle ground for Blaise and Hermione's personal war. And the students, always ready for entertainment, had come to expect their little confrontations in class.
Therefore, when the class entered that morning, they were waiting for the two of them to start bickering. Blaise entered the classroom behind Draco and walked silently to his seat. He sat down and took out his quill, waiting for the lesson to start.
Hermione followed only moments later, and sat down next to Ron and Harry, equally silent, pulling out her quill and parchment, and ignored the rest of the class. A class which felt increasingly annoyed.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Any other normal day, the two of them would have been at each other's throats from the moment they walked through the door. Now, they were sitting in their respective seats on opposite sides of the classroom, ignoring the other as much as possible.
Flitwick came in and started the lesson, and life seemed to go on as normal. Only when they were to pair up for the lesson something happened which was slightly odd. Hermione ended up working for Draco Malfoy.
This was odd, because no teacher in their right mind, not even Snape, would set the two to work together. They hated each other with a passion that bordered on murderous, and this made working together quite impossible. Therefore, several students assumed Flitwick had last his last vestige of sanity.
Draco, however, didn't protest too much, since the scheming Slytherin saw this as his chance to find out if the bushy haired Gryffindor felt anything towards his classmate. Besides, if he could torment her while doing so, where was the harm?
"So, Granger, what's up?" He asked, "What happened to the usual show?"
"What show?" She asked, keeping her eyes on her textbook.
"You know what I'm talking about; why aren't you and Blaise already chewing on each other? Something happen?" He just managed to keep from laughing at her expression.
"No." She mumbled, "I'm just tired. I don't know about him, but that's my reason."
"Hmm. And you two were in the library because..?" Draco queried, grinning slightly evilly.
Her head snapped up and she stared at him, mouth hanging open, looking utterly and completely shocked.
"How did you know that?" She demanded.
"I didn't. I just wanted to be sure." Draco shrugged.
"You bloody sneak." She spat, "Well, I'm not telling you. If you want to know so damn bad; ask him. I'm sure he can tell you all about it."
"Ouch. Best change subjects before you start chewing on me, and not him. He must have screwed up really bad." Draco muttered before starting to work on the assignment.
Hermione threw him a glare, but said nothing.
*****'
Across the classroom, Blaise watched the exchange, but couldn't hear the actual words. He saw Hermione glare at Draco, and couldn't help cringing slightly. If he knew Draco, like he thought he did, the blonde had just said something insulting, and he felt a little angry at his classmate, but only for a moment.
He quickly returned to working on his assignment with Millicent Bulstrode, who was actually really nice when you got to know her. She'd grown very tall over the years, and now only he and Weasley stood taller than she did, making it impossible for her to get dates, because the larger part of the male students refused to go out with a girl two heads taller than they were.
He chewed on the end of his quill as his eyes scanned the textbook for details on the Severing Charm. He managed to concentrate on the text, if only because Millicent jabbed him in the ribs every time his concentration began to drift.
"Blaise, stop staring; you're embarrassing yourself." Millicent muttered.
"I'm not staring; I'm wondering if Draco can manage to get a rise out of her." He muttered back, secretly annoyed that she'd caught him at it.
"Hmm." Millicent mumbled, looking very disbelieving, but let him be after that.
He snorted, and tried not to be too obvious in his staring, although he doubted he'd succeed. Hermione had an annoying habit of keeping in the forefront of his mind ever since last night, and looking at her seemed almost second nature to him already.
****'
Hermione left the Charms classroom as quickly as she could after the lesson, not to be caught up in conversation with Malfoy again, or staring at Blaise. She raced down the hallway to get to Transfigurations, and ignored Neville as he shouted for her to wait up.
She just wanted to get away from the class as fast as possible. If she had to suffer through one more second of Draco Malfoy's suggestive comments, she'd go stark raving mad. He'd been dropping hints about Blaise since the lesson started, constantly asking what had happened in the library, a topic she was not about to discuss with anyone, much less him.
She didn't want to know what Blaise had told him about the night in the library, but it was obvious, since Malfoy had a hard time keeping a straight face, it couldn't have been anything good, and the last thing she wanted was to have Malfoy laugh at her.
What was even more annoying was that Blaise had been sitting just across the classroom, working with Millicent Bulstrode, looking like he enjoyed himself very much. And Hermione couldn't really blame him; Millicent had grown up quite nicely, and no longer looked so bullish. She knew she wasn't much to look at herself, and it seemed like Blaise had decided to move on to new conquests.
If he ever really bothered with her, that was. That thought had her blinking back tears. Swallowing hard, she hurried towards Transfigurations, not caring that she nearly pushed people out of her way to get there.
****'
The Slytherin Common Room had a thick green rug, placed in front of the fireplace. Two silver serpents twisted around the edges of it, making it the perfect Slytherin rug. It was usually only used to warm ones feet during winter time. Now, however, it was being worn through by a pair of feet.
The feet belonged to Blaise Zabini, and he was pacing restlessly back and forth, staring at the floor. Draco, who was sitting in one of the chairs, watched him in amusement. Blaise had been pacing for nearly an hour now, and showed no signs of stopping any time soon.
"What's he up to?" Millicent queried as she slumped in the chair next to him.
"Oh, you know; girl trouble." Draco shrugged, grinning.
"Ah. Who's the lucky girl?" She asked, grinning as well.
"Take a guess."
"Oh. Granger, is it?" She asked, and at Draco's nod, continued, "Hmm. I guess I should have known. He's been constantly annoying her for weeks now. I can't say I saw it coming, but still. Too bad Granger's probably wrapped up in Weasley already."
Draco looked at her in surprise. The last sentence had sounded somewhat jealous. Millicent couldn't be fancying Weasley, could she?
"Do I detect jealousy there, Millicent?" He asked.
"No." She mumbled, but she was blushing slightly.
"Liar. You fancy Weasley, don't you?" Draco asked, trying not to laugh.
"You have an amazing grasp of the blatantly obvious, Draco." She shot back.
"Oh, this is so fun! I can play matchmaker! Now, how do I go about it?" He said to himself, as Millicent got up and walked off.
Blaise appeared not to have heard him, and continued his pacing. Draco was left alone to plan his matchmaking, and did so as darkness fell over the school.
******'
Ending Notes; alright, so Harry and Ron didn't show up all that much, but they had some more lines. I've got a Slytherin bias, and I've always had an easier time writing Slytherins than Gryffindors, so there you have it.
In this chapter; more Harry and Ron for those who asked where they were. *grins* I know I've made them a bit passive, but that's because I didn't really know how they'd react, and because they didn't really affect the plot anyway. However, they aren't forgotten. Just imagine they've been off to the side and playing Quidditch or something *shrugs*.
*********'
The lecture they received from Madame Pince was bad enough to rival Snape at his worst. One could believe they'd been burning the place to the ground, and not just sit quietly in two chairs all night, doing nothing.
Well, almost nothing anyway.
The kiss wasn't, and probably never would be, forgotten. Hermione had tried to talk to Blaise when he came back, but he had only snatched his book and set off again, not saying a word, or in any way answering her inquiries. So she'd sat down again, a little discouraged, and had waited out the night by herself, knowing that if she went after him, it'd only get worse; he needed time to sort things out.
She already had her thoughts sorted out. Being a practical girl, she had gone through her feelings one by one, identifying them and putting them in place. She'd concluded that she had at the very least a crush on the black haired Slytherin, if not more, and when she'd realized that, she'd wasted no time in ignoring it for the time being and gone back to her book.
Now, when they were outside the library with strict orders to go and not come back for at least two days, she turned to Blaise and was about to say something, when he turned on his heels and disappeared down the corridor towards the Slytherin Common Room.
She stared after him, open mouthed, not knowing what to do. The look on his face before he had turned had been one of carefully erected calm and control, as if he was afraid he'd do something rash or wrong if he didn't keep a tight leash on himself. He had almost seemed..afraid.
Feeling a little put down, and slightly sad, she walk towards the Great Hall, where breakfast would be served in a few minutes. She hunched her shoulders, as if to ward something unpleasant off, and trudged down the stairs silently. Maybe she could see Ron and Harry, and talk about Quidditch, or chess. Anything to get her mind off Blaise Zabini for the moment.
******'
Ron and Harry were, indeed, sitting at the Gryffindor table, already munching on their breakfast and talking Quidditch strategies between mouthfuls. She slid into her seat beside them, and started buttering a roll, glancing cautiously towards the Slytherin table. Blaise wasn't there.
Relieved, she turned back to her breakfast, and tried to pay attention to her two best friends. She felt kind of bad for almost ignoring them since she'd started the war with Blaise, and she wanted to pay them back for putting up with her being that way.
"...And then, I just kicked the Quaffle straight across the field, and nearly managed to score too!" Ron was saying.
"Can Keepers score in Quidditch?" She asked, breaking their concentration for a second.
"What? Oh, they can, but it doesn't happen often, you see it's like this." Ron began, immediately including her in the conversation.
She pretended to listen for a while, but had a hard time concentrating. For once, it wasn't because the topic was Quidditch; she merely had too much on her mind already to take it in and actually pay attention.
After a while, Harry noticed she was spacing off, and leaned across the table, looking concerned. This was enough to break her out of her reverie, and she stared at him for a moment before regaining her composure.
"Hermione, where were you last night?" Harry asked, sounding worried.
"What? Oh; I got locked in the library, since Madame Pince warded the doors overnight, and I couldn't get out." She explained sheepishly.
"What?" Ron asked, chuckling, "How? Didn't you tell us Madame Pince checks the library every night before closing?"
She was impressed, surprised even, that Ron, who always complained about her bookishness, had managed to remember such a trivial detail about the library, which she had only mentioned in a passing conversation a few weeks ago
"Well, she didn't this time; w- I was in the Muggle Literature section, and since she didn't see me come in, and I am the only one to my knowledge that reads Muggle literature here at Hogwarts, I guess she didn't bother to check." Hermione shrugged.
Ron burst out laughing. Harry chuckled a bit, and Hermione looked at them for a while, still smiling sheepishly, before joining them. Soon, all three of them were laughing loudly, causing several other students to look at them curiously.
However, Hermione's laughter stopped abruptly when the doors to the Great Hall opened, and Draco Malfoy came in, dragging Blaise Zabini by the collar. The black haired boy looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there, but reluctantly sat down in his seat when his blond House mate pushed him towards it.
Hermione caught his eye across the hall, but Blaise quickly looked down in his late and refused to meet her gaze. Hermione turned back to her own breakfast, and tried to ignore the tightening of her throat and the slight prickle in her eyes. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry in front of the whole Hall.
She was steadily becoming unsure if he really gave a damn about her, and if that kiss had only been something new to taunt her with. She hoped that that wasn't the case, but with a Slytherin, one could never know. She blinked back the tears and concentrated, once again, on Ron and Harry's conversation, without actually joining in.
*****'
Had Hermione known of the events that played out in the Slytherin boy's dorms only half an hour earlier, she might have reacted differently to seeing Blaise. As it was, she hadn't, and reacted the way she did.
Draco had come into the dorm looking for his tie, which he'd forgotten to put on, and found Blaise sitting on his bed, tie untied, cloak on the floor, staring at the wall with a far-away expression on his face.
The black haired boy didn't even notice him, until he sat down on the bed next to him, and even then, he only turned his head slightly. He looked as if he hadn't slept for days, and he had a sort of hopeless look in his eyes.
"Blaise, what's wrong with you? You look like hell." Draco ventured.
"Nothing." Blaise mumbled. "Except I got locked in the library, made an idiot of myself, and drastically screwed up my life."
"That doesn't sound good. What happened?" Draco asked.
He was alarmed that his friend, previously the Slytherin of the most sunny disposition, in as far as a Slytherin could be sunny, was sitting on his bed, looking for the world as if he'd lost everything.
"Nothing important," Blaise shrugged so carelessly that it only made Draco more suspicious that something important really had happened. "I just made a mistake too big for words, and now I don't know what to do."
"Ah. Girl-trouble." Draco said, grinning slightly. "It was only a matter of time until it happened to you."
While all other Slytherin boys, with the exception of Crabbe and Goyle, had had girlfriends at least once, and all of them had had some sort of trouble with the opposite sex, Blaise had stayed amazingly clear of such problems. Now, it seemed, disaster had finally struck him.
And if the look on his face, fear mixed with alarm and embarrassment, was anything to judge from, Draco had been right in his assumptions. Now all he had to do was figure out whom the girl was. He sat for a moment, before his brain kicked into action and realization began to dawn.
"It isn't Granger, is it?" He asked, and seeing the look on Blaise's face change quickly, he knew he'd been right, "It is. I can't believe it. Why Granger? She's just a bookworm Gryffindor with bushy hair!"
"I don't know. I'm such a damn fool." Blaise mumbled as he buried his face in his hands.
It came as a shock, to say the least, finding out that his friend fancied a Gryffindor, but thinking about it, it made sense. The two had been tormenting each other over the last two months, but neither actually hurt the other if they could avoid it. And, when it came to the inner workings of love, who was he to judge?
"Ah. Well, love makes fools of the best of us." Draco said wisely, "And this calls for immediate action. Breakfast."
"What?" Draco's seemingly illogical change of subject confused Blaise to say the least.
"Breakfast; you'll think better with food in your stomach. Besides, it's blueberry pancakes, and you'd be stupid to say no to that." Draco winked.
"Oh no," Blaise whined, "I should have known. Do all your grand plans equal food?"
"Of course," Draco said, dragging him out of the room.
******'
Now, Blaise was sitting in the Great Hall, picking at his pancakes, trying not to stare at Hermione too much. She'd tried to catch his eye, but being afraid of what he'd see there, he'd looked away immediately.
Draco had of course seen the exchange, and had threatened to go over there and tell her about it, but desisted when Blaise threatened to hex him. Now, Draco only glanced at him from time to time and grinned.
He tried to ignore the world around him, but it had an annoying habit of getting in his way. Sighing, he ate his breakfast silently, and kept his thoughts to himself.
******'
Charms; a nice, normal lesson with a nice and nearly normal teacher. Lately, however, it had become a battle ground for Blaise and Hermione's personal war. And the students, always ready for entertainment, had come to expect their little confrontations in class.
Therefore, when the class entered that morning, they were waiting for the two of them to start bickering. Blaise entered the classroom behind Draco and walked silently to his seat. He sat down and took out his quill, waiting for the lesson to start.
Hermione followed only moments later, and sat down next to Ron and Harry, equally silent, pulling out her quill and parchment, and ignored the rest of the class. A class which felt increasingly annoyed.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Any other normal day, the two of them would have been at each other's throats from the moment they walked through the door. Now, they were sitting in their respective seats on opposite sides of the classroom, ignoring the other as much as possible.
Flitwick came in and started the lesson, and life seemed to go on as normal. Only when they were to pair up for the lesson something happened which was slightly odd. Hermione ended up working for Draco Malfoy.
This was odd, because no teacher in their right mind, not even Snape, would set the two to work together. They hated each other with a passion that bordered on murderous, and this made working together quite impossible. Therefore, several students assumed Flitwick had last his last vestige of sanity.
Draco, however, didn't protest too much, since the scheming Slytherin saw this as his chance to find out if the bushy haired Gryffindor felt anything towards his classmate. Besides, if he could torment her while doing so, where was the harm?
"So, Granger, what's up?" He asked, "What happened to the usual show?"
"What show?" She asked, keeping her eyes on her textbook.
"You know what I'm talking about; why aren't you and Blaise already chewing on each other? Something happen?" He just managed to keep from laughing at her expression.
"No." She mumbled, "I'm just tired. I don't know about him, but that's my reason."
"Hmm. And you two were in the library because..?" Draco queried, grinning slightly evilly.
Her head snapped up and she stared at him, mouth hanging open, looking utterly and completely shocked.
"How did you know that?" She demanded.
"I didn't. I just wanted to be sure." Draco shrugged.
"You bloody sneak." She spat, "Well, I'm not telling you. If you want to know so damn bad; ask him. I'm sure he can tell you all about it."
"Ouch. Best change subjects before you start chewing on me, and not him. He must have screwed up really bad." Draco muttered before starting to work on the assignment.
Hermione threw him a glare, but said nothing.
*****'
Across the classroom, Blaise watched the exchange, but couldn't hear the actual words. He saw Hermione glare at Draco, and couldn't help cringing slightly. If he knew Draco, like he thought he did, the blonde had just said something insulting, and he felt a little angry at his classmate, but only for a moment.
He quickly returned to working on his assignment with Millicent Bulstrode, who was actually really nice when you got to know her. She'd grown very tall over the years, and now only he and Weasley stood taller than she did, making it impossible for her to get dates, because the larger part of the male students refused to go out with a girl two heads taller than they were.
He chewed on the end of his quill as his eyes scanned the textbook for details on the Severing Charm. He managed to concentrate on the text, if only because Millicent jabbed him in the ribs every time his concentration began to drift.
"Blaise, stop staring; you're embarrassing yourself." Millicent muttered.
"I'm not staring; I'm wondering if Draco can manage to get a rise out of her." He muttered back, secretly annoyed that she'd caught him at it.
"Hmm." Millicent mumbled, looking very disbelieving, but let him be after that.
He snorted, and tried not to be too obvious in his staring, although he doubted he'd succeed. Hermione had an annoying habit of keeping in the forefront of his mind ever since last night, and looking at her seemed almost second nature to him already.
****'
Hermione left the Charms classroom as quickly as she could after the lesson, not to be caught up in conversation with Malfoy again, or staring at Blaise. She raced down the hallway to get to Transfigurations, and ignored Neville as he shouted for her to wait up.
She just wanted to get away from the class as fast as possible. If she had to suffer through one more second of Draco Malfoy's suggestive comments, she'd go stark raving mad. He'd been dropping hints about Blaise since the lesson started, constantly asking what had happened in the library, a topic she was not about to discuss with anyone, much less him.
She didn't want to know what Blaise had told him about the night in the library, but it was obvious, since Malfoy had a hard time keeping a straight face, it couldn't have been anything good, and the last thing she wanted was to have Malfoy laugh at her.
What was even more annoying was that Blaise had been sitting just across the classroom, working with Millicent Bulstrode, looking like he enjoyed himself very much. And Hermione couldn't really blame him; Millicent had grown up quite nicely, and no longer looked so bullish. She knew she wasn't much to look at herself, and it seemed like Blaise had decided to move on to new conquests.
If he ever really bothered with her, that was. That thought had her blinking back tears. Swallowing hard, she hurried towards Transfigurations, not caring that she nearly pushed people out of her way to get there.
****'
The Slytherin Common Room had a thick green rug, placed in front of the fireplace. Two silver serpents twisted around the edges of it, making it the perfect Slytherin rug. It was usually only used to warm ones feet during winter time. Now, however, it was being worn through by a pair of feet.
The feet belonged to Blaise Zabini, and he was pacing restlessly back and forth, staring at the floor. Draco, who was sitting in one of the chairs, watched him in amusement. Blaise had been pacing for nearly an hour now, and showed no signs of stopping any time soon.
"What's he up to?" Millicent queried as she slumped in the chair next to him.
"Oh, you know; girl trouble." Draco shrugged, grinning.
"Ah. Who's the lucky girl?" She asked, grinning as well.
"Take a guess."
"Oh. Granger, is it?" She asked, and at Draco's nod, continued, "Hmm. I guess I should have known. He's been constantly annoying her for weeks now. I can't say I saw it coming, but still. Too bad Granger's probably wrapped up in Weasley already."
Draco looked at her in surprise. The last sentence had sounded somewhat jealous. Millicent couldn't be fancying Weasley, could she?
"Do I detect jealousy there, Millicent?" He asked.
"No." She mumbled, but she was blushing slightly.
"Liar. You fancy Weasley, don't you?" Draco asked, trying not to laugh.
"You have an amazing grasp of the blatantly obvious, Draco." She shot back.
"Oh, this is so fun! I can play matchmaker! Now, how do I go about it?" He said to himself, as Millicent got up and walked off.
Blaise appeared not to have heard him, and continued his pacing. Draco was left alone to plan his matchmaking, and did so as darkness fell over the school.
******'
Ending Notes; alright, so Harry and Ron didn't show up all that much, but they had some more lines. I've got a Slytherin bias, and I've always had an easier time writing Slytherins than Gryffindors, so there you have it.
